1979: September 15-21

Cover: Mike Walsh

Top job for Robyn
Actress Robyn Nevin has scored a major role in the upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge.  Nevin will play the role of over-possessive foster mother Shasta in the mini-series based on Sumner Locke Elliott’s novel.  The role will also provide Nevin a more personal challenge – she scored the role of chain-smoking Shasta only days after quitting the habit in real life, “but I plan to stop again once the series has finished.”  The million-dollar production, funded by the Victoria Film Corporation, Australian Film Commission, South Pacific Television (New Zealand) and the 0-10 Network, will be produced in Melbourne even though the story is set in Sydney in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Jarratt tip for TV Kelly
Sydney actor John Jarratt (pictured) is the hot favourite to win the lead role of Ned Kelly in the new Seven Network mini-series now in production.  Ian Jones and Against The Wind producer Bronwyn Binns are now working on locations, scripts and other logistics for a start to production soon.  Jones, however, was reluctant to give away any clues as to who would play the lead role: “It would be dreadful to release a statement about such a thing and then have the actor miss out on the role.”

Graham Kennedy: The man and the myth
TV Times presents the first instalment on a series of articles about Graham Kennedy.  Born on 15 February 1934, the young Kennedy lived with his grandmother after his parents had separated.  As a Melbourne schoolboy, he worked at his uncle’s barber shop in Collins Street, in the same building as the newsroom for Radio Australia – he was then offered a job as copy boy for the broadcaster.  But his big radio break came at the age of 17, as the sidekick to Melbourne radio legend Cliff Nicholls “Nicky” Whitta on 3UZ: “Nicky became my mentor.  I was his straight man.  He taught me how to use radio, not just be in it.  He taught me how to send up a commercial and sell it at the same time.”  A guest appearance on a GTV9 telethon in 1957 brought him to the attention of TV producers, looking for a host for the channel’s new tonight show, In Melbourne Tonight.  IMT producer Norm Spencer said of Kennedy, “I think Kennedy is the greatest TV salesman ever.  If he advertised a product, it sold.  He got comedy out of the commercial spots and his unique rubbishing a product made fortunes for manufacturers.  Mind you we often got into trouble with the (then) Control Board because sometimes an ad spot might run for five minutes, but how do you judge where a commercial pitch stops and the comedy starts?”  Writer Hugh Stuckey, who was one of the writers for the early In Melbourne Tonight shows, writing as many as 16 comedy spots a week plus nightly topical gags, remembers Kennedy would sometimes insult his writers on camera, particularly if a gag fell flat:  “Sometimes I had to be physically restrained while watching this at home on TV from driving back to the studio and donging him one!  (But) off-camera he was always pleasant to us and never complained about his material.”  Philip Brady, the butt of many Kennedy jokes, has worked with Kennedy for years but seldom saw him lose his temper.  Though, the 1975 incident where Kennedy’s ‘crow call’ saw him banned from appearing on live TV led to some cutting remarks about the Minister for the Media.  Watching the delayed telecast from his dressing room, he exploded when he saw that his comments had been cut out.  He stormed out of the studio and, according to Brady, “I don’t think he ever came back.” While many took the attitude that the King had lost his crown, he was back on-air in 1977 as the host of a new game show, Blankety Blanks, an adaptation of an American format.  The Kennedy ad lib magic turned the show into one of the biggest hits of the year.  Next Week: Graham Kennedy – Myths, money, movies and women.

Briefly…
The Seven Network has turned down the McCabe-Paradine series Paradise Valley, though they still want to show the pilot as a telemovie.

The Sullivans will be taking production overseas next year, with plans to tape scenes in the Netherlands.  It will be the first time that location filming for the series is to be done outside of Australia – as storylines that featured Changi prison, the Middle East and Europe were all filmed in Australia.

Actor Paul Karo has returned to Australia after a lengthy stay overseas.  The former The Box star has been offered a role in a touring stage production, Flexitime, as well as a guest role in The Sullivans.

Tom Burlinson (pictured) has announced he is leaving The Restless Years, having played the role of Mickey Pratt for over a year:  “I want to work in other areas, such as films and stage.”

