50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  ON DEBUT

  > Foreign Correspondent – news roundup of stories from around the world, hosted by George Negus

  > Meet the Press – with David Johnston

  > The Adventures of Skippy – reviving the 1960s series

  > Cluedo – crime show with characters based on those in the board game

  > Guess What – children’s game show featuring schoolkids who try to guess what an artist is drawing

  > Late for School – comedy series

  > Supermarket Sweep – game show presented by Ian Turpie

  > Gillies and Company – Max Gillies returns to TV

  > Saturday at Rick’s – show for teenagers

  > Live It Up – program focusing on improving quality of life

  > Clowning Around – children’s serial

  > The Other Side of Paradise – historical mini-series set in Polynesia

  > Good Vibrations – mystery mini-series

  > Heroes II: The Return – wartime drama

  > Lift Off – children’s series mixing live action with animation and puppetry

  > Bligh – comedy series starring Michael Veitch, Magda Szubanski, William McInnes and Gina Riley (below)

  > Tracks of Glory – mini-series set in the professional cycling world of the 1920s

  > The Leaving of Liverpool – period miniseries following the lives of orphans sent to Australia in the 1950s

  > My Two Wives – sitcom involving a lawyer who moves his second wife and her daughter into an apartment just above his first wife and kids

  > Frankie’s House – drama serial about two photographers working during the Vietnam War

  Bananas in Pyjamas get their own show

  July: Australia’s favourite bananas have been given their own television show. B1 and B2, industry veterans who built their reputations as talented entertainers of preschool-aged kids on Playschool, have been rewarded for their longstanding popularity with Bananas in Pyjamas.

  Industry insiders say it’s a brave move by the ABC. There is no precedent for bananas, or any other fruit or vegetable, ever making it big on Australian TV as hosts of their own show. ‘And especially not a foodstuff that was born a cartoon and later made the leap into physical reality,’ said one source.

  But many within the industry say such concerns are unfounded. B1 and B2 are not being asked to change their behaviour or their image. According to sources, they will continue wearing their pyjamas to work each day.

  Fans worried that the pressure and fame of hosting their own show might ‘change’ B1 and B2 have been assured the pair’s core activities – coming down the stairs, chasing teddy bears and catching them unawares – will remain high on their list of Things To Do.

  If the venture is a risk for the ABC, it’s showing early signs of paying off. Already, overseas networks are showing interest and there are rumours the bananas and their teddy-chasing shenanigans could be turned into a travelling stage show and a line of merchandise. On Australian television since 1967, this latest career development looks set to push B1 and B2 into a whole new stratosphere of fame.

  Lifestyle boom continues

  February: The popularity of lifestyle TV shows no signs of abating with two new shows – Ten’s Healthy, Wealthy and Wise, and Channel 9’s Getaway – set to debut.

  Healthy, Wealthy and Wise is a magazine-style show with familiar faces such as Iain Hewitson, Tonia Todman and Ross Greenwood offering tips and advice on subjects including cooking, finance and home crafts.

  Getaway, on the other hand, is more of an ‘I wish’ travel show, showcasing exotic locations and destinations that most people only dream about visiting. ‘I think a lot of people enjoy seeing other people do things and go places,’ executive producer David Lyle said.

  ‘It increases their knowledge and they wonder if they’d like to do it when their Lotto ticket comes in.’

  Former Wonderworld host Simon Townsend returns to TV with a special called Chance and Coincidence, with Larry Emdur, which is claimed to be the first in the world to offer a million-dollar prize.

  Late Show a late bloomer

  December: It took a while, but when The Late Show hit its straps it was the D-Gen at their groundbreaking and hilarious best. Despite a host of patchy reviews after its debut in July, The Late Show’s creators were always confident it would find its mark.

  ‘A lot of the commercial channels shove a new program down people’s throats before it’s really right,’ Rob Sitch told the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘It needs around six to ten weeks before it becomes a half-decent product.’

  By November, however, critics were lauding the same sketches – Graham and the Colonel, Tommy G at the News Desk and Shirty the Slightly Aggressive Bear – they said were ‘unfunny’ and ‘ill-conceived’ after the first few shows. Now, with the first series over, critics riding The Late Show bandwagon are saying it ‘must be considered one of this year’s major TV successes’.

