1979: December 22-28

Cover (clockwise from bottom right): Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Marcia Hines, Mike Walsh, Susan Hannaford (The Sullivans), John Orcsik (Cop Shop), June Salter (The Restless Years)

Belinda buries her sexy past
Belinda Giblin doesn’t want to be known as “that sexy secretary from The Box.”  She’d much rather be known as an actress who won a Sammy award this year for Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, for her role in the telemovie Say You Want Me:  “That award was a compliment to my acting.  It wasn’t a popularity poll win but a win because of my acting skills.  It’s been the biggest buzz of my professional career.”  Now featuring in the Seven Network series Skyways in a seven-week guest role, Giblin has no regrets about doing The Box, though the “sex symbol” tag was quite amusing, she says. 

On wings of song…
A one-hour special to air this week on ABC, Christmas Round Australia, takes a look at the diversity of an Australian Christmas.  The special program features Santa arriving by helicopter at an RAAF base in Amberley, QLD.  At Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps he switches to a snow mobile, and in the remote town of Cook he arrives into town in a converted railcar.  The special also looks at the multicultural diversity in celebrating Christmas, with Greek children singing Ta Kalanda, an Italian children’s choir singing Tu Scendi-Della Stella, and Aboriginal children at the Ernabella Mission singing carols translated into native languages.  Christmas Round Australia is narrated by Margaret Throsby and produced by Ric Birch.

Death of Robert Moore
Robert Moore has died in Melbourne at the age of 46.  The former host of Monday Conference was in Melbourne where he was working on an interview with Professor Sir Gustav Nossal for the ABC series Faces Of The Eighties.  It was to be the final program in the series.  ABC general manager Talbot Duckmanton paid tribute to Moore:  “Bob Moore was held in widespread respect by all who encountered him.  His fairness and integrity were beyond question in his interpretation of politics and the art of government – fields so frequently wracked with controversy.  He was above all a professional, totally dedicated and absorbed in the job he had to do.  The ABC, and public life, can ill afford to lose a figure of the calibre of Bob Moore.  At 46, he had so much still to offer.”  Born in Adelaide in 1932, Moore first joined ABC in 1960 and later progressed to the current affairs program Four Corners as a reporter and later producer and anchorman.  In 1970 he made a ten-part series of interviews, Profiles Of Power, and the following year became the host and producer of Monday Conference, which ran for 290 editions.  Moore’s death came a year to the day after the end of Monday Conference.

Best wishes from Brian for a good news decade
GTV9 newsreader Brian Naylor wishes he could promise only good news in the 1980s.  “I’d be less than honest if I said I could expect the 1980s to be a happier, or more peaceful, decade than the one just past, but I can only hope that it will be.”  Naylor will be the compere of Carols By Candlelight which is being telecast on the Nine Network for the first time after several years on the 0-10 Network.  “I feel very strongly about how much and what kind of programs newsreaders should ally themselves with outside the news area, but this is one that I’m delighted to do.  It’s a happy family night and I feel honoured working on a show that will be screened in homes at Christmas time around the country,” he told TV Times.  Having just completed his first year as newsreader at GTV9, the switch from rival HSV7 has proved so successful that Naylor and GTV are now negotiating a new three-year deal after only one year of the previous three-year contract.

Are you being served down under?
John Inman will star as the flamboyant Mr Humphries in an Australian version of the comedy series Are You Being Served?  Lyle McCabe Productions is set to make the 13-episode series for the 0-10 Network, with production due to start in Melbourne early in the new year.  “The idea is that Mr Humphries has been sent out to Australia to help a cousin of young Mr Grace,” producer Lyle McCabe told TV Times.  “All the characters in the Australian series will be similar to the ones in the British comedy.  Department stores around the world seem to attract a similar kind of person.”  A full cast list for the new series is expected to be announced in a few weeks.

Briefly…
The Restless Years star Ivar Kants is leaving the series after nine months as Ken Garrett.  Kants, with his wife and two children, will be heading to England where he will reprise the role of footballer Geoff Hayward in David Williamson’s play The Club.

Bert Newton (pictured) is almost certain to make his movie debut in Fatty Finn, based on the famous Australian comic strip.  It will be Newton’s first acting role since he appeared as a TV reporter in the short-lived comedy series, The Bluestone Boys.

