Laurie Oakes for Logies’ Hall of Fame

The Nine Network’s political editor Laurie Oakes is to be inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame when the annual awards presentation takes place early next month.

With a background in radio and newspaper reporting, Oakes made his television debut in the 1970s on the Willesee At Seven program.  He later became political correspondent for the Ten Network before joining the Nine Network in the mid-1980s.

At Nine, Oakes regularly led the media’s news agenda with his weekly political interviews on the Sunday program.  Even after the demise of Sunday in 2008, Oakes continued to present his interviews on its successor programs Sunday Morning News and Weekend Today.

Earlier this month, Oakes announced that after 26 years he was stepping back from his Sunday morning commitments but will continue to report for Nine.

The Hall of Fame Logie is the third major award for Oakes in recent times.  He was also recently awarded the Gold Walkley and the Graham Perkin Journalist of the Year, following his breaking of significant stories during the recent Federal Election campaign.

The TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame was initiated in 1984 as a means of recognition of those who have made an outstanding or sustained contribution to the Australian television industry, either on screen or behind the cameras.  Past recipients have included Hector Crawford, Paul Hogan, Reg Grundy, Johnny Young, James Davern, Bert Newton, Don Lane, Graham Kennedy, Maurie Fields, Bruce Gyngell, Michael Willesee, Mike Walsh, Ruth Cracknell, Garry McDonald, Sam Chisholm, Steve Irwin, Brian Naylor, Bill Collins and Bryan Brown.  Long-running programs Four Corners, Neighbours and Play School have also been inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The 53rd annual TV Week Logie Awards will be held at Melbourne’s Crown Casino on Sunday 1 May.  The awards presentation will be hosted by Shane Bourne and broadcast via the Nine Network.

Source: The Australian, Ninemsn

Farewell 2010… and “hello” to ‘11

It’s New Year’s Eve and another year comes to a close.  We saw the launch of more digital channels – 7mate, GEM, ABC News 24.  There was another hit season of MasterChef Australia, joined this year by Junior MasterChef.  Hey Hey It’s Saturday was back for a longer run but failed to match the ratings high of its reunion shows of 2009.

Neighbours celebrated 25 years and SBS turned 30.

Bert Newton was back as host of the TV Week Logie Awards.  Home And Away’s Ray Meagher won the Gold Logie and the late Brian Naylor was posthumously inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame.  A Current Affair celebrated Reg Grundy.

GTV9 said farewell to 22 Bendigo Street and ATN7 moved out of Epping.

Television turned 50 in Tasmania.  ABC celebrated 50 years in Adelaide, Perth and Hobart – and analogue television was switched off in Mildura, regional South Australia and Broken Hill.

Kerry O’Brien signed off from The 7.30 Report.  Talking Heads wound up after six years. 

The Winter Olympics were on Nine, and the Commonwealth Games were on Ten.  Nine said farewell to Wimbledon after more than thirty years.  Sport was given the 3D treatment on free-to-air and Foxtel.

Right here we documented the year 1990 as reported in the pages of TV Week – and will continue the theme into 2011 as we follow the corresponding period in 1991.

2011 brings with it the long-awaited launch of Network Ten’s new digital channel, Eleven, across most of Australia – and the launch of Ten’s expanded news portfolio with a new 6.00pm program with George Negus and city-based 6.30pm news bulletins.

There will be more MasterChef, but will Hey Hey It’s Saturday be back?  Will Neighbours survive the transition to Eleven?  Will the revamped The 7.30 Report make up for the loss of Kerry O’Brien?   

Will Hamish and Andy, having walked away from most of their radio commitments, make a determined shift into TV?

There will be more drama from Underbelly on Nine, East West 101 on SBS and a new series, Winners And Losers, on Seven. Packed To The Rafters will try to move on from the death of character Melissa (Zoe Ventoura) – and what will become of the bubbling sexual tension between Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie) and Chris Havel (Don Hany) in Offspring?  Will Ten’s planned prison drama come to fruition?

ABC’s Four Corners will celebrate its 50th anniversary, while ABC News Breakfast plans to move from ABC2 to ABC1.  Regional television in Victoria will turn 50 and will farewell analogue transmission. Television in Darwin will turn 40.  And it will be 20 years since aggregation came to Northern NSW and the Gold Coast.

