50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  The popular ocker went on stage and pretended to scold the crowd for not trying hard enough to find the father of a ‘lost child’. Hogan said he would bring the unfortunate kid on stage, at which point he was joined by a ‘shapely, topless blonde’ teenage girl. Hogan cuddled up to her and said the father of ‘this poor little boy’ could form a queue at the side of the stage.

  The girl’s appearance was greeted with laughter by the concert crowd, as were Hogan’s references to her as ‘sonny’ and ‘little boy’. But the Nine switchboard lit up with viewers calling the segment ‘disgusting’ and ‘obscene’.

  Many viewers were unhappy that such a stunt, with nudity, went to air in A Current Affair’s timeslot when young children are still watching.

  A Current Affair anchor Mike Willesee said he was surprised by the fuss but added that any segment involving nudity usually received complaints. ‘In fact, many of the people who complained probably sat up to watch it in the repeat of the program,’ he said.

  Hogan thought the complaints were amusing and said, ‘I don’t see why they are all getting so concerned. I can’t see anything wrong with the young boy without his shirt.’

  When you’re a female TV star you’ve got to watch what you eat – a lesson that seems to have been learned by glamour girl Vikki Hammond.

  Just where is Our Man now?

  August: The ABC’s new drama series, Our Man in the Company, is a program with a complex and sticky history. It started life in December 1971 as a pilot called Our Man in Canberra, which followed newly elected M.P. Humphrey Sullivan (Jeff Ashby) as he muddled his way through his new role.

  The series was due to air in June 1972, but production was halted just weeks beforehand, due to an alleged breach of part of the Broadcasting and Television Act that prohibited dramatisation ‘of any political matter which is then current or was current at any time during the last five preceding years’.

  Many were suspicious that the real reason was government pressure from those who thought the show’s political satire hit too close to the mark. Whatever the truth, Our Man in Canberra’s fate was sealed – until, that was, the December 1972 election saw a change of power and fresh support from the new Commissioner on the ABC Board.

  The end result was the compromise we now see on our screens: a series which translates Sullivan and his activities to the world of big business, and which wears only a very thin veil to disguise the roots of its satire.

  The secret life of Inventors

  October: The producer of the popular ABC program, The Inventors, has revealed a secret role of the show’s production team – protecting the backyard inventor stars of the show from big business.

  Beverley Gledhill said they had been aware from the start that there would be multi-national corporations looking to kill off inventions that might affect their business.

  ‘We often get big companies ringing up, anxious to talk with some inventor or other,’ Beverley told TV Week. Gledhill’s advice to inventors is not to take the first cheque thrust at them but to take time to consider potential offers. Several inventions from the show are now on sale, or in development.

  MEMORIES

  > Sue Walker stars in The True Blue Show, a program of comedy sketches in the vein of Mavis Bramston.

  > Leonard Teale, in a role far from his character in Homicide, plays the father of seven unruly children in the ABC’s Seven Little Australians.

  > Self-described ‘rebel’, 21-year-old Tina Bursill, lands the role of swinging elder daughter Meg in The People Next Door, a sitcom about a young married couple dealing with their difficult neighbours.

  > After 15 years at Nine, Bert Newton decides to go freelance and see what turns up.

  > The ABC returns to the era of the jitterbug, rhumba and the dance halls of wartime for its variety show The 40s in Swingtime.

  > Don Lane returns with his own show, less than a year after declaring he would never appear regularly on Australian TV again.

  > Daytime variety program The Mike Walsh Show makes its debut on Ten.

  > McNair Anderson Associates is formed from a merger of the two rival ratings systems in Australia.

  > Pamela Stephenson and Rod Mullinar star in Ryan, a new crime drama series about a tough, hard-living private detective.

  > Gold Logie: Tony Barber (below)

  > Outstanding Contribution to TV Journalism: Caroline Jones

  CURRENT AFFAIRS

  Australia’s record when it comes to current affairs television is a bit like the little girl with a curl: when it’s been good, it’s been very, very good; but when it’s been bad, it’s been horrid – and almost always on a commercial network at 6.30 pm.