Gerard Kennedy, best known from Division 4 and more recently in Against The Wind, is returning to TV with an ongoing role in Skyways as airline executive Gary Doolan.

Former Melbourne and Adelaide tonight show host Bob Moors hasn’t been seen on TV for a while, but is set to appear in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge. 

Television producer Ron Way has left Seven’s This Is Your Life after 166 episodes to move to his latest venture, a telemovie based on the life of Johnny O’Keefe for the Reg Grundy Organisation.  Way had produced O’Keefe’s early-‘60s variety show Sing Sing Sing for the Seven Network.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I want to express my great disappointment at everyone’s best actress, Lorraine Bayly, not winning anything at all at the Sammy awards.  Every week we read of The Sullivans being Australia’s best show, yet it hardly rated a mention throughout the Sammys.”  V. Hannaford, WA.

“I am downright annoyed at all the TV networks for using late timeslots for shows worth watching.  Programs with a three-star rating are starting at 9.00pm to 10.30pm.  This is ridiculous when a movie buff like myself has to get up for work the next day.  What happened to the good old time of 8.30pm?” M. Mather, VIC.

“Is it any wonder that overseas celebrities often baulk at interviews by our TV reporters?  Sydney TEN10’s effort with Sammy Davis Jnr is a typical example.  Katrina Lee introduced him, then he was shown talking to her but we were not allowed to hear him at first before Katrina was too busy telling us what he was going to say.  Then we were allowed to hear Sammy say exactly what Katrina had already said.  Now by this I take it that the stations either think we are too stupid to understand such people or that these celebrities are so inarticulate that they won’t be understood.”  B. Rose, NSW.

What’s On (December 22-28):
Saturday and Sunday features the closing stages of the New South Wales Open tennis tournament, live on HSV7.  From Monday (Christmas Eve), attention moves to Melbourne’s Kooyong courts for the Australian Open.  With a break on Christmas Day, the Open resumes on Boxing Day.

GTV9 presents England versus the West Indies in World Series Cup cricket on Sunday, live from Brisbane.  Cricket resumes on Wednesday (Boxing Day) when Australia and England play in Sydney.

On Monday night (Christmas Eve), GTV9 presents live coverage of Carols By Candelight from Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl.  Hosted by Brian Naylor (pictured) and including performances by Rolf Harris, John Farnham and Linda George.

Christmas Eve also includes overseas Christmas specials from Are You Being Served? (ABC), Carry On Christmas (HSV7), Bing Crosby: The Christmas Years (GTV9) and the Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show (ATV0).  ATV0 also presents Sing We Noel, from the Mormon Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, London, and a repeat of last week’s Sydney Festival Of Carols before Midnight Mass.

HSV7 starts earlier than usual on Christmas Day with movies from 8.00am through to 1.30pm.  Various Christmas and variety specials continue through the rest of the afternoon.  ABC starts its day at 11.00am with Divine Service, from the Anglican Church of St Clement in Kingston, Tasmania.  GTV9 has cartoons through the early morning before a Christian Television Association special at 8.30am.  Humphrey B. Bear presents his own Christmas message at 9.00am before GTV9 presents a replay of Carols By Candlelight at 10.00am.  Movies continue through the afternoon.

ATV0 doesn’t start on Christmas Day until 2.00pm with a special, The Magic Of Christmas, followed by the 1973 movie Miracle On 34th Street.

On Christmas night, ABC presents the Queen’s annual Christmas Message at 7.15pm followed by Christmas Round Australia at 7.30pm, showing the variety of ways in which children celebrate Christmas across Australia.  Followed at 8.30pm by a Christmas episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

HSV7’s Christmas night includes The Flintstones Christmas, The Stanley Baxter Christmas Show and the Father Knows Best Christmas Reunion.  GTV9 has Christmas episodes of The Odd Couple, Laverne And Shirley and Happy Days, followed by the 1978 telemovie Gift Of Love, starring Marie Osmond, Timothy Bottoms, June Lockhart, Bethel Leslie and Donald Moffatt.  At 10.30pm, GTV9 presents the Queen’s Christmas message followed by the movie Godspell.

