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: December 8-14

Sergeant O’Reilly’s ball and chain!
A happy occasion on Seven’s Cop Shop with the wedding of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan).  The wedding, held in an outdoor setting, will go to air this week in Melbourne and Brisbane and later in Sydney.

Arcade builds into a blockbuster
Production on Cash-Harmon’s new soap opera, Arcade, has started at the studios of TEN10, Sydney.  The new big-budget series is hoped be a hit with viewers the same way as their previous hit show, Number 96.  However, unlike 96, Arcade is expected to rely on humour rather than sex and violence.  Among the scriptwriting team for Arcade are former Number 96 writers Johnny Whyte and David Sale.  Whyte was flown in from London especially to work on the Arcade script.  TEN10’s Studio A has been re-modelled into a mock shopping complex, with shop sets designed down to the last detail, while a shopping complex in the suburb of Cremorne is being used for outdoor shots.  More than 1300 people were auditioned for roles in Arcade, and some of the actors and actresses chosen will be making their TV debut in the series, joining more familiar cast names including Lorrae Desmond, Peggy Toppano (Blankety Blanks), Olga Tamara, Greg Bepper (Class Of ‘74, Glenview High) and former Number 96 stars Aileen Britton and Mike Dorsey.  Although a timeslot for Arcade has yet to be decided, producers are hoping to launch the series with a movie-length debut in mid-January.

Future shocks
Robert Moore, the former host of the long-running Monday Conference, is now presenting Faces Of The Eighties, a series of seven half-hour interviews with influential Australians heading into the new decade.  But Moore predicts that there may be tough times ahead in the 1980s: “We’re a lot more frightened today.  For instance, people have now come to believe – and not just the experts – that we may never see full employment again.  The idea of full employment may just have been a passing phase in human history.  We were lucky enough to enjoy it, but it’s running out now.”  Moore also predicts that Australians will continue to become fonder of a warmer climate, which will see a population boom in Queensland and Western Australia: “If this is true, you’d be pretty dumb buying land for houses in Tasmania and Victoria today.”

Young Doctors take the cake
It was a multiple birthday celebration when TCN9, Sydney, threw a party for the cast of The Young Doctors to celebrate its third birthday last month.  The party, a four-hour cruise of Sydney Harbour, also coincided with cast member Alfred Sandor’s birthday, with a cake and a kiss for the birthday boy from colleagues Rebecca Gilling and Karen Pini.

 

Briefly…
Actor Gary Gray and his new wife Honor Walters were in the money when the horse they co-own, Miss Pere, won the first race at Sandown recently.

Country music star and host of Country Homestead, Reg Lindsay is finally noticing, after ten years of regular visits to the United States, that he is starting to be recognised.  “They know me in Nashville.  They say ‘Why, that’s the Australian fellow’.  I’ve had half a dozen singles released in the US and the album I made in Nashville will be released later this year.  We’re still thinking of a title.”

Mike Dorsey, starring in the new series Arcade, has had to grow a beard to try and distance himself from his former on-screen persona of Reg ‘Daddy’ McDonald in Number 96.  Despite appearing in The Young Doctors since Number 96 ended two years ago, he is still recognised as the former character.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Complaints to TEN10, Sydney, for not televising the 1979 Custom Credit Indoor Championships at a respectable time.  We were very disappointed at not being able to view their outstanding matches, along with their respective interviews, and feel other viewers share our opinion that 10.30pm to 1.30am is not a suitable timeslot for people who work and have to rise early.”  K. Kand, NSW.

“When the commercial channels screen a film in the 7.30pm timeslot, why do they almost double the viewing time by screening innumerable commercials?  People who view at this time usually like, or need, to go to bed early, and if you are enjoying the film, it is annoying to have to switch off halfway through.” M. Walker, NSW.

“Why do we have to put up with Diana Fisher and her silly remarks on The Inventors? Vic Nicolson and Professor Stephenson both know what they’re talking about, but what does Diana Fisher know?  Her remarks about colours etc must nearly drive most people mad.” B. Heald, NSW.

What’s On (December 8-14):
Weekend sport includes the World Series Cricket, live from Melbourne, on GTV9, and tennis with the NSW Women’s Classic, from White City, Sydney, on HSV7.

