Talking TelevisionAU

C31 seeking dollars for digital

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:47:00 +0000

While the Community TV sector was successful (finally!) in gaining access to Digital Television, now comes the hard part where they have to now make the actual transition.

So while Melbourne’s C31 acknowledges that it received a donation from the Federal Government to help facilitate its move to digital, they claim it is not enough, so is calling on the wider community to get behind their community TV station and become a subscriber via their website.

Subscriptions for community media are nothing unusual – radio stations have lived on subscriptions for years and C31 in its early days also ran on subscriber funds but these days rely predominantly on program sponsors.

C31 is offering a three-tiered subscription structure – offering subscriptions of $31, $75 or $100 for one year – where members will receive quarterly updates on the station’s activities and programs as well as the knowledge that they are helping C31 make the long-awaited move to digital transmission which should give the station a clearer reception across Melbourne and increase the station’s potential audience as more viewers switch to digital televisions and tuners.

While C31 is preparing to upgrade to digital, its Sydney counterpart, TVS, is already up and running with a digital signal on UHF 29 (digital channel 44).

And it’s not only the community stations getting government assistance, regional commercial network WIN is also putting its hand out for government money to assist in its digital transition in regional areas of South Australia and Western Australia. The network, owned by Bermuda-based billionaire Bruce Gordon (pictured), is currently faced with the task of upgrading transmission facilities in both states – amounting to over 200 transmission sites – as it races to meet the analogue shutdown dates set down by the Government.

In Western Australia, WIN’s regional network covers the entire state, outside of Perth, via satellite and terrestrial transmission with a mix of Nine and Ten network programming. WIN’s regional South Australian operation comprises SES8 Mt Gambier and RTS5A Riverland, with both stations broadcasting the Seven Network on their primary service and a relay of the Ten Network on a secondary signal.

WIN also owns Nine Network stations NWS9 Adelaide and STW9 Perth.

Source: C31, AdelaideNow

1990: February 24-March 2

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:17:00 +0000

‘Stay out of my life!’
While actress Simone Buchanan (pictured) is often portraying the unlucky-in-love tales of the elder daughter Debbie in Hey Dad, she says her real-life romances have been less than comical. Even though she is in a happy relationship at present, Buchanan’s past has been tainted with a number of unhappy romances – including one which ended with threats of violence. The popularity of the show has also led to some unwanted attention from fans – a persistent fan in London kept sending her letters and expensive gifts and promised to visit her in Australia. “In the end I did write and tell him that he had to stop wasting his money on me,” she said. Another incident saw Buchanan come home to find graffiti all over the walls in her new house, and one night she awoke to find guys standing outside her bedroom window yelling things at her. Meanwhile, the actress denies any rumours that she is leaving the sitcom (“like the rest of the cast, my contract expires in October and at this point I haven’t made any decision to leave or stay”) but would like to do more film work, following acclaim for her role in the movie Shame.

‘They treated me like …!’
Aussie actor Peter Phelps has walked away from the hit US series Baywatch. “It was my decision to leave at the end of this season,” Phelps told TV Week. “Before Christmas a few of the cast – including me – weren’t happy about the way the scripts were going. I expressed my dismay about everything – which I guess is not what you’re supposed to do in Hollywood when you’ve got a job everybody else wants. Instead of using my suggestions, they changed the format to emphasise on the action-adventure stuff and they brought in a new character. He wasn’t supposed to replace me, but I’ve hardly worked on the show since. To them (TV executives), you’re just a product and they treat you like crap.” A star in Australia following roles in popular soaps The Restless Years and Sons And Daughters, Phelps (pictured, with Baywatch co-star Shawn Wetherly) admits that if he “had shut up and didn’t complain, I’d probably be there as long as the series runs, getting paid a lot to pop in every so often to do my Australian novelty act, and driving a Porsche and owning a house.” Instead, Phelps is returning to Australia to star in a feature film, Back Street General. Baywatch debuts in Australia on Network Ten in March.

Rebecca’s rockin’ role
Former Zoo Family and The Flying Doctors star Rebecca Gibney is negotiating a role for an upcoming sitcom being produced for the Nine Network. Producer Alan Bateman says the new series, Rhythm And Blues, is “a lovely piece about a rock ‘n roll singer from the Seventies who’s only ever had one hit. His career is diminishing when, to his astonishment, he discovers he has a family.” Production for the new series is set to begin in March.

Briefly…
Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia (with Mike Gibson and Kerri-Anne Kennerley, pictured) has entered its tenth year and is celebrating its milestone on air. Producer Gail Jarvis says “in some ways it’s more a celebration of Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s involvement with the show. She has been with the show for eight years now. That’s a lot of live television and we’ll look back at what she has contributed over the years.”

TV Week columnist John Laws wants to make it clear that he doesn’t expect to “turn Melbourne on its ears” in networking his Sydney radio show to bottom-rating station, 3AK. “Someone said that the station needed help, so I’m giving it for free as a favour to a friend – that’s what friends are for,” he says. Although Laws has admitted that he would prefer to have the entire three-hour program broadcast in Melbourne, instead of only the one hour, from 9.00am to 10.00am weekdays.

British showbusiness couple John Alderton and Pauline Collins have been announced as special guests at the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards, to be held at the Hyatt On Collins in Melbourne and hosted by Network Ten’s Mark Mitchell.

John Laws says…
”When it comes to sport, it’s hard to beat the Nine team, even though their Commonwealth Games coverage came in for plenty of stick, especially in the commentators and “delayed telecast” area. Nine has now unveiled its “stump cam” cricket camera. It had to happen, I suppose – a tiny camera inserted into the stumps to give a worm’s-eye view of the action. There’s no doubt it’s a clever innovation, providing a completely new perspective on the game. But, for me, it’s a major disappointment that Nine and the Australian Cricket Board have agreed NOT to use “stump cam” for disputed or controversial decisions…”

Program Highlights (February 24-March 2):
Saturday: Nine’s Wide World Of Sports returns for the new year, filling four hours of Saturday afternoons with coverage of various sports and interviews with sporting identities. SBS’s international current affairs program Dateline returns for a new year, hosted by Paul Murphy.
Sunday: HSV7 crosses to Canberra for the AFL Fosters Cup: Hawthorn versus Sydney Swans. GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the second final of the Benson and Hedges World Series. Meanwhile, ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon, features the Bolshoi Ballet and an episode of The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole. Sunday night movies are Spaceballs (HSV7), Heartbreak Ridge (GTV9) and Throw Momma From The Train (ATV10). ABC presents Esso Night At The Opera, featuring the Australian Opera’s production of La Boheme.
Monday: Rebecca Gilling, Ed Devereaux, Nikki Coghill and Richard Roxburgh star in the telemovie The Saint In Australia (HSV7).
Tuesday: The third final of the Benson and Hedges World Series is on GTV9 from 2.20pm, live from the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Thursday: ABC’s Creative Spirits this week features choreographer Graeme Murphy rehearsing Daphnis and Chloe with Kim Walker and Paul Mercurio.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.
24 February 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: February 17-23

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:15:00 +0000

Cover: Johnny Depp, Dannii Minogue

Fast lane to death
After 20 years in the industry, journalist John Budd recalls the last 18 months have been a nightmare. “When the industry collapsed it left a lot of people without jobs,” he says. Facing unemployment following the axing of Network Ten’s Public Eye current affairs program, Budd landed a job at ABC’s Four Corners – and after three months’ gruelling research, his first report, Amphetamines: The Quiet Achiever Of The Drug Trade, is ready to go to air this week. Dubbed the “fast-lane drug of the Eighties”, amphetamines are set to become the big issue of the Nineties, he told TV Week. “They’re very much a yuppie drug, socially acceptable and mix nicely with alcohol to create a euphoric state of confidence, well-being and hyped-up vigilance.” Budd interviewed 30 reformed drug users and dealers and also worked with Victoria Police “who are alarmed at the rapid pace of this quiet achiever of the drug trade.”

Keyte’s flying high
”It all happened fairly quickly,” is how HSV7 newsreader Jennifer Keyte (pictured) describes her rise to national stardom as the news presenter on Steve Vizard’s new national variety show, Tonight Live. “I had seen Steve around the station last year and we used to have make-up room chats. He made me laugh so much. The make-up girls hated him because they couldn’t get my lips done. I guess we established a rapport then.” As well as her booming TV profile, Keyte also has other matters to attend to – a mid-year wedding to Melbourne nightclub owner Brett Kochner.

“I had to beat the animal that controlled me…”
Actor Tony Bonner, best known from TV series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, Cop Shop and Skyways, is looking relaxed and healthier than ever. Currently in Los Angeles following good reviews for his work in the Tom Selleck movie Quigley Down Under, Bonner recalls the day only three months ago when he walked into a Melbourne clinic for help in overcoming alcohol problems. “I came to a proverbial crossroad in life and there were three options – the first was to become a down-and-out lost soul; the second was to be committed to an insane asylum; and the third was to die. So the option to take was simply to beat the animal that controlled me – alcohol.” Bonner feels his career is now on a new direction and, since the Quigley movie, is meeting heads of drama at two US networks keen to cast him in telemovies and is also discussing offers with Disney studio Hollywood Pictures.

Briefly…
Former Perfect Match host Cameron Daddo (pictured) has just finished a long run in the stage production Big River but already has two other projects in planning – one is to join veteran Leo McKern to play the legendary roles of Dad and Dave in the $6.3 million feature film On Our Selection, and the other is a potential lead role in the Grundy Television production of Bony, based on the 1972 series of the same name.

Singer Kate Ceberano, having just completed a cameo role in the film Till There Was You, is now in negotiation for a guest appearance in the new Nine Network series Family And Friends.

Home And Away star Dannii Minogue admits to being nervous over public reaction to her new single, Love And Kisses, and the $50,000 video to promote it – but is determined to silence critics that she is cashing in on the success of her older sister Kylie. “A lot of people thought I’d copy Kylie and have a sound exactly like hers. But that’s just not the sort of stuff I do. This is more my style – but yes, it’s good to be different.”

