Number 96 stars reunited for birthday

number96_2010 The occasion of Johnny Lockwood’s 90th birthday was as good a reason as any to bring together some of his former Number 96 co-stars and to assemble at the real-life apartment building that posed as Australia’s most famous address in the 1970s.

“It’s so special celebrating my birthday in the original Number 96,” he told Woman’s Day. “This is probably the last time we shall ever get together like this. I was orphaned at 11. When we did the show back in the 1970s, these people were so important to me. Like family.”

number96_1973Lockwood played the character of Hungarian-born delicatessen owner Aldo Godolfus in Number 96, dating back to the show’s beginnings in 1972.  He picked up the role after the show’s producers had spotted him playing the part of a Jewish shopkeeper in an episode of Spyforce.

Starting on Number 96 with a thirteen-week contract, the character lasted for over three years – finally coming to an end in 1975 when Aldo and three other characters were written out of the series as victims of the show’s famous ‘bomb-blast’ episode.

The celebration of Lockwood’s 90th led to a reminisce over the famous neighbourhood and the show’s impact on the viewing public.  “We couldn’t go outside without being mobbed.  Hell, even the hookers went off the streets at 8.30pm so they wouldn’t miss an episode.”

number96_2010_0002Joining Lockwood (pictured, seated) for his birthday are (from left to right) former colleagues Elisabeth Kirkby (Lucy Sutcliffe), James Elliott (Alf Sutcliffe), Jeff Kevin (Arnold Feather), Phillippa Baker (Roma Godolfus), Frances Hargreaves (Marilyn McDonald), Wendy Blacklock (Edie McDonald) and Mike Dorsey (Reg McDonald).  Lockwood’s daughter Joanna, who also starred in Number 96 as well as appearing in later shows Cop Shop and E Street, was also at the celebration.

johnnylockwood Growing up in London, Lockwood’s showbusiness career dates back to 1935 when, at the age of 14, he joined a group called Twelve Dancing Kiddies.  By the late 1940s he was appearing at a Royal Command Performance and came to Australia in 1957 for a ten-week contract to appear in the stage production Tonight At Eight with Bobby Limb.  Australia has been his home ever since.

Various cast members of the groundbreaking series, which ended in 1977, have reunited on numerous occasions over the years – most recently several cast members assembled on the Seven Network’s Where Are They Now? in 2007, while cast members Elisabeth Kirkby and Carol Raye provided audio commentary on the recent DVD release of 32 episodes.

Source: Woman’s Day, TV Times, 17 February 1973 and 8 March 1975.

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/08/number-96-stars-reunited-for-birthday.html

1990: July 28-August 3

tvweek_280790 ‘There’s no point in denying it any longer.’
TV Week
Gold Logie winner Craig McLachlan has announced his engagement to former Neighbours colleague Rachel Friend. “We are very, very happy.  It’s obvious we are in love. There’s no point in denying it any longer,” he told TV Week. The marriage will be the first for Friend but the second for McLachlan, whose marriage to first wife Karen Williams ended amicably over a year ago. The newly-engaged couple (pictured) first met as cast members on Neighbours and when McLachlan left the show to join rival series Home And Away, Friend soon followed him to Sydney.

Steve sued over newsreader role
Jennifer Keyte
might be enjoying success as the newsreader on Seven’s Tonight Live With Steve Vizard, but it seems she was not their first choice for the part. Virginia Haussegger, a reporter and producer for the Melbourne edition of The 7.30 Report, was approached several months before the show was to launch and performed the newsreading role in the show’s pilot episodes. Haussegger quit The 7.30 Report but was informed just prior to Tonight Live’s debut in January that she would not be required for the show. Consequently, Haussegger sued the Seven Network and Steve Vizard’s production company and has since settled out of court with the network for an undisclosed sum, while returning to The 7.30 Report. “Seven, Vizard and I have had our differences but fortunately it’s all over. This has been a lesson in the politics of commercial television,” she told TV Week.

mrsmarsh Ta-ta to tartar!
After fifteen years of “tuff teef” and dunking chalk into glasses of blue water, the character of “Mrs Marsh” is to be phased out of Colgate-Palmolives’ ad campaign for toothpaste. But while the role of Mrs Marsh has been very good for actress Barbara Farrell (pictured), it was also limiting her ability to find work. “It was inhibiting, because the face was so firmly identified with the product,” she told TV Week. And while the Mrs Marsh character was initially formed as a carbon copy of a US concept, as the campaign continued she was allowed to develop her own persona and had softened a little after research showed that mothers thought she was a little too authoritarian. But one person who was not always thrilled with the fame of Mrs Marsh’s was Farrell’s husband. “He objects to being called Mr Marsh. He’s not pleased with that at all!”

Briefly…
Cameron Daddo
has joined the cast of ABC’s GP as doctor who makes a fatal error in prescribing drugs to a patient without knowledge of the side-effects, and the results are tragic. The 25-year-old, who recently completed work on the Seven Network telemovie Bony, is also about to start work on the mini-series Golden Fiddles for the Nine Network.

adrianaxenides Also starring in Golden Fiddles is Wheel Of Fortune hostess Adriana Xenides (pictured) in her first major role away from the popular game show. The $5.1 million mini-series, a Canadian-Australian co-production being made by the South Australian Film Corporation, also stars Rachel Friend, David Reyne and John Bach.

