1992: May 24-30

Cover: Candice Bergen (Murphy Brown)

Living in the Seventies
Despite the Seventies being the era of ‘sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll’, All Together Now star Jon English confesses that he can look back on that era without too much embarrassment, insisting that he never played up to the image of a high-profile actor-singer during that period.  “I was never into that sex and drugs thing, to tell you the truth,” he told TV Week.  “In the bulk of the Seventies I was appearing in the theatre eight times a week (in Jesus Christ Superstar).  I watched everything in that era from the edge of the stage.”  Meanwhile English’s co-star Rebecca Gibney admits that as a teenager in the that era (“14 trying to be 25”, she said) she was a big fan of the rock performer.  “I wrote to Jon once but he never replied,” she said.  “I loved his music, had his albums and went to his concerts.”  The Nine Network sitcom has adopted a retro theme for this week’s episode as the show’s characters stage a Seventies-style “sit-in” while re-living the Woodstock era.

Long-distance romance?
They might be rivals in children’s television and working in different cities, but Melbourne-based Saturday At Rick’s co-host Lochie Daddo and Brisbane-based Saturday Disney’s Sofie Formica (pictured) are denying reports that they are romantically linked.  “Just good friends,” Daddo told TV Week.  “I ended up doing a pilot for an afternoon show in Brisbane for Ten.  We went out for dinner one night.  It was like a blind date.  The next four or five weeks, for some reason or another, I was up there nearly every weekend for work.  So I saw a lot of Sofie.  We are still very good friends.”  Daddo has recently joined Saturday At Rick’s following his first professional acting role in an episode of All Together Now.  “As a result of All Together Now, I was a guest on Rick’s,” he said.  “Then they said, ‘Do you want to do the show?’.“  Meanwhile, Formica has recently returned from Turkey where she was an Australian delegate at the European Broadcasting Union’s international workshop for children’s television presenters, and has since started a new role as host of Seven’s children’s quiz show Now You See It.

The hair of the wog!
Acropolis Now’s self-styled beauty queen Effie (Mary Coustas, pictured near right) and friend Sophie (Sheryl Munks) have decided that the cafe’s resident career woman Suzanna Martin (Nicki Wendt, far right) is in dire need of assistance.  “Suzanna looks like the ‘before’ lady on the shampoo commercial,” Effie told TV Week.  “She’s got very fine hairs.  I want to give her a good root perm, which will stuff up her hairs for five years.”

Briefly…
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers has been busy working on two additional projects.  The first is a series of one-hour specials, The Best (And Worst) Of Red Faces, highlighting some of the acts to have appeared on the mock talent quest segment since it started back in the early 1980s.  “It’s been a huge job for everyone involved, endeavouring to find every segment ever done – the oldest piece dates back to 1982,” he told TV Week.  The second project is a movie to star the team from Hey Hey It’s Saturday, to be filmed in Brisbane and Melbourne.

Late last year, Home And Away star Dee Smart (pictured) described working on the series as being like a prison sentence.  (“It feels like I’ve been there for years,” she said at the time)  Now it seems her desire to be written out of the show will be realised with producer Andrew Howie agreeing to let her go in July.  Her departure could lead to some challenging times for the soap, which recently celebrated 1000 episodes, with co-stars Nicolle Dickson and Bruce Roberts also contemplating leaving.

E Street’s Brooke ‘Mikey’ Anderson has been dumped from the series 10 weeks before her contract was due to expire.  The young star, who had been in the series since it started three years ago, has already starting filming a guest role in rival series A Country Practice.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”It wasn’t until the Seven Network ran Blackadder back-to-back with Fast Forward that the Rowan Atkinson series gained anything more than a cult following in this country.  Unfortunately, the series was long gone before an audience large enough to be commercially viable had starting lamenting it.  The ABC, however, grabbed the rub-off advantage and screened the first series of the more recent Atkinson creation, Mr Bean.  Be warned.  A second Bean series is now set to premiere.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, May 24-30):
Sunday:  Actor, dancer and choreographer Paul Mercurio and colleague Kim Walker are guests on this week’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross (ABC).  Network Ten presents the second series final on New Faces With Bert Newton, while Nine’s Our World documentary series features Adventure Bound with Alby Mangels.  Anne Phelan is a guest star on comedy series Late For School (Ten).  Sunday night movies are Masquerade (Seven), The Freshman (Nine) and Voices Within: The Lives Of Truddi Chase (Ten).  ABC’s late night series Compass features the story of religious academic John Hull, who documented his experiences as his sight gradually deteriorated from the age of 17 to middle-age when he became completely blind.

Monday:  This week’s Six Pack (SBS) feature is Loulla, a story set in the 1950s of the arrival of an unexpectedly glamorous proxy bride from Greece to a rural backwater in Australia, starring Lenita Vangellis.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Amanda Keller tastes the grain that could feed the Third World, while Tracey Curro investigates the treatment that’s forcing cancer to mature.  Seven later presents a delayed telecast of the AFL State Of Origin match between Victoria and Western Australia from the MCG.  In Chances (Nine), Bambi Shute’s (Abigail, pictured) sex show is a hit.  ABC presents the series return of comedy DAAS Kapital, featuring the Doug Anthony All-Stars.

Wednesday:  ABC presents The Comedy Festival Debate: Is Laughter Better Than Sex? – featuring Michael Corton, Brett Jones, Steve Crabb, Jane Clifton, Andrew Denton and H. G. Nelson and chaired by Campbell McComas.  The first of three one-hour specials of The Best (And Worst) Of Red Faces appears on Nine.

