1978: December 23-29

Cover: Humphrey B Bear (Here's Humphrey)

Barber's still a big game hunter
Tony Barber has a reputation for stamina, and surviving.  Two years ago, the career of the former radio disc jockey and game show host was at an all-time low with the axing of Great Temptation and Name That Tune and the failure of his variety show for ATN7 Sydney.  To add to his woes, the Nine Network signed him up to host a revival of Great Temptation but it did not eventuate.  Barber then returned to his former home of Perth and there the energetic host bounced back with the national game show Family Feud being produced at TVW7, and now being seen on over 30 stations around Australia. 

When Santa went to war!
Steven Tandy, Richard Morgan and Jamie Higgins (pictured), of The Sullivans, might be indulging in some off-screen Christmas cheer, but things weren't so cheery in the show's early-'40s setting where even Father Christmas was rationed and was banned from appearing in advertising.  Australians were instead encouraged to put their money to more patriotic causes such as war savings loans and bonds.  Sue Cram, researcher for The Sullivans, has been meticulously tracing back just what impact the war had on Australians at Christmas.  There were rations on various items including tea, beer, cigarettes, potatoes, chocolate and nuts, all normally popular items at Christmas.  Australia was also supplying the American forces with food and they got much of the ham that was produced.  On Christmas Eve 1942, the temperature hit 101 degrees Fahrenheit in Melbourne, where even ice was rationed.

Wooley cornered
Former This Day Tonight Hobart reporter Charles Wooley has joined ABC's Four Corners.  The 30-year-old has worked in newspapers and television in Western Australia and Tasmania and joined This Day Tonight in 1974.  Married with "two daughters, a dog and a cat" he sees the move to Four Corners as an advancement in his career.

Shake-up for Lane show
A reshuffle in the production team for Nine's The Don Lane Show has had an impact on plans to take the show out on location in 1979.  Two of the show's comedy writers, Mike McColl-Jones and Tim Evans, already may be missing from the show when it returns in the new year.  McColl-Jones has accepted a position at rival ATV0's Peter Couchman Tonight, and Evans is believed to be in negotiation with HSV7 for the role of producer on the Saturday night Penthouse Club.  Also missing from The Don Lane Show in the new year will be producer Lesley Shaw, to be replaced by producer and former journalist Vince Lovegrove.  And returning to the position of executive producer for the show will be Peter Faiman.

Briefly:
Cop Shop actress Jo-Anne Moore and former This Day Tonight host Sonia Humphrey have been cast for the ABC series Twenty Good Years.  Former The Box actress Helen Hemingway has also been signed up for the series which is currently in production.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I hope we aren't going to be bored to death over the Christmas holidays when all the good shows have a break.  Blankety Blanks saved the day last year but now that's been axed we will be left high and dry." M. Allen, SA.

"Why do we have to have so many repeat programs, and in some cases, repeats of repeats!  There are many programs in Australia which are not screened here in Tasmania.  Is this because we can't afford to have them here? The repeats go on, and even good comedians become stale after a while." J. McRae, TAS.

"Why is it that any decent TV program or movie is programmed for viewing either in the middle of the day or night?  It makes me angry that a top class series like Poldark is screened at 11.00pm, or that the repeat of Upstairs Downstairs is shown at 2.00pm, when working people in 9-5 jobs simply cannot watch." R. Ogilvie, QLD.

What's On (December 23-29):
Saturday brings NSW Open tennis on HSV7, World Series Cricket on GTV9 and Gillette Cup cricket on ATV0.  On Saturday night, Young Talent Time on ATV0 presents a special Christmas edition with an hour of Christmas carols.

Sunday is Christmas Eve, and ABC devotes much of the evening to British Christmas specials.  HSV7 presents a movie, Father Knows Best Reunion, and GTV9's World Series Cricket continues until 10.30pm.  ATV0 continues a Melbourne tradition with Carols By Candlelight from 9.30pm, followed by Christmas Midnight Mass at 11.30pm.  And viewers are offered two versions of the Christmas classic Miracle On 34th Street, with the black-and-white 1947 version airing on HSV7 at 10.00pm, and the more-recent 1973 version on ATV0 earlier in the night at 8.00pm.

Christmas Day on Monday has movies and Christmas specials throughout the day on HSV7 and GTV9, while ATV0 has a late start to the day, commencing transmission at 3.00pm with a repeat of Carols By Candlelight followed by The Early Bird Christmas Day Show.  ABC's traditional Divine Service appears at 10.00am, then the test pattern takes over until mid-afternoon.  At 3.30pm, the cast of Play School, including Benita Collings, John Hamblin, Alister Smart, Don Spencer, John Waters and Noni Hazelhurst, present a special version of the Christmas story, told in Godspell-style with songs, improvisation and props.