The Seven Network this week debuts its two-part mini-series, Flair, tracing the lives of two sisters involved in the ruthless world of high fashion. The $4.5 million mini-series stars Andrew Clarke, Gary Day, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Rowena Wallace, Elaine Smith, David Reyne, Imogen Annesley and US actress Heather Thomas. Also starring in the series is Irish-born actor James Healey who grew up in Australia before working in London and the US, where he starred as Joan Collins’ lover in Dynasty.  Healey is now back in the US, starring in the daytime soap Santa Barbara.

John Laws says…
”Is it really possibly that a combination such I am going to describe can actually win enough ratings to maintain a slot in prime time? Here’s that combination: A veteran actor who sleepwalks through his leading role, scripts so lacking in credibility you could drive an express train through the holes, and a cast of support actors so wooden you could hammer a nail into them and not draw blood. This is Nine’s (American) Matlock series.”

geraldinedoogue Program Highlights (July 28-August 3):
Sunday:  ABC
presents The Party’s Over, a 90-minute documentary in the Hindsight series presented by Geraldine Doogue (pictured), looking at the story of the Communist Party of Australia, an organisation that had as many as 100,000 members over its 70-year lifespan before it was quietly wound up after the fall of Eastern Europe. Sunday night movies are Invasion USA (HSV7), Nuts (GTV9) and Emerald City (ATV10).

doubledareMonday: Neighbours stars Kristian Schmid and Amelia Frid (pictured) battle the blue slime in a celebrity edition of children’s game show Double Dare (ATV10).

Tuesday:  Cameron Daddo joins the cast of GP (ABC) in tonight’s episode, Playing It By The Book.

Wednesday/Thursday:  HSV7 screens the two-part mini-series, Flair, where Tessa Clarke (Heather Thomas) returns to Australia intent on establishing her own design empire. However her plans are crushed when a former employer wins a court claim on her designs and she flees to the Gold Coast where she falls for a handsome nightclub owner who drags her into a seedy world.

Friday:  With Graham Kennedy’s Funniest Home Videos clocking up ratings for GTV9, HSV7 tonight digs out an episode of Graham Kennedy’s World Of Comedy.  ATV10 screens the 1985 Australian movie Cool Change, starring Jon Blake, Lisa Armytage and David Bradshaw.

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

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/1990-july-28-august-3.html

Remembering Seven’s Epping era

atn7_demolish The Sunrise team earlier this week posted a picture via their Twitter feed showing the demolition (“using Gladiator props as wrecking balls?”) of the Seven Network’s former studios in Sydney.

The studios, in the suburb of Epping, were barely completed when the ribbon across the Studio B doors was cut on ATN7’s opening night – 2 December 1956.  And the opening night almost didn’t happen at all as a massive thunderstorm hit Sydney earlier that day, blacking out many suburbs – including Epping.  Power was restored just in time to allow the studio cameras the required 45 minutes to warm up before airtime.  VIPs arrived at the complex in torrential rain and had to make their way across mud tracks to get to the building.

atn7_epping In its early years the Epping complex hosted many Australian television firsts – the first ‘tonight’ show, Sydney Tonight with Keith Walshe, the first breakfast news show, Today with Ray Taylor, the first current affairs show, Seven On 7, and the first soap operas, Autumn Affair and The Story Of Peter Grey.  ATN7 was the first TV station in Australia to install videotape equipment in the late 1950s.  The station also partnered with Melbourne’s GTV9 to complete the first ever transmission between Sydney and Melbourne via a series of microwave links.

mavis Other shows to have emanated from Epping include Revue ‘61, Startime, Sing Sing Sing (The Johnny O’Keefe Show), Beauty And The Beast, Captain Fortune, Pick-A-Box, The Mavis Bramston Show (pictured), My Name’s McGooley What’s Yours?, Great Temptation, Sydney Today, Eleven AM, The Naked Vicar Show, Kingswood Country, Romper Room, Sounds, Cartoon Connection, Saturday Morning Live, Sportsworld, Terry Willesee Tonight, Wheel Of Fortune, Hey Dad!, Real Life, Sunrise and The Main Event.

paulhogan Some of TVs most famous names have also spent time at Epping.  Roger Climpson was ATN7’s principal newsreader for many years and also hosted This Is Your Life and Australia’s Most WantedMike Willesee, Graham Kennedy, Clive Robertson, Rex Mossop, Paul Hogan (pictured), Norman Gunston (Garry McDonald), Peter Luck, Bill Collins, Maggie Tabberer, Jana Wendt and Andrew Denton have also worked at the Epping studios.  And of course the many actors and actresses that passed through the various dramas to have come from Epping – series including Jonah, Motel, Catwalk, Class Of ‘74, Glenview High, A Country Practice, Sons And Daughters, Rafferty’s Rules, Home And Away, All Saints and Packed To The Rafters.

atn7_redfern ATN7 has now moved to new facilities at the Australian Technology Park (pictured) in the Sydney suburb of Redfern – while news production facilities, including Sunrise, Seven News, Today Tonight and The Morning Show, are based at Martin Place in the Sydney CBD.

