50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  > Twelve O’Clock High – drama

  > The New Phil Silvers Show – comedy

  the first Homicide team – Terry McDermott, John Fegan and Lex Mitchell.

  young actor Ian Turpie prepares to take part in filming of Homicide’s first episode.

  Homicide uncovers hidden viewers

  December: A new locally produced cop show has made it on to TV screens in Melbourne – and it’s taking the city by storm. It’s called Homicide, and it’s Crawford Productions’ bold, local answer to slick US police dramas such as Naked City.

  The show first screened in October and was originally scheduled for just 13 episodes, but it is already among the top three shows in Victoria and there are plans to screen it in other states next year. There is even talk of international distribution.

  Inspector F.W. Woonton, of Police Public Relations, told The Age’s TV-Radio Guide that the department was proud to cooperate with the producers and make available all the props it could for the series. He also said it was good to see actors in the series who look ‘so like real police’. The three regular stars in the series – John Fegan, Terry McDermott and Lex Mitchell – are apparently modelled on members of the Victorian Police force, and are ‘typical’ detectives.

  ‘They are not the knock-down, drag-out type of character so often portrayed in the theatre, or on the screen,’ says the publicity blurb. ‘They are the father of a growing family; the fellow next door budgeting to pay off his double-fronted home, and the smartly dressed young man about town, whose plans include a sports car, a transistor and a beautiful girl.’

  One TV for every 22 people on earth

  April: According to the just-released 1964 Television Factbook, the world now has 143 million television sets – or one for every 22 people across the face of the planet. The United States is home to 61,850,000 sets, while other countries boast a collective 80,800,000 sets, the Factbook reported. Only two years ago there were more TV sets in the USA than all other countries combined, but the balance has shifted.

  Sadism comes to TV

  October: Channel 9 has been accused of televising ‘90 minutes of sadism’ every Saturday evening.

  It starts at 5 pm with the hour-long World Championship Wrestling, which TV Week described as ‘blood splattering sport’. But even worse, according to the magazine’s Alec Martin, is the half-hour of competition roller skating that follows the wrestling. The program, called Roller Derby, is a no-holds-barred contest between two opposing teams of professional roller skaters. The skaters use every trick in the book, including tripping, kicking, punching, elbowing and hair-pulling – all while skating around the circuit at high speed. Many contests end in all-in brawls. Both male and female teams compete, but it is the women who have attracted the most outrage – and probably the most fans.

  Men smarter than women?

  May: A furore has erupted after quiz compere Roland Strong said women were not as good as men when it came to competing in quizzes.

  TV magazines and newspapers have been inundated with angry letters from women, slamming the host for his comments. Strong, who fronts and produces Coles £3000 Question, told TV Times in April that only 150 of the 3000 women he’d interviewed for his show had made it to air, while only three of the program’s 13 major prize winners were women.

  ‘It seems to me to be an obvious, if regrettable, fact that the ladies simply can’t compare with the men when it comes to absorbing, memorising – and recalling at the right time – the knowledge necessary to take away the cash on quiz programmes,’ he said. Strong said he didn’t think the disparity was due to women being too emotional or more likely to get flustered by being on TV.

  ‘They haven’t as much as stake. When a man goes before the cameras, he knows he has to put up a reasonable showing. His wife, children, neighbours, friends and the rest of Australia are watching him and there is a considerable amount of prestige involved. A woman doesn’t have the same strains.’

  But Strong may be the ultimate winner in all this: in the wake of the controversy he has announced plans for a ‘battle of the sexes’ episode of his show.

  Bringing Merseyside down under

  It’s been a big year for local lovers of British music, with the Beatles’ tour of Australia breaking all records and ensuring that Beatlemania is alive and well in this country.

  But other big-name British artists have also made their way here – many of them appearing on a special Liverpool Sound Show that was telecast from the Fitzroy Teletheatre in April. Appearing live were major international stars inclucing Gene Pitney, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, and Dusty Springfield. The event was hosted by Johnny O’Keefe and presented in front of a massive audience of screaming teenage girls.

