Talking TelevisionAU

Sun now rises on Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

John McCallum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who you can’t vote for in the Logies…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most Popular Actress: Janet Andrewartha (Neighbours)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ken Austin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Radio News, Shepparton News

Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder DVD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1990: January 27-February 2

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

Cover: Cher

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1990: January 20-26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SBS starts up STVDIO

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1990: January 13-19

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ABC to launch news channel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Melbourne moves up from Channel 0 to 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ding Dong Denise back on daytime TV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mildura: Six months to go

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

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

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

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

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

Victoria:

Queensland:

South Australia:

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

Monica Maughan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Brian James

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: The Age, IMDB, Australian Television Information Archive

1990: January 6-12

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

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

Cover: Kylie Minogue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2009: We remember…

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:33:00 +0000

… some of those that departed us this year:

Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell

Going to party like it’s 1990…

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Each week for the past two years we’ve been documenting the events of Australian TV during the corresponding week of thirty years ago – 1978 and 1979 – as reported in TV Times magazine.

Now, sadly, we have to bring that sequence of posts to an end as we do not have a weekly archive of TV Times beyond the close of 1979 – and, indeed, the magazine title itself became obsolete in August 1980 when it was merged with rival magazine TV Week.

However, we are able to ‘skip’ a decade and can bring you TV as it was in the corresponding week of 1990 – twenty years ago – as reported in TV Week. This will start in the new year.

As we move into a new decade in the present day TV continues to come to terms with the new era of digital multi-channelling. The year will see the continued presence, and possibly even the addition, of new channels under the Freeview banner. 2009 saw the introduction of One HD, SBS2, GO!, 7TWO and ABC3, and there could be more to follow. Freeview will also continue to be challenged by Foxtel’s “next generation” offering. The year will also see community TV allowed its first steps in digital broadcasting, having waited and campaigned for many years for access to digital broadcasting spectrum, and Mildura will witness Australia’s first phase-out of analogue television signals.

The year will see the return of Masterchef Australia – will it maintain the public’s attention in 2010 as it did in 2009? – and more of Hey Hey It’s Saturday after its two reunion specials garnered massive support in 2009. There will be no more Rove but we may see a greater presence from Shaun Micallef, following the popularity of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation. The 7PM Project will continue to hope to gain stronger support – but how long will Ten pursue it? There will be a third series in the Underbelly franchise, and Neighbours will celebrate its 25th anniversary.

The TV Week Logie Awards could break with tradition and be held in Queensland, and the year will also include the Commonwealth Games, from Delhi, India, and the Winter Olympics, from Vancouver, Canada.

The new year also marks a new era in the reporting of ratings data as, for the first time, viewing by time-shifted means (e.g. viewing of programs recorded by devices such as VCRs, PVRs, etc.) will be tallied along with programs that are viewed ‘live’ to air.

The year 2010 will also mark the 50th anniversary of ABC channels ABS2 Adelaide, ABT2 Hobart and ABW2 Perth, as well as commercial station TVT6 Hobart (now a branch of WIN Television). SBS will celebrate its 30th anniversary later in the year and aggregation of Regional Queensland television will be 20 years old from the end of 2010.

And 2010 will mark ten years since the website Television.AU was established.

1979: December 29-January 4

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:25:00 +0000

Cover: Paula Duncan, John Orcsik, Joanna Lockwood, Peter Adams (Cop Shop)

TV in the ‘70s
As the 1970s come to a close, TV Times takes a look back at some of the names, programs and events that helped shape the decade that was.

1970: The Long Arm, axed after a short run on the 0-10 Network. Don Lane’s Tonight show is given the boot, as is Showcase, a year after Rod McLennan takes over as host. Bert Newton hosts The Acid Test for Nine, and a sitcom, Mrs Finnegan, draws an indifferent response on Seven. ABC launches a drama series, Dynasty, and a panel show, Would You Believe?, with Carmen Duncan and Jacki Weaver. New quiz show, Temptation, hosted by Tony Barber. Noel Ferrier hosts Australia A To Z on ABC.

1971: Networks now obliged to increase Australian-made programming by 50 per cent and must each screen six hours each month of first-run Australian drama or comedy. Matlock Police begins on the 0-10 Network, and The Godfathers starts on Nine. In Melbourne Tonight is cancelled after 14 years. Pick A Box comes to an end after 23 years on radio and television, and a new show, Money Makers, is launched with Philip Brady (pictured). Hey Hey It’s Saturday begins on GTV9. Johnny Young launches Young Talent Time and the acclaimed US children’s show Sesame Street begins on ABC. Cash-Harmon Productions present the 0-10 Network with a pilot for a new adults-only drama, Number 96. Mike Willesee launches A Current Affair on Nine. Television begins in Darwin.

1972: The Nine Network launches a private detective drama, The Spoiler, with Bruce Barry, while Rod Mullinar stars as Ryan for the Seven Network. New Zealander James Laurenson appears as half-caste Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte in the Seven Network series, Boney. Number 96 (pictured) makes its debut, and some of the opening episode is censored from viewing in Melbourne after being shown in Sydney the night before. ABC launches a new comedy show, The Aunty Jack Show. The Government announces that Australia will convert to colour television in 1975.

1973: The Mike Walsh Show makes its debut and marks a new standard for daytime television. Certain Women and Seven Little Australians begin on ABC, and Bert Newton hosts a variety series for the national broadcaster. The Price Is Right with Garry Meadows begins on the 0-10 Network.

