Blue Heelers is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for twelve years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted the everyday lives and relationships of the residents of Mount Thomas, a fictional small town in Victoria.
The series was one of the highest-rated and most-awarded programs in the history of Australian television, having won 25 Logie awards, and having equal standing with The Don Lane Show as the most awarded show in the history of the Logies (with five wins). It is also noted for its two main stars Lisa McCune, a four-time recipient of the Gold Logie, and John Wood, who also won Gold.
Overview
Blue Heelers was first aired on 18 January 1994, with the episode "A Woman's Place". The last episode, episode #510 titled "One Day More" aired on 4 June 2006. The series was produced by Southern Star Group for the Seven Network. During its 13-season run it won a total of 32 awards and was nominated for a further 50. This included 25 Logie Awards, five of which were the Gold Logie, the most coveted television award in Australia.
As well as everyday policing matters, the series deals with many controversial and "touchy" subjects. The series was the first to examine the stressful world of young police officers who are "thrown into the deep end where they are left to sink or swim". but Homicide lasted one calendar month longer and, due to five feature-length episodes, had more time on air.
Blue Heelers was sold to 108 territories and gained international recognition in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and other countries.
The series launched the careers of many Australian actors, such as Lisa McCune, Grant Bowler, Ditch Davey, Rachel Gordon, Tasma Walton, Charlie Clausen and Jane Allsop. While many of these actors are still best known for their work on Blue Heelers, some have gone on to bigger roles. Many other actors of today also appeared in guest roles, including Hugh Jackman, Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, Peter O'Brien, John Howard and Robert Rabiah.
John Wood, alongside Julie Nihill remained the only actors with Blue Heelers to remain during its entire 12-year run, portraying Senior Sergeant Tom Croydon and publican Chris Riley respectively.
Plot
170px|thumb|right|[[Patrick Joseph 'P.J.' Hasham|P.J. Hasham, Tom Croydon and Maggie Doyle]]
The series primarily focuses on the daily lives of police officers working at a police station in the fictional small town of Mount Thomas in the Australian state of Victoria. Each episode is presented from the perspective of the officers. This was a specific technique that creator Hal McElroy chose to employ.
The police officers, commonly referred to as "Heelers", are always active sorting out the town's many problems. These problems range from trivial complaints such as land and fencing disputes to more serious offences, such as homicides and assaults. The small town is also faced with many other significant occurrences including bank robberies, escaped criminals, police shootings, kidnappings and the acts of deluded criminals. Of these, one of the more significant events is the bombing of the police station during the show's twelfth season.
Whenever overwhelmed, the Heelers call on the assistance of the police in the larger town of St Davids, home of the resident police inspector Russell Falcon-Price. An antagonist in the series, Falcon-Price often tries to terminate the employment of the Mount Thomas sergeant or to close the entire station, which in reality would be almost entirely out of his control.
Along with their police work, aspects of the Heelers' personal lives are regularly featured, notably the relationship between Maggie and PJ, which ends with Maggie's death in one of the most watched moments on Australian television.
