What happened to Ben Dark?
7 October 2009: The Nine Network screens the second Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion almost 38 years to the day since the show’s OG premiere. With ratings over 2 million the show was revived for one season the following year but was axed due to production costs and the move from Richmond to Docklands
It was only for a few episodes yes? And on Wednesday nights from memory?
Full 20 episodes, split into 2 portions. First block on Wednesdays between April and
July, and the second block on Saturdays between October and November.
The first half was on Wednesday nights from 14 April 2010-28 July 2010 (despite retaining the Hey Hey It’s Saturday title) with and the second half was in its usual Saturday night timeslot from 16 October 2010-27 November 2010 before it’s second axing.
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I’m curious why both 9 and 10 in those colour TV ads have spelt colour as color. I wasn’t aware US spelling had ever been a thing in Australia?
The commercial TV networks (as did print media such as TV Week) preferred the US spelling. ABC stayed true to “colour”.
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It’s funny how that was a thing back then but then eventually the TV networks and TV Week started using the Australian/British spelling.
I wonder why that happened at a certain time in our history? It’s also how we also ended up with the Labor Party in politics rather than the Labour Party.
Yes, I remember this station identifier too!
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TVW-7 going all-out.
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8 October 2001: ABC premieres comedy series Corridors Of Power, starring Philip Quast, Jeremy Sims and Kristy Wright.
8 October 2003: ABC premieres cooking series Kylie Kwong: Heart And Soul.
8 October 2006: ABC premieres reality series Operatunity Oz. The Seven Network premieres The Real Seachange, hosted by John Howard.
8 October 2009: The Seven Network premieres reality series Beauty And The Geek Australia. The Nine Network premieres the Australian version of The Secret Millionaire, with the first episode featuring property developer Albert Bertini.
YouTube: URIP
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10 October 1970: HSV7 Melbourne premieres variety show The Penthouse Club with Michael Williamson and Mary Hardy.
10 October 1971: The Seven Network premieres This Week Has Seven Days, a magazine program for children of primary school age, with hosts in each of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
10 October 1977: The Seven Network presents the second annual Sammy Awards, live from the Sydney Opera House.
10 October 1983: GTV9 Melbourne premieres the comedy special Paul Hogan’s England. TCN9 Sydney follows the next night.
10 October 1999: ABC premieres telemovie Secret Men’s Business, starring Simon Baker, Ben Mendelsohn, Marcus Graham, Jeremy Sims and Jeremy Callaghan.
10 October 2005: UKTV premieres comedy series Supernova, a co-production with BBC.
10 October 2007: SBS premieres news satire Newstopia, hosted by Shaun Micallef.
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11 October 1978: The Seven Network presents the third annual Sammy Awards from the Sydney Opera House, hosted by Roger Climpson and Stuart Wagstaff. Winners of the Gold Sammy awards are Mike Walsh (The Mike Walsh Show) and June Salter (The Restless Years).
11 October 1983: ABC premieres legal drama Learned Friends, starring Vic Hawkins and Penny Downie.
11 October 1991: SBS presents the documentary Hope For The World’s Children, hosted by Mary Kostakidis and co-produced with World Vision.
11 October 2007: The Nine Network premieres eight-part factual series The Gift, hosted by Tara Brown, following organ donor recipients and the families of organ donors.
11 October 2009: The Nine Network premieres cooking contest The Great Aussie Cook Off, hosted by Vince Sorrenti and Jo Silvagni.
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12 October 1992: Tonight Live With Steve Vizard (Seven) begins a week of shows presented from New York.
12 October 1994: ABC premieres the five-part documentary series The Liberals — Fifty Years Of The Federal Party. SBS documentary Dream House looks at the experiences of two Chinese students studying in Australia. The Nine Network premieres Obsession, the second in the series of The Feds telemovies, starring Robert Taylor, Angie Milliken, John Bach, Brian Vriends, Jerome Ehlers, Stephen Whittaker and Julia Zemiro.
12 October 1998: The Nine Network premieres comedy series Strassman, featuring American ventriloquist David Strassman.
12 October 2003: ABC premieres the five-part documentary series Love Is In The Air, tracing the story of modern Australian pop music from the 1950s to the present.
12 October 2005: Network Ten premieres sketch comedy series The Ronnie Johns Half Hour.
12 October 2006: ABC premieres the documentary series Life At 1, the first instalment in a series that aims to unlock the secrets of child development by following 11 babies and their families for seven years.
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Little watched and highly underrated. Was exceptionally funny.
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Comedy is subjective. Most people didn’t find it very funny. Hence, the lack of viewers.
13 October 1973: ABC presents the Australian Opera production of Tolstoy’s War And Peace. Recorded in September, it was the first opera to be performed at the Sydney Opera House ahead of its official opening on 20 October.
13 October 1975: ATN7 Sydney premieres morning news and current affairs program Eleven AM as a local program before extending nationally in the 1980s.
13 October 1978: The Nine Network presents the TV Week King Of Pop Awards, hosted by Glenn Shorrock with special guests Kate Bush and Leif Garrett. (This would end up being the last King Of Pop Awards, with TV Week partnering with Countdown for the TV Week Rock Awards the following year.)
13 October 1994: The Seven Network premieres comedy special Big Girl’s Blouse, starring Gina Riley, Magda Szubanski and Jane Turner, ahead of an eight-episode series to follow in 1995.
13 October 1995: SBS presents the documentary The Flying Nun, profiling Queensland’s Sister Anne-Maree Jensen, a 40-year-old Catholic nun who has been flying her single engine Cessna across some of the most remote parts of south-western Queensland in conducting her ministry across her bush parish.
13 October 2004: The Seven Network premieres observational series Border Security: Australia’s Front Line.
13 October 2005: Network Ten premieres drama series The Surgeon, starring Justine Clarke, Sam Worthington, Katie Wall, Nicholas Bell, Chum Ehelepola, Matt Zeremes and Matthew Newton.
13 October 2007: The Nine Network and Foxtel announce the purchase of Australian broadcast rights to the 2010 XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad in London — the deal believed to be worth around $110 million.
Top show this was! Current Affairs in the morning was innovative.