HSV7’s movie host Ivan Hutchinson presents a 90-minute special previewing all the big-screen movies to be released over the Christmas break – titles including The Muppet Movie, Star Trek, Apocalypse Now, Rocky 2, Meteor, 10 and More American Graffiti.

Former Monday Conference host Robert Moore (pictured) presents the first in a seven-part series, Faces Of The Eighties, interviewing Sir Roderick Carnegie, chairman and managing director of Australia’s second largest company and largest mining company, CRA.

GTV9 has some long-gone Australian series in its late-night summer line-up – Luke’s Kingdom, King’s Men and the comedy Last Of The Australians.

In Skyways (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), Simon (Ken James) and Kelly (Joanne Samuel) set a date for their wedding.  Meanwhile, in Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday), the marriage of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan).

Sunday night movies: A Howling In The Woods (HSV7), Night Flight From Moscow (GTV9), The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 8 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: November 24-30

Sisters: For better and worse!
Although Rebecca Gilling and Diana McLean (pictured, with co-star Peter Lochran) are only sisters on-screen, as Nurse Liz Kennedy and Sister Vivienne Jeffries in The Young Doctors, their friendship off-screen has similar characteristics.  “On camera, I have a similar relationship with Diana as with my own sister Tracy, in that we do have our ups and downs, do tend to take each other for granted.  But in a crunch, we stick together!” Gilling told TV Times – though their separate childhoods were quite different.  McLean was essentially brought up as an only child as her older brother had died from Down’s syndrome at the age of 8:  “I grew up in a grown-up world, with few close relatives, except my maternal grandmother.  Like most only children, I was always conscious of wishing I had lots of brothers and sisters.  Then my mother was stricken with cancer and died when I was 13.  During the previous six years she was ill, I was cared for by a maid and my grandmother.  Sounds like a poor little rich girl, doesn’t it?  But it’s true, I had everything I wanted but nothing I really wanted.”  Rebecca Gilling was the youngest of four children.  “My mother has a highly individual approach to rearing children.  Both my parents encouraged us to have very strong personalities and a strong sense of humour.  The four of us were all very close when we were small.  Being the youngest has its perks and its serious drawbacks.  There was always the dichotomy of being one minute too young – and the next being told, why don’t you grow up?  It also meant I wore hand-down clothes which were a bit battered by the time they’d gone through three tomboys.  Then, when I was 12, I retaliated by growing taller than the others.  Then I had to get new clothes.”

Brush with the law!
Liz Burch (pictured), the girl from the toothpaste commercials, is the new girl in Cop Shop – and it’s given her a ring of confidence.  The 24-year-old joins the series as Vic Cameron’s (Terry Donovan) younger sister, Liz Cameron.  It is her first big break in TV after five years of trying to get into showbusiness, including three rejections from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).  The young actress came from Sydney to Melbourne to audition for a role in Young Ramsay, but was unsuccessful.  Her agent encouraged her to apply for the Cop Shop role, despite the fact that her only TV experience was in commercials.  “My biggest speaking part had been in a toothpaste commercial, telling a bloke he could do his own navigating next time.”

Love behind bars!
ABC stations in all states will be involved in a new public affairs program, Line-Up, to screen from December while the usual public affairs programs are on a break for summer.  The new program, to fill the timeslot normally occupied by Four Corners, will be hosted by former Nationwide and This Day Tonight reporter Paul Griffiths.  Executive producer for the program, Richard Watson, said the program will not be unlike the former magazine-style program, Saturday Week, but will have “more in-depth” content:  “It could be likened to a miniature Big Country.  The team will travel a great deal around Australia to make documentary films of varying durations within a flexible format.”  Another new series, Faces Of The Eighties, will be hosted by former Monday Conference compere Robert Moore (pictured), and will go to air on Wednesday nights in the timeslot normally occupied by Nationwide.  Faces Of The Eighties will feature interviews with Australians who are are leaders in their various fields, and who will continue to shape Australian society during the 1980s.  Overseas programs that will fill the Nationwide timeslot on Mondays include Collision Course, a documentary drama about a mid-air crash between two airliners over Yugoslavia in 1976, and Love Behind Bars, a look at a Texas prison where convicts of both sexes are allowed to mix.

