1992: March 29-April 4

Why Rebekah’s quitting Summer Bay
After two years playing hapless teenager Sophie in Home And Away, Rebekah Elmaloglou (pictured) has decided to leave the series.  The 18-year-old will tape her final scenes for the show in September and hopes that life after Home And Away will be a little less frantic.  “There is definitely life after Home And Away,” she told TV Week.  “It’s been great and I’ve learned heaps, but the pace is just too much and I need a break.  Come September, I plan to do a lot of travelling overseas and I might even do a pantomime in London.”

John plays by new rules
”People tend to see me as Rafferty and nothing else,” actor John Wood tells TV Week.  “So I’m pleased that Dearest Enemy is about to be screened – it might break down that feeling a bit.”  The three-time TV Week Logie winner stars in the series alongside Linden Wilkinson, Bruce Spence, Frank Wilson and Vic Hawkins.  “I’ve been lucky in that in the two major series I’ve done, I’ve had wonderful female co-stars – Catherine Wilkin in Rafferty’s Rules, and now Linden.”  But with production of Dearest Enemy completed some time ago – and despite a current stage role in Sydney – Wood can’t get back into television.  “A couple of years ago, I was the most outstanding actor on television.  Now I can’t get a bloody job in television.  It’s amazing,” he laughs.

Richard insures against handbag attacks
As Terry Sullivan in the long-running series The Sullivans, actor Richard Morgan (pictured) became one of Australia’s most recognisable faces – something he hated, and was made more difficult when Terry started beating his wife.  “I copped a few handbags across the face in supermarkets from women who couldn’t tell between fantasy and reality,” he told TV Week.  Now, a decade later, he is content to enjoy his anonymity working in the insurance industry and appearing only in roles that appeal to him, such as the mysterious Michael Tranti in an upcoming episode of Chances.  Tranti is a married businessman who develops an unhealthy infatuation with advertising executive Angela (Patsy Stephen) when he enlists the advertising agency for his company’s new campaign.  Chances is Morgan’s first television appearance in 18 months, his last TV role being on the Seven Network drama series Skirts.

Briefly…
Australian actress Christine Harris (pictured), with television credits including The Young Doctors, Carson’s Law, Prisoner, Neighbours, Chances and ABC mini-series Darlings Of The Gods, is in the running for a major overseas role – the part of Scarlett O’Hara in the sequel to the cinema classic Gone With The Wind.

Former Neighbours star Andrew Williams is soon to begin a 13-week guest stint in Ten’s other prime time drama, E Street. He will make his on screen debut in June.

Meanwhile, the producers of E Street are now developing a drama-sitcom project featuring pop group The Teen Queens. The video clip of the group’s debut single, Be My Baby, appeared on E Street recently. The pilot for the new series, to be set in Bondi Beach, is to be filmed soon.

There is speculation that the Nine Network may give the flick to Clive Robertson and The World Tonight to make way for a new show to be hosted by Richard Wilkins.

Former Chances star Cathy Godbold, whose role as leukaemia victim Meg Bowman in Home And Away comes to a tragic end on screen this week, has appeared in a pilot episode of a proposed new sitcom, Newlyweds.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here:

’The Minister for Information and Immigration… has been the target for strong press criticism in this immigration venture’ .  With thousands of higher-living nationals awaiting entrance – English, Nordic types and Americans – who can offer this country ideas and culture, it is little wonder that this project has been the centre of bitter controversy.  Let us hope that immigration of the future will be planned deliberately and intelligently and offer more opportunities to the people of our own stock.’ 

“Those quotes (above) are not from a speech by someone from the extreme right of South African politics.  They are taken from a Cinesound Review newsreel, made right here in Australia.  The government minister to whom the voice-over referred was the late Arthur Calwell, who held the Information and Immigration portfolios in the Chifley Government between 1945 and 1949.  The newsreel footage is part of Alec Morgan’s film Admission Impossible: The Story Behind The White Australia Policy.  A Film Australia production, it screens on ABC this week.  The film, narrated by former Four Corners reporter Paul Barry, is a combination of archival film and interviews with immigration officials.  It paints successive Australian governments as underhanded and racist.  Admission Impossible forcefully supports Alec Morgan’s contention that Australia as an egalitarian nation embracing multiculturalism was – and is – a myth.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 29-April 4):
Sunday:  With cricket season now over, Nine’s weekly sports magazine programs Wide World Of Sports: Sunday Edition and Sports Sunday return.  During the afternoon, Nine crosses to Suzuka, Japan, for live coverage of the Japanese 500cc Grand Prix.  Sunday night movies are Black Rain (Seven), Flatliners (Nine) and Revenge (Ten) – while ABC screens the Film Australia documentary Admission Impossible, focusing on the behind-the-scenes political forces and propaganda campaigns that attempted to populate Australia with pure white migrants. 

