Cover: Jo Beth Taylor (Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show)
Sex, guys and videotape!
Elle McFeast (Libbi Gorr) is going to some extreme depths for her upcoming ABC documentary, Male Sexuality. One scene called for her to take a camera underwater to film just what happens to a male when he stands waist deep in cool water. “I just hope I get a cinematography credit,” she laughs. The documentary features Elle interviewing a number of celebrities and sports stars sharing their own personal anecdotes. “It encompasses everything,” she told TV Week. “There is so much more to a man’s sexuality. I tell you, I’m learning so much. I wish I had learned it at 15 years of age — it would have made life just that much easier!” As well as the in-depth interviews there is also a fair slice of comedy in the program, with Elle also performing her own version of the Eighties disco hit It’s Raining Men. “The song, like the special, is a celebration of men and male sexuality,” she said.
Bang goes the network
The Seven Network‘s new season promo for 1994 kicks off with a bang — in particular Home And Away stars Dieter Brummer and Tristan Bancks being blasted through the air by an explosion triggered by Agro. The promo also features Melissa George on rollerskates, Adriana Xenides, John Burgess and Rob Brough on trampolines, The Great Outdoors‘ Penny Cook and Bridget Adams abseiling and Hey Dad! stars Angela Keep and Matthew Krok keeping Andrew Denton under wraps. The promo took a month of planning and seven days to film in Melbourne and Sydney.
Logies ’94: The shape of things to come
The 36th annual TV Week Logie Awards, to be presented from Melbourne’s World Congress Centre in April, will feature a re-designed award statuette. While the Logie will maintain its original form it has been slightly remodeled to incorporate TV Week‘s new masthead design. As voting commences for the 1994 awards there is a change to the public-voted categories with the drama category split into Most Popular Series and Most Popular Drama. This change reflects the shift to shorter-run dramas such as Law Of The Land and Police Rescue and telemovie The Feds in comparison to year-long series such as Neighbours and Home And Away.
Briefly…
- The Seven Network is on the hunt for a host for its new game show, Man O Man. There is believed to be a short list of four contenders and a decision will need to be made quickly as taping is due to start in mid-January. In preparation for production of the series, the concrete for the elaborate swimming pool to be installed in the studio has been poured.
- Filming is due to start next month on the Cody telemovies featuring Gary Sweet. Three telemovies will be shot over a 12-week period.
- Edith Bliss has been dropped as a reviewer on ABC‘s TVTV series. Taking her place on the panel will be Caroline Baum, features editor for Vogue Australia magazine, sitting alongside existing presenters James Valentine and Sueyan Cox.
- Neighbours star Bruce Samazan will be combining his acting commitments with a new role as host of ABC‘s country music program, Stampede. The new show is set to debut in late February.
Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
“Last week we previewed some of the changes in store for the 1994 TV Week Logie Awards and, having come this far, no doubt you’ve already seen details of even more. (This week) the new Logie statuette is unveiled for the first time. It is not a radical departure from the shape of the award now so familiar in Australia, but it’s still a marked change, nevertheless. TV Week itself has undergone so many changes during the past year and, since the Logies are our awards, it was felt the statuettes handed out on Australian television’s biggest night of the year should be a reflection. To my knowledge, it is only the second time the statuette has been redesigned in the past 36 years — a tribute to the original, which still has a futuristic look to it after all this time. John Logie Baird, the inventor of television after whom Graham Kennedy named the awards, would, I’m sure, be proud of the little statuette’s durability and longevity.”
Program Highlights (Melbourne/Regional Victoria, 8-14 January):
Saturday: Today’s sport includes the Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket (9.50am, Nine/VIC TV), Australian Women’s And Men’s Hardcourt Championships (11am, Seven/Prime) and the AGC Women’s Master Pairs Lawn Bowls (12.30pm, ABC).
Sunday: Sunday night movies are repeats of The Spy Who Loved Me (Seven/Prime), Rent-A-Cop (Nine/VIC TV) and Short Circuit (Ten/SCN).
Monday: In the series return of Home And Away (7pm, Seven/Prime) for 1994, Alf (Ray Meagher) is in trouble with the police, and Angel (Melissa George) is upset when Shane (Dieter Brummer) judges her over her past.
Tuesday: The Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket (2.20pm, Nine/VIC TV) moves to the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Thursday: In Beyond 2000 (7.30pm, Ten/SCN), Andrew Waterworth visits Italy where he discovers the sky scooter — a single seater helicopter; Iain Finlay discovers the world’s biggest nail gun, designed to shoot six metre long nails into the soil; and Simon Reeve takes a look at a cold weather snack bar.
Friday: The Benson And Hedges World Series Cricket moves to the WACA, Perth (4.30pm, Nine/VIC TV). In Home And Away (7pm, Seven/Prime), Shane (Dieter Brummer) finally sees since about Angel (Melissa George).
Source: TV Week (Victoria Country edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 8 January 1994. Southdown Press
