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.

Magazine covers from Christmases past

Television.AU wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas and takes a trip down memory lane to some of the TV magazine covers that have marked this very special day…

George Mallaby and Rowena Wallace (Cop Shop), pictured with Mallaby’s son Guy and co-star Greg Ross’ son, Simon.  TV Week, 1978

Humphrey B. Bear (Here’s Humphrey).  TV Times, 1978.

(Clockwise from bottom left) Marcia Hines (Marcia’s Music), Mike Walsh (The Mike Walsh Show), Susan Hannaford (The Sullivans), John Orcsik (Cop Shop), June Salter (The Restless Years), Peter Lochran (The Young Doctors).  TV Times, 1979

Tony Barber and Alyce Platt (Sale Of The Century).  TV Week, 1986.

Kylie Minogue (Neighbours).  TV Week, 1987.

Kerrie Friend and Cameron Daddo (Perfect Match). 
Scene On TV (The Sunday Mail, Brisbane), 1987.

(Clockwise from top left) Graeme Goodings, Jane Doyle, Max Stevens and Anne Wills (Seven Nightly News, Adelaide).
Sunday Mail TV Plus (Adelaide), 1993.

None Hazlehurst and John Jarratt (Better Homes And Gardens) with Bree Desborough, Kristy Wright and Lynne McGranger (Home And Away). 
TV Week, 1998.

Carla Bonner, Madeleine West, Kym Valentine (Neighbours). 
TV Week, 2000.

Kate Ritchie (Home And Away).  TV Week, 2006.

Some other TV memories of Christmases past as presented on this blog:

Merry Christmas, ‘76 style
Merry Christmas from QTQ9 (1967)
TV Week’s Strictly Christmas (1992)
Christmas cheer from SBS (1983)
’Twas the night before Christmas…

1991: July 6-12

Cover: Kevin Costner

‘Butterfly’ takes off again
The Seven Network has announced production for a further sixteen episodes of Butterfly Island.  The series, starring Grigor Taylor and Penne Hackforth-Jones, first appeared on ABC in 1984 with a follow up series produced by Seven in 1986, although the later series did not appear on Seven until last year.  Taylor plays the part of Charlie Wilson, a widower who runs a struggling tourist resort.

Look who’s back in town!
Some former favourites from Nine’s The Flying Doctors have been reunited for a special episode.  Former cast members Andrew McFarlane, Liz Burch, Rebecca Gibney and George Kapiniaris are returning in an upcoming episode.  The town of Coopers Crossing has been hit hard by the recession and to help boosts its spirits hosts a street party, with some of the town’s former residents attending.  The episode went into production this week and will go to air in September.

‘Girls want me for my money!’
At the mere age of eight, Matthew Krok is trying to come to grips with his rise to fame.  Having featured in 16 television commercials since last year, Krok went on to a guest appearance in A Country Practice before taking on the role of Arthur McArthur in Hey Dad! and has just finished his first feature film role in Eight Ball.  But the young star doesn’t quite understand the fuss that tends to surround him.  “I don’t think I’m any different to anyone else,” he told TV Week.  And while his Hey Dad! character is having a crush on Sam (Rachael Beck), the young actor has no romantic aspirations just yet.  “I’m not interested in girls,” he insists.  “They’re interested in me.  A girl at my school wants to marry me because of my money, but I said, ‘No way!’.”

Briefly…
Former The Young Doctors and Cop Shop star Lynda Stoner is returning to television with a guest role in Nine’s Chances, playing the part of nurse Dee Dee Nelson, hired to care for Jack Taylor (Tim Robertson) and help him recover from a stroke, including sex therapy!

Felicity Soper, best known as policewoman Susan Miller in the former Network Ten series Richmond Hill, has scored a role in a new Seven Network mini-series, Good Vibrations.  Also appearing in the series will be Genevieve Picot, Stephen Whittaker, Jeffrey Walker, David Hoflin and former Neighbours star Sasha Close.

Fast Forward star Geoff Brooks says that his character of Bruce Rump isn’t directly based on real-life RSL stalwart Bruce Ruxton, but that they are on the same wavelength.  “At about the same time I said, ‘The Reds aren’t under the bed, they’re in the bed’, Bruce was quoted by a paper saying the same thing,” Brooks told TV Week.  “Rump is actually a composite of a lot of people.  People like Sir Henry Bolte, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, Bruce and my dad – people who see things in black and white.”

John Laws says…
”Bangkok Hilton set out to be dramatic, exciting and emotion-packed, and it achieved it all.  Not much subtlety, of course, just straightforward, honest to goodness shock-horror stuff – lots of anguish howls, impassioned pleas from our heroine and lots of nasty bad guys.  Bangkok Hilton, as we know, was a ratings knockout the first time around and, as expected, did very well the second time, too.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, July 6-12):
Saturday: SBS presents a special edition of current affairs program Dateline, where reporter Mike Carey has just returned with a film crew after two weeks in disaster-torn Bangladesh, where more than 150,000 people died in recent cyclones.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Seven), She-Devil (Nine) and My Stepmother Is An Alien (Ten).  Nine then crosses to Wimbledon for live coverage of the Men’s Singles Final.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) helps Steve (Sophie Heathcote) plan for an overseas trip, while a hospital health check reveals one of the nurses proves HIV positive.

Tuesday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Jim (Alan Dale) is afraid that something is still going on between half-siblings Glen (Richard Huggett, pictured) and Lucy (Melissa Bell).  Robert Mammone guest stars in GP’s 100th episode.

Wednesday:  Bruce Spence, Hugo Weaving and American actress Rosanna Arquette star in the Australian-made telemovie Wendy Cracked A Walnut (ABC), telling the story of a housewife who yearns for the romance and passion she finds in pulp novels.

Thursday:  John Polson guest stars in The Flying Doctors (Nine).  In Hampton Court (Seven), an astronomical electricity bill means desperate measures are called for.

