Obituary: Digby Wolfe

Digby Wolfe, one of Australia’s first national variety stars, has died in the US after a short battle with cancer.

Born in 1929, Wolfe was a star of British film and television, working with comic talents such as Hattie Jacques and Ronnie Corbett, before coming to Australia in 1959. 

He became popular as the host of the variety show Revue ‘61 (later Revue ‘62).  The weekly series, from Sydney’s ATN7 and produced in association with the Music Corporation of America (MCA), is reported to have been the first Australian television production sold to an overseas network (Canada’s CTV) for prime-time screening.

Revue ‘61 won a TV Week Logie in 1962 for Best Variety Show, and Wolfe won Logies in 1961 and 1962 for Most Popular Male Personality in New South Wales.

Revue ‘62 was abruptly axed mid-year, with Wolfe moving into radio as host of a daytime program, Wolfe At The Door, syndicated across Australia through the Macquarie radio network.

His next stop was to the US where he featured in a string of shows including I Dream Of Jeannie, The Monkees, Love On A Rooftop, That Girl and The Munsters, and was a writer for the iconic sketch comedy series Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In.

Wolfe returned to Australia in the mid-1970s and was announced as Mike Willesee’s replacement as host of This Is Your Life in 1976.  He was also intended to produce a sitcom and a big-budget variety series for the Seven Network and, in partnership with ATN7, set up the Creative Development Centre, a non-profit venture to train and develop Australian television writers and producers.  Unfortunately his return to Australia only lasted a few months as he was to make a sudden return to the US when a family member fell ill.

He had spent the last decade working as a lecturer, and later a professor, in dramatic writing at The University of New Mexico.

He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Thursday.

Digby Wolfe is survived by a sister.

Source: The Age. IMDB. TV Times, 27 June 1962. TV Week, 25 September 1976.  TV Times, 19 February 1977.

Willesee at Seven… again

Veteran journalist and producer Mike Willesee, the man who popularised current affairs on commercial television in the ‘70s and dominated the genre for more than two decades, is returning to television to join the Seven Network’s Sunday Night.
Willesee, a reporter and presenter of Four Corners and This Day Tonight for the ABC back in the 1960s (pictured), was the first host of A Current Affair when it debuted on Nine in November 1971.  Although serious current affairs had been done on commercial TV before it was still largely seen as the domain of the ABC, though Willesee and A Current Affair in its original form did much to change that perception.
He later left Nine and had a stint as news and current affairs director at the 0-10 Network, where he also presented a weekly interview program, before joining the Seven Network in 1975.  At Seven he hosted the first Australian version of This Is Your Life and then the long-running nightly current affairs program Willesee At Seven.  The program claimed victory over A Current Affair in the then 7.00pm current affairs battle when ACA was axed in 1978.
Although Willesee At Seven (later to become Willesee ‘81 and Willesee ‘82) ended early in 1982, he had handed over the host role to Derryn Hinch in the show’s later stages while he produced documentaries for the network.  He returned to Nine in 1984 to revisit the nightly current affairs genre with Willesee as well as producing specials for the network, winning a Logie for Most Popular Documentary in 1986. 
Willesee was the predecessor to the revival of the A Current Affair brand when Jana Wendt took over as host in 1988 – with Willesee later returning as a guest host on occasions before taking over as Wendt’s successor in 1993.  His interview with then Liberal Party leader John Hewson is said to have lost the Liberals the 1993 federal election by highlighting the confusion over their proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST).
He has twice hosted the TV Week Logie Awards, first for the Ten Network in 1983 and then for Nine in 1986.  In 2002 he was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards’ Hall of Fame for his contribution to television news and current affairs.
Willesee joining Sunday Night will give it some added clout up against Nine’s Sunday night flagship 60 Minutes in the two networks’ perennial battle in news and current affairs.
Sunday Night, with host Chris Bath, returns for 2012 next Sunday, 5 February, at 6.30pm on Seven.

This Is Your Life gets a modern makeover

The Nine Network next week launches a modern reinvention of the classic This Is Your Life format.

In the episode to screen Monday, host Eddie McGuire, assembled guests and an audience of over 600 at Melbourne’s Crown Casino celebrate the life of actress, producer and director Deborra-Lee Furness.

Furness (pictured with newsreader Peter Hitchener in 1975) was working at GTV9 before launching an acting career in the mid 1970s with a guest appearance on Division 4, later followed by roles in Prisoner, the short-lived Nine Network drama Kings and early episodes of Neighbours.

