The ABC Movie of the Week is a weekly television anthology series, featuring made-for-TV movies, that aired on the ABC network in various permutations from 1969 to 1975.

History[link]

The series was the brainchild of young executive Barry Diller, then head of prime time programming at ABC (and later a cofounder of the Fox network). Operating on a small budget but featuring the work of talented producers like Aaron Spelling and David Wolper (both of whom later developed hit series of their own), the Movie of the Week helped energize the made-for-TV movie format with fresh story concepts, veteran TV actors and potent production values. The attention-grabbing opening titles were designed and animated by Harry Marks^[1] using the same groundbreaking slit-scan process, or "stargate effect," that had been pioneered by Douglas Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Movie of the Week provided ABC (long a distant third in the ratings) with a bona fide hit and, along with Monday Night Football, helped establish the network as a legitimate competitor to rivals CBS and NBC. The films themselves varied in quality and were often escapist or sensationalistic in nature (suspense, horror and melodrama were staples), but some were critically well-received. For example, Duel (1971), based on a Richard Matheson short story from Playboy, was director Steven Spielberg's first feature film, catapulting his career and enabling him to move from television to theatrical films.

The "alphabet network" earned five Emmys, a prestigious Peabody Award and citations from the NAACP and American Cancer Society for an airing of Brian's Song in 1972. The 1971-1972 season of the series finished as the fifth highest rated series of the year.

Original airtime[link]

The Movie of the Week originally aired on Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm ET. Beginning with the 1971 season, ABC added a second Movie of the Week on Saturday night and adjusted the titles of the shows to the Movie of the Week and Movie of the Weekend. The following season, the Saturday installment was moved to Wednesday night, and the titles were adjusted to Tuesday Movie of the Week and Wednesday Movie of the Week. The opening for the Saturday Movie of the Weekend featured footage of a silhouetted "rotating cameraman" operating a 35 mm movie camera ([1]). This footage would later be incorporated into the opening of ABC's New York City television station WABC-TV's various movie umbrellas beginning around 1972-1973, including and especially their weekday afternoon movie showcase The 4:30 Movie.

During the 1973-74 season, ABC added another movie on Saturday nights to their schedule, this time titled the ABC Suspense Movie, and usually consisting of thriller, mystery and horror type films (some of which were reruns of movies which originally aired as Movies of the Week).

Theme music[link]

The Movie of the Week theme music was an orchestral version of "Nikki", a song composed by Burt Bacharach and named for his daughter. The classic theme was arranged and performed by Harry Betts.^[1]

TV series pilots[link]

The series was often used as a platform to show pilots for possible series for the network. Shows such as The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky and Hutch, Longstreet and Marcus Welby, M.D. premiered here.

End[link]

The series proper ended in 1976. After that, ABC's made-for-TV movies were either aired as stand-alone specials or shown in series that included both original and theatrical movie presentations. The Tuesday Movie of the Week would later be incorporated as part of ABC Late Night, a replacement of ABC's Wide World of Entertainment that ran from 1976 to 1982; the late-night version would mainly feature repeats of movies, both made for television and traditional theatrical releases, that were previously seen on ABC and other networks. The series was documented by Michael Karol in his 2005 book, The ABC Movie of the Week Companion, which was updated in 2008 (ISBN 1-60528-023-2).

Filmography[link]

See also[link]

List of television films produced for American Broadcasting Company

References[link]

Watch[link]

• Opening of ABC Movie of the Week

External links[link]

• ABC Movie of The Week

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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (October 2011)

A television film (also known as a TV film, television movie, TV movie, telefilm, telemovie, made-for-television film, movie of the week (MOTW or MOW), feature-length drama, single drama, and original movie) is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to many films explicitly made for showing in movie theaters.