Episodes
Cast
Main
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! rowspan="2" style="width:14%;" | Actor
! rowspan="2" style="width:14%;" | Character
! rowspan="2" style="width:7%;" | Episode count
! colspan="13" | Season
|-
! style="width:5%;" | 1
! style="width:5%;" | 2
! style="width:5%;" | 3
! style="width:5%;" | 4
! style="width:5%;" | 5
! style="width:5%;" | 6
! style="width:5%;" | 7
! style="width:5%;" | 8
! style="width:5%;" | 9
! style="width:5%;" | 10
! style="width:5%;" | 11
! style="width:5%;" | 12
! style="width:5%;" | 13
|-
|John Wood
|Tom Croydon
| 510
| colspan="13"
|-
| Julie Nihill
| Chris Riley
| 510
| colspan="13"
|-
| Martin Sacks
| P. J. Hasham
| 484
| colspan="12"
|
|-
| Lisa McCune
| Maggie Doyle
| 255
| colspan="7"
| colspan="6"
|-
| William McInnes
| Nick Schultz
| 214
| colspan="5"
| colspan="5"
| colspan="2"
| colspan="1"
|-
| Grant Bowler
| Wayne Patterson
| 96
| colspan="3"
| colspan="10"
|-
| Ann Burbrook
| Roz Patterson
| 31
|
|
|
| colspan="10"
|-
| Damian Walshe-Howling
| Adam Cooper
|178
| colspan="5"
| colspan="7"
| colspan="1"
|-
| Tasma Walton
| Dash McKinley
| 128
| colspan="2"
| colspan="4"
| colspan="7"
|-
| Paul Bishop
| Ben Stewart
| 253
| colspan="4"
| colspan="7"
| colspan="2"
|-
| Rupert Reid
| Jack Lawson
| 102
| colspan="5"
| colspan="3"
| colspan="5"
|-
| Jane Allsop
| Jo Parrish
| 202
| colspan="5"
| colspan="6"
| colspan="2"
|-
| Caroline Craig
| Tess Gallagher
| 139
| colspan="6"
| colspan="4"
| colspan="3"
|-
| Ditch Davey
| Evan Jones
| 193
| colspan="7"
| colspan="6"
|-
| Simone McAullay
| Susie Raynor
| 99
| colspan="9"
| colspan="4"
|-
| Rachel Gordon
| Amy Fox
| 70
| colspan="10"
| colspan="3"
|-
| Samantha Tolj
| Kelly O'Rourke
| 69
| colspan="10"
| colspan="3"
|-
| Danny Raco
| Joss Peroni
| 69
| colspan="10"
| colspan="3"
|-
| Geoff Morrell
| Mark Jacobs
| 59
| colspan="10"
| colspan="2"
| colspan="10"
|-
| Charlie Clausen
| Alex Kirby
| 50
| colspan="11"
| colspan="2"
|-
| Matt Holmes
| Matt Graham
| 20
| colspan="11"
| colspan="2"
|}
right|thumb|Blue Heelers final cast of [[Blue Heelers season 13|2006]]
Recurring cast
{|class="wikitable"
! Actor
! Character
! Episode count
! Reference
|-
| Arianthe Galani
| Helena Hasham
| 6
|
|-
| Beth Buchanan
| Susan Croydon
| 15
|
|-
| Brett Climo
| Robbie Doyle
| 9
|
|-
| Catherine Wilkin
| Sally Downie
| 14
|
|-
| Damien Fotiou
| Vinnie Morelli
| 3
|
|-
| Danny Adcock
| Barry Baxter
| 8
|
|-
| David Lyons
| Jason Tyler
| 3
|
|-
| Debra Lawrance
| Grace Curtis
| 26
|
|-
| Dennis Miller
| Pat Doyle
| 14
|
|-
| Emily Browning
| Hayley Fulton
| 9
|
|-
| Frances O'Connor
| Gabe Greenway
| 3
|
|-
| Helen Thomson
| Dr Tatiana Zylinski
| 6
|
|-
| Jack Finsterer
| Detective Constable Johnny Kowalski
| 4
|
|-
| Jeremy Kewley
| Tony Timms
| 23
|
|-
| Josh Lawson
| David Murray
| 5
|
|-
| Kevin Harrington
| Charlie McKinley
| 4
|
|-
| Martin Copping
| Boyd Spurling
| 5
|
|-
| Marty Fields
| Sgt. Roy Holland
| 4
|-
| Matt Passmore
| Brad Fingleton
| 5
|
|-
| Merfyn Owen
| Father Brian Hegerty
| 11
|
|-
| Michael Isaacs
| Clancy Freeman
| 11
|
|-
| Mirrah Foulkes
| Deborah Masters
| 3
|
|-
| Neil Pigot
| Inspector Russel Falcon-Price
| 42
|
|-
| Peta Doodson
| Inspector Monica Draper
| 33
|
|-
| Rachel Blakely
| Gina Belfanti
| 10
|
|-
| Reg Evans
| Keith Purvis
| 5 +
|
|-
| Richard Carter
| Les Anderson
| 4
|
|-
| Richard Huggett
| Detective Constable Sean Neale
| 6
|
|-
| Roger Oakley
| Russ Cavell
| 4
|
|-
| Roy Billing
| Senior Constable Ian Goss
| 5
|
|-
| Sarah Chadwick
| Acting Sgt Lindy Schroeder