It was while working on ABC mini-series Correlli in 1995 that Furness paired up with co-star, a then unknown Hugh Jackman.  They married in 1996.

Other acting credits include television series The Flying Doctors, SeaChange, Halifax fp, Fire, Stark and GP and films Shame, Evil Angels, The Real Macaw and Jindabyne.

This Is Your Life had been a success in the United States and United Kingdom for many years before an Australian version was first launched on the Seven Network in September 1975.  Mike Willesee (pictured) was the show’s first host, later replaced by Digby Wolfe twelve months later.  Sydney newsreader Roger Climpson continued to front the show from 1977 until the early 1980s.

The Nine Network revisited This Is Your Life in the mid 1990s with a version that ran for several years, hosted by Mike Munro, before returning for a brief run in 2008. 

Source: Herald Sun, TV Week 19 April 1975, TV Week 30 August 1975.

This Is Your Life.  Returns Monday 28 February, 8.30pm.  Nine.

1979: December 22-28

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1979: November 3-9

Sammys golden night out
The fourth annual Australian TV and Film Awards, the Sammys, have been presented at Sydney’s Seymour Centre.  Winning the Gold Sammy awards, for excellence in performance during the year, were daytime TV host Mike Walsh and singer and TV presenter Marcia Hines.  For Walsh it is his second Gold Sammy and Hines also won a Sammy for Best Variety Performer.

But the biggest hit of the night was the mini-series Against The Wind, taking out four awards including Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a TV series (Gerard Kennedy) and Best Actress in a TV Series (Kerry McGuire).

1979 Sammy Awards TV category winners Gold (male): Mike Walsh Gold (female): Marcia Hines Chips Rafferty Memorial Award: Stanley Hawes Best Actor in a Single TV Performance: John Hargreaves (A Good Thing Going) Best Actress in a Single TV Performance: Belinda Giblin (Say You Want Me) Best Actor in a TV Series: Gerard Kennedy (Against The Wind) Best Actress in a TV Series: Kerry McGuire (Against The Wind) Best Variety Performer: Marcia Hines Best Drama Series: Against The Wind Best Comedy Program: Neutral Ground (Tickled Pink) Best TV Play: The Plumber Best Variety Program: Hollywood (TV Follies) Best Documentary: The Last Tasmanians Best News Coverage: Pentridge Riot (GTV9 Melbourne) Best Current Affairs Program: 60 Minutes Best Sports Coverage: Australian Open Golf (Nine Network) Best Children’s Series: Top Mates Best Light Entertainment Series: Parkinson In Australia Best Art Direction: Quentin Hole (Ride On Stranger) Best Writer (TV Series): Peter Yeldham (Run From The Morning) Best Writer (TV Play): Peter Weir (The Plumber) Best Editing: Michael Balson (Mutiny On The Western Front) Best Costume Design: Clare Griffin (Against The Wind)

Trapping Lorraine was a piece of cake!
It was Lorraine Bayly’s sweet tooth that led her into being featured on the Seven Network’s This Is Your Life.  TV Times reporter Joanna Parsons and photographer David Murray were asked by the show to invite Bayly (pictured) to an interview while she was in Sydney attending the Sammy Awards.  The interview was to take place in a hotel restaurant where TIYL host Roger Climpson and camera crew would sneak into the restaurant via the kitchen and quietly set up at a table behind Bayly.  The maitre d’hotel would then present Bayly with flowers “sent by the gentleman sitting at the next table.”  Then Bayly would turn around to find Climpson to declare “Lorraine Bayly, This Is Your Life.”  But the plans for the mock interview almost went awry when Bayly suggested the interview be conducted in her hotel room.  It was a quick-thinking Parsons, knowing Bayly’s weakness for chocolate cake, who then responded, “but they have the most wonderful chocolate cake in the restaurant.  Wouldn’t you like to try it?”  Bayly fell for it and the set-up continued as planned.  Bayly then responded, “Do you mean the interview wasn’t really…?”  Parsons assured her that it was still a genuine interview, to be published soon in TV Times.