Origins and history[link]

Though not exactly labelled as such, there were early precedents for "television movies", such as the 1957 The Pied Piper of Hamelin, based on the poem by Robert Browning, and starring Van Johnson, one of the first filmed "family musicals" made directly for television. It was made in Technicolor, a first for television, which ordinarily used color processes originated by specific networks. (Most "family musicals" of the time, such as Peter Pan, were not filmed but broadcast live and preserved on kinescope. A kinescope is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor). This was the only way to record a television show until the invention of videotape).

Television films had rough start when the idea was first presented in the 1950s to major networks. The production for the films was an unstable business with certain challenges facing early participants. Many television networks were hostile towards film programming, fearing that it would loosen the network's arrangements with sponsors and affiliates by encouraging television station managers to make independent deals with advertisers and film producers.^[1]

Television networks were in control of the most valuable prime-time slots available for programming, so syndicators of independent television films had to settle for fewer television markets and less desirable time periods. This meant much smaller advertising revenues and license fees compared with network-supplied programming.^[2]

The term "made-for-TV movie" was coined in the United States in the early 1960s as an incentive for movie audiences to stay home and watch what was promoted as the equivalent of a first-run theatrical motion picture. Beginning in 1961 with NBC Saturday Night at the Movies, a prime time network showing of a television premiere of major studio film, the other networks soon copied the format with each of the networks having several [Day of the Week] Night At The Movies that led to a shortage of movie studio product. The first of these made-for-TV movies is generally acknowledged to be See How They Run, which debuted on NBC on 7 October 1964. A previous film, The Killers, starring Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan, was filmed as a TV-movie, although NBC decided it was too violent for television and it was released theatrically instead.^[3]

Considered the second television movie, Don Siegel's The Hanged Man was broadcast by the National Broadcasting Co. on November 18, 1964.

These features originally filled a 90-minute broadcast programming time slot (including television commercials), later expanded to two hours, and were usually broadcast as a weekly anthology television series (for example, the ABC Movie of the Week). Many early TV movies featured major stars, and some were accorded higher budgets than standard series television programs of the same length, including the major dramatic anthology programs which they came to replace.

Examples[link]

Possibly the most-watched TV movie of all time was ABC's The Day After, which aired on November 20, 1983, to an estimated audience of 100 million people. The film depicted America after a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and was the subject of much controversy and discussion at the time of its release due to its graphic nature and subject matter.

Another popular and critically acclaimed TV movie was 1971's Duel, written by Richard Matheson, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Dennis Weaver. Such was the quality and popularity of Duel that it was released to cinemas in Europe and Australia, and had a limited cinema release to some venues in the United States. The 1971 made-for-TV Brian's Song was also briefly released to theatres after its success on television, and was even remade in 2001. In some instances TV movies of the period had more explicit content included in the versions prepared to be exhibited theatrically in Europe. Examples of this include The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Helter Skelter, Prince of Bel Air and Spectre.

Many 1970s TV movies were a source of controversy, such as Linda Blair's Born Innocent (1974) and Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975), as well as Dawn: Portrait of a Teenage Runaway (1976) and its sequel, Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977), which were vehicles for former Brady Bunch actress Eve Plumb. Another renowned film was Elizabeth Montgomery's portrayal of a rape victim in the drama A Case of Rape (1974).

My Sweet Charlie (1970) with Patty Duke and Al Freeman, Jr. dealt with racial prejudice, and That Certain Summer (1972), starring Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen, although controversial, was considered the first TV movie to approach the subject of homosexuality in a non-threatening manner. If These Walls Could Talk, a film which deals with abortion in three different decades (1950s, 1970s, and 1990s) became a huge success, and HBO's highest rated film ever.

Often a successful series may spawn a TV movie sequel after ending its run, and TV movies may also be used as the first episode of a series, otherwise known as a pilot. For example, Babylon 5: The Gathering launched the science fiction series Babylon 5 and is considered to be distinct from the show's regular run of one-hour episodes. Babylon 5 also has several sequel TV movies set within the same fictional continuity. The 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica begin as a two-part miniseries that later continued as a television show. Another example is the TV movie Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, which launched the TV show of the same name, and used the same actress Melissa Joan Hart for the lead role in both. The term "TV movie" is also frequently used as vehicles for "reunions" of long-departed series, as in Return to Mayberry and A Very Brady Christmas.

