1991: December 21-27

Two secret showbiz weddings
Secrecy was the key word surrounding two recent celebrity weddings.  Actor Cameron Daddo has married model Alison Brahe at the Garrison Church in Sydney’s historic Rocks area – while E Street star Marianne Howard married dancer Drew Anthony at the secluded Holy Trinity Anglican Church at Berrima, NSW.  Both weddings were shrouded in secrecy as the couples sought to escape mass media coverage.

Ray seizes the day again
Despite persistent rumours that he was headed to the Seven Network to front the new current affairs program, unofficially dubbed ‘Project X’, Midday host Ray Martin says he will be with Nine in the new year and insists it was never going to be any other way.  “I’ve never spoken to (producer) Gerald Stone about ‘Project X’,” Martin told TV Week.  “My understanding is that he has a real commitment not to poach people from Channel Nine.  The rumour regarding me isn’t, and wasn’t, true.”  Martin has also revealed that due to his wife giving birth to their second child he has pulled the pin on a planned night-time interview show that was set to screen on Friday nights that had been given the go-ahead by Nine.  “We were going to be on air for 90 minutes after Burke’s Backyard,” Martin said.  “So the bottom line is I will definitely do Midday next year and other specials.  I’ll also fill in for Jana Wendt (on A Current Affair), which I’m delighted to do as long as it’s for short stints.”  Martin is also looking forward to next year as it marks the 20th year for Midday – having started as The Mike Walsh Show on the 0-10 Network in 1973 before moving across to Nine in 1977.  Mike Walsh then made the controversial, and short-lived, move to prime-time while Martin took over the re-named Midday in 1985.  “We are looking to get a special show up, with me and Mike Walsh co-hosting,” Martin said.  “We have a lot of television under our belts.”

‘Let me out of here!’
Home And Away actress Dee Smart (pictured with co-star Bruce Roberts) has likened her two-year contract to the Seven Network series to a prison sentence as she is desperate for “release” after eight months.  “It feels like I’ve been here for years,” she told TV Week.  After studying acting for two-and-a-half years, the 25-year-old says the constant turnaround of episode production is what is most frustrating.  “There is no time to develop.  It is almost impossible to do a good job with the amount of time you have,” she told TV Week.  “I used to bag the soapies.  I used to say, ‘That actor is so bad.  How can they be on this show? It’s awful’.  Now I have nothing but admiration for these guys because of the amount of time they have.  I’m amazed they even get the words out, let alone try to act at all.  There is just no time to think about things.  And this Lucinda character goes on and on and on.  It is kind of abnormal for a character to last this long.”  But despite her frustration, Smart says Home And Away has been an invaluable learning experience.  “I’m learning and being stretched in my acting,” she says.  “If you can justify the ups and downs of soap, you can justify anything.  One thing is certain, I won’t go racing into another long-term contract.”

Briefly…
ABC’s The Afternoon Show host Michael Tunn (pictured) has scored a coup with an exclusive interview with US boy band New Kids On The Block when they tour Australia next month.  “We do requests on The Afternoon Show, and at least half are for New Kids On The Block,” 17-year-old Tunn told TV Week.  “We thought, as they’d be touring Australia – and because our audience loves them so much – we would look at the behind-the-scenes as well as out front.  The boys have agreed to an extensive interview with us backstage during the tour.”  The interview and behind-the-scenes special is expected to go to air in February.

Sale Of The Century host Glenn Ridge, whose career started in radio in the late 1970s, is set to present the breakfast shift on Melbourne radio station TTFM while its regular hosts Darren James and Jane Holmes are on holiday.

After two years studying acting in the US, former Double Dare host and Home And Away star Gerry Sont (pictured) is back in Australia and has signed a one-year contract with the Nine Network’s Chances.  Sont plays the role of Cal Lawrence, a bit of a loner who lets chance decide what he does and ends up having an affair with Barbara (Brenda Addie).  “Chances is a real challenge for me,” Sont told TV Week.  “It’s challenging people’s view of drama.  It doesn’t follow the simple formula of Neighbours or The Flying Doctors.  It’s new and it’s fun.”