  Host Johnny O’Keefe chats with Brian Poole and the Tremeloes during a break in the program.

  MEMORIES

  > Beatlemania hits TV land. First Graham Kennedy appears on camera as a Beatle, then Tommy Hanlon, star of It Could Be You, makes an appearance in a Beatles wig, strumming a guitar.

  > Mrs Stella Abel of Perth is called up to appear in two national TV quiz shows on the same day: Coles £3000 Question and BP Pick-a-Box. Both letters ask her to fly east on the same day for her quiz appearance, and somehow she manages to appear on both.

  > HSV-7 and GTV-9 challenge the ABC’s decision to schedule top-rating imported shows at the same time as their local productions.

  > New station ATV-0 pulls off the biggest sporting scoop of the year – the exclusive rights to screen the 1964 Davis Cup from the US.

  > TV licences issued in Australia are nearing the two million mark.

  > Video Village celebrates its 500th episode. Since it started in 1962, it has given away more than £100,000 worth of prizes and has rated well all over the country.

  > Dr John Ray, GTV-9’s TV dentist, enters his seventh year in TV.

  > Jonathan Daly quits Australian TV to return to the US.

  > Channel 9 screens a modern take on Christ’s crucifixion with the program Christ in Jeans.

  > Fifteen-year-old Melbourne singer Olivia Newton-John wins a talent quest on Johnny O’Keefe’s Sing, Sing, Sing.

  > Dave Allen, compere of Sydney’s Tonight show, leaves Australia to join his wife and stepson in London.

  > Children’s Show regular Wee Alec Finlay becomes the first star to walk out on Channel 0, after a disagreement over payments.

  > Gold Logie: Bobby Limb

  > Best National Variety Show: Delo and Daly

  1965

  A fictional host heads Australia’s favourite show, while a long-standing favourite celebrates a milestone but loses one of its key players to a big money offer from a rival network. A teenage Melbourne singer finds herself to be a very busy girl, while at least one man is excited about the appeal of ‘Look-Jukes’.

  Mavis rules the roost

  July: The Mavis Bramston Show, until recently a NSW-only secret, has taken Australia by storm. The satirical comedy sketch show attracted rave reviews after it was launched late last year, and won a Logie earlier this year as Best New Show. But it was considered ‘too Sydney’ for national exposure.

  However, a one-off special that screened in Melbourne was a huge success, and that – combined with sponsorship from Ampol Petroleum, and a tweaking of some content – has led to the program being shown nationally this year. The results have been remarkable, and the show has quickly become by far the most popular on Australian television. Its major stars, such as Gordon Chater, June Salter, Carol Raye and Barry Creyton, are now household names.

  The show had originally been tentatively titled The Gordon Chater Show, but was changed – apparently at Chater’s insistence – to better reflect the ensemble cast. The eventual name was chosen to poke fun at what the cast describe as the ‘cultural cringe’ practice of casting minor foreign talents in Australian TV shows. Raye says Mavis Bramston is ‘a name used by Melbourne actors to describe someone not all that talented’.
Last year the role of Mavis was played by Noelene Brown, but this year it has fallen to local dancer Margaret Dence.

  Aside from its bitingly funny satirical sketches, the show has also been a regular companion of controversy. Morals campaigners have frequently complained that segments of the show have been in poor taste. They’ve frequently been right, too. But audiences don’t seem to mind.

  In a tragic footnote to the show’s success, however, its executive producer, Michael Plant, 34, was found dead on the same day the show became the top-rated program on Australian TV. The cause of his death is not clear.

  It remains to be seen how the show will fare without its influential EP, but it’s already been announced that three new faces – English star Miriam Karlin and Sydney actresses Arlene Dorgan and Hazel Phillips – will join the regular cast to keep things fresh. The cast has also been heartened by the news that Creyton will stay with the show. It had been feared he would go to England to visit girlfriend Noelene Brown.

