Is the Price Right for Seven?

Is The Price Is Right headed for a comeback?

According to News Limited, it appears that Seven is keen to revive the age-old format to run back-to-back with Deal Or No Deal in the important lead-in hour to the 6.00pm news.

It is tipped that the revamped Price Is Right will be hosted by Larry Emdur (pictured), currently co-host of Seven’s popular The Morning Show and who hosted two previous versions of The Price Is Right for the Nine Network.  Emdur has also hosted game shows Family Double Dare, The Main Event, Cash Bonanza and Wheel Of Fortune.

News of the planned revival comes after a wave of nostalgia for the format following the recent passing of Ian Turpie who hosted the game show during the 1980s for both the Seven and Ten networks.

The Price Is Right is certainly one of the most enduring of game show formats on Australian television – usually enjoying a few years on air before taking a break and then resurfacing to an enthusiastic reception. 

It made its first appearance in the late 1950s with separate versions in each of Sydney and Melbourne.  A ‘national’ version, hosted by Horrie Dargie, launched as a daytime program on the Seven Network in 1963.

Ten years later the 0-10 Network revived the titled, based on the updated format launched in the US, with host Garry Meadows.  The program was so successful in its daytime format that the network expanded it to run in prime-time as well.

The Seven Network then launched The New Price Is Right, hosted by Turpie, in September 1981 on the back of failed early-evening game shows Celebrity Tattletales and Catch Us If You Can.  The show was a hit and ran for around four years.  Turpie reprised his role as host when Ten launched The Price Is Right as a Saturday night program as part of its ill-fated 10 TV Australia line-up of 1989.

Nine then revived The Price Is Right with Emdur as host for several years during the 1990s and then again in 2003.  The show last appeared in 2005.

Last year Emdur made a guest appearance on the US version of The Price Is Right as part of that show’s 40th anniversary celebration.

The recycling of classic TV show formats is hardly new but appears to be a trend among American producers and has seen the revival of some former Australian favourites, including Hey Hey It’s Saturday, It’s A Knockout, Young Talent Time and the recent announcement of a remake of drama series Prisoner, but success in this strategy is proving to be hard to come by.  However, The Price Is Right is one format that seems to always bounce back on a high.

Source: News.com.au

1992: February 1-7

How to succeed away from Wandin Valley
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker (pictured) is suddenly hot property on the theatre circuit, with two producers vying for her services for upcoming stage productions.  Parker, who is currently taping her final scenes for A Country Practice, has been offered the lead role in How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, scheduled to premiere in Sydney in September, and has been called for a second audition for the revival of the classic Gypsy.  Parker has also been offered a role in the Seven Network’s upcoming comedy Newlyweds, but has turned it down citing reluctance to accept another television series role so soon after ACP.

‘We’re great together!’
Garry McDonald and Ruth Cracknell, about to return to screens in a new series of Mother And Son, believe the series could go on indefinitely… or at least as long as writer Geoffrey Atherden writes the scripts.  “Over the years it’s become funnier,” Cracknell told TV Week.  “Good comedy doesn’t go away.”  And the two actors quite happily continue their light-hearted banter even when the cameras stop rolling.  Cracknell confides that McDonald tells all the jokes, but her trademark one-liners on screen are carried over off screen with just as much success.  “We’re great together,” she chuckles.  “It would have been a wonderful marriage!”

‘I was absolutely shaken…’
When A Country Practice star Joyce Jacobs (pictured) heard that her fellow cast-mates Syd Heylen and Gordon Piper were being written out of the series, she thought she would be next.  “I was absolutely shaken!,” she told TV Week.  “It was a great shock and my first thought was, ‘It’s me as well’.  I have been more involved with the doctors in the past year or two and in fewer scenes with Cookie (Heylen) and Bob (Piper).  We’ll miss them.  There was always laughter, although you could thump them sometimes.”  Jacobs is now in her 11th year in A Country Practice as snoopy Esme Watson, but she was not the first choice for the role.  In the series pilot she played an extra, Wilma, who had little dialogue.  It was a character that Jacobs didn’t think would go anywhere, much like the woman she used to play in Number 96.  “I used to go into Mr Godolfus’ shop and buy a quarter of a pound of tea, but they blew them all up didn’t they?,” she said.  But she was later chosen to play Esme Watson in A Country Practice after the actress originally cast for the role had dropped out.  But like any television performer, Jacobs admits nothing is forever.  “I think if and when A Country Practice finishes I’d be glad to do a little cameo role in a film now and then.  It would be nice.  I couldn’t go into another series.  I’m too old… past retirement age, you know.”