Occasionally TV movies are used as sequels to successful theatrical films. For example, only the first film in The Parent Trap series was released theatrically. The Parent Trap II, III and IV were TV-movies, and similarly, the Midnight Run sequels have all been TV movies despite the first having a strong run in the cinema. These types of films may be, and more commonly usually are, released direct-to-video; there have been some films, such as The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (a prequel to the film version of The Dukes of Hazzard), which have been released near simultaneously on DVD and on television, but have never been released in theatres.

TV movie musicals have become popular among all ages. One prime example is the High School Musical series which aired on the Disney Channel. The first TV movie was so successful that it came out with a sequel High School Musical 2 in 2007 which has since become the highest viewed cable broadcast and in 2008 its second sequel High School Musical 3: Senior Year was released in theaters instead of on Disney Channel. It became one of the highest grossing movie musicals.

TV movies traditionally were often broadcast by the major networks during sweeps season. Such offerings now are very rare; as Ken Tucker noted while reviewing the Jesse Stone CBS TV movies, "broadcast networks aren’t investing in made-for-TV movies anymore".^[4] The slack has been taken up by cable networks such as Hallmark Channel, Syfy, Lifetime, and HBO with productions such as You Don't Know Jack and Cinema Verite often utilizing top creative talent.

Production and quality[link]

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (November 2009)

A New York Times critic wrote in 1991 that "few artifacts of popular culture invite more condescension than the made-for-television movie".^[5] Network-made TV movies in the USA have tended to be inexpensively-produced and low quality; stylistically, they often resemble single episodes of dramatic television series. Often they are made to "cash in" on the interest centering on stories currently prominent in the news, as the Amy Fisher films were. The stories are written to reach periodic semi-cliffhangers coinciding with the network-scheduled times for the insertion of commercials; they are further managed to fill, but not exceed, the fixed running times allotted by the network to each movie "series". The movies tend to rely on small casts and a limited range of settings and camera setups. Even Spielberg's Duel, while a well-crafted film, features a very small cast (apart from Weaver, all other acting roles are bit-parts) and mostly outdoors shooting locations in the desert. The movies are typically made by smaller crews, and they rarely feature expensive special effects. While it would have been less expensive to film on the new media form of video, as the movies were contracted by TV studios it was required that they be turned in on 35mm film. Various techniques are often employed to "pad" TV movies with low budgets and underdeveloped scripts, such as music video-style montages, flashbacks, or repeated footage, and extended periods of dramatic slow motion footage (sometimes taken to ridiculous extremes as in the USA Network thriller Wheels of Terror). However, the digital 24p video format has made some improvements on the TV movie market.

Movie-length episodes of TV shows[link]

Occasionally, a long-running television series is used as the basis for TV movies that air during the show's run (as opposed to the above-mentioned "reunion specials"). Typically, such movies employ a filmed single-camera setup even if the TV series is videotaped using a multiple-camera setup, but are written to be easily broken up into individual thirty- or sixty-minute episodes for syndication. Many such movies relocate the cast of the show to an exotic overseas setting. However, although they may be advertised as movies, they are really simply extended episodes of TV shows, such as the pilot and the finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Most of these are made and shown during sweeps period in order to attract a large TV audience and boost television ratings for a show.

