C/o The Bartons

Last updated

C/o The Bartons
Also known asCare of the Bartons
The Bartons
GenreChildren's drama
Created by Jocelyn Moorhouse
Based onThe Siege of the Bartons' Bathroom (1986 short film)
Written by Jocelyn Moorhouse
P. J. Hogan
Noel Robinson
Shane Brennan
Greg Millin
Starring Olivia Harkin
Matt Day
Frankie J. Holden
ComposersRoyce Craven
Bryan Patterson
Country of originAustralia
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes12
Production
Executive producerNoel Price
ProducerJenifer Hooks
Running time12 x 25 minutes
Original release
Network ABC Television
Release29 February (1988-02-29) 
17 March 1988 (1988-03-17)

C/o The Bartons (also called Care of The Bartons, or The Bartons in the UK and The Netherlands) is an Australian television drama series aimed at older children and young teens, which first aired in Australia in 1988.

Contents

History

The series was based on a 16-minute short film Jocelyn Moorhouse had made in 1986, after receiving a grant from the Australian Film Commission in 1985, called The Siege of Barton's Bathroom. She based the plot on something that happened to her in her youth, and named the Barton boys after her house mates she lived with at the time. [1]

The ABC was looking for a new children's drama and Moorhouse decided to send in her short film. Revcom producer Jenifer Hooks saw it, and commissioned Moorhouse to create the series. [2] The first episode of the series is basically a remake of the short film, but with the cast of the series.

Description

The series affectionately portrayed a suburban Australian family through the eyes of eleven-year-old Elly Barton, the only girl in a family of four children. Elly struggles with the way her authoritarian parents and her brothers treat her and prefers to retreat to the calm and peace of the old tree in her backyard. Elly herself behaves bossy and sometimes down right mean towards other children in the neighbourhood, including her best friend Anita, which sometimes gets her in unpleasant situations. The lessons that Elly learns from this, and the way they change her behaviour towards others for the positive, are a recurring theme in the series. The series is less upfront with the message it is trying to convey, often leaving this to the imagination of the viewer.

Among the new characters in the series was Anita McPherson, who is based on Moorhouse' real life childhood best friend in both name and appearance. [1]

Cast

Main / regular

Guests

Production

Release

c/o The Bartons aired twelve episodes between 29 February and 17 March 1988 as part of The Afternoon Show . It only aired once in Australia, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's ABC Television, after which the series was sold to several European networks through Revcom Television. [3] [5]

Episodes

Series 1 (1988)
Nr.TitleDirectorWritten by
1The Siege of the Bartons' BathroomRichard SarellJocelyn Moorhouse
Mr. Jensen convinces Robert to cut down the tree in the Bartons' backyard. Elly will not have anything of it and locks herself in the family bathroom (and everyone else out). Nobody is touching her tree!
2The Barton League of Bird LoversPeter R. DoddsJocelyn Moorhouse
Elly and Anita start a bird lovers club. Conflict arises and Anita leaves to start her own, rival club.
3Half-timeRichard SarellPaul J. Hogan
After being on reserve for the entire season of his Australian Rules Football team, Paul is finally put on the field during the finals. He sneaks away when no one is looking, feeling that football is not for him. Anita discovers that team captain Vince Capaletti fancies Susan Davies instead of her.
4Mr. Snoller's Black BagMandy SmithNoel Robinson
Elly has discovered a large conspiracy against Banksiawood and Mr. Snoller is her main suspect. What exactly is in his black bag, who is Miss India really and why does she keep calling "Shere Khan"?
5Three Little PigsRichard SarellGreg Millin
Somebody painted the word "pig" on Mr. Jensen's garbage can. Seeing as it is in red paint, Miss India's favourite colour of paint, Mr. Jensen suspects her. But Elly knows Miss India did not do it.
6The Great Billycart Aid RaceRichard SarellShane Brennan
Elly hears Bob Geldof's call to action to end world hunger. She organises a billycart race to raise money and "Feed the World". The whole Barton family and then some join in on the race. Who will win?
7Position VacantMandy SmithNoel Robinson
Elly decides that Miss India should get a job; this will make saving up for her trip to India go a lot quicker. There is a vacancy for an administrative clerk at the local fire station and Elly thinks it is well suited for Miss India. But unbeknownst to Elly, her own mother also applied for the job. Who will get it?
8Musical RoomsMandy SmithGreg Millin
When Paul and Anthony fight for the umpteenth time, Robert and Clare decide that Anthony should get his own room. This means that everybody needs to switch rooms.

