1979: October 13-19

TV’s Big Night Out
TV Times presents a list of all the nominations for this week’s Australian Film and Television Awards – the Sammys – to be held at Sydney’s Seymour Centre and televised through the Seven Network.

Among the television categories:

Best Variety Program: The Don Lane Show, Hollywood (TV Follies), Julie Anthony’s Gold Coast Special, Marcia’s Music, Miss Universe, Peter Couchman Tonight, The Saturday Night Show, It’s A Long Way There (Little River Band)

Best Light Entertainment: Family Feud, The Mike Walsh Show, Sound Unlimited, Nightmoves, Parkinson In Australia, Tasmanian New Faces, This Is Your Life.

Best Drama: Against The Wind, Cop Shop, The Oracle, Prisoner, Run From The Morning, The Restless Years, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors.

Best Current Affairs: A Day In The Life (TVW7 Perth), Eleven AM, Four Corners, Glenn Taylor’s Today Tonight (QTQ9 Brisbane), Haydn Sargent’s Brisbane (BTQ7 Brisbane), 60 Minutes, Terry Willesee’s Perth (STW9 Perth).

Best News Coverage: Bellevue Hotel Demolotion (ABQ2 Brisbane), Cadoux Earthquake (ABW2 Perth), Don Dunstan Resignation (NWS9 Adelaide), Heathcote Bushfires (TCN9 Sydney), Mackay-Townsville Cyclone (BTQ7 Brisbane), Mundy/Cribb Recapture (TEN10 Sydney), Strike after Unionist Arrests (TVW7 Perth), The O’Meally Interview (HSV7 Melbourne), Pentridge Riot (GTV9 Melbourne), Policeman’s Protest (QTQ9 Brisbane), Recapture of John Cribb (ATN7 Sydney), Skylab Report (STW9 Perth), Truro Murders Arrest (SAS10 Adelaide).

Best Children’s Series: Carrots, The Curiosity Show, Fat Cat And Friends, Flapper’s Factory, Here’s Humphrey, Kids Only, Nine Will Fix It, Play School, Romper Room, Rupert’s Roundabout, Shirl’s Neighbourhood, Stinger, Top Mates, Wombat.

Best Comedy Program: Neutral Ground (Tickled Pink), The Norman Gunston Show, Rugby League New Faces.

Best Variety Performer: Julie Anthony, Marcia Hines, Don Lane, Garry McDonald, Mike Walsh.

Best Actor in a TV Series: Peter Adams (Cop Shop), Michael Aitkens (Run From The Morning), Michael Caton (The Sullivans), Paul Cronin (The Sullivans), John Gregg (The Oracle, pictured), John Hamblin (The Restless Years), Gerard Kennedy (Against The Wind), Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Terry Norris (Cop Shop).

Best Actress in a TV Series: Liz Alexander (Golden Soak), Lorraine Bayly (The Sullivans, pictured), Carol Burns (Prisoner), Liddy Clark (Ride On Stranger), Sheila Florance (Prisoner), Vivean Gray (The Sullivans), Vikki Hammond (The Sullivans), Mary Larkin (Against The Wind), Joanna Lockwood (Cop Shop), Kerry McGuire (Against The Wind).

Best Writer (TV Series): Bronwyn Binns/Ian Jones (Against The Wind), Morris Gleitzmann (The Norman Gunston Show), Peter Kinloch (Against The Wind), Peter Luck/David Salter (This Fabulous Century), Tony Morphett (Against The Wind), Terry Stapleton (Cop Shop), David Stevens (The Sullivans), Reg Watson (Prisoner), Peter Yeldham (Run From The Morning).

Other TV categories: Chips Rafferty Memorial Award, Best New Talent, Best Sports Coverage, Best Documentary Program, Best TV Play, Best Actor in a Single TV Performance, Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, Best Writer (TV Play), Best Art Direction, Best Editing.

Gold Sammy (female): Julie Anthony, Lorraine Bayly, Zoe Bertram, Carol Burns, Michelle Fawdon, Vivean Gray, Vikki Hammond, Marcia Hines (pictured), Caroline Jones, Joanna Lockwood, Kerry McGuire, Diana McLean, Judy Morris, Julieanne Newbould, Joanne Samuel.

Gold Sammy (male): Harry Butler, Roger Climpson, Robert Coleby, Paul Cronin, Clive Hale, John Hamblin, John Hargreaves, Sir Robert Helpmann, Gerard Kennedy, Don Lane, Peter Lochran, Peter Luck, Garry McDonald, Richard Moir, Bert Newton, Michael Pate, Mike Walsh, Peter Wherrett.

Movie bombing was real thing!
The telemovie The John Sullivan Story created an exclusive world first when it was shown on Australian TV recently.  The telemovie’s sequences of the London bomb blitz was not special effects but was footage of the actual event.  It is believed to be the only colour footage of the era in existence and the only time it has been shown publicly was in The John Sullivan Story.  Associate Producer Allan Hardy said it was “pure luck” that the film was uncovered:  “Producer John Barrington rang a contact in London and asked if there was any colour film of London during the blitz.  I don’t think either he or the contact expected that there was so you can imagine how thrilled we were when a reel turned up.  Apparently an English woman had a habit of filming bomb salvage scenes at night.  She used to store the camera under her bed… where it remained until recently.  We now have the exclusive rights to what could be the only known colour film taken during the way.  It was a real stroke of luck and it hardly cost us anything.”