1974: Crawford Productions launches The Box for the 0-10 Network. The Seven Network launches a variety show, JC At 8.30, to combat Number 96, but is taken off-air after 10 shows. Reg Grundy’s first soap opera, Class Of ‘74, debuts on Seven. Peter Wherrett presents the first series of motoring program Torque for ABC. Gordon Chater and Gwen Plumb star in an ABC comedy, Mac And Merle (pictured). The gold rush of the 1850s is recreated in the ABC series, Rush, starring John Waters. A new pop music show, Countdown, is launched on ABC. All networks are given the go-ahead to broadcast test colour transmissions. The Nine Network launches a telethon to raise relief funds after Cyclone Tracy wipes out Darwin.

1975: All networks convert to full-scale colour transmission on 1 March. Cash-Harmon follows up Number 96 with an early-evening series for Nine, The Unisexers, which is taken off the air after three weeks. Graham Kennedy (pictured) is banned from appearing on live TV after his suspect “crow call”. Mike Willesee hosts This Is Your Life for the Seven Network and Garry Meadows hosts a game show, High Rollers. Don Lane returns to Australia to launch The Don Lane Show on Nine. An end of an era as Crawford cop shows Division 4 and Homicide are both cancelled.

1976: The 0-10 Network adapts the British program It’s A Knockout as Almost Anything Goes. A new sitcom, The Bluestone Boys, makes light of life in prison. The Nine Network launches two new early-evening series, The Young Doctors and The Sullivans. The Young Doctors is axed after a few weeks on air but given a reprieve following public reaction. TV Times, in association with the Seven Network, present the first Sammy Awards. The Ernie Sigley Show is abruptly axed following an off-air outburst by the show’s host directed at Kerry Packer and producer Peter Faiman.

1977: Number 96 and The Box are both cancelled by the 0-10 Network. Bellbird comes to an end on ABC after ten years, and Homicide winds up on Seven after 12 years. Graham Kennedy returns to TV as host of Blankety Blanks. The Naked Vicar Show is launched on ABC, and Benny Hill makes a series of specials in Australia for the 0-10 Network. The Seven Network launches Glenview High and Cop Shop, and 0-10 launches The Restless Years. Tony Barber (pictured) returns to TV as host of Family Feud. The US mini-series Roots attracts high ratings.

1978: ABC debuts quiz show Mastermind and a light-hearted panel show, Micro Macro (pictured). The Seven Network screens its landmark mini-series Against The Wind. A Current Affair is axed by the Nine Network, and Monday Conference winds up on ABC. The comedy series Tickled Pink begins on ABC. The 0-10 Network launches The Steve Raymond Show in response to losing The Mike Walsh Show to Nine.

1979: ABC re-launches its afternoon children’s programming block as ARVO. Peter Luck presents documentary series This Fabulous Century for Seven. Airport drama comes to Seven with Skyways, and the 0-10 Network’s Prisoner becomes a hit. Nationwide marks a new era of current affairs for ABC, replacing This Day Tonight. The Nine Network takes a costly gamble with its new current affairs show, 60 Minutes. New dramas The Oracle, Golden Soak and Twenty Good Years air on ABC. New requirements for local children’s TV programming lead to new shows Simon Townsend’s Wonder World and Shirl’s Neighbourhood. Hey Hey It’s Saturday returns to TV after the ill-fated The Daryl And Ossie Show on the 0-10 Network. The Special Broadcasting Service presents a series of multicultural programs on ABC.

Young Doc’s sidetrack
The Young Doctors star Eric Oldfield has turned his talents to pop music. The former star of The Godfathers and one-time Cleo centrefold (pictured) has recorded Girls On The Beach, to be released by the Grundy Organisation. Grundy’s publicity manager Felicity Goscombe defends the song as being purely commercial: “Why not? He’s good looking, has a good voice and is such a change from the ‘uglies’. We’re trying to bring back some entertainment to the music business – and a lot of glamour.”

Voyage to Greece along Yarra
The producers of the 0-10 Network’s weekly Greek variety show, Grecian Scene, have produced a Melbourne-based Christmas special for national distribution in Greece. Grecian Scene co-host Olga Davis described the show as “a typical party, with Greek food and wines, music, songs and dancers. A traditional Greek Christmas celebration with an Australian background.” The special, filmed on board a paddle-steamer cruising the Yarra River, aired in Melbourne last week. “The Greek TV station bought the show for its national network. They seemed to think it a good idea, to show people some part of the life their relatives live in Australia,” Davis told TV Times.

Timeless town
In re-creating Sydney Town, circa-1788, for the upcoming mini-series The Timeless Land, a great deal of research and design went into constructing cottages, barns and buildings of the period, including an impressive two-storey Government House – but had it not been for modern-day plastic the reconstructed town could never have happened. The cottages have timber frames, with sheets of clear plastic moulded into the shape of timber logs and wooden roof shingles. Supervising designer George Liddle told TV Times, “We wouldn’t have had a hope of being able to afford to build the town if it hadn’t been for vacuum-formed plastic sheeting. Each of these sheets costs $2, which means we were able to build a cottage for around $500, instead of at least four times the price for timber, and four times quicker – a great economy.” The reconstructed town is situated on a private properly in Kellyville, outside of Sydney, which the producers have rented. Apart from offering the perfect scenery the property has a large dam, which is being used as a Sydney Harbour backdrop. The Timeless Land, starring Michael Craig, Angela Punch McGregor (pictured) and Nicola Paget and a supporting cast including Noel Trevarthen, Rod Mullinar, Peter Cousens, David Gulpilil, Anna Volska, Patrick Dickson and Arnhem Land tribesman Charles Yunupingu, is expected to go to air on ABC around mid-1980.

Briefly…
Actress Kerry Armstrong (pictured) has left Prisoner and taken up the role of another country girl, the niece of Fay (Kris McQuade) in Skyways: “I don’t know why I always get cast as a country girl – maybe it’s because of my big leg muscles. I got them from dancing school.” After she’s finished on Skyways, Armstrong will be appearing in the upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge, now in production for the 0-10 Network.

