Apr 05 2020

Obituary: Ron Graham

  • 5 April 2020

Ron Graham, actor on stage, film and television, has died peacefully at the age of 93.

Born in England, Graham started performing when he joined the circus at the age of 16. After completing National Service, he enrolled in a drama course and then came to Australia. For the next 20 years he worked mainly in the theatre and did some television work, including appearances in Whiplash, Contrabandits and Riptide.

Dynasty: Nick Tate, John Tate, Ron Graham, Kevin Miles

In 1969, he played the part of newspaper baron John Mason in the ABC play Dynasty, which went on to a series in 1970-71.

He then played the part of Alan Stone in the ABC series Certain Women for four years.


YouTube: FrozenDoberman

Other TV credits included Mrs Finnegan, The Spoiler, Spyforce, Matlock Police, Division 4, Homicide, Glenview High, Cop Shop, Waterloo Station, Whose Baby, 1915, A Country Practice, Blue Murder, Heartbreak High, GP and Home And Away.

He is survived by son, actor Marcus Graham.

Source: Daily Telegraph, IMDB. TV Times, 7 October 1970, 14 August 1971.

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/04/obituary-ron-graham.html

Mar 31 2020

Good Friday Appeal cancels telethon

  • 31 March 2020

 

For the first time in 60 years, there will be no all-day telethon for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal.

In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the Appeal has had to cancel its signature event, the traditional Good Friday telethon, as well as other events including Kids Day Out, Run For The Kids and the Cadbury Easter Egg Hunt.

Instead of the telethon, host broadcaster Seven in Melbourne will present a one-hour Good Friday Appeal Special, hosted by Peter Mitchell and Jane Bunn, to pay tribute to the work and achievements of the Royal Children’s Hospital, which this year celebrates its 150th year.

Despite the lack of telethon and public events, the Appeal will continue to raise funds via its website:

https://donation.goodfridayappeal.com.au/

Source: Good Friday Appeal, Good Friday Appeal

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/03/good-friday-appeal-cancels-telethon.html

Mar 28 2020

Pandemic takes out TV Week Logie Awards ceremony

  • 28 March 2020

TV Week has announced that due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, this year’s TV Week Logie Awards ceremony on the Gold Coast has been cancelled.

The event was due to take place on 28 June at The Star Gold Coast.

In a statement published on its website today, Fiona Connolly from publisher Bauer Media said: “Given the global COVID-19 pandemic the 2020 TV Week Logie Awards will not proceed as planned on the Gold Coast on Sunday, June 28, nor any of the ancillary public events.

“But we will continue with our nominations announcement and online voting campaign and are working with our partners on a TV broadcast alternative and will advise of those details when we have them.”

The last time a Logies ceremony was cancelled was in 1963, when overseas guest Tony Hancock became ill just days before the event. With the list of winners already going to print in the next issue of TV Week, it was instead decided to hold smaller presentations in each city later in the year.

Sydney’s TV Week Logie Award winners for 1963

Very few industries have not been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. In television terms there have been numerous programs halt production, others have adopted alternative production models, while travel bans have also caused widespread disruption to the industry.

Source: TV Week 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/03/pandemic-takes-out-tv-week-logie-awards-ceremony.html

Mar 23 2020

Seven Tasmania names new anchor

  • 23 March 2020

Southern Cross Austereo has announced Kim Millar as the new weeknight news anchor for Nightly News Seven Tasmania.

Millar replaces Jo Palmer who resigned from Seven Tasmania last month. Weather presenter Peter Murphy has been temporary newsreader while a replacement for Palmer was being appointed.

Millar’s career began at Southern Cross Network (now Seven Tasmania) thirty years ago and she was weekend newsreader for almost ten years up until 2011. She has also worked as a producer and media trainer as well as MC for corporate and community events.

In a statement issued today, Millar said: “TV studios have always been a big part of my life, so I guess it really is like returning to the family fold. Nightly News on Seven Tasmania has played a significant role in keeping Tasmanians up to date with what’s happening around them. I am eager to maintain that, and alongside a skilled team, continually strive to be the state’s leading and trusted source for local, national and international news.”

Millar starts at Nightly News on 20 April.

Source: Southern Cross Austereo

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/03/seven-tasmania-names-new-anchor.html

Mar 20 2020

Nine launches new channel 9Rush

  • 20 March 2020

The Nine Network has announced that it will launch a new channel, 9Rush, at 7.00pm on Sunday 5 April.

The new channel, with a focus on reality and adventure programming from Discovery Inc, will broadcast on channel 96.

9Rush will launch with the premiere of the new series of Top Gear UK. Other programs to feature include Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail, Street Outlaws, Live PD, Kindig Customs, Alaskan Bush People, Running Wild With Bear Grylls and Man v Wild.  Nine bills the programming line-up as new to free-to-air.

