Interview With Adam Boland - 'Sunrise' Executive Producer

* Adam is also the EP of the TV special: TV Turns 50: The Events That Stopped A Nation

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Channel Seven will celebrate television’s 50th birthday on the actual anniversary weekend, Sunday September 17, with a three hour live black tie event at Star City Casino in Sydney. TV Turns 50:The Events That Stopped A Nation will be hosted by Sunrise’s Melissa Doyle and David Koch and will be broadcast around the country.

Kochie & Mel will be joined by special guest hosts including Will Ferrell and Oscar nominee John C Reilly. The Daddo brothers will also be reunited withCameron flying out from LA to join Andrew and Lochie live on stage.

Other well known Australian identities taking part in the spectacular event include Bud Tingwell, Lisa McCune, The Wiggles, Denise Drysdale, Molly Meldrum and many more. 

The evening will begin with all the glitz and glamour of the red carpet, hosted by Sonia Kruger, and will then continue with the countdown of the top 20 TV moments from the past half-century as voted by the Australian public.

There will also be a reunion of the original A Country Practice cast plus live performances from artists including Guy Sebastian, The Whitlams, Gangajang, Christina Anu plus a and a special tribute to Elvis Presley by David Campbell and Human Nature.

JJ         Adam when was the TV Turns 50 special conceived?

Adam   In a way, we’ve been working on this for 50 years.  The reality is that’s exactly what it is.  We got handed the project about a year ago.  It has evolved somewhat since then. 

JJ         I believe you wanted to do something different to your standard TV anniversary special?

Adam   Well, when we sat down to do this, in the first instance we thought - what are we going to do ... just go through the archives?  Work out what the best clips are?  Then whack them altogether in a special? The problem with that is - two things.  Firstly, I don’t think that does justice to what this anniversary is - and secondly it’s been done to death.  We needed a significant point of difference and I think we also needed to be much bigger than what the initial plan was.  So we thought - “how do we do that”?  And the first thing was we needed to spend a lot of money - and that went down well!  Secondly we had to put together a spectacular birthday party.  When you think about it.  That’s what this is.  It’s the birthday of TV.  So we thought … we know how to do live TV, because we do a bit of that - and then we had to decided upon a venue and chose Star City here in Sydney.  After all, Sydney was where TV first began in Australia just prior to the Olympic Games and the opening of television in Melbourne.

JJ         Tell us about the special.  It’s in two parts isn’t it?

Adam   That’s right.  The first part is the countdown of TV moments.  We put together this website which generated a huge response.  We had more than 300,000 votes - which blew us away.  Essentially the website had a couple of hundred TV moments from 1956 until now.  We now have this final list of the most significant moments in TV history as judged by viewers and we count that down on the night.  I think the list will surprise a lot of people.  Each of these moments are truly special.  They’re really classy productions. We’ve gone out and interviewed people who were there and had a role in the moment.  That’s the first component.  The second component is all of these huge performances. They are really big production numbers that have now been in rehearsal for about 3 weeks.  We’ve got David Campbell and Human Nature teaming up for a tribute to Elvis which I believe will blow people away. 

The finale on the night is John Wood singing - and I think that will surprise people to begin with - and what he’s singing is sensational.  He’ll be backed up by the Australian Youth Choir  We’re not revealing what he’s singing until the night - but it’s just gorgeous.  It’s a much bigger show than what we anticipated but I hope - because we’re the only show that goes to air on the birthday weekend - I think it will actually do justice to what we’re actually celebrating.

JJ         So whose idea was it to have John Wood singing?

Adam   It was Graham Rowlands our director who suggested him.  Graham’s a terrific showman in himself and he’s done many things including the Good Friday appeals in Melbourne and he used John in a singing role about 13 years ago.  But when you think about it, John is not only a TV star but also has a vast theatrical background and the boy can sing!  Having now heard him - he really is spectacular.  But he’s paired up with someone which is a surprise on the night.  And as part of the finale everyone that has performed on the night will reappear on stage. 

JJ         American comic actor Will Ferrell is a guest on the night.  Why did you chose Will?

Adam   Do you know why I like him?  And this is something about me more than anything else.  I was a huge fan of the film Anchor Man.  I thought it was a sensational movie with Will playing Ron Burgundy.  I haven’t met him yet but I meet him this week.  He gets off the plane that morning and he’s on stage that night.  There has actually been a bit of flack because we’re using him in the show - which strikes me as odd.  The criticism is along the lines of - why would you be using an American for an Australian TV special? The fact is whether we like it or not there has been a heavy influence of American culture on our television over the past 50 years.  It would be wrong not to acknowledge that.  He hasn’t got a major part on the night.  The other thing about it is - I’m actually quite proud of the fact that we can show outsiders what we’ve done and celebrate that fact. 

JJ         Well if Kochie has a week off, I’d love to see him as Ron Burgundy co-hosting with Mel.

Adam   Wouldn’t that be awesome. 

JJ         And you’ve got together the original A Country Practice team. Was that easy?  Was anyone reluctant to take part?

Adam   Yes there were people that were reluctant.  Believe it or not, this was probably the biggest challenge of all which is fascinating.  I guess some people move on and take the view that A Country Practice is what it was - a sensational drama for its time, but want it to be remembered as such and they don’t wish to revisit that time.  That was the view of some of the cast members.  We made the argument that because of the impact that A Country Practice has had on television, we think that this is the one night that all the rules don’t apply.  This is the one night where you can actually step up on stage and say we’re immensely proud of it - and celebrate the part that A Country Practice played on our television sets. We’ve tracked down all the major cast members.  Some weren’t easy.  For example Joyce Jacobs who played Esme, we couldn’t find.  Even her fellow cast members lost contact with her.  We had to in fact put a call out on Sunrise - and we found her within about half an hour of putting the call out.  She’d moved to a nursing home.  So she’ll be appearing on the night.  She’s now in a wheelchair but her son will be bringing her along.  I remember when Molly died on A Country Practice and that it was one of those highest rating shows in the history of Australian TV.  It just touched so many people. 

JJ         To wrap up.  What are a few of your all time favourite TV shows?

Adam   Well Sunrise is Number 1.  To be totally truthful with you, A Country Practice is definitely one of them.  I remember that scene with Molly dying.  I was only young at the time but that had a big impact because I wasn’t used to seeing people die at all.  I hadn’t experienced any of that in my own life.  This is the strange thing about television.  The reality is when you go home at night and turn the TV on - it does play a part in your life and it has such a social connection.  That’s the beauty of the media. But I remember that scene from A Country Practice and going to bed crying that night.  That can’t not have an impact on someone especially when they are so young. 

JJ         Is there another significant TV moment that you remember well?

Adam   Yes, I very much remember the final Countdown show when Molly took his hat off and revealed his bald head. 

JJ         I guess, being young.  You’re only 30, you wouldn’t remember some of the early days of TV.

Adam   That’s right.  Being so young, I’ve also had to become a student of TV, because I wasn’t around for the first 20 years of television.  In a way, that’s helped me a lot because I’ve been able to approach the TV special differently.  But having said that, I’ve also surrounded myself with people such as Graham Rowlands who has been there for most of that time by his own confession.  It’s an interesting production in the way that we’ve approached this.  There are people of various ages who have been working on this.  I think it will be hard to satisfy everyone on the night because there will be people who will always look at television over the years through different eyes.  But we’ve tried to take as broad a view as possible to the production and we think it has come up ok.

* If you subscribe to Jocks' Journal you can read about Adam Boland's thoughts and memories from his days in radio.  That interview will only be featured in Jocks' Journal.