Thursday:  In Nine’s new travel series Getaway, Rebecca Harris tours the Blue Mountains on a Harley Davidson, David Reyne goes diving at Dunk Island and guest reporter, former Sale Of The Century hostess Delvene Delaney presents a tour of Byron Bay.

Friday:  John Waters (pictured) hosts ABC’s new ten-part series The Bush’s Australian Sheepdog Challenge.  Late night sport includes delayed coverage of the Winfield Rugby League Cup (Nine) and the NBL Mitsubishi Challenge (Ten).

Saturday:  Nine begins its coverage of the French Open tennis, live from Roland Garros Centre, Paris, with commentators John Newcombe, Tony Trabert and Betsy Nagelson.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  23 May 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: May 3-9

Rebecca does a double take!
Being an aunt several times over – with 14 nieces and nephews – All Together Now star Rebecca Gibney (pictured) is no stranger to crying babies, which makes her well equipped for this week’s storyline which sees her character Tracy offering to babysit a pair of five-month-old twins.  But Gibney, engaged to singer Jack Jones, is in no hurry to start her own family.  “I’m not at the stage where I can even think about it,” she told TV Week.  “It wouldn’t make sense to me to have a child now.  I think you’ve got to be settled as a human being before you go into it.”

Peta tells: ‘Marriage, millions and me’
Actress Peta Toppano’s character in the upcoming Six Pack episode titled Piccolo Mondo tells her two friends (played by Victoria Longley and Denise Scott) that they all should have married rich men.  And, ironically, that’s what Toppano has done in real life, marrying one of Australia’s richest men, Perth entrepreneur Kerry Stokes.  But while she is enjoying being a millionaire’s wife, the former Prisoner and Return To Eden star is not planning to leave showbusiness but is enjoying a break while spending time with her new husband and his two teenage sons.  Toppano is very enthusiastic about her role in Six Pack.  “It was a fabulous part and so well written,” she told TV Week.  “When I read the script I found myself laughing so much – Lena was a great character.  I haven’t played anyone quite like Lena before.  I guess she was a little like the character in Return To Eden, but a much more authentic woman.”

‘I’m Captain Good Guy… again!’
Former Home And Away star Julian McMahon (pictured) is accustomed to playing nice guy roles, such as his latest role in GP as a policeman, but is keen to play the role of a villain.  “I’m really looking forward to playing a villain for a change, instead of being Captain Good Guy,” he tells TV Week.  “In The Power, The Passion – my first television job – I touched on villainy… just.”  The GP role comes just after McMahon has completed work on movie Exchange Lifeguards, starring alongside Christopher Atkins, Elliott Gould and Mark Hembrow.  The production was an intense schedule, with 14-hour days over seven weeks.  “Now I’m never going to the beach again unless I get paid for it!,” he said.

Briefly…
Actor John Waters (pictured) is taking on an unusual role as host of ABC’s upcoming Bush’s Australian Sheepdog Challenge.  The show comes after the success of similar shows in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.  Waters, who recently starred in mini-series Which Way Home, will soon be heading to South-East Asia for his next role, a private eye in the movie Singapore Sling.

Producers of Seven’s new sitcom Newlyweds are still on the hunt for an actress to play the lead role after the sudden departure of Alyssa-Jane Cook.  Former Neighbours star Annie Jones has cropped up as a possible contender for the role.

The third series of Embassy is soon to start screening on ABC.  One of its upcoming guest stars will be actor Nicholas Eadie (pictured), playing the part of a politician with a kinky sex life.

There are rumours around the television industry that the Ten Network is considering the idea of one national news bulletin for the whole network, based in Melbourne.

The Nine Network has commissioned a six-part series as a spin-off to the recent documentary special, Sex, hosted by Sophie Lee.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Back in the bad old days when the Seven Network, in particular, was more fragmented than it is today, this type of thing used to happen regularly.  The network’s major stations – ATN7 in Sydney and HSV7 in Melbourne – were not as closely aligned as they are now and often there was a lag of up to four weeks with regular series such as A Country Practice.  In other words, a major storyline, such as a wedding in Wandin Valley, would be seen a month earlier – or later – in one city, a nightmare for a national publication such as TV Week.  But genuine networking of schedules was going to solve all that and, to a large extent, it did.  Which makes the current situation with The Darling Buds Of May all that more disappointing.  The delightful six-hour series, one of the most popular shows in Britain last year, will screen on Seven at 8.30 on three consecutive Friday nights… in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.  Other capital cities will have to wait, mainly because AFL games are scheduled on those nights and, in the case of Melbourne, partly because the powers that be at HSV privately admit they’re not sure where to slot The Darling Buds Of May, anyway.  The feeling is that series would sit more comfortably in the ABC’s schedule, rather than the line-up of any commercial station.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, May 3-9):
Sunday:  Showbiz legend Toni Lamond and her son, actor Tony Sheldon are guests on this week’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross (ABC).  Sunday night movies are Blue Steel (Seven), Joe Versus The Volcano (Nine) and Grass Roots (Ten).  Late night sport includes Shell Australian Touring Car Championships (Seven), the Spanish Grand Prix (Nine) and delayed coverage of the rugby league Winfield Cup (Nine).

