AustLit

BeastMaster was a Canadian and Australian co-production, largely scripted by Canadian and American script-writers, but with a number of Australian actors and with Australian directors. It followed the adventures of Dar, a warrior with a telepathic link to animals, and his companions Tao, Arina, and Kyra, as they dealt with a violent world in which tribal ties and magic were slowly giving way against the increasing power of technology.

Australian star Daniel Goddard contributed six scripts to the program, some sole authored and some written in collaboration with American script-writers. See note below for details.

An American/Australian co-production, this series was a revival of the original 1964 - 1967 series Flipper.

The show's production is sharply divided between seasons one and two on one side and seasons three and four on the other.

Seasons one and two aired in first-run syndication in the US, as American television networks turned away from funding comparatively expensive one-hour dramas in the late 1980s and 1990s. These two seasons were made in Australia and took advantage of local directors and other crew, but, notably, the script-writers were exclusively American (as far as they have been traced).

For seasons three and four, Flipper left first-run syndication and aired in the US on the new network PAX TV (now Ion Television). These two seasons were also made in Australia and directed by Australians, but for the first time, they also used Australian script-writers: of the writers who have been traced for seasons three and four, all of the season three writers and the majority of the season four writers are Australian.

For full information on the script-writers, see the list of episodes on the film details page of this record.