Will the real Pantyhose Murderer please stand up!
Producing a long-running TV series is not without its hazards and there isn’t a series that hasn’t given its writers challenges when things might go wrong or even when there are circumstances beyond the producers’ control.  Bill Harmon and Johnny Whyte, two of the names behind the phenomenally successful Number 96, cheerfully admit that mistakes were made during the show’s six years in production.  When the mystery “knicker snipper” was taunting the residents of Number 96 in 1972, three RSL clubs, noticing a downturn in attendances, chose to disclose the name of the attacker before it was known publicly.  Problem was, the scriptwriters didn’t even know it at that stage either.  Whyte recalls, “we had no idea who it was.  We had implied it was someone in the block of flats, but we were halfway through the story before we sat down and decided who it would be.”  Knowing that the series could not lose its two male sex symbols, Tom Oliver or Joe Hasham (pictured), they had little choice but to choose character Alan Cotterell (Mark Hashfield) as the culprit.  Sometimes scriptwriters just plainly make mistakes.  Both Harmon and Whyte recall one of their greatest regrets was allowing gay Dudley Butterfield (Chard Hayward) to turn bi-sexual, in the hope that giving him a female love interest would broaden his appeal with viewers.  The change did not work and Hayward left the show six months later.  Some of TV’s other dramas have also had their scriptwriting downfalls.  Hugh Stuckey, script editor for The Restless Years, admitted they were left with a dilemma when Julieanne Newbould decided to leave the series, leaving her on-screen husband, played by Malcolm Thompson, in limbo while Newbould’s character was said to be away on what must be the world’s longest cruise, while producers hope to coax Newbould back into the series.  It is a dilemma that is still yet to be resolved.  James Davern, producer of the former ABC series Bellbird, says that sometimes dilemmas are brought on when actors or actresses sometimes put a higher price on themselves which can conflict with production budgets:  “That’s always the problem of a producer of a long-running serial.  If they insist, then you have to write them out.  The easiest way to do that is to kill the character.”  Prisoner producer Ian Bradley has regretted writing out the character of prison counsellor Bill Jackson (Don Barker) by having him killed in an early episode of the series:  “I wrote him out in the interests of a dramatic storyline and, after the initial impact, I have wishing I could bring him back ever since.”  Sometimes when a favourite cast member leaves a show, scriptwriters do resort to bringing them back as another character.  After Number 96 killed off Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) in the famous bomb-blast episode, producers later brought him back as Whittaker’s twin brother, Andrew. 

Prisoner captures Jeanie the Cop Shop escapee
Actress Jeanie Drynan could have had an ongoing role in the popular series Cop Shop, but instead put love before career as she recently married writer/director Tony Bowman and as they are based in Sydney she decided she did not want to leave Sydney for an indefinite period for Cop Shop, based in Melbourne.  Instead, she has opted for a short-term role in another Melbourne-based series, Prisoner, which will see her away from Sydney for only a matter of weeks.

Briefly…
Prisoner co-stars and real-life newlyweds Peita Toppano and Barry Quin (pictured) are said to be leaving the top-rating 0-10 Network series.  Quin is to take the lead role in an upcoming ABC mini-series, Lucinda Brayford, while Toppano is negotiating for a role in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

The Young Doctors star Karen Petersen doesn’t usually believe in “living” a role.  That is, until her character Erica Shaw was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  “After reading the research notes and meeting people with MS, I knew the only way I could do the part was to live it – and I was always one actress who didn’t believe in doing that.”  The episodes of Erica’s diagnosis were produced in association with the Multiple Sclerosis Society of NSW and Petersen is now closely involved with the society and hoped to do voluntary work for the organisation.

The 0-10 Network has announced it has bought Film Australia’s five-part documentary series, The Human Face Of China.  Pat Cleary, programming director at TEN10 Sydney, said the series could be screened by the end of the year.

Peter Whitford, John Howard and Judy Davis have signed up for roles in upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The standard of TV commercials has fallen disastrously in the past couple of years.  I almost wish the battle against cigarette ads had been lost.” R. Milton, NSW.

“It amazes me that a TV channel with the number of viewers that NBN3 Newcastle has never seems to worry about public opinion.  Yet another enjoyable series which is only half finished is to be axed.  The series, Dallas, is apparently very popular with viewers.  During the last Christmas holidays all midday movies on NBN3 were adults movies, but on the day school resumed the channel screened Tom Thumb.  NBN3 also seems to be one of the few channels in Australia that doesn’t screen The Sullivans.  They did screen it for a few weeks, then axed it, much to viewers’ disappointment.” V. Skinner, NSW.

“I would like to see Tony Bonner back in Cop Shop even though his character, McKenna, is supposed to be dead.  He was really fantastic and made the program fantastic.  Now it is not so interesting.  Also Danni (Paula Duncan) is great and it’s good that she still holds the show together.  It would have been good for McKenna and Danni to get married, because they would have made a good couple.” S. Hatfield, WA.

“We like the ABC program Whodunnit, but it is on at an awkward time.  We like to watch Eight Is Enough which finishes at 8.30pm on HSV7, but Whodunnit starts at 8.15pm.  So we either turn over three-quarters of the way through Eight Is Enough or turn to Whodunnit at 8.30pm, and then it’s not much use watching it because it’s quarter over.” T. Mein and C. Searle, VIC.

