McLeod's Daughters | |
---|---|
Written by | Posie Graeme-Evans Caroline Stanton Ro Hume |
Directed by | Michael Offer |
Starring | Jack Thompson Kym Wilson Tammy MacIntosh |
Music by | Guy Gross |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producers | Andrew Blaxland Posie Graeme-Evans Kris Nobel Perry Stapleton |
Editor | Edward McQueen-Mason |
Running time | 94 minutes |
Original release | |
Release | 11 May 1996 |
McLeod's Daughters is a 1996 Australian television film, it aired on the Nine Network on 11 May 1996, which was Mother's Day. It remains the highest-rated telemovie of all time in Australia. The movie serves as a back door pilot for the later McLeod's Daughters television series.
Following the death of her mother, Tess Silverman travels to Drovers Run, a rural cattle property in South Australia, and the farm where she spent the first few years of her life. She intends to make her visit a short one and move on to Venice to continue on with her life. Once there she endeavours to reconnect with her only remaining family, her father Jack McLeod and her half-sister Claire, whom she has not seen in 20 years, since her mother left Jack and moved to the city, and taking Tess with her. Tess arrives in a complex situation and finds herself meeting an adoring father but a hostile sister whom she no longer knows and who resents her sudden arrival and even quicker ability to win over Jack, something she feels that she has never completely been able to accomplish.
The unexpected accidental death of their father forces the sisters to overcome their differences and the many obstacles before them to realise their father's dream of running Drovers Run together. [1] [2] To complicate matters, Tess begins to take drastic action to alleviate the property's debts, including firing stockmen, and organising an all female muster of cattle for sale. Her actions alienate her sister's fiancé, putting strain on their engagement and forcing Claire to begin re-evaluating her own future plans. Despite problems with the local bank and the temporary loss of their prized bull, things turn out well in the end as the sisters learn to work together and are able to refinance their father's loans, thus saving the property.
Creator and Executive Producer Posie Graeme-Evans had the idea for the creating the show as far back as 1992. She was reading a magazine and saw a picture of a group of Australian cowgirls leaning over a farm gate, with big hats and wide grins. Evans immediately thought of a group of women running a cattle station.
The movie went into production in 1995 and was shot over 1995–1996 in and around Adelaide. Evans needed to find a location that was in reach of a major city, and it was hard to do outside of Sydney and Melbourne. She looked at doing it in Queensland, but she didn't know Queensland well as she knew South Australia. She eventually located a government owned farm which was empty, so the production was moved in and it was treated as a backlot.
The movie aired on the Nine Network on Mother's Day 1996 and it became the highest rated telemovie of all time in Australia.
In 1997 cinematographer David Foreman won the Award of Distinction award for the best Telefeatures, TV Drama & Mini Series by the Australian Cinematographers Society. [3]
The first ever release was included in the season one boxset in Australia. It was also included in the U.S. season one boxset, released by Koch Entertainment (now E1 Entertainment). On 8 December 2009, E1 Entertainment released the movie separate on region 1 with extras including: the first two episodes of season one. [4] Also released on Region 2 in Germany under the title McLeod's Töchter.
Despite the success of the movie, Nine decided not to pick it up for a series as they thought a female driven drama would not appeal to audiences. Initially, following further negotiations, Nine agreed to commission three more telemovies, before eventually ordering a season of 13 (later renegotiated to 22) episodes. Initially, the film served as a pilot with the first season to follow soon after. However, as the series was not picked up until some years later, the decision was made to go back to basics for episode one of the series. The series eventually went into production from late 2000 to early 2001 and premiered on the Nine Network on 8 August 2001. The series soon became one of Australia's most successful and was popular around the world; running eight seasons and 244 episodes between 2001 and 2009 on the Nine Network.
Several casting changes occurred, such as with the main characters of Claire, now played by Lisa Chappell and Tess, now played by Bridie Carter. Sonia Todd as Meg Fountain, Rachael Carpani as Jodi Fountain, and Jessica Napier as Becky Howard, were also recast. Other new characters, who did not appear in the film, include brothers Alex Ryan (played by Aaron Jeffery) and Nick Ryan (played by Myles Pollard).
