1991: December 28-January 3

The doctor’s lusty bedside manner!
Viewers of The Flying Doctors may be shocked by a lusty bedroom scene coming up in a future episode between Dr Guy Reid (David Reyne) and Penny Wellings (Sophie Lee).  The “fling” is the result of Penny’s boyfriend Steve (Paul Kelman) getting a local schoolteacher pregnant.  Penny turns to Guy for comfort and he exploits a “golden opportunity”.  “He’s the sort of man who lusts after all women, really,” Reyne told TV Week.  “Although he is in a relationship with Nurse Jackie Crane (Nikki Coghill), Guy has a wandering eye for Penny.”  Lee was initially surprised when she was presented with the script but feels the situation is a realistic one.  “It’s a daring episode but it’s the reality of what could happen in this situation in an outback town,” she said.  But with the future of The Flying Doctors in doubt the long-term repercussions of the affair may not be seen.  The episode is scheduled to go to air in February.

‘I’m fighting fit!’
Sale Of The Century co-host Jo Bailey has a bold announcement to make.  “I want people to know that I’m not about to drop dead,” she says.  The statement came after a recent magazine interview where she revealed that her family has a history of bowel cancer.  “People read the headline that went with the story and think I’ve got cancer.  I’d just like to clarify that I’m fighting fit… apart from being a bit stiff from water-skiing.” 

Overseas viewers lap up Kelly
Skippy may have been a popular television export but she looks like being trumped by an ex-police dog called Kelly.  Kelly is a six-year-old german shepherd and the title character from Network Ten children’s series, Kelly.  The first series of thirteen episodes has been sold to 31 countries and a second series is nearing completion.  Execute producer Jonathon Shiff says it’s a major triumph for children’s television in Australia.  “I’m thrilled about the reception the show has received overseas,” he said.  “One of our targets is to deliver high-quality shows for children.  There is still plenty of room for shows of Disney quality which has positive storylines and characters for children to model themselves on.”  The series also features child actors Charmaine Gorman and Alexander Kemp.

Briefly…
Fans of sitcom Acropolis Now will notice some changes with the fourth series of the show that is set to screen early in the new year – with the focus changing from “wog comedy” to broad family sitcom.  “We don’t want to do a show that’s just directed at a wog audience – we want to include everybody,” says George Kapiniaris (pictured), who plays Memo in the show.  “I’m sure it’s the best series we’ve made – and it’s the most mainstream one of all.  The jokes are broader and the characters are funnier.  Everyone is really keen to show Seven we’re serious about keeping the show going.” 

A new policeman is about to make an entrance into A Country Practice’s Wandin Valley.  Senior Constable Tom Newman (Jon Concannon, pictured) comes into town as the heir apparent to Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) – and while producers won’t give much away, it appears that the new policeman’s arrival creates some resentment on Frank’s part.  Concannon has previously starred in mini-series Nancy Wake and All The Rivers Run II and in the ABC series House Rules.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”While there is not a lot that’s worth watching on the small screen at the moment, other activities within the commercial networks have been almost frenzied.  It seems every other day brings an announcement of a new program or the demise of one, someone switching networks or being axed, or someone making a comeback.  In the past month we’ve had Nine planning its 5.30pm current affairs program in each city, and there’s a new frontman on Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show.  The network has been less forthcoming about its future participation in the Crawfords Australia series The Flying Doctors.  Derryn Hinch was dropped abruptly by Seven and picked up just as quickly by Ten.  Bert Newton and Jacki MacDonald (pictured) also will be at Ten in 1992 and the network is about to move the bulk of its Melbourne operations from Nunawading to South Yarra – much more accessible, upmarket and convenient for Ten’s owner, Westpac.  And Seven has been preparing for Real Life and the move of Home And Away to 7.00pm.  One rumour doing the rounds is that Nine has given the go-ahead to a new Saturday morning show called Saturday At Rick’s, two hours of music and madness to be made at Rick’s Cafe American at Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast.”

John Laws says…
”It was a triumphant year for comedy.  Fast Forward slipped into another gear and proved itself, again, the most inventive and funniest Australian comedy product, leaving more experimental black comedy such as The Big Gig and DAAS Kapital in its wake.  All Together Now (pictured) and Hey Dad! were other comedy successes for the year.  Hey Dad! displays an amazing resilience, the standard of its scripts rarely flagging despite having been around for a long time by TV standards.  All Together Now struggled to establish itself, but it always had the look of a program that would manage to survive.  It has a strong, professional cast and its scripts and plots got better as the year wore on.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, December 28-January 3):
Saturday:  Seven crosses to Burswood Superdome, Perth, to start its live coverage of the Hopman Cup tennis.  ABC presents golf with live coverage of the Australian Ladies’ Masters from Palm Meadows, Gold Coast, and Nine has live coverage of the afternoon session of play in the cricket Second Test from the MCG.  Music video show Video Hits (Ten) presents the first part of its Top 100 songs of 1991 special.  In the evening, Seven presents a one-hour special, 1991: The Big Picture, covering the major news and sporting events that have taken place over the past year.

Sunday:  There’s more women’s golf on ABC, tennis on Seven and cricket on Nine, plus the second half of Video Hits’ Top 100 special.  After the news, Nine screens a World Vision special, The Silent Tragedy, featuring Bryan Brown, Rachel Ward, Liz Burch and Ian Leslie as they visit World Vision projects and disaster areas in the Third World.  Sunday night movies are The Sting (Seven) and Sweet Liberty (Ten), while Nine presents the first part of a repeat screening of mini-series The Lancaster Miller Affair, starring Nicholas Eadie and Kerry Mack.

Monday:  Seven debuts a new pre-schoolers program, The Book Place, produced from SAS7 in Adelaide. 