Briefly…
Former Young Talent Time cast member Vikki Broughton is heading to Europe to star in a TV series for Italian network Telenova.  Broughton is currently in Sydney recording the soundtrack for the series of five half-hour specials, which will be filmed on location around Lake Como.

ABC’s rural affairs program Countrywide has won an award in the current affairs category at the recent Penguin awards in Melbourne.  Another ABC program, A Big Country, also won awards for Bob Connolly, for best producer and director, and Bob Plato for best script for a documentary or special report.

Former Number 96 star Joseph Furst’s guest appearance in The Young Doctors has so impressed the producers that they have decided to keep the character for future episodes.  Furst plays a mysterious German businessman, Heinrick Smeaton.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The way Countdown is cut off during the number one song is thoughtless.  This song has been chosen number one by the public and is the one the majority of people want to hear.” S. Milward, VIC.

“While watching QTQ9, Brisbane, I heard the newsreader say: ‘And how that famous Irishman, Mike Walsh.’  I always thought Mike was a true-blue Australian.” F. Bellman, QLD.

“Why does TCN9, Sydney, leave scenes out of the shows they screen?  To date I have noticed entire scenes missing from shows such as Love Boat and Starsky And Hutch.  This practice does tend to leave one somewhat confused, as the missing scenes are frequently referred to in what is left of the show.  Surely the channels should not have the right to indiscriminately cut scenes from their shows whenever they feel like it (apparently for the purpose of screening more commercials – which, according to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, should be limited to 11 minutes in any case).” N. Lewis, NSW.

“I agree with S. Pye (Viewpoint, 20 October 1979) about the program So You Want To Be A Centrefold.  A friend and I (both females) watched this program, as our boyfriends said they were both going to watch it.  We were both absolutely disgusted, as well as being embarrassed.  I felt these girls must be cheap to pose nude in front of a cameraman, then to be filmed for TV.  It is bad enough that they do this in magazines, let alone display their unclothed bodies on the screen.  Are there no morals left in this world?”  T. Yesberg, QLD.

What’s On (November 24-30):
HSV7 crosses live to Kooyong Tennis Stadium, Melbourne, for live coverage of the Satellite Circuit Tennis Finals, with commentators Peter Landy, Garry Wilkinson and Allan Stone.  The coverage airs from midday to 6.00pm on both Saturday and Sunday and starts Seven’s daily coverage of tennis action for much of the summer.  From Monday, Seven covers the Toyota Women’s Classic, live from Kooyong each day from 11.00am to 6.00pm.

Starting Monday night, and continuing through summer, GTV9 has a mid-evening news bulletin at 9.30pm in addition to the usual 6.30pm news.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup, Australia versus West Indies.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm and, apart from a one-hour break at 6.00pm, continues through to 10.30pm.

In Prisoner’s season finale (ATV0, Wednesday), Lizzie (Sheila Florance, pictured) is a bit under the weather, and Greg (Barry Quin) discovers a theft from the examination room.  Pat (Monica Maughan) finds herself in a predicament, while David (David Letch) makes plans for revenge.

Michael Schildberger and Peter Hanrahan have replaced Bruce Mansfield and Annette Allison at the ATV0 Eyewitness News desk.

On Thursday night, 60 Minutes presents a special one-hour report, Year Zero – The Silent Death Of Cambodia, presenter by award-winning journalist John Pilger, the first western journalist allowed inside Kampuchea.

Sunday night movies: Perfect Gentleman (HSV7), Strange Homecoming (GTV9), The Abdication (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 24 November 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: April 21-27

Busted!  Linda Stoner’s day in a real cop shop
Cop Shop newcomer Lynda Stoner (pictured, with co-star Gil Tucker) spent a day at Melbourne’s Russell Street police station to get some practical advice on the type of police work the actress may be expected to emulate in the popular Seven Network series.  The former Miss TV Times winner is also finding that, like in her previous role as a nurse in The Young Doctors, the uniforms are proving to be a bit of a problem: “I didn’t like the nurses uniform and this police uniform is a problem, too.  I’m two sizes bigger around the top than the bottom.  The skirts seem to sag while the buttons at the top do not have much chance of lasting long!”  

