Always Greener

Always Greener
Genre Drama
Created by Bevan Lee
Starring John Howard
Anne Tenney
Michala Banas
Daniel Bowden
Natasha Lee
Caitlin McDougall
Bree Walters
Abe Forsythe
Scott Major
Clayton Watson
Country of origin Australia
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 2
No. of episodes 50 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) John Holmes
Producer(s) Jo Porter
Location(s) New South Wales
Running time Approx. 1 hour
(with ads)
Production company(s) Southern Star Group
Release
Original network Seven Network
Picture format 576i (SDTV),
1080i (HDTV)
Audio format Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Original release 9 September 2001 – 8 June 2003
Chronology
Related shows Packed to the Rafters

Always Greener was an Australian television drama/comedy series that aired on the Seven Network which followed the fortunes of two families, one from the city and the other from the country, when they decide to switch homes and start a new direction in life for themselves. It ran from 2001 until 2003, when it was cancelled after declining ratings and concerns over the cost of production.

History

The name of the show stems from the phrase "The grass is always greener on the other side". Promotion of the show's premiere episode used the Travis song "Side", which features the phrase as part of the chorus. The show was broadcast overseas in New Zealand on TV ONE. In 2006 reruns started airing on TV2. The series has since been released on DVD.

The Southern Star Group owns the rights to distribute Always Greener internationally.[1]

Premise

The series mainly revolved around the members of two families, the Taylors, who live in suburban Sydney, and the Todd family who live on a farm just outside the rural New South Wales town of Inverness. Each faced with problems of their own, John Taylor pays his sister Sandra Todd a Christmas visit to her farm. Joking that they should consider switching houses for a change in their life, the move becomes a reality when John discovers that his daughter Marissa is on drugs and Sandra can't pay the bills. Always Greener was noted for both dealing with serious issues as well as putting an often humorous touch to episodes. Fantasy sequences (such as a song and dance number when John mulls over having a vasectomy) were common and often added to the charm of the series.

Cast

Anne Tenney (Liz Taylor), John Howard (John Taylor), Caitlin McDougall (Sandra Todd)

The Taylor family

The Todd family

Other main characters

Ratings

Season Episodes Originally aired Viewers (in millions) Rank
Season premiere Season finale
1 22 9 September 2001 3 June 2002 1.738[2] #2[2]
2 28 8 September 2002 8 June 2003 1.150[2] #8[2]

Awards

Clayton Watson won the Australian Film Institute's award for "Best Actor in a Supporting or Guest Role in a Television Drama" for his work on Always Greener in 2002. The show was also nominated for an International Emmy Award in 2002 and Always Greener and its cast have been nominated for several Logies during its run.[3]

Logie Awards

ASSG Australian Screen Sound Awards

APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards

Australian Film Institute Television Awards[4]

International Emmy Awards

Australian Writers' Guild Awards

Cancellation

On 6 July 2003, Seven's Director of Programming and Production, Tim Worner announced the renewal of Always Greener saying: "Always Greener is an important program for Seven. We see it as a key franchise for us, a program we believe will continue to build in its third season." Then in September, the decision was reversed. News was broken to cast and crew as the first script meetings for the new series were already being held.

Rumours were that the cancellation was due to falling ratings. The show began with over 2 million viewers in 2001, but ratings never recovered from the disastrous decision to début the second season in the low rating Easter period of 2002 - Against stronger competition in both '60 Minutes' and 'Big Brother'. In 2002 the show moved from Sunday to Monday and then back to Sunday by 2003. Always Greener was rating around 1.0 million when cancelled. However, Seven cited "cost management" as the reason for dropping the series.

At the time, Worner was reported as saying that the decision was purely based on cost, because the 22 episodes were to cost $10 million, and he said that was far too much.

In late 2005 Seven aired reruns of the show in the early morning 9.30am timeslot and again in Seven's popular reruns timeslot at 12.00pm. Presently it airs sporadically on Universal Channel.

DVD release

Always Greener DVD collection

The first season of Always Greener have been released on DVD in Region 4 (Australia) format; the second is upcoming. The DVDs are distributed by Madman Entertainment under the label of VIA Vision Entertainment. A photo gallery is included in Season 1 (Vol. 2) and Season 1 (Complete). Special features on the second season is unknown at present.

Always Greener Australian DVD Release
DVD Name Release Date Episodes Rating Discs Runtime
Season 1 (Volume 1) 7 March 2007[5][6] Episodes 1 - 11 M 3 472 minutes
Season 1 (Volume 2) 7 March 2007[7][8] Episodes 12 - 22 M 3 484 minutes
Season 1 (Complete) 10 October 2007[9][10] Episodes 1 - 22 M 6 956 minutes
Season 2 (Volume 1) Unreleased[11] Episodes 23 - 36 M 3 TBA
Season 2 (Volume 2) Unreleased[12] Episodes 37 - 50 M 3 TBA

See also

References

  1. ↑ Record breaking "Always Greener" for Southern Star Archived 17 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine., Southern Star Group Archived 17 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine., 2 October 2001. Retrieved 6 June 2008 Archived 17 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
  3. ↑ Zuk, Tim. Always Greener awards and nominations, Australian Television Information Archive, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  4. ↑ "Television categories 1986 - 2009". AFI Award Winners. Australian Film Institute. 2009. Archived from the original on 20 September 2009. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
  5. ↑ Always Greener (Volume 1) Archived 21 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine., Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008. Archived 21 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Always Greener (Volume 1), ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  7. ↑ Always Greener (Volume 2), Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008. Archived 8 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Always Greener (Volume 2), ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  9. ↑ Always Greener (Complete), Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  10. ↑ Always Greener (Complete), ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  11. ↑ Always Greener (Volume 1), ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 22 April 2010. Archived 30 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ Always Greener(Volume 1), ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 22 April 2010. Archived 18 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine.

External links

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