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

1991: February 16-22

Private property!
Home And Away star Rebekah Elmaloglou (pictured) is determined to keep her professional and personal lives separate.  Unlike many fellow soap stars, Elmaloglou has refused to talk publicly about her boyfriend of twelve months and the pair have never been photographed together.  “It’s just one of those things I don’t find important to talk about,” the 17-year-old told TV Week.  “My private life is the same as any other girl of my age.  I’ve got my schoolfriends, I’ve got my family, I’ve got my boyfriend.” 

It was 20 years ago today…
Hey Hey It’s Saturday returns to air this week, starting its 20th year.  “The official celebration is in October (the show debuted on 9 October 1971), but we’re out to make this the best year ever of Hey Hey so we’re starting the celebrations early,” host Daryl Somers told TV Week.  This year the show is taking on some changes as Somers and colleague Ernie Carroll take over producing the show after last year’s split from producer Gavan Disney.  “Ernie and I are happier, and I know a lot of the people around us are feeling happier, too,” Somers said.  “I think it’s going to be a very harmonious situation for all concerned this year.”  The year ahead could also see Hey Hey head to London and even Hollywood for some special shows.  Somers is also excited to have new executive producer Jim McKay on board for the show.  McKay was the program manager at GTV9 who originally named the program back in 1971 and hired the 19-year-old Somers for the job of host.  “He came up with the name and paid me $75 a week, that was it!  It’s taken me 20 years to get him back – that’s what he’s on now,” Somers laughed.

‘If it was me, I wouldn’t do it’
Andre Eikmeier (pictured), the 18-year-old who is probably best known to viewers as the pizza delivery boy in Kylie Minogue’s Coca-Cola commercial, has been acting for ten years but is taking on the change from child actor to young adult with a controversial role in ABC’s medical drama GP.  In an episode to air this week, Eikmeier plays the role of student Tony Wood who is suffering from stomach ulcers and the pressure of exams and finds himself under attack from his father who discovers that he has been having a relationship with a man ten years older.  For Eikmeier it was a challenging role to take on.  “It was very hard, because I’d never had any contact with gay people.  I guess I’d been sheltered from it, so I didn’t really know how to approach it.  I gave the part a lot of consideration, and my dad said, ‘Well, it’s up to you – but if it was me, I wouldn’t do it’,” he told TV Week.

Briefly…
Jeff Phillips (pictured), host of Network Ten’s new talent quest series Star Search, says he knows that shows like this can give a young star their big break.  “I was a product of this type of show,” he told TV Week.  “I drove from Perth to Melbourne in my Volkswagen to go on New Faces.  I went on the show on Sunday night, won it, and was immediately invited by Graham Kennedy to be on In Melbourne Tonight and got sudden recognition.  I was only 19 at the time.”

The Flying Doctors star Brett Climo makes his dramatic exit from the series this week as his character, Dr David Ratcliffe, attempts a rescue on a cliff face and finds himself hanging upside down from a safety rope before falling to a ledge below.  “This episode is definitely among the best moments of my career,” Climo told TV Week.

Actress Kaarin Fairfax, best known to viewers as Dolour in The Harp In The South and Poor Man’s Orange, is joining Network Ten comedy Col’n Carpenter as the show’s new female lead following the departure of Vikki Blanche.  The series will also be seen in a new timeslot – Sunday nights at 8.00pm, after The Simpsons – when it returns to screens next month.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”On went the VCR for a first look at Chances (featuring Natalie McCurry, pictured), the new Nine Network series so heavily publicised, yet so closely guarded at the same time.  All the pre-publicity had promised adults only fare and, while this was hardly a return to the full frontal days of Number 96 or The Box, it did make it seem worthwhile checking that the little ones were, indeed, just like everyone in the show – in bed.”

Program Highlights (February 16-22):
Saturday:  Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich head Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s return for 1991, up against the debut of Ten’s new talent quest series Star Search, hosted by Jeff Phillips.  Seven crosses to AFL Park, Mount Waverley, for the Fosters Cup: St Kilda versus West Coast Eagles.

Sunday:  SBS begins a national screening of the twelve-part documentary series My Place, My Land, My People – a production of Queensland-based regional broadcaster QTV and a winner at the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards for most outstanding achievement by a regional television station – followed by the series return of SBS viewers’ feedback program Hotline.  Sunday night movies are Beverly Hills Cop II (Seven) and Working Girl (Ten).

Monday:  SBS debuts a new weekly music series, MC Tee Vee, and later in the evening Pria Viswalingam hosts the series return of nightly current affairs program Dateline.  Ten presents the movie-length debut of popular US series Twin Peaks.  After the late edition of Ten Eyewitness News, Ten presents US talk show Donahue, with each night’s episode repeated the following afternoon.  Ten’s overnight coverage of the Gulf war continues via CNN.

Tuesday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Bob Hatfield (Gordon Piper) becomes a vegetarian after he is asked to kill six sheep.  Aussie actress Penny Downie (The Box, Prisoner, The Sullivans) stars in the new six-part British series Campaign which debuts on ABC.

Wednesday:  ABC presents 90-minute documentary One Australia?, a study on racism and multiculturalism in Australia and asking whether cohesion in our society can be achieved while maintaining diversity.

Thursday:  Veteran actor George Mallaby (pictured) guest stars in Nine’s drama Chances.  SBS current affairs program Face The Press and sports magazine The Sports Machine return for 1991.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.   16 February 1991. Southdown Press.

