1992: March 1-7

State of shock!
Unlike most young Australian actors, E Street star Bruce Samazan (pictured) is in no hurry to work in the US – in fact he has no plans to ever visit there again.  Making his first trip to the US, staying with friends in Texas during a production break for E Street, Samazan cut short his two-week visit and made a dash back to Sydney, admitting that the place “freaked” him out.  “There’s gang warfare over there that I can’t grab a hold of… it’s chaotic,” he told TV Week.  “It’s totally unnatural for an Australian to go over there and adjust to the fact that if you wear the wrong coloured baseball cap or T-shirt, you might be shot at.”  On one occasion he went to put on a Los Angeles Raiders cap but was advised by his local friend, “Bruce I wouldn’t wear that.  You could get yourself into trouble – you might get shot at”.  Then, two days later, a local newspaper carried the headline ‘Two Youths Shot Dead Outside Nightclub’… for wearing LA Raiders outfits.  “That was pretty scary stuff,” Samazan said.

It’s goodbye to the Valley!
A Country Practice viewers will soon bid farewell to three of the show’s most popular characters.  Gordon Piper (who plays Bob Hatfield), Syd Heylen (Cookie) and Matt Day (Luke) will be making their final appearances on screen in the coming weeks.  For Day, leaving the series has come at the right time.  “The character is now rounded off and I feel he has gone as far as he can for me,” he told TV Week.  “Theatre is the next avenue I wish to explore.  I want to steer clear of TV for a while.”  Showbiz veteran Heylen leaves the show with happy memories.  “I’ve made a lot of good friends,” he said.  “The series kept me before a broad audience, which you don’t get to cover doing live work.  It has been a happy period.”  And although Piper is adamant that he won’t be returning to A Country Practice, he and Heylen (both pictured) will be making a guest appearance in two episodes later in the year in a storyline which sees Cookie return to hospital. 

New doctors set for take-off
The Nine Network drama The Flying Doctors is set for a major revamp as production starts soon on its tenth series.  In a major shake-up for the series, the series will now be based in Broken Hill (the real-life base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service) rather than the fictional Coopers Crossing, and the only familiar cast members making the move to the new location will be husband-and-wife team Maurie Fields and Val Jellay (pictured) and Sophie Lee.  And joining the new-look series will be Simone Buchanan (Hey Dad!), Peter Phelps (who has just returned from the US where he featured in Baywatch), Steve Jacobs (Rose Against The Odds) and Lydia Miller.  The new-look series is scheduled to debut on Nine around mid-year.

Briefly…
Neighbours’ Blakeney twins, Gayle and Gillian, are about to ‘split up’.  Gillian, who plays Caroline Alessi, will be taping her final scenes in the Network Ten series this week.  “While I love the character and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself on the show, I feel it is time to move on as an actor,” she told TV Week.  Meanwhile, Gayle is contracted to the show until July and will then assess her options before making any decision about her future.  But while the pair will no longer be working together on Neighbours, they will be working together again in London next month as they record their next single which is due for release in Australia later this year. 

Sydney’s Botanic Gardens, with views of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, is the location for the latest TV soapie wedding – but it is unlikely to ever appear on Australian screens.  The British TV series Families, which stars Briony Behets (the British-born actress best known for her roles in Aussie dramas Number 96 and The Box), is filmed between Manchester and Sydney… but so far the series is yet to be sold to an Australian network.  The series’ wedding is between Behets’ character Diana Stephens and cafe owner Anton Vaughn (Rhett Walton).

The patchy relationship between the local producers of the Network Ten tabloid current affairs show Hard Copy and Paramount, who own the US-based format, continues.  But executive producer Peter Sutton isn’t concerned as he said there are plenty of other sources for content if the plug is pulled on being able to grab stories from the US version, but concedes that the show may have to change its name – with Fast Copy or Australia’s Hard Copy cited as possibilities.

