This was one of the worst programming decisions in Ten’s history. The Comedy Company remains one of a small number of programs that have been competitive against 60 Minutes over the years, even winning the timeslot a few times.
2 Likes
The show had passed its peak by the end of 1989. I think the creatives were burned out from churning out shows for 40 weeks. A break was needed, for sure. And it gave Ten a chance to try some spin-off projects like Col’n Carpenter, which they got a few seasons out of.
1 Like
YouTube: classicclips19902000
2 Likes
16 July 1956: Melbourne’s HSV7 commences its first test transmissions ahead of its official launch in November. The test transmissions, which include test patterns and short documentary films, are set for 3.00-5.00pm Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 7.00-9.00pm Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 10.00am-12.00pm on Saturdays.
16 July 1976: Bluey, the police drama starring Lucky Grills as Detective Sargeant ‘Bluey’ Hills, debuts on ATN7, Sydney. The series first aired in Brisbane on 20 July and in Melbourne, where it was filmed, on 2 August. The series was not renewed beyond its first season but gained a cult following almost 20 years later when episodes were comically re-dubbed as “Bargearse” for The Late Show.
16 July 1990: Sale Of The Century presents the first in the week-long Celebrity Challenge, commemorating the show’s tenth anniversary. Taking part in the challenge include Bert Newton, Andrew Gaze, Simon O’Donnell, Peta Toppano, Gough Whitlam, Lisa Curry, Cameron Daddo, George Negus and Jennifer Byrne.
16 July 2001: The debut of Melbourne-based apartment drama The Secret Life Of Us, beginning as a two-hour double episode, follows the finale of the first series of Big Brother Australia.
16 July 2003: The Nine Network presents coverage of Game Three of the Rugby League State Of Origin — Queensland versus NSW — from Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane.
16 July 2008: SBS premieres mY Generation, a six-part series which puts Australian youth under the microscope to reveal what they really think and feel about the big issues: religion, politics, adulthood, housing and community engagement.
4 Likes
3 Likes
The birth of the Seven Network.
3 Likes
Footage of Eric Pearce introducing one of these test transmissions appeared in HSV-7’s final analogue sign-off.
2 Likes
17 July 1963: GTV9’s In Melbourne Tonight presents a special edition — In Yallourn Tonight — hosted from Kernot Hall in the regional town of Yallourn in Gippsland.
17 July 1969: The Nine Network premieres quiz show The Big Nine, hosted by Athol Guy. This is followed by Today The Moon, Kevin Sanders‘ one-hour special previewing the Apollo 11 moon landing, including pre-recorded interviews with the astronauts and covering their final pre-launch testing.
17 July 1990: SBS premieres weekly sports program, The Sports Machine, hosted by Les Murray and a team of reporters looking at the playing fields, dressing rooms and board rooms of sporting clubs around Australia.
17 July 1991: Aussie ex-pat and British TV presenter Clive James returns to Sydney after 30 years for a one-hour special, Clive James – Postcard From Sydney (ABC).
17 July 1995: David Reyne and Tracy Grimshaw host the debut of the new-look Midday (Nine)
17 July 2000: The Nine Network premieres cooking show Fresh Cooking With The Australian Women’s Weekly, hosted by Jason Roberts. The Seven Network premieres two-part mini-series The Potato Factory, based on the novel by Bruce Courtenay. Starring Lisa McCune, Ben Cross, Sonia Todd, Robert Grubb, Di Smith, Linal Haft, Johnny Lockwood and Annie Byron. The Nine Network‘s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire presents a celebrity special edition, featuring contestants Nicole Livingstone, Jimeoin, Red Symons, Rachel Griffiths, Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Sam Newman.
17 July 2002: The Nine Network premieres crime drama Young Lions, starring Penny Cook, Alex Dimitriades, Anna Lise Phillips, Alexandra Davies and Tom Long.
17 July 2007: The Seven Network premieres factual series RSPCA Animal Rescue. The Nine Network premieres travel/adventure series Things To Try Before You Die, featuring Gary Sweet, Livinia Nixon and Jules Lund.
5 Likes
On that episode, Red Symons blows it all on the penultimate question, and while he had a lifeline in hand he wanted to save it for the final question (which he was hypothetically presented with in an interview with ACA later that week).
To my knowledge he was the first person in Aussie Millionaire to lose on the $500,000 question.
4 Likes
18 July 1966: The Australian version of Play School, based on a BBC program of the same name, begins on ABC.
18 July 1973: Bert Newton hosts the 20th anniversary Gown Of The Year awards presentation. The fashion industry awards, presented by the Mannequins and Models Guild of Australia, recognises the talents of Australia’s fashion industry. Also screening this evening is the comedy special, The True Blue Show, the precursor to a weekly series that would screen on the Seven Network later in the year. The special features Gerry Gallagher, Sue Walker, John Derum and Emma Gray with performances by Johnny Farnham, Julie Anthony and Jon English.
18 July 1976: The ABC, Seven and Nine networks commence their joint coverage of the Games Of The XXI Olympiad, via satellite from Montreal. All three networks provided regular daily highlights packages from each day of competition — with Nine also going outside of the joint arrangement to provide overnight coverage of competition as reports and film of events becomes available.
