50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  ‘Whereas 7.30 Report viewers talk about content, in every single case the ACA viewers said Ray Martin was their main reason for viewing,’ said uni media lecturer, Lee Burton.

  Adriana spins out as Wheel hits 3000

  October: Wheel of Fortune hostess Adriana Xenides, already ensconced in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving game show hostess in history, admits that she was overcome by emotion while watching footage from the show’s 14 years on air as The Wheel celebrated its 3000th episode on 10 October (23 October in Tasmania).

  Former model Adriana, who has not missed a show since 1981, told TV Week: ‘Wheel has been part of me for more than a third of my life and I find it hard to explain how it made me feel to see all that history. I had to go away and mop up the mascara.’

  TV Week reported that during Wheel’s 3000 shows, more than 50 shows on opposing networks had come and gone in the timeslot, the actual Wheel had been turned more than 88,230 times and Adriana had turned more than 191,500 letters, worn almost 3000 outfits and walked nearly 460 km up and down the puzzle board. No wonder she was drained.

  ON DEBUT

  > Spellbinder – children’s series set in a parallel universe (Polish/Australian co-production)

  > Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush – game show hosted by Tim Ferguson in which he plays strange party games and practical jokes on his audience (below)

  > Today Tonight – current events show marking a return to local current affairs on commercial television

  > Fire – drama set in a fire station, starring Peter Phelps and Georgie Parker > Funniest People – the general public performing their party tricks

  > Funky Squad – ’70s police comedy show starring Tim Ferguson, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy, Santo Cilauro and Barry Friedlander

  > Bordertown – mini-series drama set in a 1952 migrant camp, starring Ray Barrett, Cate Blanchett, Norman Kaye, Hugo Weaving, among others

  > Correlli – series about a woman’s experiences working in a correctional facility; Hugh Jackman plays an inmate > The Flying Vet – documentary series following a NT flying vet out in his practice

  > Emergency – medical drama set in an inner-city emergency ward > Better Homes and Gardens – lifestyle show based on the magazine of the same name

  > Wild Life – show about the relationship between humans and nature, hosted by Olivia Newton-John

  > My Generation – family game show

  > Crocadoo – animated series about crocodiles

  The book is back

  September: For the first time on Australian television since 1980, the words ‘This is your life’ will greet stunned celebrities again this year. Mike Munro has been signed on to be the latest host of a show that has been around longer than TV itself. This Is Your Life actually started as a radio concept but made the switch to television in the medium’s earliest days overseas.

  In Australia, it first came to television in 1975 with Mike Willesee at the helm, followed by Digby Wolfe in 1976 and Roger Climpson, from 1977 to 1980.

  Some of the guests in those early days included Johnny O’Keefe, Slim Dusty, Keith Miller, Marjorie Jackson and former PM Billy McMahon. Garry McDonald is set to be the first ‘victim’ of the new version, while singer Debra Byrne is also said to be in the show’s sights.

  The Sydney Morning Herald reports that so far only two celebrities in the show’s overseas history are known to have flatly refused to take part when confronted by The Book. Angie Dickinson famously said no, while US President Ronald Reagan and comedian Bob Hope were waiting in the studio to pay tribute, and an English soccer player, when told, ‘This is your life!’ reportedly replied, ‘No it’s bloody not!’ and kept walking.

  However, any similar attempts by local celebrities to duck and run when approached with The Book shouldn’t raise a sweat from Munro, given his renowned persistence and the door-stopping qualities he’s displayed on A Current Affair.

  Blue Murder banned in NSW

  August: One of the most gritty, graphic and realistic crime shows ever made in Australia has been banned from being screened in New South Wales. Blue Murder is a two-part series tracing the friendship and business dealings of Sydney detective Roger Rogerson and notorious criminal Arthur Stanley ‘Neddy’ Smith through the 1970s and 1980s.

  However, two recent murder charges laid against Smith, who is in jail for crimes covered in the series, mean the program cannot be shown in that state. Although writer Ian David has created the series as a fiction, Blue Murder has a disturbingly high basis in fact.

