Bananas In Pyjamas Celebrate 25 Years!!
Dec 7, 2017 12:25:06 GMT
onethreetwo and azzajones like this
Post by Deleted on Dec 7, 2017 12:25:06 GMT
Bananas in Pyjamas creator and original stars reflect on 25 years of chasing teddies
What are your thoughts? .
The original Bananas in Pyjamas showrunner, Helena Harris, knew she was onto something good when the first series started to create a buzz around town.
"I got hints after the first series went to air when I would overhear families that I didn't know talking about it or rushing home to see it," she told News Breakfast.
"I remember at one stage being in a bank in a line of people and the mother in front of me was being hassled by her children because they wanted to get home to see Bananas."
That was 1992. Fast-forward to today and the show is celebrating its 25th birthday and has become a cultural phenomenon.
YOUTUBE: The original Bananas in Pyjamas prepare for camping
From humble beginnings
The way Ms Harris tells the story, the team behind the original series was like one big family.
In fact, two of the bears in the show — Amy and Morgan — were named after her own children, and the third, Lulu, was the name of Amy's best friend at the time.
Meanwhile, Rat-in-a-Hat, who was introduced in series two, was an idea one of the cameramen came up with one day.
The Bananas in Pyjamas in Rat-in-a-Hat's Cafe.
PHOTO: The Bananas in Pyjamas in Rat-in-a-Hat's Cafe. (ABC)
"Everybody really got into the whole spirit of creating a show for very young children," Ms Harris said.
"We knew that it was so loved by the kids and I think that's because we didn't try to make it anything other than a series for young children.
"We didn't try to make it have clever double entendres or anything like that."
Once that basic philosophy was settled it was then a matter of bringing the story to life.
The 1967 song by Carey Blyton about bananas in pyjamas was already being played on Playschool and his 1972 storybook also offered inspiration — although with more sinister-looking bananas.
Then it was time to bring that vision to a TV audience, and that meant one thing: finding B1 and B2.
A drawing from the 1972 Carey Blyton Bananas in Pyjamas book.
PHOTO: A drawing from the 1972 Carey Blyton Bananas in Pyjamas book. (Supplied: Carey Blyton)
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, B1?
Australians Kenneth Radley and Nicholas Opolski are classically trained actors who went to the prestigious NIDA together in the 1980s, and they didn't need a great deal of convincing to become the original B1 and B2.
"[Director] Roger Bailey said, 'Look, we don't know if it's going to work, but it's this idea'. I said, OK I'd love to do it," Radley recalls.
"I expected it to be just a little quirky kind of thing that was a bit of fun that went on just before Playschool."
It was to become so much more.
Radley (B1) looks back on his 10 years in the suit with great fondness and said it was a privilege to be able to work alongside Opolski (B2), calling him a "gentleman and a fine human being".
Opolski echoed those sentiments, telling ABC Radio: "It was a wonderful journey to share with my friend here."
B1 and B2 welcome guests in the studio for rehearsals.
PHOTO: B1 and B2 welcome guests in the studio for rehearsals. (ABC)
Being in those original suits, on the other hand, wasn't always such a pleasure.
"They always had fibreglass heads but it was the costume itself that was really hot," Radley said.
"So the first suits were terribly uncomfortable and the weight of the head was in fact on your head because they were attached by brackets to a bicycle helmet.
"So the weight of that whole fibreglass head with the costume hanging off it was in fact sitting up on your head so it was a lot of pressure on your neck."
Opolski said it made the acting experience a bit of an endurance test.
"It was absolutely exhausting because there was so much energy going on from within that costume — and the Bananas lived a life at a higher pitch to start with — we'd be absolutely exhausted by the end of the day."
On the original set of Bananas in Pyjamas in the early 1990s.
PHOTO: On the original set of Bananas in Pyjamas in the early 1990s. (ABC)
Still, Ms Harris credits a large part of the show's appeal to the chemistry between the two bananas and their acting ability, even from within the suits.
"We learnt to work in synchronisation very well because you can't see in the suits but we could rehearse without the heads on," Radley said.
"But once we were locked away inside the suit you could see very little.
"So Nicholas and I became very good and working in tandem and leaning together and turning together and banging into each other."
From actors to animation
After nearly two decades of having actors in suits, the show was revamped as an animation series in 2011.
The idea isn't actually too far from what Ms Harris originally envisioned for the pair, although she admits the live-action version certainly won her over.
"There's no way that we could afford animation, but I wanted to make it look like a comic book come to life," she said of the original plans.
"The reality is that it actually worked so well as suited characters, and the one thing that made it work so brilliantly with suited characters, I think, is that what I really wanted was actors — real actors — inside those suits."
An animated version of Bananas in Pyjamas, which first aired in 2011.
PHOTO: The bananas went animated in 2011. (ABC)
Years later, Radley can't help but wonder if some of the magic was lost in the transition.
"To me it's not a natural progression to go to the animation. It's much more natural to stay with that craziness of human beings operating those crazy suits," he said.
