The Ferals

The Ferals was an Australian children's comedy television series created by Wendy Gray and Claire Henderson^[1] and produced by the ABC. It ran from 1994 to 1995, and it featured a mixture of people and animal puppets known as the "Ferals." It was lauded for its irreverent humour and distinctive characters, some of which still feature today on ABC programming. Garth Frost was responsible for the puppet design.^[1] the series was still continued to be repeated on the ABC and ABC1 until 23 January 2004.

Plot

The Ferals are an eclectic group of animals that live together in a backyard shed. There's a rat called Rattus, a feral cat called Modigliana, a rabbit called Mixy, and a feral dog called Derryn. The humans are two university students, and their landlord, who clash with each other and the Ferals. They include the uptight, neurotic landlord Joe who is determined to remove the ferals from his garden; the affable science student Leonard, and medical student Robbie, who attempt to shield the ferals from eviction, but are sometimes exasperated with their antics.
There were also the 'Bogans From The Bush' as Modigliana liked to call them, Keith, a koala and Kylie, a kangaroo. These two characters often clashed with the Ferals, thinking they were above them due to their status as native Australian animals. They were also quite nasal and whiney in their characteristics. Other characters included White Ants (Tina Bursill, Robert Hughes), Rock Wrangler (Tina Matthews) and Fat Cat (Taylor Owens)

Characters

• Rattus P. Rattus (He's the leader of the bunch) Puppeteer - David Collins:^[2] The leather-jacket wearing leader of the ferals, Rattus is a black rat with a mischievous sense of humour and a love of foul odours. He enjoys taunting the cat Modigliana ("fur ball"), but is often thumped in return. He is obsessed with procuring a car of his own, often concocting several outlandish schemes to acquire one and jumping at any opportunity that will provide even the slightest chance of getting one.
• Modigliana (She's fluffy, but she's tough) Puppeteer - Mal Heap:^[1][3] A preening cat, Modigliana is also self-confident, tough and forceful, frequently clashing with Rattus. She has parallels with the Muppets character Miss Piggy, albeit with more manginess and violence.
• Derryn (A Dopey Dog) Puppeteer - Terry Ryan:^[1][4] Derryn is a dog who is not the brightest of the bunch and has a habit of forgetting where he buried his bone, but does occasionally show flashes of brilliance.
• Mixy (A Muddled up, mixed up Bunny) Puppeteer - Emma DeVries:^[1][5] Mixy is a sweet, cute carrot-loving pink rabbit, but can sometimes be neurotic. In line with the subversive black humour of the show, Mixy is named after the myxomatosis disease, introduced to Australia to reduce the population of feral rabbits.
• Joe King (played by Mig Ayesa^[1]): The Ferals' conceited, self-centered landlord who is forever trying to evict the Ferals from the shed. He is also often trying to get high-flying jobs.
• Leonard (played by Brian Rooney^[1]): Leonard is a science student who is always coming up with inventions, which rarely work.
• Robbie (played by Kylle Hogart^[1]): Robbie is a medicine student, who loves playing the guitar, and dreams of travelling the world with a rock band.
• Keith Puppeteer - Mal Heap:^[1] Keith is a koala, who loves eating gum leaves, sleeping, and playing his mum's old harmonica.
• Kylie Puppeteer - Kelly Wallwork (Season 1), Danielle Baker (Season 2):^[1] Kylie is a kangaroo, who often has to help Keith out of trouble. She also fights frequently with Modigliana.

Episode List

30 episodes were produced:

Season 1 (1994)

Season 2 (1995)

Feral TV

Later in 1995 a five-minute show called Feral TV was launched. The Ferals had been exploring the sewers, and had discovered the cable to a TV station. They started their own TV channel, calling it Feral TV, running under the TV boss Kerry, a loud gruff toad with an explosive temper,^[6] and his obsequious assistant the cockroach Rodney.^[7] Kerry's character is modelled on the Australian media magnate Kerry Packer, who at the time, was the owner of Channel Nine. Keith from the original show also returned for this show.

After the Ferals

Although few of the human actors went on to achieve successful television careers, some of the puppet characters continue to feature regularly in ABC programming. Mixy, in particular, was used as a host introducing the shows on the ABC Kids programming block, as well as having her own show and website.^[8] Rattus and Modigliana were featured in the ABC School's education maths program, Numbers Count. Also Modigliana went on to feature as co-host of the show Creature Features.^[9] This makes Derryn the only one of the four to not appear in a subsequent show.

Ferals Funtastic Fanbook

1996 saw the publication of The Ferals Funtastic Fanbook by Garth Frost, Wendy Gray, David Witt and Tina Matthews.^[10]

See also

• List of Australian television series

References

External links

• Official website Archived From The Wayback Machine
• The Ferals at the National Film and Sound Archive
• Miguel Ayesa aka MiG's Official website
• The Ferals at TV.com