1992: January 25-31

Jana: ‘I welcome the challenge’
A Current Affair host Jana Wendt (pictured) talks to TV Week about the changing news and current affairs environment taking place – in particular, the launch of Real Life, produced by her former 60 Minutes boss Gerald Stone, going head-to-head with ACA.  “I think anything that increases the competition is good,” she said.  “It will sharpen our edge and I welcome that.  I’m confident we can deliver.  I don’t want to sound masochistic, but I welcome the challenge.”  Not only will ACA be duelling with Real Life, but it will also have Derryn Hinch’s new Network Ten show at 6.00pm, giving him a half-hour head start on ACA and Real Life for the day’s big stories.  Ten has also re-launched Ten Eyewitness News as a 5.00pm bulletin, and Nine has its own 5.30pm local news programs coming soon in each state.  Asked how she feels about this changing landscape, Wendt said: “We’ll have to wait and find out, but Nine believes there is a market for news at 5.30pm, so perhaps there is at 5.00pm.”

Stan: ‘It’s the only gig in town’
Former ABC reporter Stan Grant (pictured) said that he had been made offers before to change to commercial television but had always knocked them back in loyalty to the national broadcaster, but then the offer to front Seven’s new Real Life came “out of the blue”.  “This offer came along initially as a reporter,” Grant told TV Week.  “Then (producer) Gerald Stone came to me and said, ‘How would you feel about presenting it?’  It basically came out of the blue, and I said, ‘Yes’.  I’d given presenting a bit of thought at the ABC.  I’d piloted a program there.  I’d also read news updates during the Gulf War, but I was committed to Real Life.  This was to me the only gig in town.”  But although Grant will be the front man of the new show, he emphasises that Real Life is a team effort.  “There’ll be a lot of interaction between myself and the other reporters.  You’ll get a sense of a team at work here, as opposed to a presenter and a lot of sort of faceless, nameless reporters.  It’s definitely not the Stan Grant Show, but I think A Current Affair is the Jana Wendt show.”

Kym’s rockin’ role
A Country Practice star Kym Wilson (pictured) has signed on as the new co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning Video Smash Hits.  Wilson replaces Emily Symons who recently left the show after a two-year stint to pursue acting full time, and will be leaving Home And Away later this year.  “It’ll be interesting to meet the people whose music I love,” Wilson told TV Week.  “I’m an avid music listener.  It’s going to be great fun.”  Wilson, who previously starred in Brides Of Christ, will be continuing in her A Country Practice role as Darcy Hudson.  “I just hope people don’t forget about my acting and consider me just a TV personality,” she said.

Briefly…
Andrew Daddo (pictured) is making his return to Australian television in Nine’s new ‘whodunnit’ game show, Cluedo.  Daddo, who has returned from the US after a year with MTV, will join Frank Gallacher, Jane Badler, Nicki Paull, Joy Westmore and Peter Sumner as the principal characters based on the Cluedo board game.  George Mallaby is also tipped to be joining the show, but this has yet to be confirmed.

E Street star Toni Pearen, whose character Toni is the next potential victim of mass-murderer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) in episodes to air this week, says that the serial killer storyline has done wonders for the show’s ratings.  “Every soap has mediocre times and E Street was going through such a period when, all of a sudden, this serial-killer storyline comes along,” she told TV Week.  “I just think it is something that no other soap has done before, so viewers have really taken to it.”  When it is pointed out that in the Seventies, Number 96 shocked the nation with its pantyhose strangler mystery (pictured), she is nothing less than amazed.  “Wow, a pantyhose murderer!  Okay, so I wasn’t around then.  This serial killer thing is new to my generation.”

Actress Tammy MacIntosh (pictured) is looking forward to her new role in the ABC series Police Rescue after a year of setbacks.  After quitting The Flying Doctors in 1990, a collarbone injury saw her withdraw from a role in the $4.5 million film Garbo.  Then a role in feature film It’s Now Or Never, alongside Jason Donovan, came to an abrupt end when the film’s finance fell through.  Things looked better when she signed on for Nine’s Chances, but a controversial incident over a nude scene saw that role short-lived.  “I rang my agent every day for a month to find out if I’d got the Police Rescue part,” she told TV Week.  “When I found out I had the role, I just burst into tears.  I couldn’t believe it.  I feel very lucky about the way things have turned out.”

