1992: March 29-April 4

Why Rebekah’s quitting Summer Bay
After two years playing hapless teenager Sophie in Home And Away, Rebekah Elmaloglou (pictured) has decided to leave the series.  The 18-year-old will tape her final scenes for the show in September and hopes that life after Home And Away will be a little less frantic.  “There is definitely life after Home And Away,” she told TV Week.  “It’s been great and I’ve learned heaps, but the pace is just too much and I need a break.  Come September, I plan to do a lot of travelling overseas and I might even do a pantomime in London.”

John plays by new rules
”People tend to see me as Rafferty and nothing else,” actor John Wood tells TV Week.  “So I’m pleased that Dearest Enemy is about to be screened – it might break down that feeling a bit.”  The three-time TV Week Logie winner stars in the series alongside Linden Wilkinson, Bruce Spence, Frank Wilson and Vic Hawkins.  “I’ve been lucky in that in the two major series I’ve done, I’ve had wonderful female co-stars – Catherine Wilkin in Rafferty’s Rules, and now Linden.”  But with production of Dearest Enemy completed some time ago – and despite a current stage role in Sydney – Wood can’t get back into television.  “A couple of years ago, I was the most outstanding actor on television.  Now I can’t get a bloody job in television.  It’s amazing,” he laughs.

Richard insures against handbag attacks
As Terry Sullivan in the long-running series The Sullivans, actor Richard Morgan (pictured) became one of Australia’s most recognisable faces – something he hated, and was made more difficult when Terry started beating his wife.  “I copped a few handbags across the face in supermarkets from women who couldn’t tell between fantasy and reality,” he told TV Week.  Now, a decade later, he is content to enjoy his anonymity working in the insurance industry and appearing only in roles that appeal to him, such as the mysterious Michael Tranti in an upcoming episode of Chances.  Tranti is a married businessman who develops an unhealthy infatuation with advertising executive Angela (Patsy Stephen) when he enlists the advertising agency for his company’s new campaign.  Chances is Morgan’s first television appearance in 18 months, his last TV role being on the Seven Network drama series Skirts.

Briefly…
Australian actress Christine Harris (pictured), with television credits including The Young Doctors, Carson’s Law, Prisoner, Neighbours, Chances and ABC mini-series Darlings Of The Gods, is in the running for a major overseas role – the part of Scarlett O’Hara in the sequel to the cinema classic Gone With The Wind.

Former Neighbours star Andrew Williams is soon to begin a 13-week guest stint in Ten’s other prime time drama, E Street. He will make his on screen debut in June.

Meanwhile, the producers of E Street are now developing a drama-sitcom project featuring pop group The Teen Queens. The video clip of the group’s debut single, Be My Baby, appeared on E Street recently. The pilot for the new series, to be set in Bondi Beach, is to be filmed soon.

There is speculation that the Nine Network may give the flick to Clive Robertson and The World Tonight to make way for a new show to be hosted by Richard Wilkins.

Former Chances star Cathy Godbold, whose role as leukaemia victim Meg Bowman in Home And Away comes to a tragic end on screen this week, has appeared in a pilot episode of a proposed new sitcom, Newlyweds.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here:

’The Minister for Information and Immigration… has been the target for strong press criticism in this immigration venture’ .  With thousands of higher-living nationals awaiting entrance – English, Nordic types and Americans – who can offer this country ideas and culture, it is little wonder that this project has been the centre of bitter controversy.  Let us hope that immigration of the future will be planned deliberately and intelligently and offer more opportunities to the people of our own stock.’ 

“Those quotes (above) are not from a speech by someone from the extreme right of South African politics.  They are taken from a Cinesound Review newsreel, made right here in Australia.  The government minister to whom the voice-over referred was the late Arthur Calwell, who held the Information and Immigration portfolios in the Chifley Government between 1945 and 1949.  The newsreel footage is part of Alec Morgan’s film Admission Impossible: The Story Behind The White Australia Policy.  A Film Australia production, it screens on ABC this week.  The film, narrated by former Four Corners reporter Paul Barry, is a combination of archival film and interviews with immigration officials.  It paints successive Australian governments as underhanded and racist.  Admission Impossible forcefully supports Alec Morgan’s contention that Australia as an egalitarian nation embracing multiculturalism was – and is – a myth.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 29-April 4):
Sunday:  With cricket season now over, Nine’s weekly sports magazine programs Wide World Of Sports: Sunday Edition and Sports Sunday return.  During the afternoon, Nine crosses to Suzuka, Japan, for live coverage of the Japanese 500cc Grand Prix.  Sunday night movies are Black Rain (Seven), Flatliners (Nine) and Revenge (Ten) – while ABC screens the Film Australia documentary Admission Impossible, focusing on the behind-the-scenes political forces and propaganda campaigns that attempted to populate Australia with pure white migrants. 

Monday:  In the series return of Dearest Enemy (ABC), Alex (Linden Wilkinson, pictured) gets a crash course in political wheeling and dealing.  In A Country Practice (Seven), Frank Gilroy (Brian Wenzel) gives up plans for retirement when Constable Tom Newman (Jon Concannon) decides to quit.

