by Nick Place
The show also featured overseas performances or messages from Peter Allen, Dame Edna, Olivia Newton-John and less exalted types such as the Queen, Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan.
Broadcast live on prime-time TV, the event finished with a spectacular fireworks display from every capital city in Australia. A celebration of international proportions, indeed. But then, you only turn 200 once.
ON DEBUT
> Saturday Morning Live – a music program
> All The Way – mini-series about three families living in the turbulent 1960’s
> The Last Resort – serial about three sisters who inherit a rundown seaside hotel
> Stringer – comedy series about a worn-out war correspondent
> Live at Five – a late-afternoon show mixing lifestyle, food, travel and entertainment
> Page One – Network Ten current affairs show
> LIFE. Be in It: Bodyshow – series aimed at encouraging a healthier lifestyle
> The True Believers – drama about Australia’s warring politicians in the postwar years
> Barlow and Chambers: A Long Way from Home – mini-series
> c/o the Bartons – children’s series
> Melba – musical series about the life of Dame Nellie Melba
> Touch the Sun – children’s anthology series
> Spit McPhee – children’s mini-series
> The Shiralee – mini-series about the bond between a father and his daughter
> The Four-Minute Mile – mini-series documenting the athletes who conquered the four-minute mile
> Act of Betrayal – thriller mini-series blending political issues
> Emma: Queen of the South Seas – miniseries set in the 1870s
> Michael Willesee’s Australians – anthology series that dramatises the lives of notable Australians
> The Dame Edna Experience – talk show
The return of the King
March: He’s back! Graham Kennedy is coming out of retirement to head up a 10.30 pm news program to air each weeknight on Nine. Kennedy and co-host Ken Sutcliffe will be mixing news and humour up against Clive Robertson’s Newsworld on Seven. Things have changed a bit since Kennedy was last at Nine, and it’s something that the seasoned performer is struggling to get his head around.
‘What a strange life we lead. Nearly 60, going to work every night at 10.30 pm in Sydney, but broadcasting to all cities in Australia, hoping that a guy in Perth likes you!’
Over the hill
October: Ten’s police drama Richmond Hill has been axed, despite big budgets, decent ratings and imaginative scriptwriting.
In just the first four hours of Richmond Hill, we saw a married policeman sneaking around with his partner’s girlfriend (who also happened to be the sergeant’s daughter); another cop’s son run away from delinquent school upon hearing his mother had been raped; the brassy barmaid’s much younger ‘brother’ revealed to be her son; and a psychopath return from New Zealand to unleash a campaign of terror against the old lady who takes in foster kids.
You’d have to say the show’s producers and writers couldn’t have done much more to catch the public’s attention.
John Wood returned to television last year after a 15-year absence in the new show Rafferty’s Rules. And what a return it has been. Not only is the show rating well, but John and co-star Catherine Wilkin were voted by their peers as the Most Outstanding Actor and Actress at this year’s Logies.
Home sweet home
March: Seven may have a serious challenger for Neighbours in the form of their new soapie Home and Away. After a pilot was made last July, the show was green-lighted to become a regular series, and hit our screens in January.
The series hasn’t been lacking in drama – both on screen and off. Carol (wife of Mike) Willesee was originally cast in the role of Pippa Fletcher, the maternal half of a couple who take in a series of foster children, but just two days into shooting the pilot, she walked off the set in tears after she discovered that her contract wouldn’t allow her to devote the time to her family she had expected.
Sydney actress Vanessa Downing replaced Willesee, and alongside onscreen husband Tom Fletcher (played by Roger Oakley) began to win over audiences with her charming warmth.
But not all critics have been impressed by the series. TV Week columnist John Laws wrote: ‘I saw the other day that Seven sees Home and Away as a lifeline in terms of future success. Let me put it this way: if I’d leapt off a sinking ship I would hold out little thought of survival if my lifejacket was as clapped out as the format of Home and Away.’