John Laws says…
”By any standards, Steve Vizard’s opening show was a crushing disappointment. The second night was not much better. The third showed a slender improvement. Much has been expected of Vizard because of his fine work with Fast Forward. If anyone could hold a Tonight show together it should be him. Yet on debut night Vizard was flailing around like a beached whale within seconds of the studio audience’s contrived hysteria being stilled. Vizard, I’m sure, does have the talent to put on a better show. It’ll take time to get it right. I hope Seven has the cash and the patience.”

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”Steve Vizard has established Tonight Live as an energetic, cheeky show which goes just far enough – but not too far – to sit nicely in its adults-only timeslot. Many of the lines have induced a good laugh, some of the music has been top class and somehow – just somehow – a touch of serious news has been shoved in without upsetting the applecart. But what’s most infectious from where I sit is that the host himself appears to be enjoying it all enormously. And when he’s having a good time, so am I.”

Program Highlights (February 17-23):
Saturday: Hey Hey It’s Saturday returns for a new year with Daryl Somers, Denise Drysdale, Ossie Ostrich, John Blackman, Red Symons and Wilbur Wilde. ABC presents the ABC Sports Award Of The Year, live from the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.
Sunday: Sunday night movies are Someone To Watch Over Me (GTV9) and The Man From Snowy River II (ATV10). HSV7 presents the first instalment of mini-series Small Sacrifices.
Tuesday: GTV9 crosses to the SCG for the Benson and Hedges World Series: Australia versus Pakistan. Coverage starts at 2.20pm and, after breaking for National Nine News, A Current Affair and Sale Of The Century, continues through to 10.30pm.
Wednesday: David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz return for a new series of The Movie Show on SBS.
Thursday: SBS launches a new series, Viva World Cup, hosted by Les Murray and Andy Paschalidis in the lead-up to the 1990 World Cup, including reports on the venues, personalities and the final 24 teams.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.
17 February 1990. Southdown Press.

Prime News goes less local

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:16:00 +0000

Regional network Prime Television is set to wind back its local news production with news that its various local bulletins, covering parts of NSW and North East Victoria, are to be centralised to the network’s main programming hub in Canberra.

From 1 July, production will begin to be phased out from local studios, in towns such as Wagga Wagga, Orange, Tamworth and Albury, to be taken over by centralised facilities in Canberra. Reporters will still be based in each local area, just that the half-hour bulletins will be compiled from the national capital.

The move is expected to cost at least one full-time position from each local Prime station.

It is not known how the cuts will affect the local news coverage of Prime’s Western Australian outlet, GWN, which currently provides a statewide half-hour news bulletin each weeknight from studios in Bunbury.

For many of the affected areas, Prime’s move from the local studios will effectively mark the end of local television production – as rival operators such as NBN, WIN and Southern Cross Ten already have centralised facilities for the provision of local news.

Source: Daily Advertiser, TV Tonight

South Australia next to go digital

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:57:00 +0000

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy has announced that Regional South Australia and Broken Hill will be the second region in Australia to switch off analogue television transmission.

In a media release issued today, the affected areas will lose analogue television transmissions on 15 December 2010, two weeks before the original deadline of 31 December 2010.

The transition will affect local transmissions of ABC, SBS, Southern Cross GTS/BKN and WIN.

The Adelaide metropolitan market and remote regions of South Australia are scheduled to shut down analogue transmissions by the end of 2013.

In the latest Digital Tracker survey, released by the Government last week, 61 per cent of Australian households have now converted to digital television – up from 56 per cent in the previous quarter. This figure includes 79 per cent of households in the Mildura/Sunraysia district (scheduled to lose analogue transmission in four months’ time) and 64 per cent of homes in the Regional South Australia/Broken Hill region.

For viewers in regional Australia that may lose access to terrestrial TV broadcasts in the transition to digital, as digital signals may not reach the same distances as analogue, the Government announced in January that those areas will be able to receive digital television via satellite in time for when the analogue transmissions are to be shut down in their respective areas.

Source: DCBDE, DCBDE, Digital Ready

Logies Hall of Fame names leaked

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:01:00 +0000

The Australian’s media columnist Amanda Meade has leaked an “unauthorised” list of names being considered for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Normally the award is nominated and voted in private by an industry panel, with the winner announced prior to the awards ceremony.

According to Meade the following names are on the short list:

Brian Henderson, host of ‘60s pop music show Bandstand and a newsreader for TCN9, Sydney, for almost forty years, retiring in 2002.

Brian Naylor (pictured), host of children’s talent show Brian And The Juniors before becoming newsreader for HSV7 and later GTV9 before retiring in 1998. Hosted Nine’s Carols By Candlelight for ten years. Was tragically killed last year in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Les Murray, one of the founding presenters at SBS and has led the network’s World Cup soccer coverage since it first telecast the event in 1986.

George Negus (pictured, in 1981), former This Day Tonight journalist who became a household name as one of the founding reporters on 60 Minutes in 1979. Later hosted Today, Foreign Correspondent and George Negus Tonight and is currently host of Dateline and contributor to The 7PM Project.

Ken Sutcliffe, sports presenter who got his big break being hand-picked by Graham Kennedy to co-host his new late night show, Graham Kennedy’s News Show, in 1988. Continues to present the sports report for Nine News in Sydney and various Wide World Of Sports telecasts.

Maggie Tabberer (pictured, in 1970), former fashion model turned publishing identity and TV personality. A two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner (1970, 1971) and more recently a presenter on pay-TV.

Ian Ross, long-time journalist and newsreader for National Nine News in Sydney and, for several years, for Today nationally. Came out of a brief retirement to front Seven News in Sydney, and led the 6.00pm timeslot for the next six years at the expense of traditional rival Nine. Retired from Seven at the end of last year.

Ray Meagher, veteran actor and the only founding cast member of Home And Away to still be on the series, 22 years on.

Prisoner (pictured), the Grundy Productions drama series that broke new ground when it launched in 1979 with a predominantly female cast and without the usual gloss of prime-time soap operas. The series ran for eight years, sold well overseas and won a swag of TV Week Logie awards. As testament to its long-standing popularity, all 692 episodes of the show have been released on DVD – the largest such DVD release in Australia, if not worldwide.

One name that this blog might suggest would be worthy of a Hall of Fame award is Western Australian TV personality Jeff Newman (pictured). Newman recently retired from TVW7, Perth, after over 40 years of service, including an outstanding commitment to TVW7’s annual Telethon. Although Newman is not well known outside of Western Australia, his commitment and service to the television industry in WA is a fantastic achievement.

Previous winners of the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame have included Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton, Mike Walsh, Don Lane, Mike Willesee, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, James Davern, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Ruth Cracknell, Maurie Fields, Sam Chisholm, Bruce Gyngell, Johnny Young, Bill Collins and Steve Irwin. Three programs have also been entered into the Hall of Fame – 4 Corners, Neighbours and Play School.

Expect TV Week to announce this year’s inductee to the Hall of Fame prior to this year’s Logies telecast, scheduled for 2 May.

Source: The Australian

GTV9 sells off Hollywood-on-the-Yarra

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:20:00 +0000

The address of 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond, has been one of Australian TV’s most famous and iconic addresses.

The century-old building has for more than 50 years been home to GTV9 – a channel that began test broadcasts, covering the Melbourne Olympic Games, in 1956 before launching proper operation early in 1957.

The building was initially a piano factory when it was built in 1908 and was later converted to a Heinz factory in the 1930s before it became home to one of Melbourne’s first two commercial TV stations.

Governor Sir Dallas Brookes (pictured) was chauffeur-driven into the studios, live-to-air, before officially opening GTV9 on 19 January 1957. Less than four months later the channel launched its new nightly variety show, In Melbourne Tonight, featuring a young radio announcer, Graham Kennedy. Two years later Kennedy would be joined by a former HSV7 rival, Bert Newton, and the pair became an unbeatable double act.

With daytime productions, including quiz shows and children’s programs, and IMT’s nightly cavalcade of singers, dancers and performers, the building that was known as Television City became Melbourne’s own “Hollywood on the Yarra”. In 1964 the channel expanded the premises to include a new state-of-the-art studio, Studio 9, specifically for IMT. The new studio opened up the possibilities of large-scale variety performances and productions – hopefully to fend off competition from newcomer ATV0 which had launched from modern studios in suburban Nunawading in the same year.

Kennedy resigned from IMT at the end of 1969, but the legacy of IMT saw decades of variety and tonight shows from the same studio – including The Ernie Sigley Show, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Don Lane Show, New Faces, Tonight With Bert Newton, Hey Hey It’s Saturday, The Footy Show and, to bring the list to full circle, a ‘90s revival of In Melbourne Tonight.

Radio DJ Mike Walsh hosted a 1960s version of the breakfast program, Today, while Eric Pearce read the evening Television City News from GTV9 before handing over to Brian Naylor at the end of 1978, who in turn handed over to Peter Hitchener twenty years later.

Game show Family Feud moved its production from TVW7 Perth to GTV9 in the late-‘70s. Host Tony Barber then moved on to Sale Of The Century (pictured, with hostess Victoria Nicolls) from the same studios in 1980, continuing for over 20 years and more recently revived as Temptation. Daryl Somers hosted a revival of Blankety Blanks in 1985, and, a decade later, Tim Ferguson hosted Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush. Other game shows from the studios included Supermarket Sweep, Crossfire and two versions of The Price Is Right. Eddie McGuire hosted Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and it’s current spin-off, Hot Seat. In 2006, twenty years after he was suddenly axed from Nine, Bert Newton was back at Studio 9 hosting a game show, Bert’s Family Feud.

Also to come out of 22 Bendigo Street were dramas including Emergency (one of the first TV dramas ever made in Melbourne), Hunter, Division 4, The Sullivans, Starting Out, The Flying Doctors, All The Way and Chances.

A young comedian called Rove McManus came to GTV9 to present a late-night comedy show for ten weeks in 1999. Former D Generation cast member Mick Molloy also had a stab at a weekly show in the same year. Neither show would see in the new millennium, though McManus took his act across to rival Network Ten.