Monday:  In the series return of Dearest Enemy (ABC), Alex (Linden Wilkinson, pictured) gets a crash course in political wheeling and dealing.  In A Country Practice (Seven), Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) gives up plans for retirement when Constable Tom Newman (Jon Concannon) decides to quit.

Tuesday:  Nine presents delayed coverage of the presentation of the 64th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal at the Los Angeles Music Centre.  Nominations for Best Picture are Bugsy, Beauty And The Beast, JFK, Prince Of Tides and Silence Of The Lambs.

Wednesday:  In Home And Away (Seven), Meg (Cathy Godbold) needs all her energy to live her final days to the full. 

Thursday:  In ABC crime drama Phoenix, Lochie (Andy Anderson), frustrated by his desk jockey status, finally has the chance to lead a raid but it goes embarrassingly wrong.

Friday:  Documentary series A Big Country (ABC) looks at Tim Kelly, former champion rodeo rider – with the hard-drinking and hard-living life-style that came with it – whose life has changed since gospel preachers called him to God.  Now, Kelly is a sincere and gentle man whose wife, a former barmaid and bikie, has also converted to the Christian faith.

Saturday:  Afternoon sport includes netball (ABC), highlights of the Australian Swimming Olympic trials (Seven), Hong Kong 7’s Rugby Union (Ten) and five hours of Wide World Of Sports (Nine).  Evening sport includes live coverage of the Mitsubishi NBL Challenge from the National Tennis Centre (Ten), highlights of the day’s AFL matches (Seven) and a late-night delayed telecast of Winfield Cup Rugby League (Nine).  This week’s episode of the SBS documentary series Through Australian Eyes looks at the lives of three Australian-born Jewish sisters and their children.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  28 March 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: March 15-21

Cover: John Stamos

Pregnant… then a pause
E Street character Sheridan Sturgess (Kate Raison, pictured lower right with co-star Marcus Graham) has been through a fair bit lately. She’s been hunted by a serial killer, menaced by him, locked up in prison and then becomes an escapee. Now she’s having a baby! The latest development is yet another twist in the saga involving Sheridan, Wheels (Graham) and “Mr Bad” (Vince Martin). “It isn’t, by any means, a planned pregnancy,” Raison told TV Week. “And it’s a very difficult thing for both the characters to come to terms with. Neither of them expected to become a mother or a father.” The pregnancy storyline marks the beginning of Raison’s planned departure from E Street. “I’m leaving, but there are a few more twists and turns to go yet,” she said.

Bligh: The mutiny continues!
The Seven Network’s popular sketch comedy series Fast Forward will be back this year but will be produced in a reduced capacity – two eight-episode blocks – as much of the cast will be focused on production of a new sitcom.  Bligh is set in 1807 and features Michael Veitch (pictured) as the beleaguered Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh.  Also starring in the series are Fast Forward regulars Magda Szubanski, Peter Moon, Marg Downey and Gina Riley as well as actor William McInnes and comedian Jimeoin.  And while the series is essentially a period comedy, it also satirises current-day issues.  The 13-part series is now in production but will not air until later in the year.

One of the masters
Award-winning Four Corners journalist Chris Masters (pictured) says there is nothing particularly glamorous about his line of work.   “It’s a particularly demoralising type of work,” he told TV Week.  “It’s not just the enormous amount of work.  When you think about proving the Queensland Police Force as corrupt, that’s something the Federal Police or the National Crime Authority couldn’t do.  It’s not fun work.  It’s not fun being reminded that your fellow man is a crook, or that you’re sticking your head down the corruption sewer all the time.  It gives you a rather bleak view of mankind.”  Masters has also documented the facts behind some of his TV scoops in a new book, Inside Story.  

Briefly…
Jeff Phillips (pictured), Seventies pop star and former host of talent quest Star Search, is making a shock return to television with a guest appearance in Nine’s steamy soap Chances.  “The Chances episode has some steamy scenes and it will attract a bit of interest… I’m sure I’ll get more attention than if I were doing a role on Neighbours or Home And Away!” 

Neighbours star Lorraine Bayly is set to return to the stage, starting rehearsals soon for the Australian premiere of the play Dear Liar.  Bayly will be starring alongside Lewis Fiander.  “I think Lewis is one of the finest actors this country has produced,” she told TV Week.  Although she only joined Neighbours late last year she will be making her final appearances on screen in May. 