Wild night at Logies
March: The Logies turned 30 in style, with a good old-fashioned dust-up and a speech that will be talked about for years. The star of the show was 19-year-old Kylie Minogue, who not only won the Gold Logie but also became the first person to win four individual awards in the one year .
Another kicking goals left, right and centre was Neighbours co-star Jason Donovan, whose Silver Logie win for Most Popular Australian Actor was the icing on the contract he signed the day before with Mushroom Records.
Not having such a good time, however, were Don Lane and Ernie Sigley, whose uncharacteristic fistfight startled friends and colleagues. Lane landed a right hook square on Sigley’s jaw, then refused to explain his actions, saying ‘It’s between us!’ It was later revealed that Sigley had made some not so kind remarks about Lane’s friend and guest for the night, Carmen Van Hoorn.
Bert Newton was inducted to the Hall of Fame, but used the opportunity to launch a withering attack on the TV industry!
60 Minutes courts controversy
60 Minutes’ tenth year has not passed without incident. One major coup was enticing Richard ‘Tricky Dicky’ Carleton to join the team after 20 years at the ABC.
Having just settled in, Carleton became privy to the staging of an elaborate hoax. Trying to illustrate the role of the media in propagating New Age shysters, the program engaged an actor named Jose Luis Alvarez to pretend to channel an ancient spirit named Carlos. After drumming up a media circus, Alvarez/Carlos scored appearances on Terry Willesee Tonight, Today and A Current Affair as well as numerous print media and radio references.
When Carleton revealed the hoax on air, the media bods who had been fooled were less than happy.
MEMORIES
> Hey Dad! heart-throb Paul Smith (who plays Simon Kelly) quits after 12 months in the role, to be replaced by Christopher Mayer as the ‘new Simon’.
> Jana Wendt takes over the reigns presenting A Current Affair.
> Wedding bells in The Flying Doctors for pilot Sam Patterson (Peter O’Brien) and garage mechanic Emma Plimpton (Rebecca Gibney).
> SBS newsreader George Donikian receives racist hate mail.
> The opening of Australia’s new Parliament House in Canberra by the Queen is telecast.
> Kylie Minogue quits Neighbours.
> Brisbane Bears superstar Warwick Capper makes a guest appearance as a reporter on Seven’s national children’s show, Wombat.
> Former Prisoner actor Wayne Jarratt dies of a brain tumor.
> Andrew Denton from Blah Blah Blah is becoming a cult figure. The 27-year-old is the son of Kit Denton, author of The Breaker.
> Julian McMahon, the son of former PM Billy, joins Seven’s new daytime soap, The Power, the Passion.
> Seoul Olympics screen on Network Ten.
> Neighbours stars Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan admit to being an off-screen couple.
> John Farnham makes a guest appearance on Home and Away as part of a $1 million deal with Seven, which includes three Farnham specials.
> Johnny Young announces he will quit his on-screen role on Young Talent Time to work on New Generation, the American version of YTT, which he is selling all around the world.
> Gold Logie: Kylie Minogue
> Hall of Fame: Bert Newton
> Most Outstanding Achievement in News: Hoddle Street Massacre
> MINI-SERIES
Reaching their pinnacle in the 1980s, Australian miniseries delivered drama to our living rooms on an epic scale. From love to war and sport to politics, many of our great stories have been shown on free-to-air TV, and won huge audiences in the process.
Mini-series, maxi drama
More than any other TV genre, our mini-series have consistently reflected a nation of underdogs and heroes battling against the odds. In our eyes and on our television screens, we are all Donald Bradmans, Ned Kellys and ANZAC soldiers – or so we like to think.
Without a doubt, mini-series have pinned their ratings success on such a glorified self-image. The results, especially during the genre’s heyday in the 1980s, have been some of Australian television’s finest moments in drama, depicting everything from colonial heritage and the harshness of rural life to Murray River steamers and battlefield triumphs.
Unsurprisingly, mini-series in Australia found their roots in a behemoth American production appropriately called Roots, screened in the late 1970s. Along with another import of the time, Holocaust, it was one of the highest-rating programs in history and set the tone for Australian efforts to be similarly epic and predominantly historical.