Source: Sunrise, Sydney Architecture, Forty Years Of Television: The Story Of ATN7.

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/remembering-sevens-epping-era.html

MasterChef delivers a master win

masterchef When Network Ten announced in 2008 that it had purchased the MasterChef franchise to replace Big Brother as a major reality format, there were more than a few people that scoffed.  Who would want to watch a cooking competition in prime-time?  After all, the benchmark of cooking contests on Australian TV had been set with Ready Steady Cook – and it was well short of being a national phenomenon.

But Ten and the show’s producers, Fremantle Media, reworked MasterChef so that it bore little resemblance to its UK original.  When the show launched in Australia in April last year, it got off to a solid ratings start and as the series progressed it became a major player in the 7.00pm timeslot for Ten.  The show’s three judges, chefs George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan and food critic Matt Preston, went from being relative unknowns to instant celebrities – with Preston picking up a TV Week Logie for outstanding new talent earlier this year.

masterchef_julie_poh With the show’s popularity snowballing it was perhaps no real surprise that the season finale between Julie Goodwin and Poh Ling Yeow returned the highest ratings of any non-sporting telecast since OzTAM records began in 2001.  Winning the series led to Goodwin releasing a top-selling cookbook, Our Family Table, and appearing in a string of commercial endorsements as well as a regular segment on Today and a column in The Australian Women’s Weekly.  She has also about to launch a new show, Home Cooked, on the Nine Network.  Series runner-up Yeow also gained a high-profile role, hosting a weekly TV series, Poh’s Kitchen, on ABC1 and gaining a publishing deal with ABC Books.

So with the second series preparing to launch earlier this year, the rival Seven Network sought to rain on MasterChef’s parade and brought out their own cooking show – My Kitchen Rules, a so-called original format that was really just a mash-up of elements of MasterChef and a UK show, Come Dine With Me, added with the ‘State versus State’ component of its former My Restaurant Rules and pinching two celebrity chefs who had appeared as guests on MasterChef.

My Kitchen Rules never quite hit the same heights of MasterChef’s public support, but it didn’t do too badly, either, giving Seven some very good early evening ratings.  The problem is, though, that the show did little to spoil the public’s appetite for cooking shows and left them wanting more.

So when series two of MasterChef arrived earlier this year, it hit the ground running and immediately returned ratings that took some weeks to materialise in the first series. 

And, like the first series, the public’s fascination with all things MasterChef continued to grow as the series progressed, turning MasterChef into a confirmed $100 million product on the back of advertising, merchandise and cross-promotion activities.

Appearing six nights a week and hitting around two million viewers each night by the end of the series, Ten was looking at making history again with last weekend’s season finale.  So much had the show struck a chord with the general public that Sunday’s election debate between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott had to be re-scheduled to avoid being unwatched up against the kitchen battle between South Australians Callum Hann and Adam Liaw.

masterchef_adamAnd, sure enough, history was made again.  When Liaw (pictured) was announced as the second series winner, an average of 5.2 million viewers (across five cities and major regional markets) were watching – a number that surpassed last year’s season finale and again ranked it as the most watched non-sports program since 2001.  The program, spread over two hours, gave Ten an overall share of 41.8 per cent of the Sunday night audience – well ahead of Seven (19.0%) and Nine (15.7%) – a figure that could secure Ten the entire week regardless of whatever results it receives over the rest of the week.

The public’s connection to MasterChef has ignited its fascination and knowledge of food – like Nine’s earlier series The Block sparked a passion for home renovation – and has resonated well with children, who will recite recipes that they saw on the show, and who will no doubt provide the perfect ratings springboard for when Junior MasterChef starts later in the year.

The immense popularity of MasterChef has again seen the Seven Network taking up more food-related formats in a bid to undermine the MasterChef phenomenon, or at least try to cash in on some of the show’s success.  As well as producing a second series of My Kitchen Rules the network has bought the format rights to produce a local version of the Japanese show Iron Chef (seen here on SBS1) and is also reported to be planning a local adaptation of Canadian series Conviction Kitchen.

In the meantime, here’s hoping that with the extra kilos that we might stack on thanks to the inspiration from MasterChef, that another series of The Biggest Loser will be around in the new year to inspire us to lose them!