Friday:  In Neighbours (Ten), Helen (Anne Haddy) gives Michael (Brian Blain) her answer to his marriage proposal.  In ABC’s documentary series A Big Country, a restaurant owner’s Chinese family in Bendigo recount their experiences in a country town since the war.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  6 July 1991.  Southdown Press

ACA interviews Reg Grundy

It is not often that this site actively promotes A Current Affair but will make an exception for this coming Monday’s edition as host Tracy Grimshaw interviews legendary television producer Reg Grundy (pictured) and wife, actress and author Joy Chambers at their home in Bermuda.

Grundy first appeared on TV in 1959 as the host and producer of an afternoon game show, Wheel Of Fortune, which had made the move from radio to Sydney’s TCN9.  He then went on to produce more game shows during the 1960s before branching out into TV dramas and movies in the 1970s.  The list of Grundy productions read like a timeline in the history of Australian television, including Ampol Stamp Quiz, I’ve Got A Secret (where he met his future wife), Temptation, Moneymakers, Class Of ‘74, Pot Of Gold, Family Feud, Blankety Blanks, The Celebrity Game, The Young Doctors, Chopper Squad, The Restless Years, Sale Of The Century, Prisoner, Sons And Daughters, Perfect Match, It’s A Knockout, Neighbours, Secret Valley, Wheel Of Fortune, Australia’s Most Wanted, Richmond Hill, Embassy and The Price Is Right. 

Wife Chambers, a winner of two TV Week Logie awards for most popular female personality in Queensland in the late 1960s before becoming Mrs Grundy, went on to appear in a number of Grundy productions including The Restless Years, The Celebrity Game and Neighbours (most recently appearing in the lead-up to the show’s celebrated 6000th episode).  She is also an accomplished author in her own right.

As well as many Grundy dramas selling internationally – most notably Prisoner (pictured), The Young Doctors, Neighbours and Sons And Daughters – he also successfully franchised various game show and drama formats overseas, producing international versions of Sale Of The Century, Prisoner and The Restless Years.  He also produced a game show, Scrabble, for US network NBC.

He sold Grundy Television Productions to UK-based Pearson International in the mid-1990s – it has since been incorporated into the global Fremantle Media group.

Grundy was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame in 1993 and received Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2008. 

Despite his many years in television, Grundy has remained a very private figure and has very rarely allowed to be interviewed and the appearance on A Current Affair came as the expense of Sunday Night and 60 Minutes which had both also tried to secure an interview.

The interview is said to coincide with the release of his autobiography.

A Current Affair.  Monday 20 September, 6.30pm.  Nine*

Source: The Daily Telegraph (via The Spy Report), Sydney Morning Herald.

 

* Melbourne.  Other areas, check local guides.

Ten goes back behind bars

Prisoner was a surprise ratings hit when it debuted on the otherwise-ailing 0-10 Network in February 1979.  The never-before-seen tale of life inside a women’s prison was groundbreaking drama and also presented a milestone in featuring a predominantly female cast (including Peta Toppano, pictured).

The series ran for eight years and 692 episodes, winning a swag of TV Week Logie awards, and was one of the few Australian dramas to get a cult following in the US before it went on to a similar following in Europe and the United Kingdom.  The series was later re-worked for the US market as Dangerous Women.

Such was the sustained popularity of Prisoner twenty years after its demise that all 692 episodes were released on DVD – the largest such DVD release in Australia.  Fans from around the world still come to Australia to pay homage to the series and some of the stars from the show (such as Maggie Kirkpatrick, who played Joan ‘the Freak’ Ferguson, pictured below) are still household names today.

Despite foiled plans to produce a spin-off series in the 1990s, the Ten Network is now set to reconnect to the prison theme with a new series unveiled at its recent 2011 launch.

Inside Out promises to tell the story of a woman who lands in prison after being wrongly accused and sets out for revenge.

Ian Bradley, a co-producer from Prisoner, is working on the new project which Ten hopes will spin-off into an ongoing series.

Ten’s programming chief David Mott told the Herald Sun:

“We’re very excited about it.  We’ve looked at Prisoner for some time now and wondered whether it’s time to revive the style of that show.”

A couple of years ago there were tentative plans by Ten to re-work another former series, The Young Doctors, to a new generation of viewers but this was soon abandoned.

Network Ten will be anxious for Inside Out to succeed now that it has announced plans to ship Neighbours off to its new digital channel, 11, where it may end up being excluded from counting towards the network’s required quota of local drama content.

Ten also announced at the 2011 launch that it has renewed its new Melbourne-based drama Offspring for another series following strong ratings results since its launch last month.

Source: Herald Sun, 15 September 2010.

Lynda Stoner goes undercover for animal rights

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Lynda Stoner was one of TV’s glamour girls.  After being crowned Miss TV Times (pictured) in 1976, she went on to star in popular dramas The Young Doctors, Cop Shop and Prisoner.

But, in a report this weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald, Stoner’s latest ‘role’ is as far removed from the bright lights of showbiz as can be imagined.

A long-time vegan and campaigner for animal rights, Stoner reveals how she and an Animal Liberation colleague recently spent two days ‘undercover’ at a pig dogging workshop.  A black wig, dark-rimmed glasses and a $12 wedding ring from Paddy’s Market saw Lynda Stoner, actor and animal rights activist, transformed into ‘Linda Brown’, pig dogger and game hunting enthusiast:

''The only way to do it is to go in there and try to dissociate, to mentally put yourself in another place and know that you're doing it to try to get this terrible thing stopped.''

Pig dogging is where pigs are pursued and caught by dogs and then killed with knives. It has been legal in declared state forests since March 2006:

''It's such an underground culture. I've spoken to other hunters; they are so disparaging of pig doggers. They are the lowest of the low.”

''If they're proposing this is to reduce the number of feral animals, it's the most disgusting, most barbaric, most brutal thing they could do.''

The information that Stoner and a colleague collected from the workshop will be used for Animal Liberation’s campaign against pig dogging.

The full report is on the Sydney Morning Herald website.

Neighbours: 25 today!

When Daphne Lawrence (Elaine Smith, pictured) was doing her striptease at the buck’s night for Des Clarke (Paul Keane) on the eve of his marriage to Lorraine Kingham (Antionette Byron) on the premiere episode of Neighbours, nobody’s wildest predictions would have foreseen that the show would survive to see its 25th anniversary.

