The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 44

14 Thursday 25 February 1988 live day day Family STRONG-MINDED, intelligent 11-yearold girl, Elly Barton, is the main character in a new 12-part Australian series, CO The Bar- iO YOU thought that yuppies were the epit ome of the consumer society. The marketers probably thought so too until the stock market crash. Ofr welt back -to the drawing-board, and this time we could see a new, previously rather isnnmt- nnun. rise to the, EifTfn HTK leey are me wnoor 1 a 1 1 t. healthy older people writers of the series are Paul J.

Hogan- Noel Robinson, Greg Millin and Shane Brennan. IF THE first two episodes of CO The JUrteas are any guide, EDy win con- tiaue to interest viewers. She Is such an unconventional, determined character, who responds to everything which comes her way in a uniquely thoughtful, albeit arrogant, way. In the first episode, Elly locks herself in the bathroom for a day because she is angry that Mr Jeasea is planning to -cut down her favorite place, a tree in the backyard. Her whole family.

Is disrupted by Elly's bathroom siege. Her mother at-. tempts to lure her out by announcing that a delicious lunch Is under way. In the second episode, EUy leads another this time to preserve birdlife in the local area. She is prompted to set up a club dedicated to birds after 'She sees the family cat Sugar, kill a blrd.

True to form, Elly becomes the club's president and her best friend; Anita, vice-president New members undergo strenuous tests including the consumption of a horrible-tastiag tonic. When the club erects a bird feeder la a nearby park, it draws the attention of the local press, but Elly and Anita begin bickering because Elly seeks all the limelight. Playing Elly is Olivia Harkin, who has previously worked in school productions; others in the cast are Frankie J. HoMen (Mr Barton), Jennifer Jarman-walker (Mrs Barton), Ben Toovey (Douglas Barton), Matt Day (Paul Barton). Michael O'Reilly (Anthony Barton) and Robert Essex (MrJeaeaa).

tons, which begins on ABC-TV next Monday. The series, one of the major children's projects by the ABC this year, will run from Monday to Thursday each week at 5 pm. It is all about the Barton family who live in a new suburb called Banksiawood. There are four children: Anthony (16), Paul (14), Elly and Douglas (7). Elly's best friend is Anita' McPherson.

whose mother has dreams of her daughter becoming a lady. Elly's mother, on the other hand, has given up any such hopes for Elly. The Bartons' neighbors include cantankerous Mr Jensen and rough-and-tumble Skinner Davis and his shy sister, Susan. In an old house around the corner live the Snollers. Banksiawood's resident cccQlTics THE PRODUCER of CO The Bartons, Jennifer Hooks, says the aim of the series is to explore the daily events involving children and their parents.

"Most television programs depict family situations as larger than: life. CO The Bartons is, in contrast, a drama about the 'everyday rather than the monumental car crashes and divorces." The idea for the series came from writer Jocelyn Moorhouse, who submitted a 16-minute film to the ABC more than year ago. The film. Tke Siege Of Bartea Bathreem, was developed into the first episode of the series. Moorhouse, 27, graduated from Sydney's Film and Television School in 1984 and has since worked in the drama departments of the Seven Network and the ABC.

CO Tb Barten, Moorhouse says, "is about the politics of childhood and the beginnings of the power games and rituals of human behavior the fear of being an outsider and so The writer of five of the 12 episodes, Moorhouse says her stories are based on her own childhood experiences growing up in the 1960s In Heatherdsle, near Ringwood. The Bartons' neighborhood. Banksiawood. is "a middle-class haven, a bit like Heather-dale 2 years ago, where residents are determined to keep their environment pristine and Moorhouse said she had had the Idea of creating the character. for many years: "Efly hT a very strong girt who has an Intuitive aease.ac.her owa Or (Ham (greying, leisured, affluent middle-aged), as the Brits call them.

Marketers and adver- ttsers Mae to think they reflect our changing society, aad here, Jt seems, is a goMea (silver?) opportunity to do so, with Australia's ageing population leaving the realms of prophecy and becom- -lag reality. There are already the odd commercials aimed at the middle-aged-to-elderly market but at this stage they fall mostly into the financial Investment bracket Clothes, entertainment, sport and travel still teem largely trapped la a time-warp la which the only people with money to blow are under 30. At one end of the scale, theageing of the population is a prospect welfare groups dread and the politicians prefer to forget By 2001. there will be an estimated three million Australians aged more than 60. one million more than la 1981.