Source: News.com.au, TV Tonight

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/masterchef-delivers-a-master-win.html

1990: July 21-27

tvweek_210790 Hey Sister!
While 18-year-old Beth Buchanan prepares to move into TV’s most famous neighbourhood, her older sister, Simone, is looking forward to moving on from TV’s most famous Aussie family. After more than five years in the role of Debbie Kelly, there are strong hints that Simone will not be renewing her contract with Hey Dad! beyond September. And the younger Buchanan is now settling into her new role as Gemma Ramsay in Neighbours, although despite her youth she is already a veteran of the small screen – with stints in Hey Dad!, A Country Practice, Home And Away and the mini-series The Last Frontier. The two sisters (pictured) have inevitably copped comparisons to those other famous sisters, Kylie and Dannii Minogue. “Please don’t compare us to them,” Simone tells TV Week. “Everyone seems to be asking if we’re the next Kylie and Dannii – we’re not!”

leshill New kids on the beach
Home And Away is about to welcome two new foster children.  Karen and Blake Dean, played by Belinda Jarrett and Les Hill, come into Summer Bay as foster children to Alf and Ailsa Stewart (Ray Meagher and Judy Nunn) after the death of their mother from cancer. “It’s a dream come true,” Jarrett told TV Week. “I’m a huge Home And Away fan.  I usually wolf my dinner down so I don’t miss an episode. It’s amazing to think I’m now a part of the all the goings-on taking place in Summer Bay.” While Jarrett has had no prior television experience, Hill has had some appearances in the ABC medical drama GP. “The thing I’m finding most daunting about working on Home And Away is the pace of the production,” he says. “It’s fast but I’m enjoying the challenge.”

mauriefieldsvaljellay ‘In the morning we always wrap our arms around each other’
Val Jellay
talks about life after thirty years of marriage to Maurie Fields – a partnership that began in the days of vaudeville and later followed into television when the pair were a hit on the variety show Sunnyside Up, and they’ve rarely been out of work since – with both currently appearing as husband and wife in The Flying Doctors. Despite the busy and demanding schedules that the industry can demand, the pair have rarely spent more than two days apart. “We’ve never tired of each other,” Jellay tells TV Week. “Maurie is easy to live with and has a placid nature. When we’re doing a scene together, I can stare him in the eyes and the tears just come. In the morning we always wrap our arms around each other, like it’s our first day.”

Briefly…
Actor Kim Gyngell, best known as Col’n Carpenter, is set to shatter the image of the “lovable dag” with his role in the new movie, Heaven Tonight, in which he co-stars with John Waters, Rebecca Gilling and Guy Pearce. Gyngell plays Baz Shultz, a former rock star whose life has been affected by drugs.

bouncer Neighbours’ producers aren’t saying much, but it seems that the show is set to have its most celebrated wedding since Scott and Charlene (Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue), with ‘Bouncer’ and ‘Rosie’ set to become television’s first canine couple.

Half A World Away is a lavish mini-series being produced for ABC for airing next year.  The series is based on the 1934 Great Air Race, in which millionaire “Mac” Robinson put up a fortune in prize money for the fastest plane from London to Melbourne. The series has an impressive cast including Caroline Goodall, Gosia Dobrowska, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell, Gary Day, Johnathan Hyde and American actors Barry Bostwick and Helen Slater.

John Laws says…
”Recent audience research figures suggest that comedy and games shows are continuing to win satisfying ratings for all networks. I guess it’s a sign of our rather desperate financial times that viewers are more and more seeking light relief to escape the pain and problems of everyday life. There are a number of highly successful shows around right now, and it’s pleasing that local comedies like Hey Dad! are attracting the sort of healthy ratings that make worth while all the effort that goes into them.”

Program Highlights (July 21-27):
Saturday:  ABC
presents highlights of the first day’s competition from the 1990 Goodwill Games, being held in Seattle, USA. ABC will present an hour of highlights in the early evening on each day of competition as well as a further hour later in the night.

Sunday:  Sunday night movies are Overboard (HSV7) and Bull Durham (ATV10).  GTV9 presents the first of a two-part mini-series, Dress Gray, and ABC debuts mini-series Mussolini And I, featuring Bob Hoskins, Anthony Hopkins and Susan Sarandon.

Monday:  Mark Mitchell launches his new comedy series, The Big Time (ATV10), featuring his family in real-life situations while he dreams he is a late-night TV show host.

Tuesday: In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), reporter Amanda Keller visits the US where there has been some success with a vaccine used to treat a similar disease as AIDS. ATV10 presents a one-hour special edition of Candid Camera On Australia with Tony Murphy. This week’s GP episode, The Very Long Goodbye, tells the story of a patient with a brain tumour, told he has six months to live, going on a last wild binge – then discovers that the diagnosis was wrong. The episode guest stars George Spartels.

nonihazlehurst_0001 Wednesday:  Noni Hazlehurst (pictured), Deidre Rubenstein and Tony Barry star in the documentary-drama Breaking Through (ABC), focusing on the real-life case of Cathy Ann Matthews and her frightening and painful childhood. The physical, emotional and sexual abuse perpetrated by her father was so distressing that she shut it out of her conscious mind for over 40 years. Hazlehurst also appears in the mini-series The Shiralee, starring Bryan Brown, Rebecca Smart, which begins a re-run on HSV7.

Thursday:  In E Street (ATV10), the wedding between Abby (Chelsea Brown) and Ernie (Vic Rooney) does not go off without a hitch. Bob (Tony Martin) has a plan to patch things up with Elly (Penny Cook) once and for all.

