50 Years of Television in Australia

by Nick Place

  Based on a show of the same name that ran for 18 years in Britain, It’s a Knockout sees teams take on everything from novelty events to demanding challenges of sport and skill. Four teams of ten contestants – six men and four women – battle in the water, or in the air, with each episode rumoured to cost a massive $100,000.

  Everything about this show is big. The show is being filmed, with a studio audience of 1000, in Australia’s largest outdoor TV studio at Dural near Sydney. The former soccer field is the same size as Wembley Stadium and has two swimming pools ready for It’s a Knockout action. One pool is the largest above-ground pool in the southern hemisphere.

  ON DEBUT

  > Possession – soapie starring David Reyne as a tough young detective

  > Day by Day – current affairs show with Mark Day

  > It’s a Knockout – game show

  > Star Search – variety show hosted by Greg Evans

  > The Cowra Breakout – mini-series based on the mass breakout by Japanese POWs during the Second World War

  > The Investigators – consumer affairs program

  > The Flying Doctors – six-hour mini-series

  > Beyond 2000 – a bigger-budget version of Towards 2000

  > Palace of Dreams – 10-part period drama series about a Russian Jewish family who own a Sydney pub

  > The World in Review – John Laws and Claudia Emery present a half-hour wrap of world news on Monday nights

  > Captain Cookaburra’s Road to Discovery – children’s series starring a large pink bird called Captain Cookaburra and a quick-thinking green snake called Boomerfang

  > Anzacs – 10-hour mini-series

  > Off the Dish – afternoon children’s show

  > The Eleventh Hour – comedy featuring some of the future stars of Fast Forward and The Comedy Company’s

  > The Carleton/Walsh Report – news and current affairs show

  > The Maestro’s Company – drama/educational series

  > The Fast Lane – comedy/drama series with John Clarke, set in a private investigation firm

  > Glass Babies – mini-series set in an IVF clinic

  > Colour in the Creek – family drama serial

  > Bang Goes the Budgie – children’s educational series

  > Flight into Hell – mini-series about two German aviators whose plane crashes near Darwin

  Neighbours shift house

  October: In a major television shock, the fledgling suburban drama, Neighbours, has had a last-minute reprieve from the soap opera graveyard, with Network Ten buying the entire series after it had been axed by Seven. This is the first time a series has moved networks, with the cast delighted and relieved but confused by the turn of events.

  Seven had announced an end to the first-year series because of disappointing ratings in Sydney, despite strong figures in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, and also because of cost concerns. But Ten stepped in after protracted negotiations, announcing it had picked up the series while the cast and crew were wondering whether to laugh or cry at a series wake at Seven’s Melbourne studios.

  Neighbours is the story of the families who live in the mythical Ramsay Street, in a Melbourne suburb. Based on emotional storylines with intelligent scripts and laced with humour, it has tackled several difficult issues, including teenage pregnancy, since debuting in March.

  Cast members include Alan Dale, Stefan Dennis, Vikki Blanche, Darius Perkins, Francis Bell, Peter O’Brien, Kylie Flinker and Dasha Blahova. Guest stars to appear in the first year have included former Skyhooks’ guitarist Red Symonds and Young Doctors’ stalwart Gwen Plumb.

  Since assuming responsibility for the show, Ten has announced that Darius Perkins’ role of Scott Robinson is set to be taken over by teenage actor Jason Donovan, the son of well-known actor Terry, next year.

  ‘As from the time Neighbours airs on 10, Jason will play Scott,’ a Ten spokesperson said. ‘We feel there is no need for an explanation. The show is on a new channel so some changes must be expected.’

  It would seem that Neighbours do need good friends, like Channel 10, but it remains to be seen whether Ten can make a better go of the show, or whether the current reprieve is only temporary. There’s every chance the double-fronted houses of Ramsay Street might be empty again this time next year.

  Channel 10’s $3 million children’s mini-series, The Henderson Kids, has launched the careers of young Australian actors Nadine Garner and Paul Smith and has made recognisable faces of the supporting cast, including 16-year-old Kylie Minogue, Ben Mendelsohn (15), Annie Jones (17) and Jane Hall (13).