Not content with just being “Television City”, 22 Bendigo Street was also home to radio station 3AK for nearly 30 years – after GTV9 bought the station in the early ‘60s – with its ‘Good Guys’ and ‘No Wrinklys’ pop music line-ups in the 1960s and the more relaxed ‘Beautiful Music’ in the ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Two years ago the building was expected to be sold for $10 million but the sale was aborted amidst the global financial crisis. This week it was announced that the three-hectare site occupied by GTV9 has been bought by developers Lend Lease, with plans to redevelop the site into residential complex expected to be worth $400 million.

GTV9 is expected to move over the next 12 months to smaller, high-tech premises in the inner-city Docklands precinct, mirroring similar moves by rival HSV7, to the Docklands, almost a decade ago, and ATV10, to inner suburban South Yarra in the early ‘90s . Larger studio productions are expected to be outsourced to the nearby Central City Studios.

Source: SMH, The Age, Lend Lease, City of Yarra, Australian TV Archive

1990: February 10-16

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:09:00 +0000

‘I’m anchored to the chair!’
Despite her recent working trip to Czechoslovakia, A Current Affair host Jana Wendt (pictured) says it’s likely to be a long time before she goes anywhere else for an extended break. “I am anchored to this chair,” she told TV Week. “I wish I had a chain to prove it to you.” But combining the job of current affairs host and mother to two-year-old Daniel she says is never easy, and, if she ever does move on from ACA in the distant future, considers doing something a bit more laid back in television. “Peter Ross is on a lovely wicket at the ABC doing nice things where you can sit back and relax and enjoy it… Something where you can take a deep breath, be a bit more reflective and work consistently for a while without having to keep up with this kind of momentum.” TV Week also reveals one of TV’s best kept secrets – the day that the Nine Network almost lost Wendt to Network Ten. While it was widely reported that Wendt was headed to the American Fox network, at the invitation of former boss Gerald Stone, in reality she was involved in negotiations for an even bigger deal with Ten. Wendt said she only consider moving to Ten if most of her A Current Affair team could come over as well – so Ten managed to verbally tie up most of the ACA crew. Then news of the deal leaked out, and Nine chief Sam Chisholm reacted quickly and signed up Wendt and her team with generous contracts – leaving Wendt with a contract worth $2 million over three years.

Dannii’s set to quit Summer Bay
Home And Away star Dannii Minogue is set to leave the series when her contract expires in June. “(The producers) want me to stay, but I’ve got other commitments,” she told TV Week. Her first single, Love And Kisses, will be released later this month and she plans to finish recording her debut album while on a two-week break from Home And Away in March. Minogue plans to promote the new album’s release in London after she finishes up on Home And Away. “I may go back to Home And Away but it’s too hard to do that and promote the record too.”

Family first for Carol
The recent premiere of Nine’s Family And Friends also marked another long-awaited TV debut – the TV acting debut of Carol Willesee (pictured), former wife of current affairs host Mike Willesee. The mother of three made headlines in 1987 when she walked off the set of new series Home And Away after only two days of production, citing fears that the role of Pippa Fletcher would take too much time away from her family. But producers of Family And Friends are happy with Willesee’s performance in her guest role and have already indicated that an ongoing role is ready for her, but appreciate that her family commitments are still a priority. “That’s quite understandable,” says producer John Holmes. “It’s up to Carol.”

Briefly…
Former The Comedy Company stars Mark Mitchell and Kim Gyngell make their debut in their own new shows on Network Ten this week. Mitchell stars in a sketch comedy series, Larger Than Life, and Gyngell reprises his popular character Col’n Carpenter in a new half-hour sitcom also starring Vicki Blanche, Monica Maughan and Stig Wemyss.

60 Minutes reporter Jeff McMullen spent four weeks of his Christmas break in blizzard conditions in Antarctica, filming a story for the current affairs show. “People are outraged that I was allowed to take this risk… but I was the one who wanted to do it,” he told TV Week. The 6400 kilometre trek, reported to be the longest polar journey ever made, was led by six scientists and three dozen huskies.

US actor Telly Savalas, best known for his role as New York cop Kojak, is in Melbourne for a major role in the Seven Network mini-series Rose Against The Odds, based on the life of boxer Lionel Rose. Savalas plays boxing promoter George Parnassus, who promoted many of Rose’s professional fights in Los Angeles in the 1960s and ‘70s.

John Laws says…
”Little did I know when I heartily praised ABC’s Inside Running drama series that it had already fallen victim to the axe. Inside Running was a compelling and wonderfully scripted and acted series about barristers in Melbourne. I regard it as one of the best drama productions made in Australia.”

Program Highlights (February 10-16):
Saturday: HSV7 crosses to Port Douglas, Queensland, for the Super Skins Golf, then in the evening covers the Fosters Cup, Essendon versus West Coast Eagles, live from VFL Park, Melbourne. GTV9 crosses to the Gabba, Brisbane, for the Benson and Hedges World Series: Pakistan versus Sri Lanka.
Sunday: The 1990 ratings season kicks off in earnest. GTV9’s Sunday morning news programs Business Sunday and Sunday are back for another year. Super Skins Golf (HSV7) and World Series Cricket (GTV9) dominate the afternoon, and the evening is highlighted by ATV10’s new comedy double, Larger Than Life and Col’n Carpenter. GTV9’s Our World presents Part 1 of G’day Comrade, featuring George Negus on location in Russia, followed by the return of 60 Minutes. Sunday night movies are Three Men And A Baby (HSV7), The Last Emperor (GTV9) and The Golden Child (ATV10).
Monday: Midday With Ray Martin (GTV9) returns for another year, and ABC’s The Afternoon Show and Countdown Revolution return in the late afternoon and early evening. Four Corners and Media Watch both return to ABC in the mid-evening.
Tuesday: Returning shows for 1990 include The Investigators (ABC) and Candid Camera In Australia (ATV10). Kerry O’Brien presents the debut of a new late night current affairs program, Lateline, on ABC.
Thursday: HSV7 crosses to Huntingdale Golf Course, Melbourne, for the annual Australian Masters.
Friday: ABC’s rural affairs program Countrywide returns for a new year, as does Burke’s Backyard (GTV9).

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 10 February 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: February 3-9

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:50:00 +0000

Justine’s back… but is Alex set to take off?
Justine Clarke and Alex Papps, former Home And Away couple Roo Stewart and Frank Morgan, are now both on the Nine Network. But while Papps is settled in at The Flying Doctors, Clarke has moved into TV’s newest suburb, Kingsmead, in the new series Family And Friends. Clarke admits that she had second thoughts about signing up with another series. “I did um and ah for a while. But I knew I was working with the same team who developed Home And Away, so I was confident and it was easier for me to make the decision,” she told TV Week. But the future of her former colleague is unknown as production has finished filming the sixth series of The Flying Doctors, but there is no word as to whether there will be a seventh. Nine has asked to reduce the show’s budget, but Crawford Productions don’t want to lower the standard of the show. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Papps told TV Week. “Ratings-wise it’s doing well. It’s just the cost. If it goes into series seven, I’ll definitely be there.”

Annie lands in Cooper’s Crossing
Now sporting a short-cropped haircut, former Neighbours star Annie Jones is forging ahead with her career. The TV Week Logie Award-winning actress has just completed work on the Crawford Productions’ mini-series Jackaroo and is now embarking on a new role as an opal miner’s daughter in The Flying Doctors. Her character’s arrival in the outback drama leads to a romance with Dr David Radcliffe (Brett Climo). For the former Neighbours star, Ramsay Street feels a million miles away: “It was such an intense time and all of a sudden it was gone. I was lucky I had something else (Jackaroo) to go to.”

Well, what a start!
The Nine Network’s new drama Family And Friends kicks off with a cliffhanger when two of the main characters are stuck in a well. Young lovers Jennifer Chandler (Roxane Wilson) and Robert Rossi (Renato Bartolomei) are caught in a Romeo And Juliet-style romance as it brings together two families with long-standing feuds. After a fight between the two lovers’ fathers, the pair are told to leave and not come back. In their bid to secretly elope, they meet at an old well which is covered but as they walk across it, the cover breaks. The new series also stars Sean Myers, Robert Forza, Simon Westaway, Anna-Maria Monticelli, Diane Craig, Anne Phelan and Dinah Shearing.

Briefly…
Nine’s long-running quiz show Sale Of The Century returns for its 10th year, starting the year with a masters’ challenge featuring world champions from the past three years over a two-week battle. Previous Sale contests, such as “the Ashes” and “the Commonwealth Games”, have been a hit with viewers and it is hoped this latest contest will be a new year ratings hit.

A cast shake-up in Network Ten’s E Street will see no less than five characters written out of the series. Lawyer Jennifer St James (Virginia Hey) will upset the pending nuptials between Daniel Windsor (Chris Orchard) and Dr Elly Fielding (Penny Cook), and will result in Jennifer departing with Daniel to Switzerland, taking three of his four children. His eldest daughter, Toni (Toni Pearen), will remain in Westside.

Actor Paul Keane was ready to resign from his long-running role as Des Clarke in Neighbours, but has instead opted to take a four-month break and is expected to return in April. Keane’s break from the show comes as cast morale is at an all-time low following the departure of several key cast members, but producers are confident that Des will return with some good storylines.

On The Grapevine…
The Vine was really knocked out by the astrologer who “predicted” that former Perfect Match hostess Kerrie Friend would be doing some travelling overseas this year. This amazing prediction hit the streets after Friend, who’d announced her intentions well in advance, had left Australia for Los Angeles.