What’s On (October 6-12):
Weekend sport includes Garden State PGA Championships, live from Mordialloc, Melbourne (ABC) and the South Pacific Classic tennis, live from Milton courts, Brisbane (HSV7).  On Saturday night, HSV7 presents live coverage of the final of the tennis Super Challenge, from Festival Hall, Melbourne.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the history of three popular sports in Australia – surfing, cricket and football – as well a look at the career of tennis champion Evonne Cawley and Hawaiian swimming champion Kahanomoku, who introduced Australia to the sport of surfriding in 1915.

A repeat of controversial Australian movie Wake In Fright, starring Chips Rafferty, Jack Thompson, John Meillon, Buster Fiddess and Dawn Lake, screens Monday night on ATV0.

On Wednesday night, HSV7 presents the fourth annual presentation of the Australian Film and TV Awards – the Sammys – live from Sydney’s Seymour Centre and hosted by Roger Climpson. 

Friday night presents a clash of movie epics, with 55 Days At Peking (HSV7), The Guns Of Navarone (GTV9) and The Nun’s Story (ATV0).  All three movies are three hours in length.

TV Times advises:  “As TV Times went to press, GTV9 had removed screenings of Family Feud, The Young Doctors and The Sullivans due to an industrial dispute.  The channel advises that if workers resume, all three shows will be screened as normal.”  As a result, GTV9 has advised replacement programs My Three Sons, Celebrity Charades and Angie in the respective timeslots.

Sunday night movies: Gold (HSV7), Murder By Natural Causes (GTV9), The Corn Is Green (ATV0).  ABC screens Burn The Butterflies, the first in the series of Australian Plays, starring Ray Barrett, Fred Parslow, Gerard Maguire, Monica Maughan, George Mallaby and Alan Hopgood.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 6 October 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: September 22-28

Cover: Kermit The Frog, Miss Piggy

The Sullivans prepare for peace
As the Nine Network’s The Sullivans moves into its fourth year of production, fans needn’t worry that the end of World War II will mean the end of the show.  “Yes, The Sullivans definitely will go on after the war,” says Crawford Productions chairman Hector Crawford.  “It is a reflection of Australia of that period.  The war has been a vital part of it to date, but the stormy period after will be just as interesting a background when the time comes.  The years just after the war were stormy ones for the economy, politics and everyday life of the country.”  But when asked whether Grace Sullivan (Lorraine Bayly) will return to the series, Crawford could say only that “options remain open.”  Bayly has been travelling overseas for several months but her future plans remain a mystery, even for the cast of the show.  As the show passes its third birthday, two of the key characters from the recent spin-off telemovie Jovan: The John Sullivan Story will be joining the series, secret service agent Captain Meg Fulton (Olivia Hamnett) and John Sullivan’s lover Nadia (Vera Plevnik).

Top film role to Sullivans regular
Sydney actor David Cameron has won a key role in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge.  The 27-year-old, who graduated from NIDA in 1968, has appeared in Bellbird, Certain Women, Dynasty, Against The Wind, The Truckies and Power Without Glory.  Cameron’s most recent role has been as Russell Hardwicke in The Sullivans.  In Water Under The Bridge, Cameron plays Neil Atkins, an aspiring actor in love with a newspaper columnist.  Cameron’s appointment to Water Under The Bridge follows the recent announcement that Robyn Nevin will play the lead female role of Shasta.

Graham Kennedy: The man and the myth – Part Two
More has been written (true and false) about Graham Kennedy (pictured) than any other Australian celebrity, including sports stars and prime ministers.  So what is the truth about some of the Kennedy myths and idiosyncrasies?  MYTH:  He was jealous of other IMT hosts.  Fact:  There are stories to the contrary.  When Father Michael King guest hosted IMT in 1969, he received a telegram from Kennedy:  “Be good but we don’t want any miracles.”  Then when he retired from IMT he personally recommended Ugly Dave Gray as his successor.  MYTH: Kennedy is disinterested in his huge collection of awards and uses them as door stops.  Fact:  He’s said this as a gag.  He keeps every award he has ever won on a silver tray.  MYTH: Kennedy doesn’t like and doesn’t relate to children.  Fact: He’s been a godfather six times, including to the daughter of his friend and manager, Harry M Miller and also to the daughter of former colleague Joy Westmore.  He also sponsored a Vietnamese war orphan through World Vision.  MYTH: Kennedy is colour blind and cannot tell red from green.  Fact: Kennedy said, “it’s true I do have trouble telling the difference between some greys, greens, blues.  I have to watched about the clothes I wear, or I might turn up in a red shirt with a green jacket which I think is blue.”  MYTH: His nickname is Gra-Gra.  Fact:  It’s Gay-Gay, which dates from when Kennedy was about 11 when a neighbour’s small daughter couldn’t say the word Graham.  “My aunt Nancy still calls me Gay-Gay when she calls,” Kennedy said.  Among Kennedy’s idiosyncrasies:  He is a night person that rarely goes to bed before midnight and has been known to leave messages on Harry M Miller’s phone at 2.30am;  During the IMT era everyone on the show noticed he never worked quite as well on the nights he wore a white suit – he became less extroverted; He’s nervous about every performance, whether it’s his own show or guest appearances;  He has a phenomenal memory.  He can recall a tag of a sketch he did 15 years ago and even whether or not someone fluffed up a line.  Producer Peter Faiman recalls that Kennedy will accept that problems will come up and be rectified.  But if that same mistake is made 12 years later, he’ll remind you that you made that same error 12 years before; Kennedy has a fear of crowds and had declined many offers to be the King of Melbourne’s Moomba festival, but finally relented in the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee year.  As to commentary on his private life and relationships with women, Kennedy said in a 1976 interview, “I lead a fairly private life.  It’s my business what I do or don’t do when I close my bedroom door.”  Although he did once admit that he’d seriously considered marriage twice in his life, and there was his engagement to singer Lana Cantrell.