TV series for ethnic groups
The Government-funded Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is producing a series of three-hour programs to screen on ABC on Sunday mornings from later this month. Executive producer of the weekly program is Rowan Ayers, a former BBC executive who was recently a producer of special projects for the Nine Network.  Ayers was also an executive producer of the Nine documentary series The Africans, which screened earlier this month.  Although the series features programs of interest to as many as forty different ethnic groups, Ayers hopes that the programs offered by SBS will be of interest to all Australians:  “The series is not meant only for migrant groups.  We hope that all Australians will find it interesting as well and will learn about the different ethnic groups in this country.  Each program is basically a ‘network’ of different programs, some from other countries and others made in Australia.  We’ll have material from places such as Korea, Thailand, Greece, Italy, Germany, Turkey and France.”

Bert Newton in TV deal
The Nine Network is about to announce a new contract deal which will make Bert Newton (pictured) possibly the highest paid performer in Australian TV.  The Nine deal, which comes just after Newton was signed to a Melbourne radio station to a five-year contract worth $1 million, follows a very generous offer made by the Seven Network last year in response to Nine poaching Seven personalities including Brian Naylor and Paul Hogan.  The Seven offer eventually failed when network stations outside of Melbourne shirked at the cost of hiring someone whose popularity is not as strong outside of Melbourne.  The previous year, Newton, his on-air partner Don Lane and producer Peter Faiman were also made an offer to move The Don Lane Show across to ATV0.

Airport series set for take-off
Production is well underway on the new Seven Network drama series Skyways.  The series, set in an international airport, has a cast of thirteen – including Deborah Coulls (The Restless Years), Bartholomew John (The Young Doctors, The Penthouse Club), Bruce Barry, Tony Bonner (Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, Cop Shop), Ken James (Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, The Box), Joanne Samuel (Class Of ‘74, The Young Doctors), Brian James, Judy Morris, Gaynor Martin and New Zealand actor Bill Stalker (pictured).  No screening date or timeslot has been announced as yet but inside sources claim the series will be aimed for an early-evening timeslot.

High energy channel!
A report presented on BTQ7’s Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane, on an alternative source of energy, has gained national interest.  Producer Earle Bailey had found that the Horvath Energy System, invented by 49-year-old Stephen Horvath of Sydney, was given only minimal coverage in the southern states.  Bailey then sent a team to Sydney to assess the invention that claimed to produce everlasting, pollution-free and inexpensive energy by a fusion process using hydrogen and its isotopes.  It was claimed that the system, which Horvath had already installed in his car, could be mass-produced within 16 months, reducing the dependency on fossil fuels.  The BTQ7 report was later picked up by HSV7 Melbourne and TVW7 Perth and also distributed worldwide by Visnews.

Briefly…
The Seven Network has joined the Nine Network and ABC in bidding for the rights to televise the 1979-80 Australian Test cricket season.  The 0-10 Network may have dropped out of the race after Sydney press reported details of their bid to the Australian Cricket Board.

Plans to present an edition of The Don Lane Show from within Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison have been dropped.  Producer Peter Faiman said the show, to air this week, will still feature interviews and filmed stories from within the 150-year-old prison but will be presented from GTV9’s studios as usual.  Faiman also promised a surprise, saying that during the show they will breaking a major historic discovery.

After 21 months as Alison Clark in The Restless Years, Julieanne Newbould has asked to be written out of the show: “At the moment I don’t know what I’ll do.  But there comes a time when you can become typecast.”

The ‘Brian Tells Me So’ tune that TCN9 and GTV9 have been using to promote their newsreaders – Brian Henderson and Brian Naylor – has become so popular it is to be released as a single.

Former Number 96 and The Box star Briony Behets has agreed to a guest role in the new series Prisoner.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I am appalled that ABC would put such a blunderer as Ian Meldrum on air, especially as Countdown is one of their most popular shows.  A perfect example of this man’s foolishness was when he was talking to tennis star Vitas Gerulaitas and he addressed him as Bjorn.” J. Ward, QLD.

“I would like to say how exciting it is to see ABC coming back into current affairs with Nationwide.  The closing down of This Day Tonight and Monday Conference left ABC viewers with a feeling of desolation.” L. Mills, SA.

“Why is The Sullivans (pictured) screened every weeknight in Sydney and only twice a week in Perth?  It’s a bit lousy because Perth will never catch up with Sydney!” C. Simmonds, WA.

