50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

Another reason for its popularity was Daryl Somers’s belated return to TV. Somers, who hasn’t had a regular gig on Aussie TV since Hey Hey, It’s Saturday ended in 1999, again proved a popular host with viewers. Co-host Sonia Kruger and judge Paul Mercurio (both stars of Strictly Ballroom) added their own sparkle to proceedings, but it was the celebrity dancers who were the real stars.

  In the starting group were TV vet Katrina Warren, actors John Wood, Justin Melvey and Bec Cartwright, Olympic gold medallist James Tomkins, athlete Matt Shirvington, TV host Gabrielle Richens and politician Pauline Hanson.

  To transform them into dancers, each was teamed with a professional dance instructor and given four weeks to learn their moves. One by one the stars were voted off, leaving Bec Cartwright and Pauline Hanson to dance off for the title of Australia’s best celebrity dancer. In another boost to her growing public profile, Bec Cartwright prevailed, but the real winner may be variety television in Australia. Such was the popularity of this glittering dance-a-thon, Seven, Nine and Ten all have new variety shows in production.

  But spare a thought for the poor old ABC, which launched its own ballroom dancing series, Strictly Dancing, in February, but the success of Dancing with the Stars has meant that hardly anyone has noticed.

  The saviour of reality TV – with fries?

  May: A reality show with a cast of hospitality industry novices trying to create and run a profitable restaurant has become the surprise hit of the year to date, breathing new life into the flagging reality TV scene.

  Although My Restaurant Rules premiered to tepid responses, ratings figures for the final show – a massive 1.8 million viewers – suggest it could take out the award for the most popular new show of 2004.

  So happy has Seven been with the results that it’s placed an order for a second serve in 2005 – which will be great news for host and celebrity chef Curtis Stone.

  Media Watch: small but mighty

  April: That ghost in the machine of the Australian media – Media Watch – has done it again. This time the program has ruffled the feathers of Australia’s two biggest radio stars, John Laws and Alan Jones, and the chief of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, David Flint.

  The program revealed that Flint had sent Jones ‘fan letters’ on ABA letterhead months before he presided over the ‘cash for comments’ inquiry in 2000. Laws then revealed that Jones had bragged about pressuring PM John Howard to reappoint Flint or risk losing his political support for the looming election.

  A public dogfight ensued, with Laws labelling Jones ‘a vicious old tart’ and Flint ‘an effete, pretentious posturing professor’, and Flint eventually stepped down as ABA Chairman.

  Media Watch has again proved its value as a shrewd and fearless media watchdog – a role it’s been filling brilliantly ever since it began in 1989.

  Anyone for Simono?

  April: Former TV star Simon Townsend has announced that he is seeking a partner outside of Australia to help develop his lottery invention called ‘Simono’.

  ‘Simono’ is a combination of lotto, a suspense game and a jackpot game show. It apparently would be based around a two-minute TV show each Sunday night, backed by a major monthly show where one person could win up to US$25 million. Bets would be possible via the internet, phones and PDAs.

  Townsend told AAP there had been great interest in ‘Simono’ but that its development was being hindered by local legislation – hence the interest in an offshore partner.

  He said ‘Simono’ grew out of his 1992 TV special Chance and Coincidence.

  ON DEBUT

  > Medical Rookies – ‘reality’ series hosted by Jennifer Keyte, looking at new doctors during the first few days on the job

  > Mondo Thingo – pop culture series presented by Amanda Keller

  > Murray Whelan Series – telemovies based on Shane Maloney’s novels about political adviser Murray Whelan, who finds himself acting as a PI

  > Australia’s Brainiest Kid – quiz program seeking to find the ‘brainiest kid in Australia’, who wins a $20,000 trust fund

  > Before Dawn – mini-series starring Geoffrey Rush

  > The Boat Show – program looking at boats, hosted by Glenn Ridge

  > The Body Specialists – reality show looking at the field of plastic surgery

  > The 1860s House – ABC’s version of The Edwardian House, examining the household of an Australian squatter

