Ted Emery

Emery served in the Royal Australian Navy during the Vietnam War.^[2][3] After returning to Australia, he joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in Melbourne. He became a director and producer for Countdown, the ABC's weekly television music program.

He continued to work as an assistant director at the ABC on such programs as Power Without Glory, before moving into directing comedy series. He worked consistently as a director, writer and producer of a number of Australian comedy television series and films,^[4] including Fast Forward, Full Frontal and Kath & Kim.

Emery was featured in the Molly Meldrum bopic itelevision series, Molly, where his work as a director on Countdown was dramatised. He is credited with having helped to save many of the master videotapes of Countdown, including the first episode broadcast in colour. A large number of master videotapes recorded at the ABC between 1974 and 1978 were later erased and recycled during a management-initiated "economy drive" at the ABC, an action which Meldrum later criticised and said was "unforgivable".^[5][6]

Emery moved to Queensland in 2008^[7] and retired from television work by 2015.^[8] He died from cancer in Noosa on 3 March 2026.^[9]