Monday:  Nine presents the debut of children’s series The New Adventures Of Skippy, a modern take on the TV classic Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, starring Andrew Clarke (pictured).  In A Country Practice (Seven), Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) blames the town’s new vet Anna (Anne Looby) for the death of her horse.  This week’s Six Pack (SBS) feature is Loveless, exploring the complexities of human sexuality as Tom (Simon Burke), who has just lost his father, makes a video about a relationship between a father and his gay son.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), Julie (Denise Roberts) is confronted with the fear of living alone after her bag is snatched.  The episode features guest stars Julian McMahon and Joy Smithers.  In Chances (Nine), Madelaine Wolfe (Karen Richards) the agency’s new photographer needs Angela’s (Patsy Stephen) help when she has problems with a nude model.

Wednesday:  Nine’s telecast of the Rugby League State Of Origin is being scheduled in prime time across Australia for the first time.  In the past the network had been reluctant to commit to a prime-time screening in non-rugby territories, but last year’s prime time telecast by NWS9 Adelaide showed that the game can attract strong ratings outside of its traditional markets.

Thursday:  Seven presents delayed coverage of the AFL Centenary Match, between Collingwood and Carlton on the 100th anniversary of the traditional rivals’ first match, from the MCG.

Friday:  ABC presents the long-awaited debut of its new big-budget children’s series Lift Off, starring Mark Mitchell (pictured), featuring a combination of live action, puppetry and animation. 

Saturday:  SBS presents a live telecast of the Coca-Cola Soccer League Awards from the Darling Harbour Convention Centre, followed by live coverage of the FA Cup Final from Wembley Stadium, UK, and a delayed telecast of the Scottish FA Cup Final from Glasgow.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  2 May 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: April 5-11

On top of the world…!
A Country Practice star Kym Wilson and Chances star Jeremy Sims are in love and happy for the whole world to know.  “At the beginning, we decided that if there was speculation about us, it would be best not to hide it,” Wilson told TV Week.  “By being honest from the start, we felt people would respect us and leave us alone – which they generally have.”  Despite the pair working in separate cities – A Country Practice is based in Sydney and Chances in Melbourne – they commute on alternate weekends.  “Even if we were in the same city, living in the same house, probably the only time we’d see each other would be weekends, because of our heavy work schedules.”  However, the pair will be working together later this month with an appearance in the play Love Letters, on stage at the Sydney Opera House.

How Effie became drama queen
Growing up in the working-class Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford, Mary Coustas hardly seemed destined for an acting career.  But when the family moved to outer-suburban Doncaster – before, she insists, all the “wogs” moved out there – her outlook on life changed, performing in high school plays and musicals, and she credits her family for supporting her career choice.  “When I told them what I wanted to do with my life, they accepted it,” she told TV Week.  “I wasn’t talking about acting in terms of making lots of money, but entertaining people.  They saw that as healthy.”  Coustas, who plays Effie (pictured) in the sitcom Acropolis Now, is now performing her own stage show Waiting For Effie in Melbourne.  As well as Effie, the one-woman show also features Coustas as seven-year-old schoolgirl Libby, womaniser and compulsive gambler Vasili and overweight former schoolteacher Sophie.  “These characters have been in my head for four or five years.  But this is the biggest risk I’ve taken… I’ve lost half a stone in three weeks.”

Sixty soapie minutes!
A chance meeting between 60 Minutes reporter Jeff McMullen and E Street star Bruce Samazan has led to the current affairs reporter filing a story looking at the off-screen lives of some of Australia’s most popular soap stars.  McMullen visits recent Logie winner Samazan at his home in Wollongong to meet his family and old schoolfriends.  The story also features Home And Away stars Les Hill and Mat Stevenson and former E Street star Melissa Tkautz.  “Our story shows how these ‘wannabe-stars’ came from hard backgrounds, and looks at their chances of getting to Hollywood,” McMullen told TV Week.  “We had a lot of fun making this story.”

Briefly…
The producers of E Street have decided to continue with the controversial ‘Mr Bad’ serial killer storyline, even though the actor who plays the role, Vince Martin (pictured), has left the series.  A new actor will be cast in the role, but in the meantime Mr Bad is shown on screen to be in hospital with his head wrapped up in bandages!

Peter Ross, host of ABC’s Sunday Afternoon arts program, has told TV Week that only one person has refused an invitation to join him on the show – Graham Kennedy.  “He knocked us back in the kindest possible way,” Ross said.  “We usually have good access to artists.  We would have liked to talk to Graham about life and points arising.  He’s a great media figure, an interesting, one-off Australian.”

Comments that Steve Vizard (pictured) made on Logies night have stirred up a strong reaction in newspapers and talkback radio, but he is unapologetic.  “My style of humour is pretty much to take the ----, and I won’t change that for anyone.  If you don’t like it, then don’t watch,” he told TV Week.  But Vizard believes the press honed in on his comments in the absence of any real controversy.  “There was a slight need for a beat-up,” he said.  “The Gold Logie winner (Jana Wendt), to whom the press devoted so much space the morning after, wasn’t there.”