Even the most optimistic predictions would have only permitted Neighbours to have a lifespan of a few years. At the time of the show’s debut – 18 March 1985 in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (Brisbane followed with a 90-minute launch a week later) – apart from ABC’s Bellbird (1967-1977) the longest running Australian soaps had been Number 96, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors, Cop Shop (all around six years each) and Prisoner (which had entered its seventh year in 1985).

As well as TV newcomers like Smith and Keane, Neighbours’ founding cast included a few familiar faces – Anne Haddy (Play School, Prisoner, Sons And Daughters), Alan Dale (The Young Doctors), Peter O’Brien (Starting Out), Darius Perkins (All The Rivers Run and the telemovie Matthew And Son), Stefan Dennis (Prisoner) and David Clencie (The Sullivans, Starting Out).

But after only a few months on air, Neighbours was headed for TV landfill when the Seven Network pulled the plug after a lack of support from ATN7, Sydney, and despite strong-ish ratings elsewhere. But the show’s producers, the Grundy Organisation, felt there was still life in the concept – after all, the UK’s neighbourhood drama, Coronation Street, was into its third decade by that stage – so the show was successfully offered to Network Ten, creating Australian TV history as the first drama series to swap networks.

The re-launch on Ten, on 20 January 1986, gave the show a fresher, younger emphasis with a bunch of young newcomers enlisted to the cast – Jason Donovan, Guy Pearce, Annie Jones, Geoff Paine, Charlene Fenn and, a few months later, Kylie Minogue (then a 17-year-old known from The Henderson Kids and for being the older sister of Young Talent Time cast member Danielle Minogue) Also added to the line-up were Anne Charleston (fresh from a former Grundy’s drama, Possession), Ally Fowler (Sons And Daughters) and Vivean Gray (The Sullivans).

Then the show was given an international audience with its debut on BBC1 in a daytime timeslot in 1986, but it was a shift to the 5.30pm timeslot in 1988 that saw Neighbours catapulted to ratings domination, even bumping stalwart Coronation Street and relative newcomer EastEnders from the top of the ratings.

The show went on to win a swag of TV Week Logie awards, including Gold Logies for Kylie Minogue (1988) and Craig McLachlan (1990) and the show being inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame to coincide with its 20th anniversary in 2005.

With success in the United Kingdom and even further abroad (though the Americans never took to it), Neighbours’ longevity was all but certainly confirmed – as without such widespread international support and income, Neighbours could well have had a similar lifespan to its predecessors.

As well as its 25th anniversary, which will be officially celebrated over the coming weeks, Neighbours is also approaching its 6000th episode, scheduled to air in Australia sometime around August.

TelevisionAU: Neighbours (written for its 20th anniversary in 2005)
Suddenly… it’s 20 years
Neighbours star quit fame for family
Jim Robinson ‘spotted’ in Channel 4 promo

1979: December 8-14

Sergeant O’Reilly’s ball and chain!
A happy occasion on Seven’s Cop Shop with the wedding of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan).  The wedding, held in an outdoor setting, will go to air this week in Melbourne and Brisbane and later in Sydney.

Arcade builds into a blockbuster
Production on Cash-Harmon’s new soap opera, Arcade, has started at the studios of TEN10, Sydney.  The new big-budget series is hoped be a hit with viewers the same way as their previous hit show, Number 96.  However, unlike 96, Arcade is expected to rely on humour rather than sex and violence.  Among the scriptwriting team for Arcade are former Number 96 writers Johnny Whyte and David Sale.  Whyte was flown in from London especially to work on the Arcade script.  TEN10’s Studio A has been re-modelled into a mock shopping complex, with shop sets designed down to the last detail, while a shopping complex in the suburb of Cremorne is being used for outdoor shots.  More than 1300 people were auditioned for roles in Arcade, and some of the actors and actresses chosen will be making their TV debut in the series, joining more familiar cast names including Lorrae Desmond, Peggy Toppano (Blankety Blanks), Olga Tamara, Greg Bepper (Class Of ‘74, Glenview High) and former Number 96 stars Aileen Britton and Mike Dorsey.  Although a timeslot for Arcade has yet to be decided, producers are hoping to launch the series with a movie-length debut in mid-January.

Future shocks
Robert Moore, the former host of the long-running Monday Conference, is now presenting Faces Of The Eighties, a series of seven half-hour interviews with influential Australians heading into the new decade.  But Moore predicts that there may be tough times ahead in the 1980s: “We’re a lot more frightened today.  For instance, people have now come to believe – and not just the experts – that we may never see full employment again.  The idea of full employment may just have been a passing phase in human history.  We were lucky enough to enjoy it, but it’s running out now.”  Moore also predicts that Australians will continue to become fonder of a warmer climate, which will see a population boom in Queensland and Western Australia: “If this is true, you’d be pretty dumb buying land for houses in Tasmania and Victoria today.”

Young Doctors take the cake
It was a multiple birthday celebration when TCN9, Sydney, threw a party for the cast of The Young Doctors to celebrate its third birthday last month.  The party, a four-hour cruise of Sydney Harbour, also coincided with cast member Alfred Sandor’s birthday, with a cake and a kiss for the birthday boy from colleagues Rebecca Gilling and Karen Pini.

 

Briefly…
Actor Gary Gray and his new wife Honor Walters were in the money when the horse they co-own, Miss Pere, won the first race at Sandown recently.

Country music star and host of Country Homestead, Reg Lindsay is finally noticing, after ten years of regular visits to the United States, that he is starting to be recognised.  “They know me in Nashville.  They say ‘Why, that’s the Australian fellow’.  I’ve had half a dozen singles released in the US and the album I made in Nashville will be released later this year.  We’re still thinking of a title.”

Mike Dorsey, starring in the new series Arcade, has had to grow a beard to try and distance himself from his former on-screen persona of Reg ‘Daddy’ McDonald in Number 96.  Despite appearing in The Young Doctors since Number 96 ended two years ago, he is still recognised as the former character.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”Complaints to TEN10, Sydney, for not televising the 1979 Custom Credit Indoor Championships at a respectable time.  We were very disappointed at not being able to view their outstanding matches, along with their respective interviews, and feel other viewers share our opinion that 10.30pm to 1.30am is not a suitable timeslot for people who work and have to rise early.”  K. Kand, NSW.

