A Country Practice

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A Country Practice
Main title caption
Genre	Drama
Creator(s)	James Davern
Starring	Shane Porteous Helen Scott Brian Wenzel Joyce Jacobs Gordon Piper Syd Heylen Lorrae Desmond Joan Sydney Penny Cook Grant Dodwell Shane Withington Anne Tenney Wendy Strehlow Josephine Mitchell Maureen Edwards Kym Wilson Judith McGrath Georgie Parker
Country of origin	Australia
No. of episodes	1058
Production
Running time	48 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Seven Network
Original run	1981 – 1993
Links
IMDb profile

A Country Practice was one of the longest-running Australian television drama series. It ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from November 18, 1981 to November 22, 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping, Sydney. It also ran from April to November 1994 for 30 episodes on Network Ten.

Though sometimes considered a soap opera, the storylines of the show's two one-hour episodes screened over any one week formed a self-contained narrative block, so it did not have the open ended narrative of a traditional soap opera and so was technically a series ^[1]. Nevertheless many storylines were developed as sub plots for several episodes before becoming the focus of a particular week's narrative block. Overall, the program "so emphasised the ongoing storylines of its major characters as to make the distinction between series and serial more or less meaningless" ^[2].

In addition to being broadcast in Australia, it also ran on ITV in the United Kingdom, as well as in many European countries and Hong Kong. It was also carried on a variety of Canadian stations, both during the show's lifetime and after. It was estimated that at its height, the show received a worldwide audience of five to six million each week.

The show followed a medical practice in the small fictional New South Wales country town of Wandin Valley. The show's stories focused on the staff of the practice and the hospital and their families, and through weekly guest characters - frequently patients served by the practice - various social and medical problems were explored. The series examined such topical issues as youth unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and terminal illness as well as Aborigines and their place in modern Australian society.

1 Cast list
- 1.1 Seven Network series
- 1.2 Network Ten series
2 DVD release
3 UK ITV transmissions
- 3.1 ITV Regional Scheduling
4 North American Broadcasts
5 External links
6 Notes

[edit] Cast list

[edit] DVD release

A Country Practice is available on DVD (Region 4, Australia). Two box sets, entitled "Series One" (containing all 14 1981 episodes) and "Series Two" (containing only the first 30 1982 episodes) were released on 3 April 2006 by MRA Entertainment. Two 12-disc box sets featuring the remainder of the 1982 episodes and the first part of the 1983 episodes are scheduled for release 11 April 2007.

[edit] UK ITV transmissions

A Country Practice was shown regionally on the ITV Network with some regions ( Thames, Anglia, Border, Granada, TVS and Yorkshire) starting to screen the series weekly from 22 October 1982 on Wednesdays at 2.45pm in the original hour-long format. Central Television did not start the show until 1988. Yorkshire Television chose to break away from the main Network transmission in 1984 and were the first television station in the world to break the programme into two half-hour episodes screening on Mondays and Tuesday at 3.30pm. This would lead them into difficulties with the screening of the series as whenever a public holiday occurred (usually on Mondays), the 3.30pm slot would be unavailable for A Country Practice. This led to Part one of an episode starting on a Tuesday with viewers having to wait until the following Monday to conclude it. Yorkshire also transmitted the incorrect episode on one occasion due a fire in their building meaning that their feed from Thames Television for the preceding programme over-ran into Yorkshire's local programming meaning that the Yorkshire viewers saw a Thames episode which was considerably ahead (1991) of where Yorkshire were up to.

Over time all 14 of the ITV regions screened the show at their own pace after breaking from the Network Thames Television pattern. All regions eventually adopted the Yorkshire Television method of splitting the episodes into two. Carlton Television, who superseded Thames Television, became the first to conclude the series followed by Anglia Television in their daily 1.50pm half-hour slot. Anglia Television then commenced a short repeat of the first 40 or so episodes shortly after reaching the end.

