by Nick Place
> Shirl’s Neighbourhood – children’s program with an educational take
> Burn the Butterflies – drama series
> Holiday with Bill Peach – travel program
> Marque: 100 Years of Motoring – documentary series presented by Peter Wherrett
> Barry Crocker Show – ABC musical variety series
> The Barry Humphries Show – featuring the characters and humour of Barry Humphries
> Barry Jones’ Wide World – documentary series hosted by the former Pick-a-Box champ
> Benny Hill in Australia – comedic gold comes Down Under
> The Bernard King Show – expanded version of King’s Kitchen
Tick, tick, tick … go!
July: Nine’s Sunday night current affairs experiment, 60 Minutes, looks like a winner after consistently gaining viewers since its February debut. Based on the US program of the same name, 60 Minutes is a mix of both news and entertainment, with early episodes covering subjects like the Thai drug trade, what life’s like inside Pentridge Prison and an exposé of The Muppets.
The program’s leading men – George Negus, Ray Martin and Ian Leslie – have been travelling far and wide to gather stories, and have had some dangerous and unusual encounters along the way. Negus, who joined Nine last year after leaving the ABC and This Day Tonight, recently stood in the exact spot where a man had been killed by a volcanic eruption just one month earlier, interviewed violent members of Britain’s right-wing political party and witnessed children dying in the slums of Naples. It all seems to be in a day’s work for Negus and his globe-trotting journalistic colleagues.
But Negus points to his interview with the former First Lady of Canada, Margaret Trudeau, as the strangest experience of the lot. Negus practically had to ‘kidnap’ Trudeau in order to conduct an interview with her, and was then made quite uncomfortable when she appeared to flirt with him.
But all the hard work seems to be paying off, with the early ratings for 60 Minutes proving much stronger than initially expected. The show’s producer, Gerald Stone, and his team are now confident that the program can develop a strong audience and maintain a regular spot in the programming schedules. Its main challenge now seems to be whether it can maintain the same high standards well into the future.
The big C
September: Children’s television is set to blossom under new regulations that came into effect on 1 July. These include a new ‘C’ classification to be awarded to programs suitable for kids aged six to 12, the introduction of exclusive ‘C’ time between 4 pm and 5 pm daily, and the establishment of a Children’s Program Committee within the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal.
One of the first programs to be awarded a ‘C’ classification is a half-hour, magazine-style show called Simon Townsend’s Wonder World. The show debuted on Ten earlier this month, and is already being praised for treating children honestly, and speaking to them, not down to them.
One of the programs we’ve come to love this year is This Fabulous Century, a 30-episode series covering the history of Australia from Federation. Host Peter Luck has become the man everyone wants to talk to about Australian history.
Skyways: safe for now
August: Seven’s new drama Skyways has been thrown straight to the lions, debuting up against one of Nine’s leading programs, The Don Lane Show. But despite trailing in the ratings after its first few weeks, Seven executives have leapt to the show’s defence, stating it was always intended as a long-term prospect and that they had expected it to take a few weeks for the characters to develop.
Skyways is based around the lives of the employees of a major airport and two airlines, and stars Tony Bonner, Bruce Barry, Bartholomew John, Tina Bursill and Ken James.
The production is one of the first to make use of ‘Chroma-key’, a multimillion-dollar technology that creates the optical illusion that actors are in a setting outside the studio where they are filmed. On Skyways, Chroma-key is being used for shots of planes taking off and landing, vastly cutting down the number of times producers need to head to Tullamarine Airport to film scenes.
Over to Ten, then back again
February: Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich are settling back in at Nine after a failed experiment on the 0-10 network. In July last year, the popular pair announced they’d been enticed across to Ten by an offer too good to refuse, and in September 1978 they launched The Daryl and Ossie Show.