Why Tina’s head is in the clouds
Despite working as an actress on TV, stage and film for over ten years, Tina Bursill still finds that people can’t recall her name when they meet her:  “Then I have to patiently explain that I am not Tina Grenville nor a relative of film-maker Tim Burstall.”  The confusion was not helped when Bursill was cast alongside Grenville in the short-lived series The People Next Door, the sequel to The Godfathers.  The 28-year-old actress hopes that the public will have an easier time of recognising her now that she is starring in the new Seven Network series Skyways as ambitious assistant airport manager Louise Carter. “She is developing nicely now, and I hope the public like her as much as I do.”

Briefly…
Garry Meadows (pictured) was disappointed when his children’s TV show, Meet The Giants, was refused a C classification.  But now the Family Feud producer is re-submitting the show for approval following some modifications to the format.  The pilot, produced earlier this year for the Reg Grundy Organisation, features four schoolchildren aged between 10 and 14 in a panel interview with Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.

Foreign Affairs Minister Andrew Peacock will be one of the presenters at this year’s Sammy awards presentation to be held on 17 October.  The awards, a joint venture between the Seven Network, TV Times and the Variety Club of Australia, will be hosted by Roger Climpson.

The success of Australian programs Prisoner and Against The Wind in Los Angeles is helping efforts to get The Don Lane Show sold to US television.  Meanwhile, Against The Wind has scored a front cover story on the Los Angeles Times’ TV magazine.

Former ABC newsreader Margaret Throsby, who resigned from the broadcaster to have a baby, is returning on a part-time basis.  Throsby’s first appearance following her comeback is co-hosting the presentation of the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design to be held in Perth.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Congratulations to the Nine Network for showing The John Sullivan Story.  I’m sure a lot of families who don’t watch The Sullivans enjoyed this movie, which was a pleasant change to the usually violent Sunday night movies.”  M. Lewis, NSW.

“Tony Barber (Family Feud, pictured) never fails to irritate me with his idiotic antics and endless drivel, but he really disgusted me when he remarked to a contestant that she was in quite an advanced stage of pregnancy.  It was true, but only a very arrogant man would have deliberately drawn attention to the fact.”  N. Wilson, NSW.

“Why, in an area like the goldfields of Kalgoorlie with its early workers, does VEW8 have Poldark on so late at night – 9.45pm, sometimes later?  Surely it could be put on earlier.”  J. Ware, WA.

What’s On (September 22-28):
On Sunday afternoon, ABC presents the Grand Final of the NSW Rugby League, live from the Sydney Cricket Ground.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the history of running in Australia, from the Stawell Gift to Sydney’s City to Surf run. 

On Monday night Peter Landy hosts HSV7’s telecast of The Brownlow Medal for 1979, live from the Southern Cross Ballroom in Melbourne.  Then on Wednesday night, HSV7 presents Sensational Seventies, a tribute to the decade in VFL including players Ted Whitten, Kevin Murray, Darryl Baldock and the emergence of Michael Roach, Kevin Templeton and Paul Van Der Haar.

In Skyways (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), MacFarlane (Tony Bonner) and Elaine (Carmen Duncan) examine their rapidly disintegrating family.  Mandy (Gaynor Martin), unable to cope with the sophisticated crowd at Anne’s (Kathryn Dagher) party, creates an unwanted scene.  Meanwhile, in Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), the West Riverside Bank is robbed and Amanda (Lynda Stoner) goes undercover to solve the case.

In the series final of Patrol Boat (ABC, Thursday), an attractive and tough woman journalist is assigned to HMAS Ambush for a day.  Starring Andrew McFarlane, Robert Coleby, Danny Adcock, Rob Baxter and Jacki Weaver.

The final lead-up to HSV7’s coverage of the VFL Grand Final starts on Friday afternoon with the lunchtime Football Procession through Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD, featuring the teams that will be playing in the Grand Final.  Then on Friday night, HSV7’s coverage of the The Commodore Cup Grand Final, live from the St Kilda Football Ground.  Leading the coverage are Peter Landy, Lou Richards, Bob Skilton, Doug Wade and Jack Elliott.  Then after a late news bulletin, HSV7 enters another all-night Football Marathon, with Stephen Phillips presenting highlights of past Grand Finals and interviews with team coaches and football personalities.

Also on Friday night, GTV9 presents the Australian Film Industry Awards, live from the Hoyts Entertainment Centre, Sydney.  Nominations for Best Film are Cathy’s Child, In Search Of Anna, Mad Max and My Brilliant Career.  And on the same night, ABC has the Prince Philip Prize For Australian Design, hosted by Stuart Wagstaff and Margaret Throsby in a direct telecast from the Sheraton Hotel, Perth.

