50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  Its only rival for off-air controversy was when Crawford Productions actually blew up a house for an episode of Matlock Police, leading the local council to claim they hadn’t realised the crew planned to use actual explosives.

  Peach to fall?

  June: There is mounting speculation that Bill Peach won’t be with This Day Tonight next year. Peach has admitted he is looking at ‘other possibilities’ but says leaving the ABC for a commercial network is not an option. Sources within the national broadcaster say Peach is keen to develop a travel documentary series, with the working title of Bill Peach’s Australia.

  The affable presenter has fronted a record 2000 episodes of This Day Tonight over eight years and admitted to TV Week that he has been feeling the strain of such a constant, remorseless workload.

  All the hard work is paying off though, as TDT is enjoying its best ratings ever, even out-rating commercial rival A Current Affair in some states.

  A crowd of 5000 fans turned out for TV’s wedding of the year – Bert Newton and Patti McGrath. The childhood sweethearts married in front of family, friends and television elite. Graham Kennedy was best man, while Pat Carroll was the matron of honour.

  Molly’s mad year

  October: Ian Meldrum has been linked with the new ABC pop show Countdown, capping an up-and-down year. Not long after Meldrum and his on-air buddy, Molly the Monster, had been made honorary members of the St Kilda Football Club in May, their show, Do It!, with popular magician Ian Buckland, was axed by Seven.

  Meldrum was back on air on Seven in September, hosting children’s show Anything Can Happen, and is now being touted as a potential presenter on Countdown, which he co-created. The program, which mixes live music performances and video, has been an immediate hit and ABC programmers have big plans for it once colour lands. The show has already been signed for 44 one-hour episodes next year.

  Countdown got off to a flying start when Sherbet frontman Daryl Braithwaite was mobbed by the audience at the first show as he performed his single, ‘You’re My World’.

  Mike Walsh’s blue slip

  August: Producers of The Mike Walsh Show have been left red-faced and embarrassed after screening a prerecorded slice of a stage play, The Last of the Knucklemen, which contained some rather colourful language. A technical glitch meant the offending words weren’t bleeped out, and host Mike Walsh was said to be horrified by the blot on the otherwise squeaky-clean record of his show, which has been running for a year and a half.

  Strangely, TEN-10’s switchboard did not report complaints about the swearing. Nevertheless, producers went into damage control and ensured the fault was fixed before the show was screened outside of the Sydney metropolitan area.

  MEMORIES

  > Mike Minehan takes over as compere of A Current Affair, after making a name for himself on This Day Tonight in Brisbane.

  > A man claiming to be a member of the IRA threatens to kill A Current Affair compere Mike Minehan after he presents a report on the Tower of London bombing by IRA agents.

  > Homicide celebrates its 10th birthday.

  > Jamie Redfern and Debbie Byrne are crowned King and Queen of Pop, knocking off Johnny Farnham after a five-year run.

  > A new series called Unisexers is pitched. But this is no sex and sin saga. Rather the name comes from the fact that the young people of the commune support themselves by making and selling unisex jeans.

  > Young actress Helen Morse wins acclaim for her role in the ABC’s four-part production Marion.

  > Lauren Chantel Burns is born to proud singer dad Ronnie and choreographer mum Maggie.

  > ATV-0 celebrates its 10th birthday with a huge studio party for the station’s personalities.

  > Tom Oliver, who plays the popular Jack Sellars in Number 96, leaves the series.

  > Mike Willesee spearheads Australia’s first colour satellite TV program, which stages a two-way TV reunion between families with relatives in England.

  > Seven’s afternoon pop show The Scene is axed on the eve of going national, much to the disappointment of compere Graham Webb.

  > Showcase ’74 finalist Maria Mercedes makes several successful TV and club appearances.

  > Gold Logies: Graham Kennedy and Pat McDonald

  > Outstanding contribution to comedy writing: Fred Parsons

  1975

  What a year! We had to adjust our eyes to colour, adjust our ears to a naughty bird call and adjust our minds to the departure of the big three cop shows. On top of recovering from a cyclone (real) and a bomb (fictional), boy, did we have our work cut out for us.

