Sun now rises on Saturday

The battle between breakfast rivals Sunrise and Today steps up another notch this week, the first week of the official ratings for 2010, with the announcement that Sunrise is now extending to Saturdays.

The move now sees the two perennial rivals competing seven days a week.  Today has, for a while, had a seven day presence, while Sunrise initially expanded only to a Sunday edition, Weekend Sunrise, leaving the Saturday early morning timeslot to long-running children’s program, Saturday Disney.  It is not known at this stage what will become of Saturday Disney, a show which has been on-air for 20 years now, in the wake of Weekend Sunrise extending to Saturday mornings.

The battle between the two shows also intensified last month with Sunrise re-launching, with a new-look studio, refreshed on-air presentation, the return of former weather presenter Grant Denyer and a move towards a more serious news focus – although the show’s recent “election”, over the issue of whether or not male presenters on the show should wear a tie, does blur this focus somewhat, but there has to be a balance between serious and flippant.

And while Sunrise and Today are fighting it out – and summer ratings data indicates that this year’s ratings battle will turn out to be the tightest yet between the two, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne – national broadcaster ABC continues its very serious ABC News Breakfast on ABC2 and gears up for the launch of its new 24-hour news channel.

John McCallum

Actor and producer John McCallum, co-creator of the iconic TV series Skippy The Bush Kangaroo, has died in a Sydney nursing home at age 91.

Born in Brisbane in 1918, McCallum was trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before a career that included stage, film and television in both the United Kingdom and Australia.  In the mid-1940s, McCallum met actress Googie Withers and the pair were later married and would work together on numerous occasions during their married life.

In 1958, after a decade in the UK, McCallum returned to Australia to run theatre company JC Williamsons.

By the mid-1960s, McCallum had produced the popular Australian film, They’re A Weird Mob, based on the book about an Italian immigrant settling into life in Australia. 

The success of the film led to McCallum and producer Lee Robinson to devise an Australian-based TV series that would have wide international appeal.  Their co-creation would become Australia’s first global television hit, Skippy The Bush Kangaroo.  (Although McCallum later credited Robinson for being the brains behind the concept, devising the show’s premise around a boy and his pet kangaroo and for naming the pet Skippy)  The children’s series put an Australian twist on a well-travelled genre of overseas shows to feature multi-talented animal characters, such as Flipper, Lassie and The Littlest Hobo, and was sold to over 120 countries including syndication throughout the United States.

Forty years after production on Skippy ended, the series is still shown on a semi-regular, late-night basis on the Nine Network.

Apart from Skippy, McCallum also produced TV series Barrier Reef, Boney, Shannon’s Mob and Bailey’s Bird.

John McCallum is survived by wife Googie and children Joanna, Nicholas and Amanda.

Source: news.com.au, TV Eye, Talking Heads, ABC News, IMDB

Who you can’t vote for in the Logies…

It is that time of year when TV Week asks its readers, and the wider TV viewing population, to vote for their favourite personalities and programs for the annual TV Week Logie Awards.

This year’s presentation, to be held on 2 May, marks the 52nd annual presentation of the awards first named by Graham Kennedy, who decided that the middle name of TV pioneer John Logie Baird sounded like a good name for an award and, in naming the award after him, it would forever be a tribute to his achievement.  (It was remarked in later years that had Kennedy known just what an impact the Logies would have had on Australian TV culture, he would named them after his own middle name – Cyril)

These days, viewers can vote for the awards without having to buy a copy of TV Week.  In the past, votes could only be made via coupons printed in the magazine or by using a unique PIN printed inside the magazine when voting online.

However, despite the voting being conducted online for a few years now, the online interface used to collect the votes is essentially just a basic web poll.  None of the glamour or excitement of TV’s night of nights here.  No colour.  No pictures, or even video clips of the people we are being asked to nominate (and this can be handy when trying to identify some of today’s TV starlets who aren’t easily recognised by name alone). In fact, voting for your favourite TV stars and programs now looks to be as clinical and enjoyable as filling in your average tax return, especially now as the stars and shows are reduced to mere numbers or tick boxes. 