See also[link]

• Direct-to-video
• Soap opera
• Miniseries
• Television pilot
• Television special
• Telenovela
• Téléroman
• List of Movie Umbrella Titles in North America
• List of television films produced for American Broadcasting Company

References[link]

Melvin Purvis
Born	Melvin Horace Purvis, Jr. (1903-10-24)October 24, 1903 Timmonsville, South Carolina
Died	February 29, 1960(1960-02-29) (aged 56) Florence, South Carolina
Cause of death	Self-inflicted gunshot (possibly accidental)
Nationality	American
Education	University of South Carolina School of Law
Employer	FBI
Known for	Leading the investigation on the John Dillinger case
Spouse	Marie Rosanne Willcox Purvis
Children	Melvin Horace Purvis III (1940-1986) Alston W. Purvis (b. 1943 ) Christopher Peronneau Purvis (1950-1984)
Parents	Janie Elizabeth Mims (1874-1927) Melvin Horace Purvis, Sr. (1866-1938)

Melvin Horace Purvis, Jr. (October 24, 1903 – February 29, 1960) was an American law enforcement official and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was given the nickname "Little Mel" because of his short stature.^[1] He is noted for leading the manhunts that tracked such outlaws as Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and John Dillinger.

Early life[link]

Purvis was born in Timmonsville, South Carolina to Melvin Horace Purvis, Sr. (1869–1938), a pig farmer, and Janie Elizabeth (née Mims, 1874–1927) as the fifth of twelve siblings.^[2][3]

Career[link]

Purvis received his law degree from the University of South Carolina and had a brief career as a lawyer.^[4] Purvis was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order while attending South Carolina. He joined the FBI in 1927, and headed the Division of Investigation offices in Birmingham, Oklahoma City and Cincinnati. In 1932 he was placed in charge of the Chicago office by Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover. He was a well-educated man, known to be a crack shot.^[5] He captured more public enemies than any other agent in FBI history, a record that still stands.^{[citation needed]}

Purvis led the manhunts that tracked outlaws Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd, and most famously John Dillinger, which ended in Chicago on July 22, 1934. However, after Purvis became a media figure for this feat, Hoover claimed that Purvis had been demoted and that agent Samuel P. Cowley had been put in charge of the Dillinger case.^[6] Cowley was later shot by Baby Face Nelson, and Purvis visited him in hospital shortly before he died. Purvis was praised for his actions.^[7] He reportedly incurred the wrath of Hoover, who had previously supported him, as Purvis sought and achieved publicity for his own role, overshadowing Hoover and the rest of the FBI. In a 2005 book co-authored by Purvis's son Alston, Hoover is portrayed as jealous of the attention given to Purvis after Dillinger was killed.^[8]

At least one of Purvis' official accounts of his exploits was later called into question. Purvis' story of the death of Pretty Boy Floyd indicated that Purvis and his agents had killed him with no assistance from local law enforcement. This was later refuted by Chester Smith, an officer with the East Liverpool, Ohio police (Hoover would later state Smith had shot Floyd first). Officer Smith said that Purvis and his agents never fired until after Purvis had attempted to question Floyd. After Floyd responded with curses, Purvis ordered Agent Herman "Ed" Hollis to shoot Floyd, who was lying wounded on the ground. This claim was discounted later by retired FBI Agent Winfred E. Hopton, who wrote in a 1976 letter to Time that local law enforcement, including Captain Smith weren't even present until after Floyd had died. Of course, this version conflicts with the one from local authorities which has Smith initially wounding Floyd. Neither claim has been clearly proven.

Purvis resigned from the FBI in 1935, and afterward practiced law.^[9] In 1937 he became engaged to actress Janice Jarratt, but they never married.^[10][11][12] He later married Marie Rosanne Willcox, and they had three sons.^[13] Purvis bought radio station WOLH in Florence, South Carolina. During World War II, he served in the Army as a colonel.

In 1936, Purvis published a memoir of his years as an investigator with the Bureau, entitled American Agent. In the 1990s, the writers Curt Gentry and Anthony Summers, who both published biographies of Hoover, assert that the director, who initially supported Purvis, was jealous of his fame after the Dillinger escapade and demoted him. Purvis left the FBI.

Death[link]

On February 29, 1960, while at his home in Florence, Melvin Purvis died from a gunshot wound to the head fired from the pistol given to him by fellow agents when he resigned from the FBI. The FBI investigated his death and declared it a suicide, although the official coroner's report did not label the cause of death as such. A later investigation suggested that Purvis may have shot himself accidentally while trying to extract a tracer bullet jammed in the pistol.^[13] He was 56 years old.

