1991: April 27-May 3

‘I’ve had to become a little harder…’
At 18, E Street’s favourite girl next door Toni Pearen (pictured) has suddenly become a sophisticated woman – but her transformation isn’t just about make-up or a new outfit.  “I’ve had to grow up as a means of survival,” she told TV Week.  “I’ve had to become a little harder to ensure I don’t get hurt too easily.  This, after all, is a very cut-throat industry.  I’m concentrating on working hard and enjoying it while I’m still here.”  Pearen has also become aware of the growing presence of paparazzi, citing the experiences of former talent school colleague Rebekah Elmaloglou:  “Rebekah has done so incredibly well and success hasn’t changed her.  But she does have to cope with so much now – she can’t even walk down the street any more.  Can you imagine the pressures?”  Pearen also responds to rumours of a relationship with Home And Away star Mat Stevenson.  “That was amazing,” she says.  “Mat and I have been friends for a long time.  We met through Rebekah.  He didn’t have anyone to take to Hamlet, so he asked me to tag along and a rumour was born.”

Comedy duo fast forward to radio!
The Seven Network has given the go-ahead for a sitcom pilot likely to feature Fast Forward stars Marg Downey and Michael Veitch (pictured).  The new project, Without Wires, is set in a radio station in the 1950s and is being developed by Fast Forward co-star Steve Blackburn with writer Peter Herbert and Artist Services’ Andrew Knight.  “We love it… it’s a very strong idea,” Knight told TV Week.  “There are three levels of comedy in it.  There are broad elements of farce, talent quests and the music of the time.”  Production is expected to begin in May or June.

‘Absent friends’ mar Pippa’s big day
This week’s Home And Away wedding between Pippa (Debra Lawrence) and Michael (Dennis Coard) mostly goes without a hitch – but the return of Ben (Julian McMahon) in army uniform hoping to convince pregnant wife Carly (Sharyn Hodgson) to join him as he returns to the army is set to interrupt the celebrations.  Two uniformed military police arrive at the reception to inform Ben that he is under arrest for going absent without leave.  Some pleading from Ben explaining his marital situation leads to the officers giving him a reprieve, and Carly agrees to leave with him.  The scene marks the series departure of cast members McMahon and Hodgson.

Briefly…
The recession hits Neighbours this week as the Willis family are forced to give up their home.  Doug (Terence Donovan) and Pam (Sue Jones) are shocked to learn they may have to move out of Ramsay Street when the bank forecloses on their mortgage.  “It’s very appropriate at the moment with the way things are in Victoria,” Jones tells TV Week.  “What happens to the Willis family is a situation faced by many normal people.  People aren’t paying them and they can’t pay their debts.  It’s a vicious circle.”

Star Search producer Jacqui Culliton and host Jeff Phillips are awed by the amount of phone-in votes that pour in after the Network Ten talent quest goes to air on Saturday nights – currently around 20,000 calls a week are received.  The series is about to hold its first Grand Final for the year, following two semi-finals.  One of the show’s acts through to semi-final stage is junior dance troupe, the Brent Street Kids (pictured).

Actor Cameron Daddo is in training for his role in the mini-series Tracks Of Glory, which tells the story of Australian champion cyclist Don Walker.  Daddo’s training routine, under the supervision of Olympic champion Mike Turtur, starts each morning at 5.30am with a mini-triathlon… bike for an hour, run for half an hour and then swim.  “If I want to look like a cyclist, I’ve got to cycle,” the determined Daddo told TV Week.

John Laws says…
”Like all comedy programs that are successful, Fast Forward’s biggest problem is going to be how to come up with fresh routines.  The first of the new series kept up Fast Forward’s reputation as slick and satirical, with little you could really criticise.  Whether it can maintain its previous high standards is anyone’s guess.  I hope it can, because it’s a marvellous vehicle for some very good local comedy talents.”

Program Highlights (April 27-May 3):
Saturday:  Seven crosses to Carrara, Queensland, for live coverage of AFL – Brisbane Bears versus Essendon.

