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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
A character-based television drama series about the lives of police officers in the fictitious Australian country town of Mt Thomas, this series began with the arrival of Constable Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune) to the Mt Thomas station in the episode 'A Woman's Place'. Doyle and avuncular station boss Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon (John Wood) were the core characters of the series until the departure of Lisa McCune.
Immensely popular for a decade, Blue Heelers was cancelled in 2006 after thirteen seasons. The announcement was front-page news in Australia's major newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney's Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun and The Age in Melbourne, and Brisbane's Courier Mail.
On June 8, 2006 Ross Warneke wrote in The Age:
'It's over and, to be perfectly blunt, there's no use lamenting the demise of Blue Heelers any more. When the final movie-length episode aired on Channel Seven on Sunday night, 1.5 million Australians tuned in, a figure that was big enough to give the show a win in its timeslot but nowhere near big enough to pay the sort of tribute that this writer believes Heelers deserved after more than 500 episodes. It is unlikely there will be anything like it again. At almost $500,000 an hour, shows such as Blue Heelers are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of Australian TV.'
Notes
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Award-winning and individually published episodes in this series are included on AustLit.
Includes
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133 (4.05)form y
Reports of Damage and Loss 1997 Z1362943 1997 single work film/TV detective crime
— Appears in: Top Shelf 2 : Five Outstanding Television Screenplays 2001; (p. 165-235) Nick and Adam attempt to rescue a young girl from a flooded stormwater drain. Nick sends Adam for help while he holds the girl to stop her from being dragged away. However, Adam is delayed by a crisis involving the girl's sister and, worn down by exhaustion, Nick loses his grip on the girl. This episode is revealed in flashbacks when Nick and Adam return to the station and their colleagues piece together the story. Nick vents his frustration on Adam. Eventually the news comes in that one of the sisters lived and the other died. Nick and Adam start the healing process by going to inform the parents of their child's death.
Source: Australian Television Information Archive
1997
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Blue Heelers : Rewatching the Classic Australian Small-town Police Procedural
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 4 February 2021;
— Review of Blue Heelers 1994 series - publisher film/TV -
Guilty of Loving New Law Role
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 3 April 2016; (p. 4) -
Affairs of the Heart
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 December 2015; (p. 36) -
Go For It, Says Roving Roy
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 27 July 2015; (p. 23) -
y
Screenwriters Talk About Their Craft : Tony Morphett Susan Lever (interviewer), National Film and Sound Archive , 2012 Z1868019 2012 single work interview 'Tony Morphett discusses the origins of Blue Heelers (1994- ), Water Rats (1996- ), and names Rain Shadow (2008, co-written with Jimmy Thomson) as one of his finest achievements.'
Source: NFSA clip description
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Blue Heelers : Rewatching the Classic Australian Small-town Police Procedural
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 4 February 2021;
— Review of Blue Heelers 1994 series - publisher film/TV -
Southern Stars and Secret Lives : International Exchange in Australian Television
2008
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 22 no. 1 2008; (p. 51-67) 'The Secret Life of Us is a 'high end' television drama series, defined by 'adult themes, sexual references and low-level coarse language', first screened in Australia and the United Kingdom in mid-2001, and surviving for four seasons until late 2005. Developed by Southern Star, with the Ten Network, and Optus Television (a US-based pay TV service), it was the first Australian drama series to be commissioned by the United Kingdom's Channel 4. Eighty-six episodes were screened prior to cancellation. At the peak of its popularity, the series had been sold into a dozen or so (mostly European) territories, and against the usual odds, secured airtime in the United States, where it was picked up by Trio, a small west-coast cable network. It gained positive critical recognition, and fared well at television markets worldwide. Back in Australia, commentators linked the show with the return of the Ten Network to 'credible' drama after a hiatus of two decades (Sams 2001, 37), and with the emergence of a 'sophisticated and quirky' youth sub-genre (Idato 2000, 2), before enthusiasm cooled around series two and three, and series four drew the by now largely neglected narrative to its almost unnoticed conclusion. The project offers a suggestive case study of momentary trends in domestic drama production, within material received as confidently articulating Australia's globalizing television culture at the millennium, inviting exploration of what John Hartley (1992, 102) has seen as the fundamental 'impurity' of national television, and the productivity of its identification as a 'fundamental criterion for cultural studies'.' (Author's introduction p. 51)
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y
Screenwriters Talk About Their Craft : Tony Morphett Susan Lever (interviewer), National Film and Sound Archive , 2012 Z1868019 2012 single work interview 'Tony Morphett discusses the origins of Blue Heelers (1994- ), Water Rats (1996- ), and names Rain Shadow (2008, co-written with Jimmy Thomson) as one of his finest achievements.'
Source: NFSA clip description
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Go For It, Says Roving Roy
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 27 July 2015; (p. 23) -
Affairs of the Heart
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 3 December 2015; (p. 36) -
Guilty of Loving New Law Role
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 3 April 2016; (p. 4)
Awards
- 1999 nominated Logie Awards — Most Outstanding Drama Series
- 1998 winner Logie Awards — Most Popular Series
- 1997 winner Logie Awards — Most Popular Series