96 mix-up confuses viewers!

Foxtel‘s Arena channel has had to apologise to viewers for a recent incident where episodes of US soap The Young And The Restless were played out of sequence.

The programming glitch sparked a reminder of a similar occurrence that happened here no less than 40 years ago.

Human error was to blame for an incident where episodes of the top-rating series Number 96 were played out of order on Melbourne channel ATV0 back in April 1973.

Viewers elsewhere saw the episodes in their correct order.

The confusion occurred when a staff member at ATV0 had accidentally scheduled the episode meant  for Tuesday night to go to air on Monday, and the episode meant for Monday night to go to air on Tuesday.

Viewers were confused when after seeing Sally (Christina Danielle) separate from husband Don Finlayson (Joe Hasham) on Monday night, with Sally upset over Don’s homosexual activities, the couple (pictured) were seen on Tuesday night happily having dinner together.

Similarly, viewers on Monday saw Aldo Godolfus (Johnny Lockwood) searching for his missing wife Roma (Philippa Baker), yet on Tuesday he had just received the news that she had left home.

Although the channel made no mention of the mix-up on air, the confusion led to ATV0’s switchboard being inundated with calls from confused viewers.

Station general manager David Hall explained to TV Week that a mix up with videotapes had occurred after a staff member had assumed that an episode was broadcast on Good Friday.

To put the episodes back in their correct order, the episode originally meant for Tuesday and aired on Monday was re-screened on Wednesday night before the correct episode for that evening.

The mix-up became a talking point for The Graham Kennedy Show on rival channel GTV9.

Source: TV Week, 5 May 1973. TV Tonight