Bellbird (TV series)

Bellbird is an Australian soap opera serial broadcast by the ABC created and co-written by Barbara Vernon, it screened for 10 seasons between 1967 and 1977, and spanned 1,697 episodes. The series centered around the residents of the small fictional Victorian rural township of the series title.^[1]

Bellbird
Genre	Soap opera Serial
Created by	Barbara Vernon,
Written by	Barbara Vernon, Alan Hopgood, Michael Wright
Directed by	James Davern, Oscar Whitbread
Starring	See cast list
Country of origin	Australia
Original language	English
No. of seasons	10
No. of episodes	1,697[1]
Production
Producer	Brett Porter[2]
Running time	Episodes 1-1508 (15 minutes (excluding commercial)), Episodes 1509-1592 (1 Hour), Episodes 1563-1697, (3x half-hour weekly)[1]
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	28 August 1967 (1967-08-28) – 23 December 1977 (1977-12-23)
Related
Country Life (film version)

Bellbird has the distinction of being the longest-running soap opera/serial ever produced by the ABC. It ended the same year as commercial broadcast series Number 96 and The Box, which had run for six and four years respectively.^[3]

Production and broadcasting

The series was produced by the ABC at the Ripponlea Studios in Melbourne, with the opening titles filmed at nearby Daylesford. Bellbird screened from 28 August 1967 to 23 December 1977 and although it was not Australia's first television serial (the first was Network Seven's Autumn Affair), it was the first successful soap opera and even spawned a feature film and tie-in novel.

The show's ratings were modest but it had a devoted following, especially in rural Australia, akin to the ABC's long-running radio drama Blue Hills. During most of its 10-year production run, 15-minute episodes of Bellbird screened from Monday to Thursday nights, leading in to the 7:00 pm evening news bulletin. In 1976, the series was screened as a single one-hour episode each week, before switching to three half-hour instalments per week during its final season.^[4]

Storylines

The show's storylines followed the lives of the residents of the small fictional country town that gave the show its title. While the series plots concentrated mainly on small-scale interpersonal, domestic and local relationships, issues and conflicts, there were occasional moments of high drama. One of the most celebrated was the death of the local stock and station agent, Charlie Cousens, played by foundation cast member Robin Ramsay. When Ramsay decided to leave the series in 1968, his character was written out in dramatic fashion, with Cousens plunging to his death from the top of a wheat silo. The death scene has figured prominently in retrospectives of great moments in Australian television, and its celebrity meant that it became one of the few segments from the early years of the series that has survived.^{[citation needed]}

Other notable deaths during the course of the series included those of local farm girl, Hagar Grossark (Barbara Ramsay), who drowned during a flood, and the 1974 death of major character Rhoda Lang, played by foundation cast member Lynette Curran, who was killed when her car was struck by a train at a level crossing.

Cast

Bellbird featured a regular cast of 46 actors over its 10-year run. The National Archives of Australia holds a collection of prints from 1977, identifying over 30 actors involved from that time.^{[5][failed verification]}