  > The Einstein Factor – quiz show hosted by Peter Berner, pitting people with knowledge of specific subjects against each other

  > Fireflies – drama series about a volunteer fire service in a small country town

  > Foreign Exchange – drama series for children about an Australian boy and Irish girl who come across a wormhole that lets them travel between their two countries

  > Forensic Investigators – Lisa McCune hosts a reality series revisiting murders and the investigations following them

  > Hamish & Andy – comedy program hosted by Hamish Blake and Andy Lee

  > John Safran vs God – Safran examines various forms of religion

  David and Margaret on the move

  May: After 17 years, The Movie Show is leaving SBS for a new home at the ABC.

  While The Movie Show has long been among the highest-rating shows on SBS, host Margaret Pomeranz expressed her feelings on the multicultural broadcaster’s new direction with characteristic bluntness. As reported in The Age, Pomeranz cited ‘profligate spending on internal re-organisation, the perceived lack of leadership, the abandonment of SBS’s unique vision and presentation [and] the complete lack of morale within the organisation’ as reasons for the show’s departure.

  SBS management was more circumspect: ‘Both Margaret and David have contributed a great deal to the Australian people’s understanding and appreciation of cinema for almost 18 years of The Movie Show,’ SBS Managing Director Nigel Milan said in a statement. ‘We wish them well in this new venture. SBS will continue to champion the world’s best cinema.’

  As part of its reinvention, SBS is courting younger viewers and women, and The Movie Show has been remodelled accordingly. Of the four new presenters, two are under 30. Despite being relative unknowns, series producer Annette Shun Wah says the four have ‘a deep love of cinema, unique viewpoints and a credible and diverse knowledge of film’ and will bring a whole new energy to The Movie Show.

  SBS’s loss is of course the ABC’s gain. With decades of movie industry experience between them and a loyal fan-base, Pomeranz and Stratton bring a tried and trusted formula to the station. It’s no surprise the ABC won’t tinker with it too much.

  Or as one ABC spokesman succinctly put it: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

  Sunday not a day of rest at Ten

  May: Channel 10 has done the unthinkable and abandoned Sunday night movies, turning what has been a TV programming convention on its head. Instead of movies, Ten is now screening first-run episodes of the highly popular Law & Order: Criminal Intent and NCIS, and their ratings results are looking healthy indeed.

  Viewers have been attracted for a number of reasons. Unlike the films they are replacing, these series haven’t been sitting around in the DVD store for months already. They finish earlier too – with a convenient break at the one-hour mark.

  Predictably, reports suggest Channel 9 is already considering moving its CSI series to a Sunday night spot next year.

  When 110% is not enough

  July: Just one series after moving across from the ABC, Channel 7 has axed 110% Tony Squires, largely because of lacklustre ratings results. Over four years as The Fat, host Tony Squires, sidekick Rebecca Wilson and a panel of guests built a strong following with their anarchic discussions of all things sporting.

  Outwardly at least, the leap to commercial TV looked like an easy one – familiar format, popular subject matter – but it wasn’t to be. For many fans, it’s another case of commercial TV taking a successful show from the ABC and losing its audience. Good News Week suffered the
same fate, and although he started a new show, Shaun Micallef’s humour struggled to find an audience on Nine.

  It’s not all bad news for fans, however. They’ll now see more of Squires hosting the upcoming Athens Olympics.

  Love their way

  November: Despite the odds being firmly stacked against it, Love My Way, the subscription-only drama series paid for and produced by Foxtel, has knocked ’em dead. Starring Claudia Karvan, the series is a relationship drama for 30-somethings that has been praised for its ‘classy scripts and excellent cast’.

  The success of Love My Way raises an important question for local networks. With shows like The Sopranos, Sex In The City and Six Feet Under being produced by US cable network HBO, does Love My Way open the door for Australia’s pay TV networks to become leaders in local drama production?

  In the short term, it seems so. Another 12 episodes of Love My Way are in production for broadcast late next year.