Elly finds out Paul smokes and worries about him. She takes away his cigarettes to force him to quit, but Paul retaliates by kidnapping her diary.

9Beautiful BeetrootMandy SmithJocelyn Moorhouse
Anita finally gets Elly to join the Girl Guides by telling her how amazing camp is. But camp not only turns out to be quite different than Anita would have Elly believe, but also to be a living nightmare as group leader Vivienne has it in for Elly and Anita. To make matters even worse, everybody has to eat double servings of beetroot...
10Bartons on the BeachPeter R. DoddsJocelyn Moorhouse
Elly and Anita burn Anthony's Playboy magazine, disgusted by the depiction of women in it. Anthony thinks Paul's taken it and wants it back.

A day at the beach gets out of hand when Clare wants the family to wear matching bathers, a boy fancies Elly, and Paul and Anita are lost in the dunes. Meanwhile, Anthony tries to impress a girl who claims to be a mermaid.

11SuspectedPeter R. DoddsPaul J. Hogan
Anthony reckons Paul is not manly enough. Anthony worries that having such a soft mannered brother will hurt his reputation. He makes Paul take a test of his masculinity, but Paul fails on all four points. Time to get Paul a girlfriend, so no one "suspects" him (of being gay) and save Anthony's reputation.

Elly has a problem too: she passes all four points of the masculinity test. Thankfully, Anita has some ideas on how to make Elly more feminine.

12Bye Bye BartonsRichard SarellJocelyn Moorhouse
Robert gets offered a better job, one that requires the family to move to Mirandavale, on the other side of the city. This means leaving the Bartons' beloved Banksiawood house.

The children were not told about the move until the last moment and are strongly opposed to it, but Robert and Clare ignore their pleas.

Elly is hit hard by the fact that she will never see Anita again and the inevitable loss of her beloved tree. To make matters worse, Mister Jensen announces to Elly that he will resume his fight to get her tree taken down after she has moved away.

Anita finally confesses to Paul that she is in love with him, but it falls on deaf ears.

Book

Moorhouse also wrote a children's book based on the series, also titled C/o The Bartons. [6] The plot of the book is based on the screenplays of several episodes from the series, some merged into a single story line or more clearly connected to each other. For example, the story lines of Half-Time and Musical Rooms directly follow each other in the book (there are four episodes between them in the series) and are connected; making the fight between the boys about Paul's actions during the football match instead of annoyances during studying like in the episode.

The book explores the thoughts and motivations of the characters more deeply than the series could do, and also makes some scenes seen in the show more intense.

There are differences between the book and the series, mostly in details. Most notably, Elly is twelve years old in the book, while she's eleven in the series. Although still taking place in the fictional Banksiawood, in the book the suburb is confirmed to be part of the Melbourne metropolitan area, about a 90-minute drive from the coast. Mirandavale is situated adjacent of it, unlike in the series where it is a two-hour drive between the suburbs.

The front cover of the book features a photo of Matt Day and Olivia Harkin. The back cover features a group photo of the cast on billycarts, made during the shooting of The Great Billycart Aid Race.

In the acknowledgements Moorhouse thanks the actors that appeared in her short film and the authors of the episodes adapted for the book's plot.

The book was published by Puffin Books on 30 March 1989 under ISBN   9780140342574. [7] A second book was optioned by the publisher, but was never released. [1]

Film

The short film that was the basis for the series and the book featured a mostly different cast from the series. Frankie J. Holden is the only actor who appears in both. Among the actors appearing in the film are Rebekah Elmaloglou as Elly, Brendan Cowell as Paul and Max Phipps as Mister Jensen. [1] [8]

The film has not seen a commercial release and is not available on home media.

