1978: November 11-17

A little bit of what John fancies
Although he's been an actor since the age of 11, John Meillon (pictured, with Stuart Wagstaff) has never been a walk-on, say-a-few-words, walk-off-again actor... a bit player. But that will change with a role in Bit Part, one of the series of plays featured in ABC's Stuart Wagstaff's World Playhouse. "This play is quite funny really. It's a sort of joke in the industry, 'Hello, you're finally playing a bit part'," he told TV Times. The veteran actor had declined offers for bit parts in the past, instead choosing the maintain a certain level in the roles he's accepted: "If you want to - with all due respect - be in things like The Restless Years, The Young Doctors and those Crawford things, if you want to do that, well, there is work. But to me the quality work has always been with ABC. My maxim has always been quality over quantity."

More of Parkinson's lore!
British TV interviewer Michael Parkinson is due to come to Australia in early 1979 to record a series of shows for ABC. Parkinson's Saturday night series has been a British favourite for seven years and has been screening on ABC since earlier this year. It's also been revealed that Parkinson was offered the chance to host the Nine Network's upcoming current affairs program 60 Minutes but declined as it meant permanently relocating to Australia.

Happy Dave is here to stay
British comedian Dave Allenby (pictured) first came to Australia in 1970 to compere the Beach Boys concert tour. The sunshine and opportunities for future work was enough to lure him back permanently. Now settled with his family in Australia, Allenby is also settled in as host of the 0-10 Network's new game show Perfect Match, where husband and wife contestants are asked questions about each other: "The format is just right. It's relaxed and I can crack gags and ad-lib as much as I like."

Briefly:
The cast of Cop Shop celebrated the show's 100th episode with a special lunch courtesy of the Seven Network, while Nine's The Young Doctors has just taped its 500th episode.

An album of Irish songs released by The Saturday Show's John MacNally (pictured with co-star Suzanne Steele) has sold more than 120,000 copies, with a single due to be released in time for Christmas and a second album next year.

A five-part documentary series China - The Human Face has been made by Film Australia, breaking the long-standing ban on Western film crews entering the nation. The documentary is expected to screen early in 1979.

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"I hope that ABC can sell The Truckies overseas. People should understand that Australian truckies' long hauls are not like those in smaller countries. I have been married to a truckie for over 27 years and we all wait to see who the next program will remind us of." B. Longhurst, NSW.

"Why doesn't ABC screen some Elvis Presley movies? When Elvis died only capital city stations showed his movies. But country people who simply receive ABC would like to see his movies too." E. Eames, QLD.

What's On (November 11-17):
11 November is Remembrance Day, and HSV7 takes time out for two minutes silence at 11.00am, while GTV9 presents a special to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Remembrance Day.

On Saturday, ATV0 presents the last day's events of the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnival.

Australian series Glenview High returns to HSV7 on Saturday night for screening over the summer months.

GTV9 launches a summer mid-evening edition of National Nine News, screening weeknights at 9.30pm and read by Peter Hitchener.

On Thursday, GTV9 begins four days' coverage of the Australian Open Golf Championships, live from Sydney - with four hours of coverage on each of Thursday and Friday, but interrupted by The Mike Walsh Show and US soaps Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless.

The Brisbane-based Orton's Old Time Music Hall, hosted by Paul Sharratt, begins on GTV9 on Friday night.

Sunday night movies are Love's Dark Ride (HSV7), My Father's House (GTV9) and Up The Sandbox (ATV0).

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 11 November 1978. ABC/ACP

Bob McGready

Bob McGready, one of the pioneer presenters in the early days of regional television, has died at the age of 85.

Born in Ireland, McGready came to Australia in the late-'40s after war service with the Royal Navy.

After working for Sydney newspaper Truth and later in advertising, McGready moved to radio station 2GZ Orange as a news editor and, while there, hired a young breakfast announcer named John Laws.

