Winners is an Australian children's television anthology series conceived and produced for the ACTF by its founding director, Patricia Edgar.
[1] At the forefront of the creators' minds when making the shows was the importance of Australian children having access to a rich and diverse choice of programs that reflected their own society and were appropriate to their particular stage of development.
[3] The different episodes dealt with themes of aspirations, friendship, competition, conflict, jealousy, family, lifestyles, independence, decision making, and personal growth.
[4] The series had a general theme of young people winning over their circumstances, accepting challenges, gaining confidence, making their own decisions, coming to terms with life, and growing up.
[7] Patricia Edgar, director of the ACTF, in association with the Victorian Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, commissioned a major research project to develop a format, characters, and series concept for a serial aimed specifically at Australian teenagers.
[8] Winners attracted not only Australia's best writers, producers, and directors at the time, but also one of the nation's leading business identities, Robert Holmes à Court, who provided a worldwide distribution guarantee for the series and agreed to invest in the show.
[12] Work on the scripts for Winners commenced in 1983 and included the input of writers such as Anne Brooksbank, John Duigan, Bob Ellis, Morris Gleitzman, Cliff Green, Tom Hegarty, Terry Larsen, Tony Morphett, Maurice Murphy, Jan Sardi, and Roger Simpson.
[18] The second installment of the show involved such writers as Morris Gleitzman, Roger Simpson, Steve Spears, Mac Gudgeon, Paul Cox, Michael Cove, Ken Cameron, and Jane Oehr.
[10] West Australia's Wanneroo Times called it "...some of the finest television yet seen in this country",[10] and Melbourne's Herald TV Extra wrote, "Winners proves that learning and being entertained can go hand-in-hand.
[22] Over the years, a variety of nations and territories have acquired rights to the shows, including Japan's NHK,[17] Canada's Knowledge Network,[1] Showtime,[19] Italy's Telepiù,[21] the Netherlands' Kindernet,[21] Panama's FETV, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation,[23] Iran's Farabi Cinema Foundation[24] and Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting,[25] Mexico's Canal Once,[24] Television Nationale du Burkina Faso,[25] and Israeli Educational Television.
[25] Other nations who acquired the series include France, Argentina, the UK, Belgium, Ireland,[1] Thailand, Switzerland,[19] Bosnia and Herzegovina,[24] Hungary, the Cook Islands, Bophuthatswana, Singapore, Czechia, and Indonesia.
[10][22] To enhance the series for educational purposes and to promote discussion on wider issues surrounding each episode, a comprehensive study guide was prepared for teachers and parents.