Tuesday (New Year’s Eve):  ABC screens the 1951 musical Show Boat before presenting Backchat – The Year In Review, followed by late news and then American football with Don Lane which sees ABC through into 1992.  Ten presents a special New Year’s Eve edition of Video Hits, starting at 10.35pm and continuing through to 1.50am, including a midnight countdown.  SBS continues its New Year’s Eve tradition of screening the German-made comedy skit, Dinner For One.

Wednesday:  Aussie ex-pat Clive James presents his review of the year, Clive James On ‘91, on ABC.

Thursday:  Nine’s telecast of the Third Test begins from Sydney.  Seven has live coverage of the evening session of the Hopman Cup, and Ten has a news special, Russia In Crisis, presented by Sydney newsreader Katrina Lee.

Friday:  A full day of tennis on Seven with live coverage of the Australian Men’s Hardcourt Championships from Adelaide during the day and the finals of the Hopman Cup from Perth in the evening. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  28 December 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: April 13-19

‘I miss him very much’
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker (pictured) speaks to TV Week about the death of a close friend from AIDS and is angry at the myths, misunderstandings and misinformation surrounding the disease.  “We were very, very close and his work was magnificent,” she told TV Week of the friend, who she has asked not be named out of respect to his mother.  “He was always painfully thin, but always jolly – and he was a great raconteur.  He used to tell the most wonderful stories.  I miss him very much.”  But while AIDS can force couples to be brutally honest with each other, she is angry at the amount of ignorance about the disease.  “The education system here is supposed to be the best in the world when it comes to AIDS, but you still get enormous numbers of people who think you can contract it by sitting on the toilet.  Now, I think that’s criminal.  They (also) immediately connect AIDS with homosexuality, exclusively, which is a complete farce.”

New team set Sale
Glenn Ridge and Jo Bailey (pictured) have emerged as the new host and co-host of Nine’s Sale Of The Century following the sudden departure of Tony Barber and Alyce Platt from the program.  The new presenters, who only met for the first time when they attended TV Week’s photo shoot, are enthusiastic and confident about their new roles.  “It really is a huge credit to Nine and Grundys that they’ve selected us,” Ridge told TV Week.  “They could have gone for people who were already well known, so it was absolute shock when I found out I’d been selected.”  Ridge comes to Sale after a career in regional radio and television.  He had hosted a music show Breezin’ for Bendigo channel BCV8, and at Ballarat’s BTV6 he had hosted children’s and music shows including TV Week Logie winner Kids Only.  New co-host Bailey had only recently joined Sale Of The Century as a model and had no idea she was being considered as Platt’s replacement.  “When I auditioned, they didn’t tell me what it was for,” she said.

‘We’ll kick its teeth in!’
While Sale Of The Century’s new host and co-host are confident of success, their rival over at Seven, current affairs host Derryn Hinch is less confident of the show’s future.  “I don’t believe Sale will last long without Tony Barber… I really can’t see who could possibly replace him,” Hinch told TV Week.  “But I hope it’s still there at the end of the year because I think we’ll kick its teeth in.” 

Brave Sheila soldiers on
Veteran actress Sheila Florance (pictured) has not let her health battles, including three recent cancer operations, stop her making a return to TV as a special guest star on Ten’s Col’n Carpenter, marking her return to the Ten studios where she worked on Prisoner for several years.  “I’m looking forward to seeing if there is anyone left at Channel Ten,” she told TV Week.  “It was one of the saddest days when I left Prisoner because those crews with whom I worked, they were like my sons.”  The 74-year-old actress, with more than 60 years in showbusiness, has also just completed her first starring role in a film.  A Woman’s Tale, written for her by Paul Cox, tells the story of an elderly woman dying of cancer.  “There is nothing uncomfortable in this for me,” she told TV Week.  “This woman is me.  It’s absolutely honest.  Every day of filming was a delight.”

Briefly…
Former Neighbours star Jason Donovan, back in Australia to promote his new single I’m Doing Fine, has made a guest appearance as the enigmatic surfie “Craig Donovan” (pictured) in Fast Forward’s soapie send-up Dumb Street.  “The great thing about Fast Forward is that, even though I take my career seriously, at the end of the day we’re all there to have fun,” he said.

After only a few months on-air, Network Ten’s new game show Let’s Make A Deal is about to celebrate handing out $1 million in cash and prizes.  Comedian Vince Sorrenti has settled into his new role as game show host.  “The producers have always let me do what I wanted,” he told TV Week.  “After the learning process I am now starting to have some real fun.  I don’t see Let’s Make A Deal as a game show.  It is entertaining people who wouldn’t normally watch a game show.”

Actor Gary Sweet has admitted that many of his previous roles have been “limited”, but his new role as photojournalist Larry in the ABC mini-series Sign Of The Snake he says is his most interesting.  “Larry is a thoughtful, creative photographer who is economical in his speech,” he told TV Week.  “Because he is not talkative, you suspect there is something bubbling under the surface of Larry.”  Sign Of The Snake, which also stars Linda Cropper, Lily Chen and Bob Peck, is set in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.  Although it is set in China, most of the filming was completed in Sydney.  “There is no way we would be allowed to set foot in China,” he said.

John Laws says…
”It’s hard to know what to make of comedian Andrew Denton’s new Live And Sweaty series on ABC.  It’s aimed at extracting laughs from the world of sport and, like much of Denton’s previous efforts, it’s laced with satirical, over-the-top humour and razor-sharp asides.  In the first program, Denton kisses a woman’s toes and later announces he’ll collect celebrity sweat – a signal for guest Craig McLachlan to offer some from his underarm.  In the midst of all this mayhem, Live And Sweaty suddenly got serious and we saw reporter Debbie Spillane, sitting at a desk, reading a straight and serious “sports update”.  It was all a little confusing.”

