It Takes Seven

Just when it seemed like Seven personalities had stopped winning Seven's variety talent shows, All Saints' Jolene Anderson has snatched glory from FOX FM personality Jo Stanley and partner Anthony Callea.

Anderson won the finale of It Takes Two with her co-singer, David Campbell performing Gloria Gaynor's Never Can Say Goodbye and Dionne Warwick's That's What Friends Are For.

Seven has previously copped quite some flak for the run of Seven stars who have won Dancing with the Stars including Bec Cartwright (Hewitt), Tom Williams, Ada Nicodemou and Grant Denyer.

The show has been a solid hit for Seven in its new Tuesday timeslot, but Dancing is unlikely to return until September.
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First Review: "New" Neighbours

The change is coming at 6:30pm... or is it?

First a confession. I have a fondness for Neighbours which is as familar as an old shoe. We've grown up with the show, connected with many favourite characters and actors, and admired its persistence for hanging in there.

So it's with much curiosity that I took a look at the "new" Neighbours which promises a revamped theme, credits, logo, updated sets, new characters, high def shooting and a higher proportion of locations. New writers and approaches to storylines will also be phased in across the rest of the year.

In the preview copy I received there was no title sequence, which is obviously still being developed. There was an audio of an updated theme, an inoffensive soft-rock with a female voice, reminding me of Natalie Bassingthwaite without the grunt.

From here the content continues Neighbours' terrain of domestic storylines, juvenile actors in romance (some still not particularly good performers), multi-generational advice, a dash of light comedy, traditional soapie tricks (somebody was in a coma) and so on. Admittedly it looks brighter, doubtless a benefit of the new shooting style. But if the sets were different the change is so subtle as to be indistinguishable -which could be part of the master plan.

All the hallmarks that we recognise as defining Neighbours, for better or for worse, remain. You'll still be looking at an interior set noticing that fake exterior background. It's still predominantly WASPy Melbourne, even with the new actors. Houses which were once aspirational McMansions 20 years ago are still, as they have been for several years now, lower middle-class. The dialogue is still soapily pedestrian and costumes are still dominated by primary colours as if the wardrobe mistress had previously dressed The Wiggles.

This is not to suggest that these qualities don't necessarily work.

Neighbours is what it is, and it's more than aware of its market, demographic and budgetary limitations.

Ultimately if the show throws out all the qualities for which it has worked, it loses its DNA and potentially jumps the shark. If it shifts too subtly it risks overhyping the changes.

That advertising campaign promising change will be pushing two months by the time the first episode airs on July 23, and this is where I feel the biggest misjudgment has occured.

To a non-Neighbours fan there is, for all intents and purposes, no change. These promises will not bring in a new audience based on what I have seen so far. Such change will come from the writing not from cosmetic window-dressing. The best of Ramsay Street in recent years was driven entirely by the emotional triangle of Karl, Susan and Izzy, which cost nothing from the budget but a whole lot of heart from the creatives.

Current Neighbours fans are likely to feel cheated. The network has promised much, while the producers have opted for a subtle and long-term shift. Who is right and who is wrong?

New actors Jane Hall, Steve Bastoni and Nikki Coghill may well prove worthwhile in the long-term, and there are promises of more new actors, plus the return of Kym Valentine (Libby Kennedy).

God bless Neighbours for hanging in there and finding the means to attempt an update. God bless it for allowing actors like Jackie Woodburne (Susan Kennedy) to show us why she remains one of this country's most underrated TV performers.

When the "change" sweeps through on July 23, try not to blink if you want to keep these Neighbours as good friends.

Disclaimer: David Knox has previously served on the writing team of Neighbours.

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Sopranos tops with critics

American TV Critics have ranked The Sopranos the top series of 2007.

Despite a controversial ending, the HBO drama was favourite, followed by Lost, Friday Night Lights, The Office and Ugly Betty.

Worst was October Road and 24.


Rank Show Network Poll Ranking Studio
1. The Sopranos HBO N/R HBO, Brad Grey TV, Chase Films
2. Lost ABC 6 Touchstone TV
3. Friday Night Lights NBC 7 Imagine Entertainment, NBC Universal TV, Film 44
4. The Office NBC 3 Reveille, NBC Universal TV
5. Ugly Betty ABC 4 Touchstone TV
6. Heroes NBC 2 NBC Universal TV
7. 30 Rock NBC 13 NBC Universal TV, Broadway Video TV
8. The Shield FX N/R Sony Pictures TV
9. Grey’s Anatomy ABC 4 Touchstone TV
10. The Tudors Showtime New Showtime, Reveille, Working Title, Peace Arch Entertainment
11. The Riches FX New Maverick, Fox TV Studios
12. Entourage HBO N/R HBO, Leverage
(t) Battlestar Galactica Sci Fi 9 NBC Universal TV, Sky One
14. American Idol Fox N/R Fremantle Media, 19 TV, Fox TV
15. House Fox 11 Heel & Toe Films, Shore Z Productions, Bad Hat Harry Productions, NBC Universal TV
16. Boston Legal ABC N/R 20th Century Fox, David E. Kelley Productions
17. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Comedy Central 14 Comedy Central, Mad Cow Productions
18. Rescue Me FX 12 Apostle, DreamWorks TV, Cloudland Co., Sony Pictures TV
19. Desperate Housewives ABC N/R Touchstone TV, Cherry Productions
(t) Rome HBO N/R HBO, BBC
21. Everybody Hates Chris The CW N/R 3 Arts Entertainment, Paramount Network TV
(t) CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CBS N/R CBS Prods., Alliance Atlantis, Bruckheimer TV
23. Brothers and Sisters ABC 24 Touchstone TV
24. Veronica Mars The CW 21 Silver Pictures, Warner Bros., Stu Segall Productions
25. The New Adventures of Old Christine CBS New Warner Bros. TV

