Advance Australia Where?
The Age
Tuesday January 25, 2000
IT'S very hard to get Australians to talk about anything other than the weather these days. So hip-hip for the Australian-of-the-Year show, that annual controversy that not only heralds the onset of the new television season but guarantees a new stir, whoever is honored.
And hooray for the Canberra Pooh-Bah who decided the worthy recipient could be announced live on TV in a variety show. If the Queen can turn her Christmas Message into a travel documentary, then why shouldn't Boss Oz take over where Don, Bert and Daryl left off?
Tonight's lineup for the Australian Of The Year Concert (Seven, 7pm) is, of course, as dinkydi as Vegemite butties.
There's Stan Grant as host and a veritable Milky Way of Southern Cross stars. They include the 1967 awardwinners The Seekers, Christine Anu, Vanessa Amorosi, Todd McKinney (of The Boy From Oz), Troy CassarDaley, Belinda Emmett, Adam Brandt and The Three Tenors (yes, it's Phillip Quast, Roger Lemke and David Hobson) with "Tenor Australis". All of these, the Prime Minister, a 500 strong choir and sports heroes, too.
With due respect to this evening's winner, it does seem remarkable that, only 25 days in, the National Australia Day Council has been able to pick our best for the year 2000. Clearly, this is the kind of committee we should have sorting out the GST problems.
As to their big show ... well, there were those last year that dared suggest TV variety was dead. Were they wrong?
Perhaps to avoid any distraction from the traditional AustralianoftheYear disputes, and maybe to open up the procedure of selection to us all, it's worth considering some future telecast alternatives.
The obvious is a variation of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Answer a few simple Australian generalknowledge questions in Eddie McGuire's Who Wants To Be Aussie Of The Year and you, too, could be a winner. Sample: The threeletter word for eucalypt is (a) mug, (b) wattle or (c) gum?
Since one in four Australians of the Year is a sports hero, perhaps a better format would be along the lines of the Brownlow Medal presentation. There could be votes on notable performers on a monthly basis, say, by earlier awardwinners. On the big night we could all fall asleep by the TV as the long count drones on.
On the other hand, there's nothing quite as Aussie as Red Faces. Why not gather a group of finalists and ask them to perform an act? Like playing the didgeridoo or linedancing. Then, with the PM in charge of the gong, let the judges on screen vote for a winner.
If they want to reach a cooler demographic, special editions of The Panel or Good Oz Week might do the trick, with the bright young things taking the mickey out of the nominees until they find a worthy opponent. Or what about a variation of The Logies, or maybe beach volleyball ...
Then again, perhaps they should just try to restore some of the dignity of the occasion and leave the Australian of the Year to a quiet, formal presentation with only the news cameras present?
The last tennis player to be named Australian of the Year was Evonne Goolagong in 1971. It's been a long, hard slog since, though this year there were some worthy contenders around. Trouble is, the competition - particularly in the Australian Open (Seven, 8.30pm) - has become a lot more bothersome.
Nevertheless, I'm still for tennis. There may not be that many Aussie flags fluttering tonight but it's the women's and men's singles quarter finals and I'll follow them to the end.
* Today's Pick
Mailer's America, SBS, 8.30pm
Turn Norman Mailer on and you just can't stop him talking. In the first hour of this three-part series, the interviewer managed to get one line in when the writer finally took a breath. Tonight's wordy journey is through the hell of the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and the Vietnam War. Mailer takes us up to Nixon's presidency and his own thwarted efforts to become Mayor of New York.
Full program: T8
© 2000 The Age
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