ABC's 7.00pm news is cut to ten minutes for Christmas night, followed by the traditional Queen's Christmas Message.  Like the previous night, ABC has more British fare with Christmas specials throughout the evening.  But over at GTV9, not even Family Feud and The Young Doctors get the night off for Christmas, both screening as usual.

Boxing Day, 26 December, has the Australian Open tennis from Kooyong, Melbourne, live on HSV7.  ABC has the One Day International live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and GTV9 has two hours coverage of the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.  The evening includes HSV7's live coverage of the Australian Derby horse racing from Perth.

Friday includes the first day's play in the cricket Third Test, live from the Melbourne Cricket Ground, on ABC.

ATV0's weekday afternoon game show lineup, Blankety Blanks, Pyramid Challenge and Perfect Match, quietly comes to an end on Friday.  For Blankety Blanks (pictured) it is an inglorious end for a program that only a year earlier was a prime-time ratings giant before being moved by ATV0 to a midday timeslot earlier in the year following reports of a falling out between the station and the show's host Graham Kennedy.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 23 December 1978.  ABC/ACP

1978: November 11-17

A little bit of what John fancies
Although he's been an actor since the age of 11, John Meillon (pictured, with Stuart Wagstaff) has never been a walk-on, say-a-few-words, walk-off-again actor... a bit player. But that will change with a role in Bit Part, one of the series of plays featured in ABC's Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse. "This play is quite funny really. It's a sort of joke in the industry, 'Hello, you're finally playing a bit part'," he told TV Times. The veteran actor had declined offers for bit parts in the past, instead choosing the maintain a certain level in the roles he's accepted: "If you want to - with all due respect - be in things like The Restless Years, The Young Doctors and those Crawford things, if you want to do that, well, there is work. But to me the quality work has always been with ABC. My maxim has always been quality over quantity."

More of Parkinson's lore!
British TV interviewer Michael Parkinson is due to come to Australia in early 1979 to record a series of shows for ABC. Parkinson's Saturday night series has been a British favourite for seven years and has been screening on ABC since earlier this year. It's also been revealed that Parkinson was offered the chance to host the Nine Network's upcoming current affairs program 60 Minutes but declined as it meant permanently relocating to Australia.

Happy Dave is here to stay
British comedian Dave Allenby (pictured) first came to Australia in 1970 to compere the Beach Boys concert tour. The sunshine and opportunities for future work was enough to lure him back permanently. Now settled with his family in Australia, Allenby is also settled in as host of the 0-10 Network's new game show Perfect Match, where husband and wife contestants are asked questions about each other: "The format is just right. It's relaxed and I can crack gags and ad-lib as much as I like."

Briefly:
The cast of Cop Shop celebrated the show's 100th episode with a special lunch courtesy of the Seven Network, while Nine's The Young Doctors has just taped its 500th episode.

An album of Irish songs released by The Saturday Show's John MacNally (pictured with co-star Suzanne Steele) has sold more than 120,000 copies, with a single due to be released in time for Christmas and a second album next year.

A five-part documentary series China - The Human Face has been made by Film Australia, breaking the long-standing ban on Western film crews entering the nation. The documentary is expected to screen early in 1979.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I hope that ABC can sell The Truckies overseas. People should understand that Australian truckies' long hauls are not like those in smaller countries. I have been married to a truckie for over 27 years and we all wait to see who the next program will remind us of." B. Longhurst, NSW.

"Why doesn't ABC screen some Elvis Presley movies? When Elvis died only capital city stations showed his movies. But country people who simply receive ABC would like to see his movies too." E. Eames, QLD.

What's On (November 11-17):
11 November is Remembrance Day, and HSV7 takes time out for two minutes silence at 11.00am, while GTV9 presents a special to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Remembrance Day.

On Saturday, ATV0 presents the last day's events of the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Australian series Glenview High returns to HSV7 on Saturday night for screening over the summer months.

GTV9 launches a summer mid-evening edition of National Nine News, screening weeknights at 9.30pm and read by Peter Hitchener.

On Thursday, GTV9 begins four days' coverage of the Australian Open Golf Championships, live from Sydney - with four hours of coverage on each of Thursday and Friday, but interrupted by The Mike Walsh Show and US soaps Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless.

The Brisbane-based Orton's Old Time Music Hall, hosted by Paul Sharratt, begins on GTV9 on Friday night.