Home And Away co-stars Debra Lawrance and Dennis Coard not only play husband and wife in the series, but are now married in real life following a hush-hush wedding in Sydney recently.  Although the pair engaged last year, their wedding was a surprise to everyone in the show.  “The first thing anyone knew about it was when they turned up on set on the Monday wearing wedding rings,” a Seven Network spokesperson said.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”’Did you see that debacle last night?’ a colleague asked, a hint of alarm in his voice as he bustled past my desk on some matutinal errand.  At that delicate stage of the morning, I had not even begun the task of kicking the dew off what remains of my mental processes.  Bear in mind that this was the morning after [a] South Africa had destroyed Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground; [b] the West Coast Eagles had almost recovered from a 50-point deficit against Geelong in an AFL pre-season competition match; [c] King Paul of Canberra had favoured us with his economic blueprint for our future well-being; and [d] the Channel Ten Eyewitness News had gone to air at five o’clock yet again. Later in the day my worst fears were confirmed – he was part of a majority and had been talking about the cricket and, to a lesser extent, the football.  King Paul’s decree didn’t create much of a ripple on the apathy meter, and the Channel Ten news… well, it had done about as well as Oprah Winfrey, shown mid-afternoon.  The greater percentage of people are busy at work then, too.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 15-21):
Sunday:  Nine crosses to Adelaide for all-day coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket match between India and South Africa.  After the news, Nine presents a Burke’s Backyard special, Densey And Jim’s Close-Up On Wildlife, with Densey Clyne and Jim Frazier presenting a close-up view on Australian wildlife – this week observing the mating ritual of the rifle bird.  Sunday night movies are Overboard (Seven) The Untouchables (Nine) and Fletch Lives (Ten).  After the movie, Seven presents a one-hour special to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Film Victoria, hosted by Jennifer Keyte and movie host Ivan Hutchinson.

Monday:  In Mother And Son (ABC), a baby in the house is the last thing Arthur (Garry McDonald) expected when he arrives home from work.  He comes to the conclusion that the baby is the result of one of brother Robert’s (Henri Szeps) dalliances, leaving Robert guilt-ridden.

Tuesday:  Col’n Carpenter star Kim Gyngell guest stars in the series return of All Together Now (Nine).  In GP (ABC), Robert (John McTernan) has come to terms with his spinal tumour and enters hospital to have the operation.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), reporter Tracey Curro (pictured) investigates the meaning of a cashless society.

Wednesday:  Andrew Denton presents a premiere special, The Money Or The Gun: The Brain (ABC), where he embarks on the ultimate travel documentary.  His destination?  The human brain… and madness!

Thursday:  Seven presents a repeat of special Graham Kennedy’s World Of Comedy – while Nine has a one-hour special, Sex, hosted by Sophie Lee (pictured).  The documentary looks at the issues of safe sex and the use of condoms, sex education, AIDS, homosexuality and pornography.

Friday:  ABC’s documentary series A Big Country reports on Roger Crosby, a truckie who has a fascination with the skies.  He asks himself all all the questions about the universe and comes up with some interesting answers.  In Neighbours (Ten), the police discover evidence which incriminates Pam (Sue Jones) into Garth’s (Roy Baldwin) death.  Later in the evening, Ten has a delayed telecast of the K Mart Australian Classic basketball, while ABC launches a new series of Andrew Denton: Live And Sweaty (pictured).

Saturday:  Nine crosses to Auckland, New Zealand, for the First-Semi Final of the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket.  Seven’s coverage of the 1992 AFL season kicks off with highlights of the day’s matches followed by live coverage from the Gold Coast of the match between Brisbane and Carlton.  Ten has live coverage of the playoff for the first and second positions in the K Mart Classic basketball.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  14 March 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: February 1-7

How to succeed away from Wandin Valley
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker (pictured) is suddenly hot property on the theatre circuit, with two producers vying for her services for upcoming stage productions.  Parker, who is currently taping her final scenes for A Country Practice, has been offered the lead role in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, scheduled to premiere in Sydney in September, and has been called for a second audition for the revival of the classic Gypsy.  Parker has also been offered a role in the Seven Network’s upcoming comedy Newlyweds, but has turned it down citing reluctance to accept another television series role so soon after ACP.

‘We’re great together!’
Garry McDonald and Ruth Cracknell, about to return to screens in a new series of Mother And Son, believe the series could go on indefinitely… or at least as long as writer Geoffrey Atherden writes the scripts.  “Over the years it’s become funnier,” Cracknell told TV Week.  “Good comedy doesn’t go away.”  And the two actors quite happily continue their light-hearted banter even when the cameras stop rolling.  Cracknell confides that McDonald tells all the jokes, but her trademark one-liners on screen are carried over off screen with just as much success.  “We’re great together,” she chuckles.  “It would have been a wonderful marriage!”

