by Nick Place
TV Week has theorised that the event might be the moment when a television network’s newsmen joined or even passed variety producers as the most important talent in the industry.
It come in the same year that federal politicians have used the medium of television to deliver speeches to the nation, during the election. Several newsreaders have also taken to using a device called ‘the teleprompter’, which allows a visual rolling of typed words on top of the camera, so speeches can be read while appearing to look straight into the camera. Only GTV-9’s head newsreader Eric Pearce has rejected the new technology, preferring to read from prepared scripts.
Certainly for those who worked on the Kennedy story, it was a massive day. Phone calls woke the network news chiefs at roughly 5 am to break the news that Kennedy had been shot, and there was not a moment’s rest from that point.
Young Melbourne newsreader, David Johnston, 22, made his television debut in the most testing of circumstances after recently taking up a position with HSV-7. He found himself on air for the first time, reading the biggest news story of the year: that President Kennedy was dead. The former radio announcer joined Brian Naylor on camera for the 6.30 news and came through with flying colours.
‘I didn’t have time to be scared,’ he said later.
The first cable TV star
November: TCN-9 in Sydney and GTV-9 in Melbourne are celebrating the early usage of a new coaxial cable linking the two stations. The cable allows the two stations to act as a genuine network, sharing news footage and variety shows.
ABV-2 pioneered the cable technology earlier this year by showing four programs in Melbourne and Sydney simultaneously, including footage of the Queen’s visit, and also enabled Sydney viewers to watch this year’s Melbourne Cup live for the first time.
The National Television Network, as Nine calls itself now, used the cable to full effect on election night (30 November), and now has plans for a national variety show, splitting air time between Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight and Dave Allen’s Tonight show out of Sydney.
Meanwhile, GTV-9 newsreader Kevin Sanders is set to be the first genuinely national presenter when he takes up the position of political tele-reporter in Canberra for the network.
Former 3KZ star ‘Uncle’ Norman Swain has been named as new host of Channel 9’s children’s program, replacing Geoff Corke, who has retired due to ill-health. But Uncle Norman didn’t get off to a good start when he dislocated his knee while playing on a slide in his TV debut. Swain was unable to convince the producers that he was injured and the show went on. He entered hospital for surgery two days later.
Media boss sees big future for TV news
October: The managing director of Sydney’s Mirror Newspapers, Mr Rupert Murdoch, has made some astounding claims on the future of television. Addressing an advertising convention, Mr Murdoch painted a picture of TV images beaming down from space, and news playing an ever-more-important role.
‘Once a chain of satellite transmitters is established in space – and this will occur within the next 10 years – all major and predictable happenings around the world will be not only known by the average person but will actually be witnessed by him,’ Mr Murdoch said. ‘They may even be recorded on automatic tape within the domestic set for playback if no one is viewing the set at that moment.’
Dead quiz show contestant misses the prize
December: HSV-7 set an unlikely TV milestone when a deceased person attempted to win a major prize on Coles £3000 Question.
Mrs Doris Owen, from South Australia, taped three appearances on the HSV-7 program a few weeks ago. However, while watching the first one go to air, she unfortunately passed away.
Her husband told the show’s producers that his wife would not have wanted her final two appearances edited out and so they were aired as scheduled. Mrs Owen took the subject of dogs but failed to win the £800 prize.
The King reigns supreme
The undisputed king of Australian television, Graham Kennedy, has re-signed with Nine for a further three years, making him the highest-paid Australian artist on TV.
As In Melbourne Tonight celebrated its sixth birthday and 1500th episode this year, there had been speculation that Kennedy might walk away from TV, after he bought a farm in New South Wales, but he is clearly planning to stay on screen.
Kennedy has finally made inroads into the Sydney market in 1963, including a prime-time slot for his Best of Kennedy show, and appearances on popular programs, the Mobil Limb Show and Bandstand.