The cast departures from Nine’s Chances continue, with Tim Robertson, one of the show’s original cast members, and Molly Brumm now finished production with the series but will continue to be seen on-screen until May.  Their characters depart the show amid a drug-related disaster.  Brumm may return to the series at a later date, but Robertson’s departure is permanent.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”As the dust settles after the recent TV Week Logie Awards, yours truly was called upon to make one of his rare forays into another medium.  Actually, I quite enjoy the electric wireless… when I’m listening to it.  On this occasion I had to clear my throat and speak by phone to John Hindle and Brett McLeod, partners on a drive-time show on a Melbourne station.  These days, part of their show is Hindle’s daily “Letter to Mike”, a sometimes whimsical commentary on current events, read out in the form of a letter to a friend in London.  Just before my big moment on air, Mike was told about “television’s annual orgy of self-congratulation.. the star failed to appear… there was weeping and wailing and much gnashing of teeth” and so on.  This must have moved Mike somewhat because he wanted to know more and, through a friend of a friend, obtained a tape of the program.  Then he sat down and penned a reply.  It fell off the back of a Jumbo and was mistakenly opened by your correspondent.  I know I shouldn’t do this but…

“Dear John, Thanks for all your letters.  It’s a great comfort to this ex-pat to have constant reassurance that governments in Oz are going from bad to worse, England isn’t the only country in the world with an unemployment problem, and the Logie Awards are still going strong 34 years on.  I say “going strong” because I heard about the fantastic TV ratings.  Sort of blows out the water your mate’s statement about Channel Seven not being on a winner … You line up this bloke from TV Week, whatever his name is, and then hit him with a heap of negative stuff straight out of a Sunday paper.  Well, John, I suppose that’s okay, as long as you know the Sunday paper was accurate in the first place.  And that’s always a worry!  You both harangue the guy about the Logies, but then say that neither of you saw the show.  And your mate asks whether the absence of Jana Wendt resulted from the “fact” that it was “just another Gold Logie and she already had a couple, so why rush down?”  I heard him excuse himself after being told it was, in fact, Jana’s first Gold Logie, but he’d already hung himself by then.  But what really got me, John, was the way you both let the topic drop with the remark: “Who are we to judge?  We weren’t even invited.”  Is that what you really hated about the Logies?  Until next year, Mike.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, April 5-11):
Sunday:  Afternoon sport includes AFL on Seven, the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships on Nine and the Hong Kong 7’s Rugby Union on Ten.  Sunday night movies are Farewell To The King (Seven), Evil Angels (Nine) and Gorillas In The Mist (Ten).

Monday:  ABC presents the final episode of comedy series Gillies And Company.  Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (Seven) begins a week of shows presented live from London.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Amanda Keller looks at the treatment that is shocking heart attack victims back to health, Simon Reeve takes a ride in a vehicle that produces more horsepower or kilowatts than the entire field of the Adelaide Grand Prix, and Tracey Curro uses the latest visual technique in electronic conferencing. 

Wednesday:  Shane Bourne hosts the Comedy Festival Charity Gala (Seven), held at Melbourne’s Palais Theatre, featuring performances by The Golden Girls’ Bea Arthur and local comedians Rachel Berger, Mark Little, Mary Coustas, Bob Downe, Mark Mitchell, Nick Giannopoulos, Gina Riley (pictured) and Michael Veitch.  The ABC special Summer Country With James Blundell features highlights of this year’s Australian Made concert at the Festival of Sydney and the Salute to Tamworth concert at the Victorian Arts Centre.

Thursday:  The Seven Network special Crocodile Man features David Ireland, who shares his lifelong fascination with crocodiles, on a journey from the remote Kimberleys in Western Australia to the captive monsters on crocodile farms.  The one-hour documentary includes footage of crocodiles underwater and displaying behaviour never before seen on camera.  This is followed by the comedy special Dame Edna’s Hollywood, featuring Dame Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) with guests Cher, Bea Arthur, Jack Palance and Mel Gibson.  The show's highlight no doubt being Dame Edna and Cher performing I Got You, Babe.

Friday: Seven presents highlights of the AFL match between North Melbourne and Carlton played at the MCG.  Nine presents late-night motorcycling with highlights of the Australian 500cc Grand Prix practice, and Ten has delayed coverage of the NBL Mitsubishi Challenge match between the Brisbane Bullets and the Geelong Supercats.

Saturday:  Nine presents early morning coverage of the US Masters golf, live from Georgia.  ABC has highlights of the Winter Paralympics, followed by football (VFA) and netball.  Ten has live prime-time coverage of the NBL Mitsubishi Challenge match between Melbourne Tigers and Perth Wildcats from the National Tennis Centre.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  4 April 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: March 1-7

State of shock!
Unlike most young Australian actors, E Street star Bruce Samazan (pictured) is in no hurry to work in the US – in fact he has no plans to ever visit there again.  Making his first trip to the US, staying with friends in Texas during a production break for E Street, Samazan cut short his two-week visit and made a dash back to Sydney, admitting that the place “freaked” him out.  “There’s gang warfare over there that I can’t grab a hold of… it’s chaotic,” he told TV Week.  “It’s totally unnatural for an Australian to go over there and adjust to the fact that if you wear the wrong coloured baseball cap or T-shirt, you might be shot at.”  On one occasion he went to put on a Los Angeles Raiders cap but was advised by his local friend, “Bruce I wouldn’t wear that.  You could get yourself into trouble – you might get shot at”.  Then, two days later, a local newspaper carried the headline ‘Two Youths Shot Dead Outside Nightclub’… for wearing LA Raiders outfits.  “That was pretty scary stuff,” Samazan said.

It’s goodbye to the Valley!
A Country Practice viewers will soon bid farewell to three of the show’s most popular characters.  Gordon Piper (who plays Bob Hatfield), Syd Heylen (Cookie) and Matt Day (Luke) will be making their final appearances on screen in the coming weeks.  For Day, leaving the series has come at the right time.  “The character is now rounded off and I feel he has gone as far as he can for me,” he told TV Week.  “Theatre is the next avenue I wish to explore.  I want to steer clear of TV for a while.”  Showbiz veteran Heylen leaves the show with happy memories.  “I’ve made a lot of good friends,” he said.  “The series kept me before a broad audience, which you don’t get to cover doing live work.  It has been a happy period.”  And although Piper is adamant that he won’t be returning to A Country Practice, he and Heylen (both pictured) will be making a guest appearance in two episodes later in the year in a storyline which sees Cookie return to hospital. 

