Talking TelevisionAU

1979: November 3-9

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Sammys golden night out
The fourth annual Australian TV and Film Awards, the Sammys, have been presented at Sydney’s Seymour Centre. Winning the Gold Sammy awards, for excellence in performance during the year, were daytime TV host Mike Walsh and singer and TV presenter Marcia Hines. For Walsh it is his second Gold Sammy and Hines also won a Sammy for Best Variety Performer.

But the biggest hit of the night was the mini-series Against The Wind, taking out four awards including Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a TV series (Gerard Kennedy) and Best Actress in a TV Series (Kerry McGuire).

1979 Sammy Awards TV category winners
Gold (male): Mike Walsh
Gold (female): Marcia Hines
Chips Rafferty Memorial Award: Stanley Hawes
Best Actor in a Single TV Performance: John Hargreaves (A Good Thing Going)
Best Actress in a Single TV Performance: Belinda Giblin (Say You Want Me)
Best Actor in a TV Series: Gerard Kennedy (Against The Wind)
Best Actress in a TV Series: Kerry McGuire (Against The Wind)
Best Variety Performer: Marcia Hines
Best Drama Series: Against The Wind
Best Comedy Program: Neutral Ground (Tickled Pink)
Best TV Play: The Plumber
Best Variety Program: Hollywood (TV Follies)
Best Documentary: The Last Tasmanians
Best News Coverage: Pentridge Riot (GTV9 Melbourne)
Best Current Affairs Program: 60 Minutes
Best Sports Coverage: Australian Open Golf (Nine Network)
Best Children’s Series: Top Mates
Best Light Entertainment Series: Parkinson In Australia
Best Art Direction: Quentin Hole (Ride On Stranger)
Best Writer (TV Series): Peter Yeldham (Run From The Morning)
Best Writer (TV Play): Peter Weir (The Plumber)
Best Editing: Michael Balson (Mutiny On The Western Front)
Best Costume Design: Clare Griffin (Against The Wind)

Trapping Lorraine was a piece of cake!
It was Lorraine Bayly’s sweet tooth that led her into being featured on the Seven Network’s This Is Your Life. TV Times reporter Joanna Parsons and photographer David Murray were asked by the show to invite Bayly (pictured) to an interview while she was in Sydney attending the Sammy Awards. The interview was to take place in a hotel restaurant where TIYL host Roger Climpson and camera crew would sneak into the restaurant via the kitchen and quietly set up at a table behind Bayly. The maitre d’hotel would then present Bayly with flowers “sent by the gentleman sitting at the next table.” Then Bayly would turn around to find Climpson to declare “Lorraine Bayly, This Is Your Life.” But the plans for the mock interview almost went awry when Bayly suggested the interview be conducted in her hotel room. It was a quick-thinking Parsons, knowing Bayly’s weakness for chocolate cake, who then responded, “but they have the most wonderful chocolate cake in the restaurant. Wouldn’t you like to try it?” Bayly fell for it and the set-up continued as planned. Bayly then responded, “Do you mean the interview wasn’t really…?” Parsons assured her that it was still a genuine interview, to be published soon in TV Times.

They’re off!
In the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup, TV Times talks to four of Australia’s top race callers about the ‘race that stops a nation.’ ATV0 race caller Clem Dimsey (pictured) admitted that when he first called the Melbourne Cup for the 0-10 Network last year, he lost a stone in weight due to the tension. Although Dimsey has called the Melbourne Cup race on a number of prior occasions, last year was the first as part of a nationwide coverage of the race. Dimsey’s tip for the Melbourne Cup is a New Zealand horse, Kankama. ABC race caller Joe Brown will notch up a milestone when he calls the Melbourne Cup for the 32nd time, equalling the record set by the late Ken Howard. “It’s the highlight of the working year,” he says. Brown has tipped Dulcify for the Melbourne Cup. Radio 3UZ caller John Russell, who will also call the race for the Macquarie Radio Network and the Nine Network, has called the Melbourne Cup only twice before now but had been the understudy for veteran caller Bert Bryant for 23 years. Russell is reluctant to give a tip for the big race as he is involved in various phantom race calls involving big prizes, though he does name Dulcify, Kankama and Our Big Gamble as good chances. The Seven Network and radio 3DB’s Bill Collins will be calling the Melbourne Cup for the 26th time this year, but still admits to getting nerves before the race. “I still remember the nerves before I called my first cup and the drama still gets to me these days. The build-up is impossible to resist,” he says. Collins, nicknamed ‘The Accurate One’, was reluctant to give a cup tip too far in advance but did feel that Dulcify and Double Century should do well.

Briefly…
Many of the staff from Riverside were present for the baptism of Cop Shop’s latest addition, Prudence Jane Marion Benjamin, the daughter of Claire (Louise Philip, pictured) and Tony Benjamin (Greg Ross). Prudence, played by a baby boy named Zigi Barrett, took to the filming calmly with only a small cry of protest towards the end of filming. The episode airs this week in Sydney and Melbourne, next week in Brisbane and later in Adelaide.

Three former TV cops, George Mallaby, Leonard Teale and Warwick Randall, have recorded safety messages for Melbourne radio station 3MP.

The Seven Network is negotiating to buy the TV rights to the film Cathy’s Child, the film which won three awards at the recent Sammys. However, it will be some time before the film appears on TV as it has still yet to be released in cinemas in Perth and many country areas.

ATV0 newsreader Bruce Mansfield likes to dress well. His current favourite tie is a classy number with a rose motif. Anyone can buy a similar one, if prepared to pay $75.

Actress Penny Ramsey has made a return to work, after seven years as a full-time housewife and mother of two, as the wife of deputy governor Jim Fletcher (Gerard Maguire) in Prisoner. The daughter of actress Lois Ramsey has had a varied career, including appearing on The Mavis Bramston Show as a teenager in the ‘60s, hosting a children’s show and appearing in the stage musical Hair.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”After more than 10 years of journalists using the word “charisma” I have a vague notion of what it means. Could you ask ABC journalists in Canberra if I have to wait as long to crack on to ‘hiatus’?” W. Murphy, NSW.

“I would like to express my extreme disappointment at the way ABC deprived us of the presentation of the awards at both the State of Origin Australian Rules carnival and the 1979 grand final in Western Australia. On 6 and 8 October, ABC were good enough to televise the State of Origin matches. This included something like nine hours of top-class football, and surely, if this was possible an extra half-hour at the conclusion was possible. When they returned to the studio it was only to show an absolutely pathetic cartoon, The White Seal, or, on the weekend of the WA grand final, a repeat of Countdown. Remember that country viewers are, unfortunately, stuck with only this one annoying channel.” L. Beaton, WA.

“Lately, I don’t think Prisoner has had its usual quick humour and zest. This seems to have come about only since the character of Noelene Bourke (Jude Kuring) left the series. Although she was unpopular, I believe she put the finishing touches to the show. She and her daughter, Leanne (Tracey-Jo Riley), should be reintroduced. Having a youngster in the program is a good idea, as it keeps us in contact with the difficulties of the young.” D. Harvey, NSW.

What’s On (November 3-9):
Weekend sport includes the NSW Open Championship Golf, from The Lakes in Sydney, live on ABC. ATV0’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival kicks off on Saturday with Michael Williamson hosting the Derby Day Sportsman’s Breakfast, followed by Phil Gibbs and Clem Dimsey’s preview of the Derby Day races and then ATV0 crosses to Flemington for five hours of live coverage of all the day’s races.

GTV9 presents the first in a series of Australian-made specials featuring Ronnie Corbett, of The Two Ronnies. The special features guest stars Pamela Gibbons, Chris Kirby and June Bronhill.

ATV0’s Melbourne Cup coverage starts with a half-hour special on Monday night followed by a 90-minute preview on Tuesday morning. At midday, ATV0 crosses to Flemington for five hours coverage of all the day’s races for Melbourne Cup Day. Phil Gibbs and Michael Schilberger head the coverage, with Annette Allison providing interviews with special guests during the day. Clem Dimsey calls the day’s races.

Motoring expert Peter Wherrett, host of popular shows Torque and Marque, returns to TV to present a 40-minute special, Torque About A Crisis, on ABC. Wherrett examines the Federal Government’s campaign to educate drivers about improving the efficiency of their vehicles with proper treatment and improved driving style.

ATV0 presents a repeat of the documentary, The Last Tasmanian, a recent winner at the Sammy Awards.

GTV9’s Friday night movies is ABBA The Movie, the 1977 production featuring the story of a radio disc jockey (played by Robert Hughes) following the pop group on their Australian tour in order to get an interview with them. The movie also features Tom Oliver, formerly of Number 96 fame.

Sunday night movies: The Hindenburg (HSV7), Nightmare In Badham County (GTV9), Holocaust 2000 (ATV0). ABC presents the latest in its series of Australian plays, Money In The Bank, starring Tom Richards (Matlock Police), Barbara Stephens and Max Meldrum.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 3 November 1979. ABC/ACP

Community TV gets a ticket to digital!

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:20:00 +0000

It has finally happened – the Government has taken some positive action in allowing the Community TV sector a transition to digital!

Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy has announced that the Government will make available temporary capacity to allow Community TV channels the chance to broadcast on the digital platform.

The Government will also commit $2.6 million to aid the Community TV broadcasters in the transition.

This is on the back of various handouts and concessions, including free broadcast spectrum, given to the national and commercial broadcasters since the transition to digital television began almost a decade ago. It is also following the Government’s promise to assist the community radio sector in its transition to digital broadcasting.

The Senator also took the opportunity to take a political stab at the former Howard Government:

“Unlike the previous government, the Rudd Government greatly values the role of community television. It provides hundreds of hours of truly local content every month, and reaches more than a million viewers each week.”

Despite this it has still taken the Rudd Government two years, a number of promises and a lack of budget and public support for Community TV, coupled with a fairly consistent campaign by the Australian Community Television Alliance (representing TVS Sydney, C31 Melbourne, QCTV Brisbane, C31 Adelaide and a planned channel for Perth), to come to what is really only promised as a temporary solution.

The relevant channels will be assigned broadcast spectrum previously set aside for data-casting services which have, until now, yet to be utilised.

The Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide channels will now be able to simulcast in both analogue and digital in the lead-up to the switch-off of analogue services, scheduled for completion by 31 December 2013.

The new channel in Perth, which will replace the now-defunct Access 31, will operate from 2010 on a digital-only basis. In the latest government Digital Tracker survey, Perth is the capital city with the second highest rate of conversion to digital TV, with 60 per cent of households now converted to digital. (Darwin is the highest with 68 per cent)

Source: DBCDE, TVS

ABC3: The first two days

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:03:00 +0000

ABC’s new children’s channel ABC3 has issued its first program guide.