  The crew from the D-Generation, the creators of Frontline, have branched out into something completely different with their spoof on ’70s cop shows, Funky Squad. With their writing and comedic talents, it’s sure to be another major hit.

  Halifax F.P. creates AFI history

  November: Nine’s impressive Halifax F.P. telefeatures have always been high in the ratings over the last year, but now they have the critical acclaim to go with the audience numbers.

  At this year’s AFI Awards, Halifax F.P. picked up four awards, the most by a commercial television production since the awards were broadened to include television in 1991.

  Halifax F.P. won awards for Best Actor (a tie between Colin Friels and Steve Vidler), Best Actress (Jacqueline McKenzie) and, not surprisingly, Best Telefeature.

  The show, which stars Rebecca Gibney (former star of Snowy, All Together Now and The Flying Doctors), is produced by Simpson Le Mesurier, with company director Roger Simpson actually writing some of the scripts.

  Pay TV limps into Australian market

  November: Pay TV is off to an alarmingly slow start in Australia with only 10 per cent of expected customers signing on.

  Galaxy’s microwave/satellite service has already been bought by Foxtel, and has slashed its installation price from $300 to $19.95. In July, it had only 15,000 to 20,000 households on its books, having predicted 200,000 subscribers in the first year.

  Optus Vision has also not had the expected sign-ups, despite a lavish launch at Circular Quay in September, and aggressively undercutting Galaxy’s prices. Foxtel launched in October, having spent most of the year laying cables to ensure it is potentially available to 90 per cent of Australia’s 6.4 million households.

  Will somebody make decent tellie for $60 million?

  August: The Federal Government’s ‘Creative Nation’ package will pump $60 million into an attempt to convince the networks to create better quality drama.

  The Age Green Guide is in no doubt that the incentives are badly needed. ‘Like the rest of us, Mr Keating must have felt the glory days of Australian drama seemed behind us,’ wrote Dianne Dempsey. ‘We have moved from drama to melodrama: from A Town Like Alice to the brick veneer cul de sac of Neighbours’ Erinsborough. The networks are, with a few exceptions, mainly churning out cheaply-made soapies and novelty shows.’

  The commercial networks maintain they heavily support local drama, yet recently petitioned the Australian Broadcasting Authority to be able to repeat ABC and SBS productions and claim those shows to fulfil their Australian drama quota.

  The arrival of pay TV is unlikely to help. Already there is concern for the local children’s television industry as cheap US kids shows flood into the market.

  MEMORIES

  > Pay TV starts in Australia amid concerns about the complications involved, including costs of up to $1000 to set up and $150 per month.

  > Veteran ABC reporter Andrew Olle, 47, dies suddenly of an inoperable brain tumour.

  > Neighbours celebrates its 10th anniversary – it is on air in 41 countries and watched by 11 million people in the UK every day.

  > The Grundy Organisation, producer of Neighbours, Sale of the Century, Man O Man and Wheel of Fortune, among others, is sold to the huge international company Pearson, who hold The Financial Times, The Economist, Thames Television and Penguin Books.

  > Australia is outraged at the country’s depiction in the latest episode of The Simpsons. Eve
ryone speaks with cockney accents, kangaroos roam the streets, Australia is celebrating 30 years of elec-try-city and corporal punishment is meted out in the form of the ‘The Boot’.

  > Channel 7’s new show, Today Tonight, is fronted by Jill Singer, poached from the ABC.

  > Hey Hey, It’s Saturday starts 1995 without Ossie Ostrich, as Ernie Carroll, the man behind the bird, retired at the end of 1994.

  > Two hosts instead of one for the Logies this year, with Noni Hazlehurst and Andrew Daddo fronting the telecast on Channel 7.

  > Gold Logie: Ray Martin > Hall of Fame: Jack Thompson

  > Most Outstanding Achievement in Comedy: Frontline

  TABOOS

  ‘My Lord, She’s got nothing on!’ ‘Love, what’s Channel Nine’s phone number? This is inexcusable.’ At its best, TV makes us laugh, or cry, informs us, and sometimes challenges our sensibilities. And occasionally, it goes one step too far.

  They can’t say that, can they?

