40 Years of Channel 9 Adelaide: Humphrey B Bear

The Nine Network’s anniversary special 40 Years: Entertaining South Australia, which screened in 1999, showcased the network’s history and paid tribute to its biggest stars. And guess who had his own segment? The popular newsreader Kevin Crease runs through Humphrey’s achievements – Logies wins, famous co-stars, a pantomime. We see his early days in black-and-white, and get a rare glimpse of Spanish Humphrey (Here’s Humphrey was franchised in the US and Latin America). Crease gets a cuddle for doing such a good job.  

Even in his early 30s, Humphrey had the celebrity clout to stand alongside the legends of Australian TV. Over the years, our funny old fellow has been immortalised on a stamp, had a prime minister intervene to stop his program being cancelled, and been given a nod by the Australian band TISM (This is Serious Mum), whose drummer goes by the name Humphrey B Flaubert.