Blue Heelers

BH is broadcast in Italy by a second-class network that airs every episode three times a day (at breakfast, lunch and in the night) to make the most of it, and which recently made news because of the high ratings of their "Bonanza" repeats (go figure!!).

So, at first I wasn't surprised to find a series like this on the channel, because when you first look at it it looks poor, drab, dreary and totally 80's styled, like a bad remainder from the bargain bin.

At the same time I became totally addicted with "Murder Call", to the point of waking at 6AM during weekends just to watch it, and when it dawned on me it was the same production company I simply had to find out what was causing this gap.

After careful study, I have to say that there is no real "gap": yes, you can see more money being thrown in MC, but at the same time the series have such different settings that BH is definitely making a choice, and their choice is to be real. Yes, a lot happens in Mt.Thomas for such a small place, but you also see the policemen spending most of their days networking in the community, accompanying witnesses home and filing, and this is very real. The actors look ordinary, but this just adds to the greatness of BH, because would you believe a model serving as a PC in Mt.Thomas?

And you can see no one was hired for their looks, but for their talent instead: all the actors manage to deliver a lot, from the divertissement episodes (ie: The beauty pageant) to the more dramatic ones. Not to mention the Maggie-PJ chemistry, where their performances are perfect beyond belief.

The writing in this show is great, and the dialogues are as real as you can get. Another great point is that every few episodes there's a very "pervy" storyline, like the ones you can experience in Murder Call, and they are always a work of convoluted genius.

Need I say I became addicted to this show as well? Definitely worth a try!

I was born and raised in Melbourne. Only recently have I moved to the US to get an education and find work. One thing I have missed as a result of moving away is Blue Heelers. I have heard rumours that it is playing on some US Cable companies, but I do not know which ones and where. Anyway if anyone stumbles across the television show, just sit down, have a beer and relax while you watch it. I think it is a little off the realistic track when it comes to police violence, corruption, etc. But it does cover a lot of the boring mundane tasks that police often have to put up with, such as cold burgs, etc. Or perhaps I just miss it because it is Australian??

Blue Heelers, is truly one of Australia's most successful television programs. However i feel that the current series is really de-grading to the previous series. What i mean is that it's is just not as good as it once was. I feel that now the show has been axed, it is just too over due. Blue Heelers has definitely run it's course and in my opinion should have ended with the death of Maggie Doyle (Lisa McCune). The reasons for this is because Magggie was Blue Heelers, she was indisputably the most successful cast memeber and really captured the audience and was the 'golden girl' in Mount Thomas. Her sudden death was devastating and should have resulted in the show being canceled.

The show was excellent for most of its run on Australian TV. It had great characters that you genuinely cared about, but it stayed real.

The death of the show wasn't Maggie's own death, but it went a long way towards it. The show had lost four core cast members in less than two years and it was never really able to survive that. The blowing up of the station took the unreality to the extreme (can anyone tell me the last time a police station was blown up in this country? Or any building for that matter?) and killed the show dead. Add to that, Tom completely changing and the show was over for me.

I'll always remember Blue Heelers for that little Aussie drama that I fell in love with as a kid, but thank God it went off the air before it could get worse.

I found this online earlier this week and have only worked my way thru a few episodes so far. But I'm really enjoying it. I'm not sure what time period it's supposed to be set in. I understand that it ran from 1994-2006. But the vehicles seem a little older than that and it seems like women have a tough go of it there which kind of makes me wonder if it's supposed to be set a decade or two earlier in time.