Classic TV Listings

According to an old document, the Nambour translator was set up in June 1976. I’m not sure when the callsign change occurred.

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The televisionau website says the callsign changed in the late 1970’s, so maybe 1977/78?

I suspect that’s still the first run of Prisoner on TVQ10 - they were well behind ATV10 and TEN10. Sons and Daughters on BTQ7 is labelled a repeat, but they couldn’t have long finished the first run as they were a year or so behind with that too at one point.

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All before the age of networking programming which came into affect in early '88. Prior to that, most Brisbane programmes where received via video tape after another station had finished with it then they would pass it on to the next station.

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Seems that Brisbane (TVQ) and Adelaide (SAS) were still working through Prisoner almost a year after it had ended in Melbourne (December 1986). Not sure of the Sydney airdate for the final episode but it was after Melbourne AFAIK.

In Perth, according to fans there at the time, STW9 dropped the show well before it went out of production, presumably leaving fans unable to see the final episodes until who knows when. It’s unclear if NEW10, when it debuted in 1988, ever picked up the series from where Nine left off.

HSV7 I don’t think did much direct networking from ATN7 in Sydney until they came under common (Fairfax) ownership in 1987 where they just replaced Melbourne-based shows with Sydney ones: World Of Sport was replaced with Sportsworld from Sydney, current affairs show Day By Day was replaced by Terry Willesee Tonight. Melbourne-based Newsworld was replaced with Sydney-based Newsworld.

I think the only thing that happened in the other direction was Ivan Hutchinson’s movie presentation being picked up by ATN7 from Melbourne.

And programming started to line up more between Sydney and Melbourne. The one I remember most is Beyond 2000 which I think was always a Thursday night show in Melbourne but it shifted to Tuesdays to match up with Sydney. (or it might have been vice versa. Memory’s a bit faded!)

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You’re right. Beyond 2000 was Tuesdays 8.30 in Sydney. Lazy teachers at my high school would pass it off as a lesson in computer studies on a Wednesday morning when I was in year nine.

I remember reading about comedy specials such as The Eleventh Hour and D Generation stuff that were produced by HSV 7 back in the 1980s that never seemed to make it to air in Sydney. Seven cobbled together a couple of specials with some of that early material once The Comedy Company and Fast Forward took off later in the decade because it featured cast members from both shows.

It was odd seeing Ivan Hutchinson on ATN 7 after reading his column for so many years in TV Week. ATN 7 had film and television journalist John Hanrahan as the presenter of their movies for a few years prior to Hutchinson.

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Beyond 2000 was on Sundays at 7.30 in Brisbane at least in 1987.

The Eleventh Hour barely had much of a run in Melbourne, even. It was on at 11.00 on Friday nights and only had a short season. But yes when much of the cast became famous years later for The Comedy Company, Seven dug out the Eleventh Hour tapes to jump on the bandwagon. Another potential hit they let slip away (as Neighbours was)

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Granted that the stint only lasted for a couple of years between John Hanrahan’s departure and Ivan Hutchinson’s presentations from Melbourne being networked up here, but no memories of Stuart Wagstaff presenting movies on Channel Seven Sydney?

I didn’t see any of these live for obvious reasons but during the quest to find old ads/On-Air Presentation, I’ve been fortunate enough to see some of the work from these movie presenters (well OK, not John Hanrahan but definitely Ivan Hutchinson, Bill Collins and even a little bit of Stuart Wagstaff) via old VHS recordings and along the way, have learnt a bit more about their contributions to Australian television! :slight_smile:

I was trying to remember who else presented Seven’s movies. I do remember Wagstaff now that you mention him. Bill Collins also had a stint at Seven presenting movies and even had a movie segment on Climpson’s Seven National News at one stage.

I was just thinking the networks could inspire viewers to watch some classic old movies again if they had someone knowledgeable presenting them. A Bill Collins introduction would often inspire me to sit through The Golden Years of Hollywood on Ten back in the day. Granted there wasn’t much else on in those days.

A sad aside: The Civic Video store near my childhood home closed down this month. I guess I can finally get rid of the laminated membership card I’ve been carrying around in my wallet for the past 30 years. Hadn’t used it for a few years but would’ve had one last look in that shop had I known it was closing. It was my childhood ambition to own a video store so I could sit and watch movies all day.

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Two things I notice from the September 25, 1987 listing:
ABC in Victoria had its first and only all night VFL grand final marathon ahead of the title decider between Carlton and Hawthorn;
SBS showed Hong Kong drama Empress Wu in primetime. I first noticed the historical drama while it was repeated on Sunday afternoons in the early 1990s IIRC, but I could not even imagine it being given a 7.30pm timeslot for the first run Australian screening. Empress Wu was produced by Hong Kong’s Asia Television (which would later supply daily HK news bulletins to SBS from 1993 to 2007) and starred Petrina Bo Bo Fung in the title role of Wu Zetian, the only empress regnant in Chinese history. It was a ratings hit when it aired in HK in the northern summer of 1984.

I think in Melbourne it was just Ivan Hutchinson for years and when he passed away who could have replaced him.

Back in the early 70s he and Jim Murphy (later a writer for The Age) hosted a movie review show called Two On The Aisle (Years before anyone knew who David and Margaret were :wink:)

I think that may have then led to Ivan becoming 7’s movie host.

Melbourne didn’t really get to know Bill Collins until the early 80s I guess when he started doing movies for Ten

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The whole thing’s on YouTube somewhere, as is the 86 Marathon done by the Coodabeens for Channel 7…

Was he the bearded gentleman that had a segment on Graham Kennedy’s Coast to Coast?

I think you might be right. He was also a contributor to TVTV in the 90s.

Today’s TV: 27.9.1996, Melbourne

Source: TV Week

Grand Final Eve in Melbourne

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Is that Jason or Tommy from the Power Rangers?

It’s Tommy.

First thing I noticed too haha

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That Simpsons illustration they’ve used looks Tracey Ullman era!

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I notice Ten was airing Hey Dad! repeats with Roseanne repeats on Ten between 1pm to 2pm - Of we knew then what we do know, it would have been dubbed the hour of shame…

Didnt Ten’s regional affiliates drop those shows for infomercials at that point?

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