Olivia Harkin

Harkin was 11 years old when she was cast as Elly in 1987. [9] A year before C/o The Bartons, she, and several other children from her school, was part of the cast of the Kaboodle episode Snow White and the Dreadful Dwarves. In 1992, she had a guest role on the Australian police drama television series Phoenix . [9] She focussed on stage performance after that, but did appear in a small role in the 2005 independently produced Australian short Lucy's Heart. [10] [11] [12]

Below is a list of roles Olivia Harkin has played in productions categorised as "Pro-Am" by AusStage. [13] Roles in productions categorised as "Amateur" by AusStage are not listed here, but can be found in the AusStage database. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mischa Barton</span> British-American film, television, and stage actress

Mischa Anne Marsden Barton is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner's Slavs! and took the lead in James Lapine's Twelve Dreams at New York City's Lincoln Center. She made her screen debut with a guest appearance on the American soap opera All My Children (1995), and voicing a character on the Nickelodeon cartoon series KaBlam! (1996–97). Her first major film role was as the protagonist of Lawn Dogs (1997), a drama co-starring Sam Rockwell. She appeared in major pictures such as the romantic comedy Notting Hill (1999) and M. Night Shyamalan's psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (1999). She also starred in the indie crime drama Pups (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Linney</span> American actress (born 1964)

Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress. She is the recipient of several awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, and has been nominated for three Academy Awards and five Tony Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. J. Hogan</span> Australian filmmaker (born 1962)

Paul John Hogan is an Australian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the films Muriel's Wedding (1994), My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), Peter Pan (2003) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline McKenzie</span> Australian actress

Jacqueline Susan McKenzie is an Australian film and stage actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deborah Mailman</span> Australian actress

Deborah Jane Mailman is an Australian television and film actress, and singer. Mailman is known for her characters: Kelly Lewis on the Australian drama series The Secret Life of Us, Cherie Butterfield in the Australian comedy-drama series Offspring, Lorraine in the Australian drama series Redfern Now and Aunt Linda in the Australian dystopian science fiction series Cleverman. Mailman portrayed the lead role of MP Alexandra "Alex" Irving on the Australian political drama series Total Control.

Alison Whyte is an Australian actress best known for her roles on the Australian television series Frontline and Satisfaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Colman</span> English actress (born 1974)

Sarah Caroline Sinclair, known professionally as Olivia Colman, is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards.

<i>Proof</i> (1991 film) 1991 Australian film

Proof is a 1991 Australian romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. The film was released in Australia on 15 August 1991. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with five other awards, including Moorhouse for Best Director, Weaving for Best Leading Actor, and Crowe for Best Supporting Actor.

Rebekah Sophie Elmaloglou is an Australian actress, known for her roles as teenage tearaway Sophie Simpson on Home and Away and Terese Willis on Neighbours. She also made guest appearances in E Street, A Country Practice and Pacific Drive. Her film appearances include Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Princess Kate (1988) and The Sum of Us (1994).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Munn</span> American actress (born 1980)

Lisa Olivia Munn is an American actress. After an internship at a news station in Tulsa, she moved to Los Angeles where she began her professional career as a television host for the gaming network G4, primarily on the series Attack of the Show! from 2006 until 2010. Munn appeared as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2010 to 2011. She is known for her three-season-long portrayal of Sloan Sabbith in Aaron Sorkin's HBO political drama series The Newsroom (2012–2014).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brendan Cowell</span> Australian actor and writer

Brendan Cowell is an Australian actor and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jocelyn Moorhouse</span> Australian film director

Jocelyn Denise Moorhouse is an Australian screenwriter and film director. She is best known for directing films Proof, How to Make an American Quilt, A Thousand Acres and The Dressmaker.