New doctors set for take-off
The Nine Network drama The Flying Doctors is set for a major revamp as production starts soon on its tenth series.  In a major shake-up for the series, the series will now be based in Broken Hill (the real-life base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) rather than the fictional Coopers Crossing, and the only familiar cast members making the move to the new location will be husband-and-wife team Maurie Fields and Val Jellay (pictured) and Sophie Lee.  And joining the new-look series will be Simone Buchanan (Hey Dad!), Peter Phelps (who has just returned from the US where he featured in Baywatch), Steve Jacobs (Rose Against The Odds) and Lydia Miller.  The new-look series is scheduled to debut on Nine around mid-year.

Briefly…
Neighbours’ Blakeney twins, Gayle and Gillian, are about to ‘split up’.  Gillian, who plays Caroline Alessi, will be taping her final scenes in the Network Ten series this week.  “While I love the character and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself on the show, I feel it is time to move on as an actor,” she told TV Week.  Meanwhile, Gayle is contracted to the show until July and will then assess her options before making any decision about her future.  But while the pair will no longer be working together on Neighbours, they will be working together again in London next month as they record their next single which is due for release in Australia later this year. 

Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, with views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, is the location for the latest TV soapie wedding – but it is unlikely to ever appear on Australian screens.  The British TV series Families, which stars Briony Behets (the British-born actress best known for her roles in Aussie dramas Number 96 and The Box), is filmed between Manchester and Sydney… but so far the series is yet to be sold to an Australian network.  The series’ wedding is between Behets’ character Diana Stephens and cafe owner Anton Vaughn (Rhett Walton).

The patchy relationship between the local producers of the Network Ten tabloid current affairs show Hard Copy and Paramount, who own the US-based format, continues.  But executive producer Peter Sutton isn’t concerned as he said there are plenty of other sources for content if the plug is pulled on being able to grab stories from the US version, but concedes that the show may have to change its name – with Fast Copy or Australia’s Hard Copy cited as possibilities.

Actress Melissa Bell (pictured) is currently caught in a battle between Network Ten’s two soapies.  Melbourne-based Neighbours’ producers are keen to renew Bell’s contract when it expires mid-year, but Bell wants to move back to Sydney-based E Street where she once had a brief role – due in part to her current off-screen interstate relationship with the son of E Street producer Forrest Redlich.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Fat Cat has been banished from our screens in one of the most profound decisions made in the history of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.  The tubby tom’s character was deemed “still not clearly defined” and his show was accused of having “still generally poor” direction.  It took 15 years for someone to reach this momentous decision, years in which the lives of whole generations of Australian children must have been corrupted irreparably.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 1-7):
Sunday:  Nine crosses to Brisbane for the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between Australia and India.  Seven has motor racing with coverage of the Nascar/Auscar Nationals from Calder Park, Melbourne.  Meanwhile, ABC’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross is back with a collection of arts-themed programming and interviews.  Sunday night movies are Shirley Valentine (Nine), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (Ten) and the Japanese comedy Tampopo (SBS), up against Seven’s debut of mini-series Prime Suspect.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) and Darcy (Kym Wilson) meet Douglas ‘Simmo’ Simmonds (Richard Moir), a crippled Vietnam pilot who revives Luke’s dreams of flying.  In Neighbours (Ten), an accident puts Helen’s (Anne Haddy) life at risk – while in Mother And Son (ABC), Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) remembers a clock that her late husband Leo gave her on their 25th wedding anniversary as she takes one from the house across the street.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), Robert (John McTernan) is acting strangely and decides to be a medico on an Antarctic expedition – until he reveals he has a tragic illness.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) reports on mankind’s most ambitious project yet – human habitation on Mars, while reporter Tracey Curro test drives the world’s first car in a suitcase.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a one-hour special, Cop It Sweet, taking a look at Sydney’s inner-city Redfern Police Station, in an area with a history of clashes between police and Aborigines, making it one of the most controversial police districts in the country.  Nine crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for day-night coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between India and Pakistan.

Thursday:  More World Cup cricket from Sydney on Nine, this time the match between Australia and England.  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas) arranges a party for Sophie’s (Sheryl Munks) 21st birthday at Vibrations Disco. 

Friday:  Seven presents live coverage of the semi-final of the AFL Foster’s Cup, with commentators Bruce McAvaney, Peter McKenna, Don Scott, Gerard Healy and Bernie Quinlan.  The ARIA Awards (Nine) are telecast for the first time, live from Melbourne’s World Congress Centre, and hosted by Richard Wilkins and Julian Lennon, with appearances by John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Jenny Morris, Noiseworks, Diesel, Wendy Matthews, Margaret Urlich, Rockmelons, Sophie Lee, Craig McLachlan, Dannii Minogue and international artists Diana Ross, Rod Stewart and Harry Connick Jnr. 

Saturday:  The Seven Network presents an all-day telethon to raise financial support for the Australian team to compete at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.  The Olympathon starts at 7.00am, including special editions of Saturday Disney and Video Smash Hits, followed by live crosses around Australia for interviews with some of Australia’s Olympic hopefuls.  The evening telecast includes a night of entertainment featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Phantom Of The Opera stars Marina Prior and Rob Guest (both pictured with Seven’s Bruce McAvaney), Julie Anthony, Grace Knight, Craig McLachlan, Vanetta Fields, Judith Durham, Simon Gallaher, Don Burrows and Peter Cupples.  The telethon concludes at midnight.  Nine presents all-day coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket from Adelaide. 