With the advent of regional television in the '60s, McGready devised a comedy program called Grocer And Madam for local station CBN8.  The program then evolved into a quiz program, Jackpot Quiz, which ran for over a decade.  As well as presenting the program locally in Orange, McGready also travelled to Canberra, Newcastle, Sydney and Brisbane to present local versions of the same program.  As with many regional TV programs of that era, there is not much archived or recorded in history about Jackpot Quiz.  However, a rare clip of the program, which appears to be from McGready's final edition of Jackpot Quiz at CBN8, now appears on YouTube:

Twenty years ago, McGready moved to the Byron Bay district in NSW and became involved in community radio at local station BAYFM, and from 1993 presented a Saturday morning music program until only two years ago.

The funeral service for Bob McGready, who in 2001 proudly claimed to be Australia's oldest radio broadcaster, was held at the Byron Bay Community Centre which is home to BAYFM.

Source: Byron Shire News
YouTube: FrozenDoberman

Ten News knocked Out Of The Blue

There is a new weeknight soapie coming to Australian TV - something of a rarity these days apart from Neighbours (pictured) and Home And Away which have been plugging away since the 1980s - but, like those two soapie stalwarts in their earlier days, there are some quirks surrounding this new show.

Out Of The Blue was commissioned by BBC1 to fill the gap left by Neighbours when rival network Five picked up the series for local broadcast.  But despite Out Of The Blue being made by the Brits, it was actually produced in Australia.  Sort of an attempt to fight Neighbours' defection to Five with a fresh-faced sun-drenched Aussie soap, and seeing as our own networks haven't created anything of that sort for a while BBC decided to make their own. 

However, the viewers didn't really take to Out Of The Blue when it debuted in the UK earlier this year.  As a result, the series was bumped from the mainstream BBC1 to the alternative BBC2 where ratings have continued to dive.

Now it's been announced that Five, the network whose Neighbours purchase prompted Out Of The Blue (pictured) in the first place, has picked up all 130 episodes of the series and will re-screen it on their multi-channel, Fiver, in the new year.  If the show can attract a new following on the more youth-focused Fiver, as opposed to the more conservative BBC, then it may potentially pave the way for production of a second series.  And if it does that, it would be very reminiscent of our own Neighbours being axed by Seven after one season, to be revived by Network Ten.

But before Five snapped up the show, Network Ten has had eyes on the show for screening here.  The network has a few (pardon the pun) idle timeslots at present, not least the 6.00pm to 7.30pm bracket, and a new locally-based soap would also give them additional points to fulfilling their local drama quota and, if slotted into the early evenings, might also renew some viewer interest in Neighbours.

Curiously, news from Ten is that it does indeed plan to show Out Of The Blue in a weeknight timeslot.

10.30pm.

A strange choice of timeslot given the series appears to have been made with a daytime/early-evening audience in mind given its BBC timeslots.  It's also an odd choice in that it bumps Ten's late night news, after eighteen years, to 11.00pm.

Ten News had dutifully held the 10.30pm (or thereabouts) timeslot for the network since the early-'90s, when the first Gulf War erupted and Ten had the resources of news giant CNN behind it.  Ten Second Edition News (not to be confused as being Ten-Second Edition News!) was first with Eric Walters at the helm, then Anne Fulwood, then Sandra Sully (pictured) since 1996.  Despite Ten's normal lightweight news position against Seven and Nine, it has fought off late-night news bulletins from both networks.  Even though Nightline was axed from Nine only recently, it had long ago been bumped from the 10.30pm to a later hour to avoid competition with Ten.

It is a curious move to put in an untested series into that timeslot at the expense of the one program that has worked there for many years - and at the moment Ten has very few consistent performers in its schedule.  And when it comes to news, viewers don't like change, they like stability and consistency.  So, even though Ten News is only being moved thirty minutes later, that is enough for a lot of viewers to decide to give the news a miss and head to bed.  It might also see ABC1's Lateline pick up a few new viewers as well.

Out Of The Blue. Premieres Monday 17 November, 10.30pm.  Ten.

