Ask Steve Vizard about “his girls”, Fast Forward comediennes Gina Riley, Marg Downey, Magda Szubanski and Jane Turner (pictured as their Fast Forward alter egos Kerri-Anne Kennel, the SBS lady, Pixie Anne Wheatley and Sveta), and all you’ll hear is praise… well, almost. “Frankly, if I can come clean, I carry the lot of them. I’m the talent,” he says, with the trademark Vizard modesty. “Take away their incredible acting ability, their comedic skills, their looks and their personalities, and they’re nothing… these girls are nothing!”
Gold Logie winner Rowena Wallace (pictured) has sparked a furore with the producers of Home And Away after making comments to a newspaper that derided her upcoming role in the Seven Network soap. Wallace, who won the Gold Logie for her role as nasty Patricia Hamilton in Sons And Daughters, was cast to play Julia Bowman, the mother of a young girl dying of leukaemia in a storyline to air on Home And Away early next year. But in a story published by Sydney’s Telegraph Mirror, Wallace was less than enthused about the role. “I’m playing somebody’s mother. It doesn’t really matter whose mother, does it? She’s dying of leukaemia and I’m there crying a lot, I suppose. I can see it now,” she told the paper. “But I’m doing Home And Away for the money. It’s a nice little earner until Christmas, and then I can go off and do the World Vision thing, you see.” Although there is a signed contract for Wallace’s upcoming role, Seven has advised her management that her services are no longer required and the two parties are currently negotiating an outcome. But a spokesperson for Seven has told TV Week, “the role is being re-cast and Rowena will not be doing it.”
A major cast upheaval is headed for Network Ten’s E Street – with four cast members being written out, two former cast members returning, and question marks over three others. By the end of the year cast members Joan Sydney, Graham Harvey, Julieanne Newbould (pictured) and teenager Daniel Knight will be gone. Producer Forrest Redlich is currently negotiating with Marcus Graham, Alyssa-Jane Cook and Kate Raison, whose contracts are up for renewal. “It’s a pretty good bet Marcus will be out. I’m talking to him about another project,” Redlich told TV Week. “If Marcus, Kate and A-J go, they’ll be on air until March.” Meanwhile, Vic Rooney and Kelley Abbey will return to the series, and Diane Craig will take over the role of Dr Elly Fielding from former cast member Penny Cook.
Irish actress Brenda Fricker (pictured) has told TV Week that she was on the verge of collapse while filming the ABC mini-series Brides Of Christ, with long hours in a nun’s habit in temperatures of up to 40 degrees. “The heat killed me and with the humidity I just couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I don’t like heat and four months was too long away from home. Although they did everything to make me feel at home at the place I was staying, it wasn’t home. I also got very ill. I went to a doctor and he said I was suffering from chronic fatigue. He said that I needed a long break. He said I would probably ignore his advice but, if I did, I would end up in hospital.”
John Laws says…
”The idea of ‘resting’ from his late-night show and installing temporary replacements is something Steve Vizard has perfected this year. The star of Seven’s Tonight Live is sometimes missing from the limelight and replaced by various personalities, some of whom have appeared before as his guests. Vizard’s recent stand-in host, the British comedian and comedy writer Ben Elton, made such a marvellous fist of the job that I dare say there were many viewers wishing he could be around all year.”
Program Highlights (Melbourne, August 31-September 6):
Saturday: The Choirboys and The Cockroaches are guest performers on this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).
Sunday: Sunday night movies are The Name Of The Rose (Seven) and Old Gringo (Nine) up against Ten’s re-run of mini-series Come In Spinner, a series originally aired on ABC.
Monday: In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Colin (Kim Gyngell) is jailed for a crime he didn’t commit and fights to prove his innocence. In A Country Practice (Seven), Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) is caught in the middle of old rivalries between Harry (Andrew Blackman) and his brother Rick (John Adam).
Wednesday: ABC debuts mini-series Brides Of Christ, a six-part series set in Australia during a decade of radical upheaval in our society and in the Catholic Church, starring Josephine Byrnes, Kym Wilson, Lisa Hensley, Brenda Fricker and Naomi Watts.