Young Talent Time cast member Bobby Dreissen is recovering from injuries after a hit-run incident in Melbourne. The 13-year-old was riding a bicycle when he was hit by a car. “I was frightened more than anything else. I hadn’t a clue what was happening at the time – one minute I was pedalling along, the next I’m rolling about on the street in agony.” Despite injuries to his back and hands, Dreissen continued to meet his commitments to Young Talent Time, performing the day after the incident.

Helen Morse is tipped to win the lead female role in the upcoming mini-series A Town Like Alice.

Peggy Toppano and Lorrae Desmond, who play two sisters who run a bookstore in the new series Arcade, are finding work positively absorbing. “Sometimes I get so engrossed in all the fascinating books on the set that I have to drag myself away to rehearse my lines,” Toppano told TV Times.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I just cannot resist commenting on Tracey Yesberg’s letter (Viewpoint, 24 November 1979) regarding So You Want To Be A Centrefold. Anyone with such narrow views was under no obligation to watch, but naturally curiosity wins again. I am also female, and also watched, as I am the lone female in our family and I was curious. I agree it was trash but something different for all the wide-eyed men. I personally admire the models for having the guts to be so uninhibited in front of the TV cameras, and, anyway, there are far more important morals in today’s corrupt society to worry about, and nude models are certainly not one of them.” J. Lewy, NSW.

“I would like to see some of Gracie Fields’ movies on TV. They’ve done festivals of movies to honour stars like John Wayne and Elvis Presley, so why not Gracie? I am 71, and used to live near Gracie in Rochdale, Lancashire. As a matter of fact I sing some of her songs as a member of the Country Women’s Association concert party in Wollongong, NSW.” B. Lindop, NSW.

What’s On (December 29-January 4):
HSV7’s coverage of the Australian Open tennis, live from Kooyong, Melbourne, continues from Saturday through to Wednesday. From Thursday, attention shifts to Hobart for the Australian Hardcourt Championships.

New Year’s Eve includes ATV0’s coverage of the Festival of Sydney – New Year’s Eve Concert from the Sydney Opera House, hosted by Rolf Harris and including appearances by John St Peeters, Marcia Hines, Jon English, The Angels and the Combined Pipe Band of Sydney. The 5-and-a-half hour telecast includes Sydney’s spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks to signal the arrival of the new year and the new decade.

HSV7 farewells 1979 with overseas specials Dick Clark And A Cast Of Thousands and Elton John At Wembley, before New Year’s greetings at midnight. At 12.02am, Lee Simon presents a special New Year edition of Nightmoves. Meanwhile, GTV9 presents the Concert Of The Decade, featuring highlights from the recent 2SM/Moove Festival from the steps of the Sydney Opera House. Highlights from the day’s cricket between Australia and the West Indies airs at 10.00pm, with the 1970 movie Song Of Norway at midnight.

ABC’s New Year’s Eve starts with the People’s Command Performance, from Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, featuring Joan Rivers, Chubby Checker, Vincent Price, Rod Stewart, Jerry Lewis and Lainie Kazan. At 9.40pm, Gregory Peck and Ann-Margret present A Holiday Tribute To The Radio City Music Hall, followed at 11.10pm with New Year’s Rocking Eve, a concert featuring Blondie, Village People and Barry Manilow. Then, at 12.40am, a concert special from Elton John that was recorded on Christmas Eve, 1974.

On New Year’s Day, HSV7 crosses to Perth at 6.00pm for the annual Perth Cup and GTV9 has more cricket from 4.00pm. Later in the evening, ABC presents the Edinburgh Military Tattoo 1979, and ATV0 presents a re-run of the British mini-series, Elizabeth R.

Wednesday night’s Faces Of The Eighties features politician Simon Crean, who, at the age of 30, is one of the rising stars of the Labor movement.

Sunday night movies: The Taming Of The Shrew (HSV7), My Father’s House (GTV9), A New Leaf (ATV0). After the movie, ATV0 repeats the two-hour special Thanks For The Memory, a roundup of the news and events of the 1970s, originally aired last month.

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

Remembering the Noughties

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:24:00 +0000

At this time of year, and this time of decade, comes the inevitable “lists” of some of the highlights, and possible lowlights, of the year or decade coming to a close.

So who are we to be any different? Time to look at some of the events, programs and people that have stood out for this past decade, in chronological order:

1. 2000 Today/Millennium Live. The worldwide celebration of the new millennium was well covered on TV, from the earliest celebrations in New Zealand and Australia and following the progress of celebrations throughout the world over the next 24 hours. ABC was the Australian participant in the global 2000 Today telecast, and the Nine Network tapped into its worldwide resources to present Millennium Live.

2. Sydney Olympic Games. The world’s attention was focused on Sydney for two weeks as the city presented the Games of the XXVII Olympiad in September 2000. The opening ceremony, featuring Cathy Freeman (pictured), earned the Seven Network the highest ratings received for any telecast since 1969.

3. Digital TV begins. Beginning on 1 January 2001 with a whimper rather than a bang, digital TV promised widescreen pictures, high-definition, surround sound and new channels. However, the initial roll-out of digital TV into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth came before many retailers had tuners or set top boxes to sell. As a result the launch of digital TV was seen by only a few. Although the original proposal was to have Australia fully converted to digital TV by 2008, this date has now been postponed to 31 December 2013.