Source: TVRage, TVTonight

1978: November 4-10

Their Restless Years
Three of The Restless Years' more 'senior' cast members were asked by TV Times to recall some of their own 'restless years'.  June Salter (pictured, bottom right) recalled hiding her smoking habit from her parents, "when I finally had the courage to tell mum 'I'm 23 and I'm going to smoke in front of you from now on,' she replied 'I don't see why not, you've been doing it behind my back since you were 17."  John Hamblin admitted to being a bit of a loner and spending a lot time bird-watching: "not the two-legged variety, the feathery kind.  Birds, history and castles were my passions." But at the age of 20 he was seduced by a woman 15 years his senior, changing his whole attitude to life.  Jill Forster said in her younger years she was "all those terrible things: Head prefect, school captain, very bookish.  Probably because I was an only child."  She later had a string of failed romances from the time she was 17, "I was always a romantic in search of the great love."

Our Sally hits the jackpot!
Former Young Talent Time cast member Sally Boyden has just returned from Hollywood where she completed a role in the movie Little Dragons, and is now to return to the US to star in the Mary Poppins-type film The Adventures Of Holly Hobby.  The young star, now set to become the highest paid Australian child performer to date, is also contracted to appear in a thirteen-part TV series based on the telemovie Lassie The New Beginning. 

TV's reluctant prince of pop
Countdown's Ian 'Molly' Meldrum (pictured, interviewing HRH Prince Charles on Countdown's 100th episode) can't sing, dance or act, admits that he isn't the most articulate speaker, and hates being on camera.  Despite this he is one of Australian TV's most influential personalities.  "I never wanted to work in front of the camera - in fact, all I ever wanted to do was to be a record producer and a journalist," he told TV Times. "If I had my way I wouldn't be on screen at all."  Meldrum's TV career started miming pop songs on ATV0's Kommotion and later presenting a weekly segment on Uptight, a program which Meldrum describes as "the best thing ever to happen in Australian pop.  It was the forerunner to everything."  After working in London and the US, Meldrum reluctantly returned to TV in 1973 to present a rock report on a Saturday morning program for HSV7, and then the following year was involved in a trial run for a new pop music show for ABC called Countdown.  But despite hosting one of the most popular TV shows in the country and earning what he calls a "comfortable" wage, Meldrum still says he's hopeless with money, forgetting to pay a string of parking fines and, after a recent burglary, realised he'd also forgotten to renew his insurance, "I have an accountant to look after my interests now."

Briefly:
Cast members of The Restless Years made a guest appearance on the 1000th episode of Bernard King's (pictured) morning TV show King's Kitchen, to screen next month on the 0-10 Network and on STW9 Perth. 

Cast and crew associated with the new 0-10 Network series Prisoner have been banned from speaking to the press.

TV Times reporter Joanna Parsons was involved in a plot to lure actor Ron Frazer into a fake interview which would be 'interrupted' by Roger Climpson claiming "Ron Frazer, This Is Your Life!"

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"What is going on?  We have one variety show in Adelaide, The Ernie Sigley Show, apart from the eastern imports.  Is this all Adelaide can offer?  Compared to The Don Lane Show and Mike Walsh, the Ernie Sigley show is dead.  Poor old Ernie, I think it is time he gave it away before it gives him away."  G. Culbertson, SA.

"Having only one channel here, ABC, we are forced to watch with disgust, episodes of The Truckies.  I feel The Truckies is a slur on hard-working and responsible truck drivers and makes them look like morons."  N. Ford, NT.

"I think The Truckies is thoroughly entertaining and John Wood (pictured), who plays Stokey, is one of my favourite Australian actors."  G. Wallenda, WA.

"I wish to complain about a program on our local TV station, a special The Battle Of Eureka Stockade, rated A.  It was on at 5pm and this is a time that young children are watching television.  I thought it would be a good educational program, but with words like 'bastards', 'slut', 'rip your guts out' and so on, it was not very educational."  E. O'Connor, QLD.