John Laws says…
”There’s some good news in the comedy area with confirmation of a new 13-episode series of Acropolis Now on Seven. Making its debut last year, it provided one of the ‘sleeper’ hits, pulling in ratings in the low 20s in the major cities.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday: GTV9 presents the last day of competition and the Closing Ceremony from the Commonwealth Games, live from Auckland.
Sunday: ATV10 crosses to Manly, Sydney, for the Ironman Super Series. Competitors include Grant Kenny, Guy Leach and Trevor Hendy. HSV7 presents live coverage of the Davis Cup tennis, from Royal Kings Park, Perth, and GTV9 crosses to the SCG for Australia versus Pakistan in the Cricket Third Test. Sunday night movies are At Close Range (HSV7), Smokey And The Bandit (GTV9) and the first instalment of the re-run of mini-series Vietnam (ATV10), starring Nicholas Eadie, Barry Otto and Nicole Kidman.
Monday: GTV9’s morning chat show, In Melbourne Today, returns for a new year with hosts Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale.
Wednesday: The debut of GTV9’s new drama Family And Friends is up against E Street (ATV10). HSV7 presents the AFL pre-season competiton, the Fosters Cup, featuring Footscray versus Richmond.
Thursday: The second episode of Family And Friends is followed by The Flying Doctors’ return with a new series.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 3 February 1990. Southdown Press.

Sun now rises on Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:41:00 +0000

The battle between breakfast rivals Sunrise and Today steps up another notch this week, the first week of the official ratings for 2010, with the announcement that Sunrise is now extending to Saturdays.

The move now sees the two perennial rivals competing seven days a week. Today has, for a while, had a seven day presence, while Sunrise initially expanded only to a Sunday edition, Weekend Sunrise, leaving the Saturday early morning timeslot to long-running children’s program, Saturday Disney. It is not known at this stage what will become of Saturday Disney, a show which has been on-air for 20 years now, in the wake of Weekend Sunrise extending to Saturday mornings.

The battle between the two shows also intensified last month with Sunrise re-launching, with a new-look studio, refreshed on-air presentation, the return of former weather presenter Grant Denyer and a move towards a more serious news focus – although the show’s recent “election”, over the issue of whether or not male presenters on the show should wear a tie, does blur this focus somewhat, but there has to be a balance between serious and flippant.

And while Sunrise and Today are fighting it out – and summer ratings data indicates that this year’s ratings battle will turn out to be the tightest yet between the two, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne – national broadcaster ABC continues its very serious ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 and gears up for the launch of its new 24-hour news channel.

John McCallum

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Actor and producer John McCallum, co-creator of the iconic TV series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, has died in a Sydney nursing home at age 91.

Born in Brisbane in 1918, McCallum was trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before a career that included stage, film and television in both the United Kingdom and Australia. In the mid-1940s, McCallum met actress Googie Withers and the pair were later married and would work together on numerous occasions during their married life.

In 1958, after a decade in the UK, McCallum returned to Australia to run theatre company JC Williamsons.

By the mid-1960s, McCallum had produced the popular Australian film, They’re A Weird Mob, based on the book about an Italian immigrant settling into life in Australia.

The success of the film led to McCallum and producer Lee Robinson to devise an Australian-based TV series that would have wide international appeal. Their co-creation would become Australia’s first global television hit, Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. (Although McCallum later credited Robinson for being the brains behind the concept, devising the show’s premise around a boy and his pet kangaroo and for naming the pet Skippy) The children’s series put an Australian twist on a well-travelled genre of overseas shows to feature multi-talented animal characters, such as Flipper, Lassie and The Littlest Hobo, and was sold to over 120 countries including syndication throughout the United States.

Forty years after production on Skippy ended, the series is still shown on a semi-regular, late-night basis on the Nine Network.

Apart from Skippy, McCallum also produced TV series Barrier Reef, Boney, Shannon’s Mob and Bailey’s Bird.

John McCallum is survived by wife Googie and children Joanna, Nicholas and Amanda.

Source: news.com.au, TV Eye, Talking Heads, ABC News, IMDB

Who you can’t vote for in the Logies…

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:33:00 +0000

It is that time of year when TV Week asks its readers, and the wider TV viewing population, to vote for their favourite personalities and programs for the annual TV Week Logie Awards.

This year’s presentation, to be held on 2 May, marks the 52nd annual presentation of the awards first named by Graham Kennedy, who decided that the middle name of TV pioneer John Logie Baird sounded like a good name for an award and, in naming the award after him, it would forever be a tribute to his achievement. (It was remarked in later years that had Kennedy known just what an impact the Logies would have had on Australian TV culture, he would named them after his own middle name – Cyril)

These days, viewers can vote for the awards without having to buy a copy of TV Week. In the past, votes could only be made via coupons printed in the magazine or by using a unique PIN printed inside the magazine when voting online.

However, despite the voting being conducted online for a few years now, the online interface used to collect the votes is essentially just a basic web poll. None of the glamour or excitement of TV’s night of nights here. No colour. No pictures, or even video clips of the people we are being asked to nominate (and this can be handy when trying to identify some of today’s TV starlets who aren’t easily recognised by name alone). In fact, voting for your favourite TV stars and programs now looks to be as clinical and enjoyable as filling in your average tax return, especially now as the stars and shows are reduced to mere numbers or tick boxes.

Also curious are the omissions from TV Week’s list of voting ‘suggestions’ (although they are our only options, there is no “other” allowed here). Just a few that this author noticed missing from the categories:

Most Popular Actor: Tom Oliver (Neighbours), Alan Fletcher (Neighbours), Andrew Supanz (All Saints), Kip Gamblin (All Saints), John Waters (All Saints)

Most Popular Actress: Janet Andrewartha (Neighbours)

Most Popular Presenter: Larry Emdur (The Morning Show), Kylie Gillies (The Morning Show), David Reyne (9AM With David And Kim), Kim Watkins (9AM With David And Kim), Sandra Sully (Ten News), Dave Hughes (The 7PM Project), Peter Everett (Ready Steady Cook), Sam Pang (ADbc), Grant Bowler (Border Security), Ed Kavalee (TV Burp), Daryl Somers (Hey Hey It’s Saturday – The Reunion), Jonathon Holmes (Media Watch), Magda Szubanski (The Spearman Experiment).

There also seems to be some inconsistency in what qualifies as “presenter” – Masterchef’s three judges are listed as potential nominations for the category, but the show’s (then) host, Sarah Wilson, is not. The Biggest Loser’s fitness coaches, Shannan Ponton and Michelle Bridges, are listed in the “presenter” category, but the show’s (former) host, Ajay Rochester, is not. The Seven Network’s talent quest, Australia’s Got Talent, gets a guernsey, with host Grant Denyer and judge Dannii Minogue qualified for a mention, but no mention of Minogue’s colleagues, Red Symons and Tom Burlinson. For rival show Australian Idol, Andrew Günsberg is listed as host, but no mention of any of the show’s three judges, Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson, Marcia Hines, Jay Dee Springbett and ousted judge Kyle Sandilands (who did appear in the preliminary stages of the show in 2009). SBS newsreader Anton Enus qualifies for a vote, but his weekend counterpart, Lee Lin Chin, does not.

Australia’s Got Talent qualifies in the category of “most popular light entertainment program”, but a rival show of essentially a similar format, Australian Idol, is categorised under “reality”.

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program: TV Burp, Hungry Beast, Double Take, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, Hot Seat, The Einstein Factor and The New Inventors are all missing from the nominations list. The one-off special Rove Presents Hamish And Andy’s American Caravan Of Courage is allowed to be voted, but another one-off special from the same network, Shaun Micallef’s New Year Rave, is not.

These are just the omissions noticed by this one author. There may be plenty more that TV Week and the networks have failed to acknowledge as being worthy of a vote – and yet the Logie Awards are intended to be the ‘people’s choice’ awards covering all the various genres of television and allowing all on-air talent – with the only eligibility being that they appeared in a credited role during the 2009 television year – an equal opportunity of being voted for.

It is surprising that, after 52 years, TV Week and the publicity agents from all the networks can not get together and muster up a complete list of eligible personalities and programs and be consistent in what, or who, qualifies for a particular category. The gaps in these voting categories only serve to add ammunition to growing public sentiment that the Logie Awards are no longer a credible recognition of the achievements of our television industry.

TV Week’s Logie Awards site (with the link to vote online) is at tvweek.com.au.

Ken Austin

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:38:00 +0000

Ken Austin, well known radio and television identity in Shepparton, has died at the age of 86.

He started his radio career as a teenager at Warragul-based radio station 3UL in 1941 and after serving with the army returned to the station. In 1949, he was promoted to the position of chief announcer at sister station 3SR in Shepparton. Four years later he moved to 2GZ, Orange, before returning to 3SR in 1955.

In 1968 Austin made the full-time move into television, to local station GMV6 (now a branch of the WIN television network). For the next 20 years Austin maintained a number of roles at the station. “I did everything, but cut the lawns I think,'' he once told the Shepparton News. “I compered shows, read news, chaired live commercials in the studio and spent my last few years there as the community affairs director.”

Austin retired from the station in 1988 but maintained a profile in the local community, through charity work and, for 17 years, presenting a radio program on community station ONE FM. He was also named an Honorary Life Governor of Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital as recognition of his work at GMV6.

Ken Austin is survived by three children Brian, Vivienne and Wendy, seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren. Wife Peg died in 2002.

Source: Radio News, Shepparton News

Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder DVD

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:20:00 +0000

13 March 1972 was the night that Australian TV ‘lost its virginity’ with the Sydney debut of Number 96. (Melbourne followed the next night)

And on 13 March 2010 – 38 years later – the third DVD of the hit ‘70s series is to be released, a year after it was first announced.

The 4-disc set, Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder, will include 32 episodes from the first half of 1975, picking up from where the last DVD left off when the identity of the mysterious Pantyhose Strangler was revealed.

This compilation features many of Number 96’s favourite residents, joined this time by former showgirl Trixie O’Toole (Jan Adele), landlord Maggie Cameron (Bettina Welch), Don Finlayson’s(Joe Hasham) zany aunt Amanda von Pappenburg (Carol Raye), town clerk Mr Buchanan (Brian Moll) and Norma Whittaker’s (Sheila Kennelly) snooty mother, Mrs Florentine (Aileen Britton).

Andrew Mercado has a preview of the upcoming DVD release and Number 96 historian Ian McLean’s blog, Have Phaser Will Travel, has the list of episodes to feature on the DVD.

Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder is being released by Umbrella Entertainment.