The Nine Network has announced that Lisa Patrick (pictured) will replace Jacki MacDonald as host of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show.  “I just feel so privileged,” she said.  “I’ve watched Jacki for years and she always made me laugh.  Now, to go in after her… well, I don’t quite know what to say.” Patrick, 26, was a former model who hit the big time in 1989 with a role in the US sitcom Live In, although the series was axed after ten episodes. 

John Laws says…
”You have to admire the tenacity of the people behind Nine’s The Flying Doctors.  I’ve lost count of the number the times the series has almost crash-landed.  Yet – amazingly – it remains airborne, its continuing survival achieved by switching the route and turning a handful of hapless actors into free-fall sky divers.  But, in television, and especially in the soapies field, survival is the name of the game.  Any actor who joins a soapie realises only too well that he or she could be out on their ear in weeks or months, depending on the acceptance level of their character.  In the latest shake-up, there appears to have been a casting slaughterhouse, with one actor – Sarah Chadwick – already gone and six others, described as playing “favourite” characters, pencilled in for departure.  This is draconian, even by soapie standards.  Crawfords, though, are old hands at the soapie business and the tendency is to believe that they know what they’re doing.  In the case of The Flying Doctors, let’s hope so, because it has been around a long time, providing employment for hundreds of people, and enjoyment by millions.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, January 25-31):
Saturday:  Saturday afternoon sport includes tennis (the Women’s Singles Final for the Australian Open) on Seven, test cricket on Nine and golf followed by lawn bowls on ABC. 

Sunday: Australia Day is dominated largely by sport – more golf on ABC, more cricket on Nine, and the Men’s Singles Final of the Australian Open on Seven.  ABC presents the Australia Day Address by the Governor-General just before the 7.00pm news.  Sunday night movies are The Fremantle Conspiracy (Seven), City Heat (Nine) and Stealing Heaven (Ten), up against soccer (Australia versus Sweden) on SBS, and ABC’s tribute to conductor, the late Stuart Challender on Sunday Stereo Special.

Monday:  ABC crosses to Minnesota, USA, for live coverage of the NFL XXVI Superbowl, hosted by Don Lane.  Seven’s morning news program Eleven AM returns for the new year, as does ABC’s evening current affairs program The 7.30 Report.

Tuesday:  Beyond 2000 (Seven) returns, with Simon Reeve reporting on Jamaica’s solution to pollution from bauxite mining.  Amanda Keller takes a ride on a turbo swing, and Bryan Smith discovers growing food in space is a tricky business.

Wednesday:  In Home And Away (Seven), Sally’s (Kate Ritchie) first day at high school does not go well. 

Thursday:  In E Street (Ten), an anxious neighbourhood awaits news on Toni (Toni Pearen, pictured), who is missing and has found herself trapped in dense bush and tied to her car bumper by serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin).

Friday:  Blackout (ABC) looks at the topics of assimilation, adoption and sexual abuse in the Aboriginal community, and how these circumstances have prompted the creation of addictive personalities.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  25 January 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: December 14-20

The Great End of Year Exit!
Home And Away and E Street have both been hit by a number of significant cast departures.  Network Ten’s E Street is going to lose original cast member Alyssa-Jane Cook and co-star Marianne Howard.  Their characters, Lisa and Alice, head to Queensland to visit Alice’s mother following of the murder of Lisa’s husband by serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin).  Their departure from the series follows the recent abrupt exit by co-star Melissa Tkautz.  Meanwhile, Seven’s Home And Away is about to lose Emily Symons and teen star Rebekah Elmaloglou.  Symons, who has also resigned from her other job as co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning show Video Smash Hits, is heading to London and plans to travel around Europe.  Elmaloglou is believed to be planning to exit the soap by mid-1992, although a Seven spokesperson said she is under contract until the end of 1992.  And Home And Away star Les Hill is believed to be negotiating an exit from his contract with the series.