Program Highlights (April 13-19):
Saturday:  Rick Astley, Jimmy Barnes, Choir Boys, Debbie Byrne and Tommy Emmanuel are guest stars in this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine). 

Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon of sport includes NBL, Westside Melbourne versus Brisbane Bullets, followed by Brisbane Bears versus Geelong in AFL and then motor racing with the Australian Touring Car Championship.  Sunday night movies are Planes Trains And Automobiles (Seven), The Untouchables (Nine) and Married To The Mob (Ten).

Monday:  Seven presents a two-hour telecast of the John Farnham Chain Reaction Concert, taken from his recent Australian tour.  The program is simulcast on radio station Triple M.

Tuesday:  Dr Nikki Tanner (Judy McIntosh) has fallen in love with Sean Bracey (Marcus Graham) in GP (ABC)… but she knows the affair is a disaster as the distraction is affecting her work and she fails to respond to a crisis call.  Bracey then invites her to go with him to Paris.

Wednesday:  ABC presents Frank Sinatra The Final Concert, recorded last month at the National Tennis Centre, Melbourne.  The concert also features Eydie Gorme, Steve Lawrence and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.  Seven presents the two-hour Comedy Festival Charity Gala from Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, featuring Wendy Harmer, Richard Stubbs, Steve Vizard, Garry McDonald, Barry Humphries, Mark Mitchell, Ian McFadyen, Maryanne Fahey and Kim Gyngell with cast members of Fast Forward, the D Generation and Acropolis Now.  The comedy event is a fund-raiser for the Salvation Army.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Jackie Crane (Nikki Coghill) and Guy Reid (David Reyne) are involved in a sensitive dilemma when a young mother is diagnosed as terminally ill, but refuses to accept her illness because there is nobody to care for her daughter.  The episode features guest star Shane Connor.

Friday:  Seven crosses to Sydney for the live telecast of the AFL game between Sydney Swans and Essendon.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  13 April 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: January 19-25

Alyce in Wunderland
While most television presenters have been taking a summer break, Sale Of The Century hostess Alyce Platt (pictured) has been pursuing a music career.  She has completed two tours with her band Alyce In Wunderland and has taken up song writing.  And although Platt and host Tony Barber will be back soon on Sale, this year she hopes to also realise her other dream – to release an album. 

Hey, look who’s back!
Although Simone Buchanan had already taped her final scenes for Seven’s Hey Dad! last year, she is now back in the studio for an extra five episodes of the popular comedy.  “The last episode we filmed last year didn’t resolve anything or suggest that she was leaving, so that’s why I’m coming back,” Buchanan told TV Week.  The five additional episodes are expected to go to air in March and April and will lead in to the appearance of new cast member Rachael Beck who replaces Buchanan but will play a different role.

Chances are it’s set to shock!
Almost twenty years after Number 96 shocked the nation with adults-only drama and glimpses of nudity, the Nine Network’s Chances is set to create the same controversy.  Described as provocative, steamy and risque, Chances is hoped to turn around Nine’s shaky recent history with dramas – apart from The Flying Doctors the network has failed to secure a major drama hit since the heyday of The Young Doctors and The Sullivans.  The new drama follows the story of a suburban family whose lives are changed when they win a $3 million prize in a lottery.  Producer Lynn Bayonas told TV Week that the new series will focus more on personal stories rather than social issues.  “We’ll leave the issues to A Country Practice and The Flying Doctors,” she said.  “We have personal issues.  We’ve got older women and younger men, marriage breakups, affairs with secretaries, and women desperate for love and racing off with everybody.  It has a different look.  It doesn’t look like a serial.”  Chances’ cast includes John Sheerin, Brenda Addie, Jeremy Sims, Natalie McCurry (pictured), Cathy Godbold, Tim Robertson and Ann Grigg.

Briefly…
Actress Rebecca Gibney, about to appear in Nine’s new comedy All Together Now, admits that she had turned down a number of roles since leaving the popular The Flying Doctors, in particular those with elements of sex, discrimination or unnecessary nudity.  “I’m wary of exploitation,” she says.  “There are enough roles around with gratuitous sex and violence and there’s always someone else who will play them.  You can make films without the sex and violence.  Pretty Woman was funny, warm and emotional – and without tits and bums.”  All Together Now (with Gibney, pictured, left) also stars Jon English, Steve Jacobs, Jane Hall, Garry Who and Bruno Lucia.

David Reyne and Nikki Coghill are leading the charge of new cast members in The Flying Doctors.  Coghill plays the role of feisty nurse Jackie Crane, who takes an instant dislike to the arrogant new doctor Guy Reid (Reyne).  Also joining the series will be Sophie Lee (The Bugs Bunny Show) and Sarah Chadwick (GP).

Sydney actor Simon Stokes had just completed his HSC when he auditioned for a role in the UK-based drama Families.  Two days after the audition he was told he had secured the role of Christian Stephens.  The series also features Australian actors Briony Behets (Number 96, The Box, Neighbours), Tessa Humphries, Imogen Annersley, Malcolm Stoddard and Tayler Kane.  Although it has completed its first year on air in the UK, Families has yet to be sold to an Australian network.

John Laws says…
”Seven’s Hey Dad! has to be one of Australian TV’s most spectacular success stories.  It glows with a freshness and vitality that its foreign competitors rarely match.  Hey Dad! warrants the tag “family entertainment” and there’s little enough of that left on TV in these days of high-powered screen violence.  I do hope that Hey Dad! will once again be a firm favourite among Australians in 1991.”

