The beloved television show Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was produced from 1967 to 1969. Three series were made, totalling 91 episodes of 30 minutes each, as well as a full-length movie released in 1969, called Skippy and the Intruders. The series was set in the fictional Waratah Park and filmed mostly in bushland and national parks north of Sydney. It told of the adventures of a nine-year-old boy, Sonny Hammond (played by Garry Pankhurst), and his kangaroo friend, Skippy. Other characters include Sonny’s widowed father and head ranger of Waratah Park (played by Ed Devereaux), Sonny’s older brother Mark (Ken James), flight ranger and helicopter pilot Jerry King (Tony Bonner) and family friend Clancy Merrick (Liza Goddard). Skippy, a female eastern grey kangaroo, was played by at least nine, and possibly as many as 15, different kangaroos over the three years of production. The catchy theme song was written by British-born Australian musician and composer Eric Jupp; lyrics were added by television screenwriter and producer Ted Roberts. The program was produced for an international market, in collaboration with the Channel 9 television network. It was filmed in colour at a time when Australian television was still in black and white and was first aired in the United Kingdom. Skippy became an enormous and enduring international success, being dubbed into various languages, and screened in dozens of countries over the decades, in the Americas, Czechoslovakia, Ghana, Iran, Italy, Norway, Thailand, the USSR, Yugoslavia and Zimbabwe – to name but a few. The exploits of this clever marsupial and her human friends have entertained generations of children.