Also curious are the omissions from TV Week’s list of voting ‘suggestions’ (although they are our only options, there is no “other” allowed here).  Just a few that this author noticed missing from the categories:

Most Popular Actor: Tom Oliver (Neighbours), Alan Fletcher (Neighbours), Andrew Supanz (All Saints), Kip Gamblin (All Saints), John Waters (All Saints)

Most Popular Actress: Janet Andrewartha (Neighbours)

Most Popular Presenter: Larry Emdur (The Morning Show), Kylie Gillies (The Morning Show), David Reyne (9AM With David And Kim), Kim Watkins (9AM With David And Kim), Sandra Sully (Ten News), Dave Hughes (The 7PM Project), Peter Everett (Ready Steady Cook), Sam Pang (ADbc), Grant Bowler (Border Security), Ed Kavalee (TV Burp), Daryl Somers (Hey Hey It’s Saturday – The Reunion), Jonathon Holmes (Media Watch), Magda Szubanski (The Spearman Experiment).

There also seems to be some inconsistency in what qualifies as “presenter” – Masterchef’s three judges are listed as potential nominations for the category, but the show’s (then) host, Sarah Wilson, is not.  The Biggest Loser’s fitness coaches, Shannan Ponton and Michelle Bridges, are listed in the “presenter” category, but the show’s (former) host, Ajay Rochester, is not.  The Seven Network’s talent quest, Australia’s Got Talent, gets a guernsey, with host Grant Denyer and judge Dannii Minogue qualified for a mention, but no mention of Minogue’s colleagues, Red Symons and Tom Burlinson.  For rival show Australian Idol, Andrew Günsberg is listed as host, but no mention of any of the show’s three judges, Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson, Marcia Hines, Jay Dee Springbett and ousted judge Kyle Sandilands (who did appear in the preliminary stages of the show in 2009).  SBS newsreader Anton Enus qualifies for a vote, but his weekend counterpart, Lee Lin Chin, does not.

Australia’s Got Talent qualifies in the category of “most popular light entertainment program”, but a rival show of essentially a similar format, Australian Idol, is categorised under “reality”.

Most Popular Light Entertainment Program: TV Burp, Hungry Beast, Double Take, Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, Hot Seat, The Einstein Factor and The New Inventors are all missing from the nominations list.  The one-off special Rove Presents Hamish And Andy’s American Caravan Of Courage is allowed to be voted, but another one-off special from the same network, Shaun Micallef’s New Year Rave, is not.

These are just the omissions noticed by this one author.  There may be plenty more that TV Week and the networks have failed to acknowledge as being worthy of a vote – and yet the Logie Awards are intended to be the ‘people’s choice’ awards covering all the various genres of television and allowing all on-air talent – with the only eligibility being that they appeared in a credited role during the 2009 television year – an equal opportunity of being voted for.

It is surprising that, after 52 years, TV Week and the publicity agents from all the networks can not get together and muster up a complete list of eligible personalities and programs and be consistent in what, or who, qualifies for a particular category.  The gaps in these voting categories only serve to add ammunition to growing public sentiment that the Logie Awards are no longer a credible recognition of the achievements of our television industry.

TV Week’s Logie Awards site (with the link to vote online) is at tvweek.com.au.

Ken Austin

Ken Austin, well known radio and television identity in Shepparton, has died at the age of 86.

He started his radio career as a teenager at Warragul-based radio station 3UL in 1941 and after serving with the army returned to the station.  In 1949, he was promoted to the position of chief announcer at sister station 3SR in Shepparton.  Four years later he moved to 2GZ, Orange, before returning to 3SR in 1955.

