Zoo Family

Season

1985

8.4

Follows a family who live at Melbourne Zoo in Victoria, Australia. Doctor David Mitchell is the zoo's veterinarian. His children Nick and Susie love being with all the animals.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Zoo Family

S1 • E2

A Bird in the Hand

S1 • E3

Seal Song

S1 • E4

The Last Cheetah

S1 • E5

Short Waves, Tall Stories

S1 • E6

Going Home

S1 • E7

Diamonds Are Forever

S1 • E8

Penguin Parade

S1 • E9

Ride for Your Life

S1 • E10

Trust Me

S1 • E11

Elephants and Runaways

S1 • E12

Watson of the Jungle

S1 • E13

Love, Romance, Elephants

S1 • E14

All in a Day's Holiday

S1 • E15

Reptiles Can't Cry

The Mitchell family catch troubled teen Ace (Justin Coleman) red-handed as he spray paints one of the zoo's giant turtles. But the reptile keeper (Tim McKenzie) decides to give him a chance and Ace finds, to everyone's surprise, that he truly enjoys caring for reptiles. He is taken in by the Mitchell family and earns the respect of the two Mitchell children, Susie (Kate Gorman) and Nick (Steven Jacobson). Meanwhile, the irascible Col Archibald Spencer (Jon Finlayson) does his own detective work and wrongly accuses young Tim Watson (Robert Summers) of harming the turtle and putting a stumpy-tailed lizard in Mrs Spencer's (Marion Heathfield) handbag. More by fortune than design, Col Spencer eventually tracks down the correct culprit and uses his influence as the zoo's primary benefactor to insist on redressing the crime. To the dismay of zoo vet Dr David Mitchell (Peter Curtin), zoo director Ken Bennett (John Orcsik) has his hand forced by Spencer and has to fire Ace. However, the episode ends with Ace promised a job at Taronga Zoo in Sydney and heading north on the train. "He might not make it, you know. He hasn't had many opportunities in life," observes Dr Mitchell. "No," comes the reply "But he might. He's, well, he's Ace!"