  From the sublime to the ridiculous

  Think ‘current affairs television’ in Australia and most people immediately think of dole bludgers, dodgy tradesmen, dinky diets and stories ‘that no parent can afford to miss’. This is the domain of shows like A Current Affair and Today Tonight, which former Media Watch producer David Salter described in 2005 as being ‘the toxic sludge at the bottom of the media barrel’.

  But dig a little deeper and you’ll find the nation’s current affairs programming has a much harder-hitting – and far more noble – pedigree. That started with the ABC’s introduction of Four Corners way back in 1961 and has continued ever since through programs like Sunday, Lateline, the 7.30 Report, Foreign Correspondent and Meet the Press.

  Somewhere in between those two extremes lay the highly regarded This Day Tonight (TDT), a half-hour program that the ABC chose to follow its nightly news service in 1967. The show, featuring future heavyweights including Mike Willesee, Gerald Stone and Peter Luck, balanced hard stories with lighter segments in a magazine style that immediately attracted audiences. When Willesee crossed to the commercial networks and reintroduced the concept as A Current Affair in 1971, responsible, magazine-style current affairs became not just popular but also profitable.

  That trend was taken to its zenith in 1979 when Channel 9 launched 60 Minutes, introducing a bankable mix of adrenaline-fuelled war-zone reports, corruption exposés, human tragedy and the occasional celebrity interview. It was the first current affairs program to turn reporters into true stars: Ray Martin, George Negus and Jana Wendt remained household names long after leaving the program.

  Other shows followed suit. Mike and Terry Willesee each carried serious ‘star quality’ as presenters, as did Kerry O’Brien on the 7.30 Report. Paul Barry became ‘a name’ on the back of his Four Corners investigations into Alan Bond and was lured to front Channel 7’s innovative but ultimately unsuccessful The Times in 1995, then later Witness.

  It says something for Mike Willesee’s celebrity status that he is perhaps best remembered not for his many outstanding interviews or newsbreaking stories, but for one of television’s most infamous on-camera moments. The respected journalist went live to air slurring and giggling his way through a story, at one stage almost falling off his chair. His explanation? Medicine.

  But that was just one of hundreds of memorable moments delivered by current affairs shows. Jill Singer, then Victorian host of Today Tonight, passed out after succumbing to the massive pressure surrounding a story about Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett and a local poker machine magnate. Ian Leslie discovered fear firsthand when asking a Filipino rebel how a spy is executed. Without warning, the rebel promptly pointed his revolver at Leslie’s head and pulled the trigger. A shocked ‘Just cut there, mate’ (said to Leslie’s cameraman) is now one of the immortal lines of television journalism.

  Today’s populist current affairs programs are a far cry from their antecedents, such as TDT and even the early years of ACA. David Salter says they are ‘a foul corruption of quite decent origins’. During a ‘Chase Skase’ story, for example, Today Tonight was exposed for mocking up roadblock scenes supposedly set in Majorca but actually shot in Barcelona. ACA came under fire in 1993 for its role in a police siege in NSW, where Mike Willesee interviewed the child hostages mid-sieg
e by phone. And who could forget the Paxton saga in 1996? ACA, then anchored by Ray Martin, sparked a nationwide outcry when it covered the family of dole bludgers who refused to work. The follow-up by media maverick John Safran, in which he and one of the Paxtons door-stopped Ray Martin and went through Martin’s rubbish, became equally famous.

  Of course, there have been plenty of current affairs programs that ended up on the cutting room floor. Real Life, hosted by Australia’s first Indigenous prime time anchor, Stan Grant, received scathing reviews. Heavyweights Chris Masters, Maxine McKew and Kerry O’Brien were among the reporters at Ten’s Page One (1988–89), a failed stab at a 60 Minutes-type program.

  But perhaps the show that best sums up Australian current affairs – especially the more populist shows – is not even of the genre. For the true history of Australia’s hard-hitting exposés and below-the-belt journalism, best to hire out the ABC’s satirical Frontline.

