05-Aug -> 11-Aug-2005

The week ahead:

It looks like "Passions" is gone for good.  This from today's Green Guide:

"There were outraged calls to Channel Seven's switchboard last week
after its morning soap opera Passions came to an abrupt end. But the
network is eager to tell viewers the decision was not theirs.

The soap was apparently withdrawn for sale from overseas markets by
its American producer and distributor, NBC Productions, because it was
too expensive to clear the music rights for international
distribution.

"We made every effort to keep the series on air but the music
clearance costs were untenable for the producers as only Australia and
a few smaller European territories carried the program," a Seven
spokeswoman says.

"The cost of clearing the music for these markets only wasn't viable."
So Heartbeat screens in its place.

I will include "Gary the Rat" in this listing since the synopsis is "A
corrupt Wall Street journalist wakes one day to find that he has
turned into a giant walking rat".  It looks like Channel 9 are
actually playing these in the correct order (unlike the US where the
first episode, i.e. the one when he turned into a rat) was shown
fourth.  The 3:30 am timeslot leaves a little to be desired though.

The fourth season of "Alias" starts on Thursday night, with a double
episode which means that "Stargate Atlantis" is benched again.  Just
when I was going to say something nice about Channel 7 and the fact
that they are planning to slot the missing episode from the last
season (shown in Australia) of "Stargate SG-1" during the "Stargate
Atlantis" run.

With "Taken" let us say no more than it will be probably shown on a
Tuesday night.  There will probably be two, maybe even three episodes.
 It is quite hard to tell from the information supplied.  These and
other interesting scheduling decisions can be found in How to Kill a
TV show 101.  This week's lecture covers different strategies that can
be taken to alienate views, reference materials include "Taken", "24",
"Desperate Housewives" and "Stargate Atlantis".

Movie of the Week:
X-Men

(semi) regulars:

In:  Gary the Rat, Alias
Out:Haunted, Stargate Atlantis
MIA: Relic Hunter, Sheena, Farscape, Smallville, Futurama,
Thunderbirds, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), The Dead Zone, Joan of
Arcadia, Mutant-X, Jake 2.0, The Medium,  Charmed, Enterprise, The
Twilight Zone

Haven't even appeared yet: Andromeda, Lexx, Earth: The Final Conflict

Weekday dailies:
06:00 am Ch 2, Thunderstone (repeat)
07:00 am Ch 10, Cheez TV (repeat)
07:35 am Ch 2, Arthur (animated, repeat)
05:00 pm Ch 2, Roller Coaster (varies)

Individual days:

Fri 05-Aug-2005:
03:30 am Ch 9, Gary the Rat "Manrattan" (animated)
04:00 am Ch 10, The Lost World (repeat)

Sat 06-Aug-2005: Happy Birthday Claudia
06:00 am Ch 9, Thunderbirds (repeat)
06:00 am Ch 10, The Big Cheez
07:00 am Ch 7, Saturday Disney
08:00 am Ch 10, Scooter: Secret Agent "Operation: Chocolate Soldier" (repeat)
09:00 am Ch 7, Stanley (animated, repeat)
09:30 am Ch 7, Kim Possible (animated, repeat)
10:00 am Ch 7, Llyod in Space (animated, repeat)
11:30 am Ch 7, That's So Raven "Four's a Crowd"
01:00 pm Ch 7, Beastmaster "A Terrible Silence"
07:30 pm Ch 7, Doctor Who "Bad Wolf"

Sun 07-Aug-2005:
07:00 am Ch 7, Flipper and Lopaka - the Search Neptune's Trident
07:35 am Ch 2, The Fairytaler (animated, repeat)
08:10 am Ch 2, Dragon Boosters (repeat)
08:35 am Ch 2, Silversun (repeat)
10:30 pm Ch 7, X-Men (2000 movie, repeat)
11:30 pm Ch 10, Jacob's Ladder (1990 movie)

Mon 08-Aug-2005:
06:05 pm Ch 2, Doctor Who "Logopolis Pt 3" (repeat)

Tue 09-Aug-2005:
06:05 pm Ch 2, Doctor Who "Logopolis Pt 4" (repeat)
08:30 pm Ch 10, The 4400 "Voices Carry"
10:30 pm Ch 9, Taken "Charlie and Lisa", two maybe three episodes?
11:30 pm Ch 7, Tru Calling "Enough"

Wed 10-Aug-2005:
06:05 pm Ch 2, Doctor Who "Castrovalva Pt 1" (repeat)

Thu 11-Aug-2005:
06:05 pm Ch 2, Doctor Who "Castrovalva Pt 2" (repeat)
08:30 pm Ch 7, Lost  "Exodus Pt 1"
09:30 pm Ch 7, Alias "Authorised Personnel Only Part 1"
10:30 pm Ch 7, Alias "Authorised Personnel Only Part 2"
02:30 am Ch 9, Stripperella (animated)

Disclaimer: SF and related [sometimes with emphasis on the related].
Based on The Age Green Guide so Melbourne metropolitan non-cable. Note
this is a list of what is on, what is recommended is another matter
entirely.

Fraser