US show Sesame Street will reach 40 years on Australian television – and The Simpsons turns 20.

Digital television turns ten years old on 1 January – while certain areas of Australia are still yet to see the benefits of the new technology.

And one blogger will – shudder – turn 40 years old!

May you all have a happy new year and a great 2011!

ACA interviews Reg Grundy

It is not often that this site actively promotes A Current Affair but will make an exception for this coming Monday’s edition as host Tracy Grimshaw interviews legendary television producer Reg Grundy (pictured) and wife, actress and author Joy Chambers at their home in Bermuda.

Grundy first appeared on TV in 1959 as the host and producer of an afternoon game show, Wheel Of Fortune, which had made the move from radio to Sydney’s TCN9.  He then went on to produce more game shows during the 1960s before branching out into TV dramas and movies in the 1970s.  The list of Grundy productions read like a timeline in the history of Australian television, including Ampol Stamp Quiz, I’ve Got A Secret (where he met his future wife), Temptation, Moneymakers, Class Of ‘74, Pot Of Gold, Family Feud, Blankety Blanks, The Celebrity Game, The Young Doctors, Chopper Squad, The Restless Years, Sale Of The Century, Prisoner, Sons And Daughters, Perfect Match, It’s A Knockout, Neighbours, Secret Valley, Wheel Of Fortune, Australia’s Most Wanted, Richmond Hill, Embassy and The Price Is Right. 

Wife Chambers, a winner of two TV Week Logie awards for most popular female personality in Queensland in the late 1960s before becoming Mrs Grundy, went on to appear in a number of Grundy productions including The Restless Years, The Celebrity Game and Neighbours (most recently appearing in the lead-up to the show’s celebrated 6000th episode).  She is also an accomplished author in her own right.

As well as many Grundy dramas selling internationally – most notably Prisoner (pictured), The Young Doctors, Neighbours and Sons And Daughters – he also successfully franchised various game show and drama formats overseas, producing international versions of Sale Of The Century, Prisoner and The Restless Years.  He also produced a game show, Scrabble, for US network NBC.

He sold Grundy Television Productions to UK-based Pearson International in the mid-1990s – it has since been incorporated into the global Fremantle Media group.

Grundy was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame in 1993 and received Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2008. 

Despite his many years in television, Grundy has remained a very private figure and has very rarely allowed to be interviewed and the appearance on A Current Affair came as the expense of Sunday Night and 60 Minutes which had both also tried to secure an interview.

The interview is said to coincide with the release of his autobiography.

A Current Affair.  Monday 20 September, 6.30pm.  Nine*

Source: The Daily Telegraph (via The Spy Report), Sydney Morning Herald.

 

* Melbourne.  Other areas, check local guides.

50 years of Queensland TV

This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Queensland’s first TV station – QTQ9.

QTQ9 was opened on Saturday 16 August 1959 and this weekend the channel presents a one-hour special 50 Years Of Television.

The program will feature some of the landmark moments of QTQ9 including appearances by two of the channel’s most famous discoveries that went on to become national household names – Jacki MacDonald (pictured) and Kerri-Anne Kennerley (nee Wright).

Also featured is former newsreader and station executive Hugh Cornish, the first person to appear on QTQ9 on opening night and who recalls the frantic activity of that historic occasion.

Veteran TV producer and presenter of the 1970s Paul Sharratt appears in an interview taped earlier this year.  Sharratt, who hosted variety programs Studio 9 and Orton’s Music Hall, produced many other local programs and won four TV Week Logie awards for Most Popular Male Personality in Queensland, died suddenly of a heart attack in Los Angeles in March this year.

Joy Chambers, one of the panelists on long-running game show I’ve Got A Secret and now Mrs Reg Grundy, recalls her first audition at QTQ9 and how it changed her life from then on.

The program also covers some of the historic news and sporting moments to be covered by QTQ9 – including former newsreader Don Seccombe’s coverage of the 1974 floods – and a few bloopers as well.

