1992: March 1-7

State of shock!
Unlike most young Australian actors, E Street star Bruce Samazan (pictured) is in no hurry to work in the US – in fact he has no plans to ever visit there again.  Making his first trip to the US, staying with friends in Texas during a production break for E Street, Samazan cut short his two-week visit and made a dash back to Sydney, admitting that the place “freaked” him out.  “There’s gang warfare over there that I can’t grab a hold of… it’s chaotic,” he told TV Week.  “It’s totally unnatural for an Australian to go over there and adjust to the fact that if you wear the wrong coloured baseball cap or T-shirt, you might be shot at.”  On one occasion he went to put on a Los Angeles Raiders cap but was advised by his local friend, “Bruce I wouldn’t wear that.  You could get yourself into trouble – you might get shot at”.  Then, two days later, a local newspaper carried the headline ‘Two Youths Shot Dead Outside Nightclub’… for wearing LA Raiders outfits.  “That was pretty scary stuff,” Samazan said.

It’s goodbye to the Valley!
A Country Practice viewers will soon bid farewell to three of the show’s most popular characters.  Gordon Piper (who plays Bob Hatfield), Syd Heylen (Cookie) and Matt Day (Luke) will be making their final appearances on screen in the coming weeks.  For Day, leaving the series has come at the right time.  “The character is now rounded off and I feel he has gone as far as he can for me,” he told TV Week.  “Theatre is the next avenue I wish to explore.  I want to steer clear of TV for a while.”  Showbiz veteran Heylen leaves the show with happy memories.  “I’ve made a lot of good friends,” he said.  “The series kept me before a broad audience, which you don’t get to cover doing live work.  It has been a happy period.”  And although Piper is adamant that he won’t be returning to A Country Practice, he and Heylen (both pictured) will be making a guest appearance in two episodes later in the year in a storyline which sees Cookie return to hospital. 

New doctors set for take-off
The Nine Network drama The Flying Doctors is set for a major revamp as production starts soon on its tenth series.  In a major shake-up for the series, the series will now be based in Broken Hill (the real-life base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) rather than the fictional Coopers Crossing, and the only familiar cast members making the move to the new location will be husband-and-wife team Maurie Fields and Val Jellay (pictured) and Sophie Lee.  And joining the new-look series will be Simone Buchanan (Hey Dad!), Peter Phelps (who has just returned from the US where he featured in Baywatch), Steve Jacobs (Rose Against The Odds) and Lydia Miller.  The new-look series is scheduled to debut on Nine around mid-year.

Briefly…
Neighbours’ Blakeney twins, Gayle and Gillian, are about to ‘split up’.  Gillian, who plays Caroline Alessi, will be taping her final scenes in the Network Ten series this week.  “While I love the character and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself on the show, I feel it is time to move on as an actor,” she told TV Week.  Meanwhile, Gayle is contracted to the show until July and will then assess her options before making any decision about her future.  But while the pair will no longer be working together on Neighbours, they will be working together again in London next month as they record their next single which is due for release in Australia later this year. 

Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, with views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, is the location for the latest TV soapie wedding – but it is unlikely to ever appear on Australian screens.  The British TV series Families, which stars Briony Behets (the British-born actress best known for her roles in Aussie dramas Number 96 and The Box), is filmed between Manchester and Sydney… but so far the series is yet to be sold to an Australian network.  The series’ wedding is between Behets’ character Diana Stephens and cafe owner Anton Vaughn (Rhett Walton).

The patchy relationship between the local producers of the Network Ten tabloid current affairs show Hard Copy and Paramount, who own the US-based format, continues.  But executive producer Peter Sutton isn’t concerned as he said there are plenty of other sources for content if the plug is pulled on being able to grab stories from the US version, but concedes that the show may have to change its name – with Fast Copy or Australia’s Hard Copy cited as possibilities.

Actress Melissa Bell (pictured) is currently caught in a battle between Network Ten’s two soapies.  Melbourne-based Neighbours’ producers are keen to renew Bell’s contract when it expires mid-year, but Bell wants to move back to Sydney-based E Street where she once had a brief role – due in part to her current off-screen interstate relationship with the son of E Street producer Forrest Redlich.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Fat Cat has been banished from our screens in one of the most profound decisions made in the history of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.  The tubby tom’s character was deemed “still not clearly defined” and his show was accused of having “still generally poor” direction.  It took 15 years for someone to reach this momentous decision, years in which the lives of whole generations of Australian children must have been corrupted irreparably.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 1-7):
Sunday:  Nine crosses to Brisbane for the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between Australia and India.  Seven has motor racing with coverage of the Nascar/Auscar Nationals from Calder Park, Melbourne.  Meanwhile, ABC’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross is back with a collection of arts-themed programming and interviews.  Sunday night movies are Shirley Valentine (Nine), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (Ten) and the Japanese comedy Tampopo (SBS), up against Seven’s debut of mini-series Prime Suspect.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) and Darcy (Kym Wilson) meet Douglas ‘Simmo’ Simmonds (Richard Moir), a crippled Vietnam pilot who revives Luke’s dreams of flying.  In Neighbours (Ten), an accident puts Helen’s (Anne Haddy) life at risk – while in Mother And Son (ABC), Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) remembers a clock that her late husband Leo gave her on their 25th wedding anniversary as she takes one from the house across the street.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), Robert (John McTernan) is acting strangely and decides to be a medico on an Antarctic expedition – until he reveals he has a tragic illness.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) reports on mankind’s most ambitious project yet – human habitation on Mars, while reporter Tracey Curro test drives the world’s first car in a suitcase.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a one-hour special, Cop It Sweet, taking a look at Sydney’s inner-city Redfern Police Station, in an area with a history of clashes between police and Aborigines, making it one of the most controversial police districts in the country.  Nine crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for day-night coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between India and Pakistan.

Thursday:  More World Cup cricket from Sydney on Nine, this time the match between Australia and England.  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas) arranges a party for Sophie’s (Sheryl Munks) 21st birthday at Vibrations Disco. 

Friday:  Seven presents live coverage of the semi-final of the AFL Foster’s Cup, with commentators Bruce McAvaney, Peter McKenna, Don Scott, Gerard Healy and Bernie Quinlan.  The ARIA Awards (Nine) are telecast for the first time, live from Melbourne’s World Congress Centre, and hosted by Richard Wilkins and Julian Lennon, with appearances by John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Jenny Morris, Noiseworks, Diesel, Wendy Matthews, Margaret Urlich, Rockmelons, Sophie Lee, Craig McLachlan, Dannii Minogue and international artists Diana Ross, Rod Stewart and Harry Connick Jnr. 