Due to the content of the episodes, a substantial amount of episodes were withdrawn from transmission by certain regions as the content was considered unsuitable for daytime viewing. This led to various regions skipping considerable chunks of the story.

[edit] ITV Regional Scheduling

ITV Region	Programme Schedule Pattern (all end at Episode 1114 unless otherwise stated)
ITV Region	Start Date	Days Screened	End Date
Anglia Television	as Thames	Screening 1 hourly episode weekly in July 1989.Mondays-Fridays around 13.50 in half-hour eps. Re-ran the first 40+ episodes after completion.	???
Central Television	summer 1983	Initially Tuesdays 11.10 during summer school holidays in 1983. Series then dropped in September 1983 for many years. Then Fridays in the original hour format from 14.00 from October 1988, Richmond Hill was shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1400. Monday & Tuesday episodes added in early 1989 following schedule change when Sons and Daughters ended in December 1988. From January 1990, stripped in edited half-hour editions from 1345-1415 Mon to Fri. This changed to 1255-1325 during summer 1992 with Home & Away airing 1325-1355. The two soaps then switched timeslots in early 1996.	1998.
Border Television	as Thames	???, Aired Thursdays at 14.00 hour long in September 1989, then ??? possibly joined the Granada episodes from 29 December 1993.	as Granada ???
Channel Television	as TSW	???	as Meridian
Grampian Television	???	???, then Aired Thursdays at 14.00 hour long in September 1989, then ???	???
Granada Television	as Thames	Were screening 1 ep per week in 1985. Dropped the series for networked Richmond Hill in November 1988. Granada then reduced the RH episodes to reinstate ACP in its Thursday slot. Still 1 hour per week in 1990, then became Tuesdays to Fridays 13.50 in half-hour slots during 1991.	???
HTV West & Wales	???	Screened in 1 hour episodes until 1990. Series moved to 15.25 Wed-Fri as replacement for Sons and Daughters in half-hour eps.	???
Scottish Television (STV)	???	Always aired in hour-long episodes, generally 1 hour per week on Fridays. During 1988 series was shown on Thursdays at 13.30 hour long. Network programming in the slot from October forced ACP to move to Tuesdays at 13.30 then to 14.00 on Tuesdays. From September 1989 when network programming had left the Thursday slot ACP returned to Thurdays but at 14.00, then ??? Dropped from the schedules in early 1994, after episode 486. Brought back in June in its old time slot for a few weeks, and then from episode 491 screened five mornings a week at 09.25 in hour long episodes for the duration of the Summer school holidays (around 6 weeks). Reverted back to its old Friday slot in August, which switched to a Tuesday from January 1995. Dropped completely after episode 588, never to return, and replaced by Blue Heelers.	Never completed
Television South (TVS)	as Thames	13.50 Mondays to Fridays in half-hour episodes	???
Thames Television & Crapton Television	Wednesday 22 October 1982 14.45	Off air in mid 1986 for a lengthy period. 12.30pm Mon to Wed in July 1989.13.50 Mondays to Fridays in half-hour episodes	???
Tyne Tees Television	approx a year after Thames	??? then Aired Thursdays at 14.00 hour long in September 1989, Mondays and Fridays at 13.50 (2x60 min)in 1992. Series increased to three hourly episodes a week in Sunmmer 1992 on Mon/Wed and fri probably to catch up to YTV as much as possible before the two compnaies merged and transmitted the same episodes. then Tue, Wed, Thur 13.50 from 05/01/93 (3x30min)Various episodes skipped from 05/01/93 to catch up to Yorkshire. Then as Yorkshire	as Yorkshire
Ulster Television	???	Aired Thursdays at 14.00 hour long in September 1989, then ??? in early 1992 Mondays and Tuesdays 15.20 were used half hour.	???
Television South West (TSW)	???	???	???
Yorkshire Television (YTV)	as Thames	Due to Thames TV going on strike and being unable to provide other regions with certain acquired material, YTV broke away from the Thames offering and screened it themselves on Mondays and Tuesdays in half episodes at 15.30 from Monday 3 September 1984. When a Bank Holiday or Budget broadcast fell on on of the afternoons YTV replaced the other episode with other programmes initially. This practice later stopped. In 1998 YTV moved the show to 13.30 hour long episodes to replace Carson's Law. When networked programme Richmond Hill ousted ACP in November 1988, ACP was off air. The series then found a temporary home in the half hour weekday 15.25 slot from Monday 13 March 1989 replacing Sons and Daughters. In September The Young Doctors pushed ACP out of the weekday slot and moved to Wednesday and Thursday half hour episodes in the slot vacated by Richmond Hill 13.50. Later increased to Tues - Thurs.Increased again around mid 1993 to daily Mon-Fri episodes.	autumn 1998

