Each episode of the series featured a live action storyline about a group of young children, and the problems they encountered with growing up, their parents, and various other social issues.
[3] Coming from different cultural, social, and familial backgrounds, the small group of seven children approach their environment with a sense of adventure, fantasy and inquiry.
[3] Rocky, the frill-necked lizard is an anthropologist and documentary cameraman who is seen fleetingly on location gathering material about the human characters in the program.
[3] Travelling on the backs of the children, these limbless eccentrics have a very different outlook on life, primarily because they spend their lives being thrown on the ground, hung on pegs, stuffed full of structure and their attitude to their owners.
Directed by Paul Nichola, written by Bob Ellis, Tony Watts and Nancy Black, the café is a dynamic busy social hub filled with fascinating characters and unusual guests.
[3] Loosely based on 'multiple intelligence' theories of Dr Howard Gardner of Harvard University, the program combines elements of animation, drama, performance, puppetry and documentary.
[5] In November 1989, a selection of 45 creative personnel in the areas of writing, direction, animation, puppetry, performance, illustration, music and movement including ACTF staff, met for another series of seminars.
[3] During the visit he wrote a short paper explaining the link between his theories and Lift Off:[3] "It seeks to bridge the gap between our understanding of children’s mental processes and our understanding of what moves, excites, and engages them; and it seeks to blend our insights about television which entertains and television which educates"[3] "From all that I have learned about Lift Off it has been conceived and launched in the most impressive and mindful way.
Engaging characters, appealing milieus, powerful story lines have been mobilised in the service of a world view in which it is natural to use one’s mind.
The playful and yet mindful stance, the respect for thinking in any medium, the irreverence for pomp or prejudice, the links between activities that children enjoy carrying out and the filling of important and needed social roles, the willingness to discuss serious issues and not to jump to premature or canned answers-it is these features which set the program apart far more so to any particular educational philosophy, or any particular educational philosopher".
Inertia operates with full force and even the most exciting educational innovations have rarely if ever yielded demonstrable long term effects.
"[3] External involvement "Efforts are being initiated to help parents and teachers and children draw on Lift Off in ways in which they have rarely approached television: rather than sitting back and viewing the shows, viewers will have the opportunity to examine (and re-examine) individual segments so that they can become the centrepiece of educational discussion, just as magazines and kits for home use will help ensure that the programs become a stimulus to, rather than a toxin against, mindfulness".
[3]The twenty-six Feature Stories have been written by some of Australia's top children's writers, illustrators and animators including Paul Jennings, Terry Denton, Peter Viska and Pamela Allen.
[7] In 1990, two workshops were held to consult sixty early childhood experts and creative film makers concerning the content and philosophy of the program.
[5] Australian specialists working with children or studying child development were selected to attend the workshops and determine the principles and aims of Lift Off.
[6] Activities during these workshops were deliberately practical and creative, for example, those who attended were asked to work in groups of individuals from vastly different fields (e.g. specialists in children's mathematics and researchers on juvenile human development) and were instructed to make things out of art materials, or discuss how to tackle certain tasks or challenges before gathering together and informing the entire group of their conclusions.
[3] Over the weekend large and small discussion groups brainstormed and analysed the best strategies for implementing a national Outreach scheme to accompany and support the Lift Off television program and amplify its reach and efficacy.
[4] The following programs which were later published were:[4] Each book was accompanied by a video anthology highlighting aspects of the series which are linked to the teacher's notes.
The Prime Minister of Australia at the time, Mr. Paul Keating launched Lift Off during a special screening and presentation at Parliament House in Canberra on 29 April 1992.
[4]America's First lady at the time, Mrs Barbara Bush, gave a significant stamp of approval to the series when she visited the Foundation in January 1991 to preview Lift Off.
[4] The series was launched by The Hon Peter Collins, QC, MP, NSW Minister for the Arts, at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney on 5 February 1995.
[8] The series was supported by a wide range of materials developed and marketed for children, child care professionals, educators, parents and other care-givers.
David Cheshire was the music editor for the series and created various long and short versions of the songs using the old fashioned method of splicing tape with a razor blade.
In 2022, the original musical cast recording for 'Lift-Off Live' was released digitally in a remastered form with several bonus and previously unreleased tracks, and this album was shortly followed by another; "Songs from Lift-Off 1 (The Chris Neal Collection)" featuring all of Chris Neal's songs for the series, and previously unheard demo versions of each track.
EC ("Every Child" and formerly "Elizabeth and Charlie")[18] is an automatic, animated, magical rag doll who is intended to appear to be genderless or even non-binary so as to be more widely relatable.
[7] Also appearing in each program was EC, as the instigator of the show, and the Wakadoo Café's wolf and three pigs who are seen enjoying the game in front of their television at home.
[16] Over 200 schools across Australia entered the competition and state winners were selected with entries being judged by BRK Brands and the Australian Children's Television Foundation.
[13] The aims of the project were to create a meaningful training environment for postgraduate students of Deakin University, while exploring the potential for a commercial product for the Foundation.
[13] The Foundation was committed to establishing links with government training schemes and exploring mutually beneficial partnerships with trainees for the new media industry that was emerging at the time.
[17] "The best kids activity in Sydney this summer", Radio 2UE[16] "It’s a hit", Sunday Telegraph, 7 January 1996[16] "Lift Off Live is a classy and riotously funny piece of kids' theatre...this show has moments of real theatrical magic between the thigh-slapping comedy and audience interaction", The Sydney Morning Herald, 8 January 1996[16] "Lift Off Live rips merrily along song, dance, big-laugh silliness, a production whole-heartedly focused on its pint sized audience", The Sun-Herald, 7 January 1996[16] "this children’s musical was a hit from start to finish", Weekly Southern Courier, 16 January 1996[16] "Lift Off Live...has the audience dancing in the aisles...Lots of fun", Daily Telegraph Mirror, 15 January 1996[16] "pure school holiday entertainment", Herald Sun, 2 July 1996[16] "a pretty sophisticated piece of children’s theatre...kids can really yell their lungs out in this one", Sunday Age, 7 July 1996[16] "outrageous and colourful fun", The Age Entertainment Guide, 5 July 1996[16]