What's On (November 4-10):
The 0-10 Network has secured the rights to televising the events of the VRC Melbourne Cup Carnival for the first time.  Saturday's coverage starts with a Cup Carnival Breakfast, held at the ATV0 studios and hosted by Michael Williamson, followed by Derby Day coverage from Flemington.  On Tuesday, ATV0 presents eight hours of Melbourne Cup Day coverage, starting at 9.00am with a Melbourne Cup Day Preview, then at 11.00am Michael Schildberger hosts six hours of Melbourne Cup coverage, with races called by Clem Dimsey.  Thirteen cameras will be placed around Flemington Racecourse to capture the day's events including fashion displays.  ATV0 then returns to Flemington for Oaks Day on Thursday.

The non-ratings season is now evident with some regular shows having finished up or moved to alternative timeslots and some lesser-known replacements filling in. 

GTV9's The Young Doctors (pictured) has been moved to 8.30pm two nights a week, with its usual 6.00pm timeslot filled by repeats of the US comedy Nanny And The Professor.  And filling the gap left by The Daryl And Ossie Show, which finished on ATV0 last week, is an American game show All Star Anything Goes, featuring teams representing various US sitcoms and dramas including Eight Is Enough, The Brady Bunch, The Jeffersons and The Waltons.  ATV0's The Peter Couchman Show has been replaced by late-night movies, and British series Coronation Street is returned to GTV9, screening Monday and Tuesday nights.

Despite the exodus of some programs for the summer, regular programs including Cop Shop, The Sullivans, The Don Lane Show, The Mike Walsh Show, The Steve Raymond Show, Blankety Blanks, The Restless Years, Willesee At Seven, Countdown, The Inventors, Micro Macro (pictured) and This Day Tonight are still in the schedule.

Sunday night movies are the Australian film The Night Nurse (HSV7), Rosetti And Ryan (GTV9) and Assault On A Queen (ATV0), while ABC presents the Australian Opera production of  Fra Diavolo.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 4 November 1978.  ABC/ACP

Ten HD becomes One HD

For those of you who have enjoyed watching your favourite Network Ten programs in high-definition - shows like House, Thank God You're Here, Rove, Neighbours, Australian Idol and even Ten News, Neighbours and 9am - your days may soon be numbered because, while Ten are no doubt grateful for your support, from April next year it appears Ten will turn over its high-definition channel entirely over to sport.

In launching Australia's first 24/7 free-to-air sports channel, TenHD will become OneHD, so named because '1' is the digital channel number for the HD channel.  OneHD will also be simulcast on a separate standard-definition digital channel.

The new channel is part of the relaxing of multi-channel restrictions currently placed on the commercial broadcasters.  Up until 2007, none of the commercial channels were allowed to provide multiple programming options via digital, and only from last year it was possible to have dedicated high-definition programming. 

From 1 January 2009, commercial networks will be permitted to offer multi-channel programming in both standard and high-definition formats.

OneHD will tackle pay television's grip on wall-to-wall sports coverage with its own 24-hour schedule of various local and international sports, including AFL, netball, cricket, Formula 1, NFL, NBA, Major League baseball, golf and tennis.  Ten has also scored a coup by securing exclusive rights to Swimming Australia events including Australian Swimming Championships, Pan Pacific Championships and FINA World Short Course events. 

As current legislation dictates, major events such as the AFL Grand Final and the 2010 Commonwealth Games will be shown on Ten's primary channel as well as in high-definition on OneHD.

OneHD also promises to expand its long-running Sports Tonight format with two daily editions of the program.  The channel also promises programming dedicated to AFL and other sports analysis.  Ten sports stalwart Stephen Quartermain and Fox Sports commentator Robert Walls are reported to be fronting a post-round AFL program being proposed for the new channel.

The move to OneHD is a bold move in that Ten's efforts in launching TenHD with some fanfare last year may now be redundant.  As well, networks (including Ten) are already losing favour with viewers over current trends towards sudden and numerous schedule changes, intrusive advertising and late-running programs, so for Ten to wipe out its high-definition mainstream programming, in favour of what is essentially niche market programming, is a risky move that could further alienate viewers, which will no doubt be something that its rivals Seven and Nine will endeavour to pounce on.

Tanya Halesworth

Tanya Halesworth, one of ABC's first female television presenters, died earlier this month at the age of 73.