Saturday:  The Seven Network presents an all-day telethon to raise financial support for the Australian team to compete at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.  The Olympathon starts at 7.00am, including special editions of Saturday Disney and Video Smash Hits, followed by live crosses around Australia for interviews with some of Australia’s Olympic hopefuls.  The evening telecast includes a night of entertainment featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Phantom Of The Opera stars Marina Prior and Rob Guest (both pictured with Seven’s Bruce McAvaney), Julie Anthony, Grace Knight, Craig McLachlan, Vanetta Fields, Judith Durham, Simon Gallaher, Don Burrows and Peter Cupples.  The telethon concludes at midnight.  Nine presents all-day coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket from Adelaide. 

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  29 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1992: February 15-22

Just 18… and Kym’s got it all!
She might be only 18 years old, but Kym Wilson (pictured) has emerged from an acting novice to a talented professional, with acclaim for her performances in the film Flirting, stage production The Crucible and mini-series Brides Of Christ.  And she is optimistic that her decision to join A Country Practice is a positive career move.  “You have to choose roles that are going to fulfil you,” she told TV Week.  “That is why I chose A Country Practice as the soap I wanted to do.  It has been going for 10 years, the people I work with are fantastic actors and it has that extra dimension by dealing with issues in society, which perhaps the other soaps do not do.”  The young star has also taken on an additional on-air role as co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning Video Smash Hits, although is wary of becoming over-exposed or being pigeonholed as a “personality” rather than an actress.  “That was my concern when I chose to do Video Smash Hits – that I wouldn’t, without degrading Sophie, become another Sophie Lee, who is seen more as a TV personality than an actress because she did The Bugs Bunny Show before she did The Flying Doctors.”

Axe for Hard Copy?
It may be a ratings winner for the Ten Network, but its weekly “tabloid” current affairs show Hard Copy (hosted by Gordon Elliott, pictured) could soon be axed due to a falling out between the network and Paramount, the owners of the concept.  Paramount is believed to have notified Ten that it wants out of the deal when the current batch of 13 episodes is completed, due to Ten failing to comply with certain changes that had been requested of the Australian franchise.  The termination of the agreement would mean that the show’s title can not be used in Australia, or that any  reports from the US version can be broadcast here.  But Network Ten boss Gary Rice has denied any rift with Paramount and insists that production of Hard Copy is business as usual.     

Frozen out!
E Street star Alyssa-Jane Cook (pictured) always insisted that she wanted her exit from the show to be dramatic, but admits that her final scenes with the series have been her most challenging.  Her character, Lisa Bennett, finds herself at the mercy of E Street’s serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) who has kidnapped her and locked her in a freezer in a bid to lure his targets Sheridan (Kate Raison) and Wheels (Marcus Graham) to their deaths.  Cook is not about to give away the outcome of the storyline, but says the scenes were amongst her most difficult.  “By the end of the 14-hour shoot, I was emotionally and physically exhausted,” she said.

Briefly…
TV Week has announced a new era as it embarks on changes to production techniques and its format.  This week’s edition includes a special eight-day program guide – Saturday to Saturday – as from next week the magazine will feature program listings from Sunday to Saturday, while the magazine’s on-sale day will change from Monday to Thursday.  This change, incorporated with tighter production deadlines, will see the magazine report more up-to-date stories and offer a more accurate program listing.  Despite the changes, the cover price of TV Week will remain at $1.70.

All Together Now star Rebecca Gibney has broken her silence on her private life by denying reports that while on a three-week holiday to the United States that she and her fiance, singer Jack Jones, had been secretly married in a Las Vegas chapel.  “Marriage crossed our minds at some point, but we decided against it,” she told TV Week.  “But we haven’t run off to Las Vegas to have a quickie wedding.”

Former The Flying Doctors cast members Lenore Smith and David Reyne (pictured) have embarked on a new project, appearing in the stage production of Love Letters which begins at the Sydney Opera House before touring regional centres in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  Reyne has also started work on a new travel series, Getaway, for the Nine Network.  Getaway, which also features former Beyond 2000 reporter Jeff Watson and two yet-to-be-named female reporters, makes its debut on Nine next month.

John Laws says…
”Perhaps, as a nation, we should all have been watching the documentary about the Snowy Mountain hydro-electric project, aptly screened over the Australia Day weekend on the ABC.  By any standards the Snowy project was a heroic undertaking, in both engineering and human terms.  It took 25 years to complete and it ranks as one of this nation’s greatest achievements.  Here was a mammoth engineering feat brought to life by Australians and “new” Australians from Europe, most of them displaced persons from World War II.  The ABC documentary team interviewed a handful of the thousands of people who worked on the Snowy project, but their stories seemed to embrace all its spirit and courage.  Interestingly, the general feeling among them was that a scheme like the Snowy could never be built today.  Way back in 1949, when Ben Chifley’s government got it off the ground, there was no conservation movement!”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 15-22):
Saturday:  Saturday afternoon sport includes golf on both ABC (West Australian Ladies’ Classic) and Seven (Australian Masters), while Nine presents a highlights package of the Winter Olympic Games.  Nine’s evening is dominated by the return of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, followed by more live coverage of the Winter Olympic Games from Albertville, France.

Sunday:  More golf on ABC and Seven, while Nine presents highlights of the Reebok Blacktop Basketball, from Adelaide’s Clipsal Powerhouse Stadium.  Evening programs include the return of multi-lingual current affairs program Vox Populi (SBS) and Brian Naylor’s documentary Australia From The Outside Looking In (Nine).  Sunday night movies are Good Morning Vietnam (Seven) and K-9 (Ten), up against the Winter Olympics (Nine).

Monday:  In Mother And Son (ABC), Arthur (Garry McDonald) brings a pet budgie home for Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) after she is upset by her son Robert (Henri Szeps) – but how this leads to 10 naked dentists dancing on a golf course has to be seen to be believed! 

Tuesday:  ABC’s consumer affairs program The Investigators is back for another year, followed by drama series GP where a new locum (played by Christopher Bailey) arrives at the practice, only to have his wife turn up and reveal that he is not who he says he is.  In SBS’ current affairs program Dateline, reporter Maeve O’Meara profiles influential Irish writer Colm Tóibín.