‘I was absolutely shaken…’
When A Country Practice star Joyce Jacobs (pictured) heard that her fellow cast-mates Syd Heylen and Gordon Piper were being written out of the series, she thought she would be next.  “I was absolutely shaken!,” she told TV Week.  “It was a great shock and my first thought was, ‘It’s me as well’.  I have been more involved with the doctors in the past year or two and in fewer scenes with Cookie (Heylen) and Bob (Piper).  We’ll miss them.  There was always laughter, although you could thump them sometimes.”  Jacobs is now in her 11th year in A Country Practice as snoopy Esme Watson, but she was not the first choice for the role.  In the series pilot she played an extra, Wilma, who had little dialogue.  It was a character that Jacobs didn’t think would go anywhere, much like the woman she used to play in Number 96.  “I used to go into Mr Godolfus’ shop and buy a quarter of a pound of tea, but they blew them all up didn’t they?,” she said.  But she was later chosen to play Esme Watson in A Country Practice after the actress originally cast for the role had dropped out.  But like any television performer, Jacobs admits nothing is forever.  “I think if and when A Country Practice finishes I’d be glad to do a little cameo role in a film now and then.  It would be nice.  I couldn’t go into another series.  I’m too old… past retirement age, you know.”

Briefly…
All Together Now’s Steven Jacobs (pictured) and former Countdown Revolution co-host Tania Lacey have signed on as presenters of Nine’s new Saturday morning show, Saturday At Rick’s.  The program, to go to air live for two hours each week, is reminiscent of the early days of Hey Hey It’s Saturday.  The new show, to debut later this month, is expected to be produced at Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast.  Two more presenters are also to be signed up.

Network Ten has commissioned a second series of sitcom Bingles before the first series has even gone to air.  The series, set in a panel-beating workshop, stars Shane Bourne, Tammy MacIntosh, Nick Bufalo and Russell Gilbert. 

Acclaimed young actor Russell Crowe (pictured) will be a guest star in the second series of ABC’s Police Rescue.  Crowe, who won an AFI award for his role in Proof, is currently appearing on the big screen in the long-awaited Spotswood.  In Police Rescue he plays Senior Constable Tom Younger, a local football hero and new member of the squad.  Producer John Edwards is excited about Crowe joining the show.  “Russell is a fabulous actor,” he said.  “He’s also a charismatic and exciting personality.”

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”When he took my call, Ian Frykberg was on the Gold Coast in Queensland.  It was windy rather than sunny, but, anyway, he was doing some work preparatory to a 12-metre yacht challenge later this year.  Then he was due to leave for Albertville, France, not just for a dramatic change of climate, but for the 1992 Winter Olympics.  Before the Winter Olympics are over, Frykberg is going to be casting an anxious eye towards places as far flung as Mackay in Queensland, Berri in South Australia and Napier, New Zealand.  They are just some of the venues for the World Cup of cricket.  And before that’s over, there’s the not inconsequential matter of the NSW Rugby League starting its 1992 season on 20 March.  Such is life when you’re director of sport at the Nine Network…”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 1-7):
Saturday:  Afternoon sport includes a repeat of last Monday’s NFL Superbowl (ABC) and Fifth Test Cricket, live from Perth, on Nine.

Sunday:  ABC’s rural affairs program Landline returns for another year.  Afternoon sport includes Test Cricket on Nine and the Ironman Super Series on Ten.  At 6.30pm, Ten launches Bert Newton’s New Faces, reviving the title and format that Newton hosted at the Nine Network from 1976 to 1985 in the same timeslot.  Also at 6.30pm is the return of Seven’s The Main Event, hosted by Larry Emdur, followed by US sitcom Full House and debut of new US series Dinosaurs.  The Simpsons returns with new episodes on Ten at 7.30pm, followed by the debut of locally-made sitcom Late For School, starring Frankie J. Holden, Sarah Chadwick and Matthew Newton.  Sunday night movies are Runaway Train (Seven), Gulag (Nine) and Uncle Buck (Ten).

Monday:  Current affairs programs Four Corners and Lateline are back for another year on ABC, while Seven’s late-night variety show Tonight Live With Steve Vizard returns for its third year.  Although it was widely tipped for a Saturday night timeslot, Ten debuts its new lifestyle/magazine show Healthy Wealthy And Wise on Monday, hosted by Jacki MacDonald (pictured) and Ronnie Burns and featuring Iain Hewitson, Ross Greenwood, Jim Brown and Lyn Talbot.

