‘Australian TV sold on profits, ratings’

Press, 8 February 1977, Page 17

‘Australian TV sold on profits, ratings’

By

KEN COATES

Australian television is so bad it "almost stinks” because commercial stations, only interested in profits and high ratings, fight for audiences with programmes aimed at the lowest common denominator. This criticism comes from former Christchurch actor, Fred Betts, back on this side of the Tasman after six years in Australia, three years and a half of which he played the role of Sir Henry Usher in the soap opera, "The Box.” Fred has been written out of the series, which is winding up in April. By then it will have been running for three years nine months. “Actually, I am disposed of and most of the rest of the series is devoted to finding out who killed Sir Henry,” said Fred. He said “The Box” had really been continued too long and the script had become so bad at times that the cast had to rewrite parts of it. Fred Betts is in the Court Theatre production of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” He says it is delightful to get a script that does not need re-writing. Of Australian television he said programmes were merely designed to appeal to the greatest number of viewers. And as many viewers are Greeks, Turks, Italians and other immigrants, everything had to be reduced to basics, otherwise they would not understand. “It seems the less talented and more vulgar you are, the more popular you are,” said Fred. “It is hard to take a pride in your work.” Even the A.8.C.. had joined the ratings game, and when it did tackle a worth-while programme — such as “Power Without Glory,” which was about corruption in the Labour Party and the Catholic Church — it had emasculated it as though it were afraid to come to grips with it. He conceded the A.B.C.

“had not done too bad a job,” but with this kind of programme, which was based on Frank Hardy’s controversial novel, it had to be done exceptionally well or not at all. Programmes were only low because television stations kept them that way. “It’s like the Sunday papers — they are only in it for the money, but television is far too important a mind-forming medium for this,” Fred said.

“Meanwhile young Australians are brought up on a diet of Los Angeles or New York violence and crap in general.”

Fred Betts maintains there is a message here for New Zealand television which, he maintains, must develop its own programmes. While “Close to Home,” appeared dreary and pedestrian, it was at least a New Zealand show and was providing experience for actors and directors.

Quality was a byproduct of quantity, he emphasised. When 8.8. C. television began, there was a stipulation that 85 per cent of programmes had to be British-made. Out of this had come the finest television in the world, with drama such as “The Naked Civil Servant,” and ‘The Nearly Man” (to be shown by TVI later this year) as examples. Fred Betts said that playing one role in a television series brought its problems. Paul Karo, who began his career in New Zealand, played Lee Whiteman, a homosexual, in “The Box.” But when he left after 18 months, Karo spent a year out of work because he was looked on only in terms of this role. Subsequently he rejoined "The Box” and won a Logie and Penguin award. Karo, and Joe Hasham, who played Don Finlayson, a homosexual solicitor in “Number 96,” had altered public attitudes towards homosexuality in Australia where “poof bashing” was a popular game. Fred Betts now lives in his house and section

“with every variety of weed known to man” at Sumner, instead of a small flat in Sydney. He has a small part which he calls “a spit and a cough” in "The McKenzie Affair,” and the scene in which he takes part will be recorded in Akaroa on March 2.

He is booked to play at the Court Theatre until the end of March “and thereafter Fm open to offers.”