1991: June 29-July 5

This really is TV’s wedding of the year!
Four brides, a speechless groom and a stool – this is TV’s wedding of the year as Craig Donovan (Steve Blackburn), the enigmatic heart throb from Fast Forward’s ‘Dumb Street’, decides to tie the knot in the Dumb Street cafe.  Like all TV weddings, this one doesn’t go exactly to plan as four brides – Danni (Gina Riley), Bobby (Jane Turner), Nikki (Magda Szubanski) and Shelley (Marg Downey) – arrive at the cafe all wanting to be the next Mrs Donovan, with one of them holding a secret.  Will this secret come out?  Who will become Mrs Donovan?  And, more importantly, why is Bob Hatfield (Geoff Brooks) not wearing any pants?

Is Jana set to quit?
The recent walkout by Jana Wendt over A Current Affair running a story on a hardware store staffed by topless females highlights the tense relationship between her and the Nine Network.  The TV Week Gold Logie nominee, who was missing from ACA for the next two nights, is also said to not be happy since Kerry Packer regained control of the network – citing editorial interference – and is concerned that the show will be hit hard by cost-cutting measures.  With her contract soon up for renewal, Nine will have to work hard to get her to re-sign.  There are suggestions that she may follow former Nine boss Sam Chisholm to the United Kingdom where he is now running the BSkyB satellite network, or even move to another network here in Australia.

Export action!
With Neighbours (pictured) and Home And Away both well established in the United Kingdom, it looks like Network Ten’s E Street is about to join them.  Management from Westside Television, the producers of E Street, have just returned from overseas negotiations and E Street is set to debut in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium by the end of the year.  Meanwhile, Grundy Television are hopeful that American audiences will support Neighbours with the show’s first 65 episodes now starting to air on KCOP in Los Angeles and WWOR in New York.  Success in these markets may lead to the series going into wider syndication across the US.  “The local stations are very enthusiastic about the show and they’re very aware that if Neighbours does well, we have 1400 more episodes to sell to them,” Grundy’s Bob Lloyd told TV Week.  Grundy’s are also currently working on a US-based series, Dangerous Women, which is largely adapted from the Aussie series Prisoner.  “The show has already been pre-sold around America to 40 per cent of the markets and is expected to air in Australia,” Lloyd said.

Briefly…
ABC’s newest afternoon series is the lively game show The Big Square Eye.  Hosted by former Neighbours and Wombat star Bob La Castra (pictured, centre), the show is taped before a live studio audience and features the latest in video clips, live performances and contestants from the audience taking part in quiz games.  “Everybody, including the crew, has a lot of fun.  Around the ABC it is known as the show everyone wants to work on,” La Castra told TV Week.

GP star Michael Craig, also an accomplished scriptwriter, has written the show’s 99th episode, which screens on ABC this week.  “It was difficult wearing two hats, actor and writer,” he told TV Week.  “I was very concerned that the actors should be happy with what they had to say.”

The Boys From The Bush, the Australian series that gained critical acclaim and high ratings in the UK, has still yet to screen in Australia even though it was shown on the BBC back in January.  A second series, starring Chris Haywood, Nadine Garner and Pat Thompson, is now already in production.   The Seven Network has still yet to announce a screening date for the series, and may choose to show both the first and second series back-to-back in 1992.

John Laws says…
”Despite the wails of those who say they abhor advertising, and those who would like to enshrine the ABC from the real world, the fact is that it is advertising which is likely to be the ABC’s extra lifeblood.  The SBS network has already calmly accepted that advertising is part of life, and already is using sponsorship to positive effect, without denting its credibility or causing shock waves of any kind.  The ABC, I believe, has little to fear from introducing corporate sponsorship of programs, and general advertising.  It has already willingly thrown itself into the “commercial” market by the promotion on a regular basis of its own ABC Shop products.  It is also used to some corporate sponsorship; for instance, Esso Night At The Opera.  I’ve heard no complaints about that series of fine programs, which might not even have happened had it not been for the financial support of the oil company.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, June 29-July 5):
Saturday:  Guest performers this week on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine) include Rat Cat, Kate Ceberano, The Ministry Of Fun and Deborah Conway.

Sunday:  Seven crosses to Subiaco, Perth, for live coverage of the AFL match between West Coast Eagles and St Kilda.  In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Colin (Kim Gyngell) is hailed a hero after saving the lives of four children.  Sunday night movies are An Innocent Man (Seven), Renegades (Nine) and Bull Durham (Ten).