Tuesday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Shirley (Lorrae Desmond) is suspicious of Muldoon’s (Brian Moll) sudden generosity, while Matron Prior (Maureen Edwards) tries to keep Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) away from Harry (Andrew Blackman).  Gordon Bray and Karen Tighe present the 41st annual ABC Sports Awards, from the New Maritime Museum in Sydney.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Amanda Keller (pictured) examines virtual reality systems where the observer exists in a 3D, computer-generated world.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Steven (Vince Martin, pictured) makes a bold move, while Alice (Marianne Howard) gets an offer she can’t refuse, and CJ (Adrian Lee) gets advice on wooing the modern woman.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Penny (Sophie Lee) turns to Guy (David Reyne) for comfort, little realising the strength of their mutual attraction.  In Home And Away (Seven), Sophie’s (Rebekah Elmaloglou) fears for her baby’s future seem justified.  Seven presents an ‘encore’ screening of US series Dinosaurs from Sunday night.

Friday:  Documentary series A Big Country returns to ABC, this week focusing on the Spencer family who live in the far north of the Cape York Peninsula.  Seven years ago they made the break from society.  Nine crosses to the Sydney Football Stadium for the Seven’s International Rugby League, with commentators Ray Warren and Darrell Eastlake.  Nine’s late-night music show MTV returns for the new year, hosted by Richard Wilkins.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  1 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: July 6-12

Cover: Kevin Costner

‘Butterfly’ takes off again
The Seven Network has announced production for a further sixteen episodes of Butterfly Island.  The series, starring Grigor Taylor and Penne Hackforth-Jones, first appeared on ABC in 1984 with a follow up series produced by Seven in 1986, although the later series did not appear on Seven until last year.  Taylor plays the part of Charlie Wilson, a widower who runs a struggling tourist resort.

Look who’s back in town!
Some former favourites from Nine’s The Flying Doctors have been reunited for a special episode.  Former cast members Andrew McFarlane, Liz Burch, Rebecca Gibney and George Kapiniaris are returning in an upcoming episode.  The town of Coopers Crossing has been hit hard by the recession and to help boosts its spirits hosts a street party, with some of the town’s former residents attending.  The episode went into production this week and will go to air in September.

‘Girls want me for my money!’
At the mere age of eight, Matthew Krok is trying to come to grips with his rise to fame.  Having featured in 16 television commercials since last year, Krok went on to a guest appearance in A Country Practice before taking on the role of Arthur McArthur in Hey Dad! and has just finished his first feature film role in Eight Ball.  But the young star doesn’t quite understand the fuss that tends to surround him.  “I don’t think I’m any different to anyone else,” he told TV Week.  And while his Hey Dad! character is having a crush on Sam (Rachael Beck), the young actor has no romantic aspirations just yet.  “I’m not interested in girls,” he insists.  “They’re interested in me.  A girl at my school wants to marry me because of my money, but I said, ‘No way!’.”

Briefly…
Former The Young Doctors and Cop Shop star Lynda Stoner is returning to television with a guest role in Nine’s Chances, playing the part of nurse Dee Dee Nelson, hired to care for Jack Taylor (Tim Robertson) and help him recover from a stroke, including sex therapy!

Felicity Soper, best known as policewoman Susan Miller in the former Network Ten series Richmond Hill, has scored a role in a new Seven Network mini-series, Good Vibrations.  Also appearing in the series will be Genevieve Picot, Stephen Whittaker, Jeffrey Walker, David Hoflin and former Neighbours star Sasha Close.

Fast Forward star Geoff Brooks says that his character of Bruce Rump isn’t directly based on real-life RSL stalwart Bruce Ruxton, but that they are on the same wavelength.  “At about the same time I said, ‘The Reds aren’t under the bed, they’re in the bed’, Bruce was quoted by a paper saying the same thing,” Brooks told TV Week.  “Rump is actually a composite of a lot of people.  People like Sir Henry Bolte, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Bruce and my dad – people who see things in black and white.”

John Laws says…
”Bangkok Hilton set out to be dramatic, exciting and emotion-packed, and it achieved it all.  Not much subtlety, of course, just straightforward, honest to goodness shock-horror stuff – lots of anguish howls, impassioned pleas from our heroine and lots of nasty bad guys.  Bangkok Hilton, as we know, was a ratings knockout the first time around and, as expected, did very well the second time, too.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, July 6-12):
Saturday: SBS presents a special edition of current affairs program Dateline, where reporter Mike Carey has just returned with a film crew after two weeks in disaster-torn Bangladesh, where more than 150,000 people died in recent cyclones.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Seven), She-Devil (Nine) and My Stepmother Is An Alien (Ten).  Nine then crosses to Wimbledon for live coverage of the Men’s Singles Final.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) helps Steve (Sophie Heathcote) plan for an overseas trip, while a hospital health check reveals one of the nurses proves HIV positive.