Other media[link]

• Purvis was portrayed by Ben Johnson in the 1973 film Dillinger.
• He was played by Geoffrey Binney, opposite Martin Sheen in the title role of the 1974 TV movie The Story of Pretty Boy Floyd.
• Purvis was portrayed by Dale Robertson in two TV movies: Melvin Purvis, G-Man (1974) and The Kansas City Massacre (1975).
• In the 1991 TV movie Dillinger, he was portrayed by Will Patton.
• Purvis was originally portrayed by Chuck Wagner in the 2002 musical Dillinger, Public Enemy Number One.
• In the 2009 film Public Enemies, Purvis is portrayed by Christian Bale. The film portrays Purvis as being somewhat more competent than he was in real life, and also alters some of the events surrounding Purvis's role in the manhunt: for instance, Purvis is shown gunning down Homer Van Meter and Baby Face Nelson in a grassy field after the Little Bohemia shootout, when in reality, both Van Meter and Nelson died in separate incidents, respectively one and four months after Dillinger's death.
• In Kim Newman's 1997 alternate-history novel Back in the USSA, Purvis appears with Eliot Ness as an agent of the Federal Bureau of Ideology who are in pursuit of labor activist Tom Joad.

Documentary film[link]

• G-MAN: The Rise and Fall of Melvin Purvis from SCETV's Carolina Stories documentary series
• Melvin Purvis was portrayed by Scott Brooks in the History Channel documentary on infamous gangsters, Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem (2008).

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• One Account of the Death of Pretty Boy Floyd
• Potter, Claire (1998). War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-2487-3. 
• Purvis, Alston; and Tresinowski, Alex (2005). The Vendetta: FBI Hero Melvin Purvis's War Against Crime and J. Edgar Hoover's War Against Him. Public Affairs. ISBN 1-58648-301-3. http://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/publicaffairsbooks-cgi-bin/display?book=9781586483012. 

• J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, by Curt Gentry (1991).

• Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, by Anthony Summers, Putnam (1993).

External links[link]

• Melvin Purvis at Find a Grave

David Janssen
Circa 1970
Born	David Harold Meyer (1931-03-27)March 27, 1931 Naponee, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	February 13, 1980(1980-02-13) (aged 48) Malibu, California, U.S.
Occupation	American film/television actor songwriter
Years active	1945-1980
Spouse	Ellie Graham (1958-1970) Dani Crayne (1975-1980)

David Janssen (March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Dr. Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967), the starring role in the 1950s hit detective series Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–60), and as Harry Orwell on Harry O.

In 1996 TV Guide ranked him number 36 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.^[1]

Early life[link]

Janssen was born as David Harold Meyer in Naponee, Nebraska to Harold Edward Meyer, a banker (May 12, 1906 – November 4, 1990) and Berniece Graf (May 11, 1910 – November 26, 1995). Following his parents' divorce in 1935, his mother moved with five-year-old David to Los Angeles, California. She eventually married Eugene Janssen (February 18, 1918 – March 30, 1996) on September 29, 1940 in Los Angeles. Young David used his stepfather's name after he entered show business as a child. Janssen was raised a Lutheran.^[2] He attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles. His first film part was at the age of 13, and by the age of 25 he had appeared in 20 films and served two years as an enlisted man in the United States Army. During his Army days, Janssen became friends with fellow enlistees Martin Milner and Clint Eastwood whilst posted at Ft. Ord, California.

Acting career[link]

Clint Howard and Janssen in The Fugitive

Janssen appeared in many television series before he landed programs of his own. In 1956, he and Peter Breck appeared in John Bromfield's syndicated series Sheriff of Cochise in the episode "The Turkey Farmers". Later, he guest starred on NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour in the role of Hal Kincaid in the 1962 episode "Make Me a Place", with series co-stars Wendell Corey and Jack Ging. He joined Milner in a 1962 episode of Route 66 as the character Kamo in the episode "One Tiger to a Hill."