The new digital channel starts with a one-hour Countdown To 3 at 5pm on Friday 4 December on ABC1, including performances by Cassie Davis, Short Stack and ABC3’s CJ the DJ and an appearance by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who will launch the new channel.

Then at 6.00pm, ABC3 starts in earnest with a line-up including new Australian-made programs Prank Patrol, CJ The DJ, My Place and Rush TV:

Friday 4: 6pm Prank Patrol, 6.30 CJ The DJ, 6.55 News On 3, 7.05 Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab, 7.35 Jeopardy, 8pm My Place, 8.30 Heartbreak High, 9pm Close.

Saturday 5: 6am Clash of The Titans: Chaos 101, 6.20 Dragon Booster, 6.45 Skyland, 7.10 Wolverine And The X Men, 7.35 Countdown To 3 (Rpt), 8.35 Prank Patrol, 9am Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab, 9.30 Best Of Rollercoaster, 10.30 Spliced, 10.55 Grossology (2 episodes), 11.45 Jeopardy (5 episodes), 1.55pm Old Tom, 2.10 Flipper And Lopaka, 2.35 Yakkity Yak, 3pm Worst Best Friends, 3.30 Countdown To 3 (Rpt), 4.30 Barney’s Barrier Reef, 5pm Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab, 5.30 Super Hero Squad, 5.55 Shaun The Sheep, 6.05 Jibber Jabber, 6.20 CJ The DJ, 6.30 Prank Patrol, 7pm Rush TV, 7.30 Iron Man (4 episodes), 9pm Close.

ABC3 will broadcast each day from 6am to 9pm.

From Monday 7 December, News On 3 will air at 4.25pm and 6.55pm weeknights.

Website: ABC3

The race that stopped the station

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:26:00 +0000

Viewers will tomorrow (Tuesday) take for granted that many major sporting events, such as the Melbourne Cup, will be televised in some form.

However, this wasn’t always the case. Even though television flickered on for the first time in Australia in 1956, it would be another 22 years before Melbourne television viewers could see live-to-air the “race that stops a nation.”

Flashback to fifty years ago, Melbourne Cup Day, 3 November 1959. Live outside broadcasts were certainly possible but live coverage of events like the Melbourne Cup were kept off local television, presumably not to affect attendances at the venues. But Melbourne’s GTV9 did not let that deter them and they were determined to bring the result of the big race to viewers as soon as they could.

TV Times reported that GTV9 used new Polaroid technology to bring viewers a photo of the winning horse crossing the finish line a mere 2 minutes and 54 seconds after it occurred – a far cry from the half-hour it took to achieve the same feat the year before.

GTV9 newsman Peter Maund described the process:

“We filmed the whole race on closed circuit TV, which was being videotaped in the studios, to be shown later. Cameraman Mike Browning took a picture with the Polaroid camera as the finish appeared on a monitor set. He mounted it on a card and we interrupted another program to flash it on the screen.”

HSV7 screened film of the Melbourne Cup race at 6.00pm and then, after the news, at 6.45pm screened Melbourne Cup Cavalcade, a documentary showing Cup runners in the mounting enclosure, full running of the race, presentation of the Cup and other highlights. The 15-minute program was repeated late that night. ABV2 had a Melbourne Cup special edition of its regular program Sports Page at 8.30pm.

Later that night a stroke of luck meant that the winning jockey, Pat Glennon, was able to appear in the studio on GTV9’s In Melbourne Tonight to receive the traditional gold-mounted riding whip and then went to the studios of HSV7’s Bandwagon to be presented with a miniature Melbourne Cup. His original plan was “win or lose” to fly back to Adelaide as soon as the race was over as he’d promised to be home for his son’s eighth birthday. It was a disappointment for GTV9’s promotions executive Eric Welch who had hoped to have the winning jockey on In Melbourne Tonight that night.

However, against 100-to-1 odds, his horse Macdougal won the race and his wife, thrilled at his second Cup win, had quickly boarded a plan from Adelaide to be with him. The pilot was able to radio a message to Melbourne to be passed on to Glennon. “I was just leaving for Essendon (Airport) when the message came through,” he said. He was then able to do the late-night rounds of the two TV channels.

Melbourne viewers would continue to be denied live coverage of the Melbourne Cup race, although interstate viewers would eventually be allowed to watch it live. Even the advent of ATV0 in 1964, and the channel’s owner Reg Ansett having a love of horse racing, was not able to persuade any change despite the new channel pioneering live coverage of weekly race meetings from around Victoria. On Melbourne Cup Day, 3 November 1964, ATV0 did devote five hours of programming to previews of the day’s event but was still precluded from covering the race itself.

Then in 1978 Ansett finally managed to score live coverage rights to the Melbourne Cup Carnival, incorporating four days of live coverage including Melbourne Cup Day.

ATV0 and its successor ATV10 maintained the annual coverage of the Carnival until 2001. The Seven Network had taken over the rights to the Melbourne Cup from 2002.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 30 October 1959, 13 November 1959.

The 2009 Melbourne Cup Carnival: Melbourne Cup Day. Tuesday 3 November, 10.00am AEDST. Seven*

* HSV7 Melbourne. Other areas/timezones, check local guides

Back to the first day at Summer Bay

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:36:00 +0000

The Seven Network’s new digital channel 7TWO has a couple of Aussie soap classics from the archives.

Starting tomorrow morning (Tuesday 3 November) at 9.30am, 7TWO presents the two-hour pilot of Home And Away. Produced during 1987, the pilot provides the background on foster family the Fletchers, their move from the city to the coastal town of Summer Bay and the introduction of the newest member of the family, Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson, pictured). The pilot first screened on Seven on Sunday 17 January 1988 and the regular half-hour episodes started the next night.

Then from Wednesday 7TWO kicks off its normal weekday routine with Sons And Daughters (featuring Pat McDonald and Kim Lewis, pictured) at 9.00am and then Home And Away The Early Years at 9.30am.

7TWO is now broadcasting on digital channel 72 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and regional Queensland. The channel will be extended to Darwin and Tasmania via Southern Cross Television from next month. Prime Television, covering regional NSW, Victoria and ACT, has yet to announce a timeframe for launching 7TWO in its coverage areas.

Young Talent Time headed for return?

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:32:00 +0000

The wave of nostalgia triggered by the recent return of Hey Hey It’s Saturday and the passing of Don Lane has sparked talk of the return of a family TV favourite.

Johnny Young, the host and producer of Young Talent Time and now back in his former home town of Perth as a breakfast announcer at radio 6IX, is reported to have been in discussion with the Ten Network about reviving YTT, more than two decades after it was taken off our screens.

A pop star and TV presenter in Perth, Young came to Melbourne in the late-‘60s and performed on and hosted local teenage shows such as Go!! He formed Young Talent Time as a junior talent quest as well as a variety show with an ensemble cast of performers between the ages of 8 and 16. The format was not entirely dissimilar to an earlier show, Brian And The Juniors, that had finished up in 1970.

Young Talent Time made its debut on 24 April 1971 on ATV0 in Melbourne, featuring Young as host and a cast of performers including Debra Byrne, Phillip Gould, Jane Scali, Jamie Redfern, Vikki Broughton and Rod Kirkham – some of which were already known to viewers of Brian And The Juniors.

Despite its low budget, the show was an immediate hit and gave the channel some relief from the usual Saturday evening battering by football replays on rival channels. YTT also got an early ratings boost when Graham Kennedy made a guest appearance on the show shortly after its debut.

1972 saw Young Talent Time win a TV Week Logie award for Best Variety/Music Program. The show won the same award again in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

In 1982, after celebrating a decade on air, Young Talent Time won a special Logie award for sustained excellence in television.

Young Talent Time came to an end in 1988, having created a number of household names – including Jamie Redfern (who went on to tour the US after being ‘discovered’ by Liberace), Debra Byrne, Phillip Gould, Jane Scali, Sally Boyden, Karen Knowles, Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue. The show also inspired a US-based spin-off, The New Generation.

Since its demise, there have been on-again off-again talks about reinventing Young Talent Time for a new generation. A 2001 special, produced and presented by YTT cast member John Bowles, was well received by viewers and sparked more talk of a revival.

Hey Hey It’s Saturday, a long-time timeslot rival of YTT during the ‘80s, this year got a new lease of life after a Facebook-led campaign sparked two reunion specials on the Nine Network. The ratings success and apparent public support for an ongoing series has seen negotiations for a possible Hey Hey It’s Saturday return again next year.

With Young now reportedly heading negotiations for a return to YTT, the show is now also the subject of a Facebook campaign for a return. The nostalgic appeal of the format plus the public’s leaning towards a return to family entertainment on television could see the show returned in some form.

Source: news.com.au
Reference: Australian Television Information Archive

50 years of BTQ7, ABQ2

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:02:00 +0000

This weekend marks yet another television station’s 50th anniversary. Brisbane’s BTQ7 was launched on 1 November 1959. It was Brisbane’s second TV channel, following QTQ9 that had launched in August of that year.

Brisbane also didn’t have to wait long to get their third TV channel, as national broadcaster ABC opened its Brisbane channel, ABQ2, on 2 November 1959.

Like QTQ9, BTQ7 was broadcasting from studios and transmission towers constructed up on Mount Coot-tha in Brisbane. ABQ2 opted instead to have its studios in the suburb of Toowong but had its transmission towers at Mount Coot-tha.

Early personalities on BTQ7 included Brian Tait, children’s presenters Nancy Knudsen and Lester Foxcroft, women’s presenter Sybil Francis and newsreader Brian Cahill.

One of BTQ7’s earliest variety shows was The Late Show with Tait. The program won the first TV Week Logie award for most popular program in Queensland. In the early ‘60s, BTQ7 launched Theatre Royal, a show that took the vaudeville style of comedy onto television, featuring comedian and The Late Show star George Wallace Jnr and a team of performers including Eddie Edwards, Dick McCann, Jackie Ellison and a young actress by the name of Rowena Wallace (no relation to George). Theatre Royal was immensely popular, screening every Friday night for six years, and was also shown interstate. It won six TV Week Logie awards as Queensland’s most popular program. The show ended after George Wallace suffered a stroke and died in 1968 at the age of 50, but his legacy continued as TV Week then initiated the George Wallace Logie for Best New Talent.