Tuesday:  Nine presents delayed coverage of the presentation of the 64th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal at the Los Angeles Music Centre.  Nominations for Best Picture are Bugsy, Beauty And The Beast, JFK, Prince Of Tides and Silence Of The Lambs.

Wednesday:  In Home And Away (Seven), Meg (Cathy Godbold) needs all her energy to live her final days to the full. 

Thursday:  In ABC crime drama Phoenix, Lochie (Andy Anderson), frustrated by his desk jockey status, finally has the chance to lead a raid but it goes embarrassingly wrong.

Friday:  Documentary series A Big Country (ABC) looks at Tim Kelly, former champion rodeo rider – with the hard-drinking and hard-living life-style that came with it – whose life has changed since gospel preachers called him to God.  Now, Kelly is a sincere and gentle man whose wife, a former barmaid and bikie, has also converted to the Christian faith.

Saturday:  Afternoon sport includes netball (ABC), highlights of the Australian Swimming Olympic trials (Seven), Hong Kong 7’s Rugby Union (Ten) and five hours of Wide World Of Sports (Nine).  Evening sport includes live coverage of the Mitsubishi NBL Challenge from the National Tennis Centre (Ten), highlights of the day’s AFL matches (Seven) and a late-night delayed telecast of Winfield Cup Rugby League (Nine).  This week’s episode of the SBS documentary series Through Australian Eyes looks at the lives of three Australian-born Jewish sisters and their children.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  28 March 1992.  Southdown Press.

1992: February 23-29

Sophie set for TV sex special
Sophie Lee is to host an upcoming one-hour special on the topic of teenage sex for the Nine Network.  The special, to be produced in association with A Current Affair, aims to “educate both parents and teenagers about a lot of sexual issues”.  “It’s there to bridge the gap between teenagers and their parents… and I hope they have an open mind about sex,” she told TV Week.  The upcoming special comes after certain sections of the media savaged Lee for comments she made in the Fact And Fantasy File diary – an initiative of the NSW Family Planning Association that has since been banned by Prime Minister Paul Keating.  In an interview published in the diary, Lee stated that one-night stands were “okay” – a comment that the print media focused on and made much controversy.  “What I’m saying is that if you want to go ahead and have casual sex, that’s your business and that’s okay, if you practise safe sex.  That’s it.  That’s all I said.  I was appalled at the way the diary was handled by the media.  To dismiss it as smutty, they are missing the whole point.  Kids have a right to be educated… otherwise they are going to die if they make the wrong decision.”

John’s jetting in!
Full House star John Stamos is coming to Australia to be a VIP guest at the upcoming TV Week Logie Awards.  “I’m really excited about this trip.  My whole life I’ve wanted to go to Australia and then I heard Full House was very successful there, too,” he told TV Week from Los Angeles.  Also on this year’s Logies guest list is former Minder star Dennis Waterman, who is currently touring Australia in the comedy Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell.

Mad Max III
Five years since The Gillies Republic, comedian Max Gillies (pictured) is back in a new series, Gillies And Company, which debuts this week on ABC.  Known for his brilliant parodies of politicians, royalty and celebrities, Gillies this time around has expanded his repertoire to include gardeners, bank managers, tourists, sports coaches and bureaucrats.  “It’s an opportunity to explore new avenues,” he told TV Week.  “I always wanted to do a brighter show, which is why this has been so much fun, but the characters still require a lot of concentration and a lot of time in the make-up room.”

Briefly…
The Nine Network’s new Melbourne Extra current affairs show was recently launched at a lavish function attended by network identities and Victorian Premier Joan Kirner, who will be making regular appearances on the program.  Despite the insecurity that comes with working in commercial television, ex-ABC host John Jost is confident of success.  “If you are going to cover all the important news in Melbourne, you need the time and resources to do it – and that is the commitment that Channel Nine has made to this program,” he told TV Week.  Joining Jost on Melbourne Extra will be reporters Tracey Spicer, Helen Ballard, Natasha Johnson, Des Dowling and Stephen Claney.

E Street’s Sheridan Sturgess (Kate Raison) takes the law into her own hands to try to put an end to serial killer Mr Bad’s (Vince Martin) reign of terror.  The pair agree to meet at Sheridan’s television studios.  The meeting ends when police arrive and Sheridan fires a shot at Mr Bad.  She is arrested and ends up in jail on remand. 

The Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) has announced that their annual ARIA Awards event will be televised for the first time this year.  The Nine Network will be broadcasting the event live from Melbourne next month and is securing a top line-up of presenters and performers – including Rod Stewart, Julian Lennon, Spinal Tap, John Farnham, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, Anthony Warlow, Jimmy Barnes, Johnny Diesel and Crowded House.  Negotiations are also continuing with Kylie Minogue, INXS, Midnight Oil and Phil Collins.

