1992: February 15-22

Just 18… and Kym’s got it all!
She might be only 18 years old, but Kym Wilson (pictured) has emerged from an acting novice to a talented professional, with acclaim for her performances in the film Flirting, stage production The Crucible and mini-series Brides Of Christ.  And she is optimistic that her decision to join A Country Practice is a positive career move.  “You have to choose roles that are going to fulfil you,” she told TV Week.  “That is why I chose A Country Practice as the soap I wanted to do.  It has been going for 10 years, the people I work with are fantastic actors and it has that extra dimension by dealing with issues in society, which perhaps the other soaps do not do.”  The young star has also taken on an additional on-air role as co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning Video Smash Hits, although is wary of becoming over-exposed or being pigeonholed as a “personality” rather than an actress.  “That was my concern when I chose to do Video Smash Hits – that I wouldn’t, without degrading Sophie, become another Sophie Lee, who is seen more as a TV personality than an actress because she did The Bugs Bunny Show before she did The Flying Doctors.”

Axe for Hard Copy?
It may be a ratings winner for the Ten Network, but its weekly “tabloid” current affairs show Hard Copy (hosted by Gordon Elliott, pictured) could soon be axed due to a falling out between the network and Paramount, the owners of the concept.  Paramount is believed to have notified Ten that it wants out of the deal when the current batch of 13 episodes is completed, due to Ten failing to comply with certain changes that had been requested of the Australian franchise.  The termination of the agreement would mean that the show’s title can not be used in Australia, or that any  reports from the US version can be broadcast here.  But Network Ten boss Gary Rice has denied any rift with Paramount and insists that production of Hard Copy is business as usual.     

Frozen out!
E Street star Alyssa-Jane Cook (pictured) always insisted that she wanted her exit from the show to be dramatic, but admits that her final scenes with the series have been her most challenging.  Her character, Lisa Bennett, finds herself at the mercy of E Street’s serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) who has kidnapped her and locked her in a freezer in a bid to lure his targets Sheridan (Kate Raison) and Wheels (Marcus Graham) to their deaths.  Cook is not about to give away the outcome of the storyline, but says the scenes were amongst her most difficult.  “By the end of the 14-hour shoot, I was emotionally and physically exhausted,” she said.

Briefly…
TV Week has announced a new era as it embarks on changes to production techniques and its format.  This week’s edition includes a special eight-day program guide – Saturday to Saturday – as from next week the magazine will feature program listings from Sunday to Saturday, while the magazine’s on-sale day will change from Monday to Thursday.  This change, incorporated with tighter production deadlines, will see the magazine report more up-to-date stories and offer a more accurate program listing.  Despite the changes, the cover price of TV Week will remain at $1.70.

All Together Now star Rebecca Gibney has broken her silence on her private life by denying reports that while on a three-week holiday to the United States that she and her fiance, singer Jack Jones, had been secretly married in a Las Vegas chapel.  “Marriage crossed our minds at some point, but we decided against it,” she told TV Week.  “But we haven’t run off to Las Vegas to have a quickie wedding.”

Former The Flying Doctors cast members Lenore Smith and David Reyne (pictured) have embarked on a new project, appearing in the stage production of Love Letters which begins at the Sydney Opera House before touring regional centres in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  Reyne has also started work on a new travel series, Getaway, for the Nine Network.  Getaway, which also features former Beyond 2000 reporter Jeff Watson and two yet-to-be-named female reporters, makes its debut on Nine next month.

John Laws says…
”Perhaps, as a nation, we should all have been watching the documentary about the Snowy Mountain hydro-electric project, aptly screened over the Australia Day weekend on the ABC.  By any standards the Snowy project was a heroic undertaking, in both engineering and human terms.  It took 25 years to complete and it ranks as one of this nation’s greatest achievements.  Here was a mammoth engineering feat brought to life by Australians and “new” Australians from Europe, most of them displaced persons from World War II.  The ABC documentary team interviewed a handful of the thousands of people who worked on the Snowy project, but their stories seemed to embrace all its spirit and courage.  Interestingly, the general feeling among them was that a scheme like the Snowy could never be built today.  Way back in 1949, when Ben Chifley’s government got it off the ground, there was no conservation movement!”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 15-22):
Saturday:  Saturday afternoon sport includes golf on both ABC (West Australian Ladies’ Classic) and Seven (Australian Masters), while Nine presents a highlights package of the Winter Olympic Games.  Nine’s evening is dominated by the return of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, followed by more live coverage of the Winter Olympic Games from Albertville, France.