Actress Melissa Bell (pictured) is currently caught in a battle between Network Ten’s two soapies.  Melbourne-based Neighbours’ producers are keen to renew Bell’s contract when it expires mid-year, but Bell wants to move back to Sydney-based E Street where she once had a brief role – due in part to her current off-screen interstate relationship with the son of E Street producer Forrest Redlich.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Fat Cat has been banished from our screens in one of the most profound decisions made in the history of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.  The tubby tom’s character was deemed “still not clearly defined” and his show was accused of having “still generally poor” direction.  It took 15 years for someone to reach this momentous decision, years in which the lives of whole generations of Australian children must have been corrupted irreparably.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, March 1-7):
Sunday:  Nine crosses to Brisbane for the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between Australia and India.  Seven has motor racing with coverage of the Nascar/Auscar Nationals from Calder Park, Melbourne.  Meanwhile, ABC’s Sunday Afternoon With Peter Ross is back with a collection of arts-themed programming and interviews.  Sunday night movies are Shirley Valentine (Nine), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (Ten) and the Japanese comedy Tampopo (SBS), up against Seven’s debut of mini-series Prime Suspect.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), Luke (Matt Day) and Darcy (Kym Wilson) meet Douglas ‘Simmo’ Simmonds (Richard Moir), a crippled Vietnam pilot who revives Luke’s dreams of flying.  In Neighbours (Ten), an accident puts Helen’s (Anne Haddy) life at risk – while in Mother And Son (ABC), Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) remembers a clock that her late husband Leo gave her on their 25th wedding anniversary as she takes one from the house across the street.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), Robert (John McTernan) is acting strangely and decides to be a medico on an Antarctic expedition – until he reveals he has a tragic illness.  Beyond 2000 (Seven) reports on mankind’s most ambitious project yet – human habitation on Mars, while reporter Tracey Curro test drives the world’s first car in a suitcase.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a one-hour special, Cop It Sweet, taking a look at Sydney’s inner-city Redfern Police Station, in an area with a history of clashes between police and Aborigines, making it one of the most controversial police districts in the country.  Nine crosses to the Sydney Cricket Ground for day-night coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup match between India and Pakistan.

Thursday:  More World Cup cricket from Sydney on Nine, this time the match between Australia and England.  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas) arranges a party for Sophie’s (Sheryl Munks) 21st birthday at Vibrations Disco. 

Friday:  Seven presents live coverage of the semi-final of the AFL Foster’s Cup, with commentators Bruce McAvaney, Peter McKenna, Don Scott, Gerard Healy and Bernie Quinlan.  The ARIA Awards (Nine) are telecast for the first time, live from Melbourne’s World Congress Centre, and hosted by Richard Wilkins and Julian Lennon, with appearances by John Farnham, Jimmy Barnes, Jenny Morris, Noiseworks, Diesel, Wendy Matthews, Margaret Urlich, Rockmelons, Sophie Lee, Craig McLachlan, Dannii Minogue and international artists Diana Ross, Rod Stewart and Harry Connick Jnr. 

Saturday:  The Seven Network presents an all-day telethon to raise financial support for the Australian team to compete at the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.  The Olympathon starts at 7.00am, including special editions of Saturday Disney and Video Smash Hits, followed by live crosses around Australia for interviews with some of Australia’s Olympic hopefuls.  The evening telecast includes a night of entertainment featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Phantom Of The Opera stars Marina Prior and Rob Guest (both pictured with Seven’s Bruce McAvaney), Julie Anthony, Grace Knight, Craig McLachlan, Vanetta Fields, Judith Durham, Simon Gallaher, Don Burrows and Peter Cupples.  The telethon concludes at midnight.  Nine presents all-day coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket from Adelaide. 

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  29 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1992: February 15-22

Just 18… and Kym’s got it all!
She might be only 18 years old, but Kym Wilson (pictured) has emerged from an acting novice to a talented professional, with acclaim for her performances in the film Flirting, stage production The Crucible and mini-series Brides Of Christ.  And she is optimistic that her decision to join A Country Practice is a positive career move.  “You have to choose roles that are going to fulfil you,” she told TV Week.  “That is why I chose A Country Practice as the soap I wanted to do.  It has been going for 10 years, the people I work with are fantastic actors and it has that extra dimension by dealing with issues in society, which perhaps the other soaps do not do.”  The young star has also taken on an additional on-air role as co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning Video Smash Hits, although is wary of becoming over-exposed or being pigeonholed as a “personality” rather than an actress.  “That was my concern when I chose to do Video Smash Hits – that I wouldn’t, without degrading Sophie, become another Sophie Lee, who is seen more as a TV personality than an actress because she did The Bugs Bunny Show before she did The Flying Doctors.”

