1979: March 24-30

Cover: Tom Baker (Doctor Who) 

Who will play Dame Nellie?
Several Australian actresses are hoping for the lead role in the Grundy Organisation’s proposed eight-part mini-series on the life of Australia’s first great opera singer, Dame Nellie Melba.  The mini-series, to be made on location in Australia, United States, United Kingdom and Europe, will be directed by Bruce Beresford.  With a budget of $2 million for eight episodes, it is set to become Australia’s most expensive TV drama to date.

Two more stars to quit
Following the announcement that Lorraine Bayly is planning to leave The Sullivans, two more TV actresses have also quit their respective roles.  Cop Shop’s Rowena Wallace is due to finish up in the series in the next four months but will continue to be seen on screen until the end of the year.  Carol Burns, who plays lesbian bikie Franky Doyle in the new hit series Prisoner, will appear in the series until around August.  While Bayly is leaving her role to travel overseas, the other two are leaving to avoid typecasting.  “It’s up to the actress to extend her horizons,” Burns told TV Times.

Having a wonderful time
Before Young Talent Time returned to screens earlier this year, host Johnny Young and the team were busy taping an outdoor special for the 0-10 Network.  The one-off special features the Young Talent Team performing songs on location at various tourist spots around Melbourne including St Kilda Beach, Royal Melbourne Zoo, Captain Cook’s Cottage and the Yarra River.  Following the Melbourne-based special, the team hope to do similar programs based in Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Hobart and Perth.

Briefly…
The cast of the stage play Bedroom Farce – including Belinda Giblin, Pat McDonald, Willie Fennell and Barry Creyton – have agreed to appear on HSV7’s upcoming Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

Former Division Four actor Ted Hamilton is now a restaurateur with an establishment in Los Angeles that is becoming popular with the stars.

Singer Judy Jacques, a long-time favourite on TV in shows including In Melbourne Tonight, Dig We Must and Sounds Like Us, has returned to television after six years with a guest appearance on ATV0’s Peter Couchman Tonight, and more appearances are planned.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
“It’s great to see good entertainment back on TV with Hey Hey It’s Saturday. Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich (pictured) are a wonderful comedy team and they are funny with adults and children.  I wish they did not have what few cartoons they have on their three-hour show and have time filled with their beaut comedy.” G. Barnard, NSW

”Regarding ABC’s classic movies.  Cheers!  It’s high time we had something worth watching.  But not at the ridiculous time of 10pm and later – 8.30 or 9pm is quite late enough to start.” M Swan and G Slade, NSW.

“What a wonderful program The Curiosity Show is.   My friend and I (16 and 15 respectively) never fail to watch, as there is always at least one segment which appeals to all ages.  On the whole it’s far better, to my mind, than This Week Has Seven Days, What In The World or similar shows.” G. Coleman, TAS.

“TCN9 Sydney should bring back Bobby Limb’s Sound Of Music.  When Bobby had his Sound Of Music at St George League’s Club in Sydney it was the most successful season that club had had for a long time.  People are still talking about the show.” B. Denniss.  NSW.

What’s On (March 24-30):
Weekend sport includes Australia versus Pakistan in the cricket Second Test, live from Perth on ABC.  ATV0 has highlights of the Grand Master’s Tennis Championship from Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion.  And HSV7 on Sunday afternoon has Claremont versus Melbourne in the Australian Football Championships.

HSV7’s Penthouse is now Saturday Night Live with Ernie Sigley and new co-host Belinda Leigh.  This week’s guests include Betty Cuthbert, Bob Maumill and Sid Paterson.  Also direct coverage of harness racing from Moonee Valley and Tattslotto draw 340.

Maggie Millar and Peter Finlay are guest stars in Cop Shop (HSV7, Monday and Thursday) where a receptionist pleads confusion in an attempt to cover-up a $37,000 theft.  While Valerie (Joanna Lockwood) finds that getting a permanent job involves a lot more than she had expected.

The Paul Hogan Show (GTV9, Thursday) investigates the strange Australian ritual of BYO barbeques, while Paul Hogan takes a look at World Series Bowls.  Guest stars include the Little River Band, Karen Pini and Sue McIntosh.

Friday night sees GTV9 cross to Perth for live coverage of the 1979 Australian Pacing Derby, hosted by Garry Carvolth.

Sunday night movies: No Sex Please, We’re British (HSV7), The Legend Of Hell House (GTV9).  ATV0 presents the mini-series The Pirate on Sunday and Monday nights.

