1979: December 15-21

Cover: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek)

Countdown to the ‘80s
Countdown’s Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and producer Ted Emery have travelled the world to compile a 90-minute special edition of the show to signal the end of the 1970s.  The pair interviewed more than 100 pop stars across Australia, the US, UK and Europe for the special which will air on ABC this weekend.  “The program is still being sorted out but we plan to present a variety of top world stars of the decade talking about the music of the ‘70s,” Emery told TV Times.  The program will also discuss the future and who is likely to be a dominant force in the 1980s.  Some of the interviewed pop stars include David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, ABBA, the Rolling Stones, the Doobie Brothers, the Boomtown Rats, Alice Cooper, Bryan Ferry, Fleetwood Mac and Australians Olivia Newton-John, Daryl Braithwaite and Glenn Shorrock.

Ilona Rodgers’ private battle
It has been a tough year for actress Ilona Rodgers, the newcomer to the cast of The Sullivans.  For the New Zealand actress there was enough pressure coming into the popular series, with producers’ hopes of her taking on the high-profile star status in the wake of losing Lorraine Bayly, but Rodgers was also seven months pregnant when she took on the role. She was also tending her mother who was dying of cancer, and supporting her husband, who has stayed in NZ, trying to start up a new farming venture.  But Rodgers is happy with the role in The Sullivans:  “The first three months were really tough, but now I think I’m on top of it.  My only complaint is that I haven’t had a good game of snooker since John Waters (pictured, with Rodgers) finished working on the show.”  Her husband, David Warren, has made frequent visits to Australia since the birth of son Mischa, who has also made several trips across the Tasman to spend time with his father.  “I had him with me for a long time, but it’s unfair that I should have the only benefit of watching him grow up,” Rodgers told TV Times.

TV star ‘back from the grave’
Film actor Bryan Brown has been signed up for the upcoming mini-series A Town Like Alice to play the role of Joe Harmon – a role made famous in film by Peter Finch.  The mini-series, based on Nevil Shute’s novel, will go into production for the Seven Network early next year.  In charge of production will be Henry Crawford, producer of Seven’s earlier success story Against The Wind.  For actor Brown, his only other TV appearance has been in Against The Wind, as the Irish boyfriend of Mary Mulvane (Mary Larkin), killed in the first episode.

Those restless colonial years
When Jeff Archer of The Restless Years goes off on an overseas trip, actor Noel Trevarthen will be going back in time to play Judge Advocate Captain Collins in ABC’s eight-part drama, The Timeless Land.  Trevarthen will appear in the series’ first two episodes, covering the four years from 1788 when the British landed and Captain Collins read out the proclamation claiming Australia for the Crown.  “Collins is an interesting character.  He was a court favourite of George III, and, as a reward for his services, the King made him judge advocate of NSW.  But he was one of the few people at the time who believed in the future of NSW.  A lot of his contemporaries were only interested in grabbing the land.” 

Briefly…
The town of Echuca, on the Murray River, will be the star of a new mini-series adapted from Nancy Cato’s best-selling book, All The Rivers Run. Producer Hector Crawford (pictured) is currently negotiating with American interests for financial backing for the series, which is expected to be made as 10 or 12 one-hour episodes.  Production is likely to start later next year.

Actress Liddy Clark (Ride On Stranger) has won the award for Best New Talent at the recent annual Penguin Awards, held in Melbourne.  Other winners on the night included NWS9’s Ian Fairweather, for his contribution to children’s television, Cop Shop’s Peter Adams as Best Actor and Prisoner’s Carol Burns for Best Actress.

Janet Kingsbury has left her job as a reporter for the travel show, Bill Peach’s Holiday, to return to acting.  The parting from the ABC series has been amicable, and stories featuring Kingsbury that have already been completed will go to air during 1980.  Kingsbury, whose last acting job was four years ago in the movie Let The Balloon Go, has started a new role as Anne Hunter in the series The Restless Years.