ATV0 starts Christmas night with a Young Talent Time Christmas special at 6.30pm, followed at 7.30pm by the 1954 movie White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

Boxing Day features the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, preview and official start, on ABC from 11.00am with Australian Open tennis and World Series Cup cricket on HSV7 and GTV9 respectively.  In the evening, HSV7 crosses to Ascot racecourse in Perth for the annual Australian Derby.

Sunday night movies: A Christmas To Remember (HSV7), Kotch (GTV9), Christmas: The Coal Mine Miracle (ATV0). 

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 22 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: May 12-18

TV’s reluctant sex symbol
Former Queenslander Shane Porteous has performed in Shakespearean plays, has appeared on stage in London’s West End and has been “arrested” in Cop Shop.  His first leading TV role, in the children’s series Catch Kandy, was a “disappointment” and his nude scenes with Belinda Giblin in The Box attracted controversy.  And he had a long-running role in the ABC series Certain Women.  But it was his appearance in a series of commercials for a laundry detergent that has made him a familiar face with the public:  “No matter what role I play on TV, no matter what critics might say of a stage play I’ve been happy about, I get the feeling sometimes I’m best known as the ‘Drive’ man.  People in the street and on the train often say ‘got the wine stain out yet?’ or ‘how’s your clever little secretary?’.”   But despite the fame of laundry detergent commercials, Porteous (pictured, with Nick Hedstrom and Zoe Bertram) has made a return to TV series drama as businessman Andrew Nelson in The Restless Years in what is tipped to be “the love story of the year”.

YTT takes the cake!
It was a reunion of past and present members of Young Talent Time when the popular 0-10 Network program recently celebrated its eighth birthday with a party at the ATV0 studios.  Joining Johnny Young and the current Young Talent Team were original cast members from 1971 including Rod Kirkham, Vikki Broughton, Jane Scali, Jamie Redfern and Debbie Byrne.

ABC opens showcase for top talent
Some of Australia’s best-known performers will be featured in a variety series now in production for ABC.  The first of the series of seven programs, to air next month, will feature Jill Perryman.  Other programs in the series will feature Barry Crocker, Peter Regan, Rolf Harris, Johnny Farnham and The Four Kinsmen.  Music for the series is being recorded by the Brian May ABC Melbourne Show Band.

Carleton’s Canberra
Former This Day Tonight reporter Richard Carleton (pictured) is back at ABC, after a three-year absence, as the Canberra correspondent for Nationwide.  His day starts at 6.30am with the arrival of the Sydney newspapers as well as The Canberra Times.  By 8.30 he is on the steps of Parliament House with prime minister Malcolm Fraser and during the day crosses paths with Minister for Foreign Affairs Andrew Peacock, shadow minister Paul Keating and Minister for Post and Telecommunications Bruce Goodluck among others.  But after three years out of the country he realises that there are many of the 188 members of Parliament that he does not know – though he hopes to know all about them by the time the next election occurs.

Briefly…
The Paul Hogan Show’s Delvene Delaney and husband John Cornell have welcomed the arrival of their first daughter, Allira.

Cop Shop star Paula Duncan has welcomed her sister, Carmen, to Melbourne for her role in Seven’s new drama series Skyways.

Walter Sullivan will host the new series of ABC’s Capriccio when it returns this week.  Guest stars for the show this year include Jacki Weaver, Ed Devereaux, Diane Cilento and June Bronhill.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
”I am sick of people knocking ABC.  The ABC has a lot of problems – lack of money, lack of equipment – so their programming may be a bit chaotic.  But consider their public responsibility to show sports events, children’s and educational programs, current affairs and heavy culture.  How they cram in a little light entertainment is a source of continual amazement.” S. Lindsay, QLD.

“I wonder if ATN7, Sydney, knows how much CBN8/CWN6 mutilates the Seven Big League program?  We all put up with genuine product advertisements because they are an accepted and necessary part of commercial TV, but it seems CBN8 saves up the community service announcements for the football replay.” J. Lewis, NSW.

“Congratulations to ABC for showing The Best Of Parkinson and now Parkinson In Australia.  I enjoyed the first show and enjoying the second the second until Frank Hardy appeared on the scene.  From the moment he appeared he turned the interview into a monologue of himself, his manners and language were so atrocious as to be an embarrassment to most viewers.  What was he trying to prove?” D. Spencely, SA.