Steamy soap opera Chances has been sold to the BSkyB network in the United Kingdom.  The sale follows the network’s recent purchase of another Aussie series, E Street.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Welcome to something of a new-look TV Week!  The changes, however, are not just cosmetic.  In fact, TV Week makes one of the most profound movies it has made in the 14 years I have been associated with the magazine – our on sale day is now Thursday instead of Monday.  As explained in last week’s issue, that facilitates much tighter deadlines, particularly in our program listings.  Undoubtedly the networks will still find ways of making late alterations and getting under our guard, but it’s going to be more difficult from now on.  And that should mean a better service for you.  We hope you regard as a bonus, too, the fact that – apart from our program listing, which we print in 14 different editions each week to cover the whole of Australia – TV Week is now basically 100 per cent colour.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 23-29):
Sunday:  Afternoon sport includes cricket (Ladies’ International Super Test on ABC, and Benson And Hedges World Cup on Nine), football (AFL Foster’s Cup on Seven) and basketball (Ten).  Sunday night movies are A Fish Called Wanda (Seven), Miami Blues (Ten) and French film Life Is A Long Quiet River (SBS), up against the Winter Olympics on Nine.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), former prostitute Lizzy Walker (Joanne Hunt) returns to Dr Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) to have her baby.  In Mother And Son (ABC), Arthur (Garry McDonald) didn’t really expect to be excavating his father’s ashes in the middle of the night.  ABC debuts new comedy series Gillies And Company and arts program Review.  Nine’s coverage of the Winter Olympics comes to an end with live coverage of the closing ceremony.

Tuesday:  With the Winter Olympics now over, Nine’s prime-time line-up is getting back into full swing – with the return of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (with new host Lisa Patrick), All Together Now, Chances and The World Tonight With Clive Robertson.  Veteran actors Queenie Ashton (pictured) and Willie Fennell are guest stars in this week’s GP (ABC).

Wednesday:  Nine crosses to Sydney for day-night coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup Cricket: Australia versus South Africa.  Seven has live coverage of the AFL Foster’s Cup.  Prime Minister Paul Keating presents his Economic Statement, in a one-hour broadcast on ABC.  Dateline (SBS) takes a look at the increasingly popular Communist Party in Greece.

Thursday:  In E Street (Ten), Alice (Marianne Howard) has urgent news, while Sheridan’s (Kate Raison) feelings for Wheels (Marcus Graham) begin to change.

Friday:  Seven presents a delayed telecast of the 34th annual Grammy Awards from New York’s Radio City Music Hall, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

Saturday:  Nine crosses to Auckland, New Zealand for the Benson And Hedges World Cup Cricket: South Africa versus New Zealand, followed by rugby league highlights of the Toohey’s Challenge Cup.  This week’s documentary on World Around Us (Seven) is Coronation Hill: Land Of The Apocalypse, looking at Coronation Hill, located within Kakadu in the Northern Territory, where the richest uranium deposits on Earth are believed to lie – and the Aboriginal people have a warning for those who would mine it.  ABC’s late-night review of the week in politics, Order In The House, begins a new series. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  22 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: December 7-13

Set to scorch!
E Street stars Kate Raison and Marcus Graham (both pictured, far right) were due to leave the series with this week’s series final – but a “scorchingly romantic” storyline devised for their characters was enough to convince both actors to re-sign.  “The storyline is so fantastic I couldn’t refuse it,” Graham told TV Week.  “The difference between E Street and other Australian serials is that it takes risks.  It is imaginative.  There is no other show doing it.  If Forrest (Redlich, the show’s producer) wasn’t doing it, nobody would be.  Even the network doesn’t want him to do it.”  The storyline, which will see both actors stay with the show for another six months, comes as E Street’s crazed serial killer Steven Richardson (Vince Martin) sets Sheridan Sturgess (Raison) in his sights and Wheels (Graham) comes to her rescue.

‘It’s all over’
It appears that Nine’s The Flying Doctors is about to fly off into the TV sunset.  The official line from the network is that the show is going into an extended break until the end of 1992 and that producers Crawfords are putting the shows sets into storage.  “As far as the cast and crew are concerned, it’s all over… and we have to let people know about it,” cast member David Reyne told TV Week.  Reyne says he was contemplating leaving the show, anyway, and is keen to develop some new projects for television.  “I think television is in the doldrums and the networks have to employ new blood,” he said.  “If you look at Nine, nearly everyone on after 6pm has been around for years… where’s the new blood?”  And not restricting himself to drama, Reyne says he could see himself hosting an information program or even a music show.  “I’d love to grab music television and give it a good shake,” he said.

New laughs from an old team
Lex Marinos and Max Gillies (both pictured) are set to team up for a new ABC comedy series, with Gillies as the star and Marinos the co-director.  The planned half-hour episodes will introduce Gillies fans to a new range of characters and will feature some of Australia’s top comedic talent in short plays scripted by leading writers.  The pair are not unfamiliar colleagues – they worked together in the Seventies as Chico and Groucho Marx at Melbourne’s Pram Factory.  “It’s nice to get back together after 17 years of meeting in foyers,” Marinos told TV Week. 

Briefly…
The biography of underworld figure Mark “Chopper” Read has claimed that in the late ‘70s he was asked by a notorious robber – now deceased – to take part in a plan to “kidnap” actress Lynda Stoner (pictured), then starring in drama series Cop Shop.  “He had photos taken of her and even knew where she did her shopping; he really was quite nutty over her,” according to Read.  “(He) was always falling in love with TV stars and making outrageous fairytale plans to kidnap them.”  But even Read, with his past criminal background, knocked back the elaborate scheme, instead insisting “we’ll all get 100 years’ jail for this!  Send the bloody woman some flowers instead!”. 