4. Big Brother. An invention of Dutch TV producer John de Mol in the late-1990s, Big Brother had made itself known in a number of countries before being unleashed on Australia in 2001. All commercial networks fought to gain access to the format, but it was Ten that was to succeed and would use Big Brother as its flagship program in reaching out to the advertiser-friendly youth demographic with the reality genre. The program turned host Gretel Killeen (pictured, with contestant Merlin Luck) into a household name and created short-term suburban heroes out of some of its contestants. Some of the show’s more controversial moments attracted plenty of scorn from the public, added words like “turkey slap” into the mainstream, and Prime Minister John Howard at one time demanding the show be taken off the air. Falling ratings led to the show finally coming to an end in Australia in 2008.

5. Kath And Kim. Although the ‘high maintenance’ Kath Day (Jane Turner), her ‘hornbag’ daughter Kimberley Craig nee Day (Gina Riley) and Kim’s second-best friend Sharon Strzelecki (Magda Szubanski) were creations of the 1990s, featuring in sketch comedy shows Big Girls Blouse and Something Stupid, they got a new lease of life when ABC took up the show with eight half-hour episodes going to air in 2002. Kath And Kim gave ABC some of its highest ever ratings over its three-series run and the show added a number of words and phrases into the language - “look at moiye”, “c’ardonnay”, “foxy morons” and “muffin top”, just to name a few – and even scored an AFI award for Best TV Drama! Kath And Kim then led to a Christmas-themed telemovie, Da Kath And Kim Code, before the Seven Network took over the rights, producing a top-rating fourth series in 2007. The concept was even picked up by the American NBC network to be re-made for the US market, a feat rarely achieved by any Australian series.

6. Australian Idol. When it was announced that Network Ten was to adopt the Pop Idol franchise in Australia, there were cries that Australia had already ‘been there, done that’ with the Seven Network’s Popstars (2000-2002). But in launching Australian Idol on the back of Big Brother during 2003, Ten had a new reality-themed hit on its hands and a couple of ‘70s pop idols, Mark Holden and Marcia Hines, were given a new profile as part of the judging panel. The show transformed Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson from record producer to media celebrity and even gave serial breakfast radio pest Kyle Sandilands a shot at the TV spotlight before recent radio controversies saw him dropped from the show at the start of the 2009 season. Although Guy Sebastian (pictured) is perhaps the only Australian Idol winner to go onto any sustained pop music career, other contestants to continue some level of pop music stardom after the series include Anthony Callea, Shannon Noll, Ricki-Lee Coulter (who has also co-hosted Australian Idol in later years) and Jessica Mauboy.

7. Asia Tsunami Telethon. On 26 December 2004, a tsunami triggered by an earthquake under the Indian Ocean wreaked havoc across a number of Asian countries, with the death toll estimated to reach into the hundreds of thousands. With such massive destruction and casualties, Australia’s three commercial networks put aside their rivalries and got together to present a three-hour telethon, simulcast across all three networks. Hosting the event was Andrew O’Keefe (Seven), Eddie McGuire (Nine) and Rove McManus (Ten) with appearances by personalities from all three networks, including Gretel Killeen, Bert Newton, Ray Martin, Melissa Doyle, David Koch and Larry Emdur. The three-hour telethon raised more than $A20 million.

8. Thank God You’re Here. Working Dog Productions, producers of Frontline, The Panel, All Aussie Adventures, A River Somewhere, Funky Squad and movies The Castle and The Dish, came to Network Ten with a new twist on the improvised sketch genre. Thank God You’re Here would place unprepared performers into an established scene and be greeted with the words ‘Thank God you’re here’ before having to improvise their way through the scene without any prior knowledge of what the scene is about. Hosted by Shane Bourne (pictured, with judge Tom Gleisner), Thank God You’re Here became a ratings hit for Network Ten when it launched in 2006. The popularity of the show led to the format being franchised worldwide, with adaptations in countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Italy. After three series on Ten, the show was then picked up by the Seven Network in 2009.

9. Underbelly. Melbourne’s real-life gangland wars of the 1990s to mid-2000s provided the perfect backdrop for a TV series. Adapted from the book Leadbelly, by John Silvester and Andrew Rule, Underbelly debuted in February 2008 – but, ironically, except in Victoria where the series was banned by order of the Supreme Court due to pending trials. With liberal amounts of sex, nudity, coarse language and graphic violence as well as its real-life basis, Underbelly was a ratings hit despite not showing in its home state, although the court later permitted an edited sample of episodes to be shown in Victoria later in the year. At the time of writing the full, unedited version of Underbelly is still banned from broadcasting and sale within the state of Victoria. A second series of Underbelly, sub-titled A Tale Of Two Cities, followed the activities of the underworld drug trade in the 1970s and 1980s. A third series, Underbelly: The Golden Mile, is now in production for 2010, set in Sydney in the early'-‘90s.

10. Masterchef Australia. When Network Ten announced that it had purchased the Masterchef franchise as the replacement for Big Brother, nobody thought the show would take off. Who would watch a cooking show, six nights a week? What sort of drama or human emotion can be dragged out over a hot stove over thirteen weeks? Doesn’t keeping the contestants in a share house look a bit much like a Big Brother-rip off? What was Australia’s self-proclaimed youth network thinking? But within weeks of its debut, Masterchef Australia was showing to prove its critics and doubters wrong. There was, it seemed, plenty of human emotion and drama to be played out as contestants slaved over hot stoves in preparing high-end cuisine to achieve the status of being awarded Australia’s first Masterchef, with $100,000 prizemoney, further professional tuition and a book publishing deal. Some well-considered casting and a charismatic threesome, chefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Preston (pictured), turned out a show that gave Ten the highest ratings it had seen at 7.00pm for many years and turned food preparation into a spectator sport. The show’s grand finale was watched by over 3 million viewers (OzTAM, 5 cities), making it the highest rating non-sports telecast since OzTAM records started in 2001. The success of Masterchef Australia has led to a celebrity version being played out this year, and 2010 will see a second series of Masterchef Australia and, apparently, a junior contest as well.

