Blind Date debuted in April 1967 as a twice-weekly show (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5.30 pm) on the Australian TEN Network. It was based on the American show The Dating Game and hosted by Graham Webb (who had worked in the UK as a DJ on pirate radio station Radio Caroline).
The concept of the show was to pair off couples from teams of three girls and three boys with sets of matching questions (about themselves, their interests, what they look for in other people and so on) to assess their compatibility. The prize for the top score was a dinner for two.
Celebrity guests were introduced, with the girls and boys able to win a mystery date with the likes of pop star Ronnie Burns (chaperoned by Webb, of course).
During the summer holidays, a version of the show called Junior Blind Date was produced with nine and 10-year-olds in cute little hair-dos asking each other “What do you think is most important in a date?” for prizes of chocolate and a day at the Luna Park funfair. It was as sick making as it sounds.
Blind Date eventually moved to five nights a week before Webb – who met his wife, Peta when she was a contestant on the show – decided to call it a day with his last show airing on 28 November 1969.
He was replaced temporarily by Jeremy Cordeaux but the show folded in May 1970.
Former ice hockey player Bobby Hanna – born in Scotland but raised in Canada – hosted the short-lived 1974 revival of the dating game show produced by the Grundy Organisation for the Seven Network where it aired five nights a week at 5.30 pm, debuting on 8 April.
Hanna (pictured) had toured Canada and the US with a band called The Wayward Trio, eventually branching out as a vocalist with his own backing group, Bobby Hanna and The Strangers.
He worked in Las Vegas before returning to Britain where he represented the country in the Spanish Song Festival and won with a song called Written On The Wind.
The new version of Blind Date also featured The Bootleg Family Band as the resident band on the show. The revival did not prove popular and the show was gone by October that same year.
Bobby Hanna died in October 2014 in Perth, Australia, following health problems.
Host
Graham Webb (1967 – 1969)
Jeremy Cordeaux (1969 – 1970)
Bobby Hanna (1974)
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