Despite his recent return to The Sullivans, Andrew McFarlane is not in any hurry to re-commit to an ongoing role in the series.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I haven’t seen the movie Picnic At Hanging Rock, but I liked the book very much and was wondering when the movie will screen on TV.” D. Findlay, VIC. (TV Times responds: The Seven Network will screen it next year.)

“Congratulations on the new series of The Inventors, but the viewing public are still stuck with the ever-boring Diana Fisher.” R. Nelson, WA.

“I have watched every episode of The Sullivans, The Restless Years, Prisoner and The Young Doctors, and in my opinion the two outstanding actresses are Victoria Nicolls and Susan Hannaford.  Val Lehman, as Bea in Prisoner, is also excellent.  I know that June Salter won a best actress title last year, but she was always June Salter and not really Miss Mackenzie in The Restless Years.  I am over 80 and I always read every word in TV Times.” N. Montagu, NSW.

What’s On (September 15-21):
Ask The Leyland Brothers (GTV9, Saturday) travels to New Zealand to visit Queenstown and take a ride down the Shotover River.  The Leylands also visit South Australia’s Coorong Lagoon and discover some of the unique wildlife it supports.

In Prisoner (ATV0, Tuesday and Wednesday), Monica (Lesley Baker) is worried about her parole.  Bea Smith (Val Lehman) is released from solitary and is a changed woman.  Karen (Peita Toppano, pictured) gets involved in the prison reform group.

GTV9 reruns a one-hour telemovie, Do I Have To Kill My Child?, looking at child abuse, both physical and emotional, its causes and effects.  Starring Jackie Weaver, Brendon Lunney and Willie Fennell.

Jimmy Hannan hosts the 1979 Quest of Quests, a direct telecast from the Albert Hall, Canberra.  (GTV9, Wednesday)  A repeat of The Barry Humphries Show screens the same night on ATV0.

Sunday night movies: The Fourth Wish (HSV7), The Three Musketeers (GTV9), Hannie Calder (ATV0).  ABC screens A Family Man, starring Paul Mason, Jenny McNae, Moya O’Sullivan and Arkie Whiteley, the fourth instalment of the series of plays A Place In The World.  Other movies to appear during the week include: Last Tango In Paris (ATV0), Yours Mine And Ours (HSV7), The Great Escape (ATV0) and Rescue From Gilligan’s Island (GTV9).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 15 September 1979.  ABC/ACP

Philip Brady's big 5-0

There aren't many people in Australia that can claim to have had fifty years in the radio and television spotlight. Bert Newton and John Laws are two that have made that milestone, but this weekend another one joins the ranks when Philip Brady (pictured) celebrates fifty years in radio and television, having started his first shift as a booth announcer at GTV9 in Melbourne on 6 April 1958.

Starting at GTV9 on a two-week trial, Philip continued at GTV9 for thirteen years as an announcer, a regular on In Melbourne Tonight, and presenting a daytime show on radio station 3AK after the station was bought by GTV9 in the early-'60s. He also hosted GTV9's early-'60s game show Concentration. Philip was then again at 3AK as one of the line-up of 'Good Guys' when the station adopted a Top 40 music format in the late '60s, and also hosted GTV9's afternoon panel game show Everybody's Talking.

Following a break after the demise of In Melbourne Tonight, Philip returned to radio, presenting a weekend program on 3AW, and returned to TV as host of The Money Makers (pictured) for the 0-10 Network. The game show, produced by Reg Grundy at the studios of TVQ0 Brisbane, was Australia's first five-nights-a-week game show when it debuted in September 1971, offering a top prize of $25,000.

As well as hosting The Money Makers and Junior Money Makers, Philip also hosted Password, another game show for the 0-10 Network, and then in 1976 took over as host of another TVQ0 production, Casino 10. Philip also continued to make appearances on GTV9's The Graham Kennedy Show and The Ernie Sigley Show.

A return to radio followed with a stint at 3AK, the station by then famous for 'beautiful music', and then as producer for Bert Newton's morning show on 3UZ. His next move was to the Gold Coast, with a daytime program on local radio station Easy Listening 97, while at the same time writing a weekly column for Melbourne-based showbiz paper TV Scene.

In 1990, 3AW hired Philip and familiar Melbourne radio and TV identity Bruce Mansfield to co-host the Sunday night nostalgia program Remember When, and the pair were then appointed as 'caretaker' hosts of the weeknight Nightline program following the departure of long-time host Rev. Alex Kenworthy. Almost twenty years later, "Bruce and Phil" continue to dominate night-time radio in Melbourne on both Remember When and Nightline.