Sunday:  Seven crosses to Adelaide for live coverage of a twilight AFL game between Adelaide Crows versus Footscray.  Sunday night movies are Surrender (Seven), The Accused (Nine) and The Sicilian (Ten).  Late night sport includes Australian Touring Car Championships (Seven), San Marino Grand Prix (Nine), Australia versus West Indies in the Fifth Test (Nine), Sports Week (Ten) and the Sydney Rugby League Match Of The Day (Ten).

Monday:  ABC presents the debut of The Life And Death Of Sandy Stone, featuring the suburbanite character (pictured) portrayed by Barry Humphries, talking about life in Glen Iris in a series of touching and witty monologues.

Tuesday:  ABC’s live comedy series The Big Gig returns with a new series.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Geoff (Robert Grubb) collapses with a mystery illness that baffles the doctors who race against time to save him.  In Acropolis Now (Seven), is Uri (Rhys Muldoon) from Russia really a student, or is he a KGB spy as Jim (Nick Giannopoulos) suspects.

Friday:  Seven crosses to Nimes, France, for late night coverage of the Davis Cup quarter finals, Australia versus France.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  27 April 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: March 30-April 5

Cover: Sophie Lee (The Bugs Bunny Show)

Christopher nudges himself out!
Actor Christopher Truswell dropped a bombshell on the producers of Seven’s Hey Dad! by announcing that he would quit the show at the end of the current series which is due to complete production soon.  Frantic last-minute negotiations have since seen Truswell agree to appear in the next batch of 13 episodes to be taped later in the year – but how many episodes he will appear in is up to him.  “Chris may do two, four or six episodes,” Seven’s programming chief Glen Kinging told TV Week.  Truswell is interested in pursuing film roles and also has musical ambitions.  “I enjoy singing more than acting,” Truswell told TV Week.  “But acting pays the bills.”  Meanwhile, production is ready to begin on the Hey Dad! spin-off Hampton Court (formerly Hampton House), starring Julie McGregor as ditzy secretary Betty.  The new series is also set to star Adam Willits (Home And Away), Henri Szeps, Danielle Spencer and Rod Zuanic.

Street’s ahead!
Australia’s most successful series, Neighbours, chalks up another milestone this week – its 1400th episode.  The milestone will see Neighbours overtake The Young Doctors (1396 episodes) as the longest running Australian soap opera.  It will be a particularly special celebration for cast members Anne Haddy (pictured), Alan Dale and Stefan Dennis, who have been with the series since episode one went to air in March 1985 on the Seven Network.  They survived the show’s controversial switch to the Ten Network in 1986 and have seen the rise to fame of younger cast members including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Craig McLachlan and Peter O’Brien.  For Haddy, her casting in the series showed enormous faith by the producers as her health had caused interruptions and script re-writes for other Reg Grundy productions that she had worked on.  “I really caused them so much trouble,” Haddy told TV Week.  “And the darlings cast me in this very important new show knowing I could drop dead at any moment.”  Dale was the producers’ second choice for the role of Jim Robinson, but took on the role when the original actor chosen had backed out.

What an Event!
”A pizza with everything on it!” – that’s how Larry Emdur (pictured) described his latest television game show.  The Main Event – created by former soccer player Craig Johnston – makes its debut soon on Seven in the competitive Sunday 7.30pm timeslot.  Despite the strength of the competition it will be up against – 60 Minutes on Nine and The Simpsons on Ten – Emdur is confident of success.  “I have a very good feeling about this,” he told TV Week.  It is a rapid turnaround for Emdur who only four months ago was “retrenched” from the financially-troubled Ten Network where he was a reporter for Good Morning Australia and had earlier hosted the ill-fated Family Double Dare.

Briefly…
Legendary actor Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell might be the new producer on the set of Ten’s Col’n Carpenter, but he and the show’s star Kim Gyngell are old mates.  “I directed Kim in an episode of Cop Shop,” Tingwell told TV Week.  “We’ve known each other as long as that.”  Tingwell has also worked with actress Kaarin Fairfax, a newcomer to the show’s cast.  They worked together on mini-series Poor Man’s Orange and he was familiar with Fairfax through her performances with St Martin’s Youth Theatre in Melbourne.