“When the commercial channels screen a film in the 7.30pm timeslot, why do they almost double the viewing time by screening innumerable commercials?  People who view at this time usually like, or need, to go to bed early, and if you are enjoying the film, it is annoying to have to switch off halfway through.” M. Walker, NSW.

“Why do we have to put up with Diana Fisher and her silly remarks on The Inventors? Vic Nicolson and Professor Stephenson both know what they’re talking about, but what does Diana Fisher know?  Her remarks about colours etc must nearly drive most people mad.” B. Heald, NSW.

What’s On (December 8-14):
Weekend sport includes the World Series Cricket, live from Melbourne, on GTV9, and tennis with the NSW Women’s Classic, from White City, Sydney, on HSV7.

HSV7’s movie host Ivan Hutchinson presents a 90-minute special previewing all the big-screen movies to be released over the Christmas break – titles including The Muppet Movie, Star Trek, Apocalypse Now, Rocky 2, Meteor, 10 and More American Graffiti.

Former Monday Conference host Robert Moore (pictured) presents the first in a seven-part series, Faces Of The Eighties, interviewing Sir Roderick Carnegie, chairman and managing director of Australia’s second largest company and largest mining company, CRA.

GTV9 has some long-gone Australian series in its late-night summer line-up – Luke’s Kingdom, King’s Men and the comedy Last Of The Australians.

In Skyways (HSV7, Monday and Thursday), Simon (Ken James) and Kelly (Joanne Samuel) set a date for their wedding.  Meanwhile, in Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday), the marriage of Senior Sergeant Eric O’Reilly (Terry Norris) and Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan).

Sunday night movies: A Howling In The Woods (HSV7), Night Flight From Moscow (GTV9), The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 8 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: December 1-7

Two Restless Years old
It is two years ago since newspaper ads appeared about a new series from the 0-10 Network, The Restless Years: “an action-packed story of what happens to today’s school leavers when they go out in the world to try and get jobs.”  TEN10 general manager Ian Kennon described it as “a show about life.”  Two years later, who would have thought that the road to employment was so fraught with danger?  Are real-life teenagers attempting suicide, getting pregnant, having miscarriages, ending up in prison and being raped, bashed, robbed and murdered with the same regularity as the kids in The Restless Years?  And it’s not just the young characters having a rough time – Miss McKenzie (June Salter) and Dr Bruce Russell (Malcolm Thompson) have had their fair share, too.  In fact, in two years the show has been so turbulent that only four of the original cast members – Salter, Thompson, Zoe Bertram and Nick Hedstrom – still remain.
No more blues for Ugly Dave
Bright times are ahead for Ugly Dave Gray (pictured).  He and his new wife, Val, are expecting their first baby next month, and in the new year he will be hosting a new game show, Celebrity Tattletales, for the Seven Network.  The new show, set to run in the 6.00pm timeslot, marks a return to TV for Gray a year after the demise of Blankety Blanks.  But for Gray, it was worth the wait:  “Some people will grab anything to get their head back on TV.  That’s fatal.  I’ve had two offers of my own show but neither was suitable.  Then the Grundy Organisation offered me Celebrity Tattletales.  I think this is it.  I hope people don’t compare it to Blankety Blanks – it’s a different show.  But I’m sure gimmicks and catchphrases will come out of the blue.”
Plumber’s pin-up has million dollar plans!
Cheryl Rixon (pictured) has come a long way since her first modelling job, posing for the cover of the WA Plumbers’ Annual, paid her a mere $40.  The former star of the sexy soap The Box now lives in Manhattan, models in London and New York, and is looking to buy a beach house in California.  The 25-year-old, who earned $250,000 for posing nude for Penthouse magazine, is well on the way to her first million: “I should reach it in 1980 as it’s going to be a big year for me.  I’ve spent three years in America getting myself established and setting things up, and next year should be the beginning.”  Rixon plans to use some of that million to set up her own production company to make TV variety specials, but in the meantime she has been starring in Stephen Spielberg’s comedy, Used Cars, and is set for a part in the new $30 million epic, Flash Gordon.
The milkman who came in from the cold During his school years in New Zealand, Alan Dale (pictured) had a yearning to get into showbusiness.  He had sung, acted, danced and played musical instruments and, at the age of 18, had tried to get a job as a radio announcer but was told he was too young.  The thought of going overseas to further his showbusiness prospects was daunting, and not affordable.  He instead went into the car industry, starting as a salesman and working up to manager.  A chance meeting with the local milkman later led to him ditching the car business and picking up a milk run:  “I thought, what a way to earn a living, trotting around keeping fit delivering milk for a few hours.”  When Dale heard about a vacancy at a local radio station, Radio Hauraki, he tried to get the job.  He was unsuccessful, but did eventually end up with the midnight-to-dawn shift and later the afternoon show.  The radio announcing job led to an offer to star as a radio manager in a new local TV series, Radio Waves, for TV2.  The series was cancelled after 72 episodes, but  “I didn’t really want to go back to radio so I decided to hell with it.  I’ll go to Australia.  I’d had a taste of acting by then.”  Dale is now well-known to Australians as Dr John Forrest in the popular Nine Network series, The Young Doctors.
Briefly… There will be no expense spared in the production of the 0-10 Network’s new soap Arcade.  Apart from three production teams, a cast of around 30, authentic props and studio scenery, an average of 180 extras will be employed each week.  The new series is set to debut in January.
Former Young Talent Time cast member Jane Scali will be joining the cast of ABC’s The Saturday Show when it returns to air in the new year.  As well as The Saturday Show, Scali is currently in rehearsals for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of Cinderella.
Jonathan Coleman of Simon Townsend’s Wonder World has attempted to break the record for the biggest interview of all time.  The interview, with the 120,000-strong crowd at the recent 2SM Rocktober concert in Sydney, has been submitted to Australian Guinness Bureau of Records.
Comedy writer Mike McColl-Jones, who has worked with the likes of Graham Kennedy, Don Lane and Peter Couchman, has compiled a book, My Funny Friends, featuring anecdotes and photographs from his twenty years of working in television.
Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”I am 16, and I feel that a lot more should be done to promote Australian child actors and singers.  Look at America, they have many fine talents like Brooke Shields, Leif Garrett and Tatum O’Neal.  Australia has also got some good talent but it is not put to use.  There should be more shows like Young Talent Time, where children and teenagers can display their talent.” J. P., VIC.
“There is one thing I must beg of NBN3 (Newcastle).  Please, oh please, don’t put Norman Gunston on again.  I really feel embarrassed looking at that zany grin, and all those bits of sticking plaster all over his face.  Please, do me a favour and send him to Hong Kong, or somewhere like that.” D. Dickey, NSW.
“In reply to F. Gregory (Viewpoint, 20 October 1979), Peter Lochran may be one of the best actors on TV, but certainly not the best actor (even though he is gorgeously handsome – is this what you’re going by to pick a good actor?).  The Young Doctors is one of the most popular serials on TV at the moment, for sure.  But why?  Maybe it’s because all those dinner invitations from handsome doctors to the nursing staff keep all the women wrapped up in the show.  I’ll tell you what, it’s certainly not the acting that keeps everyone involved.” J. Stanley, QLD.
“S. McLaughlan’s letter (Viewpoint, 27 October 1979) is a gross example of generalisation.  Molly Meldrum (pictured) does not “rave on” through the entire show.  In fact, on most shows, he only puts in an appearance for 10 minutes to do his Humdrum segment.” K. Manton, NSW.
What’s On (December 1-7):
HSV7’s tennis coverage continues throughout the week with the final days of the Toyota Women’s Classic on Saturday and Sunday, followed by the NSW Women’s Classic from Monday through to Friday.  Commentators include Peter Landy, Allan Stone and Garry Wilkinson.
GTV9 crosses to Brisbane for live coverage of the cricket First Test,  between Australia and the West Indies, on Saturday through to Wednesday.  Coverage starts at 11.50am, with breaks at 2.00pm and 4.40pm, and ending at 7.00pm.
60 Minutes (GTV9, Sunday) presents its final show for the year, and New Faces with Bert Newton moves to Monday nights.
ATV0’s Eyewitness News, now with Michael Schildberger and Peter Hanrahan, is cut to 30 minutes at 6.00pm from Monday, with a new 8.30pm news bulletin launched for the summer period.
ABC’s daytime schools programs finish up for the year on Friday, and the weekly magazine program Statewide At Six, with David Johnston, also presents its final edition. 
ATV0’s morning show Everyday, with Roy Hampson and Annette Allison, finishes up for the year on Friday, as does the 7.00pm magazine show Peter Couchman’s Melbourne.
Sunday night movies: The Deadly Tower (HSV7), Future Cop (GTV9), Midnight Man (ATV0).
Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 1 December 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: November 24-30