TelevisionAU Update 7-Jan-2011

http://www.televisionau.com

FLASHBACK #57:
In 1981 former The Box actress Judy Nunn made a guest appearance in another Crawford Productions drama, Skyways.  Her guest role is as Bessie Langhurst, a World War II pilot who makes a mysterious re-appearance after going missing on a solo war flight in 1944, and looking exactly as she was when she disappeared - with the 37-year mystery of the missing ghost flight leading to a dramatic climax.  Judy Nunn would later go on to appear in drama series Sons And Daughters, followed by the long-running role of Ailsa in Seven's Home And Away.  She is now an accomplished writer with several titles of adult and children's fiction to her credit.  Picture: TV Week, 3 January 1981.

CLASSIC TV GUIDES
Melbourne:
1957 (Opening Night GTV9)
1976 (TV Week Logie Awards)
1976 (Opening Ceremony, Olympic Games)
1993 (Announcement of host city for 2000 Olympic Games. The Footy Show begins)

Victoria:
1965 (Official Opening STV8)
1980 (Melbourne Cup Day)

New South Wales:
1962 (Official Opening CBN8)
1962 (Official Opening WIN4)

Canberra:
1993 (Prime 6 O’Clock News launches)
2000

GREAT OZ TV FLOPS
The Bounce (Seven, 2010)
Warnie (Nine, 2010)

TELEVISIONAU - THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION
http://www.televisionau.com
http://blog.televisionau.com
http://www.twitter.com/TelevisionAU
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/televisionau
http://au.youtube.com/user/TelevisionAU

1990: June 30-July 6

Cover: Warren Beatty, Madonna (Dick Tracy)

Cancer scare!
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker is set to tackle her toughest storyline to date with upcoming episodes featuring a dramatic cancer scare for her character Lucy Gardiner.  The scare prompts Lucy to call off her planned wedding to Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) and she plans to leave Wandin Valley to go home to her mother.  “She’s an absolute mess of emotions,” Parker told TV Week.  “It was actually very hard because I’m a very logical person and I couldn’t understand this totally illogical behaviour.”

 

Knock the rock!
When Fast Forward’s Gina Riley heard Sinead O’Connor’s ballad Nothing Compares 2 U, she loved it.  But that didn’t stop her sending up the bald singer in a Fast Forward skit (pictured).  Since joining the cast of the Seven Network comedy series, Riley has performed parodies of other pop stars including Dannii Minogue, Madonna, Paula Abdul and Stevie Nicks.  “The great thing about rock ‘n roll is that everyone takes themselves so seriously, so it is perfect to send up,” Riley told TV Week.  “The sketches are not meant to be offensive.  I love most of the songs I do.”  Riley attributes the success of her sketches to the excellent work of make-up artist Barb Cousins.  So confident of Cousin’s abilities, Riley is thinking of taking off a male performer – although she did once attempt to do John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.  “And boy, they hated it,” she said.  “It was a bit like ‘you leave him alone!’.  People enjoy it if you sound a bit like the original song but, if not, it just sounds like you’re being bitchy.  It is hard to get that male timbre into your voice, but I’m sure it will come along soon.”

Murder at the Logies
Home And Away star Judy Nunn (pictured) has been busy during her spare moments on the set of the Seven Network series.  For the past year she has been working on what she hopes will be a best-selling novel and, possibly, a mini-series.  Having already written four children’s novels, The Glitter Game is Nunn’s first attempt at writing adult literature and promises all the ingredients of a best-seller.  “Sex, murder and intrigue – The Glitter Game has got it all,” Nunn tells TV Week.  The novel is a behind-the-scenes look at the Australian television industry, with the fast-paced story culminating in a murder at the TV Week Logie Awards.  But Nunn stresses that the story is entirely fiction.  “It’s inevitable people are going to want to play guessing games – but the novel is all tongue-in-cheek,” she says.  It is not the first time the actress has tackled the television industry – viewers will recall Nunn played the role of a bisexual reporter in the 1970s drama The Box, a series based on the workings of a television station. 

Briefly…
Rowena Wallace (pictured), Rebecca Smart, Gary Sweet, Robert Grubb, Bruno Lawrence, Maggie Dence and Penne Hackforth-Jones are just some of the famous stars to feature in More Winners, a series of children’s dramas about to appear on ABC as a follow-up from the original Winners series (screened on Network Ten).

Former Wombat host Jill Ray and her husband Michael Black have announced the birth of their first child, Joel, born in Brisbane last month.  Ray, a TV Week Logie Award winner in Queensland, has left the Seven Network for motherhood although she will be continuing her role as co-host on the breakfast show on Brisbane radio station 4KQ.

A Current Affair reporter Martin King has a reputation of being the hard-nosed “foot in the door” reporter, but he says that having presented more than 300 stories for ACA and its predecessor, Willesee, only about 15 to 20 have been walk-ins.  “But they’re the ones people remember most,” he says.

John Laws says…
”It’s easy to despair of Network Ten.  Bereft of much ratings-winning material and languishing behind Nine and Seven in the ratings, it at least has a surefire attention-grabber with its rugby league telecasts.  But what happens?  Ten botches it.  When the season began, Ten’s Friday Night League was live at 7.30pm, which should have been great.  The preponderance of commercial breaks – often at crucial moments during a game – led to complaints from viewers.  Lots of them.  Ten’s reaction was to halt the live coverage and switch to a delayed telecast at 8.30pm, a cure considered by most keen football fans as worse than the original disease.  As I see it, the only reason for switching to 8.30pm, and robbing viewers of the “as it happens” excitement, is to enable Ten to more easily slot in as many ads as they can.  Sure, Ten has to get in its commercials.  That’s what free enterprise TV is all about.  But all they needed to do was do it properly.”

Program Highlights (June 30-July 6):
Saturday:  SBS (and ABC regionals) present coverage overnight of the quarter finals in the World Cup, live from Italy.

