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Ron McLean Ron McLean i(A128376 works by)
Also writes as: Mary Elliott
Born: Established: 22 Jul 1944 Rose Bay, Sydney Eastern Harbourside, Sydney Eastern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales, ; Died: Ceased: 31 Jul 1983 Sydney, New South Wales,
Gender: Male
Heritage: Jewish
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BiographyHistory

Screenwriter and producer.

Ron McLean was born in Rose Bay, Sydney, but grew up largely in Campbelltown, in Sydney's western suburbs, until his mid-teens. He was edicated at Trinity Grammar School and Scots College, as well as the University of Sydney and the University of Canberra, including involvement in the Sydney University Dramatic Society.

According to the address given by his father-in-law at his funeral (reproduced by Stephen Vagg with permission of the family), he was raised in the Jewish faith.

McLean wrote scripts for more than 20 Australian television series, including such well-known shows as Skippy (1969), Woobinda: Animal Doctor, (1970), The Rovers (1970), Division 4 (1969), Spyforce (1971), Homicide (1971), Barrier Reef (1972), Ryan (1973), Silent Number (1974), Chopper Squad (1978), Prisoner (1979), Glenview High (1979), and Bellamy (1981).

McLean also operated his own production companies: South Pacific Films and Ron McLean Productions. He produced the telemovies The Little Feller, Air Hawk, and Outbreak of Hostilities, which appeared posthumously, as well as the television programs Spyforce, Human Target, Silent Number, Case for the Defence, and Glenview High.

McLean was also one of a team of four people who wrote children's books under the name of Mary Elliott.

He died of a heart attack in July 1983, but which point he had written some 450 hours of Australian television in a career that lasted a little over a decade.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Skippy ( dir. Eric Fullilove et. al. )agent 1966 Australia : Nine Network Fauna Productions , 1968-1970 Z1624851 1966 series - publisher film/TV

Set in the fictional Waratah National Park (NSW), the Skippy series focuses largely on the adventures of a young boy, Sonny Hammond, and his intelligent pet kangaroo, Skippy. Sonny is the youngest child of Head Ranger Matt Hammond. Matt was left a widower in his early forties when his wife Mary died not long after Sonny was born. Other principal characters are Sonny's older brother Mark, Flight Ranger Jerry King (the park's helicopter pilot), and Ranger Clancy Merrick, the teenage daughter of another park ranger.

1969 winner Logie Awards Best Export Production
form y separately published work icon Homicide ( dir. Bruce Ross-Smith et. al. )agent Melbourne : Crawford Productions , 1964-1975 Z1813076 1964 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

Running for twelve years and a total of 510 episodes, Homicide was a seminal Australian police-procedural program, set in the homicide squad of the Victoria Police. According to Don Storey in his Classic Australian Television, it represented a turning point for Australian television, prompting the development of local productions over the purchase of relatively inexpensive American dramas. Indeed, Storey quotes Hector Crawford as saying that his production company intended three outcomes from Homicide: demonstrating that it was possible to make a high-quality local drama series, counteracting criticism of local performers, and showing that Australian audiences would watch Australian-made dramas.

As Moran notes in his Guide to Australian TV Series, the program adopted a narrative structure focusing on crime, detection, and capture, rather than on character studies of the lead detectives. The early episodes were produced by a small crew (Storey notes that the crew was frequently limited to four people: cameraman, grip, director, and assistant director), requiring some degree of ingenuity to achieve a polished result (including, in some cases, the actors performing their own stunts). However, the program received extensive support from the Victoria Police (who recognised, in its positive portrayal of police officers, a valuable public-relations exercise) and, as its popularity grew, from the public.

The program's cast changed extensively over its twelve years on the air, though it remained focused on a small group of male detectives, with the inclusion of irregular characters such as Policewoman Helen Hopgood (played by Derani Scarr), written on an as-required basis to reflect the involvement of women in the police force. In Moran's words, 'The other star of Homicide was the location film work. These ordinary, everyday familiar urban locations were what gave the series a gritty realism and familiarised audiences with the shock of recognition at seeing themselves and their milieus on air'.

1973 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1971 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1969 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1968 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1967 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1966 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
1965 winner Logie Awards Most Outstanding Drama Series
Last amended 10 Jan 2022 15:28:38
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