This was the period the current (or recent) Nine drama executive came on board IIRC, also Underbelly but apart from that and Sea Patrol (2007) didn’t see much success at all, both with drama and the network overall.
They took a bunch of ex-Seven/Blue Heelers stars: Lisa McCune (Sea Patrol), Matt Holmes (Sea Patrol), Ditch Davey (Sea Patrol recurring guest), Charlie Clausen (Canal Road), Grant Bowler (Canal Road - while also still fronting Border Security for Seven), Damian Walshe-Howling (Underbelly), Martin Sacks (Underbelly guest) and Simone McAullay (The Strip - later in the UK phenomenon Broadchurch).
17 April 1987: Music video show Rage debuts on ABC.
17 April 1991: Seven presents the two-hour Melbourne International Comedy Festival Charity Gala from Melbourne’s Her Majesty’s Theatre, featuring Wendy Harmer, Richard Stubbs, Steve Vizard, Garry McDonald, Barry Humphries, Mark Mitchell, Ian McFadyen, Maryanne Fahey and Kim Gyngell with cast members of Fast Forward, the D Generation and Acropolis Now. The comedy event is a fund-raiser for the Salvation Army.
17 April 1994: Ray Martin hosts the 36th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. It is the first time the awards are presented on a Sunday night, and the first awards hosted by Martin.
17 April 2011: ABC debuts two-part mini-series Paper Giants: The Story Of Cleo, starring Asher Keddie as Ita Buttrose and Rob Carlton as Kerry Packer — ABC success sparks Nine spin-off [2011]
initially not shown in Victoria because of (1) an industrial dispute at Ripponlea and (2) VFL/AFL coverage ate into its timeslot, ABC screened the normal Friday lineup after the football. However Rage began in Victoria six months later after the football season ended.
I definitely recall there was some interruption to Rage screening, whether this was specific to Victoria I can’t say. But there were one or two times I tuned in and was greeted with a just a slide saying “No Rage Tonight”. But I think it largely still appeared in Victoria but with some of these interruptions. I believe part of the instability was due to the record industry wanting to enforce ‘pay for play’ provisions that would require networks to pay for video clips that they previously got for free. And I think that may have been more likely to have interrupted Rage in its early stages while the matter was being resolved.
The Age Green Guide has it listed for its first two shows on 17 and 18 April. It is also listed in The Age’s TV guide for the following week (23 April)
And the week after, 1 and 2 May. So it appears that Friday night VFL was not a problem. And IIRC there was no live Saturday night football, just the early evening replays, so that would not have been a problem for Rage later.
In ABC’s annual report for 1986/87, they said "While industrial relations within the ABC remained volatile, it is pleasing to report that during 1986-87 there were no major disputes and few minor incidents of a specific industrial nature; there were no interruptions to broadcasts as a result of industrial action".
Yes I remember the pay for play dispute for music video shows, Rage aired mainly independent label videos (artists you would normally hear on triple j at the time) and a US live music show “Rock of the 80s” (which had Romeo Void’s Never Say Never as its theme). They had to negotiate with the big six labels to put their videos on the show. By the end of the year it was back to normal.
18 April 1955: The licences to operate Australia’s first commercial TV stations are issued to Herald and Weekly Times (Melbourne), General Television Corporation (Melbourne), Amalgamated Television Services (Sydney) and Television Corporation (Sydney).
18 April 1959: The Victorian Football League (VFL) launches its 1959 season and, as per the previous two seasons, Melbourne’s three TV channels are permitted to televise the final quarter of play of selected matches.
YouTube: IfoundthesesVHStapesburiedinmybackyard
18 April 1984: ABC debuts teen drama Six Of The Best, starring Andrew McKaige, Nick Holland and Gina Riley.
18 April 1986: Mike Willesee hosts the 28th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the State Theatre, Sydney.
18 April 1990: The Seven Network debuts police drama, Skirts, starring Tracy Mann, Nicholas Bell, Mary Coustas, Kate Gillick, Antoinette Byron, Karen Davitt and Gary Sweet.
18 April 1999: The Nine Network debuts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, hosted by Eddie McGuire. The first series had a limited run of eleven episodes.
18 April 2004: Eddie McGuire hosts the 46th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Crown Palladium, Melbourne.
18 April 2007: The Seven Network debuts Last Chance Learners, hosted by Mike Whitney.
A few years later, she would go on to portray Mt Thomas resident emergency physician Dr Zoe Hamilton in a long-running role on Blue Heelers for its first 6 seasons, later marrying Sgt Nick Schultz (William McInnes) and the two left together. I always liked her performance, rather down to earth and a good sense of humour, was frequently featured in her later seasons.
19 April 1983: The mini-series The Dismissal, screened on the Ten Network in the eastern states, is instead run on Nine in Adelaide after SAS10 declined its interest.
19 April 1990: Ten screens the one-hour special Phar Lap: The Verdict, presented by Ian Leslie. The special focuses on the trial, commissioned in late 1989, dealing with the question of who killed champion racehorse Phar Lap.
19 April 1993: HG Nelson (Greig Pickhaver) and Roy Slaven (John Doyle) host the new TV adaptation of their radio program This Sporting Life (ABC).
19 April 1998: Daryl Somers hosts the 40th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Crown Palladium, Melbourne
SAS10’s relationship to the Ten Network always seemed to be a bit askew. When the channel debuted in 1965 it had a major falling out with the eastern states stations over program supply and movie package arrangements and various titles were picked up by ADS7 and NWS9. In the 1970s a few 0-10 network shows from the eastern states were picked up instead by ADS7.
In the case of The Dismissal, SAS10’s owner Robert Holmes à Court, who also owned Perth’s TVW7, felt that the financial outlay to pick up the show did not match the public interest. But when the show’s high ratings from Sydney and Melbourne came out, SAS10 suddenly had a change of heart but it was too late as NWS9 had just outbid ADS7 to pick it up instead.
i don’t think it happened a lot, but network relationships were a lot more casual and individual stations, even those with common owners, still had a lot of autonomy when it came to programming. Although TCN9 and GTV9, both owned by Packer, were fairly consistent AFAIK but not always.
Another example in the mid 1970s was the interview show With Margaret Whitlam. It was produced at HSV7 in Melbourne but in Sydney it was picked up instead by TEN10. So when the show took visits to Sydney, it would be produced at the studios of TEN10.
The 1980s were probably a bit more consistent although it is well documented that Neighbours was not uniformly supported across the Seven Network which led to it being axed.