  Natalie Imbruglia

  October: Not since Kylie have we seen a young actress make as much of an impression as Natalie Imbruglia has this year. After a five-week guest appearance on Neighbours, Natalie so impressed producers they offered her a permanent role. In April, the young Sydney-sider moved to Melbourne and joined the cast full time as Beth Brennan, friend of Lucy Robinson.

  ‘I’ve always known what I wanted to do,’ Imbruglia, who’s been acting since age two, told TV Week. ‘It’s a great opportunity. I’ll give it my best shot.’

  Sylvania Waters

  July: Meet the Donaher/Bakers. That’s Laurie over there. He’s the man about the house. That’s Noeline, his partner, and this is their house, a waterside mansion in one of Sydney’s most expensive suburbs. Yep, that’s Laurie’s boat moored in the canal. Those are the couple’s adult kids, and that’s them yelling at each other. Everyone here argues a lot. The producers – and the viewers – love it.

  Cameras followed the family around their home with permission to film everything except their use of the toilet and any lovemaking. The result was a ‘snapshot’ of a ‘real’ Australian family.

  But many have argued they are not a typical Australian family. Executive producer Paul Watson has been accused of pandering to British stereotypes, some suggesting that this was not fly-on-the-wall reality television, but rather a cleverly edited soap opera.

  After screening in the UK, English newspapers ran headlines like: ‘Meet Noeline. By Tonight You’ll Hate Her Too’. Australian Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe even offered his opinion on Noeline’s eating, drinking, and gaming habits.

  Whatever the reasons, Sylvania Waters has sparked an enormous amount of debate. Whether or not we’ll see any more of this curious ‘reality’ TV remains to be seen.

  MEMORIES

  > Acclaimed young film actor Russell Crowe signs on to star in a guest role in the first episode of the ABC’s second series of Police Rescue.

  > Stan Grant is the first Aboriginal to anchor a national prime-time TV show when Seven launches Real Life, a public affairs show with five special correspondents focusing on specific areas of interest.

  > Syd Heylen and Gordon Piper (below), who play Cookie and Bob Hatfield, are dropped from A Country Practice after 10 years on the show.

  > A controversial episode of G.P.

  features the bashing and murder of a gay man.

  > Singer Diana Ross, due to be involved in a live cross for the Logies telecast, pulls out after a dispute over make-up.

  > Home and Away stars Dennis Coard and Debra Lawrence, who play husband and wife in the soap, marry in real life.

  > Former Perfect Match co-host and now Sale of the Century model, Nicky Buckley, marries another Sale of the Century model, Murray Bingham.

  > Rugby League State of Origin series is telecast nationally in prime time for the first time.

  > Neighbours’ 17-year-old Beth Brennan shocks Ramsay Street by announcing her engagement to Rod Baker, a 40-year-old man she met on holidays in Brisbane.


  > Gold Logie: Jana Wendt > Hall of Fame: Four Corners

  SINGING BUDGIES

  The transition from screen to recording studio to the bedroom wall of one’s teenage fans is a popular career path for many young actors. But as many find out, TV melodrama is a long way from the heady heights of international pop superstardom.

  Can’t get you out of my head

  The budgie equation is simple: land a role in a – at minimum – successful TV show, ensure your image is on track, your voice is half decent and your chances – note chances – of chart-topping stardom will skyrocket.

  Ever since Abigail abruptly left Number 96 in 1973 and – with a saucy notoriety that far outweighed her vocal talent – uttered a breathy cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Je t’aime’ into a Festival Records mike, the la la locomotion has run mad. But no madder than in the late 1980s, when Australia’s biggest little singing budgie, Kylie Minogue, first chirped.

  Best known on Australian television as Charlene Mitchell, the tomboy mechanic who married Jason Donovan’s Scott Robinson on 1980s-era Neighbours, Kylie became one of the biggest names in Australian showbiz and the only female artist other than Madonna to have number-one songs spanning the 1980s, 1990s and noughties.

