5 July 1964: The 1957 film Heaven Knows Mr Allison is broadcast on GTV9, Melbourne. Starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, the film went on to become the decade’s highest rating movie screening — attracting a rating of 59 (per cent of households) across Melbourne and Sydney.
5 July 1971: Following the final of Pick-A-Box the previous week, the Seven Network launches Great Temptation, a prime-time spin-off of the daytime quiz show Temptation
5 July 1972: The Melbourne debut of the ABC drama series Over There — a week after its debut in the same timeslot in Sydney. The 13-part series, set during World War II, told the story of Cyril Kirby (John Meillon), his brother Robert (John Hargreaves) and sister Elizabeth (Judy Morris) — with each episode focusing on a particular sibling.
5 July 1975: Brisbane TVQ0’s tenth birthday celebration featured a telethon for the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Sports Welfare Associations with guest appearances by personalities from the 0-10 Network, including stars of Number 96, The Box, Matlock Police and The Mike Walsh Show. Guests arrived via train from Sydney — emulating a similar venture from Sydney to Melbourne for the occasion of the TV Week Logie Awards.
5 July 1982: Mini-series Women Of The Sun, the first drama series to come from SBS, makes its debut.
5 July 1992: Ten in Melbourne presents its annual Deafness Appealathon, starting at midday with Bert Newton and continuing during program breaks throughout the afternoon. The appeal continues a tradition of telethons for Victoria’s Deafness Foundation hosted by the channel, dating back to 1974.
14 July 1980: Sale Of The Century, a remake of the 1970s Great Temptation hosted by Tony Barber and Victoria Nicolls, starts on Nine. A huge ratings success, the show continued through to 2001.
22 July 1979: ABC in Sydney and Melbourne presents the final instalment of multicultural television programs from the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). A second series of test programming from SBS was to follow in 1980 before the broadcaster’s official launch in October 1980.
22 July 1981: Victoria’s television stations are forced to be restricted to only two hours of programming between 6 and 8pm in a bid to stem widespread power usage across the state following a snap strike called by power workers in the Latrobe Valley.
22 July 2010: ABC launches ABC News 24, the first 24-hour free-to-air news channel in Australia.
I am told that back when similar strikes were restricting TV time in the 1970s (or, worse still, there was cricket on) and i was of pre-school age that i would be very dirty at mum because Adventure Island wasn’t on, as if it were her fault.
23 July 1938: Bert Newton is born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.
23 July 1960: GTV9 launches breakfast program Today, hosted by Barry McQueen and featuring Zara Lange and Brendan Edwards.
23 July 1986: The Royal Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson is televised live from London on ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten.
23 July 1989: After a months-long teaser campaign following falling ratings, Network Ten is relaunched as 10 TV Australia. The new-look network promised a slew of new shows, including Double Dare spin-off Family Double Dare, revivals of Candid Camera, The Price Is Right and Superquiz, and pop culture quiz show The Great TV Game Show
23 July 1990: The Comedy Company‘s Mark Mitchell launches his new comedy series, The Big Time, featuring his family in real-life situations while he dreams he is a late-night TV show host.
24 July 1977: The premiere of the five-part drama Pig In A Poke, starring Paul Mason and Justine Saunders. The series was a spin-off from the 1974 TV play of the same name.
24 July 1987: Christopher Skase’s Universal Telecasters purchases Seven Network stations ATN7 Sydney, HSV7 Melbourne and BTQ7 Brisbane from Fairfax for $780 million.
24 July 1989: The launch of game show Family Double Dare, hosted by Larry Emdur, new US series The Wonder Years and Quantum Leap, and the re-naming of Ten’s news bulletins as Eyewitness News.
24 July 2008: ABC launches its online viewing portal, ABC iview.
26 July 1965: The official opening of Adelaide’s third commercial channel, SAS10. The launch date had been postponed from the original schedule of 12 July following the channel’s dispute with its network partners over programming rights.
27 July 1971: Nine presents via satellite coverage of the heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) and Jimmy Ellis, live from Houston Astrodome, Texas.
27 July 1981: Wheel Of Fortune, initially presented by Ernie Sigley and Adriana Xenides, begins a 25-year run on Seven.
27 July 1984: As the Olympic Games from Los Angeles approaches, despite not being an Olympic rights holder, Nine has the Olympic Gala Concert from LA, followed by a 90-minute special Time Capsule — The Los Angeles Olympic Games Of 1932.
27 July 1991: Hey Hey It’s Saturday is presented from Perth’s Burswood Casino in a tribute to the musical Grease. Featuring in the concert special are Craig McLachlan, Wendy Matthews, Rhonda Burchmore, Nathan Cavaleri and Melissa Hannan.
It sounds like strikes hitting the (old version of the) Vic SEC were often enough a thing back then, for Seven to choose a snippet from a news bulletin prior to a power strike closedown, to trail their last few seconds of HSV-7 on analogue