ABC’s yet-to-be-screened police drama Phoenix has already been given the green light for a second series.  Production is due to begin in June and expected to go to air in 1993.  The show’s first series of thirteen episodes, starring Paul Sonkkila, Sean Scully, Simon Westaway, Andy Anderson and Nell Feeney, is expected to go to air early in 1992.

This week’s Christmas episode of Col’n Carpenter (Ten) departs from the usual traditional sitcom formula to acknowledge that for some people it can be a sad time.  In the episode, Col’n (Kim Gyngell) faces the prospect of being alone at Christmas.  In a dream sequence, he clings to the hope his family (featuring Dale Stevens, Monica Maughan and Ray Baldwin, pictured) will arrive – but this appears unlikely.  “This is a very emotional issue,” Gyngell told TV Week.  “Obviously, Col’n’s big wish is to have his family around him for the occasion.”

John Laws says…
”When you present a current affairs program three nights a week for most of the year, relying mostly on satellite interviews on one selected issue each night, you have to be good to survive.  Kerry O’Brien’s Lateline carries a format like this – a simple, direct way of dealing with pertinent issues for sure, but still a TV mixture that in the wrong hands could prove a disaster.  O’Brien, though, is a seasoned political hand and a fine interviewer with a relaxed TV presence and there’s never really been any doubt that he was going to make this program work – and work well.  So, can a program like Lateline go to a fourth night of the week and maintain the quality?  I see no reason why not.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, December 7-13):
Saturday:  Nine presents the year’s final Saturday edition of Wide World Of Sports.  ABC presents the grand final of That’s Dancin’, and Seven’s World Around Us presents a Malcolm Douglas special, Return To The Top, featuring his return to central Arnhem Land 17 years after his first visit.

Sunday:  SBS debuts a new ten-part series, Our Stories, from the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association.  Sunday night movies are Casanova (Seven), Weekend War (Nine) and classic James Bond with You Only Live Twice (Ten).  ABC’s Sunday Stereo Special screens the Australian Ballet’s production of Romeo And Juliet. 

Monday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Glen (Richard Huggett, pictured) makes a sudden marriage proposal to Gaby (Rachel Blakely).  Seven Nightly News launches a late-night edition as a summer replacement for Tonight Live With Steve Vizard.

Tuesday:  Nine crosses to Hobart for the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket match between Australia and India.  During lunch, Nine switches to ten-pin bowling with the Goldpin Coca-Cola Classic.

Wednesday:  SBS debuts a three-part documentary series, Nostalgia, with each episode focusing on a prominent Australian and their country of origin.  In E Street (Ten), Mary (Joan Sydney) makes a decision that will affect the rest of her life.

Thursday:  In the series final of E Street (Ten), Wheels (Marcus Graham) and Sheridan (Kate Raison) contemplate the next step in their relationship, while Alice’s (Marianne Howard) labour isn’t what she expected.

Friday:  Good Morning Australia (Ten), Neighbours (Ten) and The World Tonight With Clive Robertson (Nine) present their final editions for 1991.  Nine Network daytime show What’s Cooking (featuring Gabriel Gate and Colette Mann, pictured) moves into prime-time for the summer season.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  7 December 1991.  Southdown Press.

1991: February 9-15

‘It felt like a real wedding to me’
The upcoming wedding of Neighbours characters Paul Robinson and Christina Alessi (pictured) could well serve as a dress rehearsal for real-life couple Stefan Dennis and Gayle Blakeney.  “It’s a very beautiful wedding.  We were both very happy with the way it was done.  It was amazing how everyone got into the atmosphere,” Dennis told TV Week.  “It felt like a real wedding to me,” Blakeney added.  “Saying those words to each other, particularly when the person is your lover… it felt really nice.  I’ve never enjoyed working on the show as much as I have in the month between the engagement and the wedding.” 

E Street goes for a new doctor
Despite some media speculation, actress Julieanne Newbould (pictured) is not taking over the role of Dr Elly Fielding from Penny Cook in Network Ten’s E Street.  She is, however, joining the series portraying a new character, Dr Virginia Travers.  Both Cook and Newbould will work together in the series before Cook departs the series next month.  “Virginia Travers turns out to be an old friend of Elly,” a spokesperson for E Street told TV Week.  “Elly is not being killed off and she’ll be seen on air until May.”  Newbould is a former star of The Restless Years, Prisoner, Kingswood Country and Kindred Spirits.

Now a cartoon brat takes on 60 Minutes
The all-important Sunday 7.30pm timeslot is about to come a heated battle as the networks fire up for the new ratings year.  Coming up against Nine stalwart 60 Minutes is the new US cartoon series The Simpsons (pictured), which has been earning big ratings for the American FOX network up against ratings giant NBC’s The Cosby Show.  Meanwhile, ABC is about to launch new episodes of the British series Rumpole Of The Bailey and Seven has expanded The Magical World Of Disney to a two-hour timeslot starting at 6.30pm.  But 60 Minutes producer Warren McStoker isn’t worried.  “Over the past 12 years, we’ve had all sorts of programs up against us, from furry aliens (ALF) to Greek fruiterers (Mark Mitchell’s Comedy Company character Con the Fruiterer) and even cops and robbers shows,” he told TV Week.  “But we’re still here, we’re stronger than ever, and that’s the way we intend to stay.”