With the future of The Flying Doctors in limbo, actor Paul Kelman is excited to have picked up a role in another Crawfords Australia production, the upcoming children’s series Halfway Across The Galaxy And Turn Left.  “I’m rapt because this is so different to anything I’ve done before,” he told TV Week.  “I’m playing a character from another planet so it’s a big challenge to make something like this believable to the audience.”  Halfway Around The Galaxy And Turn Left co-stars Kerry Armstrong, Bruce Spence, Colleen Hewett, Sandy Gore, Jan Freidl and Lauren Hewett and is expected to screen on the Seven Network in 1992.

Lawrie Masterson‘s Sound Off
It was under wraps longer than the identity of Who Shot JR (does anyone remember?), but the Seven Network finally has loosened up on some of the details of Gerald Stone’s so-called ‘Project X’.  In about four weeks, Seven will unveil a new 6.30pm program which, considering it’s television, has been given the unreal title of Real Life.  Consequently – and as has been expected for ages – the soap Home And Away will be thrust into head-to-head combat with Network Ten’s Neighbours at 7.00pm.  The intrigue continues about how some names and faces out of left-field – notably the program’s host, former ABC man Stan Grant – will fare at taking on the almost death-defying challenge of trying to topple Jana Wendt’s A Current Affair on the Nine Network.  And will Grant sign off with the line: “That’s real life?”  Questions also continue about the effects of the two soaps having to battle each other.  Could it be that the biggest beneficiaries of that little scrap will be Nine’s Sale Of The Century or ABC News?

Program Highlights (Melbourne, December 21-27):
Saturday:  Nine presents a one-hour special, Spirit Of Australia, documenting Australia’s entrant in the Americas Cup and their challenge to bring the cup back to Australia.  Barry Crocker and Jackie Love host Seven’s Carols In The Domain, featuring performances by Judith Durham, David Hobson, Suzanne Clachair and The Australian Girls Choir.

Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon is dominated by Christmas movies and specials, while Ten crosses to New Zealand for the Ironman Super Series.  Sunday night movies are Ernest Saves Christmas (Seven), Going In Style (Nine) and Prancer (Ten).

Tuesday:  The highlight of Christmas Eve is the traditional Carols By Candlelight, live from the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, hosted by Ray Martin and featuring performances by John Farnham, Marina Prior (pictured with Martin), James Blundell, Julie Anthony, Denis Walter, John Bowles, Anthony Warlow, Debbie Byrne and Tommy Emmanuel.  Seven screens the movie Scrooge, while ABC presents the 1956 musical comedy High Society.  Later in the evening, Ten presents the traditional Midnight Mass For You At Home.

Wednesday (Christmas Day):  ABC’s broadcast day begins with Christmas Mass, celebrated by Pope John Paul II at St Peter’s Basilica, Rome.  Christmas morning on Seven is predominantly cartoons followed by delayed broadcast of Adelaide’s John Martin’s Christmas Pageant and the 1983 movie Bush Christmas, starring John Ewart, John Howard and Nicole Kidman.  Nine presents a replay of last night’s Carols By Candlelight, and Ten presents Christmas specials and movies throughout the day.  SBS screens a one-hour Christmas Carols concert, recorded by the SBS Youth Orchestra.  ABC, Seven and Ten include the Queen’s Christmas Message in their evening news bulletins, while Nine broadcasts it later in the evening.  Seven presents a one-hour special Darling Harbour Christmas Parade, hosted by Kathryn Greiner and Rev Dr Gordon Moyes – while ABC’s That’s Dancin’ presents a special Christmas edition featuring guest stars Marina Prior, Rhonda Burchmore, Tony Fenelon and The Barbara Lynch Dance Group.

Thursday: From midday Ten presents 90 minutes of live coverage of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, with updates through the afternoon.  With the cricket Second Test being played at the MCG, Nine in Melbourne picks up coverage only from 3.40pm until close of play at 6.00pm, with half an hour of highlights from 11.40pm.  At 5.30pm, Ten crosses to Perth for live coverage of the Australian Derby horse racing.  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Rowie’s (Sarah Chadwick) seriously ill father is admitted to hospital and pleads with Guy (David Reyne) not to tell Rowie of the severity of his illness.