Vizard’s hunch about Hinch
Despite the recent and sudden axing of his Seven Network current affairs show, Derryn Hinch (pictured) is confident of a television future in 1992 – and it could even be with Seven!  Tonight Live host Steve Vizard is believed to have offered Hinch a weekly segment on the popular late night show, prompted by earlier guest appearances during the year.  Despite Vizard’s comical send-ups of Hinch on comedy show Fast Forward, he has a great respect for Hinch and the way he handled the axing.  “I think Derryn’s been a total professional,” Vizard told TV Week.  “Most people are told of their demise and finish on the day.  Derryn was told well in advance and has handled the situation in a very professional way.”  And Nine Network’s Midday host Ray Martin has said that Seven has made a “huge mistake” in axing the Hinch program and wouldn’t be surprised if Nine made an offer for him.  Hinch has confirmed that he has received a number of work offers, and that some of those offers have come from television.  “I haven’t been out of work in 30 years, so it’s probably a good time to sit back and decide exactly what I want to do,” Hinch told TV Week.  “If you ask me if I want to stay in television, my gut feeling is that I do.”  But he is philosophical about his sudden axing by Seven.  “The fact I think they (Seven) are -------- for what they’ve done is just my opinion.  You’ve got to remember it’s a business.”

Murder, marriage and mayhem!
TV Week previews some of the storylines to occur in Australia’s popular dramas when they return in the new year:

• Chances (Nine) will finally resolve the mystery surrounding Alex Taylor’s (Jeremy Sims, pictured) missing 12 months – though not before he goes on the run after finding himself waking up next to two dead women, a knife close by and no memory of what happened.  This leads to a chain of events that see him end up in a straitjacket and locked up in a detoxification centre.  Meanwhile, his parents Barbara and Dan (played by Brenda Addie and John Sheerin) are having marital issues which may lead to Barbara having an affair with a much younger man.
• E Street (Ten) will be dominated early in the new year by the romance between Wheels (Marcus Graham) and Sheridan (Kate Raison) and the continuing reign of terror from Mr Bad (Vince Martin) – with Toni (Toni Pearen) potentially his next target.  Meanwhile, Reverend Bob (Tony Martin) and Elly Fielding (Diane Craig) are still engaged but have not yet made any wedding plans.  The series will also welcome the arrival of fashion designer Penny O’Brien (Josephine Mitchell) and Max’s (Bruce Samazan) cousin James (played by Scott McRae) and the return of publican Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney).
• Romance will feature heavily in Home And Away (Seven), with Blake (Les Hill) entering into a relationship with a new character, who arrives in Summer Bay with a major problem.  “This will be the strongest and most relevant story we have done,” according to producer Andrew Howie.  Meanwhile, Marilyn (Emily Symons) finds a new love, and Findlay (Tina Thomsen) begins a relationship with a man who doesn’t meet the criteria that Pippa (Debra Lawrance) and Michael (Dennis Coard) expect.  A love triangle develops that will force Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) to choose between her ex-husband Frank (Alex Papps) or Greg (Ross Newton).  Home And Away will also enter a new era as it moves to a new timeslot – 7.00pm, up against Neighbours – and welcomes new cast members Cathy Godbold (formerly from Chances) and Debbie Byrne.
• In A Country Practice (Seven), Wandin Valley farewells Lucy (Georgie Parker) and Matt (John Tarrant) who leave the town after finally becoming parents.  Luke (Matt Day) is also leaving to pursue a flying career, and Wandin Valley bids farewell to larrikins Cookie and Bob (Syd Heylen and Gordon Piper, pictured) – but will they be gone for good?  Series stalwarts Lorrae Desmond, Shane Porteous, Brian Wenzel and Joyce Jacobs will be joined by newcomer Gavin Harrison.  Meanwhile, on-again-off-again lovers Harry (Andrew Blackman) and Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) will continue their game of cat and mouse, and there will be a new love for Dr Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous).
• ABC’s widely-acclaimed medical drama GP enters the new year with guest appearances by veteran actors Willie Fennell and Queenie Ashton (pictured), and joining them will be Normie Rowe, Jeff Truman and Scott Burgess.  Now entering its fourth year, GP will start the year with the murder of one of Ross Street surgery’s medical staff.  Jackaroo star David McCubbin joins the series as the son of Robert Sharp (John McTernan), and Dr William Sharp (Michael Craig) will finish his career as a general practitioner.
• Neighbours (Ten) enters the new year with confidence, despite the recent departure of eight cast members and with rival Home And Away set to move into its long-held 7.00pm timeslot.  Following the recent arrival of new cast members Melissa Bell, Scott Michaelson, Rachel Blakely and Andrew Williams, the series will soon be joined by newcomers Natalie Imbruglia and Simon Stokes.  Recently-widowed Madge Bishop (Anne Charleston) returns to Ramsay Street and finds herself being chased by old flame Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver).  Veteran actress Lorraine Bayly (pictured) joins the series as Faye Hudson, a fun character far removed from her previous more serious roles in The Sullivans and Carson’s Law.  Meanwhile, Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) faces financial ruin with the collapse of his business.
• The Flying Doctors (Nine) continues over the Christmas/New Year period – with one storyline featuring a controversial bedroom encounter between Guy (David Reyne) and Penny (Sophie Lee), spurred by her unfaithful boyfriend Steve (Paul Kelman), and a pregnancy that forces the evaluation of many relationships.  Meanwhile, Jackie Crane (Nikki Coghill) faces a grim future when she’s accused of negligence following a patient’s allergic reaction to penicillin.  Guest stars to appear in upcoming episodes include Gus Mercurio, Justine Saunders and TV Week Gold Logie winner Rowena Wallace (pictured).