Program Highlights (January 19-25):
Sunday:  Ten crosses to Portsea, Victoria, for the Ironman Super Series.  ABC presents golf (Sanctuary Lakes Classic) and highlights of cricket (Women’s International: Australia versus New Zealand).  Sunday night movies are Hoosiers (Seven) and Ladyhawke (Ten).  Nine presents a re-run of the 1985 mini-series The Flying Doctors, the predecessor to the ongoing series.

Monday:  The Ford Australian Open (Seven) enters its second week of competition.  And with the ratings season approaching, some regular shows are returning for the new year – Today, Good Morning Australia and ‘Til Ten are back in the daytime, and A Country Practice returns for its tenth year.  Derryn Hinch is back on board at Seven’s Hinch.

Tuesday:  Jon English and Rebecca Gibney head the cast of Nine’s new comedy series, All Together Now, which debuts tonight, followed by Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show, with new host Jacki MacDonald replacing Graham Kennedy.

Thursday:  Nine’s The Flying Doctors returns for 1991.  Seven presents a re-run of mini-series Nancy Wake, starring Noni Hazlehurst and John Waters.

Friday:  Nine crosses to the Adelaide Oval for Day One of the Fourth Test, Australia versus England.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 19 January 1991. Southdown Press.

1990: September 29-October 5

‘It’s a dream come true!’
Home And Away star Craig McLachlan (pictured) was hoping that his reduced profile on the series would make it easier to fit time in for his music career – but now it looks like the TV Week Gold Logie winner is going to be busier than ever.  The Seven Network is believed it be wanting McLachlan for an upcoming mini-series, The Battler, plus there are plans for a role in an upcoming movie, with the working title of Light Of Day, which producers hope can also secure the services of Mel Gibson.  “It’s a period piece, set at the turn of the century,” McLachlan told TV Week.  “Ever since I was a little guy film has always been the ultimate thing to aspire to.  It’s a dream come true.”

The challenge is on!
Following his recent resignation from the Nine Network, former Coast To Coast co-host John Mangos (pictured) is believed to have been offered a role at the Ten Network to front a weekly current affairs program with former 60 Minutes reporter Ian Leslie.  The new show, which could slot in against 60 Minutes, comes after Leslie was forced to step aside from reading Ten’s Sydney evening news after poor ratings and a recurring throat virus.  He has also suffered a setback when the documentary unit he headed at Ten was wound up as a cost-cutting measure – plus he had suffered personal trauma with the death of his mother.  Mangos, a veteran of 14 years at the Nine Network, suddenly found himself being a “personality without a profile” after the axing of Coast To Coast and with no other network projects in the pipeline.  The last straw came when the former US correspondent for the Nine Network was asked to co-host the weekly NSW Lotto draw.

The year of living drearily!
Comedian Anthony Ackroyd, currently appearing in ABC’s The Big Gig, has spoken to TV Week about his early, and short-lived, career as a public servant in his home state of Tasmania.  “All the world’s biggest losers were there.  I’d have these half-hour toilet breaks just so I could get away from it all and read a good magazine.  They must have thought I was constantly constipated.  After exactly one year I went straight back to social security!”  Ackroyd is finding The Big Gig to be somewhat more rewarding with his two characters, Addam the advertising executive (pictured) and Shakespeare. “Addam’s the coke-snorting ad-head with the deep voice who considers himself a creative genius,” he told TV Week.  And the Shakespeare character is proving to be popular with female viewers.  “I did a lot of Shakespeare theatre and it’s nice to be putting that codpiece on again.  The girls go crazy over it… I suppose the sight of those pert buttocks is just too much for them,” he says.

Briefly…
Derryn Hinch, who recently celebrated the 700th edition of Hinch At Seven, has decided to commit to the Seven Network for another two years.  Seven, he says, is the network at which he started and will end his television career.  Meanwhile, while he concedes that Sale Of The Century’s recent 10th anniversary specials gave his show a battering, he is pleased to see that another rival, Network Ten’s Neighbours, is showing signs of fading popularity.

E Street star Richard Huggett (pictured) has had to draw on past real-life experience to help him play the part of bad boy Sonny Bennett.  “I never actually did anything bad,” he tells TV Week.  “I was arrested a couple of times for drunk and disorderly.”  On one occasion he ended up in a padded cell.  “They wanted my fingerprints and I wouldn’t give them.  I kept telling them that I hadn’t done anything wrong, so they couldn’t arrest me.   I was climbing up on the bars and acting like a monkey.  Anyway they didn’t like it, so they put me in a padded cell with one window.”

Former Home And Away star Nina Coburn has filmed a guest role in the Seven Network’s Hey Dad! – and it is expected that producers have bigger plans for the actress as a potential replacement for cast member Simone Buchanan who has filmed her last episode for the series.

John Laws says…
”When, in a few months, we count up the TV successes of 1990, one name will – once again – stand out: Graham Kennedy (pictured).  Graham’s return to TV in recent years has seen him perform a succession of ratings miracles.  He gave Clive Robertson a start and a thorough beating with his late-night news and giggle show on Nine, and when that ended, because he didn’t want to be involved any longer, he switched to his latest ratings-puller, Graham Kennedy’s Funniest Home Video Show.  It’s now one of Australia’s most popular programs – and I’m convinced that it’s the personal appeal of Graham Kennedy which has enabled it to command such a dominant position.”

Program Highlights (September 29-October 5):
Saturday:  HSV7 presents the last Saturday night AFL replay of the season with the Preliminary Final.  The finals schedule was forced to be extended a week due to an earlier drawn game, pushing the Grand Final to a rare October appearance.

Sunday:  HSV7 crosses to Mount Panorama, Bathurst, for the Tooheys 1000 – featuring 55 drivers from seven countries.  The telecast starts at 8am and continues through to Seven Nightly News at 6pm.  ABC presents live coverage of the VFA Grand Final in the afternoon.  Sunday night movies are The Living Daylights (HSV7), Arthur 2: On The Rocks (GTV9), Big (ATV10).