Wednesday:  Astrophysicist Graham Phillips and journalist Cathy Johnson join ABC’s science program Quantum as it returns for its eighth year.  This year is the International Year of Space and, to mark the occasion, Quantum will begin a series of reports on everything from space junk to space technology.  The 40th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne is documented in a two-hour BBC special, Elizabeth R (ABC), following the Queen on her many official duties over 12 months and giving a rare glimpse of her more informal moments.

Thursday:  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas, pictured) suspects Suzanne (Nicky Wendt) of treachery and plots her revenge – murder by haircare products.  ABC’s documentary series The Big Picture presents When The War Came To Australia – Our Melancholy Duty, the first of a four-part series tracing the social history of Australia during World War II and the effects of Japan’s attack on Darwin, which occurred fifty years ago this week.

Friday:  Dateline (SBS) features a report on Simone Harvari, France’s top TV producer, who heads a company where the majority of employees are female.  In Neighbours (Ten), a reunion with old mates has devastating implications for Doug (Terence Donovan).

Saturday:  Nine debuts its new Saturday morning show, Saturday At Rick’s, hosted by Steven Jacobs with Tania Lacy, featuring cartoons, video clips and interviews.  Nine then crosses to New Zealand for the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket – Australia versus New Zealand.  ABC also has cricket with live coverage from the North Sydney Oval of the Ladies’ International Super Test: Australia versus England.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  15 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1992: January 18-24

Cover: Kevin Costner

Is Jennifer set to quit?
Tonight Live host and producer Steve Vizard has denied rumours that the show’s resident newsreader Jennifer Keyte will not be with the show when it returns for 1992, although he has conceded that she has not renewed her contract with the show.  “I can tell you she’ll be back,” he told TV Week.  And Seven Nightly News reporter Naomi Robson, who has filled in for Keyte on Tonight Live, denies suggestions that she will be Keyte’s replacement on the show.  “I don’t know where these stories come from.  There is no talk about it at the moment,” Robson said.  “Jennifer is well entrenched in both her jobs at Seven.”  Rumours over Keyte’s position have been sparked by her apparent concern that her appearances on the late night show are affecting her credibility as the main news anchor for Seven in Melbourne.  It is believed that she wants to concentrate on what is shaping up to be a fierce battle for early evening ratings this year with the launch of Seven’s new current affairs show, Real Life. 

The naked truth about Jeremy Sims
Chances star Jeremy Sims wants people to know that despite his character Alex’s readiness to strip off (as pictured, with co-star Annie Jones), in real life there is an intelligent head on those often bare shoulders and that he takes his job very seriously.  Sims has no desire to be a “personality” and as a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) wants to be taken seriously as an actor – adding that Chances presents some significant challenges.  “I’ve had to go into scenes after minimal rehearsal and put myself on the line,” he told TV Week.  “This means day in, day out, every week, in what is probably the most dramatic – if over-the-top – role on television.  I’m really grateful for the role of Alex.  It’s the only role I think I’d be happy doing on television in an ongoing soap.  I’m sure there are other guys who are happy doing their bits on Home And Away and E Street, but I would be bored out of my mind doing that stuff.”  Sims also responds to some of the jokes and send-ups made about the show and his frequent bouts of nudity.  “I’m fascinated that people still make such a big issue out of it.  People are puerile on the subject, you know.  Tits and bums are the most amazing subjects.  You can get endless publicity over the fact you show a part of your body on television,” he said.  “Apart from the political satire, Fast Forward is nearly all tits and bums jokes.  It’s all cheap innuendo, yet they can get away with it because they have the facade of being intelligent satire.  It is mostly just puerile, schoolboy humour.  I’m not saying I don’t laugh at it.”

Man of Meni talents!
Hard Copy reporter Meni Caroutas (pictured) will do anything for a story – even if it means crawling through Melbourne’s drains.  On a recent assignment, the policeman-turned-reporter joined the Cave Clan for a trip around a part of the metropolis few ever see.  “When I heard of the Cave Clan I thought it was just a bunch of kids, but they are all about 20 and well organised,” he said.  “They just do it for kicks, a bit of fun.  They get maps of the drains.  It’s all carefully planned.”  As a member of the NSW Police Force, Caroutas was an undercover detective but a set up saw him charged with theft of cash and amphetamines.  Even though he was exonerated and received a settlement, his career with the force was ruined.  Officially he is still a member of the NSW Police Force but is hoping to soon be discharged.  “I’m just a number at the moment,” he said.  “Hopefully all the paperwork will be processed soon.  I don’t consider myself a copper.”

Briefly…
Dinosaurs, a new US co-production between Jim Henson Productions and Walt Disney Television, is set to be Seven’s new weapon against long-running current affairs show 60 Minutes.  Not since The Comedy Company has a rival show managed to consistently knock 60 Minutes in the ratings – although Seven’s ALF and Ten’s The Simpsons had tried – but coupled with popular US sitcom Full House, Seven hopes Dinosaurs is a strong contender against the current affairs ratings giant.

GP star Brian Rooney might not be returning to the popular ABC drama when production resumes this year.  The 18-year-old, currently appearing in the stage production of Wizard Of Oz in Adelaide, will be taking on a leading role in the upcoming production of Neil Simon’s Lost In Yonkers but it is uncertain if he will be able to combine that commitment to production of GP.  “Hopefully, I can do both,” he told TV Week.  “I did that when I was doing Les Miserables and GP.  We might be able to work GP in.”

Former Brides Of Christ star Melissa Thomas is looking forward to making the move from Sydney to Melbourne for her new role as schoolgirl Lily Price in the upcoming Network Ten sitcom Late For School.  The 17-year-old has been the victim of an ongoing campaign of obscene phone calls and intruders at her home.  “It’s been pretty scary stuff,” she said, adding that the new job offer came at just the right time.  “I desperately needed some excuse to get away from Sydney.”  Late For School, which also stars Frankie J. Holden, Sarah Chadwick, Ross Higgins and Matthew Newton, is set to debut soon on Ten.

John Laws says…
”We are in for a heady year, it seems, on the current affairs front.  Even Ten is getting into the act, but I suspect it’s going to be trailing the field in the ratings with Mr Shame (though its much-criticised but entertaining beat-up series, Hard Copy, could well prove a ratings winner throughout 1992).  My prediction is that A Current Affair will maintain its momentum in the long haul, but its control of the important 6.30pm timeslot is no longer guaranteed.  Seven executives and Gerald Stone are, I’m told, supremely confident that their new product, Real Life, can knock off Jana (Wendt) and company.  If nothing else, the battle is going to be brutal and unrelenting.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne/Regional Victoria, January 18-24):
Saturday: There’s golf (Palm Meadows Cup) and lawn bowls (Qantas Jetabout International) on ABC, tennis (Australian Open) on Seven/Prime and cricket (Benson And Hedges World Series) on Nine/VIC TV.  With the cricket being held in Melbourne, regional network VIC TV has live evening coverage of the cricket, while Nine in Melbourne has a repeat of the 1983 movie BMX Bandits, the movie which launched the career of Nicole Kidman. 