  Making a mark

  A few examples of current affairs programs that had a major impact:

  > Deposing of a PM – Meet the Press (1971). Heavyweight political commentator Alan Reid’s interview with then Liberal Defence Minister Malcolm Fraser set in train a series of events that eventually forced PM John Gorton to hand over power to Treasurer Billy McMahon.

  > ‘The moonlight state’ – Four Corners (1987). Chris Masters’ report into police and political corruption in Queensland under Joh Bjelke-Petersen prompted the ‘Fitzgerald Inquiry’ that produced the scalps of the police commissioner and several government ministers.

  > ‘Big league’ – Four Corners (1983). A story about corruption in rugby league found its way deep into the corridors of power within the New South Wales Wran government and led to the establishment of the Street Royal Commission.

  > The Paul Keating piggery scandal – 60 Minutes (1999). The late Paul Lyneham devoted a full episode of 60 Minutes to Keating’s business relationship in a piggery. Uproar followed, and serious questions dogged the former PM.

  > Rainbow Warrior – Four Corners (1985). Another chilling report from the Four Corners crew, helping to reveal that the French secret service had been responsible for the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior.

  1974

  The Box landed to try and out-flesh Number 96. Meanwhile, Grundy’s and Seven went for a younger audience with Class of ’74, Countdown became a surprise hit for a young Ian Meldrum and all stations began experimenting with colour test transmissions.

  School’s in for sexy new soap

  March: Sexy young schoolgirls, famous faces and daring storylines – Seven’s new soap, Class of ’74, looks like a sure-fire hit and is set to break new ground on Australian television.

  The first-ever attempt at drama from Grundy Productions, Class of ’74 stars Leonard Teale as Charles Ogilvy, the headmaster of Waratah High, with the deputy head played by English actor John Hamblin, who’s more familiar as a Play School presenter.

  Class of ’74 aims to carve its own destiny among super soaps like Number 96 and this year’s big newcomer, The Box, by landing on the screen five nights a week at 7 pm. Seven is calling the delivery a ‘strip format’, with a daily episode, and it will be interesting to see if this takes off.

  The new show is also aimed, unashamedly, at a young audience. Unlike adult soaps, Class of ’74 is aiming for the hearts and imaginations of teenagers. It will also be worth noting whether there is any value in this demographic for advertisers.

  One thing the new show has going for it is its sexy and mainly female young cast. The Waratah High School girls are sometimes willowy (Number 96’s Anne Lambert), and sometimes curvy (Megan Williams and Joanne Samuel). There is also speculation that an early storyline will feature a student–teacher affair, between student Julie Armstrong (Carla Hoogeveen) and teacher Gary Evans (Vince Martin).

  In lead-up publicity, the show has been hyped for its sexiness, despite being set for a pre-8.30 pm timeslot. There are rumours that the Australian Broadcasting Control Board has already ordered a scene be cut where a male student, bikie Greg Simpson (Chris Cummings) deflowers virgin Nora Hayes (Barbara Llewellyn) in a tent.

  When Seven commissioned the series, it was adamant in telling Grundy’s there was to be ‘no nudity’, however a Grundy crew member told TV Week: ‘Take it from me, you will see everything else up to the point where the last garment is shed.’

  The Box – Number 96 light

  February: After all the hype, The Box has finally landed, taking the mantle from Number 96 as the home of gratuitous nudity. While Number 96 remains Australia’s top-rating program, it appears to have shifted more towards comedy and drama in response to the challenge.

  The Box is set in a fictional TV station, UCV-12. Viewers knew what they were getting from episode one, when one of Channel 12’s top hosts, Gary Burke (played by Peter Regan) found a naked woman in his dressing room shower during an ad break and decided to join her, leaving the show stranded on air. It turned out the girl was a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Felicity (Helen Hemingway). Instant scandal!

  TV Week says The Box, shows ‘more bare flesh than Bondi Beach on a summer Sunday’ and its ratings are very strong.