Sarah Aubrey is a British-born Australian actress. She has had guest roles in episodes of Pieces of Her, The Secret Life of Us, All Saints, Water Rats and Frayed, along with numerous animation series and TV commercials. She also won the Best Actress award at the 2002 Tropfest film festival and is one of Australia's top voice talents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christie Whelan Browne</span> Australian actress (born 1982)

Christine Whelan Browne is an Australian performer who has worked extensively in musical theatre as an actress, dancer and singer. She has also appeared on television shows and in films. In March 2012, she married fellow performer, Rohan Browne.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaitlyn Dever</span> American actress (born 1996)

Kaitlyn Rochelle Dever is an American actress. She became known for her roles in series such as Justified (2011–2015), Last Man Standing (2011–2021), Unbelievable (2019), and Dopesick (2021). She earned Golden Globe Award nominations for Unbelievable and Dopesick, in addition to a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Dopesick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacinta John</span> Australian actress, producer and director

Jacinta John is an Australian actress, producer and director. She is best known for her performance as Miss Casewell in the (2012–2013) 60th anniversary tour of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, which played to an audience of over 150,000 people across Australasia.

<i>The Dressmaker</i> (2015 film) 2015 film by Jocelyn Moorhouse

The Dressmaker is a 2015 Australian comedy drama film co-written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by Rosalie Ham. It stars Kate Winslet as femme fatale dressmaker, Myrtle "Tilly" Dunnage, who returns to a small Australian town to take care of her ailing, mentally unstable mother. The film explores the themes of revenge and creativity and was described by Moorhouse as "Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven with a sewing machine". The film was internationally co-financed between Australia and the United States. The vocal accent of Winslet with an Australian accent was universally lauded and is widely considered to be one of the greatest Australian accents by an actor not native to Australia, as well as one of the best foreign accents delivered in global film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raechelle Banno</span> Australian actress (born 1993)

Raechelle Jasmine Banno is an Australian actress, dancer, writer, and model. Banno began acting and modelling when she was nine years old. After appearing in various television commercials and short films, Banno played Olivia Fraser Richards in the Australian soap opera Home and Away from 2015 until 2018. Banno played Atria Nine in the first season of sci-fi action series Pandora (2019). She will portray Ruby Landry in four television films adapted from V. C. Andrews' Landry novels in 2021.

Sara West is an Australian actress, director and screen writer. She began her career with roles in short films and television roles. Her 2015 role as Liza Minnelli in television series Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door earned her a Logie Award nomination for Most Outstanding Newcomer. In 2017, West played Lyndal in the film, Don't Tell and was nominated for an AACTA Award. She also appeared in the main roles of the 2016 film Bad Girl, as Amy Anderson and the 2019 film, Awoken playing the medical student Karla. She also plays Brooke in ABC TV drama series Troppo. In 2023, West joined the cast of the soap opera Neighbours, playing Cara Varga-Murphy. West also writes and directs films and has won awards at the 2014 and 2018 South Australian Screen Awards.

"Spyfall" is the two-part premiere of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 1 and 5 January 2020. It was written by showrunner and executive producer Chris Chibnall. The first episode was directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, and the second by Lee Haven Jones.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Leerentveld, Erwin. "Interview with Jocelyn Moorhouse". Bartons on the Web. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  2. "The Women's international Film & Television Showcase". Archived from the original on 19 July 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
  3. 1 2 "C/- THE BARTONS (1987)". Screen Australia. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  4. End credits of episode Beautiful Beetroot
  5. Leerentveld, Erwin (11 November 2020). "Broadcast History". Bartons on the Web. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  6. "c/o The Bartons". AustLit. Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  7. "C/o The Bartons (Plus) on ISBN Search". ISBN Search. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  8. Moorhouse, Jocelyn (1989). C/o The Bartons (Plus). Australia: Puffin Books. pp. Acknowledgements. ISBN   9780140342574.
  9. 1 2 "Olivia Harkin on IMDb.com". IMDB. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  10. "Lucy's Heart on publisher's webpage". Enemies of Reality Films. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  11. "Cast - Olivia Harkin". Bartons on the Web. 11 November 2020. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  12. Leerentveld, Erwin (2 September 2021). "Interview with Olivia Harkin (Wenholz)". bartonsontheweb.nl. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021.
  13. "Sustainability". AusStage. Archived from the original on 24 April 2013. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  14. "The Australian Live Performance Database". AusStage. Archived from the original on 31 July 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2020.