Briefly…
Former 60 Minutes reporter George Negus (pictured) has been a vocal critic of the state of current affairs on TV – and now he has a chance to address the situation as the front man of Foreign Correspondent, a new program to start soon on ABC.  “It’s because this program is different that I’ve agreed to do it,” Negus told TV Week.  “If the ABC had said, ‘We want you to be involved in a new current affairs program which is a variation on a theme,’ I probably wouldn’t have said yes.”

A breakdown in negotiations have appeared to have halted plans for Craig McLachlan to take over from Jacki MacDonald as the host of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show.  Negotiations were believed to also include the option for McLachlan to become a fill-in host for Hey Hey It’s Saturday, but money wrangles appear to have killed the deal.  Meanwhile, Jacki MacDonald’s new venture with Network Ten, a weekly lifestyle show, is believed to have the working title Saturday Night Live-Style and is set to go up against her old show Hey Hey It’s Saturday.

Former E Street star Melissa Tkautz is reluctant to talk about her recent split from the show but hits out at suggestions that her emerging pop music career saw her neglect her commitments to the show.  “I don’t have time to ponder why I left E Street,” she said.  “It was good while it lasted.  I feel like I’ve done my part.  I was always there, I always knew my lines and I was at every rehearsal and every studio call.  I never let them down in any way.  They should all wish me well.”

John Laws says…
”In what bracket could you place a movie like the Nine Network’s Hardbodies?  It had no plot and its cast was comprised of talentless young people posing as actors.  It had, as far as I could detect, no redeemable feature whatsoever.  Set at a California beach house, it depicted groups of young people in various stages of half-dress and undress.  When they weren’t gyrating to a truly awful all-girl band, they were gyrating in bed, getting into bed, or getting out of bed.  Yet the fact that a TV station screens Hardbodies at 8.30pm, shows that there is a substantial audience who will watch it.  Which proves that where the prospect of a few minutes of TV boobs and bums are concerned a significant section of the population – presumably mostly male – is willing to put up with anything just to get a glimpse of them.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, December 14-20):
Saturday:  Afternoon sports coverage includes Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket on Nine, and highlights of Grand Slam Cup tennis from Munich, Germany, on Seven.  Ten’s afternoon schedule includes children’s programs Kelly and re-runs of The Henderson Kids.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Eddie Macon’s Run (Seven) and Stroker Ace (Ten) up against the debut of two-part mini-series Atlanta Child Murders (Nine).

Tuesday:  Jennifer Keyte hosts a one-hour special, Drinking Like There’s No Tomorrow (Seven), an insight into alcohol abuse amongst teenagers.

Wednesday:  Nine’s day is dominated by the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket, live from Perth, with coverage starting at 2.20pm and continuing through to 10.30pm – with a one-hour break for National Nine News and A Current Affair: Summer Edition.  Melbourne filmmaker Paul Cox is the topic of the final episode of the SBS series Nostalgia.