Sunday night movies: High Rolling (HSV7), Bite The Bullet (GTV9), White Lightning (ATV0).  ABC presents Man Of Mateship, the fourth instalment of A Place In The World, starring Kerry Francis and Ian Gilmour.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 22 September 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: September 1-7

Emergency Edition: “Due to a fire at TV Times’ printers, this issue of the magazine has required a change to its usual format.  All regular features have been maintained as well as our complete program coverage.  We apologise for any inconvenience to your usual reading habits and assure you that normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.”

First love…
When actor Sam Neill arrived in Australia for the first time he was a movie star nobody wanted to know.  Now, as the new love for Kitty Sullivan (Susan Hannaford, pictured with Neill) in The Sullivans, he is a TV star everyone wants to interview.  Despite the lack of interest when he first visited Australia, to promote a New Zealand film Sleeping Dogs, Neill took the opportunity to observe the Australian industry and decided that he wanted to stay.  A key role in the movie My Brilliant Career led to his role in The Sullivans.  “I’ve had a wonderful introduction to life as an actor in Australia through a good quality film and a top rating, top quality TV show.” 

A date to remember!
The Australia’s film and television industry will gather at Sydney’s Seymour Centre on 17 October for this year’s Australian Film and TV Awards – the Sammys.  The awards ceremony, presented by TV Times for the Variety Club of Australia charity for underprivileged children, will be telecast by the Seven Network and hosted by Roger Climpson (pictured).  More than 350 nominations have been made for the 40 award categories.  Nominations for the two Gold Sammy awards (male and female) include Harry Butler, Garry McDonald, Mike Walsh, Paul Cronin, Don Lane, Bert Newton, Gerard Kennedy, Julie Anthony, Lorraine Bayly, Marcia Hines, Judy Morris and Julieanne Newbould.

Series took six years to see the light
This week’s debut of the 0-10 Network’s new children’s program Simon Townsend’s Wonder World marks the culmination of six years’ work for journalist and producer Simon Townsend (pictured).  Townsend first developed the concept in 1973 after two years editing a children’s newspaper, Zoot, and produced a pilot with the assistance of the Seven Network.  Townsend then joined the Nine Network’s A Current Affair and was later assisted by Mike Willesee in negotiating with the 0-10 Network.  A second pilot, produced independently, was successful in gaining approval for the ‘C’ classification by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal and formed the basis for the 0-10 Network series.  The new show, described by Townsend as “current affairs in style – but not adult current affairs explained down for children,” has a staff of around 20, including four reporters, two researchers, two editors, two associate producers and a full-time animator.

Briefly…
Robyn Nevin plays Nellie Melba in ABC’s adaptation of Jack Hibberd’s play A Toast To Melba.  It is one of six Australian plays being made by ABC for screening next year.

Denise Drysdale and actor Chris Milne have just married at a ceremony attended by 175 invited guests – and 100 ‘uninvited’ guests who gate-crashed the event.  There will be no honeymoon for the couple as Drysdale is currently working on Cop Shop and Milne is working at renovating the country cottage they have just bought from Ernie Sigley.

If Vince Martin is missing when he’s needed on the set of The Restless Years, chances are he can be found in TEN10’s props department, playing his own compositions at a grand piano once used in The Steve Raymond Show and surrounded by various props and other relics discarded from the set of Number 96. 

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I am always home on weekends and all I get to see on TV is rubbish.  Why don’t TV stations put on some all-night movies so people can enjoy themselves at home on Saturday night?” M. Smith, WA.

“I was disturbed to see that the Miss Universe pageant was compered by Americans, though the show was held in Australia.  Why was this so?” G. Scott, VIC. (TV Times responds - “The Miss Universe pageant is an American-owned and American-sponsored contest, and American TV personality Bob Barker has compered it for more than a decade.”)

“There are a lot of people like myself who enjoy Australian football.  Some of us are lucky enough to view the direct telecast from Melbourne each Saturday afternoon.  Others have to try ABC’s The Winners on Sunday night.  One recent Sunday evening after a long, dreary wait we were given just a little over five minutes at 11.10pm.  I consider it an insult for the national network to give so little time to our national game.  Surely The Winners could be broadcast at an earlier time or on some other night of the week?” C. Wilson, QLD.

“I realise that Skyways needs advertising to keep it “in the air,” but I fail to see that ATN7 is aiding its cause – i.e. the toppling of Nine’s The Don Lane Show – by flooding Skyways with an incalculable number of advertisements.  I ask the question:  Is there a difference between skyjacking a plane for a million dollars and holding Skyways to advertising ransom?” S. McLean, NSW.

What’s On (September 1-7):
ATV0’s Deafness Appeal telethon continues on Saturday, taking a break only at 6.00pm for Eyewitness News, then resuming at 6.30pm with a special extended edition of Young Talent Time.  The telethon’s evening segment commences at 8.00pm and continues through to the Appeal close just before midnight.

ABC’s Tuesday night drama Twenty Good Years comes to a conclusion this week, having traced the lives of Ron Fielding (Harold Hopkins) and his wife Anne (Anne Pendlebury) since they first met in 1956 (pictured).  In the final episode, set in 1975, Ron becomes seriously ill and admits that the business is too much for him.  He sells up and buys a caravan park.  Michael Fielding (Jeremy Kewley) becomes involved with a Jewish woman ten years his senior.

