The birth of James Gardner Tyler in A Country Practice will mark the end of an era as his parents Matt (John Tarrant) and Lucy (Georgie Parker, pictured) depart Wandin Valley with their newborn to start a new life in Vietnam. For Parker, there are no regrets about moving on from A Country Practice. “I need to move on,” she said. “If I stayed, it would wane. I would rather finish on a high. ACP has been a very positive experience. It was wonderful to have a regular job and to work with people who had a healthy attitude to the business and weren’t seduced by it. ACP helped me develop a good attitude towards TV.” Parker’s next career venture is the title role in the stage musical Gypsy, starring beside Tony Barber and Geraldine Turner.
Stefan and Gayle pack their bags
Stefan Dennis, one of Neighbours’ original cast members, is leaving the long-running series. Dennis is expected not to renew his contract when it expires in July although producers insist that negotiations are still under way. “If he does leave, we’ll have him on air until September,” a Network Ten spokesperson said. If Dennis does leave, the only remaining original cast members in the series will be Anne Haddy and Alan Dale. Meanwhile, Gayle Blakeney, who plays Dennis’ on-screen wife Christina, is also set to leave the show when her contract expires in July.
ABC drama Phoenix is set to lose two of its high-profile stars when a second series goes into production later this year. Paul Sonkkila, who plays Inspector Jock Brennan, is leaving for personal reasons, and Nell Feeney, who plays Detective Senior Constable Megan Edwards, will not be returning. “Nell’s character was brought into Phoenix for the bombing storyline, which ends with the first series,” an ABC spokesperson told TV Week.
Briefly…
Production has stalled on the Nine Network series Snowy. The 26-part drama focusing on the Snowy Mountain Scheme has run into financial difficulties.
Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”You must have noticed television’s obsession with putting on trial anything remotely controversial. No doubt this most recent spate of TV trials was kicked off when the late but unlamented Fat Cat was convicted without much of a hearing, then executed come the dawn. Jana Wendt and A Current Affair kept the ball rolling by gathering a bunch of lawyers and witnesses and a retired supreme court judge and spending two futile nights pondering whether or not the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, has murdered the Australian economy. Mr Keating’s day in court was followed by ABC’s Live And Sweaty putting the Nine Network in the dock for its treatment of the NSW Rugby League replays. Nine apparently stands charged with not replaying games in their entirety. After that, we had the real kangaroo court – Skippy, a marsupial native of the Australia bush, put himself on trial, probably because no-one else could be bothered doing it. I haven’t caught up with the result of that laughable exercise yet. If you have, do me a favour and keep it to yourself.”
Program Highlights (Melbourne: April 12-18):
Sunday: Nine crosses to Eastern Creek, NSW, for live coverage of the Australian 500cc Motorcycling Grand Prix. Seven’s afternoon of AFL coverage includes Sydney versus Footscray and West Coast Eagles versus Geelong. Sunday night movies are Advance To Ground Zero (Seven), A Chorus Line (Nine) and Meet The Applegates (Ten).
Monday: In A Country Practice (Seven), Matt (John Tarrant) is suspicious when his father, Gil (George Whaley), arrives unannounced.
Tuesday: In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Bryan Smith discovers the paper that’s made of corn, and Amanda Keller tells how super computers are helping the British to predict the weather. In Chances (Nine), Alex (Jeremy Sims) signs Faith Matthews, a 17-year-old Olympic swimming golden girl, but gets more than he bargained for. In A Country Practice (Seven), Gil (George Whaley) offers Matt (John Tarrant) and Lucy (Georgie Parker) an opportunity to leave Wandin Valley.
Wednesday: ABC presents Australia’s first Aboriginal musical, Bran Nue Dae, telling the story of an Aboriginal boy’s flight from Perth to his homeland at Djaridin.