Axe for Hard Copy?
It may be a ratings winner for the Ten Network, but its weekly “tabloid” current affairs show Hard Copy (hosted by Gordon Elliott, pictured) could soon be axed due to a falling out between the network and Paramount, the owners of the concept.  Paramount is believed to have notified Ten that it wants out of the deal when the current batch of 13 episodes is completed, due to Ten failing to comply with certain changes that had been requested of the Australian franchise.  The termination of the agreement would mean that the show’s title can not be used in Australia, or that any  reports from the US version can be broadcast here.  But Network Ten boss Gary Rice has denied any rift with Paramount and insists that production of Hard Copy is business as usual.     

Frozen out!
E Street star Alyssa-Jane Cook (pictured) always insisted that she wanted her exit from the show to be dramatic, but admits that her final scenes with the series have been her most challenging.  Her character, Lisa Bennett, finds herself at the mercy of E Street’s serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) who has kidnapped her and locked her in a freezer in a bid to lure his targets Sheridan (Kate Raison) and Wheels (Marcus Graham) to their deaths.  Cook is not about to give away the outcome of the storyline, but says the scenes were amongst her most difficult.  “By the end of the 14-hour shoot, I was emotionally and physically exhausted,” she said.

Briefly…
TV Week has announced a new era as it embarks on changes to production techniques and its format.  This week’s edition includes a special eight-day program guide – Saturday to Saturday – as from next week the magazine will feature program listings from Sunday to Saturday, while the magazine’s on-sale day will change from Monday to Thursday.  This change, incorporated with tighter production deadlines, will see the magazine report more up-to-date stories and offer a more accurate program listing.  Despite the changes, the cover price of TV Week will remain at $1.70.

All Together Now star Rebecca Gibney has broken her silence on her private life by denying reports that while on a three-week holiday to the United States that she and her fiance, singer Jack Jones, had been secretly married in a Las Vegas chapel.  “Marriage crossed our minds at some point, but we decided against it,” she told TV Week.  “But we haven’t run off to Las Vegas to have a quickie wedding.”

Former The Flying Doctors cast members Lenore Smith and David Reyne (pictured) have embarked on a new project, appearing in the stage production of Love Letters which begins at the Sydney Opera House before touring regional centres in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.  Reyne has also started work on a new travel series, Getaway, for the Nine Network.  Getaway, which also features former Beyond 2000 reporter Jeff Watson and two yet-to-be-named female reporters, makes its debut on Nine next month.

John Laws says…
”Perhaps, as a nation, we should all have been watching the documentary about the Snowy Mountain hydro-electric project, aptly screened over the Australia Day weekend on the ABC.  By any standards the Snowy project was a heroic undertaking, in both engineering and human terms.  It took 25 years to complete and it ranks as one of this nation’s greatest achievements.  Here was a mammoth engineering feat brought to life by Australians and “new” Australians from Europe, most of them displaced persons from World War II.  The ABC documentary team interviewed a handful of the thousands of people who worked on the Snowy project, but their stories seemed to embrace all its spirit and courage.  Interestingly, the general feeling among them was that a scheme like the Snowy could never be built today.  Way back in 1949, when Ben Chifley’s government got it off the ground, there was no conservation movement!”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 15-22):
Saturday:  Saturday afternoon sport includes golf on both ABC (West Australian Ladies’ Classic) and Seven (Australian Masters), while Nine presents a highlights package of the Winter Olympic Games.  Nine’s evening is dominated by the return of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, followed by more live coverage of the Winter Olympic Games from Albertville, France.

Sunday:  More golf on ABC and Seven, while Nine presents highlights of the Reebok Blacktop Basketball, from Adelaide’s Clipsal Powerhouse Stadium.  Evening programs include the return of multi-lingual current affairs program Vox Populi (SBS) and Brian Naylor’s documentary Australia From The Outside Looking In (Nine).  Sunday night movies are Good Morning Vietnam (Seven) and K-9 (Ten), up against the Winter Olympics (Nine).

