Perfect Match would return in 1991 under the name Blind Date.
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With the upcoming AFL Grand Final, a look at coverage in “enemy territory” (NSW and Canberra, in this case) from Saturday 24 September 1977, from TV Times-Coastal edition
ABC
1.00 The Big Ball Game
2.00 Sportsview (1977 World Rowing Championships/Rugby Grand Final Preview and Game/Turf Racing Daily Double/Australian Rules Preview/Race & Football Roundup/Canoeing)
5.35 Pot Black (snooker from the BBC)
6.00 Countdown
6.55 Weather
7.00 News
7.15 Sports Review
7.30 Quest 77
8.25 Four Corners
9.20 News/Weather
9.30 (Canberra/Wagga/Griffith) VFL Grand Final
(rest of NSW) Movie “Cheaper by the Dozen” (G)
10.55 (rest of NSW) VFL Grand Final (last half; I presume by the earlier start time, the whole game aired in Canberra, Wagga and Griffith?)
ATN7 Sydney
7.00 Funshine
9.00 MNOS
10.00 Sound Unlimited
noon Cher
1.00 Movie "Abbott and Costello in Society (G/bw)
2.30 VFL Grand Final
5.30 It’s Academic
6.00 News/Weather
6.30 Gorilla (G)
7.30 Movie “Prisoner of Zenda” (G)
9.29 America’s Cup Report
9.30 Movie “The Legend of Lizzie Borden” (AO)
11.30 Movie “Commandos Strike at Dawn” (A/bw)
TCN9 Sydney
6.00 Thunderbirds
7.00 Cartoons
7.30 Huckleberry Hound
8.00 Hey! Hey! It’s Saturday
11.00 TV Form Guide
noon Wrestling
1.00 Movie “Sail a Crooked Ship” (G)
2.30 Movie “Branded” (G)
4.00 Curiosity Show
5.00 Voyage to the the Bottom of the Sea
6.00 News
6.30 Leyland Brothers Trekabout (G)
7.30 Barnaby Jones (A)
8.30 Movie “Carry On Again, Doctor” (A)
10.15 Big Valley
11.15 Spyforce
12.30 Movie “The Severed Arm” (AO)
2.00 Movie “Disciple of Death” (AO)
3.15 Movie “in the Year of Our Lord” (A)
5.00 Gideon’s Way (bw)
TEN10 Sydney
Movie Marathon airs in early morning
7.35 Mothers-in-Law
8.00 Home Affair
9.00 Right On
11.00 Love on a Rooftop
11.30 Animal World (G)
noon Movie “Anything Goes” (G)