  New cop at Homicide HQ

  July: Sydney actor Leonard Teale has joined the ranks of detectives in the smash hit show Homicide. He has initially signed to appear in 13 episodes as Senior Detective McKay, a policeman who has a chip on his shoulder after being demoted in the wake of a report by one of the men he’s now working with. Teale replaces Lex Mitchell (Detective Fraser) in the show, whose character has been transferred to Sydney.

  Homicide, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength, and has translated its exceptional Victorian success of last year into huge national ratings this year. It has also won a Logie for Best Australian Drama series.

  Goodbye Lovely Anne … Hello Lovely Livvy

  February: It looks like being a big year for promising 16-year-old singer Olivia Newton-John. For a start she’s taken over a regular spot on Channel 7’s Happy Show, replacing ‘Lovely’ Anne Watts who has left to be married. It’s also been announced that she will become a regular on Channel 0’s Go!! show later this year.

  A bright future is anticipated for Olivia, who will forsake her studies this year to pursue her show business aims.

  The Control Board are ‘sickos’

  A leading American psychologist-entertainer, Dr Murray Banks, has slammed the Australian Broadcasting Control Board. Dr Banks said the Board was made up of ‘sick, sick people’ after a show in which he appeared was ruled unfit for transmission.

  The Seven program, Fighting Words, had seen Dr Banks answering questions from university students about the Kinsey Report. ‘Australians don’t want fighting words, they want tepid words,’ he said later.

  After hearing of the ban, Dr Banks let fly, saying, ‘My, the people on that Board are sick, sick people. They see dirt everywhere.’ He also criticised Australia generally, the monarchy, television, tradition and PJ Proby.

  ‘Australia could be a great country if it stopped importing the worst aspects of Britain and America – like the American shows shown on Australian television which wouldn’t appeal to a high grade moron.’

  ON DEBUT

  > The Magic Boomerang – Australian children’s adventure series

  > Space Station 10 – children’s morning program with Lorraine Bayly

  > Double Your Dollars – quiz

  > Turf Guide – racing talk

  > My Brother Jack – Australian literary serial

  > The Magic Circle Club – children’s series

  > Watch This Space – current affairs with Peter Couchman

  > Diana Trask – songs and special guests

  > The Ballad of Riverboat Bill – children’s adventure series

  > Boomeride – all-Australian music and variety show

  > The Amazing Chan Canasta – magic show

  > Showcase – Australia’s richest talent quest, hosted by Gordon Boyd.

  > Play Your Hunch – Queensland-based game show

  > Adventureland – children’s program

  > The Road Show – motoring program with Bill Tuckey

  > Roses I Love and Why – gardening

  > Snakes and Ladders – game show hosted by Chuck Faulkner

  > Sugar Beat – musical variety hosted by Horrie Dargie

  > Telescope – news and current affairs

  > They Call It Music – light entertainment

  > The Wagstaff Report – magazine program with Stuart Wagstaff

  > Walk a Young World – current affairs program focusing on youth issues

  > The Adventurers – children’s drama

  > The Anzac Story – documentary series

  > Bobo Show – Adelaide children’s program with Bobo the Clown (below)

  And from overseas comes:

  > The Munsters – comedy

  > Scotland Yard –

  drama series

  > Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. – comedy

  > New Jack Benny Show – variety

  > Dr Who – sci-fi series

  IMT celebrates 2000 shows

  August: It’s been a year of milestones, comings and goings at In Melbourne Tonight, with the program celebrating its 2000th show in June but also saying goodbye to two key hosts.

  The show that made Graham Kennedy famous is not resting on its laurels; it is blooding new hosts and using the show to forge stronger ties between the Nine stations around the country. The moves to freshen the show began at the start of the year, when veteran comedian Joff Ellen rejoined the team as part of plans by Nine to give the show more of a ‘theatre atmosphere’.