  New product, new energy meets colour TV

  January: More than $20 million worth of new Australian productions, along with the refurbishing of a few old favourites, will greet Australian viewers as Australia finally flicks the switch to reveal colour television on 1 March.

  An estimated 3 per cent of Australian households have so far found the $700 or so for a colour TV set, or the $26 per month to rent one, but those who have taken the plunge will be rewarded with dazzling images.

  Seven new Australian dramas are set to debut this year on commercial networks to showcase colour, while TV Week reports that the ABC has been spending up a storm on colour-friendly specials and a new series. Luke’s Kingdom, a co-production between the Nine Network and the UK’s Trident TV, has a budget of $1.5 million and promises to be a major series, representing the harshness of life in Australia in the 1820s.

  The ABC plans five full-length movies, and a one-hour colour Countdown special featuring the immensely popular Melbourne band, Skyhooks, Daryl Braithwaite, Debbie Byrne, Renee Geyer and William Shakespeare.

  Bushrangers are about to enjoy colourful lives, thanks to Ben Hall (expected on air by September) and the mega-series Cash and Company, a Seven production set last century in the gold rush days.

  Paul Hogan also returns to the airwaves, with six specials scheduled to be made at ATN-7’s specially designed $250,000 colour studio.

  Australia has an estimated 3.5 million black and white TV sets in operation and industry sources expect 800,000 colour sets to be sold in the first year. Those planning to install a colour TV set have been warned by TV Week that as there are three times as many systems in the new receiver (one for each primary colour), there is more to go wrong. A correctly erected outside aerial is a must as the signal needs to be clearer than for the black and white equivalent. On a badly tuned set, reds and greens can ‘flare’.

  England has had colour television for eight years and Australia has followed the superior English PAL system, hopefully offering us a better colour picture than American viewers enjoy.

  Who is the real Paul Hogan?

  February: They both got their start on New Faces, they’ve both been ‘Aussie battlers’ and they’re both natural off-the-cuff comedians. But whatever you do, don’t dub A Current Affair’s new resident pub poet and philosopher, John Rennie, ‘the new Paul Hogan’.

  Rennie likes to remind people that he was in fact making a name for himself on Perth TV long before Hoges was discovered. The former truckie appears on ACA a couple of times a week, musing and theorising in rhyme, sitting on his bar stool with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

  The real Paul Hogan, meanwhile, has been busy developing a new character – Smithy, an RSL-type drunkard, liar and coward. He’s also keeping himself busy with commercials and is on the look-out for the right feature film script.

  Faaark!Kennedy’s off the air!

  March: Graham Kennedy’s television career may be over after an extraordinary return to variety television resulted in him being banned from appearing live on television by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. He has since resigned from Nine.

  The Board took this unprecedented action after Kennedy’s first program in his return to the 9.30 pm slot was deemed to have repeatedly and deliberately crossed the boundaries of good taste. During a live ad for Cedel hair spray, Kennedy imitated the call of a crow, in a way
that sounded suspiciously like the ‘f’ word. The Board was also incensed by sketches within the show that suggested sexual activity between a nun and a priest, as well as homosexuality.

  Kennedy’s future is now uncertain. He resigned after executives edited an attack on Media Minister McClelland out of his now pre-taped program.

  Pot of Fury as Hanlon quits on air

  April: Tommy Hanlon has quit Pot of Gold in explosive fashion, storming off the set mid-show after berating resident judge Bernard King for his withering appraisals of guests.

  Tommy walked after King had awarded a contestant a ‘minus 5’ out of a possible 50 marks. He had also told the female contestant that she shouldn’t have spent her money on singing lessons and would have been better simply to enter a Miss Australia Quest.

  With the contestant fighting back tears, Hanlon announced to the live studio audience that he was quitting. A mad scramble then ensued to find a replacement host to finish the taping.

  But King hadn’t learned his lesson and soon afterwards had a jug of water poured over his head by a contestant incensed by his biting remarks. He was also threatened by a Chinese karate expert after awarding a low mark.