  Kylie was the original singing budgie – a derisive early-days tag proffered by music critics who couldn’t predict her endurance. She started by resurrecting Little Eva’s 1960s hit ‘The Loco-Motion’ at a Neighbours footy charity night midway through her two-and-a-half-year stint on the show. A demo somehow made it to Mushroom Records. Michael Gudinski bit the Kylie bullet, released the retitled ‘Locomotion’, and watched the song–star combo take off.

  That song spent seven weeks at number one, became the biggest Australian single of the decade, and convinced British songwriters and producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman – already glue-eyed to Kylie on homeland TV – to haul the fresh-faced starlet overseas to start the first of her many career stages as Pop Kylie.

  The ‘girl next door’ had started a Neighbours revolution which Donovan, the first of many of the show’s stars, couldn’t resist. In 1988, to the tune of his ‘Nothing Can Divide Us’ debut, Donovan rode Kylie’s coat tails to London, where the pair recorded ‘Especially For You’. It was decried by one critic as ‘majestically awful’ but, crucially, the kiddies loved it – and the pair’s real-life love didn’t hurt.

  As Donovan’s string of wet releases lengthened – all along the ‘Too Many Broken Hearts’ and ‘Sealed With a Kiss’ line – in 1991 he moved onto the stage in the West End musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, before finding himself involved in court cases, reports of drug use, nightclub collapses, and soon enough a nude photo spread. All was redeemed in 2002 when, now a family man, Donovan made a respectable comeback, albeit as a seedy solicitor, in the ABC drama MDA.

  In 1989 and 1990, Neighbours co-star and resident show pony Craig McLachlan was busting for pop-chart luck. Busy winding up his gig as Henry Mitchell/Ramsay, defecting to rival prime-time soap Home And Away and snaffling Silver and Gold Logie awards, he jumped on the back of a truck with his band, Check 1-2, to film his only top-selling single ‘Mona’, a Bo Diddley re-do. A box-office-breaking stint as Danny in the West End’s Grease followed in 1993, along with a recording of ‘You’re The One That I Want’ with Debbie Gibson, which went nowhere from there – much like his recording career.

  Still, Australia’s soapie-singer wagon rolled on. Before landing the role of Beth Brennan on Neighbours, Natalie Imbruglia had already knocked back a record contract. It took three years post-Neighbours, and a good spot of London partying, for Nat to come back all grungy and mature. Her 1997 debut, ‘Torn’, was a ripper, she became the face of L’Oréal in 2002, married Silverchair’s Daniel Johns in 2003 and, by 2005, had three albums to her name – though none so central as her first, Left of the Middle.

  Between filming episodes of Hey Dad!, A Country Practice and Police Rescue, Delta Goodrem charged neighbours to watch her sing and dance. In 2002, Neighbours gave her Nina Tucker, a character written especially to promote her Sony single, ‘Born to Try’. With its three number-one hits, her 2003 debut album, Innocent Eyes, arrived the same year as her Silver Logie and a very public cancer scare.

  Whether you love or loathe their pop crooning, there is no one to blame or thank. Some Aussie actors, whether they’re failing or flying, cashing in or spreading their wings, make great pop singers. All the others? Well, they’re simply doing their bit to keep our fine tradition of one-hit wonders alive and well.

  Charting their success

  Unlike Kylie, the doyen of the soapie-singer pedigree, the following haven’t been so lucky:

  > Bec Cartwright – Home and Away – ‘All Seats Taken’ and ‘On the Borderline’ (off the self-titled Bec Cartwright Album)

  > Danielle Spencer – The Flying Doctors, Home and Away – ‘Jonathon White’ (first album White Monkey released in 2001)

  > Abi Tucker – Heartbreak High, The Secret Life of Us – ‘Stargazer’ (off her 2004 debut album, Dreamworld)

  > Toni Pearen – E Street, Australia’s Funniest Home Videos – ‘I Want You’ and ‘In Your Room’

  > Melissa Tkautz – E Street, Pacific Drive – ‘Sexy (Is the Word)’ and ‘Read My Lips’

