memorable tv           

7 Network / x60m-e / 1969-70

Variety series starring the composer, actor and singer Tommy Leonetti, the show mixed singing, dancing, sketches and big name guests both Australian and Overseas (the likes of Jack Jones, Diane Horder, Rolf Harris, John Laws etc). Regulars included a singing/dancing group called The Tambourine Bay Set. The show only ended because Leonetti went back to his native America.

7 Network-Media Arts / 900+ x60m-e / 1990-93

Music: Paul Grabowsky (1990-92, Sam Lee(1993)

Basically the Late Show with Letterman transplanted to Australia. This came from Melbourne and was hosted by Steve Vizard. It offered the same mix of comedy, star guest, music etc.

9 Network / x90m-e / 1984

Producer: Peter Faiman

A night time variety show headlined by Bert "Moonface" Newton and shown four nights a week, the show mixed music, chat, guest etc.

7 Network / 3x30m-e / 1968

Writers: Hugh Stuckey, Michael Whale / Producer/Director: Eddie Joffe

The comedy show Tony Hancock came to Australia to make and the show he was working on when he committed suicide. Planned as 13 episodes only 3 were completed and these were shown some time after his death as a 90 minute special.

With:- TONY HANCOCK / DON CROSBY / GLORIA DAWN

ABC / 5x60m-e / 1979

Writers: Anne Brooksbank, Margaret Kelly / Music: Mark Edmondson / Producer: Noel Price / Executive Producer: John Croyston / Director: Chris Thomson

Drama serial. Brett Towers and Paul Jackson, a pair of 11 year olds, run away from home and take refuge in an empty house, the pair resort to stealing to keep themselves fed.

With:- ADAM GARNETT / RAY MEAGHER / GERARD NEEDHAM / TESSA MALLOS / ANGELA GAUCI / MICHAEL McGLINCEY

ABC / x30m-e / 1959 black and white

Producer: Bruce Webber

A children's general knowledge knockout quiz show in which 16 school teams competed. Presenters were Professor Alan Stout and then Bruce Beeby. Gina Eviston was score mistress. 

9 Network / x60m-e / 1961 black and white

Producer: Norman Spencer

Lavish (for the time) variety show featuring both overseas and local talent. The shows came alternately from Sydney and Melbourne. Host was Jeffrey Lenner and regulars included Buster Fiddes, Vicki Hammond and Len Lowe.

ABC-Thames-WPBT / 13x30m-e / 1982

Producers: Malcolm Morris, Barry Crook

Ingenious quiz show using satellite link ups to pit teams from Australia, England and the US against each other. Top prize was a vintage Rolls Royce. Hosted from London by Eamonn Andrews.

ABC / x30m-e / 1974-77 and 1980

Producers: Bruce Buchanan, Brian Adams (1980) / Theme Music: Grahame Bone, Rory O'Donaghue

Motoring themed magazine show hosted by Peter Wherrett and Sue Ranson.

Ten Network / x30m-e / 1993-continuing

Children's wildlife series based on a UK original  travelling all over Australia and beyond in search of animals. Initially hosted by Tim Bailey and Linda Kilpatrick other presenters have included Faye De Lanly, Hayley Chapman and Shae Brewster.

Writer: Charles Stamp / Design: Gary Hansen / Music: John Sangster / Executive Producer: Eric Taylor / Director: Carl Schultz

Drama serial. Episodes in the life of a troubled Anglican minister.

With:- PETER COLLINGWOOD / GRAHAM ROUSE / BEN GABRIEL / HELEN MORSE / PETER SUMNER / WENDY HUGHES

Executive Producer: Patricia Edgar

An anthology series of 6 feature length children's dramas made to mark Australia's bicentennial year. The stories were:- 1. Top Enders / 2. Princess Kate / 3. Peter and Pompey / 4. The Gift / 5. Devil's Hill / 6. Captain Johnno. 

ABC / x30m-e / 1981-87

Creator/Producer: Lloyd Capps

Science advancement type show looking at the latest breakthroughs in science and technology, based on the UK show Tomorrow's World. Hosts included Sonia Humphrey, Carmel Travers, David Travers, Jeff Watson and Iain Finlay. The 7 Network took the idea (and quite a few of the people involved in this show) and turned it into the very popular Beyond 2000.

9 Network / x30m-e / 1976

Magazine show taking a look at the latest advancements in science and technology.

ABC / 1x75m-e / 1965 black and white

Writer: Hal Porter / Producer/Director: Christopher Muir

Period drama. In Hobart in 1850 a well to do arrogant Englishman demands that his daughter marry for position, his stepson then decides to sort things out.

With:- KEITH LEE / ANNE CHARLESTON / MARY WARD / JUDITH ARTHY / ANDREW GUILD

ABC / x30m-e / 1962-66 black and white

Producers: Jim Allan, John Cockcroft

Magazine show looking at agricultural stories of interest not only to rural areas but cities as well. Hosts were Geoff Say (1962), John Barclay (1963-64), Tony Fiennes (1965-66).

Writer: Tony Morphett / Book: Major Taylor Down Under by Jim Fitzpatrick / Camera: Julian Penney, Ross Berryman / Design: George Liddle / Costume: Ross Major, Victoria Dobson / Producers: Damien Parer, Paul D. Barron / Executive Producer: Paul D. Barron, Des Monaghan / Director: Marcus Cole

Period drama serial. In the early part of the 20th century two men, Australian Don Walker and black American Major Taylor are determined to become champion cyclists.

