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Shows mark anniversaries in 09

2009 will be a big year of anniversaries for several key shows, including a few quiet achievers.

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gd2009 is a year of big anniversaries for some of our key shows, and some of them are certainly quiet achievers.

The 30th anniversary of 60 Minutes couldn’t come at a more apt time. Under attack from Seven’s Sunday Night, including with a former 60 Minutes reporter, the show has its big day on February 11th. It started life of course with Ray Martin, Ian Leslie and George Negus.

But Negus is likely to be celebrating elsewhere. SBS’  Dateline will celebrate 25 years on air. The show hit the screens in October 1984, making it the longest-running international current affairs program in Australia. From February 8th it moves to a new timeslot, 8:30pm Sundays, where Negus will follow his one-time Nine programme, but on another network.

Meanwhile, the ABC will be celebrating too.

Compass has its 21st anniversary this year. It started on February 7  1988 at 12 noon Sundays as an hour long studio based programme. The religious current affairs show has weathered years of ABC funding cuts, and thoughtfully presented by Geraldine Doogue (pictured) since 1998. To celebrate, the ABC has a retrospective of episode on ABC2 and four specials on ABC1 featuring Tony Blair, the 50th anniversary of Billy Graham’s Australian tour and more.

Seven’s Home and Away also has its 21st anniversary this year. We first met Pippa, Tom and the kids on January 17 1988. Its first-ever Melbourne scenes begin in early February.

And iconic, former TEN soap Prisoner celebrates its 30th anniversay with a reunion and sold-out function in the grounds of the ‘Wentworth Detention Centre’ in late February.

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  1. I hope the 30th Anniversary party for Prisoner is as successful and fun for the organisers,actors and of course the die hard fans of the most ground breaking show for women in Australia. I went to the 21st Reunion Fundraiser at the Forum Theatre in 2000. I met all my favourite actresse’s from the show and for me as someone who holds Prisoner close to my heart it was one of the most special and memorable nights of my life, nearly everyone was graceful with there time to all the fans. Now i think its time for another show like it to perhaps be given a chance, as long as the same story lines weren’t repeated.

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