This week’s episode of documentary series Hospital (ABC, Thursday) examines the constant pressure borne by hospital staff in the vital Intensive Care Unit.  The program follows the journey of a patient, seriously burned in a motor-cycle accident, from his admittance to the time the doctor tells him his recovery will be slow.

In Prisoner (ATV0, Tuesday and Wednesday), an underworld slaying leads to the arrival of a prisoner who makes a big impact.  In Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), one lottery pool winner has died and another is hospitalised with $100,000 missing.

Sunday night movies: Taxi (HSV7), The Agony And The Ecstasy (GTV9), A Step Out Of Line (ATV0).  ABC presents Man Of Dreams, the second play in the series A Place In The World.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 1 September 1979.  ABC/ACP

1978: November 4-10

Their Restless Years
Three of The Restless Years' more 'senior' cast members were asked by TV Times to recall some of their own 'restless years'.  June Salter (pictured, bottom right) recalled hiding her smoking habit from her parents, "when I finally had the courage to tell mum 'I'm 23 and I'm going to smoke in front of you from now on,' she replied 'I don't see why not, you've been doing it behind my back since you were 17."  John Hamblin admitted to being a bit of a loner and spending a lot time bird-watching: "not the two-legged variety, the feathery kind.  Birds, history and castles were my passions." But at the age of 20 he was seduced by a woman 15 years his senior, changing his whole attitude to life.  Jill Forster said in her younger years she was "all those terrible things: Head prefect, school captain, very bookish.  Probably because I was an only child."  She later had a string of failed romances from the time she was 17, "I was always a romantic in search of the great love."

Our Sally hits the jackpot!
Former Young Talent Time cast member Sally Boyden has just returned from Hollywood where she completed a role in the movie Little Dragons, and is now to return to the US to star in the Mary Poppins-type film The Adventures Of Holly Hobby.  The young star, now set to become the highest paid Australian child performer to date, is also contracted to appear in a thirteen-part TV series based on the telemovie Lassie The New Beginning. 

TV's reluctant prince of pop
Countdown's Ian 'Molly' Meldrum (pictured, interviewing HRH Prince Charles on Countdown's 100th episode) can't sing, dance or act, admits that he isn't the most articulate speaker, and hates being on camera.  Despite this he is one of Australian TV's most influential personalities.  "I never wanted to work in front of the camera - in fact, all I ever wanted to do was to be a record producer and a journalist," he told TV Times. "If I had my way I wouldn't be on screen at all."  Meldrum's TV career started miming pop songs on ATV0's Kommotion and later presenting a weekly segment on Uptight, a program which Meldrum describes as "the best thing ever to happen in Australian pop.  It was the forerunner to everything."  After working in London and the US, Meldrum reluctantly returned to TV in 1973 to present a rock report on a Saturday morning program for HSV7, and then the following year was involved in a trial run for a new pop music show for ABC called Countdown.  But despite hosting one of the most popular TV shows in the country and earning what he calls a "comfortable" wage, Meldrum still says he's hopeless with money, forgetting to pay a string of parking fines and, after a recent burglary, realised he'd also forgotten to renew his insurance, "I have an accountant to look after my interests now."

Briefly:
Cast members of The Restless Years made a guest appearance on the 1000th episode of Bernard King's (pictured) morning TV show King's Kitchen, to screen next month on the 0-10 Network and on STW9 Perth. 

Cast and crew associated with the new 0-10 Network series Prisoner have been banned from speaking to the press.

TV Times reporter Joanna Parsons was involved in a plot to lure actor Ron Frazer into a fake interview which would be 'interrupted' by Roger Climpson claiming "Ron Frazer, This Is Your Life!"

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"What is going on?  We have one variety show in Adelaide, The Ernie Sigley Show, apart from the eastern imports.  Is this all Adelaide can offer?  Compared to The Don Lane Show and Mike Walsh, the Ernie Sigley show is dead.  Poor old Ernie, I think it is time he gave it away before it gives him away."  G. Culbertson, SA.

"Having only one channel here, ABC, we are forced to watch with disgust, episodes of The Truckies.  I feel The Truckies is a slur on hard-working and responsible truck drivers and makes them look like morons."  N. Ford, NT.

"I think The Truckies is thoroughly entertaining and John Wood (pictured), who plays Stokey, is one of my favourite Australian actors."  G. Wallenda, WA.

"I wish to complain about a program on our local TV station, a special The Battle Of Eureka Stockade, rated A.  It was on at 5pm and this is a time that young children are watching television.  I thought it would be a good educational program, but with words like 'bastards', 'slut', 'rip your guts out' and so on, it was not very educational."  E. O'Connor, QLD.

What's On (November 4-10):
The 0-10 Network has secured the rights to televising the events of the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnival for the first time.  Saturday's coverage starts with a Cup Carnival Breakfast, held at the ATV0 studios and hosted by Michael Williamson, followed by Derby Day coverage from Flemington.  On Tuesday, ATV0 presents eight hours of Melbourne Cup Day coverage, starting at 9.00am with a Melbourne Cup Day Preview, then at 11.00am Michael Schildberger hosts six hours of Melbourne Cup coverage, with races called by Clem Dimsey.  Thirteen cameras will be placed around Flemington Racecourse to capture the day's events including fashion displays.  ATV0 then returns to Flemington for Oaks Day on Thursday.

The non-ratings season is now evident with some regular shows having finished up or moved to alternative timeslots and some lesser-known replacements filling in. 