There had been a smattering of locally produced mini-series prior to Roots, including the ABC-screened The Fourth Wish (1974), Outbreak of Love (1979) starring Rowena Wallace, and Ride on Stranger (1979), an acclaimed adaptation of the Kylie Tennant novel. Against the Wind (1978) marked the first major mini-series foray for commercial television. Starring Jon English as the victim of the Flogging Parson, it was held up as proof that Australians could make high-quality TV drama.
The mini-series was further embraced as a popular format when the federal government launched a tax incentive scheme in 1980 that led to an injection of investor cash, allowing producers to spend big on costumes, sets, film stock and location shoots. Suddenly, Australian television had a mini-series boom.
John Jarrett won a Logie (in a category created as a reflection of the genre’s increasing popularity) for his role as Ned Kelly in The Last Outlaw. The series’ historical accuracy and lavish production distinguished it in the eyes of critics, but less so in the ratings. SBS chipped in with the 1981 four-part series Women of the Sun, which examined the lives of Aboriginal women through different periods of Australian history.
Then came the mini-series behemoth that was A Town Like Alice. Set during World War II, it told the story of an Englishwoman who falls in love with an Aussie POW, Joe Harman, after being forced by her Japanese captors to trek across Malaya. Shot on location in Malaysia and Broken Hill and starring Bryan Brown and Helen Morse, it remains the highest-rating Australian mini-series.
In the wake of A Town Like Alice came a decade packed with hit mini-series. There was All the Rivers Run, starring Sigrid Thornton and John Waters. This eight-hour miniseries told the story of a young woman living in Echuca during the 1890s, who falls in love with a steamboat captain. Return to Eden was equally successful, putting stars Rebecca Gilling and James Reyne into a Dynasty-like storyline of love, lust, betrayal and revenge. It was worth watching just to see pop star Reyne pretending to be a tennis star. Other successful productions of the decade included Eureka Stockade (1983), For the Term of His Natural Life (1983), Anzacs (1985) featuring Paul Hogan in his first dramatic role, and The Shiralee (1987).
Miller’s production company, Kennedy Miller, was responsible for a number of the era’s bigger miniseries, including The Cowra Breakout (1985), The Dismissal (1983), The Dirtwater Dynasty (1988), Vietnam (1987) and Bangkok Hilton (1989), in which a young Nicole Kidman put in a gripping performance. Another, Bodyline (1984), was a ratings triumph and continues to be shown on Indian TV whenever a Test match is played there.
Brides of Christ (1991), a six-part series about young novices in a convent, featured Russell Crowe and a young Naomi Watts, and is still regarded as among the best handful of dramas this country has produced. But it was the last gasp of the golden era of mini-series. More-contemporary efforts have moved from history to gut-wrenching tragedy, two notables being Day of the Roses (1998), covering the Granville train disaster, and Heroes’ Mountain (2002), the story of Thredbo survivor Stuart Diver (played by Craig McLachlan). Blue Murder (1995) was another memorable effort – a brilliant, gritty tale of corruption within NSW police.
Despite the most prolific era of mini-series production being long past, one theme manages to remain relevant – that of the battler. Interestingly, that archetypal Australian topic would be an ideal starting point should anyone ever decide to make a mini-series about the plight of the Australian mini-series itself.
Australia’s top ten mini-series
1989
Midday TV has become a battleground, while there are new entrants on the comedy, medical and dramatic fronts too. A new star shines in a mini-series and, what’s this, television actually helping to do good in society? Who would have thought …
Seven gets busy at Midday
March: Seven has launched an all-out attack on Nine’s stranglehold on daytime television. Confident about unseating Midday with Ray Martin from its top rating position are The Bert Newton Show, a national daily chat show with music, entertainment and interviews, and new lusty daytime soap The Power, the Passion.
Since replacing The Mike Walsh Show in February 1985, Midday with Ray Martin has gone from strength to strength. Audiences have lapped up the former 60 Minutes reporter’s warm, humorous side and Martin’s popularity peaked in 1987 when he won the Gold Logie.