QTQ9, which also presented a tribute to 50 years of news in March, is the first of a number of stations celebrating 50 years of broadcasting:  NWS9 Adelaide celebrates its 50th next month, TVW7 Perth and ADS10 (formerly ADS7) follow in October and Brisbane’s ABQ2 and BTQ7 in November.

Then the first half of next year will mark the 50th anniversary of transmission for ABS2 Adelaide, ABW2 Perth, TVT6 (now WIN) Hobart and ABT2 Hobart.

50 Years Of Television.  Saturday 15 August, 7.30pm.  QTQ9 Brisbane.

Source: Nine press release
Additional information: On-Air 25 Years Of TV In Queensland
YouTube: aussiebeachut

TV icons of the Sunshine State

Brisbane's Courier Mail newspaper has obtained a secret list of people, places and events nominated by Queensland politicians as icons of the state.

The list is being prepared as part of Queensland's 150th anniversary celebrations.  From the initial list of 700, a bipartisan panel of MPs will attempt to trim the list to 300 which will then be put to a public vote.  The top 150 will be formally acknowledged during the state's Queensland Week celebrations.

Out of the 700 nominated so far, there are a handful that are TV related:

• Actress Babette Stephens, who was also a panelist on Brisbane game shows in the 1960s and also starred in Brisbane's first soap opera drama Until Tomorrow in the 1970s.
• Pop group The Bee Gees, who rose to fame on early variety shows in Brisbane before appearances on national shows such as Bandstand.
• Actor William McInnes, from TV dramas including Seachange, Blue Heelers, Marshall Law, Curtin, East West 101, The Shark Net and comedy series Kath & Kim.
• Wally Lewis, former rugby player and now sports presenter for Nine News in Brisbane.
• Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.
• Vilma Ward, morals compaigner, media commentator and panelist on daytime TV programs including Bailey And The Birds.
• Mt Coottha's TV transmission towers.

We can't help but wonder that maybe a few famous Queenslanders have been overlooked for recognition: 

Jacki MacDonald comes to mind as a glaring omission.  A winner of a swag of TV Week Logies for most popular personality in Queensland and a TV career that has included all three of Brisbane's local commercial channels as well as a national profile through Hey Hey It's Saturday and later Healthy Wealthy And Wise.

Rowena Wallace, who first rose to national fame in the 1960s drama You Can't See Round Corners, followed by The Rovers, Division 4, Number 96, Cop Shop, Outbreak Of Love, Prisoner and, most famously, as vicious 'Pat the Rat' in Sons And Daughters - a role that won her a TV Week Gold Logie in 1985.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley (pictured), back when she was Kerri-Anne Wright was a child star of Brisbane television in the 1960s and 1970s before featuring in the soap opera The Restless Years and later becoming co-host of Network Ten's Good Morning Australia, where she stayed for over a decade and went on to further success in daytime TV as host of Midday in the late 1990s and Mornings With Kerri-Anne since 2003.

Sigrid Thornton, from early days in Homicide, Father Dear Father and Prisoner, later becoming famous for her roles in historical dramas such as All The Rivers Run, 1915 and Paradise before taking the lead role in ABC's Seachange in the late 1990s.

Reg Grundy (pictured), while not born in Queensland the former radio announcer turned game show host got his big break as a producer of game shows in Brisbane in the 1960s, forming the basis for what became a global empire.

Gerard Kennedy, actor from early crime shows Hunter and Division Four and later in historical dramas Tandarra and Against The Wind.  Most recently seen in the Nine Network series Underbelly.  Winner of two TV Week Gold Logies.

Ray Barrett, accomplished television, stage and film actor with recent roles in Something In The Air and After The Deluge.

Don Seccombe (pictured), long-serving newsreader for QTQ9 and host the game show I've Got A Secret which ran for ten years.

Hugh Cornish, one of Brisbane television's earliest on-air personalities as well as general manager at QTQ9.

Newsreader Brian Cahill who read the news for many years at BTQ7, later at QTQ9 and then TVQ0 before moving into politics.

Then there are current-day local TV identities who have long histories in television.  Names such as Kay McGrath, Bruce Paige, Frank Warrick, Heather Foord and Sharyn Ghidella.