Monday:  In Mother And Son (ABC), Arthur (Garry McDonald) brings a pet budgie home for Maggie (Ruth Cracknell) after she is upset by her son Robert (Henri Szeps) – but how this leads to 10 naked dentists dancing on a golf course has to be seen to be believed! 

Tuesday:  ABC’s consumer affairs program The Investigators is back for another year, followed by drama series GP where a new locum (played by Christopher Bailey) arrives at the practice, only to have his wife turn up and reveal that he is not who he says he is.  In SBS’ current affairs program Dateline, reporter Maeve O’Meara profiles influential Irish writer Colm Tóibín.

Wednesday:  Astrophysicist Graham Phillips and journalist Cathy Johnson join ABC’s science program Quantum as it returns for its eighth year.  This year is the International Year of Space and, to mark the occasion, Quantum will begin a series of reports on everything from space junk to space technology.  The 40th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne is documented in a two-hour BBC special, Elizabeth R (ABC), following the Queen on her many official duties over 12 months and giving a rare glimpse of her more informal moments.

Thursday:  In Acropolis Now (Seven), Effie (Mary Coustas, pictured) suspects Suzanne (Nicky Wendt) of treachery and plots her revenge – murder by haircare products.  ABC’s documentary series The Big Picture presents When The War Came To Australia – Our Melancholy Duty, the first of a four-part series tracing the social history of Australia during World War II and the effects of Japan’s attack on Darwin, which occurred fifty years ago this week.

Friday:  Dateline (SBS) features a report on Simone Harvari, France’s top TV producer, who heads a company where the majority of employees are female.  In Neighbours (Ten), a reunion with old mates has devastating implications for Doug (Terence Donovan).

Saturday:  Nine debuts its new Saturday morning show, Saturday At Rick’s, hosted by Steven Jacobs with Tania Lacy, featuring cartoons, video clips and interviews.  Nine then crosses to New Zealand for the Benson And Hedges World Cup cricket – Australia versus New Zealand.  ABC also has cricket with live coverage from the North Sydney Oval of the Ladies’ International Super Test: Australia versus England.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  15 February 1992.  Southdown Press

1992: January 25-31

Jana: ‘I welcome the challenge’
A Current Affair host Jana Wendt (pictured) talks to TV Week about the changing news and current affairs environment taking place – in particular, the launch of Real Life, produced by her former 60 Minutes boss Gerald Stone, going head-to-head with ACA.  “I think anything that increases the competition is good,” she said.  “It will sharpen our edge and I welcome that.  I’m confident we can deliver.  I don’t want to sound masochistic, but I welcome the challenge.”  Not only will ACA be duelling with Real Life, but it will also have Derryn Hinch’s new Network Ten show at 6.00pm, giving him a half-hour head start on ACA and Real Life for the day’s big stories.  Ten has also re-launched Ten Eyewitness News as a 5.00pm bulletin, and Nine has its own 5.30pm local news programs coming soon in each state.  Asked how she feels about this changing landscape, Wendt said: “We’ll have to wait and find out, but Nine believes there is a market for news at 5.30pm, so perhaps there is at 5.00pm.”

Stan: ‘It’s the only gig in town’
Former ABC reporter Stan Grant (pictured) said that he had been made offers before to change to commercial television but had always knocked them back in loyalty to the national broadcaster, but then the offer to front Seven’s new Real Life came “out of the blue”.  “This offer came along initially as a reporter,” Grant told TV Week.  “Then (producer) Gerald Stone came to me and said, ‘How would you feel about presenting it?’  It basically came out of the blue, and I said, ‘Yes’.  I’d given presenting a bit of thought at the ABC.  I’d piloted a program there.  I’d also read news updates during the Gulf War, but I was committed to Real Life.  This was to me the only gig in town.”  But although Grant will be the front man of the new show, he emphasises that Real Life is a team effort.  “There’ll be a lot of interaction between myself and the other reporters.  You’ll get a sense of a team at work here, as opposed to a presenter and a lot of sort of faceless, nameless reporters.  It’s definitely not the Stan Grant Show, but I think A Current Affair is the Jana Wendt show.”

