50 Years 50 Stars is a television special that marked 50 years of television in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Hosted by Mike Munro

Mike Munro

Michael Munro is an Australian television presenter.- Early life :Munro cites a tough childhood with an abusive and alcoholic mother, as one of the main reasons behind his motivation to succeed. Munro attended Sacred Heart Primary School in Mosman, New South Wales and Marist College North Shore in...

 and broadcast on Sunday 10 September 2006 on the Nine Network

Nine Network

The Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia...

, the special counted down the top 50 greatest living Australian television personalities.

Also in the special featured many special comments from other television personalities, including Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, John Wood

John Wood (Australian actor)

John Wood is a Gold Logie Award-winning Australian actor, best known for his role as Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon in the Seven Network's long running police drama Blue Heelers.-TV career:...

, Erik Thomson

Erik Thomson

Erik Thomson is an actor known for playing Hades in the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Dr. Mitch Stevens in All Saints and Dave Rafter in Packed to the Rafters...

, Bert Newton

Bert Newton

Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...

, Jacki Weaver

Jacki Weaver

Jacqueline Ruth "Jacki" Weaver is an Australian theatre, film and television actress. She is best known outside Australia for her performance in Animal Kingdom, for which she was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Career:Jacki Weaver has been working in Australian...

, Scott Cam

Scott Cam

Scott Cam is an Australian television personality appearing on several lifestyle programmes on the Nine Network.-Early career:Scott is a qualified carpenter who did a three-year apprenticeship with his brother’s business....

, James Brayshaw

James Brayshaw

James Antony Brayshaw is a former state cricketer and now Australian television and radio personality. As a cricketer he was known as Jamie Brayshaw. He is the son of former Western Australian cricketer and Australian rules footballer Ian Brayshaw, and the brother of Mark Brayshaw, a former...

, Jules Lund

Jules Lund

Jules Lund is an Australian television presenter from Melbourne. He attended De La Salle College MalvernLund's career began when he won the FOX FM's "15 Minutes of Fame" competition on radio in the early 2000s...

, Livinia Nixon

Livinia Nixon

Livinia Nixon is an Australian television presenter and actress best known for her roles on the Nine Network as weather presenter on Nine News Melbourne and as co-host on the long running variety series Hey Hey It's Saturday....

, Steve Vizard

Steve Vizard

Stephen William Vizard, born 6 March 1956 in Richmond, Victoria, is an Australian media personality, comedian, businessman and writer.-Early life:...

, Ray Martin

Ray Martin (television presenter)

Raymond George "Ray" Martin AM is an Australian television journalist. He is best known for his various on-air roles on Channel Nine from 1978 to 2008. In 2011 he returned to 60 Minutes....

, Tracy Grimshaw

Tracy Grimshaw

Tracy Grimshaw is an Australian journalist and television presenter. She is currently the host of A Current Affair, and was a co-host of Today for nine years.-Career:...

, Brian Henderson

Brian Henderson

Brian Weir Henderson AM is a New Zealand-born Australian television personality and news-reader.-Career:Henderson hosted the Australian version of Bandstand from 1958 until 1972...

, Giaan Rooney

Giaan Rooney

Giaan Leigh Rooney OAM is a retired Australian swimmer. She won an Olympic gold medal and broke a world record at the Athens Olympics...

, Kimberley Davies

Kimberley Davies

Kimberley Davies is an Australian actress most famous for playing Annalise Hartman on the Australian soap opera Neighbours from 1993 to 1996...

 & Jana Wendt

Jana Wendt

-Early life:Wendt was born to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949, and was educated at the University of Melbourne.-Career:Wendt's television career began as a news presenter for ATV-10 evening news...

.

1. Bert Newton
   Bert Newton
   Albert Watson "Bert" Newton, AM, MBE is an Australian television personality, known for hosting television series such as In Melbourne Tonight, Good Morning Australia and 20 to 1. Newton has also hosted the Logie Awards on numerous occasions through his career.-Early life:Newton was born in...
   
   
2. Kath and Kim
3. Garry McDonald
   Garry McDonald
   Garry George McDonald, AO is an Australian stage and screen actor.-Early life and career:McDonald was born in Sydney and was educated at Cranbrook School and National Institute of Dramatic Art....
   
   
4. Paul Hogan
   Paul Hogan
   Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
   
   
5. Don Lane
   Don Lane
   Don Lane , born Morton Donald Isaacson, was an American-born talk show host and singer. Don Lane is best known for hosting The Don Lane Show, which was aired on The Nine Network in Australia from 1975 to 1983....
   
   
6. Kylie Minogue
   Kylie Minogue
   Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
   
   
7. Barry Humphries
   Barry Humphries
   John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
   
   
8. John Farnham
   John Farnham
   John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
   
   
9. John Wood
   John Wood (Australian actor)
   John Wood is a Gold Logie Award-winning Australian actor, best known for his role as Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon in the Seven Network's long running police drama Blue Heelers.-TV career:...
   