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

Queensland's 50 years of news

The year 2009 marks a number of significant anniversaries for Australian television.  One of them is the fiftieth anniversary of TV in Queensland - as Brisbane channels QTQ9, BTQ7 and ABQ2 all begun transmission during the second half of 1959.

QTQ9 was the first station to air in the Sunshine State, opening on 16 August 1959 and broadcasting from studios on top of Brisbane's Mount Coot-tha, which would become home to the city's three commercial TV stations. 

The first person to appear on screen on QTQ was Hugh Cornish, who went on to become a presenter and newsreader for the new station, later moving on to become the general manager.

Later newsreaders at QTQ9 included former ABC newsreader Don Seccombe - who would lead QTQ9's news through the '60s, '70s and early '80s - Brian Cahill, Paul Griffin, Mike London, Rob Readings and Bruce Paige.  Melody Iliffe was possibly Australia's first female television newsreader, working alongside Seccombe for several years in the mid-1960s before female newsreaders became the norm on television, and led the way for others including Robin Parkin, Jillian Whiting, Heather Foord and Melissa Downes.

Throughout the 1970s to early-‘80s, QTQ9’s news was the only commercial television bulletin from Brisbane to be relayed through regional Queensland’s various local broadcasters*.  And since aggregation arrived in regional Queensland in 1990, QTQ9's news has again been beamed statewide through affiliate broadcaster WIN.  As well as the major 6.00pm bulletin QTQ9 also produces the only local news service for the Gold Coast and in Brisbane presents the long-running news magazine program Extra, which began back in 1992.

This Saturday night, as well as covering the Queensland election, QTQ9 will present a tribute to 50 years of television news - highlighting some of Queensland's people and events that have made headlines locally and around the world: bushfires, floods, cyclones, murders, Royal tours, the Fitzgerald inquiry, the controversial Joh Bjelke-Petersen, former fish-and-chip shop owner Pauline Hanson, beauty student Schapelle Corby, and many more...

50 Years Of Nine For News.  Saturday 21 March, 6.30pm.  QTQ9 Brisbane/WIN Queensland.

YouTube: aussiebeachut

* Acknowledgement to aussiebeachut for clarification on QTQ9’s news being relayed to regional Queensland.

Hitting the G-Code spot!

Since the advent of the home video cassette recorder it had been a running joke that it was a mammoth, if not perplexing, task for anyone - or at least, anyone over the age of puberty - to attempt to pre-program the VCR to tape programs in advance.  No two VCR models were the same and while many had no problems, there were just as many who either gave up in frustration or were constantly presented with programs that were not the ones they had hoped to record.  (Hands up anyone who has stumbled in setting "AM" instead of "PM" when setting the VCR, or had problems converting to 24-hour time?)

But a VCR revolution was coming to solve all our problems in the form of G-Codes.  An invention of the Gemstar Corporation, then publishers of America's TV Guide magazine, the G-Code was a numerical code assigned to every listed television program which, when entered into a G-Code device, would instruct the VCR to record the program at its scheduled time.

The G-Code had been adopted in TV listings in the United States (where it was known as VCR Plus), Asia, Europe and New Zealand and, fifteen years ago this week, it made its debut in Australia.

TV Week was the first Australian publication to promote the G-Code system and incorporate the numerical codes into their listings.  It was not the first time the magazine had tried to publish a VCR coding system.  Some years earlier the magazine had published barcodes that could be read by certain VCR remote controls to pre-program the recorder.  However, the number of programs that were featured with barcodes in the magazine were extremely limited and only a certain brand of VCR was compatible - whereas G-Code was in-built into a range of VCR models and even those that didn't have the feature could use G-Code by purchasing a handheld unit (pictured, above) that would communicate the codes to the VCR.

So now the problem of programming the VCR was, according to G-Code, a thing of the past.  And while the G-Codes continue to be published in TV Week and virtually every other major TV listing in the country, the problem now appears to be our TV networks and their undying inability to be able to stick to what is published in the TV guides!

