by Nick Place
Jim Upshaw (Director of Hit Parade) and Dick Jones in Channel 7’s Control Room 1.
Roly Lau at one of the first two video tape recorders at HSV-7.
A look inside the telecine room, showing Stancil-Hoffman 16 mm sound recorders/players.
1956
At last it’s here – TV is part of the Australian landscape. But even though the Olympics are a raging success on the small screen, there are plenty of new concerns and issues for local viewers to deal with as they adjust to life with a TV set in their lounge room.
TV brings joy for families – and won’t harm your eyes
November: The introduction of TV will strengthen family bonds and ensure parents and children spend more quality time together, according to a leading industry magazine. The Listener In-TV says television will see families gathering together in the home more than ever before.
‘Teenagers will not feel the urge to roam the streets seeking excitement or adventure – or maybe just trying to kill time,’ the magazine said. ‘New, wider horizons will be opened to the mind, and TV will become a window on the world for you and your family. The housewife will see new ideas for fashions and accessories, new dishes to make and demonstrations of crafts.’
‘Through the magic of TV, children will be educated as they are entertained. TV will control the timetable for housework, bring the youngsters home promptly after school and bring Dad home earlier. Quick, easy and tasty suppers will be sought by the lady of the house to serve when the programming is over.’
One tip for delicious and novel TV snacks comes from TV star Mary Parker, who suggests taking supper on a skewer! She says viewers should thread pieces of meat, pineapple, tomato and mushroom onto a skewer, interspersed with pieces of bacon, then grill quickly. The dish, apparently known as a ‘Shashlik’, is popular in Turkey, and Mary believes it will catch on here, too.
Meanwhile, in other tips for TV novices, experts have moved to reassure viewers that watching television will not harm their eyes – provided they observe some commonsense rules:
> Do not face the TV set directly towards any bright lights, such as a doorway, a bright window or a fire.
> Do not turn out all the lights in the room, but nor should the lighting be over-bright.
> Let your eyes wander from the TV screen from time to time, and shut them for short periods.
> Don’t wear sunglasses while watching.
Future TV standards: It’s up to you
November: The BBC has told viewers that it is they who hold the responsibility for determining the future of TV as an entertainment and cultural medium. The Director General of the BBC, Sir Ian Jacob, said the impact of TV is so much more powerful than that of ‘sound radio’ that we all have to think very hard about what influence it is going to have on us.
‘Unless people take TV seriously and try to get the best out of it, it will simply become a cheap form of entertainment,’ reported Listener In-TV.
‘The many millions who comprise the viewing public in all lands will ultimately decide what programmes are telecast.’
Sir Ian predicts that the TV systems of North America, Britain and Europe will be linked together within the next 10 years.
‘I have no doubt that … one day Australians will be able to see instantaneously what is happening in almost any part of the world,’ he said.
Portable TVs for cars
December: Portable TV receivers that will run off an ordinary 12-volt car battery will be on sale in Australia soon. The set will have a seven-inch by five-inch picture screen. It will weigh about 35 pounds and will have a small rabbit-ears type aerial attached.
The set will be able to be used in a car provided the aerial is outside the vehicle. Senior police have said they would not want to see a set being operated in a vehicle where the driver could see it.
ATN’s fast news
December: ATN-7 has won praise for its fast turn around news service that allowed viewers to watch film of the station’s official opening less than two hours after it had actually happened.
The opening ceremony at ATN started at 7.30 pm, and included a top quality variety program. The night’s viewing concluded with the station’s first news service, which featured film of the earlier opening.
Thousands of people stood outside shops in Sydney to watch the opening, and viewers up to 20 miles away reported excellent reception of the signal.
Long wait for colour
November: Industry experts have been advising prospective television purchasers against delaying buying a set in the hope that colour TV arrives here soon. They say viewers could be in for a long wait for colour television, predicting it could be at least five years before colour TV is even considered in Australia, and that there’s not much hope of a full-scale colour service for up to 10 years. That means you could be waiting until 1966 for colour television to arrive.
ON DEBUT*
* (Of course, everything was ‘on debut’ in 1956, but these are some highlights.)
> Your Home – home show with Del Cartwright
> Peters Fun Fair, with clowns Zig and Zag
> This I Believe – commentary on events with Eric Baume
> I’ve Got a Secret – game show
> Eric and Mary, where Eric Pearce and Mary Parker interview a famous guest
> Judy Jack Show – for kids
> Hit Parade – mimed musical show
> Stairway to the Stars – talent show. First edition featured a ballet dancer, a vocal duo, a comedian and an instrumental trio
> Wedding Day
> Fun With Charades
> Fun Farm
> At Seven on 7 – current affairs show
> Sydney Tonight
> Captain Fortune – kids show (below)
> Smalltime – kids show
> Name That Tune – game show
> Children’s Club – ABC children’s show
And from overseas comes:
> Tales of the Texas Rangers
> The Three Musketeers
> Jungle Jim
> Rin Tin Tin
> The Patti Page Show
>The Liberace Show
> Jet Jackson
> The Frankie Laine Show
> Father Knows Best
> Our Miss Brooks
> I Love Lucy
> What’s My Line?