Sunday:  ABC presents the debut of More Winners, a series of children’s dramas .  The first instalment, His Master’s Ghost, stars Jonathan Hardy, Simon Grey, Erica Kennedy, Cathy Godbold and Scott Major.  Sunday night movies are Witness (HSV7), Little Nikita (GTV9) and Thief (ATV10).  There are two more World Cup quarter finals live on SBS (and ABC regionals) after midnight.

Monday:  GTV9 starts its second week of coverage of tennis from Wimbledon, with coverage starting at 10.35pm and continuing to 4.30am each night.

Tuesday:  ABC presents The Big Gig Rejigged, a highlights package of comedy series The Big Gig with Wendy Harmer.

Wednesday/Thursday:  SBS (and ABC regionals) present early-morning coverage of the World Cup semi-finals at 3.30am on both days.  SBS also supplements its World Cup coverage during the week with prime-time screenings of the films documenting the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

 Friday:  HSV7’s Friday night AFL features Richmond versus the Brisbane Bears.

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

1990: April 14-20

‘I didn’t think I would ever get married’
Home And Away star Nicolle Dickson (pictured, with co-star Craig McLachlan) is soon to walk down the aisle to marry her fiance James Bell, but confesses that she had never considered the thought of ever being married:  “It’s nothing I ever really thought about before now.  I’m very excited.  I didn’t think I would ever get married.”  The couple met at a party and they announced their engagement at Dickson’s recent 21st birthday celebration.  But despite her profile on Home And Away, which is enjoying success in Australia and the UK, the wedding is planned to be a simple affair. “I didn’t want it to become a circus like some other people’s weddings.  It’s important for us and it’s your private life, so you don’t want it to get out.  But it does, because you’re on TV.” 

Catherine doubles up Down Under
Former Dynasty star Catherine Oxenberg (pictured) has begun her second major project in Australia this year.  Having just completed production on the Seven Network telemovie Bony, Oxenberg has had a week at home in the US before returning to Australia to start on a new mini-series, Ring Of Scorpio, for the Nine Network.  The mini-series, also starring Rebecca Gibney, Caroline Goodall, Linda Cropper, Peter Kowitz and American actor Jack Scalia, is being filmed in Sydney, Spain and Morocco as it follows the story of three Australian women on holiday.  Ring Of Scorpio has already been sold to Paramount for international distribution and is expected to screen on Nine by the end of the year.

The fax about Graham!
Having announced that he would not be returning to host Coast To Coast this year, Graham Kennedy (pictured) stunned everyone when he subsequently announced he would be returning to TV to host a new weekly show, Graham Kennedy’s Funniest Home Video Show.  TV Week recently interviewed Kennedy, by fax of course, on his surprise return to TV.  “I stated that I would not return to nightly television in 1990,” he told TV Week.  “I didn’t say that I would not return to weekly television this year… I believe the life of this kind of program is very limited.  Even if it was a ratings success I doubt if it would go into a second series… I haven’t discovered yet the size of the emolument that the network has in mind.  I suppose it will be Terry Willesee’s old salary multiplied by 100, or some token fee like that.”

Clive Robertson courts death, goes to Nine
Former Newsworld presenter Clive Robertson had virtually retired when he left the show last year – but after a cancer scare for himself and two of his friends, he decided that life is too short to fritter away in retirement and has returned to TV in a new late-night show, The World Tonight, which replaces the recently-axed Coast To Coast on Nine. 

Briefly…
Actress Tracy Mann has been reluctant to commit to an ongoing TV series – her last such role was 16 years ago in the soapie The Box – but when she saw the scripts for Seven’s new police drama, Skirts, she changed her mind:  “I’ll do things I think are quality and this is a great role.  I liked the scripts – it ain’t no Cop Shop, that is for sure.”  The new series, set around the welfare-based Community Policing Squad, debuts this week in a two-hour episode on Seven before settling into its regular timeslot of 7.30pm Sundays.

Sale Of The Century hostess Alyce Platt (pictured) is about to return to television drama with a new role in the Nine Network series Family And Friends.  It will be her first dramatic role since leaving Sons And Daughters in 1985, and is hoped to give Family And Friends a much-needed ratings boost.  Her role as social worker Stephanie Collins is not expected to interfere with her weekly taping schedule for Sale Of The Century.

Terry Willesee, co-host of the ill-fated Live At 5 and Eye On Australia, is set to leave the Nine Network to take up a new role as co-host of Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia, alongside Kerri-Anne Kennerley.  Current GMA co-host Mike Gibson is stepping down from the show to concentrate on his Sydney-based current affairs program, Sydney With Mike Gibson.

Jill Ray, former host of children’s program Wombat, and her husband Michael are expecting her first child in late May.  The recent TV Week Logie award winner feels that after ten years in children’s television, she feels adequately prepared for the challenges of parenthood:  “I’m not scared of having a child of my own.  It’s the idea of being responsible for a little person’s future that weighs heavily on me.”

John Laws says…
”You could say a lot of things – glowing and critical – about the ABC’s recent two-part mini-series Come In Spinner.  At the very least you’d have to say it was a brave and mostly successful attempt at producing a quality piece of soap.  If nothing else, it confirmed that Rebecca Gibney (pictured) – when she is afforded the opportunity of a substantial role – is a fine actress.”

Program Highlights (April 14-20):
Saturday:  Actress Rowena Wallace presents a one-hour special, Some Of My Children, telling of her moving experiences in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and Cambodia.
Sunday:  Easter Sunday night movies are Lawrence Of Arabia (HSV7), The Last Wave (GTV9) and The Ten Commandments (ATV10) – the latter running from 7.30pm until almost midnight.
Monday:  Ray Warren, Stephen Phillips and Rob Gaylard host GTV9’s Wide World Of Sports coverage of the annual Stawell Gift foot race.
Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), Andrew Carroll looks at Europe’s space shuttle escape capsule.  Simon Reeve discovers how a non-steroid muscle-building drug could be a major breakthrough in the treatment of MS.  Maxine Gray visits a musk deer farm to examine the latest efforts to save it from extinction.
Wednesday:  ABC presents Burrows, Ceberano And Morrison Plus Fireworks, a concert recorded on the bank of Adelaide’s Torrens River during the opening weekend of the Adelaide Festival.  HSV7 presents the two-hour series debut of its new police drama, Skirts, starring Tracy Mann (pictured), Nicholas Ball, Mary Coustas and Kate Gillick.
Thursday:  ATV10 screens the one-hour special Phar Lap: The Verdict, presented by Ian Leslie.  The special focuses on the trial, commissioned in late 1989, dealing with the question of who killed champion racehorse Phar Lap.