Also to come through BTQ7 in the ‘60s and ‘70s was Annette Allison, a performer on early variety and teenage shows before hosting her own daytime show, Annette. She then went to Melbourne to ATV0 to read the news and co-host the morning show Everyday (later Good Morning Melbourne). Dina Heslop was a host of the BTQ7’s children’s program Dina And Percy and was also a contributor to the national This Week Has Seven Days before becoming a producer for later shows like the Logie Award-winning Wombat. Jacki MacDonald also had a stint at BTQ7 in the ‘70s, hosting her own show, Jacki’s People. After Jacki left BTQ7, they then employed her sister, Fiona, to host a children’s program and was later a presenter on Wombat.

In the mid-‘70s, Reg Grundy produced a soap opera, Until Tomorrow, at the studios of BTQ7. The series was a rare venture into daytime drama and screened nationally on the Seven Network, featuring Babette Stephens, Ron Cadee, former TV Week Gold Logie winner Hazel Phillips and a young Barry Otto.

Other programs to have come through BTQ7 over the years included daytime show Bailey And The Birds, teenage shows National Top 40 and Teen Time, children’s shows Boris’ Breakfast Club and Seven’s Super Saturday, game show Family Feud and variety shows Top Of The Bill and Wak’s Works.

Of course, it would be remiss not to mention BTQ7’s landmark promotional jingle, ‘Love You Brisbane’, that was produced for the channel in the early ‘80s and was used by BTQ for several years. Sung by popular local performer Kim Durant, the song was even released as a single and was a top-seller. The jingle was later adapted to TVW7, as ‘Love You Perth’, and regional Queensland broadcaster Sunshine Television (now Seven Queensland) before BTQ7 and Seven Queensland reprised it a few years ago:

Newsreader Brian Cahill had two stints at BTQ7, he was the channel’s first newsreader when it launched in 1959 and, after a stint at QTQ9, was there again in the ‘70s. During the ‘60s, Cahill was joined at the news desk by former ABQ2 newsreader Ron Brady. Others to have presented news at BTQ have included Mike Higgins, Nev Roberts, Donna Meiklejohn, Janne Rayner, Ken Hose, Garry Wilkinson, Frank Warrick and present-day newsreaders Rod Young, Kay McGrath and Sharyn Ghidella.

As well as news, BTQ7 produced local current affairs with programs including Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane, State Affair, Carroll At Seven and magazine programs PM Magazine and The Great South East.

BTQ7 last week screened a special, Flashback – 50 Years Of Channel Seven, and tonight (Sunday) newsreader Brian Cahill makes a return to the Seven News desk to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his presenting the first news bulletin on opening night at BTQ.

And, by coincidence, BTQ7’s fiftieth anniversary coincides with a new era for the Seven Network as it launches its new digital channel 7TWO on the same day.

A lot of the material in this article, particularly related to the earlier years at BTQ7, is sourced by the book On-Air 25 Years Of TV In Queensland. Compiled and edited by Christopher Beck. (1984)

7TWO starts tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:08:00 +0000

The Seven Network’s new digital channel 7TWO launches tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth from 12.00pm.

After an introduction to the channel, the first program will be Michael Jackson’s last ever televised concert, with the pop icon reunited with his brothers onstage as the Jackson Five for the first time in over 20 years.

Two Disney films, The Cheetah Girls and The Cheetah Girls 2, follow at 2.00pm and 4.00pm respectively. Then, from 6.00pm, three episodes of US comedy Scrubs.

7TWO’s first evening will then include a triple movie feature: McHale’s Navy (1997), the premiere of The Ringer (2003) and the original The Taking Of Pelham 123 (1974).

Then from 1.30am, 7TWO continues overnight with classic AFL games.

Meanwhile, regional affiliate Southern Cross Television has announced that it will be broadcasting 7TWO to viewers in Darwin from December. It will be the first of the range of commercial Freeview channels to go to Darwin, as One HD and GO! have yet to appear there. Though Darwin already has a digital-only channel, Darwin Digital Television, which relays the Ten Network.

Southern Cross’ announcement for 7TWO into Darwin follows last week’s news that they will also carry 7TWO into Tasmania from December. Meanwhile, the Seven Network’s largest regional affiliate, Prime Television, has not made any announcement about its plans to broadcast 7TWO into its digital broadcast areas which includes regional NSW, Victoria, the Gold Coast and the Australian Capital Territory.

Source: 7TWO, NT News

7TWO to go to Tasmania

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:46:00 +0000

The Seven Network’s new digital channel 7TWO will be broadcast into Tasmania from December.

The island state’s Seven Network affiliate, Southern Cross Television, has announced that it will be carrying 7TWO from 1 December, one month after the channel’s launch on the mainland next Sunday.

Tasmania has one of the highest conversion rates to digital in Australia, with 70 per cent of surveyed households converted in the most recent government survey, largely due to the state’s third commercial channel, TDT, being broadcast exclusively in digital.

Source: B&T Today, Digital Ready

1979: October 27-November 2

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:57:00 +0000

TV’s reluctant Romeo
Since John Waters first hit screens as Sgt McKellar in ABC’s Rush in 1974, he has carried the reputation of being the handsome romantic, though his roles following Rush have been very different. “I’ve got nothing against those leading man roles, but I certainly don’t want to spend the rest of my life playing them. I prefer character acting and I try not to let my own personality dominate a role. To me that leads to typecasting, which in my view is fatal for an actor.” Waters has joined the cast of The Sullivans as Christopher Merchant, a soldier who meets up with some of the Sullivan family in Changi and later adds a touch of romance to the life of Kate (Ilona Rodgers). As well as The Sullivans, Waters is continuing his recurring role as a presenter on ABC’s Play School. “I love doing it. It’s one of the few shows that give children something of quality and I find that tremendously satisfying. I get letters from people of all ages throughout the year and the mail that comes in from the children is very satisfying. They rarely ask for anything, not even an autograph, although we always send out an autographed photo. They want to share things. They send in pictures they’ve painted, things they’ve made, always something of theirs to share. I find that sort of thing so rewarding.”

Belinda Giblin joins Skyways
Belinda Giblin (pictured), former star of Crawford dramas The Box and The Sullivans, is joining another Crawford production, Skyways, for seven weeks. Giblin plays the part of Christine Burroughs, acting manager of Trans Asia, the fictional airline depicted in the series. Although she began work on the series in Melbourne this week, she won’t be on screen for some months.

Upstairs Downstairs star for Aussie series
Nicola Pagett, star of the British series Upstairs Downstairs, has been signed for the romantic lead in the upcoming ABC mini-series The Timeless Land. ABC head of drama Geoff Daniels said that Pagett’s profile in the United Kingdom and also in the United States, where Upstairs Downstairs has gained a following, should guarantee overseas sales for The Timeless Land. The eight-part series, which also stars Michael Craig, Ray Barrett, Angela Punch and Earthwatch host Peter Cousens, begins production in November.

Briefly…
Recently-married couple Rod Kirkham, a former Young Talent Time member, and actress Barbara Llewellyn have left Australia to settle in England. Gavan Disney, formerly Kirkham’s manager and now an executive at BTV6 Ballarat said: “They decided to live overseas. That is all there is to it. They have no particular plans other than getting to England. Neither Rod nor Barbara have been exactly over-worked in Australia for the past 12 months, and both felt they had nothing to lose by giving England a go.”

Hollywood star Debbie Reynolds, whose new show opens for a two-week run in Sydney at the end of the month, will be appearing on The Mike Walsh Show over four days from 30 October. Reynolds will also be appearing on The Don Lane Show on 1 November. During her last tour, in 1975, Reynolds’s appearance on The Don Lane Show, including an impromptu song and dance routine, triggered a massive response by delighted viewers who jammed the channel’s switchboard.

Kerry Ford, one-time hostess of quiz show Casino 10, has left her job as publicity director for Lyle McCabe Productions to become a Qantas air hostess.

BTQ7 Brisbane presenter Bob Janssen is preparing to set off on a unique voyage – a wet-bike ride from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast to Melbourne to raise funds for the Spastic Welfare League. The wet-bikes, like a motorcycle on water, were first seen on a James Bond film and have been in Australia for about two years though only six are known to be in Queensland. Completing the journey to Melbourne could put him in the Guinness Book of Records.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Well, Countdown’s Molly Meldrum (pictured) has finally pushed me to the limit. I can’t stand it any longer, and must write to say what I think of him – which is not very much. For a start, why does he have to put on one of his silly predictions instead of the Number 1 single of the week? Isn’t it plain enough for him to see that the people buy the record to promote it to Number 1 spot, so they can hear and see their favourite group performing? Secondly, he raves on and on throughout the show, so if he does play the Number 1 single you never see it all the way through because he wasted time talking about nothing.” S. McLaughlan, NSW.

“There is a group of us who haven’t missed a Doctor Who episode for years. But why have Tom Baker (the fourth and current Doctor Who) coming out here on a promotional tour and then screening old repeats three or four times in a row? Come on, get some new shows going. Doctor Who is too good to be messed around with. The good shows get messed up and the trash they treat with respect. I love Doctor Who too much to stand by while this is done.” C. Robertson, VIC.

“Will somebody answer this question: why can’t a nation that gave us classic movies like All Quiet On The Western Front, Gone With The Wind and Mutiny On The Bounty, produce good TV shows? We are fed a steady diet of preposterous piffle such as The Flying Nun, The Six Million Dollar Man and Mork And Mindy. They also give us ultra-violent shows, of which Streets Of San Francisco, Starsky And Hutch and Kojak are typical. Furthermore, it would appear most Americans are hard of hearing, as the majority of characters in US shows scream and shout at each other like demented persons! They haven’t yet mastered the excellent, natural, low-key type of acting that is the feature of most English TV productions. I won’t say much about Australian TV – the least said the better. I don’t think any Australian TV scriptwriters have had an original idea since the day they were born.” C. Rowbottom, SA.

What’s On (October 27-November 2):
Saturday afternoon sport includes horse racing with the WS Cox Plate, live from Moonee Valley and telecast on HSV7, hosted by Bill Collins. ABC presents live coverage of the CBA Westlakes Classic golf from the Grange course in Adelaide.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the political conflicts that have stirred Australia since the turn of the century, including the infamous Pig Iron Bob clash between Robert Menzies and the waterside workers.

GTV9 presents a two-and-a-half hour special, Goodbye ‘70s Goodbye, looking back at the news and events of the 1970s in Australia.

In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), when a young apprentice is sacked from his job, a youth group decides to take matters in their own hands. Baker (Gil Tucker, pictured) is knocked unconscious when he and Benjamin (Greg Ross) are called to investigate.

