
A Logies plea from The Newsreader
How creator Michael Lucas got Kylie, Jason, Daryl, Bryan, Sigourney and Patti to agree to 1989 Logies vision for The Newsreader.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News, Top Stories
Minor spoilers
In order to recreate the 1989 Logie Awards, producers on The Newsreader needed to get approvals.
When Season 3 kicks off, News at Six presenter Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) is up for the Gold Logie. Creator Michael Lucas found a surprisingly simple method would deliver the result he was seeking.
“I’d just write letters to them! We found on this show a personal letter goes down a treat and we’re pretty lucky in Australia, because generally now people know the show,” he tells TV Tonight.
“Kylie Minogue said yes.”
“At this point, we’re able to say to them, ‘Please agree to this because luminaries such as Kylie Minogue said yes.’
“You’re not using them in any sort of drastically inaccurate or negative context, it’s pretty much a celebration. So we absolutely wrote to the other Gold nominees, Jason Donovan, Kylie -who’s now I’m going to call a friend of the show, because she’s appeared multiple times and said yes- and Daryl Somers.
“But I do feel like Daryl was a particularly good sport, because we’re using his image in a version where he doesn’t win.”
A full version of the 1989 Logies staged at the Hyatt on Collins was sourced from Seven. Producers filmed at the same ballroom, matching recreated sets with original footage.
“We especially wrote to Patti Newton and she seemed thrilled that we’re using Bert’s voice and preserving some of that. Bryan Brown and Sigourney Weaver were the other ones. Bryan Brown was a very youthful Hall of Fame inductee. It was also The Shiralee year, so he was all over the Logies.
“I loved the Logies. I voted, I filled out the coupons. And I particularly remember that they would always have the special Logies edition ready to go the next day. But as I recall, the one they released the next day did not have actually the pictures of the night. So there was a supplementary TV Week that you had to get.”
Season Three is promoted as the “End of of an Era” not just for the end of the ’80s but because it is the final season with Reid and co-star Anna Torv. Nobody is quite game to say it is the end of the series, but there is a pervading resignation….
All principal cast return, save for Robert Taylor as Geoff Walters.
“We’re just really lucky that everyone still agrees to come back, no matter how gainfully employed they are overseas. Robert’s not back, his character has moved on in the sense of moving on from this earthly plane,” Lucas continues.
“You are now the king of news”
“In the end of Season Two, there’s this moment where he calls Dale and says ‘You are now the king of news’ so we feel like that was the sort of swan song of the character. Robert, played it that way. And then, certainly for us, it was really interesting for Evelyn (Marg Downey) to imagine, given her whole life was about being his wife, what happens when he’s gone?
“She’s still very much in the picture, as is her daughter.
“There’s all sorts of drama about Evelyn trying to micro-manage his In Memoriam in conflict with Lindsay Cunningham (William McInnes).
“In the third season, Helen and Dale start the season, having got what they always wanted. It explores what happens when you get your dream, because Dale was desperate to be famous on the desk, and she wanted to be in control and taken seriously. So she’s got her own current affairs show that she’s a producer of as well. And he’s the biggest star on Australian television.
“But, needless to say, having got everything that they wanted, it hasn’t solved all their problems. The big driving incident behind the show is that they end up in direct competition with each other. So it is a bit of a Helen v Dale situation, they’re in the same time slot. As anyone who knows TV would know, it’s unlikely that they’re both going to emerge at the end of the series with their shows still on air.
“One of them is going to go down, sort of at the hands of the other”
“So one of them is going to go down, sort of at the hands of the other. It explores whether they can still maintain any kind of connection when they’re in competition with each other?
“One of the other great things about a third season is every scene they come in with so much history. And now Michelle Lim Davidson and Steven Peacocke are ‘married’ this season.”
Season Three also features the return of Chum Ehelepola, Philippa Northeast, Caroline Lee, Hunter Page-Lochard, plus Daniel Henshall, Andrew McFarlane and Dan Spielman.
There’s also a dose of archival local and international news woven through story lines.
“Bob Hawke… basically confirmed infidelity”
“One of the massive TV interviews of the year was Bob Hawke live on television. He basically confirmed infidelity and got quite tearful. We’re doing our little trick of taking a real interview and placing it with Dale.
“There’s nothing like a Hoddle Street shooting or Russell Street bombing but on the other hand, there’s Tiananmen Square, and there’s the Berlin Wall and from our perspective, that’s just as good.
“Our international audience certainly love it when we do international stories.”
The Newsreader returns 8:30pm Sunday February 2 (all episodes on ABC iview).
- Tagged with Logie Awards, The Newsreader
16 Responses
“the final season with Reid and co-star Anna Torv.”
I’m really hoping this isn’t the end of The Newsreader completely, it’s such an outstanding show both with writing and production values.
There must be potential for a sequel or prequel: jump forward in time to the early 90’s and the challenges that commercial tv faced at the time with new central characters, or jump back in time to see the genesis of Lindsay, Geoff and of course Evelyn!
Better to go out on top leaving your audiences wanting more
I loved Marg Downey as Evelyn, I think some of Margs best work has been in The Newsreader. Interesting to see such a strong female character behind a man in a time when maybe it wasn’t as prevalent.
She’s amazing.
The period detail in this show has been absolutely exceptional.
… except, having been working in a commercial television newsroom myself at that time, there are a lot of elements that are not accurate, like typewriters and smoking in the newsroom and overnight ratings …
I suspect these things varied from newsroom to newsroom and depends on the transitional period. Mal Walden has referred to one exec’s “irrational chain-smoking, expletive-driven tirade” and recalls “we went from film to tape, we went from typewriters to electric typewriters as the precursor to computers.”
A marvellous show. Obviously a lot of love goes into making it.
I’m so looking forward to this but I don’t understand why the stars had to give permission for archival footage to be used. Wouldn’t it just have to be host broadcaster or the production company that made the awards show?
maybe in a legal sense, but it’s a nice courtesy to get the consent of the talent, particularly if they are going to use footage that might not be overly flattering. And The Newsreader is known for paying close attention to detail, so I think it’s nice in that respect that they’ve reached out to the people depicted.
That was also the Logies that had the “Golden Girls” opening number performed by former Gold Logie winners Lorrae Desmond, Hazel Phillips, Pat McDonald, Denise Drysdale, Jeanne Little and Rowena Wallace. Some of those ladies are no longer with us but I wonder if The Newsreader will feature that?
No.
Sorry to hear that as it was a truly memorable opening,
Interesting that Seven hold the archive footage for 1989 as, from recollection, wasn’t that year’s Logies produced by ABC?
… nope, not the ABC …
Nine Network (1959–2022), ABC (1961–1965), Seven Network (1989–1995, 2023–present), Network Ten (1981–1993) (Wikipedia)
Thanks for clarifying CJ.
On reflection, I think I was getting confused with the production company behind that year’s ceremony (Australian Television Network).
I really hoped last season would be the conclusion for Kay and Everlyn too, weakest part of the show. Hope that Tim is in more episodes.