18 July 1992: The Late Show, from the D Generation, premieres on ABC.
18 July 1999: The Seven Network premieres two-part mini-series Tribe, starring Craig McLachlan, Nadine Garner, Rachel Blakely, Ling Cooper Tang, Paul Leyden, Peter Stefanou, Thaao Penghlis, Beverley Dunn and Tayler Kane.
18 July 2004: Network Ten premieres two-part mini-series Jessica, the TV adaptation of the novel by Bryce Courtenay. Starring Leeanna Walsman, Lisa Harrow, Sam Neill, Tony Martin, John Howard, Oliver Ackland, Wil Traval, Heather Mitchell, Huw Higginson and Simon Chilvers.
18 July 2010: Network Ten screens the telemovie Hawke, depicting the life of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. Starring Richard Roxburgh, Rachael Blake, Felix Williamson, Asher Keddie, Sacha Horler, Patrick Brammall, Lliam Amor, Simon Maiden, Terry Norris, Julia Blake and Josh Lawson.
6 Likes
One became a ratings hit, the other forgettable. And summed up the era for both neteork. Note on Jules Lund: Nine’s golden boy of the time, was on just about everything!
This premiered with much fanfare, a big night for Ten, was a smash hit, following other hits in Merlin and the biggest ever season of MasterChef (S2) IIRC. Ten News Senior Political Correspondent Hugh Riminton later around 10:30pm had a sit down with Bob Hawke following the telemovie.
Also Asher Keddie would star in Offspring’s first season that same year, possibly on-air around this time too. And the rest was history as they say, for her…
3 Likes
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 2008: SBS screens Walk Like A Man. Narrated by Ian Roberts, the documentary traces the journey of two gay rugby teams, the San Francisco Fog and the Sydney Convicts, as they prepare to battle in the Bingham Cup.
22 July 2010: ABC launches ABC News 24, the first 24-hour free-to-air news channel in Australia.
22 July 2010: ABC1 premieres four-part documentary series The Making Of Modern Australia, looking at the social and cultural shifts in postwar Australia, told through the stories and memories of ordinary Australians.
6 Likes
The show celebrated its 15th anniversary on the Saturday just passed. I didn’t see the milestone mentioned on its social media outlets.
3 Likes
23 July 1938: Bert Newton is born in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy. He began his career in radio in the early 1950s, and in television in 1957. Over his career he worked at ABC, Seven, Nine and Ten networks, hosted 19 TV Week Logie Awards presentations, won four TV Week Gold Logies and in 1988 was inducted into the TV Week Logie Awards Hall of Fame. He died in 2021 and was given a State Funeral.
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 of being a late-night TV show host.
23 July 1996: ABC medical drama GP reaches its 300th episode, with guest star Claudia Karvan.
23 July 2000: The Nine Network premieres Dot.Com.TV, demystifying technology and the online world. Hosted by Carolyn Randoe.
23 July 2003: Blue Heelers reaches its 400th episode.
23 July 2008: The Nine Network‘s This Is Your Life presents a special episode, Bert’s 70th Birthday, to pay tribute to Bert Newton. It is Newton’s third time to be honoured by the show, following earlier appearances in the 1970s and 1990s.
23 July 2009: The Seven Network premieres sketch comedy series Double Take, and an Australian version of the TV satire TV Burp. ABC premieres documentary series Whatever! The Science Of Teens, hosted by Steve Cannane.
5 Likes
So scripted that network re-launch.
1 Like
25 July 1990: Noni Hazlehurst, Deidre Rubenstein and Tony Barry star in the documentary-drama Breaking Through (ABC), focusing on the real-life case of Cathy Ann Matthews and her frightening and painful childhood. The physical, emotional and sexual abuse perpetrated by her father was so distressing that she shut it out of her conscious mind for over 40 years.
25 July 1992: The Seven Network begins its coverage of The Games Of The XXV Olympiad with a two-hour preview followed by specials The Torch Of Champions: The History Of The Summer Games and Seoul ’88: 16 Days Of Glory before crossing to Barcelona for live coverage of the Opening Ceremony from 3.30am (AEST).
25 July 1993: After months of planning and numerous working titles, the new sketch comedy series The Comedy Sale debuts on Seven, starring Frank Woodley, Colin Lane, Mikey Robins, Ross Daniels, Daina Reid and the Umbilical Brothers.
25 July 1996: Mike Munro returns with a new series of This Is Your Life on Nine.
25 July 2000: ABC premieres Chequerboard Revisited, a six-part retrospective on the groundbreaking documentary series that ran between 1969 and 1975. The first episode features Peter Bonsall Boone and his partner Peter de Waal, who ‘came out’ as a gay couple in a Chequerboard episode in 1972.
25 July 2005: The Nine Network screens the special The Best of Bert Newton, featuring memorable moments from a career spanning almost five decades.
4 Likes
Interestingly, the man who finally came up with the show’s title was none other than… Graham Kennedy! (according to a Herald Sun article at the time which I found on a game show forum)
Considering the show was a complete flop and was axed quickly, Gra Gra was presumably very grateful that he wasn’t actually in it.
Is there any connection between this and Bert returning to Nine the following year?
It was hard to believe that the show was a flop considering it featured many established comedians.
Daina Reid would star in Full Frontal on Seven the following year, which helped to launch her career.
My vague memory is that Nine actually played it to him in a private screening first as part of its negotiations to convince him to come back from Ten. Must have worked!
3 Likes