Seven’s Home And Away is about to introduce a second generation foster mum, with Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson) taking on a foster child, seven-year-old Sam (Ryan Clark).  Dickson said her new co-star was a joy to work with.  “He’s the sweetest little boy to work with.  He has a lovely charm,” she told TV Week.  “He hadn’t acted before, and he’s only seven, but he knows his lines and takes direction.”

Network Ten’s Eddie McGuire and Steve Quartermain have had to give up their Sunday night social routine since launching their new weekly sports program, Sportsweek.  The late-night show, according to Quartermain, will feature AFL prominently but will also give a wrap up of other sports including basketball, tennis and golf and will catch up with other overseas events from during the week.  “I think that’s something that’s lacking in weekend news services,” he told TV Week.

John Laws says…
”Kerry O’Brien and the ABC must have been completely satisfied with the way Lateline performed last year because the 1991 series has brought not one single change in the rigid format.  Even the host’s nightly affliction of the current affairs program disease “interviews interruptus” shows no sign of abating.  O’Brien, you see, is one the world’s great interrupters.  I often wonder if he brings guests on his program to hear them talk or just for the pleasure of interrupting them mid-sentence.”

Program Highlights (March 30-April 5):
Saturday:  Seven’s Saturday evening includes highlights of the day’s AFL matches plus live coverage from Carrara, Queensland, of the match between Brisbane Bears and Melbourne.

Sunday:  Ten crosses to Bathurst for coverage of the James Hardie 12-Hour Race, hosted by Tim Webster.  Coverage starts at 6.00am for an hour, then resumes at 2.00pm for the next three-and-a-half hours.  Sunday night movies are Unnatural Causes (Seven), Tess (Nine) and Miracle Of The Heart: A Boys’ Town Story (Ten).  ABC’s Compass looks at the implications for parenthood when a child has been created by artificial insemination.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), pandemonium reigns at Wandin Valley Hospital as new matron Rosemary Prior (Maureen Edwards) arrives amid an outbreak of food poisoning.

Tuesday:  Former Number 96 and Home Sweet Home star Arianthe Galani and Steve Bastoni are guest stars in GP (ABC).  Former Cop Shop star Lynda Stoner guest stars in Nine’s All Together Now as a groupie from Bobby Rivers’ (Jon English) rock’n roll days.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Vic Buckley (Maurie Fields, pictured with wife and co-star Val Jellay) decides to turn his staid Majestic Hotel into the ultimate Outback Aussie experience and bring in loads of overseas tourists.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  30 March 1991.  Southdown Press.

1991: March 23-29

Off to a flying start!
”The best in a decade!”  That’s how one high-ranked television executive – not connected to host broadcaster the Nine Network – described the 33rd annual TV Week Logie Awards.  And the night got off to a flying start, with host Daryl Somers making his spectacular entrance from high up in the ceiling of the World Congress Centre, Melbourne, on a flying fox.  The opening of the Logie Awards presentation also included a performance by Debbie Byrne and the Electric Legs dancers.  Somers, hosting the event for the second time, says he was “very happy” with his job as host.  “It was a great team effort all around.  It was a real buzz for me.  I felt comfortable and relaxed.  I really enjoyed it.”  Overseas guests attending the Logies included actress Angie Dickinson and Twin Peaks stars Peggy Lipton and Michael Ontkean.  The awards presentation ended with Tonight Live host and producer Steve Vizard (pictured with fellow award winners Rebecca Gibney and Georgie Parker) being awarded the Gold Logie for most popular television personality in Australia.

