"PLAYROOM" circa 1960's

Playroom, not to be confused with
Romper Room or Playschool was produced
from the studios of TCN 9 in Sydney,
Australia from 1958-1967.

Playroom was very much based on the "watch
with mother" style programs showing
in the UK at the time. The content
was carefully orchestrated to promote
healthy mental and behavioral development
of its young audience within guidelines
provided by child psychologists and experts
of the day.

My memory of the show was unexpectedly
triggered some twentyfive years after
the fact when I came across a the faded
and tired promotional postcard
(featured in video) that I had received as
a child. Seeing all these long lost little
faces peering back at me through time was
quite startling, as they may well be some
of my earliest memories I have of watching
television.

It is a little known fact that Australia's
Channel 9 has a poor record in regards to the
preservation of some of it's earliest
locally made content and it would seem
that there is no known video records of
Playroom existing today.
Almost a decade of children's TV lost that
may have formed a valuable insight into
not only the formative years of Australian
children's television but also parental
attitudes and etiquettes of the day.



The main personalities behind the show
appear to be Morna Jones, Bruce Menzies
and Heather Gell. Morna Jones was the
main force behind the show although Bruce
Menzies seems to have made the bigger
impression after joining the show later
in its run. Morna Jones repeatedly had
to travel from South Australia where she
lived to the studios of TCN 9 in Sydney
to over see its production.
The drain of this travel combined with
9's flagging support for this pioneering
venture into children's television seemed
to be the factors that lead to the end
of its production. It continued to air
in repeats until 1973 when color transmission
had been announced and this may have been
its final death fall having only black and
white heritage.

Although Australia's TCN 9 let Playroom
go the UK model of this program went from
strength to strength, paving the way for
remarkable shows such as Vision On,
Take hart, SuperCar and The Thunderbirds.


This is a profile of the show as written
by Steve McCredie.
Steve has a remarkable recall for this era
of television and is a contributer to
Glen Johnson's "60's anime" website.

http://home.alphalink.com.au/~roglen/index.htm


Playroom was a very conservative-looking
alternative to Seven's ROMPER ROOM.
t was hosted by Bruce Menzies and
Morna Jones. There were featured craft
activities
(I recall learning how to make potato-
stamps from them), stories and simple
life-lessons.
Morna talked, read and sang. So did
Bruce. Bruce made a bigger impression
with his announcer's voice, cheerful
grin and suit. There were also puppet
segments: Jeanne-Marieand 'Patapon'
her sheep, Bill the narcoleptic koala
(voiced and lullaby-sung: "Bill's asleep,
Bill's asleep..." by Morna), Jodie the
sock-puppet giraffe and his jungle pals
(most eminently the screeching, wordless
Mini Monk) voiced and sung by Bruce
("Goodbye Jodie, long- necked Jodie,
we'll see him some more, for sure for
sure....and then he'll make us
la-AAAA-augh") and others. I appeared
on Sydney's ROMPER ROOM as a young and
un co-operative brat but I don't recall
PLAYROOM taking on live audience
participation in that way. No magic
mirrors either. No Miss whoever.
Bruce and Morna, and that was it.

Steve


Other characters included a boy and girl
marionette on a playground stage, possibly
with a dog. These characters seemed to be
fashioned on Gerry Anderson's early work with
"The Adventures of Twizzle" and "Torchy,
the Battery Boy" that appeared on UK television
in the late fifties.
Two dolls called Debbie Dear
and Jenny Love who were always fusspotting about something, popped up regularly, They appeared to be simply hand held and always shot in close up. There was also a Golliwog
called Woggo.


Please leave a comment or message me if you
can add any more information about "Playroom"

Edit by Rod Clifton
Freelance Animator
Melbourne Australia
http://www.youtube.com/user/rodc2006#p/a/u/0/FY9XikUcuD0



Disclaimer: Tribute only.I do not own the rights to "Playschool"

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Playroom
• children's
• television
• show
• tcn
• nostalgia
• historic
• 1950's
• 1960's

[BlackMaria61]

One of the hosts was Bruce Menzies, later an ABC radio announcer, who was major;ly embaressed about it

[rodc2006]

I tracked down and spoke with the long retired Bruce Menzies in 2006 regarding the program and did not get this impression at all. Nothing but praise for the people that worked on it. Where did you get the information he was embarrassed about it?

[brettshears]

Did she say 'Shake it a little, a little' at one point or am I going crazy

[rodc2006]

...and all on a Saturday night!

[rambo1152]

The music is from a BBC Watch With Mother show, Andy Pandy

[rodc2006]

Using Andy Pandy's Looby Loo hopefully gives a fair impression of the period generally.

The "about" section indicates there may be no record of any original music from playroom.

[caz4777]

I can remember watching this show when I was very young. The last I heard of Bruce Menzies was a few years ago when he was working as a radio announcer on 2CBA FM now called Hope FM. Then he retired. My sister had a blonde "Jenny love" doll, which I think was the name of one of the dolls on the show.

[BlackMariaDownUnder]

Re Bruce's attitude, I used to listen to his 70's radio show "Comedy and all that" which used to run 7.15 pm- 10.30pm tuesday nights from memory, and he alluded to it in wincing terms at least once. Possibly his attitude changed with the passing of the years along with the pronunciation of his name from "men-zees" to "min-gus"

[calgal49127]

OH WOW!!! I'm looking for the SAME show! I've been asking friends, family members & coworkers IF they've ever heard of it. PLEASE let me know the name IF you remember!

[19trebor60]

i can vaguely remember the names of the puppets they had, i think there was william and winnie and a koala who's name was bill and the girraffes name was jodie

[willowdelovely]

I remember bits and pieces of this show and am dying to find out more. I have the same picture shown. It was signed. I think my mother got it for me when I was very small

[teenageradiostar]

do you know how long i have been looking for info on debbie dear and jenny love??? thanks so much for putting all the pieces of my memory back. i loved those two, i had a jigsaw of the two of them outside a shop (perhaps butchers). i was beginning to think i had dreamt it all up.

[jenpiov]

does anyone remember the two dolls in this show, there names were debbie and jenny, i must have been so young, but it is a memory i have had for sooo long, and wan't to learn more, can't seem to find out much about this program, would love to hear more...

[jongruner]

this is scary