Sunday night movies are Love's Dark Ride (HSV7), My Father's House (GTV9) and Up The Sandbox (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 11 November 1978. ABC/ACP

1978: September 30-October 6

Happy the War bride
When Alice Morgan and Michael Watkins (Megan Williams and John Walton, pictured) walk down the aisle together on The Sullivans, the bride's dress will bring back happy memories for one viewer, Mrs Emmett of Victoria, who wore the same dress on her own wedding day in 1943 and offered it to Crawford Productions for use on the series. The wedding of Alice and Michael took place at Melbourne's Church of Our Lady of Victory in Camberwell but, unlike a real wedding, took a full day of rehearsals and filming before Alice could say "I will." The wedding episode of The Sullivans screens this week on GTV9 Melbourne and later in October on TCN9 Sydney and NWS9 Adelaide.

Blinkity blinks!
Most quiz shows give contestants a chance to show how clever they are. Not so, with ABC's new show Micro Macro, as host Noel Ferrier (pictured, centre) says it will show them up with not a clue as to the answer. An adaptation of a European format, Micro Macro will put two teams of celebrity panelists against each other in a quiz of visual puzzles relying on the quickness of the eye. Among the regulars to appear on the show will be Carol Raye, one of Ferrier's companions on Blankety Blanks, and personality Jimmy Hannan, who is more familiar to viewers as a game show host rather than contestant.

The pause that refreshes
This Day Tonight host Clive Hale (pictured) finds there's nothing like a bit of meditation to calm those pre-program nerves, but he's never meditated in the studio, always at home. But since he and wife Elizabeth moved from Adelaide to Sydney so he could take over as host of the NSW version of This Day Tonight, he's often had to give his daily meditation a miss. "I'm determined to get back into it. TV is a high pressure industry and it's fairly unnerving talking into a lens," he told TV Times. Despite the show's increased ratings since Hale took over the hosting role, This Day Tonight is set to finish up later in the year.

The call of the wild!
TV channels are often inundated with phone calls from viewers asking about certain programs or to give feedback - sometimes constructive, but sometimes just illogical! One such phone call went like this:

Caller: "Why have you taken off The Restless Years?"
Receptionist: "But this is Channel 7, and that program is on Channel 0."
Caller: "I don't care. Just tell me why you've taken it off!"

Viewers have also had cause to call up Sydney's TCN9 to complain about The Mike Walsh Show. Rival station TEN10, which used to screen the show, still gets viewers complaints about the program, and ATN7 and ABN2, neither of which have ever screened it, also receive complaints about it!

And in Melbourne, one young viewer calls up HSV7 when The Flintstones is repeated, and always asks to speak to Fred Flintstone, but responds angrily when told that Fred is not available. A Perth woman also called up STW9 to ask if she could borrow a couple of palm trees, as seen on Gilligan's Island, for a Hawaiian party.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"After the never-ending stream of cops and robbers and doctors and nurses, the classic The Importance Of Being Earnest was like a welcome oasis. As it was heralded by TV Times as the movie of the week, earning a four-star rating, one might wonder why good family entertainment such as this could be shown at midnight. Perhaps TEN10 are aiming at giving the dole payees, who don't need to rise at 6 or 7am, a little culture." V. O'Hara, NSW.

"Richard Peach and Richard Morecroft both look great and do a great job of newsreading. And thanks for presenting us with a weatherman, who tells us about the weather. Better than the over-glorified, shiny females of the commercial stations." A. Voake, SA.

"Having watched The Truckies' episode 'Country Music', I register my disgust with the series. Having virtually endured the previous episodes (because we haven't a choice of channels), the 'Country Music' episode I found most distasteful. If ABC is hoping to sell the series overseas I now add that it will certainly paint a sad and sorry picture of our Australian male, and our truckies in particular." W. G. Walker, WA.

What's On (September 30-October 6):
HSV7's live telecast of the 1978 VFL Grand Final is not listed in the program guides, possibly not confirmed at time of publication, but a full replay is scheduled for 6.30pm Saturday night.

Following the Grand Final, Penthouse '78 presents a special edition to celebrate 1000 episodes of HSV7's World Of Sport, featuring highlights of over twenty years of the world's longest running sports show. Joining host Ernie Sigley is World Of Sport host Ron Casey and regulars including Bill Collins, Fred Villiers, Jack Elliot, Rollo Roylance, Lou Richards and Gus Mercurio.

Sunday morning and afternoon on HSV7 is dominated by the Hardie-Ferodo 1000, over nine hours of live coverage from Bathurst Raceway in NSW.

Monday afternoon marks the debut of ATV0's new game shows Pyramid Challenge and Perfect Match and variety show The Steve Raymond Show.