Sunday:  More golf on ABC and Seven, while Nine presents highlights of the Reebok Blacktop Basketball, from Adelaide’s Clipsal Powerhouse Stadium.  Evening programs include the return of multi-lingual current affairs program Vox Populi (SBS) and Brian Naylor’s documentary Australia From The Outside Looking In (Nine).  Sunday night movies are Good Morning Vietnam (Seven) and K-9 (Ten), up against the Winter Olympics (Nine).

Monday:  In Mother And Son (ABC), Arthur (Garry McDonald) brings a pet budgie home for Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) after she is upset by her son Robert (Henri Szeps) – but how this leads to 10 naked dentists dancing on a golf course has to be seen to be believed! 

Tuesday:  ABC’s consumer affairs program The Investigators is back for another year, followed by drama series GP where a new locum (played by Christopher Bailey) arrives at the practice, only to have his wife turn up and reveal that he is not who he says he is.  In SBS’ current affairs program Dateline, reporter Maeve O’Meara profiles influential Irish writer Colm Tóibín.

Wednesday:  Astrophysicist Graham Phillips and journalist Cathy Johnson join ABC’s science program Quantum as it returns for its eighth year.  This year is the International Year of Space and, to mark the occasion, Quantum will begin a series of reports on everything from space junk to space technology.  The 40th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne is documented in a two-hour BBC special, Elizabeth R (ABC), following the Queen on her many official duties over 12 months and giving a rare glimpse of her more informal moments.

Thursday:  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas, pictured) suspects Suzanne (Nicky Wendt) of treachery and plots her revenge – murder by haircare products.  ABC’s documentary series The Big Picture presents When The War Came To Australia – Our Melancholy Duty, the first of a four-part series tracing the social history of Australia during World War II and the effects of Japan’s attack on Darwin, which occurred fifty years ago this week.

Friday:  Dateline (SBS) features a report on Simone Harvari, France’s top TV producer, who heads a company where the majority of employees are female.  In Neighbours (Ten), a reunion with old mates has devastating implications for Doug (Terence Donovan).

Saturday:  Nine debuts its new Saturday morning show, Saturday At Rick’s, hosted by Steven Jacobs with Tania Lacy, featuring cartoons, video clips and interviews.  Nine then crosses to New Zealand for the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket – Australia versus New Zealand.  ABC also has cricket with live coverage from the North Sydney Oval of the Ladies’ International Super Test: Australia versus England.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  15 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: August 3-9

‘I want a white wedding in a church…’
Rebecca Gibney’s wedding scenes this week in All Together Now have led to the Logie-winning actress confessing to a potential real-life wedding to boyfriend Jack Jones.  “We’ve discussed it seriously and Jack has jokingly proposed to me,” she told TV Week.  “But it won’t be just yet.  But the fact that we’re talking about it says just how serious our relationship is.”  But if she does tie the knot, Gibney (pictured) says it won’t be a big wedding.  “I can’t be bothered with all the fuss.  I want a white wedding in a church, but I’m a private person and it will be a small affair.”  But as for All Together Now, Gibney’s character Tracey has been caught designing wedding dresses and Bobby Rivers (Jon English) has been discussing buying rings… leading to the rest of the household suspecting an upcoming wedding.  But is this “dream” wedding too good to be true?

Now it’s Tonight Live with Craig!
Former Home And Away star Craig McLachlan (pictured) and British writer and comedian Ben Elton have emerged as the guest hosts for Tonight Live while Steve Vizard and the Fast Forward team head to Barcelona to produce some Olympic-themed specials for the Seven Network.  “I’m very excited about working with a studio audience,” McLachlan told TV Week.  “There’s great flexibility in the show and there are so many people I’d love to have on it.”  Elton and McLachlan will host Tonight Live for a week each later this month.

It’s goodbye to Wandin Valley’s favourite couple!
Popular A Country Practice stars Georgie Parker and John Tarrant, whose characters tied the knot last year, have told the show’s producers that they will be leaving at the end of the year – although the Seven Network has so far only issued a statement that “we are having on-going discussions with the entire cast”. 

Briefly…
SBS is planning a new series of dramas under the heading Six Pack.  The series of six self-contained stories is set to feature some of Australia’s most familiar actors including Peta Toppano (pictured), John Bluthal, Arianthe Galani, Sandie Lillingston, Simon Burke, Ivar Kants, Susan Lyons, Josephine Mitchell, Steve Bastoni, Angie Milliken, Sandy Gore, Victoria Longley, Anna Volska, Geraldine Turner, Ben Oxenbould, Denise Scott and Angelo D’Angelo.  Six Pack is expected to screen in Australia and the United Kingdom next year.