1990: January 27-February 2

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:59:00 +0000

Cover: Cher

Steve lays down the law
When Fast Forward’s Steve Vizard threw in a lucrative legal career to go into television comedy, everyone told him he was an idiot. “And I am an idiot,” he says. “You can see what a fundamentally good decision it was to leave a great job in law to join Qintex at this particular time.” Vizard’s company, United Film Completion, is busy preparing comedy and variety program ideas for the Seven Network. In 1989, the network had a hit with sketch comedy program Fast Forward, and Vizard’s new venture, Tonight Live, launches this week. Vizard also says that there are “three or four other projects in the pipeline.” In the lead-up to Tonight Live’s debut, Vizard and Seven are in negotiation for the network’s Melbourne newsreader, Jennifer Keyte, to read news on the program.

Glamour in three easy steps
Actress Anne Phelan, famous for playing rough inmate Myra Desmond in Prisoner and the frumpy Mama in Harp In The South and Poor Man’s Orange, is taking a somewhat more upmarket tone in her new role as cafe owner Dawn Dickson in the Nine Network’s new series, Family And Friends. “With Family And Friends, I’m actually going to look like myself, only a bit tarted up – and to be truthful I’m not looking forward to all that. I would rather be disguised,” she commented. The new series follows the lives of two families, the Chandlers and the Rossis, divided by hatred over three generations.

Rowena shares a secret
Former Neighbours star Rowena Mohr (pictured) has decided to pursue an acting career in the UK, but is leaving behind her most treasured fan, her younger sister, Judy, who has an intellectual disability. “Judy’s biggest thrill was when I joined Neighbours. She thought it was wonderful and told all her friends about it. I even had to get her special photographs and sweatshirts signed by the cast,” Mohr says. “She’s the only one who writes to me regularly.” Since settling in the UK, Mohr has had to cope with the English press. In one interview, she jokingly told a reporter she would have to find an English husband – and was then inundated with offers.

Briefly…
Singer Tina Turner has just departed Australia after filming a series of commercials for the NSW Rugby League. The $2 million ad campaign, featuring Turner’s hit The Best, was filmed around Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Actress Mary Regan (pictured) is to replace Joan Sydney as matron of Wandin Valley Hospital in A Country Practice. The new matron could well be a romantic interest for either of the hospital’s doctors, Chris Kouros (Michael Muntz) or Terence Elliot (Shane Porteous). Sydney has already finished taping for A Country Practice and is now preparing for her next role in the stage play Mrs Klein, co-starring Helen Morse and Michelle Fawdon.

TV funnyman Jonathan Coleman has married his long-time girlfriend, Margot Fitzpatrick, at a ceremony at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. The newlywed couple are honeymooning in Thailand, followed by London and Paris. Coleman in interested in working in the US and Europe, but is not about to cut ties with Australia – he has been in talks with Steve Vizard over a possible involvement in new show Tonight Live. Coleman has also taped a pilot for an Australian version of Entertainment This Week.

Bert Newton (pictured), whose last radio gig was at 3DB, has said that he would like to get back into radio and has confirmed that there have been some offers. “I’d have to be in the right shift,” he says. “I proved to myself at 3DB that I’m not a breakfast man. I don’t think my conversational style is right for the corn flakes. Lately I’ve been listening to quite a bit of radio and I’ve found that what is good is very good and what is bad is terrible.”

On The Grapevine…
An out-of-work soapie actress has taken to playing the didgeridoo in the pedestrian tunnel at Sydney’s Central Station in order to bring home the bacon.

Who was the popular young Sydney actor, well acquainted with playing the role of a car thief, who found himself on the receiving end recently? A shopping spree to Bondi cost him a lot more than he expected when he returned to the car park to find his chariot missing. Even more tragic, the car wasn’t insured.

John Laws says…
”The demise of female newsreaders in Sydney doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. Perhaps 1990 will be remembered as the year of living gentlemanly. The past few years have seen women move into a wide area of high-profile TV jobs. Some were competent – such as Jana Wendt – but others lacked the necessary “zing” that captures huge ratings and all-round public approval. Woman after woman was thrown up against TCN9’s Brian Henderson (pictured) to try to break his iron grip on the news ratings in Sydney – and all failed. Now we have a male line-up confronting him, including former 60 Minutes heavyweight Ian Leslie on Ten. It’s desperate stuff. Ten’s one-hour format – I’m assuming here it’s going to remain – is also a problem. By the time it’s waddled halfway through its bulletin, Nine and Seven have wrapped up and have moved on. The result is that Ten gets the image of being a slowcoach, even though it presents a fuller news service.”

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”From initial impressions anyway, the first new Australian soap of the Nineties certainly looks handsome. Family And Friends blends some fresh new faces with a few who are tried and true. My tip? This one will work. Nine at last has a soap with a potentially long and healthy life.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday: HSV7 debuts two new Saturday morning programs, Saturday Disney and Video Smash Hits, the latter hosted by Michael Horrocks (Cartoon Connection) and Emily Symons (Richmond Hill, Home And Away). That night, HSV7 crosses to Tamworth for the Australasian Country Music Awards. SBS interrupts its Saturday evening programming for a live, ten-minute cross to Moonee Valley, Melbourne for the Victoria Cup harness racing.

Sunday: The Men’s Singles Final of the Australian Open is telecast live on HSV7 in the afternoon, up against GTV9’s continued daily coverage of the Commonwealth Games from Auckland, New Zealand. Sunday night movies are Hoodwink (HSV7) and Brubaker (ATV10), while ABC presents the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Ham Funeral, starring Kerry Walker, Max Cullen, Robyn Nevin and Maggie Kirkpatrick.

Monday: From 10.00am, ABC presents live coverage of the 1990 NFL Superbowl, direct from New Orleans. And with the tennis season now over, HSV7’s weekday line-up returns, including current affairs program Eleven AM, the midday movie and afternoon re-runs of US shows Perry Mason, Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream Of Jeannie and Get Smart. Nine’s Sale Of The Century returns for 1990 in its traditional 7.00pm timeslot. SBS screens the Australian movie Kostas, starring Wendy Hughes and Takis Emmanuel. Steve Vizard presents the first edition of his new late-night show, Tonight Live.

Tuesday: GTV9’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games gets an early start, 4.50am, to cover the men’s marathon. ABC’s popular medical drama GP (pictured) begins its second series.

Friday: HSV7 presents live coverage from Perth of the Davis Cup, Australia versus France. GTV9’s late-night music video program, MTV, returns for the new year.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 27 January 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: January 20-26

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:13:00 +0000

Matt goes in to bat for the street kids
A Country Practice star Matt Day (pictured) is fed up with the media focusing on sensationalist issues surrounding street kids and homeless youth, such as prostitution and drug abuse, while ignoring possible solutions. “The media should be dealing with issues that cover getting housing for these kids and better support. Instead they just want to talk about the tragic stories and sell a few more papers,” he told TV Week. These issues so close to Day’s heart will feature in upcoming storylines for his character Luke in A Country Practice, and he will also be volunteering his services for various refuges that need assistance.

Nine won’t admit it, but…
Graham Kennedy (pictured) has not negotiated a new contract for hosting his popular late-night Coast To Coast program and he has advised Nine that he won’t be returning to the show in 1990. Despite the shock resignation, Nine continues to show its lavish 1990 ‘Shout!’ promos, featuring Kennedy and co-host John Mangos, and has only issued a statement that “we have no further comment to make than discussions are continuing for Mr Kennedy’s return to television in 1990.” Nine is keen to sign up Kennedy for later in the year and to keep him away from any other network. Rumours that Kennedy’s resignation is connected to the upcoming launch of Steve Vizard’s new show, Tonight Live, for the Seven Network have been denied. It is believed that Kennedy’s decision was related the strain of a recent court case against his manager, Harry M Miller.

Dynamic Duo!
Former Neighbours star Jason Donovan and E Street’s Marcus Graham (pictured) have been signed up for roles in the new $3.7 million mini-series, Shadows Of The Heart, being produced for Network Ten by the South Australian Film Commission. The new series, which also stars Jerome Ehlers (Bangkok Hilton), Nadine Garner, Colleen Hewett, Harold Hopkins, Barry Otto, Robyn Nevin, Sherrie Krenn and NIDA graduate Josephine Byrnes, is set in the summer of 1927 and is described as “a romantic epic set in the Twenties with Nineties morals.” Production commences this month on location in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.

Briefly…
Former A Country Practice star Di Smith and The Flying Doctors’ Liz Burch are set to bare all in the upcoming Melbourne production of the stage play Steaming. The controversial comedy also stars Gwen Plumb, Rosey Jones, Valerie Bader and Jenny Hall.

Former Prisoner star Colette Mann has spoken out about her recent shock resignation from Melbourne radio station 3UZ. Despite a number of consecutive ratings rises for her morning program, Mann says she “never felt comfortable working at 3UZ” and objected to a proposed service agreement that could have her “given verbal notice if I was deemed unfit for work (and if given that notice) I couldn’t work within a 50 km radius of Melbourne.” She also felt entitled to ask for “a little extra money” following the ratings rises, but station boss Clyde Simpson responded that Mann asked for a significant 43.5 per cent pay increase. Despite her controversial departure from the station, Mann has said that she would like to do radio again but in the meantime is currently planning some TV work, including a mini-series and some special event work for Network Ten.

Model-turned-actor Julian McMahon (pictured) has spoken out briefly about his relationship with Melissa Cornell, daughter of The Paul Hogan Show and Crocodile Dundee producer John “Strop” Cornell. “Melissa and I have been together for just over a year now. She moved down to Melbourne with me when I was doing The Power The Passion. Now that I am back in Sydney for Home And Away, she has moved back with me. It is only now that we are beginning to realise where we are and what we are going to be doing.”

On The Grapevine…
Who is the celebrity hairdresser who how walks to work each day… and not by choice, either, courtesy of a blood-alcohol reading considerably in excess of the legal limit.

So desperate was one showbusiness reporter to secure an interview with one of Australia’s favourite daughters, that she had started to woo the star with chocolates and even had a jingle company pen a song for the lovely lady.