Main

Actor	Character	Eps.
Alan Hopgood	Matthew Reed	870 episodes (1972–1977)
Alwyn Kurts[1]	Wes Lewis	6 episodes (1977)
Anne Charleston[citation needed]	Wendy Robinson	524 episodes (1971–1973)
Anne Lucas [citation needed]	Glenda Chand	67 episodes (1967)
Anne Phelan[1]	Kate Ashwood	523 episodes (1974–1977)
Anne Scott-Pendlebury[citation needed]	Cathy	143 episodes (1970)
Bob Maza[citation needed]	Gerry Walters	174 episodes (1971)
Brian Hannan[1]	Roger Green	1182 episodes (1970–1977)
Brian James [citation needed]	Ian Bennett	667 episodes (1970–1973)
Briony Behets[citation needed]	Claire	52 episodes (1975)
Bruce Barry[citation needed]	Michael Foley	67 episodes (1967)
Bryon Williams	Adam Lockhart	870 episodes (1972–1977)
Carl Bleazby [1]	Coloniel Jim Emerson	1506 episodes (1968–1977)
Carmel Millhouse[1]	Marge Bacon	1556 episodes (1967–1977)
Clive Winmill	Tony Buckland	92 episodes (1977–1978)
Dennis Miller[1]	Constable Des Davies	986 episodes (1968–1974)
Dorothy Bradley [1]	Rose Lang	1224 episodes (1967–1974)
Elspeth Ballantyne[1]	Laura 'Lori' Chandler	157 episodes (1967–1971)
Gabrielle Hartley[1]	Maggie Emerson	1011 episodes (1969–1974)
Gerda Nicolson[1]	Fiona Davies	1059 episodes (1968–1974)
Gregory Ross	Chris Lang	321 episodes (1974–1975)
Ian Smith[1]	Russell Ashwood	523 episodes (1974–1977)
Jeremy Kewley[citation needed]	Ken Stratton	125 episodes (1976–1977)
Jill Perryman[citation needed]	Cheryl Turner	326 episodes (1971–1975)
John Stanton [citation needed]	Leo Hill	174 episodes (1972)
Julia Blake[citation needed]	Elaine Thomas	675 episodes (1972–1975)
Keith Eden	Gilbert Lang	528 episodes (1967–1970)
Kris McQuade [citation needed]	Gail Bennet	173 episodes (1974)
Louise Philip	Christine Jackson	174 episodes (1971)
Lynda Keane[citation needed]	Ruth Grossark	465 episodes (1967–1971)
Lynette Curran[1]	Rhoda Lang	1102 episodes (1967–1974)
Maggie Millar	Georgia Moorhouse	684 episodes (1972–1977)
Maurie Fields[1]	John Quinney	1235 episodes (1969–1977)
Michael Preston	Father John Kramer	396 episodes (1974–1976)
Moira Carleton[1]	Olive Turner	1142 (1969–1977)
Penne Hackforth-Jones[1]	Ginny Hill	347 episodes (1972–1974)
Penny Downie[1]	Kelly Jameson	71 episodes (1976)
Peter Aanensen[1]	Jim Bacon	1381 episodes (1968–1976)
Robin Ramsay[1]	Charlie Cousens	82 episodes (1967–1968)
Rod Mullinar	Scott Leighton	365 episodes (1973–1975)
Ross Thompson	Terry Hill	438 episodes (1972–1974)
Sean Scully	Ron Wilson	353 episodes (1968–1971)
Sheila Florance	Dossie Rumsey	174 episodes (1972)
Stella Lamond[1]	Molly Wilson	589 episodes (1969–1973)
Syd Conabere	Bernie Austin	491 episodes (1970–1972)
Terry McDermott	Max Pearson	836 episodes (1969–1973)
Terry Norris[1]	Joe Turner	(1967–1968)
Tom Oliver[1]	Tom Gray	83 episodes (1969)
Chuck Faulkner[1]	Captain Doug Daly	6 episodes
Gerard Kennedy[1]
Terence Donovan[1]	Neil Farrar	3 episodes

Foundation creative team

The show was based on a short treatment by Colin Free then developed by original story editor Barbara Vernon. The original story team included Vernon, Alan Hopgood and Michael Wright. The first executive producer was Brett Porter.^[2] The original directors were James Davern and Oscar Whitbread.^[6]

International screenings

Episodes of Bellbird were screened briefly in the United Kingdom in 1972. After the initial 52 episodes had been screened, Actors Equity in Australia insisted the ABC increase the price of the episodes so as to pay the actors more. As a result of the price increase, the UK broadcaster purchased no further episodes.^[7]

Episodes

Although an extensive selection of episodes survive and reside with the National Archives of Australia, it was reported that the ABC taped over the master tapes of the series, which was a common practice of the time^[7] something which series cast member Alan Hopgood had complained about in a TV Times article in 1976: "They just wiped [them] off and another episode [was] run over them .... This failure to preserve the program is criminal, to my way of thinking."^[8]

One complete black and white episode is available to be viewed at the Australian Mediatheque at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne, while several colour episodes are known to exist in the hands of private collectors.

Film and novel

The series was the first soap opera in Australia to spin off into a feature film version and tie-in novel, entitled Country Town (1971). It focused on Bellbird's problems during a severe drought. Many future soaps followed suit, spawning their own film versions, including Number 96 and The Sullivans.

Ratings

In 1971, Bellbird was the fifteenth most popular show in the country.^[9]

See also

• List of Australian television series
• List of programs broadcast by ABC (Australian TV network)