1979: March 17-23

Julie Anthony's singing the blues away
This week, the Seven Network will screen The Julie Anthony Special, a one-hour production taped late last year on the Gold Coast.  But since the special was taped, the former South Australian farm girl who grew up to charm London audiences in the stage production of Irene, has lost her voice and been ordered by doctors not to sing at all until the problem has been properly diagnosed and, hopefully, cured.  Anthony, and her husband and manager Eddie Natt, have since travelled to Germany to consult a throat specialist with the hope that laser surgery can cure the recurring voice problems that also caused her to drop out of Irene ahead of schedule in 1977.  In the operation is a success then Anthony hopes to be able to do another TV special.

The Restless Years together
It's the marriage that fans of The Restless Years have waited over a year for.  Dr Bruce Russell (Malcolm Thompson) has married Alison Clark (Julieanne Newbould) in a formal church wedding followed by a reception attended by around 40 guests.  The on-screen wedding was performed by a real-life Anglican priest, Reverend R W Long, at his church of St Martin's in the Sydney suburb of Killara. 

David switches channels in comeback bid
Two years after "retiring" from the newsroom at Melbourne's HSV7, David Johnston (pictured)  is making a comeback to journalism as the host of ABC's new Victorian-based current affairs program, Statewide.  Although Johnston has continued to co-host HSV7's children's magazine program This Week Has Seven Days, in the two years since leaving Seven National News, Johnston has been made various offers to join rival channels but rejected them as "I wasn't that interested.  I wanted a complete change."  The offer to present Statewide came several months ago, but at the time Johnston was reluctant to sever all ties with HSV7:  "Then I learnt This Week Has Seven Days was about to fold, so I accepted the ABC offer."  Since announcing his new role as host of Statewide, HSV7 has given a reprieve to This Week Has Seven Days and it will continue with Johnston's former co-host Honor Walters.

Exit Lorraine, enter Ilona
Former English and New Zealand actress Ilona Rodgers has joined the cast of The Sullivans and, despite denials from producer Hector Crawford, it is suggested that her role of Kate Meredith will ultimately replace that of Grace Sullivan (Lorraine Bayly) as the show's central character.   Bayly is set to leave the series in the next few weeks but will continue to be seen on screen until late in the year.  Hector Crawford told TV Times: "Ilona has a very important role.  She is an enormously competent actress.  We don't know how far the role will go until we knew whether... when... Grace will return."  Having built up a huge following as Grace Sullivan, Bayly is said to be keen to pursue acting opportunities overseas.

Briefly... 
A friendly tennis match between the cast of Prisoner and members of the news team at rival HSV7 took an unfortunate turn when actress Kerry Armstrong (pictured) fell and tore two tendons in her leg.  The former TV weathergirl, who plays inmate Lyn Warner in the new 0-10 Network series, is now on crutches which appears timely given that a script for an upcoming episode has Warner suffer an accident that also leaves her on crutches.

Diane Craig, actress wife of Garry McDonald (Norman Gunston), is currently appearing on the Nine Network's The Sullivans but is about to change camps to an ongoing role in Seven's Cop Shop.

John Proper, producer of GTV9's New Faces, has just faced the cameras in a guest role as a drunken Irishman, Paddy Stevenson, for Cop Shop.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
"I am writing to complain that these days there are no horror movies on TV." N. Kinghorne, NSW.

"I was extremely thrilled to learn of the return of Doctor Who, after a long-awaited and promised return.  But why at 6.30pm? Again, ABC has committed Doctor Who to this timeslot.  As before, we will be unable to view the so-called "A"-rated versions because of this timeslot.  The past Doctor Who adventures have all been enjoyable, but I am sick and tired of having stories shown cut, and in "bits and pieces" or just not having them at all." M. Kavazos, NSW.

"On the day John Dease died, Sydney TCN9 newsreader Brian Henderson solemnly informed viewers that later in the news there would be tributes to this great broadcaster and actor.  I sat there waiting, expecting that we would hear from personalities that knew him as a friend and professional colleague.  But had Nine gone to the trouble of gathering tributes from these people?  No, they took the el cheapo way out and ran a bit of the movie Newsfront, in which Dease appeared.  And I'd seen the movie anyway." M. Cook, NSW.

What's On (March 17-23):
Saturday afternoon sport includes ATV0's coverage of Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day, live from Flemington and hosted by Peter Hanrahan with race caller Clem Dimsey.  HSV7 has tennis with the 1979 Simpson Satellite Circuit from Kooyong in Melbourne.  While ABC has a repeat of the highlights of the 1978 Coca-Cola Swimming Championships.

