18 January 1982: Sons And Daughters debuts on the Seven Network in a 90-minute episode. The series went on to run for six years and 972 episodes. It also became popular in Europe and a daytime TV favourite in the UK. It also won Rowena Wallace a Gold Logie in 1985.
18 January 1988: Seven National News is re-launched as Seven Nightly News. In Sydney, Melbourne (and Brisbane?) it marked a return to a half-hour format at 6.30pm. In Melbourne it introduced the new line-up of Jennifer Keyte (ex-Ten) and Glenn Taylor. On the same night, Hinch At Seven debuts on HSV7, Nine revives the A Current Affair brand to mark Jana Wendt taking over as host of the former Willesee program. Home And Away begins in its regular half-hour slot but is in different timeslots in various cities – 6pm in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, 5.30pm in Adelaide, 7pm in Perth.
YouTube: telerecordings
18 January 1994: Blue Heelers debuts on Seven. The first episode ended up being replayed in Melbourne later in the week as audio problems rendered a significant portion of the program inaudible. It didn’t seem to do the show any harm as it went on to run for 12 years and 510 episodes!
its currently on Amazon prime and still holds up all these years later. in some respects its a product of its time (especially when dealing with LGBT issues) but if you keep in mind it was made 28 years ago when watching it is still worth a watch
All of it’s on 7plus too (including being featured as a linear stream, like they’ve done with some of their other dramas of the time), although from a visibility perspective it’s certainly good for it to have been put on one of the other streaming services too.
Yes Brisbane also swapped over. Return to local current affairs with Carroll At Seven (with Andrew Carroll) at 7pm. Terry Willesee Tonight remains a Sydney only program in 1988.
Brisbane audiences don’t care for a 6.30pm news and it returns to 6pm in 1989.
Carroll lasted throughout 1988 but was replaced by Hinch at the start of 1989.
History repeated itself years later when Today Tonight started local then Sydney and Brisbane ended up with the Melbourne produced Naomi Robson version.
ATN dropping TWT early might have been revenge for Terry signing a contract with Nine?
That’s up for debate. Unsure. Presumedly Nine came circling when Seven kicked him from Melbourne and Brisbane which may have resulted in less money/less audience.
They signed Jim Maher from Perth with the idea of keeping local current affairs. Apart from a relief stint with Susie Eleman in 1988-89 we didn’t see much of him presenting and became a political reporter.
19/1/2013 The Courier Mail reports that Bill McDonald and Sharyn Ghidella are to become the new Sunday-Thursday anchors of Seven News Brisbane, replacing Rod Young and Kay McGrath who are demoted to Friday and Saturday nights. They begin their new roles the following night.
20 January 1980: Graham Kennedy introduces ATV10 to viewers, marking the channel’s change from 0 but re-launching as a “new” channel. The channel would continue to simulcast on both channels 0 and 10 for an indefinite period to give people time to adjust. We’ll Put You In The Picture – Television.AU
YouTube: dontv3192
That evening marked the debut across the newly-renamed Network Ten of the big budget soap, Arcade. The series, set in a Sydney suburban shopping centre, had impressive creative and acting talent behind it, but it became a major dud and was axed within weeks. The network blamed the scriptwriters, the scriptwriters blamed the network for micro-managing the show.
20 January 1986: After being axed by the Seven Network, Neighbours makes its debut on Network Ten.
20 January 1992: Network Ten shifts Ten Eyewitness News to 5.00pm, giving the news service a clear point of difference from Seven and Nine, both remaining at 6.00pm. Ten also launches Hinch at 6.00pm, marking his move across from Seven and giving the show a half-hour head start on rival A Current Affair.
Not aware of any but I’m guessing there would have been some testing for engineering purposes. AFAIK there were no test transmissions publicised for viewers like they did in Brisbane, but in the case of Melbourne there was an indefinite simulcast period so preview testing for viewers was probably not necessary. In Brisbane it was a straight cutover so there was no simulcast period and viewers may have needed some testing.
20/1/2013 Bill McDonald and Sharyn Ghidella begin as the new primary weeknight anchors of Seven News Brisbane.
20/1/2014Seven News ditches its iconic Mission theme in favour of a new one which isn’t well received by viewers. Such was the backlash, the Mission theme was reinstated by the following Friday.
If I remember correctly, I think Melbourne viewers didn’t warm to the new theme that was otherwise well received elsewhere…
That year, Nine News won 24 weeks to Seven’s 16 weeks, with the former’s Commonwealth Games coverage giving it the edge. It must however be noted that the tide was starting to turn in Melbourne after decades of Nine dominance, also in part due to the network having the AFL rights at the time.