TV Week Logie Winners 1991: Publicly-voted categories
Gold Logie – Most Popular Personality On Australian TV: Steve Vizard
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actor On Australian TV: Craig McLachlan
Silver Logie – Most Popular Actress On Australian TV: Georgie Parker
Most Popular Series: Home And Away
Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Program: Fast Forward
Most Popular Lifestyle Information Program: Burke’s Backyard
Most Popular Telemovie or Mini-Series: Jackaroo
Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Male Personality: Steve Vizard
Most Popular Light Entertainment/Comedy Female Personality: Magda Szubanski
Most Popular Sports Coverage: Cricket
Most Popular Actor in a Telemovie or Mini-Series: David McCubbin (pictured)
Most Popular Actress in a Telemovie or Mini-Series: Annie Jones (pictured)
Most Popular Children’s Program: Agro’s Cartoon Connection
Most Popular Music Video: Chain Reaction (John Farnham)
Most Popular Public Affairs Program: A Current Affair
Most Popular New Talent: Richard Huggett

TV Week Logie Winners 1991: Industry-voted categories
Gold Logie – Hall Of Fame: James Davern
Most Outstanding Actor: Michael Craig
Most Outstanding Actress: Rebecca Gibney (pictured) 
Most Outstanding Single Drama or Mini-Series: Come In Spinner
Most Outstanding Achievement in Public Affairs: Other People’s Money (4 Corners, ABC)
Most Outstanding Achievement in News: John Lombard (ABC)
Most Outstanding Single Documentary or Series: The Chelmsford Scream
Most Outstanding Achievement by Regional Television: No Fixed Address (WIN)

TV Week Logie Winners 1991: State-based categories (Most Popular Personality, Most Popular Program):
New South Wales: Ray Martin, Home And Away.
Victoria: Daryl Somers, Neighbours
Queensland: Rob Brough, Family Feud
South Australia: Anne Wills, Wheel Of Fortune
Western Australia: Rick Ardon, Seven Nightly News
Tasmania: Robyn Martin, Tasmania Today

Briefly…
Good Morning Australia’s Kerri-Anne Kennerley (pictured with co-host Tim Webster), now in her tenth year as co-host of Ten’s breakfast program and about to clock up her 2500th episode, says she couldn’t have reached such a milestone without a stable home life.  “Thank goodness I have a fantastic husband who has put up with the lifestyle all this time,” she told TV Week.  “If I didn’t have my stability at home it would lead to tensions, as it would for anyone.”  The show has had a revamp this year, including the return of Ten newsreader Webster as co-host after a break of around three years from the program.

Award-winning actor Shane Connor is about to join the cast of Neighbours as baddie Phil Hoffman, who meets Carolyn Alessi (Gillian Blakeney) as she is about to give evidence in a murder trial which Hoffman is connected to.  With a background in stage and film roles, it is Connors’ first ongoing role in a TV series following a guest appearance in The Flying Doctors and a role in the mini-series Poor Man’s Orange.

Chances star Natalie McCurry admits that she dislikes the nude scenes which are commonplace in the Nine Network series.  “I’m not happy about doing nude shots but it’s part of the job,” she told TV Week.  “I’m very careful about what I do and how I portray my character.  As long as it isn’t gratuitous, and is done with some class, it’s all right.  But if it’s nudity for its own sake then it really degrades the show.”

John Laws says…
”All Together Now is one of the new breed of locally-made TV comedy series which seem to be hauling high enough ratings for everyone to be confident about their long-term prospects.  Eggshells, which I’ve already praised in this column, is doing well for ABC, and Hey Dad! is proving a most consistent winner for Seven.  Ten has got into the act, too, with repeats of Mother And Son pulling in higher ratings than Eggshells (by the same writer, Geoffrey Atherden, and also starring Garry McDonald) on the same night.  The lesson, of course, is that viewers are keen to watch Australian comedy – especially when it’s got a bit of zing and life about it.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne: March 23-29):
Saturday:  AFL’s first round for 1991 continues with Seven’s Saturday night highlights package of St Kilda versus Richmond.  ABC launches a new travel series Holiday, presented by David De Vos, Eric Campbell, Bob La Castra and former Network Ten newsreader Katrina Lee.

Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon of sport includes the final of the NBL KMart Classic, from Homebush, Sydney, and live coverage of AFL from Perth featuring West Coast Eagles versus Melbourne.  Seven also presents afternoon highlights of the match between Footscray and Collingwood.  Sunday night movies are Assassin (Seven), Acceptable Risks (Nine) and House (Ten).  Ten then presents Sportsweek with Eddie McGuire and Steve Quartermain followed by a delayed telecast of the Rugby League match of the day between Canberra and Parramatta.

Monday:  Ten presents a two-hour Eyewitness News special, War In The Gulf.

Tuesday:  In Chances (Nine), as Chris (Mark Kounnas) becomes more and more confused about his sexuality, Sarah’s (Anne Grigg) solution is set to rock the Taylor family.  Nine then presents a delayed telecast of the 63rd annual Academy Awards from the Shrine Auditorium, Hollywood.  Nominated for Best Picture are Awakenings, Dances With Wolves, Ghost, The Godfather III and Goodfellas.

Good Friday:  Seven devotes the day to the traditional Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.  The telethon starts at 9.00am, with a break for Seven News with Peter Mitchell at midday, and continuing through to 6.00pm.  The telethon’s evening session starts at 7.30pm with a variety special hosted by Jennifer Keyte, Derryn Hinch and Steve Vizard and featuring performances by Tina Arena, Paul Norton, the cast of The Phantom Of The Opera and The Seekers.  The appeal closes with the announcement of the grand total at midnight.  ABC commemorates Good Friday with a special screening of UK series Songs Of Praise and World Of Worship presents a Good Friday Service from Perth.  Nine presents a special, The Jerusalem Passion, and an Easter edition of Turn Round Australia.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  23 March 1991.  Southdown Press.

1991: March 9-15

Bob pops the question!
For more than two years the romance between Dr Elly Fielding (Penny Cook) and Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin, pictured near right with Cook) in E Street has been an on-again off-again affair.  But this week in the Ten Network soap, Bob finally proposes – but Elly doesn’t accept straight away.  “She doesn’t say yes immediately, but she doesn’t say no,” Cook told TV Week. 

It’s no Sale!
Tony Barber has denied that there is more to his shock resignation from hosting Nine’s Sale Of The Century as industry rumours have suggested.  Barber insists that the resignation was to escape his “quiz show host” label, having also hosted Temptation, Great Temptation, Name That Tune and Family Feud before 11 years on Sale Of The Century, and also to recover from a hip operation.  Rumours persist within the industry, however, that his resignation was due to the network denying certain demands in renewing his contract.  And although Seven claims that Barber’s management have approached them about coming across, he has denied any discussions have taken place with Seven and Ten, citing his commitment to his Nine contract which expires later this month.  The timing of Barber’s announcement may have also come at an awkward time.  Just days before the announcement, in an interview pre-recorded for Nine’s In Melbourne Today and In Sydney Today chat shows, Barber was asked about his future at Sale to which he replied, “I can see myself doing it when I am 65 or 70.”   No decision has been made as to a successor for Barber on Sale Of The Century, although Denis Walter, Bert Newton and Daryl Somers appear to be possibilities.

Marcus comes home to play a ratbag
Taking a break after a busy year, actor Marcus Graham (pictured) was in Los Angeles when he was offered a two-year contract with daytime soap General Hospital – an offer any number of actors would jump at.  But he said no.  Despite enormous pressure to sign (“98 per cent of everyone I met in the US said I should do it”) he felt it was the wrong thing to do.  “They wanted me to sign a two-year contract.  I was prepared to do one year, but I couldn’t do two, I couldn’t,” Graham told TV Week.  “I think you’d have a very low self-esteem after doing that show for a while.  They shoot an hour a day and you read your lines off cue cards.  It would kill me.  It’s like selling all your dreams and aspirations for thousands of US dollars and getting recognised in supermarkets.  It’s just not worth it.”  Graham was more enthusiastic in signing up for the Seven Network’s four-hour mini-series Ratbag Hero which debuts this week.  Graham plays ‘Unc’ (Bob), the roguish uncle of Mick (Cameron Nugent), the ‘ratbag hero’ of the show’s title.  “Unc is scruffy, a bit of a larrikin.  He is caught between being an adult and a kid.  He is childlike and loves fun,” Graham said.