  In its infancy, the innocence of Australian television and the community it entertained was protected with modestly clad personalities spruiking virtuous opinion. During the 1950s and early 1960s the most controversial television was Elvis Presley’s gyrating pelvis (which was censored) or dancers on Bandstand sidling too close to one another.

  Yet being such a dynamic creation, it was inevitable that television would seek to push boundaries. By its adolescent years, in 1968, Nine considered screening an ‘adults only’ episode of the Don Lane Tonight Show, which would include performances from the raunchy Les Girls chorus, the risqué comedian Joe Martin, and a Kings Cross stripper, but in the end Nine proved frigid and abandoned the idea.

  That same year Australian drama series Bellbird raised some eyebrows when it tackled the controversial theme of racism. The show depicted a black American serviceman coming to town and dancing with a white girl, causing a stir among the locals.

  But then, like a rebellious teenager, Australian television cut loose with Network 0’s steamy new drama, Number 96. Set in a block of Sydney flats, Number 96’s debut was billed as the night Australian television ‘lost its virginity’. Viewers were stunned by scantily clad characters and glimpses of nudity as well as plot lines exploring rape, pre-marital and extra-marital sex, homosexuality and interracial relationships. A storyline focusing on breast cancer proved to be the highest-rating Number 96 ever.

  Not surprisingly, there were those who were outraged by the program, fearing the content would tarnish community values. Indeed, Number 96 was adventurous even by international standards. Yet Australians kept tuning in and the drama is credited with single-handedly saving the network. Profits skyrocketed from $100,000 in 1972 to $1.5 million two years later.

  In 1973 the ABC tried to cash in on the success of Alvin Purple, a film about a man who had an aphrodisiac effect on women, with a spin-off drama series. Network 0 again engaged shock tactics for another hit, The Box, which launched in 1974 and lays claim to airing Australia’s first lesbian kiss, among other titillations.

  By the time television turned 21, the sex and debauchery theme was growing tired. Network 0 kissed goodbye to its two steamy dramas in 1977, and sex has rarely been used as a major drawcard in Australia since. (Chances attempted using gratuitous nudity to woo audiences in 1991, but like a drunken middle-aged uncle flirting with a pretty teenager, ended up looking ridiculous.)

  The community’s acceptance of colourful language on television has been somewhat slower. In 1954 an ABC radio announcer was sacked for saying the word ‘bum’ on air, and things had hardly progressed by 1975 when television legend Graham Kennedy – apparently looking for a holiday – was suspended by Nine when he issued one of his famous crow calls, which sounded a little too similar to the f-word.

  After 50 years of television, swearing is still officially restricted to time slots after 8.30 pm and must be used in context. All this while audiences routinely watch murders, serial killings and forensic detail on any given night. Go figure. Meanwhile, the ‘c-word’ is still considered controversial, despite an episode of Sex and the City screened in Australia in 1999, which used the word and attracted little backlash from the community.

  While dramatised sex can be intensely unarousing, the real act still raises a sweat. Sex/Life, a show devoted to discussing sex issues, had Nine’s phone lines melting down in the mid-1990s. And let’s not forget 1992’s grubbiest TV moment, when Naughtiest Home Videos, hosted by Doug Mulray, created its own kind of legend by being pulled from the air midway through its broadcast – under a direct, and by no means polite, instruction from station owner Kerry Packer. The program was yanked after featuring animal sex in a very non-documentary way and also a video depicting a couple bonking on the bonnet of a car. But 80 per cent of complaints received related to viewers wanting to see the remainder of the show.

  Now 50, television in Australia enjoys a shrewd understanding of its audience. Today it’s the way TV news covers events that’s likely to create more fuss than the dropping of a ‘naughty’ word. Mostly, it has grown past meaningless sex and nudity, the desperate ratings chase of certain reality TV shows aside – and a big hello to everyone in the Big Brother household.

  Who was first to get it all off?

  > Number 96 is commonly credited for picking the cherry of most TV firsts, in particular nudity. Yet, the award for showing the first-ever full frontal nudity on Australian TV is actually believed to go to mild-mannered cop show Matlock Police, which featured a quick glimpse of skinny-dipping in an episode that aired on 22 February 1971.

