1993: October 2-8

Cover: Shannen Doherty (Beverly Hills 90210)

‘I’m no heartbreak kid’
The taboo subject to teacher-student romance was tackled in the recent Australian film The Heartbreak Kid, starring Claudia Karvan and Alex Dimitriades. Nine‘s Snowy is about to break the same taboo when Michael (Bernard Curry) sleeps with schoolteacher Lilian (Rebecca Gibney). But Curry, who is 19 but his character is aged 17, says the relationship depicted in Snowy is not like that in The Heartbreak Kid. “The love scenes are tender and very innocent in a way,” he told TV Week. “Michael’s desire for Lilian is much more than a physical thing, and much more than just a teenage infatuation. Michael thinks he’s in love with Lilian and, after it happens, he gets the cold shoulder from her and he doesn’t understand why.”

First impressions
Full Frontal star Eric Bana admits that his career prospects were not always great. He struggled to finish high school, having had to repeat a year, and after a trip to the US he became a salesman and then a barman. His stand-up career took off when he performed at a pub comedy night. “I had really wanted to get into comedy and television after leaving school, but I just wasn’t sure how to go about it,” he told TV Week. Now five months since his TV debut in Full Frontal the comedian who has performed impersonations of Mike Willesee (pictured), Billy Ray Cyrus and Paul Mercurio is now looking to expand his repertoire. “I don’t want to overdo Willesee,” he said. “How far can you take one joke? And the three-hour make-up job is torturous. Looking back on the early work on the show, I don’t feel I’ve come anywhere near the good stuff yet.”

An accident waiting to happen!
TV Week visits the set of Police Rescue: The Movie as cast and crew are in the middle of filming the aftermath of a horrific bus accident. A storyline involving a complex love triangle between Mickey (Gary Sweet, pictured), Georgia (Sonia Todd) and Lorrie (Zoe Carides, pictured) and some spectacular stunts are set to take the movie beyond the bounds of the ABC series. “There is more pressure, though,” actor Steve Bastoni told TV Week. “We have to make sure we get it right because what we’re doing isn’t going to be seen on a 34 cm television. It’s going to be up there on a 10-metre screen. You can get away with a few mistakes on TV, but on the big screen it makes more of an impact and mistakes are more obvious.” Police Rescue: The Movie is due for release around Easter 1994.

Briefly…

• Penny Cook is the only original cast member of A Country Practice who has agreed to appear in the series final to go to air later in the year. Other former cast members who will also return to Wandin Valley for the big finish are Matt Day and Judith McGrath.
• The Seven Network has announced that Tonight Live will not appear beyond the end of the year. Options for a replacement program may include the network’s new signing, Andrew Denton. as well as a Saturday Night Live-style format featuring Richard Stubbs, Wendy Harmer and Denise Scott.
• Simon Townsend‘s latest TV venture, a game show for the Seven Network, is about to be auditioning in Sydney. “They should be able to smile… and smile easily and smile sincerely,” Townsend told TV Week. “But I would say to people, I’m not looking for good people but for people who look good — if you can understand the difference between the two things.”

Lawrie Masterson: The View From Here

“Most sane people seem to accept as fact that they cannot please everybody all the time. And so it has been with the new format on our program pages a couple of weeks ago. The move was preceded by a couple of months of research, discussion, trial and error, design and redesign, more and more discussion… But there is no market testing quite like actually putting something on sale. So that’s what we did, at the same time inviting you to let us know your reaction. Many of your comments were positive and encouraging. But just as many of your letters and calls were to tell us what you perceived as our sins. I see our task now as fine-tuning and tinkering until we eliminate the causes of complaint. But because all of this took months to do in the first place, it’s not all that easy to alter at the flick of the fingers. So please do not adjust your sets, as the saying goes.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne, October 2-8):
Saturday: Saturday afternoon sport includes the SANFL Grand Final (3pm, ABC), the Australian 125cc Grand Prix (3.30pm, Ten) and the Tooheys Top Ten motor racing (4pm, Seven). In Dateline (7pm, SBS), reporter Helen Vatsikopoulos visits northern Sri Lanka, where a ten-year guerrilla war sees teenagers armed with guns and cyanide capsules — one a weapon, the other a means of escape.

Sunday: The Tooheys 1000, the legendary motor race at Mt Panorama, Bathurst, dominates the day on Seven, with coverage from 8am through to 6pm. Filmmaker and adventurer Malcolm Douglas presents the first of a three-part documentary, Beyond Highway Number One (6.30pm, Nine), tracing his journey around Australia on the road. Sunday night movies are Billy Bathgate (Seven), Us (Nine) and The Lawnmower Man (Ten).

Monday: Former A Country Practice star Georgie Parker is this week’s guest co-host on Sale Of The Century (7pm, Nine). In Home And Away (7pm, Seven), Adam (Mat Stevenson) is jubilant at the outcome of the court case over Bobby’s (Nicolle Dickson) death, but knows he has a long way to go before he will be forgiven. Arts series Review (9.30pm, ABC) presents Positive Art, Peter Ross‘ report on the proactive role being played by the arts in documenting and explaining the AIDS crisis.

Tuesday: Marina Prior makes her TV acting debut in GP (8.30pm, ABC), playing the part of Deborah Osbourne, an aspiring singer who gives up her career after a car accident robbed her of both her parents and her eyesight.

Wednesday: Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett is the guest at the National Press Club Luncheon (1pm, ABC), discussing his recent Victorian budget, which has attracted keen interest from the other states. In Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), Beth (Natalie Imbruglia) discovers the perils of door-to-door selling — including being accosted by a half-undressed man who obviously wants more than just a vacuum demonstration. In Newlyweds (8pm, Seven), Peter (Chris Gabardi) goes through a crisis when he realises that Allie (Annie Jones) makes more money than he does. His decline is not helped when Irene (Sandy Gore) reminds Allie of all the wealthy men she had the chance to marry.

Thursday: In Secrets (8.30pm, ABC). Sarah (Rachel Griffiths) learns a hard lesson when she confides in a colleague instead of going to her superiors; and for regional director Tom Jacobs (Frank Whitten), a long-term operation has a disappointing end. In Snowy (8.30pm, Nine), the community is shocked as Wolfie (Jochen Horst) lies in a coma after being shot by Stuart (Bill Kerr).

Friday: In Neighbours (6.30pm, Ten), with Pam (Sue Jones) ill with pneumonia, Doug (Terence Donovan) doesn’t want her to worry about their financial crisis, so he lies to her, saying he has finally found a job. In The Great Outdoors (7.30pm, Seven), Sofie Formica (pictured) is on New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, while Bridget Adams meets prospectors with the pioneering spirit in the gold country of Kalgoorlie, WA.

Source: TV Week (Melbourne edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 2 October 1993. Southdown Press.