Episode 15
Bert Newton and the history of Australian TV
Broadcast 6.30pm on 15/05/2003
GEORGE NEGUS: Tonight, the past, the present and the future of Australian television via the brilliant career of "Mr Television" himself, Bert Newton.
BERT NEWTON: Raoul Merton 707s are fabulous shoes. Raoul Merton 707s give you style.
GRAHAM KENNEDY: Hate 'em.
GEORGE NEGUS: G'day and welcome to Future Dimensions and our usual Thursday look at the changes in store for us down the track. Tonight, something a bit special. A program on a subject dear to us all. Not only that, it keeps people like me off the streets television. It began in this country back in '56 and there's only one person who's been on our screens almost since it began the one and only Bert Newton.
With the love-'em-or-hate-'em Logies behind us for another year, we thought we'd look at how Australian television has developed and changed over nearly half a century and what its future might be according to the man who probably knows it better and more intimately than anyone else around. We'll be having a really good chat with Bert, including a look at some classic Bert television moments. But first, let's do a spot of channel flicking, beginning with that legendary moment when Bruce Gyngell kicked off the whole thing in this country back in 1956.
TELEVISION ANNOUNCER: From Channel 9 comes the first television program in Australia. Station TCN presents 'This is Television'.
BRUCE GYNGELL: Good evening and welcome to television.
GEORGE NEGUS: That, as we said, was September 1956 and the timing was quite deliberate. A month later, our Australian love affair with TV sport began with the coverage of the Melbourne Olympics. A giant undertaking for a fledgling industry, but they pulled it off. Meanwhile, though, radio was still king. And, in fact, that's where our first TV stars came from. Back then, TV was pretty much studio-based and so game shows quickly became our most popular programs. Hosted by stars, they were unashamedly married to commercial sponsorship, with real Australians competing against each other. The biggest show of them all was 'Pick-A-Box' hosted by the unforgettable Bob Dyer ironically, a yank.
ANNOUNCER: BP Australia presents 'Pick-A-Box'. And your host, Bob Dyer.
BOB DYER: Thank you. And howdy, customers. We're glad you joined us for BP 'Pick-A-Box'. Who is this, please, Darl?
WOMAN: Bob, this is Barry Jones from Caulfield, a schoolteacher.
BOB DYER: Oh, Barry. Who was the father of the princes said to have been murdered in the Tower of London?
CONTESTANT: The father was Edward IV.
BOB DYER: That is correct.
GEORGE NEGUS: By the '60s, our TV menu started to broaden. Some genius sensed that we might even want to see ourselves and our culture on television. In 1967, this station, your very own ABC, started airing one of the most popular drama series in the country's television history 'Bellbird'. By the '70s, of course, we were becoming a more permissive society and television began challenging the old censorship standards. We're talking in particular about shows like 'Number 96' and 'The Box', seriously cheeky programs that gave us nudity, homosexuality, Abigail and sex on screen, almost ahead of the times, and we lapped it up.
Then, of course, there was pop music on TV, the high point being the ABC's 'Countdown', brought to you from the very studio I'm in now, Studio 31 in Melbourne. At 6:00 every Sunday evening all over the country, hordes of young Australians tuned in to see the distinctly different Molly Meldrum host a program of organised chaos where anything could happen and often did.
MOLLY MELDRUM: One album...
MAN: Hiya, Dog Face. G'day! G'day!
MOLLY MELDRUM: Welcome to the show. What's wrong? Don't you set me up. You behave yourself.
GEORGE NEGUS: Into the '80s, however, we seemed to become more conservative, wanting wholesome, suburban programs. Hence, the 'Neighbours' phenomenon was born. It's still going today with a vast audience all over the country.
News and current affairs like '4 Corners' has pretty much always been there. And, of course, there was this other program that changed our lives on Sunday nights. This country's full of romantic tales along the lines of 'The Man From Snowy River'. The '90s and another major program shift. What we now know as lifestyle television hit our screens. One of the first and most successful, still running today in this timeslot on Fridays, was 'Gardening Australia'.