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

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/1990-july-21-27.html

ABC News 24 programming unveiled

abcnews24_0001 The initial program schedule for ABC’s news channel, ABC News 24, has been unveiled just a few days before the channel’s launch.

The new channel, broadcasting on high-definition channel 24, kicks off at 7.30pm AEST this Thursday. The launch special will air in simulcast with ABC1 at 7.30pm (local time).

The prime-time schedule for the first five days of ABC News 24 looks like this (all times in AEST):

Thursday 22:
7.30pm
ABC News 24 Launch: ABC News Special (repeated 12.05am Friday 23 June on ABC24), 8.30 The Drum. A spin-off from ABC’s news opinion website The Drum, 9pm The World. International news, 10pm ABC News, 10.30 Newsline With Jim Middleton (from the Australia Network), 11pm ABC News, 11.28 One Plus One

Friday 23:
6pm
ABC News, 6.05 The Drum, 6.45 The Quarters, 7pm ABC News, 7.32 One Plus One (rpt), 8pm ABC News, 8.32 Australian Story (rpt), 9pm The World, 10pm Four Corners (rpt), 10.46 Media Watch (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.30 Foreign Correspondent (rpt)

Saturday 24:
6pm
ABC News, 6.32 Australian Story (rpt), 7pm ABC News, 7.32 7.30 Select (rpt), 8pm Documentary: Terror In The Skies, 8.54 The 7.30 Report (rpt), 9pm The World,
9.32 Foreign Correspondent (rpt), 10pm ABC News, 10.32 Dynasties (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.32 Message Stick (rpt)

Sunday 25:
6pm
ABC News, 6.32 Foreign Correspondent (rpt), 7pm ABC News, 7.32 One Plus One (rpt), 8.02 Insiders (rpt), 9.02 The World, 9.33 Asia Pacific Focus (rpt), 10pm ABC News, 10.32 7.30 Select (rpt), 11pm ABC News, 11.32 Family Fortunes (rpt). (Note: The Sunday schedule is now likely to be affected by live coverage of the federal election debate, scheduled for 6.30pm)

Monday 26:
6pm
ABC News, 6.05 The Drum, 6.45 The Quarters, 7pm ABC News, 7.32 Catalyst (rpt), 8pm ABC News, 8.32 Lateline Business, 9pm The World, 10pm ABC News, 10.30 Newsline, 11pm ABC News, 11.28 The 7.30 Report (rpt)

Two-minute news updates either on the hour or on the half-hour feature throughout the day and evening.

abcnews24 Mornings will include ABC News Breakfast (simulcast with ABC2 in EST states) and overnights will include news and current affairs programming from BBC.

ABC News 24 will also include time-shifted schedules for regular ABC programs including Midday Report, Landline, Stateline, At The Movies, Talking Heads, Message Stick, Compass and Q&A.

More detailed program listings are online at Yahoo7 and YourTV, while complete guides for the first week of ABC News 24 can be downloaded from TV Tonight and What’s On The Tube.

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/abc-news-24-programming-unveiled.html

1990: July 14-20

tvweek_140790 ‘By the time my son is a teenager I’ll be in a sewing circle’
A Current Affair host Jana Wendt (picture), mother of two-and-a-half-year-old Daniel, says that if he was to get a younger brother or sister then she would reconsider her role on television.  “I think two children is a very large number if you want to keep working,” she told TV Week.  And the ACA host admits it is quite a juggling act as TV’s first lady on camera, while being mum at home.  “I think my son is conducting a campaign to stop me reading newspapers, which could jeopardise my job!  That’s a struggle in the mornings – the struggle against listening to the radio, which you must do, and watching Here’s Humphrey.  Sometimes both happen at the same time, which leads to both of us being confused.  It works itself out.”  And while Daniel things it’s pretty cool recognising his mum on TV now, she is asked will he feel the same when he is a teenager.  “I don’t think that 13 years from now I’ll be in the business.  By the time he’s a teenager I will be in a sewing circle.  Yes, absolutely,” she says. 

janeturner Fast lane Jane!
When Jane Turner isn’t raising laughs on Fast Forward, she is juggling two other very different roles.  First, there is looking after her young son, Rupert – and then her other role is as the diplomat’s wife and the various official social engagements that come with that job.  Turner and her husband John Denton met at Melbourne University, courted in Russia, married in Melbourne, had an 18-month “honeymoon” in Canberra and then moved to Bangladesh, where Denton is deputy head of the Australian High Commission in Dacca.  The talented Turner came back to Melbourne to start on Fast Forward, and her husband will be following later in the year.  “He’s always very supportive and encouraging,” she told TV Week.  “We’re both so satisfied with our careers.  You have to take the opportunities when they come and play it by ear.  But it can be a drag.  We miss each other, but it’s always been this way.  One day we’ll compromise.”  When she isn’t working on Fast Forward, Turner joins her husband overseas to mix with the elite on the diplomatic cocktail circuit.  And after creating such Fast Forward characters such as the tongue-in-cheek Inga Harlot (pictured) and Doctor Van Noodle Rooter (“they’re loosely based on Scandinavians I met in Moscow.”), Turner is considering creating a Bangladeshi character.  “Let’s see how they react to that!,” she says.

