The Sullivans
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Sullivans was also the title of a 1944 Oscar-nominated film set during World War II and written by Eddie Doherty (later renamed The Fighting Sullivans). You may have arrived here while looking for the Sullivan brothers.
| The Sullivans | |
|---|---|
 The Sullivans main title caption. |
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Creator(s) | Crawford Productions |
| Starring | Paul Cronin Lorraine Bayly Andrew McFarlane Steven Tandy Susan Hannaford Richard Morgan Norman Yemm Megan Williams Vivean Gray Reg Gorman Vikki Hammond |
| Country of origin |  Australia |
| No. of episodes | 1114 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nine Network |
| Original run | 1976 – 1983 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Sullivans was an Australian made drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.
The story began in 1939, with the declaration of war against Germany. From the outset the series focused on the Sullivan family of Gordon Street, Camberwell, Victoria, along with their neighbourhood friends, relatives, and other close associates.
Grace and Dave Sullivan (Lorraine Bayly and Paul Cronin) were the parents of the intellectual John (Andrew McFarlane) who was opposed to the war, while his more knockabout younger brother Tom (Steven Tandy) was keen to sign up and defend his country. Next son was Terry (Richard Morgan), a young rascal still in school. The youngest, the only girl, was the shy and conscientious Kitty (Susan Hannaford). Other key characters were Dave's brother, Uncle Harry (Michael Caton) and his syruppy wife Rose (Maggie Dence).
The family's close associates were Maggie Hayward (Vikki Hammond), the owner of the local pub The Great Southern, and Jack (Reg Gorman) the barman. Norm Baker (Norman Yemm) was a close family friend, as was the gossipy but sympathetic neighbour Ida Jessup (Vivean Gray) who initially appeared to be meddling and puritantical but actually held great strength and understanding. Mrs Jessup took in lodgers, the first of which were Bert and Lil Duggan (played by Peter Hehir and Noni Hazlehurst).
The majority of show's storylines related to the war, focussing either on its impacts on the family, or through locally-filmed scenes of fighting in northern Africa, Greece, Crete, the Netherlands, England, New Guinea and Malaya. All male members of the Sullivan family enlisted in the armed forces at some point in the series; one son (John) was lost at sea but was later found fighting alongside Jewish partisans in the Middle East.
The Sullivans attracted critical acclaim and was also one of Australia's most popular drama series, screening in half-hour episodes at 7.00 pm. Its popularity waned somewhat after 1979 following the departure of Lorraine Bayly. Bayly decided to leave the series, but unwilling to let such a popular actor who played a key central character leave the series, the producers of the series allowed her to take six months leave from the show. In the storyline her character Grace was sent to London, and a succession of pre-taped segments were interspersed through the period she was absent to maintain her presence in the series. These London-set segments featured actors specially imported from New Zealand, so that Australian viewers would not recognise familiar Australian actors in the scenes. After the break Bayly was still adamant she wanted to leave the series and so Grace was killed by a V1 bomb during a London air raid.
Despite her departure ratings remained high enough for the series to remain in production. In 1982 the war ended in the storyline and there were plans for the series to continue with examinations of elements of post-War Australian history such as the Snowy River hydro-electric scheme, however the decision of Paul Cronin to leave the series prompted the show's cancellation before any of this could come to fruition.
The series subsequently enjoyed global success after being purchased by networks in Britain and Europe as a daytime filler on the ITV Network. A midweek Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 12.30pm slot was the most used slot when the programme was aired among most ITV contractors. When ATV became Central Television on 1 January 1982 the series was dropped in favour of contemporary Australian serials Sons and Daughters and The Young Doctors. Shortly after Central dropped the show, Yorkshire Television followed suit opting for local news programming instead.
The series was also screened on Sky Channel in the mid to late 80's before it became Sky One in 1989. It was shown at 11.30am every weekday morning. In the mid 90's, it enjoyed yet another repeat on UK Gold. Again, it was broadcast at 11.30am from 1994 to 1999.
Among the many short term cast members who worked on the series during its run, were several newcomers who later established successful careers, including Mel Gibson, Kerry Armstrong, Kylie Minogue and Dannii Minogue, Sam Neill, Gary Sweet and Sigrid Thornton.
[edit] UK ITV Regional Scheduling
|
ITV Region
|
Programme Schedule Pattern (all end at Episode 1114 unless otherwise stated)
|
||
|
Start Date
|
Days Screened
|
End Date
|
|
| Anglia Television | As Thames | Showing Thursdays 12.30 in 1981, Showing Tues/Thurs at 12.30 in 1986 but back to Thursdays only in late 86. Still showing Mon to Wed at 12.30pm in July 1989 | 1989/90?? |
| ATV and Central Television | As Thames | Weekly Thursdays during 1981 then dumped for a series New Kind of Family. Central never resumed The Sullivans | last transmission Thursday 15 October 1981 12.30 |
| Border Television | As Thames | Tuesdays and Thursdays 12.30pm during 1981 (seems likely as Thames throughout) | ??? |
| Channel Television | as Westward | as TSW until September 1985, then TVS | 1988 as TVS |
| Grampian Television | As Thames | Thursdays 12.30pm during 1981 | ??? |
| Granada Television | As Thames | Showing Tues/Thurs at 12.30 from at least 1981 until 1986. Series takes a break on Thursday 31 July 1986, until Tuesday 2 September 1986. Monday to Wednesday at 12.30pm during 1988-9. Still screening in August 1989. | C1989 |
| HTV West & Wales | As Thames | Showing Thursdays 12.30 during 1981, Showing Tues/Thurs at 12.30 in 1986. Monday and Tuesday at 12.30pm during 1988-89, then Monday/Tuesday at 1.50pm in 1990/1.??? then Mondays and Tuesdays 15.20 were in use during early 1993 | Completed Tuesday 8 June 1993 15.20 with episode 1114 |
| Scottish Television (STV) | As Thames | Showing Thursdays 12.30 during 1981, then ??? then 12.30pm various days, then from September 1989 network programme Home and Away fill the 12.30pm slot forcing the programme to move into slots Tuesday 14.30 (vacated by A Country Practice) and Wednesday 14.30 (vacated by Richmond Hill), then moves to Mondays and Tuesdays at 15.30 from November 1989, then ??? | Still showing Tuesday and Wednesday at 1520 in August 1993 |
| Southern Television & Television South (TVS) | As Thames | Showing Tues/Thurs at 12.30 from 1981 until at least 1986. | 1988 |
| Thames Television | Tuesday 18 October 1977 15.50 | Initially Tuesdays and Wednesdays across the network at 15.50 from 1977, Various days at 1230 or 1550 (mainly Tuesday & Thursday)Screened 12.00midday on Mondays and Thursdays in early 1988. | 1988/89. Replaced with A Country Practice half episodes |
| Tyne Tees Television | As Thames | Showing Tuesdays and Thursdays 12.30 during 1981 (seems likely as Thames throughout) | 1988 |
| Ulster Television | As Thames | Showing Tuesdays and Thrursdays 12.30 during 1981 (seems likely as Thames throughout) | ??? |
| Westward Television & Television South West (TSW) and Westcountry | As Thames | Showing weekly Thursdays 12.30 during 1981, Only showing one episode a week on Fridays at 13.30 in July 1989, showing weekly Fridays at 14.20 in 1992 | Still screening by Westcountry in 1993 in the same slot (14.15 Fridays) as TSW |
| Yorkshire Television (YTV) | As Thames | Showing weekly Thursdays during 1981 and 1982 12.30 | last transmission Thursday 2 December 1982 12.30 then dumped. Replaced with Paint Along With Nancy from HTV |