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Thunderball (Seven/Prime) and The Star Chamber (Nine/VIC TV) up against mini-series Bride Of Violence (Ten/SCN), while ABC presents Bruce Beresford’s production of the Richard Strauss opera Elektra for the State Opera of South Australia.

Monday:  Ten launches some major changes to its daytime and early evening line-up.  At 8.30am, Bert Newton (pictured) returns to TV as host of The Morning Show, presenting 90 minutes of entertainment and infomercials.  The new program replaces ‘Til Ten.  Ten also debuts US talk show Sally Jessy Raphael and moves Oprah Winfrey to an afternoon timeslot after a trial run in a late-night timeslot over the last few months.  However the biggest change is late in the afternoon, with the move of Ten Eyewitness News to the 5.00pm timeslot, followed by the debut of current affairs program Hinch at 6.00pm (following Derryn Hinch’s recent axing from the Seven Network).  At 6.30pm is American dating game Studs, followed by Neighbours at 7.00pm.  Regional network SCN breaks away from the Ten schedule in the early evening to run alternative programming: The New Candid Camera at 5.00pm, Neighbours at 5.30pm, Southern Cross News (Bendigo/Gippsland) and Studs (Albury/Shepparton/Ballarat) at 6.00pm, and then at 6.30pm Rob Gaylard (ex-GTV9) presents Southern Cross Eyewitness News, a half-hour bulletin of national news broadcast statewide, followed by a delayed broadcast of Hinch at 7.00pm before re-joining the Ten schedule.  Seven debuts its long-awaited current affairs program Real Life at 6.30pm, and after Home And Away presents the series return of A Country Practice.  Then in the wee small hours of the morning, at 4.00am, Ten resumes repeats of classic Australian drama Prisoner.

Tuesday:  After the late news, Ten/SCN debuts the new US drama series Dangerous Women, a production of the Australian Grundy organisation largely based on its former series Prisoner, with scripts and storylines in early episodes almost directly copied from the Australian original.

Thursday:  Seven/Prime starts a repeat of the popular 1981 mini-series A Town Like Alice, starring Bryan Brown, Helen Morse (both pictured) and Gordon Jackson.

Friday:  In the lead up to Australia Day, ABC presents the first of two nights of The Aussie Picture Show – a collection of films representing Australian life over the past 80 years.  Tonight’s line-up of films include Leisure, the 1977 Academy Award-winning animation depicting the world of work and leisure through history; Bingo, Bridesmaids And Braces, tracing the lives of three working-class women as they grow up over a 12-year period; This Is The ABC, a 20-minute review of the operations of the ABC in the 1950s; and the 1979 telemovie A Good Thing Going, starring Chris Haywood and Veronica Lang.

Source: TV Week (Victoria Country edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  18 January 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: November 2-8

Hey, Ben’s a dad!
It might be a shock to some to realise that Ben Oxenbould, the newcomer to the cast of Hey Dad!, is himself a dad.  The 22-year-old, who got his big break at the age of seven in the film Fatty Finn, has a one-year-old son but is very protective of him and won’t have him photographed by the media.  “He keeps me very busy when he’s with me,” Oxenbould (pictured with co-star Rachael Beck) told TV Week.  “He’s a classic combination of his mother – with whom he lives – and myself.  And, thankfully, I think he got everything good from us.  So that’s something.”  The Hey Dad! role is Adelaide-born Oxenbould’s first comedy role, having previously appeared in E Street and GP and will star in the upcoming SBS series Six Pack.

No naked ambition!
Former The Flying Doctors star Liz Burch (pictured) is no stranger to nudity, having starred in the controversial stage production Steaming, but when speaking of her upcoming role in Nine’s Chances she says the producers wouldn’t dare.  “They wouldn’t dream of asking me to take my clothes off… the ratings would plummet!  I did Steaming, but that was very different.  We rehearsed that for four weeks, the show was well-written and there was justification for it.  With Chances, the issue of nudity never comes into it,” she said.  In Chances, Burch plays a chemist, Sally Kirk, who is involved in a relationship with Jack Taylor (Tim Robertson) – but Alex (Jeremy Sims) plots to steal her away from Jack after realising she has information that could earn him millions. 

‘I was moved to tears…’
Maryanne Fahey, best known from The Comedy Company, is about to tackle one of the most demanding roles in her career – portraying the life of one of Australia’s most controversial and amusing personalities, Mary Hardy (pictured), in the upcoming play Mary Lives.  Hardy, who committed suicide in 1985, was well-known to Melbourne radio and television audiences in the 1960s and 1970s, in particular as presenter on the long-running variety show The Penthouse Club and on radio 3AW.  She also won a number of TV Week Logies for her popularity with Victorian audiences.  “I was moved to tears when I first read the play,” Fahey told TV Week.  “It was something I really wanted to do.  Mary was one of the real forerunners of women’s comedy in this country.  Hopefully, I will do her justice.  She was outrageous and prepared to cop the flak because she was an idealist, and I admire that more than someone who just goes out there to be funny.”

Briefly…
Hard Copy reporter Jane Hansen (pictured) has confirmed reports that she has been approached by former 60 Minutes producer Gerald Stone to join his new current affairs venture for the Seven Network, though stresses that nothing has been signed or agreed to as yet.  The new program, yet to be named, may potentially be slotted against Nine’s ratings giant 60 Minutes.

Joan McInnes, the host of Network Ten’s morning program ‘Til Ten, has announced her engagement to winemaker and yachtsman James Hardy.  The pair have known each other for more than five years but began seeing each other seriously two years ago and are expected to wed in December.

New Zealand actress Catherine Wilkin (Cop Shop, Rafferty’s Rules) is set to return to Australia after three years, starring as an ambassador in the next series of ABC’s Embassy.  “I’ve played a lot of strong-minded career women but never an ambassador,” she said.  “I’ll have to pay the Australian ambassador a visit here and do a crash course in diplomacy before I leave New Zealand!”

