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COP SHOP |
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- 1977-1984 - 582 x 60 episodes -
Produced by Crawford Productions for the Seven Network - |
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Through the late 1960s and the first half of the 1970s, the Crawford Productions police procedural drama series Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police had dominated Australian television schedules. These programs ran on each of the commercial channels, Seven, Nine and Ten respectively, and all generated popular success, television awards, and critical accolades. Stylistically they followed the same formula: generally episodes were of a one-hour duration with a self-contained story which focused on a police investigation. Much of the episode’s footage was shot on videotape in the studio, with about ten minutes of location footage shot on film in exterior locales. Personal aspects of the lives of the (nearly always male) police personnel would sometimes be featured, but generally the emphasis was on their professional activities. However during 1975 and 1976, Division 4, then Matlock Police, and finally Homicide, were all cancelled. Then in 1977 Australia’s three major soap opera successes of the period, The Box, Number 96 and Bellbird, were all cancelled. Of these soap operas only The Box was a Crawford Productions series, and with the demise of Homicide it stood as the production company’s only long running series in production until The Sullivans began in late 1976. But by the end of 1976 declining ratings forced The Box to close and production on the series ended in April 1977. During this same period the Grundy Organisation had been busy launching new youth-oriented soap operas The Young Doctors and The Restless Years which produced a higher output than the Crawfords Police procedurals and with a lower budget - and the shows proved to be popular successes. DEVELOPMENT OF COP SHOPApparently borne of this reorganisation of Australian television drama with its shift in emphasis to videotaped soap opera came Cop Shop. Crawford Productions stayed within the police drama genre they specialised in, here reworking the formula within a soap opera format and with an increased emphasis on family drama. Indeed Cop Shop featured the conspicuous inclusion of young policewomen, personal storylines concerning station personnel and their families, and comedy. The series producer and head writer was Terry Stapleton. Cop Shop also incorporated the upstairs-downstairs relationship between the uniformed and plain-clothes policemen and women as had been seen in Division 4. Cop Shop’s suburban police station setting allowed a wide range of crimes to be investigated. The series screened at a rate of two one-hour episodes each week. The two episodes would feature a main story - a police investigation of some sort - alongside the on-going story threads following the personal and professional lives of the show’s regular characters. The weekly main story would form a self-contained narrative block concluded at the end of the week’s second episode, and would feature its own batch of guest stars. Within this formula there would also be one-episode stories with a guest who appears in just a single episode. The wider, open ended narratives of the show’s regulars brought the series into more standard soap opera territory and dealt with such topics as family problems, romances, weddings and births. Cop Shop proved to be a big success, and several of its cast became major celebrities through their roles in the series. Perhaps most popular was Peter Adams who played tough and resourceful detective Jeffrey “JJ” Johnson. JJ (pronounced “Double J”) differed from the detectives seen in earlier police dramas in that, while not at all corrupt, he was not totally squeaky-clean either. In charge of CID at Riverside Police station was the assertive professional, Detective Senior Sergeant Glenn Taylor (George Mallaby), and his family life was a key aspect of the series. At home he had a sometimes fractious relationship with scheming wife Pamela (Rowena Wallace) who was from a wealthy family and conspired with her father to lure Glenn from the long hours and dangerous elements of the police force into a lucrative corporate job. Their teenage daughter Gayle (Joanne Moore) was reaching the age where she wanted to attend rock concerts and stay out late with friends, leading to several domestic squabbles - which the calculating Pamela usually attempted to settle with yet more underhanded scheming. Accomplished