Born in Brisbane in 1935, Halesworth moved with her family to Sydney and after finishing school became involved in small theatre companies and appeared in early TV commercials.

In 1958, the 23-year-old successfully beat 200 other applicants for an announcing and presenting role at ABC's Sydney station ABN2.  Later, in amongst studies and theatre performences, she also appeared as a presenter on Six O'Clock Rock.  In 1961, she won a TV Week Logie award for Most Popular Female Personality in NSW.

Halesworth moved to the Seven Network in 1962, and there met her future husband, announcer and interviewer John Bailey.  Although Halesworth had already been married, and divorced, and had declared that "entirely against man's instincts to be tied down to one woman", she later married Bailey after returning from working in the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s.  The pair worked at TEN10 Sydney before moving to GTV9 in Melbourne. 

In June 1973, Halesworth launched the Nine Network's daytime current affairs program No Man's Land, a ground-breaking effort given the program had an all-female line-up, including reporters Mickie de Stoop and Susan Peacock, and was determined to "liberate the women from the kitchen sinks and laundries for 30 minutes every day to keep up with the news."  The program won a TV Week Logie in 1975 for Outstanding Contribution to Daytime TV.

Halesworth then returned to ABC in the 1980s to host the arts program Sunday Spectrum, then moved to the Ten Network's Good Morning Australia, before leaving television.  She then went on to a career in public relations and later in psychology.

Halesworth returned to Queensland in the late 1990s following the death of Bailey, and continued working until she was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. 

Tanya Halesworth is survived by her sons John, Michael and Keiran and their families, and six grandchildren. 

Source: SMH, Australian Television Information Archive

NITV goes to Sydney

Australia's national indigenous broadcaster, National Indigenous Television (NITV), is expanding its coverage by gaining access to Sydney's Digital 44 free-to-air service.

NITV commenced operation in July last year, initially broadcasting via the Optus Aurora satellite and re-transmitted through the facilities of Imparja Television in remote areas.  The channel is also available via Foxtel, Optus, Austar, Neighbourhood Cable and TransACT pay-TV platforms and even via the in-house television system at Parliament House in Canberra.  The expansion to Digital 44 marks the broadcaster's first free-to-air transmission in a capital city, adding to the 150 transmission sites already in operation in remote and regional communities.

As the name implies, NITV provides programming made by, and aimed at, Australia's indigenous communities, including children's programs, documentaries, drama, music, entertainment, news and current affairs.

Earlier this year NITV's sports program, Marngrook Footy Show, won Best Sports Program at the Antenna Awards in Melbourne, and NITV and SBS were broadcast partners for the Deadly Awards held at the Sydney Opera House earlier this month.  NITV was also a sponsor at this year's St Kilda Film Festival in Melbourne.

NITV has also joined with international broadcasters including Maori Television New Zealand, S4C Wales, SABC South Africa, BBC Scotland, APTN Canada, Taiwan Indigenous Network, TG4 Ireland and Australia's SBS, to form the World Indigenous Broadcast Network, giving NITV programs the potential to be given a global audience.

Digital 44 is a datacasting service operating on an extended trial basis in Sydney.  The service is not allowed to provide mainstream television but carries a number of niche or narrowcast channels including Expo Channel, Australian Christian Channel, news and weather reports (ABC), parliamentary broadcasts and NSW government information.

 

Source: NITV

Denton's had enough of Rope

After six seasons and almost 200 episodes, Andrew Denton (pictured) has decided it's time to move on from his weekly interview show Enough Rope With Andrew Denton.

Beginning on ABC in March 2003, Enough Rope With Andrew Denton marked a return to television after seven years for Denton.  His TV career began in 1988 as host of variety/comedy show Blah Blah Blah on ABC, followed by The Money Or The Gun and the Friday night sports show Live And Sweaty.  In the mid-1990s, Denton moved to the Seven Network with his own self-titled show that ran for two years, before moving into breakfast radio on Sydney's Triple M with Denton colleague Amanda Keller.