Thursday:  ABC presents live coverage of the Colonial Mutual Classic tennis, live from Kooyong, Melbourne.  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Penny (Sophie Lee, pictured) is locked in a tough administration battle with the hospital laundry staff, headed by Trisha (Colette Mann).  ABC debuts four-part series The Cricket Archives, documenting a history of Australian cricket based on film archive material, presented by Jack Egan.

Friday:  Ten presents the final 1991 episodes of ‘Til Ten, The Miraculous Mellops and Blind Date.

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

1991: October 12-18

Cover (Top Right): Richard Huggett, Rachel Blakeley (Neighbours); (Bottom Right): Nicolle Dickson, Ryan Clarke, Ross Newton (Home And Away); (Near Right): ‘Ferret’ (Alan Pentland), Alyce Platt (Fast Forward).

The Great Jason and (the other) Kylie Show!
It doesn’t happen often, but television network rivalry is to be put aside for a special to screen on the Nine Network later this year to commemorate 35 years of television.  The three-hour production is set to feature a cast of famous faces – including Jason Donovan, Kylie Mole (Maryanne Fahey), Mike Willesee, Bert Newton, Olivia Newton-John, Jana Wendt, Ron Casey, Max Walker and Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum – each presenting a segment on a different genre.  Graham Kennedy and Ray Martin are also to appear in the program.  “It’s the first time that it’s a celebration of all TV,” producer David Lyle told TV Week.  “For the first time, Ten, Nine, Seven, ABC, SBS, all the production companies except one, and the overseas distribution companies are involved.  The amount of material is mind-boggling.  That’s part of the problem.  Three hours isn’t enough.  We’re steering clear of the well-worn clips to get something new.”

‘I’m sorry to lose good actors, but…’
Brendon Lunney, the executive producer of the Nine Network series Chances, has defended moves to trim the show’s cast numbers down from 17 to six as the network trims the show’s output to one hour a week.  “It was a painful decision to change the focus of a show midstream,” he told TV Week.  “I’m sorry to lose good actors, but bringing the show down to an hour is a difficult and very painful process.  It’s all part of making Chances stronger and focussing more on individuals.”  The series is also set to continue to feature its trademark nude scenes, although one of the show’s stars, Natalie McCurry (pictured), is leaving the show after refusing to sign a frontal nudity clause.

Stone set to take on Jana… or 60 Minutes?
Details are slowly emerging of the new Gerald Stone project being developed for the Seven Network.  The former 60 Minutes executive producer is reported to be developing a new current affairs program – but speculation continues as to whether the show will tackle A Current Affair (with Jana Wendt, pictured), or whether it will adopt a weekly one-hour format similar to that of 60 Minutes.  Seven does have a dilemma in that a nightly half-hour format would likely dump the long-running Hinch program which has been recently out-rating Neighbours and Sale Of The Century in its timeslot.  In the meantime, Four Corners reporter Neil Mercer is set to join the new program, and ABC newsreader Edwina Gatenby has also been recruited.

Briefly…
The new series of ten episodes of Col’n Carpenter (Ten) sees Col’n (Kim Gyngell) without his two housemates – Linda (Kaarin Fairfax) and Michael (Stig Wemyss) – and living on his own.  “He’s quite different now and that was important to follow through.  The next obvious step was for Col’n to start surviving on his own,” Gyngell told TV Week.  The series return also sees Col’n re-united with his long-lost brother Peter – although he’s now a shapely female, Peta!  “The transsexual storyline was mooted 18 months ago, but it was knocked on the head because it worried management,” Gyngell said.  “Now, because the show has survived so long, the network has started to trust us a bit more.”

It’s an unusual match-up in Fast Forward, with moccasin-clad skinhead Ferret (Alan Pentland) dumping girlfriend Michelle (Magda Szubanski) when he wins a weekend away with Alyce Platt at Hamilton Island.  But a bust-up emerges when Michelle arrives at the island.  “It’s something I’ll be able to tell the grandchildren.  I was head-butted by Alyce Platt,” Szubanski told TV Week.