Monday:  Nine debuts a new morning program, What’s Cooking, hosted by Gabriel Gate and Colette Mann (pictured).  Former Prisoner and Return To Eden star Peta Toppano guest stars in A Country Practice (Seven) as a country singer whose dreams of stardom are threatened.  Nine starts its second week of late-night coverage from Wimbledon.

Tuesday: In GP (ABC), William’s (Michael Craig) dinner guest drops dead and his relatives demand a very unusual burial.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Dr John D’Arcy looks at how the sex capital of the world is coping with the AIDS crises, and Simon Reeve visits a Japanese workplace of the future.

Wednesday:  Seven presents a late-night delayed coverage of the first Test of the 1991 three-match Rugby League series, from Melbourne’s Olympic Park, between Australia and New Zealand.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), several members of the RFDS team may have been unknowingly exposed to the AIDS virus. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  29 June 1991.  Southdown Press

1990: December 1-7

Kate’s hush-hush romance
Actress Kate Raison has spoken to TV Week to deny rumours that her three-year romance with former A Country Practice co-star Nick Bufalo is to lead to marriage.  “I don’t know where that one started, but, no, I am definitely not getting married,” she told TV Week.  “There is no truth in that rumour whatsoever.”  Raison (pictured) is soon to make a return to TV, playing the role of newspaper editor Sheridan Sturgess in Network Ten’s E Street.

The great E Street exit! 
Meanwhile, E Street is set to lose three of its foundation cast members going into its third year – with the show’s leading star Penny Cook deciding to take “an extended holiday” after her contract expires in February, while Warren Jones and Vic Rooney are also departing the series when their respective contracts expire.  The departure of Cook – which could be permanent – poses a dilemma for producers who have just matched up her character Dr Elly Fielding to Reverend Bob (Tony Martin) after a lengthy friendship and were hoping to stage an E Street wedding.  There is also the issue of what to do with Dr Fielding’s daughter, Claire (Brooke Anderson), in the series.  Meanwhile, there is talk around the industry that the series is heading to the Nine Network following the financial problems surrounding the Ten Network in recent times.

‘I’m shocked it’s come to this…’
The future of the Nine Network’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday appears to be under a cloud following the split of business partners Daryl Somers and Gavan Disney, whose company DAS Entertainment packages the show for the network.  The company, which is also owned by Ernie Carroll (the man behind Ossie Ostrich), is to be dismantled, with Somers and Carroll expected to set up their own company to produce the show.  Compounding to the drama is that Disney is also the manager of show regulars John Blackman (pictured) and Molly Meldrum.  “I’m shocked it has come to this,” Blackman told TV Week.  “It’s upsetting from all angles that they had to resort to this, but my sole responsibility is to the show and that’s how everybody (the rest of the cast) feels.  We’ve got to look to 1991 with the view that we’ll maintain the success Hey Hey has enjoyed.”

Briefly…
Good news for fans of ABC’s Mother And Son, with news that the popular comedy (starring Ruth Cracknell and Garry McDonald, pictured) is returning in a new series in the latter half of 1991 – ending speculation that the end of the show might be near with reports that cast member Henri Szeps was considering leaving the close-knit cast.  But Cracknell, who plays Maggie Beare, expects Szeps will be back for the new series.  “I hope so,” she says.  “I’m sure he will.  You couldn’t get anyone else to take the role.”

ABC will be hosting its Picnic In The Park event at Melbourne’s Myer Music Bowl this weekend.  The six-hour event is set to feature on-stage performances from That’s Dancin’ contestants, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Coodabeen Champions, cast members of The Big Gig and presenters from Play School.  Also attending the event will be weatherman Edwin Maher, cast members of drama series Embassy and ABC radio presenters.

Nine’s Bugs Bunny Show host Sophie Lee is joining the cast of The Flying Doctors.  She will be playing the role of radio operator Penny Wellings, the younger sister of Kate Wellings (Lenore Smith).  Lee is expected to continue to host The Bugs Bunny Show around her new commitments with The Flying Doctors.  Meanwhile, Brett Climo, who plays Dr David Ratcliffe in the series, is leaving the show after two years.