They’re off!
In the lead-up to the Melbourne Cup, TV Times talks to four of Australia’s top race callers about the ‘race that stops a nation.’  ATV0 race caller Clem Dimsey (pictured) admitted that when he first called the Melbourne Cup for the 0-10 Network last year, he lost a stone in weight due to the tension.  Although Dimsey has called the Melbourne Cup race on a number of prior occasions, last year was the first as part of a nationwide coverage of the race.  Dimsey’s tip for the Melbourne Cup is a New Zealand horse, Kankama.  ABC race caller Joe Brown will notch up a milestone when he calls the Melbourne Cup for the 32nd time, equalling the record set by the late Ken Howard.  “It’s the highlight of the working year,” he says.  Brown has tipped Dulcify for the Melbourne Cup.  Radio 3UZ caller John Russell, who will also call the race for the Macquarie Radio Network and the Nine Network, has called the Melbourne Cup only twice before now but had been the understudy for veteran caller Bert Bryant for 23 years.  Russell is reluctant to give a tip for the big race as he is involved in various phantom race calls involving big prizes, though he does name Dulcify, Kankama and Our Big Gamble as good chances.  The Seven Network and radio 3DB’s Bill Collins will be calling the Melbourne Cup for the 26th time this year, but still admits to getting nerves before the race.  “I still remember the nerves before I called my first cup and the drama still gets to me these days.  The build-up is impossible to resist,” he says.  Collins, nicknamed ‘The Accurate One’, was reluctant to give a cup tip too far in advance but did feel that Dulcify and Double Century should do well.

Briefly…
Many of the staff from Riverside were present for the baptism of Cop Shop’s latest addition, Prudence Jane Marion Benjamin, the daughter of Claire (Louise Philip, pictured) and Tony Benjamin (Greg Ross).  Prudence, played by a baby boy named Zigi Barrett, took to the filming calmly with only a small cry of protest towards the end of filming.  The episode airs this week in Sydney and Melbourne, next week in Brisbane and later in Adelaide.

Three former TV cops, George Mallaby, Leonard Teale and Warwick Randall, have recorded safety messages for Melbourne radio station 3MP.

The Seven Network is negotiating to buy the TV rights to the film Cathy’s Child, the film which won three awards at the recent Sammys.  However, it will be some time before the film appears on TV as it has still yet to be released in cinemas in Perth and many country areas.

ATV0 newsreader Bruce Mansfield likes to dress well.  His current favourite tie is a classy number with a rose motif.  Anyone can buy a similar one, if prepared to pay $75.

Actress Penny Ramsey has made a return to work, after seven years as a full-time housewife and mother of two, as the wife of deputy governor Jim Fletcher (Gerard Maguire) in Prisoner.  The daughter of actress Lois Ramsey has had a varied career, including appearing on The Mavis Bramston Show as a teenager in the ‘60s, hosting a children’s show and appearing in the stage musical Hair.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
”After more than 10 years of journalists using the word “charisma” I have a vague notion of what it means.  Could you ask ABC journalists in Canberra if I have to wait as long to crack on to ‘hiatus’?” W. Murphy, NSW.

“I would like to express my extreme disappointment at the way ABC deprived us of the presentation of the awards at both the State of Origin Australian Rules carnival and the 1979 grand final in Western Australia.  On 6 and 8 October, ABC were good enough to televise the State of Origin matches.  This included something like nine hours of top-class football, and surely, if this was possible an extra half-hour at the conclusion was possible.  When they returned to the studio it was only to show an absolutely pathetic cartoon, The White Seal, or, on the weekend of the WA grand final, a repeat of Countdown.  Remember that country viewers are, unfortunately, stuck with only this one annoying channel.” L. Beaton, WA.

“Lately, I don’t think Prisoner has had its usual quick humour and zest.  This seems to have come about only since the character of Noelene Bourke (Jude Kuring) left the series.  Although she was unpopular, I believe she put the finishing touches to the show.  She and her daughter, Leanne (Tracey-Jo Riley), should be reintroduced.  Having a youngster in the program is a good idea, as it keeps us in contact with the difficulties of the young.” D. Harvey, NSW.

What’s On (November 3-9):
Weekend sport includes the NSW Open Championship Golf, from The Lakes in Sydney, live on ABC.  ATV0’s coverage of the Melbourne Cup Carnival kicks off on Saturday with Michael Williamson hosting the Derby Day Sportsman’s Breakfast, followed by Phil Gibbs and Clem Dimsey’s preview of the Derby Day races and then ATV0 crosses to Flemington for five hours of live coverage of all the day’s races.

GTV9 presents the first in a series of Australian-made specials featuring Ronnie Corbett, of The Two Ronnies.  The special features guest stars Pamela Gibbons, Chris Kirby and June Bronhill.