Kym’s rockin’ role
A Country Practice star Kym Wilson (pictured) has signed on as the new co-host of Seven’s Saturday morning Video Smash Hits.  Wilson replaces Emily Symons who recently left the show after a two-year stint to pursue acting full time, and will be leaving Home And Away later this year.  “It’ll be interesting to meet the people whose music I love,” Wilson told TV Week.  “I’m an avid music listener.  It’s going to be great fun.”  Wilson, who previously starred in Brides Of Christ, will be continuing in her A Country Practice role as Darcy Hudson.  “I just hope people don’t forget about my acting and consider me just a TV personality,” she said.

Briefly…
Andrew Daddo (pictured) is making his return to Australian television in Nine’s new ‘whodunnit’ game show, Cluedo.  Daddo, who has returned from the US after a year with MTV, will join Frank Gallacher, Jane Badler, Nicki Paull, Joy Westmore and Peter Sumner as the principal characters based on the Cluedo board game.  George Mallaby is also tipped to be joining the show, but this has yet to be confirmed.

E Street star Toni Pearen, whose character Toni is the next potential victim of mass-murderer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) in episodes to air this week, says that the serial killer storyline has done wonders for the show’s ratings.  “Every soap has mediocre times and E Street was going through such a period when, all of a sudden, this serial-killer storyline comes along,” she told TV Week.  “I just think it is something that no other soap has done before, so viewers have really taken to it.”  When it is pointed out that in the Seventies, Number 96 shocked the nation with its pantyhose strangler mystery (pictured), she is nothing less than amazed.  “Wow, a pantyhose murderer!  Okay, so I wasn’t around then.  This serial killer thing is new to my generation.”

Actress Tammy MacIntosh (pictured) is looking forward to her new role in the ABC series Police Rescue after a year of setbacks.  After quitting The Flying Doctors in 1990, a collarbone injury saw her withdraw from a role in the $4.5 million film Garbo.  Then a role in feature film It’s Now Or Never, alongside Jason Donovan, came to an abrupt end when the film’s finance fell through.  Things looked better when she signed on for Nine’s Chances, but a controversial incident over a nude scene saw that role short-lived.  “I rang my agent every day for a month to find out if I’d got the Police Rescue part,” she told TV Week.  “When I found out I had the role, I just burst into tears.  I couldn’t believe it.  I feel very lucky about the way things have turned out.”

The Nine Network has announced that Lisa Patrick (pictured) will replace Jacki MacDonald as host of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show.  “I just feel so privileged,” she said.  “I’ve watched Jacki for years and she always made me laugh.  Now, to go in after her… well, I don’t quite know what to say.” Patrick, 26, was a former model who hit the big time in 1989 with a role in the US sitcom Live In, although the series was axed after ten episodes. 

John Laws says…
”You have to admire the tenacity of the people behind Nine’s The Flying Doctors.  I’ve lost count of the number the times the series has almost crash-landed.  Yet – amazingly – it remains airborne, its continuing survival achieved by switching the route and turning a handful of hapless actors into free-fall sky divers.  But, in television, and especially in the soapies field, survival is the name of the game.  Any actor who joins a soapie realises only too well that he or she could be out on their ear in weeks or months, depending on the acceptance level of their character.  In the latest shake-up, there appears to have been a casting slaughterhouse, with one actor – Sarah Chadwick – already gone and six others, described as playing “favourite” characters, pencilled in for departure.  This is draconian, even by soapie standards.  Crawfords, though, are old hands at the soapie business and the tendency is to believe that they know what they’re doing.  In the case of The Flying Doctors, let’s hope so, because it has been around a long time, providing employment for hundreds of people, and enjoyment by millions.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, January 25-31):
Saturday:  Saturday afternoon sport includes tennis (the Women’s Singles Final for the Australian Open) on Seven, test cricket on Nine and golf followed by lawn bowls on ABC. 