Monday:  ATV10 presents late-night coverage of the Uncle Toby’s Australian Indoor Tennis Championships, from the Sydney Entertainment Centre.  Late-night coverage continues each night to Thursday as well as two-hour coverage on Tuesday to Friday afternoon.

Tuesday:  A special edition of Beyond 2000 (HSV7) looks at the increasingly important role of science in sport, examining the pursuit of optimum human performance.  Olivia Hamnett guest stars in ABC’s GP.

Wednesday:  David Franklin, Leone Carmen and Adrian Lee guest star in The Flying Doctors (GTV9).

Friday:  ATV10 presents live prime-time coverage of the final night’s play of the Uncle Toby’s Australian Indoor Tennis Championships.  And on the eve of the 1990 AFL Grand Final, Drew Morphett hosts HSV7’s annual Football Marathon, starting at midnight and running through to 8am Saturday morning, featuring the Grand Finals of 1966, 1967, 1972, 1977 and 1989 as well as the greatest marks and goals from the past 25 years.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  29 September 1990.  Southdown Press.

Derryn Hinch diagnosed with cancer

Melbourne radio host and former TV presenter Derryn Hinch (pictured) has told listeners of his 3AW drive-time program that he has been diagnosed with liver cancer and is to undergo “major surgery very soon”.

Hinch, 66, said he will be told later this week when the surgery is to go ahead and that he expects to be off-air from the station for a month.

He told listeners that he is feeling positive and determined to beat the illness:

"I am not down, I'm not depressed, I don't feel sorry for myself.  I'm as passionate as ever about the causes that I'm fighting for and maybe even more so."

"I intend to beat it.  I know everyone says that but I do truly believe this is not the end; it's the beginning of something.”

"As somebody once said, ‘That's life.' "

With a background in print and radio journalism in New Zealand, Australia and the US, Hinch made the move to television in the early ‘80s as the host of the Seven Network’s Willesee At Seven and daytime panel show Beauty And The Beast.  In 1987 he had been signed up by media tycoon Christopher Skase to front the revived Seven Network’s current affairs coverage, with Hinch At Seven running for four years on Seven and then a further two years (as Hinch) on Network Ten.  While at Ten, Hinch scored the first Australian interview with the fugitive Skase in Majorca.

At the end of 1993 he was announced as the successor to Ray Martin as host of Nine’s Midday, a role that lasted a year.

Since 2003 Hinch has presented drive-time on radio station 3AW, syndicated across Victoria, after several years at former talkback station 3AK.  He has also appeared in Dancing With The Stars and had a cameo role, as himself, in Underbelly.

In 2006 he suffered near-death with liver disease, septicaemia, kidney malfunction and immune system failure.

Earlier this year he celebrated fifty years in the media.

Source: The Age, Hinch, 3AW

1990: March 24-30

Kate bows out on a high
A fear of heights and a brewing thunderstorm ensured that Kate Raison’s final scenes in A Country Practice would be her most terrifying.  The wedding between Raison’s character, Cathy Hayden, and new love John Freeman (William McInnes) was filmed on a clifftop with a wild storm headed its way.  Producers almost had to abandon the wedding scenes as the storm hampered progress with filming.  “It certainly wasn’t a glamorous ending for my days on A Country Practice,” Raison (pictured, with co-star Georgie Parker)told TV Week.

Annie’s left holding the baby!
TV Week has a sneak peek at the upcoming Seven Network mini-series Jackaroo, starring former Neighbours star Annie Jones.  Jones plays Clare Mallory, a spoilt, rich, city kid who falls for Jack Simmonds (David McCubbin), the overseer of her family’s property, and the couple have a child.  The romance is a controversial one, as Simmonds’ indigenous heritage puts him at odds with Clare’s conservative parents who are against their daughter having a mixed-race marriage.  Simmonds is thrown off the family property and Clare, with baby in tow, is sent away.  Simmonds then embarks on a dramatic search for his lover and child.  Jackaroo is set to air on the Seven Network later in the year.

It’s a Forties triple treat!
Rebecca Gibney, Kerry Armstrong and Lisa Harrow head the cast of ABC’s new mini-series, Come In Spinner, set in Sydney in 1944 and following the lives and loves of three women who work in a beauty salon.  Also starring in the series are Justine Clarke, Zoe Bertram, Gary Sweet, Rebecca Smart and Bryan Marshall.  In auditioning for the role of Guinea Malone, Gibney (pictured) was so determined to get the part that she borrowed one of Grace Sullivan’s old dresses from the Crawford Productions wardrobe and also enlisted the help of the make-up artist from her former series, The Flying Doctors, to give her a genuine 1940s look.  “I’d have loved to have really lived in that time.  The Forties were my favourite era, and I love the movies from those days.  They had real stars back then,” Gibney told TV Week.

Briefly…
There’s romance on the set of Neighbours with Stefan Dennis said to be an “item” with co-star Gayle Blakeney, who joined the series last year with twin sister Gillian.  The off-screen romance comes as an upcoming storyline in the series will have Paul Robinson (Dennis) moving in to share a house with the twins and the three falling into a complex romantic triangle. 

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.

Network Ten is funding the development of a new series which it hopes will rival the success of the hit US series The Golden Girls.  The series, based on the stage comedy Lipstick Dreams which has recently played in NSW and Victoria, is set to include Lorraine Bayly (The Sullivans, Carson’s Law) and Felicity Soper (Richmond Hill).  The pilot episode for the series will be filmed in the coming months.