ATV0’s Melbourne Cup coverage starts with a half-hour special on Monday night followed by a 90-minute preview on Tuesday morning.  At midday, ATV0 crosses to Flemington for five hours coverage of all the day’s races for Melbourne Cup Day.  Phil Gibbs and Michael Schilberger head the coverage, with Annette Allison providing interviews with special guests during the day.  Clem Dimsey calls the day’s races.

Motoring expert Peter Wherrett, host of popular shows Torque and Marque, returns to TV to present a 40-minute special, Torque About A Crisis, on ABC.  Wherrett examines the Federal Government’s campaign to educate drivers about improving the efficiency of their vehicles with proper treatment and improved driving style.

ATV0 presents a repeat of the documentary, The Last Tasmanian, a recent winner at the Sammy Awards.

GTV9’s Friday night movies is ABBA The Movie, the 1977 production featuring the story of a radio disc jockey (played by Robert Hughes) following the pop group on their Australian tour in order to get an interview with them.  The movie also features Tom Oliver, formerly of Number 96 fame.

Sunday night movies: The Hindenburg (HSV7), Nightmare In Badham County (GTV9), Holocaust 2000 (ATV0).  ABC presents the latest in its series of Australian plays, Money In The Bank, starring Tom Richards (Matlock Police), Barbara Stephens and Max Meldrum.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 3 November 1979.  ABC/ACP

Ticking away for 30 years

Beginning on 11 February 1979, 60 Minutes marked a new era for current affairs on Australian commercial television.  Before then, current affairs on commercial television was limited to early evening programs, such as Willesee At Seven and the original A Current Affair, or low-profile late night programs that attracted few viewers.  And Sunday night at 7.30pm was most definitely a time for light entertainment as viewers prepared to enter a new working week, so for Nine to slot an expensive new current affairs program into one of the most important timeslots of the week was an extreme gamble.

Based on an American program of the same name and assembled by former Nine news reporter and producer Gerald Stone (pictured), Nine's gamble almost didn't pay off as viewers did not attach themselves to the new 60 Minutes which was up against the popular This Is Your Life and the far more camp Adventures Of Wonder Woman.  But, unlike the current day trend of bumping programs after one outing to disappointing ratings, Nine persevered and, by 1980, 60 Minutes was becoming the flagship of Nine's prime-time schedule. 

So much has 60 Minutes gone on to be an unbreakable force in the ratings that it is estimated that over 150 programs have been thrown against it to try and dent its ratings armour.  Some of the programs pitted against it have included Kingswood Country, MASH, This Fabulous Century, The Benny Hill Show, Cheers, ALF, The Comedy Company, Sons And Daughters, The Main Event, Australia's Most Wanted, NSW Rugby League, Beverly Hills 90210, The Comedy Sale, Seachange, Good News Week, Big Brother, Australian Idol, Always Greener, Kath And Kim, All Aussie Adventures and Dancing With The Stars.  Some programs have managed some short-term damage to its ratings, but 60 Minutes has always fought back with flying colours.

And for reporters on 60 Minutes, they become almost as much the story as the subjects they are covering.  The show's initial reporting lineup - Ray Martin, George Negus and Ian Leslie - while they had years of television journalism experience, were far from being household names until they joined 60 Minutes when suddenly they were prime-time celebrities. 

Former ATV10 Melbourne newsreader Jana Wendt (pictured) became 60 Minutes' first female reporter in 1982 and set a new benchmark for female journalists who previously might have been tied to covering light news or human interest stories on commercial television.  Wendt went on to become one of television's most valued TV presenters with a career that has also included A Current Affair, Witness, Dateline, Sunday, a number of return visits to 60 Minutes and filing special reports for the American 60 Minutes.

The 60 Minutes lineup has also included many others along the way: Jeff McMullen, Charles Woolley, Jennifer Byrne, Elizabeth Hayes, Tracey Curro, Paul Barry, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Tara Brown, Mike Munro, Liam Bartlett, Peter Harvey.  ABC political reporter Richard Carleton made headlines when he joined 60 Minutes, after many years with the national broadcaster, and himself became a story subject when he allowed 60 Minutes to cover his own heart bypass surgery in 1988.  Tragically, while covering the Beaconsfield mine disaster in 2006, Carleton died from a heart attack.

