Holiday Island is an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series made by
Crawford ProductionsCrawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Sir Hector Crawford, and now owned by the WIN Corporation.The company, which began with radio shows, generally had a reputation for higher quality productions than its nearest rival, the Reg Grundy Organisation.During...
for the Ten Network. The show aired twice weekly from 1981 to 1982, with the first episode going to air on June 17 1981.
Like preceding Crawford's series, the aborted
Hotel StoryHotel Story was an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network in 1977.The series, intended as a replacement for The Box, was set in a luxury international hotel...
,
Holiday Island was a
Love BoatThe Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24, 1977 until May 24, 1986. The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain, who encourages his customers to find romance...
-style drama series set in a luxury hotel. This time the location was a tropical resort island in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. In each episode the regular characters - the various islanders and hotel workers - hosted a new batch of guest star hotel guests.
Holiday Island is an
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
n
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
series made by
Crawford ProductionsCrawford Productions is an Australian television production company founded by Sir Hector Crawford, and now owned by the WIN Corporation.The company, which began with radio shows, generally had a reputation for higher quality productions than its nearest rival, the Reg Grundy Organisation.During...
for the Ten Network. The show aired twice weekly from 1981 to 1982, with the first episode going to air on June 17 1981.
Like preceding Crawford's series, the aborted
Hotel StoryHotel Story was an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network in 1977.The series, intended as a replacement for The Box, was set in a luxury international hotel...
,
Holiday Island was a
Love BoatThe Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24, 1977 until May 24, 1986. The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain, who encourages his customers to find romance...
-style drama series set in a luxury hotel. This time the location was a tropical resort island in
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. In each episode the regular characters - the various islanders and hotel workers - hosted a new batch of guest star hotel guests. Various plots and situations on the show included a fierce cyclone hitting the island, children being kidnapped, a siege where the hotel workers were held hostage by less than pleasant guests, drug trafficking, the resort being terrorised by a biker gang and a politician dying of a heart attack while staying at the island's resort.
The series became notorious amongst critics for its allegedly poor production values, and the wintry conditions under which the
tropical drama was shot became the focus of most jibes. Though set in a tropical hotel with palm trees, sunshine and beautiful beaches, for practical reasons all interiors scenes - and the bulk of exterior scenes - were shot at the Ten Network's studios in Nunawading,
MelbourneMelbourne is the capital city and most populous city of the State of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne city centre is the anchor of the larger geographical area and statistical division known as the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area – of which Melbourne is...
. The exterior set made heavy use of awnings in an attempt to disguise Melbourne's propensity for overcast skies, but attempts to mask the icy breath of the bathing beauties was not always successful. Attempts to shoot location footage in Queensland were hampered by the fact that the local television crews assigned to the shoot had experience only in shooting news footage, and the fact that heavy rain fell for several days of a planned shoot. Former cast member
Ray MeagherRay Meagher is an Australian actor.He has appeared regularly in Australian film and television since the mid 1970s, and is notable as the longest continuing performer in an Australian television role, as Alf Stewart on Home and Away. He has played this role since the very first episode back in 1988...
has since jokingly referred the show as
Horror Day on IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
.
Members of the regular cast included
Tom OliverTom Oliver is an English-born Australian television, film and theatre actor, best known today for playing the role of Lou Carpenter in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.-Career:...
,
Nick TateNick Tate is a popular Australian actor best known for his role as the likable but tough Eagle pilot Alan Carter in both seasons of the 1970s science fiction television show Space: 1999.His parents were the actors John Tate and Neva Carr-Glyn...
, Steven Grives, Caz Lederman and Marilyn Mayo. Amongst the many actors in guest roles were
Judy NunnJudy Nunn is an Australian actress and author. Her breakout role was as scheming bisexual reporter Vicky Stafford in the risque soap opera The Box. Her character became a popular cult-figure in the series and Nunn continued in the role for the show's entire 1974-1977 run...
,
Rowena WallaceRowena Wallace is an Australian actress, best known for her role as Patricia in Sons and Daughters. She was born on August 23, 1947 in Coventry, United Kingdom and is based in Sydney, Australia.-Early Life and Budding Career:...
,
Lisa CrittendenLisa Crittenden is an Australian actress, noted for her roles in various television series, such as The Restless Years , The Sullivans , Prisoner , Sons and Daughters and Shortland Street .She is also remembered for her performance in the mini-series Whose Baby? and a...
,
Rebecca GillingRebecca Gilling is an Australian actress who came to prominence with an appearance in the film version of the controversial soap opera Number 96, followed by roles in television in Glenview High and The Young Doctors...
,
June SalterJune Marie Salter AM was an Australian actress.She remains best known for her role as Elizabeth McKenzie in the soap opera The Restless Years and for her regular guest appearances in A Country Practice as Matron Hilda Arrowsmith.She played Jim Robinson's mother Bess, in the first series of...
,
John BlackmanJohn Blackman born 14 July 1947 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia is an Australian radio and television presenter.-Biography:Blackman grew up in the Victorian suburb of Mount Waverley, where he attended Syndal Primary School until 1959 and Syndal Technical School through year 10 in 1963...
and
Penne Hackforth-JonesPenne Hackforth-Jones is an American born Australian actress.She has a number of television credits such as Bellbird, Number 96, Homicide, Matlock Police, Division 4, Tandarra, Cash and Company, Young Ramsay, Punishment, Bellamy, Butterfly Island, A Country Practice, Mother and Son,...
.
Holiday Island was cancelled after 64 episodes. The set was later revamped and can be seen as the Lassiters complex in
NeighboursNeighbours is a Logie Award-winning Australian soap opera, which began airing in March 1985. The series follows the lives of families who live in the six houses at the end of Ramsay Street, a short cul-de-sac in the fictional middle-class suburb of Erinsborough. Storylines explore the romances,...
.
From January 2006 to March 2007, the
WIN TelevisionWIN Television is an Australian television network owned by the WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single Wollongong-only station, and has since expanded to 24 owned-and-operated stations with transmissions...
network repeated
Holiday Island on early Saturday mornings as part of its
Crawford's Australian Classics series.
External links