2.00 Laredo
3.00 Run, Joe, Run
3.30 Primus
4.00 Junior Jury
4.30 What in the World
5.00 Young Talent Time
6.00 News
6.30 Wonder Woman (G)
7.30 Movie “Charro” (A)
9.25 Movie “Assault on a Queen” (G)
11.15 Movie “The Fallen Sparrow” (A)
NBN3 Newcastle
7.55 You Say the Word
8.50 Here’s Humphrey
9.40 Racing Selections
10.00 Sound Unlimited
noon Star Soccer
12.55 Wrestling
1.50 Documentary
2.05 Movie “Land of the Pharoahs” (G)
3.50 This Week Has Seven Days
5.35 Thrillseekers
6.00 News/Weather/Sport
6.30 Wonder Woman (G)
7.30 David Frost & the Unions: Can Australia Survive?
8.30 Shannon’s Mob
9.25 BHP Report
9.30 Tonight on the Town
10.30 Movie “Master Stroke” (A)
12.05 Movie “High Season for Spies” (A)
WIN4 Wollongong
8.00 Fun Club
10.00 Sound Unlimited
noon Sonny & Cher
12.55 Joe the Gadget Man
1.00 Daniel Boone
2.00 Movie “Beneath the 12 Mile Reef” (G)
3.50 Cisco Kid
4.10 Lost Islands
4.35 Rovers
5.05 Young Talent Time
6.00 News/Sports/Weather
6.30 Laverne & Shirley (G)
7.00 Rhoda (G)
7.30 Mary Tyler Moore (G)
8.00 Barney Miller (A)
8.30 Movie “The Sins of Rachel Cade” (A)
10.38 America’s Cup Report
10.40 Movie “The Impersonation Murder Case” (A)
CTC7 Canberra
10.00 Sound Unlimited
noon Grandstand (Racing Roundup/World Masters Snooker)
2.15 VFL Grand Final
5.00 Community Billboard
5.05 Waltons (G)
6.00 News
6.30 Good Times (G)
7.00 Laverne & Shirley (G)
7.30 Bionic Woman (A)
8.30 Kojak (AO)
9.30 Police 7
9.35 Movie “The Chase” (AO)
11.50 Meet Your Local Member
11.55 Star Trek
CBN8 Orange/CWN6 Dubbo
5.00 Oral Roberts
5.30 Wrestling
6.00 News/Weather
6.30 Market Report
6.35 Reg Lindsay’s Country Homestead
7.30 The Practice (G)
8.00 Don’t Drink the Water (G)
8.30 Weather
8.35 Paul Hogan
9.30 Movie “The Wild Party” (AO)
11.00 Freedom from Hunger
MTN9 Griffith
2.28 VFL Grand Final
5.00 Wrestling
5.50 Making Man
6.00 News/Weather
6.30 Cartoon
6.35 as CBN/CWN
NEN9 Tamworth/ECN8 Taree
1.00 Four Winds to Adventure
1.20 Movie “The Lion and the Horse” (G)
2.45 Living Tomorrow
3.00 Wall of Mouths (G)
3.50 Flintstones
4.15 Lost Islands
4.40 Black Beauty
5.05 Batfink
5.30 Ugliest Girl in Town
5.55 Wotsa-Name Show
6.00 News/Weather
6.30 Donny & Marie (G)
7.30 On the Buses (G)
7.55 Countryside Affair
8.00 Royal Command Variety Performance (G)
9.50 Movie “The Mohicans” (A)
NRN11 Coffs Harbour/RTN8 Lismore
4.00 Variety Italian Style (other airtimes in NSW/Canberra…Sunday 8.55am on NBN, Sunday 11am on WIN, Sunday noon on TEN10)
5.00 Almost Anything Goes
6.00 News
6.30 Bugs Bunny & Friends
6.35 Donny & Marie (G)
7.30 Happy Days (A)
7.55 Laverne & Shirley (A)
8.20 Hawaii Five-O (A)
9.15 Movie “The Night of the Generals” (AO)
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Source: Listener In-TV
- Mass For You At Home is at 10.30am. Still going these days but buried at 6.00am.
- Tonight Italian Style, later Variety Italian Style, providing a rare glimpse at “ethnic” television years before SBS.
- Channel 7 has a VFL game, Hawthorn v Footscray, from Canberra. This appears to be just a one-off not part of the official finals season.
- Kevin Dennis New Faces on Channel 9, hosted by Frank Wilson, a few years before Bert Newton took over as host.
- VFA Grand Final, Oakleigh v Prahran, live on Channel 0, without a single watermark or “live” caption or pop-up ad to be seen… although if you look closely there might be some Channel 0 advertising on the signage at the ground.
YouTube: Gezza1967
4 Likes
No idea what that match could be. I’ll see if I can do a bit more digging. Probably put up as a spoiler to the VFA on Channel O. Speaking of which, Port Melbourne are in another Grand Final tomorrow.
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Today’s TV: 28.9.1974, Brisbane/South East Queensland (DDQ/SDQ and WBQ) and Northern Rivers/Gold Coast (RTN):
Source: TV Week
The 1974 VFL Grand Final is on BTQ7 in Brisbane, live from Melbourne. But no coverage on the regional channels except for ABC in Queensland screening a replay late on Sunday night. (ABC NSW had its replay late on Saturday night)
Victorian viewers were still denied being able to see the Grand Final live on TV. The VFL reportedly had a $50,000 price tag for live coverage of the Grand Final, to be split between ABC and HSV7. ABC only committed up to $12,500 and HSV7 would not go above $25,000.
The Victorian government were asked to make up the difference but they refused.
The ABC had paid $10,000 for the NSW Rugby League grand final the previous week.
Source: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=KtFaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MpIDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6362%2C5860827
4 Likes
It would be 3 more years until Melbourne got the GF live, Seven reportedly paid $100000 for the game, then did the same for the replay the next week.