Anne Sneddon (pictured), the 1979 Miss Australia, has entered TV current affairs as a reporter and co-host on BTQ7’s Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane:  “I like journalism and I’d like to be the best on TV.  I can wait 15 years, as long as I keep getting better.  With the help I’m getting from the whole team here, I should.  If I don’t, I need a hard kick.” 

 

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I really have to laugh at the ad asking private motorists to save petrol!  Why isn’t the ad directed more towards those who race cars?  Don’t they waste more petrol than the private motorist?” R. Goodwin, NSW.

“Isn’t it about time women had a go where nudity on TV is concerned?  How about the men getting more of their gear off?  Put men in see-through baths etc.  So come on and give us women something to watch on TV.  After all, women watch more TV than men.  There is enough of the female body being exposed, so come on men, have a go.” L. Davies, NSW.

“I have read where the Australian series Skyways has not been getting good ratings and may be axed.  Why, oh why, are we subjected to such insults to our intelligence as CHiPs and Lucan?  The storylines are weak, the direction terrible and the acting second-rate.  Yet the Australian show is good.  Myself, my family and friends have lived almost every story in real life.  The acting is really first-rate and the direction is excellent.  I can watch Prisoner, Cop Shop and Skyways frequently, but the above-mentioned American shows only get one or two viewings because they are appalling!” M. Arnett, NSW.

What’s On (December 15-21):
HSV7’s summer of tennis continues with the South Australian Open on Saturday and Sunday, live from Memorial Drive, Adelaide, and the New South Wales Open from Monday to Friday.

On Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, GTV9 crosses to Perth for the World Series Cup cricket between Australia and England.  Then on Friday, the World Series Cup moves to Sydney for Australia versus the West Indies.

Paul Griffiths (pictured), Patrick O’Neill, Mark Hamlyn and Dale Sinclair are the team presenting Line-Up, a new weekly magazine-style program on ABC, starting Saturday night in the timeslot normally occupied by Four Corners.

In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday), Danni (Paula Duncan) has a surprise visitor who has managed to pull a few strings to obtain her address.  Meanwhile, Liz (Liz Burch) and Baker (Gil Tucker) seem to be sharing many precious moments together.

Friday night on HSV7, Shirley Strachan and the gang from Shirl’s Neighbourhood appear in a one-hour special, Christmas In The Neighbourhood, featuring guest appearances by Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons.  Later in the evening, ATV0 crosses to Sydney Festival Of Carols, held at the Domain and hosted by John McNally with performances by June Bronhill, Helen Zerefos, Steve Watson, Sandy Scott, Suzanne Steele, the Claire Poole Singers and the Crusade and St. Mary’s Cathedral Choirs.

Other Christmas specials to appear during the week include Bing Crosby’s Merry Olde Christmas, Bob Hope’s All-Star Christmas Show and Laugh-In’s Christmas.

Sunday night movies: Amelia Earhart (HSV7), The Entertainer (GTV9), Zandy’s Bride (ATV0).  ABC presents the Australian Opera production of Norma, featuring Joan Sutherland and the Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 15 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

50 years of BTQ7, ABQ2

This weekend marks yet another television station’s 50th anniversary.  Brisbane’s BTQ7 was launched on 1 November 1959.  It was Brisbane’s second TV channel, following QTQ9 that had launched in August of that year. 

Brisbane also didn’t have to wait long to get their third TV channel, as national broadcaster ABC opened its Brisbane channel, ABQ2, on 2 November 1959. 

Like QTQ9, BTQ7 was broadcasting from studios and transmission towers constructed up on Mount Coot-tha in Brisbane.  ABQ2 opted instead to have its studios in the suburb of Toowong but had its transmission towers at Mount Coot-tha.

Early personalities on BTQ7 included Brian Tait, children’s presenters Nancy Knudsen and Lester Foxcroft, women’s presenter Sybil Francis and newsreader Brian Cahill.