In 1968 Austin made the full-time move into television, to local station GMV6 (now a branch of the WIN television network).  For the next 20 years Austin maintained a number of roles at the station.  “I did everything, but cut the lawns I think,'' he once told the Shepparton News.  “I compered shows, read news, chaired live commercials in the studio and spent my last few years there as the community affairs director.”

Austin retired from the station in 1988 but maintained a profile in the local community, through charity work and, for 17 years, presenting a radio program on community station ONE FM.  He was also named an Honorary Life Governor of Melbourne’s Royal Children's Hospital as recognition of his work at GMV6.

Ken Austin is survived by three children Brian, Vivienne and Wendy, seven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.  Wife Peg died in 2002.

Source: Radio News, Shepparton News

Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder DVD

13 March 1972 was the night that Australian TV ‘lost its virginity’ with the Sydney debut of Number 96.  (Melbourne followed the next night)

And on 13 March 2010 – 38 years later – the third DVD of the hit ‘70s series is to be released, a year after it was first announced.

The 4-disc set, Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder, will include 32 episodes from the first half of 1975, picking up from where the last DVD left off when the identity of the mysterious Pantyhose Strangler was revealed.

This compilation features many of Number 96’s favourite residents, joined this time by former showgirl Trixie O’Toole (Jan Adele), landlord Maggie Cameron (Bettina Welch), Don Finlayson’s(Joe Hasham) zany aunt Amanda von Pappenburg (Carol Raye), town clerk Mr Buchanan (Brian Moll) and Norma Whittaker’s (Sheila Kennelly) snooty mother, Mrs Florentine (Aileen Britton).

Andrew Mercado has a preview of the upcoming DVD release and Number 96 historian Ian McLean’s blog, Have Phaser Will Travel, has the list of episodes to feature on the DVD.

Number 96: Aftermath Of Murder is being released by Umbrella Entertainment.

1990: January 27-February 2

Cover: Cher

Steve lays down the law
When Fast Forward’s Steve Vizard threw in a lucrative legal career to go into television comedy, everyone told him he was an idiot.  “And I am an idiot,” he says.  “You can see what a fundamentally good decision it was to leave a great job in law to join Qintex at this particular time.”  Vizard’s company, United Film Completion, is busy preparing comedy and variety program ideas for the Seven Network.  In 1989, the network had a hit with sketch comedy program Fast Forward, and Vizard’s new venture, Tonight Live, launches this week.  Vizard also says that there are “three or four other projects in the pipeline.”  In the lead-up to Tonight Live’s debut, Vizard and Seven are in negotiation for the network’s Melbourne newsreader, Jennifer Keyte, to read news on the program.

Glamour in three easy steps
Actress Anne Phelan, famous for playing rough inmate Myra Desmond in Prisoner and the frumpy Mama in Harp In The South and Poor Man’s Orange, is taking a somewhat more upmarket tone in her new role as cafe owner Dawn Dickson in the Nine Network’s new series, Family And Friends.  “With Family And Friends, I’m actually going to look like myself, only a bit tarted up – and to be truthful I’m not looking forward to all that.  I would rather be disguised,” she commented.  The new series follows the lives of two families, the Chandlers and the Rossis, divided by hatred over three generations.

Rowena shares a secret
Former Neighbours star Rowena Mohr (pictured) has decided to pursue an acting career in the UK, but is leaving behind her most treasured fan, her younger sister, Judy, who has an intellectual disability.  “Judy’s biggest thrill was when I joined Neighbours.  She thought it was wonderful and told all her friends about it.  I even had to get her special photographs and sweatshirts signed by the cast,” Mohr says.  “She’s the only one who writes to me regularly.”  Since settling in the UK, Mohr has had to cope with the English press.  In one interview, she jokingly told a reporter she would have to find an English husband – and was then inundated with offers.

