50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  Just don’t mention Paradise Beach

  January: It’s soap, but not as you know it. Or at least that’s how the producers of Pacific Drive are selling their latest offering.

  After a succession of recent sun’n’surf flops, Pacific Drive is attempting to break the trend by casting trained actors (including Kate Raison, Libby Tanner and Melissa Tkautz) rather than just good-looking models, targeting a slightly older demographic and featuring more sophisticated storylines, à la Melrose Place.

  By staying away from stereotypes, Pacific Drive has a dark-haired lifeguard rather than a beach soaked blonde, a lesbian rather than a male homosexual character and a beautiful model who turns out to be HIV positive. That should do the trick.

  ON DEBUT

  > Australian Story – show profiling Australians from all walks of life, telling their own stories

  > Water Rats – police drama on water police working on Sydney Harbour

  > Mercury – drama series about a Sunday newspaper, starring Geoffrey Rush

  > The Campaign – documentary following Paul Keating’s public campaigning during his doomed election bid

  > Who Dares Wins – game show hosted by former cricketer Mike Whitney, in which contestants win money for completing insane challenges

  > Midday – day-time variety show with Kerri-Anne Kennerley

  > Creative Living – lifestyle program

  > A Cook’s Journey – lifestyle program

  > Duty of Care – hospital drama

  > Pacific Drive – soap set on the Gold Coast

  > Sweat – drama about elite athletes training at the fictitious Institute of Australian Sport

  > Witness – public affairs program headed by Jana Wendt and including Peter Manning, Graham Davis and Paul Barry

  > Shaun Micallef’s World Around Him – one-hour special of comedy, sketches and music (above)

  > Between the Lines – ABC books show

  > Blankety Blanks – revival of the classic, this time hosted by Shane Bourne

  > Candid Camera – another remake of an old US show

  > Emergency 000 – just like Emergency 911, only with different numbers

  > Face to Face – news and interviews along the lines of Meet the Press > The Food Lover’s Guide to Australia – food and culinary adventures on SBS

  > The Genie From Down Under – children’s series

  > The Glynn Nicholas Show – offbeat sitcom starring Glynn Nicholas

  > Good News Week – satire, current affairs and humour, hosted by Paul McDermott

  A legend is re-born

  The legendary Australian variety show In Melbourne Tonight (IMT) is being re-animated by Channel 9.

  First broadcast in 1957, IMT is perhaps best known as the show that catapulted Graham Kennedy to stardom. Anyone familiar with the original will see plenty of similarities in the 1996 version, and perhaps that’s the idea.

  As reported in The Age, Channel 9 program manager Len Downs said that despite advances in technology, there were certain things audiences had never stopped enjoying: comedy, music, and interviews; in other words – variety.

  Hosting duties will be assumed by Frankie J. Holden with Denise Drysdale in the all-important barrel girl role, which in itself is a nod to the past. Drysdale appeared on the original IMT.

  ‘Obviously production has become slicker, but basically entertainment comes down to a person delivering lines,’ she said. ‘You can dress things up but there has to be a base of talent there and the personality must come through the box.’

  The fact that IMT will be bringing back live, nightly television in the medium’s 40th year has not been lost on pundits. At a time when the spontaneity and sheer audacity of a Graham Kennedy in full flight could well be too much for a network, Nine’s decision to put a live tonight show back on air signals a willingness to venture back into bold, funny and anarchic content again. It’s now up to the talent to deliver gripping entertainment, 1957-style.

  Baby John dumped!

  Long-time host Baby John Burgess has been spun off Seven’s top-rating game show Wheel of Fortune as the program undergoes a revamp.

  Burgess was sacked unceremoniously after spinning the wheel for 12 years and has been replaced by another of Australia’s game show kings, Tony Barber. At the same time, production of the program has shifted from Adelaide to Sydney and the set has also been redesigned.