  ON DEBUT

  > Until Tomorrow – suburban serial set in Brisbane

  > The Unisexers – soap about young people living in a commune

  > High Rollers – game show with Garry Meadows and Delvene Delaney

  > Wollongong the Brave – Australian comedy from the Aunty Jack team

  > The Norman Gunston Show – comedy interview show

  > Cash and Company – drama set in Australia in the 1850s

  > The Last of the Australians – comedy

  > Face Australia – Aussie history and geography

  > Celebrity Squares – game show hosted by Jimmy Hannan

  > Cross Country – reports of interest to both town and country viewers

  > State of the Nation – national affairs from Canberra with Richard Carleton

  > Ben Hall – Australian period drama

  > Peach’s Australia – Bill Peach’s Australian docos

  > This Is Your Life – hosted by Mike Willesee

  > Casino 10 – game show

  > The Don Lane Show – variety

  > Professor and the Enquiring Minds – with Prof. Julius Sumner Miller

  > Shannon’s Mob – espionage series

  > The Rise and Fall of Wellington Boots – comedy series

  > Scattergood – comedy

  > Lucky Colour Blue – mini-series

  > Winner Take All – 10-part mini-series And from overseas comes:

  > The Goodies – off-the-wall comedy series

  > Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em – comedy series

  > Planet of the Apes – adventure series

  > Happy Days – sitcom based in 1950s America

  > The Wombles – children’s series

  > Porridge – Ronnie Barker prison-based sitcom

  > It Ain’t Half Hot Mum – comedy

  > Perry Mason – new series starring Monte Markham

  Is it curtains for Crawfords?

  August: When Seven last week announced the cancellation of Homicide, it capped off a horror year for Crawfords in which Showcase, Division 4 and Matlock Police also received the chop.

  Division 4 was the first to get the axe in February, with Nine’s general manager Leon Hill saying the decision was purely economic. Production on the series wound up in May, with Senior Detective Frank Banner (Gerard Kennedy) finally done in, not by death or serious injury, but by marriage, tying the knot with girlfriend Jenny Franklin (Diane Craig) and leaving the force to take an extended honeymoon and find a more suitable profession. Kennedy departed in the 299th episode and was replaced by John Stanton in the 300th, and last ever, episode.

  Then in July, Channel 0 axed Matlock Police without giving any real reason – the show was still rating well in Sydney and Melbourne and was listed high among the top 20 most popular programs in the last ratings surveys.

  ‘It’s unfortunate,’ Hector Crawford told TV Times, ‘because it means more retrenchments, and will put more actors out of work, but the company is not in trouble. We are making pilots of proposed new series, but this takes time.’

  On the cards are a controversial Box-type series called Hotel, a drama about a motorcycle gang tentatively titled Hoop and a comedy series called Thorne. More interstate and overseas sales for Crawfords productions are also being investigated, and executive producer Henry Crawford has been chatting with Matlock Police star Paul Cronin about a spin-off series for his motorcycle cop character, Gary Hogan.

  This year, for the first time ever, the two Gold Logies have gone to people from the same program, with Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale taking home the highest awards in TV for their work on The Ernie Sigley Show.

  Number 96’s blast for ratings

  September: The producers and writers of Number 96 have responded to the show’s declining ratings in a typically understated way, with a fatal bomb blast ripping through the deli. With the suspense building over a series of well-executed episodes, the bomb was finally discovered by Les Whittaker (Gordon McDougall) in a carton of olives just a couple of minutes before it went off.

  He tried to warn the other residents and patrons, but his efforts couldn’t save Aldo and Roma Godolfus (Johnny Lockwood and Philippa Baker), Miles Cooper (Scott Lambert) and, as it turned out, himself.

  Producers had denied earlier this year that any of the show’s long-term cast members were to be axed, but with ratings now half what they were only 12 or 18 months ago, the need arose for desperate action.

  Lane’s generosity reaps own rewards

  May: Don Lane has burst back onto our screens this week with The Don Lane Show on the Nine Network. The Lanky Yank returned to Australia earlier in the year to take part in one of the many charity concerts and telethons to aid victims of Darwin’s Cyclone Tracey.