Though his audience hasn’t shown any signs of dropping away, Seven believes it has now pulled together the right mix of personalities, mayhem and scandal to break through Midday’s monopoly.
TV legend Bert Newton is excited about rejoining Channel 7, the network with which he started his career in 1957. After his 26-year association with Nine ended in 1985, Newton was appointed General Manager of the ill-fated Melbourne radio station 3DB, and has been seen in commercials and live appearances, but he’s never been far removed from the TV world, and was deservedly inducted into the Logies Hall of Fame last year. The prickly one-liners about his own sacking that peppered his acceptance speech raised many an eyebrow and, along with returning to host the Logies just three days before his new show launches, should create significant interest in his return to the small screen.
The people of The Power, the Passion, meanwhile, will need no help in attracting attention. The series revolves around wealthy businessman Gordon Byrne (Kevin Miles), and his three money-hungry daughters who despise him – Anna (Suzy Cato), Kathryn (Tracey Tainsh) and Ellen (Olivia Hamnett).
The storylines drip with desire, hatred and love. So deliciously convoluted and melodramatic is The Power, the Passion’s plot that most critics believe it will be a surefire winner. The program has even added a dash of buffed brawn to the cast with newcomer Julian McMahon, son of former prime minister Sir William McMahon, who’s best known for strutting his stuff in a popular Levi’s jeans commercial.
Looks like Midday is about to be given a real run for its money.
Arresting new viewing
An arrest resulting directly from the premiere episode of Seven’s new program Australia’s Most Wanted has vindicated the show in the face of circling controversy.
The show featured the image and a detailed description of fugitive Paul Sutherland, who was wanted in connection with the murder of schoolteacher Teresa Smith. The police received six calls from viewers, one of whom was able to provide them with Sutherland’s exact address. He was arrested when he returned home the morning after the episode aired. The show’s producer, Margaret Slarke, was thrilled with the result, and keen to defend the program from claims of being ‘tacky, sickening and depressing’.
‘Our aim is definitely not to sensationalise the material,’ she says. ‘We present only factual material and we work very closely with the police involved in each case. We are not there to present beat-ups.’
The goin
g’s not so easy on E Street
June: With a beefed-up cast and flashy new look, our newest soapie E Street seems to be back on track after a few early wobbles. The baby of Forrest Redlich, former scriptwriter and producer on A Country Practice, E Street premiered in January with a few familiar Wandin Valley faces.
Penny Cook, hugely popular from her ACP days, leapt into the role of Dr ‘Elly’ Fielding, while Katrina Sedgwick – ACP’s heroin addict Sophie – returned as E Street’s legal aid officer Sarah McKillop.
But audiences didn’t immediately take to Elly, Sarah, the street worker turned man of the cloth Reverend Bob Brown (Tony Martin) and the wider community of Westside. Yet rather than axe the show outright, a decision was made recently to halt production for three weeks. The result is revamped opening titles, saucier soapie storylines, a sleek new wardrobe and additional cast members. Heading up the new pack is Marcus Graham, the real-life boyfriend of Nicole Kidman.
Just what the doctor ordered?
March: After the failure of several recent drama projects, including The Last Resort and House Rules, the ABC is hoping to have backed a winner with its new medical drama G.P.
Looking at the professional and private lives of the team at a busy inner-suburban medical practice, the series covers the challenges and dilemmas of modern medicine as well as the personal and professional conflicts and relationships of the characters, their families and friends.
G.P. stars Michael Craig as the abrasive and aptly named Dr William Sharp, John McTernan as his flippant nephew Dr Robert Sharp, Sarah Chadwick as Dr Catherine Mitchell and Michael O’Neill as the recently graduated Dr Steve Harrison.
ON DEBUT
> Talking Pictures – a guide to the latest TV and video releases > Fast Forward – comedy show
> Media Watch – a critical look at the week’s TV, radio and newspapers
