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Always Greener
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Always Greener was an Australian television drama 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.
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 also screened for all two seasons in New Zealand on the highest rating network TV ONE at an 8:30 P.M wednesday timeslot during its run & was a popular show. Once the show ended reruns began screening at an 11:00 P.M Tuesday timeslot then in 2006 reruns began screening on TV 2.
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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.
- John Howard - John Taylor
- Anne Tenney - Liz Taylor
- Michala Banas - Marissa Taylor
- Daniel Bowden - Jason Taylor
- Natasha Lee - Kimberley Taylor
- Caitlin McDougall - Sandra Todd
- Bree Walters - Pip Todd
- Abe Forsythe - Campbell Todd
- Grant Bowler - Greg Steele
- Clayton Watson - Mickey Steele
- Scott Major - Tom Morgan
- Peter Corbett - Bert Adams
- Denise Roberts - Isabelle Turnbull
- Georgie Shew - Katy Turnbull
- Bree Desborough - Shelley Southall
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[1] and Always Greener and its cast have been nominated for several Logies during its run.
On July 6 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 debuted with over 2 million viewers in 2001, but ratings never recovered from the disastrous decision to debut 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 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, Tim 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.