The Ten Network is considering an Australian version of US current affairs program Hard Copy – a controversial program labelled as “the trashy television equivalent of the National Enquirer”.  A pilot of the proposed local version has already been completed and producers Showboat Productions are waiting on the go-ahead from the network.  One name rumoured to be involved in the project is former Seven Network presenter Gina Boon.

Former The Flying Doctors star Tammy MacIntosh (pictured) is set to make her comedy debut in the new Network Ten sitcom Bingles.  The new series, set in a panel-beating workshop, will also star Shane Bourne, Russell Gilbert and Nick Bufalo and is being produced by Media Arts, the producers of The Comedy Company. 

Pop star Collette, who has recently returned from a promotional trip to Malaysia, has signed to make her acting debut with a guest role in Home And Away.  The star, who rose to fame with a remake of disco hit Ring My Bell, will appear in two episodes of the popular series.

John Laws says…
”The TV “science” battle between Beyond 2000 and Quantum has been, as far as ratings go, fairly one-sided.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) has packed too many big-budget guns, and much more promotional leverage, than Quantum could muster on ABC.  Yet both programs are eminently viewable.  Beyond 2000 revels in its quick-fix, slick approach, cramming as many items as possible into its one-hour slot.  Some items are so brief they merely whet the appetite, leaving us wishing there had been more time to examine them further.  Quantum has adopted a more conservative, serious approach, while managing to maintain a flow of high-quality material.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, August 3-9):
Saturday:  World champion ice-skaters Jane Torvill and Chrisopher Dean are guests on this week’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday (Nine).  Seven crosses to Carrara, Queensland, for live coverage of the AFL match between Brisbane Bears and Collingwood, with commentators Sandy Roberts, Peter McKenna, Bernie Quinlan and Bill McDonald.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Deadly Pursuit (Seven), Dead Calm (Nine) and The Woman He Loved (Ten).

Monday:  In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Colin (Kim Gyngell) and Michael (Stig Wemyss) attempt to cheer up a homesick Linda (Kaarin Fairfax).  In A Country Practice (Seven), Matron Prior (Maureen Edwards) is pursued by Clarrie Rossiter (Peter Carmody).  Ten debuts US talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show in a weekly late-night timeslot following the Second Edition News.

Tuesday:  Jacqueline McKenzie guest stars in GP (ABC).  Beyond 2000 (Seven) looks at a solution to fitting more people on the Paris Metro train system, and also reports on a new polymer that is revolutionising the chewing gum industry.

Wednesday:  Kerry Walker and Noah Taylor star in The Last Crop, a telemovie for ABC.  Walker plays Ann Sweeney, a woman who cleans upmarket Sydney apartments for a living while she dreams of happiness for herself, her daughter and her rather useless son.

Thursday:  Comedy series Fast Forward (Seven) returns after a mid-year break.  Shane Bourne and Ann Phelan (pictured) guest star in The Flying Doctors (Nine).

Friday:  Seven crosses to the WACA, Perth, for live coverage of the AFL match between West Coast Eagles and Geelong.  Barry Sheene is this week’s guest on Burke’s Backyard (Nine).

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  3 August 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: April 6-12

‘My smile gives it away!’
All Together Now star Rebecca Gibney (pictured) was hesitant to talk to TV Week about her relationship with boyfriend, Southern Sons vocalist Jack Jones but has conceded, “I think my smile gives it away.” But the Logie Award-winning actress is guarded about revealing too much about her private life.  “I believe people are entitled to their privacy so I’m just going to say I’m very happy and let the relationship run its course and develop,” she told TV Week.  Gibney is more enthusiastic about discussing the success of All Together Now.  The new Nine Network series received some less than flattering reviews in the press when it debuted but it has gone on to become one of the year’s successes.  “In some ways it was good we had some negative reviews, so people weren’t disappointed with the show,” she said.  “But some writers were unfair to slam the show before it had a chance.  It’s upsetting when you’re trying to get a good Australian product off the ground, which is better than most of the American sitcoms, and you get negative press.  It has proved a lot of them wrong and it’s going to get better.”

A new Guy hits Summer Bay
Another former Neighbours star is about to join the cast of the Seven Network’s Home And Away.  Guy Pearce has signed on for a seven-week guest role in the series, playing the character of David Croft, the nephew of Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn).  “It’s certainly an interesting character, very different from anything I’ve done in the past – especially Mike Young (his Neighbours character),” Pearce told TV Week. 

