Company co-founder Hector Crawford was well known as an orchestral conductor and as a prominent figure in the ongoing campaign for local content regulations on Australian television.

As a result of this de facto free-trade agreement, most programs shown on Australian TV content were imported from America.

The report of the 1963 Vincent Commission into the Australian media found that 97% of all drama shows broadcast in Australia between 1956 and 1963 were American productions.

Australian producers competed against high-quality, high-budget imported programs that drew from an international talent pool and a skill-base that grew out of Hollywood.

It became the first Australian TV drama series produced locally to become a major ratings success and compete effectively with imported American programming.

After Hunter ended in 1969, a new police drama, Division 4 (1969) was conceived as a vehicle for Kennedy's talents and he became a dual Gold Logie winner, the series also screened on the Nine Network; the other stars included former game show host and newsreader Chuck Faulkner, Terry Donovan, Frank Taylor and Ted Hamilton.

It starred veteran Australian actor Michael Pate, who had spent many years in Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s, and featured Paul Cronin, who was later given his own spinoff series: Solo One.

In 1974, Crawfords moved into the realm of soap opera with its sex-comedy serial The Box, which was set in a TV station, UCV channel 12.

Homicide, Division 4, and Matlock Police remained highly popular through the early 1970s, and The Box was a big hit in its premiere year, ranking as Australia's second highest-rated program for 1974.

The company also created situation comedy series The Bluestone Boys (1976) which was set in a prison, and Bobby Dazzler, a vehicle for pop singer John Farnham, in 1977.

Greater success came with The Sullivans (1976–83), a critically acclaimed and highly popular World War II family serial co-starring Lorraine Bayly and former Matlock lead Paul Cronin.