Now we're into the 21st century and programs are zipping off in all sorts of strange directions. A curiously popular part of our TV diet these days is so-called reality television, from the voyeuristic to the just plain tacky. The original culprit, 'Big Brother', is into its third series. Apparently, we just love to watch.
BIG BROTHER: Is it as you expected?
HOUSEMATE: No, not all. It's amazing. Um, we just didn't expect it like this.
GEORGE NEGUS: It wasn't what many Australians expected, but it came and it stayed and grew. And as TV technology and production styles developed in a mad race to gain network supremacy, so too did the star system. And as quickly as most of these cultivated stars paraded before the cameras, they were gone, except for our next guest, who became an Australian television icon - someone who still doesn't need any introduction. If you don't know who this bloke next to me is, you really must've been on Mars for the last...
BERT NEWTON: I'm now 64 who am I?
GEORGE NEGUS: ..40 years! I mean, why did you ever go into television, because it's... television and Bert Newton are now synonymous.
BERT NEWTON: Well, I was in radio, I was a young kid, George, and interesting story well, interesting for me I was working at night at 3XY with a senior announcer who was an excellent radio man, but much older than I, and a call came through from the program manager of Channel Seven that he wanted to speak to the announcer on duty.
GEORGE NEGUS: How old were you then?
BERT NEWTON: Uh, 17.
GEORGE NEGUS: Right.
BERT NEWTON: 17. Uh... almost 18, I think. And so the call was taken by the senior announcer, and obviously the program manager was saying, "We're very interested in the thing, and the jokes." Then the penny dropped for the program manager, and said, "Are you the bloke who just said, 'So-and-so'?" He said, "Oh, that's my junior." And the program manager said, "That's who I want to talk to."
GEORGE NEGUS: But that was a year after television started?
BERT NEWTON: Yeah, actually, that was 1956 the year television began and I was going down to Channel Seven to join the late Sir Eric Pearce and... and Danny Webb, as the third member of the announcing team down there, but then they discovered they couldn't afford my $50 a week, which was the... 25 quid in those days. So I had to wait until early 1957, when all of a sudden they found more cash from the Herald & Weekly Times.
GEORGE NEGUS: In those days, television was like radio with pictures for somebody like yourself, wasn't it?
BERT NEWTON: I think we all thought it would be that way. I remember, as that young kid at 3XY, they were talking about television arriving in Australia. I assumed it was going to be an announcer sitting there and chatting, very much like this.
GEORGE NEGUS: Yes old-fashioned television.
BERT NEWTON: But playing records. And I used to think, "I wonder what they'll do when they play records. Will they just go into a turntable or whatever?" And of course, we discovered eventually it was much more than that.
BERT NEWTON ON THE 'HI FI CLUB': Hi, fellow Hi Fis. Welcome once again to the 'Hi Fi Club'. It's nice to have you with us. A good bright opening for tonight the Hi-Marks back, uh... for a number which I think you've possibly heard on the hit parades quite often. They back Grade Wicker, and we join Grade and his 'Cradle of Love'.
BERT NEWTON: That was the exciting time for me and for everybody else who was in it, because nobody knew anything about it. The people who actually were the chief engineers and the, um, program directors and general managers had no more than four weeks experience over in America, invariably at the Cleveland, Ohio, television station, for some reason. They all graduated from there after four weeks. So the floor managers, the cameramen, the announcers, the singers were all learning together.
GEORGE NEGUS: Making it up as you went along.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah, and the audience didn't know any better, so absolute rubbish was looking quite good to them.
GEORGE NEGUS: How do you explain your own television longevity, to put it nicely?
BERT NEWTON: I think good health, and, uh... a bit of brown-nosing in the right area. No, I think it's... in many respects, I think it's the luck of the game.
BERT NEWTON ON 'IN MELBOUNRE TONIGHT': You never know when those nasty flies and mozzies...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHS)
What have you done?