‘When Cathy brought the script home I nearly died…’
A late-night rendezvous between teenager Nicki Taylor (Cathy Godbold) and boyfriend Adam (Brenden Carter) on Chances is set to see their relationship consummated, but the actress involved has distanced herself from her character’s behaviour.  “I don’t believe in sex before you establish a long-lasting relationship and definitely not at my age,” Godbold told TV Week.  “Mum has complete trust in me.  She knows I don’t let my standards slip and go back on what I believe in.”  Godbold’s mother is television veteran Rosemary Margan, who despite trusting her daughter’s judgement was daunted by the proposed storyline.  “When Cathy brought the script home I nearly died,” she told TV Week.  “I trust Cathy very much but as your only daughter you do tend to worry and I’m a bit of a worrier.”

Briefly…
It was a double celebration for showbusiness veteran Vic Gordon – his 80th birthday and 60th year in showbusiness – and there were plenty of friends to help him celebrate, including Val Jellay, Rosie Sturgess and Vikki Hammond.

The arrival of Jim Robinson’s (Alan Dale) illegitimate son Glen Donnelly (Richard Huggett) in Neighbours is set to raise a controversial romance with an immediate attraction to half-sister Lucy Robinson (Melissa Bell) who makes a return to the series this week.  “The attraction is there straight away,” Huggett told TV Week.  “As soon as they meet they are attracted to each other.  They try to talk it through, but they can’t come to any solutions on how to resolve it.  They know they’d like to have something, but society says you’re not allowed that.  That’s their dilemma.”

Meanwhile, Neighbours is set to lose a number of cast members as many of them have contract renewals coming up.  Ian Williams, who plays medical student Adam Willis, is confirmed to be leaving, while co-stars Lucinda Cowden and Beth Buchanan are also believed to be quitting when their contracts expire.  Producers are also in discussions with long-serving cast members Ian Smith and Anne Charleston about their future in the series.

John Laws says…
”Stuart Littlemore draws a long bow when he takes the high ground to offer barbed criticisms of the media in his ABC program Media Watch.  Now the problem associated with such a program is that in bringing down decision after decision against fellow media operators, it leaves itself wide open to similar criticism.  In other words, people in glass houses should be most careful when throwing stones.  Take, for instance, a recent program in which Littlemore tut-tutted about the screening of violence during news programs.  While telling viewers how terrible this was, Littlemore – to prove his point – then proceeded to screen the offending scenes.  He reasoned that he had to do this because the subject could not be discussed adequately in any other way.  Littlemore could have put it another way – he was a victim of the TV medium.  He knew he couldn’t simply talk about the TV violence.  The medium itself demanded he join everyone else in screening it.  He had no option but to re-screen everything he was complaining about.  Why didn’t he admit it as such?”

Program Highlights (April 6-12):
Saturday:  ABC launches it new late-night music program Racket, hosted by James Valentine with Stephanie Lewis, Toby Creswell, Joanne Corrigan and Tim Ritchie.

Sunday:  Nine crosses to Eastern Creek, Sydney for six hours of the Australian 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix with commentators Darrell Eastlake and Barry Sheene.  In the evening, Seven launches its new game show The Main Event, hosted by Larry Emdur.  Sunday night movies are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Seven), Her Alibi (Nine) and Throw Momma From The Train (Ten).

Monday:  Actor Lewis Fitzgerald guest stars in A Country Practice (Seven) as a city slicker who succumbs to a heart attack when he takes charge of his brother’s farm while he is being treated for a rare hydatids infection.

Tuesday:  In Chances (Nine), Rebecca’s (Natalie McCurry) nude modelling assignment is set to turn heads.

Wednesday:  ABC’s science and technology series Quantum returns for a new series.

Thursday:  The Seven Network’s popular sketch comedy show Fast Forward returns for a new series.

Friday:  Lady Mary Fairfax, the matriarch of the Fairfax media empire, is featured on Nine’s Burke’s Backyard as host Don Burke explores the gardens of her historic Sydney property, Fairwater.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  6 April 1991.  Southdown Press.

1990: November 24-30

Summer Bay shocks!
While pregnant Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) collapses in the Summer Bay diner, the closing episodes of the 1990 season of Home And Away will also deliver news of some new romances.  Pippa Fletcher (Debra Lawrence), who lost husband Tom (Roger Oakley) in dramatic circumstances earlier this year, falls for Summer Bay newcomer Michael Ross (Dennis Coard), while teenager Sophie (Rebekah Elmaloglou, pictured) sparks up a relationship with his son Hayden (Andrew Hill).