Nine announced early in the year that Kennedy would host IMT three nights each week, with understudy Bert Newton hosting one night and popular new import, Noel Ferrier, helming the Friday show. Ironically, Ferrier was the first host of the Channel 7 program that debuted as a direct competitor to IMT back in May of 1957. With his large-frame horn-rim glasses and sparkling wit, the Englishman is one to watch.
MEMORIES
> A portable TV tape recorder, weighing only 59 kilos and costing less than $12,000, is unveiled by the Ampex Corporation in New York.
> A mine near Newcastle introduces all-seeing closed-circuit television to supervise security and safety conditions.
> Swimmers Dawn Fraser, Jill Bolton and Alwyn Mitchell are banned from appearing on HSV-7’s Party Time because it would cause them to lose their amateur status.
> Brian Naylor admits to being terrified for the first time in his TV career when he debuts as a singer on Swallow’s Juniors.
> The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Arthur Caldwell, deliver their election policy speeches through TV.
> GTV-9 quiz show Concentration notches up its 500th national episode. Almost 2000 contestants have won more than £50,000 worth of prizes.
> Tommy Hanlon, host and star of It Could Be You, re-signs with Nine and decides to settle permanently in Australia with his family.
> Vision from an operating theatre at Prince Henry Hospital, screened to 800 doctors and other medical experts, markes the first-ever transmission of colour television in Australia.
> Networks are ordered to include more content made in Australia.
> The Logies are postponed after British comedian Tony Hancock, who was supposed to be the guest presenter, is rushed to hospital in London with pneumonia. They were eventually held in April aboard the boat Galileo in Sydney.
> Gold Logie: Michael Charlton (ABC – above)
> Special Award – Dancing: Carlu Carter and Bill McGrath
SIDEKICKS AND BARREL GIRLS
Inside every sidekick lurks TV’s next superhost, or so Australia’s many retired sidekicks might say. Despite their lofty ambitions, only a few ever manage to make the transition from wheel spinner or contestant announcer to fully fledged host.
Isn’t that right, Paul?
They are the second fiddles of TV: the jovial sidekicks, the glamorous hostesses, the lovable puppets, the disembodied voices throwing in smart-alec comments; those who stand just to the left of the host in press pics, take pies in the face, draw names from the barrel and play straight man to the madcap compere. But over the years some of these ‘bridesmaids’ have managed to break away from their more significant others to become true stars in their own right.
With a flamboyant showman like Graham Kennedy at the helm, anyone else on In Melbourne Tonight was only ever going to be a support act. Comedian Joff Ellen was the fall guy in many of the King’s early sketches, while the Darrods Wheel spun the fashion-plate barrel girls into household names. The most famous of these was Panda Lisner, who charmed audiences with her ditz and candour, and won a Logie in 1958 for Best Female Personality in Melbourne. In 1961, she followed IMT producer-director Norman Spencer to HSV-7, and came into her own as Princess Panda in the popular children’s Happy Show.
But Gra Gra’s most loyal and equal counterpart was undoubtedly Bert Newton, a man who revelled in the role of number two. Having mastered the art of maintaining professionalism amid onslaughts
of innuendo and sponsors’ product, Bert went on to host a number of shows, including IMT, before again taking the back seat alongside Don Lane. But his reputation as Logies host par excellence and his success with Good Morning Australia finally allowed him to reign unchallenged as ‘Mr Television’.
Another IMT graduate (though she was actually dumped from that show for being overweight), former go-go dancer Denise ‘Ding Dong’ Drysdale shot to fame as the barrel girl on The Ernie Sigley Show in 1974, and in 1975 and 1976 won back-to-back gold and silver Logies. Numerous appearances on panel shows and drama series finally led to her own program, Denise, in 1998, though the less said about that the better.
Drysdale was also one of those who tried unsuccessfully to fill the unique shoes of Jackie MacDonald, the original female offsider to host Daryl Somers on Hey Hey It’s Saturday. MacDonald was famous for doing nothing, but doing it damn well, and alongside Somers and his pink-feathered friend, Ossie Ostrich (aka Ernie Carroll), capped off a formidable light entertainment combination. But MacDonald’s successors – Drysdale, Penne Dennison, Jo Beth Taylor and Livinia Nixon – sadly failed to re-create the same chemistry with Somers and the rest of the Hey Hey team.