Briefly…
Singer Tina Turner has just departed Australia after filming a series of commercials for the NSW Rugby League.  The $2 million ad campaign, featuring Turner’s hit The Best, was filmed around Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Actress Mary Regan (pictured) is to replace Joan Sydney as matron of Wandin Valley Hospital in A Country Practice.  The new matron could well be a romantic interest for either of the hospital’s doctors, Chris Kouros (Michael Muntz) or Terence Elliot (Shane Porteous).  Sydney has already finished taping for A Country Practice and is now preparing for her next role in the stage play Mrs Klein, co-starring Helen Morse and Michelle Fawdon.

TV funnyman Jonathan Coleman has married his long-time girlfriend, Margot Fitzpatrick, at a ceremony at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.  The newlywed couple are honeymooning in Thailand, followed by London and Paris.  Coleman in interested in working in the US and Europe, but is not about to cut ties with Australia – he has been in talks with Steve Vizard over a possible involvement in new show Tonight Live.  Coleman has also taped a pilot for an Australian version of Entertainment This Week.

Bert Newton (pictured), whose last radio gig was at 3DB, has said that he would like to get back into radio and has confirmed that there have been some offers.  “I’d have to be in the right shift,” he says.  “I proved to myself at 3DB that I’m not a breakfast man.  I don’t think my conversational style is right for the corn flakes.  Lately I’ve been listening to quite a bit of radio and I’ve found that what is good is very good and what is bad is terrible.”

On The Grapevine…
An out-of-work soapie actress has taken to playing the didgeridoo in the pedestrian tunnel at Sydney’s Central Station in order to bring home the bacon.

Who was the popular young Sydney actor, well acquainted with playing the role of a car thief, who found himself on the receiving end recently?  A shopping spree to Bondi cost him a lot more than he expected when he returned to the car park to find his chariot missing.  Even more tragic, the car wasn’t insured.

John Laws says…
”The demise of female newsreaders in Sydney doesn’t come as too much of a surprise.  Perhaps 1990 will be remembered as the year of living gentlemanly.  The past few years have seen women move into a wide area of high-profile TV jobs.  Some were competent – such as Jana Wendt – but others lacked the necessary “zing” that captures huge ratings and all-round public approval.  Woman after woman was thrown up against TCN9’s Brian Henderson (pictured) to try to break his iron grip on the news ratings in Sydney – and all failed.  Now we have a male line-up confronting him, including former 60 Minutes heavyweight Ian Leslie on Ten.  It’s desperate stuff.  Ten’s one-hour format – I’m assuming here it’s going to remain – is also a problem.  By the time it’s waddled halfway through its bulletin, Nine and Seven have wrapped up and have moved on.  The result is that Ten gets the image of being a slowcoach, even though it presents a fuller news service.”

Lawrie Masterson’s Sound Off
”From initial impressions anyway, the first new Australian soap of the Nineties certainly looks handsome.  Family And Friends blends some fresh new faces with a few who are tried and true.  My tip?  This one will work.  Nine at last has a soap with a potentially long and healthy life.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday:  HSV7 debuts two new Saturday morning programs, Saturday Disney and Video Smash Hits, the latter hosted by Michael Horrocks (Cartoon Connection) and Emily Symons (Richmond Hill, Home And Away).  That night, HSV7 crosses to Tamworth for the Australasian Country Music Awards.  SBS interrupts its Saturday evening programming for a live, ten-minute cross to Moonee Valley, Melbourne for the Victoria Cup harness racing.

Sunday:  The Men’s Singles Final of the Australian Open is telecast live on HSV7 in the afternoon, up against GTV9’s continued daily coverage of the Commonwealth Games from Auckland, New Zealand.  Sunday night movies are Hoodwink (HSV7) and Brubaker (ATV10), while ABC presents the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Ham Funeral, starring Kerry Walker, Max Cullen, Robyn Nevin and Maggie Kirkpatrick.