John Laws says…
”Sometimes it’s difficult to understand the reasoning of the ABC board members. On the one hand, they complain of lack of funds; on the other, they refuse to agree to advertising on the ABC. Advertising is part of the lifeblood of economics in this country. There is nothing shameful about it. The ABC would attract only a minor percentage of the estimated $1.8 billion of TV advertising every year – but even the injection of a few million dollars would make a lot of difference to the ABC’s slate. So let’s not have too much humbug cluttering up this debate. After all, the ABC is not shy in aggressively advertising its own ABC Shop products on TV, is it?”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday: ABC presents the Coca Cola International Golf Classic, live from Royal Melbourne Golf Course, while HSV7’s coverage of the Australian Open tennis continues live from the National Tennis Centre.

Sunday: Sunday night movies are Gloria (HSV7), Liar’s Moon (GTV9), Blame It On Rio (ATV10).

Monday: Singer Maria Venuti (pictured, with Syd Heylen) guest stars in the first episode of A Country Practice for 1990, and the Nine Network’s breakfast show, Today, returns for another year.

Wednesday: GTV9 presents live coverage of the opening ceremony of the 1990 Commonwealth Games from Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand. Ken Sutcliffe, Ray Martin and Max Walker head the coverage.

Thursday: GTV9’s live coverage of daily competition from the Commonwealth Games starts at 10.00am and continues through to 11.00pm, taking a break in the early evening for National Nine News, A Current Affair and US sitcom Growing Pains. ABC presents the first of a two-part documentary, The Way We Really Were, hosted by Caroline Jones – a retrospective and nostalgic look at life in Australia taken from film and documentary footage of the past 30 years.

Friday: For Australia Day, Today is broadcast live from Admiralty House, Sydney, for the presentation of the Australia Day Awards, including the announcement of Australian of the Year by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. In the evening, SBS presents a repeat of documentary Being True Blue and ABC presents the second part of The Way We Really Were, followed by the Governor General’s Australia Day Message. ATV10’s Friday night movie is Tudawali, the 1988 movie starring Ernie Dingo, Jedda Cole, Peter Fisher and Frank Wilson – and SBS presents two Australian movies, Silver City and Backroads.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 20 January 1990. Southdown Press.

SBS starts up STVDIO

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:55:00 +0000

SBS has announced the launch of its new pay-TV channel, STVDIO, dedicated to entertainment and the arts.

The new channel will debut on 1 April as a replacement for the Ovation Channel which is to close after not being renewed by Foxtel and Austar in favour of the new channel to be run by PAN TV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBS.

PAN TV also operates the World Movies Channel on Foxtel and Austar.

SBS’ director of marketing, Jacqui Riddell, explains the identity of the new channel:

“The name STVDIO represents the new channel perfectly. Every art form – be it dance, fine art, music, theatre, film or writing – is created in a studio. In addition to performance, our new channel will take audiences into how art is made and what makes artists tick. Both the channel name and logo have been stylised to include the letters “TV”.”

STVDIO (pronounced “Studio”) will present arts and entertainment genres, including opera, music, film, ballet, art and design, from Australia and overseas.

SBS’ investment in PAN TV is one of a few pay-TV ventures to be owned by free-to-air interests. The Seven and Nine networks are joint venture partners (with Rupert Murdoch) in the pay-TV channel, Sky News Australia, while regional network WIN owns alternative pay-TV provider SelecTV.

STVDIO will broadcast on Channel 132 on Foxtel and Austar from 1 April.

1990: January 13-19

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 10:05:00 +0000

Craig’s Crisis
New Home And Away star Craig McLachlan (pictured) admits he was “totally exhausted” and on the verge of a breakdown last year. The pressures of recording his first album with group Check 1-2, establishing himself on Home And Away after leaving Neighbours, separating from his manager, ex-wife Karen, and the media attention towards his new relationship with former Neighbours co-star Rachel Friend, all became a bit too much. “Some people would say I’ve already had a mental breakdown! It doesn’t surprise me why Kylie (Minogue) and Jason (Donovan) stopped their acting because it’s just too exhausting to do both,” he told TV Week. The as-yet untitled album from Check 1-2 should be out in March, and McLachlan will be seen on screen in Home And Away from next month.

The New Wave
Voting for the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards has begun – so who will get the viewers’ vote for most popular new talent? A Country Practice has welcomed new cast members Georgie Parker, Matt Day and Georgina Fisher, while Jessica Muschamp and Kristian Schmid have been popular additions to Neighbours. E Street launched a year ago and has brought some new faces of its own – including Alyssa-Jane Cook and Marcus Graham. And a new children’s series, Pugwall, has made a star of 14-year-old Jason Torrens. Voting for the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards closes in mid-February.

Hot Summer Love
Home And Away launches its 3rd year with a steamy romance between Emma Jackson (Dannii Minogue) and Adam Cameron (Mat Stevenson). “When Dannii started on the show, there was an attraction between Adam and Emma,” Stevenson told TV Week. “Nothing eventuated until Adam began a romance with Carly (Sharyn Hodgson). They went through a rough patch and Adam and Emma came together.”

Sky’s the limit for new Disney trio
Sofie Formica, James Sherry and Jeniene Mapp have been selected from more than 100 applicants to host the new Seven Network program, Saturday Disney. The trio are about to head off to the US to be introduced to Disney executives before touring Disneyland, the MGM-Disney film studios and Disneyworld. The two-hour Saturday morning show is the latest in a global franchise that has also launched in the US, United Kingdom and Spain. For 18-year-old Formica, it is a second chance at TV stardom after a recent stint on Seven’s Wombat came to an abrupt end when the show was cancelled. And for 15-year-old Mapp, Saturday Disney is her first TV appearance after four years’ training with the Johnny Young Talent School. Former drama teacher Sherry, 22, gave up a career in education to become an actor and auditioned, and was accepted, for the Disney role on his birthday, 14 November. “What a birthday present – it’s more than I ever expected,” he says. Saturday Disney will be produced from the studios of BTQ7, Brisbane, when it launches later this month.

Briefly…
Australian actress Sherrie Krenn (pictured), currently based in the US with a list of film and TV credits since she was discovered by a casting agent for the sitcom The Facts Of Life, is coming back home to Australia for a role in the upcoming $3.7 million mini-series, Shadows Of The Heart, to be produced by the South Australian Film Commission for Network Ten.

Dame Edna Everage, now a global superstar, has made a rare trip back to Australia to promote her autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, including an interview on A Current Affair with guest host Elizabeth Hayes.

Jason Donovan has apologised to his former girlfriend, Neighbours co-star Kylie Minogue, for upstaging her at the London premiere of her movie The Delinquents, turning up to the event with stunning Texan model Denice Lewis. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to steal the show and wreck her big moment. It was Kylie’s night and I just went along because she’d invited me and a friend. I thought she would be the centre of attention. I didn’t try to steal the show,” Donovan sighed.

On The Grapevine…
Who is the popular comic who was all but signed for his own late-night show on Network Ten in 1990? Unfortunately he – and the plans for the show – got lost in the Broadcom reshuffle.

The Vine hears that some of the younger cast members of Nine’s new drama Family And Friends are already acting like prima donnas. One source says one actor thinks he’s James Dean, not a budding soap star.

John Laws says…
”Three people keep cropping up in my mind as the ones who stood out throughout the year. They are Graham Kennedy, Ray Martin and Jana Wendt.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday: NSW Open tennis, live from White City, Sydney, on HSV7. GTV9 crosses to the MCG at 3.40pm for the second day’s play of the First Test: Australia versus Pakistan. ATV10 covers the Palm Meadows Golf from the Gold Coast.
Sunday: Sigrid Thornton stars in the US-made historical series, Paradise, on HSV7. ABC presents the USSR State Symphony, performing at the Sydney Opera House. Sunday night movies are Hangar 18 (HSV7), Honkytonk Man (GTV9), Black Sunday (ATV10).
Monday: The Australian Open, direct from the National Tennis Centre, Melbourne, begins on HSV7 with daily coverage from 11.00am through to midnight, pausing only for Seven Nightly News, Home And Away and Hinch.
Tuesday: In Neighbours (ATV10), a mysterious woman moves into Ramsay Street and Madge (Anne Charleston) threatens Paul (Stefan Dennis) with legal action.
Thursday: The Flying Doctors stars Liz Burch and Vikki Blanche present a one-hour documentary, World Vision: A Chance For The Children, showing the work of World Vision’s child sponsorship program in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda and Kenya.
Friday: GTV9 crosses to Adelaide for the first day’s play in the Second Test: Australia versus Pakistan.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 13 January 1990. Southdown Press.

ABC to launch news channel

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:21:00 +0000

ABC is set to launch Australia’s first 24-hour free-to-air news channel this year.

The new channel, announced today by ABC managing director Mark Scott, will broadcast on the digital platform and will serve as a competitor to Australia’s only other continuous news channel, Sky News Australia, which is available on pay-TV.

The new channel follows the recent launch of ABC’s children’s channel, ABC3.

New studio and newsroom facilities are currently being built at ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney. The news channel will provide more opportunities to view ABC’s existing news and current affairs programming and will also include new programming and features within its continuous news format – tapping into the resources of ABC’s entire news operation, including regional and international resources, and will support a multiple platform environment in co-ordination with ABC News Online, ABC News Radio and ABC Mobile.

Programming from the channel will also be made available to other ABC outlets, including its international satellite service, Australia Network, which has coverage into 44 countries.

Mr Scott said that the new channel will launch with no additional funding from the Government and will broadcast on its existing high-definition signal.

The announcement of the new channel has already sparked a defensive attack by Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos, claiming that the new channel will end up absorbing funding from other parts of the national operation, would affect the quality of ABC’s existing operations and violates the ABC’s charter. Mr Frangopoulos also slammed the new operation as being a “needless duplication of services already available to Australians”, as Sky News already provides fourteen, 24-hour channels, including Sky News Business, multiview and local news channels, as well as Australia’s only parliamentary and public affairs channel, A-PAC.