  TV shocks: Nine wields the axe!

  August: Channel Nine’s tumultuous year has continued with the surprise dumping of Mike Walsh’s evening show. Walsh, the undisputed king of daytime TV before he made the move to evenings, kept news of the program’s cancellation secret from all but his closest colleagues until the day of the show.

  One of his guests on the final show, author Jeffrey Archer, told Walsh that the Nine board that had decided to remove him was ‘stupid’.

  The axing comes after denials from Nine last month that they were even considering such a move. ‘We totally refute any suggestion The Mike Walsh Show is concluding and no such decision is being contemplated by the network,’ TCN-9 chief Sam Chisholm said in a statement at the time.

  The end of Walsh’s show follows last month’s dumping of Bert Newton’s New Faces, and the Victorian-only Ernie Sigley Show. TV Week described the axing of those shows as ‘one of the biggest bombshells to rock the local television industry in the past decade’.

  The decision is likely to end Newton’s stint at Nine, which began way back in 1959. His future must be in grave doubt. Still, while other Nine hosts such as Midday’s Ray Martin and Hey Hey, It’s Saturday’s Daryl Somers must be feeling nervous, it’s hard to imagine talents like Sigley and Walsh being off-air for long.

  Can the comedy Grail be found at The Eleventh Hour?

  A brand new Seven experiment will be the latest to chase Australian television’s elusive Grail – to create a successful sketch comedy show. Titled The Eleventh Hour, the show will star new talents including creator Ian McFadyen, Maryanne Fahey, advertising copywriter Mark Mitchell, ‘depressed stand-up comedian’ Peter Moon and a solicitor called Steve Vizard.

  ‘He’s a very serious chap and there’s no truth in the suggestion that he’s a ladies’ man who’s in it just to become a pin-up, even if he has had the photos done already,’ McFadyen told TV Week.

  He also refuted suggestions that The Eleventh Hour would go to air live. ‘Do you really think Channel Seven would be silly enough to let a bunch of people as paranoid, untrustworthy, reactionary, conspiratorial and manic depressive as this go live to air on a Friday night?’

  MEMORIES

  > Two brothers, Alan and Ray Wilkie, present the weather forecast on TCN-9 in Sydney and TVQ-0 in Brisbane respectively.

  > Due to contractual problems, Robin Harrison, originally cast as Jim Robinson in the new series Neighbours, is replaced by Alan Dale.

  > Network 0-28 changes its name to SBS, makes its first daytime transmission and expands to Brisbane, Adelaide, the Gold Coast, Wollongong and Newcastle.

  > Belinda Giblin steps in as the reincarnation of Pat the Rat in Sons and Daughters.

  > Max Walker signs a three-year contract with Nine as cricket commentator, after filling in for Ian Chappell as co-host of the station’s Wide World of Sport.

  > The ABC axes its ambitious news and current affairs project, The National, after only two months on air. The failed experiment reportedly cost $25 million.

  > Perfect Match celebrates its first engaged couple, who were perfect-matched on the show last November.

  > Kerry Armstrong signs a rumoured $1 million deal to star in Dynasty, playing the Princess of Bruana.

  > Blankety Blanks is revived by Grundy’s, with Daryl Somers as host.

  > VCR ownership level is at 30 per cent of households in Sydney and Melbour
ne.

  > Start of News Overnight on Seven, a six-hour package of nightly news via satellite from the station’s affiliation with NBC and CNN in the US.

  > Gold Logie: Rowena Wallace

  > Hall of Fame: Ken G. Hall

  SOAPIES

  A sprawling saga of love in pubs, death on farms, greed in hospitals, lust on beaches, betrayal in schoolyards, mischief in cafés and deception at police stations.

  A little bit of soap

  Like an extra Tim Tam or a tragic album from the 1980s, soapies are often a guilty pleasure we enjoy in secret. Do you know anyone who’d admit to having bawled when Molly died from leukemia on A Country Practice? Or took the phone off the hook during Maggie’s last hours in Blue Heelers? Or confess to having watched even a single episode of Echo Point? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

  Guilty pleasure or not, the real value of Aussie soaps is simple: they entertain us. It all started with The House on the Corner, a Christian Television drama series in 1957, and the better know Autumn Affair, starting Muriel Steinbeck, which followed in 1958.