Sisters: For better and worse!
Although Rebecca Gilling and Diana McLean (pictured, with co-star Peter Lochran) are only sisters on-screen, as Nurse Liz Kennedy and Sister Vivienne Jeffries in The Young Doctors, their friendship off-screen has similar characteristics.  “On camera, I have a similar relationship with Diana as with my own sister Tracy, in that we do have our ups and downs, do tend to take each other for granted.  But in a crunch, we stick together!” Gilling told TV Times – though their separate childhoods were quite different.  McLean was essentially brought up as an only child as her older brother had died from Down’s syndrome at the age of 8:  “I grew up in a grown-up world, with few close relatives, except my maternal grandmother.  Like most only children, I was always conscious of wishing I had lots of brothers and sisters.  Then my mother was stricken with cancer and died when I was 13.  During the previous six years she was ill, I was cared for by a maid and my grandmother.  Sounds like a poor little rich girl, doesn’t it?  But it’s true, I had everything I wanted but nothing I really wanted.”  Rebecca Gilling was the youngest of four children.  “My mother has a highly individual approach to rearing children.  Both my parents encouraged us to have very strong personalities and a strong sense of humour.  The four of us were all very close when we were small.  Being the youngest has its perks and its serious drawbacks.  There was always the dichotomy of being one minute too young – and the next being told, why don’t you grow up?  It also meant I wore hand-down clothes which were a bit battered by the time they’d gone through three tomboys.  Then, when I was 12, I retaliated by growing taller than the others.  Then I had to get new clothes.”

Brush with the law!
Liz Burch (pictured), the girl from the toothpaste commercials, is the new girl in Cop Shop – and it’s given her a ring of confidence.  The 24-year-old joins the series as Vic Cameron’s (Terry Donovan) younger sister, Liz Cameron.  It is her first big break in TV after five years of trying to get into showbusiness, including three rejections from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).  The young actress came from Sydney to Melbourne to audition for a role in Young Ramsay, but was unsuccessful.  Her agent encouraged her to apply for the Cop Shop role, despite the fact that her only TV experience was in commercials.  “My biggest speaking part had been in a toothpaste commercial, telling a bloke he could do his own navigating next time.”

Love behind bars!
ABC stations in all states will be involved in a new public affairs program, Line-Up, to screen from December while the usual public affairs programs are on a break for summer.  The new program, to fill the timeslot normally occupied by Four Corners, will be hosted by former Nationwide and This Day Tonight reporter Paul Griffiths.  Executive producer for the program, Richard Watson, said the program will not be unlike the former magazine-style program, Saturday Week, but will have “more in-depth” content:  “It could be likened to a miniature Big Country.  The team will travel a great deal around Australia to make documentary films of varying durations within a flexible format.”  Another new series, Faces Of The Eighties, will be hosted by former Monday Conference compere Robert Moore (pictured), and will go to air on Wednesday nights in the timeslot normally occupied by Nationwide.  Faces Of The Eighties will feature interviews with Australians who are are leaders in their various fields, and who will continue to shape Australian society during the 1980s.  Overseas programs that will fill the Nationwide timeslot on Mondays include Collision Course, a documentary drama about a mid-air crash between two airliners over Yugoslavia in 1976, and Love Behind Bars, a look at a Texas prison where convicts of both sexes are allowed to mix.