On the same night that Enough Rope With Andrew Denton premiered the Seven Network launched its own talk show, The Chat Room, featuring a number of radio personalities including Keller.  The Chat Room had a short life, having proved that breakfast radio presenters don't always translate to prime time television, but Enough Rope went on to become a consistent ratings performer for ABC with Denton's interviewing style becoming a hit with viewers.

Enough Rope has attracted acclaim for its high-profile guests from a range of fields including politics, business, entertainment, sports, the arts and medicine.  The program has also featured people behind major news stories, such as Joanne Lees, the partner of abducted English tourist Peter Falconio, and Major Michael Mori, the military lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.

Some of the international guests to have appeared on Enough Rope: Bill Clinton, Michael Parkinson, Jerry Seinfeld, Sir Bob Geldof, Billy Connolly, Al Gore, Sir Elton John, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Jamie Oliver, Bono, Helen Mirren, Rudy Giuliani, Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Mary of Denmark. Local guests have included: Steve and Terri Irwin, Jane and Glenn McGrath, Pauline Hanson, Maggie Tabberer, Michael Leunig, John Laws, Jimmy Barnes, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Mike Willesee, Raelene Boyle, Judith Lucy.

And part of the charm of Enough Rope was not just its high-profile guest list, but also in featuring 'ordinary' Australians, from less-glamorous fields, such as nurses, cab drivers, priests, driving instructors and butchers, all of whose stories could be as equally enthralling as those of the big-ticket names.

The program also staged a ten-year reunion of cancer sufferers featured in an earlier Denton documentary, The Topic Of Cancer, and has taken the show out to regional Australia, to towns such as Rainbow and Mt Isa, to give a unique insight into rural Australia. 

This year, Enough Rope also featured a special series of episodes, Elders, featuring interviews with some of our most prominent older citizens.  And Denton was nominated earlier this year for a TV Week Gold Logie award as Most Popular Personality on Australian Television.

In moving away from Enough Rope, Denton is keen to pursue other projects behind the cameras with his company Zapruder's Other Films.  The company has already turned The Chaser into a household name with CNNNN and The Election Chaser, and also had success this year with The Gruen Transfer, going behind-the-scenes in the advertising industry.

The final episode of Enough Rope With Andrew Denton appears on Monday 8 December on ABC1.

1978: October 28-November 3

Sammys Golden Night
It was a Who's Who of Australian Showbusiness when 800 stars, producers and writers gathered at Sydney's Seymour Centre on 11 October for the third annual Sammy Awards.  The awards, held in partnership between TV Times, the Variety Club of Australia charity and the Seven Network, honour the Australian film and television industries.  The event is also a major fund-raising effort for Variety which has collected over $30,000 over the last three years.

1978 Sammy Awards TV category winners: Gold (male): Mike Walsh Gold (female): June Salter Chips Rafferty Memorial Award: Ken G Hall Best Actor in a Single TV Performance: Tony Bonner (End Of Summer) Best Actress in a Single TV Performance: Davina Whitehouse (The Night Nurse) Best Actor in a TV Series: George Mallaby (Cop Shop) Best Actress in a TV Series: Lorraine Bayly (The Sullivans) Best Variety Performer: Julie Anthony Best Variety Program: Julie Anthony's First Special Best Comedy Program: The Norman Gunston Show Best Drama Series: The Sullivans Best TV Play: End Of Summer Best News Coverage: Brisbane shoot-out (QTQ9) Best Documentary: A Big Country Best Current Affairs Program: Four Corners 'Utah' report Best Children's Series: Wombat (BTQ7) Best Sports Coverage: Australian Open Golf 1977 Best Light Entertainment Program: The Mike Walsh Show Best Writer TV Series: Tony Morphett (The Sullivans) Best Writer TV Play: Cliff Green (End Of Summer)

News team under fire in Vietnam
An ABC news team came under fire on the Cambodian-Vietnamese border, during a four-week news-gathering visit to Vietnam.  ABC's Singapore correspondent Tony Joyce, sound recordist Steven de Vroom and cameraman David Westray, were filming material for a documentary, Vietnam Today, to screen nationally on ABC later in the year.  "There was quite a bit of sniper fire and shelling so we were creeping and crawling, close to the ground.  We were warned if the Cambodians saw us they would assume we were Russian military advisors.  Then they would really let loose.  Luckily they didn't," Joyce told TV Times.  The Vietnam visit is only the second by Australian newsmen since the war ended in 1975.  A team from the 0-10 Network had been there earlier this year.