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  29 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1990: October 13-19

Cover: Nicolle Dickson (Home And Away)

Reyne forecast for Coopers Crossing
Actor David Reyne is to join the cast of Nine’s The Flying Doctors.  The 31-year-old star of series including Sweet And Sour, Possession, Flair, Bony and Golden Fiddles joins The Flying Doctors in the role of Dr Guy Reid, a brilliant young man from a wealthy family.  Dr Reid’s arrival into Coopers Crossing has the locals questioning his motives – why would an independently-wealthy man choose to live in a small town, particularly when he makes no secret of the fact that life in a small town is not for him.  Reyne has started work on the series this month and will be seen on-air from early next year.

Comedy of errors!
The Comedy Company’s return after a six-month break was a mistake, according to one of the show’s original stars, Glenn Robbins.  Robbins, now working on the Seven Network’s Tonight Live With Steve Vizard, told TV Week that he feels the show, which has struggled up against 60 Minutes in the ratings since its return, would have been better to come back as something entirely new instead of keeping the old name.  “When you come back with a show such as The Comedy Company, there’s a preconceived image of what it’s all about.  They created a pretty tough job for themselves.  Maybe it might have been better to call it something else,” he says.

A decade of bringing he world back home
To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Australia’s multicultural network SBS is planning to screen a raft of special programming as well as revisiting some of the significant programs that have aired over its first decade.  As well as new documentaries Kids First, with George Negus and Peter Ustinov, and Boy Soldiers, SBS will be screening a special featuring ‘60s tribute group The Fabulous Singlettes  and the adults-only dance spectacular Dreams Of Monochrome Men, featuring DV8.  SBS will also repeat its early 1980s mini-series Women Of The Sun, a production that won a United Nations Peace Prize in 1982, starring Justine Saunders. 

When James became Jane…
Peter Whitford has played many characters over the years – but his latest role has been the most challenging.  The actor is playing the part of a transsexual, James Kennedy, in an upcoming episode of GP.  For many years, James has been harbouring the secret of wanting to be a woman and has been secretly wearing women’s clothes.  When his secret is discovered, he decides to come out of the closet and, as Jane (pictured), decides to have a sex-change operation.  “Margaret Kelly’s script was so well-written, I was completely intrigued,” Whitford told TV Week.  “For the role of James/Jane I spoke with many transsexuals – not to be confused with transvestites, who get their kicks out of cross-dressing.  Transsexuals feel they should have been born the opposite sex.  It has nothing to do with homosexuality either.”

Briefly…
TV producer and former Number 96 star Harry Michaels is working on a drama series which he hopes to sell to a commercial network.  The proposed 13-part series is set in a real estate agency and follows the professional and personal lives of the girls who work there.  “It’s part comedy and part drama and will be a mixture of Nine To Five and Number 96,” Michaels told TV Week.  “I’m making it with my own money and assistance from the Hoyts company.”  Michaels is already an established producer, with his Aerobics Oz Style series now showing nationally on the Ten Network and regional stations.

Former Family And Friends actor Adrian Lee (pictured) and former A Country Practice star Kate Raison have joined the cast of E Street, just as the series is about to farewell five cast members – Paul Kelman, Lisbeth Kennelly, Chelsea Brown, Richard Huggett, Rebecca Saunders and Madison Doyle.

Actress Janet Andrewartha, currently appearing in ABC’s Embassy, reluctantly admits to being a singer earlier in her adult life.  “I don’t usually admit to this – but I was a folk singer,” she told TV Week.  “You know, guitar on your back, and doing the rounds.  I sang traditional and contemporary folk music.  There were so many venues in those days, you could actually make a decent living from it.” 

ABC’s Backchat host Tim Bowden’s two-month visit to Antarctica forms the basis for his six-part radio documentary series, Australians In Antarctica, currently airing on ABC Radio National.

John Laws says…
”Andrea Stretton (The Book Show), incidentally, must be one of TV’s unsung personalities.  She has a lovely, sunny smile, projects a warm personality and asks intelligent questions.  SBS should make much more use of her and once the commercial channels get some money in the piggy banks it wouldn’t surprise if they started to take a long look at her, too.”

Program Highlights (October 13-19):
Saturday:  Aussie Rules football goes international with the Fosters International Cup, featuring West Coast Eagles versus Melbourne, live from Portland, Oregon, on HSV7 this afternoon.  SBS covers cycling with the Commonwealth Bank Classic, a 1000km event from the Gold Coast to Wollongong.  The event will be broadcast on SBS for an hour each afternoon for the duration.

Sunday:  With the football now over, it’s cricket’s turn – the FAI Cup begins on GTV9 with NSW versus Queensland, live from Brisbane, followed by Western Australia versus Victoria, live from Perth.  Actor Max Gillies is the special guest on ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross.  Sunday night movies are Perry Mason: The Case Of The Lethal Lesson (HSV7), Empire Of The Sun (GTV9) and Predator (ATV10).  After the movie, HSV7 crosses to the US for Collingwood versus Essendon in the Fosters International Cup.

