The Graham Kennedy Show
| The Graham Kennedy Show | |
|---|---|
| Presented by | Graham Kennedy |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| Production | |
| Running time | Approximately 60 minutes (inc. commercials) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Nine Network |
| Picture format | 4.3 Black and White (1972-1975) 4.3 PAL (1975) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 19 September 1972 – 17 April 1975 |
The Graham Kennedy Show was an Australian talk show which debuted on 19 September 1972 on the Nine Network.
On 23 December 1969, host Graham Kennedy quit as host of In Melbourne Tonight due to exhaustion and rested for two years. In spite of his fame and fortune, he later described that period as "years of misery". After specials on 15 November 1971 and 2 March 1972, he returned with this series.
Kennedy sparked controversy after a "crow-call", which sounded like the word "fuck", was broadcast in March 1975 (see below). Forced to prerecord from that point on, he abruptly departed following GTV-9's censorship of the 16 April 1975 edition.
On the show of 3 March 1975, Kennedy imitated a crow, saying "faaaaaaark", during a live read of a Cedel hairspray advertisement by announcer Rosemary Margan. The Nine Network reportedly received hundreds of complaints, followed by a rash of newspaper headlines the next day. This led the Australian Broadcasting Control Board to request that Kennedy "show cause" why he should not be removed from the airwaves. Kennedy replied that he could not show cause, suggesting that the Board take action to limit his appearances, while hinting at legal action should they do so. Rather than removing him, the ABCB banned Kennedy from appearing live, forcing him to pre-record the show on videotape. Some have claimed that Kennedy deliberately engineered the crow call incident so that the show would have to be prerecorded, allowing him to get home earlier, while others suggest that he did it so that Nine would sack him.
In 2002, in The Age newspaper, writer Jonathan Green reported that the crow call segment was in fact pretaped and that the controversy was probably just a pretext for other issues. Rival Nine personality Ernie Sigley, who presented his own variety show on different nights to Kennedy, has claimed the real reason Kennedy was axed was that his ratings were so poor compared to Sigley's.
According to Age reporter Suzanne Carbone, the first known use of the expletive on Australian TV was in the 1960s, when Nine Adelaide evening news presenter Kevin Crease said "fucking hell" during a mishap in a live advertisement on variety show Adelaide Tonight. Crease told The Age that "The audience fell off their chairs laughing" and that he was amazed no complaints were received and that although he feared he would be sacked, nothing happened.
...
Wikipedia