One of BTQ7’s earliest variety shows was The Late Show with Tait.  The program won the first TV Week Logie award for most popular program in Queensland.  In the early ‘60s, BTQ7 launched Theatre Royal, a show that took the vaudeville style of comedy onto television, featuring comedian and The Late Show star George Wallace Jnr and a team of performers including Eddie Edwards, Dick McCann, Jackie Ellison and a young actress by the name of Rowena Wallace (no relation to George).  Theatre Royal was immensely popular, screening every Friday night for six years, and was also shown interstate.  It won six TV Week Logie awards as Queensland’s most popular program.  The show ended after George Wallace suffered a stroke and died in 1968 at the age of 50, but his legacy continued as TV Week then initiated the George Wallace Logie for Best New Talent.

Also to come through BTQ7 in the ‘60s and ‘70s was Annette Allison, a performer on early variety and teenage shows before hosting her own daytime show, Annette.  She then went to Melbourne to ATV0 to read the news and co-host the morning show Everyday (later Good Morning Melbourne).  Dina Heslop was a host of the BTQ7’s children’s program Dina And Percy and was also a contributor to the national This Week Has Seven Days before becoming a producer for later shows like the Logie Award-winning Wombat.  Jacki MacDonald also had a stint at BTQ7 in the ‘70s, hosting her own show, Jacki’s People.  After Jacki left BTQ7, they then employed her sister, Fiona, to host a children’s program and was later a presenter on Wombat.

In the mid-‘70s, Reg Grundy produced a soap opera, Until Tomorrow, at the studios of BTQ7.  The series was a rare venture into daytime drama and screened nationally on the Seven Network, featuring Babette Stephens, Ron Cadee, former TV Week Gold Logie winner Hazel Phillips and a young Barry Otto.

Other programs to have come through BTQ7 over the years included  daytime show Bailey And The Birds, teenage shows National Top 40 and Teen Time, children’s shows Boris’ Breakfast Club and Seven’s Super Saturday, game show Family Feud and variety shows Top Of The Bill and Wak’s Works.

Of course, it would be remiss not to mention BTQ7’s landmark promotional jingle, ‘Love You Brisbane’, that was produced for the channel in the early ‘80s and was used by BTQ for several years.  Sung by popular local performer Kim Durant, the song was even released as a single and was a top-seller.  The jingle was later adapted to TVW7, as ‘Love You Perth’, and regional Queensland broadcaster Sunshine Television (now Seven Queensland) before BTQ7 and Seven Queensland reprised it a few years ago:

Newsreader Brian Cahill had two stints at BTQ7, he was the channel’s first newsreader when it launched in 1959 and, after a stint at QTQ9, was there again in the ‘70s.  During the ‘60s, Cahill was joined at the news desk by former ABQ2 newsreader Ron Brady.  Others to have presented news at BTQ have included Mike Higgins, Nev Roberts, Donna Meiklejohn, Janne Rayner, Ken Hose, Garry Wilkinson, Frank Warrick and present-day newsreaders Rod Young, Kay McGrath and Sharyn Ghidella.

As well as news, BTQ7 produced local current affairs with programs including Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane, State Affair, Carroll At Seven and magazine programs PM Magazine and The Great South East.

BTQ7 last week screened a special, Flashback – 50 Years Of Channel Seven, and tonight (Sunday) newsreader Brian Cahill makes a return to the Seven News desk to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his presenting the first news bulletin on opening night at BTQ.

And, by coincidence, BTQ7’s fiftieth anniversary coincides with a new era for the Seven Network as it launches its new digital channel 7TWO on the same day.

A lot of the material in this article, particularly related to the earlier years at BTQ7, is sourced by the book On-Air 25 Years Of TV In Queensland.  Compiled and edited by Christopher Beck. (1984)

1979: October 13-19

TV’s Big Night Out
TV Times presents a list of all the nominations for this week’s Australian Film and Television Awards – the Sammys – to be held at Sydney’s Seymour Centre and televised through the Seven Network.

Among the television categories:

Best Variety Program: The Don Lane Show, Hollywood (TV Follies), Julie Anthony’s Gold Coast Special, Marcia’s Music, Miss Universe, Peter Couchman Tonight, The Saturday Night Show, It’s A Long Way There (Little River Band)

Best Light Entertainment: Family Feud, The Mike Walsh Show, Sound Unlimited, Nightmoves, Parkinson In Australia, Tasmanian New Faces, This Is Your Life.

