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

1991: May 25-31

‘I’m not pregnant!’
Home And Away star Nicolle Dickson has responded to reports by the British tabloids that she is pregnant.  “Top Aussie star Nicolle Dickson has some happy news – she’s pregnant,” one British newspaper recently reported.  The report continued: “But Nicolle, who plays Bobby Simpson in Home And Away, has been keeping mum about the happy event because she is terrified she could lose her job.”  The young star has hit out at the reports.  “I’m not pregnant.  I’ve been thinking about it, but how could they write that I am?  How could they write this stuff and not talk to me?” she told TV Week.  The British reports have had wider implications as Dickson (pictured, above right, with young co-star Ryan Clark) is booked to appear in a Christmas pantomime and the ‘news’ of her pregnancy had led to some frantic calls between the producers of the pantomime and her agent in Australia.  “I assured them I wasn’t pregnant but they didn’t believe me! They rang my agent to double check,” Dickson said.

Penny’s heart stolen in bank robbery!
For the first time in a decade, actress Penny Cook is about to take on a role that doesn’t involve her tending to the sick or feeble.  After playing the roles of vet Vicki Bowen in A Country Practice and Dr Elly Fielding in E Street, Cook is soon to appear in ABC’s GP as the love interest of Dr Steve Harrison (Michael O’Neill, pictured above left with Cook).  Her character, Beth Paige, works at a bank where Dr Harrison is a customer.  A robbery at the bank ends up bringing them together.  So does this mean that Elly Fielding has gone from E Street for good?  “Well, she’s gone for good at the moment,” Cook tells TV Week.  “But that’s open as well.”

Alyce’s dramatic new role
Alyce Platt (pictured), recently departed from Sale Of The Century, has landed a major role in a new drama series.  Animal Park, a 16-part series being produced by Sunshine Films for the Seven Network, is set in north Queensland and tells the story of a widowed mother of three who inherits a run-down property of holiday cabins and a small animal park.  Platt plays the role of Christina Gurney, a wildlife ranger who befriends the family.  It is not Platt’s first dramatic role – she appeared in Sons And Daughters for two years and also filmed a guest role in Family And Friends.  The Seven Network has yet to announce a screening date for Animal Park.

‘I’m too fat for Oz TV’
Australia’s Jonathan Coleman, now hosting chat show Swing Shift on British network BSkyB, says he would fail to break into Australian TV these days if he was just starting out.  “People like me wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into TV now – we’re too fat,” he told TV Week.  “You’ve got to have the right figure, the right hair… you’ve got to be a soap bimbo.”

Briefly…
Former A Country Practice star Joan Sydney, who played Matron Sloan for seven years in the rural-based series, has now joined the cast of E Street.  She will play Mary Patchett (pictured, with co-star Adrian Lee), the British cousin of Aunty Vi (Bunney Brooke).

The producers and actors from ABC’s Embassy are hoping that tensions between Malaysia and Australia sparked by an episode of the series will soon die down and be forgotten.  “To have another country say we are belittling them is very disappointing,” producer Ian Bradley told TV Week.  “The push of the show is that Australians must live by different laws and customs when they are abroad.”  The drama series is set in the fictional country of Ragaan but an episode caused upset to the Malaysian government when they interpreted similarities between events in the fictional country and statements made by their own prime minister.

Alison Brahe (pictured with fiancee Cameron Daddo at the TV Week Logie Awards) has completed a pilot for a children’s show to be produced at the Nine Network studios in Adelaide.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”Congratulations to Crawfords Australia on the about-to-be-announced $5 million purchase and redevelopment of what eventually will be a four-studio complex covering about 3.25 ha of Box Hill, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.  About two-thirds of the facilities will be leased to other producers, with Crawfords using the rest for its continuing drama series The Flying Doctors, the expensive new children’s series Half Way Across The Galaxy And Turn Left and a third series, still to be announced.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, May 25-31):
Saturday:  Singer Debbie Byrne is a guest performer on this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).  Phil Scott, Colleen Hewett and Rod Marsh are this week’s celebrity contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven), while Agro, Ann-Maree Biggar, Sofie Formica and Fat Cat take on the body builders in Celebrity Family Feud (Seven).

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Turner And Hooch (Seven), Frantic (Nine) and The Gods Must Be Crazy II (Ten).

Tuesday:  At midday, Seven crosses to Hobart for live coverage of the AFL State Of Origin clash between Tasmania and Victoria.  Seven then goes back to Hobart in the evening for the follow up game between South Australia and Victoria.  In GP (ABC), the doctors rally to protect an Iraqi refugee family from racial harassment from members of the community.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Alice (Marianne Howard) has fallen for the much-older Adam (Mark Owen-Taylor) – but will he tell her that he is married?  In Hey Dad! (Seven), a mysterious neighbour nominates Martin (Robert Hughes) as Father of the Year.