  Waters strikes gold in Rush

  Australia’s latest heart-throb is the brooding Trooper McKellar, dogged law-enforcer in the nineteenth-century goldfields in the ABC’s new series, Rush.

  McKellar is played by the understated John Waters, in his first regular character role in a series. Waters arrived from Britain six years ago and briefly returned because of homesickness, before deciding that Australia was where his future lay.

  Appearances on stage in Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell led to TV work, including a singing appearance on The Paul Hogan Show. But he’s already admitted that he is unlikely to ever end up as a cabaret song-and-dance man.

  Rush suffered production difficulties that threatened even making it to air, but it has come together beautifully, with the series mixing romantic tension between McKellar and aristocrat widow Sarah Lucas (Olivia Hamnett) and some goldfield cops-and-robbers action. It is set in the Bathurst region of NSW, but was actually shot in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, where an entire town was built, and in the ABC’s Ripponlea studios.

  The soundtrack, by Brian May and George Dreyfus, is also one of the best heard on TV.

  The future is clear for A Current Affair

  Nine’s A Current Affair has caused a stir with the appearances of clairvoyant Diana Shaw, who viewers complain has terrified young children with her matter-of-fact discussion of ghosts and visions.

  The 58-year-old grandmother’s recent predictions are that Jacki Weaver will be an international superstar on stage and screen, while she believes Abigail will marry and have two children, but not to her current partner, Mark Hashfield.

  ON DEBUT

  > Access – allows individuals and groups to present their views on TV

  > Cadbury Showcase ’74 – talent show with Gordon Boyd

  > And the Big Men Fly – comedy series based around a country football star, with John Hargreaves and Diane Craig

  > Ted Hamilton’s Musical World – local variety

  > With Margaret Whitlam – the Prime Minister’s wife introduces this series of interview programs

  > Countdown – music

  > A Touch of Reverence – drama series with Helen Morse and Wendy Hughes

  > Three Men of the City – mini-series with Michael Craig, Wendy Hughes and Anne Haddy

  > The Castaways – adventure series

  > Marion – mini-series with Helen Morse and Tony Bonner

  > Alpha Scorpio – children’s science fiction

  > The Fourth Wish – ABC mini-series with John Meillon

  > Blind Date – remake of the 1960s show

  > Gambit – game show with Peter Hitchener

  > Pig in a Poke – drama series

  > No Man’s Land – daytime magazine show

  > Mac And Merle – ABC comedy

  > J.
C. at 8.30 – short-lived interview and variety program

  > Willesee Show – current affairs

  > 24 Hours – current affairs

  > Torque – motoring program with Peter Wherrett

  > Spoiled – drama

  > It’s Magic – musical comedy with Johnny Farnham and Colleen Hewett

  > Anything Can Happen – afternoon children’s show with Ian Meldrum and Molly the Monster

  And from overseas comes:

  > Kojak – US detective series

  > Are You Being Served? – British comedy series set in a department store

  > Upstairs Downstairs – British historical drama starring Pauline Collins and Gordon Jackson

  Silent Number silenced for good

  August: Crime drama Silent Number has been axed by Nine due to a ‘ratings problem’, although episodes will continue on air until November. The show was plagued by production issues and personality clashes all year.

  The show recently took a body blow when its two main stars, Grigor Taylor and Elizabeth Alexander, attacked the characters they play in the series. Then, in July, the Australian Broadcasting Control Board demanded that producers cut a scene which apparently demonstrated how to construct an altitude bomb, leading the show’s producers to complain that they were being singled out in a crackdown on television violence.

  However, Silent Number’s most notorious moment came in May when armed police surrounded the cast on an Adelaide street, during filming. The police had believed an actual robbery was taking place and actors had to show that their guns were loaded with blanks. Police were furious about the mix-up, which co-producer Ron Mclean explained to TV Week had happened because fading light had forced them to move away from the location agreed to by police. Producers hadn’t realised they were now in front of the actual Reserve Bank.