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

Melbourne moves up from Channel 0 to 10

It is now 30 years since Melbourne’s ATV0 made history and changed its broadcast frequency to Channel 10.

When Reg Ansett was awarded the licence to operate Melbourne’s third commercial channel in 1963, he was given the frequency of Channel 0 – down the low end of the dial, and, being a ‘new’ frequency, most older TV sets did not have a Channel 0 position on the dial.  The conversion of older sets and antennas to include access to Channel 0 was a short term financial boon for TV repairers and installers as viewers moved to ensured that they were ready to ‘Go for 0’ when it eventually went to air on 1 August 1964, although test transmissions for the new channel had started as early as May.

The challenges inherent in the low broadcast frequency, such as deficiencies in reception across large portions of Melbourne, coupled with fierce competition from older rivals HSV7 and GTV9, made life tough for Ansett’s new channel – resulting in it often struggling in third place in the ratings.  Even though Ansett had budgeted that his new channel, ATV0, would be making a profit after three years with a lineup heavy in Australian content, it would be many more years before it would end up paying dividends.

By 1969, still faced with the challenges of the low-end frequency and trying to break the dominance of its two older rivals, Ansett ended up underwriting a boxing match between Australian title holder Lionel Rose and British champion Alan Rudkin.  The match was a huge ratings hit, scoring 72 per cent of the viewing audience, setting a ratings record that would not be broken until the Sydney Olympic Games more than thirty years later. 

But despite the massive audience boost from the Rose-Rudkin title fight, it would be 1973 before ATV0 would post its first weekly ratings win – heralded with full-page newspaper ads (pictured) – largely due to the controversial, top-rating soapie Number 96, which had dominated ratings around the country. 

By the late-‘70s, ATV0 was in ratings decline.  By this stage it had bid farewell to Number 96 and other major ratings drawcards The Box and Blankety Blanks.  The landmark US mini-series, Roots, had delivered massive ratings but the boost to the station was short lived.  By the end of 1978 the Federal Government had received an application from ATV0 for permission to change its broadcast frequency to Channel 10 – giving it a stronger broadcast signal at the top of the dial which would hopefully eliminate any gaps in the old channel’s coverage and would also provide an opportunity to re-launch the struggling ATV0 as a “new” channel and would also match up the station with the same frequency as its Sydney network partner, TEN10.  The Government approved the changeover early in 1979.

The hitch in changing to Channel 10 was that it would conflict with neighbouring Gippsland channel GLV10, causing interference by sharing the same frequency.  ATV0 then agreed to pay the costs incurred by GLV to have it moved to an alternative frequency, Channel 8.  It was not a cheap exercise, as ATV paid around $800,000 to fund GLV’s conversion costs and also to fund the distribution of filters to attach to viewers’ sets – as it was apparent that GLV on Channel 8 would interfere in areas where viewers could also receive Melbourne channels HSV7 and GTV9 and the filters would rectify that.

In preparing the changeover to Channel 10, ATV managed to sign up one of its former leading stars, Graham Kennedy (pictured), to front the new channel’s advertising campaign – including radio and television commercials.  It was no mean feat, as only 18 months earlier Kennedy was less than subtle in his criticism of ATV0 due to the channel’s poor performance impacting on his Blankety Blanks game show.  Kennedy told The Age that money was certainly a factor in accepting the position of being the channel’s spokesman during the conversion period: “They did offer me a very attractive deal.  And it immediately appealed to me because it will be an historic occasion.  A television station changing its frequency will probably never happen again in our lifetimes.”

There was also talk that Kennedy would also have the opportunity to present a new tonight show on the revamped channel, though was not to be.

By January 1980, the channel was ready to flick the switch.  Thousands of brochures had been distributed to households around Melbourne to advise of the changeover, while a telephone hotline had been set up to enable viewers to get assistance in retuning their sets from Channel 0 to 10.  And without much time to spare, GLV10 made the switch to GLV8 on 17 January.

Then the big day – 20 January – had arrived.  ATV0 had signed off for the last time at around 3.00am that morning – the last program to air on the channel was the 1948 movie, Angel In Exile.  Then, just prior to 2.00pm on the Sunday afternoon, Kennedy, standing atop of the channel’s studio building in Nunawading, welcomed viewers to Channel 10:  “Come on up to Ten, you’ll enjoy the view!”  Then the new ATV10 broadcast its launch promotion ‘You’re On Top With 10’, with catchy lyrics sung by Mike Brady.

The first program to follow on ATV10 was 10’s Summer Sunday, a three-hour outside broadcast from Torquay Beach, south of Melbourne, hosted by former ATV0 newsreaders Bruce Mansfield and Annette Allison. 

Jana Wendt presented ATV10’s first Eyewitness News bulletin at 6.00pm – and barely a few months later Ms Wendt would be promoted to co-anchoring the main weeknight bulletin on the channel.  Kennedy was back on air at 6.30pm, presenting a one-hour special, You’re On Top With Ten, previewing some of the upcoming shows on the new channel, including the documentary series The Human Face Of China, mini-series Water Under The Bridge and an Australian adaptation of the British comedy Are You Being Served?, as well as the return of familiar titles including Prisoner, The Restless Years, Peter Couchman Tonight and Young Talent Time.