  Burgess is considering taking legal action over his dumping, while Barber has been quick to announce that he played no part in the dismissal, even phoning Burgess directly to emphasise the fact.

  ‘I wanted to assure him that I hadn’t stalked his job,’ Barber told TV Week. ‘The move was on; the network made its own initiatives.’

  Breaking local news … from across the Atlantic

  May: Disappointingly, one of the most sluggish responses to Sunday’s tragic Port Arthur massacre came from our TV news services, who were embarrassingly shown up by their American counterparts.

  The international news channel CNN, based in Atlanta, Georgia, was broadcasting interviews via satellite with people in the vicinity of Port Arthur less than 20 minutes after Australian networks presented their first sketchy reports. Comparatively, in news bulletins that same night, Aussie networks only offered three or four minutes of vague coverage, devoid of eyewitness accounts and light on for details. They failed to recover any significant ground until the following morning, when key personnel had travelled to Tasmania and communications links were running unencumbered.

  A landmark that deserves a big cold one

  July: One of Australian TV’s cultural institutions – the now iconic TV ad for Victoria Bitter – is approaching the big 3-0.

  Now Australia’s longest running ad campaign – the blue-collar message of rewarding hard work at the end of the day with an icy cold beer – remains the same, though the original voiceover and soundtrack have needed a bit of help to keep up with the times.

  Actor John Meillon recorded the original voiceover for the ad and completely nailed the tough but earnest sentiment required. When Meillon died in 1989, the ad disappeared from our screens while negotiations took place with his family over future royalties.

  But not long after that had been settled, VB launched ‘on tap’ and had to search for a replacement voice to refresh the ads accordingly. After hundreds of wannabes failed to recreate the Meillon magic, sound engineers turned to cutting and pasting the syllables from his previous recordings and slotting them into the ad.

  Things were easier when it came to revamping the original music, for composer Bruce Rowland still had the original charts he had used to score the tune, and a new recording was made featuring the Melbourne Symphony.

  Musical melodies of Cell Block H

  January: Turns out Kylie, Jason et al. were just the tip of the iceberg. Now not only are soap stars turning their hands to the music biz, but in England an entire Aussie soap opera has made it to the stage … with resounding success.

  Prisoner of Cell Block H: The Musical! opened on London’s West End last year to packed houses of Brits obsessed with Wentworth Prison and its inmates.

  But a few things have changed in the translation from small screen to all-singing, all-dancing spectacular. The traits of the characters are familiar but their names are new, so Steff’s the reincarnate of Franky, Mrs Austin is Mrs Morris’s long lost twin, and so on. The only original to survive the transition is Maggie Kirkpatrick, who reprises her role of Joan ‘the Freak’ Ferguson.

  Gladiators continues to be a hit on Australian TV screens in this, its second year. The strange mix of strength, competition and leotards – plus celebrity referees like John Alexander and Mike Whitney – keeps attracting audiences.

  MEMORIES

  > Play School celebrates 30 years on air, and the marketing phenomenon that is Bananas in Pyjamas.

  > SBS screens a prime-time program devoted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs called ICAM (Indigenous Cultural Affairs Mag
azine).

  > Although it is the highest rating program on TV, Blue Heelers fails to win a single Logie.

  > Former Home and Away star Dieter Brummer accuses the British Government of ‘racism against Aussies’ after a number of our soapie stars are denied work permits for the UK’s Christmas pantomime season.

  > Bill Collins (below) celebrates 30 years of delivering movie reviews on television.

  > Jason Donovan’s latest West End play, Night Must Fall, is scrapped after just two weeks, with attendances on some nights down to double figures.

  > Hey Hey, It’s Saturday turns 25.

  > Artists Services produces a five-minute-a-day soapie spoof for Foxtel called Shark Bay.

  > SBS wins its first-ever Logie for the industry-nominated Most Outstanding Documentary for Untold Desires.

