1990: June 30-July 6

Cover: Warren Beatty, Madonna (Dick Tracy)

Cancer scare!
A Country Practice star Georgie Parker is set to tackle her toughest storyline to date with upcoming episodes featuring a dramatic cancer scare for her character Lucy Gardiner.  The scare prompts Lucy to call off her planned wedding to Matt Tyler (John Tarrant) and she plans to leave Wandin Valley to go home to her mother.  “She’s an absolute mess of emotions,” Parker told TV Week.  “It was actually very hard because I’m a very logical person and I couldn’t understand this totally illogical behaviour.”

Knock the rock!
When Fast Forward’s Gina Riley heard Sinead O’Connor’s ballad Nothing Compares 2 U, she loved it.  But that didn’t stop her sending up the bald singer in a Fast Forward skit (pictured).  Since joining the cast of the Seven Network comedy series, Riley has performed parodies of other pop stars including Dannii Minogue, Madonna, Paula Abdul and Stevie Nicks.  “The great thing about rock ‘n roll is that everyone takes themselves so seriously, so it is perfect to send up,” Riley told TV Week.  “The sketches are not meant to be offensive.  I love most of the songs I do.”  Riley attributes the success of her sketches to the excellent work of make-up artist Barb Cousins.  So confident of Cousin’s abilities, Riley is thinking of taking off a male performer – although she did once attempt to do John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.  “And boy, they hated it,” she said.  “It was a bit like ‘you leave him alone!’.  People enjoy it if you sound a bit like the original song but, if not, it just sounds like you’re being bitchy.  It is hard to get that male timbre into your voice, but I’m sure it will come along soon.”

Murder at the Logies
Home And Away star Judy Nunn (pictured) has been busy during her spare moments on the set of the Seven Network series.  For the past year she has been working on what she hopes will be a best-selling novel and, possibly, a mini-series.  Having already written four children’s novels, The Glitter Game is Nunn’s first attempt at writing adult literature and promises all the ingredients of a best-seller.  “Sex, murder and intrigue – The Glitter Game has got it all,” Nunn tells TV Week.  The novel is a behind-the-scenes look at the Australian television industry, with the fast-paced story culminating in a murder at the TV Week Logie Awards.  But Nunn stresses that the story is entirely fiction.  “It’s inevitable people are going to want to play guessing games – but the novel is all tongue-in-cheek,” she says.  It is not the first time the actress has tackled the television industry – viewers will recall Nunn played the role of a bisexual reporter in the 1970s drama The Box, a series based on the workings of a television station. 

Briefly…
Rowena Wallace (pictured), Rebecca Smart, Gary Sweet, Robert Grubb, Bruno Lawrence, Maggie Dence and Penne Hackforth-Jones are just some of the famous stars to feature in More Winners, a series of children’s dramas about to appear on ABC as a follow-up from the original Winners series (screened on Network Ten).

Former Wombat host Jill Ray and her husband Michael Black have announced the birth of their first child, Joel, born in Brisbane last month.  Ray, a TV Week Logie Award winner in Queensland, has left the Seven Network for motherhood although she will be continuing her role as co-host on the breakfast show on Brisbane radio station 4KQ.

A Current Affair reporter Martin King has a reputation of being the hard-nosed “foot in the door” reporter, but he says that having presented more than 300 stories for ACA and its predecessor, Willesee, only about 15 to 20 have been walk-ins.  “But they’re the ones people remember most,” he says.

John Laws says…
”It’s easy to despair of Network Ten.  Bereft of much ratings-winning material and languishing behind Nine and Seven in the ratings, it at least has a surefire attention-grabber with its rugby league telecasts.  But what happens?  Ten botches it.  When the season began, Ten’s Friday Night League was live at 7.30pm, which should have been great.  The preponderance of commercial breaks – often at crucial moments during a game – led to complaints from viewers.  Lots of them.  Ten’s reaction was to halt the live coverage and switch to a delayed telecast at 8.30pm, a cure considered by most keen football fans as worse than the original disease.  As I see it, the only reason for switching to 8.30pm, and robbing viewers of the “as it happens” excitement, is to enable Ten to more easily slot in as many ads as they can.  Sure, Ten has to get in its commercials.  That’s what free enterprise TV is all about.  But all they needed to do was do it properly.”

Program Highlights (June 30-July 6):
Saturday:  SBS (and ABC regionals) present coverage overnight of the quarter finals in the World Cup, live from Italy.

Sunday:  ABC presents the debut of More Winners, a series of children’s dramas .  The first instalment, His Master’s Ghost, stars Jonathan Hardy, Simon Grey, Erica Kennedy, Cathy Godbold and Scott Major.  Sunday night movies are Witness (HSV7), Little Nikita (GTV9) and Thief (ATV10).  There are two more World Cup quarter finals live on SBS (and ABC regionals) after midnight.

Monday:  GTV9 starts its second week of coverage of tennis from Wimbledon, with coverage starting at 10.35pm and continuing to 4.30am each night.

Tuesday:  ABC presents The Big Gig Rejigged, a highlights package of comedy series The Big Gig with Wendy Harmer.

Wednesday/Thursday:  SBS (and ABC regionals) present early-morning coverage of the World Cup semi-finals at 3.30am on both days.  SBS also supplements its World Cup coverage during the week with prime-time screenings of the films documenting the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

 Friday:  HSV7’s Friday night AFL features Richmond versus the Brisbane Bears.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.       
30 June 1990. Southdown Press.