Hollywood star shines at 1962 Appeal

Hollywood star Jane Russell (pictured) was the headline guest at the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal 50 years ago.

The 40-year-old, still looking as glamorous as she had twenty years earlier when she rose to fame as the 1940s sex symbol in the movie classic The Outlaw, was in Sydney as part of a four-week nightclub season and flew down to Melbourne to visit the Royal Children’s Hospital in the afternoon, where she was presented with a toy kangaroo and a basket of Easter eggs from two of the hospital’s patients.  She was then given a tour of the hospital and chatted to patients on her way through.

Russell then made a visit to the Appeal’s radio partner 3DB before heading to the HSV7 studios to appear in the Celebrity Hour, the lead segment of the evening session of the Appeal’s telethon, hosted by Geoff Raymond. Other special guests for the Celebrity Hour program were Spanish dancer Luisillo and actor Michael Denison, star of the British series Boyd QC and in Melbourne for the return season of stage hit My Fair Lady.

For Russell it was only a brief visit to Melbourne although she did return later in the month to film a special program for GTV9.

HSV7, Good Friday, 20 April 1962 8.30am Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal: Opening 8.45 News 9am Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal 12.30pm News 12.45 Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal – includes live coverage of Jane Russell’s arrival at Essendon Airport at 1.30pm. 4.45 Zig And Zag 5pm The Happy Show 5.45 Swallow’s Juniors 6pm Robin Hood 6.30 News 7pm The Nelsons 7.30 Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal: Celebrity Hour.  Hosted by Geoff Raymond, featuring Jane Russell, Luisillo, Michael Denison and Noel Brophy as well as Sunnyside Up stars Syd Heylen and John Gilbert. 8.30 Movie: A Kid For Two Farthings.  1956 10.30 Royal Children’s Hospital Appeal – includes Final Total 12am Close

This year’s appeal comes only six months after Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Royal Children’s Hospital campus in Parkville, adjacent to the previous hospital site which the monarch had also opened almost fifty years earlier. 

Appeal organisers this year are hopeful of breaking last year’s record total of $15,156,000.  Money raised this year will purchase a multi-million dollar state of the art scanner, and go towards ground-breaking research and medical scholarships.

The telethon, broadcast through Seven Melbourne and Prime7 in regional Victoria, starts today (Good Friday) at 9.00am and continues through until after midnight, breaking only for Seven News, Today Tonight and Home And Away.  Melbourne radio stations 3AW and Magic 1278 will also broadcast through the day from the Appeal headquarters at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.

Source: Seven News, Good Friday Appeal.  TV Times, 18 April 1962.  The Age, 19 April & 21 April 1962.

UPDATE @ 12.30AM AEST 7.4.2012:  The 2012 Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal has signed off with a record-breaking final total of $15,820,640.78.

Brian Naylor to enter Logies’ Hall of Fame

Former Melbourne television personality Brian Naylor is to be posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame at next month’s awards presentation.

TV Tonight reports that TV Week is set to announce Naylor’s award tomorrow.

This is the fourth time that a Hall of Fame Logie has been awarded posthumously – photographer Neil Davis (1986), actor and performer Maurie Fields (1996) and Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin (2007) also received posthumous recognition with entry into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Naylor, a former radio presenter on 3AK and 3DB, made the transition to television in the late 1950s as host of children’s variety program Swallow’s Juniors (later re-named Brian And The Juniors), which had made the move from 3DB to HSV7.

He later moved into the newsroom at HSV7, hosting the current affairs program This Week and reading news bulletins before being appointed to the role of chief newsreader for the Melbourne edition of Seven National News in 1970.  Naylor’s popularity with audiences in Melbourne and across regional Victoria led to him being signed up by rival GTV9 in 1978.  Nine had endured several years of poor ratings for its evening news and even bringing veteran newsreader Eric Pearce out of retirement had failed to lift its fortunes – but signing up Naylor was a major coup and the audience followed Naylor across to Nine.  National Nine News would continue to dominate the ratings during Naylor’s 20-years as newsreader, fending off fierce rival Ten’s one-hour news and a resurgent Seven in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.