Polly put the kettle on for Kerry
Before Against The Wind and the role of convict woman Polly came along, actress Kerry McGuire (pictured) had almost despaired that her big acting break would ever happen.  The 32-year-old actress, who had studied at NIDA and scored some roles in TV series such as ABC's Dynasty and the Seven Network's Catwalk and stage productions including Hedda Gabler and Antony And Cleopatra, was still waiting for a big break but feels now with Against The Wind she is able to move into the next stage of her acting career: "I think I'm just beginning to break into my age group.  I've been a mature style of actress competing with some very good older women.  Now I'm growing into the era that should be mine..."

Briefly:
Marcia Hines is to present another series of six shows for ABC in the new year, but still has commitments in Europe to fulfil before she can start work on the series.

Former Homicide cop Don Barker is back in Melbourne for a guest role in the new 0-10 Network series Prisoner, now in production.

Former Australian Test skipper Bobby Simpson is to be chief commentator for the Gillette Cup series of cricket matches to be telecast on the 0-10 Network over the next three months. 

Viewpoint: Letters to the Editor:
"Why, oh why has TEN10 decided to put The Steve Raymond Show on at 1.30 of all times?  Don't they realise that a very popular show is on the other channel at the same time.  Steve Raymond will put on a fantastic show, but after watching Days Of Our Lives for the past twelve years, I think TEN10 could have found any other time to put the show on." E. Fuller, NSW.

"Although I am enjoying Against The Wind (pictured), I find it difficult to believe that after a hard life for 10 years that people would not age at all.  It is a pity that the continuity was not up to the excellent standard of the rest of the series so far." J. Higson, NSW.

"I really enjoyed the article in TV Times about viewers who ring in to TV stations.  However, I hope they got a better reception than I did on the two occasions I phoned TV stations here in Sydney.  When I called ATN7 to congratulate them on their camera-work in the 1977 Hardie-Ferodo at Bathurst, the switchboard operator was amazed that a woman would even watch motor racing, let alone comment on the camera-work.  Then I called ABC to say how much I was enjoying Sailor, but the girl on the switchboard  didn't go a bundle on my taste in TV programs either.  I'll never ring in again, that's for sure." M. Bennett, NSW.

What's On (October 28-November 3):
On Saturday, ATV0 presents the Gillette Cup cricket, live from the Gabba in Brisbane, for the match between Queensland and South Australia.  On Sunday, the Gillette Cup moves to the Sydney Cricket Ground for the match between New South Wales and Victoria.

Denise Drysdale (pictured) is Ernie Sigley's special guest on HSV7's Penthouse '78.

On Monday night's A Big Country on ABC, reporter Kenyon Castle follows jazz musicians Don Burrows and George Golla on their tour through the mining areas of the north west.  The program features aboriginal performers David Gulpilil and David Blanasi.

Vince Lovegrove presents a two-hour special on HSV7, Australian Music To The World, paying tribute to the Australian artists who have achieved international acclaim.  Lovegrove and his film crew travelled the world to catch up with Australians including the Bee Gees, the Little River Band, Olivia Newton-John, Peter Allen and Sherbet.

The Naked Vicar Show and The Best Of Norman Gunston appear on HSV7 on Wednesday night, while on GTV9 there's a one-hour special An Evening With Les Girls, recorded at the Carousel Room of the Chevron Hotel, Surfers Paradise.

On Friday night, ATV0 presents the final episode of The Daryl And Ossie Show, after forty episodes, and The Peter Couchman Show presents a special Melbourne Cup preview on Friday night.