John Laws says…
”Who was it, I wonder, who allowed the Beyond 2000 format to slip from the clutches of the ABC and into the hands of the Seven Network all those years ago?  Those responsible must still be suffering recurring bouts of programmers’ guilt – as must be those misguided Seven executives who elected to give up on Neighbours and meekly hand it to Ten, where it was transformed into a long-running international smash-hit worth millions.  Watching Beyond 2000 the other night – and admiring its bright, informative segments on everything from eatable potato-chip containers to sonar fences to stop whales beaching themselves – only reinforced my long-held belief that it is one of Australia’s best programs.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, November 2-8):
Saturday:  Network Ten’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival kicks off with all-day coverage of Derby Day, live from Flemington Racecourse, presented by Tim Webster with racecaller Dan Mielicki.  This week’s contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven) are Rod Marsh, Lynda Stoner and Larry Pickering.  ABC presents live coverage overnight of the Rugby World Cup final from Twickenham, United Kingdom.

Sunday:  Nine’s crosses to Adelaide for its all-day coverage of the Australian Grand Prix, hosted by Ken Sutcliffe with commentators Alan Jones, Jackie Stewart, Murray Walker, Darrell Eastlake and Barry Sheene.  Author Colleen McCullough is this week’s guest on ABC’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross.  Sunday night movies are Sex, Lies And Videotape (Nine) and The Great Outdoors (Ten), up against the debut of two-part mini-series Love And Hate (Seven).

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Matt (John Tarrant) admits he has had enough of marriage to Lucy (Georgie Parker).  Ben Mendelsohn guest stars in Col’n Carpenter (Ten).

Tuesday:  Melbourne Cup Day, and Network Ten presents live coverage of the highlight of the Australian racing calendar, starting at 9.30am and continuing through to 5.30pm, hosted by Tim Webster.  In GP (ABC), the sudden return of Dr Nicola Tanner’s (Judy McIntosh, pictured) wild brother Danny (Brett Climo) leads to the uncovering of a dark secret in the Tanner family.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Simon Reeve reports from the UK on the Weatherall racetrack, made up of granulated rubber from old car tyres. 

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Lisa (Alyssa-Jane Cook) tries to find the answer to Michael’s (Graham Harvey) death.  In Hey Dad! (Seven), Simon (Chris Mayer) is panic stricken with the fear of incipient baldness while Betty (Julie McGregor) solves the problems of the ozone layer.

Thursday:  Former Prisoner star Betty Bobbitt guest stars in The Flying Doctors (Nine).  ABC’s documentary series Wildscreen looks at the camel as a wild animal, detailing its fascinating and complex social behaviour.

Friday:  Talent quest series Star Search (Ten) presents its series semi-final, hosted by Mike Hammond.

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

1991: October 26-November 1

Cover: (near right) Ryan Clark (Home And Away), Matthew Krok (Hey Dad!); (far right) Natalie McCurry (Chances); (bottom) Julie McGregor (Hey Dad!), Georgie Parker (A Country Practice), Emily Symons (Home And Away)

Jimmy and John to rock AMAs!
Rock legends Jimmy Barnes and John Farnham will perform a duet at the upcoming Australian Music Awards presentation.  The live performance follows the release of their upcoming single, a remake of the Sixties song Something Is Wrong With My Baby.  The Australian Music Awards will be held at Melbourne’s World Congress Centre late in November and will be broadcast via Network Ten.

Hey Hey it’s Hollywood!
The Nine Network’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday will mark its 20th anniversary with two shows beamed live from the Hollywood studios of Warner Bros.  A team of 25 cast and crew will head to California for the shows to go to air on November 9 and 16.  The Hollywood production followed the success of the show’s recent special edition presented from Warner Bros Movieworld on the Gold Coast.  “The only snag was money,” host and co-producer Daryl Somers told TV Week.  “We’re ecstatic that the deal has come off, with the support of Movieworld, Village Roadshow, Qantas and Warner.”  Although the Hollywood specials of Hey Hey It’s Saturday are for Australian audiences only, Somers has been asked to contribute some segments to a US program.

Fast Forward salutes Captain Bligh
The Fast Forward team is set to go into production with its first sitcom project.  A pilot of the concept, based on the life of Captain William Bligh, is likely to be produced later this year.  The concept was created by Steve Vizard and Peter Moon but it is unclear at this stage which cast members of Fast Forward will feature in the pilot.  “The cast generally enjoy doing Fast Forward, but they are anxious to go in new directions,” Andrew Knight, Vizard’s partner in Artists Services, told TV Week.  “I have no doubt they are the best comic performers in the country, but unless you give them new ideas, they’ll go stale.”  Knight also said that it was likely that Fast Forward would be back only in a reduced form in 1992.

Briefly…
Former Home And Away cast member Alex Papps has returned to the series for a four-week guest role.  Since leaving the series he has worked on The Flying Doctors, appeared in two productions for the Melbourne Theatre Company and featured in a Christmas pantomime in the UK.  But Papps (pictured with co-star Nicolle Dickson) has warned that his character, Frank, is back as a changed man.  “Frank is a bad boy… a very bad boy,” he said.  “He’s spent the last two years in New York with Roo (played by Justine Clarke), and their relationship has slowly deteriorated.  She loved the New York hype.  He was not happy there.”

A group of Seven Network personalities have grouped together for a recording project.  Michael Horrocks (Video Smash Hits), Georgie Parker (A Country Practice), Emily Symons (Home And Away), Julie McGregor (Hey Dad!) and Christopher Truswell (ex-Hey Dad!) have each recorded their own solo tracks which will be compiled into an album under the name Farm House.  “I think it will appeal to our mums!,” Horrocks said.  “We chose songs that older people would remember but with a beat younger people would enjoy.”  The first single from the album, Parker’s version of These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, is due to be released this week.

Nine’s music maestro Geoff Harvey has landed a guest role in The Flying Doctors, marking his acting debut.  In mock seriousness, Harvey is confident his role of French chef Jason Slark will lead to an international career in television, stage and film.  “I can only assume that I’ll be forced to stop doing Midday as soon as people see me in The Flying Doctors.  I’m sure I’ll be off to the US to look at a few projects,” Harvey said.  “Ray (Martin) doesn’t speak to me as much as he used to… I believe he’s jealous.”

Production is well underway on Lift Off, the $10.3 million series being produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.  Scheduled to appear on ABC next May, the series has already been sold overseas.