Friday:  ABC presents a new series of Aboriginal affairs program Blackout.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  21 December 1991.  Southdown Press

1990: December 22-28

Cover: Three Men And A Little Lady

‘I have no intention of staying in E Street for seven years…’
Joan Sydney doesn’t know much about the character she is going to play in Network Ten’s E Street, except for one thing – she won’t be anything like Maggie Sloan, the matron she played in A Country Practice for seven years.  “I have to have a talk with the producers about my character, because I’m not interested in playing a matron again,” Sydney told TV Week.  “I’m interested in doing something quite different.”  She is also adamant that her E Street role will not last as long as that of Matron Sloan.  “I only went into A Country Practice for six months, and ended up staying seven years.  I didn’t know who I was when I came out of that – until I threw away the corset and cut my hair.  So I have no intention of staying in E Street for seven years.”

There is a life beyond 2000!
Beyond 2000 reporter Iain Finlay and partner, associate producer Trish Sheppard are leaving the popular Seven Network program to embark on a new venture – chronicling their 25 years of life and adventure together in the form of a trilogy.  Their life together has taken them to the wilds of Africa, to the Amazon River and freezing Siberia, amongst many other places. 

Back in Harmer’s way!
Following a successful tour of the UK, comedian Wendy Harmer (pictured) is returning to ABC and the show that made her a household name.  She will be re-joining The Big Gig in the new year as part as a reduced line-up to feature in the comedy show – following the departure of Jean Kittson, the Doug Anthony All Stars and this year’s host Glynn Nicholas.  “I will be compering, but I don’t know whether it will be a full-time arrangement,” Harmer told TV Week.  “I’m keen to get back because it looks like the show will be a lot different in format next year.”

Briefly…
Neighbours star Richard Norton has been informed by producers that they won’t be renewing his contract when it expires in February.  “I was really counting on the six months to be working, but that’s the way it goes in this business.  It was my first experience in television so I’ve learnt a lot,” he told TV Week.

Vikki Blanche, who plays Julia in the Ten Network sitcom Col’n Carpenter, has quit the series and is planning to head to London and New York to take acting classes.  “I decided I’d done a year and I’ve learned a lot,” she told TV Week.  “I had a good time.  It’s the first time I’d done comedy in a formalised way.  I learnt a lot about setting up gags and rhythm.  Kim (Gyngell) is so good and he helped Stig (Wemyss) and me a lot.”

Former Neighbours star Guy Pearce (pictured) is set to make his stage acting debut with the role of Danny Zuko in the upcoming production of Grease.  The role of Sandy, made famous in the 1978 film version by Olivia Newton-John, is tipped to go to Perth actress Louise Anton, a host of the WA variety program Young Entertainers and a performer on Midday With Ray Martin.

John Laws says…
”One of TV’s major successes in 1990 was SBS’ screening of the British production Seven Up, which traced the lives of 14 people from age 7 through to 28.  It was fascinating and, as I’ve said previously, I can’t wait for the latest “seven-year” episode, which will reveal what is happening in the lives of the Seven Up subjects at age 35.  At the time I wrote about Seven Up, I wondered why someone in Australia hadn’t done something similar.  Well, of course, they had.  And just recently, on ABC, I was fortunate enough to catch a repeat screening of Gillian Armstrong’s wonderful documentary Bingo, Bridesmaids And Braces.”

Program Highlights (December 22-28):
Saturday:  HSV7 presents a direct telecast of Carols In The Domain, hosted by Barry Crocker and featuring Tina Arena, Jeanne Little, Grace Knight, Clare Gormley, The Salvation Army Massed Choirs, Cafe Of The Gate Of Salvation and The Sydney Symphony Youth Orchestra.  Following the carols, Tony Charlton hosts The Australian Dancesport Championships.

Sunday:  HSV7 presents a day full of Christmas specials, starting with The Flintstones’ Christmas at 9.00am and continuing with movies and specials right through to 6.00pm.  Sunday night movies are I’ll Be Home For Christmas (HSV7), Heaven’s Gate (GTV9) and A Hobo’s Christmas (ATV10).