Sky-hooked!
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Red Symons has recently been married – twice!  Symons and his bride, Elly Agrotis, had a private Greek wedding for close friends and family at an East Melbourne Greek Orthodox church before exchanging vows again at a civil ceremony in a trendy South Yarra restaurant.  Guests at the second “showbiz” wedding included Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers (with wife Julie), Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and Wilbur Wilde, Skyhooks mates Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan, Greg Macainsh and ‘Bongo’ Starkie, actor Kim Gyngell and comedian Glenn Robbins.  The day also marked a second local showbusiness wedding, with Acropolis Now’s Simon Palomares and Tracey Callander also tying the knot in Melbourne.

If it’s New Year this must be… Ethiopia
Tonight Live host Steve Vizard (pictured) will be seeing in the year 1991 on location in Ethiopia as he will be on location producing a one-hour special for World Vision to go to air on the Seven Network around Easter.  “I’ve never been to Ethiopia.  It will be an eye-opener.  But I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do.  It’s one of those things you can do as a personality because personalities are in a position to get people to watch something they might not otherwise watch,” he told TV Week.  Actress Rowena Wallace, who has made several trips before for World Vision, will also be involved in this latest documentary.

Briefly…
The Doug Anthony Allstars, one of the popular acts from ABC’s The Big Gig, are to start work soon on their own series, DAAS Kapital.  “There will be slam-bam action, high adventure, lots of violence, raw energy, sexual prowess – all that and more!” says group member Tim Ferguson (pictured).  The new series will appear on ABC and Ferguson says there has already been interest in the series from Thames Television in the United Kingdom.

Home And Away star Adam Willits has only just completed his final scenes with the popular drama and is already walking straight into his next role – appearing alongside Julie McGregor in Hampton House, the spin-off from the popular sitcom Hey Dad! A pilot for the new series has been taped and if Seven gives the go-ahead then the series will go into production in April.

Video Smash Hits co-host Michael Horrocks is heading on an around-the-world trip to record interviews for the Seven Network Saturday morning show.  Horrocks’ list of interviewees is set to include Belinda Carlisle, Alice Cooper, Young MC, Nelson, Bobby McFerrin and – hopefully – Prince.  “He’s notoriously hard to interview,” Horrocks told TV Week.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”If anything good can be said about Backchat, it’s that it at least prevents credible ABC television productions from starting at odd times such as 9.22 or 8.13.  It in fact serves to fill in time.  Some at the ABC hanker after “sponsorship” (“commercials” is still a beep word) to do that job, but while others recoil at the suggestion in big enough numbers, it’s not going to happen.  So I guess we’re stuck with Backchat… and Media Watch (which at least manages to rise above the inconsequential on most occasions, and so it should with all that staff!) and news updates, whether there’s anything to update or not.”

Program Highlights (November 24-30):
Saturday:  The Seven Network presents Ausmusic ‘90, a five-hour live broadcast for the first ever National Australian Music Day, covering concerts taking place around Australia.  Heading the line-up of performers are John Farnham, The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly And The Messengers, Wendy Matthews, Ian Moss, Kate Ceberano, Boom Crash Opera, Crowded House, Tim Finn, Mental As Anything and Icehouse.  Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (pictured), from Nine’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday, is given special permission by Nine to present the telecast, linking together the concerts taking place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are The Alamo: Thirteen Days To Glory (HSV7), Table For Five (GTV9) and The Long Riders (ATV10).  ABC’s Esso Night At The Opera presents the Australian Opera production of The Gypsy Princess.

Monday: Major cost-cutting measures at the Ten Network, including the sacking of around 300 staff, sees Ten Evening News in Melbourne trimmed from one-hour to a 30-minute bulletin.  The remaining half-hour is now occupied by re-runs of a US sitcom, the somewhat aptly-titled Too Close For Comfort.

Wednesday:  ABC presents the final edition of science program Quantum for 1990, before screening a repeat of the 1988 mini-series The Four Minute Mile, starring Nique Needles, Tracy Mann, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, John O’May and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.

Thursday:  HSV7 crosses to Sydney for the first day of the Australian Open from the Australian Golf Club.  Commentators are Sandy Roberts, Jack Newton and Bruce McAvaney.  Coverage will continue every afternoon through to Sunday.  GTV9 presents live coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Series Cup: Australia versus New Zealand.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm, taking a break for National Nine News and A Current Affair, then continuing through to 10.30pm.  HSV7 presents the last episode of Home And Away for 1990.

Friday:  ABC presents the final Gardening Australia for 1990. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 24 November 1990. Southdown Press.