There would be plenty of other 1986 stories that could be covered.
One was Bob Hawke’s trip to the US - could have been an opportunity to send Dale perhaps off overseas and to see the logistics for that, perhaps the network politics for selecting the crew that would go.
That’s a good one.
I just finished The Newsreader last night and just sensational television. I haven’t enjoyed an Aussie drama that much for some time. Every minute of every episode had me hooked and wanting more. Perfectly cast, written and executed and I am dying for more of this!
As with other examples mentioned earlier, clearly The Newsreader was well inspired by Channel Ten News in Melbourne
Could easily substitute Rob Rickards (Stephen Peacocke) into this pic!
Series 2 of The Newsreader needs a weather man. Who’s going to play “Rob Gell” and will he get together with the newsreader?
I thought this too!
The Australian bicentenary celebrations in 1988
They certainly did their research. I watched the you tube video of Channel 10’s coverage of the Russell Street bombing after watching that episode and the intro by Geoff in The Newsreader was almost identical to David Johnson’s.
David: “It’s happened. Terrorism hits Melbourne as 6 bombs explode injuring 21 people. Good evening and welcome to Network Ten viewers around Australia.”
Geoff: “It’s happened. Terrorism hits Melbourne as 6 bombs explode injuring 21 people. Good evening to viewers around Australia. Welcome to News at Six.”
I’m presuming the references to “the man in Perth” was Peter Waltham. He was pushed out to Weekend News at TVW7 to bring in the youthful Rick Ardon and Susannah Carr to weeknights in 1985, before ending up moving across to STW9 weeknights in 1987.
Surprised the Geoff character didn’t suffer the same fate but perhaps Weekends would have been a demotion in his eyes and his wife wanted him off TV for good.
Yes they never really lead into that. I was thinking of the presenter that took over at HSV7 in 1987, after they axed Mal Walden. He came from Perth and only lasted a year reading Melbourne’s news.
Greg Pearce (who ended up having a much more successful and lengthy career at NEW10). But the show was set in 1986 so if they were factual they’d be predicting the future.
Ironically Greg made way for Peter Waltham to come to STW9 in 1987.
I still think they were alluding to a similar situation to what happened with Greg Pearce and HSV7. Back then it was common to pouch presenters from interstate.
I can sadly relate to the writer’s recall of the Akai E-180 VHS tapes! I used to buy those. As soon as I saw it on the show it took me back to those days. Strange that such an ephemeral thing can take you back. I probably still have a couple of those tapes stashed away.
The show’s writer Michael Lucas also tweeted the fake Woman’s Day cover and article about the happy news couple, and even though it was only flashed on screen for barely a second it was a fully-written article not just slabs of fake Lorem ipsum text. Amazing attention to detail.
Would the networks have received overnight ratings in 1986? There’s a scene where McInnes’s character reacts to poor ratings for the previous night’s bulletin. Not sure if ratings were still being released weekly or daily at that time.
I’d say, like the whole show, it was fictional.
that part I reckon was a flaw. I don’t think they got overnight ratings. IIRC in those days the networks got a report on Wednesday for the previous week ending Saturday, because it used to get reported in Thursdays newspapers and Graham Kennedy’s News Show would do a ratings wrap on Wednesday nights.
Maybe there were informal phone surveys done on a daily basis to give management some form of daily trending, but AFAIK there was no daily ratings reporting. It was all written dairies in those days and they only got collected once a week, I remember from the time we did a survey at our place sometime around 1986.
Yeah, I don’t think overnight ratings for Australian TV would’ve been a thing until peoplemeters were introduced to the metro markets around 1990/91.
That’s what I thought. I remember reading a news article from that era that described how the station executives would hover over the fax or telex machine waiting for the numbers to come through on a Wednesday morning. I only ever remember reading about the top weekly shows and weekly shares in those days.
I also recall the likes of Kennedy, Robertson and Somers used to react on air a lot to feedback noted by the station’s switchboard operators from viewers.
The level of detail is unbelievable though. It’s a credit to the design team behind this production. The research that went into this it unbelievable. Hopefully someone gets an award for their efforts.
With catch up numbers being very positive, I think it’s a guarantee we’ll see a second season next year.
Dissapointing that the ABC didn’t announce a 2nd season at their Upfronts today. hopefully it still get a renewal.