  Basically a radio serial with pictures, Autumn Affair was fond of advancing its plot through one-sided phone conversations and self-reflective journal entries, and was a world away from the stylised dramas that appeared during the halcyon days of Aussie soaps 20 years later.

  This 1970s boom was highlighted by the high octane mix of sex and scandal found in shows such as Number 96 and The Box, but also spread to other, more family-friendly, fare with shows such as Cop Shop, Skyways, The Young Doctors, The Sullivans and The Restless Years. By 1979, over 13 hours of soap were screening each week.

  The 1980s continued the trend of soapie successes, with A Country Practice running for more than 1000 episodes and Sons and Daughters lasting nearly seven years. That decade also saw Australian soapies explode onto the world stage with more vigour than the deli bomb at Number 96. The Young Doctors, The Sullivans and Sons and Daughters all rated well as part of regular daytime programming in the UK, while Prisoner attracted a cult following in the US.

  But Neighbours and Home and Away struck the biggest chord in overseas sales and remain extremely popular, reaffirming that Aussies are a bunch of middle-class Caucasians, whiling away their days at the beach and solving all ills by ‘putting the kettle on’.

  Despite their success, however, most of these shows are still afforded little respect Down Under. The feats of storytelling required to successfully involve all cast members in entertaining and compelling (if occasionally convoluted) plot lines go unrecognised, as does creating characters that stay with audiences long after the end credits have rolled.

  When Bellbird’s Charlie Cousins (Robin Ramsay) fell to his death from a wheat silo in 1968, the ABC’s program guide, TV Times, received more mail about the incident than any other in its 21-year print run. The upsurge in interest in lawn bowls and soccer in the park among 16- to 39-year-olds can only be put down to the influence of Evan, Alex and their pals in The Secret Life of Us.

  So keen to see the return of the bitch they loved to hate, audiences swallowed the Sons and Daughters storyline that saw Pat the Rat (Rowena Wallace) undergo plastic surgery and return as Alison Carr (Belinda Giblin), only to find that she had a twin sister in jail, Pamela Hudson (Rowena Wallace … again!).

  Soapies have also proven to be a fertile breeding ground for future international stars. Natalie Imbruglia, Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe are living proof that the UK pantomime circuit doesn’t have to be the final resting place for ex-Neighbours, while Deed Poll helped E Street’s Simon Denny morph into Simon Baker, star of US series The Guardian. Eric Bana found time for the ABC’s Something in the Air before going green for The Hulk and waging epic wars in Troy, while Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and a prepubescent Kylie Minogue made early appearances in The Sullivans. And the privilege of deflowering Home and Away’s original little girl, Sally (Kate Ritchie) went to Heath Ledger.

  Sure there’s been a string of shonky flops – Arcade, Hotel Story (which never even made it to air), Holiday Island, Paradise Beach and Breakers are just a few that come to mind. But it’s no coincidence that one of Australia’s most iconic TV moments came from a soapie: Neighbours. In 1987, Charlene Mitchell (Kylie Minogue) married Scott Robinson (Jason Donovan) to the dulcet tones of Angry Anderson’s ‘Suddenly’ – the bride wore white, the groom wore a mullet and the episode was one of the highest rating soap episodes in Australian TV history. This was Aussie soap at its absolute zenith, a pleasure of the most unguilty kind.

  Outsiders? No thanks …

  Life hasn’t been smooth sailing for the few multicultural residents in soapie land:

  > The Lim family from Hong Kong was in and out of Neighbours within six weeks in 1993, after being accused of having eaten a neighbourhood dog.

  > In 1968, an African-American soldier (Ronne Arnold) arrived in Bellbird and caused a stir by dancing with Rhoda (Lynette Curran). It wasn’t until he downed a few beers with the locals that they realised he wasn’t such a bad chap after all.

  > Paradise Beach’s Pam So Oy (Theresa Wong) raised money for peaceful Amnesty International protests in her homeland, but when she returned to China, she was arrested for treason and executed by firing squad.