  > Gold Logie: Ray Martin

  > Hall of Fame: Maurie Fields (posthumously)

  DOCUMENTARIES

  As a feature of Australian TV since its earliest days, documentaries have been a source of entertainment, education and wonder. But in many cases we haven’t liked what we’ve seen when the documentary mirror has been held up to the society we call our own.

  Truth is always stranger than fiction

  Nothing showcases the maxim ‘Truth is always stranger than fiction’ better than the documentary genre. As slices of life revealed in real time or across history, as-it-happened or in reconstruction, documentaries have long prompted amazement, incredulity, sympathy and plenty of outrage among viewing audiences.

  Even from their earliest days, documentaries demonstrated a remarkable capacity for attracting controversy. Producer Jim White decided to show the birth of his own child in the controversial Birth (1965). The ABC was swamped with abusive letters and phone calls before the program went to air, but public acclaim following its showing resulted in a re-airing at an earlier timeslot, its content deemed to be of ‘educational and instructional’ value to younger audiences.

  Four years later the ABC started Australia’s first regular documentary series, Chequerboard. It featured ordinary Australians sharing their innermost feelings about their lives and social predicaments, and broke new ground in Australian TV. With the revelatory spirit of documentaries in mind, Chequerboard presenter Richard Oxenburgh said, ‘Until Chequerboard, a lot of subjects were like breaking wind; we all do it but one doesn’t talk about it.’ The stories were no less riveting when the ABC delved back into them again with Chequerboard Revisited in 2000.

  By then the documentary format was an established part of the Australian TV scene, and it was still creating headlines. My Foetus (2004, ABC), shown as part of the ABC’s Compass (1988–) series, famously tackled the issue of abortion head-on by showing not only the filmmaker’s own abortion, but also the confronting image of a 21-week-old foetus. Anti-abortion campaigners rallied and the ensuing battle with pro-choice groups ensured abortion was placed firmly back on the public agenda.

  One of Australia’s more influential documentary makers is producer/director David Goldie. His hallmark of building trust with subjects has resulted in extraordinarily candid interviews. Goldie’s three-hour Out of Sight, Out of Mind (1987) examined punishment and crime in Australia, taking us inside our nation’s harshest prisons. His follow-up, Nobody’s Children (1989), examined youth homelessness and a growing Australian youth underclass. His Without Consent (1992) was the first major examination of the impact of sexual violence on the lives of women to be shown on Australian television.

  Taking a less sensational but no less intimate snapshot of the Australian perspective is the acclaimed ABC’s Australian Story (1996–). With an emphasis on regional and rural Australia and featuring ‘narration’ by the subjects themselves, the series offers a unique insight into the extraordinary lives of contemporary Australians.

  Another ABC documentary series, Reality Bites, proffers a broader remit, concentrating on bold, under-the-skin snapshots of both Australian and international subjects.

  When it comes to history, Peter Luck is our anointed television guardian. The popular current affairs journalist who appeared on programs including This Day Tonight, Four Corners and Today Tonight is best remembered as the face of historical documentary series This Fabulous Century, The Australians and Bicentennial Minutes. He also brought back vague memories of faded stars with his Where Are They Now? series.

  Investigatory documentaries have left their mark too, sparking as much nervousness among governments as outcry from the public. Labor in Power (1993) was a gripping series that revealed the Labor government’s inner workings and the Hawke–Keating leadership battle, while Rats in the Ranks (1997) exposed universal truths about political power struggles in local government.

  Although documentaries have often been regarded by commercial television as filler material, there have been notable exceptions. Religion was on the agenda in 1998 when a recently returned-to-faith Mike Willesee presented his controversial Signs from God, which purported to test faith with science. Willesee’s unusual lack of objectivity raised the ire of religious leaders and atheists alike.

  Willesee had already won a Logie for his 1983 documentary profiling congenital bone disease sufferer Quentin Kenihan. Part of a series known as the Willesee documentaries (broadcast on Seven and Nine), Quentin remains the highest rating documentary ever seen on Australian television.