The Nine Network’s Today is moving out of the studio for a week as the team embark on a train tour around New South Wales.  Hosts Steve Liebmann and Elizabeth Hayes will start in Broken Hill and will stop off at towns including Dubbo, Orange, Cootamundra, Goulburn and Bombo.  “Bombo is a quaint little station on the coast, south of Wollongong,” producer Steve Wood said.  “I thought it would be a nice place to end the week.”

Chances star Cathy Godbold has just taped her final scenes with the series but has walked straight into a guest role in Home And Away.  She will play Meg Bowman, a young girl dying of leukaemia.  The role of Meg’s mother, originally to be played by Rowena Wallace, will now be played by Debbie Byrne.

John Laws says…
”The sign of a good TV interviewer, especially one who handles politics, is that he or she maintains a high professional standard, not just in one or two interviews but in many interviews over the years.  Only a handful of such interviewers have emerged in television in the past decade or so.  It takes a bit of character to stay the course and keep intact your integrity as well as the fire in the belly.  The 7.30 Report’s Paul Lyneham is one interviewer and political commentator who can lay claim to both.  Lyneham is not one of ABC’s high-profile personalities.  You don’t see him popping up in the women’s magazines or showing Don Burke his backyard and you never read stories about him threatening to quit or being tempted with massive commercial TV offers.  No, he is a dependable character who seems quite at home at the ABC, doing his job in a thoroughly professional manner.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 12-18):
Saturday:  Nine crosses to the Gabba, Brisbane, for FAI Cup cricket between Queensland and Victoria.  Ten presents live coverage of the Australian Drivers’ Championship from Eastern Creek Raceway – and ABC presents highlights of Rugby World Cup games, including the match between Australia and Western Samoa.  Actor Nick Giannopoulos, pop star Collette and guitarist Tommy Emmanuel are contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven).

Sunday:  Nine presents FAI Cup matches live from the Gabba, Brisbane, and from Adelaide.  Sunday night movies are She’s Out Of Control (Seven), The Fabulous Baker Boys (Nine) and The Delinquents (Ten).  Seven then crosses live to London for the match between West Coast Eagles and Hawthorn in the Fosters International Cup.

Monday:  There are shocks in A Country Practice (Seven) when the body of Laurie Brown (Bob Newman) is found in the National Park.  Sgt Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) suspects unemployed Colin Scott (Shane Connor) of murder.  Dennis Miller guest stars in Col’n Carpenter (Ten).

Tuesday:  In Chances (Nine), Connie (Deborah Kennedy) meets a 16-year-old Italian who is infatuated with her and he persuades the entire family to move to Italy with him.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Dr John D’Arcy reports on the enviro-friendly potato cup, which is totally bio-degradable, extremely cost effective and tastes great.

Wednesday:  ABC presents Geoffrey Robertson’s Trials Of Oz, a 90-minute dramatisation of the controversial 1971 obscenity trial surrounding the publication of the satirical Oz magazine – starring Peter O’Brien with Hugh Grant, Nigel Hawthorne, Simon Callow and Leslie Phillips.

Friday:  In Neighbours (Ten), thieves in Ramsay Street cause trouble for Brad (Scott Michaelson). 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  12 October 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: October 5-11

‘It’s a fair dinkum suburban wedding’
There was some angst among the residents of Neighbours’ Ramsay Street when it was announced that Melanie (Lucinda Cowden) and Joe (Mark Little) were to walk down the aisle.  Their main concern… what would the ‘dippy’ Melanie – who is known for her ‘unusual’ dress sense – wear?  Even the groom expressed some concern at his bride’s choice of gown.  “Let’s face it, she is the sort of character who could turn up in a tutu and tap-dance down the aisle,” Cowden told TV Week.  But to the relief of all, including the actress who plays her, madcap Melanie ends up walking down the aisle in a traditional full-length gown and veil.  “I was really pleased with the traditional dress.  I didn’t want to look like one of those dolls that has a toilet roll under her dress,” she said.