John Laws says…
”As far as Steve Vizard is concerned, it’s probably a good job it’s annual holiday time.  The man who made late-night live entertainment a ratings winner this year was looking decidedly tired, if not exhausted, as he creaked his way through his final programs.  The razor-sharp wit of his early months was blunted, much of the innovative sparkle had spluttered out, and Steve resembled a man dutifully going through the motions, doing his darndest to make things work but finding the task more difficult with each passing night.”

Program Highlights (December 1-7):
Saturday:  A big day of sport for HSV7, starting at 9.00am with live coverage of the Davis Cup: US versus Australia, from Petersburg, Florida.  Then during the afternoon, coverage will switch to the Australian Open golf, live from Sydney.  GTV9 covers the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket: England versus New Zealand, live from Adelaide.

Sunday:  HSV7 crosses to Florida for the Men’s Doubles of the Davis Cup, live from 4.30am.  Then, from midday, the Australian Open golf from Sydney.  GTV9 has another day of the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket, live from Adelaide, while ATV10 crosses to Bondi, Sydney, for the Ironman Super Series.  SBS presents the final edition of current affairs program Vox Populi for 1990.  Sunday night movies are Who Dares Wins (GTV9) and Birdy (ATV10).  HSV7 presents a re-run of mini-series Favourite Son, and ABC’s Esso Night At The Opera presents the Australian Opera production of Cosi Fan Tutte.

Monday:  HSV7 crosses to Florida at 5.00am for the final day’s play of the Davis Cup: US versus Australia.  Game show Wheel Of Fortune (HSV7) moves to the new time of 6.30pm, replacing Home And Away which is on summer break.  Steve Liebmann hosts A Current Affair: Summer Edition (GTV9).

Wednesday:  GTV9 presents the 1987 Australian movie The Tale Of Ruby Rose, starring Melita Jurisic, Chris Haywood and Sheila Florance.

Thursday:  HSV7 presents the first day’s competition of the Johnnie Walker Classic, live from the Melbourne Golf Club.  ABC presents live coverage of tennis, the Colonial Mutual Men’s Invitational, from Kooyong, Melbourne – with an hour of highlights late in the evening.

Friday:  More tennis on ABC.  More golf on HSV7.  And more cricket on GTV9, with the Benson And Hedges World Series: England versus New Zealand, live from Perth.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 1 December 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: November 24-30

Summer Bay shocks!
While pregnant Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) collapses in the Summer Bay diner, the closing episodes of the 1990 season of Home And Away will also deliver news of some new romances.  Pippa Fletcher (Debra Lawrence), who lost husband Tom (Roger Oakley) in dramatic circumstances earlier this year, falls for Summer Bay newcomer Michael Ross (Dennis Coard), while teenager Sophie (Rebekah Elmaloglou, pictured) sparks up a relationship with his son Hayden (Andrew Hill).

Sky-hooked!
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Red Symons has recently been married – twice!  Symons and his bride, Elly Agrotis, had a private Greek wedding for close friends and family at an East Melbourne Greek Orthodox church before exchanging vows again at a civil ceremony in a trendy South Yarra restaurant.  Guests at the second “showbiz” wedding included Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers (with wife Julie), Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and Wilbur Wilde, Skyhooks mates Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan, Greg Macainsh and ‘Bongo’ Starkie, actor Kim Gyngell and comedian Glenn Robbins.  The day also marked a second local showbusiness wedding, with Acropolis Now’s Simon Palomares and Tracey Callander also tying the knot in Melbourne.

If it’s New Year this must be… Ethiopia
Tonight Live host Steve Vizard (pictured) will be seeing in the year 1991 on location in Ethiopia as he will be on location producing a one-hour special for World Vision to go to air on the Seven Network around Easter.  “I’ve never been to Ethiopia.  It will be an eye-opener.  But I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do.  It’s one of those things you can do as a personality because personalities are in a position to get people to watch something they might not otherwise watch,” he told TV Week.  Actress Rowena Wallace, who has made several trips before for World Vision, will also be involved in this latest documentary.

Briefly…
The Doug Anthony Allstars, one of the popular acts from ABC’s The Big Gig, are to start work soon on their own series, DAAS Kapital.  “There will be slam-bam action, high adventure, lots of violence, raw energy, sexual prowess – all that and more!” says group member Tim Ferguson (pictured).  The new series will appear on ABC and Ferguson says there has already been interest in the series from Thames Television in the United Kingdom.