In This Week Has Seven Days (HSV7, Saturday afternoon), snake expert Frits Maaten is in the studio with poisonous Tiger, Copper, Adder and Black snakes.  He also shows harmless varieties and how to correctly apply a tourniquet.

Children's programs on weekday afternoons are dominated by overseas titles, including Land Of The Lost, Battle Of The Planets, Scooby Doo, Flipper, Catweazle and Sesame Street, though ABC has the perennial Play School and GTV9 has Rory O'Donohue hosting a children's game show, Razzle Dazzle.

This week's guests on Peter Couchman Tonight (ATV0, weeknights) include Denise Drysdale (pictured), Eddie Charlton, Helen Noonan, Matt Flinders, Pamela Gibbons and Jimmy Hannan.

Friday night sees the debut of Statewide, a local current affairs program hosted by David Johnston, as the lead-in to ABC's 7pm news.

This week's Australian Football Championships matches (HSV7) are Footscray versus Tasmania, and South Melbourne versus South Fremantle.

Sunday night movies: Killer On Board (HSV7), Steptoe And Son Ride Again (GTV9), McQ (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 17 March 1979.  ABC/ACP

Louie the footy TV legend

Despite retiring from the game of Australian rules in the 1950s, former Collingwood premiership captain Lou Richards (pictured) has become, unofficially at least, a legend of the game.

Last week, Richards' former football club put out a call to the AFL Commission to have his legend status officially recognised in the league's Hall of Fame despite the fact that statistically he is ineligible.

But today, 15 March, is Richards' 86th birthday and The Age's Real Footy website today pays tribute to a larger-than-life character of the game who has continued to entertain fans in covering the game for newspapers, radio and television since the 1950s.

As a columnist for The Sun newspaper he was nicknamed 'Louie the Lip' and he went on to cover the then Victorian Football League for radio 3XY, followed by 3DB and then on television at HSV7.  Richards' association with Seven would last almost thirty years through his football commentary as well as his colourful contributions to the long-running World Of Sport (1959-87) and the late-night favourite League Teams.  Richards, and his on-air sparring partner Jack Dyer, also appeared in a comic cameo on drama series Skyways.  When HSV7 lost the rights to cover VFL at the end of the 1986 season, and the station was taken over by Sydney interests in 1987, Richards' media career took an unexpected turn when he later turned up at rival channel GTV9, even though the channel had no broadcast rights to the VFL.

Nine put Richards to work presenting a football segment on National Nine News as well as co-hosting the Sunday edition of Wide World Of Sports with Max Walker, and later the Sunday edition of The Footy Show which was seen as a throwback to the halcyon days of World Of Sport with frank discussion of Australian rules and studio segments including the handball competition.

Recent years have seen Richards' health deteriorate and, as a result, his involvement in The Footy Show being cut back to cameo appearances, although he continued to present the handball competition as a pre-recorded segment.  But Nine has decided that it is time for "Louie The Lip" to formally retire from the program but, should he be able to, will be welcome to make guest appearances.  And in a legacy to "Louie", the program will continue to name the handball competition in his honour and the program's player of the year will still be awarded the Lou Richards Medal.

Source: Real Footy
Main picture: The Age

Neighbours star quit fame for family

The previous blog entry highlighted some of the pressures faced by young stars going into soap operas and the sudden fame it brings.

Some of these actors do indeed go onto bigger things - names like Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Jason Donovan, Craig McLachlan and Natalie Imbruglia all got their big break in soaps before international stardom called.  But while those names went on with their careers, one of their colleagues made a decision to take a step back from acting to focus on family.

Annie Jones (pictured) started in Neighbours as the studious Jane Harris - or as she was nicknamed 'Plain Jane Superbrain' - a role which she continued for three years at the height of Neighbours' popularity in the '80s and won a TV Week Logie for most popular actress in 1989.  After leaving the soap, Jones went on to appear in the sitcom Newlyweds, mini-series Jackaroo and dramas Snowy, Bony, Embassy and even Chances.  It seemed inevitable that Jones would follow her former Neighbours cast-mates overseas.

But in 1994 the 27-year-old actress got the heart-breaking news that her mother was suffering Alzheimer's and made the decision that family was more important than fame:

"I couldn’t move because I had to be able to see Mum.  I have no regrets about turning down work during that time. Mum and Dad were more important.

"This journey with Mum has definitely changed me. A lot of things seem to be very shallow to me these days.  I’ve realised empathy is the key to everything.  If we could all put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, just for a little while, I think we’d all look after each other a lot more."