Based on Englishman Bruce Forsyth’s top-rating Generation Game, the program was a family-friendly audience participation comedy and variety game show, reportedly seen as a replacement for Graham Kennedy’s Blankety Blanks. But slotted up against The Sullivans and Willesee, it faced an uphill battle from the start and failed to secure a significant audience share.
No doubt thrilled that they’d parted company with Nine on good terms, Somers and his feathered friend are launching straight back into a new series of Hey Hey It’s Saturday, with high hopes for the future.
MEMORIES
> Norman Gunston returns with another line-up of celebrities wondering what/who they’ve struck. Guests include Lee Marvin, the Bee Gees, Karen Black, Kris Kristofferson and Glen Campbell.
> Barry Crocker returns to TV in the first of a series of seven specials showcasing Australia’s top artists.
> It is predicted that Australia will lead the world in 3-D TV, amid claims that this will be the biggest development since the medium’s invention.
> David Williamson adapts his play The Department for television.
> Yorkshireman Michael Parkinson brings his interviewing skills to bear on Australian subjects.
> The prophecies of Nostradamus are put under the microscope in a drama documentary.
> Robert Moore makes a series of profiles, called Faces in the 1980s, on people he thinks could have an influence on the coming decade, but he dies during the making of the final episode.
> In Earthwatch, Peter Cousens presents natural history with an environmental emphasis for teenagers.
> Current affairs show Countrywide focuses on issues affecting Australians wherever they live.
> Gold Logie: Bert Newton
> Most Popular Teenage Television Personality: John Paul Young
REGIONAL TV
Australia’s countryside is dotted with TV stations created to offer specialty programming particular to that vicinity. More than just a source of entertainment, those TV stations have also became focal points for the community, helping with telethons or sending talent the way of the city networks.
You can’t take the country out of TV
Life wasn’t easy as a rural Australian TV addict in the ’70s and ’80s. There were only two stations to choose from: the ABC plus a local commercial station offering a mix of programming from metropolitan stations and a healthy amount of local content. There’s no denying city viewers had more choice.
But to suggest the story of regional TV is poorer for it is to sell that story short.
Like their city counterparts, rural TV stations have offered shining celebrities and national stars. One of its biggest stars was NBN Newcastle’s Big Dog, who would amble across the screen at 7.30 pm each night and tell the kids it was time to go to bed.
And, of course, there’s Prime Possum, the Prime Network’s response to Big Dog. Prime Possum has achieved such heights of fame in rural areas that he/she is mobbed by youngsters at shopping-mall appearances. Remote Australia broadcaster Imparja – renowned for its distinctive Indigenous flavour - hit the airwaves in 1988, and later introduced a half-hour children’s show based on its station mascot, ‘Yamba’. The odd-looking honey ant first appeared in Yamba’s Playtime in 1995.
More than a few humans have made their start in regional TV, too. Today funny man Steven Jacobs got his first big break when he signed up to host a children’s program, Kids News, on WIN-TV; newsreader Jim Whaley had beginnings in 1966 on Tamworth’s NEN-9 while Brisbane newsreader Sharon Ghidella was a reporter for North Queensland Television. Matthew White, w
ho has worked in sport on channels Ten and Seven, began his career on bush telly; Channel Seven news anchor and Dancing With The Stars contestant Chris Bath moved across from NBN Newcastle; and Helen Kapalos, a newsreader at Nine, also moved from regional TV to a metro news service. That’s just to name a few.
So, yes, regional TV unearthed some famous faces. But at its core, regional TV is a bush telegraph that contributes to the well-being of local communities by hosting, for example, telethons for regional hospitals, the local footy grand final, or ads for local businesses. Within the TV industry, it has also been a rich source of behind-the-camera talent: engineering crew, make-up artists, camera operators, and editors who first worked for the likes of NBN Newcastle or Imparja have gone on to fill the studios and newsrooms of metropolitan stations.