With:- PHIL MORRIS as Major Taylor / CAMERON DADDO as Don Walker / RICHARD ROXBURGH as Hugh D. McIntosh / NICHOLAS EADIE as Floyd MacFarland / JUSTINE CLARKE as Kate O'Brien / JOAN SYDNEY as Mrs Walker / BRETT CLIMO as Jonathon Dodds / SCOTT BURGESS as Pat Callaway / JOHN EWART as Syd Melville / JANET MacLACHLAN as Mrs Morris / ROBERT VAUGHN as Mr Morris / RENEE JONES as Daisy Taylor / RODNEY BELL as Iver Lawson / JOHN CLAYTON as Mr Campbell / CELINE O'LEARY as Mrs McIntosh 

ABC-BBC / 20x30m-e / 1967-68 black and white

Producers: Ron May, Bill Wright (BBC)

A teen quiz show in which champions from the UK version of Top of the Form and the Australian equivalent did battle against each other. Hosted by Geoffrey Wheeler and Bill Salmon.

Reality style game show in which 16 Australians are left stranded on an island with minimal food and water, they were searching for buried treasure and only one could win.

2x120m-e / 1999

Executive Producers: Bruce Gordon, David Rouse, Tom Parkinson / 
Producer: Jock Blair / Director: George Miller / Writer: Jock Blair 

Thriller serial. A small group of tourists board an old sailing boat, The Sea Tramp, for a tropical island-hopping cruise through a largely overlooked corner of Micronesia. It should have been the holiday of a lifetime but five days from port they rescue Minh-Tam, a young Vietnamese woman from her sinking fishing trawler. As they attempt to outrun Minh-Tam's attackers, a fire breaks out and the boat sinks. Only a handful of the crew and passengers survive the twin perils of pirates and a fire to reach an uninhabited island that is too dangerous to live on and too dangerous to leave.  (Above taken from a press release).

With:- Antonio Sabato Jnr, Craig McLachlan, Joanna Cassidy, Rachel Blakely, Nadine Garner, Ling-Hsueh Tang, Paul Leyden, Beverley Dunn, Thaao Penghlis, Tayler Kane 

A look at various aspects pf the second world war with particular regard to the 6th Division and the R.A.N.

Documentary/ Ron Iddon takes a look at the world of the long distance truck driver - his industry, his work and his importance in a large and growing industry.

Writers: Bob Ellis, Stephen Ramsey / Idea: Matt Carroll / Design: Geoff Wedlock / Costume: Jolanta Nejman / Music: William Motzing / Producer: Stephen O'Rourke / Executive Producers: Matt Carroll, Sandra Levy / Director: Peter Fisk

Period drama serial. Nine years (1945-54) in the political life of Australia, taking in the careers of three prominent politicians, Labour Prime Minister (1945-49) Ben Chifley and his deputy Doctor H.V. Evatt and Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

With:- ED DEVEREAUX as Ben Chifley / SIMON CHILVERS as 'Doc' Evatt / JOHN BONNEY as Robert Menzies / VALERIE BADER as Mary Alice Evatt / TRACY MANN as Tess Ross / JOAN BRUCE as Pattie Menzies / MALCOLM ROBERTSON as Idris Williams / HAROLD HOPKINS as Edgar Ross / NICK TATE as Les Hayden / RON BLANCHARD as Arthur Calwell / GARY FILES as Fred Daly / RAY MEAGHER as Tom Burke / DANNY ADCOCK as Lloyd Ross

Writer: Ian Stuart Black, John Cameron / Music: Pat Aulton / Producer/Director: James Gatward

Crime thriller. English private investigator Tully attempts to discover the whereabouts of a haul of stolen art. A telemovie pilot for a series that never emerged.

With:- ANTHONY VALENTINE as Tully / KEVIN MILES / HENRI SZEPS / JOHN STANTON / JACK THOMPSON / NOELINE BROWN / BARBARA NIELSEN / TONY BARRY / BRUNO LAWRENCE

Melbourne based daily pop music show hosted by John Burgess.

Writer: Denys Burrowes / Camera: Frank Parnell / Producer/Director: Raymond Menmuir

Crime thriller.  A small time crook (hiding out in a small Alice Springs town) takes a woman hostage when it looks like the police are closing in on him.

With:- ROD MILGATE / BENITA HARVEY / BEN GABRIEL / DERYCK BARNES / JANNE COGHLAN / TOM FARLEY / REG LYE

Writer: Peter Yeldham / Camera: Peter Hendry / Design: Laurie Johnson / Costume: James Murray / Music: Bruce Smeaton / Producer: Ray Alchin / Executive Producers: Chris Muir, Ian Warren / Director: Don Sharp

Period drama serial. Robert Louis Stevenson, the famed author, spends his last four years in the South Pacific area of Western Samoa, garnering for himself the nickname Tusitala (The Teller of Tales).

With:- JOHN McENERY as Robert Louis Stevenson / ANGELA PUNCH McGREGOR as Fanny van de Graff Osborne / JULIE NIHILL as Mrs Belle Strong / TODD BOYCE as Lloyd / RAY BARRETT as Harry Moors / DOROTHY ALISON as Maggie / JOHN GREGG as Cusack-Smith / NORMAN KAYE as Rev. Clarke