Of course, this is far from being an exhaustive list of highlights, or lowlights, of the decade. What would you rate as your standout highlights of the decade?

7TWO comes to Prime

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:04:00 +0000

Christmas is coming a few days early for viewers of Prime Television with the announcement that the regional network will be carrying the Seven Network’s digital channel, 7TWO, from Wednesday 23 December.

7TWO will commence service on Prime’s digital transmission, covering Regional NSW, Regional Victoria, Canberra and the Gold Coast, at 9.00am on Wednesday on channel 62. The channel will then broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The delay in bringing 7TWO to Prime’s digital broadcast has caused some frustration among local viewers, knowing that other regional outlets such as Southern Cross Television have been relaying the channel to smaller markets Tasmania and Darwin since early this month.

7TWO launched in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Regional Queensland on 1 November.

1979: December 22-28

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:34:00 +0000

Cover (clockwise from bottom right): Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Marcia Hines, Mike Walsh, Susan Hannaford (The Sullivans), John Orcsik (Cop Shop), June Salter (The Restless Years)

Belinda buries her sexy past
Belinda Giblin doesn’t want to be known as “that sexy secretary from The Box.” She’d much rather be known as an actress who won a Sammy award this year for Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, for her role in the telemovie Say You Want Me: “That award was a compliment to my acting. It wasn’t a popularity poll win but a win because of my acting skills. It’s been the biggest buzz of my professional career.” Now featuring in the Seven Network series Skyways in a seven-week guest role, Giblin has no regrets about doing The Box, though the “sex symbol” tag was quite amusing, she says.

On wings of song…
A one-hour special to air this week on ABC, Christmas Round Australia, takes a look at the diversity of an Australian Christmas. The special program features Santa arriving by helicopter at an RAAF base in Amberley, QLD. At Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps he switches to a snow mobile, and in the remote town of Cook he arrives into town in a converted railcar. The special also looks at the multicultural diversity in celebrating Christmas, with Greek children singing Ta Kalanda, an Italian children’s choir singing Tu Scendi-Della Stella, and Aboriginal children at the Ernabella Mission singing carols translated into native languages. Christmas Round Australia is narrated by Margaret Throsby and produced by Ric Birch.

Death of Robert Moore
Robert Moore has died in Melbourne at the age of 46. The former host of Monday Conference was in Melbourne where he was working on an interview with Professor Sir Gustav Nossal for the ABC series Faces Of The Eighties. It was to be the final program in the series. ABC general manager Talbot Duckmanton paid tribute to Moore: “Bob Moore was held in widespread respect by all who encountered him. His fairness and integrity were beyond question in his interpretation of politics and the art of government – fields so frequently wracked with controversy. He was above all a professional, totally dedicated and absorbed in the job he had to do. The ABC, and public life, can ill afford to lose a figure of the calibre of Bob Moore. At 46, he had so much still to offer.” Born in Adelaide in 1932, Moore first joined ABC in 1960 and later progressed to the current affairs program Four Corners as a reporter and later producer and anchorman. In 1970 he made a ten-part series of interviews, Profiles Of Power, and the following year became the host and producer of Monday Conference, which ran for 290 editions. Moore’s death came a year to the day after the end of Monday Conference.

Best wishes from Brian for a good news decade
GTV9 newsreader Brian Naylor wishes he could promise only good news in the 1980s. “I’d be less than honest if I said I could expect the 1980s to be a happier, or more peaceful, decade than the one just past, but I can only hope that it will be.” Naylor will be the compere of Carols By Candlelight which is being telecast on the Nine Network for the first time after several years on the 0-10 Network. “I feel very strongly about how much and what kind of programs newsreaders should ally themselves with outside the news area, but this is one that I’m delighted to do. It’s a happy family night and I feel honoured working on a show that will be screened in homes at Christmas time around the country,” he told TV Times. Having just completed his first year as newsreader at GTV9, the switch from rival HSV7 has proved so successful that Naylor and GTV are now negotiating a new three-year deal after only one year of the previous three-year contract.

Are you being served down under?
John Inman will star as the flamboyant Mr Humphries in an Australian version of the comedy series Are You Being Served? Lyle McCabe Productions is set to make the 13-episode series for the 0-10 Network, with production due to start in Melbourne early in the new year. “The idea is that Mr Humphries has been sent out to Australia to help a cousin of young Mr Grace,” producer Lyle McCabe told TV Times. “All the characters in the Australian series will be similar to the ones in the British comedy. Department stores around the world seem to attract a similar kind of person.” A full cast list for the new series is expected to be announced in a few weeks.

Briefly…
The Restless Years star Ivar Kants is leaving the series after nine months as Ken Garrett. Kants, with his wife and two children, will be heading to England where he will reprise the role of footballer Geoff Hayward in David Williamson’s play The Club.

Bert Newton (pictured) is almost certain to make his movie debut in Fatty Finn, based on the famous Australian comic strip. It will be Newton’s first acting role since he appeared as a TV reporter in the short-lived comedy series, The Bluestone Boys.

Gerard Kennedy, best known from Division 4 and more recently in Against The Wind, is returning to TV with an ongoing role in Skyways as airline executive Gary Doolan.

Former Melbourne and Adelaide tonight show host Bob Moors hasn’t been seen on TV for a while, but is set to appear in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

Television producer Ron Way has left Seven’s This Is Your Life after 166 episodes to move to his latest venture, a telemovie based on the life of Johnny O’Keefe for the Reg Grundy Organisation. Way had produced O’Keefe’s early-‘60s variety show Sing Sing Sing for the Seven Network.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I want to express my great disappointment at everyone’s best actress, Lorraine Bayly, not winning anything at all at the Sammy awards. Every week we read of The Sullivans being Australia’s best show, yet it hardly rated a mention throughout the Sammys.” V. Hannaford, WA.

