1991: November 30-December 6

An old affair rekindled
In a surprising move, the Nine Network has announced that former A Current Affair and Willesee host Mike Willesee will be hosting A Current Affair for three weeks in January while regular host Jana Wendt (pictured with Willesee) takes a break over the summer non-ratings period.  The move is surprising given that Willesee’s last appearance as a fill in host on the program two years ago was marked by controversy when he was caught stumbling on his words and had to apologise for giggling and “attempts to be humourous”.  The incident saw Nine and the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal inundated with complaints about his behaviour – and rival current affairs host Derryn Hinch opened his show the following night by saying, “I’m Derryn Hinch… and I’m sober”.  But Willesee, who claimed at the time that his behaviour was a result of “something he ate or drank”, is no longer keen to discuss the incident (“You’ve got to understand how often I’ve been asked about that.  There’s got to be a limit to how often I answer it.”) and is enthusiastic about his upcoming return to the program.

The eyes have it!
Actor and comedian Mark Mitchell could be forgiven for having a split personality after working on children’s series Lift Off.  In the multi-million dollar production Mitchell plays 19 characters, including an apartment caretaker, a farmer, a school principal and a geriatric legionnaire.  “I’m principally cast as Mr Fish (pictured), the caretaker, and represent the adult bureaucracy the kids have to deal with,” he told TV Week.  “He was made to look at flawed as possible, which is why he is fat, bad-tempered and wears glasses which make him look like a puff fish.  The show allows me to dress up and be silly, which is one of the reasons I’m doing it.”  Lift Off is expected to screen on ABC around mid-1992.

They’re sold on Alyce
When Alyce Platt (pictured) made a sudden exit from Sale Of The Century earlier this year, her television future appeared grim.  But apart from an appendix operation that saw her have to withdraw from a planned guest appearance in All Together Now, she has been almost in constant work since leaving Sale, with a guest appearance on Fast Forward and a role in the Seven Network’s new children’s series Animal Park.  She is also starring in stage production Torch Song Trilogy at Melbourne’s Universal Theatre.  “I enjoyed working on Sale for as long as I was there,” she told TV Week.  “But getting the part in Animal Park was the best thing that could have happened.”

Briefly…
Former Hey Dad! star Christopher Truswell, former Neighbours star Ian Williams and performer Maria Mercedes are set to star in a Nineties revival of the acclaimed rock musical Godspell which is scheduled to open at the Sydney Opera House early in 1992.

Some surprising announcements from the Ten Network with news that Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show host Jacki MacDonald (pictured) is to make a sudden shift from Nine to Ten to co-host a new lifestyle show to be produced by former Hey Hey It’s Saturday co-producer Gavan Disney.  “I’m very excited about moving on to a different style of program,” MacDonald told TV Week.  Disney is also tipped to be working on a revival of variety show Young Talent Time for the network.  Meanwhile, Bert Newton is making a regular TV comeback to host a new mid-morning talk show for Ten starting in the new year.  The program, tentatively titled This Morning, is tipped to also feature Kerri-Anne Kennerley from Good Morning Australia. 

Chances star Jeremy Sims and new A Country Practice star Kym Wilson have become TV’s hottest young couple despite them each living in separate cities.  Sims is based in Melbourne and Wilson is in Sydney, leading to regular weekend commutes and many long-distance telephone calls.

John Laws says…
”We’ve been fortunate in Australia to have a healthy history of satire on TV, going back as far as the ground-breaking The Mavis Bramston Show (pictured) in the Sixties.  Australians like to laugh at themselves – it’s probably one of our better human traits – and the success of programs such as Fast Forward and The Comedy Company are evidence of the presence of this self-depreciating sense of humour.  Fast Forward’s major attribute is its talented young cast.  Magda Szubanski is surely one of the finest comedy talents to have emerged for a long, long time.  Her Pixie-Anne Wheatley character is a classic.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, November 30-December 6):
Saturday:  The final day of TV ratings for the year.  Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine) presents a special three-hour show for its 1991 finale with guest appearances by John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Marina Prior, Johnny Diesel and Rhonda Burchmore.  This week’s contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven) are swimmer Kieren Perkins, singer Venetta Fields and comedian Anthony Ackroyd.  Ten presents a re-run of mini-series The Heroes as a four-hour telemovie, starring Jason Donovan and Cameron Daddo.