GTV9's The Young Doctors (pictured) has been moved to 8.30pm two nights a week, with its usual 6.00pm timeslot filled by repeats of the US comedy Nanny And The Professor.  And filling the gap left by The Daryl And Ossie Show, which finished on ATV0 last week, is an American game show All Star Anything Goes, featuring teams representing various US sitcoms and dramas including Eight Is Enough, The Brady Bunch, The Jeffersons and The Waltons.  ATV0's The Peter Couchman Show has been replaced by late-night movies, and British series Coronation Street is returned to GTV9, screening Monday and Tuesday nights.

Despite the exodus of some programs for the summer, regular programs including Cop Shop, The Sullivans, The Don Lane Show, The Mike Walsh Show, The Steve Raymond Show, Blankety Blanks, The Restless Years, Willesee At Seven, Countdown, The Inventors, Micro Macro (pictured) and This Day Tonight are still in the schedule.

Sunday night movies are the Australian film The Night Nurse (HSV7), Rosetti And Ryan (GTV9) and Assault On A Queen (ATV0), while ABC presents the Australian Opera production of  Fra Diavolo.

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

1978: October 21-27

Jimmy's still playing the game
In 22 years of TV, Jimmy Hannan has hosted more than twenty shows - including Celebrity Squares, Spending Spree, Split Second, Say When, Generation Gap, The Jimmy Hannan Show, Saturday Date and Let's Make A Deal - but since Nine axed Let's Make A Deal a year ago, the "eyes and teeth" of Australian TV has rarely been seen on screen. But Hannan is not lying low, instead he is spending his mornings hosting a radio show on 2GB Sydney and has just started as a panelist on the new ABC game show Micro Macro. And the father of four who rose to fame as a champion contestant on Australia's first TV game show, Name That Tune in 1956, has an untold ambition to be an actor. "I'm starting acting lessons next year," he told TV Times. (Pictured: Micro Macro's Carol Raye, Noel Ferrier and Jimmy Hannan)

Nurse Lynda cops out
Actress Lynda Stoner will be leaving The Young Doctors when her contract with the Nine Network soap expires early next year. The former Miss TV Times is due to start work on the Seven Network series Cop Shop as policewoman Amanda King. But when asked about her leaving The Young Doctors, John Fowler of the Reg Grundy Organisation, which produces The Young Doctors, knew nothing of Stoner's plans: "As far as we are concerned she is under contract with us."

Trisha's nobody's Patsy
Former Bandstand favourite Trisha Noble (pictured), now based in the US but currently visiting Australia, finds herself living a double life. Although she is known as an actress in Hollywood, with recent roles in TV series including Executive Suite, James At 15 and Husbands And Wives and as a call-girl in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Noble is keen to shake off her image as the sweet, little gingham-gowned Patsy Ann of Bandstand. "I want so much to come back to my own country to do a strong, solid role which will once and for all get Patsy Ann off my back."

Sales plan for Wherrett series
Negotiations are already in progress to sell Peter Wherrett's big budget series on the history of the motor car internationally. The ten-part series, Peter Wherrett's Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring, is still in production and not due to screen on ABC until the new year. Wherrett has told TV Times, "a lot of interest has been shown and negotiations are going on in North America and England. We hope it will be the first ABC series to crack the overseas market in a big way." Wherrett also told TV Times his enthusiastic plans for a new series, potentially titled Highway One, which will follow the highway from Cairns to Darwin, circumnavigating Australia, but just needs the money to make it happen.

Briefly:
Malcolm Searle (pictured), host of the new 0-10 Network game show Pyramid Challenge, told TV Times, "I'm enjoying this more than I've ever enjoyed any TV work. But I won't be destroyed one way or the other when the show eventually finishes."

Rock singer Doug Parkinson is about to embark on a new role in soapie The Young Doctors, playing the manager of a country and western singer, to be played by 20-year-old Kim Durrant.

At a recent cast party to celebrate the first birthday of The Restless Years, TEN10 chief Ian Kennon announced that the network has chosen to renew the series for a further twelve months.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"When will the 0-10 Network realise that Blankety Blanks is the most boring show on TV?  Graham Kennedy wants a rap on the knuckles and told to get on with it. It should be a fast-moving show." A. Wilton, QLD.

"I eagerly sat down to watch ATV0's late movie The African Queen, as advertised in all TV guides.  But I had made a sad mistake, for The African Queen was obviously of secondary importance. Of primary concern was Ross D Wyllie and his endless rambling concerning mindless trivia. I realise ATV0 is a commercial channel and Mr Wyllie has to earn a living, but really!" H. Boer, VIC.

"What a great pity it is that ABC did not make that fine series Against The Wind (pictured). We would have been spared the excessive ads which break the concentration of the viewer." M. Nolan, NSW.

What's On (October 21-27):
ATV0 screens live coverage of the Custom Credit Indoor Tennis Championships, from Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Commentators are Ray Warren and Bill Bowrey.

In a repeat of GTV9's The Paul Hogan Show, Paul Hogan and his team send up Number 96 and Pot Of Gold. Delvene Delaney joins Strop (John Cornell) and Hoges to discover the hazards of health clinics.

Barry Creyton and Kate Fitzpatrick are guest panelists on ABC's Micro Macro.  Followed by A Visit To The Uncle, the final episode of the comedy series Tickled Pink on ABC, starring Barry Otto, Max Gillies, Bunney Brooke and Johnny Lockwood.