Best Drama: Against The Wind, Cop Shop, The Oracle, Prisoner, Run From The Morning, The Restless Years, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors.

Best Current Affairs: A Day In The Life (TVW7 Perth), Eleven AM, Four Corners, Glenn Taylor’s Today Tonight (QTQ9 Brisbane), Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane (BTQ7 Brisbane), 60 Minutes, Terry Willesee’s Perth (STW9 Perth).

Best News Coverage: Bellevue Hotel Demolotion (ABQ2 Brisbane), Cadoux Earthquake (ABW2 Perth), Don Dunstan Resignation (NWS9 Adelaide), Heathcote Bushfires (TCN9 Sydney), Mackay-Townsville Cyclone (BTQ7 Brisbane), Mundy/Cribb Recapture (TEN10 Sydney), Strike after Unionist Arrests (TVW7 Perth), The O’Meally Interview (HSV7 Melbourne), Pentridge Riot (GTV9 Melbourne), Policeman’s Protest (QTQ9 Brisbane), Recapture of John Cribb (ATN7 Sydney), Skylab Report (STW9 Perth), Truro Murders Arrest (SAS10 Adelaide).

Best Children’s Series: Carrots, The Curiosity Show, Fat Cat And Friends, Flapper’s Factory, Here’s Humphrey, Kids Only, Nine Will Fix It, Play School, Romper Room, Rupert’s Roundabout, Shirl’s Neighbourhood, Stinger, Top Mates, Wombat.

Best Comedy Program: Neutral Ground (Tickled Pink), The Norman Gunston Show, Rugby League New Faces.

Best Variety Performer: Julie Anthony, Marcia Hines, Don Lane, Garry McDonald, Mike Walsh.

Best Actor in a TV Series: Peter Adams (Cop Shop), Michael Aitkens (Run From The Morning), Michael Caton (The Sullivans), Paul Cronin (The Sullivans), John Gregg (The Oracle, pictured), John Hamblin (The Restless Years), Gerard Kennedy (Against The Wind), Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Terry Norris (Cop Shop).

Best Actress in a TV Series: Liz Alexander (Golden Soak), Lorraine Bayly (The Sullivans, pictured), Carol Burns (Prisoner), Liddy Clark (Ride On Stranger), Sheila Florance (Prisoner), Vivean Gray (The Sullivans), Vikki Hammond (The Sullivans), Mary Larkin (Against The Wind), Joanna Lockwood (Cop Shop), Kerry McGuire (Against The Wind).

Best Writer (TV Series): Bronwyn Binns/Ian Jones (Against The Wind), Morris Gleitzmann (The Norman Gunston Show), Peter Kinloch (Against The Wind), Peter Luck/David Salter (This Fabulous Century), Tony Morphett (Against The Wind), Terry Stapleton (Cop Shop), David Stevens (The Sullivans), Reg Watson (Prisoner), Peter Yeldham (Run From The Morning).

Other TV categories: Chips Rafferty Memorial Award, Best New Talent, Best Sports Coverage, Best Documentary Program, Best TV Play, Best Actor in a Single TV Performance, Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, Best Writer (TV Play), Best Art Direction, Best Editing.

Gold Sammy (female): Julie Anthony, Lorraine Bayly, Zoe Bertram, Carol Burns, Michelle Fawdon, Vivean Gray, Vikki Hammond, Marcia Hines (pictured), Caroline Jones, Joanna Lockwood, Kerry McGuire, Diana McLean, Judy Morris, Julieanne Newbould, Joanne Samuel.

Gold Sammy (male): Harry Butler, Roger Climpson, Robert Coleby, Paul Cronin, Clive Hale, John Hamblin, John Hargreaves, Sir Robert Helpmann, Gerard Kennedy, Don Lane, Peter Lochran, Peter Luck, Garry McDonald, Richard Moir, Bert Newton, Michael Pate, Mike Walsh, Peter Wherrett.

