The Sullivans | |
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The Sullivans main title caption
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Genre | Soap opera / drama |
Created by | Crawford Productions |
Starring | |
Country of origin | Australia |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 23 |
No. of episodes | 1114 |
Production | |
Location(s) | Melbourne, Victoria |
Running time | 22 minutes (episodes 1 and 2 are each 46 minutes) |
Production company(s) | Crawford Productions |
Release | |
Original network | Nine Network |
Picture format | 4:3 PAL |
Audio format | Mono |
Original release | 15 November 1976 – 10 March 1983 |
The John Sullivan Story | |
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Directed by | David Stevens |
Produced by | John Barningham |
Written by |
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Starring |
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Production
company |
Crawford Productions
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Distributed by | Eaton Films |
Release date
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5 August 1979 |
Running time
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108 mins |
Country | Australia |
Language | English |
The Sullivans is an Australian drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 15 November 1976 until 10 March 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect the Second World War had on their lives. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Gibraltar and New Zealand.
The show was purchased by Channel Nine without a pilot programme being produced. They commissioned 34 hours with a view to extension. Fourteen writers were assigned to the thirteen plot lines which had been devised.
The cast had not been established when they started writing the series and three months later they still had only two cast members, Vikki Hammond and Noni Hazelhurst.
When researching the time period, the set designer Nick Rossedale said at the time "when you are dealing with a period of time that is well within living memory, you have to watch things very carefully". Hence, the painstaking research into the reality of the show.
In 1976, the show was regarded as an ambitious project with the biggest budget ever for a commercial network series. It reputedly cost one million dollars to set up.
The story began in 1939, with the declaration of war against Germany. From the outset the series focused on the Sullivan family of 7 Gordon Street, Camberwell, Victoria, along with neighbourhood friends, relatives and associates. The majority of show's storylines related to the war, focusing on either the fighting itself or its effect on the Sullivan family. Scenes of battles in North Africa, Greece, Crete, Britain, New Guinea and Malaya were all filmed in or around Melbourne. However, some of the exterior scenes in the Netherlands were actually filmed in Amsterdam.