John Laws says…
”Just when Kerry O’Brien’s Lateline program has begun to find its feet comes the news that it has aroused a wave of resentment among some ABC staffers.  At the core of the problem are the allegedly excessive costs of mounting the Lateline program.  The joke around the ABC canteens is that program should be called ‘Wasteline’.  I’m surprised that Lateline, which has a basically simple format, should cost a lot of money.  After all, only one subject is tackled on each program three nights a week, 90 minutes in all, and most of it committed to interviewing one or two people in the studio.  How can this cost a lot of money?”

Program Highlights (March 24-30):
Saturday:  ABC, HSV7 and GTV9 all devote most of Saturday evening to coverage of the Federal Election from the National Tally Room in Canberra.  Andrew Olle heads ABC’s coverage, with Dennis Grant and Derryn Hinch on Seven, and Jim Waley and Ray Martin on Nine.  ATV10’s election coverage is limited to fifteen minutes after Bill Collins’ Golden Years Of Hollywood movie, and SBS presents brief updates in between regular programs throughout the evening.
Sunday:  GTV9’s Sunday current affairs program presents a special post-Election edition.  Sunday night movies are Deadly Pursuit (HSV7), Suspect (GTV9) and Best-Seller (ATV10).  ABC, in a rare move, screens a Sunday night movie, a Swedish-language (with English subtitles) drama, My Life As A Dog.
Monday:  With the Federal Election now over, Andrew Denton presents the final edition of The Party Machine.
Tuesday:  GTV9 presents a delayed telecast of The 62nd Academy Awards.  Nominated for Best Picture are Born On The Fourth Of July, Dead Poet’s Society, Driving Miss Daisy, Field Of Dreams and My Left Foot.
Wednesday:  Daryl Somers hosts the return of talent quest series New Faces on GTV9.  ABC presents the first episode of World War II mini-series Come In Spinner (pictured).
Thursday:  ATV10 presents a one-hour documentary, Teenage Sexuality: The Best Years Of Our Lives, hosted by Brad Robinson.  Teenagers openly discuss their first sexual experiences and attitudes to contraception and promiscuity.

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

TelevisionAU Update 10-Apr-09

http://www.televisionau.com

FLASHBACK PICTURE #50:
The Nine Network's long-running quiz show Sale Of The Century was dropped a bombshell early in 1991 when hosts Tony Barber and Alyce Platt both decided to leave the program.  Barber had hosted the program since its inception in 1980, and Platt had been with the show since 1986.  Producers took a gamble when it chose to replace Barber with Glenn Ridge, a TV host whose only prior on-air experience was in regional television.  Joining Ridge on the new-look Sale Of The Century was Jo Bailey who had recently joined the show as a model but had no idea she was being considered for the co-host role.  And the new-look Sale was given a warm welcome by Seven Network rival Derryn Hinch: "We'll kick its teeth in."  Picture: TV Week, 13 April 1991

CLASSIC TV GUIDES:
Melbourne:
1960 (The Hi-Fi Club)
1977 (Final episode Homicide)
1988 (Melbourne Cup Day)
1993 (TV Week Logie Awards)
1994 (ATV10’s 30th anniversary)
1996 (Australian TV turns 40)

Sydney:
1983 (New Faces’ 20th Anniversary)

Brisbane:
1987
1992 (Sex)

Western Australia:
1966
1985

Tasmania:
1984

TELEVISIONAU - THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION
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http://www.twitter.com/TelevisionAU
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/televisionau
http://au.youtube.com/user/TelevisionAU

1979: February 24-March 2

Cover: Peter Lochran, Diana McLean, Chris Orchard (The Young Doctors) 

Stars of '79
TV Times has approached TV producers to nominate the actors and actresses who they believe will make a big impact in 1979.  Don Battye, producer of The Restless Years, sees a big future for new recruits Jamie Gleeson and Lenore Smith:  "The rapport between Jamie and Lenore was instant, it was as if they'd known each other for ages."  ABC producer Alan Burke believes that John Gregg, to appear in the new series The Oracle, will be the actor of the year in 1979:  "He's a wonderful actor and will be very dominant in our drama output this year."  Alan Coleman, producer for The Young Doctors, believes that newcomer Peter Lochran will be the show's next heart-throb and predicts a big future for Linda Stoner, who has recently left The Young Doctors for a new role in Cop Shop.  Eileen O'Shea, publicist for the Seven Network, said to look out for Bill Stalker, a New Zealand actor who will appear in the upcoming series Skyways, and a greater profile for Joanna Lockwood, one of the founding cast members of Cop Shop.  A spokesman for Melbourne's ATV0 is also predicting big things for English actor Barry Quin, one of the cast members of the new series Prisoner.  ABC light entertainment producer Ric Birch has listed Ric Herbert and David Atkins, two of the stars of the upcoming TV Follies series, as potential big names of the future.

Warder, warder everywhere!
The studios of Melbourne channel ATV0 have been transformed into a prison, both inside and out.  The transformation is part of the production for the 0-10 Network's long-awaited new drama Prisoner.  Not only have 12 permanent sets - more than usual for a locally-produced series - been constructed within the ATV0 studios in Nunawading, but the exterior of the studio complex has also been adapted to serve as the exterior for the fictional Wentworth Detention Centre.  Fake prison windows adorn the side of the brick building and a prison garden, complete with vegetable patch and BBQ area, have been set up on the lawns beside the building.  Nearby is a large brick wall and security gate and, beside it, a daunting signboard that reads 'Wentworth Detention Centre for Women'.  Pre-production research for the series has been meticulous, including the assistance of real-life prisoners, prison wardens and government agencies.  So impressed is the network that the show's initial run of thirteen episodes has already been extended to 42.  ATV0 public relations director George Wilson told TV Times: "It is a human interest drama which will not only follow the lives of prisoners and staff in the detention centre, but will delve into their lives outside.  Prisoner will not use explicit sex or nudity to give shock or drama."  Produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation, Prisoner premieres this week on TEN10 Sydney and ATV0 Melbourne and later in other states.