Other well-known TV identities to have hailed from the Sunshine State include (in no particular order):

Brian Blain (The Bluestone Boys, Sons And Daughters)
Delvene Delaney (The Paul Hogan Show, Sale Of The Century)
Jo Pearson (Eyewitness News, Live At Five)
Annette Allison (pictured) (Eyewitness News, Good Morning Melbourne)
Shane Porteous (The Box, A Country Practice)
Judy Morris (Skyways, Dirtwater Dynasty, Mother And Son)
Ian Leslie (60 Minutes)
Michael Caton (The Sullivans, Packed To The Rafters)
Tom Richards (Matlock Police, Sons And Daughters)
Paul Bongiorno (Ten News, Meet The Press)

Who do you think is worthy of a mention on Queensland's top 150 list?

Source: Courier Mail
Many of these names from this list have also been sourced from the book On-Air: 25 Years Of TV In Queensland (Christopher Beck, 1984)

Celebrating Mr Grundy

The wife of long-time TV producer Reg Grundy (pictured) is arranging an exclusive celebration in his honour, to be held next week at a Sydney hotel.

Grundy turned 85 earlier this year and was also named in the Queen's Birthday honours list for his services to television.

Joy Chambers, an author and former model, TV game show panelist and actress, married Grundy back in the 1970s and has invited a list of TV stars and back-stagers that helped Grundy become a household name and create an international production empire, with hit shows including Wheel Of Fortune, Sale Of The Century, Pot Of Gold, Neighbours, The Young Doctors, Chopper Squad, Prisoner (pictured), Perfect Match, The Price Is Right, Blankety Blanks, Sons And Daughters, It's A Knockout and The Restless Years.

Grundy also produced US versions of Sale Of The Century and Prisoner and co-produced the 1977 feature ABBA The Movie which followed the pop group's Australian tour.

Some of those believed to be attending next week's celebration include Brian Henderson, Ernie Sigley, Larry Emdur, Alan Jones, TV boss David Leckie and production staff that worked on Grundy's first TV venture Wheel Of Fortune which he hosted back in 1959.

Having dominated Australian television production and expanded the business overseas - with branches in the United States and Europe -  Grundy sold the company to British-based Pearson Television in 1995.  The company is now part of the international Fremantlemedia group, continuing production in Australia with shows including Neighbours, Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.

After selling his TV production company, Grundy invested in radio as major shareholder in regional network RG Capital before the company was bought out by Macquarie Bank.

Reg Grundy and Joy Chambers now live in Bermuda.

Source: news.com.au

Reg Grundy in Queen's Birthday honours

He might not have been crowned the King of Australian Television, but Reg Grundy (pictured) has today received Queen's Birthday honours for his contribution to the entertainment industry.

Grundy, now 84, started in television hosting the original Wheel Of Fortune for Sydney's TCN9 in the 1950s, though the program originally began on radio.  He then went on to create his own television production empire, and went on to produce TV icons such as Neighbours, Sale Of The Century, Blankety Blanks, Prisoner (pictured), The Young Doctors and a remake of Wheel Of Fortune which ran for 25 years.  Other titles from the Grundy stable included Class Of '74/'75, The Restless Years, Moneymakers, Perfect Match, Sons And Daughters, The Price Is Right, Secret Valley and Chopper Squad.

Grundy also successfully grew the business by franchising program formats overseas - including selling US versions of Sale Of The Century and Prisoner to American television in the '80s, and re-making some of its Australian soap dramas for European markets.

The company that Grundy started in the late '50s was sold to the English-based Pearson Television in 1995, and is now part of the global Fremantle Media group.  In more recent years, Grundy has embarked on photography, with a book The Wildlife Of Reg Grundy published in 2005.  He is married to former Queensland TV personality Joy Chambers who was a regular on game shows including I've Got A Secret and The Celebrity Game, as well as guest appearances in Neighbours.

Also receiving Queen's Birthday honours today was TV mogul Kerry Stokes, currently chairman of the Seven Network, and former TV presenter Paul Clitheroe (pictured) who presented the popular Money program for the Nine Network and received honours for his services to the finance industry.