John Laws says…
”Australians are becoming – like viewers in other countries – more and more disposed to “bare knuckle” television.  Take the case of Ten’s Hard Copy, a program that happily plumbs any depths to exploit tragedy.  Recently in its chronic desperation to serve up blood and guts (anyone’s), Hard Copy revived a long-forgotten murder case from the Fifties and attempted to link it with the fictional Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter serial killer in Silence Of The Lambs.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 26-November 1):
Saturday:  SBS presents the Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islanders Sports Awards, hosted by Les Murray.  Nine has a day of cricket with the FAI Cup Final.  Contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven) are Paul McNamee, Peter McNamara and Neal Fraser.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Summer School (Seven), Tango And Cash (Nine) and Tank (Ten).

Monday:  In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Mrs Fuller (Anne Phelan) rents out a room at Colin’s (Kim Gyngell) place to a down-and-out ex-TV star – without telling Colin.  Bert Newton and Fred Parslow guest star in the episode.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), William (Michael Craig) gets dragged into a court case and discovers that the law is a game where everyone gets muddled and battered.  In All Together Now (Nine), Thomas (Steven Jacobs) is convinced he is the only remaining virgin in his school.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a special, Everybody – Smoking, taking a look at the personal, cultural, political and economic aspects of a drug claimed to be the world’s cheapest status symbol.  The program is hosted by Trisha Goddard.  In Neighbours (Ten), Ramsay Street is in for a shock when the Mangel house is auctioned.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Geoff’s (Robert Grubb) plans to open a new French restaurant in Coopers Crossing go awry when the new French chef (played by Geoff Harvey, pictured with regular cast member Sarah Chadwick) is injured in a plane accident.

Friday:  In Home And Away (Seven), living in a caravan puts strain on Nick (Bruce Roberts) and Lou’s (Dee Smart) relationship.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  26 October 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: September 21-27

The great Coopers Crossing reunion!
This week’s episode of The Flying Doctors (Nine) features a reunion of past and present cast members as the town of Coopers Crossing, the fictional setting of the series, hosts a party to break the gloom of the recession.  Some of the show’s most popular former stars, including Rebecca Gibney, Andrew McFarlane, Liz Burch and George Kapiniaris, have made a return for the special event.  “I’ve been hoping for a long time this would happen,” Gibney told TV Week.  “You form some great relationships with people when you work on a show like The Flying Doctors.”  Kapiniaris, who played radio operator DJ in the series, is excited about the reunion storyline – with DJ returning to Coopers Crossing somewhat wiser and wealthier after working overseas.  “It’s the best episode DJ ever had,” he told TV Week.  “The problem is that some people who don’t know him take him the wrong way, with some interesting consequences!”

Stormy Waters!
Actor John Waters (pictured) stars in Network Ten’s new mini-series Which Way Home which debuts this week.  Which Way Home is about American nurse Karen Parsons (Cybill Shepherd), who sets out with a small band of orphan children from a Thai refugee camp during the Cambodian conflict to find freedom in Australia.  Waters plays Steve Hannah, an Australian charter boat captain who becomes a reluctant hero when he helps Karen and the children through their horrendous journey.  So did Waters find it daunting working with such a high-profiled actress?  “I don’t think so,” he says.  “I’ve always found that once you get on the set, however many magazines you may have been in, or whatever your salary might be – and how much bigger than mine – it all comes down to doing the same thing.”  He is also impressed by the team of Thai youngsters who played the orphans.  “Some of the kids had actually been through boat-people experiences,” Waters said.  “When you mention you’ve done a film with seven kids, some people say, ‘That must have been a nightmare’, but we were lucky.  These kids were very forgiving of the demands made of them.”  He also said that he has remained friends with the young cast members and they continue to stay in contact. Which Way Home is produced by Hal McElroy (Picnic At Hanging Rock, Return To Eden) and also stars Peta Toppano, John Ewart, Marc Gray, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Andy Tran.

Good-news Gordon
When former Good Morning Australia host Gordon Elliott (pictured) left Australian television four years ago, he had no idea of the impending industry blood-spilling he was escaping from.  “I’m really lucky,” he told TV Week.  “Many of my friends got a bad deal out of the television upheaval in Australia.”  But despite the still-difficult state of the industry here, Elliott has returned to Australian TV as the host of Network Ten’s Hard Copy – although he is presenting it from Los Angeles.  He is also juggling his Hard Copy commitments in LA with his regular hosting of Good Day, New York, which he does three days a week.  The original US version of Hard Copy, a success for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network, is a spin-off from the American version of A Current Affair, which Elliott was a reporter for.  And Elliott points out that Hard Copy was actually developed by an Australian, Peter Brennan, and was in part inspired by the original Willesee current affairs shows of the 1970s.  “Brennan developed it from there, and gave it more punch,” Elliott said.

Briefly…
TV Week columnist and Hey Hey It’s Saturday presenter Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (pictured) has triggered an investigation by the FBI in the United States over a possible video piracy case.  “I was at a record bar in LA checking things out when I saw this tape labelled The Interview Series: Madonna,” he said.  “It was one I hadn’t heard of before and, being such a fan, I paid $26 for it and took it back to my hotel.  I put it in the VCR – and there was me!  The bulk of the tape was from two interviews I did with Madonna, plus stuff from Spanish and Japanese television and the American Today show.  I was stunned.”  Meldrum then contacted Madonna’s management company.  “They were amazed – and furious,” he said.  “Now they’ve got the FBI in on it, to track the bootleggers down.”

TV Week, in association with Coca-Cola and MCM Entertainment, has announced plans to stage an annual Australian Music Awards.  The inaugural AMAs are to be held at Melbourne’s Congress Centre in November and televised to a national audience.  The awards will be decided by the public – via voting coupons to be published in TV Week, giving readers more than 20 categories to decide Australia’s most popular artists, records and videos.

The ABC and the cast of Brides Of Christ have been celebrating the show’s recent ratings success.  The series, a co-production between ABC and Roadshow, Coote and Carroll, has received the ABC’s highest ever ratings for a non-sports telecast.

Melbourne radio announcer Barry Bissell, celebrating ten years at Fox FM this month, admits that he has no ambitions to move into television.  “I once did a TV pilot.  It was like a Casey Kasem countdown, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life.  TV doesn’t interest me,” he said.