tanialacymarklittle ‘We felt like we were selling out’
Countdown Revolution’s Tania Lacy has spoken out after she and co-host Mark Little were sacked from the show for being anarchic.  It’s a bizarre situation for the pair, considering it was for that particular quality they were hired to do the show in the first place.  Lacy, a familiar face from ABC’s The Factory, said there had been a lot of problems leading up to the taping of the episode where she and Little staged an on-air strike.  “It was a fight for our credibility,” she told TV Week.  “We regard ourselves as credible performers and that is the heart of the issue.  We were originally asked to present a revolutionary, comedic and anarchic pop program.  We really believed in that concept, but suddenly some very ugly factors came into it.  We felt like we were selling out, that we were puppets for the producers and record companies.  Mark and I were not employed to sell records.  We were also told to cool it with the clowning around and they also stopped us from saying what we believed in.  We felt so strongly about it we thought the audience should know how we’re feeling.”  The pair arrived for the Friday night taping carrying some quickly-made placards, reading ‘TV is a lie’ and ‘TV lip service’, which were handed out to audience members.  The pair were later notified of their dismissal by fax.  Actors Equity have taken up the case and Lacy and Little are hopeful they will be able to sit down with ABC management and deal with the issue face to face.  The show’s former producer, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum, says that while he wasn’t involved in the show by this stage, he defended the broadcaster’s actions:  “Any performer knows you don’t air your grievances on camera.  And that no one performer is bigger than the show itself.  Any artist who abuses members of the production team in front of an audience, or tears up their script and refuses point blank to listen to the show’s director, or tries to encourage members of the audience or other performers to interfere with the production of the program – all over matters of either self-indulgence or ego – is definitely asking for trouble.”

Briefly…
The Flying Doctors star Alex Papps is set to kill his boy-next-door image with a role in the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of This Old Man Comes Rolling Home.  “It’s a play about a family living in Redfern in the Fifties.  My character is one of the sons of the family who doesn’t work… he’s a real layabout.  He seduces a young English girl, so I get to play ‘Mr Bastard’ this time around.  He’s a lecherous type,” he told TV Week.

peterandre As a judge on Nine’s New Faces program, Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum was so impressed with the performance of 17-year-old Queenslander Peter Andre (pictured, centre, with Meldrum and host Daryl Somers) that he immediately signed him up to his record label, Melodian Records.  “Peter impressed us all and he has a unique voice that can be developed,” Meldrum told TV Week.

Darryl Cotton and Marty Monster found themselves unemployed when the Ten Network axed the long-running children’s program The Early Bird Show (which was known as Club 10 at the time of its axing).  But now the pair have a new profile as presenters of a Sunday morning radio show on Melbourne radio station TTFM.  “We’ve picked up the ratings by 200 per cent since we began three months ago.  It’s a radio version of The Early Bird Show and it’s great fun,” Cotton told TV Week.

John Laws says…
”The recent repeat screening of ABC’s Bush Tucker Man series, first shown in 1988, scored excellent ratings.  And no wonder.  It was just as engrossing the second time around as it was the first.  Which leads me to ask why is it taking so long for ABC to bring us a new series of the Bush Tucker Man?”

rowenawallace Program Highlights (July 14-20):
Sunday:  SBS
presents a new series of Anne’s International Kitchen, featuring Anne Luciano.  Rowena Wallace (pictured), Richard Moir and Justin Rozniak star in The Big Wish, the third in the More Winners children’s series on ABC.  GTV9 presents the debut of Unknown Australia, the five-part documentary series from Brisbane-based newsreader Dean Felton.  After a six-month hiatus, The Comedy Company returns to ATV10 with a new format and some new faces.  Sunday night movies are Without A Clue (HSV7) and Frantic (GTV9).  ATV10 debuts the two-part mini-series Murderers Among Us – The Simon Wiesenthal Story.   ABC’s Sunday Stereo Special is the Australian Ballet’s production of Spartacus, recorded in Melbourne with the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra conducted by Ormsby Wilkins.

bertnewton_1989 Monday:  Sale Of The Century (GTV9) presents the first in the week-long Celebrity Challenge, commemorating the show’s tenth anniversary.  Taking part in the challenge are high-profile contestants including Bert Newton (pictured), Andrew Gaze, Simon O’Donnell, Peta Toppano, Gough Whitlam, Lisa Curry, Cameron Daddo, George Negus and Jennifer Byrne.

Tuesday:  In Beyond 2000 (HSV7), Iain Finlay reveals a new technique for viewing 3D television without the need for special glasses, while Simon Reeve travels to Gothenburg, Sweden, to report on an electronic newspaper for the blind.  SBS launches a new weekly sports program, The Sports Machine, hosted by Les Murray and a team of reporters looking at the playing fields, dressing rooms and board rooms of sporting clubs around Australia.