As proof of its contribution to the development of Australian TV, early regional television broke new ground. BTV Channel 6 in Ballarat, for example, was the first regional station to air an outside broadcast, and the few owners of TV sets in the area watched in amazement as the 1963 Royal Tour and the Royal Melbourne Agricultural Show were electronically paraded before them. BTV-6 is also famous for its popular live variety program Six Tonight (1971–83), one of a small number of live programs of this type being presented in Australia at the time. Six Tonight enjoyed a long run and attracted high-profile guests including Jack Klugman, Shirley Bassey, Neil Sedaka, Sophia Loren and John Farnham, to name a few.
In the mid-1980s, regional TV underwent a revolution. Aggregation, as it became known, was introduced giving viewers in regional areas access to the ABC, three commercial stations, and eventually SBS. Country-based TV addicts rejoiced. While a massively expensive exercise, aggregation gave country viewers the same choice as their city counterparts, but also gave rise to fears it would lead to the death of locally produced content.
By 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) had introduced regulations protecting the production of local content by regional TV stations, in everything from news and other regionally based programming.
And by the time Australian TV reached its 50th year, regional TV had a long and interesting story of its own to tell. While much of that story might be hidden from those living in the nation’s major cities, those in remote communities would attest it has entertained, informed and reflected their lives as only a local broadcaster could.
In your neck of the woods
Regional networks produce and source programs that don’t appear on metropolitan networks. Some of the most successful TV shows have been:
> Today Extra (NBN Television): magazine program
> Travellin’ Out West (NBN Television): country music show
> On the Land (Prime Television) – agricultural news
> State Focus (Southern Cross Ten) – state-based regional current affairs
> A Little Bit of Country (Prime Television) – country music program
> The Saturday Club (Prime Television) – children’s show
> Fishing Australia (WIN Television) – fishing program
> Destinations (WIN Television) – travel program
> Yamba’s Playhouse (Imparja Television) – children’s program
> Six Tonight (BTV-6) – variety/talk program
1980
An untimely end for one of our most beloved TV characters, and an all-too-rapid one for what was meant to be soapie-ville’s Next Big Thing. Meanwhile a former pop star makes his mark in kids TV, a former cop show actress makes it big in the UK and a series about women in prison turns into an unlikely hit.
Arcade opens – then shuts
March: The biggest production ever attempted by an Australian TV station, the multimillion dollar mega-soapie Arcade, has been axed after only six weeks and 30 episodes on air.
The series was launched on the back of a 90-minute telemovie in January, and was accompanied by a wave of publicity including the production of posters, beer coasters, stickers and a theme song from Aussie rock veteran Doug Parkinson.
But all the slick promotion couldn’t save Arcade when it went to air. It was greeted by blowtorch reviews for its production values (in one scene, an actress appeared to be reading her lines off a sheet of paper on the café table), dodgy scripts and often unpleasant characters. As a result, Ten has had to quickly give up on its dream of Arcade becoming the new Class of ’74 or Young Doctors.
An internal production by Sydney TEN-10, the program saw Ten’s Studio A, the largest TV studio in the southern hemisphere, converted into a full shopping arcade. Driven by the creative team behind Number 96, with three separate camera units filming the show, it starred Gold Logie winner Lorrae Desmond, former Number 96 star Mike Dorsey, entertainer Peggy Toppano, veteran actress Aileen Britton and promising youngsters including Tracy Mann and Jeremy Kewley.
The original idea for Arcade was in the mould of Number 96, with lots of affairs between shopkeepers and shop assistants, and a massage parlour with a hole in the wall through which the arcade’s resident photographer could shoot pornographic movies. By the time it went to air, such daring storylines had been wound back, although the series’ resident disabled character, Tina Marshall (played by Christine Harris) was left hanging off a cliff in one … um … cliff-hanger episode ending.
In a strange postscript, a second record from the show has been released – after its axing. This one, called the Arcade Parade, includes a song that was to feature in a commercial being filmed in the Arcade in a future episode that now will not make it to air.