Briefly… 
Jason Donovan is “devastated” by revealing stories about him being sold to the British media by his stepmother Marlene, following her recent amicable separation from his father, actor Terry Donovan.  Marlene has appeared on British TV and featured in newspapers with a number of “tell all” claims about the famous star, accusing him of being “mean and selfish” with his money, ignoring his family and still being desperately in love with Kylie Minogue.  “Her reasons were financial but I can’t believe that someone that I love and trust did something like that,” Jason told TV Week.

Gary Sweet (pictured) has had a hard time convincing the producer and stunt co-ordinator for ABC’s new action drama Police Rescue that he is able to doing all his own stunts.  “I keep trying to impress on John (Edwards, the show’s producer) that it is relatively safe,” Sweet told TV Week.  “I’ve broken plenty of bones playing sport, so you could say that my normal lifestyle is far more dangerous than jumping off cliffs.  I come to work to relax.”

Actor Garry McDonald is back on TV – but this time, instead of battling with his geriatric mother, as he did on Mother And Son, he is the parent coping with two very alert children.  The new series, Eggshells, debuts this week on ABC with McDonald playing the part of a divorcee whose life is constantly interrupted by his ex-wife (played by Judy Morris), his two current girlfriends, his handyman brother-in-law and his two children.  Eggshells comes from writer Geoffrey Atherden, who also created Mother And Son.

Bush Tucker Man Les Hiddens, who returns this week with a new series of the popular ABC program, has admitted that he received a generous offer to join the Nine Network but turned it down, opting to stay loyal to ABC.  “There’s more to life than money, mate,” he told TV Week.

John Laws says…
”Television made a real shish-kebab of the first week of the Gulf war and, gloomy as it was, it did contain all the elements of compulsive viewing.  Thanks to the cable network CNN, Network Ten was able to come out the winner with its coverage of the initial 48 hours of the conflict, even though its professional success wasn’t mirrored by the ratings, which saw Nine gather the most viewers.  It was, perhaps, troubled Ten’s finest hour as the war began.  And yet what did CNN (and therefore Ten) really have over the opposition – just three reporters holed up on the ninth floor of a luxury hotel in Baghdad.  There were no pictures at first; all we heard were the voices of the trio as the described what was going on, and poked their microphones out of the window to pick up the sounds of falling bombs and artillery.  For the viewer, it was a case of look at a map of Baghdad and listen – and yet it worked.  It was gruesome, fascinating, gripping television.”

Program Highlights (February 9-15):
Saturday:  Nine’s flagship sports program Wide World Of Sports returns for another year for four hours of Saturday afternoon coverage.

Sunday:  It’s the first day of the official ratings year.  Nine’s Sunday regulars Business Sunday, Wide World Of Sports: Sunday Edition and the afternoon Sports Sunday are all back for the new year.  Seven crosses to the Gabba in Brisbane for the AFL pre-season Foster’s Cup, featuring Brisbane Bears versus Collingwood.  At 7.30pm, Network Ten presents the Australian debut of The Simpsons, featuring two episodes – ‘Bart The Genius’ and ‘Homer’s Odyssey’.  Sunday night movies, the first major premieres for the year, are Young Einstein (Seven) and Alien Nation (Ten) – the latter leading into an ongoing series that debuts later in the week.  Nine presents the first instalment of mini-series The Confessional.  Meanwhile, SBS presents a half-hour documentary, What’s Funny About Melbourne?, and ABC presents the first of two documentaries on the issue of global warming.  After The Warming, a co-production between Film Australia and American and British interests, takes viewers to the year 2050 as Earth has survived global warming.

Monday:  Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale (pictured) are back for another year of Nine’s mid-morning program In Melbourne Today – and Ray Martin is back for another year of Midday With Ray Martin.  Tony Barber and Alyce Platt are back for the new year on Sale Of The Century.  ABC debuts new comedy series Eggshells, while 4 Corners and Media Watch return for 1991.  The Nine Network starts following its late night news program, The World Tonight With Clive Robertson, with two hours of coverage dedicated to the Gulf war – while Ten’s overnight broadcast of CNN continues every night.

Tuesday:  ABC’s consumer affairs program The Investigators returns for 1991. 

Wednesday:  David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz return for another year of The Movie Show on SBS. 

Thursday:  Seven crosses to Huntingdale Golf Club, Melbourne, for live coverage of the first day of the Australian Masters.  Gary Sweet heads the cast in the debut of ABC’s new action drama Police Rescue.

Friday:  Seven presents coverage of Day Two of the Australian Masters.  Burke’s Backyard (Nine) and Gardening Australia (ABC) begin another year, while Les Hiddens begins a new series of Bush Tucker Man.