Movie bombing was real thing!
The telemovie The John Sullivan Story created an exclusive world first when it was shown on Australian TV recently.  The telemovie’s sequences of the London bomb blitz was not special effects but was footage of the actual event.  It is believed to be the only colour footage of the era in existence and the only time it has been shown publicly was in The John Sullivan Story.  Associate Producer Allan Hardy said it was “pure luck” that the film was uncovered:  “Producer John Barrington rang a contact in London and asked if there was any colour film of London during the blitz.  I don’t think either he or the contact expected that there was so you can imagine how thrilled we were when a reel turned up.  Apparently an English woman had a habit of filming bomb salvage scenes at night.  She used to store the camera under her bed… where it remained until recently.  We now have the exclusive rights to what could be the only known colour film taken during the way.  It was a real stroke of luck and it hardly cost us anything.”

Will the real Pantyhose Murderer please stand up!
Producing a long-running TV series is not without its hazards and there isn’t a series that hasn’t given its writers challenges when things might go wrong or even when there are circumstances beyond the producers’ control.  Bill Harmon and Johnny Whyte, two of the names behind the phenomenally successful Number 96, cheerfully admit that mistakes were made during the show’s six years in production.  When the mystery “knicker snipper” was taunting the residents of Number 96 in 1972, three RSL clubs, noticing a downturn in attendances, chose to disclose the name of the attacker before it was known publicly.  Problem was, the scriptwriters didn’t even know it at that stage either.  Whyte recalls, “we had no idea who it was.  We had implied it was someone in the block of flats, but we were halfway through the story before we sat down and decided who it would be.”  Knowing that the series could not lose its two male sex symbols, Tom Oliver or Joe Hasham (pictured), they had little choice but to choose character Alan Cotterell (Mark Hashfield) as the culprit.  Sometimes scriptwriters just plainly make mistakes.  Both Harmon and Whyte recall one of their greatest regrets was allowing gay Dudley Butterfield (Chard Hayward) to turn bi-sexual, in the hope that giving him a female love interest would broaden his appeal with viewers.  The change did not work and Hayward left the show six months later.  Some of TV’s other dramas have also had their scriptwriting downfalls.  Hugh Stuckey, script editor for The Restless Years, admitted they were left with a dilemma when Julieanne Newbould decided to leave the series, leaving her on-screen husband, played by Malcolm Thompson, in limbo while Newbould’s character was said to be away on what must be the world’s longest cruise, while producers hope to coax Newbould back into the series.  It is a dilemma that is still yet to be resolved.  James Davern, producer of the former ABC series Bellbird, says that sometimes dilemmas are brought on when actors or actresses sometimes put a higher price on themselves which can conflict with production budgets:  “That’s always the problem of a producer of a long-running serial.  If they insist, then you have to write them out.  The easiest way to do that is to kill the character.”  Prisoner producer Ian Bradley has regretted writing out the character of prison counsellor Bill Jackson (Don Barker) by having him killed in an early episode of the series:  “I wrote him out in the interests of a dramatic storyline and, after the initial impact, I have wishing I could bring him back ever since.”  Sometimes when a favourite cast member leaves a show, scriptwriters do resort to bringing them back as another character.  After Number 96 killed off Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) in the famous bomb-blast episode, producers later brought him back as Whittaker’s twin brother, Andrew. 

Prisoner captures Jeanie the Cop Shop escapee
Actress Jeanie Drynan could have had an ongoing role in the popular series Cop Shop, but instead put love before career as she recently married writer/director Tony Bowman and as they are based in Sydney she decided she did not want to leave Sydney for an indefinite period for Cop Shop, based in Melbourne.  Instead, she has opted for a short-term role in another Melbourne-based series, Prisoner, which will see her away from Sydney for only a matter of weeks.