  As the century turned, the documentary genre witnessed a renaissance of sorts, with SBS and the ABC producing a swag of absorbing, revealing real life stories. Of the top 20 ABC programs in 2004, 11 were documentaries, including Australian Story, Dynasties – Durack Dreaming and Moulin Rouge Girls. These were all Australian productions, proving audiences are always interested in unearthing the dirt in their own backyard, be that a disease sufferer overcoming the odds, Irish immigrant history or an Aussie girl kicking her heels up in Paris.

  Memorable Australian Story subjects

  > Peter Hollingworth (2002) – Australia’s most controversial Governor-General talks frankly and emotionally about the school sex abuse scandal that cast a cloud over his term.

  > Kirsty Sword Gusmao (2002) – Kirsty Sword Gusmao, Australian-born wife of East Timor leader Xanana Gusmao, reveals her experience as an undercover agent for the Timorese resistance.

  > Hazel Hawke (2003, 2004) – Bob Hawke’s ex-wife reveals she has Alzheimer’s disease.

  > Simon Illingworth (2004) – A policeman working with Internal Affairs risks all to tell his story of rampant police corruption.

  > Boris Milat (2004, 2005) – The brother of convicted backpacker murderer Ivan Milat breaks ranks with his family.

  1997

  The farewell to a Princess turns into one of the biggest TV events of all time while, at a more local level, there’s hoo-haa about a pregnant game show hostess and the long-awaited return of another from a long-term lay-off. Who said it was an easy gig?

  First Race Around the World is run and won

  Olivia Rousset, from Perth, has won first prize in the ABC’s inventive documentary game show, Race Around the World, beating six other globetrotting young filmmakers for the trophy.

  Based on a Canadian show, Race Around the World was hosted by former Doug Anthony All Star Richard Fidler. The competition involved the entrants scattering across the world for 100 days, with the proviso that each person submit a four-minute short film once every 10 days.

  The films were judged by a panel of industry experts, including film director David Caesar and TV host Tony Squires. An audience vote was also considered.

  Rousset scored high votes for such films as a look at the pressure to perform for men in the LA porn industry. She narrowly beat Kim Traill for the overall prize while other racers found their chances of victory cruelled by missing deadlines and battling technical or language problems. ‘You lose all sense of being cool or shy when you’re away,’ Rousset told Noise magazine. ‘You’re a geek who needs help.’

  Strangely, the most famous of the first series’ ra
cers did not even come close to winning the contest. Quirky Melbourne 24-year-old John Safran won the public’s most popular vote for his series of increasingly bizarre films, which involved everything from Safran running naked through Jerusalem to putting a voodoo hex on an ex-girlfriend. Safran’s idea of visiting Disneyland was to film himself breaking in through a hole in the fence and then placing new captions on photos within the Disney museum, pointing out the founder’s alleged neo-fascist sympathising. Safran finished equal last when one of his documentary efforts, ‘The 1997 Rio de Janeiro Confession Booth Championships’, was banned by ABC executives, meaning he lost a potential 50 points for not having a broadcast-ready film. In the banned film, Safran had entered a series of Brazilian confessionals with a hidden camera and told each priest he had kissed a boy. He then multiplied the number of Hail Marys by Our Fathers to score each priest. The ABC wasn’t happy, but Safran’s notoriety, for life beyond the Race, seems assured. As judge Tony Squires said of Safran: ‘He’s manipulative, he’s dangerous, but he’s good.’

  Sale sticks by pregnant Buckley

  April: Sale of the Century host Glenn Ridge was surprised at the reaction of some people when his glamorous co-host Nicky Buckley announced she was pregnant.

  ‘It’s amazing the number of people who have commented and said, “Who’s going to be doing the show instead of Nicky?”,’ Ridge told TV Week. ‘We’ve all agreed that if she needs to take things a bit quieter from time to time, we’ll work around her.’