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

1991: February 2-8

Welcome to my nightmare!
A Country Practice marks its 800th episode with a horrifying leap into the future.  In the episodes to screen next week, Lucy Tyler (Georgie Parker, pictured) experiences a nightmare triggered by the arrival of a film crew in Wandin Valley for production of a post-holocaust movie.  In the dream, Wandin Valley has suffered a nuclear attack and Lucy finds the town and surrounds have been destroyed and her fellow Wandin Valley residents all haggard and suffering radioactive illness.  “It’s quite a philosophical episode, in that we had to try and not get too idealistic about the environment issues,” Parker told TV Week.  “We had to make it digestible, and I think that we managed to do that.”

Tammy’s in love… and nervous!
”My first scene is sex.  I’ve never done anything like that before… I was petrified,” says Tammy MacIntosh (pictured), formerly of The Flying Doctors, describing her arrival into Nine’s adults-only drama Chances.  MacIntosh plays Mandy Foster, assistant and lover of advertising executive Alex Taylor (Jeremy Sims).  “I tell you it feels strange when you have your own love life and you’re there kissing someone else,” she says.  MacIntosh was offered a two-year contract for Chances, to play another role, but was reluctant to commit to another long-running series and opted for the short-term role of Mandy Foster instead.  “I’ve learnt I get all tied up when I do a long series. I get bored, then I go a bit mad,” she says.

Greg’s new date is not just a pretty face!
Meet Greg Evans’ new perfect match, Nicky Buckley (pictured).  The 25-year-old Melbourne model beat 140 other hopefuls to be the hostess of Blind Date, the revival of the show previously known as Perfect Match.  Buckley has worked in the UK and the United States and last year was a model on Sale Of The Century.  But she is more than just a pretty face.  She has studied economics and accounting at university, speaks French, is learning to play the piano and is keen to take up Italian and Italian history this year.  “She is a delightful girl, so amiable and friendly,” Evans told TV Week.  “I think we’re going to get along famously.”  Blind Date begins this week on Network Ten.

Briefly…
Bert Newton (pictured) is set to re-enter Melbourne’s radio market with plans to “lease” ailing radio station 3AK from the station’s owner Peter Corso.  Newton, entering the new venture with business partner Tony Aloi, is set to present the morning shift on the station but has yet to announce who will occupy the other slots in the new-look station, which is currently broadcasting in Italian to few listeners.  It is Newton’s second chance at building a radio station, having previously been in charge of former station 3DB.

Former Young Talent Time and Neighbours cast member Mark Stevens takes on a new image in a guest role as a heavy-metal rocker in Nine’s new comedy series All Together Now.    “My character is a real punk with shoulder-length hair and a studded leather jacket,” he told TV Week. 

Despite studying classical ballet for sixteen years, Sonia Todd is out to prove that she is as good as the boys in the upcoming action series Police Rescue for ABC.  “All the writers and 10 of the directors for the series are men,” Todd (pictured, with co-star Gary Sweet) told TV Week.  “It was a constant battle to let them know I was capable of the action work.”

 

John Laws says…
”SBS television programmers must know something the rest of us don’t.  They must have top-secret information that scattered around Australia are tens of thousands of Russians or Russian-speaking people, all desperately anxious to catch up on the news each day from the dear old motherland.  Why else would our independent broadcaster spend money and time on screening the Russian news program Vremya each weekday at 2.00pm?  This cold whiff of brain-deadening television screens in Russian (without subtitles!) for some 40 minutes and you don’t have to speak the Moscow lingo to quickly realise that it’s little more than tedious communist propaganda.  So what’s the reasoning behind it?  If SBS was showing the nightly news program from Greece or Italy I could understand it.  But Russia!?  There is a further silly side to the whole fiasco.  SBS goes to air with Vremya at 2.00pm – then closes down again when the program finishes!  It returns to begin the “real” programs an hour and 20 minutes later.”

Program Highlights (February 2-8):
Saturday:  Tony Johnston and newcomer Nerida Leishman (pictured) host the return of Nine’s early morning Cartoon Company.  Afternoon sport includes the Davis Cup tennis from Perth on Seven and the Fifth Test cricket from Perth on Nine.

Sunday:  The AFL pre-season Foster’s Cup kicks off with Fitzroy versus Carlton, live on Seven.  Nine has Day Three of the Fifth Test from Perth and Ten crosses to Queensland for the Ironman Super Series.  Sunday night movies are Infidelity (Seven), Shakedown On The Sunset Strip (Nine) and The Chocolate War (Ten).

Monday:  Network Ten’s Good Morning Australia launches a revamped look, with Kerri-Anne Kennerley joined by new co-host Tim Webster.  Also joining the show this year are newsreader Anne Fulwood, weather presenter Shannon Dolan and science whiz Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.  The morning show now has a lighter, brighter format with more emphasis on entertainment, consumer affairs, recreation, health and sport.  Later in the day Ten launches its new 5.30pm game show, Let’s Make A Deal with Vince Sorrenti, followed by Ten Eyewitness News and then the debut of Blind Date, with Greg Evans and Nicky Buckley.  Late night programs Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (Seven) and Robbo’s World Tonight (Nine) return for another year.