GTV9’s Friday night movie is Lassie: A New Beginning, featuring former Young Talent Time cast member Sally Boyden.

Sunday night movies: Scobie Malone (HSV7), Death Flight (GTV9), For Pete’s Sake (ATV0). ABC’s series of Australian plays continues with Gail, the story of a 13 year old facing the problems of growing up, starring Sally Cooper, Terry Gill, Jackie Kerin and Nanette Wallace.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 27 October 1979. ABC/ACP

ABC is ready for 3

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:41:00 +0000

National broadcaster ABC has announced that its new children’s-only channel, ABC3, will launch on Friday 4 December.

The new channel will broadcast daily between 6.00am and 9.00pm.

Heading the channel’s line-up during weekdays will be programming blocks Studio 3 (mornings) and Rollercoaster (afternoons) featuring a mix of factual and adventure series, wildlife and documentaries, game shows, news and current affairs, dramas and classic Australian animations. Programs aimed at older children will screen in the evenings.

Presenting Studio 3 (pictured) will be Amberley Lobo and Kayne Tremills, with roving reporter Ben Crawley.

Other locally-made shows to appear on ABC3 are Rush TV, (covering sports including snowboarding, BMX, skating, surfing and motocross), Prank Patrol (where kids get help to create, build and execute the prank of a lifetime on their chosen target) and Good Game SP (a junior version of ABC2’s Good Game).

Also featuring on ABC3 is My Place, a series based on the award-winning book about 13 kids, 130 years and a fig tree. CJ the DJ, an interactive animation about a teenager who loves music. Drama Dance Academy, which centres around a group of male and female students training at the National Academy of Dance. Dead Gorgeous, a drama about three strong-willed sisters given a second-chance at life as ghosts.

Richard Hammond’s Blast Lab and documentary series Be The Creature will also feature, as will a repeat run of the ‘90s teenage drama Heartbreak High.

ABC3 will also have interactive features via the ABC website and will also have programming made available on ABC iView. A selection of ABC3 programs will also be shown on the flagship channel ABC1 to account for households that do not yet have access to digital television.

The launch of ABC3 will coincide with an expansion of children’s programming on existing channel ABC2. ABC For Kids On 2 will provide pre-school age programming between 9.00am and 6.00pm weekdays and 6.00am to 6.00pm on weekends.

ABC3 and ABC For Kids On 2 will be competing for young viewers with the range of children’s channels on pay-TV, including Boomerang, Cartoon Network, CBeebies, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr and Playhouse Disney, as well as dedicated children’s and cartoon hours on new digital channels GO! and 7TWO.

Seven catches up with 7TWO

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:18:00 +0000

Finally, the Seven Network has made a definite announcement about it’s long-long-awaited second channel.

Eight months after chief David Leckie said that an announcement of Seven’s digital plan was “imminent”, the network has told the public about their new channel to begin on Sunday 1 November at 12.00pm.

“It’s Time”, shouts the promos, for 7TWO (and yes, the promo is a light-weight take on the iconic political campaign of 1972.) Perhaps the promo should shout “It’s About Time”, as Seven is the last of the three commercial networks to launch a digital channel, following OneHD in March and GO! in August. Even SBS beat Seven to air when it re-worked its World News Channel to SBS2 in June.

The new 7TWO promises a raft of programming genres from classic Australian content (Sons And Daughters, Mother And Son and early episodes of Home And Away) to British and American comedies and dramas (e.g. Lost, Ugly Betty, 24, Heroes, Scrubs, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Gavin And Stacey, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat), plus movies, lifestyle shows (featuring presenters including Jamie Oliver and Martha Stewart) and footy flashbacks from AFL.

The Jay Leno Show, which recently launched in prime-time in the US and is currently shown in Australia on The Comedy Channel, will also be shown on 7TWO five nights a week.

The new channel will be carried on Seven’s digital platform in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth on digital channel 72. It is also expected to be carried via regional networks Prime and Seven Queensland and on pay-TV via Foxtel in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from dates to be advised.

The first week’s prime-time line-up looks like this:

Sunday 1: 6pm Scrubs, 7.30 Movie: McHale’s Navy, 9.30 Movie: The Ringer (premiere).

Monday 2: 6pm The New Jay Leno Show, 7pm Movie: Seabiscuit, 9.30 Movie: Master Spy – The Robert Hanssen Story.

Tuesday 3: 6pm Jay Leno, 7pm That 70s Show, 7.30 Ugly Betty (Series 3 premiere), 8.30 Reaper (premiere), 10.30 Strike Force, 11pm Last Comic Standing.

Wednesday 4: 6pm Jay Leno, 7pm That 70s Show, 7.30 American Gladiators (premiere), 8.30 Heroes (Series 4 premiere), 10.30 What About Brian, 11.30 Commander In Chief.

Thursday 5: 6pm Jay Leno, 7pm That 70s Show, 7.30 Fifth Gear (premiere), 8.30 Stargate Atlantis, 10pm Strikeforce Fight Night, 11.30 Monster Garage.

Friday 6: 6pm Jay Leno, 7pm That 70s Show, 7.30 Scrubs, 8.30 The F Word, 9.30 Fight For Life, 10.30 Escape To The Country, 11.30 Last Comic Standing.

Saturday 7: 6pm Destroyed In Seconds, 6.30 Air Crash Investigations, 7.30 Egypt, 8.30 Jamie’s Outdoor Room, 9.30 60 Minute Makeover, 10.30 How Not To Decorate, 11.30 Last Comic Standing.

Sunday 8: 6pm Scrubs, 7.30 Movie: Kate And Leopold, 9.30 Movie: Kill Bill, 11.30 Last Comic Standing.

The full program guide for 7TWO’s first week is online now at Yahoo7.

Seven’s approach to 7TWO as a broadly-based entertainment channel is in contrast to fairly focused efforts by Ten and Nine with their OneHD (sports) and GO! (youth-oriented entertainment) channels. GO!, in particular, has helped the Nine Network’s audience share and ratings for Nine and GO! combined have taken some weekly wins away from the stand-alone Seven.

Don Lane

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:04:00 +0000

American-born entertainer and one of the greats of Australian TV variety, Don Lane has died after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 75.

Born Morton Donald Isaacson in 1933, Lane grew up in the Bronx district of New York. A nightclub performer in the US, he first came to Australia in the mid-1960s when he was invited to host a variety show, The Tonight Show, at TCN9.

It was during The Tonight Show that Lane and his In Melbourne Tonight counterpart Graham Kennedy appeared together in a split-screen broadcast (pictured) from their respective cities in a technical link-up only made possible by the linking of the two cities by coaxial cable.

In 1968 Lane made news when he was charged with possessing marijuana and spent four days on remand in Sydney’s Long Bay jail before being acquitted.

In the early-‘70s, Lane made regular trips between Australia and the US, but was based in the US when he was invited to appear at the Nine Network’s Darwin appeal after Cyclone Tracy in 1974. That appearance led to an invitation by ATN7 Sydney to host a new tonight show but Lane declined and instead took up an offer to host a Monday night show for GTV9 Melbourne in the wake of Graham Kennedy’s hasty departure from the channel after his suspect ‘crow call’ incident saw him banned from appearing on live television.

The Don Lane Show began on 12 May 1975 and was an instant ratings hit. Airing twice a week, it was the show that was visited by some of the biggest names in showbusiness and also pioneered the live satellite interviews, a rarity in the ‘70s. Highlights of the show were also packaged for syndication across the United States.

The Don Lane Show also formed one of Australian TV’s most famous double acts when it teamed up Bert Newton as Lane’s comic sidekick. Lane was the straight man to Newton’s comic performances and impersonations, and the pair also worked together on Melbourne radio station 3UZ.

The Don Lane Show won a swag of TV Week Logie awards including Lane winning the Gold Logie for most popular male personality on television in 1977. It was in his acceptance speech for the Gold Logie that he famously paid tribute to Newton, clutching the Logie and promising “here you are, pal! – six months at my place, six months at yours.”

Newton today said that Lane “reinvented variety” and paid tribute to his colleague and friend:

“Variety took on a new meaning. There were satellite interviews, world famous guests were coming onto the show. He shared the set with some of the biggest names in the business.”

“To me it's a great loss.”

“I laughed at the time and I laugh now at the memory on this very sad day.”

After The Don Lane Show wound up in November 1983, Lane headed back to the US but was soon back in Australia when he joined Network Ten in 1987, hosting a game show, You’ve Got To Be Joking, and the TV Week Logie Awards. He followed these in 1988 with Late Night Australia, a five-night-a-week variety show that ended up against Graham Kennedy’s News Show on Nine.

In the ‘90s, Lane gained a following as a presenter of ABC’s late night NFL coverage and appeared as a guest on The Late Show.

In 2003 he was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Lane was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2005.

Nine Network CEO David Gyngell has paid tribute to Lane:

“Today Australia lost one of its finest all-round entertainers.

Don Lane was a stalwart of the industry and a great mate to so many of us here at Nine.

While Don may have passed, the memories and the laughs he provided will remain with us for many years to come.

Our deepest condolences are conveyed to Jayne Ambrose, PJ and Don’s extended family.”

A funeral for Don Lane will be held today (Friday) with a public memorial to be announced.

Source: The Age

Number 96 on DVD again in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:05:00 +0000

TV critic and self-confessed Number 96 tragic Andrew Mercado has announced that the third boxed set DVD of the famous Aussie soap Number 96 will be released by Umbrella Entertainment in 2010.

‘Aftermath of Murder’ picks up where the last DVD release (‘the Pantyhose Murderer’) left off and new characters in the series this time around include outrageous showgirl Trixie O’Toole (pictured, with Reg MacDonald played by Mike Dorsey), a recurring character in the series played by Jan Adele, and Vera Collins’ (Elaine Lee) new boarder Adam Shaw (Justin Rockett).

The episodes originally aired early in 1975.

Source: Mercado.tv, Have Phaser Will Travel

1979: October 20-26

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:47:00 +0000

Tom’s accent is on variety
Canadian-born Tom Burlinson has tackled Irish, English and American accents in various roles since leaving the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1976, but has found that playing Mickey Pratt in the 0-10 Network’s The Restless Years has presented the biggest challenge. “Mickey’s Australian accent is one of the hardest,” Burlinson said. But while Burlinson (pictured with co-star Penny Cook) admits to not always being keen on some of the tasks he called on to do as Pratt, he says there is a certain amount of leeway in the way he interprets the script and does accept the show’s widespread appeal: “Whether The Restless Years is good or not, the fact is that it has mass appeal and many viewers accept it as real. One therefore has a responsibility, particularly to adolescents who watch the program.” However, Burlinson has said that after a year in the show he is ready to move on. “I don’t want to become a TV star, I want to be a working actor. One of the main reasons I want to leave The Restless Years is that I want to work in other areas such as films and stage.”