Top movies could be yours – on tape!
February: Believe it or not, you may be able to watch your favourite Hollywood films on video cassettes in your own home as early as later this year.
According to Mr Andrew Blay, the president of Magnetic Video Corporation America’s largest retailer of cassette movies, his company hopes to have up to 40 titles available in Australia soon, selling for about $70 each.
On a fact-finding tour of Australia, Mr Blay told TV Week that Magnetic would not attempt to rent videos in Australia because ‘we have found that the people who own video cassette players are more interested in owning than renting’.
Mr Blay predicted the video cassette industry could become popular over the next 12 months. He also predicted a big future for the latest technology, video discs.
‘I suppose ultimately the discs will become bigger sellers, but I am confident that video cassettes will continue to co-exist with them, the same way that records and audio cassettes both sell well.’
The best of British?
June: Taking its lead from a number of British sitcoms that have made ‘Down Under’ episodes, Channel Ten has commissioned a local version of the popular British comedy, Are You Being Served? Six of the 13 episodes will star John Inman in his usual role as Mr Humphries, sent to work at Sydney’s Bone Brothers store.
Australians in the cast include June Bronhill as veteran saleswoman Mrs Crawford, Reg Gillman as Captain Wagstaff, Shane Bourne as junior salesman Mr Randall and Judith Woodroofe as Miss Buxton. In the first episode, Mrs Crawford collapses after her pussy becomes unwell.
Our Pam stars in Britain
October: Tall, blonde Aussie beauty Pamela Stephenson has hit it big in the UK, starring in a wild new comedy show, Not the Nine O’Clock News.
Stephenson is best known to Australian viewers as Rod Mullinar’s secretary in the series Ryan. But she has proven a hit with British viewers, especially male viewers, and appears set for big things in the Old Country. Her impersonations of leading public figures, including Margaret Thatcher, have hit the collective British funny bone.
Not the Nine O’Clock News is a sketch show, also starring Chris Langham – who has impressed Australian audiences with his one-man stage show – along with unknowns Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones and young rubber-faced – comedian Rowan Atkinson.
ON DEBUT
> The Last Outlaw – mini-series about Ned Kelly, with John Jarratt as Ned
> Work That Was –
series of three documentaries examining the cause of today’s unemployment crisis in Australia, hosted by Keith Windschuttle
> Sale of the Century – quiz show hosted by Tony Barber and Victoria Nicholls
> Kingswood Country – the story of Ted, a man who loves his Kingswood, his overweight greyhound, Gay Akubra, and memories of the war – in that order
> Lawson’s Mates – six-part series based on Henry Lawson’s characters
> John Singleton Show – 90-minute current affairs and variety
> Lucinda Brayford – lavish four-part ABC serial based on the novel of the same name, starring Wendy Hughes
> The Great Outdoors – Mike and Mal Leyland join Seven for eight one-hour programs and some specials
> Farnham and Byrne – seven-part variety series premieres on the ABC, hosted by Johnny Farnham and Debbie Byrne
> Water Under the Bridge – series about Australian life from World War II to the 1950s, starring Robyn Nevin, Jacki Weaver, Rod Mullinar, David Cameron and Judy Davis
> Timelapse – series
> Players to the Gallery – series
> Locusts and Wild Honey – series
> Sam’s Luck – series
> Spring and Fall – series
> Trial by Marriage – series
> The Timeless Land – series
> Premiere – series
> Home Sweet Home – series
> All the Green Years – series
Prisoner captures captive market
March: It might not have seemed like a sure-fire international hit at concept stage, but that’s certainly what 10’s hit series Prisoner has become.
In just over a year the show has won legions of fans here in Australia and also in the US, where it is shown on 21 different stations. It won a Logie for the Best New Drama of last year, while Carol Burns also snared a Logie for Best Lead Actress in a Series for her portrayal of psychotic lesbian bikie Franky Doyle.
