Dec 23 2022
Tony Barry, veteran film and television actor across Australia and New Zealand, has died peacefully after a long illness. He was 81. Born in Queensland, he grew up in Sydney. Despite early ambitions of following his father into becoming an aircraft engineer, Barry tried various jobs after leaving school. He eventually scored some minor bit …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2022/12/obituary-tony-barry.html
Nov 28 2022
After Crawford Productions suffered the indignity of having its three police dramas — Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police — axed within a year of each other in 1975, Cop Shop in 1977 represented a successful return to the genre. Unlike the earlier dramas, Cop Shop also incorporated the increasingly popular soap opera element. Storylines relating to …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2022/11/classic-tv-guides-cop-shop.html
Aug 23 2022
Vince Gil, Australian film and television actor and writer, has died at the age of 83. Although he is most remembered for his roles in films Mad Max and Stone, he was also a prolific actor on television. His earliest TV appearances included the 1965 play The Swagman — where he played an Australian-born man …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2022/08/obituary-vince-gil.html
Apr 30 2022
It is fair to say that Australian television has had a progressive approach to queer representation, dating back to 1970s serials Number 96, The Box and later Prisoner, when other countries were still barely touching on the subject. While the AIDS crisis in the 1980s led to a regression in this representation, things started to …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2022/04/new-doco-to-explore-our-lgbtq-tv-journey.html
Feb 25 2021
With the disappointment of The Long Arm behind it, in 1971, Melbourne’s ATV0 continued to pursue options for a police drama to rival Homicide and Division 4. While The Long Arm was produced in-house, the station reached out to Crawford Productions — producers of Homicide and Division 4 — to develop a police drama …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2021/02/matlock-police-tvs-country-cops.html
Jan 29 2021
In the decade following the end of The Sullivans and The Young Doctors, the Nine Network had little success in establishing a successful serial drama. The TV graveyard of the 1980s and early ’90s is littered with Nine’s drama corpses — Starting Out, Kings, Possession, Prime Time, Taurus Rising, All The Way, Family And Friends. …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2021/01/30-years-since-chances.html
Jan 20 2020
By the turn of the ’80s it was the unofficial benchmark for each commercial network to have two successful soapie dramas in the schedule. Seven had Cop Shop and Skyways, and Nine had The Sullivans and The Young Doctors. The then 0-10 Network had the popular Prisoner and teen drama The Restless Years. For some reason, …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2020/01/arcade-going-from-hero-to-zero.html
Mar 20 2019
In the 1980s one of the Nine Network‘s many strengths was its early afternoons. The Mike Walsh Show, which became Midday with Ray Martin, followed by US soaps Days Of Our Lives and The Young And The Restless constantly beat anything thrown at them by rival commercial networks Seven and Ten. When Christopher Skase took …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2019/03/sevens-battle-for-high-noon.html
Dec 02 2018
Judy McBurney, best known for roles in The Young Doctors and Prisoner, has died at the age of 70 after a four-year battle with cancer. With an early career in modelling, she moved into acting with appearances in Catwalk, Barrier Reef, Seven Little Australians, Behind The Legend, The Box, Homicide, Bluey and Bellbird. In 1973 …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2018/12/obituary-judy-mcburney.html
Sep 03 2018
This week Neighbours (6.30pm weeknights, Eleven) makes Australian television history with its first same-sex wedding. Aaron Brennan (Matt Wilson) and David Tanaka (Takaya Honda) will be wed by celebrant Jemima Davies-Smythe, played by Magda Szubanski. Actor, comedian and writer Szubanski was a prominent spokesperson in the marriage equality campaign which culminated in same sex marriage becoming legal in Australia …
Permanent link to this article: https://televisionau.com/2018/09/from-96-to-neighbours-tvs-long-walk-to-marriage-equality.html
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