50 Years of Television in Australia

A big TV defection leaves one Melbourne station feeling decidedly ‘unhappy’, while Graham Kennedy’s early attempts at taking his show national are greeted with derision. TV is given one of its first truly big weddings – this one for real – and it’s a rocky road for one of our biggest music stars.

August: GTV-9 and HSV-7 are going head-to-head in a battle to prove which station is the ‘happiest’ after the defection of Happy Hammond to Dorcas Street, from Nine.

It’s the first major celebrity move since star producer Norm Spencer shifted to Seven from Nine in July. The founding producer of In Melbourne Tonight said he felt a need for fresh challenges.

Spencer’s first big move has been to make an offer too good to refuse for Hammond, while also almost snaring the other Happy Show star, Ron Blaskett. In the end, Blaskett has decided to stay and will now host the renamed Gerry Gee’s Happy Show, with talk of the show going national.

In a strange aside to the drama, the mischievous Gerry Gee can now claim to be the only ventriloquist’s doll in the world to have his own TV contract, having been signed by Nine to become its property.

In a comical moment, TV Week photographed Gerry Gee signing a new three-year contract (worth £150 per week) for Blaskett with Nine, accompanied by the caption: ‘I’m a bit worried about this sobriety clause.’ But now the inter-station battle to create the most entertaining children’s show has commenced, so there’s no more time for jokes.

Happy Hammond and Spencer are working on a new show that will replace Young Seven. Seven’s The Happy Show will feature 28-year-old ventriloquist Ian Williams, with his little wooden friend, Ricky, along with Williams’ real talking dog, Bim, an Australian silky terrier. The show will not feature current Young Seven presenter, the very popular Madeleine Burke, who will move to more ‘adult’ roles within Seven. Spencer is confident that Happy Hammond’s presence will make their version of The Happy Show a winner. ‘Happy is the best man in his field in Australia – he has the right ideas,’ he told TV Week. ‘Happy is well known for his taste and his sense of decency.’

Happy Hammond was very happy about the way the show had come together. ‘I’ve always been a pretty happy fellow, but I can’t recall when I’ve ever been happier in any one job than I am at the moment,’ said Happy.

May: Graham Kennedy’s national show will continue despite being savaged by Sydney critics and dropped by ATN-7. Critics described the show as being like an ‘amateur hour’ and could not understand how Kennedy had risen to such heights in Melbourne, describing his performance as mediocre and saying he displayed ‘little talent’ as host, song-and-dance man, comedian or advertising spruiker.

The good news for Kennedy, however, is that rival Sydney station TCN-9 snapped up his show within hours of the ATN announcement, meaning Kennedy has finished by simply moving up the dial. The show will screen as usual in Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

Kennedy has admitted that his first few attempts at a national show were not his strongest work but that he’s now relaxed a lot more.

March: Channel 7 comedian Jackie Clancy has been fired after making an offensive joke on air last week during the Club 7 show.

The joke was: A boy was staying with his aunt while his mum was in hospital. His aunt takes him to the zoo and they stop in front of the stork’s cage. ‘That’s a stork,’ she explains. ‘Any time now he’s going to fly up to heaven and get a little baby, then he’s going to fly over the hospital where your mummy is and drop the baby down the chimney. It’ll go down the chimney, along a chute and pop up in the bed next to your mummy.’

But Clancy had the last laugh after all: soon after his sacking Channel 9 hired him to appear on IMT!

Jingles on the pop charts?

January: In what could be a world first, a recent Australian TV commercial is rumoured to have been reinvented as a potential pop song. The J. Walter Thompson commercial, believed to be for a popular soft drink, has had new lyrics written and is set to be released by EMI Records as a potential hit.

However, one person who won’t be happy about the blurring of TV and pop is visiting violinist Alfredo Campoli, who wants rock-and-roll banned from TV screens. He believes that TV is a ‘lethal weapon’ as dangerous, in its own way, as an atom bomb.

‘I’m not against jazz or dance music,’ he told TV Times. ‘What I object to is this degenerate type of session on television in which so-called artists warble tunes and make suggestive body movements which could be the prelude to a sex orgy.’

> Wrestling – direct telecast from Festival Hall with commentary by Jack Little (right)

> Sam Castle Spectacular – series of four live variety programs direct from the Ripponlea studios

> Bentley’s Bandbox – comedy, song and dance program featuring comedian Dick Bentley

> Here Come the Girls – all-female music and variety show > Stormy Petrel – drama series

> The Lee Gordon Show – live music show > The Evie Hayes Show – variety And from overseas comes:

> The Nelsons – comedy series, starring Ricky Nelson and his real-life family

> The Detectives – Robert Taylor makes his TV debut in this new series as the captain of a detective bureau

December: The first Aussie ‘western’ has ridden into town on English screens, although it won’t be seen here until next year.

Whiplash is an ambitious and exciting production, based around the story of Cobb & Co. coach founder, Christopher Cobb. It stars Peter Graves – brother of Gunsmoke star James Arness – as Cobb, with fellow American Anthony Wickert as his offsider, Dan Ledward.