Jeanne Little (pictured) and John Ewart are guest panelists on ABC's Micro Macro on Friday night, joining host Noel Ferrier and regulars Carol Raye and Stuart Wagstaff.

Sunday night movies are The Shootist (HSV7), A Touch Of Class (GTV9) and The Drowning Pool (ATV0), while ABC's Sunday night opera is L'Heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour) produced at ABC's Sydney studios and featuring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Source: TV Times (Melbourne edition), 28 October 1978.  ABC/ACP

Melbourne's Guide turns 18

The Herald Sun Guide has been a weekly supplement in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper since October 1990. Though it could be said that the Guide actually had its origins as Melbourne's Listener In which began as a radio listing back in 1925 and continued publication until 1987, ending its days as TV Scene. The Sun newspaper at that time had only recently launched a seven-day TV guide in its Thursday edition, which later moved to Wednesdays after the demise of TV Scene, which also used to come out on a Wednesday. Another common link between TV Scene and the Guide was that of Robert Fidgeon who wrote for TV Scene and later wrote for and edited the Guide until his passing last year.

This week's edition of the Guide, to celebrate its 18th birthday, featured network personalities Rove McManus, Rebecca Gibney and Bert Newton (pictured, above), thus representing each of the three networks, each recalling various highlights of their careers over the past eighteen years.

Back in 1990, 16-year-old Rove McManus was in Perth performing in a high school musical production of Oklahoma ("thankfully for everybody I didn't move into musical theatre") before eventually coming to Melbourne to host a variety show on Channel 31 called The Loft, attracting high praise from the Guide's Robert Fidgeon (pictured). In September 1999, McManus began hosting his own late-night show on the Nine Network and when the network decided not to renew after ten weeks he wound up at Network Ten where his company Roving Enterprises now heads a number of prime-time shows for the network, and has led to McManus winning three TV Week Gold Logies awards.

New Zealand-born Rebecca Gibney has been a regular fixture on Australian TV for much of the last eighteen years, with roles in popular productions The Flying Doctors, All Together Now and the Halifax f.p. and Small Claims telemovies, plus mini-series Day Of The Roses, Kangaroo Palace and Come In Spinner. A break from regular series television saw Gibney move to Tasmania, but still appearing in programs such as Sensing Murder and Venus And Mars. The TV Week Logie award-winning actress has returned to television drama this year in the popular Seven Network series Packed To The Rafters.

Bert Newton recalls that at the age of 18, he was starting in television as a host of HSV7's The Late Show. By the time the Guide began publication in October 1990, Newton had been in television for over thirty years but his TV career was looking a bit uncertain following the demise of The Bert Newton Show which had struggled to make a dent against Midday With Ray Martin the previous year. Things turned around in 1992 when Newton made a surprise signing with the Ten Network to host its new Morning Show, later changing to Good Morning Australia, and redefining mid-morning television. Newton eventually left Ten when Good Morning Australia wrapped up three years ago, and returned to the Nine Network to host Bert's Family Feud, and later 20 To 1 and What A Year.

To commemorate the 18th birthday of the Herald Sun Guide, Darren Devlyn proposed his list of the top 18 TV stars who've made the biggest impact on TV over the last eighteen years:

1. Rob Sitch and Working Dog Productions, with hit shows The Late Show, Frontline, The Panel, Thank God You're Here and The Hollowmen under their belt.

2. Daryl Somers, for his broad appeal in popular shows Hey Hey It's Saturday and Dancing With The Stars.

3. Don Burke (pictured), for bringing gardening to prime-time commercial television and hence spawning a whole string of similar lifestyle programs

4. Ray Martin
5. Eddie McGuire
6. Bert Newton
7. Brian Naylor
8. Jana Wendt (pictured)
9. Gina Riley and Jane Turner (Kath & Kim)
10. Rove McManus
11. Bruce McAvaney
12. Lisa McCune
13. Aaron Pedersen
14. Rebecca Gibney
15. Andrew Denton (pictured)
16. Georgie Parker
17. Claudia Karvan
18. Gary Sweet

Source: Herald Sun, 22 October 2008