The role of a game show hostess is nothing if not tiring on the arms – all that gift shop gesturing and letter turning – but many have ploughed on beyond the final buzzer. Sale of the Century lovelies Victoria Nicholls and Alyce Platt both took roles in short-lived soaps (Echo Point and Family and Friends respectively), while Jo Bailey, Nicky Buckley and Karina Brown transferred their gift shop experience to the world of advertising. Sophie Faulkner moved from the Wheel to WonderBra model to travel show reporter. With the 2005 incarnation of Temptation, Livinia Nixon has completed the trifecta of TV seconds: variety offsider, game show hostess and weather girl. And between 1981 and 1999 Adriana Xenides outlasted Wheel of Fortune hosts Ernie Sigley, Baby John Burgess and Tony Barber, ending her run with Rob Elliott spinning the wheel and the honour of being the longest-serving game show hostess in the world. Sadly, she couldn’t last the distance as a housemate in Celebrity Big Brother, voted out after just two weeks.
But if being a permanent second banana sounds demoralising, imagine playing second fiddle to a puppet from the moon or a man inside a bear suit. This was the reality for the women of Mr Squiggle – Miss Gina (Gina Curtis), Miss Pat (Pat Lovell), Miss Jane (Jane Fennell), Roxanne (Roxanne Kimmorley) and Rebecca Hetherington (daughter of the show’s creator, Norman Hetherington), and for Judy Banks, longtime sidekick of Fredd Bear (aka Ted Dunn). Gerry Gee overshadowed ventriloquist Ron Blaskett for most of his career, unlike Woodrow (the dog), Claude (the crow), Dexter (the robot) and Marty Monster, who were kept well in check by Simon Townsend, Shirley Strachan, Greg Evans, Daryl Cotton and Marie Van Maaren respectively. These hosts knew better than anyone the value of having a good number two, and keeping them just to the side.
Partners both on screen and off
> Alongside sentimental TV favourite Bob Dyer, wife Dolly added a feminine touch to Pick-a-Box and the couple’s deep-sea fishing documentaries.
> Comedienne Dawn Lake ably supported husband Bobby Limb in his variety endeavours, as well as starring in her own short-lived comedy series, The Private World of Miss Prim.
> Patti Newton (née McGrath) has been by Bert’s side almost throughout his TV career, from being a regular on IMT to presenting the fortnightly feel-good segment, Hearts & Heroes, on Good Morning Australia.
> Val Jellay hammed it up alongside husband Maurie Fields in early variety show Sunnyside Up, and played his on-screen wife in The Flying Doctors.
> John ‘Strop’ Cornell played second fiddle to Hoges in the Paul Hogan Show, and was also married to Hoges’ female offsider, Delvene Delaney.
1964
More choice for Melbourne viewers with the arrival of a third commercial station – and also with the launch of a new cop show that promises big things. Meanwhile a TV host’s big mouth gets him into strife, our first true sitcom makes its way to air and it’s a big, big year in music.
Channel 0 joins the fray
August: Australia’s third commercial TV network has come to life with Melbourne’s ATV-0 commencing transmission.
After a long run of trial transmissions that began in April, the first official broadcast went to air at 6.30 pm on Saturday 1 August, beginning with a welcome and preview from newsreader Barry McQueen and children’s host Nancy Cato, who until recently was regarded as the queen of country TV with GMV-6.
But the real action followed at 7 pm, with a spectacular opening show called This Is It! The program featured performers including Diana Trask, Lionel Long, Ray Taylor and the Lou Toppano orchestra.
Programs that screened during the station’s first days on air included the Dinah Shore Show, Sergeant Bilko, the Patty Duke Show and Bonanza. Two programs of particular local interest are the teenage music show Go! and the regular nightly news bulletin which runs for 45 minutes – 15 minutes longer than its other commercial rivals.