But don’t let the American leads fool you. This story is Aussie all the way, with local actors likely to walk through the saloon doors including Leonard Teale, Chips Rafferty, Chuck Faulkner, Stuart Wagstaff, Lionel Long and Aboriginal actor Robert Tudawali. GTV-9 has bought the series in Melbourne, and plans to show it early next year.

In the tradition of such hits as Gunsmoke and Rawhide, but featuring Australian landscapes, Whiplash should be a sure-fire winner. It would appear that a few liberties have been taken with the story of Cobb & Co., not least because the actual founder was American Freeman Wills Cobb, but let’s not let that get in the way of a cracking story.

The fact is with so many American westerns on our screens, it made sense to produce one of our own, and Australia in the 1850s is a great setting.

Filming proved to be dangerous for the actors, however. Sydney actor Joe McCormick was shot while playing out a gun duel; a wad of cardboard from a faulty blank cartridge in a Winchester rifle sliced into his flesh. Luckily, he has since made a full recovery.

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The wedding crew, from left to right: Don Bennetts, of Channel 7, Cheryl Ellen, Jimmy and Panda, Graham Kennedy and Diane Spencer.

Panda in the news

September: The wedding of popular Channel 9 identity Panda Lisner to saxophonist Jimmy Allan on Saturday 24 September created a few headaches for her TV colleagues.

Such is Panda’s popularity that Channel 9 televised her wedding, meaning the station’s outside broadcast crew had to then dash to the MCG in time to show the last quarter of the VFL Grand Final between Melbourne and Collingwood.

Meanwhile, rumours continue to abound that Panda will soon follow former boss Norman Spencer to Channel 7, just as Happy Hammond did earlier in the year.

August: Johnny O’Keefe is back on air after dramatically resigning from his role as host of ABC TV’s Six O’Clock Rock. His resignation lasted all of one day, before the national broadcaster’s management hastily agreed to his demand for more rehearsal time in his new contract. With his new deal, JO’K is now believed to be one of the highest-paid stars on television.

Whatever he’s paid, JO’K should just be happy to be alive after the horrific car crash in June that left the rock-and-roll star needing plastic surgery. O’Keefe’s car collided with a gravel truck on the Pacific Highway near Kempsey on the north coast of NSW after a concert. His face was badly lacerated and doctors said he was lucky to be alive.

The accident occurred soon after O’Keefe had returned from America where he is determined to establish Six O’Clock Rock, which has been a hit with young audiences since starting last year, as an international show. Liberty Records had released his recordings in the USA as a first step, calling him ‘The Boomerang Boy’ for their promotional push.

Australian Broadcasting Commission chairman Sir Richard Boyer has warned that parental discipline is required to put television in its place when children are in the house.

Delivering the Sir John Morris memorial lecture in adult education, Sir Richard said television, like motor cars, was a disturber of habit. He also warned that it was potentially addictive, with ‘compulsive’ complete attention required to watch the medium.

‘It [television] involves self-discipline of a high order by adults,’ he said. ‘There is something primitive about television and it is exemplified in its great attraction for children.’

Sir Richard said he was excited by television’s potential, especially its ability to convey serious cultural matter. ‘It has become quite clear that the discussion of serious topics, the dissemination of scientific fact, the interview of national and world figures can command a wider popular audience on television than has ever been possible on radio or even in the press.’

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Geoff ‘Corkey’ Corke is definitely King of the Kids in Melbourne, through his role on the Tarax Show, and Channel 9 has gone out of its way to promote him as such since the departure of former kids show host Happy Hammond.

> A blitz on unlicensed operators of TV sets. It is estimated that thousands of Australians dodge buying licences. There are 432,578 licensed viewers in Sydney and 370,183 in Melbourne.

> In Sydney, Ron Casey comperes TCN-9’s World of Sport. In Melbourne, Ron Casey (above) comperes HSV-7’s World of Sport, yet neither the Caseys, nor the shows, are related.

> Bert Newton breaks up with girlfriend of nine months, fellow GTV-9 star Joy Fountain.

> Princess Margaret’s wedding is seen on Melbourne’s three channels within two days of the event occurring.

> 1959 Pick-a-Box champion receives abusive letters accusing her of being selfish for remaining on the show so long and of being smug in her success.

> John Casement, from Geelong, has his name drawn from GTV-9’s Big Barrel five times in six weeks.

> A European company with the rights to TV coverage of the Rome Olympic Games allows Australian channels to screen only nine minutes of footage daily.

> GTV-9 uses two newsreaders, with Jack Little joining Eric Pearce. A rear-projection screen is used to show pictures of a person, place, map or diagram.

> Pick-a-Box is the top TV program in Australia – the first time a local show has beaten American film shows in Australia-wide ratings.

> The Postmaster-General, Mr Davidson, approves the renewal of licences to GTV-9 and HSV-7 in Melbourne, and ATN-7 and TCN-9 in Sydney.