Thursday: In Phoenix (ABC), the police force are questioning the resources spent on the Phoenix investigation. In Neighbours (Ten), Dorothy (Maggie Dence) and Lucy (Melissa Bell) believe they may have killed Faye’s (Lorraine Bayly) best friend.
Good Friday: Seven’s traditional Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal dominates its day’s programming – starting at 9.00am and, apart from News, Real Life and Home And Away, continues through to midnight. The evening telecast features Tony Barber, John Burgess, Robert Brough, Eric Walters, Jennifer Keyte, Rachael Beck, David Straussman, Darryl Cotton, Alyce Platt, Victoria Nicolls, Russell Morris, Mike Brady and the Australian Girls Choir.
Saturday: Nine’s Wide World Of Sports includes live coverage of the Stawell Gift, the Doncaster Handicap and the AJC Derby. Seven’s evening includes AFL Today, highlights of the day’s AFL matches, followed by live coverage of the Brisbane Bears versus West Coast Eagles from Carrara, Queensland. Ruth Cracknell and Gordon Chater star in Sydney’s Theatre Royal production of The Importance Of Being Earnest, broadcast on ABC.
Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 11 April 1992. Southdown Press.
Australian showbusiness has lost one of its true veterans with reports that Ian Turpie has died from cancer at the age of 68.
Working as a variety and club performer during the 1970s Turpie made a television hosting comeback in 1981 on The New Price Is Right (pictured), a reprisal of the game show franchise that had last appeared on Australian TV in the mid-1970s. The show was a hit for the Seven Network and lasted for around four years. He was to revisit the format in 1989 when the Ten Network launched The Price Is Right as a Saturday night program.
Actor Carl Bleazby, best known from the long-running ABC series Bellbird, died late last month at the age of 95.
It is 50 years today since Australia’s first regional television station was officially opened.
GLV10’s opening night’s programs started at 5.45pm with a 15-minute film, Touring Gippsland, to be followed by an introduction to the station by radio 3TR announcer Don Ewart (pictured). Unfortunately, Ewart’s opening words were never heard by anyone outside the studio as his microphone was not switched on.
Later in the evening GLV10 crossed to Melbourne’s ABV2 for a one-hour live coverage of the day’s Federal Election results before presenting a 15-minute local news bulletin and then signing off for the night.
By the mid-1970s GLV10 had partnered with Bendigo channel BCV8 with both channels providing a common schedule across their respective areas. Mildura channel 
And like many regional television stations GLV provided a training ground for some that went on to careers in the wider media industry. Journalist 
Showbiz veteran 
From 1992, the aggregation of regional markets in Victoria saw the Southern Cross Network of GLV and BCV expand its signal into the regions of Ballarat, Shepparton and Albury, while the incumbents from these regions in turn expanded into the areas covered by GLV and BCV.
Some changes in the news format and presentation followed but the change to Ten Victoria in May 1994 saw all local production ceased and the network essentially becoming a straight relay of Network Ten’s schedule.
From its modest beginnings with two regional channels in Victoria, Southern Cross Ten as it is now covers regional markets from Portland in western Victoria right up to Cairns in the far north of Queensland and across to Broken Hill and the Spencer Gulf region in South Australia. Much of its on-air presentation is co-ordinated from centralised facilities in Canberra.
And in Gippsland, as with the rest of regional Victoria, it was the end of an era in May this year with the 
It was a morning of farewells as two of TV’s golden girls signed off from their respective shows today.
Meanwhile, over at the Nine Network, there was a farewell for Kerri-Anne Kennerley whose morning show comes to an end after nine years on air. 
ABC Managing Director Mark Scott (pictured) has been named an named an officer of the Order of Australia in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list.
Other media identities to be recognised in this year’s list include sporting identity Max Walker, former test cricketer and commentator for ABC radio and the Seven and Nine networks; Peter FitzSimons, author, newspaper columnist and broadcaster; and Bob Horsfall (pictured), actor, scriptwriter and performer in radio, television and films – including eight years at HSV7, four years at GTV9, and appearances in programs including In Melbourne Tonight, Sunnyside Up, World Of Sport, Division 4, Matlock Police, Bellbird, Homicide, Prisoner, Neighbours and Blue Heelers.