Thursday: Hampton Court, the spin-off series from Hey Dad!, debuts on Seven, starring Julie McGregor (pictured) as wacky secretary Betty Wilson from Walgett.  ABC launches the second series of Embassy, the series focusing on the Australian Embassy staff in the fictional country of Ragaan.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  25 May 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: March 2-8

‘Cut it out, Steve!’
As Tonight Live enters its second year, newsreader Jennifer Keyte has put her foot down and ordered some changes to the show’s news segment which she presents at the start of each program.  Gone is host Steve Vizard’s catchphrase “the newsreader with the mostest”, and also gone is Keyte’s walk to the news desk which attracted wild wolf-whistles and cheers from the studio audience.  The changes have come after Keyte (pictured, with Vizard), who also fronts Seven Nightly News in Melbourne, had some concerns about the credibility of the news presented on the program and was also concerned about some on-air comments by Vizard about her private life.  “I’m a news presenter, therefore I don’t want to be drawn into a situation where I have to give opinions on things or to divulge anything to do with my personal life,” Keyte told TV Week.

Craig’s to become a hero!
Craig McLachlan has been offered a role in the sequel to the mini-series The Heroes which is set to appear on the Seven Network.  Producers of the new project also approached McLachlan’s former Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan to reprise his role from the original The Heroes series, but with his current commitment to West End musical Joseph And His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat it is unlikely he will be available.  The Heroes II is likely to be McLachlan’s only TV appearance this year apart from a two-week stint coming up in Home And Away, a contractual commitment following his recent departure from the series as a regular cast member.

The Bugs Bunny girl hops into a new role
The Bugs Bunny Show host Sophie Lee (pictured) makes her debut in Nine’s The Flying Doctors this week.  Despite some outside criticism of her meteoric rise to fame, the 22-year-old former model is confident she can ‘cut it’ as an actress.  “I’ve been doing bits of acting work for a long time now,” she told TV Week.  “I’ve had my ears open for years looking for good parts.  Just because I got The Bugs Bunny Show didn’t mean I thought, ‘Well I’m fine now’.”

Briefly…
Production is to start in July on the $5.7 million sci-fi series Halfway Around The Galaxy And Turn Left. The 26-episode series is being produced at the Melbourne studios of Crawfords Australia for the Seven Network and German company Kirch Gruppe.  No casting details for the series have been announced as yet.

John Farnham is to lead the list of performers at this year’s TV Week Logie Awards, to be held at Melbourne’s World Congress Centre later this month.  Producer Peter Wynne and choreographer David Atkins are also working on a few other surprises for the show, including a “supergroup” getting together for a one-off Logies performance.

Departing E Street star Warren Jones (pictured) had expected that scriptwriters would write out his character, former policeman Paul Berry, with a quick bullet to the head.  “But they turned it into, maybe, the best scenes my character has ever had.  I was really proud,” Jones told TV Week.

Former A Country Practice and The Flying Doctors star Brett Climo has signed up with ABC’s popular drama GP for a three-week guest stint. 

John Laws says…
”Having had such success with Mother And Son, writer Geoffrey Atherden could easily have rested on his laurels.  But if the first episode of his new series Eggshells is any guide, Atherden looks like he has come up with another triumphant Australian TV sitcom.  Yes, it’s that good.”

Program Highlights (March 2-8):
Saturday:  Seven’s environmental and weather reporter David Smith presents documentary Continent In Crisis for Jennifer Keyte’s World Around Us, looking at the ecological crisis confronting Australia.  Seven then crosses to AFL Park, Waverley, for the 3rd Quarter Final of the Foster’s Cup pre-season competition.  Nine crosses to Jamaica overnight for the second day’s play of the First Test between Australia and West Indies.

Sunday:  SBS’ documentary series My Place, My Land, My People looks at Cunnamulla, just north of the NSW border, the traditional lands of the Kunja tribe and traces their history over the past 200 years.  The Foster’s Cup continues on Seven with the 4th Quarter Final from AFL Park, followed by Nascar-Auscar motor racing from Calder Park, Melbourne.  Sunday night movies are Octopussy (Seven), The Rosary Murders (Nine) and Die Hard (Ten). 

Monday:  Seven’s long-running game show Wheel Of Fortune celebrates its 2000th episode with John Burgess, Adriana Xenides and voice-over man John Deeks presenting highlights from the show’s past.  Burgess, who has hosted the show since 1984, has notched up more than 1000 episodes, while Xenides has not missed a single episode since the show began in July 1981.

Tuesday:  Former The Restless Years star Peter Mochrie guest stars in ABC’s GP.  Actress Nadine Garner makes her comedy debut as an over-the-top groupie who dumps boyfriend Thomas (Steven Jacobs) for his dad, ageing rocker Bobby (Jon English) in Nine’s All Together Now.

Wednesday:  Penne Hackforth-Jones guest stars as an old girlfriend of Martin Kelly (Robert Hughes) in Seven’s Hey Dad!

Thursday:  Sophie Lee makes her debut in Nine’s The Flying Doctors.  In Seven’s Acropolis Now, Memo’s (George Kapiniaris) mother sends an uncle from Greece to encourage Memo to marry – and in sheer desperation he chooses Effie (pictured. Mary Coustas).  In E Street (Ten), the erratic behaviour of troubled former policeman Paul Berry (Warren Jones) comes to a climax when he kidnaps Rachel Patchett (Madison Doyle) and Toni Windsor (Toni Pearen) and locks them away in a hospital room.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  2 March 1991.  Southdown Press.