Sunday: Australia Day is dominated largely by sport – more golf on ABC, more cricket on Nine, and the Men’s Singles Final of the Australian Open on Seven.  ABC presents the Australia Day Address by the Governor-General just before the 7.00pm news.  Sunday night movies are The Fremantle Conspiracy (Seven), City Heat (Nine) and Stealing Heaven (Ten), up against soccer (Australia versus Sweden) on SBS, and ABC’s tribute to conductor, the late Stuart Challender on Sunday Stereo Special.

Monday:  ABC crosses to Minnesota, USA, for live coverage of the NFL XXVI Superbowl, hosted by Don Lane.  Seven’s morning news program Eleven AM returns for the new year, as does ABC’s evening current affairs program The 7.30 Report.

Tuesday:  Beyond 2000 (Seven) returns, with Simon Reeve reporting on Jamaica’s solution to pollution from bauxite mining.  Amanda Keller takes a ride on a turbo swing, and Bryan Smith discovers growing food in space is a tricky business.

Wednesday:  In Home And Away (Seven), Sally’s (Kate Ritchie) first day at high school does not go well. 

Thursday:  In E Street (Ten), an anxious neighbourhood awaits news on Toni (Toni Pearen, pictured), who is missing and has found herself trapped in dense bush and tied to her car bumper by serial killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin).

Friday:  Blackout (ABC) looks at the topics of assimilation, adoption and sexual abuse in the Aboriginal community, and how these circumstances have prompted the creation of addictive personalities.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  25 January 1992.  Southdown Press

1991: October 26-November 1

Cover: (near right) Ryan Clark (Home And Away), Matthew Krok (Hey Dad!); (far right) Natalie McCurry (Chances); (bottom) Julie McGregor (Hey Dad!), Georgie Parker (A Country Practice), Emily Symons (Home And Away)

Jimmy and John to rock AMAs!
Rock legends Jimmy Barnes and John Farnham will perform a duet at the upcoming Australian Music Awards presentation.  The live performance follows the release of their upcoming single, a remake of the Sixties song Something Is Wrong With My Baby.  The Australian Music Awards will be held at Melbourne’s World Congress Centre late in November and will be broadcast via Network Ten.

Hey Hey it’s Hollywood!
The Nine Network’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday will mark its 20th anniversary with two shows beamed live from the Hollywood studios of Warner Bros.  A team of 25 cast and crew will head to California for the shows to go to air on November 9 and 16.  The Hollywood production followed the success of the show’s recent special edition presented from Warner Bros Movieworld on the Gold Coast.  “The only snag was money,” host and co-producer Daryl Somers told TV Week.  “We’re ecstatic that the deal has come off, with the support of Movieworld, Village Roadshow, Qantas and Warner.”  Although the Hollywood specials of Hey Hey It’s Saturday are for Australian audiences only, Somers has been asked to contribute some segments to a US program.

Fast Forward salutes Captain Bligh
The Fast Forward team is set to go into production with its first sitcom project.  A pilot of the concept, based on the life of Captain William Bligh, is likely to be produced later this year.  The concept was created by Steve Vizard and Peter Moon but it is unclear at this stage which cast members of Fast Forward will feature in the pilot.  “The cast generally enjoy doing Fast Forward, but they are anxious to go in new directions,” Andrew Knight, Vizard’s partner in Artists Services, told TV Week.  “I have no doubt they are the best comic performers in the country, but unless you give them new ideas, they’ll go stale.”  Knight also said that it was likely that Fast Forward would be back only in a reduced form in 1992.

Briefly…
Former Home And Away cast member Alex Papps has returned to the series for a four-week guest role.  Since leaving the series he has worked on The Flying Doctors, appeared in two productions for the Melbourne Theatre Company and featured in a Christmas pantomime in the UK.  But Papps (pictured with co-star Nicolle Dickson) has warned that his character, Frank, is back as a changed man.  “Frank is a bad boy… a very bad boy,” he said.  “He’s spent the last two years in New York with Roo (played by Justine Clarke), and their relationship has slowly deteriorated.  She loved the New York hype.  He was not happy there.”

