''Sydney Tonight'' was an Australian television variety series which aired from December 1956 to early 1959 on Sydney station

ATN-7 ATN is the Sydney flagship television station of the Seven Network in Australia. The licence, issued to a company named Amalgamated Television Services, a subsidiary of John Fairfax & Sons, was one of the first four licences (two in Sydney, two ...

. Originally compered by Keith Walshe, it was later hosted by Roy Hampson and re-titled ''Tonight''. The series featured a format including guests, interviews, audience participation, and music. Like ''

In Melbourne Tonight ''In Melbourne Tonight'', also known as ''IMT'', was a highly popular nightly Logie award-winning Australian variety television show produced at GTV-9 Melbourne from 6 May 1957 to 1970. Overview Graham Kennedy was the show's main host and s ...

'', which came later, it was patterned on the groundbreaking U.S. series ''

Tonight Starring Steve Allen ''Tonight Starring Steve Allen'' is an American talk show hosted by Steve Allen. It was the first version of what eventually became known as ''The Tonight Show''. ''Tonight'' was the first late-night talk show, as well as the first late night te ...

''. In October 1958, station ATN-7 experimented by using video-tape recordings of ''Sydney Tonight'' segments as part of their morning line-up. Reviewing the morning line-up, Nan Musgrove of ''

The Australian Women's Weekly ''The Australian Women's Weekly'', sometimes known as simply ''The Weekly'', is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by Mercury Capital in Sydney. For many years it was the number one magazine in Australia before being outsold by ...

'' criticised the use of the ''Sydney Tonight'' segments, saying that ''"I may be peculiar, but ladies in full warpaint and baretopped evening dresses at 7:30 a.m. wiggling their way through seductive songs are not my favorite breakfast entertainment"'', though the reviewer had more positive feelings towards the other morning offerings, soap opera '' Autumn Affair'' and music series '' The Toppanos''. The series had segment titled '' Ardath Hit Parade'' which was later spun off into its own series. A kinescope of a 1958 episode of the series is held by the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

Reception

The 2 January 1957 edition of ''Australian Women's Weekly'' gave the series 2/4, saying that ''"Variety artists so far have been good"'' but felt that Walshe was not a compelling host.

References

External links

*{{imdb title Seven Network original programming 1956 Australian television series debuts 1959 Australian television series endings Black-and-white Australian television shows English-language television shows Australian live television series Australian variety television shows