The series also ran on Sky Channel satellite channel in the mid-to-late 80s, and for a brief time in 1997 on the cable channel Carlton Select.

[edit] North American Broadcasts

[edit] CBET

The entire series was broadcast, from start to finish, by the CBC Television affiliate in Windsor, Ontario, CBET, Channel 9, which serves the Metropolitan Detroit-Windsor-Toledo area. Two episodes were broadcast daily, Monday through Friday, starting in the late 1980s, until they were caught up to contemporary episodes in the early 1990s.

Detroit, Michigan in the United States and Windsor, Ontario in Canada are twin cities on the north and south banks of the strait called the Detroit River. Because they are part of the same advertising market, they are subject to the North American Border Protection Rule, under which Detroit television stations cannot carry programming licensed for broadcast in Windsor, and Windsor stations cannot carry programming licensed for broadcast in Detroit. Historically, 40% of Canadian network programming has been American content, none of which could be broadcast in Windsor. Only so much programming can be repeated, and only so many times - and no network produces programming to air on only one station - so, most of the American programming that cannot be broadcast in Windsor is replaced by programming imported from Britain and Australia. Many Australian soap operas, A Country Practice among them, have thus found loyal audiences in the Metro Detroit area, while they otherwise remain unknown in North America. [1]

[edit] ASN

From 1991 to 1994, the show also aired on ASN in the Canadian Atlantic provinces. Four hour-long episodes aired each week, from Monday to Thursday with Monday's and Tuesday's episodes repeated on Saturday and Wednesday's and Thursday's episodes on Sunday. The station aired the show from episode 1 to somewhere in the early 700s, stopping when Showcase Television launched on January 1, 1995, and started airing the show from the start again.

[edit] Showcase

Showcase Television began airing the show from episode 1 starting in January of 1995. It broadcast one episode daily, from Monday to Friday, and completed the entire series run (including the 30-episode Network Ten series) in June 1999. It began rebroadcasting the entire series on June 28, 1999, with promises that the entire series would be broadcast for those who missed the first airing. However, a single line of text scrolling across the bottom of the screen during the August 21, 2000, episode announced that the show would be removed from the Showcase lineup as of Monday, August 28, 2000. According to the station's email autoresponse at the time, the decision was based on "declining viewership and a demand by viewers for more current programming". Sometime after that, Showcase changed their format to favour a less family-oriented and more adult-oriented viewership.

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

^ Bowles, Kate. Soap opera: 'No end of story, ever' in The Australian TV Book, (Eds. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham), Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 2000. ISBN 1-86508-014-4 p 127
^ Bowles, Kate. Soap opera: 'No end of story, ever' in The Australian TV Book, (Eds. Graeme Turner and Stuart Cunningham), Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 2000. ISBN 1-86508-014-4 p 127

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Categories: A Country Practice | Australian television soap operas | Australian medical television series | Seven Network shows | Network Ten shows

A Country Practice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] Cast list

[edit] Seven Network series

[edit] Network Ten series

[edit] DVD release

[edit] UK ITV transmissions

[edit] ITV Regional Scheduling

[edit] North American Broadcasts

[edit] CBET

[edit] ASN

[edit] Showcase

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

Views

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