''In Melbourne Today'' was an early Australian television series, which aired in two versions in the 1950s, on

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

station

GTV-9 GTV is a commercial television station in Melbourne, Australia, owned by the Nine Network. The station is currently based at studios at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands. History GTV-9 was amongst the first television stations to begin regular t ...

. It was Australia's first

breakfast television Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a ...

series. The first version aired on Saturdays at 7:30AM, and ran from 26 October 1957 to 5 April 1958, with episodes running for 3 hours. At the time, the other Melbourne stations usually began their broadcasting day in the afternoon, and as such ''In Melbourne Today'' was an early experiment in morning programming, pre-dating Sydney station

ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, ...

's October 1958 experiment. However, it would appear viewers weren't ready to watch TV at 7:30AM, as after the series ended GTV-9 stopped offering regular morning programs for several years. Regulars in this version included host Geoff Corke, along with the Tune Twisters, newsreader Eric Pearce, Eric Welch (sports), Shirley Radford, Arlene Forrest, and Bill McCormack. Occasionally the series aired live from a location, for example one of the episodes was broadcast from the beach at

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana ra ...

. A different episode was broadcast from Geelong. The second version of the series aired on Sundays at 4:00PM, and ran from 13 April to 20 July 1958. Again featuring Geoff Corke, Bill McCormack and Eric Pearce, this version also featured,

Evie Hayes Vina Evelyn Hayes (1 June 1912 - 26 December 1988), better known as Evie Hayes, was an American-born actor and singer, best known for her stage success in Australia. She was once described as "the most popular box office attraction in Australi ...

, Gretta Miers and Hal Todd. The Tune-Twisters presented a segment called "Music Shop" while John Casson did a segment called "I'll Tell You a Story". Later it aired at 2:30PM, with regular features also including "Children's Doctor" with Margaret Mackay and piano contest. Four of the segments, ''The Gallery Comes to You'', ''Children's Doctor'', ''Bill McCormack'' and the Tunetwisters segments, were later spun off into their own series following the end of ''In Melbourne Today'', though the episodes of these series were very short. For example, ''Children's Doctor'' and ''The Gallery Comes to You'' were combined into a single 15-minute time-slot, while Bill McCormack's show was a 15-minute series (it later expanded to being half-hour).

Bert Newton Albert Watson Newton (23 July 1938 – 30 October 2021) was an Australian media personality. He was a Logie Hall of Fame inductee, quadruple Gold Logie award-winning entertainer and radio, theatre and television personality and presenter. Newt ...

, who became famous for his appearances on ''

In Melbourne Tonight ''In Melbourne Tonight'', also known as ''IMT'', was a highly popular nightly Logie award-winning Australian variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970. Overview Graham Kennedy was the show's main host and ...

'', has said he was originally meant to appear on ''In Melbourne Today'' but due to a hold up in production, he never worked on the breakfast program. After being afforded the opportunity to do a live commercial on ''In Melbourne Tonight'', he impressed executives so much he was told to "forget the breakfast program". In 1989,

Denise Drysdale Denise Anne Christina Drysdale (born 5 December 1948) is an Australian television presenter, variety entertainer, actress, singer, dancer and comedian. She is often affectionately known as ''Ding Dong'', a nickname invented by fellow performer ...

and

Ernie Sigley Ernest William Sigley (2 September 1938 – 15 August 2021) was an Australian television host, comedian, variety performer, radio presenter and singer. Known as a pioneer of radio and television in Australian, he was often styled as a "little A ...

teamed up to host a modern-day version of ''In Melbourne Today'' which aired in Melbourne for several years before it aired nationally under its new title, ''Ernie & Denise''.

References

{{reflist Nine Network original programming 1957 Australian television series debuts 1958 Australian television series endings Black-and-white Australian television shows English-language television shows Australian non-fiction television series Mass media in Melbourne History of Melbourne