John Laws says…
”Not even the most kindly disposed critic could describe the acting in soapies as memorable and, of course, no-one expects it to be, given the demands placed upon the actors – many of them inexperienced – to churn out so many hours of drama each week.  Fine acting, though, can be found in some of the big-budget drama series, Nicole Kidman’s performance in Bangkok Hilton, Terry Gill’s crooked cop in Police Crop, Peter Strauss’ alcoholic psychiatrist in Tender Is The Night, and the late Ray McAnally’s left-wing Prime Minister in A Very British Coup.  The performance, however, that ranks as the most electrifying for a long time has been that of Lisa Hensley as the young nun Veronica (pictured) in the ABC’s splendid Brides Of Christ series.  It was a performance of depth, intelligence and humour from a young actress who I can’t recall seeing much of before, but who I am sure will be featuring in a great deal more on TV in years to come.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, September 21-27):
Saturday:  Seven presents highlights of today’s AFL Preliminary Final – then Larry Emdur (pictured), Teresa Linnane and Gerry Connolly are this week’s contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.  The Bayswater Roller Dancers are special guests on this week’s That’s Dancin’ (ABC).

Sunday:  Ten crosses to the Sydney Football Stadium this afternoon for the Grand Final of the NSW Rugby League Winfield Cup, with commentators Graeme Hughes, Bill Anderson and Wayne Pearce.  ABC presents live coverage of the VFA Grand Final from Princes Park, and Seven leads into the news with a two-hour special, That Was The Season That Was, reviewing the 1991 AFL season in the lead-up to the Grand Final next Saturday.  Sunday night movies are Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (Seven) and Chances Are (Nine) up against the debut of two-part mini-series Which Way Home (Ten).

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), the developing relationship between Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) and Lizzy Walker (Joanne Hunt) is threatened when her criminal boyfriend arrives in Wandin Valley.  Seven then crosses to the Southern Cross Hotel, Melbourne, for the annual presentation of the Brownlow Medal to the league’s best and fairest player.

Tuesday: Beyond 2000 (Seven) presents a report on an ambitious American attempt at environmental restoration by rebuilding a river.  In All Together Now (Nine), Bobby (Jon English) and Doug (Garry Who) are convinced Count Dracula is their new next door neighbour.

Wednesday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Ramsay Street is rocked by a tragic shooting.  In E Street (Ten), Sheridan (Kate Raison) makes a shocking discovery.

Thursday:  It’s the reunion episode of The Flying Doctors (Nine) with former residents of Coopers Crossing make a return visit to boost morale in the town due to the recession – including guest appearances by Andrew McFarlane, Liz Burch, Rebecca Gibney, Terry Gill, Bruce Barry and George Kapiniaris.  ABC presents a repeat screening of Andrew Denton’s chat-comedy show The Money Or The Gun.

Friday:  Performer Rhonda Burchmore is this week’s guest on Burke’s Backyard (Nine).  Just before midnight, Seven launches its annual Football Marathon, presenting six hours of memorable moments from the past 25 years of Australian Rules football, including past finals and grand finals.

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

1991: September 14-20

The TV wedding you’ll never see!
Don’t let the picture of Penny Cook in a wedding dress deceive you.  Despite the smiles of the happy bride, all is not well in the lead up to the marriage of Beth (Cook) to Dr Steve Harrison (Michael O’Neill) in GP, as she thinks about her faith, commitment to the marriage and Steve’s desire to have a family. 

Natalie’s out!
The producers of Chances have dropped a bombshell on one of its leading stars by not renewing her contract.  Natalie McCurry, the former Miss Australia, is being dumped from the ailing series following her refusal to appear in frontal nude scenes.  She will tape her last scenes with the series in October but will continue to be seen on air until the end of the year.  Meanwhile, producers have also dumped another original cast member, Cathy Godbold, who will also tape her last scenes in October.  Chances, which has struggled in the ratings since its debut earlier this year, is expected to be re-launched with an emphasis on guest stars rather than ongoing characters.

Tracey signs for Beyond 2000
Despite press reports that Tracey Curro (pictured) was set to replace Jennifer Keyte as the newsreader on Seven’s Tonight Live, she has now signed up to join the team of Beyond 2000.  She will be replacing Maxine Gray who has decided to leave the program to spend more time with her family.  Curro’s move to Beyond 2000 follows an unsettled period where she was dropped from reading the news at Network Ten in Melbourne and the legal action that followed.  But she is excited about her new career move.  “Absolutely.  It’s got to be one of the best jobs in television,” she told TV Week.  “It’ll be hard work with very long hours, but it beats driving through traffic to work every day.”

Briefly…
The writers of Brides Of Christ have now moved onto their next project which begins production this week.  The Leaving Of Liverpool is a mini-series set in England and Australia in the years 1951 to 1953, telling the story of two Liverpudlian children who are torn from family and country and shunted to Australia as part of a child migrant program.  The series will star John Hargreaves, Bill Hunter, Martin Jacobs, Frank Whitten and newcomers Christine Tremarco and Kevin Jones.

Actor Nicholas Eadie (pictured), best known from TV roles in Cop Shop, The Henderson Kids and the mini-series Vietnam, is heading to the US because, at 32, he says he is too old to be an actor here.  “Australian television is going through a Kylie and Jason syndrome,” he said.  “If you’re over 25 in this country, you’re over the hill.”

The return of former Rafferty’s Rules star John Wood to our screens has been delayed due to industrial disputes at the ABC.  Production on the sitcom Dearest Enemy, which features Wood along with Bruce Spence, Linden Wilkinson and Frank Wilson, has stalled leaving all but one episode completed.  With the producers and Wood now with other commitments, completion of the final episode is scheduled for November and the series, which was due to air next month, should now appear in the new year.

John Laws says…
”Since taking over the Midday show, there have been claims that Ray Martin (pictured) has gone a bit soft and, in the process, relinquished the razor-sharp intensity of his news and current affairs days.  Not so!  The “old” Ray Martin is still there, and any doubters should have been watching when he interviewed Prime Minister Bob Hawke following the first Kerin Budget, and in the wake of the NSW gun laws uproar.  In years to come we may well look back on this particular interview as the one that signalled the beginning of the end of the Prime Minister.  Sad to say, it was an interview that cut him apart.  Martin was aggressive without being rude.  He pressed for answers where other interviewers would have shirked the task, and he maintained the pressure as forcefully as he could.  It was the PM who buckled.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, September 14-20):
Saturday:  ABC presents the return of ballroom dancing series That’s Dancin’, hosted by Paul Newman and Maureen Delacy (pictured).  Hey Dad! and Hampton Court star Julie McGregor is among the contestants on this week’s Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven).  Tim Webster and Jo Pearson host the 1991 Young Achiever Awards (Ten).