Philip continued to make guest appearances on TV in the '90s with regular spots on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton and guest appearances on ABC's Saturday night The Late Show and Seven's Tonight Live With Steve Vizard.

Further reading: Melbourne Observer, Bruce & Phil, 3AW

1978: January 28-February 3

Cover: How Ken James keeps hopping:
Actor Ken James, formerly from the soap The Box and now in the new series Glenview High, reminisces about his days as the park ranger's son in the iconic children's drama Skippy The Bush Kangaroo - including the times when the show's marsupial star would cut from a scene and head into the wilderness, having to be chased by actors, directors and camera crew to be retrieved. Skippy became one of Australia's biggest exports, being sold to 130 countries including the USSR. (Pictured on the TV Times cover are Ken James with Glenview High co-stars Rebecca Gilling, left, and Camilla Rountree)

The word is... Gra-Gra and Ugly Dave to get specials:
TV Times reported, although nobody at TEN10 will confirm or deny it, that Blankety Blanks host Graham Kennedy and panellist Ugly Dave Gray could be hosting their own series of specials as a spin-off from the popular game show. It seems that the nightly Kennedy-Gray gag session at the close of each episode of Blankety Blanks is so popular with viewers that a spin-off featuring the pair is only logical.

Kalgoorlie killer mine:
Martin Vaughan, Kate Fitzpatrick and Tom Oliver to star in a one-hour drama, Deep Vein, to be produced by Perth's STW9. The single-episode drama is being set around a mining disaster in the early 1900s, in which a man is trapped underground for nearly a week. Much of the filming of the program is to be conducted in the remote mining town of Kalgoorlie.

Nothing glum about the TV Glumps:
Producer Lyle McCabe is off to overseas markets to sell The Glumps, a 26-episode series of 10-minute animations featuring small plasticine models with eyes and a mouth. "They have a similar effect to the Muppets. We tested the show on 100 kids and they enjoyed it," he told TV Times. In the show's pilot episode, the Glumps re-enact man's development of weapons from the Stone Age club to more modern ballistics. Locally, the 0-10 Network is said to be interested.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
"Westerns forever! Sydney's TEN10 at least gives the public Daniel Boone, but it has been repeated so often it is hardly worth watching. Why don't TV stations repeat westerns such as Wagon Train, Bonanza and Broken Arrow?" V.Hawkin, NSW.

"The last Mike Walsh Show I saw so disgusted me I feel I can't watch or listen to it ever again. Did Mike Walsh think it was the funny the dreadful way Phillip Brady was treated?" D.Adam, QLD.

"I know I am not alone in my views on the termination of two of the most interesting and also cleanest serials ever on view - Certain Women and Bellbird. Over the years my husband and I have come to love and live with the Bellbird and Certain Women characters as if they were a part of our family, so it is sad to know we will not have them again." W.Lidden, NSW.

What's On (January 28-February 3):
The ratings year is still a couple of weeks away, so any decent highlights are still few and far between. On Saturday night, ABC screens Jubilee: A Right Royal Celebration - the story of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee Year celebrations. A few nights later, ABC screens the official film of the 1977 Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race.

On Sunday night, ATV0 presents the outdoor games show Almost Anything Goes, the predecessor to It's A Knockout which appeared a decade later. Host Tim Evans is joined by comedian Sean Kramer and football identity Ron Barassi.

Sunday night's movies are all premieres: The Buttercup Chain (HSV7), The Horsemen (GTV9) and Minnie And Moskowitz (ATV0).

Friday night is definitely family viewing night with US series The Waltons (ATV0), Donny And Marie (GTV9) and Eight Is Enough (HSV7) all vying for attention at 7.30pm. ABV2 presents the premiere of The Edge Of The Cold, a series of films on the history and wildlife of Macquarie Island, 1700 km south of Australia.

Later on Friday night, radio 3XY DJ Lee Simon presents two hours of music on Nightmoves on HSV7, featuring Joan Armatrading, George Benson and the Eagles.

Source: TV Times, 28 January 1978 (Melbourne edition). ABC/ACP