Monday:  From 10.00am, ABC presents live coverage of the 1990 NFL Superbowl, direct from New Orleans.  And with the tennis season now over, HSV7’s weekday line-up returns, including current affairs program Eleven AM, the midday movie and afternoon re-runs of US shows Perry Mason, Beverly Hillbillies, I Dream Of Jeannie and Get Smart.  Nine’s Sale Of The Century returns for 1990 in its traditional 7.00pm timeslot.  SBS screens the Australian movie Kostas, starring Wendy Hughes and Takis Emmanuel.  Steve Vizard presents the first edition of his new late-night show, Tonight Live.

Tuesday:  GTV9’s coverage of the Commonwealth Games gets an early start, 4.50am, to cover the men’s marathon.  ABC’s popular medical drama GP (pictured) begins its second series.

Friday:  HSV7 presents live coverage from Perth of the Davis Cup, Australia versus France.  GTV9’s late-night music video program, MTV, returns for the new year.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 27 January 1990. Southdown Press. 

1990: January 20-26

Matt goes in to bat for the street kids
A Country Practice star Matt Day (pictured) is fed up with the media focusing on sensationalist issues surrounding street kids and homeless youth, such as prostitution and drug abuse, while ignoring possible solutions.  “The media should be dealing with issues that cover getting housing for these kids and better support.  Instead they just want to talk about the tragic stories and sell a few more papers,” he told TV Week.  These issues so close to Day’s heart will feature in upcoming storylines for his character Luke in A Country Practice, and he will also be volunteering his services for various refuges that need assistance.

Nine won’t admit it, but…
Graham Kennedy (pictured) has not negotiated a new contract for hosting his popular late-night Coast To Coast program and he has advised Nine that he won’t be returning to the show in 1990.  Despite the shock resignation, Nine continues to show its lavish 1990 ‘Shout!’ promos, featuring Kennedy and co-host John Mangos, and has only issued a statement that “we have no further comment to make than discussions are continuing for Mr Kennedy’s return to television in 1990.”  Nine is keen to sign up Kennedy for later in the year and to keep him away from any other network.  Rumours that Kennedy’s resignation is connected to the upcoming launch of Steve Vizard’s new show, Tonight Live, for the Seven Network have been denied.  It is believed that Kennedy’s decision was related the strain of a recent court case against his manager, Harry M Miller.

Dynamic Duo!
Former Neighbours star Jason Donovan and E Street’s Marcus Graham (pictured) have been signed up for roles in the new $3.7 million mini-series, Shadows Of The Heart, being produced for Network Ten by the South Australian Film Commission.  The new series, which also stars Jerome Ehlers (Bangkok Hilton), Nadine Garner, Colleen Hewett, Harold Hopkins, Barry Otto, Robyn Nevin, Sherrie Krenn and NIDA graduate Josephine Byrnes, is set in the summer of 1927 and is described as “a romantic epic set in the Twenties with Nineties morals.”  Production commences this month on location in Adelaide and Kangaroo Island.

Briefly…
Former A Country Practice star Di Smith and The Flying Doctors’ Liz Burch are set to bare all in the upcoming Melbourne production of the stage play Steaming.  The controversial comedy also stars Gwen Plumb, Rosey Jones, Valerie Bader and Jenny Hall.

Former Prisoner star Colette Mann has spoken out about her recent shock resignation from Melbourne radio station 3UZ.  Despite a number of consecutive ratings rises for her morning program, Mann says she “never felt comfortable working at 3UZ” and objected to a proposed service agreement that could have her “given verbal notice if I was deemed unfit for work (and if given that notice) I couldn’t work within a 50 km radius of Melbourne.”  She also felt entitled to ask for “a little extra money” following the ratings rises, but station boss Clyde Simpson responded that Mann asked for a significant 43.5 per cent pay increase.  Despite her controversial departure from the station, Mann has said that she would like to do radio again but in the meantime is currently planning some TV work, including a mini-series and some special event work for Network Ten. 

Model-turned-actor Julian McMahon (pictured) has spoken out briefly about his relationship with Melissa Cornell, daughter of The Paul Hogan Show and Crocodile Dundee producer John “Strop” Cornell.  “Melissa and I have been together for just over a year now.  She moved down to Melbourne with me when I was doing The Power The Passion.  Now that I am back in Sydney for Home And Away, she has moved back with me.  It is only now that we are beginning to realise where we are and what we are going to be doing.” 