Tuesday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Jim (Alan Dale) is afraid that something is still going on between half-siblings Glen (Richard Huggett, pictured) and Lucy (Melissa Bell).  Robert Mammone guest stars in GP’s 100th episode.

Wednesday:  Bruce Spence, Hugo Weaving and American actress Rosanna Arquette star in the Australian-made telemovie Wendy Cracked A Walnut (ABC), telling the story of a housewife who yearns for the romance and passion she finds in pulp novels.

Thursday:  John Polson guest stars in The Flying Doctors (Nine).  In Hampton Court (Seven), an astronomical electricity bill means desperate measures are called for.

Friday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Helen (Anne Haddy) gives Michael (Brian Blain) her answer to his marriage proposal.  In ABC’s documentary series A Big Country, a restaurant owner’s Chinese family in Bendigo recount their experiences in a country town since the war.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  6 July 1991.  Southdown Press

1979: November 24-30

Sisters: For better and worse!
Although Rebecca Gilling and Diana McLean (pictured, with co-star Peter Lochran) are only sisters on-screen, as Nurse Liz Kennedy and Sister Vivienne Jeffries in The Young Doctors, their friendship off-screen has similar characteristics.  “On camera, I have a similar relationship with Diana as with my own sister Tracy, in that we do have our ups and downs, do tend to take each other for granted.  But in a crunch, we stick together!” Gilling told TV Times – though their separate childhoods were quite different.  McLean was essentially brought up as an only child as her older brother had died from Down’s syndrome at the age of 8:  “I grew up in a grown-up world, with few close relatives, except my maternal grandmother.  Like most only children, I was always conscious of wishing I had lots of brothers and sisters.  Then my mother was stricken with cancer and died when I was 13.  During the previous six years she was ill, I was cared for by a maid and my grandmother.  Sounds like a poor little rich girl, doesn’t it?  But it’s true, I had everything I wanted but nothing I really wanted.”  Rebecca Gilling was the youngest of four children.  “My mother has a highly individual approach to rearing children.  Both my parents encouraged us to have very strong personalities and a strong sense of humour.  The four of us were all very close when we were small.  Being the youngest has its perks and its serious drawbacks.  There was always the dichotomy of being one minute too young – and the next being told, why don’t you grow up?  It also meant I wore hand-down clothes which were a bit battered by the time they’d gone through three tomboys.  Then, when I was 12, I retaliated by growing taller than the others.  Then I had to get new clothes.”

Brush with the law!
Liz Burch (pictured), the girl from the toothpaste commercials, is the new girl in Cop Shop – and it’s given her a ring of confidence.  The 24-year-old joins the series as Vic Cameron’s (Terry Donovan) younger sister, Liz Cameron.  It is her first big break in TV after five years of trying to get into showbusiness, including three rejections from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).  The young actress came from Sydney to Melbourne to audition for a role in Young Ramsay, but was unsuccessful.  Her agent encouraged her to apply for the Cop Shop role, despite the fact that her only TV experience was in commercials.  “My biggest speaking part had been in a toothpaste commercial, telling a bloke he could do his own navigating next time.”

Love behind bars!
ABC stations in all states will be involved in a new public affairs program, Line-Up, to screen from December while the usual public affairs programs are on a break for summer.  The new program, to fill the timeslot normally occupied by Four Corners, will be hosted by former Nationwide and This Day Tonight reporter Paul Griffiths.  Executive producer for the program, Richard Watson, said the program will not be unlike the former magazine-style program, Saturday Week, but will have “more in-depth” content:  “It could be likened to a miniature Big Country.  The team will travel a great deal around Australia to make documentary films of varying durations within a flexible format.”  Another new series, Faces Of The Eighties, will be hosted by former Monday Conference compere Robert Moore (pictured), and will go to air on Wednesday nights in the timeslot normally occupied by Nationwide.  Faces Of The Eighties will feature interviews with Australians who are are leaders in their various fields, and who will continue to shape Australian society during the 1980s.  Overseas programs that will fill the Nationwide timeslot on Mondays include Collision Course, a documentary drama about a mid-air crash between two airliners over Yugoslavia in 1976, and Love Behind Bars, a look at a Texas prison where convicts of both sexes are allowed to mix.

Briefly…
Former Young Talent Time cast member Vikki Broughton is heading to Europe to star in a TV series for Italian network Telenova.  Broughton is currently in Sydney recording the soundtrack for the series of five half-hour specials, which will be filmed on location around Lake Como.