Monday: Comedy series Let The Blood Run Free celebrates the wedding of Dr Ray Good (Brian Nankervis) and Nurse Pam Sandwich (Jean Kittson, pictured) – with the reception being held in… the hospital reception.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), reporter Amanda Keller looks at alternative herbal medicines used by the Mapuche Indians of southern Chile for centuries, and Bryan Smith visits a major city that is sinking 80cm a year because of poor water management.

Thursday:  HSV7 presents a repeat screening of the D-Generation comedy special, The D-Generation Goes Commercial.

Friday: As part of its celebration of ten years of broadcasting, SBS presents the first episode of mini-series Women Of The Sun, which first appeared on the network in 1982.  The series traces the impact European settlement has had on Aboriginal people, and their struggle to retain their individuality.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  13 October 1990.  Southdown Press.

1990: August 4-10

Is it goodbye to the Valley?
A Country Practice star John Tarrant (pictured, with co-star Georgie Parker) has flagged the possibility that it may soon be time to move on from the popular drama.  “At the moment I don’t know if I could do another year,” he told TV Week.  “There are a lot of issues. It is not just  me wanting to keep doing the show.  It’s a matter of the producers wanting me.  They might not.  Maybe if it can be arranged, I’d feel like another six months.”  The 26-year-old has plans to pursue a stage acting career as he hasn’t worked in the theatre since leaving drama school.  Looking further ahead, Tarrant has ambitions of working in Hollywood either on screen or behind the camera.

No Sale!
Despite the Ten Network’s current financial state, that hasn’t stopped network managing director Steve Cosser trying to pull off a couple of huge television coups.  Industry reports say that Ten had been trying to lure the top-rating Sale Of The Century away from the Nine Network – and it doesn’t stop there.  Mr Cosser is also believed to have tried to secure an output deal with Grundy Television Productions for all of their product – a deal that could have seen Wheel Of Fortune, Sale Of The Century, Family Feud and even the recently-completed Bony telemovie go across to Ten in one fell swoop.  However a spokesperson from Ten insists that the reports circulating the industry are fiction. 

Bert’s British invasion!
TV Week Gold Logie winner Bert Newton (pictured) is set to return to TV with his own show – but it won’t be in Australia.  Newton received an offer from an English producer who saw him hosting his Seven Network daytime show last year and he is heading over to London in September to tape a pilot.  The show, as yet unnamed, is expected to take on the format similar to the UK’s Aspel And Co show.  “English viewers have no idea who I am or what I’ve done.  I’m a total unknown in their eyes and I think that’s a good thing,” he told TV Week.  Since the demise of The Bert Newton Show late last year, Newton has completed a stint at Cairns radio station 4CA.  “It’s been a great experience.  It’s my first time on radio in two years and my first radio job outside Melbourne.  The audience reaction has been wonderful, so either I’ve fooled them or I’m doing OK!”  But despite the possibility of a future in England, Newton would accept an offer to return to Australian TV.  “Obviously, the situation here at the moment wouldn’t hold too much promise for a show of my own,” he says.  “I’ll just wait for Kerry Packer to fix things at Nine.  When he does, I can imagine the out-of-work TV people from all over the world who’ll be ringing him for a job.  At least he’s a guy you can trust.”

Briefly…
Adam Willits, one of the original cast members of Home And Away, has decided to leave the series.  “He’s been with the show since the beginning and he wants to explore other avenues in acting,” producer Andrew Howie told TV Week.

Jude and Joy, the down-to-earth housewives who love a chat over the fence in ABC’s The Big Gig have spoken to TV Week about their lives and ambitions.  “I’m very ambitious,” Jude (Denise Scott) told TV Week.  “I’ve got a bunny suit that I made myself, and I’ve already worked at the shopping centres… as an Easter bunny, not one of those other bunnies!”  Meanwhile, much of Joy’s (Jean Kittson) energy is spent yelling at the kids or keeping track of her husband, Wal, whose wandering eye has caught sight of local glamour queen Loretta.  “She’s a big worry, that woman,” Joy says.  “She’s so glamorous, I don’t know how she does it.  Leather mini-skirts and all! Jude and I have let ourselves go just a bit – but we do scrub up all right!”  The Big Gig is set to return later this month in a new series.

The Ten Network says that negotiations to film a double episode of the US series The Wonder Years in Australia are well under way.  Should the negotiations between the Queensland Film Commission and the show’s producers, New World Television, be successful then the show’s cast will be touching down in Australia as early as September.

John Laws says…
”(SBS) has been crowing loudly about the new one-hour, once-a-week program Sports Machine as innovative, adult and hugely important – which is all very well and sounds great.  But SBS viewers with sharp memories will recall that last year the station had a similar sports program every night of the week.  A total, then, of 2-and-a-half hours coverage every week.  What do we get now?  One hour, all in one go.  Frankly, I’ve never been able to figure out why SBS axed the previous sports program.  It was a gem of a half-hour and managed to cover a host of different sports, something that rarely happens on ABC or the commercial networks.”

Program Highlights (August 4-10):
Sunday: Actor Peter Ustinov is Peter Ross’ guest on ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon.  HSV7 crosses live to the Sydney Cricket Ground for AFL between Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles.  Sunday night movies are Extremities (GTV9) and Bat 21 (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the three-hour Queen Mother’s 90th Birthday Gala.

Tuesday:  New Zealand actress Judy McIntosh (pictured) makes her debut as Dr Nicola Tanner in ABC’s GP.  In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), Amanda Keller examines China’s state policy of one child per family.