Janssen starred in four television series of his own:

• Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957–60),
• The Fugitive, the hit Quinn Martin produced series, (1963–67),
• O'Hara, U.S. Treasury (1971–72), and
• Harry O (1974–76).

At the time, the final episode of The Fugitive held the record for the greatest number of American homes with television sets to watch a series finale, at 72% in August 1967.

His films include To Hell and Back, the autobiography of Audie Murphy, who is considered the most decorated soldier in the military history of the United States; John Wayne's war film The Green Berets (1968), and opposite Gregory Peck in the space story Marooned about three stranded astronauts. Janssen played an alcoholic in the 1977 TV movie A Sensitive, Passionate Man, which co-starred Angie Dickinson and an engineer who devises an unbeatable system for blackjack in the 1978 made-for-TV movie Nowhere to Run co-starring Stefanie Powers and Linda Evans.

At the time of his death, Janssen had just begun filming a television movie playing the part of Father Damien, the priest who dedicated himself to the leper colony on the island of Molokai. The part was eventually reassigned to actor Ken Howard.

Personal life[link]

In 1974

He was married twice. His first marriage was to Ellie Graham on August 23, 1958 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They divorced on August 25, 1970. From October 4, 1975 to his death, he was married to sometime actress and model Dani Crayne Greco.^[3]

Death[link]

Janssen died of a heart attack on the morning of February 13, 1980, at his home in Malibu, California, two days into the filming of Father Damien. Two days earlier, he told his wife, Dani, that he had a bad dream that he was being carried in a coffin following a heart attack. ^[4] He is interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Filmography[link]

Movies[link]

TV Movies[link]

Television[link]

Biography portal

Bibliography[link]

• Janssen, Ellie; Phelps, J.D. Michael (1994). David Janssen - My Fugitive. Hollywood, Fla.: Lifetime Books. ISBN 978-0-8119-0797-2. OCLC 31134272. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Janssen

• The David Janssen Archive
• David Janssen at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Website of Barry Morse
• Behind camera shots taken by Barton B. Mac Leod, Photographer

The Holidays
The Holidays
Background information
Origin	Sydney, Australia
Genres	Indie rock, Pop rock, Soul
Years active	2006 - present
Labels	Liberation (Australia), Rallye Label (Japan)
Website	Official Website Myspace
Members
Simon Jones Will Magnus Alex Kortt Andrew Kerridge

The Holidays are an Australian indie pop/soul band. Formed in Sydney in 2006, the band consists of Simon Jones, Will Magnus, Alex Kortt and Andrew Kerridge. The band is most notably known for their Australian Music Prize nominated debut album Post Paradise.

Biography[link]

The Holidays formed in late 2006 and quickly established themselves in the Sydney music scene as an upbeat, energetic addition. Simon Jones & Will Magnus had attended high school together, previously playing in cover bands in their schools' band competition. They were often up against the band Roger Explosion in these competitions, who went on to become the Australian electro-pop band Art vs. Science.

Within their first year as a band together, The Holidays toured with Jamie T,^[1] with The View,^[2] with Ben Kweller,^[3] and recorded an EP of demos which quickly sold out at gigs and received regular airplay on radio stations both in Australia^[4] and in the USA. In November 2007 The Holidays were featured on the Next Crop segment of national youth radio station Triple J,^[5] soon followed by their signing with independent Australian record label Liberation Music, in early 2008.

The Holidays released their debut EP on 19 April 2008 to positive reviews^[6] which was followed by a substantial national tour to promote the release. They released their second EP "When The Ship Goes Down" in October 2008, which showed the band's natural progression with song-writing. Recorded with Wayne Connolly of The Vines and Josh Pyke fame, this EP was followed by a 20 date national tour, co-headlining with Brisbane band Yves Klein Blue.