  Former Melbourne radio star Ernie Sigley, now a top Adelaide compere, made several appearances on the show, and Sydney star Don Lane – star of the Tonight show – hosted several editions while Kennedy was overseas in July. Noel Ferrier, who hosted the special 2000th show, subsequently quit his Friday night hosting spot, while Kennedy himself turned down a big-money offer from Channel 0 to switch networks. But 0 instead turned its attention to another of IMT’s regular hosts, Gold Logie winner Jimmy Hannan, and he has agreed to appear on that station from next March. GTV-9 has responded to the news by dumping Hannan and sending him back to Sydney to serve out the remainder of his contract.

  No winners in Bingo wars

  November: Sydney’s bloody Bingo battle is over – but there’s no-one left standing to claim victory.

  The stoush started when TCN-9 launched its TV Bingo in September. ATN-7 responded with their own version – Seven’s Better Bingo – this month, and the Nine program folded within four days of its rival starting.

  But Seven, having achieved its aim, promptly cancelled their own version after its first week, leaving viewers bereft of any Bingo at all.

  ‘Big Brother’ vision finds retail home

  July: Closed-circuit TV cameras have arrived, monitoring everything from industry, banks, blocks of apartments and shops.

  The new camera systems have also been coolly received by customers in America, with several New York department stores revealing they had removed the systems ‘because they insulted our customers’.

  Closed-circuit television was pioneered in the United States in 1948 and today is estimated to be a $25 million industry. Officers watching for shoplifters on the cameras in supermarkets are trained so that they do not directly accuse potential thieves. ‘If the woman at the tinned fish shelves can’t find the brand she wants, would she please ask the cashier?’ is a suggested announcement, so the said woman can quietly replace the tin of tuna she has pocketed.

  Be an overseas star without leaving home

  July: A Melbourne businessman is planning to produce three-minute colour musicals for worldwide screening via new TV jukeboxes now operating throughout Europe and the US.

  The businessman, Mr J. Emanuel, told TV Times that he was looking to negotiate with stars like Bobby Limb to appear in early productions.

  Australia already has 24 of the visual juke-boxes, called ‘Look-Jukes’, which show colour films of singers and musicians performing.

  ‘This is one of the biggest chances local artists have ever been offered
. ‘The singers we pick will be given lavish production treatment – and a single performance, if it’s the right one, could carry them to the big time in the United States.’

  Coming to a (small) screen near you

  August: Australian TV networks have completed negotiations with their American counterparts to buy a batch of new TV programs.

  The programs are likely to hit our screens before the end of this year, or early next year, and include some that have been extremely popular with US audiences. These sure-fire hits include Run For Your Life, Peter Falk in The Trials of O’Brien and two espionage shows, The Man From UNCLE and I Spy, which features Robert Culp and negro Bill Cosby.

  Other less heralded shows to be given their chance in Australia in the months ahead include I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, Hogan’s Heroes, Gidget and Flipper, an unlikely sounding show about a pet dolphin.

  Teenage show National Top 40, made at the studios of BTQ-7, Brisbane, has proved to be a huge success. It uses mime and dance sequences to illustrate popular songs.

  MEMORIES

  > ATN-7 opens with a lavish variety production, TV Spells Magic.

  > Ian Turpie is confirmed as the new host of Go!!, although he will still be seen for a while on Channel 7’s Time For Terry.

  > Channel 9 scraps plans for a second series of sitcom Barley Charlie.

  > The Rolling Stones tape a one-hour special at ATV-0’s studios in Melbourne.

  > 1000th edition and fourth birthday of It Could Be You.

  > Professor George Browne, aged 74, has presented more than 2500 talks on GTV-9 since the night the station officially began transmission in January 1957.

  > A record featuring satirical sketches by Mavis Bramston stars Barry Creighton and Noeline Brown has been heavily censored for being ‘too daring’. Its biting satire hits out at many top Australian identities and sacred cows.

  > Rolf Harris goes national on 24 stations with the 51st BP Super Show.