Big Country in the gun!
In ten years of production, ABC’s documentary series A Big Country has generated as many stories off-screen as it has on-screen. On many occasions its reporters and crew have come close to injury and death. In 1970, producer John Mabey and crew visited Jim Jim Plain, near Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, to investigate the latest methods of capturing buffalo. They found a hunter and asked for an interview. “I walked up to this man and said ‘I’m John Mabey from the ABC. I’d like to talk to you about buffalo hunting,” Mabey recalls. “He looked at me and then slowly reached down to his holster, pulled a .45 automatic from it and pointed it at my head. He said ‘See this hole? Well you’ll feel one like it if you don’t get out of here now.’ Apparently Four Corners had been through the area some weeks before, filming cruel methods of hunting buffalo, and this chap obviously didn’t see eye to eye with the report.” An earlier incident, recalled by producer and reporter Ron Iddon, saw the crew on a chartered single-engine flight from Geraldton, Western Australia, to the Abrohlos Islands, 70 kilometres of the WA coast. On their way back to Geraldton the plane’s engine cut out: “All of a sudden it was very quiet. I was sitting two seats back and I remember looking at the pilot who was busy pushing and pulling things. We were flying at 150 metres and I remember watching the altimeter registering our rapid descent. When we got down to 31 metres I remember thinking ‘we’re going to crash.’ We were miles from any land and then only seconds from impact – the engine fired.” The mid-air drama lasted about 90 seconds, but as Iddon said: “It was the longest minute-and-a-half I can remember.”

Cronin on nostalgia radio trip
As well as revisiting the 1940s in his role of Dave Sullivan in The Sullivans, actor Paul Cronin (pictured) is tackling nostalgia on Melbourne radio with a new weekly program, Remember When. The three-hour program, on Melbourne’s 3AW, examines the events of the times from 1938 through to the present day. It is Cronin’s first radio show but, according to 3AW’s Leveda Lynch, he settled right in: “He was nervous for the first five minutes and then he began enjoying himself. We all thought he was very good, and we had a great reaction from the public.” Remember When is scheduled to run for 13 weeks while football is off-season, but if ratings indicate public support then it may continue.

Rolf Harris for ABC
Rolf Harris will visit Australia in December to discuss plans for seven one-hour variety specials to be produced by ABC in mid-1980. The format of the shows will be discussed at the meetings, but Executive Producer Ric Birch said: “Rolf’s management are very keen to do them although nothing has been signed yet. We’ll be thrashing out all the details in December.” The specials are likely to be made in Sydney, though Birch said that they would like to spend a week on location for filming, but this may be restricted by Harris’ scheduled club appearances in Sydney.

Briefly…
Actress Pat McDonald scarcely had her leg out of plaster, after a knee operation in August, when she was off to Perth to appear in a telethon. Next week she flies to Adelaide for another.

Nine Network’s Pete Smith, a devoted football hater, has won the Anti Football League’s medal for least service to football in 1979. The award was presented at an empty Melbourne Cricket Ground two days before the VFL Grand Final.

John Walton, the young actor who has starred in The Young Doctors and The Sullivans, is returning to the stage to play the title role of Hamlet with the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Clive Hale (pictured), the host of ABC’s Nationwide, has admitted that it has taken some adjustment to settling in to the new show after ten years on This Day Tonight, where he was often known to ad-lib or editorialise: “The sort of flippancy on This Day Tonight would look out of place on a more serious program like Nationwide. I must admit that after ten years on TDT, I enjoy being less flippant.” A budding artist off-screen, Hale has admitted to wanting to approach ABC management about ideas for arts programs.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”When I read in TV Times that Peter Lochran had been nominated for a Sammy as best actor, I felt really pleased. In my opinion, he is the best actor on Australian TV, and thoroughly deserves recognition. The Young Doctors is the best show on TV and it deserves to win all the awards it can.” F. Gregory, NSW.

“I want to thank TEN10 Sydney for putting on the late John Wayne’s movies. I have been a fan of his for a long time and I enjoyed every last one of his movies.” N. Hunter, NSW.

“I was very disgusted with a program on ATV0 Melbourne recently called So You Want To Be A Centrefold. I realise that this adults-only rated program was on at a reasonable hour, but I do think that the only reason it was shown was for men to gloat over. It made me sick to see those girls flaunt themselves in front of the camera. It seemed to me that this program was encouraging young girls to become nude centrefolds. I think that females should think of themselves as being more than just cheap pin-ups for men’s girlie magazines.” S. Pye, VIC.

“I would like to thank TEN10 for screening East Of Eden, starring the late James Dean. It is the most superb performance by any actor I have ever seen.” L. Madkasoa, NSW.

“If ABC has a transmission fault, they apologise and play some peaceful music while repairs are under way. If our local commercial channel, RTQ7 (Rockhampton), has a fault they just put a silly picture on the screen… no apology, no music.” R. Ramming, QLD.

What’s On (October 20-26):
HSV7 presents live coverage of the Caulfield Cup race meeting on Saturday afternoon, hosted by Bill Collins. ABC presents live coverage of International Men’s Hockey, from Melbourne’s Royal Park West.

Singer-songwriter Leon Berger represents Australia in the Pacific Song Contest, held in Christchurch, New Zealand, and shown in a delayed telecast on ABC on Saturday night.

On Sunday afternoon, ABC presents live coverage of the Castrol Six Hour Race from Amaroo Park, while ATV0 crosses to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion for the Custom Credit Indoor Tennis Championships with commentators Ray Warren, Bill Bowrey and John Newcombe.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the growth of Australia’s population over the last 80 years – from 3.7 million in 1901 to almost 14 million in 1979. Host Peter Luck looks at the elements that make up Australia’s population, including racial composition and class structure.

On Monday night, HSV7 crosses to the Perth Concert Hall for a direct telecast of the crowning of Miss Australia 1980 and Miss Australia Charity Queen. ATV0 presents a repeat screening of the movie version of the former TV series The Box.

Same as last week, TV Times lists American shows including My Three Sons, WKRP In Cincinnati, Diff’rent Strokes, Angie and Happy Days in place of Family Feud and The Sullivans due to industrial action at GTV9, though The Young Doctors appears to be back in the schedule.

Sunday night movies: Some Kind Of Miracle (HSV7), The French Connection (GTV9), The Paper Chase (ATV0). ABC presents Mismatch, the second in the series of Australian plays, starring Jane Harders, Stephen O’Rourke, Margo Lee, John Bluthal and Michael Aitkens.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 20 October 1979. ABC/ACP

50 Years of TVW7 Perth

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:19:00 +0000

Perth’s first TV station TVW7 celebrates its 50th birthday with a two-hour special this Friday night.

Hosted by Yvette Mooney and Simon Reeve, both familiar TVW names dating back over 20 years, the program will look back at the life of the channel that has dominated Perth television for most of the last half century.

The program will also pay special tribute to the channel’s newsreading team of Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr, who have been reading the news together for TVW7 since 1984 – making them quite possibly the longest-serving newsreading team in Australian television.

The program is the lead-up to a staff reunion of TVW7 employees to be held on Sunday and also coincides with this month’s launch of an exhibition by Australian Museum of Motion Picture Technology to celebrate 50 years of television in Western Australia, covering the development of Perth channels TVW7, ABW2, STW9, NEW10 and regional networks GWN and WIN.

Channel Seven Perth: The First 50 Years. Friday 16 October, 8.30pm. TVW7 Perth/GWN Western Australia.

External Links:
Australian Museum of Motion Picture Technology
WA TV History

Gordon Boyd

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Gordon Boyd, TV host of the 1960s and 1970s, has died in Sydney at the age of 86.

A familiar name in the United Kingdom, Boyd first came to Australia in the 1960s to star in a stage musical, Wildcat, that folded after eight weeks but by then Boyd and his wife Joan had already developed a taste for Australian sunshine and planned to stay.

A series of guest appearances on ABC’s The Magic Of Music led to Boyd hosting his own show, The Gordon Boyd Show, in 1964.

In 1965, Boyd started five years as host of the weekly talent quest Showcase, one of the first ‘national’ variety shows to come out of the 0-10 Network when it was formed in the mid-‘60s. The show won a TV Week Logie in 1966 for outstanding contribution to development of talent.

He returned to host the show when it was revived by the Nine Network in 1974.

Boyd also hosted 1960s daytime shows Gordon And The Girls and The Marriage Game. He also made guest appearances in A Country Practice in the ‘80s and All Saints in 2003.

Source: Daily Telegraph, IMDB, Australian Television Information Archive, Ozgames, TV Times 24 June 1964, TV Times 25 May 1974

1979: October 13-19

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:09:00 +0000

TV’s Big Night Out
TV Times presents a list of all the nominations for this week’s Australian Film and Television Awards – the Sammys – to be held at Sydney’s Seymour Centre and televised through the Seven Network.

Among the television categories:

Best Variety Program: The Don Lane Show, Hollywood (TV Follies), Julie Anthony’s Gold Coast Special, Marcia’s Music, Miss Universe, Peter Couchman Tonight, The Saturday Night Show, It’s A Long Way There (Little River Band)

Best Light Entertainment: Family Feud, The Mike Walsh Show, Sound Unlimited, Nightmoves, Parkinson In Australia, Tasmanian New Faces, This Is Your Life.

Best Drama: Against The Wind, Cop Shop, The Oracle, Prisoner, Run From The Morning, The Restless Years, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors.

Best Current Affairs: A Day In The Life (TVW7 Perth), Eleven AM, Four Corners, Glenn Taylor’s Today Tonight (QTQ9 Brisbane), Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane (BTQ7 Brisbane), 60 Minutes, Terry Willesee’s Perth (STW9 Perth).

Best News Coverage: Bellevue Hotel Demolotion (ABQ2 Brisbane), Cadoux Earthquake (ABW2 Perth), Don Dunstan Resignation (NWS9 Adelaide), Heathcote Bushfires (TCN9 Sydney), Mackay-Townsville Cyclone (BTQ7 Brisbane), Mundy/Cribb Recapture (TEN10 Sydney), Strike after Unionist Arrests (TVW7 Perth), The O’Meally Interview (HSV7 Melbourne), Pentridge Riot (GTV9 Melbourne), Policeman’s Protest (QTQ9 Brisbane), Recapture of John Cribb (ATN7 Sydney), Skylab Report (STW9 Perth), Truro Murders Arrest (SAS10 Adelaide).