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are The Naked Gun (Seven), Harlem Nights (Nine) and Midnight Run (Ten).

Monday:  In Neighbours (Ten), the search for Harold (Ian Smith) continues – and in A Country Practice (Seven), Lucy’s (Georgie Parker) behaviour is affected by IVF treatment.

Tuesday:  One-time Gold Logie winner Hazel Phillips guest stars in GP (ABC).  In Chances (Nine), the father of Charlie’s (Kimberley Davenport) baby is finally revealed, and passion overcomes Alex and Paris (Jeremy Sims and Annie Jones, pictured) when they admit their love for one another.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) reports on a new low-fat chocolate designed to keep you warm.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Bob (Tony Martin) is excited but apprehensive about Elly’s (Diane Craig) return.

Thursday:  Ten premieres an Australian version of the tabloid US program Hard Copy, hosted by Gordon Elliott with reporters Richard Willis, Iain Gillespie, Jane Hansen and Meni Caroutas.

Friday:  The SBS series Connections presents Victor Chang – King Of Hearts, documenting the life of Dr Victor Chang, heart transplant surgeon who was gunned down in July, and the progress he had made in perfecting the artificial heart.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  14 September 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: August 3-9

‘I want a white wedding in a church…’
Rebecca Gibney’s wedding scenes this week in All Together Now have led to the Logie-winning actress confessing to a potential real-life wedding to boyfriend Jack Jones.  “We’ve discussed it seriously and Jack has jokingly proposed to me,” she told TV Week.  “But it won’t be just yet.  But the fact that we’re talking about it says just how serious our relationship is.”  But if she does tie the knot, Gibney (pictured) says it won’t be a big wedding.  “I can’t be bothered with all the fuss.  I want a white wedding in a church, but I’m a private person and it will be a small affair.”  But as for All Together Now, Gibney’s character Tracey has been caught designing wedding dresses and Bobby Rivers (Jon English) has been discussing buying rings… leading to the rest of the household suspecting an upcoming wedding.  But is this “dream” wedding too good to be true?

Now it’s Tonight Live with Craig!
Former Home And Away star Craig McLachlan (pictured) and British writer and comedian Ben Elton have emerged as the guest hosts for Tonight Live while Steve Vizard and the Fast Forward team head to Barcelona to produce some Olympic-themed specials for the Seven Network.  “I’m very excited about working with a studio audience,” McLachlan told TV Week.  “There’s great flexibility in the show and there are so many people I’d love to have on it.”  Elton and McLachlan will host Tonight Live for a week each later this month.

It’s goodbye to Wandin Valley’s favourite couple!
Popular A Country Practice stars Georgie Parker and John Tarrant, whose characters tied the knot last year, have told the show’s producers that they will be leaving at the end of the year – although the Seven Network has so far only issued a statement that “we are having on-going discussions with the entire cast”. 

Briefly…
SBS is planning a new series of dramas under the heading Six Pack.  The series of six self-contained stories is set to feature some of Australia’s most familiar actors including Peta Toppano (pictured), John Bluthal, Arianthe Galani, Sandie Lillingston, Simon Burke, Ivar Kants, Susan Lyons, Josephine Mitchell, Steve Bastoni, Angie Milliken, Sandy Gore, Victoria Longley, Anna Volska, Geraldine Turner, Ben Oxenbould, Denise Scott and Angelo D’Angelo.  Six Pack is expected to screen in Australia and the United Kingdom next year.

The Ten Network is considering an Australian version of US current affairs program Hard Copy – a controversial program labelled as “the trashy television equivalent of the National Enquirer”.  A pilot of the proposed local version has already been completed and producers Showboat Productions are waiting on the go-ahead from the network.  One name rumoured to be involved in the project is former Seven Network presenter Gina Boon.

Former The Flying Doctors star Tammy MacIntosh (pictured) is set to make her comedy debut in the new Network Ten sitcom Bingles.  The new series, set in a panel-beating workshop, will also star Shane Bourne, Russell Gilbert and Nick Bufalo and is being produced by Media Arts, the producers of The Comedy Company. 

Pop star Collette, who has recently returned from a promotional trip to Malaysia, has signed to make her acting debut with a guest role in Home And Away.  The star, who rose to fame with a remake of disco hit Ring My Bell, will appear in two episodes of the popular series.

John Laws says…
”The TV “science” battle between Beyond 2000 and Quantum has been, as far as ratings go, fairly one-sided.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) has packed too many big-budget guns, and much more promotional leverage, than Quantum could muster on ABC.  Yet both programs are eminently viewable.  Beyond 2000 revels in its quick-fix, slick approach, cramming as many items as possible into its one-hour slot.  Some items are so brief they merely whet the appetite, leaving us wishing there had been more time to examine them further.  Quantum has adopted a more conservative, serious approach, while managing to maintain a flow of high-quality material.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, August 3-9):
Saturday:  World champion ice-skaters Jane Torvill and Chrisopher Dean are guests on this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).  Seven crosses to Carrara, Queensland, for live coverage of the AFL match between Brisbane Bears and Collingwood, with commentators Sandy Roberts, Peter McKenna, Bernie Quinlan and Bill McDonald.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Deadly Pursuit (Seven), Dead Calm (Nine) and The Woman He Loved (Ten).

Monday:  In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Colin (Kim Gyngell) and Michael (Stig Wemyss) attempt to cheer up a homesick Linda (Kaarin Fairfax).  In A Country Practice (Seven), Matron Prior (Maureen Edwards) is pursued by Clarrie Rossiter (Peter Carmody).  Ten debuts US talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show in a weekly late-night timeslot following the Second Edition News.

Tuesday:  Jacqueline McKenzie guest stars in GP (ABC).  Beyond 2000 (Seven) looks at a solution to fitting more people on the Paris Metro train system, and also reports on a new polymer that is revolutionising the chewing gum industry.

Wednesday:  Kerry Walker and Noah Taylor star in The Last Crop, a telemovie for ABC.  Walker plays Ann Sweeney, a woman who cleans upmarket Sydney apartments for a living while she dreams of happiness for herself, her daughter and her rather useless son.

Thursday:  Comedy series Fast Forward (Seven) returns after a mid-year break.  Shane Bourne and Ann Phelan (pictured) guest star in The Flying Doctors (Nine).

Friday:  Seven crosses to the WACA, Perth, for live coverage of the AFL match between West Coast Eagles and Geelong.  Barry Sheene is this week’s guest on Burke’s Backyard (Nine).

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  3 August 1991.  Southdown Press