At 7.30pm, ATV10 presented the movie-length debut of the network’s new highly-anticipated, big-budget soap opera, Arcade, from the producers behind the former Number 96.  Despite ambitions for the series to be the flagship of the network’s lineup heading into the new decade, the series failed to grab even a modest share of the audience and was taken off the air six weeks later.

Following Arcade was the Sunday night movie, Summerfield, starring John Waters, Nick Tate and Elizabeth Alexander.

Viewers that had still yet to make the change to their sets from Channel 0 to 10 were given a slight reprieve, as ATV would simulcast on both channels for an interim period to enable viewers some extra time to make the necessary adjustments and to get used to the new channel position.

Industry magazine B&T reported at the time that the changeover of ATV from 0 to 10 would be the first time that a TV station in a major metropolitan market had changed frequencies – outside of the United States.

The changeover from Channel 0 to 10 in Melbourne led to the network changing its name from the 0-10 Network to Network Ten, with its Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide stations all broadcasting on the Channel 10 frequency.  Although Brisbane’s network partner, TVQ0, would continue to broadcast on the Channel 0 frequency until the late ‘80s.

Source: The Age, 12 October 1978.  The Age, 10 January 1980.  The Age, 17 January 1980.  TV Week, 19 January 1980.

1979: December 29-January 4

Cover: Paula Duncan, John Orcsik, Joanna Lockwood, Peter Adams (Cop Shop)

TV in the ‘70s
As the 1970s come to a close, TV Times takes a look back at some of the names, programs and events that helped shape the decade that was.

1970: The Long Arm, axed after a short run on the 0-10 Network.  Don Lane’s Tonight show is given the boot, as is Showcase, a year after Rod McLennan takes over as host.  Bert Newton hosts The Acid Test for Nine, and a sitcom, Mrs Finnegan, draws an indifferent response on Seven.  ABC launches a drama series, Dynasty, and a panel show, Would You Believe?, with Carmen Duncan and Jacki Weaver.  New quiz show, Temptation, hosted by Tony Barber.  Noel Ferrier hosts Australia A To Z on ABC.

1971: Networks now obliged to increase Australian-made programming by 50 per cent and must each screen six hours each month of first-run Australian drama or comedy.  Matlock Police begins on the 0-10 Network, and The Godfathers starts on Nine.  In Melbourne Tonight is cancelled after 14 years.  Pick A Box comes to an end after 23 years on radio and television, and a new show, Money Makers, is launched with Philip Brady (pictured).  Hey Hey It’s Saturday begins on GTV9.  Johnny Young launches Young Talent Time and the acclaimed US children’s show Sesame Street begins on ABC.  Cash-Harmon Productions present the 0-10 Network with a pilot for a new adults-only drama, Number 96.  Mike Willesee launches A Current Affair on Nine.  Television begins in Darwin.

1972:  The Nine Network launches a private detective drama, The Spoiler, with Bruce Barry, while Rod Mullinar stars as Ryan for the Seven Network.  New Zealander James Laurenson appears as half-caste Aboriginal detective Napoleon Bonaparte in the Seven Network series, Boney.  Number 96 (pictured) makes its debut, and some of the opening episode is censored from viewing in Melbourne after being shown in Sydney the night before.  ABC launches a new comedy show, The Aunty Jack Show.  The Government announces that Australia will convert to colour television in 1975.

1973:  The Mike Walsh Show makes its debut and marks a new standard for daytime television.  Certain Women and Seven Little Australians begin on ABC, and Bert Newton hosts a variety series for the national broadcaster.  The Price Is Right with Garry Meadows begins on the 0-10 Network.

1974: Crawford Productions launches The Box for the 0-10 Network.  The Seven Network launches a variety show, JC At 8.30, to combat Number 96, but is taken off-air after 10 shows.  Reg Grundy’s first soap opera, Class Of ‘74, debuts on Seven. Peter Wherrett presents the first series of motoring program Torque for ABC.  Gordon Chater and Gwen Plumb star in an ABC comedy, Mac And Merle (pictured).  The gold rush of the 1850s is recreated in the ABC series, Rush, starring John Waters.  A new pop music show, Countdown, is launched on ABC.  All networks are given the go-ahead to broadcast test colour transmissions.  The Nine Network launches a telethon to raise relief funds after Cyclone Tracy wipes out Darwin.

1975:  All networks convert to full-scale colour transmission on 1 March.  Cash-Harmon follows up Number 96 with an early-evening series for Nine, The Unisexers, which is taken off the air after three weeks.  Graham Kennedy (pictured) is banned from appearing on live TV after his suspect “crow call”.  Mike Willesee hosts This Is Your Life for the Seven Network and Garry Meadows hosts a game show, High Rollers.  Don Lane returns to Australia to launch The Don Lane Show on Nine.  An end of an era as Crawford cop shows Division 4 and Homicide are both cancelled.

1976: The 0-10 Network adapts the British program It’s A Knockout as Almost Anything Goes.  A new sitcom, The Bluestone Boys, makes light of life in prison.  The Nine Network launches two new early-evening series, The Young Doctors and The Sullivans.  The Young Doctors is axed after a few weeks on air but given a reprieve following public reaction.  TV Times, in association with the Seven Network, present the first Sammy Awards.  The Ernie Sigley Show is abruptly axed following an off-air outburst by the show’s host directed at Kerry Packer and producer Peter Faiman.