  The final hoo-roo

  November: Channel 9 has surveyed its own backyard and decided it’s time to pull out Burke’s Backyard after 17 years and plant something new in the 7.30 pm Friday night timeslot.

  Burke’s Backyard took the simple idea of giving people advice on their homes and in the process created a highly successful show dedicated to what Burke says is one of the most important spaces for Australians: the backyard.

  ‘The theory was people don’t really have a garden, they have a backyard, and that backyard is an interaction between kids and dogs and plants and swimming pools, so to just talk about gardening was to really fail people,’ Burke said.

  In speaking to ordinary people about their everyday concerns, Burke has reached a global audience, collected a swag of Logies, made himself wealthy and has been attributed with kick-starting the infotainment boom.

  ‘It has been both fun and a privilege to do it and we are very sad to see Burke’s Backyard end,’ he told The Age.

  There’s a lesbian in there …

  June: The hot issue of gay rights is back in the news again, courtesy of a most unlikely source – Playschool.

  The long-running children’s program has created a huge controversy after a recent episode showed a girl going to the park with her two ‘mums’.

  The federal government – which just days earlier had decided to ban same-sex couples from adopting children, or marrying – could scarcely contain its outrage, with four senior ministers slamming the national broadcaster.

  ‘This is a story that … in some ways seeks to justify and promote the idea of gay parenting,’ acting PM John Anderson told The Sydney Morning Herald. ‘This is an example of the ABC running an agenda in a children’s program.’

  But Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights co-convenor David McCarthy had a different take on things. ‘Some people are obviously frightened of reality television,’ he told The Age.

  MEMORIES

  > Asian Tsunami coverage dominates post-Christmas TV, similar to the coverage of the September 11 terrorist attack on the US.

  > Big Brother contestant Merlin gags himself upon eviction to protest the Australian Government’s treatment of asylum-seekers.

  > The Seven Network and SBS share the broadcast of the Athens Olympics.

  > The Alice becomes the most-watched Australian movie on free-to-air TV for three years.

  > In reality show The Hothouse, Jules and Simon, a Sydney couple, win a $2 million prize package including the house built on the show, two cars and a boat.

  > Channel 10 turns 40.

  > SBS screens a three-part program covering the marriage of Tasmanian Mary Donaldson to Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik, including live coverage of the ceremony.

  > The Footy Show celebrates 10 years on air.

  > Sony BMG is producing 150,000 copies of Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan’s first single, ‘Listen With Your Heart’.

  > Bert Newton’s Good Morning Australia undergoes a revamp and goes to air live five mornings a week.

  > The paediatric policy committee of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians urges parents to restrict their children’s viewing of TV.

  > The federal budget encourages more international television production in Australia by extending the 12.5 per cent tax offset for films to big-budget television series.

  > Gold Logie: Rove McManus

  > Hall of Fame: Sam Chisholm

  > Most Outstanding Drama Series: The Secret Life of Us

  SPORTS PANEL SHOWS

  It’s a vexing question: when exactly did sport become entertainment, and not simply a competition watched by the public? One answer might be when TV arrived, when the on-field stars leapt the fence and started entertaining fans from inside a suit and tie, from behind a microphone, and in front of a TV camera.

  Armchair experts

  Alongside its many achievements, television is responsible for inventing a whole new class of sporting experience: sport, without the sport. By seating players, coaches and a new breed of sporting guru – the commentator – in a room and having them talk about the action, TV turned sport into a talk show, a formula that is still punting field goals today.

  We’ve all seen footage of those earliest shows: gents with their slicked-down hair, neatly knotted ties and the smoke from a cigarette often curling into frame, talking mock-earnestly about what happened on the field of play. It all began soon after TV arrived in Australia.

  Some of the earliest sports panel shows were Sports Cavalcade (ABC, 1957–67), hosted by Norman ‘Gold, Gold, Gold’ May, who delivered a national sports wrap, and Football Inquest (Seven, 1957–74), a popular Saturday-night dissection of the day’s VFL action hosted by Michael Williamson.

