On This Day

TV History
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17 February 1961: The premiere of Crawford Productions’ first television drama series, Consider Your Verdict. Produced at HSV7’s “Teletheatre” and regarded as the first Australian-made one-hour drama series, Consider Your Verdict continued for over 160 episodes before winding up in 1964.

17 February 1978: The premiere of ABC four-part drama series Loss Of Innocence, based on a story starting in Sydney in the 1930s going through to the 1970s. Starring Ronald Falk, Monica Maughan, Carol Burns, Enid Lorimer, Carol Raye, David Franklin, Alwyn Kurts, John Fitzgerald and Edward Howell.

17 February 1990: ABC presents the ABC Sports Award Of The Year, live from the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.

17 February 1991: SBS begins a national screening of the twelve-part documentary series My Place, My Land, My People, a production of Queensland-based regional broadcaster QTV and a winner at the 1990 TV Week Logie Awards for most outstanding achievement by a regional television station

17 February 1993: ABC launches its new Asia-Pacific television service, Australia Television International (ATVI) with a one-hour special, A Network Begins, hosted by Karina Kelly. ATVI was officially opened by Prime Minister Paul Keating. Later, ABC begins nightly broadcast of Australia Television International News, presented from ABC’s Darwin studios. ATVI initially broadcast via satellite to fifteen countries in South-East Asia.

17 February 1995: The one-hour special The Mavis Bramston 30th Anniversary pays tribute to the popular comedy show of the 1960s, hosted by Amanda Keller and featuring Mavis originals Carol Raye and Barry Creyton with guest stars Garry McDonald, Andrew Denton, Noeline Brown and the cast of Big Girl’s Blouse.

17 February 1997: Drama series Big Sky, starring Gary Sweet, Alexandra Fowler and Martin Henderson, debuts on Ten with a two-hour episode.

17 February 2006: Friday Night Games, a spin-off from Big Brother: Friday Night Live, debuts with Mike Goldman, Bree Amer and Ryan Fitzgerald. The show features teams of celebrities participating in games and challenges.

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18 February 1972: Bert Newton hosts the 14th annual TV Week Logie Awards at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Hotel. The Nine Network telecast was shown live to Sydney and Melbourne and for the first time to Brisbane and Adelaide.

18 February 1979: The Sydney premiere of the Seven Network documentary series This Fabulous Century hosted by Peter Luck. The new series, including footage from Cinesound, Movietone and the National Film and Sound Archive to illustrate the history of Australia from Federation to the present day, debuts with a one-hour episode. The series debuted in Melbourne the following Sunday.

18 February 1980: Melbourne’s ATV10 screens the telemovie The Franky Doyle Story, tracing the story of the notorious Prisoner character played by Carol Burns.

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18 February 1984: After over a decade on Saturday mornings, Hey Hey It’s Saturday moves to prime time and is re-named Hey Hey It’s Saturday Night.

18 February 1985: After 12 years at midday, The Mike Walsh Show makes its prime time debut. Network 0-28 is re-branded as SBS in anticipation of the network’s expansion to Brisbane, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Newcastle and Wollongong later in the year and the eventual removal of the VHF Channel 0 transmissions in Sydney and Melbourne. The re-launch also coincides with the debut of regular daytime programming on the channel.

18 February 1987: Don Lane returns to television with the debut of You’ve Got To Be Joking, a weekly series of practical jokes and hidden camera stunts.

18 February 2007: The debut of the first series of Australia’s Got Talent, with contestants vying for a grand final prize of $250,000. Judging the contestants are Red Symons, Dannii Minogue and Tom Burlinson.

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I know I’ve said this before, but that Franky Doyle ad sounds like a scare campaign from the upcoming election.

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Another rural drama that was axed way too soon.

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And, funnily enough, produced by the Australian arm of Hanna-Barbera. Yes, that Hanna-Barbera, although by that stage it as half-owned by The Hamlyn Group. Then it was part of the James Hardie group, becoming Taft-Hardie, then Southern Star/Hanna-Barbera Australia, then Southern Star, then Endemol now Endemol Shine.

No Swirling Star or Cartoon HB at the end though, episodes are on YouTube to prove my point.

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Screen Gems had an Australian offshoot as well. They produced the original daytime Mike Walsh Show and some comedy specials with Graham Kennedy. Not sure what else they did here.

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I looked that up, and I don’t think they produced much outside of that. I guess Columbia decided that it wasn’t worth their time or expense?

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23 February 1981: Network Ten revives the breakfast news format with the debut of Good Morning Australia, hosted by Gordon Elliott and Sue Kellaway.

23 February 1993: Hugo Weaving, Heather Mitchell, Andy Anderson and Victoria Longley star in Lust, the opening episode of the ABC anthology series Seven Deadly Sins.

23 February 1995: The daily adventures of vet Peter Trembath are covered in the new six-part documentary series The Flying Vet (ABC).

23 February 1998: James O’Neil hosts Seven‘s new afternoon game show, Hot Streak.

23 February 2000: The Mole, a reality competition based on a Belgian format, debuts on Seven, hosted by Grant Bowler.

23 February 2009: The Cut, a six-part drama exploring the sometimes murky world of sports management, debuts on ABC. Starring John Wood, Matt Passmore, Ben Oxenbould and Julieanne Newbould.

23 February 2012: Network Ten launches its new morning show Breakfast with Paul Henry, Andrew Rochford, Kathryn Robinson and Magdalena Roze.

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Lasted only 9 months before being axed

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A reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald compared it to Battle of the Sexes.

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IIRC, the show was rushed into a premiere following the potential news of a Labor leadership spill, which later proves unfounded with then-PM Julia Gillard remaining in power until eventually being deposed in June 2013.