> The Cisco Kid
Olympics provide perfect start for TV
December: The Olympic Games caravan has moved on after the most wonderful Games on record, and there is little doubt in the minds of Australians over who the real winner has been – television.
All three networks have reported overwhelmingly positive feedback from the public for what television achieved during the Games, and the coverage – often watched through shopfront windows or at the homes of friends – seems to have spurred a buying spree among the public.
All three Melbourne stations went to air simultaneously for the first time on the afternoon of Thursday 22 November, when they screened the opening ceremony of the Games, starting with the arrival of the Duke of Edinburgh.
The three networks covered events every day, and packages of highlights were shown on air in the evenings. But decisions on which events could be televised were often dependent on ticket sales, and so were frequently not finalised until the day before the events were held. In the end, because of strong ticket sales, networks were able to televise many more events than they had expected.
The result was a complete disruption to scheduled programming – but the audiences didn’t seem to mind. Indeed, letters flooded in to all three Melbourne stations from viewers expressing wonder and admiration at the clarity and scope of TV’s coverage. Even sponsors have been supportive, allowing programs they had funded to be moved to make way for Olympic coverage.
Even before TV has arrived in this country, confectionery manufacturers have decided that Australians may like to eat chocolate while watching TV. We’ll wait and see if their opti
mism is well founded.
Call for overhaul of talent show judging
December: The judging of contestants on TV talent shows should be carried out not by a panel of industry experts but by the public watching at home.
That’s the view of TV columnist ‘Revel’, writing in Listener In-TV, who has been watching TV’s first talent quest, Stairway to the Stars, with interest over its first few weeks.
There was controversy last week when young saxophonist Philip Meichel beat out the Harmonica Hepcats and dancers John Smith and Vic Emms to the Stairway prize. ‘Revel’, for one, thought the decision might have been different if left to the viewers.
‘Does a solo instrumental act constitute better TV entertainment than a tap dancing act?’ he wrote.
‘Compere Eric Pearce regularly assures viewers that the judging is on the basis of the quality of TV entertainment. Who, then, is in the better position to judge the quality of viewer appeal than the viewer himself?’
‘The best and fairest way [to judge acts] is through the votes of viewers.’
TV loves live sport
December: The success of the Olympics has confirmed what many of the nation’s TV broadcasters already suspected – live sport could be highly successful on the new medium.
TCN-9 has already broadcast the first live sporting event outside the Olympics – the Pelaco Golf Tournament from the Australian Golf Club in November.
In Melbourne, Channel 7 has already had two successful closed-circuit trials of broadcasting Australian Rules football, including the 1956 Grand Final between Collingwood and Melbourne, though it remains to be seen how well that fast-moving and notoriously unpredictable sport can be captured on the TV screen. There are also plans to televise tennis, boxing, rugby league, bowls, soccer and surf life saving, among other events, next year.
Two hopeful young lasses try to win over the judges on Stairway to the Stars.
Chips takes Aussie TV to the world
Australian film star Chips Rafferty has called for ideas for potential Australian television shows, warning that the new medium will require a great deal of original creative thought to survive.
‘You can’t fill a bath with the plug out,’ he told Listener In-TV, explaining that the unfillable bath was the world’s appetite for new TV product. As a result, Rafferty’s film production team is now concentrating on the small screen.
‘Overseas viewers have had TV for a long time and they’re getting choosey about the programs they want to see on their screens,’ Rafferty said. ‘They’re looking for fresh ideas in their TV entertainment – new backgrounds and new stories. We believe Australia can provide some of the things they’re looking for.’
MEMORIES
> Night trotting is televised for the first time in Melbourne 2 November.
> Japanese opera and ballet programs are identified as likely prospects for import to Australian TV.
> The ‘Classic Comet’ TV receiver is available for just 258 guineas.
> Kriesler releases a TV with the ‘Safe-TV-is on System’ to ensure complete eye comfort, reducing eye strain and viewing headaches.
> ABC screens a British documentary without any commentary. We Live By The River features only the natural sounds of and around the River Thames.
> Freak atmospheric conditions allow some viewers in Tasmania to receive transmission of the Olympics from Melbourne.
> TCN-9 gives away dogs as prizes on the Friday evening editions of its Fun Farm program.
> The ABC screens the first full-scale TV ballet programs, featuring a French production of The Sleeping Beauty.
> A visiting BBC expert brands Shakespeare as ‘one of television’s most successful scriptwriters’.
> Five per cent of Melbourne households and 1 per cent of Sydney households are believed to have a TV set.
> Australia’s TV picture quality is branded by TV experts as the best in the world.
> Australia’s first current affairs show, At Seven On 7, airs in Sydney on 3 December, hosted by Howard Craven (below).
