Level 23 and Alan Jones Live, two of Ten’s biggest duds of the 90s!
3 Likes
well at least Ten had Melrose Place… “Tuesday night’s a bitch!” 
2 Likes
What was “new” about it? This was 1994…
The new century didn’t begin until 2000 or 2001 depending on who you talk to.
2 Likes
I seem to recall a new set that year, replacing the one that had been in use since 1988.
3 Likes
Nine probably promoted Sale Of The Century as being “New” in 1994 because of both the new set and (if I’m not mistaken) Nicky Buckley beginning her 5-6 year run as co-host that year?
2 Likes
Today’s TV: 9.2.1961, Brisbane
Today’s TV: 9.2.1976, Victoria
2 Likes
ATN7 aired Tandarra the following night. Such a pity these old series based on our history haven’t been preserved for later generations. I vaguely recall seeing Rush at some point but I’d love to see Tandarra and Cash and Co.
2 Likes
ABC repeated the 2nd (colour) series of Rush perhaps a couple of times in the 1980s. That’s when i saw it. I didn’t realise at the time that it was a repeat of a show made 6 or 7 years earlier.
I’m not sure why the 1974 series was still made in B&W with colour just around the corner, and ABC’s facilities would have been colour-ready by then. But B&W production limited any chance of overseas sales and ongoing repeats and AFAIK the 1st series only ever surfaced again as fodder for The Late Show’s sketch “The Olden Days” in the '90s.
The 2nd series was made with some investment from overseas IIRC.
5 Likes
Most certainly was the case where I grew up in regional SA, we were years behind with Neighbours, A Country Practice, Home and Away and Sons and Daughters. So much so that they skipped 3 or 4 years worth of ACP to catch up but even then they still fell behind again. Neighbours and HAA were on at 5/5.30pm so it would be preempted for the cricket or other sporting events throughout the year. There was one point where the closest we ever got was 1 week behind so every Monday I would pour over the TV Week guide for spoilers.
2 Likes
“Bad hat, bad hat, bad hat! And there’s more - naughty sleeve, naughty sleeve.”
2 Likes
I’m shocked to hear how badly top-rating shows like S&D and Prisoner were treated by some of the stations. Regional independents or part-affiliates I can understand, but BTQ and TVQ fell years behind with these soapies. It only seemed to matter to the executives how well shows rated in Sydney and Melbourne, and prior to 1988 it’s unclear to what extent the Brisbane and Adelaide channels were considered part of the networks. I know I’m not an Aussie, and more familiar with how the UK’s ITV network was handled back then, but it was very rare in the UK that the flagship and ratings-winning shows weren’t commissioned with a view that they would be fully networked with little, if any, variation in timeslot or pace between regions. Imports were a different matter and regions were often years behind others with the Aussie soaps and American dramas, but everyone saw the same episode of Coronation Street at the same time!
A question that possibly @TelevisionAU can answer. Was The Sullivans shown in defined “seasons” in Australia, with a break over summer? I’ve watched about half of the series and never got the impression of any end of season cliffhangers or similar? There were Christmas, New Year and Easter episodes but I think these rarely, if ever, coincided with actual Christmas or Easter. As with S&D there seemed to be a combination of 30-minute and 60-minute episodes, varying between markets. It was originally 5 nights a week in Melbourne, later reduced to 4 - but I’ve seen the early episodes scheduled once or twice a week in an hour-long format in other markets. Some episodes, around 1978, were definitely written and produced in an hour-long format though (they are very obviously split in half for DVDs and repeats), unlike S&D which was always written and produced as half-hours (with 60-minute edits also produced in later years).
1 Like
I’m not familiar enough with The Sullivans as such and don’t know if it was made as defined “seasons”. I don’t think it was really the sort of show that relied a lot on cliffhangers or big finales to get people to tune in next week or next year.
As you say, on-screen celebrations like Christmas and Easter would likely not have aired in sync with actual Christmas and Easter, given different airdates across different cities, and with the show’s fairly meticulous telling of the story according to the real-life days and dates from the era depicted.
2 Likes
A good example of the programming arrangements between TVW7 and STW9 where a coin toss dictated what shows went on which station. My Names McGooley, a Seven network show on STW9.
3 Likes
and a programming cartel between them that you’d probably never get away with these days
5 Likes
Could that possibly explain why certain shows in the 1970’s that were on one network in some cities and a completely different one in another? The Mike Walsh Show ended up on ADS7 in 1976 and was on the Ten Network everywhere else. I think Casino 10, another Ten Network show ended up on ADS7 as well.
Of course Perth with only two commercial channels was a special scenario.
1 Like
Perth’s situation was unique in that TVW7 and STW9 joined forces to form a single company to purchase programs from the east coast, to avoid them bidding against each other which would have sent costs upward. I imagine the eastern states channels hated it but what could they do?
In the 1970s there were many examples of shows appearing on opposition network channels in different cities. In Adelaide, SAS10 seemed to be somewhat on the outer with its other network partners at various stages (including very publicly just prior to its launch in 1965) so they appeared to have rejected some network shows which got picked up by other channels. I guess that’s how it worked. If the network partner didn’t pick up a show it would be shopped around to the other channels to see who’d bite. Networks didn’t quite exist like they do now with each station in each city having a lot more autonomy.
Another example was the 1974 talk show With Margaret Whitlam. It was made by HSV7 in Melbourne and picked up by other Seven Network channels, except ATN7. So the show ended up getting picked up by Ten in Sydney.
4 Likes
When this happened, did the programs normally air complete within any front or end captions such as “7 Network Presents” or “for the O-TEN network”?
Not sure.
I was under the impression thaat the Brisbane commercial stations were on average around 6 monthds behind the southern capitals, not years however, I’ve never been able to confirm this. Microwave links to the networks from Brisbane were limited to news exchange, new programmes, live sports and programms such as Mike Walsh and Don late etc. The rest came via video tape and sent on to the next station in line, posisble regional stations as only a couple of copies were made. When satelites came into force in 1986, this paved the way for networks to share content more widely and quickly. I recall at a school fete in Brisbane in 1986 they had set up a satelite dish and receiver which appeared to have an off-air link from the GTV9 programme, cartoon Company. It was late morning after the programme had finished and the studio link was open showing them attempting to record a promo. I rec all Wide World of Sports came in off the link live son after. I suspect this link was also used for promo exchnage as QTQ by then were using TCN made promos.
I don’t recall any gaps between local playout and the new network feeds in early 1988. They must have had a news artcle on networking as I’ve always known they were doing this. It appeared to be seamless so perhaps by then, all programmes caught up with the excpetion of days of our Lives which remained yars behind and much later when they decided to leave a couple of years behind whilst taking the network feed.
2 Likes