It was originally scheduled to premiere on Monday 27 February.

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24 February 1962: BP Super Show presents a special tribute to Australia’s top radio presenter Jack Davey, hosted by his friend and rival Bob Dyer. Davey was incredibly popular and prolific during the ‘golden days’ of radio in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s but due to ill-health only had a short career in television. He passed away in 1959 at the age of 52.

24 February 1992: ABC debuts sketch comedy series Gillies And Company and arts program Review.

24 February 1998: Georgie Parker leads the cast in Seven‘s new drama All Saints. The series focused on the staff of Ward 17 at the fictional All Saints Western General Hospital. The series also debuted with cast Judith McGrath, Ben Tari, Libby Tanner, Jeremy Cumpston, Kirrily White, Andrew McKaige, Sam Healy and Martin Lynes.

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25 February 1971: The first episode of the 0-10 Network police drama Matlock Police, based around a fictional town in country Victoria. The series starred Paul Cronin, Vic Gordon, Grigor Taylor and Michael Pate. The debut episode, titled 26 Hours, featured a guest appearance by Sheila Florance.

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Source: Listener In-TV

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26 February 1966: New TV station — SDQ4, Southern Downs, Queensland.

26 February 1975: The ABC sketch comedy special Basically Black features members of the National Black Theatre: Bindi Williams, Gary Foley, Zac Martin and Aileen Corpus.

26 February 1977: The annual GTV9 Yooralla Telethon is officially opened by newsreader Eric Pearce and personalities featured during the day included Don Lane, Mike Walsh, Daryl Somers, Paul Hogan and Bert Newton. The 1977 telethon raised a total of $594,741.21.

26 February 1979: The 0-10 Network‘s new drama series Prisoner debuts on TEN10, Sydney. The other stations in the 0-10 network screen the premiere episode the following night.

26 February 2006: Sunrise hosts David Koch and Melissa Doyle host Seven‘s new nostalgia show Where Are They Now?

26 February 2007: The Nine Network launches daytime talk show The Catch-Up, featuring Libbi Gorr, Zoe Sheridan, Lisa Oldfield and Mary Moody

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28 February 1959: ABC debuts music show Six O’Clock Rock, hosted by Ricki Merriman and featuring Johnny O’Keefe and his band The Dee Jays. O’Keefe took over as host six weeks later.

28 February 1975: The last day of black and white television with colour transmission officially launching at 12.00am on Saturday 1 March 1975.

28 February 1978: ABC debuts the late night music show, Rocturnal, hosted by David Woodhall and produced at ABS2, Adelaide. The program was inspired by the ABCFM radio show of the same name.

28 February 1982: Greg Evans hosts ATV10’s live coverage of Moomba Festival’s Birdman Rally. This was followed by highlights of the Mushroom Evolution Concert, which was held at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in January as a celebration of ten years of Mushroom Records. Performers at the concert included Renee Geyer, Russell Morris, The Sports, Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons and FJ Holden And The Fives. The concert telecast was simulcast with radio station 3XY.

28 February 1993: ABC documentary series True Stories presents Feed Them To Cannibals, a colourful review of Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

28 February 1995: Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show celebrates its 200th show with a guest appearance by Geoff Harvey and a 20-piece brass band.

28 February 2005: Nine broadcasts a delayed prime time telecast of the 77th Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

28 February 2010: Rebecca Gibney, Vince Colosimo, Maya Stange and Jessica Tovey star in the Nine Network telemovie Wicked Love; The Maria Korp Story — a dramatised account of the attempted murder and disappearance of Melbourne woman Maria Korp.

28 February 2016: The Seven Network launches new channel 7flix, offering an emphasis on movies and kids entertainment.

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1 March 1968: New TV Station — GTS4, Spencer Gulf North, South Australia.

1 March 1971: Seven‘s breakfast show Sydney Today changes its name to Today with the program extended to Melbourne. Sydney hosts Bruce Webster and Pat Lovell are joined by Melbourne-based host Roland Strong.

1 March 1975: “C-Day” marks the official changeover to colour television in Australia.

1 March 1976: To celebrate the 100th year since the birth of Australian poet CJ Dennis, ABC screens The Life And Times Of CJ Dennis in most states. (Western Australia follows on 3 March and Tasmania on 4 March) John Derum plays the title role in the docu-drama with other cast including Richard Moir, Judy Dick and Julie Dawson. The Life And Times Of CJ Dennis was produced in Adelaide and its airing is timed to coincide with Adelaide Writers’ Week.

1 March 1993: Prime Television re-enters the local news market in Canberra with an aggressive attack on the top-rating Capital Eyewitness News. Prime’s one-hour bulletin combines local and national news and is largely staffed by former Capital employees, including newsreader Geoff Hiscock and news director Ken Begg.

And because this isn’t a leap year…

29 February 1976: The second series of 1850s drama Rush, and the first to be produced in colour, debuts on ABC in Queensland, with other states following on 1 March.

29 February 1980: Network Ten puts the axe to its big-budget series Arcade, after only six weeks on-air. Production is ceased immediately with approximately 20 episodes never to go to air. Sydney’s TEN10 replaces the series with re-runs of MASH, and ATV10, Melbourne, with re-runs of Hogan’s Heroes.

29 February 1996: The 38th annual Grammy Awards (Seven), hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, are on delayed telecast from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles.

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Arcade must have been bad for them to pull it after just 6 weeks and not air the episodes that were already in the can

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It was the worst.

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Lots of looking at the script disguised in between props. :joy::rofl:

What seems like the second last episode that was produced is on Jeremy Kewley’s (who was one of actors who was in it) Vimeo page along with the documentary on the making of Arcade and the first half hour episode.

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