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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carrie Fairchild" data-source="post: 256770" data-attributes="member: 673">Number 96 - 1972 to 1977 <img src="https://nostalgiacentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/no96_047.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />We now enter into top tier Aussie soap territory with the saucy 70's classic Number 96. Following the lives of residents of a Sydney apartment block, it became synonymous with nudity and barmy plots during it's five and a half heady years on air and featured a horde of stars that would become familiar faces in soapland including Pat McDonald (Sons and &Daughters Fiona), Tom Oliver (Neighbours Lou) and Abigail. The show was born from Network Ten's need to compete against the higher rating Nine and Seven. Unable to afford big name US imports like the other networks, Ten decided to go for broke with a nightly adult serial in the vein of Coronation Street. Don Cash and Bill Harmon of Cash Harmon Productions pitched the idea of 96 with writer David Sale taking the reins. Sex and nudity would be the hook to pull viewers in. The show was scheduled to air five nights a week at 8.30pm with the infamous newspaper ad below heralding it's arrival. Some papers actually refused to print it, changing "virginity" to "innocence".<img src="https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/virginity.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /> Straight out the gate, the show was attracting controversy as Rose (Vivienne Garrett) appeared topless in the feature length premiere (read, three episodes aired back to back), leading to enough viewer complaints that the scene was cut from broadcasts in other cities the next week. Actress Garrett was uncomfortable with the scene to begin with and butted heads further with producers over a gang rape scene that she and other actors refused to do, leading to her breaking contract and leaving the show after only five months. Regarding the nude scenes, a lot of actors signed a nudity clause at the start of the show thinking there wouldn't be nude scenes as it wasn't the done thing on Australian TV at the time but this later came back to bite them in the ass (pardon the pun) when producers pushed the boundaries of what they could show. Aside from the controversies, the show also broke ground by featuring the first interracial kiss on Australian TV and the first regular gay character on any soap anywhere in the world. Don Cash also pioneered the now common technique of shooting blocks of five episodes together by using one set to shoot a weeks worth of scenes out of sequence followed by another set and another before editing them all together at the end.<img src="https://recollections.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0007/331909/49-No_96_cover_200w.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />Abigail was one of the show's breakout stars but her tenure on the show wasn't without it's drama. The cast became jealous of her popularity and grew tired of her on set tardiness and she was written out briefly before returning and finally being fired over an incident where photos of her in "compromising positions" ended up in circulation after she left her handbag in a taxi (her character Bev was recast with actress Vicki Raymond). During her time on the show, Abigail did manage to appear in one of it's more controversial scenes involving a Black Mass in a church where a Satanic high priest and a number of topless characters recited the Lord's Prayer backwards. While the network had relaxed it's stance on nudity by this time, the Satanic element crossed a line for them.Ten's decision to go for broke paid off as their profits rose and the Number 96 cast became superstars, leading to a flurry of spinoff merchandise including the obligatory tie in novels (with names like The Grip of Evil and The Sins of Harry Collins), cast albums and a spinoff film (featuring a bedroom scene between Lou Carpenter and Jill Harper for those that are interested). One of the selling points of a spinoff film in those days was that fans could get to see their soap favourites in colour while the episodes were still going out in black and white. As the popularity grew, the show also moved away from the sex and nudity aspect and moved toward comedy characters and OTT plots and cliffhangers. However by 1975, ratings were dipping, so they wrote one of the storylines that the show is most remembered for - the bomb blast. Ten rather distastefully ran promos comparing it to real life bomb blasts in Belfast and London and while it's one of the more memorable plots, it only led to a brief ratings rise.[MEDIA=youtube]k4x-eJvn0H8[/MEDIA]By 1976, the age old "schedule change" death knell was sounding as the show was reformatted into two hour long episodes a week. By 1977, the show was terminal and producers got desperate to keep it on air and decided to return to the nudity hook, this time full frontal, but the days of this grabbing ratings had passed. The move caused long time writer David Sale to quit in objection to the focus on nudity (there were scenes with characters just standing around naked) and violence and the show hurtled towards the chopping block. In a bid to salvage something from the wreckage and keep his production company afloat, Bill Harmon (Don Cash had died a number of years prior) tried a number of sitcom spinoff ideas to keep the show alive - Mummy & Me, where Reg and Edie go to work for an ad agency, Fair Game starring Vera and Bev as divorcees and another called Hope'll Help. There were also talks of spinning character Don off into a private eye drama called Law Unto Himself. None of these came to pass and Number 96 died after 1218 episodes in August 1977, taking the Cash Harmon Productions with it. The show's corpse did show a pulse a number of times after it went off air. Briefly in 1980 when it was remade by NBC in the US (it didn't last long) and again in 1990 when Ten talked about reviving it but it went no further than talks. While it's racy reputation hampered it's international sales potential (they tried unsuccessfully to sell it to European networks in Cannes using a topless model, with BBC and ITV being among those who said no) it is fondly remembered by Australian audiences today.</blockquote>

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