In percentage terms, they will make up 16 per cent of the population, compared to 14 per cent 20 years earlier. How can the system support such vuluuacs? i- i- But the oOmt side of the coin Is a solid group of over-1 ia lac inidifHngopper sockCT T7f health and ifman rttBrtrea. abetter ty. i in the past aosumers with a ainmllU and fiawltyto eonsame.Aad the i leacemaaccBcaasoi garaeas, rwia-seis ana nown dabs 4o act nice aarirlly appr. -1 Ionn forget that within 10 years, if not already, an those relics the turbulent and swinging 60s will be turning 95.

They might have become conservative, 1ut they hardly fit what Gawea Director of Network Communications for the MoJftMTM agency, describes as the curreat TV ad stereotype for elder people: rearing, grey-haired graaalesor jovial grandfathereslttiag on verandas UDDER has strong views on the subject "The advertising Industry is only Just waking up to the fact that whoopies don't just sit at home knitting er. line up to buy repair-klts laxatives, denture-cleansers and arthritis formulae)," he cToryOtttt-obseaied adeiHseni and thetragen-. attrket ht bad bustoeat, bad maaaers aad iMd advertkBaa;" The aWtt Js aloW-baure; Radder aaidVfor.aaaBipie; taa -fr it AMAZING 'MREHOUSE BARGAINSUii irir ir SATURDAY 20th-27th tr flade Pnc) INDIAN .25 fftade Price) CHINESE MING DYNASTY HANOCUT 1 MULTI MULTICOLOUR I I '7 COLOUR STW AFRICAN HANOCUT from. HANOCUT from- HANOCUT L' HAN Irom aJaV BjaMBa-aBaaB 'aaaaa 9M. .85 $: tiooal aotas aba, sm have 1 done frw Another thing, says Rudder, is that people over 50 did not grow up "with televison and many are -still fascinated by it as a novelty.

"The over-50 group Is the biggest television-watcher, not only for entertainment, and information but also for companionship. Robert Chard, director of media and marketing services for George Patterson, agreed. These people have a lot of time on their hands, they have a lot of disposable income but the marketers, as yet have not been looking at it to any great extent" he said. "I think there is a large market there which no one is tapping." By the tame token. Chard said that older people tended to relate to the lifestyle of people their midhirtles, and being too age-soedfle could not only patrbnfse older people but tura off the younger awrket weU.

"It took advertising 16 years to catchup with the baby boom coming into the teenage market and this is the same baby boom get-tb older aowT trteU ICACKAY, of The Mackay Report (a I sort; ot changes-to-society thermometer- for taarfcetmg companies, advertising agencies aad the like), researched the age of contentment (his description, not mine) and published a report on Taralag 5 io June 1987. The report was based on interviews aad group discussions with pper-to-lowenniddle-ctass people aged between 92 and 57 aad living In various places in Australia. "At 55," the report says, "people begin to feel a new sense of freedom, a sense of deep satisfaction, the beginnings of some very welcome self-lndul-. gence and, to many cases, a bkwsomiag of personal relationships with families and coarae, the picture is not universally rosy: new aaxiedes emerge 8ad, for many peopto, an awareacas of deteriorating health diminishes some of the ptoesure which might otherwise be enjoyed. Aad for those who are lonely, the reia-.

tfwrdy tnaquil waters of the mid-fifties caa seem like a very crael climax to life's Journey. 1m Important not to emphasise the idea of fbilshiag or "slowing dowa. Rather, it Is important to recognise that this is aup-beat moment in life: a time when pressure is being relieved and new opportunities are more attractive than ever. Some excitement some adventure and some innovation are very appealing especially to 1 leport advises, Pjerhaps the popular American bumper-sticker thaf adores motor homes and caravans captures the spirit of being oldish ia the '80s. "We're spead-ing tW eWldren's, inheritance," it cheerfully to the world and to marketers.

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