What’s On (May 12-18):
Weekend sport includes live coverage of the last two quarters of the VFL Match Of The Day on ABC, Saturday afternoon.  Football replays follow with Saturday Night Football on ABC and Seven’s Big League on HSV7.  Late on Saturday night, ABC presents the FA Cup Final, direct from Wembley Stadium, London.

This week’s guests on Parkinson In Australia (ABC, Saturday) are Kate Fitzpatrick, Bob Hawke and Jack Fingleton.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at Australian music over the last century – including film of The Beatles’ visit to Australia and interviews with Col Joye, Little Pattie and footage of the last TV interview with Johnny O’Keefe who passed away in late-1978.

The final episode of Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring (ABC, Thursday) looks at the future of the car industry and host Peter Wherrett chooses his favourite car from the whole series.

James Smillie, Carmel Millhouse and Briony Behets are guest stars in this week’s episodes of Prisoner (ATV0, Tuesday and Wednesday).

Sunday night movies: The Legend Of Lylah Clare (HSV7), Born Free (GTV9), The Last Hurrah (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 12 May 1979.  ABC/ACP

ABC1 remembers The Wild One

Next month, ABC1 presents a revealing documentary profiling the life of Australia's first rock 'n' roll star Johnny O'Keefe.

With a career starting in the early-'50s, O'Keefe became a national identity as a performer, and later host, on one of Australia's first rock music shows, ABC's Six O'Clock Rock, from 1959 to 1962.

After Six O'Clock Rock, O'Keefe went to host the Seven Network's The Johnny O'Keefe Show, later re-named Sing Sing Sing, and the 0-10 Network's Where The Action Is.

Amidst a recording career that produced over 50 singles and 100 albums, O'Keefe survived a near-fatal car crash and several nervous breakdowns before staging a comeback in the '70s.  He was honoured in an episode of the original This Is Your Life in 1975, and made a guest appearance on Sounds only days before he passed away in October 1978 at the age of 43.

The life of Johnny O'Keefe was later dramatised in a TV mini-series Shout! and in more recent years his life story was also adapted to a stage spectacular.  In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the ARIA's Hall of Fame.

Johnny O'Keefe: The Wild One.  Thursday 6 November, 9.30pm.  ABC1

Biographical information: Johnny O'Keefe Website, Wikipedia

Telethon weekend hits Perth

This weekend, 13 and 14 October, Perth's annual Telethon returns for its 40th year.

The appeal, raising funds for various children's charities in Western Australia, began on TVW7 in 1968 and is now a statewide event through TVW7 and its regional affiliate Golden West Network (GWN).

The first Telethon raised $90,182. Since then over $74 million has been raised by the annual event. Previous telethons have featured international performers such as Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson in the '80s, both making the trip to Perth solely for Telethon.

This year's telethon will kick-off with a live coverage of the red carpet arrivals at Perth's Convention Exhibition Centre which is home to Telethon. A number of Seven Network personalities, representing shows including All Saints, Dancing With The Stars, Sunrise, Home & Away and The Morning Show, have made the trek to Perth to be involved with the event, joining resident TVW7 identities including local Seven News presenters Rick Ardon, Susannah Carr and Jeff Newman (a TVW7 veteran with 40 years' service at the station) and Today Tonight host Monika Kos.

The telecast of Telethon begins on TVW7 and GWN, tonight (Saturday 13 October) at 7.30pm (WST) and continues until 9.00pm Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Weekend Sunrise will be broadcast nationally from Perth.

The PerthNow website is also conducting a blog of the event at Telethon As It Happens.

Pictured: Johnny O'Keefe (whose nephew Andrew, host of Deal Or No Deal and Weekend Sunrise, will be appearing at Telethon), Graham Kennedy, Bobby Limb and Stuart Wagstaff go shirtless in the name of charity for TVW7's first telethon in 1968 (source: The West Australian)

UPDATE @ 23.10 (AEST) 14.10.07: Telethon has just signed-off after announcing its final total, a record this year - $6,527,576 including $1 million donated by the WA Government, and $500,000 from Prime Minister John Howard.