Wednesday:  Michelle Fawdon stars in an ABC docu-drama, This Time Next Time, as a crusading journalist assigned to write a feature article on the dangers of alcohol-related brain damage.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (GTV9), Dr Tom Callaghan (Andrew McFarlane) is buried alive when a mine shaft is deliberately collapsed on top of him as he tries to rescue an injured man.

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

1990: February 24-March 2

‘Stay out of my life!’
While actress Simone Buchanan (pictured) is often portraying the unlucky-in-love tales of the elder daughter Debbie in Hey Dad, she says her real-life romances have been less than comical.  Even though she is in a happy relationship at present, Buchanan’s past has been tainted with a number of unhappy romances – including one which ended with threats of violence.  The popularity of the show has also led to some unwanted attention from fans – a persistent fan in London kept sending her letters and expensive gifts and promised to visit her in Australia.  “In the end I did write and tell him that he had to stop wasting his money on me,” she said.  Another incident saw Buchanan come home to find graffiti all over the walls in her new house, and one night she awoke to find guys standing outside her bedroom window yelling things at her.  Meanwhile, the actress denies any rumours that she is leaving the sitcom (“like the rest of the cast, my contract expires in October and at this point I haven’t made any decision to leave or stay”) but would like to do more film work, following acclaim for her role in the movie Shame.

‘They treated me like …!’
Aussie actor Peter Phelps has walked away from the hit US series Baywatch.  “It was my decision to leave at the end of this season,” Phelps told TV Week.  “Before Christmas a few of the cast – including me – weren’t happy about the way the scripts were going.  I expressed my dismay about everything – which I guess is not what you’re supposed to do in Hollywood when you’ve got a job everybody else wants.  Instead of using my suggestions, they changed the format to emphasise on the action-adventure stuff and they brought in a new character.  He wasn’t supposed to replace me, but I’ve hardly worked on the show since.  To them (TV executives), you’re just a product and they treat you like crap.” A star in Australia following roles in popular soaps The Restless Years and Sons And Daughters, Phelps (pictured, with Baywatch co-star Shawn Wetherly) admits that if he “had shut up and didn’t complain, I’d probably be there as long as the series runs, getting paid a lot to pop in every so often to do my Australian novelty act, and driving a Porsche and owning a house.”  Instead, Phelps is returning to Australia to star in a feature film, Back Street General.  Baywatch debuts in Australia on Network Ten in March.

Rebecca’s rockin’ role
Former Zoo Family and The Flying Doctors star Rebecca Gibney is negotiating a role for an upcoming sitcom being produced for the Nine Network.  Producer Alan Bateman says the new series, Rhythm And Blues, is “a lovely piece about a rock ‘n roll singer from the Seventies who’s only ever had one hit.  His career is diminishing when, to his astonishment, he discovers he has a family.”  Production for the new series is set to begin in March. 

Briefly…
Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia (with Mike Gibson and Kerri-Anne Kennerley, pictured) has entered its tenth year and is celebrating its milestone on air. Producer Gail Jarvis says “in some ways it’s more a celebration of Kerri-Anne Kennerley’s involvement with the show.  She has been with the show for eight years now.  That’s a lot of live television and we’ll look back at what she has contributed over the years.”

TV Week columnist John Laws wants to make it clear that he doesn’t expect to “turn Melbourne on its ears” in networking his Sydney radio show to bottom-rating station, 3AK.  “Someone said that the station needed help, so I’m giving it for free as a favour to a friend – that’s what friends are for,” he says.  Although Laws has admitted that he would prefer to have the entire three-hour program broadcast in Melbourne, instead of only the one hour, from 9.00am to 10.00am weekdays.

British showbusiness couple John Alderton and Pauline Collins have been announced as special guests at the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards, to be held at the Hyatt On Collins in Melbourne and hosted by Network Ten’s Mark Mitchell.

John Laws says…
”When it comes to sport, it’s hard to beat the Nine team, even though their Commonwealth Games coverage came in for plenty of stick, especially in the commentators and “delayed telecast” area.  Nine has now unveiled its “stump cam” cricket camera.  It had to happen, I suppose – a tiny camera inserted into the stumps to give a worm’s-eye view of the action.  There’s no doubt it’s a clever innovation, providing a completely new perspective on the game.  But, for me, it’s a major disappointment that Nine and the Australian Cricket Board have agreed NOT to use “stump cam” for disputed or controversial decisions…”

Program Highlights (February 24-March 2):
Saturday:  Nine’s Wide World Of Sports returns for the new year, filling four hours of Saturday afternoons with coverage of various sports and interviews with sporting identities.  SBS’s international current affairs program Dateline returns for a new year, hosted by Paul Murphy.
Sunday:  HSV7 crosses to Canberra for the AFL Fosters Cup: Hawthorn versus Sydney Swans.  GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the second final of the Benson and Hedges World Series.  Meanwhile, ABC’s arts program, Sunday Afternoon, features the Bolshoi Ballet and an episode of The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole.  Sunday night movies are Spaceballs (HSV7), Heartbreak Ridge (GTV9) and Throw Momma From The Train (ATV10).  ABC presents Esso Night At The Opera, featuring the Australian Opera’s production of La Boheme.
Monday:  Rebecca Gilling, Ed Devereaux, Nikki Coghill and Richard Roxburgh star in the telemovie The Saint In Australia (HSV7).
Tuesday:  The third final of the Benson and Hedges World Series is on GTV9 from 2.20pm, live from the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Thursday:  ABC’s Creative Spirits this week features choreographer Graeme Murphy rehearsing Daphnis and Chloe with Kim Walker and Paul Mercurio.

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