“I am downright annoyed at all the TV networks for using late timeslots for shows worth watching. Programs with a three-star rating are starting at 9.00pm to 10.30pm. This is ridiculous when a movie buff like myself has to get up for work the next day. What happened to the good old time of 8.30pm?” M. Mather, VIC.

“Is it any wonder that overseas celebrities often baulk at interviews by our TV reporters? Sydney TEN10’s effort with Sammy Davis Jnr is a typical example. Katrina Lee introduced him, then he was shown talking to her but we were not allowed to hear him at first before Katrina was too busy telling us what he was going to say. Then we were allowed to hear Sammy say exactly what Katrina had already said. Now by this I take it that the stations either think we are too stupid to understand such people or that these celebrities are so inarticulate that they won’t be understood.” B. Rose, NSW.

What’s On (December 22-28):
Saturday and Sunday features the closing stages of the New South Wales Open tennis tournament, live on HSV7. From Monday (Christmas Eve), attention moves to Melbourne’s Kooyong courts for the Australian Open. With a break on Christmas Day, the Open resumes on Boxing Day.

GTV9 presents England versus the West Indies in World Series Cup cricket on Sunday, live from Brisbane. Cricket resumes on Wednesday (Boxing Day) when Australia and England play in Sydney.

On Monday night (Christmas Eve), GTV9 presents live coverage of Carols By Candelight from Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Hosted by Brian Naylor (pictured) and including performances by Rolf Harris, John Farnham and Linda George.

Christmas Eve also includes overseas Christmas specials from Are You Being Served? (ABC), Carry On Christmas (HSV7), Bing Crosby: The Christmas Years (GTV9) and the Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show (ATV0). ATV0 also presents Sing We Noel, from the Mormon Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, London, and a repeat of last week’s Sydney Festival Of Carols before Midnight Mass.

HSV7 starts earlier than usual on Christmas Day with movies from 8.00am through to 1.30pm. Various Christmas and variety specials continue through the rest of the afternoon. ABC starts its day at 11.00am with Divine Service, from the Anglican Church of St Clement in Kingston, Tasmania. GTV9 has cartoons through the early morning before a Christian Television Association special at 8.30am. Humphrey B. Bear presents his own Christmas message at 9.00am before GTV9 presents a replay of Carols By Candlelight at 10.00am. Movies continue through the afternoon.

ATV0 doesn’t start on Christmas Day until 2.00pm with a special, The Magic Of Christmas, followed by the 1973 movie Miracle On 34th Street.

On Christmas night, ABC presents the Queen’s annual Christmas Message at 7.15pm followed by Christmas Round Australia at 7.30pm, showing the variety of ways in which children celebrate Christmas across Australia. Followed at 8.30pm by a Christmas episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

HSV7’s Christmas night includes The Flintstones Christmas, The Stanley Baxter Christmas Show and the Father Knows Best Christmas Reunion. GTV9 has Christmas episodes of The Odd Couple, Laverne And Shirley and Happy Days, followed by the 1978 telemovie Gift Of Love, starring Marie Osmond, Timothy Bottoms, June Lockhart, Bethel Leslie and Donald Moffatt. At 10.30pm, GTV9 presents the Queen’s Christmas message followed by the movie Godspell.

ATV0 starts Christmas night with a Young Talent Time Christmas special at 6.30pm, followed at 7.30pm by the 1954 movie White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

Boxing Day features the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, preview and official start, on ABC from 11.00am with Australian Open tennis and World Series Cup cricket on HSV7 and GTV9 respectively. In the evening, HSV7 crosses to Ascot racecourse in Perth for the annual Australian Derby.

Sunday night movies: A Christmas To Remember (HSV7), Kotch (GTV9), Christmas: The Coal Mine Miracle (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 22 December 1979. ABC/ACP

1979: December 15-21

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Cover: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek)

Countdown to the ‘80s
Countdown’s Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and producer Ted Emery have travelled the world to compile a 90-minute special edition of the show to signal the end of the 1970s. The pair interviewed more than 100 pop stars across Australia, the US, UK and Europe for the special which will air on ABC this weekend. “The program is still being sorted out but we plan to present a variety of top world stars of the decade talking about the music of the ‘70s,” Emery told TV Times. The program will also discuss the future and who is likely to be a dominant force in the 1980s. Some of the interviewed pop stars include David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, ABBA, the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers, the Boomtown Rats, Alice Cooper, Bryan Ferry, Fleetwood Mac and Australians Olivia Newton-John, Daryl Braithwaite and Glenn Shorrock.

Ilona Rodgers’ private battle
It has been a tough year for actress Ilona Rodgers, the newcomer to the cast of The Sullivans. For the New Zealand actress there was enough pressure coming into the popular series, with producers’ hopes of her taking on the high-profile star status in the wake of losing Lorraine Bayly, but Rodgers was also seven months pregnant when she took on the role. She was also tending her mother who was dying of cancer, and supporting her husband, who has stayed in NZ, trying to start up a new farming venture. But Rodgers is happy with the role in The Sullivans: “The first three months were really tough, but now I think I’m on top of it. My only complaint is that I haven’t had a good game of snooker since John Waters (pictured, with Rodgers) finished working on the show.” Her husband, David Warren, has made frequent visits to Australia since the birth of son Mischa, who has also made several trips across the Tasman to spend time with his father. “I had him with me for a long time, but it’s unfair that I should have the only benefit of watching him grow up,” Rodgers told TV Times.