On The Grapevine…
Who is the celebrity hairdresser who how walks to work each day… and not by choice, either, courtesy of a blood-alcohol reading considerably in excess of the legal limit.

So desperate was one showbusiness reporter to secure an interview with one of Australia’s favourite daughters, that she had started to woo the star with chocolates and even had a jingle company pen a song for the lovely lady.

John Laws says…
”Sometimes it’s difficult to understand the reasoning of the ABC board members.  On the one hand, they complain of lack of funds; on the other, they refuse to agree to advertising on the ABC.  Advertising is part of the lifeblood of economics in this country.  There is nothing shameful about it.  The ABC would attract only a minor percentage of the estimated $1.8 billion of TV advertising every year – but even the injection of a few million dollars would make a lot of difference to the ABC’s slate.  So let’s not have too much humbug cluttering up this debate.  After all, the ABC is not shy in aggressively advertising its own ABC Shop products on TV, is it?”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday: ABC presents the Coca Cola International Golf Classic, live from Royal Melbourne Golf Course, while HSV7’s coverage of the Australian Open tennis continues live from the National Tennis Centre.

Sunday: Sunday night movies are Gloria (HSV7), Liar’s Moon (GTV9), Blame It On Rio (ATV10).

Monday: Singer Maria Venuti (pictured, with Syd Heylen) guest stars in the first episode of A Country Practice for 1990, and the Nine Network’s breakfast show, Today, returns for another year.

Wednesday:  GTV9 presents live coverage of the opening ceremony of the 1990 Commonwealth Games from Mount Smart Stadium, Auckland, New Zealand.  Ken Sutcliffe, Ray Martin and Max Walker head the coverage.

Thursday:  GTV9’s live coverage of daily competition from the Commonwealth Games starts at 10.00am and continues through to 11.00pm, taking a break in the early evening for National Nine News, A Current Affair and US sitcom Growing Pains.  ABC presents the first of a two-part documentary, The Way We Really Were, hosted by Caroline Jones – a retrospective and nostalgic look at life in Australia taken from film and documentary footage of the past 30 years.

Friday: For Australia Day, Today is broadcast live from Admiralty House, Sydney, for the presentation of the Australia Day Awards, including the announcement of Australian of the Year by Prime Minister Bob Hawke.  In the evening, SBS presents a repeat of documentary Being True Blue and ABC presents the second part of The Way We Really Were, followed by the Governor General’s Australia Day Message.  ATV10’s Friday night movie is Tudawali, the 1988 movie starring Ernie Dingo, Jedda Cole, Peter Fisher and Frank Wilson – and SBS presents two Australian movies, Silver City and Backroads.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 20 January 1990. Southdown Press. 

SBS starts up STVDIO

SBS has announced the launch of its new pay-TV channel, STVDIO, dedicated to entertainment and the arts.

The new channel will debut on 1 April as a replacement for the Ovation Channel which is to close after not being renewed by Foxtel and Austar in favour of the new channel to be run by PAN TV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBS.

PAN TV also operates the World Movies Channel on Foxtel and Austar.

SBS’ director of marketing, Jacqui Riddell, explains the identity of the new channel:

“The name STVDIO represents the new channel perfectly.  Every art form – be it dance, fine art, music, theatre, film or writing – is created in a studio.  In addition to performance, our new channel will take audiences into how art is made and what makes artists tick.  Both the channel name and logo have been stylised to include the letters “TV”.”

STVDIO (pronounced “Studio”) will present arts and entertainment genres, including opera, music, film, ballet, art and design, from Australia and overseas.

SBS’ investment in PAN TV is one of a few pay-TV ventures to be owned by free-to-air interests.  The Seven and Nine networks are joint venture partners (with Rupert Murdoch) in the pay-TV channel, Sky News Australia, while regional network WIN owns alternative pay-TV provider SelecTV.