Home And Away star Adam Willits has only just completed his final scenes with the popular drama and is already walking straight into his next role – appearing alongside Julie McGregor in Hampton House, the spin-off from the popular sitcom Hey Dad! A pilot for the new series has been taped and if Seven gives the go-ahead then the series will go into production in April.

Video Smash Hits co-host Michael Horrocks is heading on an around-the-world trip to record interviews for the Seven Network Saturday morning show.  Horrocks’ list of interviewees is set to include Belinda Carlisle, Alice Cooper, Young MC, Nelson, Bobby McFerrin and – hopefully – Prince.  “He’s notoriously hard to interview,” Horrocks told TV Week.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”If anything good can be said about Backchat, it’s that it at least prevents credible ABC television productions from starting at odd times such as 9.22 or 8.13.  It in fact serves to fill in time.  Some at the ABC hanker after “sponsorship” (“commercials” is still a beep word) to do that job, but while others recoil at the suggestion in big enough numbers, it’s not going to happen.  So I guess we’re stuck with Backchat… and Media Watch (which at least manages to rise above the inconsequential on most occasions, and so it should with all that staff!) and news updates, whether there’s anything to update or not.”

Program Highlights (November 24-30):
Saturday:  The Seven Network presents Ausmusic ‘90, a five-hour live broadcast for the first ever National Australian Music Day, covering concerts taking place around Australia.  Heading the line-up of performers are John Farnham, The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly And The Messengers, Wendy Matthews, Ian Moss, Kate Ceberano, Boom Crash Opera, Crowded House, Tim Finn, Mental As Anything and Icehouse.  Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (pictured), from Nine’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday, is given special permission by Nine to present the telecast, linking together the concerts taking place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are The Alamo: Thirteen Days To Glory (HSV7), Table For Five (GTV9) and The Long Riders (ATV10).  ABC’s Esso Night At The Opera presents the Australian Opera production of The Gypsy Princess.

Monday: Major cost-cutting measures at the Ten Network, including the sacking of around 300 staff, sees Ten Evening News in Melbourne trimmed from one-hour to a 30-minute bulletin.  The remaining half-hour is now occupied by re-runs of a US sitcom, the somewhat aptly-titled Too Close For Comfort.

Wednesday:  ABC presents the final edition of science program Quantum for 1990, before screening a repeat of the 1988 mini-series The Four Minute Mile, starring Nique Needles, Tracy Mann, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, John O’May and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.

Thursday:  HSV7 crosses to Sydney for the first day of the Australian Open from the Australian Golf Club.  Commentators are Sandy Roberts, Jack Newton and Bruce McAvaney.  Coverage will continue every afternoon through to Sunday.  GTV9 presents live coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Series Cup: Australia versus New Zealand.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm, taking a break for National Nine News and A Current Affair, then continuing through to 10.30pm.  HSV7 presents the last episode of Home And Away for 1990.

Friday:  ABC presents the final Gardening Australia for 1990. 

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

1990: November 17-23

Livvy’s Christmas surprise!
After a seven-year break from acting, former Aussie star Olivia Newton-John (pictured) is making her dramatic TV debut in a telemovie, A Mom For Christmas.  The movie, currently in production in Cincinatti, Ohio, is set to go to air in the US on Christmas Eve.  The Seven Network has decided to hold off screening the telemovie in Australia until next Christmas.

Meet ACP’s new matron
The contracts are still being finalised, but JNP Productions have announced that actress Maureen Edwards will be taking on the role of the new matron in A Country Practice – replacing Mary Regan, whose character Ann Brennan makes her departure from the series early in the new year.  Edwards’ other recent TV appearances have included roles in Skirts and, ironically, A Country Practice.  In her last ACP appearance, Edwards played Sydney neurosurgeon Katherine D’Angelo.

Counter attack
ABC’s 4 Corners host and radio 2BL morning presenter Andrew Olle (pictured) has spoken in defence of A Current Affair host Jana Wendt over her recent interview with Bob Hawke, where she questioned the honesty of his emotions over China, that is said to have enraged the prime minister.  “I think it is great that he’s been reminded that it is not just ABC interviewers who sometimes ask him tough questions,” Olle told TV Week.  “He and several ministers in his Government have almost made a point of being nasty to the ABC whenever they get a chance.  I interviewed Hawke about the coup in Fiji.  It became very tense.  He was in Adelaide, I was in Sydney.  Afterwards, he strolled off the set and in a foul-mouthed way let off steam to all the people in the studio, being very unpleasant to all and sundry.”  Olle also lists Wendt amongst the peers he most admires:  “She has a wonderful detachment.  I like the way she has been to resist the commercial machine, which gets hold of a woman and shapes her as a commercial property.  And she is very nice person… not an easy thing to be with al the adulation that comes her way.”  He also talked about an offer to join Nine’s 60 Minutes, but decided that professional satisfaction and his ABC salary is worth more than the bigger budgets on offer by commercial television.  “There is more money to be made outside,” he says.  “But you have to consider what it means to your life.  It has to be weighed up: satisfaction and greed.”