Wednesday:  ABC’s Documentary Unit presents a controversial new film, The Devil You Know, examining the popular myth surrounding two drugs – heroin and alcohol.

Thursday:  ABC’s The First Australians series presents a documentary on Arnhem Land rock group Yothu Yindi on their tour of North America with Midnight Oil.

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

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/1990-july-14-20.html

1990: July 7-13

tvweek_070790 Cover: Sharyn Hodgson, Julian McMahon (Home And Away)

Confrontation!
The Ten Network’s long-awaited return of The Comedy Company is about to hit screens as the ratings underdog up against Nine’s 60 Minutes.  “I don’t think it will be that hard to make up lost ground on 60 Minutes,” producer Ian McFadyen told TV Week.  The revamped comedy hour promises not to be “more of the same” according to McFadyen. A number of new cast members have been added to the show – including Geoff Paine (Neighbours), Tracy Harvey (The Gillies Report), Melanie Salomon (E Street) and stage performers Alix Longman and Bernadette Robinson alongside familiar names Maryanne Fahey, Peter Rowsthorn, Russell Gilbert and Mark Mitchell. Meanwhile, Mitchell’s own comedy series, Larger Than Life, is to be replaced by a new series called The Big Time, featuring Mitchell and wife Di and sons Rhys and Lewis.

denisedrysdale_3 New doors open for ‘Ding Dong’
The Nine Network’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday celebrates its 20th anniversary next year but there is speculation that former co-host Jacki MacDonald, and not Denise Drysdale (pictured), will be there for the milestone. “I heard a rumour that Jacki is coming back,” Drysdale told TV Week. “If they asked me back, I’d be there, but that’s not up to me.  It’s in the laps of the gods.” Meanwhile, Drysdale has hired Glenn Wheatley as her manager. Wheatley has signed a two-year deal with Ronson Australia for Drysdale to promote its products in store appearances and television commercials. She is also keen to pursue a dream role in a TV sitcom. “I have a concept and I’m working with a scriptwriter now,” she says. “We’ve written only bits and pieces so far but I’d like to see a pilot by the end of the year.” Meanwhile, Drysdale has spoken out about the reported rift between her and Hey Hey It’s Saturday host Daryl Somers. “Yes, it hurt and I think it’s detrimental to the show. Even if it’s true, the viewing audience don’t want to know if there’s a problem. I won’t speak out about it. What can I say? People make up their own minds. I am loud. Jacki wasn’t a loud person, so I think it was hard for everyone else. I been lucky to be here a year. I was lucky Jacki wanted to have a baby. I would still have had In Melbourne Today (with Ernie Sigley) but I wouldn’t have had all these doors that have opened now.”

jenniferkeyte Jennifer Keyte’s a working girl!
The Seven Network’s Melbourne-based newsreader Jennifer Keyte (pictured) has admitted that reading the channel’s main 6.00pm news bulletin and appearing on the late-night show Tonight Live With Steve Vizard has taken its toll on her personal life. “My only social time is on weekends,” she told TV Week. “It’s the only opportunity I have to catch up with my friends. By the time I get home after Tonight Live, take the make-up off and have a cup of Milo, I hit the sack very easily.” But Keyte is not complaining about the long hours that both TV roles are demanding. “I’m very happy with the way things are going. When I started on Tonight Live, I made sure everyone was aware of my priority – the 6.00pm news. With any news, credibility must be maintained and if that didn’t happen I’d have to reassess my involvement with the show.  But I think the two shows enhance each other.”

Briefly…
Actress Sarah Chadwick has made a sudden decision to leave the popular ABC drama GP. “GP is my first big role since leaving NIDA,” she told TV Week. “Consequently I’ve had little chance to do anything else.  I just feel that now, after a year, it’s time to move on.” Chadwick’s character, Dr Catherine Mitchell, will be written out of the show but does leave the door open for her to return. Meanwhile, Cameron Daddo has signed up for a brief ongoing role in the show.

Home And Away star Nana Coburn (the daughter of co-star Norman Coburn) has taped her last scenes for the show and is about to head off to Fiji to begin filming on a new international project, the sequel to the hit movie The Blue Lagoon.

Two of Australia’s best known actors, NeighboursAnne Charleston and The Flying DoctorsAndrew McFarlane, are among the stars to appear on stage in the Victorian Arts Centre’s production of Love Letters. Also starring in the production are Terry Norris and wife Julia Blake, Lewis Fiander and Peta Toppano.

sbs_1985 John Laws says…
”Well, advertising has arrived on SBS, thanks to the World Cup. And, no, the earth didn’t move. The nation’s morals were not placed in peril. Television standards were not lowered. Of course not. SBS’ initial foray into “corporate advertising” was very nicely done. Nothing over the top and nothing that interfered with the station’s excellent coverage of the international soccerfest.”