STVDIO will broadcast on Channel 132 on Foxtel and Austar from 1 April.

1990: January 13-19

Craig’s Crisis
New Home And Away star Craig McLachlan (pictured) admits he was “totally exhausted” and on the verge of a breakdown last year.  The pressures of recording his first album with group Check 1-2, establishing himself on Home And Away after leaving Neighbours, separating from his manager, ex-wife Karen, and the media attention towards his new relationship with former Neighbours co-star Rachel Friend, all became a bit too much. “Some people would say I’ve already had a mental breakdown!  It doesn’t surprise me why Kylie (Minogue) and Jason (Donovan) stopped their acting because it’s just too exhausting to do both,” he told TV Week.  The as-yet untitled album from Check 1-2 should be out in March, and McLachlan will be seen on screen in Home And Away from next month.

The New Wave
Voting for the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards has begun – so who will get the viewers’ vote for most popular new talent?  A Country Practice has welcomed new cast members Georgie Parker, Matt Day and Georgina Fisher, while Jessica Muschamp and Kristian Schmid have been popular additions to Neighbours.  E Street launched a year ago and has brought some new faces of its own – including Alyssa-Jane Cook and Marcus Graham. And a new children’s series, Pugwall, has made a star of 14-year-old Jason Torrens.  Voting for the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards closes in mid-February.

Hot Summer Love
Home And Away launches its 3rd year with a steamy romance between Emma Jackson (Dannii Minogue) and Adam Cameron (Mat Stevenson).  “When Dannii started on the show, there was an attraction between Adam and Emma,” Stevenson told TV Week.  “Nothing eventuated until Adam began a romance with Carly (Sharyn Hodgson).  They went through a rough patch and Adam and Emma came together.”

Sky’s the limit for new Disney trio
Sofie Formica, James Sherry and Jeniene Mapp have been selected from more than 100 applicants to host the new Seven Network program, Saturday Disney.  The trio are about to head off to the US to be introduced to Disney executives before touring Disneyland, the MGM-Disney film studios and Disneyworld.  The two-hour Saturday morning show is the latest in a global franchise that has also launched in the US, United Kingdom and Spain.  For 18-year-old Formica, it is a second chance at TV stardom after a recent stint on Seven’s Wombat came to an abrupt end when the show was cancelled.  And for 15-year-old Mapp, Saturday Disney is her first TV appearance after four years’ training with the Johnny Young Talent School.  Former drama teacher Sherry, 22, gave up a career in education to become an actor and auditioned, and was accepted, for the Disney role on his birthday, 14 November.  “What a birthday present – it’s more than I ever expected,” he says.  Saturday Disney will be produced from the studios of BTQ7, Brisbane, when it launches later this month.

Briefly…
Australian actress Sherrie Krenn (pictured), currently based in the US with a list of film and TV credits since she was discovered by a casting agent for the sitcom The Facts Of Life, is coming back home to Australia for a role in the upcoming $3.7 million mini-series, Shadows Of The Heart, to be produced by the South Australian Film Commission for Network Ten.

Dame Edna Everage, now a global superstar, has made a rare trip back to Australia to promote her autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, including an interview on A Current Affair with guest host Elizabeth Hayes.

Jason Donovan has apologised to his former girlfriend, Neighbours co-star Kylie Minogue, for upstaging her at the London premiere of her movie The Delinquents, turning up to the event with stunning Texan model Denice Lewis.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to steal the show and wreck her big moment.  It was Kylie’s night and I just went along because she’d invited me and a friend.  I thought she would be the centre of attention.  I didn’t try to steal the show,” Donovan sighed.

On The Grapevine…
Who is the popular comic who was all but signed for his own late-night show on Network Ten in 1990?  Unfortunately he – and the plans for the show – got lost in the Broadcom reshuffle.