Sky News is a joint venture operation between PBL Media (which owns the Nine Network and regional NBN Television), Seven Media Group and Rupert Murdoch’s British Sky Broadcasting.

The announcement of the new channel comes as ABC and Sky News are also reported to be planning to battle for the right to operate Australia Network on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, after the existing contract expires later this year.

According to ABC’s most recent annual report, ABC’s digital signal, which currently carries ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABCHD and radio stations Dig and DigJAZZ, is currently available to 97.7 per cent of the Australian population, through 324 transmitter sites.

Further details on the new ABC channel, such as programming schedules and launch dates, have yet to be announced.

Source: ABC News, ABC News, ABC News, The Australian, ABC Annual Report

Melbourne moves up from Channel 0 to 10

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:00:00 +0000

It is now 30 years since Melbourne’s ATV0 made history and changed its broadcast frequency to Channel 10.

When Reg Ansett was awarded the licence to operate Melbourne’s third commercial channel in 1963, he was given the frequency of Channel 0 – down the low end of the dial, and, being a ‘new’ frequency, most older TV sets did not have a Channel 0 position on the dial. The conversion of older sets and antennas to include access to Channel 0 was a short term financial boon for TV repairers and installers as viewers moved to ensured that they were ready to ‘Go for 0’ when it eventually went to air on 1 August 1964, although test transmissions for the new channel had started as early as May.

The challenges inherent in the low broadcast frequency, such as deficiencies in reception across large portions of Melbourne, coupled with fierce competition from older rivals HSV7 and GTV9, made life tough for Ansett’s new channel – resulting in it often struggling in third place in the ratings. Even though Ansett had budgeted that his new channel, ATV0, would be making a profit after three years with a lineup heavy in Australian content, it would be many more years before it would end up paying dividends.

By 1969, still faced with the challenges of the low-end frequency and trying to break the dominance of its two older rivals, Ansett ended up underwriting a boxing match between Australian title holder Lionel Rose and British champion Alan Rudkin. The match was a huge ratings hit, scoring 72 per cent of the viewing audience, setting a ratings record that would not be broken until the Sydney Olympic Games more than thirty years later.

But despite the massive audience boost from the Rose-Rudkin title fight, it would be 1973 before ATV0 would post its first weekly ratings win – heralded with full-page newspaper ads (pictured) – largely due to the controversial, top-rating soapie Number 96, which had dominated ratings around the country.

By the late-‘70s, ATV0 was in ratings decline. By this stage it had bid farewell to Number 96 and other major ratings drawcards The Box and Blankety Blanks. The landmark US mini-series, Roots, had delivered massive ratings but the boost to the station was short lived. By the end of 1978 the Federal Government had received an application from ATV0 for permission to change its broadcast frequency to Channel 10 – giving it a stronger broadcast signal at the top of the dial which would hopefully eliminate any gaps in the old channel’s coverage and would also provide an opportunity to re-launch the struggling ATV0 as a “new” channel and would also match up the station with the same frequency as its Sydney network partner, TEN10. The Government approved the changeover early in 1979.

The hitch in changing to Channel 10 was that it would conflict with neighbouring Gippsland channel GLV10, causing interference by sharing the same frequency. ATV0 then agreed to pay the costs incurred by GLV to have it moved to an alternative frequency, Channel 8. It was not a cheap exercise, as ATV paid around $800,000 to fund GLV’s conversion costs and also to fund the distribution of filters to attach to viewers’ sets – as it was apparent that GLV on Channel 8 would interfere in areas where viewers could also receive Melbourne channels HSV7 and GTV9 and the filters would rectify that.

In preparing the changeover to Channel 10, ATV managed to sign up one of its former leading stars, Graham Kennedy (pictured), to front the new channel’s advertising campaign – including radio and television commercials. It was no mean feat, as only 18 months earlier Kennedy was less than subtle in his criticism of ATV0 due to the channel’s poor performance impacting on his Blankety Blanks game show. Kennedy told The Age that money was certainly a factor in accepting the position of being the channel’s spokesman during the conversion period: “They did offer me a very attractive deal. And it immediately appealed to me because it will be an historic occasion. A television station changing its frequency will probably never happen again in our lifetimes.”

There was also talk that Kennedy would also have the opportunity to present a new tonight show on the revamped channel, though was not to be.

By January 1980, the channel was ready to flick the switch. Thousands of brochures had been distributed to households around Melbourne to advise of the changeover, while a telephone hotline had been set up to enable viewers to get assistance in retuning their sets from Channel 0 to 10. And without much time to spare, GLV10 made the switch to GLV8 on 17 January.

Then the big day – 20 January – had arrived. ATV0 had signed off for the last time at around 3.00am that morning – the last program to air on the channel was the 1948 movie, Angel In Exile. Then, just prior to 2.00pm on the Sunday afternoon, Kennedy, standing atop of the channel’s studio building in Nunawading, welcomed viewers to Channel 10: “Come on up to Ten, you’ll enjoy the view!” Then the new ATV10 broadcast its launch promotion ‘You’re On Top With 10’, with catchy lyrics sung by Mike Brady.

The first program to follow on ATV10 was 10’s Summer Sunday, a three-hour outside broadcast from Torquay Beach, south of Melbourne, hosted by former ATV0 newsreaders Bruce Mansfield and Annette Allison.

Jana Wendt presented ATV10’s first Eyewitness News bulletin at 6.00pm – and barely a few months later Ms Wendt would be promoted to co-anchoring the main weeknight bulletin on the channel. Kennedy was back on air at 6.30pm, presenting a one-hour special, You’re On Top With Ten, previewing some of the upcoming shows on the new channel, including the documentary series The Human Face Of China, mini-series Water Under The Bridge and an Australian adaptation of the British comedy Are You Being Served?, as well as the return of familiar titles including Prisoner, The Restless Years, Peter Couchman Tonight and Young Talent Time.

At 7.30pm, ATV10 presented the movie-length debut of the network’s new highly-anticipated, big-budget soap opera, Arcade, from the producers behind the former Number 96. Despite ambitions for the series to be the flagship of the network’s lineup heading into the new decade, the series failed to grab even a modest share of the audience and was taken off the air six weeks later.

Following Arcade was the Sunday night movie, Summerfield, starring John Waters, Nick Tate and Elizabeth Alexander.

Viewers that had still yet to make the change to their sets from Channel 0 to 10 were given a slight reprieve, as ATV would simulcast on both channels for an interim period to enable viewers some extra time to make the necessary adjustments and to get used to the new channel position.

Industry magazine B&T reported at the time that the changeover of ATV from 0 to 10 would be the first time that a TV station in a major metropolitan market had changed frequencies – outside of the United States.

The changeover from Channel 0 to 10 in Melbourne led to the network changing its name from the 0-10 Network to Network Ten, with its Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide stations all broadcasting on the Channel 10 frequency. Although Brisbane’s network partner, TVQ0, would continue to broadcast on the Channel 0 frequency until the late ‘80s.

Source: The Age, 12 October 1978. The Age, 10 January 1980. The Age, 17 January 1980. TV Week, 19 January 1980.

Ding Dong Denise back on daytime TV

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:35:00 +0000

Denise Drysdale is set to make her return to TV as a panellist on the upcoming Ten Network program, The Circle.

One of Australia’s true TV veterans, Drysdale was a performer in children’s television in the 1960s, later featuring in pop music shows Kommotion, Uptight and Dig We Must and on Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight.

A number of guest appearances in Crawford dramas Division Four and Homicide later led to her becoming Ernie Sigley’s sidekick on the Nine Network’s The Ernie Sigley Show. Their popularity led to them, in 1975, winning TV Week Gold Logies for most popular male and female on Australian TV. Drysdale then won a second Gold Logie the following year.

She also starred in the sitcom The Bluestone Boys and musical special The 20s And All That Jazz (pictured) and appeared on Young Talent Time, Cop Shop, Countdown, The Penthouse Club, The Truckies, The Don Lane Show, The Mike Walsh Show, The Daryl Somers Show and co-hosted Hey Hey It’s Saturday after the departure of Jacki MacDonald from the show. Living on a farm since the late-‘70s, she also hosted her own weekly program in the 1980s on local channel GLV8, based in Gippsland, Victoria.

The new Ten Network show marks Drysdale’s return to daytime TV after previous success when re-united with Sigley for In Melbourne Today in the late ‘80s, the program later titled Ernie And Denise when the show went national. Then after two years as co-host on the revived In Melbourne Tonight with Frankie J Holden, Drysdale had her own daytime show, Denise, on the Seven Network in the late 1990s.

Recently, she has appeared as a guest on ABC’s Spicks And Specks and in the Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion.

The Circle, due to start on Tuesday 9 February, is the replacement for Ten’s 9AM With David And Kim which wound up in December after four years on-air. (The last two months have seen a “best of” collection of segments from the show airing as 9AM Summertime in the two-hour morning timeslot)

Also appearing as regulars on The Circle will be Foxtel presenter Yumi Stynes, performer and TV presenter Gorgi Coghlan and former Big Brother contestant and Vega FM breakfast presenter Chrissie Swan.

Scheduled to air weekdays from 10.00am, the new two-hour show promises topical chat with audience interaction. The existing one-hour Ten News bulletin at 11.00am will move to 9.00am.

From the outset, it appears that The Circle looks like a daytime twist on Ten’s early evening The 7PM Project, a program that also features regular and guest panellists discussing issues of the day with some audience interaction. The Circle’s all-female panel format also appears to bear a resemblance to the popular US show The View (shown in Australia on Foxtel and Nine), and its less-successful Australian adaptation, The Catch-Up, which aired on Nine in 2007. It will be interesting to see if The Circle can overcome these perceptions and offer a viable alternative to The Morning Show and Mornings With Kerri-Anne on rival networks Seven and Nine.

Mildura: Six months to go

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:17:00 +0000

The Government has started playing commercials, specific to the Mildura/Sunraysia area, to remind viewers that local analogue signals will be shut down in less than six months – 30 June to be exact:

Viewers will notice a couple of familiar names in the campaign - Rebekah Elmaloglou, best known from Home And Away, and David Callan, from the former SBS series Going Home.