Nine’s program director Hamish Turner said in a statement issued today: “Nine are thrilled to partner with Discovery to deliver premium, free to air first content. As a global leader in real-life entertainment, Discovery’s dedication to serving audiences with content which inspires, informs and entertains is second to none.

“The deal will deliver Nine and 9Now thousands of free to air premiere episodes. 9Rush audiences will be spoilt for choice, with an extensive range of high action and adventure programming, available on Australia’s latest channel and available free on 9Now.”

It is not clear if the new channel will be available through Nine’s regional affiliates including Southern Cross, Tasmania Digital Television, Nine West and Imparja.

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/03/nine-launches-new-channel-9rush.html

Mar 14 2020

Nineties soap gets online re-run

  • 14 March 2020


YouTube: southaustraliatv

Of all the vintage soaps to get a new lease on life online, Network Ten‘s Echo Point would have been way down the list of likely candidates. It ranks on the list of some of Australian TV’s most infamous soapie disasters among such titles like Arcade, Holiday Island, Paradise Beach and Family And Friends.

The weeknight soap debuted in June 1995, slotted in at 7.00pm directly up against Seven‘s Home And Away.

In such a competitive timeslot, Echo Point didn’t stand a chance — especially when its first week coincided with Home And Away‘s publicised return of character Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson). Bobby had been killed off two years earlier but was back for some dream and flashback sequences and as a ghostly vision to Ailsa Stewart (Judy Nunn). Also returning to the series were long-lost characters Marilyn (Emily Symons) and Steven (Adam Willits). Seven denied that it had deliberately timed the return of three key characters to hurt its new rival. “The stories are done months before,” Seven executive Des Monaghan told TV Week. “We were just very pleased that Channel Ten decided to launch their show that week.”

Like with any new soap, Echo Point had a cast of familiar and fresh faces to form the series’ base of four families living in a small coastal community that is remarkably not dissimilar to Summer Bay of Home And Away. It marked a TV return for Victoria Nicolls (The Restless Years, Sale Of The Century, Prisoner) and included teen actor Martin Henderson, best known from New Zealand soap Shortland Street, making his Australian TV debut.

Jack Ellis, Tom Long, Martin Henderson, Rose Byrne
(Picture: TV Week)

The cast also included Sean Scully (Sons And Daughters, Sara Dane, Phoenix), John Clayton (Police Rescue), Allan Lovell (The Comedy Company), Kimberley Davenport (Chances) and new stars Tom Long, Rose Byrne, Rebecca Murphy, Jessica Napier, Louise Crawford, Jack Ellis, Diarmid Heidenreich (“Dougie the Pizza Boy” from the Pizza Hut commercials) and Haley Phillips.

As anyone apart from Network Ten programmers could see coming, Echo Point was a ratings dud up against Home And Away and Nine‘s Sale Of The Century. Ten then shifted it to 6.00pm, as a lead-in to veteran soap Neighbours, but viewers were still not forthcoming.

Adding soapie legend Rowena Wallace to the cast did little to improve the series’ fortunes and it was not long until Ten bumped the show to play out its last episodes at 11.30pm and up until now, never to be seen again.

Despite very few of us watching the series during its run, it did sell overseas and it has the rare distinction of being one of the first Australian drama series to have an online fan website at a time when the internet was barely mainstream.

Echo Point is an unlikely addition to Ten’s line-up of Australian dramas on its streaming platform 10Play — with all 130 episodes ready to binge on. Other classic drama titles available on 10Play include Rush, The Secret Life Of Us, Party Tricks, Puberty Blues, Offspring and Foxtel series Love My Way.

Source: 10Play, IMDB, TV Week, TV Week

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/03/nineties-soap-gets-online-re-run.html

Feb 17 2020

Obituary: Ronne Arnold

  • 17 February 2020

Ronne Arnold, dancer, choreographer and actor, has died in Sydney.

Born in the US in the late 1930s (“it could be 1938 or 1939,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2013), he came to Australia in 1960 to star in the stage production of West Side Story. What began as an intended six-month stay in Australia soon extended to years as he picked up further performing work and created his own dance company. But it was not without its challenges. “When I first came to Australia, I ran into a fair bit of trouble,” he told TV Week in 1981. “I came out with a six-month working visa and, like a lot of people, liked what I saw and decided I wanted to stay. Unfortunately, I forgot about the red tape. The rules were fairly rigid and being black didn’t help. But somebody up there must like me. Because of my artistic abilities, as a dancer and choreographer, I was allowed to stay.”

As well as a prolific career as a dancer and choreographer, Arnold also appeared on our TV screens. He featured in the 1960s sci-fi series The Stranger (currently streaming on ABC iview) and in 1972 played the part of Chad Farrell in Number 96.