Channel 0 has promoted itself as a family-friendly station and that has already struck a chord with viewers. A recent poll by magazine TV Times showed that viewers wanted more sport and educational programs and less emphasis on shows that featured violence and shooting.
But it has already got into trouble with broadcasting authorities after publishing and promoting its test transmissions as authorised programs. The Australian Broadcasting Control Board ordered the station to stop publishing details of its trial broadcasts, but it continued to air quality shows in the hope of winning viewers before its official opening.
One unexpected problem for Channel 0 has been trying to educate the public and radio announcers as to how to pronounce the ‘0’, with variations ranging from ‘Channel Oh’ and ‘Channel Nought’ to ‘Channel None’ and ‘Channel Nil’. That shouldn’t be a problem for Channel 0’s Sydney sister station, which will launch under the 10 banner in April next year.
The start of something big?
April: GTV-9 is making another attempt at an Australian situation comedy with the launch of Barley Charlie. The program is based on the story of two city-loving sisters who inherit a rundown country roadhouse and garage from their uncle. Desperate to return to their glamorous city lifestyles, the sisters decide they will make the business work so they can sell it at a profit. But the lazy mechanic that came with the deal, Charlie, always gets in the way.
Channel 9 has spared no expense to make the program work, constructing realistic sets and employing English writers Ronald Chesney and Ronald Wolfe, creators of the successful UK series The Rag Trade.
Barley Charlie debuted at the end of March and has met with mixed reviews. There is also talk that Chesney and Wolfe will soon be returning to England. Nevertheless, there are a high hopes within the industry that Barley Charlie will prove a success and kick-start what will end up being a long line of quality Australian sitcoms.
Bert quits – but why?
March: Bert Newton has stunned GTV-9 by resigning from television, citing the need to rest and recuperate from an illness that has troubled him for months.
According to TV Week, the illness has now been diagnosed as an anxiety neurosis. That diagnosis puts to rest a series of wild rumours about Bert’s health that have been circulating within the industry, including that he was an alcoholic or a drug addict! Another rumour suggested that Bert was going to resign to become a priest.
Bandstand just gets bigger
January: Eight new acts are joining the cast of the successful music show Bandstand this year, hoping to continue the program’s record in turning promising young performers into national stars.
The show’s producers say this year’s crop looks particularly promising, including Sandy Scott and Pat Carroll. Of special interest is a trio of young English-born brothers called The Bee Gees. Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb are already popular in Sydney, and now the rest of Australia will get the chance to see them too.
The new hope
fuls on Bandstand this year.
ON DEBUT
> The Mavis Bramston Show – satirical comedy series
> Talent Detective – talent quest compered by Alwyn Kurts
> Country and Western Hour – compered by Roger Cardwell
> Science Question Time – panel show
> The Quiz Kids – children’s quiz show
> The Purple Jacaranda – suspense series
> Here’s Dawn – comedy and variety with Dawn Lake
> Ken and Jonathan – another Delo and Daly vehicle
> Australian Window – Aussie documentary series
> In-Patient – University of Sydney surgical series
> Thank Your Lucky Stars – musical variety
> Gordon Boyd Show – musical variety
> The Pacemakers – public affairs presented by Barry McQueen
> Philip Gibbs’ Sports Angle – sporting wrap
> The Ray Taylor Show – variety show
> Teen Scene – teenage music
> Go!!– music program
> Project 64 – current affairs program
> Key Notes – game show based on lyrics of popular songs
> The Stranger – children’s science fiction
> Ampol Stamp Quiz – children’s program, hosted by Dig Richards and Little Pattie
> Jazz Meets Folk – musical series
> Time For Terry – afternoon show hosted by Terry O’Neill
> Children’s Show – Channel 0’s venture into the kids’ market And from overseas comes:
> The Avengers – crime/adventure
> My Favorite Martian – comedy
> Richard Boone Show – dramatic teleplays
> Peyton Place – drama
> The Addams Family – comedy