A group of Seven Network personalities have grouped together for a recording project.  Michael Horrocks (Video Smash Hits), Georgie Parker (A Country Practice), Emily Symons (Home And Away), Julie McGregor (Hey Dad!) and Christopher Truswell (ex-Hey Dad!) have each recorded their own solo tracks which will be compiled into an album under the name Farm House.  “I think it will appeal to our mums!,” Horrocks said.  “We chose songs that older people would remember but with a beat younger people would enjoy.”  The first single from the album, Parker’s version of These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, is due to be released this week.

Nine’s music maestro Geoff Harvey has landed a guest role in The Flying Doctors, marking his acting debut.  In mock seriousness, Harvey is confident his role of French chef Jason Slark will lead to an international career in television, stage and film.  “I can only assume that I’ll be forced to stop doing Midday as soon as people see me in The Flying Doctors.  I’m sure I’ll be off to the US to look at a few projects,” Harvey said.  “Ray (Martin) doesn’t speak to me as much as he used to… I believe he’s jealous.”

Production is well underway on Lift Off, the $10.3 million series being produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation.  Scheduled to appear on ABC next May, the series has already been sold overseas.

John Laws says…
”Australians are becoming – like viewers in other countries – more and more disposed to “bare knuckle” television.  Take the case of Ten’s Hard Copy, a program that happily plumbs any depths to exploit tragedy.  Recently in its chronic desperation to serve up blood and guts (anyone’s), Hard Copy revived a long-forgotten murder case from the Fifties and attempted to link it with the fictional Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter serial killer in Silence Of The Lambs.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 26-November 1):
Saturday:  SBS presents the Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islanders Sports Awards, hosted by Les Murray.  Nine has a day of cricket with the FAI Cup Final.  Contestants on Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune (Seven) are Paul McNamee, Peter McNamara and Neal Fraser.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Summer School (Seven), Tango And Cash (Nine) and Tank (Ten).

Monday:  In Col’n Carpenter (Ten), Mrs Fuller (Anne Phelan) rents out a room at Colin’s (Kim Gyngell) place to a down-and-out ex-TV star – without telling Colin.  Bert Newton and Fred Parslow guest star in the episode.

Tuesday:  In GP (ABC), William (Michael Craig) gets dragged into a court case and discovers that the law is a game where everyone gets muddled and battered.  In All Together Now (Nine), Thomas (Steven Jacobs) is convinced he is the only remaining virgin in his school.

Wednesday:  ABC presents a special, Everybody – Smoking, taking a look at the personal, cultural, political and economic aspects of a drug claimed to be the world’s cheapest status symbol.  The program is hosted by Trisha Goddard.  In Neighbours (Ten), Ramsay Street is in for a shock when the Mangel house is auctioned.

Thursday:  In The Flying Doctors (Nine), Geoff’s (Robert Grubb) plans to open a new French restaurant in Coopers Crossing go awry when the new French chef (played by Geoff Harvey, pictured with regular cast member Sarah Chadwick) is injured in a plane accident.

Friday:  In Home And Away (Seven), living in a caravan puts strain on Nick (Bruce Roberts) and Lou’s (Dee Smart) relationship.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  26 October 1991.  Southdown Press

1990: November 24-30

Summer Bay shocks!
While pregnant Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) collapses in the Summer Bay diner, the closing episodes of the 1990 season of Home And Away will also deliver news of some new romances.  Pippa Fletcher (Debra Lawrence), who lost husband Tom (Roger Oakley) in dramatic circumstances earlier this year, falls for Summer Bay newcomer Michael Ross (Dennis Coard), while teenager Sophie (Rebekah Elmaloglou, pictured) sparks up a relationship with his son Hayden (Andrew Hill).

Sky-hooked!
Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Red Symons has recently been married – twice!  Symons and his bride, Elly Agrotis, had a private Greek wedding for close friends and family at an East Melbourne Greek Orthodox church before exchanging vows again at a civil ceremony in a trendy South Yarra restaurant.  Guests at the second “showbiz” wedding included Hey Hey It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers (with wife Julie), Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and Wilbur Wilde, Skyhooks mates Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan, Greg Macainsh and ‘Bongo’ Starkie, actor Kim Gyngell and comedian Glenn Robbins.  The day also marked a second local showbusiness wedding, with Acropolis Now’s Simon Palomares and Tracey Callander also tying the knot in Melbourne.