Of course, the program has had many significant moments: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher giving George Negus an ear-bashing over claims that Britons said she was pig-headed; Ray Martin's award-winning report on Sydney's Chelmsford Hospital;  former One Nation leader Pauline Hanson (pictured), when asked was she xenophobic, famously responds "please explain"; former cult spokeswoman Ma Sheela's calm response - "tough titties!" - when accused of stealing $40 million from the cult; actor Tom Cruise telling Peter Overton to "stick his manners back in!" after questions about former wife Nicole Kidman; and former Nine Network CEO Eddie McGuire presenting a special report on colleague Sam Newman's prostate cancer surgery.

This Sunday night 60 Minutes returns to air for 2009 with a tribute to its first 30 years.  It will be interesting to see what, of the estimated 3500 stories filed for the program in that time, will be featured.

60 Minutes Celebrates 30 Years. Sunday 22 February, 7.30pm.  Nine/WIN/NBN/Imparja

ABC1 remembers The Wild One

Next month, ABC1 presents a revealing documentary profiling the life of Australia's first rock 'n' roll star Johnny O'Keefe.

With a career starting in the early-'50s, O'Keefe became a national identity as a performer, and later host, on one of Australia's first rock music shows, ABC's Six O'Clock Rock, from 1959 to 1962.

After Six O'Clock Rock, O'Keefe went to host the Seven Network's The Johnny O'Keefe Show, later re-named Sing Sing Sing, and the 0-10 Network's Where The Action Is.

Amidst a recording career that produced over 50 singles and 100 albums, O'Keefe survived a near-fatal car crash and several nervous breakdowns before staging a comeback in the '70s.  He was honoured in an episode of the original This Is Your Life in 1975, and made a guest appearance on Sounds only days before he passed away in October 1978 at the age of 43.

The life of Johnny O'Keefe was later dramatised in a TV mini-series Shout! and in more recent years his life story was also adapted to a stage spectacular.  In 1988, he was posthumously inducted into the ARIA's Hall of Fame.

Johnny O'Keefe: The Wild One.  Thursday 6 November, 9.30pm.  ABC1

Biographical information: Johnny O'Keefe Website, Wikipedia

Mike Munro leaves Nine

A week is a long time in television, and Mike Munro has just announced his retirement after 30 years in television - most of those with the Nine Network.

Beginning as a copy boy with The Australian and The Daily Mirror newspapers in 1971, Munro joined Sydney's TEN10 Eyewitness News in 1978 but later went back to newspapers, working as a US correspondent for News Limited.

In 1982, Munro returned to Australia to Network Ten and two years later was signed up for the Nine Network's Willesee current affairs program, the predecessor to today's A Current Affair.

Two years after joining Willesee, Munro moved up to Nine's 60 Minutes where he combined serious current affairs stories with some well-known celebrity interviews including Barbra Streisand, Katharine Hepburn and Bette Midler. His interview with politician's wife Jan Murray created headlines when she revealed that she “did the business on the desk and left her knickers in the ashtray” at Parliament House.

The years of constant overseas travel took its toll and Munro decided to move to A Current Affair in 1993 initially as a reporter before taking over from Ray Martin as host in 1999. During this period he also took on a different role as host of Nine's This Is Your Life when it launched in 1995.

Munro then returned to 60 Minutes as an investigative reporter, while continuing to host This Is Your Life, and later reading National Nine News' afternoon edition and weekend edition in Sydney. He also narrated the factual program Missing Persons Unit, co-hosted a series of What A Year and last week launched his twelfth season hosting This Is Your Life.

Mike Munro will stay with Nine until the end of October, continuing to read the weekend National Nine News in Sydney up until then.

Happy Birthday, Bert!

There's not many people that can claim to have been featured on This Is Your Life three times, but Bert Newton achieves that with this week's tribute special to coincide with his 70th birthday - following from his first appearance in the 1970s version hosted by Roger Climpson, and his second which followed twenty years later.

Appearing in the special event, which in usual This Is Your Life custom was sprung onto Bert by surprise when it was taped a few weeks ago, are guests including Hugh Jackman, Olivia Newton-John, Rove McManus, Ugly Dave Gray, Lisa McCune, Julia Morris, Anthony Callea, Eddie McGuire and overseas stars Joan Rivers, k.d. Lang, Julian Clary, Michael Buble and Clive James.

This Is Your Life: Bert's 70th Birthday, Wednesday 23 July, 7.30pm, Nine.

Pictured: Bert Newton (right) celebrating his 40th birthday in 1978 with wife Patti and friend and colleague Don Lane. (Picture: TV Week)