Sources: Museum of Broadcast Communications, The Age, Business Spectator

1978: February 4-10

Cover Story: Inside the Game Show business:
TV Times talks to producer Reg Grundy, the radio game show host of the 1950s that went on to head a TV production empire worth around $6 million (in 1978 dollars) turnover a year. Famous for taking US game show formats and franchising them for local audiences, Grundy had launched over 50 game show titles since he launched Wheel Of Fortune in 1959. Despite his longevity in the game show business, his latest venture, the top-rating Blankety Blanks almost never got to air after being offered and refused by the other networks but eventually picked up by the 0-10 Network where it became a huge ratings hit (Cover photo: Noelene Brown and Ugly Dave Gray, two of the resident panellists on Blankety Blanks)

The Year's New Shows:
TV Times' preview of new shows for 1978 was already covered in our blog post on New Year's Day. New shows to launch during the year included drama series Catspaw, Twenty Good Years and Truckies - all on ABC. ABC also promises a new series of Marcia Hines Music and an Australian version of the British quiz Mastermind.

The Seven Network was preparing an Australian version of the British comedy Father Dear Father, and Nine had announced a series of Australian-made telemovies. Heading the 0-10 Network's new season line-up was the action drama Chopper Squad.

Sammy Davis for Don Lane show:
Entertainer Sammy Davis Jnr is reportedly to be planning a trip to Australia to appear on Nine's The Don Lane Show. Don Lane is a fan of Davis and had arranged the visit while staying with him at his Nevada property. Meanwhile, The Don Lane Show is about to launch its 1978 season and producer Peter Faiman is promising changes to the show including a $1 million revamp of the show's studio and as many as 15 international celebrity appearances via satellite over the first few months of the year.

Wind of a new career:
Rock star Jon English is announced as heading the lineup for the upcoming Seven Network/Pegasus Productions mini-series Against The Wind, about to commence production. English is signed up to play convict Jonathon Garrett in the historical drama that has a $1 million budget for 13 episodes. English's only prior acting experience was as a rock star involved in a murder case in the police drama Homicide.

Price rise:
TV Times announced that "increased production and paper costs have regretably caused us to raise the cover price of TV Times from 30 to 40 cents. It is our first price rise in two-and-a-half years".

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:

"Blankety Blanks' panel spends most of its time sniggering at (Graham Kennedy's) lavatory wall innuendos. Most of us ceased to be impressed by this daring wit at the age of 10." T.Martin, VIC.

"At least five times in the last month, TV Times has printed one thing and a TV station has shown another. If the stations tell TV Times their programs for the week, then they should stick to it and not change it whenever they feel like it." M.Turnbull, VIC.

"I would like to thank ABC for that brilliant English comedy Are You Being Served? and the repeat of the Rush series. In these days of endless movie repeats, excessive sports broadcasts and mediocre American cop dramas, programs of historical value and entertainment quality such as Rush, Are You Being Served?, Warship, South Riding and The Pallisers have become all too few and far between." S.Cass, NSW

What's On (February 4-10):

The Don Lane Show (GTV9) returns for its fourth year, up against ATV0's new Monday-to-Thursday night variety show Peter Couchman Tonight.

On Wednesday night ABC launches a new music series The Real Thing hosted by radio identity Ron E Sparx. The first show includes appearances by Little River Band, Radio Birdman, Renee Geyer and Dragon. On the weekend, Countdown is still continuing its review of the top 100 albums of 1977.

After-school TV programming is mostly dominated by imported product with Sesame Street, The Partridge Family, The Flintstones, Get Smart, Nanny And The Professor, Family Affair and My Friend Flicka shown across the networks. The only local content to be found between 4.00pm and 6.00pm is Play School (ABC) and GTV9's Cartoon Corner which only served to introduce US cartoon series Valley Of The Dinosaurs and Josie And The Pussycats.

Sunday night movies for the week are Trader Horn (HSV7), Charlie's Angels feature in Angels In Paradise (GTV9) and ATV0 screens The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean. All are TV premieres. Following the movie on ATV0 is the current affairs/interview program Firing Line with Maxwell Grant, Alan Ramsey, Mickie de Stoop and Jeremy Cornford.

Source: TV Times, 4 February 1978 (Melbourne edition) ABC/ACP