C'mon Ossie C'mon!
Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich (pictured) have returned to the Nine Network after a year which saw them move to the 0-10 Network for the ill-fated The Daryl And Ossie Show.  The pair have already made their on-screen return to Nine with Hey Hey It's Saturday returning after its one-year hiatus.  Bob Phillips, manager for Somers and Ernie Carroll (Ossie's human alter-ego), has announced that their return to Nine will also include plans for a weekly big-budget pop music series later in the year, and possibly even a movie featuring the two. 

Top stars set for telethon
GTV9's annual telethon for the Yooralla Society of Victoria is on this weekend has set a target to raise $1 million.  As well as the all-day telethon, the appeal will also include a three-day carnival, near the GTV9 studios, for the children who collect for the appeal.  Telethon manager John Hart has said that this year's telethon will also feature personalities from all Melbourne radio stations that have been raising funds for the appeal over the last two weeks.  And the telecast will feature a technological first - a computer-operated light display which will flash lights indicating phone room calls.  Guest stars appearing on the telethon will include stars from Nine Network programs The Sullivans, The Don Lane Show, The Young Doctors, plus other local and overseas celebrities.  The telethon will also be relayed through regional stations across Victoria.

Briefly...
ABC journalist Richard Carleton has found that Norman Gunston's fame has quite possibly spread to South Africa!  While touring Africa over the past few months, Carleton found the "Gunston" brand of cigarette was very popular with the South Africans.

The Young Doctors' Chris Orchard says that his main motivation for migrating from England to Australia eight years ago as a 19-year-old was "Sun, surf and sex.  Well, what else do you think about at 19?"

Actress Carol Burns will be rejoining her jazz ballet classes with some trepidation.  She is wondering what will her classmates will think of her when they see her portrayal of a vicious lesbian in the new series Prisoner.

Viewpoint:  Letters to the Editor
"Of all the commercial TV channels in Australia, I think Canberra's CTC7, which calls itself "Super 7," is the most impolite, rude and arrogant.  Whenever a program runs late the station never tells its viewers about it, or apologises."  E. Behr, ACT.

"I am most concerned at the lack of interest by TV stations in the show-jumping potential in this country.  A couple of weeks go the largest show-jumping event was held at Wentworth Park, Sydney - but what TV coverage did it receive?  It was a news item, and TEN10 gave a one-hour program - and that was all.  So how about TV stations waking up and giving the public a chance to watch this most exciting sport?" G. Beaton, NSW.

"We movie buffs applaud ABC for screening old movie classics but, as the viewing audience for them will probably be mainly over the age of 45, the starting time of 10.00pm is usually the time old movie buffs are about to go to bed." C. Wilson, NSW.

What's On (February 24-March 2):
GTV9's annual telethon for the Yooralla Society of Victoria starts on Saturday at 7.00am and continues through 5.00pm, before resuming at 8.30pm and closing at midnight.  The phone number for donations is (03) 42-0221.

On Sunday night, HSV7 presents the premiere of the million dollar documentary series This Fabulous Century hosted by Peter Luck (pictured).  The new series, including footage from Cinesound, Movietone and the National Film and Sound Archive to illustrate the history of Australia from Federation to the present day, debuts with a one-hour episode up against GTV9's new 60 Minutes.

Tuesday night marks the two-hour debut of the 0-10 Network's new drama Prisoner (pictured) with the series continuing on Wednesday.  In the opening episode, Karen Travers (Peita Toppano) is sent to prison after refusing to give evidence when charged with the murder of her husband.  Country girl Lynn Warner (Kerry Armstrong) is admitted to Wentworth for kidnapping and burying alive a young child, though she maintains her innocence.  And inmate Franky Doyle (Carol Burns) tells prison warden Vera Bennett (Fiona Spence) that the inmates have given her a new nickname, "Vinegar Tits".

On Wednesday night, HSV7 screens a delayed telecast of the 1979 Grammy Awards from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, hosted by John Denver.

The Australian Football Championship Night Series begins on HSV7 on Friday night, promising "the richest football competition Australia has ever seen.  Total prize money will be approximately $370,000."

Special guests appearing during the week on ATV0's Peter Couchman Tonight include Simon Townsend, John Waters, Alison Durbin, Stuart Wagstaff and Derryn Hinch.

Sunday night movies are Survive! (HSV7), Moonshine County Express (GTV9) and Camelot (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 17 February 1979.  ABC/ACP

YouTube: Seven hit by Sydney cold-front!

Every city is parochial to some extent, but for some reason, Melburnians are just that little more precious about their city - especially if there are seen to be influences from Sydney.

This attitude to all things local was never more evident than the year 1987 - when the media shake-up not only saw all three Melbourne commercial channels change hands, but more horrifying was the thought that 'their' HSV7 had been taken over by a Sydney-based outfit.

Since it was licenced in 1955, HSV7 was owned by the Melbourne-based media giant Herald and Weekly Times (HWT) which published newspapers The Herald and The Sun (hence the call-sign HSV, the "V" stood for Victoria), and owned the once-dominant radio station 3DB.

For its first 30 years of broadcasting, HSV7 maintained a strong local presence in Melbourne. The other commercial channels GTV9 and ATV0/10 did too, but HSV7 would be less influenced by interstate factors and was heavily identified as being very much about Melbourne. Being the major broadcast partner in Australian Rules VFL was a major part of that local identity, but HSV also had strong links to Melbourne with locally-made shows such as World Of Sport, Video Village, The Happy Show, Homicide, Sunnyside Up, The Penthouse Club, the Royal Children's Hospital Good Friday Appeal and Seven National News which during the '70s was Melbourne's dominant news bulletin.