Thursday: In The Flying Doctors (Nine), rumours are sparked in Coopers Crossing when Guy (David Reyne) and Jackie (Nikki Coghill) spend the night alone after being stranded in a desolate Outback hut.
Friday: Movie host Bill Collins is the celebrity guest on this week’s Burke’s Backyard (Seven).
Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 31 August 1991. Southdown Press
Off to a flying start! 
TV Week Logie Winners 1991: Publicly-voted categories 
TV Week Logie Winners 1991: Industry-voted categories 
Briefly… 
John Laws says… 
Cover: Nicole Kidman
Mighty minis 
Tuesday: The premiere of Nine’s new adults-only drama Chances (starring Natalie McCurry, pictured), telling the story of an ordinary suburban family whose lives are changed when they win a lottery. ABC’s Lateline with Kerry O’Brien returns for 1991, followed by a repeat screening of the NFL Superbowl from the previous day.
The year of living famously! 
E Street goes for the matron 
Some of the great names in showbusiness – including Mike Walsh, Gwen Plumb, John Ewart, Ron Shand, Jeanne Little, Nancye Hayes and Elaine Lee – gathered in Sydney recently for the launch of showbiz veteran Toni Lamond’s autobiography, First Half. Lamond (pictured, with former TV Week Gold Logie winner Hazel Phillips), a veteran of early variety shows including In Melbourne Tonight, is currently starring in the Sydney production of 42nd Street and recently starred in the ABC telemovie How Wonderful.
Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off 
‘I cried and cried…’ 
E Street’s bad boy moves to Ramsay Street! 
ABC mini-series Come In Spinner has won a number of awards at the recent Australian Film Industry Awards presentation. Actress Rebecca Gibney (pictured) won the award for best actress in a mini-series, while the series also won for Best Direction and Best Mini-series. Frankie J Holden won the Best Actor award for his role in the ABC mini-series Police Crop.
Sunday: Alison Drower and Rob Duckworth host the two-hour National Rock Eisteddfod (GTV9), with judges Glenn A Baker and Angry Anderson. ATV10 presents Remember When, featuring a look back at the pre-television years when Australians saw their news from movie newsreels. Sunday night movies are Good Morning Vietnam (HSV7) and Mississippi Burning (ATV10). GTV9 presents the premiere of mini-series Ring Of Scorpio, starring Catherine Oxenberg, Linda Cropper and Caroline Goodall (pictured).
Coming up next month in ABC’s weekly interview series Talking Heads, host Peter Thompson talks to one of Australia’s most well known actresses, Kerry Armstrong.
After thirty years in a career that has also included movie roles and winning AFI and TV Week Logie awards, Armstrong concedes that she is re-thinking her future as an actor. “It feels like I’m almost all done,” she says.
‘I didn’t think I would ever get married’ 
Catherine doubles up Down Under 
The fax about Graham! 
Sale Of The Century hostess Alyce Platt (pictured) is about to return to television drama with a new role in the Nine Network series Family And Friends. It will be her first dramatic role since leaving Sons And Daughters in 1985, and is hoped to give Family And Friends a much-needed ratings boost. Her role as social worker Stephanie Collins is not expected to interfere with her weekly taping schedule for Sale Of The Century.
John Laws says… 
Thursday: ATV10 screens the one-hour special Phar Lap: The Verdict, presented by Ian Leslie. The special focuses on the trial, commissioned in late 1989, dealing with the question of who killed champion racehorse Phar Lap.
Kate bows out on a high 
It’s a Forties triple treat! 
Pop princess and former Neighbours star Kylie Minogue (pictured) is believed to have bought a million dollar property in a leafy, east Melbourne suburb, sparking off a lot of gossip and speculation by her future real-life neighbours. Locals have spotted the pop star checking on progress on renovations to the older-style house. It is not known if Minogue will move into the house with her boyfriend, rock star Michael Hutchence.
John Laws says… 
Program Highlights (March 24-30): 