Why was the Grand Final never shown live until 77? and why the change? NSWRL always had the GF live if i’m right.
Protecting the gate. Was also much easier to get tickets and would often not officially sell out. Channel 7 would often buy the last remaining tickets in order to broadcast live.
Today’s TV: 6.10.1975, Melbourne.
Source: Listener In-TV
- Tough night for Norman Gunston fans. The series return of The Norman Gunston Show on ABC at 8.00, while Gunston is also a special guest on The Paul Hogan Show on Seven at 7.30. Fans no doubt hopeful that Gunston’s appearance on Seven comes before 8.00!
- Very familiar names among the newsreaders: Geoff Raymond (ABC), Brian Naylor and David Johnston (Seven), Peter Hitchener and Brian Henderson (Nine) and Bruce Mansfield (0)
- Daryl Somers is among the guests on The Don Lane Show
- Monday Conference, a 1970s Q&A, is on ABC at 9.05
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Seven still using their pre-color logo in their news promo.
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Today’s TV: 22.10.1980, Melbourne.
Source: TV Week.
- There is a new channel (SBS) launching in a few days, but Paul Hogan is beating it to the punch with his own new channel: HOG1.
- Seven’s summer of tennis is already in full swing
- Channel 10 has daytime re-runs of '70s cop drama Matlock Police and children’s series The Lost Islands.
- The Inventors on ABC will no doubt have had Diana Fisher asking prospective inventors, ‘but does it come in many colours’?
- The season final to Dallas on Channel 10 sees JR cop a bullet… but Who Shot JR? We had to wait for the next season
- Channel 10’s late late movie would have seen it not sign off for the night until 3.10am!
Eight-year-old me would have had to make a choice between CHiPs and Paul Hogan. I probably chose Paul Hogan
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Same reason why Channel 9 would only show the first 2 hours of ODIs in the host city and wouldn’t start broadcasting a day’s play of a test until the last session.
They of course made an exception if the matches were a sell out
Another one for today: 22.10.2004, Melbourne:
Source: TV Week
It’s a Friday and outside of football season so there’s not much to choose from. Movies at 8.30pm on all 3 commercials, cooking with Elizabeth Chong on SBS, and Strictly Dancing on ABC, followed later by The Glass House.
Nine seems to be battling Seven’s Wheel Of Fortune and Deal Or No Deal with one-hour editions of The Price Is Right.
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The Melbourne Indoor Tennis Championships from the Frankston indoor centre. That was a thing on TV!
That magical period (especially for certain users of Mediaspy) where Ten was playing 2 Simpsons repeats a day during the week! Also can’t remember Ten doing midday movies for long, must have been just after they canned Jerry Springer / Drama reruns and before they acquired Dr Phil.
2 Likes
I think it’s the same tournament that became the Sydney Indoor, one of the Grand Prix events on the ATP Calendar.
Glorious times.
The midday movies lasted until early 2005 when Springer was brought back.
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A program on that 2004 TV guide which is probably in the “Not For Broadcast” section these days - Rolf Harris’ Animal Hospital at 6am on the ABC!
Meanwhile on Nine, I think that would’ve been the sixth last episode of Burkes Backyard. But of course, there were a few seasonal specials of the program a few years later.
SBS’ 3pm TV Ed program “Shuo Shuo Xiao Xiao” was produced by the NSW Department of Education - that series was replayed very frequently on the Sydney D44 Datacast Trial station “Channel NSW” (which from memory, was LCN-45) in the Late 2000s! 
Later in the evening on the same station, that 10pm program “Love For Sale” sounds like something that probably wouldn’t be too out of place on a current ABC2 Friday night lineup!
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Brings back so many memories - I remember that TV Week layout, down to the very font, like it was yesterday.
Good old Ivan Hutchinson. This is what we referred to before RottenTomatoes, guys!
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Today’s TV: 1.11.1980, Melbourne (excluding SBS), regional Victoria, Mt Gambier, Riverland
Source: TV Week (“Country” edition)
Channel 10’s coverage of Derby Day from Flemington (preview from 9am and race day from 12.30pm) is relayed across Victoria, and the afternoon live coverage through SES8. Ten’s coverage of the four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival was billed as the largest coverage of an Australian racing carnival to date, with 17 cameras to an estimated 10 million viewers around Australia and New Zealand watching it live.
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