Briefly…
All Together Now’s Steven Jacobs (pictured) and former Countdown Revolution co-host Tania Lacey have signed on as presenters of Nine’s new Saturday morning show, Saturday At Rick’s.  The program, to go to air live for two hours each week, is reminiscent of the early days of Hey Hey It’s Saturday.  The new show, to debut later this month, is expected to be produced at Warner Bros Movie World on the Gold Coast.  Two more presenters are also to be signed up.

Network Ten has commissioned a second series of sitcom Bingles before the first series has even gone to air.  The series, set in a panel-beating workshop, stars Shane Bourne, Tammy MacIntosh, Nick Bufalo and Russell Gilbert. 

Acclaimed young actor Russell Crowe (pictured) will be a guest star in the second series of ABC’s Police Rescue.  Crowe, who won an AFI award for his role in Proof, is currently appearing on the big screen in the long-awaited Spotswood.  In Police Rescue he plays Senior Constable Tom Younger, a local football hero and new member of the squad.  Producer John Edwards is excited about Crowe joining the show.  “Russell is a fabulous actor,” he said.  “He’s also a charismatic and exciting personality.”

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”When he took my call, Ian Frykberg was on the Gold Coast in Queensland.  It was windy rather than sunny, but, anyway, he was doing some work preparatory to a 12-metre yacht challenge later this year.  Then he was due to leave for Albertville, France, not just for a dramatic change of climate, but for the 1992 Winter Olympics.  Before the Winter Olympics are over, Frykberg is going to be casting an anxious eye towards places as far flung as Mackay in Queensland, Berri in South Australia and Napier, New Zealand.  They are just some of the venues for the World Cup of cricket.  And before that’s over, there’s the not inconsequential matter of the NSW Rugby League starting its 1992 season on 20 March.  Such is life when you’re director of sport at the Nine Network…”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 1-7):
Saturday:  Afternoon sport includes a repeat of last Monday’s NFL Superbowl (ABC) and Fifth Test Cricket, live from Perth, on Nine.

Sunday:  ABC’s rural affairs program Landline returns for another year.  Afternoon sport includes Test Cricket on Nine and the Ironman Super Series on Ten.  At 6.30pm, Ten launches Bert Newton’s New Faces, reviving the title and format that Newton hosted at the Nine Network from 1976 to 1985 in the same timeslot.  Also at 6.30pm is the return of Seven’s The Main Event, hosted by Larry Emdur, followed by US sitcom Full House and debut of new US series Dinosaurs.  The Simpsons returns with new episodes on Ten at 7.30pm, followed by the debut of locally-made sitcom Late For School, starring Frankie J. Holden, Sarah Chadwick and Matthew Newton.  Sunday night movies are Runaway Train (Seven), Gulag (Nine) and Uncle Buck (Ten).

Monday:  Current affairs programs Four Corners and Lateline are back for another year on ABC, while Seven’s late-night variety show Tonight Live With Steve Vizard returns for its third year.  Although it was widely tipped for a Saturday night timeslot, Ten debuts its new lifestyle/magazine show Healthy Wealthy And Wise on Monday, hosted by Jacki MacDonald (pictured) and Ronnie Burns and featuring Iain Hewitson, Ross Greenwood, Jim Brown and Lyn Talbot.