Best Children’s Series: Carrots, The Curiosity Show, Fat Cat And Friends, Flapper’s Factory, Here’s Humphrey, Kids Only, Nine Will Fix It, Play School, Romper Room, Rupert’s Roundabout, Shirl’s Neighbourhood, Stinger, Top Mates, Wombat.

Best Comedy Program: Neutral Ground (Tickled Pink), The Norman Gunston Show, Rugby League New Faces.

Best Variety Performer: Julie Anthony, Marcia Hines, Don Lane, Garry McDonald, Mike Walsh.

Best Actor in a TV Series: Peter Adams (Cop Shop), Michael Aitkens (Run From The Morning), Michael Caton (The Sullivans), Paul Cronin (The Sullivans), John Gregg (The Oracle, pictured), John Hamblin (The Restless Years), Gerard Kennedy (Against The Wind), Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Terry Norris (Cop Shop).

Best Actress in a TV Series: Liz Alexander (Golden Soak), Lorraine Bayly (The Sullivans, pictured), Carol Burns (Prisoner), Liddy Clark (Ride On Stranger), Sheila Florance (Prisoner), Vivean Gray (The Sullivans), Vikki Hammond (The Sullivans), Mary Larkin (Against The Wind), Joanna Lockwood (Cop Shop), Kerry McGuire (Against The Wind).

Best Writer (TV Series): Bronwyn Binns/Ian Jones (Against The Wind), Morris Gleitzmann (The Norman Gunston Show), Peter Kinloch (Against The Wind), Peter Luck/David Salter (This Fabulous Century), Tony Morphett (Against The Wind), Terry Stapleton (Cop Shop), David Stevens (The Sullivans), Reg Watson (Prisoner), Peter Yeldham (Run From The Morning).

Other TV categories: Chips Rafferty Memorial Award, Best New Talent, Best Sports Coverage, Best Documentary Program, Best TV Play, Best Actor in a Single TV Performance, Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, Best Writer (TV Play), Best Art Direction, Best Editing.

Gold Sammy (female): Julie Anthony, Lorraine Bayly, Zoe Bertram, Carol Burns, Michelle Fawdon, Vivean Gray, Vikki Hammond, Marcia Hines (pictured), Caroline Jones, Joanna Lockwood, Kerry McGuire, Diana McLean, Judy Morris, Julieanne Newbould, Joanne Samuel.

Gold Sammy (male): Harry Butler, Roger Climpson, Robert Coleby, Paul Cronin, Clive Hale, John Hamblin, John Hargreaves, Sir Robert Helpmann, Gerard Kennedy, Don Lane, Peter Lochran, Peter Luck, Garry McDonald, Richard Moir, Bert Newton, Michael Pate, Mike Walsh, Peter Wherrett.

Movie bombing was real thing!
The telemovie The John Sullivan Story created an exclusive world first when it was shown on Australian TV recently. The telemovie’s sequences of the London bomb blitz was not special effects but was footage of the actual event. It is believed to be the only colour footage of the era in existence and the only time it has been shown publicly was in The John Sullivan Story. Associate Producer Allan Hardy said it was “pure luck” that the film was uncovered: “Producer John Barrington rang a contact in London and asked if there was any colour film of London during the blitz. I don’t think either he or the contact expected that there was so you can imagine how thrilled we were when a reel turned up. Apparently an English woman had a habit of filming bomb salvage scenes at night. She used to store the camera under her bed… where it remained until recently. We now have the exclusive rights to what could be the only known colour film taken during the way. It was a real stroke of luck and it hardly cost us anything.”

Will the real Pantyhose Murderer please stand up!
Producing a long-running TV series is not without its hazards and there isn’t a series that hasn’t given its writers challenges when things might go wrong or even when there are circumstances beyond the producers’ control. Bill Harmon and Johnny Whyte, two of the names behind the phenomenally successful Number 96, cheerfully admit that mistakes were made during the show’s six years in production. When the mystery “knicker snipper” was taunting the residents of Number 96 in 1972, three RSL clubs, noticing a downturn in attendances, chose to disclose the name of the attacker before it was known publicly. Problem was, the scriptwriters didn’t even know it at that stage either. Whyte recalls, “we had no idea who it was. We had implied it was someone in the block of flats, but we were halfway through the story before we sat down and decided who it would be.” Knowing that the series could not lose its two male sex symbols, Tom Oliver or Joe Hasham (pictured), they had little choice but to choose character Alan Cotterell (Mark Hashfield) as the culprit. Sometimes scriptwriters just plainly make mistakes. Both Harmon and Whyte recall one of their greatest regrets was allowing gay Dudley Butterfield (Chard Hayward) to turn bi-sexual, in the hope that giving him a female love interest would broaden his appeal with viewers. The change did not work and Hayward left the show six months later. Some of TV’s other dramas have also had their scriptwriting downfalls. Hugh Stuckey, script editor for The Restless Years, admitted they were left with a dilemma when Julieanne Newbould decided to leave the series, leaving her on-screen husband, played by Malcolm Thompson, in limbo while Newbould’s character was said to be away on what must be the world’s longest cruise, while producers hope to coax Newbould back into the series. It is a dilemma that is still yet to be resolved. James Davern, producer of the former ABC series Bellbird, says that sometimes dilemmas are brought on when actors or actresses sometimes put a higher price on themselves which can conflict with production budgets: “That’s always the problem of a producer of a long-running serial. If they insist, then you have to write them out. The easiest way to do that is to kill the character.” Prisoner producer Ian Bradley has regretted writing out the character of prison counsellor Bill Jackson (Don Barker) by having him killed in an early episode of the series: “I wrote him out in the interests of a dramatic storyline and, after the initial impact, I have wishing I could bring him back ever since.” Sometimes when a favourite cast member leaves a show, scriptwriters do resort to bringing them back as another character. After Number 96 killed off Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) in the famous bomb-blast episode, producers later brought him back as Whittaker’s twin brother, Andrew.

Prisoner captures Jeanie the Cop Shop escapee
Actress Jeanie Drynan could have had an ongoing role in the popular series Cop Shop, but instead put love before career as she recently married writer/director Tony Bowman and as they are based in Sydney she decided she did not want to leave Sydney for an indefinite period for Cop Shop, based in Melbourne. Instead, she has opted for a short-term role in another Melbourne-based series, Prisoner, which will see her away from Sydney for only a matter of weeks.

Briefly…
Prisoner co-stars and real-life newlyweds Peita Toppano and Barry Quin (pictured) are said to be leaving the top-rating 0-10 Network series. Quin is to take the lead role in an upcoming ABC mini-series, Lucinda Brayford, while Toppano is negotiating for a role in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

The Young Doctors star Karen Petersen doesn’t usually believe in “living” a role. That is, until her character Erica Shaw was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “After reading the research notes and meeting people with MS, I knew the only way I could do the part was to live it – and I was always one actress who didn’t believe in doing that.” The episodes of Erica’s diagnosis were produced in association with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of NSW and Petersen is now closely involved with the society and hoped to do voluntary work for the organisation.

The 0-10 Network has announced it has bought Film Australia’s five-part documentary series, The Human Face Of China. Pat Cleary, programming director at TEN10 Sydney, said the series could be screened by the end of the year.

Peter Whitford, John Howard and Judy Davis have signed up for roles in upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The standard of TV commercials has fallen disastrously in the past couple of years. I almost wish the battle against cigarette ads had been lost.” R. Milton, NSW.

“It amazes me that a TV channel with the number of viewers that NBN3 Newcastle has never seems to worry about public opinion. Yet another enjoyable series which is only half finished is to be axed. The series, Dallas, is apparently very popular with viewers. During the last Christmas holidays all midday movies on NBN3 were adults movies, but on the day school resumed the channel screened Tom Thumb. NBN3 also seems to be one of the few channels in Australia that doesn’t screen The Sullivans. They did screen it for a few weeks, then axed it, much to viewers’ disappointment.” V. Skinner, NSW.

“I would like to see Tony Bonner back in Cop Shop even though his character, McKenna, is supposed to be dead. He was really fantastic and made the program fantastic. Now it is not so interesting. Also Danni (Paula Duncan) is great and it’s good that she still holds the show together. It would have been good for McKenna and Danni to get married, because they would have made a good couple.” S. Hatfield, WA.

“We like the ABC program Whodunnit, but it is on at an awkward time. We like to watch Eight Is Enough which finishes at 8.30pm on HSV7, but Whodunnit starts at 8.15pm. So we either turn over three-quarters of the way through Eight Is Enough or turn to Whodunnit at 8.30pm, and then it’s not much use watching it because it’s quarter over.” T. Mein and C. Searle, VIC.

What’s On (October 6-12):
Weekend sport includes Garden State PGA Championships, live from Mordialloc, Melbourne (ABC) and the South Pacific Classic tennis, live from Milton courts, Brisbane (HSV7). On Saturday night, HSV7 presents live coverage of the final of the tennis Super Challenge, from Festival Hall, Melbourne.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the history of three popular sports in Australia – surfing, cricket and football – as well a look at the career of tennis champion Evonne Cawley and Hawaiian swimming champion Kahanomoku, who introduced Australia to the sport of surfriding in 1915.

A repeat of controversial Australian movie Wake In Fright, starring Chips Rafferty, Jack Thompson, John Meillon, Buster Fiddess and Dawn Lake, screens Monday night on ATV0.

On Wednesday night, HSV7 presents the fourth annual presentation of the Australian Film and TV Awards – the Sammys – live from Sydney’s Seymour Centre and hosted by Roger Climpson.

Friday night presents a clash of movie epics, with 55 Days At Peking (HSV7), The Guns Of Navarone (GTV9) and The Nun’s Story (ATV0). All three movies are three hours in length.

TV Times advises: “As TV Times went to press, GTV9 had removed screenings of Family Feud, The Young Doctors and The Sullivans due to an industrial dispute. The channel advises that if workers resume, all three shows will be screened as normal.” As a result, GTV9 has advised replacement programs My Three Sons, Celebrity Charades and Angie in the respective timeslots.

Sunday night movies: Gold (HSV7), Murder By Natural Causes (GTV9), The Corn Is Green (ATV0). ABC screens Burn The Butterflies, the first in the series of Australian Plays, starring Ray Barrett, Fred Parslow, Gerard Maguire, Monica Maughan, George Mallaby and Alan Hopgood.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 6 October 1979. ABC/ACP

Hey Hey what a week!

