This came four years after Seven aired Australia’s Worst Driver, in which the “worst” driver would have his/her vehicle crushed live on air, though they would receive a consolation prize of free public transport for a year.
Other examples include Family Feud hosted by Tony Barber and then Daryl Somers was on BTQ7 and Shirl’s Neighbourhood was on QTQ9. Also, Sounds with Donnie Sutherland (Seven Network) was on NWS9 at one stage. It was also on STW9 even after STW joined the Nine Network. I’m guessing it was all on a contract.
Family Feud was a weird one. A Grundy production, it was originally taped at TVW7 in Perth and sold to BTQ7 and ADS7 for screening in those cities, but then Nine bought it for airing in Sydney and Melbourne. Then as a result, production of the show shifted to GTV9. So even though it essentially became a Nine production (via Grundy) it continued to air on Seven in those other cities for the duration.
Shirl’s Neighbourhood, made at HSV7, was also shown on SAS10 in Adelaide.
Sounds, made at ATN7, had a run on QTQ9 in Brisbane. IIRC, Fairfax which owned ATN7 also had interests in QTQ9 at the time.
As Grundy had launched Family Feud at TVW7, they also produced another Perth-based game show, The Better Sex, at STW9, hosted by Mike Preston (previous host of The Celebrity Game). The show got sold to TVQ0 in Brisbane but wasn’t successful in getting sold to any other city, so it had a short life.
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20 April 1957: The Victorian Football League (VFL) is televised for the first time, with Melbourne channels ABV2, HSV7 and GTV9 permitted to broadcast live coverage of the final quarter of league matches.
20 April 1993: The Nine Network debuts drama series Law Of The Land, telling the story of a young lawyer who leaves a city practice to become a country town magistrate,. Starring David Roberts, Lisa Hensley, Debbie Byrne and Richard Moir.
20 April 1994: The Melbourne International Festival Charity Gala (Seven), hosted by Wendy Harmer, features performers including the Tokyo Shock Boys, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jimeoin, Tania Lacy and The Del Rubio Triplets.
20 April 1996: Network Ten debuts drama series Sweat, the story of students at an Australian school for the athletically gifted. Starring Martin Henderson, Heath Ledger, Inge Hornstra, Melissa Thomas, Tai Nguyen, Tahnie Merrey, Heath Bergersen, Matt Castelli, Mouche Phillips and Paul Tassone.
20 April 1998: Denise Drysdale launches her new weekday variety show, Denise, on the Seven Network.
20 April 2009: The Nine Network debuts Millionaire Hot Seat, a weeknight spin-off from the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire franchise, hosted by Eddie McGuire.
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And it got ended last year for the Aussie version of Tipping Point.
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21 April 1991: To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Anzac campaign, Ten screens a one-hour documentary Gallipoli: The Anzac Legend, narrated by Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.
21 April 1993: Ernie Dingo hosts the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Charity Gala (Seven), from the Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne, featuring appearances by Marty Putz, Ross Daniels, Rachel Berger, Greg Championand the musical cabaret The Monte Carlos. Network Ten current affairs host Derryn Hinch presents a two-hour special, The Skase Mirage, featuring exclusive interviews with Christopher Skase, the high-flying businessman turned recluse. Skase had fled Australia four years earlier to Spain after being charged with criminal offences following the collapse of his Qintex empire. He died in Majorca in 2001.
21 April 1996: Daryl Somers hosts the 38th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Melbourne Park Function Centre and telecast on the Nine Network.
21 April 2004: The Blue Heelers episode Reasonable Doubt, is performed live-to-air.
21 April 2007: ABC debuts comedy series The Sideshow, hosted by Paul McDermott.
21 April 2010: ABC debuts comedy series Lowdown, created by Adam Zwar and Amanda Brotchie, set in the world of celebrity journalism.
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Ray Martin wins his fifth and final Gold Logie.
Due to a scheduling conflict, Paul Bishop could not appear on this live episode, however his voice could still be heard on the radio.
I remember this episode rated close to 700,000 in Melbourne, but the season overall rated poorly, as did most other shows on Seven that year.
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22 April 1969: Homicide reaches its 200th episode, The Squirrel. The 0-10 Network screens a delayed telecast of the 41st Academy Awards, held a week earlier at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles.
(I have not been able to confirm, but apparently the 1969 Academy Awards were the first to be shown on Australian television. It seems that prior to then the only TV coverage the awards received here were clips shown during news reports)
22 April 1983: Mike Willesee hosts the 25th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Wentworth Regent Hotel, Melbourne.