Monday:  At 11.30am, HSV7, GTV9 and ATV10 present a repeat simulcast of the US animated special Cartoon All-Stars To The Rescue.  The half-hour program first appeared simultaneously across all three channels in November.  At 9.00pm, GTV9 presents a live telecast of the Royal Victorian Institute For The Blind’s Carols By Candlelight from Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl, hosted by Ray Martin and featuring Suzanne Johnston, Debbie Byrne, Wendy Stapleton, Denise Drysdale, The Seekers, Simon Gallagher, Denis Walter, John Diedrich and Marilyn Richardson.

Tuesday:  Christmas Day is dominated by Christmas specials and movies – and GTV9 presents a late-morning repeat of Carols By Candlelight.  At 6.00pm, ABC presents the Countdown Revolution Christmas Special, featuring Kate Ceberano, the Doug Anthony All Stars, Stephen Cummings and Reg Mombassa.  The Queen’s Christmas Message is broadcast on ABC (7.20pm), HSV7 (10.15pm), GTV9 (10.30pm), ATV10 (during Ten Evening News at 6.00pm) and SBS (6.20pm).

Wednesday:  ABC presents live coverage of the start of the traditional Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race, and GTV9 crosses to the MCG in the mid-afternoon for Australia versus England in Day One of the Second Test.

Thursday:  HSV7 presents live coverage from Perth of the Hopman Cup tennis – starting at 8.30pm and continuing through to 1.00am.

Friday:  The second day of the Hopman Cup starts at 1.00pm through to 6.00pm and then continuing from 8.30pm to 1.00am.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 22 December 1990. Southdown Press.

Ray Martin on Talking Heads

Ray Martin makes a return to the 6.30pm timeslot in a couple of weeks – but it’s not on A Current Affair, the show that he hosted for many years, but rather as a guest on ABC’s Talking Heads.

Martin talks candidly to host Peter Thompson about his early childhood life – a life of poverty and upheaval as he and his mother were on the run from a drunken, violent father.

Although the teenage Martin had dreams of playing cricket for Australia or becoming a history teacher, his life took a different turn when he got a job at the ABC in Western Australia in 1968 and became its New York correspondent in 1969:

“I love history and I devour it now. I just can’t get enough of it but I also want to see history being made rather than report on the way it used to be 200 years ago...  I think journalism allowed me to go to places and see history being made.”

For ten years Martin had a life of relative anonymity as the New York foreign correspondent for the ABC but his profile suddenly became a lot more public when he became one of the founding members of the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes (pictured) when it launched in 1979. 

Six years of travelling the world for 60 Minutes then led to a more stable life when he took over from Mike Walsh as host of Nine’s midday timeslot in 1985.  Midday With Ray Martin was a ratings hit for the normally-quiet lunchtime slot and scored Martin his first TV Week Gold Logie in 1987.  He would go on to win another four Gold Logies during the ‘90s.

In 1994, Martin made the move back to prime-time as host of A Current Affair, a position that he held for five years and then returned in 2003 for a few more.

In almost thirty years of service to the Nine Network, Martin also became the network’s special events host – including Carols By Candlelight, federal and state elections, prime-time interview specials, including the last public interview with legendary cricketer Don Bradman, TV Week Logie Awards presentations and the Australian bi-centennial special, Australia Live.

Martin has been married to wife Dianne for over 40 years and they have two children.

“I can’t believe this fortunate life I’ve had,” he says. 

Talking Heads with guest Ray Martin. Monday 16 August, 6.30pm. ABC1

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

1979: December 22-28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1978: December 23-29

Cover: Humphrey B Bear (Here's Humphrey)

Barber's still a big game hunter
Tony Barber has a reputation for stamina, and surviving.  Two years ago, the career of the former radio disc jockey and game show host was at an all-time low with the axing of Great Temptation and Name That Tune and the failure of his variety show for ATN7 Sydney.  To add to his woes, the Nine Network signed him up to host a revival of Great Temptation but it did not eventuate.  Barber then returned to his former home of Perth and there the energetic host bounced back with the national game show Family Feud being produced at TVW7, and now being seen on over 30 stations around Australia. 