TV star ‘back from the grave’
Film actor Bryan Brown has been signed up for the upcoming mini-series A Town Like Alice to play the role of Joe Harmon – a role made famous in film by Peter Finch. The mini-series, based on Nevil Shute’s novel, will go into production for the Seven Network early next year. In charge of production will be Henry Crawford, producer of Seven’s earlier success story Against The Wind. For actor Brown, his only other TV appearance has been in Against The Wind, as the Irish boyfriend of Mary Mulvane (Mary Larkin), killed in the first episode.

Those restless colonial years
When Jeff Archer of The Restless Years goes off on an overseas trip, actor Noel Trevarthen will be going back in time to play Judge Advocate Captain Collins in ABC’s eight-part drama, The Timeless Land. Trevarthen will appear in the series’ first two episodes, covering the four years from 1788 when the British landed and Captain Collins read out the proclamation claiming Australia for the Crown. “Collins is an interesting character. He was a court favourite of George III, and, as a reward for his services, the King made him judge advocate of NSW. But he was one of the few people at the time who believed in the future of NSW. A lot of his contemporaries were only interested in grabbing the land.”

Briefly…
The town of Echuca, on the Murray River, will be the star of a new mini-series adapted from Nancy Cato’s best-selling book, All The Rivers Run. Producer Hector Crawford (pictured) is currently negotiating with American interests for financial backing for the series, which is expected to be made as 10 or 12 one-hour episodes. Production is likely to start later next year.

Actress Liddy Clark (Ride On Stranger) has won the award for Best New Talent at the recent annual Penguin Awards, held in Melbourne. Other winners on the night included NWS9’s Ian Fairweather, for his contribution to children’s television, Cop Shop’s Peter Adams as Best Actor and Prisoner’s Carol Burns for Best Actress.

Janet Kingsbury has left her job as a reporter for the travel show, Bill Peach’s Holiday, to return to acting. The parting from the ABC series has been amicable, and stories featuring Kingsbury that have already been completed will go to air during 1980. Kingsbury, whose last acting job was four years ago in the movie Let The Balloon Go, has started a new role as Anne Hunter in the series The Restless Years.

Anne Sneddon (pictured), the 1979 Miss Australia, has entered TV current affairs as a reporter and co-host on BTQ7’s Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane: “I like journalism and I’d like to be the best on TV. I can wait 15 years, as long as I keep getting better. With the help I’m getting from the whole team here, I should. If I don’t, I need a hard kick.”

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I really have to laugh at the ad asking private motorists to save petrol! Why isn’t the ad directed more towards those who race cars? Don’t they waste more petrol than the private motorist?” R. Goodwin, NSW.

“Isn’t it about time women had a go where nudity on TV is concerned? How about the men getting more of their gear off? Put men in see-through baths etc. So come on and give us women something to watch on TV. After all, women watch more TV than men. There is enough of the female body being exposed, so come on men, have a go.” L. Davies, NSW.

“I have read where the Australian series Skyways has not been getting good ratings and may be axed. Why, oh why, are we subjected to such insults to our intelligence as CHiPs and Lucan? The storylines are weak, the direction terrible and the acting second-rate. Yet the Australian show is good. Myself, my family and friends have lived almost every story in real life. The acting is really first-rate and the direction is excellent. I can watch Prisoner, Cop Shop and Skyways frequently, but the above-mentioned American shows only get one or two viewings because they are appalling!” M. Arnett, NSW.

What’s On (December 15-21):
HSV7’s summer of tennis continues with the South Australian Open on Saturday and Sunday, live from Memorial Drive, Adelaide, and the New South Wales Open from Monday to Friday.

On Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, GTV9 crosses to Perth for the World Series Cup cricket between Australia and England. Then on Friday, the World Series Cup moves to Sydney for Australia versus the West Indies.

Paul Griffiths (pictured), Patrick O’Neill, Mark Hamlyn and Dale Sinclair are the team presenting Line-Up, a new weekly magazine-style program on ABC, starting Saturday night in the timeslot normally occupied by Four Corners.

In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday), Danni (Paula Duncan) has a surprise visitor who has managed to pull a few strings to obtain her address. Meanwhile, Liz (Liz Burch) and Baker (Gil Tucker) seem to be sharing many precious moments together.

Friday night on HSV7, Shirley Strachan and the gang from Shirl’s Neighbourhood appear in a one-hour special, Christmas In The Neighbourhood, featuring guest appearances by Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons. Later in the evening, ATV0 crosses to Sydney Festival Of Carols, held at the Domain and hosted by John McNally with performances by June Bronhill, Helen Zerefos, Steve Watson, Sandy Scott, Suzanne Steele, the Claire Poole Singers and the Crusade and St. Mary’s Cathedral Choirs.

Other Christmas specials to appear during the week include Bing Crosby’s Merry Olde Christmas, Bob Hope’s All-Star Christmas Show and Laugh-In’s Christmas.

Sunday night movies: Amelia Earhart (HSV7), The Entertainer (GTV9), Zandy’s Bride (ATV0). ABC presents the Australian Opera production of Norma, featuring Joan Sutherland and the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 15 December 1979. ABC/ACP

Leaving the neighbourhood

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

Neighbours: The Perfect Blend, the fan website dedicated to Neighbours, has announced that it is coming to a close early next year after seven years covering the series.

In a statement published on their website:

“It's with sadness that we announce that Neighbours: The Perfect Blend will be coming to an end next year after seven years providing Neighbours news, information and interviews. We simply don't have the time to give it the attention it deserves, and have also seen a shift towards negativity from our readers and on the messageboard in the last few years that has gradually taken the fun away from what we were doing. But, for the most part, it has been fun, and we've all loved turning the website into one of the biggest and best Neighbours resources online.”