Naylor also gained a national profile as presenter of the annual Carols By Candlelight for ten years, before the role was taken over by Ray Martin, and produced and hosted documentaries for the Nine Network.

In February last year Naylor and his wife Moiree were among the 173 killed by the Black Saturday bushfires.

Last month, the short-list of nominations for the Logies’ Hall of Fame was leaked to the media for the first time in the awards’ 27-year history.  Among others on the short list were Naylor’s long-time Sydney counterpart Brian Henderson, two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner Maggie Tabberer, Dateline host George Negus, SBS sporting commentator Les Murray, sports presenter Ken Sutcliffe, former newsreader Ian Ross, Home And Away stalwart Ray Meagher and former Network Ten drama Prisoner.

The TV Week Logie Awards will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 2 May and telecast on the Nine Network.

Source: TV Tonight

Logies Hall of Fame names leaked

The Australian’s media columnist Amanda Meade has leaked an “unauthorised” list of names being considered for this year’s TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.

Normally the award is nominated and voted in private by an industry panel, with the winner announced prior to the awards ceremony.

According to Meade the following names are on the short list:

Brian Henderson, host of ‘60s pop music show Bandstand and a newsreader for TCN9, Sydney, for almost forty years, retiring in 2002.

Brian Naylor (pictured), host of children’s talent show Brian And The Juniors before becoming newsreader for HSV7 and later GTV9 before retiring in 1998.  Hosted Nine’s Carols By Candlelight for ten years.  Was tragically killed last year in the Black Saturday bushfires.

Les Murray, one of the founding presenters at SBS and has led the network’s World Cup soccer coverage since it first telecast the event in 1986.

George Negus (pictured, in 1981), former This Day Tonight journalist who became a household name as one of the founding reporters on 60 Minutes in 1979.  Later hosted Today, Foreign Correspondent and George Negus Tonight and is currently host of Dateline and contributor to The 7PM Project.

Ken Sutcliffe, sports presenter who got his big break being hand-picked by Graham Kennedy to co-host his new late night show, Graham Kennedy’s News Show, in 1988.  Continues to present the sports report for Nine News in Sydney and various Wide World Of Sports telecasts.

Maggie Tabberer (pictured, in 1970), former fashion model turned publishing identity and TV personality.  A two-time TV Week Gold Logie winner (1970, 1971) and more recently a presenter on pay-TV.

Ian Ross, long-time journalist and newsreader for National Nine News in Sydney and, for several years, for Today nationally.  Came out of a brief retirement to front Seven News in Sydney, and led the 6.00pm timeslot for the next six years at the expense of traditional rival Nine.  Retired from Seven at the end of last year.

Ray Meagher, veteran actor and the only founding cast member of Home And Away to still be on the series, 22 years on.

Prisoner (pictured), the Grundy Productions drama series that broke new ground when it launched in 1979 with a predominantly female cast and without the usual gloss of prime-time soap operas.  The series ran for eight years, sold well overseas and won a swag of TV Week Logie awards.  As testament to its long-standing popularity, all 692 episodes of the show have been released on DVD – the largest such DVD release in Australia, if not worldwide.

One name that this blog might suggest would be worthy of a Hall of Fame award is Western Australian TV personality Jeff Newman (pictured).  Newman recently retired from TVW7, Perth, after over 40 years of service, including an outstanding commitment to TVW7’s annual Telethon.  Although Newman is not well known outside of Western Australia, his commitment and service to the television industry in WA is a fantastic achievement.

Previous winners of the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame have included Graham Kennedy, Bert Newton, Mike Walsh, Don Lane, Mike Willesee, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, James Davern, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Ruth Cracknell, Maurie Fields, Sam Chisholm, Bruce Gyngell, Johnny Young, Bill Collins and Steve Irwin.  Three programs have also been entered into the Hall of Fame – 4 Corners, Neighbours and Play School.

Expect TV Week to announce this year’s inductee to the Hall of Fame prior to this year’s Logies telecast, scheduled for 2 May.