Tuesday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Shirley (Lorrae Desmond) is suspicious of Muldoon’s (Brian Moll) sudden generosity, while Matron Prior (Maureen Edwards) tries to keep Kate (Michelle Pettigrove) away from Harry (Andrew Blackman).  Gordon Bray and Karen Tighe present the 41st annual ABC Sports Awards, from the New Maritime Museum in Sydney.  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Amanda Keller (pictured) examines virtual reality systems where the observer exists in a 3D, computer-generated world.

Wednesday:  In E Street (Ten), Steven (Vince Martin, pictured) makes a bold move, while Alice (Marianne Howard) gets an offer she can’t refuse, and CJ (Adrian Lee) gets advice on wooing the modern woman.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Penny (Sophie Lee) turns to Guy (David Reyne) for comfort, little realising the strength of their mutual attraction.  In Home And Away (Seven), Sophie’s (Rebekah Elmaloglou) fears for her baby’s future seem justified.  Seven presents an ‘encore’ screening of US series Dinosaurs from Sunday night.

Friday:  Documentary series A Big Country returns to ABC, this week focusing on the Spencer family who live in the far north of the Cape York Peninsula.  Seven years ago they made the break from society.  Nine crosses to the Sydney Football Stadium for the Seven’s International Rugby League, with commentators Ray Warren and Darrell Eastlake.  Nine’s late-night music show MTV returns for the new year, hosted by Richard Wilkins.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  1 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: June 15-21

‘I’m still a country bumpkin’
As the saying goes, you can take new Hey Dad! star Rachael Beck (pictured) out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of Rachael Beck.  The 19-year-old actress, who started her career in the musical Cats at 16, says that despite the bright lights of showbusiness she is still a country girl.  “I am still a country bumpkin at heart,” she told TV Week.  “My parents are back in the country now and it’s wonderful to go and home and visit them and a lot of my friends who are still living there.”  Beck has also chosen to debut her new one-woman show, based on the early career of Judy Garland, on the NSW north coast.

Designing woman!
During the 1970s and early ‘80s, Susan Hannaford (pictured) was better known to viewers as Kitty Sullivan, the youngest member of The Sullivans.  After the show ended, Hannaford moved into the fashion industry and set up a thriving career in design while maintaining ties to acting.  When she was approached to design clothes for the US soap The Bold And The Beautiful she ended up appearing on the show, as herself, for around 18 months.  She is currently back in Australia for a guest appearance, again as herself, in the Nine Network series Chances.  “Chances was a fun little script and I had great fun doing it.  It really felt comfortable,” she told TV Week.  “It’s fun coming back to the Nine studios and seeing people I had worked with on The Sullivans.”  One of those people was former The Sullivans co-star Michael Caton, who plays Bill Anderson in Chances.

A bid to aid the world’s starving
The stars of Australian showbusiness will be doing their bit to help raise funds for the World Vision 40-hour famine to be held this week.  Stars including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Craig McLachlan, Paul Hogan, Rebecca Gibney, Marina Prior, Steve Vizard, Jana Wendt, John Farnham and cast members of Neighbours, The Flying Doctors and Fast Forward will be contributing items of personal memorabilia to be auctioned off over the weekend.  The auctions will be broadcast through the entire weekend on radio stations TTFM in Melbourne and 2UW in Sydney.  Craig McLachlan has donated his first guitar to the auction, while Marina Prior has donated the ballet slippers she wore on the opening night of Phantom Of The Opera in Melbourne.  Steve Vizard and Ray Martin (pictured, with Midday reporter Rachel Friend) have donated merchandise from their respective shows.  Glenn Robbins has donated clothes worn by his one-time alter-ego Uncle Arthur. 

Briefly…
Newsreader Jo Pearson is back at Network Ten, reading Melbourne’s Ten Eyewitness News again with David Johnston, and has spoken to TV Week about the three years she spent at Nine, which included hosting short-lived programs Live At Five and Body And Soul.  “In hindsight you could say it was a mistake for me to go, but at the time I went with promise and expectation of a new career,” she said.  “I think I had a lot of bad luck.  There were political and geographical differences that made it extremely difficult for me and the shows.”

