The Ferals


The Ferals was an Australian children's comedy television series which screened on the ABC from 1994 to 1995. It was created by Wendy Gray and Claire Henderson and 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 featured on other ABC programming. Garth Frost was responsible for the puppet design.

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 King who is determined to remove the ferals from his garden; the affable science student Leonard, and medical student Roberta '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, Rock Wrangler and Fat Cat

Characters

Puppets

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, and his obsequious assistant the cockroach Rodney. 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. 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.
Mixy was an Australian program block on the ABC that hosts Mixy Rabbit from The Ferals. After the Ferals' series ended, Mixy has been used as a host for her new program block and introducing the shows in the morning.
In 2000, the puppeteer Mal Heap, who played Modigliana the cat from The Ferals, introduced the role of Joe the Kangaroo alongside Mixy.
After the programming block finished in July 2002, Mixy kept appearing in ABC idents and her own website episodes until around the mid-2000s.
;Hosts
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Programs in alphabetical order
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In the early 2000s, Mixy's website was shown at the ABC Playground Website in-between shows behind painted blobs. Mousing over the green blob would display Mixy. Clicking on the character's image would present options of games, videos, fan messages and Joe the Kangaroo's corner.

Ferals Funtastic Fanbook

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

The Ferals Podcast

On 17 May 2015 the first episode of an unofficial podcast simply titled *The Ferals Podcast* was released.
On 10 January 2016 they posted their last episode.
In the podcast, hosts Monkey Boy, Swinny & Mike took an in-depth look at the cult-classic children's television show.