Blue Heelers

TV History Seven
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Hi all,

I’m after the “countdown to Blue Heelers Live” program which ran directly before the Live Blue Heelers episode that aired on 21st April 2004.

The live episode itself was a historic thing that hadn’t happened in 35 years at the time with the whole episode being done out of the Melbourne studios fully live to air. It was quite an achievement,

So I’m hoping that someone captured the pre show of it which detailed the behind the scenes of it all prior to the episode. It was roughly 15 mins in length.

There is some very low resolution clips of it on YouTube, but I’m hoping one of our awesome members out there managed to cap it in a higher resolution. Example below:

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TRIVIA
The live episode of Blue Heelers was directed by two different directors: Aarne Neeme, who has extensive theatre experience, and Simon Francis (as on-air director), whose credits include Rove Live and Enough Rope.

The action was shot with up to 8 cameras across two studios at Channel Seven’s former South Melbourne studios. There were three sets - the police station, the pub and the police cells.

According to Erik Thomson, who hosted the “Countdown to Blue Heelers Live” show prior to the live episode, here are the facts in terms of television production (and in regard to making a live episode of Blue Heelers).

  • The first assistant director cues the actors and acts as the floor manager.
  • The cameramen shoot the action with handheld cameras, and their assistants clear the cables.
  • The boom operator has to drop the mic near enough to hear the actor, but the mic itself needs to be kept out of shot.
  • The studio control room crew involves an on-air director, a director’s assistant, a vision switcher, a lighting director, an audio director and an audio operator. All the cameras feed the material from the studio floor to the control room and the vision switcher has to mix and switch all the camera shots which make up a live episode, according to the on-air director’s instructions.
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From memory they used an alleyway outside the South Melbourne studio for a scene.

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I thought this was all streaming on 7+ including the countdown episode. Have a check there.

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You’re a legend. I actually didn’t think to even look on 7plus. I knew they were on there but didn’t think the special would be! Found it.

Thanks heaps. For anyone interested:

Also fun fact: Eric Thomspons intros were filmed inside BCM in front of the broadcast control windows :slight_smile:

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Nope, No Cells were used. There was an “outdoor” caravan Scene set in a studio, as well as a laneway between the studios. No Cells :slight_smile:

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Wasn’t this brought on by CSI (or was it Law and Order) and The Bill doing a live broadcast back in 2003/2004?

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And ER before that in the 90s. ER even did it twice for the same episode, once for the US east coast and again for the west coast.

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I thought it had only one live episode

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I think Blue Heelers deserves a reboot assuming they can get John Wood (Tom Croydon), Julie Nihill (Chris Riley), Martin Sacks (PJ Hasham), Neil Pigot (Falcon-Price) and Peta Doodson (Monica Draper) on board.

A pilot plot could be PJ arrives in Mt Thomas for a meeting with senior police officers including a Police Commissioners office representative with a proposal for PJ to become the new Senior Sergeant and command lead. At the start PJ is met by Tom Croydon and after some friendlies, PJ asks Tom if he knows why he was requested to attend. Tom tells him that he was recommended as the person to lead after several other officers only staying short term. Tom warns PJ that Falcon-Price is still trying to close the station down. Also PJ has a surprise backer, Monica Draper.

Initially 13 episode signing which would have 2 alternate endings for the season.

Ending one - series continues with a Christmas party and drinks at the Imperial.

Ending two - station closing down with community protests which Falcon-Price using this kind of community interference is why the station is closing.

These are ideas as to how it might work. Nothing has been suggsted that it could be rebooted.

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This might come as a shock to you but most of those characters would be past retirement age now. The actors who play them are 78, 68, 65, 63, 69.

If they ever did a reboot, it should be a remake with new storylines but similar or new characters. Like they did with Prisoner/Wentworth.

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You need one person for continuity like PJ running the station or something. But agreed, kinda stunning nobody has bothered to try considering it’d be about the only local drama that would rate.

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Seven probably own the IP with Southern star/Endemol, and the cost would be substantial which 7 can’t afford

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I’ve always thought shows like Blue Heelers, All Saints and A Country Practice could make a come back. The concept of all three still resonates today.

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It’s owned by Endemol/Banijay completely.

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Yep, via acquisitions, originally Southern Star.

Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Seven had some old contractual clause in there or maybe approached Endemol several years back when they went up on 7Plus (notably not on broadcast however) and negotiated some cheap agreement as original broadcaster and production partner.

Also how they’ve been licenced elsewhere, such as on Prime Video. The episodes are different though, Prime’s are clean, re-mastered (and widescreen from about S10) and the same as the DVD releases from Paramount Home Entertainment about 15 years ago, most obvious are full and generic end credits and a lack of Seven ender. Whereas 7Plus’ are their original master tapes as-broadcast digitised and up-scaled, with accelerated flow/Minus end credits and Seven enders (per year/era as well which is a nostalgic bonus); they also have the 2004 ‘live ep’ pre-show uploaded presented by Erik Thompson from BCM.

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That Heelers promo was for a significant story arc ‘after the Olympics’ that began with a two-part episode, involving Cons. Jack Lawson (Rupert Reid) getting shot and ending up in a wheelchair. These months would also be some of the last very high rating, following Lisa McCune’s famous departure earlier that year and gradual audience decline (though would still remain a good rater and regained No. 1 drama title in 2003) and only late 2004 and early 2005 would see a resurgence.

Also on Reid, he relocated from Sydney to Melbourne in the late 90s for the role, after Heartbreak High. As did a number of actors in the series: Martin Sacks, Tasma Walton, Paul Bishop, Ditch Davey, Simone McAullay, Geoff Morrell, Rachel Gordon, Danny Raco, Matthew Holmes.

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