| 3
|
|-
| Stephen Curry
| Eddie Dodds
| 3
|
|-
| Steve Mouzakis
| Theo Kallergis
| 5
|
|-
| Suzi Dougherty
| Dr. Mel Carter
| 30
|
|-
| Tara Morice
| Melanie Anderson
| 5
|
|-
| Terence Donovan
| Ian Waldron
| 3
|
|-
| Terry Gill
| Superintendent Clive Adamson
| 5
|
|-
| Terry Serio
| Mick Doyle
| 8
|
|-
| Todd MacDonald
| Brendan Maguire
| 3
|
|-
| Tottie Goldsmith
| Fay Tudor
| 3
|
|-
| Vince Colosimo
| Bill Lapscott
| 3
|
|-
|}
Production
On average, 42 episodes of Blue Heelers were broadcast per year on Australian television, with each episode comprising fifty scenes. One episode was made every week. The scripts were written to a formula which allowed one day for rehearsal, two days on location and two days in the studio. Episodes were shot eight to ten weeks ahead of their scheduled broadcast date. There were 16 episodes in various stages of production at any one time (from the conception of new storylines to post-production). In addition, there were always seven complete episodes waiting to go to air. This, coupled with McElroy's desire to create a country cop show, formed the basis of the programme. When this same young officer left the force only a year later due to the shooting death of his colleague, McElroy was even more intrigued to learn about the very fickle, yet rewarding job of policing the community. Michael Winter also conceived the name of the programme by recounting the common names for a country police officer: "tyre-biters"—referring to the fact that country cops are often involved in car chases—and "blue heelers"—referring to their blue uniforms and overall similar appearance and persona to a Blue Heeler dog, a protective and intuitive breed of Australian dog. They also hoped that the show would act as a tribute to the courage of police officers, who risk their lives everyday, never knowing if they would return home at the end of the day. Much of the filming on location was carried out in towns such as Williamstown, The scenes of the outside of the Mount Thomas police station were actually filmed at the old, disused Williamstown police station, which was then a private residence. Scenes at Mount Thomas High School were filmed at Williamstown High School. The town of Castlemaine was most often used as the backdrop for Mount Thomas, seen in almost every episode. Although the Blue Heelers' pilot was shot in Castlemaine, the cast and crew very rarely returned there to shoot further episodes; Sunbury railway station was commonly used as the Mount Thomas railway station.
Hobson's Bay, and Wyndham, Victoria were also locations used in Blue Heelers.
2004 revamp: the station bombing
After low ratings in 2003 and 2004, the producers and executives of Blue Heelers realised that there were apparent problems which could potentially lead to the series' downfall. In 2004, Blue Heelers lost the top ratings spot to McLeod's Daughters. During 2003 and 2004, Australian television drama was also at its "lowest point in a decade" and many popular shows were cancelled. As the show remained basically unchanged from its debut ten years earlier, the production team decided that a revamp was in order.
At the beginning of season 11, the revamp began with new, more modern opening credits, using an electric guitar, rather than an acoustic. Later in that season, a live episode, "Reasonable Doubt", was broadcast in hope of offering a short-term ratings boost and encourage more long-term viewers. Although an immediate success, the live episode did not bring about a sustained increase in ratings.