The website is one of the most thorough and detailed collection of resources on everything you could want to know about Australia’s most famous neighbourhood – including episode guides, location information, character profiles, updates on past and present cast members, multimedia features and interviews with cast members and production crew.

The site has certainly been a useful resource in writing for this blog.

Neighbours: The Perfect Blend (the name taken from the show’s signature tune) will continue to be updated up until 27 February 2010, the website’s seventh anniversary, and will stay online for future reference. The messageboard forum will also continue at http://www.neighboursboard.co.uk/

Next year will also mark a significant year for Neighbours as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.

1979: December 8-14

noreply@blogger.com (TelevisionAU) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:57:00 +0000

Sergeant O’Reilly’s ball and chain!
A happy occasion on Seven’s Cop Shop with the wedding of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan). The wedding, held in an outdoor setting, will go to air this week in Melbourne and Brisbane and later in Sydney.

Arcade builds into a blockbuster
Production on Cash-Harmon’s new soap opera, Arcade, has started at the studios of TEN10, Sydney. The new big-budget series is hoped be a hit with viewers the same way as their previous hit show, Number 96. However, unlike 96, Arcade is expected to rely on humour rather than sex and violence. Among the scriptwriting team for Arcade are former Number 96 writers Johnny Whyte and David Sale. Whyte was flown in from London especially to work on the Arcade script. TEN10’s Studio A has been re-modelled into a mock shopping complex, with shop sets designed down to the last detail, while a shopping complex in the suburb of Cremorne is being used for outdoor shots. More than 1300 people were auditioned for roles in Arcade, and some of the actors and actresses chosen will be making their TV debut in the series, joining more familiar cast names including Lorrae Desmond, Peggy Toppano (Blankety Blanks), Olga Tamara, Greg Bepper (Class Of ‘74, Glenview High) and former Number 96 stars Aileen Britton and Mike Dorsey. Although a timeslot for Arcade has yet to be decided, producers are hoping to launch the series with a movie-length debut in mid-January.

Future shocks
Robert Moore, the former host of the long-running Monday Conference, is now presenting Faces Of The Eighties, a series of seven half-hour interviews with influential Australians heading into the new decade. But Moore predicts that there may be tough times ahead in the 1980s: “We’re a lot more frightened today. For instance, people have now come to believe – and not just the experts – that we may never see full employment again. The idea of full employment may just have been a passing phase in human history. We were lucky enough to enjoy it, but it’s running out now.” Moore also predicts that Australians will continue to become fonder of a warmer climate, which will see a population boom in Queensland and Western Australia: “If this is true, you’d be pretty dumb buying land for houses in Tasmania and Victoria today.”

Young Doctors take the cake
It was a multiple birthday celebration when TCN9, Sydney, threw a party for the cast of The Young Doctors to celebrate its third birthday last month. The party, a four-hour cruise of Sydney Harbour, also coincided with cast member Alfred Sandor’s birthday, with a cake and a kiss for the birthday boy from colleagues Rebecca Gilling and Karen Pini.

Briefly…
Actor Gary Gray and his new wife Honor Walters were in the money when the horse they co-own, Miss Pere, won the first race at Sandown recently.

Country music star and host of Country Homestead, Reg Lindsay is finally noticing, after ten years of regular visits to the United States, that he is starting to be recognised. “They know me in Nashville. They say ‘Why, that’s the Australian fellow’. I’ve had half a dozen singles released in the US and the album I made in Nashville will be released later this year. We’re still thinking of a title.”

Mike Dorsey, starring in the new series Arcade, has had to grow a beard to try and distance himself from his former on-screen persona of Reg ‘Daddy’ McDonald in Number 96. Despite appearing in The Young Doctors since Number 96 ended two years ago, he is still recognised as the former character.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Complaints to TEN10, Sydney, for not televising the 1979 Custom Credit Indoor Championships at a respectable time. We were very disappointed at not being able to view their outstanding matches, along with their respective interviews, and feel other viewers share our opinion that 10.30pm to 1.30am is not a suitable timeslot for people who work and have to rise early.” K. Kand, NSW.

“When the commercial channels screen a film in the 7.30pm timeslot, why do they almost double the viewing time by screening innumerable commercials? People who view at this time usually like, or need, to go to bed early, and if you are enjoying the film, it is annoying to have to switch off halfway through.” M. Walker, NSW.

“Why do we have to put up with Diana Fisher and her silly remarks on The Inventors? Vic Nicolson and Professor Stephenson both know what they’re talking about, but what does Diana Fisher know? Her remarks about colours etc must nearly drive most people mad.” B. Heald, NSW.

What’s On (December 8-14):
Weekend sport includes the World Series Cricket, live from Melbourne, on GTV9, and tennis with the NSW Women’s Classic, from White City, Sydney, on HSV7.

HSV7’s movie host Ivan Hutchinson presents a 90-minute special previewing all the big-screen movies to be released over the Christmas break – titles including The Muppet Movie, Star Trek, Apocalypse Now, Rocky 2, Meteor, 10 and More American Graffiti.

Former Monday Conference host Robert Moore (pictured) presents the first in a seven-part series, Faces Of The Eighties, interviewing Sir Roderick Carnegie, chairman and managing director of Australia’s second largest company and largest mining company, CRA.

GTV9 has some long-gone Australian series in its late-night summer line-up – Luke’s Kingdom, King’s Men and the comedy Last Of The Australians.

In Skyways (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), Simon (Ken James) and Kelly (Joanne Samuel) set a date for their wedding. Meanwhile, in Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday), the marriage of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan).

Sunday night movies: A Howling In The Woods (HSV7), Night Flight From Moscow (GTV9), The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 8 December 1979. ABC/ACP