   
10. Olivia Newton-John
    Olivia Newton-John
    Olivia Newton-John AO, OBE is a singer and actress. She is a four-time Grammy award winner who has amassed five No. 1 and ten other Top Ten Billboard Hot 100 singles and two No. 1 Billboard 200 solo albums. Eleven of her singles and 14 of her albums have been certified gold by the RIAA...
    
    
11. Magda Szubanski
    Magda Szubanski
    Magda Szubanski is a British-born Australian actress, comedian, television presenter, radio host and author.Szubanski's career began while she was studying at university and she progressed to television sketch comedy, as both a writer and performer...
    
    
12. Eddie McGuire
    Eddie McGuire
    Edward Joseph "Eddie" McGuire AM is an Australian television presenter and businessman known for his long association with Australian rules football and the Channel 9 television network....
    
    
13. Andrew Denton
    Andrew Denton
    Andrew Christopher Denton is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program Enough Rope. He is known for his comedy and interviewing technique...
    
    
14. Ian 'Molly' Meldrum
15. Daryl Somers
    Daryl Somers
    Daryl Paul Somers OAM , is an Australian television personality. The son of a dairy farmer and a cabaret singer, Somers rose to national fame as the host of the long-running comedy-variety program Hey Hey It's Saturday.-Early life:Somers, who has an Irish Catholic heritage, was educated at...
    
    
16. Mike Willesee
    Mike Willesee
    Michael Willesee is an Australian television presenter.Mike Willesee came to prominence in 1967 as a reporter for the ABC's new nightly current affairs program This Day Tonight , where his aggressive style quickly earned him a reputation as a fearless political interviewer.-Career:Willesee figured...
    
    
17. Rove McManus
    Rove McManus
    John Henry Michael "Rove" McManus is an Australian comedian, television presenter, producer and media personality. He was the host of the self-titled variety show Rove, and is the owner of the production company Roving Enterprises...
    
    
18. Sigrid Thornton
    Sigrid Thornton
    Sigrid Thornton is an Australian multi-award winning actress.-Early years:Thornton was born in Canberra, the daughter of Merle, a teacher of women's studies and writer, and Neil Thornton, an academic. She spent most of her formative years growing up and attending school at St. Peter's Lutheran...
    
    
19. Eric Bana
    Eric Bana
    Eric Bana is an Australian film and television actor. He began his career as a comedian in the sketch comedy series Full Frontal before gaining critical recognition in the biopic Chopper...
    
    
20. Jana Wendt
    Jana Wendt
    -Early life:Wendt was born to Czech parents who emigrated to Australia in 1949, and was educated at the University of Melbourne.-Career:Wendt's television career began as a news presenter for ATV-10 evening news...
    
    
21. Lisa McCune
    Lisa McCune
    Lisa McCune , is a four-time Gold Logie Award winning Australian actress, best known for her role as Senior Constable Maggie Doyle in Blue Heelers, and as Lt...
    
    
22. Charles 'Bud' Tingwell
23. Noeline Brown
    Noeline Brown
    Noeline Brown is an Australian actor and comedian. She has appeared in many films, television shows, plays and radio programs....
    
    
24. John Clarke
    John Clarke (satirist)
    John Morrison Clarke is a New Zealand-born Australian comedian, writer, and satirist. He was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and has lived in Australia since the late 1970s...
    
    
25. Mike Walsh
    Mike Walsh (TV host)
    Mike Walsh OBE was host of The Mike Walsh Show from 1973 until 1985. Walsh is the only entertainer to be awarded the Sammy Award and Gold Logie award in the same year....
    
    
26. Stuart Wagstaff
    Stuart Wagstaff
    Stuart Wagstaff AM is an Australian television and stage entertainer.- Early life :Wagstaff was born in Great Durnford, Wiltshire, England, and grew up on a farm with his parents and two older sisters. His father was very strict and emotionally abusive, and he received little affection from his...
    
    
27. Georgie Parker
    Georgie Parker
    Georgina "Georgie" Parker is an Australian television actress. She grew up in the suburb of St. Ives.-Personal life:...
    
    
28. Don Burke
    Don Burke
    Donald William "Don" Burke OAM is an Australian television personality and author. He is best known as the long time host of Burke's Backyard, a lifestyle program which ran for 17 years from 1987 to late 2004 on the Nine Network. It has returned several times over recent years with a number of...
    
    
29. Reg Grundy
    Reg Grundy
    Reginald Roy "Reg" Grundy, AC, OBE is one of the most successful Australian entrepreneurs, and media and television moguls of his generation.He was the only child born to Roy Grundy and Lillian Lees...
    
    
30. Richie Benaud
    Richie Benaud
    Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
    
    
31. Ray Martin
    Ray Martin (television presenter)
    Raymond George "Ray" Martin AM is an Australian television journalist. He is best known for his various on-air roles on Channel Nine from 1978 to 2008. In 2011 he returned to 60 Minutes....
    