The Holidays' debut album Post Paradise soon followed, after several months of writing and experimenting. Drawn away from the simplicity of their earlier indie guitar manifestation, Post Paradise showed the bands development with both the groove and layers of a song, combined with their recognizable pop hooks. This album differed from previous recordings by The Holidays' in that it was self-produced and recorded in various locations around Sydney and New South Wales.

"Moonlight Hours", the first single from their debut album was taken to radio in November 2009, and added to high rotation on national youth radio station Triple J. "Golden Sky" was the second single from The Holidays debut album, released in May 2010, which was followed by an east coast tour of Australia to promote the release. There is a music video for both these singles, made by Melbourne company Moop Jaw.

"Post Paradise" was released in Australia on 24 September 2010, in conjunction with third single, Broken Bones, which was added to radio nationally. The album has received very positive reviews since its release, which included amongst other reviews, being shortlisted for the Australian Music Prize and winning the Red Bull Award for Best Debut Album. Post Paradise also received "Album of the Week" in Drum Media, Beat Magazine, BMA Mag & The Brag,^[7] 4.5 stars in The Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph & The Courier Mail, as well as positive reviews in The Age & The Sydney Morning Herald. Post Paradise won The Age Readers Choice Best Album of 2010,^[8] and was the Triple J Feature Album for the week commencing 26 December 2010.

The Holidays toured Post Paradise substantially in 2010 and 2011, including shows at SXSW in Austin, Texas, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, UK, and Australian festivals including Groovin' the Moo, Laneway Festival and Splendour in the Grass. The Holidays' current live show incorporates a fifth touring member, David Zucker as percussionist, as well occasional backing vocalists.

Members[link]

• Simon Jones - Vocals, Guitar, Keys, Production
• Will Magnus - Lead Guitar, Keys
• Alex Kortt - Bass Guitar
• Andrew Kerridge - Drums, Percussion, Supreme Aficionado

Touring[link]

• Toured with Jamie T in May 2007
• Toured with The View in June 2007
• Toured with Ben Kweller in October 2007
• Played nationally at the 2008 St Jerome's Laneway Festival
• Toured with The Wombats in March 2008
• Toured with Lightspeed Champion in July 2008
• Played at Homebake 2008
• Played at Falls Festival 2008
• Toured with Bluejuice in April 2010
• Played at St Jerome's Laneway Festival 2011 across Australia
• Played at SXSW in Austin, Texas in March 2011
• Played at the Groovin' the Moo Festival across Australia in May 2011
• Toured with Cut Copy in Australia in May 2011
• Played at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, and Dot to Dot Festival across the UK in May 2011
• Played at Splendour In The Grass in August 2011.
• Played at the inaugural Harvest Festival in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane in November 2011 along with The Flaming Lips, Portishead and Tv on the Radio.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Post Paradise (Australia - 24 September 2010, Japan - January 2011)

EPs[link]

• The Holidays (19 April 2008)
• When The Ship Goes Down (11 October 2008)
• Golden Sky (Australia - May 2010, UK - August 2010 )

Singles[link]

• Moonlight Hours (December 2009)
• Golden Sky (May 2010)
• Broken Bones (September 2010)
• 2 Days (February 2011)

Awards & Nominations[link]

• 2010 The Age EG Award - Readers Choice Best Album of 2010 - Won
• 2010 Australian Music Prize - Nominated
• 2010 Australian Music Prize - Red Bull Award for Best Debut Album - Won
• 2011 Jägermeister Independent Music Awards - Breakthrough Independent Artist of the Year - Nominated

Further information[link]

• The Holidays song 'Telephone' was featured on an Australian television advertising campaign for Clearasil in late 2007.
• The Holidays song 'Golden Sky' was used in the Channel 7 summer 2010/2011 advertising campaign.
• Simon Jones collaborated & sung vocals with Australian dance duo Bag Raiders on the track 'Not Over' from their eponymous debut album.

References[link]