The Worst
Rank Show Network Poll Ranking Studio
1. October Road ABC New Group M, Touchstone TV
2. 24 Fox 22* Real Time Productions, Imagine TV, 20th Century Fox TV
3. The Real Wedding Crashers NBC N/R Katalyst Films, New Line TV
4. The Black Donnellys NBC New Blackfriars Bridge Films, NBC Universal
5. Pussycat Dolls Present: TheSearch for the Next Doll The CW New Warner Horizon, 10x10 Entertainment
6. Tyler Perry’s House of Payne TBS New Tyler Perry, Debmar-Mercury
7. Nancy Grace Headline News 6 Cable News Network
8. Sons of Hollywood A&E; New iCandy TV
(t) On the Lot Fox New Mark Burnett Productions, DreamWorks, Amblin TV
(t) The Wedding Belles Fox New David E. Kelley Productions, 20th Century Fox TV Read more...

Tues July 10

[Showtime/8:30pm] The Virgin Queen. Premiere.
[World Movies/8:30pm] Spellbound (US 2002)

[ABC/8:00pm] Carbon Cops : The Students. Can the Carbon Cops find cheap and easy solutions to help three cash-poor student renters reduce their carbon emissions?
[ABC/9:20pm] Foreign Correspondent
[ABC/10:00pm] jtv's One Night Stand In Cowra. This documentary follows the behind-the-scenes drama that occurred in the town of Cowra as locals pulled together triple j's One Night Stand - the biggest concert the town has ever seen.

[Seven/7:30pm] It Takes Two. Final.
[Seven/9:30pm] All Saints. BODIES IN MOTION. When a father and son are brought in after a horror MVA, Frank and Von make a terrible discovery. Bart and Erica are challenged by a post-operative patient who refuses to comply with her recovery requirements. Having tested himself last week, Mike is ready to embrace the ups and downs of life which makes Jack nervous. Charlotte has difficulty coming to terms with a major change of direction in Vincent's life.
[Seven/10:30pm] Grey's Anatomy: Every Moment Counts. Hosted by JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN, this one hour special event takes you back to your favourite episodes of Seven's hit series, Grey's Anatomy. Relive the moments that made you laugh, made you cry and made you wonder how you ever survived without it!

[Ten/7:30pm] All New Simpsons. “The Boys of Bummer.” Bart becomes a hometown hero when he makes the game-winning catch at his Little League game. Meanwhile, Homer runs into some luck, when an impressed store owner hires him as a salesman.
[Ten/8:30pm] NCIS. Rpt.
[Ten/9:30pm] Numb3rs. “End of Watch.”

[Nine/7:30pm] Crime and Justice.
[Nine/8:30pm] CSI: Miami. Rpt.
[Nine/12:00am Wed] Movie: Detroit Rock City (US 1999)

[SBS/8:30pm] Traders’ Dreams. Screening on SBS television in the Cutting Edge timeslot, Tuesday, July 10 at 8.30pm, is Traders’ Dreams. This film looks at the world as a global department store: five astounding stories from different corners of the globe, stories of winners and losers, of trading and hoping, of success and promise – and an illuminating expedition into the heart of eBay headquarters...More than 200 million people use eBay, the largest Internet auction house worldwide. Each day, hundreds more join those ranks, ready to change their lives and find happiness in the world of virtual commerce. Filmmakers Marcus Vetter and Stefan Tolz spent more than a year observing people in their attempts to fulfil their eBay dreams: in Borna in Saxony, Germany, on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, in a village in the Mexican desert – the idea of a direct marketplace where anyone can buy and sell at anytime is popular throughout the world. In California, we meet "Uncle Griff," the legendary host of the eBay Radio Show, and author of the eBay Bible. The camera follows Griff during eBay Live, the annual world congress of the "community" and thus provides an informative look behind the scenes. In Hangzhou, on the east coast of China, a successful businessman named Jack Ma and his company Alibaba have already eclipsed the Chinese division of eBay – and now he wants to compete with the Americans on the world market. Traders’ Dreams interweaves personal eBay stories with a global finance thriller in a surprising and entertaining fashion. It's about the philosophy behind the eBay system and how eBay affects the future of the trading business globally. How close are we to realizing the phenomenal dream of a system in which everyone can win? Read more...