‘I’d be kicking his door in!’
The arrival of former 60 Minutes producer Gerald Stone to the Seven Network has sparked all sorts of speculation and rumour about changes to the network’s lineup – a possible change of timeslot for Home And Away to 7.00pm which would bump Derryn Hinch to 6.30pm, up against A Current Affair?  Or will a new current affairs show take the earlier timeslot?  Will he sign up former 60 Minutes reporter and Midday host Ray Martin?  Or even George Negus?  But Hinch, who recently celebrated 1000 shows at Seven, says he is contracted to the network until July and is not concerned about Stone’s arrival or any appointments he might be planning.  “I’ve talked to him since he came on board,” Hinch told TV Week.  “I’ve said publicly before I’d like to get Ray Martin here.  I’d like to get George Negus over here.  I think George Negus is wasted.  Ray is wasted there (at Nine) now.  If I was packaging a program, I’d be kicking his door in.” 

Hello, possum!
ABC’s new 20-part documentary series Wildscreen promises everything from giant octopuses and amorous snails, to cheeky cockatoos and unpredictable camels.  The series is being produced by ABC’s natural history unit, headed by executive producer Dione Gilmour.  “The programs are beautifully shot and very interesting, but they’re also very quirky.  They don’t take themselves too seriously as some other documentaries,” she told TV Week.  “There’s a fair bit of humour there.  It’s good entertainment for the whole family.”  The first episode of the series, Hello Possums, is written and presented by ABC’s Sydney newsreader Richard Morecroft (pictured), whom Gilmour says is “passionate” about Australia’s natural history.  The ABC has already given the go-ahead for a second series.

Briefly…
Mike Walsh, the former king of daytime TV, is not missing television one bit as he launches his latest project – the new Hayden Room cabaret venue at his art deco Orpheum Theatre in the Sydney suburb of Cremorne.  The cabaret room has a look of the Thirties with pastel tones, ornate swirls, mirrors and art deco lights.  Launching the venue is Wherefore Art Thou Cabaret?, starring Tony Sheldon and Maria Mercedes.

Former 1970s TV Week Queen Of Pop Colleen Hewett (pictured) is these days struggling to win a recording deal.  But the former chart topper, with hits including Day By Day, Gigolo and Wind Beneath My Wings, now prefers to talk about acting.  Former stage roles in Godspell and Pippin have been more recently followed by a role in mini-series Shadows Of The Heart and a guest appearance this week in The Flying Doctors.  She is keen to consider an ongoing acting role as a change from working the cabaret circuit.

“The Australian music industry has really come of age,” Molly Meldrum said at the launch of the Australian Music Awards.  “The industry badly needs something like this, not only for the music fans to have their say, but also to recognise the different styles of music, things like dance and alternative acts.”  The AMAs will be held at Melbourne’s Congress Centre in November – sponsored by Coca-Cola in association with TV Week – and will be broadcast on Network Ten.

Garry Shelley’s Sound Off
”Hits and Memories, on Seven this week, is reminiscent of Bandstand days as Glenn Shorrock and his talented young team – including Tina Arena, Miguel Ayesa, Johnny Nieshche, Carlotta Chadwick and Lara Mulcahy – take us back to a time when music was fun and you could even understand the lyrics.  The show – a pilot for a proposed series – has one main aim and that’s to encourage new talent.  What better reason then to go into a series!”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 5-11):
Saturday:  Actors Gus Mercurio and Kaarin Fairfax are guest judges on this week’s That’s Dancin’ (ABC).  Richard Marx, Jimmy Barnes and Tommy Emmanuel are guest performers this week on Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine) – while Nicolle Dickson, Dennis Lillee and John Waters are contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven).

Sunday:  Seven crosses to Mt Panorama, near Bathurst, for ten hours of coverage of the Tooheys 1000 with commentators Sandy Roberts, Mike Raymond, Garry Wilkinson, Richard Hay, Neil Crompton and Mark Oastler.  Ten presents live coverage of the final of the Australian Indoor Championship tennis from the Sydney Entertainment Centre.  Sunday night movies are The Package (Seven), Chances Are (Nine) and Harry And The Hendersons (Ten).

Monday:  In the series return of Col’n Carpenter (Ten), a telegram arrives announcing a visit from Colin’s (Kim Gyngell) estranged brother, Peter (Dale Stevens).

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), Robert (John McTernan) is accused of sexual misconduct after volunteering to help a young British tourist.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Simon Reeve reports on how the Spanish dung beetle could help control bush flies in Australia.

