I WOULD certainly do it all over again

May 9, 2016 11:07 AM

Creator of long-running soap opera Neighbours and widely considered "father of Australian TV" Reg Grundy dies aged 92.

Born in 1923, Grundy served as a Sergeant in the Australian Army during World War II stationed in Sydney. After his service, he became a sports commentator in 1947 for the radio station 2SM. In 1957, while at radio station 2CH, he created and hosted the Wheel of Fortune game show (no, not that one) which transitioned to television two years later to Channel 9.

A year later, the Reg Grundy Organisation was formed, where Grundy produced a number of game shows primarily for the Australian market but also internationally. From 1973, he turned his attention to drama with The Class of ’74 (and later Class of ’75), The Young Doctors, Prisoner: Cell Block H and Sons and Daughters. The shows were created by long-term collaborator and head of drama Reg Watson.

In October 1985, the soap opera Neighbours debuted, and after a shaky start including cancellation on the Seven Network, quickly climbed the ratings on the Ten Network becoming Australia’s longest-running drama series, a winner of 30 Logie Awards, the 22nd inductee of the TV Week Hall of Fame and countless more nominations for the show and actors.

In the late eighties, Grundy formed a number of international production companies under the Grundy Worldwide Limited umbrella. The US company, Reg Grundy Productions, created well-received game shows $ale of the Century, Scrabble, Scattergories and British television personality Bruce Forsyth's first and only foray out of the UK with Bruce Forsyth’s Hot Streak. In 1995, the Grundy Organisation was sold to media corporation Pearson, now known as FremantleMedia.

A passionate photographer, Grundy went on to publish a book comprising of wildlife shots in 2005 (The Wildlife of Reg Grundy) and in 2009 exhibited photographs taken of the Bermuda Longtail fish.

Grundy married Joy Chambers in 1971, meeting her in the course of casting one of his many drama productions, many she also acted in. Awarded an OBE in the 1983 Queen's New Year's Honours List, he was also made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2008. He is survived by his wife and Kim Grundy, his daughter from his first marriage to Lola Powell.

posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics (8 comments total)

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I've just recently gotten into watching old episodes of Sale of the Century and always note that interesting name, "Reg Grundy Productions" at the end of each. And I used to love Scrabble as a kid. Thanks, Mr. Grundy.
posted by glhaynes at 11:26 AM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

     note that interesting name, "Reg Grundy Productions"

It didn’t feel right putting it into the obit itself, but this is where the Australian colloquialism and rhyming slang “Grundies” for underpants comes from (Underpants -> Undies -> Grundies)
posted by NordyneDefenceDynamics at 11:37 AM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Between the game shows that made their way to the US in my childhood and Neighbours making its way to Hulu last year and filling the whole in my life that American daily soap operas once did, I have lost an above-average-for-an-American amount of my life to things that were originally Reg Grundy productions and I thank him posthumously for it.

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posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:57 AM on May 9, 2016

I cannot tell you how much happiness Prisoner brought to me as a teenager. Coming home from the pub and lying tipsily on my bed, watching the the insanity of life in a women's prison that sometimes had men in it and, on one memorable occasion, sent its inmates out on a wooden yacht (aerial shots of which composed an absurdly extended sequence, the show's budget clearly having been blown on hiring the boat and the helicopter to shoot it with).

Cheers Reg.
posted by howfar at 3:38 PM on May 9, 2016

he was a tax dodging right wing crank.
posted by smoke at 4:14 PM on May 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yes, but he used to give me roses.
posted by howfar at 4:36 PM on May 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Re-posting the tongue-in-cheek response I wrote elsewhere on the internet:

While there is no scheduled broadcast of the funeral service in Australia, there will be another funeral, six months later, that looks exactly like his.
posted by parliboy at 5:01 PM on May 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

So many theme tunes just popped into my head reading this.
posted by Mezentian at 3:20 AM on May 10, 2016