If it’s New Year this must be… Ethiopia
Tonight Live host Steve Vizard (pictured) will be seeing in the year 1991 on location in Ethiopia as he will be on location producing a one-hour special for World Vision to go to air on the Seven Network around Easter.  “I’ve never been to Ethiopia.  It will be an eye-opener.  But I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do.  It’s one of those things you can do as a personality because personalities are in a position to get people to watch something they might not otherwise watch,” he told TV Week.  Actress Rowena Wallace, who has made several trips before for World Vision, will also be involved in this latest documentary.

Briefly…
The Doug Anthony Allstars, one of the popular acts from ABC’s The Big Gig, are to start work soon on their own series, DAAS Kapital.  “There will be slam-bam action, high adventure, lots of violence, raw energy, sexual prowess – all that and more!” says group member Tim Ferguson (pictured).  The new series will appear on ABC and Ferguson says there has already been interest in the series from Thames Television in the United Kingdom.

Home And Away star Adam Willits has only just completed his final scenes with the popular drama and is already walking straight into his next role – appearing alongside Julie McGregor in Hampton House, the spin-off from the popular sitcom Hey Dad! A pilot for the new series has been taped and if Seven gives the go-ahead then the series will go into production in April.

Video Smash Hits co-host Michael Horrocks is heading on an around-the-world trip to record interviews for the Seven Network Saturday morning show.  Horrocks’ list of interviewees is set to include Belinda Carlisle, Alice Cooper, Young MC, Nelson, Bobby McFerrin and – hopefully – Prince.  “He’s notoriously hard to interview,” Horrocks told TV Week.

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”If anything good can be said about Backchat, it’s that it at least prevents credible ABC television productions from starting at odd times such as 9.22 or 8.13.  It in fact serves to fill in time.  Some at the ABC hanker after “sponsorship” (“commercials” is still a beep word) to do that job, but while others recoil at the suggestion in big enough numbers, it’s not going to happen.  So I guess we’re stuck with Backchat… and Media Watch (which at least manages to rise above the inconsequential on most occasions, and so it should with all that staff!) and news updates, whether there’s anything to update or not.”

Program Highlights (November 24-30):
Saturday:  The Seven Network presents Ausmusic ‘90, a five-hour live broadcast for the first ever National Australian Music Day, covering concerts taking place around Australia.  Heading the line-up of performers are John Farnham, The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly And The Messengers, Wendy Matthews, Ian Moss, Kate Ceberano, Boom Crash Opera, Crowded House, Tim Finn, Mental As Anything and Icehouse.  Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum (pictured), from Nine’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday, is given special permission by Nine to present the telecast, linking together the concerts taking place in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are The Alamo: Thirteen Days To Glory (HSV7), Table For Five (GTV9) and The Long Riders (ATV10).  ABC’s Esso Night At The Opera presents the Australian Opera production of The Gypsy Princess.

Monday: Major cost-cutting measures at the Ten Network, including the sacking of around 300 staff, sees Ten Evening News in Melbourne trimmed from one-hour to a 30-minute bulletin.  The remaining half-hour is now occupied by re-runs of a US sitcom, the somewhat aptly-titled Too Close For Comfort.

Wednesday:  ABC presents the final edition of science program Quantum for 1990, before screening a repeat of the 1988 mini-series The Four Minute Mile, starring Nique Needles, Tracy Mann, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, John O’May and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.

Thursday:  HSV7 crosses to Sydney for the first day of the Australian Open from the Australian Golf Club.  Commentators are Sandy Roberts, Jack Newton and Bruce McAvaney.  Coverage will continue every afternoon through to Sunday.  GTV9 presents live coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Series Cup: Australia versus New Zealand.  Coverage starts at 2.20pm, taking a break for National Nine News and A Current Affair, then continuing through to 10.30pm.  HSV7 presents the last episode of Home And Away for 1990.

Friday:  ABC presents the final Gardening Australia for 1990. 

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 24 November 1990. Southdown Press.