22 April 1991: A new era begins for Sale Of The Century, introducing new hosts Glenn Ridge and Jo Bailey, replacing Tony Barber and Alyce Platt.
22 April 1992: Seven presents the debut of two-part mini-series Good Vibrations, the story of a family who move to the country and find they are sharing their new house with a ghost. The series stars Genevieve Picot, Felicity Soper, Jeffrey Walker and Stephen Whittaker.
22 April 2001: Shaun Micallef hosts the 43rd annual TV Week Logie Awards from the Crown Palladium, Melbourne.
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YouTube: Lachlan Patterson Game Shows
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I remember John Wood stuffed up his lines, saying something along the lines of “where’s Gallagher?” Referring to Sgt. Tess Gallagher (Caroline Craig). She had actually departed the show months earlier in late 2003.
He possibly meant to refer to Const. Susie Raynor (Simone McAullay).
But it did make the ‘live’ feel of the episode that much more realistic, making you remember it was a special, once-off, unique recording.
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There was a 10-15 minute pre-show, hosted by Erik Thomson, that “previewed” the show and how the actors prepared themselves for this one-off event.
I don’t think a “live” episode has ever happened again in any Australian television drama show. The only program on which it could conceivably happen is “Home and Away”, but I couldn’t see it happening.
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Yeah very unlikely given Home and Away’s production style has changed from a traditional Multi Camera setup to the current A/B Camera with the sets lit up like a weekly TV drama/feature film.
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Wasn’t Heelers filmed like this? Surely it was towards the end.
24 April 1971: Young Talent Time, featuring Johnny Young and the Young Talent Team — Jane Scali, Debbie Byrne, Vicki Broughton, Philip Gould, Rod Kirkham and Jamie Redfern— makes its debut.
24 April 1979: ABC debuts drama series Twenty Good Years, starring Harold Hopkins, Anne Pendlebury, Leila Hayes, John Murphy, Jonathan Hardy, Anne Charleston, Julia Blake and Michael Carman.
24 April 1983: The Eurovision Song Contest is broadcast in Australia for the first time, with a delayed telecast of the 1983 contest from Germany on Channel 0/28 in Sydney and Melbourne.
24 April 1988: QSTV, the satellite off-shoot of Telecasters North Queensland’s NQTV, begins operation as Queensland’s remote commercial television service (RCTS) through AUSSAT.
24 April 1995: Funky Squad, the parody of 1970s cop shows, debuts on ABC. Starring Tim Ferguson, Jane Kennedy, Santa Cilauro and Tom Gleisner.
24 April 2000: SBS debuts nine-part comedy series Pizza, created by Paul Fenech.
24 April 2001: Big Brother makes its Australian debut. Host Gretel Killeen welcomes twelve contestants into the Big Brother house, situated at the Dreamworld theme park, where they will be constantly monitored with no access to the outside world.
24 April 2005: Ten debuts its new Sunday afternoon travel series, Discover Down Under, featuring actor Paul Cronin.
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YouTube: Petarkco’s Media Archive
Funky Squad was underrated. It copped criticism from the press but I think it hit the mark pretty well.
One critic said it was a flop because it only went for 7 episodes, but I think the short run was the whole point. It was never meant to be a long-running series, IIRC it was largely intended as just a light-hearted interlude for the team between series of Frontline.
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26 April 1970: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II‘s Royal Tour message to Australians, recorded in Canberra two days earlier, is broadcast nationally across all networks.
26 April 1985: Greg Evans hosts the 27th annual TV Week Logie Awards from the World Trade Centre, Melbourne.
26 April 1986: The Nine Network screens Dire Straits: The Final Concert, live from the Sydney Entertainment Centre.
26 April 1988: ABC debuts eight-part drama series Stringer, starring Joy Smithers, Lynette Curran, Susan Lyons, Nicholas Papademetriou and Irish actor Derrick O’Connor.
26 April 1995: Ben Mendelsohn, Radha Mitchell, Amanda Douge, Livinia Nixon and Mark Hennessy join Rebecca Gibney in the latest Halifax fp telemovie, My Lovely Girl.
26 April 2010: CBeebies Australia debuts its first Australian commissioned series, Penelope K, By The Way, featuring Amanda Bishop.
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Is that still there? Used to pass it. Was next to the old Victoria Police HQ.
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