When Santa went to war!
Steven Tandy, Richard Morgan and Jamie Higgins (pictured), of The Sullivans, might be indulging in some off-screen Christmas cheer, but things weren't so cheery in the show's early-'40s setting where even Father Christmas was rationed and was banned from appearing in advertising.  Australians were instead encouraged to put their money to more patriotic causes such as war savings loans and bonds.  Sue Cram, researcher for The Sullivans, has been meticulously tracing back just what impact the war had on Australians at Christmas.  There were rations on various items including tea, beer, cigarettes, potatoes, chocolate and nuts, all normally popular items at Christmas.  Australia was also supplying the American forces with food and they got much of the ham that was produced.  On Christmas Eve 1942, the temperature hit 101 degrees Fahrenheit in Melbourne, where even ice was rationed.

Wooley cornered
Former This Day Tonight Hobart reporter Charles Wooley has joined ABC's Four Corners.  The 30-year-old has worked in newspapers and television in Western Australia and Tasmania and joined This Day Tonight in 1974.  Married with "two daughters, a dog and a cat" he sees the move to Four Corners as an advancement in his career.

Shake-up for Lane show
A reshuffle in the production team for Nine's The Don Lane Show has had an impact on plans to take the show out on location in 1979.  Two of the show's comedy writers, Mike McColl-Jones and Tim Evans, already may be missing from the show when it returns in the new year.  McColl-Jones has accepted a position at rival ATV0's Peter Couchman Tonight, and Evans is believed to be in negotiation with HSV7 for the role of producer on the Saturday night Penthouse Club.  Also missing from The Don Lane Show in the new year will be producer Lesley Shaw, to be replaced by producer and former journalist Vince Lovegrove.  And returning to the position of executive producer for the show will be Peter Faiman.

Briefly:
Cop Shop actress Jo-Anne Moore and former This Day Tonight host Sonia Humphrey have been cast for the ABC series Twenty Good Years.  Former The Box actress Helen Hemingway has also been signed up for the series which is currently in production.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I hope we aren't going to be bored to death over the Christmas holidays when all the good shows have a break.  Blankety Blanks saved the day last year but now that's been axed we will be left high and dry." M. Allen, SA.

"Why do we have to have so many repeat programs, and in some cases, repeats of repeats!  There are many programs in Australia which are not screened here in Tasmania.  Is this because we can't afford to have them here? The repeats go on, and even good comedians become stale after a while." J. McRae, TAS.

"Why is it that any decent TV program or movie is programmed for viewing either in the middle of the day or night?  It makes me angry that a top class series like Poldark is screened at 11.00pm, or that the repeat of Upstairs Downstairs is shown at 2.00pm, when working people in 9-5 jobs simply cannot watch." R. Ogilvie, QLD.

What's On (December 23-29):
Saturday brings NSW Open tennis on HSV7, World Series Cricket on GTV9 and Gillette Cup cricket on ATV0.  On Saturday night, Young Talent Time on ATV0 presents a special Christmas edition with an hour of Christmas carols.

Sunday is Christmas Eve, and ABC devotes much of the evening to British Christmas specials.  HSV7 presents a movie, Father Knows Best Reunion, and GTV9's World Series Cricket continues until 10.30pm.  ATV0 continues a Melbourne tradition with Carols By Candlelight from 9.30pm, followed by Christmas Midnight Mass at 11.30pm.  And viewers are offered two versions of the Christmas classic Miracle On 34th Street, with the black-and-white 1947 version airing on HSV7 at 10.00pm, and the more-recent 1973 version on ATV0 earlier in the night at 8.00pm.

Christmas Day on Monday has movies and Christmas specials throughout the day on HSV7 and GTV9, while ATV0 has a late start to the day, commencing transmission at 3.00pm with a repeat of Carols By Candlelight followed by The Early Bird Christmas Day Show.  ABC's traditional Divine Service appears at 10.00am, then the test pattern takes over until mid-afternoon.  At 3.30pm, the cast of Play School, including Benita Collings, John Hamblin, Alister Smart, Don Spencer, John Waters and Noni Hazelhurst, present a special version of the Christmas story, told in Godspell-style with songs, improvisation and props.