Briefly…
Former Young Talent Time cast member Vikki Broughton is heading to Europe to star in a TV series for Italian network Telenova.  Broughton is currently in Sydney recording the soundtrack for the series of five half-hour specials, which will be filmed on location around Lake Como.

ABC’s rural affairs program Countrywide has won an award in the current affairs category at the recent Penguin awards in Melbourne.  Another ABC program, A Big Country, also won awards for Bob Connolly, for best producer and director, and Bob Plato for best script for a documentary or special report.

Former Number 96 star Joseph Furst’s guest appearance in The Young Doctors has so impressed the producers that they have decided to keep the character for future episodes.  Furst plays a mysterious German businessman, Heinrick Smeaton.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”The way Countdown is cut off during the number one song is thoughtless.  This song has been chosen number one by the public and is the one the majority of people want to hear.” S. Milward, VIC.

“While watching QTQ9, Brisbane, I heard the newsreader say: ‘And how that famous Irishman, Mike Walsh.’  I always thought Mike was a true-blue Australian.” F. Bellman, QLD.

“Why does TCN9, Sydney, leave scenes out of the shows they screen?  To date I have noticed entire scenes missing from shows such as Love Boat and Starsky And Hutch.  This practice does tend to leave one somewhat confused, as the missing scenes are frequently referred to in what is left of the show.  Surely the channels should not have the right to indiscriminately cut scenes from their shows whenever they feel like it (apparently for the purpose of screening more commercials – which, according to the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, should be limited to 11 minutes in any case).” N. Lewis, NSW.

“I agree with S. Pye (Viewpoint, 20 October 1979) about the program So You Want To Be A Centrefold.  A friend and I (both females) watched this program, as our boyfriends said they were both going to watch it.  We were both absolutely disgusted, as well as being embarrassed.  I felt these girls must be cheap to pose nude in front of a cameraman, then to be filmed for TV.  It is bad enough that they do this in magazines, let alone display their unclothed bodies on the screen.  Are there no morals left in this world?”  T. Yesberg, QLD.

What’s On (November 24-30):
HSV7 crosses live to Kooyong Tennis Stadium, Melbourne, for live coverage of the Satellite Circuit Tennis Finals, with commentators Peter Landy, Garry Wilkinson and Allan Stone.  The coverage airs from midday to 6.00pm on both Saturday and Sunday and starts Seven’s daily coverage of tennis action for much of the summer.  From Monday, Seven covers the Toyota Women’s Classic, live from Kooyong each day from 11.00am to 6.00pm.

Starting Monday night, and continuing through summer, GTV9 has a mid-evening news bulletin at 9.30pm in addition to the usual 6.30pm news.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, GTV9 crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the Benson and Hedges World Series Cup, Australia versus West Indies.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm and, apart from a one-hour break at 6.00pm, continues through to 10.30pm.

In Prisoner’s season finale (ATV0, Wednesday), Lizzie (Sheila Florance, pictured) is a bit under the weather, and Greg (Barry Quin) discovers a theft from the examination room.  Pat (Monica Maughan) finds herself in a predicament, while David (David Letch) makes plans for revenge.

Michael Schildberger and Peter Hanrahan have replaced Bruce Mansfield and Annette Allison at the ATV0 Eyewitness News desk.

On Thursday night, 60 Minutes presents a special one-hour report, Year Zero – The Silent Death Of Cambodia, presenter by award-winning journalist John Pilger, the first western journalist allowed inside Kampuchea.

Sunday night movies: Perfect Gentleman (HSV7), Strange Homecoming (GTV9), The Abdication (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 24 November 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: November 10-16

ABC’s biggest golf coverage
Players from five continents – Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe and North America – will compete in this year’s Dunhill Australian Open, to be telecast on ABC this week in its largest golf coverage ever undertaken.  More than $8 million of outside broadcast equipment will be used at Melbourne’s Metropolitan Course.  ABC’s coverage will add up to 26 hours over four days, including live telecasts and evening highlights packages.  More than 50 technical personnel from interstate will join the 100-strong Melbourne ABC crew for the event.  ABC’s two Melbourne-based outside broadcast vans will be joined by outside broadcast vans brought in from Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart.  There will also be a team based at ABC’s Ripponlea studios in Melbourne responsible for editing the daily coverage into highlights packages for evening screenings.  ABC’s commentary team will be headed by Graham Dawson joined by Peter Thomson (pictured, a five-time winner of the British Open who will be competing in the Australian Open and joining the commentary team when he’s finished his round), Clive Clark and Peter Alliss.

Caroline scores Sullivans role
Stage actress Caroline Gillmer (pictured) has scored a TV break with a role in The Sullivans.  Gillmer, recently a star in John Dietrich and John O’May’s productions of Gershwin and The ‘20s And All That Jazz, will play a Dutch woman in a storyline based in Holland.  However, her scenes will all be taped in the studio in Australia despite series regulars Steven Tandy, Norman Yemm and Olivia Hamnett currently taping scenes on location in Holland.  Gillmer’s character will be first seen on screen in the new year.

Looking for a winner
Judges on ABC’s The Inventors have had a tough time deciding on six finalists from the 64 entries featured on the show this year.  Executive producer Beverley Gledhill said that the standard for this year’s series has been the highest in the show’s ten-year run:  “Normally we are scratching around to get the sixth finalist.  But this year I’m afraid some people will miss out, whereas three years ago they would have definitely made the final.”  Governor-General Sir Zelman Cowen will present the Inventor of the Year award, including a cheque for $3500, in the show’s series final this week.  The winner will then go on to compete at the International Exhibition of Inventors in Geneva.

Being bad has been good for Vic Gordon
Many actors might be concerned at being cast as a “drunk” on successive occasions, but Vic Gordon (pictured) is very grateful for the work that it is bringing in.  The veteran actor has been cast twice in recent times as an amusing drunk in the Seven Network drama Cop Shop, but for Gordon it marks a turning point in his career as he tries to shake off the image of Sgt. Kennedy, the role he played for several years in Matlock Police.  “People don’t realise that before I became a TV copper I worked in every series under the sun, playing all sorts of different people.  Now at last some of them are starting to remember, and I’m getting some beautiful little cameo roles.”  On the home front, Gordon, 69, is about to celebrate five years’ marriage to artists’ agent Jean Lochhead.  The marriage, Gordon’s second after his first wife, Josie, died eight years ago, has also made Gordon the stepfather to rising star, Jean’s daughter Jacqui, who has won awards for her role in the ABC play Sally Go Round The Moon.