  > Gayle and Gillian Blakeney – Neighbours – ‘All Mixed Up’, ‘Mad If You Don’t’, ‘Wanna Be Your Lover’

  > Holly Valance – Neighbours – ‘Kiss Kiss’

  > Ally Fowler – Sons and Daughters, Neighbours – member of The Chantoozies

  > Tottie Goldsmith – The Young Doctors, Prisoner – member of The Chantoozies

  > Alyce Platt – Sons and Daughters, Sale of the Century, Neighbours – member of The Chantoozies

  1993

  A year that saw current affairs shows making headlines rather than presenting them, while beautiful young things seemed to attract an unusual amount of attention – whether hosting their own shows or coming together in TV’s latest sure-fire hit. A soapie favourite changes homes, and a game show says goodbye – again.

  Outrage follows Willesee’s role in tense siege

  April: Nine boss Bruce Gyngell has defended Mike Willesee’s handling of a delicate hostage situation on A Current Affair. The outcry follows the siege at the ‘Hanging Rock’ cattle station near Cangai, in northern New South Wales, where two gunmen who were believed to have already killed five people were holding children hostage. With 30 police and Special Taskforce officers, plus twice that many media, surrounding the property, Willesee managed to phone the house and talk to the gunmen and two of the captive children, aged 11 and 9, on air.

  Before the siege ended, with one gunman surrendering and the other dying at his own hand, other reporters had managed to phone the gunmen, while another Nine reporter, Mike Munro, used a helicopter to break through a police-enforced exclusion zone. However, Willesee was the only one to interview the children hostages. He asked, among other things, whether the children had seen anybody killed. He also asked, ‘Have you enjoyed this adventure?’

  The police were so outraged that they released a joint statement signed by all the heads of Australian police forces, calling for journalists to exercise greater restraint.

  ‘By entering the siege, media become players in the drama and it can influence the outcome,’ the statement said. A spokeswoman told The Age, ‘The media need to be careful they don’t become part of the story. They need to be responsible.’

  Viewers were just as unhappy. The Australian Broadcasting Authority has since reported that Willesee’s actions resulted in the greatest number of viewer complaints about TV current affairs for the entire year. But Gyngell says Willesee acted correctly.

  ‘I actually firmly believe that the way that was handled probably saved the children’s lives,’ Gyngell told The Guide, in the Sydney Morning Herald. ‘What we did was very true to my concept of Maslow’s philosophy, which was to give the guy acknowledgement, positively – we talked to him and encourag
ed him to acknowledge that deep down, he is whatever a human being is.’

  ACA producer Stephen Rice told The Age that the parents of the children reacted with utter relief when they heard the kids’ voices and knew they were alive. But media academics have slammed ACA, saying arguments that Willesee was only concerned about the children’s safety are simply ‘moral justification’.

  Jo Bailey looking good with new show

  November: Former Sale of the Century hostess Jo Bailey has so impressed Channel 9 execs that she has been awarded her own show. After leaving Sale voluntarily, the eye-catching ex-model says it’s been hard to keep her new show under wraps.

  Looking Good is billed as a fast-paced infotainment program that will see Bailey extend her range from introducing contestants to performing interviews and preparing feature stories for the new show. Model Toneya Bird, best known for her work in the Antz Pantz ads, will join Bailey as a reporter for the show.

  ‘It’s going to be deeper than just an image-type program,’ Bailey told The Age’s Green Guide. ‘It caters for everything. Like, I am doing a story today on body piercing, people who have eyebrows pierced, and navels pierced.’

  Get ready for a revolution

  May: Gone are the days of sitting passively in our living rooms staring at the box. Soon, we’ll be able to interact with our favourite TV shows.

  That’s the view of Jim McKay, the Managing Director of Interactive Television Australia (ITVA), a company that has developed a device that will let viewers participate in game shows or vote for contestants in talent shows.

  The setup involves a box that sits on top of your TV, not unlike a VCR, which receives messages embedded in the broadcast signal. Viewers will use a remote to immediately answer questions asked by the compere of a quiz show, for example, or to provide immediate feedback.

  Musical chairs in current affairs