ABC’s rural affairs program Countrywide has won an award in the current affairs category at the recent Penguin awards in Melbourne.  Another ABC program, A Big Country, also won awards for Bob Connolly, for best producer and director, and Bob Plato for best script for a documentary or special report.

Former Number 96 star Joseph Furst’s guest appearance in The Young Doctors has so impressed the producers that they have decided to keep the character for future episodes.  Furst plays a mysterious German businessman, Heinrick Smeaton.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The way Countdown is cut off during the number one song is thoughtless.  This song has been chosen number one by the public and is the one the majority of people want to hear.” S. Milward, VIC.

“While watching QTQ9, Brisbane, I heard the newsreader say: ‘And how that famous Irishman, Mike Walsh.’  I always thought Mike was a true-blue Australian.” F. Bellman, QLD.

“Why does TCN9, Sydney, leave scenes out of the shows they screen?  To date I have noticed entire scenes missing from shows such as Love Boat and Starsky And Hutch.  This practice does tend to leave one somewhat confused, as the missing scenes are frequently referred to in what is left of the show.  Surely the channels should not have the right to indiscriminately cut scenes from their shows whenever they feel like it (apparently for the purpose of screening more commercials – which, according to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, should be limited to 11 minutes in any case).” N. Lewis, NSW.

“I agree with S. Pye (Viewpoint, 20 October 1979) about the program So You Want To Be A Centrefold.  A friend and I (both females) watched this program, as our boyfriends said they were both going to watch it.  We were both absolutely disgusted, as well as being embarrassed.  I felt these girls must be cheap to pose nude in front of a cameraman, then to be filmed for TV.  It is bad enough that they do this in magazines, let alone display their unclothed bodies on the screen.  Are there no morals left in this world?”  T. Yesberg, QLD.

What’s On (November 24-30):
HSV7 crosses live to Kooyong Tennis Stadium, Melbourne, for live coverage of the Satellite Circuit Tennis Finals, with commentators Peter Landy, Garry Wilkinson and Allan Stone.  The coverage airs from midday to 6.00pm on both Saturday and Sunday and starts Seven’s daily coverage of tennis action for much of the summer.  From Monday, Seven covers the Toyota Women’s Classic, live from Kooyong each day from 11.00am to 6.00pm.

Starting Monday night, and continuing through summer, GTV9 has a mid-evening news bulletin at 9.30pm in addition to the usual 6.30pm news.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup, Australia versus West Indies.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm and, apart from a one-hour break at 6.00pm, continues through to 10.30pm.

In Prisoner’s season finale (ATV0, Wednesday), Lizzie (Sheila Florance, pictured) is a bit under the weather, and Greg (Barry Quin) discovers a theft from the examination room.  Pat (Monica Maughan) finds herself in a predicament, while David (David Letch) makes plans for revenge.

Michael Schildberger and Peter Hanrahan have replaced Bruce Mansfield and Annette Allison at the ATV0 Eyewitness News desk.

On Thursday night, 60 Minutes presents a special one-hour report, Year Zero – The Silent Death Of Cambodia, presenter by award-winning journalist John Pilger, the first western journalist allowed inside Kampuchea.

Sunday night movies: Perfect Gentleman (HSV7), Strange Homecoming (GTV9), The Abdication (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 24 November 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: October 20-26

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1979: July 14-20

Prisoner’s key women
TV Times talks to three of the stars of the popular new series Prisoner about their roles and what the show means to them.

Elspeth Ballantyne, who plays prison warder Meg Jackson, said that Prisoner has proven that women can handle a show on their own.  “Prisoner is a very good series.  It has a lot of dramatic qualities.  It moves quickly and has good storylines provided by some top writers. I have made some good friends while working on the series, such as Fiona Spence.  The cast members are a terrific group of women who are very professional.  I’m also amazed that there hasn’t been any bitchiness.”  But mother-of-two Ballantyne will not allow her children – Matthew, 9, and Tobias, 7 – to watch the program: “It’s an adult show and they are in bed when it’s on at 8.30pm.”

Patsy King, who plays prison governor Erica Davidson, has had a varied background in radio and television – including appearing in the children’s programs Play School and Adventure Island and in the long-running drama Bellbird.  King was also on tour around northern Australia in the play Summer Of The Seventeenth Doll:  “There were seven of us in the cast and we were chauffeur-driven up the Birdsville Track, playing at every little town we came to.  Then we had a couple of rest days, which we spent by a river infested with snakes and crocodiles, and spiders as big as your hand.  What a rest that turned out to be.”  Her new role in Prisoner is hard work, but hopes that the series goes on for a long time:  “I’m enjoying playing Erica because she is different and the character is really developing now.  I can see a lot more aspects to her.”