Jones, now 42, is now a campaigner for Alzheimer's Australia Victoria, an organisation providing support and raising funds to help people living with the disease and their families.

Source: Digital Spy 
Picture: TV Week, 31 December 1988

1979: March 10-16

Instant stardom, and how they handle it
With TV soap operas turning young, unknown actors into national celebrities overnight, it is easy for these young stars to let their newfound fame get to their head.   But some of these young actors - including The Restless Years' Victoria Nicolls, Julieanne Newbould and Michael Smith (pictured) - do manage to get through the heady period of stardom to emerge as proven talents.  Nicolls acknowledged the support and guidance of experienced performers such as colleague June Salter: "If you ask her something, she's so helpful.  She made me aware of camera techniques.  Helped with scenes, comedy - she has such wonderful comic timing."  Even though she grew up in showbusiness, Newbould still found the sudden overnight fame to be a shock: "For five years I'd done things like Matlock Police and Division Four.  People would say 'Oh, I saw you on TV last night,' but nothing like this.  People come up and cuddle me.  Big Italian mamas pinch my cheeks.  Some want you to come home and marry their sons."  Smith said that family and friends helped keep him down to earth: "They'd say 'Aw, shut up, we don't want to hear about The Restless Years anymore!'  Smith has also had the discipline of learning music from his mother, a piano teacher, and studying acting at Sydney's Ensemble Theatre under Hayes Gordon.  Producer of The Restless Years, Don Battye, said with established actors on the series such as June Salter, John Hamblin and Noel Trevarthen, they do offer help to the younger stars but, "of course with some kids you can't give them advice.  The only way they're going to learn is to get into trouble and learn from experience."

On your Marque!
Peter Wherrett's documentary series, Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring, has taken over eighteen months and visits to eight countries to complete.  The new series, beginning this week on ABC, looks at the development of the motor car as well as the industry's future.  "I'm quite confident that cars as we know them will be around until well into the next century," Wherrett (pictured) told TV Times.  "The industry is already planning the cars we will be driving then." 

Nude pin-up star on Hogan show
Former Miss World finalist and magazine centrefold Karen Pini (pictured) is one of the girls chosen for the first Paul Hogan show for 1979.  Pini, who is also soon to appear in The Young Doctors, is a replacement for Delvene Delaney who has left the show as she and husband, producer John Cornell, are expecting their first baby. 

It doesn't 'ad' up for Johnny
Johnny Farnham isn't too happy that he keeps hearing what sounds like himself doing commercials that he doesn't remember doing.  Farnham's producer Danny Finley said: "The situation is very embarrassing.  We have done a commercial for a bank.  We tried to make it very selective by doing only one.  Now we start hearing other commercials which sound like John and I suppose they sound that way to other people."  When asked if he thought the situation might be deliberate, Finley replied: "It is some coincidence!"

Briefly...
Mike McCarthy, host of ATV0's Early Bird Show, and his wife Caroline have just welcomed the arrival of twins, Ryan and Bridie.  The couple already have three other children, twins Damien and Emily, 8, and Benjamin, 6.

Production has started on a new ABC drama series, based on Kylie Tennant's novel, Ride On Stranger.  The series features Liddy Clark, Warwick Sims (Against The Wind), Michael Aitkens (The Truckies) and Noni Hazelhurst (The Sullivans). 

British actor Harry Corbett is to star in the new ABC children's series Earth Patrol.  The new series, being produced as part of the International Year Of The Child, will also star actor Gus Mercurio.  Meanwhile, producers are on the hunt for a 16 to 18-year-old boy to feature in the series.  Already cast in the series are 11-year-old twins Gayle and Gillian Blakeney and Darren Ormsby, 12.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
"All you people harping on the recent preponderance of sport on our TV - has it ever occurred to you that you don't have to watch it?  Can't you make your own entertainment?  Go for a walk instead of sitting passively in front of a TV set and waiting to be entertained."  M. Ryan, NSW.

"Three cheers for TEN10 Sydney for the new mini-series they have just screened on Friday nights.  I am talking about Sugartime, produced in the US and starring Barbi Benton and Didi Carr.  It is a refreshing change from the glamour drivel of Charlie's Angels, where all the pretty faces can do is hurtle 16-stone gangsters across rooms and run down Lincoln Continentals with nothing but their tricycles."  D. Ehrlich, NSW.

