On This Day

TV History
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27 July 1971: Nine presents via satellite coverage of the heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) and Jimmy Ellis, live from Houston Astrodome, Texas.

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27 July 1981: Wheel Of Fortune, with Ernie Sigley and Adriana Xenides, begins a 25-year run on Seven.

27 July 1991: Hey Hey It’s Saturday is presented from Perth’s Burswood Casino in a tribute to the musical Grease. Featuring in the concert special are Craig McLachlan, Wendy Matthews, Rhonda Burchmore, Nathan Cavaleri and Melissa Hannan.

27 July 1997: The Nine Network screens telemovie One Way Ticket, starring Peter Phelps and Rachel Blakely. Based on real events, the story of a female prison officer who becomes involved with a male inmate and assists with his escape.

27 July 2003: Network Ten premieres reality singing contest Australian Idol, with hosts Andrew G (Osher Günsberg) and James Mathison with judges Mark Holden, Marcia Hines and Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson.

27 July 2005: ABC premieres We Can Be Heroes, the mockumentary series following five fictional contenders for the Australian of the Year. Chris Lilley co-wrote the series and played the five main characters.

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28 July 1978: The 0-10 Network presents the Australian Popular Song Festival from the studios of ATV0, Melbourne, hosted by Barry Crocker and special guest star Julie Anthony, with the finalists including Debbie Byrne, Mary Jane Boyd, John St Peeters, Lee Conway, Little Pattie, Bryan Davies, Leon Berger, Andy Lupton and Graeme Connors.

28 July 1980: TVW7, Perth, is the host broadcaster for the World Professional Ballroom Dancing Championships, being held at the Perth Entertainment Centre.

28 July 2006: Network Ten premieres The Steph Show, following Stephanie McIntosh as she makes the journey from playing Sky in Neighbours to embarking on a singing career.

28 July 2022: After 37 years and 8903 episodes, Neighbours comes to an end… or so we thought?

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29 July 1981: The Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The event was given saturation coverage on ABC and commercial stations across Australia. ADS7 in Adelaide was one of the few commercial stations in Australia to provide an alternative to the live coverage, instead playing a John Wayne movie and screening a delayed telecast of the wedding the following day.

29 July 1984: The Opening Ceremony of The Games Of The XXIII Olympiad, live from Los Angeles, begins two weeks of Olympic Games telecast on the Ten Network. With no Ten outlet in Perth the rights to broadcast the Games are shared between local channels TVW7 and STW9 — with Seven having the Opening Ceremony and the first week of competition, and Nine having the second week of competition and the Closing Ceremony.

29 July 1991: Ten’s music video show Coca-Cola Power Cuts, previously seen on Sunday afternoons, now moves into the 5.00pm Monday to Friday timeslot, followed by game show Blind Date with Greg Evans and new co-host Ankie Nordberg

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I remember when Power Cuts first aired it was on a Saturday afternoon. The animations in that show were quite basic but they made good use of it. I haven’t been able to find any trace of that show on YouTube.

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I was trying to find out a bit more about this version of Blind Date online but there’s not much info out there. I did find a video on YouTube from 1991 hosted by Greg Evans and Nicky Buckley. Any idea why she was replaced with Ankie Nordberg later in the year?

This episode was a “celebrity” edition featuring Jo Beth Taylor.

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YouTube: Channel 10

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Thanks for that. Jeez! Producers were quite ruthless and stupid back then. They couldn’t recognise the talent they had in front of them.

Luckily, it turned out for the better for Nicky Buckley because she went on to score the co-hosting gig on Sale of the Century. Meanwhile, Blind Date was axed by the end of the year and after appearing in Chances, Ankie Nordberg returned to obscurity.

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Not sure that things are much different nowadays. Now people just mysteriously leave to “spend more time with the family”.

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I remember hearing something years ago that the State Government at the time legally couldn’t force the TV stations to close, but threatened the commercial stations that they would pull their advertising if they didn’t comply. The State Government was a big advertiser at the time, with the Gas & Fuel, SEC, State Bank & also an insurance company (the SIO?), along with all the other government advertising. Not sure if this was true, but probably made sense at the time.

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31 July 1988: Former ABC journalist Kerry O’Brien hosts Network Ten‘s new Sunday morning current affairs/interview program, Face To Face.

31 July 1998: The Seven Network premieres The Wiggles, screening on Friday afternoons with a replay on Saturday mornings. SBS premieres late night music series Alchemy.

31 July 2002: Network Ten screens the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Great Debate — “There Is Nothing Sexier Than The Truth” — featuring Rove McManus, Rene Hicks, Ross Noble, Rich Hall, Jean Kittson and Chris Addison.

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This series of “The Wiggles” was made in conjunction with the Disney Channel as the group originally filmed a pilot in the mid nineties for the ABC, but the ABC later rejected it as the Pilot is yet to see the light of day three decades later.

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1 August 1964: Melbourne becomes Australia’s first four-station market with the official opening of ATV0. The new channel is the first of the Independent Television System network now known as Network Ten. The opening night line-up includes a variety/comedy special, This Is It, hosted by station personality Ray Taylor.

YouTube: Australian Television Archive

1 August 1971: Mass For You At Home, the weekly Catholic Mass, makes its first appearance on ATV0, presented by Father Michael King — a well-known local media identity whose television appearances also included In Melbourne Tonight and even a guest appearance (as himself) in an episode of Homicide.

1 August 1971: The American Apollo 15 mission’s second day on the moon has live coverage.

1 August 1990: The Seven Network premieres two-part mini-series, Flair, starring Heather Thomas with Andrew Clarke (Anzacs), Elaine Smith (Neighbours), Rowena Wallace (Sons And Daughters) and Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell.

1 August 1993: The FIFA World Cup Qualifier — Australia versus Canada — is broadcast live from Alberta, Canada, on SBS.

1 August 1994: ABC‘s TVTV returns, now based in Melbourne, with new hosts Mark Mitchell and Tiffany Lamb.

1 August 1997: The Comedy Channel premieres Get A Life, a parody of lifestyle/infotainment programs. Starring Mary-Anne Fahey, Denise Scott, Michael Veitch and Jane Hall.

1 August 2006: Network Ten premieres Yasmin’s Getting Married, the would-be reality TV quest to find a groom for potential bride Yasmin Dale. Ratings were poor and the show was axed only four days into its planned nine-week run. ABC premieres First Tuesday Book Club, hosted by Jennifer Byrne.

1 August 2010: To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Bell Shakespeare company, ABC2 Live features the group’s production King Lear, performed at the Arts Centre, Melbourne, and starring company founder John Bell. Hosted by Jennifer Byrne and Chris Taylor (The Chaser).

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I wonder if they burnt off the show?

Another quiz show that debuted that month, The Master (hosted by Mark Beretta on Seven), was axed after one episode but the remaining produced episodes were burnt off during the 2006-07 summer, and repeated as recently as 2021 on 7two as counter programming to the Tokyo Olympics.

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AFAIK the remaining episodes of Yasmin’s Getting Married were never aired

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Should put it on 10.com.au or P+ for shits and giggles.

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Ten’s probably destroyed the master copies out of sheer embarrassment

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That’d be a shame. :rofl: You could have a playlist of “television’s biggest embarrassments”. A TV Hell-esque area.

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Channel Ten would have a lot of source material for that :wink:

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I seem to remember that they were still filming that show when it was axed. They were screening it just a few weeks ahead of filming. I remember there was no conclusion so for a long time people kept asking Yasmin if she had met someone else to marry.

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After it was axed, Ten just replaced it with Futurama.

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