"The animation doesn't quite work as well as the series itself.
"There was all of that danger and unpredictability that can only occur when people are working opposite and off each other."
Both the original live-action series and the animated version still air on ABC Kids daily.
"I got hints after the first series went to air when I would overhear families that I didn't know talking about it or rushing home to see it," she told News Breakfast.
"I remember at one stage being in a bank in a line of people and the mother in front of me was being hassled by her children because they wanted to get home to see Bananas."
That was 1992. Fast-forward to today and the show is celebrating its 25th birthday and has become a cultural phenomenon.
YOUTUBE: The original Bananas in Pyjamas prepare for camping
From humble beginnings
The way Ms Harris tells the story, the team behind the original series was like one big family.
In fact, two of the bears in the show — Amy and Morgan — were named after her own children, and the third, Lulu, was the name of Amy's best friend at the time.
Meanwhile, Rat-in-a-Hat, who was introduced in series two, was an idea one of the cameramen came up with one day.
The Bananas in Pyjamas in Rat-in-a-Hat's Cafe.
PHOTO: The Bananas in Pyjamas in Rat-in-a-Hat's Cafe. (ABC)
"Everybody really got into the whole spirit of creating a show for very young children," Ms Harris said.
"We knew that it was so loved by the kids and I think that's because we didn't try to make it anything other than a series for young children.
"We didn't try to make it have clever double entendres or anything like that."
Once that basic philosophy was settled it was then a matter of bringing the story to life.
The 1967 song by Carey Blyton about bananas in pyjamas was already being played on Playschool and his 1972 storybook also offered inspiration — although with more sinister-looking bananas.
Then it was time to bring that vision to a TV audience, and that meant one thing: finding B1 and B2.
A drawing from the 1972 Carey Blyton Bananas in Pyjamas book.
PHOTO: A drawing from the 1972 Carey Blyton Bananas in Pyjamas book. (Supplied: Carey Blyton)
Are you thinking what I'm thinking, B1?
Australians Kenneth Radley and Nicholas Opolski are classically trained actors who went to the prestigious NIDA together in the 1980s, and they didn't need a great deal of convincing to become the original B1 and B2.
"[Director] Roger Bailey said, 'Look, we don't know if it's going to work, but it's this idea'. I said, OK I'd love to do it," Radley recalls.
"I expected it to be just a little quirky kind of thing that was a bit of fun that went on just before Playschool."
It was to become so much more.
Radley (B1) looks back on his 10 years in the suit with great fondness and said it was a privilege to be able to work alongside Opolski (B2), calling him a "gentleman and a fine human being".
Opolski echoed those sentiments, telling ABC Radio: "It was a wonderful journey to share with my friend here."
B1 and B2 welcome guests in the studio for rehearsals.
PHOTO: B1 and B2 welcome guests in the studio for rehearsals. (ABC)
Being in those original suits, on the other hand, wasn't always such a pleasure.
"They always had fibreglass heads but it was the costume itself that was really hot," Radley said.
"So the first suits were terribly uncomfortable and the weight of the head was in fact on your head because they were attached by brackets to a bicycle helmet.
"So the weight of that whole fibreglass head with the costume hanging off it was in fact sitting up on your head so it was a lot of pressure on your neck."
Opolski said it made the acting experience a bit of an endurance test.
"It was absolutely exhausting because there was so much energy going on from within that costume — and the Bananas lived a life at a higher pitch to start with — we'd be absolutely exhausted by the end of the day."
On the original set of Bananas in Pyjamas in the early 1990s.
PHOTO: On the original set of Bananas in Pyjamas in the early 1990s. (ABC)
Still, Ms Harris credits a large part of the show's appeal to the chemistry between the two bananas and their acting ability, even from within the suits.
"We learnt to work in synchronisation very well because you can't see in the suits but we could rehearse without the heads on," Radley said.
"But once we were locked away inside the suit you could see very little.
"So Nicholas and I became very good and working in tandem and leaning together and turning together and banging into each other."
From actors to animation
After nearly two decades of having actors in suits, the show was revamped as an animation series in 2011.
The idea isn't actually too far from what Ms Harris originally envisioned for the pair, although she admits the live-action version certainly won her over.
"There's no way that we could afford animation, but I wanted to make it look like a comic book come to life," she said of the original plans.
"The reality is that it actually worked so well as suited characters, and the one thing that made it work so brilliantly with suited characters, I think, is that what I really wanted was actors — real actors — inside those suits."
An animated version of Bananas in Pyjamas, which first aired in 2011.
PHOTO: The bananas went animated in 2011. (ABC)
Years later, Radley can't help but wonder if some of the magic was lost in the transition.
"To me it's not a natural progression to go to the animation. It's much more natural to stay with that craziness of human beings operating those crazy suits," he said.
"The animation doesn't quite work as well as the series itself.
"There was all of that danger and unpredictability that can only occur when people are working opposite and off each other."
Both the original live-action series and the animated version still air on ABC Kids daily.
What are your thoughts? .