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Last Saturday, the Nine Network dropped a bombshell when it announced a last-minute programming change that would see a scheduled repeat of the first Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion special replaced by a movie. It was later reported that it was the show’s producer and host Daryl Somers who made the last-minute programming request to Nine, apparently to avoid diluting interest in the show in the lead-up to the second reunion special airing this week. It was a risky move that resulted in protests from die-hard fans of the show that only days earlier had cheered the show’s return and its subsequent high ratings.

But the fallout from the last-minute programming change instigated by Somers was nothing compared to the international media storm that followed as a result of an act in the mock talent quest segment, Red Faces.

The Jackson Jive saw five performers, of multi-racial origin, paying a tribute to the famous ‘70s pop group The Jackson Five, with four of the Jackson brothers depicted with ‘blackface’ and recently-departed Michael Jackson shown with a white-painted face. The act drew instant criticism from American performer Harry Connick Jnr, a guest on the show and one of the judging panel on Red Faces. Connick Jnr gave the act a score of zero, though in the world of Red Faces that can unknowingly be as much a compliment as a criticism.

The reaction from the act instantly went viral as what was intended as a light-hearted tribute to the Jackson brothers sparked outrage around the world, particularly in the United States where such such blackface portrayals are deemed hugely offensive. Suddenly, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and Australia as a whole was widely condemned by some high-profile commentators around the world, while reaction in Australia has ranged from outrage to cries of political correctness gone mad.

Even Malaysian-born singer Kamahl, whose phrase “Why are people so unkind?” became a staple of Hey Hey It’s Saturday over the years and who also appeared on the show many times over its long run, has threatened legal action against the show after a cartoon image of him was used as part of the Jackson Jive performance.

The fallout from the skit lays a dark shadow over what would otherwise be applauded by Nine and Somers as a very successful reunion venture – highlighted in the second show by the return of HHIS favourites Ossie Ostrich, whose close friend Ernie Carroll has come out of retirement for the reunion, and Jacki MacDonald, who has led a very low-profile existence in Queensland since leaving television in the mid-1990s.

A spokesperson for the Nine Network has said that the reaction from the Jackson Jive skit will have no bearing on whether or not the show is returned in an ongoing format.

And tonight, Nine’s digital channel GO! will screen a repeat of both Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion shows in a five-hour marathon. Though it is expected that the Jackson Jive performance will be omitted.

Source: Herald Sun, Herald Sun, Herald Sun

1979: October 6-12

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Cover: Bill Bixby (The Incredible Hulk)

ABC plans a summer of golf
ABC plans to screen nine golf tournaments over spring-summer circuit, including the Dunhill Australian Open, which will be the largest single golf coverage ever undertaken by the broadcaster. For the Open, 26 hours of coverage will involve 150 personnel, 25 cameras, $8 million worth of equipment, 11 kilometres of camera cable and 40 microphones. As well as the Dunhill competition, ABC will cover the Garden State PGA Tournament, Westlakes Classic, NSW Open, Australia PGA Championship, Australian Open, Australia-Japan Trophy, Victoria Open and the Australian Masters.

Why Gwen Plumb wants the last laugh
Gwen Plumb says she was born with a sense of adventure, and that could explain why she never married. “I never wanted to pitch my tent in the one place for 50 years. I always wanted to act and travel, I never wanted to be harnessed. I never met a man who said I could I remain an individual after we were married.” Beginning her career as a copywriter at a Sydney radio station, Plumb later (pictured) found herself being cast in local radio dramas and became nationally known in ABC radio serials Blue Hills and The Lawsons. After a lengthy stay overseas, Plumb returned to Australia to host Women’s World for ABC in the 1960s and then switched to new Sydney channel TEN10 for a daily chat show, Gwen. She was then cast as the gossiping Ada Simmonds in The Young Doctors when that started late in 1976. Travelling, particularly overseas, is one of her greatest enjoyments. “I last went to Europe about four years ago and since then I’ve been to New Zealand and the New Hebrides. I’d love to go to New York this Christmas because I want to see a lot of theatre and TV. I know a lot of people there who could be into all sorts of interesting things.”

New series for Toothbrush gang
New episodes of The Toothbrush Family, the cartoon series created by Australian Marcia Hatfield and currently viewed by millions across Australia, the United States (via the national Captain Kangaroo program on CBS), Canada and New Zealand, are to be produced in Australia. For the last two years the cartoon has been produced in Canada but the next batch of five-minute episodes are to be produced by the Grundy Organisation in Sydney. The new episodes are to coincide with a national promotional campaign to promote dental hygiene. The Toothbrush Family currently airs in Australia on the Nine Network’s Super Flying Fun Show in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and commences next month in an afternoon timeslot in South Australia.

Briefly…
John Bluthal joins the cast of the upcoming ABC series And Here Comes Bucknuckle, reprising the role originally performed by Frank Wilson in the show’s predecessor And The Big Men Fly. Production starts this month and the series is expected to air next year.

Mr Squiggle has just celebrated his 20th anniversary on television, and now his creator Norman Hetherington is planning a one-hour fantasy drama featuring Mr Squiggle and his regular offsiders Miss Jane (Jane Fennell), Bill Steamshovel, Gus the Snail, Kelly the Worm and Blackboard.

Yugoslav actress Vera Plevnik, from the telemovie The John Sullivan Story, gets a chance to do something different playing an Ocker farm girl in an upcoming episode of Young Ramsay.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Congratulations to Sydney’s TEN10 for the rodeo specials they have been running. Everything about the programs was first-class – except, maybe, the late-night viewing time.” L. Haywood, NSW.

“I’m getting a little sick and tired of all the criticism of our Aussie series (eg. Cop Shop, Skyways). No doubt the people who complain are the same people who get engrossed in the American “soapies” during the day. At least I get a good old laugh during our programs. Complaints of homosexuality and illicit sex scenes are also a little unreasonable in comparison. Skyways has “killed off” lesbianism, and evidence of sexual encounters is portrayed “before” and “after” – by the wearing of a bath robe or towel. We very rarely go into the bedroom with them. Perhaps the critics should note that the times these shows are on is late enough for children to be in bed.” M. Brugel, NSW.

“Sydney TEN10’s presentation of the Felini film Amarcord was a disgrace. This fine film, which won Best Foreign Film at the 1974 Academy Awards, was shown at 11.10pm on a Friday night. It received no promotion at all. Why does TEN10 insist on showing fine films other than American at late hours?” R. Porter, NSW.

What’s On (October 6-12):
Saturday afternoon sport includes the Citizen Australian Seniors’ Championship (ABC), live from Manly, Sydney. HSV7 has live coverage of Davis Cup tennis from White City, Sydney, and ATV0 crosses to Flemington Racecourse for five hours of racing coverage.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the struggles of Australian Aborigines in society.

Mal Walden presents the crowning of Miss Victoria 1980, live from the St Kilda Town Hall. (HSV7, Monday)

HSV7 presents 12 hours of coverage of the Super Tennis tournament over Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday nights. The competition, held at Festival Hall in Melbourne, offers a prize money of $530,000.

0-10 Network news reporter Ken Burslem presents a one-hour special, The High Cost Of Dying. The program aims to remove some of the mystery and some of the rip-offs that occur in the dying business. Common questions on the subject of dying are tackled and answered.

In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), O’Reilly (Terry Norris) is beginning to feel something of an outcast and his loneliness leads to depression. Vic Cameron (Terence Donovan) finally confides in Kate’s (Jacqui Gordon) teacher about his past and the effect it has had upon Kate.

Sunday night movies: Petersen (HSV7) (although TV Times also had this scheduled for the week September 8-14), Murder On The Orient Express (GTV9), High Plains Drifter (ATV0). ABC presents Measure For Measure, another in the six-year BBC series of TV adaptations of the entire works of Shakespeare.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 6 October 1979. ABC/ACP

Hey Hey It’s (not on) Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 08:12:00 +0000

The Wednesday night battle between the first reunion episode of Hey Hey It’s Saturday and the return of Masterchef, in the guise of a celebrity version, was well and truly won by Hey Hey.

Daryl Somers and his gathered cast of Hey Hey It’s Saturday regulars earned a massive 2.16 million viewers (average, 5 cities) over the three-hour program and helped Nine gain a 38.7 per cent of the prime time audience, almost doubling second placed Seven (21.7 per cent). Celebrity Masterchef was well behind on 1.35 million and a repeat screening last night (Friday) was watched by another 560,000 viewers.

The Nine Network, never averse to the ‘encore presentation’ (or, to use the traditional title, ‘repeat’), had originally scheduled an ‘encore’ of Wednesday’s Hey Hey to screen tonight (Saturday) at 9.30pm – at least keeping the show’s title relevant. Now, for reasons known only by Nine, they’ve since decided to cancel tonight’s scheduled program in favour of an Adam Sandler movie, 50 First Dates, although online listings on Nine’s own website still show Hey Hey It’s Saturday.

Viewers have long been frustrated with Nine’s last-minute ad hoc programming changes and, while Hey Hey It’s Saturday was successful in bringing many viewers across to Nine, this last minute move does nothing to help reverse that frustration.

Source: TV Tonight

Foxtel makes move against Freeview

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Foxtel, in one of its biggest ever launches, is firing its next shot in the battle for Australia’s TV viewers.

Foxtel CEO Kim Williams yesterday announced a significant milestone for the company with the launch of 30 additional channels (including 12 specific-themed channels, 10 high-definition channels and 8 timeshift channels) to come this year. The new channels will bring Foxtel’s total offering to almost 200 channels.

Foxtel will also launch an online service, allowing catch-up downloading of program content, and significant upgrades to its television guide and new customer packages.

The Next Generation package will also provide viewers with a free IQ recorder, enabling multiple viewing options for Foxtel programs – live, On Demand or recorded via IQ.

News channel Sky News Australia will also increase its coverage of local news for the five major capital cities and offer improved weather reporting.

These new additions to the Foxtel platform come as the free-to-air networks (Freeview) have almost exhausted their current bandwidth for additional channels, with ABC3 and Seven’s second channel expected to launch later this year adding to digital channels ABC2, SBS2, GO! and ONEHD and high-definition simulcasts of ABC, SBS, Seven and Nine.

Foxtel Next Generation launches 15 November this year, and the Foxtel Download service launches tomorrow, Thursday 1 October.

Source: Foxtel

Will Masterchef have Daryl for dinner?

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:13:00 +0000

Quite possibly the biggest ratings battle for the year kicks off tonight when the long-awaited reunion of Hey Hey It’s Saturday goes up against the long-awaited Celebrity Masterchef.