"Come on all you sports lovers, get up on your hind legs and be counted, otherwise the vocal minority may succeed by catching TV channel policymakers' ears and curtailing some of our precious sports telecasts."  A. Hartwig, QLD.

What's On (March 10-16):
Saturday afternoon sport includes Australia versus Pakistan in First Test cricket on ABC, live from Melbourne.  HSV7 has the Moomba Masters International Waterski Tournament from the Yarra River.  ATV0 goes to the races at Flemington with Newmarket Stakes Day, hosted by Michael Schildberger and racecaller Clem Dimsey.

Sunday afternoon on HSV7 includes a one-hour live telecast of Music For The People from the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne.  Hosted by Dan Webb, the telecast includes the Australian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hector Crawford.

This Fabulous Century (HSV7, Sunday) looks at Australian humour from the early days of Dad and Dave, Roy Rene and George Wallace through to current-day performers Paul Hogan, Barry Humphries, Garry McDonald and Ron Shand.

ABC starts its new 7.30pm line-up this week with new series of Are You Being Served? and George And Mildred, magazine program Holiday With Bill Peach, documentary series Marque: 100 Years Of Motoring, and on Friday night, The Two Ronnies.  ABC also launches new drama at 8.30pm with The Oracle on Monday night, starring John Gregg (pictured), Pamela Gibbons, Julie Hamilton and Danny Adcock, and Golden Soak on Tuesday, with Ray Barrett, Ruth Cracknell and Bill Hunter.

Friday night is highlighted by GTV9's presentation of the 1979 TV Week Logie Awards, hosted by Bert Newton and telecast live from the Hilton Hotel in Melbourne.  Special overseas guests include Robin Williams (Mork And Mindy), Susan Seaforth and Bill Hayes (Days Of Our Lives), Lauren Tewes (The Love Boat), Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy (George And Mildred) and championship boxer Muhammad Ali.  Meanwhile, HSV7 has St Kilda versus Fremantle in the Australian Football Championships.

Sunday night movies are Mad Dog Morgan (HSV7), The Users (GTV9) and Funny Lady (ATV0).

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

Sgt. Gilroy on bedroom patrol

As Sargeant Frank Gilroy in A Country Practice, Brian Wenzel (pictured, centre) was the face of law and order in the quiet town of Wandin Valley for over a decade.

Now, fifteen years later, 80-year-old Wenzel is back on TV but as a cop of a different kind - as "bedroom police chief" in a new commercial for sexual dysfunction clinic Advanced Medical Institute.

The bedroom chief arrives to save the day when a newlywed wife complains of her husband "speeding in the sack."

What would Esme Watson (Joyce Jacobs) have thought??

Source: news.com.au

Amazing trivia!

New Zealander Phil Keoghan was a TV presenter in his home country before heading to the United States where he has since fronted thirteen series of award-winning reality show The Amazing Race (a fourteenth series is now in progress).  But it seems that Keoghan (pictured) made his own pit-stop on Australian TV as a reporter on technology program The Big Byte in 1994.

The Big Byte, a joint production between SBS, New Zealand's TVNZ and Asian Star TV, was hosted by Basia Bonkowski, a familiar face at SBS since the early '80s.  Keoghan (pictured) and SBS' Meave O'Meara filed reports for the program focusing on the Asia-Pacific and North American regions.  Former Beyond 2000 reporter Simon Nasht reported from Europe and the United Kingdom.  Producer for The Big Byte was former Beyond 2000 producer Phil Gerlach.

According to The Big Byte's publicity blurb:

The 26-part series will be fun, fast moving and accessible family television, designed to guide the novice and update the enthusiast on the uses and misuses of personal computers, fax machines, cellular telephones and the dizzying array of hardware and software in the context of the worldwide shift to digital information.

The Big Byte aired on SBS between March and October 1994.

1979: March 3-9

Tickling the Peter!
Cop Shop's Peter Adams hasn't always been cast in the macho roles he has become familiar for.  In fact, he made his acting debut playing a chubby woman in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta at age 10.  But in his adult career, mostly in the theatre, New Zealand-born Adams (pictured, with co-star Joanna Lockwood) has also had a variety of roles - including playing an owl in a panto production of Robin Hood.  Before scoring the role of "JJ" Johnson in Cop Shop, Adams' only regular TV roles were in ABC's Australia A To Z and as a newspaper reporter in Number 96.  Although a guest appearance in Division Four with Judy Morris in 1970 apparently has the unusual distinction of being the first nude bedroom scene on Australian TV.

