Countdown: Do Yourself A Favour, ABC TV, Sunday, 7.30pm
NOSTALGIA is a powerful thing.
A generation of Australians grew up in a time when Molly Meldrum was the king of TV and Countdown was essential viewing if you wanted to be cool at school.
To celebrate the program’s 40th anniversary, ABC TV produced a two-part special, hosted by Julia Zemiro, because who else would do?
Zemiro and her highly successful Rockwiz is the closest relative Countdown has on TV these days and let’s face it no-one hosts quite like her (give the woman the Logies ceremony someone please?)
And proving that Countdown is still a drawcard on a Sunday night, the first part on 16 November recorded the ABC’s third biggest audience of the year in that timeslot.
It’s impressive but hardly surprising – Countdown was compulsory viewing in its time and the only show that had a truly national audience. Remember back then none of the big commercial networks were organised into proper networks and channels across the country were a lot more autonomous.
The ABC was truly the first “network” and Countdown its first big national star. It also brought Australian music to the bush, Melbourne bands to Sydney and vice versa and made national stars of Molly Meldrum, Gavin Woods and a whole lot of Australian musicians.
Countdown: Do Yourself A Favour brought back those heady days with a great mix of humour and insight. It didn’t take itself seriously but didn’t treat the subject matter lightly or with contempt.
This was a program, after all, that we all loved in the ’70s and early ’80s and Julia and the team treated it irreverently but with the right amount of respect. It also had me, not for the first time, lamenting that there is nothing even remotely like this on TV now.
Highlight had to be the interview with Prince Charles – always nice to see a royal taking the mickey out of himself.
It was also great to see all the “pop stars” (though watching the old clips you realise how many we’ve lost over the years, too) giving their insight into the show.
Part one covered the ’70s and the beginning of the televisual monolith that Countdown became and part two this weekend covers the ’80s and the end of the era!
If you missed part one – head to iview and well, if you like good Australian TV then in the words of Molly “Do Yourself A Favour” and tune in to part two.
– Tania Phillips