Program Highlights (July 7-13):
Sunday:
  The final stages of the World Cup starting at 3.30am with the playoff for third and fourth place, live on SBS and ABC regionals. HSV7’s Sunday afternoon AFL features Sydney Swans versus Carlton, and ATV10 crosses to Sydney for rugby league with the State Bank Big Game. Gary Sweet, Bruno Lawrence and Penne Hackforth-Jones star in Boy Soldiers, the second in the More Winners series of children’s dramas on ABC. Sunday night movies are Under Siege (HSV7), Vibes (GTV9) and Back To The Future (ATV10).

Monday:  The final of the World Cup is telecast from 3.30am on SBS and ABC regionals, with SBS repeating the match at 7.00pm. At 2.30pm, ATV10 starts a re-run of its popular 1980s drama Carson’s Law, set in Melbourne in the 1920s and starring Lorraine Bayly. That night, ATV10 begins a re-run of the four-part mini-series, The Dirtwater Dynasty, starring Hugo Weaving.

Tuesday:  In A Country Practice (HSV7), Terence (Shane Porteous) operates on Lucy (Georgie Parker) and confirms her worst fears. In GP (ABC), Dr Catherine Mitchell (Sarah Chadwick) faces the tragedy of losing her baby.

Thursday:  A bushfire breaks out in The Flying Doctors (GTV9), and Coopers Crossing is threatened. Dr Ratcliffe (Brett Climo) and Dr Standish (Robert Grubb) find themselves battling the fire.

Friday:  Dennis Cometti, Sandy Roberts and Ross Glendinning head HSV7’s coverage of AFL, West Coast Eagles versus St Kilda, live from Subiaco.

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

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/1990-july-7-13.html

Game over for Wimbledon

wwos Nine’s Wide World Of Sports just got a little bit smaller with news today that the network plans to end its long-term association with the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

Nine has cited falling viewer support for the event in recent years as the reason for the move and as a result has decided it would rather spend the $15 million in licensing and broadcasting the world’s premier tennis event each year on boosting its bid for the rights to cover AFL football when the current arrangement expires at the end of the 2011 season.

Nine’s bid for AFL is set to include more live coverage – something that the current incumbents Seven and Ten are less likely to do – and support for a high-profile Monday night fixture.

Wimbledon was first telecast in Australia on ABC in the late 1960s, with limited coverage of finals matches and highlights packages, at a time when satellite telecasts to Australia were still in their infancy. 

Nine’s broadcasting of Wimbledon dates back to 1977, forming part of Kerry Packer’s strategy of building up the network’s schedule with major television and sporting events.  Packer also used to head to Wimbledon where he had an elaborate marquee set up to wine and dine with friends and business partners.

The opportunity may exist for another network to pick up the Wimbledon rights.  The event would be a perfect fit for Ten’s sports channel, One HD, but the network may be reluctant to commit to any bid for the rights pending the review of the anti-siphoning legislation which currently prevents key sporting events being televised exclusively on digital television.

Source: Herald Sun
Picture: What’s On The Tube

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/game-over-for-wimbledon.html

ABC News 24 to launch 22 July

abcnews24 ABC has finally announced the launch date for its new 24-hour news channel, ABC News 24.

The new channel, broadcasting Australia-wide on digital channel 24, will launch at 7.30pm (AEST) on Thursday 22 July.

In an email to ABC staff, General Manager Mark Scott acknowledged the effort in getting the channel to air and looked forward to a new era in news broadcasting:

“It has been a remarkable effort to get us to this point and my thanks go to all concerned.”

“We are keen to get on air and provide what I am sure will be outstanding coverage of the 2010 federal election campaign on News 24.”

“A 24/7 news channel is a significant challenge and doubtlessly we will face intense scrutiny from our competitors, but we are looking to make a strong start and to get better every day.

“I know our audiences are going to appreciate having the great work of ABC journalists in Australia and around the world available free of charge, at all times – on television, online and on mobile.”

abcnews24_0001Launching the channel will be ABC News 24 Launch – ABC News Special which will be on ABC1 at 7.30pm and on ABC News 24 at the same time in the eastern states.  The channel will broadcast from new custom-built studios in the broadcaster’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney.

ABC News 24 will be broadcast live across Australia, regardless of timezone and will be instantly available through all ABC digital TV transmitters which currently cover around 97.7 per cent of the Australian population. 

Viewers will need a high-definition digital TV or set-top-box to access the channel.  Those with existing digital TVs or tuners may need to complete a re-scan to pick up the new channel. 

The new channel will also be available on Foxtel channel 202, Austar channel 24 and will be streamed live from ABC News Online, ABC iView and also via an iPhone application.

ABC News 24 will also be facing some fierce opposition, both on and off screen.  Since the channel was first announced back in January, News Limited (who is a joint venture partner in Sky News Australia with the Seven and Nine networks) has criticised the national broadcaster and through its newspapers, such as The Australian, has questioned and attacked the ABC’s ability to provide a 24-hour news channel and its appropriateness in doing so as a taxpayer-funded venture.

ABC and Sky News Australia will also soon be competing for the Government’s multi-million dollar contract to operate the international television service, Australia Network, on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the next five years.  The network, which broadcasts to 44 countries, is currently being operated by ABC.  

Source: ABC, ABC News

Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2010/07/abc-news-24-to-launch-22-july.html