  Following closely on their heels, however, was World of Sport (Seven, 1959–87), a long-lasting prototype for pretty much all sports-talk TV that followed it. Hosted by Ron Casey, it entertained viewers with panel discussions (renowned for their comedy value), match reports, handball competitions, expressing its appreciation to guests with hampers, chocolates and footy franks. It even made stars of stationary cyclists and wood choppers – no mean feat at all.

  As the popularity of sports panel shows rose, commentators hitched a ride to stardom. In Melbourne, ex-VFL playing greats like Jack Dyer, Lou Richards, Ron Barassi and Bob Davis cemented their presence in the popular imagination with their antics on World of Sport and League Teams, while in Sydney, ex-rugby international league and union player Rex Mossop came to personify his sport on television.

  Today, the AFL and NRL versions of The Footy Show are obvious descendants. Renowned as much for the antics of their hosts as their sporting insight, they’re a familiar combination of entertainment, slapstick and sporting commentary.

  In the AFL version, media mega-presence Eddie McGuire played straight man to the ever-controversial Sam Newman, their conversation often veering wildly off topic, mirroring the on-screen work of Bob, Jack and Lou on League Teams, but often without the charm. In Sydney, the blokey banter of ex-playing greats Paul Vautin and Peter Sterling won the NRL version of the show a legion of fans.

  Through the 1980s and 1990s, Wide World of Sports, hosted by Mike Gibson, Ken Sutcliffe and Max Walker, became a Saturday-afternoon staple. (Has anyone seen footage of the Hawaiian Iron Man since WWoS was axed in 1999?) By the mid-1990s, Talking Footy (1995–2004) took sporting panel shows in a new direction. Seated on deep couches in a den-like setting, host Bruce McAvaney and various AFL thinkers – legends like David Parkin – covered the issues of the day with po-faced conversation and only the odd highlights package.

  This period also produced panel shows that used sport as a springboard for the comedic intentions of the talent. Beginning with Live and Sweaty (1991–94), hosted by Andrew Denton and then Elle McFeast, the sport/comedy crossover was also played well by Tony Squires, whose show The Fat began on the ABC (2000–03), before an ill-fated name-change – 110% Tony Squires – and move to Seven saw it benched in 2004 after only one season.

  Perhaps the pin
nacle of the form came from the unstoppable Roy Slaven and HG Nelson, with their Olympics-based talk shows – The Dream in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 and The Ice Dream in Salt Lake City (2002). Huge international audiences watched as these two genuinely funny, erudite sport lovers lampooned everything from gold medal winners to the host city’s history.

  As if to prove what’s old is new again, echoes of Sports Cavalcade have been seen in two national nightly sports wraps. SBS brought World Sport to life to cover the goings on of … well, world sport, and Channel Ten went for a more bash ’em and crash ’em approach with Sports Tonight.

  Regardless of their level of seriousness or success, all of these shows satisfied our ever-growing need for more sport on TV. Indeed, in this post-modern age, it seems we don’t even need to watch the sport itself to enjoy watching sport on TV, as long as it’s funny and there are some famous faces hosting it.

  ‘So, what next?’

  That’s a question many sportspeople have asked themselves when their playing days are done. ‘TV’, many have answered. But only a few have stepped outside their chosen sporting sphere and built a whole new life in front of the camera.

  > Rex Mossop – Beauty and the Beast – After much rucking and mauling on the rugby field, Mossop took to rucking and mauling our sensibilities on this thorn-between-the-roses talk show.

  > Joanna Griggs – Better Homes & Gardens – From the swimming pool to the backyard, Griggs has proven that hosting sporting events can also lead to ideas on redecorating the den, and ways to make that begonia bush happy again.

  > Brendon Julian – Getaway – From jetsetting cricketer to jetsetting travel journo, Julian swapped the bowling crease for sandy beaches in a quest for the best holiday spots.

  > Ian Thorpe – Thorpey’s Undercover Angels – Proving the super-successful swimmer can do good for the world from outside the pool, Thorpey and his three angels did good deeds for those in need.