The arrival of the happy-go-lucky Farrell at 96 created racial tensions with Harry Collins (Norman Yemm), but a romance with Sonia Freeman (Lynn Rainbow) led to an interracial kiss that for its time was groundbreaking for television.

Arnold later guest starred in Spyforce, Cop Shop, Skyways and Kingswood Country before an ongoing role in the 1981 series Holiday Island.

Source: TV Tonight, IMDB, Sydney Morning Herald, Number 96: Australia’s Most Notorious Address.  TV Week, 26 December 1981

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/02/obituary-ronne-arnold.html

Feb 14 2020

Television.AU turns 20!

  • 14 February 2020

This website normally commemorates the anniversaries of others.

This time, it’s our birthday. Today, Television.AU turns 20!

The site was born out of an observation that, even then, there were plenty of websites out there tracing the history and development of television overseas — but there was very little for Australia.

We began on 14 February 2000 as a single, static HTML page hosted on a freebie server (xoom.com). It wasn’t long before more pages and articles were added, and the first Classic TV Guides published.

In May 2001, a companion mailing list was started up in Yahoo! Groups. The list grew to 170 members. (Technically, it’s still active but has not had any activity for many years)

In February 2007, a companion blog was established — Talking Television.AU — providing an updating timeline of posts and articles and covering key news stories, particularly those with a historical bent.

While we don’t profess to holding a video archive, a YouTube channel with a handful of videos (usually to support articles for this site) was added in 2008.

We joined Twitter in 2009.

In June 2012, the static website and blog were amalgamated into the one platform. Following some minor tweaks, it became the site that appears today.

Now, as well as the static pages from the legacy website, we have over 1700 blog posts and more than 600 Classic TV Guides. Amongst other things, there have been week-to-week reviews of TV Times magazines from 1978 and 1979, and TV Week from 1990 to 1996. We’ve charted the history of all the major networks and many of the regional ones, covered various TV Week Logie Awards presentations, recalled key events such as the launch of colour TV, pay TV and aggregation, and traced the conversion to digital TV. We’ve taken a look at some of the shows we’ve all loved, some that you may have forgotten, and some that the networks wish they could forget — and paid tribute to some of the talented people from both sides of the camera.

Here are some happy snapshots of the website from years gone by…

 

 

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/02/television-au-turns-20.html

Feb 13 2020

Obituary: Ron Haddrick

  • 13 February 2020

Actor Ron Haddrick, star of Australian stage, film and television, has died at the age of 90.

Born in Adelaide in 1929, his career began at the Tivoli Theatre in Adelaide in the 1940s. He was then successful in joining the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (now the Royal Shakespeare Company) and worked overseas with names like Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Michael Redgrave.

He returned to Australia in 1959 and went on to work for nearly every major theatre company. He also starred in radio dramas, movies and television. One of his first TV roles was as Adam Suisse in the children’s science-fiction series The Stranger — which only recently has been released on ABC iView, more than 50 years since it was last broadcast.

Other television credits included Divorce Court, Contrabandits, The Godfathers, Matlock Police, Homicide, The Lost Islands, A Country Practice, Mother And Son, Home And Away, Water Rats, All Saints, Cloudstreet and Rake.

In 2012 he received the Equity Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2013 he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia medal.

Source: Medium, IMDB, It’s An Honour, Sydney Theatre Company

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/02/obituary-ron-haddrick.html

Feb 09 2020

TV Week announces Logie date, voting changes

  • 9 February 2020

TV Week has announced that the 62nd annual TV Week Logie Awards will take place at The Star Gold Coast on 28 June.

It is the third year that the Gold Coast has hosted TV’s “night of nights”.

The Nine Network will be host broadcaster of the awards for the 25th consecutive year, with the proceedings broadcast on Nine and 9Now.

And for the first time in the Awards’ 62-year history, the public will not get a say in who makes the list of nominations for the categories based on popularity.

Networks, plus Foxtel and streaming providers, will submit a short list of candidates for each publicly-voted category. The names and titles will then be ranked according to ratings and social media data, and judged by a panel of experts. The final list of nominees will then be open to a five-week public vote, similar to recent custom.

In some ways it streamlines the voting process compared to recent years but at the same time it takes the democratic nature of the determination of nominees based on popularity out of the viewers’ reach. This is a criticism that TV Week in the past has laid on rival past awards like the People’s Choice Awards that only allowed the public to vote from a set list of candidates, although including social media engagement and ratings data does give viewers an indirect influence over selection of nominees.

The TV Week Logie Awards will also launch a new category this year — Most Popular Australian Actor Or Actress In An International Program — to recognise the achievements of Australian actors who have made it big in cracking the overseas market.

The change to the popular-voted categories will not apply to the Outstanding categories which have traditionally been judged by a panel appointed by TV Week.

Source: The Age, TV Tonight, TV Week

 

 

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/02/tv-week-announces-logie-date-voting-changes.html