From the New Zealand TV Weekly June 24, 1968
Auckland
Veteran actor, Victor Jory, looked more like an ageing bloodhound than ever when he made a brief call in Auckland in the course of a Pacific tour. The weather was not kind to him so he'll have to fall back on local sources for footage for the TV Pacific travel film he is making. As reciprocity for the assistance he was given here, Mr Jory intends to offer free to the NZBC his $80,000 fishing film called Izaak Walton's Adventures in America, which he narrates. He appears in the film together with Richard Basehart and other players from The Virginian. The script is by John Travers, author of The Anatomy of a Murder... Interesting to see that a local daily has invited its readers to send in their own list of TV preferences now that the NZBC has dropped its periodic research listing Talk about much ado about nothing! Imagine viewers getting stirred up because they thought they caught a glimpse of a footballer naked in the dressing room in a Sportsroom sequence... One TV circuit providing viewing which would be enjoyed by few people is coming up at a cost of $23,000 shortly. It is closed circuit TV which the Regional Authority will use for inspecting sewers... too bad that the Australian TV show made some time ago by hypnotist Franquin was not available for local screening screening during his tour. It was excellent entertainment and it seems rather surprising that the Australian network had wiped its videotape... Let's all get together and ask the NZBC not to waste money on buying the last two series of The Fugitive. One can stand just so much of the same script week after week and the melancholy face of Dr Kimble is getting almost as apathetic as those of his viewers.
Wellington
The NZBC has stopped publish ing the results of its viewer ratings. It appears that the corporation thinks publication serves no purpose. On the contrary, most people found them interesting. For example, they indi cated the strength of popularity for Wellington's Town and Around, at a time when the same programme on other channels was languishing. Now that producer Maurice Smyth has gone to Auckland, it would be equally interesting to know if he had managed to push Auckland's Town and Around up the ratings, and whether Eddie Harris in Wellington can achieve the same result as his predecessor. We'd also like to know the results of audience research on that now famous (or infamous) programme, Till Death Us Do Part. Viewers almost without exception complain about the late viewing hour for this programme, but the corporation stoutly maintains not enough people have asked it to change the viewing time-which is passing strange... The new programme, Gallery, got off to slow start. Producer Bruce Broadhead was quoted as saying, the aim is to throw light on matters of national importance
. He will fall well short of his goal if in the interests of so called balance he has, as a northern Television critic put it, one dreary talking head followed by another dreary talking head
... As predicted in this column, Mr A. Lewis has moved in to be number two to Controller of Television, Mr T. F. A. Shankland... After seeing two of Graham Kerr's latest series, one can only wonder can it get any worse? Still, it's nice to see the NZBC becoming more liberal in its attitude towards participants enjoying some refreshments... If Gallery was a stand-off in its first appearance or two, Compass was swinging again vigorously in all directions, especially with its "scoop" interview with the Duke of Edinburgh, which meant that the programme on Comalco originally planned, had to be set back until later. But the Duke probably did his own reputation more harm than good with his favouritism towards Television at the expense of the news papers.
CHRISTCHURCH
The City of Christchurch was gazetted a borough under the Municipal Corporations Act on May 28, 1868, and CHTV3-aided and abetted by Mayor Sir George Manning, and councillors acknowledged the fact for the benefit of viewers by giving them a look at a very artificially staged meeting held in the old Council Chamber, which is now Christchurch's Chamber of Commerce Building Christchurch citizens seldom get excited about City Council and other local body elections and this programme certainly did nothing to awaken any greater interest in the activities of the City Fathers. The whole thing was pathetic in the extreme. Led off by the Mayor, just about all the council's die-hards said their set pieces in front of the camera. Town and Around's Bernard Smyth introduced the pantomime and, as he was far from being his usual suave self, it was immediately pretty. obvious that he realised the thing was going to be a fizzer. And fizzer it surely was. The half-hour or so that was devoted to this pitiful performance seemed more like an hour, so slow was the pace. Whoever was (or were) responsible should be well in the running for the worst idea of the century award. The occasion of the centenary can be an important one, and with a bit of imagination this occasion could have been made one of the local TV highlights of the year... Seems that the NZBC needs a Royal stimulant to stir its stumps and provide the type of news presentation viewers should have every evening. The presence of the Duke of Edinburgh in Wellington was the reason for Christchurch being linked with WNTVI's newsroom and for the first time local viewers got a well-rounded summary of what had been going on in the world, followed by local news after the link. The national weather forecast was also a vast improvement on the purely local one. After all, this is a pretty small country, so why not a nightly national weather forecast before national news beamed from Wellington and complemented by local news afterwards? It can be done, but it took a Duke to underline the point!.. Christchurch folk who managed to get home to lunch during Prince Philip's fleeting city visit were treated to a few fleeting glimpses of civic dignitaries and others tucking in at the City Council's centennial luncheon at which the Prince was guest of honour. But they were fleeting glimpses. Could it have been that the order went out that the camera was to be kept off the guests, for fear of embarrassment, as they went to work with the cutlery? In any event, for most of the time when they applied themselves to their gastronomic tasks, viewers were treated to a look at sedentary city traffic outside the banqueting hall fare rather less exciting than that being served up inside. However, subsequently the Mayor and Duke were on camera speech-making and, as far as viewers were concerned, it was probably Prince Philip who summed up the situation quite unknowingly when he said: No one disputes for one moment that the City of Christ church was gazetted a borough under the Municipal Corporation Act, 1868, but, it might be asked, so what?
DUNEDIN
Congratulations on job well done go to producer, Brian Ault, who headed the team which covered the Miss New Zealand Show at the Dunedin Town Hall recently. The outside telecast took in the highlights of the show and gave viewers ample opportunity to see the contestants from their first appearance on-stage to the final crowning of the winner. Regular Monday night programmes were screened between camera visits to the Town Hall, and from the viewer's angle, at least, the evening's programme went without incident... In a recent letter, announcer Maureen Little (formerly of DNTV2, now working with BBC-Radio Nottingham, in England), makes comments of Zealanders who feel NZBC overdoes the commercial breaks. Whilst in Honolulu
she writes, I timed only three minutes between each commercial break!
She also feels that New Zealand announcers compare very favourably with their counterparts in the U.K., and in some cases, aré better. On the programme side, Maureen reports that Coronation Street, which was still topping the ratings when she returned to England, has dropped to second place, top honours now going to a new series, The Des O'Connor Show, which Maureen describes as first-class entertainment.
The Wild, Wild West recently made its debut on British screens and Maureen admits she found it quite a change to be able to say We had that ages ago in New Zealand!
Other Television highlights for Maureen since her return to England were the opening of the new Television company, Harlech, which serves Wales and the West of England, The Royal Variety Show from the London Palladium in aid of the British Olympics Appeal Fund, and, while she was presenting Nottingham Newsreel, a visit from Eric Porter, who appeared as Soames in The Forsyth Saga. I was so overcome,
she writes, I almost forgot that I was on the air!
A final point of interest to CHTV3 viewers is that Joan Palmer, a former Christchurch announcer, has now joined the staff of Britain's ATV network.
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