Briefly…
ABC’s rural affairs program, Countrywide, will present a special report on Japan’s booming farming industry and its influence on the Australian economy.  Host Neil Inall recent spent a month in Japan to research and put together the special report.

Anne Pendlebury, recently the lead actress in the ABC series Twenty Good Years, has been cast for the upcoming mini-series, Water Under The Bridge, being produced for the 0-10 Network.

Actor Ray Barrett has said he would be delighted to play a leading role in the upcoming ABC series Sporting Chance, being written by friend Peter Yeldham.  “I haven’t seen a script – or been made a firm offer – but from what Peter told me it sounds a wonderful idea.  He told me he had written something for me.  I would say yes right away on the strength of Peter’s writing it,” he told TV Times.   Barrett also has a role coming up in another ABC series, The Timeless Land, and presents a weekly documentary series in Brisbane on TVQ0.

ABC Show Band leader Brian May has just returned from Hollywood where he has been writing the music score for the movie The Blue Lagoon.  May is also to soon start work on a new series of The Saturday Show for ABC.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
”Congratulations to TVQ0, Brisbane, for showing some of the Kung Fu series, starring David Carradine.  At last a chance to see that kung fu is more mental mastery than an excuse for multiple mayhem.” R. Brown, QLD.

“I would be very interested to know why it is the exception – rather than the rule – in Queensland for a TV program to start on time.  As most networks have national affiliations, and it is rare for this fault to occur interstate, the reason for it is hard to understand.” L. Mackay, QLD.

“Congratulations to ABC for their coverage of the West End (Gawler) horse trials and also the coverage of the Australian evening championships earlier in the year.” V. Reynolds, VIC.]

“I’m fully aware of the furore about not knocking Australia, but let’s be realistic.  The Australian TV industry has gone backwards in the sense of fine quality.  Not many people know, unfortunately, how to distinguish rubbishy Australian shows from the good ones – which only ABC screens.  In the rubbish category are ostentatious programs such as Skyways, The Restless Years and Prisoner, which are pretty pathetic.  The plots are rhetorical, the stories lack realism, the acting, scripts and dialogue are poor.  What puzzles me is that these programs seem to be picking up good ratings – which is probably the only reason they were created.” P. Masci, QLD.

What’s On (November 10-16):
HSV7 crosses live to Adelaide on Saturday morning for the annual John Martin’s Christmas Pageant, with commentary by Adelaide personalities Pam Tamblyn and Sandy Roberts.

ATV0’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival concludes on Saturday with George Adams Day, live from Flemington, hosted by Phil Gibbs and Michael Schildberger.

Cricket has started on GTV9 for the summer with South Australia versus Western Australia in the McDonald’s Cup, with all-day coverage on Saturday and Sunday.  Richie Benaud, Fred Trueman and David Colley lead the coverage.

Sunday is Remembrance Day, and ABC and HSV7 both have 2 minutes’ silence scheduled for 11.00am.  ABC also features a one-hour documentary, Armistice And After, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of the Great War.

On Monday night, ATV0 presents a two-hour special, Thanks For The Memory, looking back at the news, people and events that have featured throughout the 1970s.  Hosted by Bruce Mansfield and Peter Hanrahan.

Comedy specials on GTV9 during the week include a repeat of The Paul Hogan Show, featuring the sketch This Is Your Strife with Roger Simpleton, and the second of a series of specials featuring Ronnie Corbett in Australia.

GTV9’s Family Feud (with Tony Barber, pictured), The Young Doctors and The Sullivans all come to a close for the year, with The Sullvans ending the year with a special one-hour episode on Friday night.  GTV9’s daytime US soaps All My Children, Days Of Our Lives, The Young And The Restless, Search For Tomorrow and General Hospital also come to a close for the year on Friday.

Queenslander Jodie Day is representing Australia in Miss World 1979, being telecast on GTV9 in a delayed telecast from Royal Albert Hall, London.

ABC’s telecast of the Dunhill Australian Open Golf Championship starts on Thursday afternoon, with five hours live from the Metropolitan Course, Melbourne, with an hour of highlights at 10.45pm.  Coverage continues on Friday with another five hours in the afternoon, and highlights from 10.50pm.

Sunday night movies: Shout At The Devil (HSV7), Shampoo (GTV9) and Mr Majestyk (ATV0).  ABC presents The Rock Pool, the next in the series of Australian plays, starring Ed Deveraux, Lyn James and Bunney Brooke.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 10 November 1979.  ABC/ACP

1979: October 20-26

Tom’s accent is on variety
Canadian-born Tom Burlinson has tackled Irish, English and American accents in various roles since leaving the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1976, but has found that playing Mickey Pratt in the 0-10 Network’s The Restless Years has presented the biggest challenge.  “Mickey’s Australian accent is one of the hardest,” Burlinson said.  But while Burlinson (pictured with co-star Penny Cook) admits to not always being keen on some of the tasks he called on to do as Pratt, he says there is a certain amount of leeway in the way he interprets the script and does accept the show’s widespread appeal:  “Whether The Restless Years is good or not, the fact is that it has mass appeal and many viewers accept it as real.  One therefore has a responsibility, particularly to adolescents who watch the program.”  However, Burlinson has said that after a year in the show he is ready to move on.  “I don’t want to become a TV star, I want to be a working actor.  One of the main reasons I want to leave The Restless Years is that I want to work in other areas such as films and stage.”