1957
Two huge new variety shows are launched within days of each other, introducing two new stars to the small screen. GTV-9 opens, and major sports begin to see for the first time that they have something of value. A new magazine is launched, and mimed music shows continue to shine.
Radio stars flock to the small screen
March: The talent needed to staff Australia’s burgeoning TV industry was always going to have to come from somewhere – and it looks like radio might be the area to suffer the most. Many of radio’s biggest stars have already been lured across to try their hands at the new medium. And while some are juggling the demands simultaneously, increasing numbers are choosing to turn their backs on radio and focus solely on television.
Names such as Eric Pearce, Terry Dear, Happy Hammond, Doug Elliott, John Dease, Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton have either already made the move or are due to do so soon.
But the two biggest stars to make the shift are Bob Dyer and Jack Davey. And they’re not just taking themselves to TV, but also their entire programs. Between them they will present TV versions of no less than five top-rating radio programs.
Davey – this country’s biggest radio star – was the first to air, late last month, with his Give It a Go show, and he’s followed it up with the Dulux Show and the Pressure Pak Show, all of which are quiz/game shows. Dyer has taken the game show It Pays to Be Funny and quiz show Pick-a-Box, both of which have been hugely successful on radio, to our television screens.
The shows will often be broadcast simultaneously on both radio and television in a process known as ‘simulcasting’.
Already we’ve seen the extra drama that TV can add to these shows. In a recent edition of Pick-a-Box, TV viewers were allowed for the first time to see what was in the box that contestant Jack Dickson was being asked to consider. In this case it was a brand new Morris Minor. So when Mr Dickson was asked to choose between the box and the money (in this case, £35), the audience was in on the suspense.
Despite some subtle urging from Dyer, Mr Dickson chose the money. He said later that he would use his £35 winnings to put a deposit on a TV set.
Bob Dyer talks to the audience during an early screening of Pick-a-Box.
Channel 9 opens
January: The Governor of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, drove right into the middle of the GTV-9 studios last Saturday to officially open Melbourne’s third TV station.
A gala variety show followed, including performances from Toni Lamond and Frank Sheldon, singer Ray Dickson, impressionist Red Moore, juggler Paula Coates, hand balancers the Duo Perrades, Stafford Bullen and his performing horse, an Aboriginal choir and ventriloquist Ron Blaskett.
The opening night also included telephone calls to overseas stars including Alfred Hitchcock, George Burns and Gracie Allen.
VRC bets on money for Cup
The Victoria Racing Club is demanding that TV stations pay a fee for the right to film the Melbourne Cup to show on their TV news services. No figure has yet been set, but the VRC secretary, Keith Morrison, said it seemed only fair for the stations to hand over some cash. ‘We feel that the Melbourne Cup has some monetary value,’ he told Listener In-TV.
The TV stations are so far refusing to pay anything at all, claiming that the Melbourne Cup is an event of national importance and that they should have the right to film it as a major news item. The VRC does not allow stations to televise the Cup live.
The Victorian Football League, meanwhile, has reached agreement with all three Melbourne stations to allow live coverage of the last quarter of VFL matches this season. The stations will pay £50 each for the rights, with more expected to be paid for the finals.
Home help
March: A new program to help viewers with their own renovation problems is being launched on Channel 9. Called Operation Facelift, it will see a rundown house transformed into a modern, comfortable home. Even the garden of the house will be rema
de, and viewers will get to watch the step-by-step operation over a number of weeks.
The house is actually situated in the GTV-9 grounds, and after the facelift it will be occupied by the station’s caretaker, Mr R. Flanagan, and his family. Viewers will get to meet the Flanagan family, and hear them tell the renovation experts from the Gas and Fuel Corporation what changes they would like made.
ON DEBUT
> Tarax Happy Show – afternoon children’s show > Young Seven – afternoon children’s show
> Teenage Mailbag – Ernie Sigley, Heather Horwood and others sing the hits of the day
> Jukebox Saturday Night – Channel 9’s answer to Hit Parade
> Desmond and Channel Ninepins – children’s show
> Raising a Husband – Alwyn Kurts discovers the week’s most ‘human’ husband
> Pelaco Inquest – VFL football show > Sports Cavalcade – weekly sports review with Norman May
> Meet the Press – personalities in the news are interviewed by journalists
> Find the Link – panel/game show where panel tries to guess the link between pairs of contestants
> Professor Browne’s Study – comment on a range of social and educational topics
> It Pays to Be Funny – another Bob Dyer radio vehicle
> Leave it to the Girls – panel of women, but with a male host, discuss viewer problems
> Oxford Show – live musical performances
> Astor Showcase – live variety program
> Four Star Playhouse – dramas and comedy plays
> Quiz Kids – quiz aimed at the younger audiences
> Pantomime Quiz – quiz show
> TV Talent Scout – talent show
> Johnny Gredula Show – light musical variety show
> Rhythm Round-Up – teen music show
> Australia’s Amateur Hour – talent quest
> TV Disc Jockey – teen music program
