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News Free Zone
''News Free Zone'' was a 1985 Australian TV comedy show starring Grahame Bond. It was the idea of Maurice Murphy. Premise It was intended to be an entire evening's entertainment in one half hour with no news (shown at 6pm, the same time the three commercial networks showed their evening news). It screened daily. The regular segments included: *a sitcom called ''Australia Street'' about a sharehouse at 85 Australia Street with a different resident from each state *a game show ''Neverending Story'' *a one person soap opera ''Party Line'' *''Kev Kevanagh's Kulture'' *''World Championship Acting'' *''Vintage Video'' which showed old sketches from Aunty Jack *a reading at the end from ''The Book Of Wisdom'' *Bond singing "Please Respect Me" Cast *Grahame Bond as Kev Kevanagh * Wendy Patching as Self *Rory O'Donoghue *Garry McDonald *Robyn Moase *John Derum *John Bluthal John Bluthal (born Isaac Bluthal; 12 August 1929 – 15 November 2018) was a Polish-born Australian actor an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Murphy (director)
Maurice Brendan Murphy (born 1939 in Sydney) is an Australian film and television director, producer, writer and actor. He is best known for his influential work as a director of TV comedy programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation – most notably ''The Aunty Jack Show'' – and for his 1980 feature film adaptation of the Australian comic strip ''Fatty Finn''. After a month as a Melbourne University student, Murphy realised that his true calling was in the entertainment world. For the next three years, he financed his theatrical pursuits at The Little Theatre in South Yarra, by working at the Victorian Railways. In 1960, Murphy joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) where he worked his way up to being a director: 'The ABC was a great training institute at that time, and a place which allowed me much creative freedom. I learned a great deal there'. His first big break was in 1967 with the big budget 20-episode variety series, ''I'm Alright Now'', with Reg L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grahame Bond
Grahame John Bond AM (born 21 November 1943) is an Australian actor, writer, director, musician and composer, known primarily for his role as Aunty Jack. Early career Bond began his career in entertainment at University of Sydney in the 1960s as a founding student member of the Sydney University Architecture Revue, which included his university friends, then architect Geoffrey Atherden (writer ''Mother and Son''); director Peter Weir; composer Peter Best; and Rory O'Donoghue. Bond graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1967 and began tutoring in design at Sydney University in the late 1960s, although his performing career soon took over and he spent much of the next two decades writing and performing on TV, radio and the stage. Following the success of the 1967 Sydney University Architecture Revue "The Great Wall of Porridge", Bond and others (including Atherden and Weir) were invited to stage a professional revue for Producers Authors Composers and Talent (now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Canberra Times
''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1926 by Thomas Shakespeare along with his oldest son Arthur Shakespeare and two younger sons Christopher and James. The newspaper's headquarters were originally located in the Civic retail precinct, in Cooyong Street and Mort Street, in blocks bought by Thomas Shakespeare in the first sale of Canberra leases in 1924. The newspaper's first issue was published on 3 September 1926. It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being ''The Federal Capital Pioneer''. Between September 1926 and February 1928, the newspaper was a weekly issue. The first daily issue was 28 February 1928. In June 1956, ''The Canberra Times'' converted from broadsheet to tabloid format. Arthur Shakespeare sold the paper to John Fairfax Lt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aunty Jack
''The Aunty Jack Show'' was a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day. The lead character, Aunty Jack was a unique comic creation — obese, moustachioed and gravel-voiced, part trucker and part pantomime dame — who habitually solved any problem by knocking people unconscious or threatening to "rip yer bloody arms off". Visually, she was unmistakable, dressed in a huge, tent-like blue velvet dress, football socks, workboots, and a golden boxing glove on her right hand. She rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and referred to everyone as "me little lovelies" — when she was not uttering her familiar threat: "I'll rip yer bloody arms off!", a phrase which immediately passed into the vernacular. The character was devised and played by Grahame Bond and was partly inspired by his overbearing Uncle Jack, whom he had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rory O'Donoghue
