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Small screen legends lament loss of Drama, Live TV.

TV royalty gather for a photo shoot and speak up for local Drama.

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Some of television’s acting elite have gathered for a group photo shoot for News Corp.

Female stars participating were Deborah Mailman, Kate Ritchie, Claudia Karvan, Noni Hazlehurst, Lorraine Bayly, Georgie Parker, Rebecca Gibney, Sigrid Thornton, Kerry Armstrong, Lisa McCune and Kat Stewart.

Male actors included John Wood, Peter Phelps, John Howard, Michael Caton, Vince Colosimo, Lachy Hulme, Erik Thomson, Aaron Jeffery, Ian Smith and Andrew McFarlane.

Nice to see at least four faces from The Sullivans still highly regarded. No doubt we would all love to suggest additional names (including some of those ladies recently suggested for the Hall of Fame).

But not all of them were happy with the state of production.

Noni Hazlehurst said of Reality TV, “It’s just another way they’re diminishing the arts in this country. I think people are tiring of those reality shows. They’re on for hours every night, seven nights a week, with the same interchangeable talking heads.”

John Wood reiterated recent comments about the lack of Drama.

Bert Newton, Daryl Somers and Steve Vizard all lamented the lack of Live Television while Ray Martin told the newspaper there would always be an audience for Variety television.

You can see a behind the scenes video here.

13 Responses

  1. My idea was pooh-poohed previously by David K. but it’s right for a revival – A Points System with a Carrot-And-Stick approach. Earn points for drama, comedy and variety 50 points for half-hour drama or comedy, 100 points for one-hour comedy, drama or variety, 150 points for mini-series of 6 or more episodes, these points would be earned per series of 13 episodes(apart from mini-series). That’s the “carrot”! The “stick” is a penalty of 2000, yes, two thousand points per episode of any reality or cooking show. Accrue 5000 points in a month and a station’s licence, and that of its regional affiliates, is permanently revoked with no right of appeal. Severe? Drastic? Even draconian? Yes! but it needs to be to get the message across that viewers are sick of reality TV.

    1. I so agree. There is a need for drama to tell rich stories about life in Australia. I know they can be in all forms and do not necessarily appeal to everyone. But recent stories in drama are telling historical stories, like Love Child, A Place to Call Home, Doctor Blake and Miss Fisher, even Underbelly to name a few.
      Very few contemporary often crime based like Winter, Janet King and non crime Winners and Losers and House Husbands. I know the hit dramas of the 90’s are a distant memory but we still need some hospital, police or just modern stories in rural and urban Australia.

  2. Now that there is nothing but reality television on the 3 FTA channels, I have now switched over to Foxtel and Netflix …. I will not watch reality television, and I suspect there are a lot more like me out there ….. FTA networks are shooting themselves in the foot by offering nothing but reality television, especially when there are more options becoming available day after day ….

    2. We do not watch any ‘reality’ whatsoever, indeed, very little on the traditional ‘main’ channels at all. Just repeats on their affiliates of old classics like Midsomer, Taggart and Top Gear, oh, and of course Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell when it’s on. Aussie dramas may be OK or even better than OK but as I may have mentioned before, the promos do not induce us to want to watch. As one comment on another topic suggested, the impression we get is that Aussie TV is made by dreary, unimaginitive accountants and administrators who do not have a clue how to engage audiences, probably because they have very little respect for them.

  3. The reason contest shows are on at 7:30pm is because the timeslots are PG and they are what viewers want to watch, especially live.

    There has been no reduction in local drama, there has been an increase. The ABC and Foxtel are making much more drama. The commercials make the same quota, and in fact Seven and Nine have exceeded it. Its just on 30 minutes later on the commercial channels. It’s US drama that people have stopped watching.

    Yes there is less live TV than in the 1970s, there’s also less brown flares.

    1. As someone who has written extensively about this issue I’m here to tell you there was over 800 hours of first run Australian drama commissioned around 2000 including 200 hours of the soaps – Home and Away and Neighbours. THey are still being made but the remaining 600 hours has shrunk to less than 150 hrs – three quarters of our sector wiped out in 15 years despite a bump in funding to the ABC and the Producer Offset. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Time to get informed.

  4. Unfortunately it s not going to change the attitudes of TV exec’s in this day and age. Now its just money, money, money and how much will it cost?

  5. I agree. I miss shows like Packed to the Rafters, Offspring and The Time of Our Lives. Love Aussie dramas and our aussie actors. Hope to see more.

    1. Packed To The Rafters was replaced with Winners and Losers. Offspring with Party Tricks and Wonderland, The Time of Our Lives with Janet King, The Code, Glitch, Secret River and that Witness Protection Show etc. and the ABC are still making Miss Fisher and Dr Blake.

      Shows finish and are replaced with new ones. The old ones are still available on DVD, cable and streaming.

  6. So many of these amazing actors have not been on FTA TV for so long – Kerry Armstrong, Sigrid Thornton, Lisa Mc Cune. Glad they all came together to highlight their concerns & our need for more drama on our screens. I just hope there is a turn around soon. For the first time ever in 2015 channel 7 has had no Aussie drama in it’s 8.30 time slot made famous by Blue Heelers, Packed To The Rafters & Winners & Losers.

    1. Yes surprising that there was no Aussie dram on a Tuesday night. Winners and losers may be back now that Love Child on 9 is finished, as I expected and David K has hinted at.

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