|
Courier Mail, 7th October 1999. By Lisa Yallamas.
Fame does not worry Tim Ferguson, it just gets in his way sometimes.
"It would be kind of nice to fade out of the memory of the Australian public, no more stalkers, no more silly questions from people who think they know your business," he says.
Trouble is, he gets his kicks as well as his living, from television.
"It's great fun and it's exciting but people go and watch it and spoil everything," he says.
"If I ever become a billionaire I'll make television programme, that no one ever sees."
Working for the Nine Network did not make him a billionaire but it did give him the experience of making shows no one ever saw - and it made him extremely unhappy.
After the demise of Don't Forget Your Toothbrush, he made 12 pilots for everything from new current affairs shows to variety shows.
Channel Nine kept him on contract because they did not want him working for a rival network.
He did not sit around on his shelf at Channel Nine though, he rifled through all the other shelves, studying the formats of everything from A Current Affair to This Is Your Life.
Ferguson now works with independent production companies developing programme formats to sell domestically and overseas.
Ferguson believes that if you work like a dog, nothing will stop you. "Keep learning and growing and pushing out into new territory," he says.
But most important of all "get out there and live".
He took a year off after his contract with Nine ran out, when he was ready to walk away from television altogether.
Last year he spent six months strutting the stage wearing fishnet tights, leather suspenders, a belt, lipstick and stiletto heels as Frank'n'Furter in The New Rocky Horror Picture Show at Sydney's Star City Casino. "It was more fun than should be legal," he says.
He was still weighing up the pros and cons of returning to television when the job hosting Channel Ten's new show Unreal TV came up.
Unreal TV, produced by Artists Services, snips segments from bizarre television programmes from all over the world, such as a Japanese game show where people are catapaulted naked into the air if their grandparents are unable to answer questions about popular culture such as the name of the country's number one band.
Ferguson asked himself why he would want to get back to television presenting.
His soul searching led him back to his school days - he changed schools nine times. Each time the quiet young lad had to introduce himself to a new class and make new friends and this, he thinks, was good training for television presenting and performing.
Ferguson is a big Star Wars fan and claims to have the largest collection of French Star Wars memorabilia in the southern hemisphere. He has named his new horse Annakin - after the boy who becomes Darth Vader.
"I can't kick a football, I can't understand machines or engines, I can't understand sport, horses I do understand," he says.
Ferguson toys with the idea of going into politics one day and would like to be a Brian Harradine - an independent.
"I can't stand Brian Harradine's politics but I'd love to be in his position of running the country with 22,000 votes," he says.
|
