Young Talent Time

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

Young Talent Time was an Australian television variety program screened on Network Ten, running from 1971 until 1989. The series featured a core group of young performers in the vein of The Mickey Mouse Club, and a weekly junior talent quest. The Young Talent Team regularly performed popular classics along with the top hit songs of the day. The program was the creation of host Johnny Young and launched the careers of a number of Australian performers including Tina Arena and Dannii Minogue.

1 Production details
2 Alumni
3 Final Years
4 Controversy
5 Team Members
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Production details

Young Talent Time was produced by Lewis-Young Productions (the production partnership between host Johnny Young and his friend and colleague Kevin Lewis) and was filmed mainly at the studios of ATV-10 in Nunawading, Melbourne although occasional shows were filmed at the TEN-10 studios in Sydney.

Many of the episodes from the early-mid 1970s no longer exist as the tapes were wiped for re-use, being the official Network Ten policy at the time. Later episodes from the series were repeated by pay TV broadcaster Foxtel in the late 1990s.

Because the series ran for such a long time and featured young performers, Young Talent Time made an indelible mark on the psyche of several generations of Australian children, leading them to believe that if they tried hard enough, they too could be a 'star' like the kids they saw on television^{[citation needed]}.

One memorable aspect of the show was the regular closing number, where Johnny Young would sing the Beatles' song "All My Lovin'" (with which he had an Australian hit in the 1960s), accompanied by the entire cast, in an almost lullaby style, individually wishing all of the cast good night.

Late in the show's run, Young Talent Time launched an American based show, "New Generation", produced in Australia starring certain members of the Young Talent Team with a new American host named Michael Young. It was screened twice weekly in the US. Europe and Canada.

[edit] Alumni

Members of the Young Talent Team who found continued success after leaving the series include Tina Arena, Jamie Redfern, Dannii Minogue, and Debra Byrne. Some Young Talent Time chose not to continue their singing careers after their stint on the show was up.

In 2003, three performers associated with Young Talent Time were simultaneously in the United States Billboard Magazine Dance Top 10 – series regulars, Tina Arena with "Never (Past Tense)" and both Dannii Minogue with "I Begin to Wonder" and her sister Kylie Minogue.

[edit] Final Years

In its final years Young Talent Time struggled for ratings, particularly following the decision of rival Nine Network to run the popular variety show Hey Hey It's Saturday in direct competition. The show was abruptly cancelled in January, 1989.

The cancellation of the show was a shock to the cast, crew and fans. Johnny Young had invested a large amount of money in building a studio complex in the hope of producing the show himself and selling it back to Network Ten^{[citation needed]}. The cancellation ended these dreams, and he was forced to sell his family home to settle debts. Young's stepfather and mother died soon after, and Young's marriage to wife Cathy dissolved.

[edit] Controversy

In 1993 Terry Higgins, a friend of Johnny Young and former Young Talent Time director, was diagnosed as being HIV positive. Young accompanied Higgins to a Filipino clinic which offered the so called 'Ozone Therapy' ^[1]. The clinic turned out to be an illegal operation, and Young was arrested by police, forced to undergo a HIV test and threatened with deportation.

The tragic death of former cast member Juanita Coco in 1993 was another devastating event. Coco, aged 17, was a passenger in a vehicle involved in an alcohol-related accident.

A Young Talent Time reunion was held in 2001, in which many of the cast including Young were reunited in a television special.