20 August 1974: ABV2, Melbourne, premieres historical drama series Rush, set during the 1850s gold rush. The series makes its Sydney premiere on 29 August. (Almost 20 years later, scenes from Rush were comically dubbed by The Late Show to form a series of sketches called The Olden Days)
20 August 1990: Network Ten premieres Australian series A Waltz Through The Hills, based on the classic children’s novel which tells the story of two children living in a small Western Australian town in 1954.
20 August 1998: ABC premieres children’s series Minty, a co-production with Scottish Television. The final episode of US sitcom Seinfeld screens in a two-hour special on Network Ten.
20 August 2001: ABC presents a 90-minute special edition to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Four Corners.
20 August 2007: The Nine Network premieres children’s game show Sharky’s Friends.
In a sad coincidence, Ol Blue Eyes Frank Sinatra died on the same night of the Seinfeld series finale originally aired in the US on the 14th of May 1998.
Apparently the Ambulance made it to Sinatra’s residence in four minutes after receiving the 911 call at 9:14 Pm and arrived at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at 9:35 PM in record time as the traffic was incredibly light due to many residents in Los Angeles were watching the West Coast feed of the Seinfeld Finale according to Beverly Hills Fire chief Mike Smollen.
22 August 2006: The Seven Network premieres The Force: Behind the Line, a documentary series following the activities of the Western Australian Police Force. Hosted by Simon Reeve. Network Ten premieres mock current affairs series Real Stories, created by Hamish Blake and Andy Lee.
26 August 1972: ABC and Seven both broadcast the Opening Ceremony of The Games Of The XX Olympiad, live from Munich.
26 August 1989: ABC premieres comedy show The Money Or The Gun, hosted by Andrew Denton.
26 August 1990: The Seven Network begins screening the children’s series Round The Twist, originally shown on ABC, starring Tamsin West, Sam Vanderberg, Richard Moir and Bunney Brooke.
26 August 1991: Four Corners (ABC) presents a special edition to commemorate its 30th anniversary, introduced by reporter Chris Masters.
26 August 2008: The Seven Network debuts comedy-drama series Packed To The Rafters, starring Erik Thomson, Rebecca Gibney, Hugh Sheridan, Jessica Marais, Angus McLaren and Michael Caton.
26 August 2010: Network Ten announces plans to launch a new digital channel, Eleven, presenting a youth-focused entertainment line-up, with prime-time to be headlined by Neighbours and US series The Simpsons.
27 August 1985: The first of the three fleet of Aussat satellites are deployed via NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
27 August 1997: ABC premieres Close Ups, a six-part series of monologues with each episode featuring on a different character. The first episode features Ben Mendelsohn as Biz, a security guard who reveals his experiences at the hand of the Family Court and the hidden world of domestic violence.
27 August 2001: SBS premieres comedy series Life Support, presenting a satirical, sometimes dark look at Australian life through the guise of a mock lifestyle show.
27 August 2007: Seven debuts its new crime procedural drama City Homicide, starring Shane Bourne, Noni Hazlehurst, Daniel MacPherson, Aaron Pederson, Nadine Garner and Damien Richardson. On the same night, Nine screens the free-to-air debut of telemovie The King, a dramatisation of the life of entertainer Graham Kennedy, starring Stephen Curry as Kennedy. The King was broadcast earlier in the year on Foxtel.
Blue Heelers rated higher at the time as well but because it was made by Southern Star it got the axe but it did have a few years on All Saints as far as its run goes. After All Saints you had Packed to the Rafters and Winners and Losers on Seven but the seasons weren’t as long as either All Saints or Blue Heelers that had 40 episode seasons. Now we only have the same reality rubbish and the occasional mini series and they wonder why free to air TV is dying a slow death.
2004: A day too early, but sometime after 6:30 pm local time, we all unexpectedly said goodbye to the best ever graphics, theme music and presentation that Seven has ever used for all it’s National and State News Bulletins after more than 4.5 years since it was first launched. 23.5 hours later, there were early signs of a Seven News relaunch when Sunrise had a minor relaunch featuring the theme music still used today (There was an experiment with another theme music in MGMT’s “Electric Feel” during 2010-11) as well as the first ever episode to be broadcasted from Martin Place.
I still miss all of Seven’s news look and theme music between February of 2000 and August of 2004, it was as enjoyable as every ABC News Look and theme music (Remixed by Pendulum, 2011 and reverted back to, 2024) between Mid-1980s well into the new millennium.