In the latest Digital Tracker survey, released late last year, 95 per cent of Mildura/Sunraysia households were aware of the changeover to digital television, 79 per cent of households had already converted to digital, however only 19 per cent of households were aware of the analogue shutdown date. Rates of awareness and conversion to digital TV in Mildura/Sunraysia are higher than most other parts of Australia, largely due to the region’s third commercial channel, a relay of Network Ten, being broadcast solely in digital. Mildura also currently receives digital signals for ABC, SBS, Prime and WIN, including additional channels ABC2, ABC3, SBS2, GO!, 7TWO and One HD.

After Mildura, analogue television signals will be progressively shutdown across the remainder of Australia over the next few years. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is also rolling out commercials across Australia to give viewers a broad overview as to when analogue signals will be switched off in local areas:

Victoria:

Queensland:

South Australia:

Source: Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Digital Ready, Freeview

Monica Maughan

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:41:00 +0000

Actress Monica Maughan, star of stage, film and television, has died in Melbourne.

One of Australia’s most recognisable actresses, Maughan made her professional debut back to 1957 with the Melbourne Theatre Company. It is believed that in her career spanning half a century she had starred in more MTC productions than any other performer.

Television viewers will recognise Maughan from her roles in popular dramas The Box and Prisoner and in the ABC series The Damnation Of Harvey McHugh, which led to her winning an AFI award, for best lead actress, and a TV Week Logie award for most outstanding actress.

Other television roles included appearances in Homicide, Matlock Police, Glenview High, Cop Shop, Loss Of Innocence, Skyways, The Flying Doctors, The Gillies Republic, Come In Spinner, Col’n Carpenter, A Country Practice, The Genie From Down Under, Blue Heelers, MDA and, as Graham Kennedy’s grandmother in the biographical telemovie, The King.

In recent years she appeared in films Crackerjack, Strange Bedfellows and Blessed.

Her last credited TV appearance was in the ABC comedy The Librarians.

Source: ABC, IMDB, Australian Television Information Archive, Sydney Morning Herald

Brian James

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:35:00 +0000

Of the names remembered in our last post of 2009 there was one name that has only now come to our attention – actor Brian James, who passed away late last year at the age of 91.

A former schoolteacher, James served in the Navy for six years before making his professional acting debut in the production of Noel Coward’s Present Laughter, at the Princess Theatre, in 1948. After touring Australia with the production he went to London, studying drama and also appearing at the West End in the naval comedy Seagulls Over Sorrento – a production that he would also appear in on stage upon his return to Australia.

By the late-1950s, James had made the transition to television, with the lead role in the GTV9 series Emergency, followed by HSV7’s live-to-air performance of Seagulls Over Sorrento, reprising his former stage role.

In the early ‘60s, James had scored the lead role of Captain Bligh in the ABC historical series Stormy Petrel, a role which won him a TV Week Logie for best actor in 1961. He then appeared in the courtroom drama Consider Your Verdict and played the title role in the Seven Network’s Jonah.

On 1 August 1964, he appeared (pictured) in the TV special This Is It!, commemorating the official opening of Melbourne’s third commercial television channel, ATV0, from studios based in the suburb of Nunawading.

With roles in dozens of stage productions and in TV series including Bellbird, Motel, Solo One and Young Ramsay, James continued to be a familiar name on both stage and television throughout the 1970s, ending the decade as the bumbling airport administration officer George Tippett in the Seven Network’s Skyways – a role that scored him a Penguin Award.

During the ‘80s he reprised the role of George Tippett in Holiday Island, guest starred in Carson’s Law, appeared as prison warden Stan Dobson in Prisoner and swept neighbourhood gossip Nell Mangel (Vivean Gray) off her feet in Neighbours – all productions based in the same Nunawading studios where he appeared on opening night of ATV0 in 1964.

His last credited TV role was in the ABC series Something In The Air.

Brian James is survived by his niece Julie and nephews Phillip, Michael and Brian. His cousin Gerald Mayhead had written a tribute to Brian James for The Age, including his extensive stage and film career.

Source: The Age, IMDB, Australian Television Information Archive

1990: January 6-12

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:29:00 +0000

TV Week, incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 6 January 1990 (Sydney edition). Southdown Press.

Cover: Kylie Minogue

The impossible dream
With careers on opposite sides of the world, actors Marcus Graham and Nicole Kidman have to put their relationship on hold. Graham, formerly of E Street, is starring in a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Sydney Opera House, while Kidman is in the US starring alongside Tom Cruise in the new movie Days Of Thunder.

John weds in secret
A Country Practice star John Tarrant has married his long-time girlfriend, ABC reporter Shereen Bates, while on a two-week production break from the series. The couple had first met at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where Tarrant was studying acting and Bates was doing a media course. They were married at Caves House, near Yallingup in South Western Australia, in a ceremony attended by around 60 close friends and family.

Sophie’s their choice
Former Melbourne model Sophie Heathcote (pictured) has landed a major role in A Country Practice. The 18-year-old will begin filming on the show later this month with her first scenes to appear on screen in April. Heathcote will play Stephanie “Steve” Brennan, a country girl who helps her father, Snow (Ben Gabriel), run a farm in Wandin Valley. Although Heathcote is not giving anything away, an involvement between her character and Luke Ross (Matt Day) may lead to something later on.

‘I never know what the year ahead will bring’
Jon Blake, the former The Restless Years star still battling to recover from a horrific car accident three years ago, after he had completed filming The Lighthorseman, was special guest at an important party last month. Mascot Blake threw her son a 31st birthday party, attended by friends and some of the many volunteers who help Blake with his rehabilitation. The party was also highlighted by phone calls from former The Restless Years colleagues Peter Phelps and Mark Hembrow, both who are overseas. Another special guest at the party was Blake’s 11-year-old son, Dustin, who often visits his father when in Sydney. Mrs Blake also thanked TV Week readers who donated generously to help with the rehabilitation effort and have offered their assistance to Mrs Blake.

Arthur cuts the apron strings
The cast of the ABC series Mother And Son have been told to be prepared for a fifth series of the comedy to go into production in 1991. The series has been on a break for two years while writer Geoffrey Atherden attends to other projects. The fifth series could reveal some interesting twists for the show’s central characters, with Arthur (Garry McDonald) possibly to be moved out of the family home, and scheming brother Robert (Henri Szeps) looking after mum Maggie (Ruth Cracknell). The new series will be a welcome change for McDonald, who was disappointed after plans for a return to TV as his classic Norman Gunston character fell through. Both Nine and Seven networks had negotiated for a new Gunston series, after his one-off appearance at the 1989 TV Week Logie Awards, and it is reported that an agreement was reached with Nine. However, financial uncertainty in the industry meant that the project was dropped.

Briefly…
Adelaide teenagers Richard Norton and Jeremy Angerson have joined the cast of Neighbours as the show recovers from losing key cast member Craig McLachlan to rival series Home And Away.

Actress and model Sue Smithers, a former cast member on The Restless Years, is planning a showbusiness comeback after the end of her marriage to lawyer husband Randy. As well as writing a musical, Higher Love, the sister of actress Joy Smithers is also planning to release a single with comedian Austen Tayshus. “It will be a comic record – I love comedy and we’ve talking doing one for a long time,” she told TV Week.

Crawford Productions have just released two of its popular programs, All The Rivers Run and Zoo Family, on video as part of their Crawford’s Classics range. Future releases are set to include the original mini-series of The Flying Doctors, Whose Baby? and The Far Country. A sequel to All The Rivers Run is expected to screen on the Seven Network during the year.

On The Grapevine:
If one prominent Aussie actor wants people to take him seriously when he says he’s 32, he’d better get to work on his appearance. While his body is in reasonable shape, a truck-load of brown tint is required for those rapidly spreading grey hairs.

Intelligence, poise and good grooming are just a couple of prerequisites for television reporters, so how is one lass going to explain her recent behaviour at a big-budget movie location?

Who is the struggling deputy editor taking guitar lessons in a park during his lunch break? Is it a bid to launch a career in the music industry, or is it simply a release from the asylum in which he works?

John Laws says:
”Much happened in 1989 to sink a torpedo or two into the industry, and no one needs to be reminded of the financial problems of the various networks. (But) despite its problems, TV in Australia isn’t so bad. It’s not perfect but it hasn’t yet hit rock bottom. For all his woes, Christopher Skase did try to add a touch of quality. His TVAM, now ditched, was a gallant try at giving us a quality news and business program. Neighbours, no matter what you might think of it, has won international acclaim, and made mega-stars of its two leading lights, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Then, of course, the industry has, in the past 12 to 18 months, turned out some remarkably fine mini-series. Bangkok Hilton is an example. This was an international-class offering, and simply glowed when compared with much of the glossy trash imported from America.”

Program Highlights (Sydney):
Saturday: ATN7 has the Danone Australian Women’s Hardcourt Championship, live from Milton Courts, Brisbane. Former Australian Crawl musician Brad Robinson hosts a two-hour music program, Spin, on TEN10, and MTV (TCN9) presents Billy Joel Live In Leningrad.
Sunday: TCN9 presents Melbourne newsreader Brian Naylor’s one-hour documentary, Australia From The Outside Looking In, followed by On The Road With Midday with Midday reporters Lisa Forrest and Paul Lockyer. Sunday night movies are Lies (TCN9) and Clan Of The Cave Bear (TEN10).
Monday: ATN7 presents live coverage of the NSW Open tennis from White City, Sydney. A Current Affair (TCN9) returns for a new year, and TEN10 presents Part One of the re-run of mini-series Alice To Nowhere, starring John Waters, Rosey Jones and Ruth Cracknell.
Thursday: TEN10 crosses to Palm Meadows, Queensland for the Palm Meadows Golf Cup.
Friday: TCN9 crosses to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for Day One of the First Test, Australia versus Pakistan. Commentators include Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry, Tony Greig, Ian Chappell and Max Walker.

Source: TV Week (Sydney edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 6 January 1990. Southdown Press.