  And, as the stars of TV pitched in to help those in desperate need, Lane was also on the receiving end of some good fortune, with television and club offers coming thick and fast. One of the first invitations was to be guest compere on an episode of The Mike Walsh Show at TEN-10. Lane chatted with singer Toni Lamond, Norman Gunston (aka Garry McDonald) and hosted a discussion on football.

  It was the repetition of those guests on the first episode of The Don Lane Show that’s got The Mike Walsh Show’s producer David Price up in arms. Dubbing Lane ‘very unprofessional’, Price was angry and disappointed that his first Nine show featured Lamond, McDonald and a football discussion. It didn’t help that the episode of The Mike Walsh Show Lane had compered aired in Melbourne the following day.

  No more tomorrows for local soapie

  August: Seven’s big-budget afternoon soap opera Until Tomorrow has been axed due to poor ratings, despite trying to secure viewer interest with a D-I-Y murder sleuth storyline.

  When the show debuted in January, it was being touted by producers and the network as a real challenger to imported serials like Days of Our Lives. Chock-full of sex, drama and intrigue, the series was set in Brisbane, shot at BTQ-7 and starred Muriel Watson, Barry Otto and Hazel Phillips, making her return to the small screen after a significant absence.

  In May, viewers were invited to solve the murder of David Dannerman (Greg Gesch), with clues to the whodunit hidden within the daily plots and the solution shown, quite innocently, in an episode a few weeks before the trouble really started.

  MEMORIES

  > Mal Walden is the first news reporter to present a TV report from cyclone-ravaged Darwin.

  > Bill Peach leaves This Day Tonight after eight years. His place at the helm is taken by Peter Couchman in Melbourne and Iain Finlayson in Sydney.

  > Actor Terry Norris defends Bellbird against suggestions it should be racier. He says the majority of its viewers are country people who prefer not to think about drugs, rape and abortions.

  > Former Four Corners reporter Stuart Littlemore takes
over the job of compering the ABC’s series on movies and movie-making, Flicks.

  > Norman Gunston goes to the US to tape interviews with celebrities.

  > Ten-10 presents what is believed to be the first one-hour news service in Australia.

  > Contestant show High Rollers uses the most expensive set yet for daytime viewing (worth over $30,000) and neon lighting for the first time on Aussie TV.

  > Torque’s Peter Wherrett struggles with the label ‘sex symbol’, claiming his female fans just appreciate his simple motoring explanations.

  > After a long absence, Bob Dyer makes his return to TV on Nine’s Celebrity Squares.

  > Glamorous blonde Briony Behets worries about overexposure, currently appearing on TV in Class of ’75, Bellbird and The Box.

  > Having appeared in Homicide and Matlock Police, young Noni Hazlehurst joins The Ernie Sigley Show.

  > Weddings on both The Box and Bellbird, with resident spinster Jean Ford (Monica Maughan) tying the knot with Brad Miller (David Downer) in the former and policeman Sergeant Russell Ashford (Ian Smith) wedding housekeeper Kate Murray (Anne Phelan) in the latter.

  > Gold Logies: Ernie Sigley and Denise Drysdale

  > Outstanding contribution to television: Bill Peach

  COMMERCIALS

  At their worst, TV ads are a cheap, noisy and untimely interruption to our favourite shows. At their best, they can be artful, entertaining and enjoyable. And occasionally they’re so good we co-opt their words or ideas into our actual lives in the hope that we may all be happy little Vegemites.

  The pause that refreshes

  Now and then an advertising campaign comes along that stands out from the pack – a campaign so powerful, eye-catching, clever, honest or weird that it forces people to take notice.

  When a young Naomi Watts sacrificed dinner with Tom Cruise in favour of Mum’s lamb roast in 1988, the Australian public collectively smiled. The result? Sales of lamb roasts skyrocketed nationally. The influence of this ad was streets ahead of the average 1956 commercial, which would typically involve a news presenter reading the script, supported by photographs and charts – riveting stuff!