Briefly…
Legendary daytime soap opera Days Of Our Lives has recently celebrated 25 years on air in the US, having started in November 1965, although in Australia the series starting screening in 1968 and at this stage is two years behind the US.

Aussie rules footballer Warwick Capper (pictured), appearing as a contestant in Celebrity Family Feud this week, has told TV Week he has ambitions to be a film and TV star.  He made his acting debut in three episodes of Neighbours back in 1987, alongside Kylie Minogue, and is keen to try a “longer, ongoing role”. 

It’s a dramatic season finale coming up for Home And Away when pregnant Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson) experiences stomach cramps and collapses in the Summer Bay diner.  She is rushed to hospital and admitted to intensive care, but Seven’s publicists are saying nothing about the outcome which is set to be revealed when the series returns in the new year.

John Laws says…
”The ABC screened an entertaining documentary about life in Australia in the Fifties and Sixties.  It was called The Baby Boomers Picture Show and for those of us for whom it had relevance it was a nostalgic look at life as we often remember it to have been.  The Baby Boomers, though, gave us an Australia through rose-tinted glasses.  It saw the past as having possessed a dream-like quality of contentment, happiness, innocence and mateship.  Which is true, but only to a certain extent.  There was misery, war, uncertainty, murder and poverty in the Fifties and early Sixties, but despite this, street kids were exactly that, kids who played in the street.  Crack was something you found in the pavement and “heroin” was the female lead in a movie.”

Program Highlights (November 17-23):
Saturday:  The final day of the 1990 ratings year brings the final Hey Hey It’s Saturday for the year, with a special three-hour show featuring Noiseworks, Daryl Braithwaite, Icehouse, The Chimes and Ita Buttrose.  HSV7 presents the one-hour special Agro’s 10th Birthday, featuring Cartoon Connection’s Agro visiting the sets of fellow Seven programs Hinch, Fast Forward, Tonight Live With Steve Vizard and Hey Dad!

Sunday:  ABC presents the series final of its popular dance competition That’s Dancin’.  Sunday night movies are Red Dawn (HSV7) and Priest Of Love (ATV10).  GTV9 presents the first part of mini-series Crossings, and ABC presents Esso Night At The Opera, featuring the Australian Opera’s production of War And Peace.

Monday:  Australian actress Sigrid Thornton stars in the US series Paradise, returning tonight on HSV7.  Andrew Denton’s The Money Or The Gun (ABC) presents its final episode for 1990.  With Tonight Live With Steve Vizard now on its summer break, HSV7 replaces it with a late-night edition of Seven Nightly News with newsreader Naomi Robson.

Wednesday:  Country singer James Blundell guest stars in the 1990 series final of The Flying Doctors (GTV9).

Thursday:  ABC drama series Embassy finishes up for 1990.

Friday:  Test Cricket begins for the season as GTV9 crosses to the Gabba, Brisbane, for the first day’s play of the first test between Australia and England. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 17 November 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: October 6-12

‘It’s like losing part of the family!’
Hey Dad! star Simone Buchanan has confirmed that she has left the long-running comedy series.  “I haven’t re-signed,” she told TV Week.  “We filmed the last episode this week and I still have no idea what they are going to do with (character) Debbie.” For co-star Chris Truswell (pictured, with Buchanan), who plays Nudge in the series, has told TV Week that after six years it is hard to see her go.  “It’s like losing part of the family,” he said.  “I can tell Simone all my problems.  She is my sanity, in a way.  She is so intuitive.”