Rory O'Donoghue (13 May 194913 December 2017) was an Australian actor, composer and musician, best known for playing the character "Thin Arthur" in the 1970s ABC Television sketch comedy series ''The Aunty Jack Show'', and for playing the guitar solo on Kevin Johnson's biggest hit " Rock 'N' Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life)". ''The Aunty Jack Show'' featured O'Donoghue's long-time creative partner Grahame Bond as the title character. Early life Born in London, O'Donoghue came from a theatrical and musical family—his parents were both involved with opera. He moved to Australia and began playing guitar when he was seven years old, and was soon proficient enough to appear on the ''Coca-Cola Bottler's Club Radio Show'' playing skiffle music. He was also a professional child actor, scoring roles in '' Oliver!'' at twelve and then ''The Sound of Music'' a year or so later. Career The Pogs In his mid-teens O'Donoghue joined a band on lead guitar and vocals. They became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garry McDonald
Garry George McDonald AO (born 30 October 1948) is an Australian actor, satirist and comedian. In a career spanning five decades he has had many theatre, television and film roles, and has been listed as a National Living Treasure. He is best known as the seemingly naive celebrity interviewer Norman Gunston, through whom he pioneered the "ambush interviewer" technique since followed by many others. He received a Gold Logie award for the television ''Norman Gunston Show'' in which he developed the character. He is also famed for his role of the hapless Arthur Beare in the television sitcom ''Mother and Son''. Appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to the community in the mental health field and to the arts as an entertainer, he has also been a board member of the Australian mental health organisation Beyond Blue. Career McDonald was born in Bondi, a beachside suburb of Sydney. He was educated at Cranbrook School. During his time at Cranbrook, McD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Derum
John Bernard Derum (born 9 January 1946) is an Australian stage, film and television actor. He has also directed and produced for theatre companies throughout Australia and for television. Career Theatre Derum walked in on Wal Cherry's Emerald Hill Theatre a mere seventeen years old in late 1963 and was cast by George Whaley in his production '' Billy Liar''. Within six months he was working as a supporting actor beside Keith Michell and Googie Withers in the nationwide tour of a Shakespearean celebration, ''The First Four Hundred Years''. The young actor continued to work and mature and was to play roles including Kostya in ''The Seagull'' (Adelaide Festival 1970), '' Peer Gynt'' ( Sydney Opera House 1975), Mr Mantelini and others in ''Nicholas Nickleby'' ( Sydney Theatre Company 1983-85), Reverend Parris in ''The Crucible'' (Sydney Theatre Company 1991-93) and numerous revues, musicals and variety performances. John Derum was Artistic Director of the Canberra Compa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Bluthal
John Bluthal (born Isaac Bluthal; 12 August 1929 – 15 November 2018) was a Polish-born Australian actor and comedian, noted for his six-decade career internationally in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He started his career during the Golden Age of British Television, where he was best known for his comedy work in the UK with Spike Milligan, and for his role as Manny Cohen in the television series ''Never Mind the Quality, Feel the Width''. In later years, he was known to television audiences as the bumbling Frank Pickle in ''The Vicar of Dibley''. At 85 he played Professor Herbert Marcuse in the Coen brothers' film ''Hail, Caesar!'' (2016). Early life Bluthal was born to a Jewish family in Jezierzany, Galicia, Poland (now in Ukraine). Due to anti-Semitism in Poland, his family emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1938, when he was aged nine. He was educated at Princes Hill Central School in Carlton North and University High School in Parkville. He be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1980s Australian Comedy Television Series
__NOTOC__ Year 198 (CXCVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sergius and Gallus (or, less frequently, year 951 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 198 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire *January 28 **Publius Septimius Geta, son of Septimius Severus, receives the title of Caesar. **Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, is given the title of Augustus. China *Winter – Battle of Xiapi: The allied armies led by Cao Cao and Liu Bei defeat Lü Bu; afterward Cao Cao has him executed. By topic Religion * Marcus I succeeds Olympianus as Patriarch of Constantinople (until 211). Births * Lu Kai (or Jingfeng), Chinese official and general (d. 269) * Quan Cong, Chinese general and advisor (d. 24 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1985 Australian Television Series Debuts
The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a new agreement on fishing rights. * January 7 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches ''Sakigake'', Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union. * January 15 – Tancredo Neves is elected president of Brazil by the Congress, ending the 21-year military rule. * January 20 – Ronald Reagan is privately sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. * January 27 – The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is formed, in Tehran. * January 28 – The charity single record "We Are the World" is recorded by USA for Africa. February * February 4 – The border between Gibraltar and Spai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
