The TV show is 1970s soap opera Number 96, the actor is James Elliott (who played Alf Sutcliffe) and the clause in question informs him that he may be asked to get his gear off for the camera.

“If, for legitimate and dramatic reasons, the producers are convinced that a scene demands the artist should appear nude within the realms of good taste and within the restrictions of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board, the artist agrees so to do,” clause seven reads.

As if to provide some consolation, it also mentions that such appearances “would never be full frontal nude shots” and they would be shot in a closed set.

The contract is just one item appearing in the Wollongong Art Gallery exhibition The Box in the Corner, which covers Australian television from 1956 to 1999.

It features loads of TV memorabilia – contracts, scripts (including the first episode of Skippy, when it was still named Spring the Bush Kangaroo), posters, autograph cards, toys, games, even vinyl records of theme songs. Wollongong broadcaster WIN Television has also sent over some items.

Some of the memorabilia comes from shows like The Restless Years, Sons and Daughters, Shirl’s Neighbourhood, Here’s Humphrey, Simon Townsend’s Wonder World, Frontline, Good News Week, Young Talent Time, Perfect Match and  the Wollongong-linked Aunty Jack Show.

Some of the stuff has come from actors and behind-the-camera people, but as much as 70 per cent comes from the collection of curator Nigel Giles.

A freelancer with the National Film and Sound Archive, Giles has been a collector for years and has even written a book about Number 96.

The gallery approached him to put together The Box in the Corner, which included the job of sourcing all the bits and pieces.

“Through my work with the film and sound archive I’ve dealt with a lot of people from television, so I went through my address book – ‘what have you got? Can you help?” he said.

“A lot of people said ‘I’ve got stuff packed away in boxes’, so I went round and helped them dig through those boxes and picked out bits and pieces.”

For a long time, this was really the only way our television history was kept. Through to the 1970s it wasn’t unusual for networks to throw away or record over old episodes of now iconic TV shows.

“Things like Bellbird, which was one of the earliest evening series in the country, a lot of that doesn’t exist any more,” Giles said.

“A lot of the black and white episodes of Number 96 don’t exist any more.

“A lot of things that got saved was just by people who worked at the networks saying, ‘quick fill the car boot with this stuff, otherwise it’ll disappear forever’.

“Something like this exhibition uses a lot of that ephemera and when you put it all together you can see a story.”

The 1999 cut-off for the exhibition was mainly because Giles had to draw the line somewhere, but it did also mean he wouldn’t have to pay much attention to perhaps his least-favourite TV genre – reality TV.

It means the exhibition covers a time before endless TV channels took hold, before people could watch whatever they wanted whenever they wanted – and on a variety of screens.

“The show’s called The Box in the Corner,” Giles said. 

“When television began everyone watched one box in the corner, in the lounge room, unlike today where you can watch on your pocket devices.

“The other big difference between then and now is there was no on-demand viewing. You had to watch the show when it was on.

“You couldn’t think ‘I’ll watch this on the weekend’, you didn’t have that option.”

Really popular shows became “appointment TV” because that was the only time you could watch them.

“Everyone would watch Number 96 on the Monday night and the next day at school or work everybody would talk about that episode,” Giles said.

“Today you can’t do that because we don’t all watch at the same time.”

He didn’t see these changes as good or bad, just different. Just part of the evolution on TV.

And he did admit to a few changes in his viewing habits.

He still engages in a sort of “appointment TV”; having a regular dinner date with friends where they watch the latest episode of Prisoner reboot Wentworth.

He’s also moved away from just watching his shows on that box in the corner.

“I don’t watch much TV on devices, I don’t even own a mobile phone,” he said.

“I do have access things like ABC iview, so I’ll watch that on my desktop computer.

“We also have a lot more channels now. Back at the beginning I think people in Canberra had the ABC and one other channel.

“Where I grew up we had four and then when SBS came along we had five.

“You can also buy a series on DVD and binge watch; I’ve been known to do that.”

Number 96 is perhaps his favourite show – he even wrote the definitive history of the show that aired from 1972 to 1977.

The reason for the appeal? “It has everything”.

“It really broke the mold in terms of what we’d seen on our screens before,” he said.

“Nudity was a huge thing. Gay characters, interracial relationships, indigenous characters – all actors in sustaining character roles.

“The censorship board was always watching Number 96 and ordered scenes to be deleted. You couldn’t say things like ‘get stuffed’ and blasphemy was not allowed.

“But Number 96 pushed the boundaries and got away with things that people hadn’t been doing before.”

The Box in the Corner will be officially opened by Mark Trevorrow (aka Bob Downe) on Sunday at 1.30pm. A number of TV personalities past and present are expected to attend.