In Melbourne Tonight (IMT) |
Television show In Melbourne Tonight (IMT) on GTV-9 was hosted by Graham Kennedy and is still regarded as the golden era of Australian television.
In Melbourne Tonight or IMT as it was known locally ran from 6 May 1957 to 1970. The opening theme music was Gee, But You're Swell, written by Abel Baer and Thomas Tobias in 1936.
In 1956, just in time for the Melbourne Olympics, Australian television began on GTV9, destined to be the nation's most successful popular network. A year later, the long-running variety show, In Melbourne Tonight began and became immensely popular.
The star of the show was Graham Kennedy, the king of comedy, the recognised successor to Australia's previous comic king and lord of misrule, Roy Rene. With In Melbourne Tonight Kennedy brought to and adapted for television Australia's rich history of very risque music hall, vaudeville, and variety.
In Melbourne Tonight included musical acts, game segments, burlesques of ads, and sketches, including "The Wilsons."In this segment, perhaps reminiscent of The Honeymooners skit on early 1950s American television, Graham played a dirty old man, married to his Joyce, carnivalising marriage as comic disaster.
Geoff Corke was Kennedy's offsider until 1959 when Bert Newton joined GTV-9 from HSV-7 to become Kennedy's straight-man. This began a professional partnership that continued for many years and a friendship that continued until Kennedy's death in 2005.
Other IMT identities included Joff Ellen, Val Ruff, Panda Lisner, Mary Hardy, Rosie Sturgess, Patti McGrath (Patti Newton), Toni Lamond, Philip Brady, Johnny Ladd, Noel Ferrier, Elaine McKenna, Bill McCormick, Ted Hamilton, The Tune Twisters and the Channel 9 Ballet.
The rather poor quality image above depicts what viewers of IMT saw in 1956, grainy black and white television on a 14 and 17"screen.
To learn more about IMT, see In Melbourne Tonight.
❊ Web Links ❊
➼ In Melbourne Tonight (IMT)
❊ Also See... ❊
➼ Channel 9 | NINE
➼ Graham Kennedy
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