Briefly…
Hollywood actress Angie Dickinson, best known from TV’s Policewoman series, will be a special guest at this year’s TV Week Logie Awards, taking place this week in Melbourne.  Also on the overseas guest list are Peggy Lipton and Michael Ontkean from the new US series Twin Peaks, now showing on Network Ten.

British-born comedienne Annette Law, whose celebrity impressions won her the ‘Red Faces’ talent quest on Hey Hey It’s Saturday and subsequently led to a career on the comedy circuit, is now heading back to the UK to start in a new BBC sketch comedy series, My Dog’s Got No Nose.  “I believe it’s the British equivalent to the old American show Laugh-In,” Law told TV Week.

Actor Gary Sweet’s proposed role as a reporter for Nine’s Midday With Ray Martin is now looking doubtful after he made a guest appearance on the daytime show to promote his new ABC series Police Rescue.  It happens that Police Rescue is scheduled directly up against Nine’s new drama Chances and the appearance has angered Nine Network executives.

John Laws says…
”Why did SBS scrap its Tonight current affairs show – and replace it with an almost identical program under another name?  This is exactly what has happened, though the program purveyors at SBS will, no doubt, deny it and claim that Dateline is a different concept from Tonight.  But there’s hardly a scrap of difference.  It has the same presenter, Pria Viswalingam, and has retained its capable “finance reporter” Jane Hutcheon, who continues to do exactly what she did so well on the Tonight program.  The official line is that Dateline comprises “the resources of Tonight, Asia Report and the weekly Dateline” and has “shorter, pithier reports” (whatever that means).  So there you have it – two well-established programs are skittled.  Now you see them, now you don’t.  One hour of current affairs becomes 30 minutes of current affairs.”

Program Highlights (March 9-15):
Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon includes live coverage of the Moomba Masters water-skiing from Melbourne’s Yarra River, followed by live coverage of the Australian Touring Car Championships from Symmons Plains, Tasmania.  After Seven Nightly News, Seven screens the first of the two-part children’s mini-series Ratbag Hero, starring Cameron Nugent (pictured), Elaine Smith, Peter Fisher, Marcus Graham, Gus Mercurio and Simon Chilvers.  Sunday night movies are Beaches (Seven), Scarface (Nine) and The Golden Child (Ten).  Nine then crosses to Trinidad for the One Day International between Australia and the West Indies.  Ten debuts a new late-night sports program, Sports Week, hosted by Eddie McGuire and Stephen Quartermain.

Monday:  ABC debuts its new rural affairs program Landline, screening every weekday.  ABC and Seven in Melbourne both present a direct telecast of the annual Moomba street procession.

Tuesday:  In All Together Now (Nine), Thomas (Steven Jacobs) and Anna (Jane Hall) come home drunk and Tracy (Rebecca Gibney) suspects it is Bobby’s (Jon English) influence that has caused it.  Tina Bursill, Serge Lazareff and Dorothy St Heaps are guest stars in ABC’s drama GP.

Wednesday: Prime Minister Bob Hawke is the guest speaker at the National Press Club Luncheon, broadcast on ABC. 

Thursday:  Former E Street star Paul Kelman enters Nine’s The Flying Doctors as Steve McCauley, who found out he was adopted and hitches a ride to Coopers Crossing, undecided on whether or not to tell his mother about their true relationship.

Friday:  Daryl Somers (pictured) hosts the 33rd annual TV Week Logie Awards from Melbourne’s World Congress Centre and broadcast nationally through the Nine Network.  It is triple Gold Logie winner Somers’ second time as host of the event.  This year will also see the launch of two new Logie award categories – the Most Popular Male and Most Popular Female Comedy Personality – in recognition of the rise in Australian-produced comedy on television.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  9 March 1991.  Southdown Press.