1977:  Number 96 and The Box are both cancelled by the 0-10 Network.  Bellbird comes to an end on ABC after ten years, and Homicide winds up on Seven after 12 years.  Graham Kennedy returns to TV as host of Blankety Blanks.  The Naked Vicar Show is launched on ABC, and Benny Hill makes a series of specials in Australia for the 0-10 Network.  The Seven Network launches Glenview High and Cop Shop, and 0-10 launches The Restless Years.  Tony Barber (pictured) returns to TV as host of Family Feud. The US mini-series Roots attracts high ratings.

1978: ABC debuts quiz show Mastermind and a light-hearted panel show, Micro Macro (pictured).  The Seven Network screens its landmark mini-series Against The Wind.  A Current Affair is axed by the Nine Network, and Monday Conference winds up on ABC.  The comedy series Tickled Pink begins on ABC.  The 0-10 Network launches The Steve Raymond Show in response to losing The Mike Walsh Show to Nine.

1979: ABC re-launches its afternoon children’s programming block as ARVO.  Peter Luck presents documentary series This Fabulous Century for Seven.  Airport drama comes to Seven with Skyways, and the 0-10 Network’s Prisoner becomes a hit.  Nationwide marks a new era of current affairs for ABC, replacing This Day Tonight.  The Nine Network takes a costly gamble with its new current affairs show, 60 Minutes.  New dramas The Oracle, Golden Soak and Twenty Good Years air on ABC.  New requirements for local children’s TV programming lead to new shows Simon Townsend’s Wonder World and Shirl’s Neighbourhood.  Hey Hey It’s Saturday returns to TV after the ill-fated The Daryl And Ossie Show on the 0-10 Network.  The Special Broadcasting Service presents a series of multicultural programs on ABC.

Young Doc’s sidetrack
The Young Doctors star Eric Oldfield has turned his talents to pop music.  The former star of The Godfathers and one-time Cleo centrefold (pictured) has recorded Girls On The Beach, to be released by the Grundy Organisation.  Grundy’s publicity manager Felicity Goscombe defends the song as being purely commercial: “Why not?  He’s good looking, has a good voice and is such a change from the ‘uglies’.  We’re trying to bring back some entertainment to the music business – and a lot of glamour.”

Voyage to Greece along Yarra
The producers of the 0-10 Network’s weekly Greek variety show, Grecian Scene, have produced a Melbourne-based Christmas special for national distribution in Greece.  Grecian Scene co-host Olga Davis described the show as “a typical party, with Greek food and wines, music, songs and dancers.  A traditional Greek Christmas celebration with an Australian background.”  The special, filmed on board a paddle-steamer cruising the Yarra River, aired in Melbourne last week.  “The Greek TV station bought the show for its national network.  They seemed to think it a good idea, to show people some part of the life their relatives live in Australia,” Davis told TV Times.

Timeless town
In re-creating Sydney Town, circa-1788, for the upcoming mini-series The Timeless Land, a great deal of research and design went into constructing cottages, barns and buildings of the period, including an impressive two-storey Government House – but had it not been for modern-day plastic the reconstructed town could never have happened.  The cottages have timber frames, with sheets of clear plastic moulded into the shape of timber logs and wooden roof shingles.  Supervising designer George Liddle told TV Times, “We wouldn’t have had a hope of being able to afford to build the town if it hadn’t been for vacuum-formed plastic sheeting.  Each of these sheets costs $2, which means we were able to build a cottage for around $500, instead of at least four times the price for timber, and four times quicker – a great economy.”  The reconstructed town is situated on a private properly in Kellyville, outside of Sydney, which the producers have rented.  Apart from offering the perfect scenery the property has a large dam, which is being used as a Sydney Harbour backdrop.  The Timeless Land, starring Michael Craig, Angela Punch McGregor (pictured) and Nicola Paget and a supporting cast including Noel Trevarthen, Rod Mullinar, Peter Cousens, David Gulpilil, Anna Volska, Patrick Dickson and Arnhem Land tribesman Charles Yunupingu, is expected to go to air on ABC around mid-1980.

Briefly…
Actress Kerry Armstrong (pictured) has left Prisoner and taken up the role of another country girl, the niece of Fay (Kris McQuade) in Skyways:  “I don’t know why I always get cast as a country girl – maybe it’s because of my big leg muscles.  I got them from dancing school.”  After she’s finished on Skyways, Armstrong will be appearing in the upcoming mini-series Water Under The Bridge, now in production for the 0-10 Network.

Young Talent Time cast member Bobby Dreissen is recovering from injuries after a hit-run incident in Melbourne.  The 13-year-old was riding a bicycle when he was hit by a car.  “I was frightened more than anything else.  I hadn’t a clue what was happening at the time – one minute I was pedalling along, the next I’m rolling about on the street in agony.”  Despite injuries to his back and hands, Dreissen continued to meet his commitments to Young Talent Time, performing the day after the incident.

Helen Morse is tipped to win the lead female role in the upcoming mini-series A Town Like Alice.

Peggy Toppano and Lorrae Desmond, who play two sisters who run a bookstore in the new series Arcade, are finding work positively absorbing.  “Sometimes I get so engrossed in all the fascinating books on the set that I have to drag myself away to rehearse my lines,” Toppano told TV Times.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I just cannot resist commenting on Tracey Yesberg’s letter (Viewpoint, 24 November 1979) regarding So You Want To Be A Centrefold.  Anyone with such narrow views was under no obligation to watch, but naturally curiosity wins again.  I am also female, and also watched, as I am the lone female in our family and I was curious.  I agree it was trash but something different for all the wide-eyed men.  I personally admire the models for having the guts to be so uninhibited in front of the TV cameras, and, anyway, there are far more important morals in today’s corrupt society to worry about, and nude models are certainly not one of them.” J. Lewy, NSW.

“I would like to see some of Gracie Fields’ movies on TV.  They’ve done festivals of movies to honour stars like John Wayne and Elvis Presley, so why not Gracie?  I am 71, and used to live near Gracie in Rochdale, Lancashire.  As a matter of fact I sing some of her songs as a member of the Country Women’s Association concert party in Wollongong, NSW.”  B. Lindop, NSW.