ABC's 7.00pm news is cut to ten minutes for Christmas night, followed by the traditional Queen's Christmas Message.  Like the previous night, ABC has more British fare with Christmas specials throughout the evening.  But over at GTV9, not even Family Feud and The Young Doctors get the night off for Christmas, both screening as usual.

Boxing Day, 26 December, has the Australian Open tennis from Kooyong, Melbourne, live on HSV7.  ABC has the One Day International live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and GTV9 has two hours coverage of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.  The evening includes HSV7's live coverage of the Australian Derby horse racing from Perth.

Friday includes the first day's play in the cricket Third Test, live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on ABC.

ATV0's weekday afternoon game show lineup, Blankety Blanks, Pyramid Challenge and Perfect Match, quietly comes to an end on Friday.  For Blankety Blanks (pictured) it is an inglorious end for a program that only a year earlier was a prime-time ratings giant before being moved by ATV0 to a midday timeslot earlier in the year following reports of a falling out between the station and the show's host Graham Kennedy.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 23 December 1978.  ABC/ACP

1978: February 18-24

Cover: TV Times' Salute To Hollywood. Celebrating 50 years of 'talkies'.

The search is over:
Producers of the upcoming mini-series Against The Wind have cast the lead female character for the 13-part epic. Irish-born Mary Larkin was chosen after auditions were held in Australia and England. TV Times reports that production of the $1 million series is now in early stages in Sydney and nearby Gosford, with producers working hard to gather or have made replicas of items from the 18th century to be used in the production.

Benny Hill's Aussie show for UK:
The Australian-made special from British comedian Benny Hill is to be shown in the UK later in the year. The special, produced at a cost of $100,000 for the 0-10 Network, had been shown to executives of Thames TV who were "very complimentary" about the show.

Back to TV for Ross D:
Former pop TV host Ross D Wylie has been appointed as the new host of ATV0's late-night Friday and Saturday movies, replacing late-night pioneer Hal Todd who had moved to a management role at the station. "The first thing I want to do is improve the standard of the movies and make sure they will all be in colour," said the former Uptight host.

"If I had a million...":
TV Times asked some of TV's most popular personalities: What would do with a million? The Sullivans' Lorraine Bayly wanted to travel and to buy a zoo, and build a luxury old folks home. Former Number 96 star Pat McDonald would offer a large amount of it to research into children's diseases, and to set up a trust fund for the local entertainment industry. Johnny Young wanted to travel around Australia, while newsreader Roger Climpson very sensibly planned to invest it.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I wish to complain about the science-fiction shows on TVT6 Hobart. Late last year I received information that the second series of Space 1999 was to be shown, but lately there has been no sign of it. Instead, they put on Fantastic Journey, which is quite absurd." Leonard, TAS.

"I would like to thank the channels for their sports coverage and mediocre films during the day. Now I have time to do things in my home and garden, plus play records and cassettes and read." J. Skinn, SA.

"Johnny Farnham again showed his class and versatility with his great performances on both the special It's Just Another New Year's Eve and at the Carols By Candlelight event. Farnham is the greatest entertainer Australia has ever produced." D. Bell, VIC.

What's On (February 18-24):
ABC's Four Corners with Caroline Jones returns for another year on Saturday night, while Ernie Sigley appeared alongside Mary Hardy as guest co-host on HSV7's Penthouse '78.

The then Governor-General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen, opens the 31st Federal Parliament - televised live on ABC on Tuesday afternoon.

GTV9's Wednesday night movie is the 'modified TV version' of the British comedy Percy - described by TV Times ever-so-quaintly as the story of "Edwin Anthony, recipient of the most sensual transplant ever".

ATV0 presents a three-hour US documentary Life Goes To The Movies, tracing the history of how movies depicted American life from the 1930s through to the 1970s.

Sunday night movies are They Only Kill Their Masters (HSV7), Ash Wednesday (GTV9) and Doc (ATV0). ABC presents the premiere episode of the British mini-series I Claudius.

Source: TV Times, 18 February 1978 (Melbourne edition). ABC/ACP