The documentary The Last Tasmanian features on ATV0 on Wednesday night, a two-hour presentation tracing the genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigines, starting with the arrival of white man in 1803 and culminating with the death of Truganini - the Last Tasmanian - in 1876.

Sunday night movies are Sharon: Portrait Of A Mistress (HSV7), Soldier Blue (GTV9) and the premiere of US series Dallas (ATV0) with the first series of five episodes to be screened over three nights. ATV0 follows Dallas with a special presentation, Television's 22 Years, hosted by Steve Raymond (pictured) and featuring guests Graham Kennedy and Johnny O'Keefe.

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

1978: August 19-25

Gil is an actor by accident
In the Seven Network's police drama Cop Shop, Gil Tucker (pictured, with co-star Paula Duncan) has taken on one of TV's biggest challenges - character comedy - but the thirty-year-old admits that he only got into acting by accident. It was only after a near-fatal fall from a sportscar that led to a lengthy hospital stay that prompted him to reflect on life and that it was going nowhere. Soon after leaving hospital he played a minor role in the production of Othello for Sydney's Independent Theatre and the acting career moved on from there with a stint at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), more theatre roles and then an appearance in ABC's Power Without Glory before scoring the role of the bumbling Constable Roy Baker in Cop Shop.

Scott free!
After two years as the over-efficient Sister Grace Scott (pictured) in The Young Doctors, actress Cornelia Frances is leaving the series to move to Melbourne with her husband whose job had transferred there. "I've grown very close to the people I work with and our friends are in Sydney, so it's a nasty uprooting. But, of course, we'll make new friends in Melbourne," she told TV Times. Producers of the series insist that Sister Scott will not be written out permanently and that the door will be left open for her to return.

Ready, set, go for two quizzes
A honeymoon around the world and $25,000 are the two major prizes being offered by the Grundy Organisation in its two new quiz shows, Perfect Match and The Pyramid Challenge. Both programs, to be produced at TVQ0 Brisbane, are expected to debut next month across the 0-10 Network. Perfect Match intends to feature newlywed couples and question them separately about their relationship. The winning couple will be the one with the most, or closest, matched answers. The Pyramid Challenge, to be hosted by former Coles £3000 Question compere Malcolm Searle, promises to be a general knowledge quiz where contestants can work their way up a pyramid from one level to the next to win a potential prize of $25,000.

Travolta by satellite
John Travolta will be one of the first international stars to be featured in a new series of satellite interviews to be conducted on The Don Lane Show. Producer Peter Faiman said that about 10 satellite interviews were in planning, with others to feature Lucille Ball, Burt Reynolds and the Bee Gees.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I would like to complain about something that I have noticed recently on ATN7 Sydney - that Channel 7 can't spell 'colour', but insist on writing 'color'. By the time you get to be grown up, I think you should be able to spell a simple six-letter word: 'Color' is the American way. Wake up Channel 7! Have you realised this is Australia? I am only 11 years old, but a spelling mistake on TV sticks out like a sore thumb!" M. Fenley, NSW

"We three disappointed fans, who watch The Restless Years every week, were very sorry to see Penny (Deborah Coulls) has suddenly dropped out of the show and her replacement, Sue Smithers, does not resemble her in any way and her personality is completely different. We think the show is fabulous and the acting excellent apart from this." The Leoni family, QLD.

"I would like to say how much I admire Ian Meldrum's work on the TV documentary concerning heroin (TV Times, 1 July 1978). I think there should be more people to make a stand against the drug scene." S. Shields, TAS.

What's On (August 19-25)
ATV0 presents The Australian Film Institute Awards, live from Perth's Entertainment Centre. Finalists for the Awards' Best Film category are The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith, Newsfront, Mouth To Mouth and Patrick.

Monday night, ATV0 presents the curiously titled Thank God It's Friday At The Zoo, a variety program with a focus on local and overseas disco performances, hosted by Sydney radio personality Ian MacRae.

HSV7's Wednesday night movie is the Canadian documentary Games Of The XXI Olympiad 1976, reviewing the Games held in Montreal depicting some of the great personal triumphs and challenges not seen in the mainstream coverage of the fifteen-day event.

A number of celebrity specials during the week including Gene Kelly - An American In Pasadena (GTV9), Lucille Ball - The First 25 Years (ATV0), and Glen Campbell And Olivia Newton-John - Down Home, Down Under (GTV9).

Sunday night movies are The Jerusalem File (HSV7), Can Can (GTV9) and How Sweet It Is (ATV0). ABC's Sunday night variety show Capriccio! features music chosen by former cricketer and commentator Richie Benaud and performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 19 August 1978. ABC/ACP