 

 

What’s On (April 21-27):
Weekend sport on ABC includes live coverage of the King’s Club Regatta from Adelaide and the World Hockey Tournament from Perth.

This Week Has Seven Days (HSV7, Saturday afternoon) features a segment on Australian varieties of lizards.  This week’s medical segment looks at skin burns. And the careers segment looks at the job of the veterinary nurse.

Documentary series This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) presents the first of a two-part episode on war.  Peter Luck talks to survivors of the German and Japanese prison camps.

Monday night on HSV7, Norman Gunston presents his first special for 1979 with international guests including Lee Marvin, the Bee Gees, Dinah Shore, Barry Manilow, Troy Donahue, Dionne Warwick, Karen Black and Harry Reems, a star of the adult film Deep Throat.

ABC presents the premiere of its new drama series Twenty Good Years.  The story begins in 1956.  Ron (Harold Hopkins) meets Anne (Anne Pendlebury), a Jewish girl.  When the relationship becomes series, both the couple (pictured) and their families are faced with some difficult decisions.  The series also stars Leila Hayes, John Murphy, Jonathan Hardy, Anne Charleston, Julia Blake and Michael Carman.

ANZAC Day is commemorated with various programs during the day.  ABC presents live coverage of the ANZAC Day March, followed by a special, The ANZAC Story, which looks at the ANZACs during the Great War 1914-18.  ATV0 presents a one-hour special Return To ANZAC, featuring the 1975 pilgrimage of 70 Australians to ANZAC Cove.  Later in the afternoon, ATV0 presents the ANZAC episode of the series Australians At War.

Sunday night movies: The Savage Bees (HSV7), Adventures Of A Taxi Driver (GTV9), Carry On Round The Bend (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 21 April 1979.  ABC/ACP

1978: December 30-January 5

Holden rocks Hollywood
Mark Holden burst onto American TV screens in Hollywood's Diamond Jubilee special. Within days the CBS network's Hollywood offices were deluged with fan mail. But, despite his newfound attention, the Aussie pop star is keeping a low profile on the PR circuit. Besides, he has enough to keep him busy with writing and recording songs for his new album, working with a drama coach, and keeping various business appointments. And the phone doesn't stop ringing. Holden's new American album, to be released in 1979, will feature a new direction for him musically with a stronger focus on rock and roll.

The Dean Report
TV Times columnist Peter Dean looks back on the year 1978, describing it as a year 'remarkable mediocrity, broken by the occasional oasis of quality'. Dean's highlights of the year included imported series I Claudius, Are You Being Served?, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Who and The Muppet Show. Current affairs program Willesee At Seven was the only Australian program to make his 'best of' list. Even big-ticket mini-series Holocaust, hailed as the TV event of the year, was reviewed by Dean as "a novelettish treatment of indescribable human agony, presented with slicknesss and flair, but failing to move or ignite." Dean lamented the axe falling on current affairs programs This Day Tonight, Monday Conference and A Current Affair, and deemed Blankety Blanks the winner of the Vinegar Award for supremacy in bad taste. Sport had a bumper year with cricket, golf, tennis, racing, World Cup soccer and the Commonwealth Games.

Doctor on the glow
Feeling tired after a day at the office? Then go for a jog - that's the advice given by Bartholomew John (pictured) the New Zealand actor appearing in The Young Doctors: "It's the best way to get rid of tiredness. It wakes you up, sharpens your appetite - and puts the fridge out of reach so you don't nibble." He also suggests a quick dip afterwards, even in winter. "I'm certainly no Bondi iceberg but sometimes in winter, instead of going to the heated pool at the gym, I jump into the surf. But go for a run to warm up. It's freezing in - but it is refreshing."

Briefly:
The title of the new 0-10 Network drama series Prisoner has been changed to Women Behind Bars.

The second series of Father Dear Father, made in Australia for the Seven Network, is likely to be seen first in the United Kingdom where it is scheduled for screening in the new year.

Fred Parslow, who played Jarvis in The Sullivans, returns to Crawford Productions to play a guest role as a dodgy businessman in Cop Shop.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"Countdown is a very entertaining show and even my parents watch it sometimes, although they have the volume turned down low." F. Allison, SA.