Victor and Sveta (Peter Moon and Jane Turner), those groovy hosts of Fast Forward’s “Good Morning Moscow” are about to hit the charts with a double A-side release featuring Tutti Frutti (I Want A Rutti) and the Soviet rap, The Soviet Bloc.  Proceeds from the sale of the record will aid children of the Chernobyl disaster. 

Tessa Humphries, daughter of comedian Barry Humphries, is returning home to Australia after several years in the UK.  Having starred in London’s West End and in the UK soap Families, Humphries is back home for a guest role in GP… and is keen to stay in Australia if there is the opportunity for more work.  “It is very important for me to work in Australia,” she told TV Week.  “After all, it is my home.”

John Laws says…
”Often it’s the really off-beat, and sometimes silliest, ideas that translate into the best TV programs, be they drama or light entertainment.  Soccer star Craig Johnston’s The Main Event (hosted by Larry Emdur, pictured) is an example.  It’s a pretty wacky format – celebrities playing a quiz game on behalf of various families out there in suburbia – but the ratings have been promising, which is further proof of the theory that in a recession the viewing public demands “fun” entertainment on a grand scale."

Program Highlights (Melbourne, June 15-21):
Saturday:  SBS crosses live to Portugal for the match between Australia and Trinidad and Tobago in the FIFA World Youth Cup.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Police Academy IV: City Under Siege (Nine) and Manhunter (Ten).  Seven debuts mini-series Love Lies And Murder, which concludes Monday night.  Later, Nine crosses live to Madrid for the 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Monday:  In Neighbours (Ten), the future of Paul (Stefan Dennis) and Christina’s (Gillian Blakeney) unborn baby is under serious threat after Christina collapses while out shopping.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (Seven), Amanda Keller reports on a breakthrough diagnosis for one of Asia’s most crippling diseases, while Dr John D’Arcy introduces a device capable of projecting three-dimensional objects on to a wall.  In Chances (Nine), Alex (Jeremy Sims) is shocked when he learns the true identity of his father and aims to punish the entire family.

Wednesday:  SBS makes an early-morning cross to Portugal for Australia versus USSR in the FIFA World Youth Cup.  Ten begins a re-run of the two-part 1989 mini-series Bangkok Hilton, starring Nicole Kidman, Denholm Elliott, Judy Morris, Hugo Weaving and Joy Smithers.

Thursday:  Judy Banks guest stars in The Flying Doctors (Nine).  Nine presents the heavily-censored ‘modified TV version’ network premiere of 1972 movie Deliverance.  SBS presents live coverage of Australia versus Egypt in the FIFA World Youth Cup.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  15 June 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: April 20-26

Bye-bye baby!
The announcement of the pregnancy of Carly (Sharyn Hodgson) in Home And Away is set to lead to the departure of her and husband Ben (Julian McMahon) from the popular series.  But news of the pregnancy is not plain sailing for the young married couple.  Ben wants to go back to the army, but Carly is concerned that moving from base to base is not her idea of a secure lifestyle for a child.  Hodgson, one of Home And Away’s foundation cast members, is now planning an overseas trip following the taping of her final scenes with the program, while McMahon is heading overseas to look out for film and television opportunities.

Reverend Bob behind bars
In a stunning turn of events, E Street’s Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin) ends up behind bars this week.  The trouble starts with his involvement with a young Dylan (Adam Lloyd) – a boy he discovered chained up under a house like a dog – and sympathetic media coverage given to his father Gus (Rob Steele) leads to a murder in Westside, and viewers then see the reverend locked up in a police cell.  But while Network Ten is giving nothing away about the outcome about Reverend Bob, the character’s fiancee Elly Fielding (Penny Cook) is about to exit the series – so the outcome may not be hard to guess?

Farnham TV bid!
John Farnham is set to make an entrance into prime-time television, with the backing of Steve Vizard and Andrew Knight’s Artists Services, the company that produces Tonight Live With Steve Vizard and Fast Forward.  Negotiations are still taking place, but Farnham is expected to host a new variety show for the Seven Network in the Sunday 7.30pm timeslot.  “John can sing, he can tell a joke, he’s funny and he genuinely likes talking to people… what more could you want in a host?” Vizard told TV Week.  And Farnham is certainly no stranger to working in television – having appeared in variety, comedy and drama programs in the 1970s and ‘80s.  But even if the new show gets the go ahead, it may not appear for some time as Seven has just launched its new Sunday night game show The Main Event.

