Arcade (Channel 10 1980, Lorrae Desmond, Jeremy Kewley)

Arcade was a short lived and very over hyped nightly soap soap style drama series telling stories of the staff who worked in a Sydney shopping mall. The show was deemed to be bad enough to be pulled after 30 of it’s 60 episodes. Actor Jeremy Kewley who played Robbie Stewart on the show said “Arcade” was NOT a Crawfords or Grundys series (as is often reported). It was one of the first shows (in Australia) financed and produced in-house by a Network (it is now more common – “Home and Away”, etc).

At the time, the 0-10 Network was being taken over by Rupert Murdoch and was being streamlined and changed into “Network Ten”. The in-house idea was a big part of the problem with “Arcade”. Each Channel/State put money into the show and had a say in it’s production. Hence the problems – Sydney wanted more raunchy stuff, Perth and Melbourne wanted more comedy, and so on. This also led to the strange situation of it being shown in different time slots around the country . .. . and one state running it longer than the others”

production details
Australia / Channel 10 / 60×30 minute episodes / Broadcast 1980

Creators: Bill Harmon, David Sale, Johnny Whyte / Executive Producer: Peter Bernardos / Producer: Bill Harmon / Music: Mike Perjanik

cast
PEGGY TOPPANO as Miriam Sparks
LORRAE DESMOND as Molly Sparks
GREG BEPPER as Joey Fellows
JEREMY KEWLEY as Robbie Stewart
PATRICK WARD as Craig Carmichael
OLGA TAMARA as Di Smith
CHRISTINE HARRIS as Tina Marshall
MIKE DORSEY as Vic Marshall
GARTH MEADE as Norman Pendleton
MAGGIE STEWART as Iris Pendleton
CORAL KELLY as Consuela McPhee
BILL CHARLTON as Len Crosby
AILEEN BRITTON as Joyce Blair
SYD HEYLEN as Walter Blair
TRACY MANN as Susie Blair
MARTIN PORTUS as Teddy Pullen
LUCY TAYLOR as Si Wan Soo
RAYMOND NOCK as Phillip Soo
SINAN LEONG as Mee Ling
JOY MILLER as Kitty Adams
DANNY ADCOCK as Duncan Adams
ANNE SEMLER as Magda Yokochek
ALLAN PENNEY as Mr Henderson