The Kiwi Invasion
Australian television is about to be invaded by New Zealand actors.  Bill Stalker (pictured), one of New Zealand's most versatile stage and TV actors, is coming to Australia for a role in the new Seven Network series Skyways.  The actor had a popular following in New Zealand playing a mechanic in the long-running local soap Close To Home.  Fellow Kiwi actor Sam Neill has already had roles in two Australian films, My Brilliant Career and The Journalist, and will be starting work soon on The Sullivans, appearing on screen around mid-year.

'Sorry about that, love!'
A TV Times photo shoot featuring tennis star John Newcombe and 0-10 Network personalities Victoria Nicolls (pictured), Lenore Smith and Steve Raymond turned sour.  Nicolls, "only a social tennis player", took a fall when trying to return a hit from Smith.  Instead of returning to the set of The Restless Years for taping a wedding episode, the actress was taken to the local hospital.  No broken bones were found but she did have to keep her arm in a sling and managed to get to the postponed taping of the wedding episode later that day.

Briefly...
Actors John Ewart and Serge Lazareff are to join the cast of The Young Doctors, and there are plans for the Australian World Series Cricket team to also make a guest appearance next year.  Executive producer Alan Coleman is keen to have players such as Dennis Lillee come in to the hospital for treatment and end the guest stint with an appearance by the entire Australian team.

Former Young Talent Time regular Debbie Byrne and husband Dave Dudley are expecting their first child in July.  Byrne, who appeared in ABC's The Saturday Show last year, is also to feature in ABC's upcoming variety series Follies later in the year.

It has taken two years of planning, but Days Of Our Lives stars Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth are coming to Australia for a series of club appearances starting in Brisbane and touring to other capital cities.  The actors will be temporarily written out of the popular US drama to allow them the Australian tour.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor
"Rowena Wallace, who plays Pamela Taylor in Cop Shop, should wear a wig, because she looks very old with grey hair.  A black or red wig would suit her very well.  She has a very young face."  C. Leoni, QLD.

"Monty Python's Flying Circus brings a touch of ABC sophistication to the otherwise tepid material usually screened on ATN7 Sydney.  But as usual we have to suffer for good TV on a commercial station - a fine, fast-moving show like Monty Python gets absolutely butchered by all the silly ads."  N. Wainwright, NSW.

"I wonder how many viewers know of the series Three's Company let alone watch it regularly?  I needed only one look to realise that it is yet another example of blatant American poaching of British ideas.  Man About The House was a far superior series.  ABC must have bought the series for a very low price, because it falls way below the standard I have come to expect from them."  K. Davidson, VIC.

What's On (March 3-9):
ABC presents live coverage of the Australian Masters' Golf tournament from Huntingdale Golf Club in Melbourne on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  Saturday is Blue Diamond Stakes Day at Caulfield racecourse.  ATV0's Phil Gibbs and Clem Dimsey present a two-hour morning preview, then from midday Michael Schildberger heads the afternoon's live coverage.

Melbourne's Moomba festival is on again and ATV0 crosses live to the Yarra River embankment on Sunday afternoon for the 1979 Birdman Rally and Bathtub Regatta.

The second episode of HSV7's This Fabulous Century (presenter Peter Luck, pictured) is titled 'Institutions', looking at the Miss Australia tradition, Bondi Beach and the Holden motor car.

The winner of last year's Mastermind, John Bond, will represent Australia in Mastermind International which debuts on ABC on Wednesday night.  The series, taped in London, features Mastermind winners from around the world including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Nigeria, Canada and the Republic of Ireland.

In ATV0's Prisoner there has been a murder at Wentworth Detention Centre and both the authorities and the inmates have their own methods of finding the culprit.  The new drama screens on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

The Australian Football Championships, a national night football competition, continues on HSV7 with Richmond versus West Australian team Subiaco.

This week's guests on Peter Couchman Tonight include Ian Meldrum, Bob Rogers, Normie Rowe, Stan Rofe, Debbie Byrne, Brian Davies, Gus Mercurio, Peita Toppano, The God Squad, Ross D. Wyllie, Jane Scali and Michael Cormick. 

Sunday night movies are Eliza Fraser (HSV7), The Steel Cowboy (GTV9) and Flood (ATV0). 

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