Merry Christmas from A Country Practice

Television.AU wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas.

This year’s Christmas flashback comes from A Country Practice in 1985 — at the end of the series’ fourth year — as cast members (clockwise from top left) Gordon Piper, Nicholas Bufalo, Brian Wenzel, Annie Davies, Syd Heylen, Lorrae Desmond and Emily Nicol celebrate the festive season on board the Heylen family’s boat — Sundance II.

It had been a successful year for the series, including collecting a massive eight TV Week Logies — Most Popular Drama and Most Popular Program In New South Wales, and individual awards for Grant Dodwell (Most Popular Lead Actor and Most Popular Male Personality In New South Wales), Anne Tenney (Most Popular Lead Actress), Shane Withington (pictured above with Nicol) (Best Lead Actor In A Series) , Wendy Strehlow (Best Support Actress In A Series) and Penny Cook (Most Popular Female Personality In New South Wales).

It was also a challenging year for the series as it tackled the farewell of one of its most loved characters, Molly Jones (Tenney) from leukemia. It created an iconic TV moment that people still recall 40 years later!

Looking back to TV in 1985:

January 28: ATN7 Sydney launches News Overnight, a nightly six-hour package of news and current affairs programming direct via satellite from the NBC and CNN networks in the United States. HSV7 Melbourne follows on March 4.
February 11: Midday With Ray Martin replaces The Mike Walsh Show on Nine, with the latter moving to a prime-time format.
February 18: Network 0/28 becomes SBS and commences daytime program transmission.
March 4: ABC launches The National, a revamped news and current affairs format replacing the traditional 7pm state-based news bulletins and the former current affairs program Nationwide. The new format, costing the national broadcaster a budgeted $25 million, turned out to be an expensive failure and lasted less than twelve months..
March 18: Neighbours begins on the Seven Network.
June 8: Hey Hey It’s Saturday moves to the earlier evening timeslot of 6.30pm.
June 30: SBS expands to Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Wollongong and Newcastle.
July 13-14: ABC televises the worldwide Live Aid event, featuring concerts held around the world.
August 8: The final episode of The Mike Walsh Show, ending a 12-year run.
August: The AUSSAT satellites are launched. In October ABC starts test transmission of its radio and TV networks via satellite to remote areas in rural Australia. The ABC service is officially inaugurated in January 1986.
September 11: Network Ten announces that it has picked up Neighbours, recently axed by Seven.
HSV7 screens a late night sketch comedy series The Eleventh Hour, featuring a number of performers who later appear in The Comedy Company and Fast Forward
TV Week Gold Logie Winner: Rowena Wallace (Sons And Daughters, Seven)