Sophie set for TV sex special
Sophie Lee is to host an upcoming one-hour special on the topic of teenage sex for the Nine Network.  The special, to be produced in association with A Current Affair, aims to “educate both parents and teenagers about a lot of sexual issues”.  “It’s there to bridge the gap between teenagers and their parents… and I hope they have an open mind about sex,” she told TV Week.  The upcoming special comes after certain sections of the media savaged Lee for comments she made in the Fact And Fantasy File diary – an initiative of the NSW Family Planning Association that has since been banned by Prime Minister Paul Keating. In an interview published in the diary, Lee stated that one-night stands were “okay” – a comment that the print media focused on and made much controversy. “What I’m saying is that if you want to go ahead and have casual sex, that’s your business and that’s okay, if you practise safe sex. That’s it. That’s all I said. I was appalled at the way the diary was handled by the media. To dismiss it as smutty, they are missing the whole point. Kids have a right to be educated… otherwise they are going to die if they make the wrong decision.”

John’s jetting in!
Full House star John Stamos is coming to Australia to be a VIP guest at the upcoming TV Week Logie Awards. “I’m really excited about this trip. My whole life I’ve wanted to go to Australia and then I heard Full House was very successful there, too,” he told TV Week from Los Angeles. Also on this year’s Logies guest list is former Minder star Dennis Waterman, who is currently touring Australia in the comedy Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell.

Mad Max III
Five years since The Gillies Republic, comedian Max Gillies (pictured) is back in a new series, Gillies And Company, which debuts this week on ABC. Known for his brilliant parodies of politicians, royalty and celebrities, Gillies this time around has expanded his repertoire to include gardeners, bank managers, tourists, sports coaches and bureaucrats. “It’s an opportunity to explore new avenues,” he told TV Week. “I always wanted to do a brighter show, which is why this has been so much fun, but the characters still require a lot of concentration and a lot of time in the make-up room.”

Briefly…
The Nine Network’s new Melbourne Extra current affairs show was recently launched at a lavish function attended by network identities and Victorian Premier Joan Kirner, who will be making regular appearances on the program. Despite the insecurity that comes with working in commercial television, ex-ABC host John Jost is confident of success. “If you are going to cover all the important news in Melbourne, you need the time and resources to do it – and that is the commitment that Channel Nine has made to this program,” he told TV Week. Joining Jost on Melbourne Extra will be reporters Tracey Spicer, Helen Ballard, Natasha Johnson, Des Dowling and Stephen Claney.

E Street’s Sheridan Sturgess (Kate Raison) takes the law into her own hands to try to put an end to serial killer Mr Bad’s (Vince Martin) reign of terror. The pair agree to meet at Sheridan’s television studios. The meeting ends when police arrive and Sheridan fires a shot at Mr Bad. She is arrested and ends up in jail on remand.

The Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) has announced that its annual ARIA Awards event will be televised for the first time this year. The Nine Network will be broadcasting the event live from Melbourne next month and is securing a top line-up of presenters and performers – including Rod Stewart, Julian Lennon, Spinal Tap, John Farnham, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, Anthony Warlow, Jimmy Barnes, Johnny Diesel and Crowded House. Negotiations are also continuing with Kylie Minogue, INXS, Midnight Oil and Phil Collins.

Steamy soap opera Chances has been sold to the BSkyB network in the United Kingdom. The sale follows the network’s recent purchase of another Aussie series, E Street.

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here
”Welcome to something of a new-look TV Week! The changes, however, are not just cosmetic. In fact, TV Week makes one of the most profound movies it has made in the 14 years I have been associated with the magazine – our on sale day is now Thursday instead of Monday. As explained in last week’s issue, that facilitates much tighter deadlines, particularly in our program listings. Undoubtedly the networks will still find ways of making late alterations and getting under our guard, but it’s going to be more difficult from now on. And that should mean a better service for you. We hope you regard as a bonus, too, the fact that – apart from our program listing, which we print in 14 different editions each week to cover the whole of Australia – TV Week is now basically 100 per cent colour.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, February 23-29):
Sunday:  Afternoon sport includes cricket (Ladies’ International Super Test on ABC, and Benson And Hedges World Cup on Nine), football (AFL Foster’s Cup on Seven) and basketball (Ten). Sunday night movies are A Fish Called Wanda (Seven), Miami Blues (Ten) and French film Life Is A Long Quiet River (SBS), up against the Winter Olympics on Nine.

Monday:  In A Country Practice (Seven), former prostitute Lizzy Walker (Joanne Hunt) returns to Dr Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) to have her baby. In Mother And Son (ABC), Arthur (Garry McDonald) didn’t really expect to be excavating his father’s ashes in the middle of the night. ABC debuts new comedy series Gillies And Company and arts program Review. Nine’s coverage of the Winter Olympics comes to an end with live coverage of the closing ceremony.

Tuesday:  With the Winter Olympics now over, Nine’s prime-time line-up is getting back into full swing – with the return of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show (with new host Lisa Patrick), All Together Now, Chances and The World Tonight With Clive Robertson. Veteran actors Queenie Ashton (pictured) and Willie Fennell are guest stars in this week’s GP (ABC).

Wednesday:  Nine crosses to Sydney for day-night coverage of the Benson And Hedges World Cup Cricket: Australia versus South Africa. Seven has live coverage of the AFL Foster’s Cup.  Prime Minister Paul Keating presents his Economic Statement, in a one-hour broadcast on ABC. Dateline (SBS) takes a look at the increasingly popular Communist Party in Greece.

Thursday:  In E Street (Ten), Alice (Marianne Howard) has urgent news, while Sheridan’s (Kate Raison) feelings for Wheels (Marcus Graham) begin to change.

Friday:  Seven presents a delayed telecast of the 34th annual Grammy Awards from New York’s Radio City Music Hall, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg.

Saturday:  Nine crosses to Auckland, New Zealand for the Benson And Hedges World Cup Cricket: South Africa versus New Zealand, followed by rugby league highlights of the Toohey’s Challenge Cup. This week’s documentary on World Around Us (Seven) is Coronation Hill: Land Of The Apocalypse, looking at Coronation Hill, located within Kakadu in the Northern Territory, where the richest uranium deposits on Earth are believed to lie – and the Aboriginal people have a warning for those who would mine it. ABC’s late-night review of the week in politics, Order In The House, begins a new series.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide.  22 February 1992.  Southdown Press