Big Country in the gun!
In ten years of production, ABC’s documentary series A Big Country has generated as many stories off-screen as it has on-screen.  On many occasions its reporters and crew have come close to injury and death.  In 1970, producer John Mabey and crew visited Jim Jim Plain, near Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, to investigate the latest methods of capturing buffalo.  They found a hunter and asked for an interview.  “I walked up to this man and said ‘I’m John Mabey from the ABC.  I’d like to talk to you about buffalo hunting,” Mabey recalls.  “He looked at me and then slowly reached down to his holster, pulled a .45 automatic from it and pointed it at my head.  He said ‘See this hole? Well you’ll feel one like it if you don’t get out of here now.’  Apparently Four Corners had been through the area some weeks before, filming cruel methods of hunting buffalo, and this chap obviously didn’t see eye to eye with the report.”  An earlier incident, recalled by producer and reporter Ron Iddon, saw the crew on a chartered single-engine flight from Geraldton, Western Australia, to the Abrohlos Islands, 70 kilometres of the WA coast.  On their way back to Geraldton the plane’s engine cut out:  “All of a sudden it was very quiet.  I was sitting two seats back and I remember looking at the pilot who was busy pushing and pulling things.  We were flying at 150 metres and I remember watching the altimeter registering our rapid descent.  When we got down to 31 metres I remember thinking ‘we’re going to crash.’  We were miles from any land and then only seconds from impact – the engine fired.”  The mid-air drama lasted about 90 seconds, but as Iddon said:  “It was the longest minute-and-a-half I can remember.”

Cronin on nostalgia radio trip
As well as revisiting the 1940s in his role of Dave Sullivan in The Sullivans, actor Paul Cronin (pictured) is tackling nostalgia on Melbourne radio with a new weekly program, Remember When.  The three-hour program, on Melbourne’s 3AW, examines the events of the times from 1938 through to the present day.  It is Cronin’s first radio show but, according to 3AW’s Leveda Lynch, he settled right in: “He was nervous for the first five minutes and then he began enjoying himself.  We all thought he was very good, and we had a great reaction from the public.”  Remember When is scheduled to run for 13 weeks while football is off-season, but if ratings indicate public support then it may continue.

Rolf Harris for ABC
Rolf Harris will visit Australia in December to discuss plans for seven one-hour variety specials to be produced by ABC in mid-1980.  The format of the shows will be discussed at the meetings, but Executive Producer Ric Birch said:  “Rolf’s management are very keen to do them although nothing has been signed yet.  We’ll be thrashing out all the details in December.”  The specials are likely to be made in Sydney, though Birch said that they would like to spend a week on location for filming, but this may be restricted by Harris’ scheduled club appearances in Sydney.

Briefly…
Actress Pat McDonald scarcely had her leg out of plaster, after a knee operation in August, when she was off to Perth to appear in a telethon.  Next week she flies to Adelaide for another.

Nine Network’s Pete Smith, a devoted football hater, has won the Anti Football League’s medal for least service to football in 1979.  The award was presented at an empty Melbourne Cricket Ground two days before the VFL Grand Final.

John Walton, the young actor who has starred in The Young Doctors and The Sullivans, is returning to the stage to play the title role of Hamlet with the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Clive Hale (pictured), the host of ABC’s Nationwide, has admitted that it has taken some adjustment to settling in to the new show after ten years on This Day Tonight, where he was often known to ad-lib or editorialise:  “The sort of flippancy on This Day Tonight would look out of place on a more serious program like Nationwide.  I must admit that after ten years on TDT, I enjoy being less flippant.”   A budding artist off-screen, Hale has admitted to wanting to approach ABC management about ideas for arts programs.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”When I read in TV Times that Peter Lochran had been nominated for a Sammy as best actor, I felt really pleased.  In my opinion, he is the best actor on Australian TV, and thoroughly deserves recognition.  The Young Doctors is the best show on TV and it deserves to win all the awards it can.”  F. Gregory, NSW.

“I want to thank TEN10 Sydney for putting on the late John Wayne’s movies.  I have been a fan of his for a long time and I enjoyed every last one of his movies.” N. Hunter, NSW.

“I was very disgusted with a program on ATV0 Melbourne recently called So You Want To Be A Centrefold.  I realise that this adults-only rated program was on at a reasonable hour, but I do think that the only reason it was shown was for men to gloat over.  It made me sick to see those girls flaunt themselves in front of the camera.  It seemed to me that this program was encouraging young girls to become nude centrefolds.  I think that females should think of themselves as being more than just cheap pin-ups for men’s girlie magazines.” S. Pye, VIC.

“I would like to thank TEN10 for screening East Of Eden, starring the late James Dean.  It is the most superb performance by any actor I have ever seen.” L. Madkasoa, NSW.

“If ABC has a transmission fault, they apologise and play some peaceful music while repairs are under way.  If our local commercial channel, RTQ7 (Rockhampton), has a fault they just put a silly picture on the screen… no apology, no music.” R. Ramming, QLD.

What’s On (October 20-26):
HSV7 presents live coverage of the Caulfield Cup race meeting on Saturday afternoon, hosted by Bill Collins.  ABC presents live coverage of International Men’s Hockey, from Melbourne’s Royal Park West.

Singer-songwriter Leon Berger represents Australia in the Pacific Song Contest, held in Christchurch, New Zealand, and shown in a delayed telecast on ABC on Saturday night. 

On Sunday afternoon, ABC presents live coverage of the Castrol Six Hour Race from Amaroo Park, while ATV0 crosses to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion for the Custom Credit Indoor Tennis Championships with commentators Ray Warren, Bill Bowrey and John Newcombe.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at the growth of Australia’s population over the last 80 years – from 3.7 million in 1901 to almost 14 million in 1979.  Host Peter Luck looks at the elements that make up Australia’s population, including racial composition and class structure.

On Monday night, HSV7 crosses to the Perth Concert Hall for a direct telecast of the crowning of Miss Australia 1980 and Miss Australia Charity Queen.  ATV0 presents a repeat screening of the movie version of the former TV series The Box.

Same as last week, TV Times lists American shows including My Three Sons, WKRP In Cincinnati, Diff’rent Strokes, Angie and Happy Days in place of Family Feud and The Sullivans due to industrial action at GTV9, though The Young Doctors appears to be back in the schedule.

Sunday night movies: Some Kind Of Miracle (HSV7), The French Connection (GTV9), The Paper Chase (ATV0).  ABC presents Mismatch, the second in the series of Australian plays, starring Jane Harders, Stephen O’Rourke, Margo Lee, John Bluthal and Michael Aitkens.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 20 October 1979.  ABC/ACP