Tuesday:  Seven’s popular science and technology show Beyond 2000 begins another year.  In Nine’s new drama series Chances, Connie’s (Deborah Kennedy) long-lost husband re-appears on the scene – is he after a reconciliation or a slice of the family’s recent lottery win?

Wednesday:  Seven presents live coverage of the Foster’s Cup match between Footscray and Hawthorn, from VFL Park in Melbourne. 

Thursday:  In E Street, Reverend Bob (Tony Martin, pictured with Penny Cook) shocks everyone with the announcement that he is leaving Westside as his blossoming relationship with Dr Elly Fielding (Cook) appears to have stalled as she looks set to have patched things up with her estranged husband David (Noel Hodda).  ABC presents the final edition of Aboriginal affairs program Blackout. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 2 February 1991. Southdown Press.

1990: December 8-14

Cover: Olivia Newton-John

Hey Hey it’s… London…?
Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers is set to make an appearance on Aussie expat Clive James’ popular British show, Saturday Night Clive. Somers is hopeful that the appearance could lead to Hey Hey being sold to an international audience.  “I feel we’ve given England such a diet of soapies that it’s about time they copped some comedy/variety/night-time/morning type of stuff.  They just want to talk about me being on TV for a long time, and the show I do, which is unique.  I know Clive and he’s very aware of that uniqueness,” Somers told TV Week.

Oscar winner aims for Oz glory!
Oscar-winning American actor Denzel Washington is likely to win the lead role in the Seven Network mini-series Tracks Of Glory, which goes into pre-production soon.  Producers Barron Films have also been negotiating with LA Law star Blair Underwood, but Washington is now the favourite for the lead role of American champion cyclist “Major” Taylor.  Among the Australian cast list for the mini-series are Cameron Daddo (Bony), Justine Clarke (Home And Away) and John Wood (Rafferty’s Rules).  Tracks Of Glory is set in the 1920s and follows the story of Taylor as he comes to Australia to compete in the richest cycling event in the world.

The show will go on!
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers is choosing his words carefully when he announces the disintegration of DAS Entertainment, the nine-year partnership between himself, Gavan Disney and Ernie Carroll, which produces the popular Nine Network program:  “We’ve discussed it.  It’s a mutually agreed split.  Hey Hey will continue, as we are contracted to do until the end of 1991, and we all looking forward to it in a very positive way.  We want the split to be as professional and businesslike as possible, and because we are involved in working that out – the entanglement of contractual obligations with DAS and the (Nine) network and so on – I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to go into great detail at this stage.  But I think it’s safe to say that DAS will be no longer.  Next year the program will be produced by another entity.” Somers and Carroll are expected to take over producing the show – although plans to bring Jacki MacDonald back into the program appear to have stalled.

Briefly…
As the financial situation at Network Ten continues to crumble, producer Ian McFadyen (pictured) is confident that the network will pick up a proposed sitcom he has been discussing with them – a concept based around the lives of employees at a television station.  McFadyen is also confident that Ten will renew sitcom Let The Blood Run Free for a second series.  Meanwhile, his company, Media Arts, also has a deal to produce a sitcom, Newlyweds, for the Seven Network in partnership with Crawfords Australia.  The new sitcom is set to be a starring vehicle for former Neighbours star Annie Jones.

ABC has renewed drama series Embassy for a second series.  The renewal comes after controversy, as Malaysia accused the show’s fictional setting of Ragaan of “making fun” of their country and consequently cancelled official visits to Australia and suspended trade talks, prompting Prime Minister Bob Hawke to step in and reassure Malaysians that the program is entirely fictional.

Aussie actress, former Number 96 and Skyways star Carmen Duncan (pictured), playing the role of bitchy Iris Carrington Wheeler in the US soap Another World, has been named by Soap Weekly magazine as one of the “most desirable women on American television”.  Her character has also been voted one of the most popular on American daytime TV.

Seven Network series A Country Practice has clocked up 800 episodes.  Given the current financial situation at Seven, still in receivership, the cast and crew of the series were allowed only a small celebration at Seven’s Sydney studios.

Neighbours star Ashley Paske has announced that he will not renew his contract with the Network Ten series when it expires in January.  He is expected to be seen on-air until May.

John Laws says:
“SBS has had a great year.  Its fine coverage of the World Cup soccer – possibly more extensive than any other station in the world – was the highlight.  It, more than anything, put the station on the map.”

Program Highlights (December 8-14):
Sunday:  Tennis (Colonial Mutual Men’s Invitational) on ABC.  Golf (Johnnie Walker Classic) on HSV7 and cricket (Benson And Hedges World Series) on GTV9.  Sunday night movies are North Dallas Forty (GTV9) and Stones For Ibarra (ATV10).  HSV7 presents the first instalment of mini-series George Washington.

Monday:  ABC presents a repeat of Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals, featuring John Halfpenny, Glenn Wheatley, Keith Williams and Wilson Tuckey.

Tuesday:  Prime Minister Bob Hawke presents the Walkley Awards, buried in a broadcast of the National Press Club Luncheon, on ABC at 1.00pm.

Friday:  The final 1990 edition of the late-night Robbo’s World Tonight on GTV9.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 8 December 1990. Southdown Press.