Source: The Australian

Young Talent Time headed for return?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remembering the Juniors

Melbourne’s The Age newspaper reported on Friday that the former child stars of the variety series Brian And The Juniors are gathering for a reunion in Melbourne next week – the first such reunion since the show wound up back in 1970.

The talent quest, one of the first variety programs on Melbourne television, began as Swallow’s Juniors on radio station 3DB in the early-1950s, hosted by the station’s breakfast announcer John Eden. 

Brian Naylor took over hosting the program shortly before it moved to television, appearing on HSV7 from 1957.  This YouTube clip, taken from a Made In Melbourne special made by HSV to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 2006, includes Naylor’s recollection of the circumstances surrounding his appointment as the show’s host.  The clip also includes some early footage of the program and even some backstage ‘home movie’ footage taken by one of the cast member’s parents during rehearsals.

In 1964, Swallow’s Juniors changed its name to Brian And The Juniors and moved from Saturday to Sunday afternoons.  The program was later also relayed to stations across regional Victoria.  Over the program’s twelve year run on TV it is estimated that as many as 100 ‘Juniors’ appeared on the program, including later household names including Ernie Sigley and Patti Newton (nee McGrath).

Brian And The Juniors ended in 1970 when Naylor was promoted to the role of chief newsreader for HSV7.  However, the concept of a variety program featuring a junior cast was revisited when the 0-10 Network launched Young Talent Time in 1971 – a program that also featured some former Juniors cast members including Debbie Byrne, Jane Scali and Jamie Redfern.

The reunion of the ‘Juniors’ will sadly not include the host Brian Naylor, who with his wife Moiree was killed in the Kinglake bushfires in February this year.  Tim McKew (pictured, with Naylor), a former Junior and these days a cabaret performer as a Noel Coward impersonator, told The Age: “(The reunion) had been organised before Brian’s sad demise.  He was a charming man, great with us children, never patronising.  We remember him very fondly.”

Sources:
The Age, 5 June 2009. 
TV Week, 20 December 1969. 
TV Times, 28 January 1970.
YouTube: aussiebeachut

Brian Naylor

Former Melbourne television identity Brian Naylor (pictured) and his wife Moiree have been found dead after the horrific bushfires that have ravaged Victoria over the weekend. 

The couple's bodies were found tonight after they were reported unaccounted for after a blaze tore through the rural town of Kinglake. 

More than eighty have been reported dead from fires burning around the state.

Naylor, 78, started in radio presenting commercials for his then employer, a paper mill in Melbourne, and then landed an announcing role at radio station 3DB. 

With the advent of television in Melbourne, Naylor made the move from 3DB to its new sister station HSV7 as host of its children's variety program Swallow's Juniors (later Brian And The Juniors). 

In 1970, Naylor joined the news team at HSV7 which was then struggling to topple rival GTV9 in the news ratings race.  By the mid-1970s, Seven National News with Naylor at the helm was winning the ratings - at the expense of Nine which had even lured former newsreading legend Eric Pearce out of retirement to try to claw back viewers from Seven.

In 1978, after two decades at Seven, Naylor was subject of one of the biggest coups in television when he accepted an offer to join GTV9, starting early in 1979 and eventually the viewers followed with National Nine News dominating through much of the 1980s and 1990s.

Ironically, it was Brian Naylor who presented an edition of National Nine News live on location from the streets of Cockatoo which had been destroyed in the horrific Ash Wednesday fires of 1983.

For many years, Naylor's signature sign-off from the news was "May your news be good news and goodnight."

Naylor also presented Melbourne's Carols By Candlelight for ten years and in 1988 he was voted Victorian Father of the Year.

At the end of 1998, Naylor retired from television, ending a forty-year career.  A clip of Naylor's final news bulletin is featured at TV Australia.

Last year, Naylor lost son Matthew, 41, in an ultralight plane crash near their Kinglake property.

Source: Sky News, TV Tonight, TV Times
YouTube: aussiebeachut