but sensitive young Detective Danni Francis (Paula Duncan) was the original female representative on the force. In the initial stages of the series she might not have dealt with the tough crimes that her male colleagues did, but she was nevertheless a key character through many storylines and one of the program’s most popular figures. Indeed Paula Duncan would win several Logie awards for her leading role in the series. Another key character at the start of the series was Senior Detective Don McKenna (Tony Bonner). In charge of things downstairs at the charge counter was the crusty and officious Sergeant Eric O’Reilly, a comedy character well played by Terry Norris. He ordered around Senior Constable Tony Benjamin (Gregory Ross) and Constable Peter Fleming (Patrick Ward) and made sure station rules and regulations were adhered-to in his section. Tony and Peter squabbled amongst themselves, adding to the lighter moments in the series. COP SHOP OPENSThe opening episodes featured a convoluted storyline
involving a spate of gay bashings. Detective Tom Foster (Peter Sumner) seems
implicated in these crimes having been shown apparently stalking local gay
men through the streets in the dead of night. Foster, a widower,
also struggles to raise his teenage son Gary (Andrew
McKaige) and grapples with the recent
scandal where Alongside this Glenn returns to work after recuperating from a recent shooting injury, while manipulative wife Pamela conspires with her wealthy businessman father Edmond Eliot-Smith (Walter Sullivan) to manoeuvre Glenn into the safer and more genteel job as manager of a shopping complex. Detective Danni Francis also pounds the beat even if her main duties are tracking a female teenage runaway. She is certainly a respected and accomplished police woman, but she is shown to be more sensitive, and to suffer greater regret over injustices and police bungles, than her more jaded male colleagues. The program’s formula of building drama and intrigue by
presenting a series of interwoven and apparently disparate story lines and
then gradually revealing how they link together becomes apparent in the
opening episodes. Drama increases as the various threads converge and it is
revealed (in a well-written and expertly-acted scene with Peter Sumner and Andrew
McKaige) that The various threads mesh to present a riveting mystery whodunit, and viewers are left with multiple questions at the cliff-hanger. Detective Tom Foster might be the gay basher, but did he also murder Colin Kavanagh, his son’s school teacher and one-time gay lover? There is also the soap opera type intrigue of Pamela’s secretive plots to manipulate husband Glenn into leaving the force. Mixed with all the drama are lighter moments such as the evolving romance between JJ and Valerie, and the ongoing comedy gags of the officious and irascible Eric O’Reilly. NEW RECRUITSConstable Peter Fleming was a vegetarian (as evidenced by
the fact he munched on a raw carrot for his lunch) and seemed slightly dim in
a “gee-whiz” kind of way, but apart from that seemed much too similar in
character to Tony Benjamin. Soon Peter had departed and in his place came Roy
Baker (Gil Tucker). An eager, polite, and conscientious young officer known
for his many minor bungles, As early jolt came when Detective McKenna departed just 13 weeks into the show’s run when his portrayer Tony Bonner opted to leave the series. Danni Francis had begun a romance with McKenna and was devastated by his death in the line of duty. John Orcsik came in as his replacement: a hunky Greek detective named Mike Georgiou. Orcsik had actually auditioned for Bonner’s character of Detective McKenna during the planning stages of Cop Shop. [1] After Danni’s romance with the returning Tom Foster, then a close association with local do-gooder Father Joe Carroll (Neil Fitzpatrick) and a secret romance with work colleague Sam Phillips (Nicholas Eadie), Mike became Danni’s main romantic interest. The same happened away from the set and actors soon started an intense affair, which in 1982 led to a much publicised real life wedding. Mike and Danni followed suit with an on-screen wedding in 1983. Episodes 109 and 110 of Cop Shop
recorded in December 1978 are notable in that their guest cast features
actors Mel Gibson, Steve Bisley, and Joanne Samuel
who were leading cast members of the cult 1979 Australian feature film Mad Max. In their storyline the three are employees
at a fabric factory that is the scene of a payroll robbery. After security is
tightened, a second payroll grab using a slightly-modified technique occurs.