Briefly…
The producers of Nine’s Chances are about to kill off one of the show’s main characters.  The murder leads to seven suspects but the identity of the killer is being kept under wraps as they hope to create their own “Who shot JR?”-type cliff-hanger.  To keep even the actors and backstage crew guessing, producers have filmed six different endings for the mystery.

Former 60 Minutes reporter and Today host George Negus is expected to make a return to TV one way or another.  Negus has teamed up with former The Big Gig host Wendy Harmer for an arts-related program commissioned by the Australia Council.  The program has yet to be sold to any network – but Negus may be appearing soon on the Seven Network on a new program, tentatively titled Contacts, which is set to reunite families.  No decision on the new program has been made, but Negus says he is also in discussions with Seven over other program ideas.

Former Prisoner and Richmond Hill star Maggie Kirkpatrick is about to make a three-week guest appearance in Home And Away, reuniting with former Richmond Hill co-star Emily Symons.  Kirkpatrick is set to play the role of Aunt Jean to the character of Marilyn, played by Symons.  “To walk into a studio again… it was like putting on an old pair of slippers.  It felt so good,” Kirkpatrick told TV Week.

John Laws says…
”Occasionally in the quirky TV world there are ‘sleeper’ hits – programs that bomb on their first run and then boom when re-run, often on another network.  The American series thirtysomething was so much of a sleeper for Ten last year that it was virtually comatose.  It had arrived amid a fanfare of publicity, and riding high on its enormous American success.  But Australians cold-shouldered it.  And so thirtysomething laboured away for Ten, picking up low ratings, and then eventually disappeared, for good it seemed.  But this year Seven has taken over the rights to the more recent episodes and thirtysomething is, finally, gaining the audience it couldn’t attract the first time around.  It’s out of the coma and looking bright-eyed.  So much so that Ten is now running its thirtysomething episodes again!  Annoyingly, this means that you can watch the early episodes on Ten and then much later ones on Seven, all within days of each other.”

Program Highlights (April 20-26):
Saturday:  A team of swimmers taken on the Manpower boys in Celebrity Family Feud (Seven).

Sunday:  Seven’s afternoon of AFL includes West Coast Eagles versus Adelaide Crows, followed by highlights of Geelong versus Carlton.  To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Anzac campaign, Ten screens a one-hour documentary Gallipoli: The Anzac Legend, narrated by Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.  Sunday night movies are Return From The River Kwai (Seven), Clara’s Heart (Nine) and The Return Of The Musketeers (Ten).

Monday:  It’s the beginning of a new era as Glenn Ridge and Jo Bailey (pictured) take over on Nine’s Sale Of The Century.

Tuesday:  In Chances (Nine), Dan Taylor (John Sheerin) rescues daughter Nikki (Cathy Godbold) from a group of oversexed teenage boys.  In comedy All Together Now, everyone is under suspicion when Bobby (Jon English) finds marijuana in the house.  Brett Climo and singer Doug Parkinson are guest stars in this week’s GP (ABC).

Wednesday:  ABC’s Melbourne newsreader Mary Delahunty presents a one-hour special, Love’s Labor Lost, a report into what went wrong with the State of Victoria.  Delahunty questions what type of companies were being supported by government funds, the feasibility of their operations and how they were supervised.

Thursday (Anzac Day):  ABC presents live coverage of the annual Anzac Day March from the Melbourne CBD.  Frankie J Holden guest stars in The Flying Doctors (Nine).

Friday:  Seven presents a special Friday night edition of The Main Event, hosted by Larry Emdur.  The special screening is due to the show’s normal Sunday timeslot next week being occupied by a football telecast.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  20 April 1991.  Southdown Press

1991: March 30-April 5

Cover: Sophie Lee (The Bugs Bunny Show)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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