What’s On (December 29-January 4):
HSV7’s coverage of the Australian Open tennis, live from Kooyong, Melbourne, continues from Saturday through to Wednesday.  From Thursday, attention shifts to Hobart for the Australian Hardcourt Championships.

New Year’s Eve includes ATV0’s coverage of the Festival of Sydney – New Year’s Eve Concert from the Sydney Opera House, hosted by Rolf Harris and including appearances by John St Peeters, Marcia Hines, Jon English, The Angels and the Combined Pipe Band of Sydney.  The 5-and-a-half hour telecast includes Sydney’s spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks to signal the arrival of the new year and the new decade.

HSV7 farewells 1979 with overseas specials Dick Clark And A Cast Of Thousands and Elton John At Wembley, before New Year’s greetings at midnight.  At 12.02am, Lee Simon presents a special New Year edition of Nightmoves.  Meanwhile, GTV9 presents the Concert Of The Decade, featuring highlights from the recent 2SM/Moove Festival from the steps of the Sydney Opera House.  Highlights from the day’s cricket between Australia and the West Indies airs at 10.00pm, with the 1970 movie Song Of Norway at midnight.

ABC’s New Year’s Eve starts with the People’s Command Performance, from Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, featuring Joan Rivers, Chubby Checker, Vincent Price, Rod Stewart, Jerry Lewis and Lainie Kazan.  At 9.40pm, Gregory Peck and Ann-Margret present A Holiday Tribute To The Radio City Music Hall, followed at 11.10pm with New Year’s Rocking Eve, a concert featuring Blondie, Village People and Barry Manilow.  Then, at 12.40am, a concert special from Elton John that was recorded on Christmas Eve, 1974.

On New Year’s Day, HSV7 crosses to Perth at 6.00pm for the annual Perth Cup and GTV9 has more cricket from 4.00pm.  Later in the evening, ABC presents the Edinburgh Military Tattoo 1979, and ATV0 presents a re-run of the British mini-series, Elizabeth R.

Wednesday night’s Faces Of The Eighties features politician Simon Crean, who, at the age of 30, is one of the rising stars of the Labor movement.

Sunday night movies: The Taming Of The Shrew (HSV7), My Father’s House (GTV9), A New Leaf (ATV0).  After the movie, ATV0 repeats the two-hour special Thanks For The Memory, a roundup of the news and events of the 1970s, originally aired last month.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 29 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: December 22-28

Cover (clockwise from bottom right): Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors), Marcia Hines, Mike Walsh, Susan Hannaford (The Sullivans), John Orcsik (Cop Shop), June Salter (The Restless Years)

Belinda buries her sexy past
Belinda Giblin doesn’t want to be known as “that sexy secretary from The Box.”  She’d much rather be known as an actress who won a Sammy award this year for Best Actress in a Single TV Performance, for her role in the telemovie Say You Want Me:  “That award was a compliment to my acting.  It wasn’t a popularity poll win but a win because of my acting skills.  It’s been the biggest buzz of my professional career.”  Now featuring in the Seven Network series Skyways in a seven-week guest role, Giblin has no regrets about doing The Box, though the “sex symbol” tag was quite amusing, she says. 

On wings of song…
A one-hour special to air this week on ABC, Christmas Round Australia, takes a look at the diversity of an Australian Christmas.  The special program features Santa arriving by helicopter at an RAAF base in Amberley, QLD.  At Falls Creek in the Victorian Alps he switches to a snow mobile, and in the remote town of Cook he arrives into town in a converted railcar.  The special also looks at the multicultural diversity in celebrating Christmas, with Greek children singing Ta Kalanda, an Italian children’s choir singing Tu Scendi-Della Stella, and Aboriginal children at the Ernabella Mission singing carols translated into native languages.  Christmas Round Australia is narrated by Margaret Throsby and produced by Ric Birch.

Death of Robert Moore
Robert Moore has died in Melbourne at the age of 46.  The former host of Monday Conference was in Melbourne where he was working on an interview with Professor Sir Gustav Nossal for the ABC series Faces Of The Eighties.  It was to be the final program in the series.  ABC general manager Talbot Duckmanton paid tribute to Moore:  “Bob Moore was held in widespread respect by all who encountered him.  His fairness and integrity were beyond question in his interpretation of politics and the art of government – fields so frequently wracked with controversy.  He was above all a professional, totally dedicated and absorbed in the job he had to do.  The ABC, and public life, can ill afford to lose a figure of the calibre of Bob Moore.  At 46, he had so much still to offer.”  Born in Adelaide in 1932, Moore first joined ABC in 1960 and later progressed to the current affairs program Four Corners as a reporter and later producer and anchorman.  In 1970 he made a ten-part series of interviews, Profiles Of Power, and the following year became the host and producer of Monday Conference, which ran for 290 editions.  Moore’s death came a year to the day after the end of Monday Conference.

Best wishes from Brian for a good news decade
GTV9 newsreader Brian Naylor wishes he could promise only good news in the 1980s.  “I’d be less than honest if I said I could expect the 1980s to be a happier, or more peaceful, decade than the one just past, but I can only hope that it will be.”  Naylor will be the compere of Carols By Candlelight which is being telecast on the Nine Network for the first time after several years on the 0-10 Network.  “I feel very strongly about how much and what kind of programs newsreaders should ally themselves with outside the news area, but this is one that I’m delighted to do.  It’s a happy family night and I feel honoured working on a show that will be screened in homes at Christmas time around the country,” he told TV Times.  Having just completed his first year as newsreader at GTV9, the switch from rival HSV7 has proved so successful that Naylor and GTV are now negotiating a new three-year deal after only one year of the previous three-year contract.