Sunday: ABC presents the final episode of 1920s mini-series The River Kings.  Sunday night movies are Splash (Seven), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Nine) and Bat 21 (Ten), up against the Australian Opera production of Don Giovanni on ABC.

Monday:  Repeats of early episodes Hey Dad! are the summer replacement for Home And Away on Seven, while Peter Luck hosts Summertime, replacing Derryn Hinch’s current affairs program.  Helen Dalley hosts the summer edition of A Current Affair (Nine).  Neighbours star Richard Huggett guest stars in Col’n Carpenter (Ten).

Tuesday:  Beyond 2000 (Seven) and Embassy (ABC) are presented in repeats for the summer season.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Sheridan (Kate Raison) has a taste of the working-class life, and Lisa (Alyssa-Jane Cook) has some exciting news.

Thursday:  Debbie Byrne guest stars in this week’s episode of The Flying Doctors (Nine), playing the part of a TV reporter who is stranded in Coopers Crossing due to a faulty plane.  To pass the time she prepares a “day in the life of the Royal Flying Doctor Service” report, but a plane crash forces her to understand the other side of a news story.

Friday:  Nine crosses to Perth for the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket day/night match between India and the West Indies.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  30 November 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: June 8-14

How Jo beat the office blues
Sale Of The Century’s new co-host Jo Bailey (pictured) is collecting a larger pay packet than most 21-year-olds, but the former accountant insists she isn’t in this business for the money and could earn as much in the long term by returning to her accounting-marketing career.  “Getting involved in television has definitely nothing to do with the money,” she told TV Week.  “I know people say this all the time, but job satisfaction is far more important to me.  I just didn’t like working with numbers.  I’ve never stayed at anything I haven’t liked and I don’t believe you should dwell on things.  It was a simple decision.  I wasn’t happy.”

Greg chalks up a score
Blind Date host Greg Evans (pictured) says he’s learnt some valuable lessons in his 20-year showbusiness career.  Evans, who celebrated the 20-year milestone recently, says he’ll never be motivated by money again.  Starting in radio at country station 3CS, Evans went on to become a ratings hit with Melbourne’s 3XY and then a national celebrity as host of Ten’s top-rating Perfect Match. He was wooed across to rival network Nine in a deal that he says was too good to knock back but resulted in a less than fruitful run as host of some fairly ordinary game shows, Say G’Day and Crossfire, before returning to Perfect Match.  “Perhaps I should never have left (Perfect Match),” he told TV Week. “But at the time, it seemed that no one in their right mind would have rejected Nine’s offer.  They were ‘the cheque book days’… but I don’t blame Nine for anything.  You live and learn and I’ll never be motivated by money again.  Luckily, I was saved by (returning to) Perfect Match.”  The show was axed late in 1989 but was reinstated this year as Blind Date.

Craig goes to war
Craig McLachlan (pictured) has talked to TV Week about filming for the upcoming Seven Network mini-series Heroes 2 – The Return.  “It’s been an amazing experience for me,” he said.  “Before we started filming, we all had military training to get used to the conditions.  But no-one was prepared for this!”  For McLachlan, “this” included several days shooting in a rain-sodden, leech-infested forest, being attacked by sandflies and surrounded by fruit bats.  “The locations turned into hellholes for us make-believe soldiers.  The worst part other than the leeches and the rain was the sandflies.”  The $6.5 million production, also starring John Bach, Christopher Morsley, Wayne Kermond, Brendon Lunney, Miranda Otto and Anne Louise Lambert, is expected to be shown in the UK around Christmas and in Australia early in the new year.

Briefly…
Comedienne and Fast Forward star Jane Turner (pictured) says it’s not always funny being a diplomat’s wife… especially when husband John Denton had been posted to the Australian Embassy in Baghdad, three months before the Gulf War.  When the Allied bombing of Baghdad seemed certain, Turner was “worried, but not terrified”.  “I know what a diplomatic life is like,” she told TV Week.  “John loves it – it’s his life.  He was calling and reassuring me everything was all right.  Maybe I had more cause to be worried!”.  Denton was one of the last three Australians to flee the war-torn city.

