Homicide is the most important and most popular drama series ever produced in Australia. Made in Melbourne by Crawford Productions, it ran for 12 years and 510 episodes, and commenced a continuous run of Australian production which has remained unbroken to the present day. It regularly rated in the high 40's and even low 50's, achieving a peak rating of 54 in Brisbane in 1968 (by comparison, today's most successful shows often only rate in the 20's). It was the success of Homicide which guaranteed the viability of Australian television drama production, and consequently the Australian feature film industry.
Homicide was the turning point. From the very beginning it pulled ratings in the 30's, and they continued to grow, signalling that Australian production was not only viable but desirable. Homicide was made on one-tenth of the budget of an overseas programme, yet it consistently out-rated every one of them. It forced the stations into obtaining local productions because they attracted the ratings - a trend that is still followed today.
Homicide, as the name implies, centered around the homicide squad of the Victoria Police. The original cast featured veteran actor John Fegan as Inspector Jack Connolly, head of the squad - a seasoned policeman, dry-humoured, outwardly gruff but a very warm and human officer devoted to his job. (The name Connolly was selected to reflect the Irish influence in Australian police forces). Terry McDermott played Detective Sergeant Frank Bronson, a capable and calculating detective, very tough when necessary but generally easy-going, with a strong core of humanity and humour. Lex Mitchell as Detective Rex Fraser was the third member of the team, young, impulsive, and single - a ladies man and a milk drinker, and only recently assigned to the squad.
The first episode (not the pilot), 'The Stunt', went to air on HSV-7 at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, October 20, 1964, with Ian Turpie playing the first victim. Criticism all but disappeared and the series received good reviews, being compared favourably to overseas police shows Naked City (1958) (U.S.) and Z Cars (1962) (U.K.). Shortly afterwards, the go-ahead was given for another 13 episodes.
Although it was finally on air, Homicide lost money on the first 26 episodes because costs for the show were grossly underestimated, and it took until episode 106 to recover all accumulated losses. Hector Crawford was, in fact, supported by his wife during the early period of getting Homicide on to TV. Crawford Productions made a pilot of the show and were a year trying to sell it. When they did, the only price they could get was way below cost. On the first 26 episodes the company lost a total of $38,000. Dorothy, Hector's sister and partner, and himself went a year without salary. They had to mortgage Hector's house. It was only through Glenda going out and singing a great deal that kept them solvent."
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