A bitter custody battle is set to show A Country Practice’s Lucy Tyler (Georgie Parker, pictured) in a disturbing new light. The turnaround in her character has even shocked Parker herself. In recent episodes, Lucy and husband Matt (John Tarrant) have settled into foster-parenthood with their child, Jason (Sam Boggs). Now, when Jason’s mother, played by Lisa Hensley, returns to collect him after winning custody through the courts, Lucy refuses to give the child up. “It’s a dimension to Lucy that nobody has seen before,” Parker tells TV Week. “She turns nasty, very nasty.”
Soap wars!
A war is brewing behind the scenes between rival soaps Home And Away (Seven) and Neighbours (Ten). TV Week sources say that Neighbours producers have been trying to poach some of the more popular Home And Away stars. “They have been secretly offering contracts to try and get some cast to leave Home And Away and move to Neighbours,” one source said. “One major cast member was formally approached. They are trying to do what Seven did when Craig McLachlan swapped networks (from Neighbours to Home And Away).” It is believed that Ten also tried to sign up new Home And Away cast member Alistair MacDougall, but Home And Away have since secured him with a two-year contract. Meanwhile, one former Neighbours cast member, Richard Norton, has joined Home And Away with a two-year contract.
The Nine Network has commissioned 26 episodes for a Nineties version of the classic TV series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo. The original series, which ran for 91 episodes and was syndicated around the world, featured child actor Gary Pankhurst as park ranger’s son Sonny Hammond. In the Nineties version, Sonny is grown up, a widower with two children, and running his own animal park in Queensland. Andrew Clarke (pictured), former star of Sons And Daughters, Anzacs, Sword Of Honour and Flair, has signed on for the role of Sonny Hammond. Filming of the new series is due to start at the Warner Bros studios on the Gold Coast in the next few weeks and the series will go to air next year.
Briefly… 
As the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes approaches its 500th edition, reporter Mike Munro is asked about some of the women he’s interviewed over the years. His favourite? “Katharine Hepburn, without a doubt.” The hardest to get to was Madonna. “The string of entourage was incredible,” he told TV Week. “Hepburn had an assistant and a maid. Madonna had six bodyguards, a personal assistant and four public relations people.”
John Laws says…
”I’ve been a bit perplexed at how Peter Couchman’s program – ostensibly established to canvass Australian issues, otherwise why the name Couchman Over Australia – has seen fit to travel overseas to bring us its talkfests. I can recall Couchman and his considerable entourage turning up in various countries, including Turkey, New Zealand and some others. Has it all been worthwhile? Do we really need a taxpayer-funded Australian TV personality to travel the world organising talk-ins about problems that affect countries thousands of kilometres away from Australia? In critical economic times – as we now face – all organisations, private and public, have to tighten the purse-strings and in the case of the ABC there has to be a realisation of this essential truth to business life.”
Program Highlights (Melbourne, August 10-16):
Saturday: Ten debuts a new children’s series, Kelly, about a smarter than average police dog, starring Gil Tucker and Alexander Kemp. Ian Moss, James Freud and Martin Plaza are guest stars on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).
Sunday: ABC presents live coverage of the 21st annual City To Surf road race from Sydney. 60 Minutes (Nine) celebrates its 500th edition. Sunday night movies are Dead Poets Society (Seven), Lethal Weapon II (Nine) and Major League (Ten).
Monday: Former Neighbours star Guy Pearce guest stars in Col’n Carpenter (Ten).
Tuesday: Beyond 2000 (Seven) reports on a team in Sydney that has developed a new way to monitor the heart that goes one step further than the ECG.
Thursday: In Embassy (ABC), a Ragaani mail-order-bride is murdered by her Australian husband. In response, Mahmoud (Joseph Spano) orders that no passports are to be issued to Ragaani women.
Friday: Bathmat-turned-celebrity Agro is an unlikely guest on this week’s Burke’s Backyard (Nine).
Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 10 August 1991. Southdown Press
Jon Blake, the promising young actor whose career was cut short following a road accident which rendered him paralysed with permanent brain damage, has died from pneumonia at the age of 52.
Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers (pictured) was awarded the Gold Logie for the Most Popular Personality on Australian Television at the 28th annual TV Week Logie Awards, presented at Sydney’s historic State Theatre on Friday, 18 April 1986.
In winning the Gold, Somers had beaten fellow nominees Greg Evans (Perfect Match), Ray Martin (Midday With Ray Martin) and Anne Tenney (A Country Practice). The year had been significant for all three fellow nominees. As well as hosting Perfect Match, Evans (pictured) had also hosted the previous year’s TV Week Logie Awards and a new talent quest series, Star Search, for Network Ten. Nine’s Ray Martin had made the risky move from 60 Minutes to host the new Midday program, taking over from the long-running The Mike Walsh Show which had moved into prime-time. And Tenney had made her farewell from A Country Practice with the emotional departure of character Molly Jones. She also featured in the ABC mini-series Flight Into Hell, scoring a nomination for Most Popular Actress In A Single Drama Or Mini-Series.
Seven’s long-running A Country Practice took away four Logies, including Most Popular Drama and Silver Logies for Grant Dodwell and Anne Tenney (pictured). Tenney also won a Logie for Most Popular Female Personality in New South Wales.
60 Minutes won the Logie for Most Popular Public Affairs Program and one of its reporters, Ian Leslie (pictured), was awarded Reporter Of The Year. Nine’s Sunday program won the award for Best Public Affairs Report for Jennifer Byrne’s coverage of the 1985 Tax Summit. 
As well as hosting the Logies presentation, Mike Willesee (pictured) also scored an award for Most Popular Documentary Series for his series of specials for the Nine Network. One of the most talked-about programs from the Willesee series during the year was Tommy Doesn’t Exist Any More, a sympathetic look at the lives of three transsexuals. Another program, Sink Or Swim, looked at the life of one of Australia’s leading underwater naturalists, Neville Coleman. And before the age of Big Brother, Willesee presented More Than A Game – a two-hour special which observed the behaviour of 15 people from different walks of life who were taken to a remote rural location where they had to form their own new society.
National broadcaster ABC won two awards. The comedy series The Gillies Report – featuring Max Gillies in various guises including then prime minister Bob Hawke (pictured) – won Best Light Entertainment Series, and documentary series Sweat Of The Sun, Tears Of The Moon – featuring Jack Pizzey’s travels through South America – was awarded Best Documentary. 
News cameraman Neil Davis (pictured) was posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall Of Fame. A war correspondent for over 20 years, Davis had been gunned down in September 1985 while covering a coup attempt in Thailand. 
Most Popular Drama Series: A Country Practice (Seven) 
State-based Categories (Most Popular Male Personality, Most Popular Female Personality, Most Popular Program):