The episodes present an engaging and intriguing whodunit involving a complex
network of alibis and character associations for viewers to attempt to
untangle. They also present a double reunion: the building that in
location-shot footage represents that fabric factory is actually Crawford
Productions’ Abbottsford headquarters on Stripper Valerie Close who had caught JJ’s
eye in the first episode emerged as a bold, brassy and fun figure in the
ongoing storylines. The fiery romance between the two led to marriage and
Valerie continued as a key character in the show’s storylines. In 1980 after
reaching two hundred episodes, her portrayer Joanna Lockwood described for The Sun newspaper columnist and future Prisoner
actor Kim Trengove the formation of the character
at the start of the series. “My contract was for 13 weeks but I always
thought it would go longer. I didn’t know how to scheme or to make up to the
right people and influence them. I had turned in an honest 13 weeks
performance.” Lockwood admitted the most difficult thing for her was having to do a strip tease in front of cast, crew, and
television cameras. “Coming from THE RETURN OF GEORGE MALLABYUnlike Lockwood, George Mallaby was no stranger to long running television roles. He played in Homicide for six and a half years, then spent 13 months playing a leading role in The Box. On going in to the Cop Shop role Mallaby had told TV Week “I hope that Crawfords have learned something through their experiences on doing The Box and The Sullivans. They should now recognise that the human brain is capable of just so much pressure, and that they should allow for rest periods and not let the bulk of the show fall on any one person’s shoulders. My contract is for an initial 13 weeks, and I’ll know by the end of that time whether things have improved. If the show and the working conditions are tolerable, of course it will extend beyond the 13 weeks.” [3] A few months later Mallaby reported that “there have been a few teething troubles with the show, but that’s inevitable with a new project and a team of actors and crew who haven’t worked together before. In some of the early episodes, we were working until the wee small hours of the morning to maintain our output of two hours a week. That was largely because the directors would have certain ideas about how scenes should be played, and we’d rehearse along those lines, only to find that, when we got into the studio, those ideas were not possible. So precious time was lost while we had to plan everything all over again. Now, everyone is familiar with the show, and it’s running smoothly. If we find we’ve slipped behind schedule in the afternoon, we can now pick up the time in the evening so that we finish more or less as scheduled.” [4] In response to some negative reviews given by television critics Mallaby stated that “I don’t agree with them, and I don’t believe the public agrees with them either. I know from the sort of public reaction I’m getting that the show is going down well. And I think we’ve also broken across some viewing barriers with Cop Shop. We got some of the audience for both crime shows and serials. In other words, some people who ordinarily don’t like cop shows, but who enjoy serials, are watching us. And some fans who in the past have avoided serials are being hooked. The audience is quite different from the avid Homicide fans.” [5] Of the development of his character Mallaby told TV Week that “I would like to see the character developed more as a human being - to look into the other side of Glenn Taylor, not just the cop. He has had problems with his wife (Rowena Wallace) and his daughter (Jo-Anne Moore), but I think there are other areas that can be explored outside the police station. Of course, the direction in which Glenn’s life is headed will depend on whether Rowena and Jo-Anne stay with the show. If key cast members such as those were to choose to leave the show, the writers would have to devise a whole new set of circumstances for me.” [6] In the event it was ultimately the decision of actors
Rowena Wallace and George Mallaby to resign from
the series in mid 1979 that prompted the In the event, an undisclosed health scare prompted Mallaby’s abrupt departure from Prisoner in June 1980. At the time of his departure Mallaby’s contract was soon to expire and his character was in the process of being written out of the storyline. But the unexpected illness prompted Mallaby’s disappearance four episodes earlier than expected, and with no proper farewell scene in the can scripts had to be urgently rewritten to explain his character’s premature disappearance. Mallaby himself wrote what was originally to be the “farewell” episode of his character Paul Reid, who still left the series in the manner originally planned, but his final onscreen appearance had occurred four episodes earlier. [9] In December 1980 it was revealed that it was a heart attack that forced Mallaby’s sudden exit from his on-screen Prisoner role. By this time he was back before the Cop Shop cameras, but only to tape a brief two-scene cameo where he coaches Roy Baker who is about to compete in a bike race. At the