The Vine hears that some of the younger cast members of Nine’s new drama Family And Friends are already acting like prima donnas.  One source says one actor thinks he’s James Dean, not a budding soap star.

John Laws says…
”Three people keep cropping up in my mind as the ones who stood out throughout the year.  They are Graham Kennedy, Ray Martin and Jana Wendt.”

Program Highlights (Melbourne):
Saturday:  NSW Open tennis, live from White City, Sydney, on HSV7.  GTV9 crosses to the MCG at 3.40pm for the second day’s play of the First Test: Australia versus Pakistan.  ATV10 covers the Palm Meadows Golf from the Gold Coast.
Sunday: Sigrid Thornton stars in the US-made historical series, Paradise, on HSV7.  ABC presents the USSR State Symphony, performing at the Sydney Opera House.  Sunday night movies are Hangar 18 (HSV7), Honkytonk Man (GTV9), Black Sunday (ATV10).
Monday:  The Australian Open, direct from the National Tennis Centre, Melbourne, begins on HSV7 with daily coverage from 11.00am through to midnight, pausing only for Seven Nightly News, Home And Away and Hinch.
Tuesday: In Neighbours (ATV10), a mysterious woman moves into Ramsay Street and Madge (Anne Charleston) threatens Paul (Stefan Dennis) with legal action.
Thursday: The Flying Doctors stars Liz Burch and Vikki Blanche present a one-hour documentary, World Vision: A Chance For The Children, showing the work of World Vision’s child sponsorship program in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uganda and Kenya.
Friday:  GTV9 crosses to Adelaide for the first day’s play in the Second Test: Australia versus Pakistan.

Source: TV Week (Victoria edition), incorporating TV Times and TV Guide. 13 January 1990. Southdown Press. 

ABC to launch news channel

ABC is set to launch Australia’s first 24-hour free-to-air news channel this year.

The new channel, announced today by ABC managing director Mark Scott, will broadcast on the digital platform and will serve as a competitor to Australia’s only other continuous news channel, Sky News Australia, which is available on pay-TV.

The new channel follows the recent launch of ABC’s children’s channel, ABC3.

New studio and newsroom facilities are currently being built at ABC’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney.  The news channel will provide more opportunities to view ABC’s existing news and current affairs programming and will also include new programming and features within its continuous news format – tapping into the resources of ABC’s entire news operation, including regional and international resources, and will support a multiple platform environment in co-ordination with ABC News Online, ABC News Radio and ABC Mobile. 

Programming from the channel will also be made available to other ABC outlets, including its international satellite service, Australia Network, which has coverage into 44 countries.

Mr Scott said that the new channel will launch with no additional funding from the Government and will broadcast on its existing high-definition signal.

The announcement of the new channel has already sparked a defensive attack by Sky News chief Angelos Frangopoulos, claiming that the new channel will end up absorbing funding from other parts of the national operation, would affect the quality of ABC’s existing operations and violates the ABC’s charter.  Mr Frangopoulos also slammed the new operation as being a “needless duplication of services already available to Australians”, as Sky News already provides fourteen, 24-hour channels, including Sky News Business, multiview and local news channels, as well as Australia’s only parliamentary and public affairs channel, A-PAC.

Sky News is a joint venture operation between PBL Media (which owns the Nine Network and regional NBN Television), Seven Media Group and Rupert Murdoch’s British Sky Broadcasting.

The announcement of the new channel comes as ABC and Sky News are also reported to be planning to battle for the right to operate Australia Network on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, after the existing contract expires later this year.

According to ABC’s most recent annual report, ABC’s digital signal, which currently carries ABC1, ABC2, ABC3, ABCHD and radio stations Dig and DigJAZZ, is currently available to 97.7 per cent of the Australian population, through 324 transmitter sites.

Further details on the new ABC channel, such as programming schedules and launch dates, have yet to be announced.

Source: ABC News, ABC News, ABC News, The Australian, ABC Annual Report