But changes to media laws in the mid-'80s sparked a flurry of activity among the industry. In 1986, Rupert Murdoch had made a successful bid to gain control of HWT, but in doing so had to relinquish the group's radio and television interests. 3DB ultimately ended up owned by the Australian Radio Network who re-labelled the station 3TT - and these days it is known as Mix 101.1.

HSV7 had been sold to the Fairfax group, a Sydney-based media empire that owned ATN7 and newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age. The fact that HSV had been sold from its traditional newspaper owner to end up with a rival newspaper publisher must have been an indication that a major generational change was about to occur. And it did.

The three things that most closely linked HSV to the city of Melbourne - World Of Sport, Mal Walden and the station's 'Hello Melbourne' station identification - were all dumped mercilessly by the Fairfax management.

And it was no doubt convenient for Fairfax that HSV7, at the end of 1986 under its previous management, had lost the rights to VFL when it was outbid by production company Broadcom.

World Of Sport had launched in 1959 as a Saturday morning program, but later moved to Sundays, and by the time it had been axed in 1987, it was reportedly the longest running sports program on TV in the world. The program was never known for its sophistication or high production values, but it was a weekly habit for generations of Melburnians.

Mal Walden had been with HSV since the early '70s, having come across from 3DB. An early stint as a game show host on Jeopardy was followed by a cadetship in the newsroom which ultimately led to him being appointed chief newsreader in 1978 when longtime newsreader Brian Naylor moved across to GTV9. On the night of Friday 27 March 1987, Walden was told just minutes before going to air on Seven National News that the bulletin would be his last. A tearful Walden informed viewers at the end of the bulletin that he had been sacked.

While Seven National News had been rating behind its rivals National Nine News and Eyewitness News, it was nothing compared to the fallout that was to follow. When Seven National News was re-launched the following month as a one-hour format with newsreader Greg Pearce, recruited from Perth, ratings fell to virtually zero. The bulletin was soundly being beaten by a kids' cartoon series Inspector Gadget on ABC, and even by whatever multi-cultural offerings were being broadcast on SBS. The revamped bulletin also lost the support of the Victorian regional channels which up until that time had all carried Seven's news on relay from Melbourne, and in one fell swoop, all switched their nightly news relay to National Nine News.

When Walden was thrown a life-line by former Seven colleague David Johnston at ATV10, that station's Eyewitness News recorded a massive ratings spike as Walden was given a minor presenting role of a five-minute human interest segment Mal's Melbourne. Walden was later promoted to co-newsreader alongside Johnston and new recruit Tracey Curro in 1988. In 1995, he was appointed Ten's chief Melbourne newsreader when Johnston went back to Seven.

And in an industry where image is everything, the theme 'Hello Melbourne', while adapted from an American jingle, seemed to perfectly sum up HSV7's relationship to Melbourne. Launched by HSV in 1985, it was a catchy theme that struck a chord with viewers. Going into 1987, the theme was updated with a new animated logo sequence (pictured, above). Enter the Fairfax management, and suddenly the signature tune and the new station identifications were gone and the slogan 'Hello Melbourne' was demoted to being a mere caption on a generic Seven Network station identification that sucked out any enthusiasm for the brand. A few months later, even the 'Hello Melbourne' reference was cut from the station identifications.

Melbourne viewers had felt that HSV had simply left town in the wake of all that was happening. World Of Sport was replaced by Sydney's Sportsworld, a program that was no doubt more polished in presentation, but did not have the personality or tradition of World Of Sport, and being from Sydney, did not have the primary focus on Aussie Rules football The local current affairs program Day By Day was replaced by Terry Willesee Tonight fed down the line from Sydney, and the late-night news edition Newsworld was replaced by the Clive Robertson version which was adopted around the network. In the case of Newsworld, that was a change that seemed to bear some fruits as Robertson's laid-back and sarcastic style gave a new perspective in news presentation and would last for some years.

Though obviously relishing the opportunity to kick a rival when it's down, the Nine Network's 60 Minutes featured a story highlighting the mood surrounding the changes at HSV7 with reporter Jana Wendt chatting to apparently-typical Melburnians, as well as Mal Walden, Nine's Brian Naylor, Ten's David Johnston (co-incidentally a former colleague of Wendt's when she was a newsreader at Ten) and even Seven executive Phil Davis and new newsreader Greg Pearce.

The 60 Minutes report though did raise a certain point. Sure, HSV7 was now being run by Sydney interests, but its rivals Nine, Ten, and even 'aunty' ABC were being run and influenced by Sydney-based decision-making for years. And Melbourne's favourite son, Graham Kennedy, also gave a rather blunt assessment that Melbourne has to get with the times - television can not survive as a purely-local medium, it has to rely on a networked format to survive and if that meant losing some local jobs, so be it.

But barely a few months after the Fairfax-led upheaval at HSV, there was a change again, this time from Melbourne-born entrepreneur Christopher Skase buying up the Seven stations HSV7, ATN7 Sydney and BTQ7 Brisbane for $780 million. Skase was seen as the white knight to save HSV7 from its perilous state. Although Skase predicted the station's recovery would take some years, within months of his buying the network, the rights to VFL coverage had come back to Seven, the news was getting a revamp with the signing up of Eyewitness News presenter Jennifer Keyte and returning to its traditional half-hour format, and Melbourne radio broadcaster Derryn Hinch had signed on to present a nightly current affairs program.

Seven was coming back to Melbourne but it would be some time before the scars of the Fairfax era would heal, not helped either by the later Skase controversy that would follow in the early '90s.

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