GRAHAM KENNEDY: I'm... I'm... I'm... I've got to move the big can of Pussy, because of the next act.
BERT NEWTON: Well, can I help you?
GRAHAM KENNEDY: No, go ahead.
BERT NEWTON: Where do you have to stick it? Over there?
GRAHAM KENNEDY: Over there.
BERT NEWTON: Get it across there, and I'll talk about Protect It. OK.
GRAHAM KENNEDY: I won't disturb you, mate. Go ahead.
BERT NEWTON: OK, righto. As I was saying, I always carry Johnson's Protect It, because you never know when flies and mozzies will strike, particularly...
(LOUD CRASH)
GEORGE NEGUS: Do you reckon if you were starting now, from scratch, do you reckon that they'd employ you in today's television?
BERT NEWTON: I reckon in my television career, if I had to precis it, they said earlier in the piece, "I don't know what he's doing," then after about 20 years they said, "He's still doing it."
GEORGE NEGUS: And they got the joke.
BERT NEWTON: Well, I think in later years they still don't know, but they recognise I'm still doing it.
MAN ON 'GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA': Huh? I know you're very concerned about your hair. You were scared, weren't you?
BERT NEWTON ON 'GOOD MORNING AUSTRALIA': Get away from me. I know you're a Frenchman! Don't want you kissing and cuddling me my God! I've heard about you chefs too.
GEORGE NEGUS: Do you despair of television in the future, or feel quite positive about it? What do you think will happen to TV in the future?
BERT NEWTON: I... I think it's going to be OK. I think whenever we have problems, in Australian television I don't know whether you'd agree or not is when we take it too seriously.
GEORGE NEGUS: Uh-huh. It's only television, after all.
BERT NEWTON: Well, yeah, it's a pretty important part of the furniture and it had a darn good run for, what, the first 30 years, George? Then all of a sudden there was real competition, you know, with the technical achievements being managed, and young people now, particularly there are so many things they can do... with their dollar, and the older people are wanting, perhaps, a return to some of the old-fashioned television. And as much as I'd like to see it happen, I don't think it will, because you try it and no-one watches. Um, maybe there's a happy medium, but I think when you celebrate what's happened in Australian television, you've got some great names there, you've got some terrific achievements. I still think if you take it between 1956 and the year 2000, I think you've got terrific bookends of what television can do. And, of course, I speak of the 1956 Olympic Games and the year 2000 Olympic Games both in Australia. It showed, number one, how television has grown, and it showed what television can do as against any other medium. I don't think it can compete with radio. It learned pretty early in the piece not to compete with movies. Now we've got to learn something about competing with the other things that are available.
GEORGE NEGUS: The digital age is upon us.
BERT NEWTON: Exactly. Especially to that... the young audience. Because it's not just because you've got to cater for younger people you want to grab them and keep them for a lifetime.
GEORGE NEGUS: Yeah, just going through the research notes it's pretty embarrassing, your... your success. 15 Logies, co-hosted the thing 18 times, 2,500 shows, talked to over 20,000 guests. And what did you do for fun?
BERT NEWTON: Can I have a look at that? You've got Don Lane's. His wish list.
GEORGE NEGUS: But what about that? I mean, people have... for some obscure reason, despite the fact you're talked about as "Mr Television" in this country, you were always backing up somebody else most of the time.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah.
GEORGE NEGUS: Did you like that idea?
BERT NEWTON: Well, I think, particularly in my case, 'cause I had the luck of starting out with Graham Kennedy, or pretty soon after starting out in television, I worked with Graham, and then Don Lane, back in the mid-70s... Don was terrific to work with. I mean, he... he really revitalised my career. He stood up for me, because a couple of the people at Nine said, "He's quite a good bloke, but he's so identified with the Kennedy era grab somebody else," and Don insisted it be me, and it was a new partnership, and it was a terrific era.
GEORGE NEGUS: But you mastered the art of being the fall guy, of being the backup, being number two.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah.
GEORGE NEGUS: But often, number two ended up being number one in most people's eyes, 'cause you're still there and they're not.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah, I don't think...