  > In terms of more ‘lingering’ nudity, it’s generally assumed and widely reported that Abigail was the first woman to appear topless on television. In fact, actress Vivienne Garrett took that honour. In her role as Rose Godolfus in Number 96 she bared her breasts in the first episode. The scene screened only in Sydney before it was edited out.

  > While Number 96 was best known for its nudity, it wasn’t until after five years on air that it claimed Australian TV’s first full-frontal female nude. Miss Hemingway (Deborah Gray) did many of her scenes naked.

  1996

  Dole-bludgers, beer and beach babes dominate a year when thieves turn thespians and Seven scores a couple of big-name hosts. But not all is rosy: our TV news service suffer from a lack of worldwide resources and a spot fire springs up over a rather dubious character.

  Bearing Witness to A Current Affair’s dole-bludger saga

  May: It must have seemed like a win–win situation for A Current Affair. Profile the unemployed Paxton siblings, set them up with seemingly cushy jobs on South Molle Island and follow what develops. If they embrace the opportunities being presented, ACA winds up having done a commendable community service. If the Paxtons turn the jobs down, they metamorphose into that sensationalist staple of tabloid current affairs: dole-bludgers.

  But when the second scenario played out, it was ACA that found itself in the firing line. Accused of having set up some kids lacking the media smarts to defend themselves, and openly berated on radio and in newspapers, the program was struck on almost every angle, except for in the ratings.

  Indeed, ACA only reasserted its dominance of the 6.30 pm timeslot over Today Tonight with new host Helen Wellings, posting its highest ratings figure of the year the night the Paxton story broke. But the elation of that ratings success didn’t dull all the blows. After copping a particularly vicious attack from Stuart Littlemore on Media Watch, ACA’s executive producer Neil Mooney came out swinging, threatening to sue the ABC program.

  As ACA dodged the Paxton fallout, Seven’s latest offering, Witness, arrived on the scene without any of the pomp and ceremony that accompanied the launch of Ten’s ill-fated The Reporters and Page One. Headed by Jana Wendt, the Witness team included former ABC news and current affairs heavyweight Peter Manning, Walkley Award-winning reporter Graham Davis and top investigative journalist Paul Barry.

  Luring Wendt across after some 13 years at Nine in a reported $2 million deal proved tha
t Seven has decided to get serious about news and current affairs, and that it was prepared to put its money where its mouth was.

  But Seven’s managing director Gary Rice is playing down the coup, stressing to the Green Guide that ‘Jana Wendt is a wonderful woman but she is not the Messiah. Nor is Witness the second coming’.

  Nonetheless, initial ratings reports bode well for the new program. Despite some fluctuations, numbers in the 9.30 Tuesday slot have been generally impressive and after seven weeks on air, Witness last night beat its opposition on both Nine and Ten.

  Wendt may not be the Messiah, but these figures suggest it might not be long before Seven believe she’s heaven sent.

  Up in flames

  March: The second series of Seven’s Fire has hit our screens with more nudie bits, a more balanced mix of comedy and drama and just as much shouting. Fire consistently won its timeslot last year, but one group it failed to charm was the United Firefighters Union, who claimed the program painted an inaccurate portrait of firefighters with its over-the-top characters and scenarios.

  Replacing Georgie Parker as the only female firie at West End Station is former Chantoozie Tottie Goldsmith, who’s playing the role of ‘post feminist’ Tex (‘short for latex, as in condoms,’ she explains).

  ‘She believes everyone’s equal, end of story,’ Goldsmith says. Luckily for he-male co-workers, Tex’s commitment to equality stretches to taking communal unisex showers. ‘She’s far from a whore but very liberated sexually,’ Goldsmith stresses. ‘I don’t mind as long as the nudity and sexuality is being done with heart.’

  One who does seem to mind is Tayler Kane, whose return for a second series in the role of the monosyllabic, sex-mad Grievous has proved to be short-lived. After speaking to the media about what he perceived to be the shortcomings of the series, Fire’s producers responded by banning him from all publicity. Disgruntled with that outcome, and frustrated by the limitations of his character (which doesn’t seem unreasonable, given he had lines like ‘Grievous want root’), Kane quit the series last week.