Michele Fawdon, actress in film, stage and television, has died today after a battle with cancer.
Bill Hunter, one of Australia’s most recognisable and prolific actors, has passed away in Melbourne at the age of 71.
In last Sunday’s 
Flashback to 1972… and Temptation and Great Temptation hostess Barbara Rogers and Homicide star Leonard Teale (pictured) are promoting the Good Friday Appeal telethons for Melbourne’s HSV7 and Adelaide’s ADS7.
When it debuted in October 1964, Homicide marked a significant milestone in the development of Australian television drama. There had been earlier attempts at drama series, soap operas, mini-series and televised plays but many struggled to gain a high profile in Australia’s early television landscape. After all, it was so much cheaper to buy US shows than to invest in local production, but Homicide was the first high-profile drama series to be made by Australians for Australians and its ratings from the very beginning proved that local production could be a viable and popular alternative to imported programs.
Seven also paid tribute to Homicide in November 2005 with the screening of the 1973 episode that farewelled long-time cast members Leonard Teale (pictured, far right, with the cast in 1967) and Alwyn Kurts to commemorate the start of HSV7’s fiftieth year of transmission. And the Nine Network’s 50 Years 50 Shows special, produced in 2005, ranked Homicide as the 12th most significant program to have been made in 50 years of Australian television.
The Prisoner Files 
Jeannie “Mum” Brooks (Mary Ward, pictured): A well-spoken, gentle woman who befriends new inmates and is well regarded by both officers and inmates. Brooks was convicted for murdering her husband but, while on parole, is caught shop-lifting. Mary Ward has worked in Australia and the United Kingdom, and before Prisoner had appeared in Bellbird and performed for the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Freida “Franky” Doyle (Carol Burns): A former shop assistant, convicted for armed robbery and murder, Doyle has a record of association with bikie gangs. She is a lesbian with an unrequited passion for Karen Travers. Carol Burns has worked extensively in the theatre since 1970 and has worked as a senior lecturer in drama at the Darling Downs College of Advanced Education (Queensland). In recent times, Burns has appeared in a number of ABC plays.
Elizabeth “Lizzie” Birdsworth (Sheila Florance, pictured): A housewife and mother of four, Birdsworth is a kleptomaniac and an alcoholic with a long string of convictions for theft. She is sentenced to life in prison for the “accidental” killing of four shearers when she laced their food with arsenic “to teach them a lesson.” Sheila Florance has more than 45 years experience in showbusiness across both Australia and the United Kingdom, and has appeared in many Australian TV productions including Consider Your Verdict, Division Four, Matlock Police, Bellbird, Homicide and Bobby Dazzler.
Erica Davidson (Patsy King): The prison governor whose academic approach sometimes keeps her remote from the inmates and fails to understand their passions and frustrations. Is married but her private life is kept a mystery as it is known she does not see her husband, being either separated or divorced. Patsy King has worked extensively in Australia and New Zealand, including roles in Matlock Police, Homicide and Division Four, as well as appearing as a presenter on ABC’s Play School.
Bert hits the jackpot 
Friday is Good Friday, and HSV7 presents its annual Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal. The telecast starts at 8.30am and, apart from news updates at 8.45am and midday and Seven National News at 6.30pm, continues through to midnight. The all-day appeal features celebrities from across the Seven Network (including Shirley Strachan, pictured with hospital patient Narelle McKenzie) and guest artists including Johnny Farnham, Colleen Hewett, the Australian Children’s Choir, Christie Allen, Russell Morris and TMG. Players from all VFL teams also appear during the day. The telephone numbers for donations are (03) 630 291 in Melbourne and (052) 21 3333 in Geelong.