Fiona Spence, who plays prison warden Vera Bennett, had spent the last few years travelling and studying drama at the University Of New South Wales.  After a guest role in Glenview High and some TV commercials, the role of Ms Bennett is Spence’s first major role:  “I’m happy with Vera.  She’s very dramatic and in some ways like myself.  She is very unpopular with the public and the more they hate her, the better it is for me.  Then I know the character is working.”  Eventually, Spence hopes to go into theatre:  “I’ve never done professional stage work, only university plays.  Then I’d like to try films.  I’m not really fussy about what I do.  However, I can’t sing or dance, so I don’t want to be in a musical.  Drama is what I’m best at.”

700 million will see Miss Universe crowned
A worldwide audience of an estimated 700 million will see Miss Universe 1979 when it is held in Perth this week.  The two-hour ceremony, from Perth’s Entertainment Centre, has been years in the planning and will be beamed to 50 countries.  Viewers around the world will see the event live but Australians will see it on a delayed telecast as the ceremony is timed to start at 9.00am, Perth time, this Friday.

Current affairs for kids
Children are to get their own daily current affairs program along the lines of Willesee At Seven and This Day Tonight.  The new program, yet to be titled, is being produced for the 0-10 Network by former Willesee At Seven reporter and producer Simon Townsend (pictured) and has been approved by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal for screening with a ‘C’ classification.  The pilot for the program was produced by Townsend in 1977 on a grant from the Nine Network.  Nine decided not to proceed with the program and even though Nine funded the pilot, it remained Townsend’s property.  Only days after the pilot was given the ‘C’ classification, Townsend received a call from the 0-10 Network.  No screening date for the program has been set as yet.

Briefly…
Actor Peter Cousens has been announced as host of ABC’s new children’s environmental series Earthwatch.  Cousens will be joined by a forum of four to six children, and the program will include singing and dancing, news clips and a current affairs segment. 

The winner of last year’s series of The Inventors, David Little, will be a guest when the show returns this week for its tenth year.  Little’s invention, a solar tracker/heater, is now ready for world distribution and Little is now hoping for a financial return of several millions of dollars.

Viewers of The Young Doctors may see a slimmer Ada Simmonds (Gwen Plumb, pictured) next year.  The actress has accepted a challenge to lose 6 kg or give $1000 to the next Appealathon, due for early next year, on Perth’s STW9.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Whatever happened to the good old Saturday night B-grade horror movies?  They were bad but I still miss them.” G. Barnard, NSW.

“I couldn’t believe it when I read, in the Sunday papers, about all those people who rang up channels ATN7 and TCN9 about TEN10’s screening of Last Tango In Paris.  If these people bought some meat from their butcher and, upon coming home, found it was off, would they then go to their nearest chemist and complain about it?”  M. Powell, NSW.

“I am only 15 years old and even I know it is very rude to say people 100 years old.  Also, Mrs Doolan (Viewpoint, 16 June 1979), can’t you find something a little better to pick on than a commercial?  Which, by the way, I, and I am sure many others, find amusing.” D. Hassell, QLD.

What’s On (July 14-20):
ATV0 crosses to Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse on Saturday afternoon for live coverage of Grand National Day, with races called by Clem Dimsey.

This Week Has Seven Days (HSV7, Saturday) features an interview with Peter Mayle, author of Where Did I Come From. 

ABC programs The Inventors and A Big Country both return with new episodes this week. 

In Prisoner (ATV0, Tuesday and Wednesday), Lyn (Kerry Armstrong, pictured) is released from Wentworth Detention Centre and is met by an unexpected welcoming party.  Joyce (Judy Nunn) makes Monica (Lesley Baker) an offer she finds hard to refuse.

On Friday night, GTV9 presents a delayed coverage of the 1979 Miss Universe pageant, held at Perth’s Entertainment Centre earlier that day.  The event is hosted by American personalities Helen O’Connell and Bob Barker.  Donny Osmond will be a guest performer, and judges include Carol Lynley, Lana Cantrell, LeVar Burton and Ita Buttrose.

ABC presents live coverage of the 1979 British Golf Championship from Royal Lytham, St Anne’s Lancashire, England.  Telecast starts on Friday night at 9.25pm and continues for six hours.

Sunday night movies: The Great Waldo Pepper (HSV7), The Dove (GTV9), Freebie And The Bean (ATV0).  ABC presents the first episode of Ride On Stranger, a four-part series set in Australia in the 1930s starring Liddy Clark, Noni Hazlehurst, Henri Szeps, Barbara Wyndon, Bunney Brooke and Michael Aitkens.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 14 July 1979.  ABC/ACP