"It is great that overseas networks have bought Against The Wind (pictured) as they now shouldn't be so ignorant as to think that Australians only have koalas living in our backyard gum trees and kangaroos hopping in and out of shopping centres." D. Hewett, VIC.

"Of all the Sunday night shows the various channels offer us, the ABC series Nicholas Nickleby, standards inestimably above the rest. With such perfect casting and brilliant overall production, shows like Nicholas Nickleby put the best of Australia's and America's dramatic offerings to shame." E. Hawksford, NSW.

What's On (December 30-January 6):
New Year's Eve is Sunday, and ABC features British and American specials on the night before a New Year's presentation at 11.59pm and music special Blood Sweat And Tears just after midnight. HSV7 presents New Year's greetings at midnight, followed by a special edition of Nightmoves. GTV9 does little special for the evening with movies running through the night, and ATV0 closes down before midnight.

Sport continues throughout the week with the Australian Open from Melbourne, and Australian Hardcourt Championships from Tasmania, on HSV7, World Series Cricket on GTV9 and continuation of the cricket Third Test on ABC.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 30 December 1978. ABC/ACP

1978: March 4-10

Red-hot plan home and hosed:
ABC's Monday Conference host Bob Moore (that's not him on the cover!)found the only way to tackle Moscow's minus 18 degree temperatures was to wear pantyhose. Moore had embarked on a tour including Canada, USA, Russia, India and Hong Kong to investigate TV news and current affairs programs around the world. But for Moore the more pressing issue was finding the right size of pantyhose, when he admitted to having to resort to a brand called Chubby Chick!

A TV test for lovers:
A special to air on the 0-10 Network during the week will ask men and women how many points out of 100 they would give themselves or their partner. The Australian Sex, Love And Marriage Test would also ask such questions as 'have you ever wished you had not married?' and 'if you found your teenage daughter had lost her virginity, what would your reaction be?'.

TV cameras go shopping for the housewife:
ABC announces plans to get out into suburbia for its new daytime show Lookout. The proposed 13-week series, to air at midday, will feature live broadcasts from shopping centres around Australia with segments aimed at the housewife audience covering topics such as health, cooking, gardening, consumer advice and fitness. Lookout is preparing for a May launch from Sydney's Roselands shopping centre, and is to be hosted by ABC rural affairs reporter Paul Williams.

Julie for Jokes:
Former Naked Vicar Show cast member Julie McGregor is returning to TV to feature in a new six-part sketch comedy series Jokes. The new series, to be produced in Sydney for ABC, is also to feature Noni Hazelhurst, Terry Bader and Chris Heywood.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I am thankful that my TV set is able to receive Sydney channels now our one and only Newcastle commercial channel, NBN3, has dropped A Current Affair and substituted Willesee At Seven. I found A Current Affair to be much more interesting and more to my taste." T. Grant, NSW.

"We need a further serial continuing the life of Bellbird. I don't know how I'm going to get through 1978 without it. It was the highlight of my day, the best program TV has ever produced." L. Strehling, QLD.

"Recent letters have bemoaned the poor treatment that science-fiction fans receive from TV stations. But little is mentioned of the plight of the horror devotee. On those rare occasions when the channels screen good horror, one is always apprehensive that crucial scenes may have been censored." M. Newton, NSW.

What's On (March 4-10):
The Moomba festival is on in Melbourne, and ATV0 gets in on the fun with live telecasts of the 1978 Birdman Rally and Bathtub Regatta events on Sunday afternoon.

Women's magazine icon Margaret Fulton presents a five-minute prime-time series on ABC, Recipes From The Duchess Of Duke Street, based on recipes from the British drama series screening on Sunday nights.

The sketch comedy series The Naked Vicar Show and the premiere movie The Cars That Ate Paris dominate HSV7's Wednesday night.

Night football makes an appearance with the Friday night AMCO Herald Cup, live from VFL Park, on HSV7, while ABC presents the final episode of the Australian mini-series Loss Of Innocence.

Sunday night's premiere movies are Snowbeast (HSV7), Having Babies (GTV9) and Pocket Money (ATV0), while I Claudius continues on ABC.

Cover: Shaun Cassidy
Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 4-10 March 1978, ABC/ACP