Briefly…
Prisoner co-stars and real-life newlyweds Peita Toppano and Barry Quin (pictured) are said to be leaving the top-rating 0-10 Network series.  Quin is to take the lead role in an upcoming ABC mini-series, Lucinda Brayford, while Toppano is negotiating for a role in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

The Young Doctors star Karen Petersen doesn’t usually believe in “living” a role.  That is, until her character Erica Shaw was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  “After reading the research notes and meeting people with MS, I knew the only way I could do the part was to live it – and I was always one actress who didn’t believe in doing that.”  The episodes of Erica’s diagnosis were produced in association with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of NSW and Petersen is now closely involved with the society and hoped to do voluntary work for the organisation.

The 0-10 Network has announced it has bought Film Australia’s five-part documentary series, The Human Face Of China.  Pat Cleary, programming director at TEN10 Sydney, said the series could be screened by the end of the year.

Peter Whitford, John Howard and Judy Davis have signed up for roles in upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The standard of TV commercials has fallen disastrously in the past couple of years.  I almost wish the battle against cigarette ads had been lost.” R. Milton, NSW.

“It amazes me that a TV channel with the number of viewers that NBN3 Newcastle has never seems to worry about public opinion.  Yet another enjoyable series which is only half finished is to be axed.  The series, Dallas, is apparently very popular with viewers.  During the last Christmas holidays all midday movies on NBN3 were adults movies, but on the day school resumed the channel screened Tom Thumb.  NBN3 also seems to be one of the few channels in Australia that doesn’t screen The Sullivans.  They did screen it for a few weeks, then axed it, much to viewers’ disappointment.” V. Skinner, NSW.

“I would like to see Tony Bonner back in Cop Shop even though his character, McKenna, is supposed to be dead.  He was really fantastic and made the program fantastic.  Now it is not so interesting.  Also Danni (Paula Duncan) is great and it’s good that she still holds the show together.  It would have been good for McKenna and Danni to get married, because they would have made a good couple.” S. Hatfield, WA.

“We like the ABC program Whodunnit, but it is on at an awkward time.  We like to watch Eight Is Enough which finishes at 8.30pm on HSV7, but Whodunnit starts at 8.15pm.  So we either turn over three-quarters of the way through Eight Is Enough or turn to Whodunnit at 8.30pm, and then it’s not much use watching it because it’s quarter over.” T. Mein and C. Searle, VIC.

What’s On (October 6-12):
Weekend sport includes Garden State PGA Championships, live from Mordialloc, Melbourne (ABC) and the South Pacific Classic tennis, live from Milton courts, Brisbane (HSV7).  On Saturday night, HSV7 presents live coverage of the final of the tennis Super Challenge, from Festival Hall, Melbourne.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the history of three popular sports in Australia – surfing, cricket and football – as well a look at the career of tennis champion Evonne Cawley and Hawaiian swimming champion Kahanomoku, who introduced Australia to the sport of surfriding in 1915.

A repeat of controversial Australian movie Wake In Fright, starring Chips Rafferty, Jack Thompson, John Meillon, Buster Fiddess and Dawn Lake, screens Monday night on ATV0.

On Wednesday night, HSV7 presents the fourth annual presentation of the Australian Film and TV Awards – the Sammys – live from Sydney’s Seymour Centre and hosted by Roger Climpson. 

Friday night presents a clash of movie epics, with 55 Days At Peking (HSV7), The Guns Of Navarone (GTV9) and The Nun’s Story (ATV0).  All three movies are three hours in length.

TV Times advises:  “As TV Times went to press, GTV9 had removed screenings of Family Feud, The Young Doctors and The Sullivans due to an industrial dispute.  The channel advises that if workers resume, all three shows will be screened as normal.”  As a result, GTV9 has advised replacement programs My Three Sons, Celebrity Charades and Angie in the respective timeslots.

Sunday night movies: Gold (HSV7), Murder By Natural Causes (GTV9), The Corn Is Green (ATV0).  ABC screens Burn The Butterflies, the first in the series of Australian Plays, starring Ray Barrett, Fred Parslow, Gerard Maguire, Monica Maughan, George Mallaby and Alan Hopgood.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 6 October 1979.  ABC/ACP