Cover Story: TV’s Sportsman of the Year
TV Times previews the presentation of the 1977 Sportsman Of The Year – to be screened on ABC on Saturday 7 January. Among the favourites to take out the title are Dennis Lillee (cricket), Bart Cummings (racing), Graham Marsh (golf), Evonne Cawley (tennis) and Rocky Mattioli (boxing).
Countdown spectacular for Adelaide:
ABC‘s Countdown is preparing a lavish outside broadcast to be presented from the Adelaide Festival of Arts in March. ABC claims it will be the biggest televised pop program ever made in Australia. Producer Rob Weekes told TV Times that the only name so far confirmed for the event is South Australian Premier Don Dunstan: “He’ll be taking part, not performing”. The special presentation is being regarded as the next stage in Countdown‘s “development as a major influence on Australian music.”
My top 10 shows of 1977:
Columnist FC Kennedy reviews the year 1977, naming Countdown, The Mike Walsh Show, Four Corners and news coverage of the Granville train disaster as among TV’s highlights, and with Australian TV drama at a low-point, it was a British series When The Boat Comes In that was his favourite of 1977.
Letters To The Editor:
“I would like to complain about the lack of suitable TV shows for 12-year-olds and others around this age. We are too old for Bugs Bunny and too young to understand or want to watch science fiction” – Michelle, NSW
“Come on Perth channels, how about some “new” programs over here before we get too far behind the East Coast. Channel 7 said they were waiting for colour to start before they’d show Boney. We have had colour for three years!” – D.S., WA
“I’d just like to thank those Channel 9 people in Sydney who brought the fabulous Star Trek back on to our TV sets. I hope we’ll be able to see all 76 episodes.” E.P., NSW
What’s On:
Being summer, sport dominates much of the week’s programming with Kerry Packer‘s innovative World Series Cricket on GTV9, Test Cricket on ABC and the Tasmanian Open Tennis on HSV7.
New soaps The Restless Years and Cop Shop both now settled into two one-hour episodes a week. For its summer break, Countdown presents a series of specials covering the top 100 records of 1977.
GTV9 presents a ‘summer edition’ of National Nine News each weeknight at 9.30pm, as well as the usual 6.30pm bulletin.
Sunday night movies are Alex In Wonderland (HSV7), Tony Rome (GTV9) and First To Fight (ATV0) with a re-run of the British mini-series Elizabeth R on ABV2.
Source: TV Times, 7 January 1978. ABC/ACP