Wednesday:  ABC presents the one-hour documentary The Wonderful World Of Dogs – a humorous look at the relationship between humans and dogs, the dogs’ daily lives and the less savoury aspects of their behaviour.  Later in the evening ABC presents live coverage from Wales of the Rugby World Cup match between Australia and West Samoa.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Geoff Standish (Robert Grubb) and Jackie Crane (Nikki Coghill) get caught up in a wrangle involving Coopers Crossing’s first bigamist.

Friday:  SBS presents the documentary Hope For The World’s Children, hosted by Mary Kostakidis and co-produced with World Vision. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  5 October 1991.  Southdown Press

More changes at the top at Ten

There continues to be upheaval in the executive ranks at the Ten Network, with the network’s news director Jim Carroll (pictured) to step down from his position.

With a background in print, radio and television journalism, including foreign postings, Carroll joined Ten in 2000 before being appointed head of news and current affairs in 2005.  It is reported that he will be considering new opportunities within Ten.

He will be replaced by the network’s Melbourne news director Dermot O’Brien – a former Seven Network journalist and producer of the Hinch program at the Seven and Ten networks before taking over as news director at Ten in Melbourne in the mid ‘90s.

Carroll’s news portfolio faced a big-budget revamp earlier this year with the network expanding its news line-up to include 6PM With George Negus and a separate news bulletin at 6.30pm to complement the long-running 5.00pm news hour.

Following a lack lustre ratings result the line-up was revised two months later to see the Negus program moved and re-named to 6.30pm and the 5.00pm bulletin extended to 90 minutes.  The revision has seen a modest improvement in ratings but Ten’s 6.00pm hour still trails well behind rivals Seven and Nine.

The news expansion, and the cost associated with it, has been the subject of much scrutiny since the arrival of James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch to the network’s board, and some public criticism from board member Bruce Gordon, owner of regional network WIN – a Nine affiliate.

The reshuffle at the board has since seen Ten group CEO Nick Falloon resign, followed by the departure of his replacement Grant Blackley who was previously CEO of the Ten business.  It was under their management that the strategy behind the news revamp was developed.

Murdoch was since appointed interim CEO of the Ten group, with former Seven sales executive James Warburton (pictured) appointed to formally take over the role from January.

In recent months Ten has also lost sports director David White, chief financial officer John Kelly and chief digital officer Nick Spooner.

Under interim CEO Murdoch, Ten has also revised its multi-channel strategy by cutting back some of the sports content from high-definition channel One and implementing more special interest and general entertainment programming in prime-time.  The network had also withdrawn from a joint bid with the Seven Network for the rights to broadcast AFL from 2012 to 2016, although the option may still exist for Seven to on-sell some of its commitment to Ten.

Source: Ten, The Australian, The Australian

TelevisionAU Update 29-May-2011

http://www.televisionau.com

FLASHBACK #58:
Although swimming champion Ian Thorpe (pictured) was still winning medals and breaking records in 2002, he took a brief diversion into television as the host of the Seven Network's Undercover Angels, a short-lived series that saw Thorpe's 'angels' - actress Simone Kessell, Katie Underwood (from the pop group Bardot manufactured by Seven's Popstars in 2000) and radio co-host Jackie O - performing good deeds for people in need.  The feel-good series was a good ratings performer for Seven but was never extended beyond the first series.  Picture: The Sunday Mail TV Scene, 12 May 2002

CLASSIC TV GUIDES:
Melbourne:
24 November 1975 (Premiere: Eyewitness Newshour)
30 October 1986 (Premiere: The Movie Show)
18 January 1988 (Premiere: Seven Nightly News, Hinch At Seven, Home And Away, A Current Affair)

Victoria:
30 April 1963 (Official Opening ABEV1, Bendigo)

New South Wales:
25 February 1980

Adelaide:
26 July 1965 (Official Opening SAS10)
22 April 1983 (TV Week Logie Awards)

Western Australia:
22 April 1983 (TV Week Logie Awards)
20 May 1988 (Official Opening NEW10)

Darwin:
1 January 1988 (Australia Live)

GREAT OZ TV FLOPS
Ben Elton: Live From Planet Earth (Nine, 2011)

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

Derryn Hinch diagnosed with cancer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earlier this year he celebrated fifty years in the media.

Source: The Age, Hinch, 3AW