GEORGE NEGUS: Graham's illness aside.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah, I don't think there's as much pressure when you're number two, in fairness to the number one. But also, if you endeavour to do the number two thing well, without wanting to sound as if, you know, I'm skiting, anyone who's number two any straight man that you see in Hollywood movies or straight men in the old days in vaudeville, and certainly on the television too the second banana has to know more than the first banana, because he's got to know what he's going to do, and he's also got to know what possibly we have to search for too, and make sure that they're coming out OK.
GEORGE NEGUS: What... what's your, um other than New Dimensions what's your favourite program on television?
BERT NEWTON: I love 'Seinfeld'. Um, I enjoy the 'Sunday' program. I enjoy Rove McManus very much. I like 'The Panel'.
GEORGE NEGUS: Watch the ABC much?
BERT NEWTON: Yes, I do, I watch news on... well, I watch every news service. I watch the '7.30 Report', I watch '4 Corners'.
GEORGE NEGUS: Are you a TV addict or can you take it or leave it?
BERT NEWTON: The one thing I can do is look at it and no-one would necessarily know that I'm in television. Because I still have that thing where, I guess you shouldn't admit it, but you think, you know, "How did they do that?" and I think that's the...
GEORGE NEGUS: So it still holds its fascination for you? What I've loved about television is it's the closest thing to reality in the media. You know, it's more like real life than radio is and print media is. That's what I... what's always attracted me is you can almost imagine there is actually somebody out there watching and listening.
BERT NEWTON: Yeah, well, I think the best television mirrors real life and I think real life quite often mirrors television.
BERT NEWTON ON 'IN MELBOURNE TONIGHT': Raoul Merton 707s are fabulous shoes. Raoul Merton 707s give you style.
GRAHAM KENNEDY: Hate 'em. Don't...cdon't you... That's not in it.
BERT NEWTON: Now, say something nice.
GRAHAM KENNEDY: Raoul Merton shoes are really very nice.
BERT NEWTON: That's right, Raoul...
GRAHAM KENNEDY: It's only me that hates 'em. (Throws shoes at Bert Newton)
BERT NEWTON: Don't you... Oh!
GEORGE NEGUS: How important is this place? How important is public broadcasting, public television, like the ABC, to the overall television spectrum?
BERT NEWTON: I think it's very important and I'd hate to see it change in terms of, er, you know, commercial element or whatever. And I know some ABC people hate to hear someone from a commercial network say this, but I say it because I believe it's the truth. I think it has to get back to some of its earlier roots in doing the sort of television the commercial networks wouldn't touch.
GEORGE NEGUS: Indeed. We could go on forever it'd be marvellous but, unfortunately... out of time.
BERT NEWTON: Could you imagine me talking this rubbish on commercial television? See? You've allowed me to.
GEORGE NEGUS: I have. Thanks, Bert.
What a hoot having Bert on the couch. I think they've, er, thrown away the mould, and here's a brief tribute to the amazing relationship that existed between the original B1 and B2 Bert and the man they called the "King of Australian Television", Graham Kennedy.
(ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE PLAYS) GEORGE NEGUS: Marvellous. A glimpse of the instinctive entertainment genius of Bert Newton. He's a one-off. And in the process, a short stroll through the history of Australian television. But in that context, when we talk of the free-to-air Australian television networks, none has a richer history than this one Aunty. And nowhere, in fact, has that history been played out more often than right here Studio 31. This is where so many of the ABC's great dramas and its music and entertainment programs were developed, and where many a new star was launched. To round off this modest special that, I can assure you, won't break yours the taxpayers backs, our producers have dug deep into the ABC's quite incredible archives for a wander down memory lane and a glimpse of the rich contribution that our national broadcaster has made to Australian television.
(ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE PLAYS)
GEORGE NEGUS: The ABC. Despite its critics, can you imagine Australian television without it? Indeed, can you imagine Australia without it? You know the answer to that one. That's it for tonight.
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