Classic TV Listings

Today’s TV: 11.12.1990, Melbourne

Source: TV Week

  • Non-Ratings season is well upon us. Home And Away and Neighbours have been replaced by Wheel Of Fortune and The Wonder Years.
  • GP is in re-runs on ABC
  • Tonight Live has been replaced by Late News
  • Ten is just new into its revised half-hour evening news… as this was just a few weeks after the network’s massive cost cutting saw half the bulletin axed among other things.
  • Prisoner is in late night re-runs on Ten
  • Ten is relaying CNN overnight, with hosting by John Gatfield.

And you can buy a “Cat Igloo” for $49.95

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I noted the cricket match on Nine at the MCG, where the host city only got to see around a third of the match on TV unless it was a sellout. Thank god those days are over!

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Today’s TV: 15.12.1987, Brisbane

Source: The Sunday Mail / Scene On TV

  • Clearly non-ratings… with such gems as The Facts Of Life and TV’s Funniest Game Show Moments.
  • Plus there’s Crossfire, Channel 9’s major Greg Evans vehicle after grabbing him from Channel 10. The fact it’s screening in December pretty much indicates how it ended up.
  • Channel 9 also had The Home Shopping Show. This was TV shopping before TVSN. Hosted by Brian Bury and Karen Pini if I recall correctly, although I think Fiona MacDonald was in there too at some point.
  • Going Strong on SBS was a magazine show aimed at the 65+ audience, hosted by Roger Climpson and Hazel Phillips. It was a unique show in that it appeared first run on SBS in prime time but would get a re-run on Seven in a daytime slot later in the week. It also aired on some regional stations.
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Do you happen to know what Entertainment This Week at TV 0 at 10:30pm was?

it was the “weekend” version of Entertainment Tonight. It usually aired on Ten in other cities on Sunday nights after the movie but Brisbane clearly likes to be a bit different :stuck_out_tongue:

It was still a few years before we went from getting Entertainment This Week to Entertainment Tonight.

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And for no other reason other than “just because” here are the regional listings from the same magazine crammed into 1.5 pages… and some local TV gossip

(NQTV North Queensland, MVQ6 Mackay and ITQ8 Mt Isa were listed in a separate North Qld edition)

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Today’s TV: 23.12.1987, Southern NSW/ACT:

Source: TV Week

  • Unclear why NBN3 is listed in a Southern NSW edition, perhaps just to fill in a spare column??
  • CBN8/CWN6 is split from MTN9 for some reason. Possibly again to fill in space or because to squash 3 call-signs into one heading might have distressed their poor editors :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Although on other days of the week there is some break out programming on MTN9. For example, on Christmas Eve, MTN9 carried Christmas specials and Carols By Candlelight, but CBN/CWN just had generic programming.
  • RVN2 and AMV4 also in separate columns but were essentially simulcast although I know they did split programming in winter months for football etc.
  • Some unusual US titles here, Kay O’Brien and Finder Of Lost Loves. Can’t say I’ve heard of either of these shows. Not sure if they were just B-grade fillers but I can’t think at all which metro network(s) ran these. There were some rare US or UK shows in the 1980s that regionals picked up but metro networks didn’t bother with, or the regionals ran them first and then the cities followed.

I would have put RVN2 and AMV4 into the one column (or ditched NBN) and then put SBS in a proper space rather than shunted to the bottom of the page.

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Today’s TV: 24.12.1959, Melbourne.

Source: TV Times

  • ABC claims to have “Australia’s first television pantomime”, performed during Children’s TV Club. It is unclear if this production was from ABV2 in Melbourne or sent in from interstate.
  • Even though it’s Christmas Eve, channels are not slaves to the ratings survey period, with regular shows still in progress, including daytime shows Thursday At One (Nine), House Party (Seven), Woman’s World (ABC), In Melbourne Tonight (Nine) and Club Seven (Seven). (IMT even did a Christmas night show)
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Today’s TV: 29.12.1979, Melbourne

Source: TV Times

Must have been a lazy day in the TV Times office putting the ads together…

“Saturday movie… Cricket”

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With regards to the cricket, that was day one of the Melbourne test (there was also a non Ashes test v England in late Jan in Melbourne) Both series were arranged after the compromise with Packer’s WSC.

There was a one dayer in Sydney on Boxing Day that year.

As an aside @TelevisionAU , during today’s rain delay, Ian Chapell mentioned how he was working for the 0-10 network covering cricket in 1977. I know they did the domestic one day series during the late 70s, but for you know anything about them doing test cricket as the commercial broadcaster along side ABC?

According to this listing the 0-10 Network did cover test cricket in 1976-77 as well as ABC.

Source: TV Week

IIRC Seven had a go at test cricket as well in 1974-75.

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Tv listing for Hobart from Friday March 21 2003

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Still 9 months before TDT would arrive and that was to Hobart only at first. This was the last year of the full mix of 7 and Ten programming on Southern Cross however even then it was still majority 7 programming.

Southern Cross News also iwth Jo Cornish too, not to become Palmer for another few years. I think it was about 2007 when she re-married.

WIN Local News at 6pm, this was after the Six O’Clock name had been retired and the separate North and South bulletins replaced with the statewide local bulletin before there other various reincarnations and eventually settling again (multiple times) on the combined local, national and international bulletins.

I think this would have been getting close to the last years that Judy Tierney was presenting Stateline before Airlie Ward came on the scene too.

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During that time there was no Channel 10 in Tasmania. When did TEN Tasmania launch?

Did you not read the post above yours? TDT launched at the start of 2004.

31st December 2003 in the early afternoon, ready for a Jan 1 2004 launch (15 years next year!) Testing had begun a week or so earlier with the scenic loops.

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Imparja TV turns 30 years old today.

This is a sample weekly TV listing from Imparja’s first year on air:

Source: TV Week

  • One thing you don’t see on this page is repeats! Given the channel was barely 6 months old everything’s pretty much first run.
  • I’m not 100% sure but I think at this point the 6.30 news was National Nine News on delay via satellite from Sydney. I think it was still some time before Imparja started its own news service.
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Today’s TV: 3.1.1981, Melbourne. Plus a week of programs for SBS “Ethnic TV”

Source: TV Scene

Really nothing to see here if you’re not into sport! Pretty much a typical Saturday on TV for the 1980s.

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So even by 1981, it was still being called Ethnic TV?

What do you mean “still”? The channel only debuted 2 months earlier.

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