Are you being served down under?
John Inman will star as the flamboyant Mr Humphries in an Australian version of the comedy series Are You Being Served?  Lyle McCabe Productions is set to make the 13-episode series for the 0-10 Network, with production due to start in Melbourne early in the new year.  “The idea is that Mr Humphries has been sent out to Australia to help a cousin of young Mr Grace,” producer Lyle McCabe told TV Times.  “All the characters in the Australian series will be similar to the ones in the British comedy.  Department stores around the world seem to attract a similar kind of person.”  A full cast list for the new series is expected to be announced in a few weeks.

Briefly…
The Restless Years star Ivar Kants is leaving the series after nine months as Ken Garrett.  Kants, with his wife and two children, will be heading to England where he will reprise the role of footballer Geoff Hayward in David Williamson’s play The Club.

Bert Newton (pictured) is almost certain to make his movie debut in Fatty Finn, based on the famous Australian comic strip.  It will be Newton’s first acting role since he appeared as a TV reporter in the short-lived comedy series, The Bluestone Boys.

Gerard Kennedy, best known from Division 4 and more recently in Against The Wind, is returning to TV with an ongoing role in Skyways as airline executive Gary Doolan.

Former Melbourne and Adelaide tonight show host Bob Moors hasn’t been seen on TV for a while, but is set to appear in the upcoming 0-10 Network mini-series Water Under The Bridge. 

Television producer Ron Way has left Seven’s This Is Your Life after 166 episodes to move to his latest venture, a telemovie based on the life of Johnny O’Keefe for the Reg Grundy Organisation.  Way had produced O’Keefe’s early-‘60s variety show Sing Sing Sing for the Seven Network.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I want to express my great disappointment at everyone’s best actress, Lorraine Bayly, not winning anything at all at the Sammy awards.  Every week we read of The Sullivans being Australia’s best show, yet it hardly rated a mention throughout the Sammys.”  V. Hannaford, WA.

“I am downright annoyed at all the TV networks for using late timeslots for shows worth watching.  Programs with a three-star rating are starting at 9.00pm to 10.30pm.  This is ridiculous when a movie buff like myself has to get up for work the next day.  What happened to the good old time of 8.30pm?” M. Mather, VIC.

“Is it any wonder that overseas celebrities often baulk at interviews by our TV reporters?  Sydney TEN10’s effort with Sammy Davis Jnr is a typical example.  Katrina Lee introduced him, then he was shown talking to her but we were not allowed to hear him at first before Katrina was too busy telling us what he was going to say.  Then we were allowed to hear Sammy say exactly what Katrina had already said.  Now by this I take it that the stations either think we are too stupid to understand such people or that these celebrities are so inarticulate that they won’t be understood.”  B. Rose, NSW.

What’s On (December 22-28):
Saturday and Sunday features the closing stages of the New South Wales Open tennis tournament, live on HSV7.  From Monday (Christmas Eve), attention moves to Melbourne’s Kooyong courts for the Australian Open.  With a break on Christmas Day, the Open resumes on Boxing Day.

GTV9 presents England versus the West Indies in World Series Cup cricket on Sunday, live from Brisbane.  Cricket resumes on Wednesday (Boxing Day) when Australia and England play in Sydney.

On Monday night (Christmas Eve), GTV9 presents live coverage of Carols By Candelight from Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl.  Hosted by Brian Naylor (pictured) and including performances by Rolf Harris, John Farnham and Linda George.

Christmas Eve also includes overseas Christmas specials from Are You Being Served? (ABC), Carry On Christmas (HSV7), Bing Crosby: The Christmas Years (GTV9) and the Morecambe And Wise Christmas Show (ATV0).  ATV0 also presents Sing We Noel, from the Mormon Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall, London, and a repeat of last week’s Sydney Festival Of Carols before Midnight Mass.

HSV7 starts earlier than usual on Christmas Day with movies from 8.00am through to 1.30pm.  Various Christmas and variety specials continue through the rest of the afternoon.  ABC starts its day at 11.00am with Divine Service, from the Anglican Church of St Clement in Kingston, Tasmania.  GTV9 has cartoons through the early morning before a Christian Television Association special at 8.30am.  Humphrey B. Bear presents his own Christmas message at 9.00am before GTV9 presents a replay of Carols By Candlelight at 10.00am.  Movies continue through the afternoon.

ATV0 doesn’t start on Christmas Day until 2.00pm with a special, The Magic Of Christmas, followed by the 1973 movie Miracle On 34th Street.

On Christmas night, ABC presents the Queen’s annual Christmas Message at 7.15pm followed by Christmas Round Australia at 7.30pm, showing the variety of ways in which children celebrate Christmas across Australia.  Followed at 8.30pm by a Christmas episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.

HSV7’s Christmas night includes The Flintstones Christmas, The Stanley Baxter Christmas Show and the Father Knows Best Christmas Reunion.  GTV9 has Christmas episodes of The Odd Couple, Laverne And Shirley and Happy Days, followed by the 1978 telemovie Gift Of Love, starring Marie Osmond, Timothy Bottoms, June Lockhart, Bethel Leslie and Donald Moffatt.  At 10.30pm, GTV9 presents the Queen’s Christmas message followed by the movie Godspell.

ATV0 starts Christmas night with a Young Talent Time Christmas special at 6.30pm, followed at 7.30pm by the 1954 movie White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

Boxing Day features the Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race, preview and official start, on ABC from 11.00am with Australian Open tennis and World Series Cup cricket on HSV7 and GTV9 respectively.  In the evening, HSV7 crosses to Ascot racecourse in Perth for the annual Australian Derby.

Sunday night movies: A Christmas To Remember (HSV7), Kotch (GTV9), Christmas: The Coal Mine Miracle (ATV0). 

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