Always Greener

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.

Always Greener
GenreDrama
Created byBevan Lee
Written by
Starring
Country of originAustralia
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes50 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerJohn Holmes
ProducerJo Porter
Production locationNew South Wales
Running time
  • Approx. 1 hour
  • (with ads)
Production companySouthern Star Group
Release
Original networkSeven Network
Original release9 September 2001 (2001-09-09) –
8 June 2003 (2003-06-08)
Related
Packed to the Rafters

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

Guests

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

  • 2003 Nominee: Most Outstanding Drama Series
  • 2003 Nominee: Most Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series (John Howard)
  • 2002 Nominee: Most Outstanding Drama Series
  • 2002 Nominee: Most Popular New Female Talent (Michala Banas)

ASSG Australian Screen Sound Awards

  • 2003 Nominee: Best Achievement in Sound for a Television Drama ("Episode 50")

APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards

  • 2002 Nominee: Best Music for a Television Series or Serial (Paul Healy and Trent Williamson)[4]

Australian Film Institute Television Awards[5]

International Emmy Awards

  • 2002 Nominee: Always Greener Series 1 - Eps. 1 & 3

Australian Writers' Guild Awards

  • 2002 Nominee: Television (Series): "The Good Woman's Guide To A Happy Home" (Sue Hore)

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.

Home media
Always Greener DVD collection

The first season of Always Greener have been released on DVD in Region 4 (Australia) format. 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).

Always Greener Australian DVD Release
DVD Name Release Date Episodes Rating Discs Runtime
Season 1 (Volume 1)7 March 2007[6][7]Episodes 1 - 11M3472 minutes
Season 1 (Volume 2)7 March 2007[8][9]Episodes 12 - 22M3484 minutes
Season 1 (Complete)10 October 2007[10][11]Episodes 1 - 22M6956 minutes
Season 2 (Volume 1)Unreleased[12]Episodes 23 - 36M3TBA
Season 2 (Volume 2)Unreleased[13]Episodes 37 - 50M3TBA

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
  2. "Top drama/Comedy series before 2004 - in the archive - Australian content - Television - Fact Finders". 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. "APRA|AMCOS : 2002 Winners". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2002. Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  5. "Television categories 1986 - 2009". AFI Award Winners. Australian Film Institute. 2009. Archived from the original on 20 September 2009. Retrieved 2010-11-12.
  6. Always Greener (Volume 1) Archived 21 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  7. Always Greener (Volume 1) Archived 16 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  8. Always Greener (Volume 2) Archived 8 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  9. Always Greener (Volume 2) Archived 16 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  10. Always Greener (Complete) Archived 20 May 2011 at archive.today, Chaos.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  11. Always Greener (Complete) Archived 30 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 6 June 2008.
  12. Always Greener (Volume 1) Archived 30 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  13. Always Greener(Volume 1) Archived 18 April 2007 at the Wayback Machine, ezyDVD.com, Retrieved 22 April 2010.
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