When the Nine Network announced it was reuniting the team from Hey Hey It’s Saturday for two live-to-air specials, it was anticipated that the shows would be placed on Tuesday nights to try and dent the ratings of Seven’s hit show Packed To The Rafters and remove some of the shine off Ten’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.

Generation has since wound up its current series and, with Celebrity Masterchef headed for Wednesdays, Nine moved Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s reunion to Wednesday starting this week.

Celebrity Masterchef, featuring eighteen contestants including Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, swimmer Eamon Sullivan, The Biggest Loser’s Michelle Bridges, journalist and TV presenter George Negus, cricketer Simon Katich and comedian Josh Thomas, launches off the back of huge public support for the inaugural Masterchef Australia which was a huge ratings hit for Ten and the final recorded the highest ratings for any non-sports program since OZTAM records started in 2001.

Hey Hey It’s Saturday makes its return ten years after it was cancelled by the Nine Network. The show’s reunion comes after a swell of support generated by a Facebook campaign and has garnered immense publicity since Nine announced the specials. Host Daryl Somers will be joined by many of the show’s former team members including John Blackman, Red Symons, Molly Meldrum, Wilbur Wilde, Jo-Beth Taylor, Denise Drysdale, Livinia Nixon, Russell Gilbert and Plukka Duck.

Somers’ long-running offsider Ossie Ostrich will appear in the second reunion special next week.

Jacki MacDonald, part of the Hey Hey team for around ten years, is keeping a lower profile these days and has not been reported to be involved in the reunions.

If Hey Hey It’s Saturday can sustain popular support over its two reunion specials it may trigger negotiations for an ongoing series return.

Both shows have a huge curiosity factor behind them – Hey Hey’s return will be loaded with nostalgic charm and Celebrity Masterchef marks a return of this year’s most successful and most talked-about program format – so it is too hard to make the call as to which will win the battle between the 7.30pm and 8.30pm hour when both shows goes head-to-head.

Celebrity Masterchef. Starts Wednesday 30 September (Tonight) 7.30pm, Ten/Southern Cross Ten.
Hey Hey It’s Saturday The Reunion. Wednesday 30 September and 7 October, 7.30pm (and repeated Saturday 3 October and 10 October, 9.30pm), Nine/WIN/NBN.

Australia’s progress on digital changeover

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:50:00 +0000

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has released its second Digital Tracker quarterly summary, keeping an eye on how Australia is converting and adapting to digital television.

According to the survey, covering the period April to June 2009:

93 per cent of Australians are aware of the Government’s plan to migrate television signals over to digital. This included 85 per cent of households in the Remote and Central Australia region (where the roll-out of digital is limited so far largely to ABC and SBS) and 96 per cent of Mildura households.
49 per cent are positive towards the transition to digital TV. 15 per cent of respondents are against the digital changeover and 36 per cent are unconcerned. A fifth of those against the changeover were from households with a total annual income of less than $30,000, while almost as many were from households where the main source of income is government benefits or pension. Regional Western Australia recorded the highest rate of negativity (19 per cent) while Perth had the lowest (12 per cent).
53 per cent of Australian homes have converted their main television set or tuner to digital. This varied from 22 per cent in Remote and Central Australia to 75 per cent in Mildura.
83 per cent of Australian homes intend to convert to digital TV, though 76 per cent said they will not convert until just before the switchover date. However, less than one per cent of Australian households knew when their area would switchover completely from analogue to digital television. (The Mildura region, the first region to cutover from analogue to digital next year, recorded a 13 per cent awareness rate)
Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of Australian households were aware of what they need to do to migrate to digital television. This varied between 51 per cent in Remote Central and Eastern Australia and 83 per cent in Mildura.
31 per cent of Australians surveyed nominated better picture quality as the main benefit of digital, followed by additional channels (25 per cent), better reception (16 per cent), better quality overall (5 per cent) and better sound quality (3 per cent).
83 per cent of Australian households that have converted to digital TV are satisfied with digital TV. This varied from 63 per cent in Remote and Central Australia to 93 per cent in Perth.

More than 9900 interviews were conducted across the 33 identified changeover regions nationwide.

Source: Digital Ready

1979: September 29-October 5

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:03:00 +0000

The long, lonely Lane
Since the collapse of his much-publicised romance with architecture student Carmen van Hoorn, Don Lane (pictured) has kept a much lower profile, keeping largely to himself in his luxury $400,000 bayside home in Melbourne, and is accepting of the fact that he may not find love again: “I have sort of accepted the fact that I’m not going to find a permanent relationship. I’m trying to keep a low profile from here on in. I’m a loner, sure, but I don’t think I’m lonely. I have a couple of close friends.” Lane also admits that the demands of The Don Lane Show and other public commitments, such as his more recent theatre concert appearances, leave little room for other pursuits.

Bushie returns to film his near-death ordeal
Ron Ansell, the star of a documentary made on his real-life survival experience in the Northern Territory wilderness, is ready for criticism of his treatment of animals in the re-enactment of his lonely, near-death saga after a fishing trip down the Victoria River went horribly wrong. The 90-minute documentary, To Fight The Wild, is a production of Richard Oxenburgh Productions in association with TVW Enterprises and the Australian Film Commission, and is being considered by TV networks in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. But the 26-year-old professional bull-catcher is prepared for criticism over scenes in the re-enactment which show Ansell shooting bulls, slitting them open with his knife and eating the raw meat on the spot: “Well, I felt very strongly that if the story was going to be told on film, everything would have to be done exactly as it happened.”

A busy ARVO for kids
Peter Cousens and his young crew of Earthwatch presenters this week will co-host ABC’s special to highlight the International Year of the Child. The two-and-a-half hour program will also feature ARVO regulars Alexander Bunyip (pictured, with Earthwatch presenter Marianne Howard), Ron Blanchard, Norman Hetherington, Mr Squiggle and Miss Jane (Jane Fennell). The special presentation will highlight some of the range of programs produced by ABC’s Children’s, Education and Features departments and screened during school hours throughout the year.

A chance for the deaf to ‘hear’ PM
Deaf TV viewers will have their first chance to ‘hear’ Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser when a girl using sign-language will translate his words in a televised address to the nation on 30 September. Increasing attention is being given to deaf viewers following the formation of the Australian Centre for Visual Television (ACVT). The company has already produced a weekly five-minute program, Shhh … Don’t Say It, which has been shown during ABC’s children’s program ARVO. ACVT co-partners Alexandra Hynes and Adam Salzer have been asked to make thirteen more episodes of the show for next year and are also planning to make a half-hour pilot for a new show for ABC.

Briefly…
Prisoner guest star Jeanie Drynan, playing the role of a sophisticated lawyer, is so impressed with her on-screen wardrobe that she plans to buy the clothes for her own use after she has finished in the series.

Jacqui Gordon, the step-daughter of actor Vic Gordon, has changed her mind about becoming a mothercare nurse and is now planning an acting career after she finishes school at the end of the year. She has already won an award for her 1975 role in Sally Go Round The Moon and appeared in a guest role in Cop Shop earlier this year.

The 0-10 Network’s cameras were fast on the scene when fire engines screeched to a halt outside Sydney’s Sebel Town House Hotel. Turns out there was no fire, but rather the hotel’s fire alarm had been activated by heat from the lights being used for filming of a story for Simon Townsend’s Wonder World.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I totally disagree with M. Caffery (Viewpoint, 8 September 1979) on homosexuality being shown on Cop Shop. I cannot see anything disgusting about it – not compared with some of the filth on TV nowadays. Why on earth should homosexuality be hidden away? It’s a part of life that should be accepted, and it’s only the narrow-minded who pretend it doesn’t exist, or at least find it unacceptable.” M. Eeles, VIC.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read M. Caffery’s letter (Viewpoint, 8 September 1979). I thought that people who viewed gays as morally sick died out in the last century. M. Caffery and friends should see a doctor. This is 1979.” A Happy Gay Couple, VIC.

“We live in the country, so we only get ABC. There are too many documentaries and sports programs and repeats on this channel. If we ever get movies we have almost always seen them before.” B. Harvey, A. and L. Osbourne, WA.

“I am 12 and want to see something practical on TV for children my age. Fat Cat And Friends, Rainbow, Shadows, Porky Pig, Family Affair and Gomer Pyle aren’t very exciting for us. We want to see programs that interest us – perhaps quiz shows, or maybe serials, but not those sloppy soap operas like Days Of Our Lives.” G. Aitchison, NSW.

What’s On (September 29-October 5):
Following the Football Marathon from last Friday night, HSV7 goes into Saturday morning with live coverage of the traditional Grand Final Breakfast then follows with documentaries on two of the great names in Australian Rules football, Barry Cable and Peter Hudson. TV Times has no listing for live coverage of the Grand Final, pending approval of the live telecast from the VFL, but has HSV7 scheduled to screen a replay of the game at 6.30pm. ABC has a one-hour review of the Grand Final at 6.00pm with a full replay at 9.20pm.

Sunday is dominated by HSV7’s all-day coverage of the 1979 Hardie Ferodo 1000, the legendary motor race held at the Mt Panorama circuit in Bathurst. Coverage starts at 7.55am and continues through to 5.30pm.

ABC presents its International Year of the Child special telecast on Sunday afternoon. Featuring the presenters of children’s programs ARVO, Earthwatch and Mr Squiggle And Friends, the special includes four programs made specifically for the International Year of the Child.

In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), a man is knocked down by a motorcyclist after he gives the police some important information and Georgiou (John Orcsik) has a mysterious visitor at the station. The Press decide to give Vic Cameron (Terence Donovan) a hard time and his past comes back to haunt him. In Skyways (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), Pacific International Airport is closed down due to fog. Peter Fanelli (Bill Stalker) sets a trap for a team of pick-pockets, using George Tippett (Brian James) as a decoy.

Bush artist Jack Absalom (pictured) presents a new series on ABC, Outback. In the first episode he introduces his theory which suggests that the entire inland of Australia is rapidly becoming a huge claypan where soon nothing will grow. He looks at the animal that he considers to hold the key to preserving the land – the kangaroo.

On Friday, HSV7 presents live all-day coverage of Australia versus the US in the Davis Cup tennis from White City, Sydney.

Friday night becomes a battle of movie greats with The Wizard Of Oz (HSV7), The King And I (GTV9) and The Greatest Show On Earth (ATV0).

Sunday night movies: The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (HSV7), Rider On The Rain (GTV9), Sherlock Holmes In New York (ATV0). The Men is the final instalment of the series of A Place In The World on ABC, featuring the reunion of the key characters from the previous instalments.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 29 September 1979. ABC/ACP