Former Sale Of The Century co-host Alyce Platt is loving her new role as wildlife ranger Christina Gurney in Seven’s new series Animal Park.  “The biggest thing that sold me on this role is that it is as far away from Alyce Platt on Sale Of The Century as possible.  That was important.  My wardrobe (now) is King Gee shorts, big green shirts, thick socks, big boots and no make-up,” she told TV Week.

After four years away from the series, Tom Oliver is set to return to Neighbours later this year.  It is expected that he will reprise his former character of used-car salesman Lou Carpenter, an old boyfriend of Madge Bishop (Anne Charleston), although this has not yet been confirmed.  His return stint is expected to be for four weeks.

The industry rumour mill is buzzing with speculation over a possible relationship between ABC host Andrew Denton and recently-separated 60 Minutes reporter Jennifer Byrne.     

Actor Peter Kowitz, recently featured in the Nine Network mini-series Ring Of Scorpio, is joining the cast of Chances.  He will play Steven Harland, a government minister who is something of a thorn in the side of his party.

John Laws says…
”The test of any TV current affairs program is how well it can react to major news stories, national or international.  This “big news” scenario confronted the TV networks after the recent assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.  The circumstances of his death – a hideous bomb attack – gave the story a striking impetus.  So who came out on tops in the follow-up coverage?  Jana Wendt’s A Current Affair gave the slaying a brief coverage, but it was really left to SBS’ Dateline and Kerry O’Brien’s Lateline on ABC to probe deeply and convincingly.  I thought SBS came out slightly ahead.  Dateline also had it over Lateline by screening at 8.00pm against Lateline’s 10.30pm.  I’ve said it before in this column that Dateline (and, as it was, Tonight) is a significant force in TV current affairs viewing.  I doubt it has a spectacular following but it certainly deserves a wider audience.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, June 8-14):
Saturday:  Andrew Daddo (pictured), Daryl Braithwaite, Jesus Jones and Tracie Spencer are among the guests this week on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).

Sunday:  Seven’s AFL coverage begins with the afternoon match between Brisbane Bears and West Coast Eagles, live from Carrara, Brisbane – then crossing to Adelaide for live coverage of the early evening match between Adelaide Crows and Fitzroy.  Sunday night movies are Willow (Seven), Funny Farm (Nine) and The Poseidon Adventure (Ten).

Tuesday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) is confronted with tragedy after being slipped an hallucinogenic drug.  In All Together Now (Nine), Wayne (Bruno Lucia) sells the rights to Bobby’s (Jon English) memoirs and persuades him to write an autobiography.

Wednesday:  Nine presents a late-night delayed telecast of the rugby league State Of Origin match between New South Wales and Queensland.  The coverage is hosted by Ken Sutcliffe with commentary by Darrell Eastlake, Peter Sterling and Ray Warren.

Thursday:  In E Street (Ten), Harley’s (Malcolm Kennard) drug dependency gets him in hot water.  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), the townsfolk are stunned when Dr Guy Reid’s (David Reyne) fiancee arrives unannounced to take him back to civilisation.

Friday:  Seven crosses to Perth for live coverage of the AFL match between West Coast Eagles and Footscray. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  8 June 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: May 25-31

‘I’m not pregnant!’
Home And Away star Nicolle Dickson has responded to reports by the British tabloids that she is pregnant.  “Top Aussie star Nicolle Dickson has some happy news – she’s pregnant,” one British newspaper recently reported.  The report continued: “But Nicolle, who plays Bobby Simpson in Home And Away, has been keeping mum about the happy event because she is terrified she could lose her job.”  The young star has hit out at the reports.  “I’m not pregnant.  I’ve been thinking about it, but how could they write that I am?  How could they write this stuff and not talk to me?” she told TV Week.  The British reports have had wider implications as Dickson (pictured, above right, with young co-star Ryan Clark) is booked to appear in a Christmas pantomime and the ‘news’ of her pregnancy had led to some frantic calls between the producers of the pantomime and her agent in Australia.  “I assured them I wasn’t pregnant but they didn’t believe me! They rang my agent to double check,” Dickson said.