This Is Your Life host Roger Climpson is joined by Annette Allison and Mike Higgins to host the Miss Australia 1979 contest, live from Brisbane, screening on HSV7 on Friday night.  In the same timeslot, ATV0 presents 21 Hours In Munich, a special movie presentation tracing the events at the 1972 Olympic Games which saw Arab terrorists kill two Israeli athletes and taking nine others hostage.

Sunday night movies are The Ghost Of Flight 401 (HSV7), Night Flight To Moscow (GTV9) and Carry On Abroad (ATV0). ABC presents a Sunday night opera, Lucrezia Borgia, from the Australian Opera Company featuring Joan Sutherland and the Elizabethan Symphony Orchestra.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 21 October 1978.  ABC/ACP

1978: September 23-29

Cover: Michael Landon (Little House On The Prairie)

The Sammys are coming!
The third annual Sammy Awards promise to be the most exciting yet, with a stunning line-up of stars, programs and movies all vying for honours among 39 categories. This year will also mark the inauguration of the Chips Rafferty Memorial Award. The Sammy Awards, presented by TV Times in association with the Variety Club of Australia and the Seven Network, will take place on 11 October at Sydney's Seymour Centre. The two hour telecast will be hosted by Roger Climpson.

Dating Jenny is no picnic!
Since playing the mysterious Miranda in the movie Picnic At Hanging Rock, Anne Lambert has had roles in The Box, Glenview High and Chopper Squad, and now takes on a new role in Cop Shop. Lambert plays Jenny McGregor, girlfriend of Constable Roy Baker (Gil Tucker, pictured), but has some strange fascinations: "Jenny has a strange fascination towards violence. She is attracted by the uniform, the guns and the handcuffs."

TV ads draw viewers' fire
In 1977, 715 people were so annoyed by advertisements that they complained to the Advertising Standards Council (ASC). Half of those complaints were specifically about television advertising. The largest proportion of complaints were in the "taste and decency" category. Among the advertisements to be accused of general bad taste included those featuring bus-loads and TV screens full of lemons, the depiction of bad manners in bubble gum and potato chip advertisements, the depiction of rats eating Australia in an anti-inflation ad, the use of rough words such as 'gutsy' and 'damn', and advertisements for R-rated movies. Complaints were also received about the use of sex to sell products such as toothpaste and vitamins, the depiction of women in advertising and advertising displaying food wastage. The ASC's third annual report states that about one in eight complaints received are found to be justified.

Service to help the unemployed
The Nine Network is about to launch a new weekday morning program aimed at helping the unemployed find work. The half-hour program, Looking For A Job, will be hosted by Brian Bury and Gail Jarvis and will update job opportunities as listed by the Commonwealth Employment Services. The program will also feature interviews with representatives from major employers including BHP and The Shell Company of Australia, government agencies and the armed forces.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I am glad to see ABC produce a program for our truckies, but as a truckie's daughter I was let down by the program. Here in Western Australia our truckies aren't beer-drinking, pill-popping drivers. Sure, they do both, but only to a certain extent. The program is making the WA truckie look exactly the opposite to what he really is. In the East the truckie may be like that, but over here it's a different matter." V. Mazza, WA.

"I am concerned about the order in which episodes of Doctor Who are screened. I would rather see all the Jon Pertwee stories in order (and the Tom Baker ones for that matter) than just a handful of randomly selected stories." S. Collins, QLD.

"Again we have an example of how writers are regarded in this country. In the preamble to Woman In The House on Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse, Stuart Wagstaff made a point of mentioning everyone at the beginning of the play, with the exception of the writer. Mr Wagstaff also said "... but it was really Neil Fitzpatrick's play." Correction. It was Luis Bayonas' play. Surely as an actor, Mr Wagstaff knows that neither the actors nor the director could have done such a good job if they hadn't started with a good script." M. Kelly, NSW.

What's On (September 23-29):
With The Daryl And Ossie Show now airing weeknights on ATV0, their former Saturday morning timeslot on GTV9 is now taken by The Super Saturday Show, a line-up of cartoons presented by Queensland personality Jacki MacDonald.

Guest performers on this week's Penthouse '78 include Bartholomew John, Maria Venuti and Col Elliott.

It's the lead up to the 1978 VFL Grand Final and on Monday night, HSV7 has the Brownlow Medal Count live from the Southern Cross Ballroom hosted by Peter Landy. On Thursday night, Landy presents a one-hour special That Was The Season That Was. On Friday afternoon there's live coverage of the Bourke Street parade of the Grand Final teams, and on Friday night through to Saturday morning, John Waters presents the Football Marathon, featuring highlights from HSV7's archive of VFL matches.

Relative Air Pollution, the second episode of ABC's comedy Tickled Pink, features Noel Ferrier (pictured) as owner of a radio station, 2KK, and traces his tormented life at the hands of his wife and sister-in-law, which becomes further complicated when the radio station undergoes a metamorphosis at the hands of his nephew, Jethro (Robert Hughes). The comedy also stars Judi Farr, Robina Beard, Stephen O'Rourke and Shaunna O'Grady.

Sunday night movies are The Don Is Dead (HSV7), Nowhere To Run (GTV9) and White Line Fever (ATV0), while on ABC, performer Jill Perryman is the special guest on the final episode of variety series Capriccio!

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