    
32. Rebecca Gibney
    Rebecca Gibney
    Rebecca Catherine Gibney is a New Zealand born Australian actress.-Biography:Gibney was born the youngest of six children, and brought up in Wellington. She has said she wasn't so much funny as a "bit odd" as a child. "I was a bit like Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family...
    
    
33. Nicole Kidman
    Nicole Kidman
    Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
    
    
34. Brian Henderson
    Brian Henderson
    Brian Weir Henderson AM is a New Zealand-born Australian television personality and news-reader.-Career:Henderson hosted the Australian version of Bandstand from 1958 until 1972...
    
    
35. Claudia Karvan
    Claudia Karvan
    Claudia Karvan is an Australian actress popular for her roles in the television series The Secret Life of Us and Love My Way. She is also a producer and writer on Love My Way. She currently stars in the drama series Spirited...
    
    
36. George Negus
    George Negus
    George Edward Negus is an Australian author, journalist, and television presenter. He previously presented 6:30 with George Negus on Network Ten, until it was axed by the Network on 19 October 2011.-Education:...
    
    
37. Denise Drysdale
    Denise Drysdale
    Denise Anne Christina Drysdale, is an Australian television personality and comedian. She is often affectionately called Ding-Dong.-Childhood:...
    
    
38. Glenn Robbins
    Glenn Robbins
    Glenn Maxwell Robbins is an Australian comedian, writer and actor.Robbins attended Strathmore Secondary College and graduated in 1975...
    
    
39. Rob Sitch
    Rob Sitch
    Robert Ian Sitch , is an Australian director, producer, screenwriter, actor and comedian.-Early life:Sitch attended St Kevin's College and graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Melbourne, where he resided at Trinity College. He worked at the Royal Womans Hospital...
    
    
40. Michael Caton
    Michael Caton
    Michael Caton is an Australian television, film and stage actor, and television host, best known for playing Uncle Harry in the Australian television series, The Sullivans, playing Darryl Kerrigan from 1997's low budget hit film The Castle and playing in the popular Packed to the Rafters. He is...
    
    
41. Jacki Weaver
    Jacki Weaver
    Jacqueline Ruth "Jacki" Weaver is an Australian theatre, film and television actress. She is best known outside Australia for her performance in Animal Kingdom, for which she was nominated for the 2011 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Career:Jacki Weaver has been working in Australian...
    
    
42. Lorraine Bayly
    Lorraine Bayly
    Lorraine Daphne Bayly AM is an Australian actress.She is best known to television audiences for her portrayal of Grace Sullivan, the dignified, warm-hearted mother figure in the drama series The Sullivans 1976-1979, dealing with life for an ordinary Australian family during the Second World...
    
    
43. Kerri-Anne Kennerley
    Kerri-Anne Kennerley
    Kerri-Anne Wright Kennerley is an Australian television personality. She is one of Australia's most seasoned light entertainment hosts...
    
    
44. Ossie Ostrich
    Ossie Ostrich
    Ossie Ostrich is an Australian television character, firstly on the Tarax Show, and then on the long-running program Hey Hey It's Saturday which started as a Saturday morning cartoon show for children in 1971. In 1984, he also hosted an after-school children's show called The Ossie Ostrich Video...
    
    
45. Bec Cartwright/Hewitt
46. Toni Lamond
    Toni Lamond
    Toni Lamond AM is an Australian cabaret singer, stage actor, dancer and comedienne...
    
    
47. Mark Mitchell
    Mark Mitchell
    Mark Mitchell is an Australian actor and comedian.-Early life:Mark studied English and education at State College of Victoria Rusden Campus and taught secondary school English for 5 years before becoming a professional actor.-Career:Mark starred in the pioneering sketch comedy show The Eleventh...
    
    
48. Jack Thompson
    Jack Thompson (actor)
    Jack Thompson, AM is an Australian actor and one of the major figures of Australian cinema. He was educated at University of Queensland, before embarking on his acting career. In 2002, he was made an honorary member of the Australian Cinematographers Society...
    
    
49. Roy and HG
    Roy and HG
    Roy & HG is an Australian comedy duo, comprising Greig Pickhaver in the role of "H [Harry] G Nelson" and John Doyle as "'Rampaging' Roy Slaven". Their act is an affectionate but irreverent parody of Australia's obsession with sport. Their characters based on archetypes in sports journalism: Nelson...
    
    
50. Delta Goodrem
    Delta Goodrem
    Delta Lea Goodrem is an Australian singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. Signed to Sony at the age of 15, Goodrem rose to prominence in 2002, starring in the Australian soap opera Neighbours as Nina Tucker. Goodrem has achieved eight number-one singles and three number-one albums in her home...
    
    

External links

• Nine Network press release as published on the Australian TV Guide
  Australian TV Guide
  The Australian TV Guide was the first online television schedule guide ever published in Australia, and one of the first online television schedule guides in the world....
  
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• ninemsn video