Penny’s heart stolen in bank robbery!
For the first time in a decade, actress Penny Cook is about to take on a role that doesn’t involve her tending to the sick or feeble.  After playing the roles of vet Vicki Bowen in A Country Practice and Dr Elly Fielding in E Street, Cook is soon to appear in ABC’s GP as the love interest of Dr Steve Harrison (Michael O’Neill, pictured above left with Cook).  Her character, Beth Paige, works at a bank where Dr Harrison is a customer.  A robbery at the bank ends up bringing them together.  So does this mean that Elly Fielding has gone from E Street for good?  “Well, she’s gone for good at the moment,” Cook tells TV Week.  “But that’s open as well.”

Alyce’s dramatic new role
Alyce Platt (pictured), recently departed from Sale Of The Century, has landed a major role in a new drama series.  Animal Park, a 16-part series being produced by Sunshine Films for the Seven Network, is set in north Queensland and tells the story of a widowed mother of three who inherits a run-down property of holiday cabins and a small animal park.  Platt plays the role of Christina Gurney, a wildlife ranger who befriends the family.  It is not Platt’s first dramatic role – she appeared in Sons And Daughters for two years and also filmed a guest role in Family And Friends.  The Seven Network has yet to announce a screening date for Animal Park.

‘I’m too fat for Oz TV’
Australia’s Jonathan Coleman, now hosting chat show Swing Shift on British network BSkyB, says he would fail to break into Australian TV these days if he was just starting out.  “People like me wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into TV now – we’re too fat,” he told TV Week.  “You’ve got to have the right figure, the right hair… you’ve got to be a soap bimbo.”

Briefly…
Former A Country Practice star Joan Sydney, who played Matron Sloan for seven years in the rural-based series, has now joined the cast of E Street.  She will play Mary Patchett (pictured, with co-star Adrian Lee), the British cousin of Aunty Vi (Bunney Brooke).

The producers and actors from ABC’s Embassy are hoping that tensions between Malaysia and Australia sparked by an episode of the series will soon die down and be forgotten.  “To have another country say we are belittling them is very disappointing,” producer Ian Bradley told TV Week.  “The push of the show is that Australians must live by different laws and customs when they are abroad.”  The drama series is set in the fictional country of Ragaan but an episode caused upset to the Malaysian government when they interpreted similarities between events in the fictional country and statements made by their own prime minister.

Alison Brahe (pictured with fiancee Cameron Daddo at the TV Week Logie Awards) has completed a pilot for a children’s show to be produced at the Nine Network studios in Adelaide.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”Congratulations to Crawfords Australia on the about-to-be-announced $5 million purchase and redevelopment of what eventually will be a four-studio complex covering about 3.25 ha of Box Hill, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.  About two-thirds of the facilities will be leased to other producers, with Crawfords using the rest for its continuing drama series The Flying Doctors, the expensive new children’s series Half Way Across The Galaxy And Turn Left and a third series, still to be announced.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, May 25-31):
Saturday:  Singer Debbie Byrne is a guest performer on this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).  Phil Scott, Colleen Hewett and Rod Marsh are this week’s celebrity contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven), while Agro, Ann-Maree Biggar, Sofie Formica and Fat Cat take on the body builders in Celebrity Family Feud (Seven).

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Turner And Hooch (Seven), Frantic (Nine) and The Gods Must Be Crazy II (Ten).

Tuesday:  At midday, Seven crosses to Hobart for live coverage of the AFL State Of Origin clash between Tasmania and Victoria.  Seven then goes back to Hobart in the evening for the follow up game between South Australia and Victoria.  In GP (ABC), the doctors rally to protect an Iraqi refugee family from racial harassment from members of the community.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Alice (Marianne Howard) has fallen for the much-older Adam (Mark Owen-Taylor) – but will he tell her that he is married?  In Hey Dad! (Seven), a mysterious neighbour nominates Martin (Robert Hughes) as Father of the Year.

Thursday: Hampton Court, the spin-off series from Hey Dad!, debuts on Seven, starring Julie McGregor (pictured) as wacky secretary Betty Wilson from Walgett.  ABC launches the second series of Embassy, the series focusing on the Australian Embassy staff in the fictional country of Ragaan.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  25 May 1991.  Southdown Press