By ninemsn staff
If it's been on telly, chances are it's been in TV Week. The first edition hit the stands on December 5th, 1957. It cost just one shilling.
Back then, television only existed in Melbourne and Sydney. There were only three channels — and to cap it all off, programming on Sundays didn't even start until the afternoon.
It was the first magazine of its kind and you hadn't made it in television until you'd been on the cover of TV Week. The magazine has helped launch countless careers.
“I look back and I think of the nice covers on TV Week when I looked young — some people were even stupid enough to say handsome!” laughs Australian television icon, Bert Newton.
“My first cover shows me with a crew cut. My head was there not looking very attractive with the crew cut — then again, I should have just prayed that my hair could stay!”
For Kerri-Anne Kennerly, it’s the changing fashions that characterise the development of TV Week over the years.
“Oh, I think there are probably several standout frocks, fortunately I can forget most of them. There was probably in the 80s a particularly memorable one, it was Melbourne, I think it was outside the art gallery, and I remember the lurex tops and the hot pants, in fact it was so long ago, they've come back again,” says Kerri-Anne.
Since it began, there's been more that two and half thousand TV Week covers.
And as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, the magazine has come up with its top 25 most popular stars.
Queen of the Logies, Georgie Parker, was number one.
TV Week’s Gavin Scott says it wasn’t always glamour for Georgie. “The thing she did tell us about her very first cover was back then she brought her own clothes, she did her own hair and the thing she did need help with was make up,” he says. “But that would never happen today.”
Bec Cartwright, Kylie Minogue And Lisa McCune also made it into the top four.
“I love Lisa — she's such a nice girl,” says Kerri-Anne. “She beat me to the gold Logie year after year after year, they could have shot her earlier!”
The first man to get a look in was at number 8 — Elvis!
Despite men dominating covers in the early days, since the 70s, women have become the favourites.
“Let's face it, if you've got the choice between Lisa McCune or Molly Melldrum or me… who's nicer to look at?” asks Bert Newton. “Molly… no, I mean Lisa!”
And it'll be one long party for Bert Newton and TV Week. Next year marks 50 years of the Logies.
Oh and one last thing…
Here's a quote from 1971, by a certain Mike Willessee.
When he was launching his new show, A Current Affair, this is what he told TV Week:
He said he wouldn't be hiring any female reporters because he didn't think they had enough authority to sustain an interview.
And, when it comes to reporting, women were not in the race.
How times have changed, hey Tracy?