1990: September 1-7

Get me to the church on time…
The upcoming A Country Practice wedding between Lucy Gardiner (Georgie Parker) and Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) will continue Wandin Valley’s tradition of dramatic weddings.  “The problem is the parents,” Parker tells TV Week.  “And whether the ceremony is going to be held in an Anglican or Catholic church.  Matt’s father Gilbert (George Mallaby) is pompous and doesn’t think Matt is coping without good financial backing.  My parents are supposedly splitting up and my father Patrick (Jonathan Hardy) refuses to come because it’s not being held in a Catholic church.  My mother Lois (Jill Perryman) turns up without him.”  The lead-up to the wedding has also been marred by Lucy’s cancer scare and the couple’s house being burnt to the ground in recent episodes.  “Post-marriage is much calmer,” Parker hastily points out.

The Great Soap Shake-Up!
A number of key cast shake-ups are about to unsettle popular soaps Home And Away, A Country Practice and E Street, while cop drama Skirts is about to lose one cast member.  Julian McMahon and Sharyn Hodgson (pictured), who play Home And Away newlyweds Ben and Carly, are leaving the show over the coming months.  Their exit from Home And Away follows recent news that original cast member Adam Willits is about to leave the show – and Craig McLachlan is also planning to leave the show but will return for guest appearances during 1991.  James Davern, producer of Seven’s A Country Practice, has confirmed that the series is about to lose cast members Michael Muntz, Mary Regan and child actor Georgina Fisher.  Actors Muntz and Regan are leaving to pursue other opportunities, while the young Fisher is leaving after two years with the show.  “I spoke to her parents and two years are enough for a child actor,” Davern told TV Week.  Meanwhile, Network Ten’s E Street is about to lose cast members Paul Kelman and Lisbeth Kennelly, whose contracts have not been renewed.  Also tipped to be leaving E Street are Chelsea Brown and Rebecca Saunders.  And Skirts star Kate Gillick is leaving the police drama to return to the theatre.

Caught in the crossfire
Tragedy strikes Neighbours when Kerry Mangel (Linda Hartley, pictured, with Mark Little) is left fighting for her life after being accidentally shot while taking part in a duck-shooting protest.  “This storyline brings out the side of Kerry’s character that I’ve always liked the most,” Hartley tells TV Week.  “She has been in a very domestic situation lately, but no-one can forget their past.  I’m pleased the opportunity came up for her to be more forthright about things she cares about.”    

Briefly…
The Comedy Company producer Ian McFadyen (pictured) has admitted that the show’s return has been tougher than expected.  “We’ve obviously got a mandate to deliver a big audience pretty soon and that’s a lot of pressure to carry.  Our ratings are worse than I thought they would be.  60 Minutes has an enormous following – a very strong loyalty – and we’re working on that at the moment.”  Meanwhile, McFadyen’s other project, Mark Mitchell’s The Big Time, has been taken off air after a short time and is set to be re-worked.

Robbo’s World Tonight host Clive Robertson insists he couldn’t care less that his show is being beaten by Tonight Live With Steve Vizard in the ratings.  “If they don’t want my show after next March (when his contract runs out), that’s fine,” he told TV Week.  “I’ll do something else.  I wouldn’t mind going back to Seven or even the ABC.”  He also admits to not liking the name of his own show.  “”Robbo’ sounds a bit silly,” he says.  If he had his choice, he’d call it something like ‘The Final Word, With Mr Robertson’.

Denise Drysdale and Ernie Sigley have spoken to TV Week about their daytime show, In Melbourne Today.  “We really are like an old married couple,” Drysdale says.  “We can have a go at each other, and it’s all part of the fun.”  While Sigley says it is a battle to try and stay ahead of the gags that the studio crew have in store for them.  “They once blew up a chook on the set and scared the living daylights out of me,” he said.

John Laws says…
”SBS’ The Movie Show with David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz is certainly a reflection of two completely different personalities.  Pomeranz is bubbly, earnestly sincere and prone to gush the extremities of praise and criticism; Stratton is cool, laidback and possessed of both gentlemanly charm and viper-like attack.”

Program Highlights (September 1-7):
Saturday:  HSV7 starts its celebrity-led assault on the top-rating Hey Hey It’s Saturday with two new shows, Celebrity Family Feud and Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.

Sunday:  With More Winners now finished up, ABC starts screening the original Winners series of children’s dramas that had originally screened on the Ten Network.  Tonight’s episode is The Other Facts Of Life starring Ken Talbot, Dennis Miller and Anne Grigg.  Sunday night movies are Stakeout (HSV7), Children Of A Lesser God (GTV9) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (ATV10).

Monday:  Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (HSV7) starts a week of shows presented live from London.

Wednesday:  John Bach, Oliver Tobias, Rebecca Gilling and Peta Toppano star in ABC’s new mini-series The Paper Man, screening over three consecutive nights.  Australian Democrats politician Janine Haines is this week’s guest on Speaking For Myself (SBS).  HSV7 screens the long-awaited telemovie Bony, starring Cameron Daddo, Burnum Burnum, Catherine Oxenberg, David Reyne and Tom Richards.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  1 September 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.