  > In 1996, Somalian illegal immigrant Stephanie Mboto (Fleur Beaupert) didn’t have time to join the surf lifesaving club before she fell to her death off a cliff in Summer Bay.

  > The Wan Soos served only Aussie tucker out of Toby’s Delicatessen in Arcade and went down with the program after only six weeks on air.

  1986

  While our airborne medicos take on a contentious issue, some current affairs reporters are tackling dramas of their own. A bunch of new faces have made us laugh, a red face has made us wince and squirm, and some folks we know all too well have popped up in some unexpected places.

  Up, up and away

  September: Since launching as a regular series in May, The Flying Doctors is proving to be as popular as the highly acclaimed mini-series it stemmed from. Airing 12 months ago, The Flying Doctors mini-series introduced us to Dr Tom Callaghan (Andrew McFarlane), American photographer Liz Drever (Lorna Patterson) and the residents of the fictitious outback town of Coopers Crossing.

  McFarlane has returned for the series, along with several other Coopers Crossing locals, though Patterson was unable to make a long-term commitment to the program due to her young family back in Los Angeles.

  Shot entirely on film in the small western Victorian town of Minyip, The Flying Doctors represents a first for Australian TV, as its high production costs necessitated a co-production between the Nine Network and Regional Television Australia.

  In another first, the show this week became the first Aussie drama series to tackle the heated topic of AIDS. A Country Practice toyed with the idea of doing such an episode earlier this year, but producer Bruce Best decided against it, as medical evidence was changing so quickly that it was nearly impossible to pen a definitive script.

  ‘We wanted to present medical evidence to counter all the hysteria, like whether you can catch it by drinking out of the same glass,’ Best explained to The Guide. ‘However, we couldn’t get conclusive answers so rather than cashing in on the hysteria we decided not to do it.’

  The Flying Doctors’ approach was not so much to convey the medical aspects of the disease, but rather to highlight community attitudes towards AIDS and homosexuals.

  The episode in question sees Les Foster, a middle-aged homosexual man afflicted with AIDS, return to Coopers Crossing where he grew up. The townsfolk fail to accept him, with their reactions ranging from the local barflies choosing to drink from stubbies rather than glasses to surreal scenes of ‘poofter bashing’. It’s only once Les proves his masculinity by revealing that he’s a Korean War hero that he’s welcomed into the Coopers Crossing fold.

  Uni students on a winner

  March: One minute they were university students, the next they were on ABC TV. It has been a wild 12 months
for ten Melbourne University students thrust into the national comedy spotlight. The members of the Melbourne University Revue from 1984–85 have been signed by the ABC to create a sketch comedy show. Their revues, Let’s Talk Backwards, and Too Cool For Sandals, were so popular that Let’s Talk Backwards toured nationally, and now their sense of humour has been given a new, if experimental, stage.

  Under the working title, The D-Generation, the group of six actors and four writers have created six half-hour episodes and are set to make another four. You haven’t heard of them yet but names such as Rob Sitch, Santo Cilauro, Marg Downey, John Harrison, Nick Bufalo and Magda Szubanski are ones to watch.

  Meet Mr Nasty

  March: Former Skyhooks guitarist Red Symons has been signed on by Hey Hey, It’s Saturday! Symons will be a regular judge on Red Faces and he says his role is to be nasty, very nasty.

  ‘He (the producer) approached me because he knew I was a terribly unsympathetic person,’ he told TV Week, adding: ‘My role is to be merciless. I don’t want people to like me. My function is to impart love and understanding to the talentless and amateurish and help them in their decision not to go into show business.’

  Danielle Minogue’s sister on the rise

  April: Fresh from finishing her Higher School Certificate exams, 17-year-old Kylie Minogue has joined the cast of Neighbours. The big sister of Young Talent Time star Danielle, Kylie says living in the shadow of her sibling hasn’t bothered her but admits she will be glad to finally establish her own identity.

  A 12-week contract with Neighbours is another step forward for Kylie, who has previously appeared in The Sullivans and Skyways, and more recently on The Henderson Kids, Zoo Family and the ABC mini-series Fame and Misfortune.