The opening credits of Punishment, episode 1. The first shot is reminiscent of its Prisoner counterpart, showing one of the characters walking amongst a crowd.
Punishment was the male spin off of Prisoner, produced by Alan Coleman and premiering on Network Ten on 20 February 1981. Mel Gibson starred in the first couple of episodes as Rick Munro; the cast also included Barry Crocker as Superintendent Alan Smith.
Three episodes were shown on primetime, but due to low ratings, the remaining 26 screened out-of-ratings later in the year.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.