A couple of high-flyers!
It’s no wonder Steve Vizard’s and Michael Veitch’s Fast Forward flight attendant characters Daryl and Wayne (pictured, below left) are so funny – they started as a joke between the two actors.  “Steve and I used to do poncey voices in the corridors at Seven whenever we bumped into each other,” Veitch tells TV Week.  “Someone said, ‘You sound like two airline stewards’, and we thought it was a good idea for a skit!  They’re like comic book characters because they’re so unreal.  A lot of gay people get offended by them, which I think is fair enough.” Veitch stresses that the characters were never meant to be anti-gay.  “They are dreadful stereotypes,” he says.  “But then, so are a lot of the characters we do.”

‘This means I exist!’
When Fast Forward’s Jane Turner started sending up Alison Drower (pictured, above right), the MTV co-host took it all in her stride – though it presented a shock to her hairdresser.  “My hairdresser was horrified,” Drower told TV Week.  “She was more offended than me.  She said ‘My God, I hope people don’t see your hair like that!’”  But Drower takes the parody as a compliment. “I think it’s very flattering, particularly because it is a continual thing now, rather than just a one-off.  It’s for the show, too, and, hey, this means I exist!” 

Briefly…
On the eve of the debut of mini-series Shadows Of The Heart, star Jason Donovan (pictured, with co-star Sherrie Krenn) says the audience will see a new side to him:  “My role as a singer, and what I’ve done with Neighbours before, has always been fresh and wholesome.  This is certainly not the boy next door!”  Shadows Of The Heart also stars Jerome Ehlers, Josephine Byrnes and Marcus Graham.

James Valentine, host of ABC’s The Afternoon Show, has been given the green light to develop a new weekly “music program for adults.”  ABC currently has two rock music programs on air – Rage and Countdown Revolution – but the new project aims to appeal to the 25 to 40-year-old age group.

A busload of TV personalities took to the NSW Hunter Valley to propose a toast to the success of the upcoming Sprite TV Celebrity Dance Party, to be held later this month.  Among the stars to lunch at the the Victorian-style Kirkton Park guesthouse, near Cessnock, and then attending a wine tasting at the McWilliams Estate were stars Judy Nunn (Home And Away), John Orcsik (formerly of Number 96 and Cop Shop), Paula Duncan (Number 96, Cop Shop, Prisoner, Richmond Hill) and Bunney Brooke (Number 96, E Street).

John Laws says…
”It saddens me to report that the new series Embassy is close to being a second-class dud.  We’ve never been good at portraying our international neighbours on TV, and in Embassy the fictional country where our earnest-faced diplomats seems to be a laughable cross between Indonesia and Sri Lanka, with a trace of Fiji thrown in for good measure.  Unfortunately, it took only two episodes for Embassy to degenerate into the froth and bubble of an upmarket soapie.  What was obviously a bright idea has languished for want of a sharp-edged script and a bigger budget.”

Program Highlights (October 6-12):
Saturday:  HSV7’s day is dominated by football on the day of the AFL Grand Final.  After the overnight Football Marathon, at 8am HSV7 crosses to the traditional North Melbourne Football Club Grand Final Breakfast – followed by the Under 19s Grand Final at 9am and the Reserve Grade Grand Final at 11am.  At 2pm it’s the main event – the AFL Grand Final between Collingwood and Essendon, live from the MCG, to an estimate worldwide audience of over eight million viewers.  Coverage continues until 6pm, with a replay of the game at 9.30pm.

Sunday: Sunday night movies are Sudden Impact (GTV9) and Wall Street (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the first instalment of mini-series Jackaroo, starring Annie Jones and David McCubbin (pictured), and ABC presents Esso Night At The Opera, featuring Les Huguenots, the final performance of Dame Joan Sutherland.

Monday:  The second and final instalment of mini-series Jackaroo (HSV7).

Tuesday:  Brad Robinson presents a one-hour special, Torn Apart (ATV10), looking at the relationship bond between a mother and child and the systems that have been created by bureaucrats, the church, the law and the medical profession that have promoted systems which destroy this relationship – such as adoption, sperm donation, egg donation and surrogacy.  The special is followed by the first of the two-part mini-series Shadows Of The Heart, starring Jason Donovan, Sherrie Krenn, Marcus Graham, Josephine Byrnes, Barry Otto and Robyn Nevin.

Wednesday:  ABC presents the Australian Film Industry’s annual AFI Awards, from the World Congress Centre in Melbourne.  Films nominated in the awards include Blood Oath, The Big Steal, Flirting and Golden Braid.  ATV10 presents the second and final instalment of Shadows Of The Heart.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  6 October 1990.  Southdown Press.