Shock Horror Aunty: Nov 27

The final episode of Shock Horror Aunty, is the one that has the ABC most nervous.

It looks back at some ABC TV promos from the 1970s which seem incredibly sexist by today’s standards, and some sketches that drew complaint for visual jokes about sexual anatomy.

Shock Horror Aunty revisits some classic moments where the ABC has provoked a strong reaction for daring to take on some of our society’s sacred cows, including:
– 4 Corners, BabaKiueria, and The Micallef Program for upsetting the RSL;
– Australia You’re Standing In It and CNNNN for not showing due respect to the Royals;
– And the massive reaction to the ABC’s soapie, Bellbird, killing off one of its most popular characters, Charlie Cousens, in 1968.

Shock Horror Aunty looks at how ABC comedians and current affairs reporters have got up the noses of politicians since the sixties:

– The Dingo Principle pretending Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen had died;
– The Gillies Report sketches on Bob Hawke, Sir John Kerr and Kerry Packer;
– Richard Carleton’s legendary interview with Bob Hawke on Nationwide;
– This Day Tonight’s live interview with wanted draft resistor Michael Matteson;
– The This Day Tonight story that upset the Whitlam Government and saw TDT reporter, Mike Carlton, sacked from the ABC;
– The Northern Territory politician who started to strangle a 7.30 Report journalist because he didn’t like his line of questioning.

This episode also casts its gaze over some programs which were banned from broadcast at the time:
– A Chequerboard social documentary about a nudist colony that was seen as showing too much in 1970;
– The controversy over whether the McMahon Government influenced the ABC to drop a whole comedy series called, Our
Man In Canberra, in 1972;
– And for the first time on TV, Shock Horror Aunty screens a very contentious sketch from The Micallef Program which was not allowed to broadcast back in 2001.

9.30pm Wednesday 27 November on ABC1.