McLeod's Daughters is an Australian drama television series created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton for the Nine Network, which aired from 8 August 2001, to 31 January 2009, lasting eight seasons. It stars Lisa Chappell and Bridie Carter in the leading roles as two sisters reunited after twenty years of separation, thrust into a working relationship when they inherit their family's cattle station in South Australia. The series is produced by Millennium Television, in association with Nine Films and Television and Southern Star. Graeme-Evans, Kris Noble and Susan Bower served as the original executive producers.
Lisa Irene Chappell is a New Zealand actress and musician. She is known for her roles as Chelsea Redfern in Gloss (1987–1990), and as Claire McLeod in McLeod's Daughters (2001–2003), a performance which earned her two Logie Awards, for Most Popular New Female Talent and Most Popular Actress.
Bridie Carter is an Australian actress best known for her role as the main character of Tess Silverman McLeod on the television drama series McLeod's Daughters.
Rawhide is an American Western television series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood. The show aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959, to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965, until December 7, 1965, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".
A drover in Australia is a person, typically an experienced stockman, who moves livestock, usually sheep, cattle, and horses "on the hoof" over long distances. Reasons for droving may include: delivering animals to a new owner's property, taking animals to market, or moving animals during a drought in search of better feed and/or water or in search of a yard to work on the livestock. The drovers who covered very long distances to open up new country were known as "overlanders".
Michala Elizabeth Laurinda Banas is a New Zealand television actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Marissa Taylor in Always Greener and as Kate Manfredi in McLeod's Daughters.
Posie Graeme-Evans is an Australian novelist, television and film producer, editor, screenwriter and director. She is best known as the creator and showrunner of McLeod's Daughters, the co-creator and co-producer of Hi-5, producing and creating Mirror, Mirror, and was Director of Drama for the Nine Network from 2002 to 2005. As an author she is known for six historical novels, published by NY based Simon & Schuster.
Rachael Ann Carpani is an Australian actress best known as Jodi Fountain in McLeod's Daughters.
The third season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 12 February 2003, and concluded on 29 October 2003, with a total of 30 episodes.
The fourth season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 11 February 2004 and concluded on 24 November 2004 with a total of 32 episodes. This is the first season to not feature Lisa Chappell as Claire McLeod and Jessica Napier as Becky Howard, as both actresses left the series in the third season. Becky left to be with boyfriend Jake and Claire McLeod died at the end of the third season.
The fifth season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 9 February 2005 and concluded on 23 November 2005 with a total of 32 episodes.
The sixth season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 15 February 2006 and concluded on 29 November 2006 after 32 episodes.
The seventh season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 7 February 2007 and concluded on 17 October 2007 with a total of 32 episodes.
The eighth and final season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 23 July 2008 and concluded on 31 January 2009 with a total of 22 episodes.
The second season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 27 March 2002 and concluded on 16 October 2002 with a total of 22 episodes. Created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton, the format is produced by Millenium Television and Nine Films and Television for the Nine Network distributed by Southern Star Group.
The television series McLeod's Daughters had many different songs for their closing credits which were written by Posie Graeme-Evans and Chris Harriot and performed by singer Rebecca Lavelle.
The first season of the long-running Australian outback drama McLeod's Daughters began airing on 8 August 2001 and concluded on 22 March 2002 with a total of 22 episodes. Created by Posie Graeme-Evans and Caroline Stanton, the format is produced by Millennium Television and Nine Films and Television for the Nine Network distributed by Southern Star Group.
Claire van der Boom is an Australian actress. She first became known to Australian audiences for her roles in the TV series Love My Way and East West 101. In 2008, she starred in the Australian neo-noir thriller The Square. Internationally, she is best known for her appearance as Stella Karamanlis in the HBO miniseries The Pacific, and her recurring role of Rachel in the 2010 remake of Hawaii Five-O.
Underbelly is an Australian television true crime-drama series which first aired on the Nine Network between 13 February 2008 and 1 September 2013, before being revived on 3 April 2022. Each series is based on real-life events. There have been six full series, with season 7 being a miniseries. A 2014 series titled Fat Tony & Co is a sequel to the first series but is not branded under the Underbelly title.