time Mallaby said that “I feel as if I’m ready to tackle more TV work, but not at the heavy work load that existed before I left Cop Shop. I will not allow myself to work that heavily again. It would be foolhardy.” There were even a few minor problems getting those two scenes in the can. “We had three trips to the Northcote Cycling Club rink before we were able to get anything down on tape. We were washed out twice, but lucky the third time around,” Mallaby told TV Week. Nevertheless it was a happy reunion for all involved. “Nothing’s changed. It’s all exactly the same as it was when I left it - panic stricken! I’m pleased to see the boys are doing their jobs as well as ever. It really is nice to be back. I don’t feel as if I’ve been away at all.” [10] CAST CHANGESGlenn Taylor’s replacement as head of the CID had been new character Vic Cameron, played by Terence Donovan, a veteran of Crawford Productions police drama series Division 4. Cameron stayed two years, finally departing when his portrayer Terence Donovan, who had become hot property through his appearance in feature film Breaker Morant, asked to be released from his contract to take up a movie offer. Donovan told TV Week that “I’ve had several offers over the past two years I’ve spent with Cop Shop but because of the program’s heavy work schedules I haven’t been able to take them up. I have one film to do and I’d love to get back into theatre work. I know Cop Shop has had many changes recently (the departure of Peter Adams and Joanna Lockwood) and they had enormous problems trying to replace Peter. Now to find someone else going… it must be difficult for them. They’re now looking for someone to replace me and I have said I’ll stay around until May [1981] to help them.” [11] Indeed after three years and winning two Logie Awards for
Best Actor, Peter Adams left to pursue other roles. In the story the
scriptwriters had JJ transferred to the As for Joanna Lockwood’s exit TV Week
was unsure of the true reason for her departure at the same time Actor John McTernan joined the
cast as JJ’s replacement, Detective Tom Shannon, a
stereotypical Guinness-loving Irishman. Shannon was retained in the show when
JJ eventually returned. Wife Valerie did not return, and it was explained
that she had remained in the A key cast addition was sex symbol Lynda Stoner as buttoned-down police constable Amanda King. Amanda soon became a detective allowing her to ditch her neat uniformed appearance in favour of flowing blond locks and street clothes that showcased her famous figure: Cop Shop’s sexiest female cop had been unveiled and Amanda King remained a key character in the series for several years. Stoner had joined the series in early 1979 and by 1980 her role had been suitably augmented while Stoner told TV Week that “the Cop Shop cast must be the closest in this country. It’s like a big family - it would break my heart to leave it.” [15] By June 1980 Stoner’s live-in boyfriend, actor John Walton, was signed to Cop Shop for six months playing aggressive journalist Terry Lindford Jones - a character previously seen as a guest in one December 1979 episode. [16] Like their portrayers Terry Lindford Jones and Amanda King were soon involved in a love affair. Stoner decided the leave the series at the end of 1981 and glamorous former Arcade cast member Olga Tamara came in as her replacement, Detective Julie Mitchell. Tamara had been appearing in another Crawford Productions series, Holiday Island, in late 1981 when that series was cancelled. Just hours after learning she was out of a job with Holiday Island’s cancellation, the role in Cop Shop came up. Tamara started work on Cop Shop in January 1982 and her episodes began on air several weeks after that. [17] Stoner ultimately returned to Cop Shop and continued until the final episode. A TRANSFER FOR FANELLIIn 1981 the popular character of Peter Fanelli
(Bill Stalker) was transferred in from Crawfords
series Skyways
when that show was cancelled after a two-year run. In the story Fanelli, who in Skyways had
been written as a former police detective, returned to the force and was
appointed to Riverside CID. Soon Fanelli
was promoted to become head of the CID. However it would not turn out to be a
long term appointment as Stalker elected to leave Cop Shop
just nine months after moving across to the serial. “I’ve had six years of
full time serial work - three in During Stalker’s run in the series his real life
girlfriend, actor Catherine Wilkin, signed on for a
recurring role in Cop Shop as a lawyer. It had
been hinted early on that Fanelli’s departure would
be a happy one - possibly involving marriage - and it was revealed a new
girlfriend for Fanelli, Yvonne Holmes (Annette
Andre) would soon be introduced. [19]
Wilkin and Stalker started their relationship and
had acted together in their native Tragically Bill Stalker was killed at age 33 in a
motorcycle accident in On the show Fanelli’s wedding
went ahead as his final scene. Sadly for those working on the production,
also being taped at the time of Stalker’s death was the fictional death of
regular character Claire Benjamin (Louise Philip). Claire was Eric O’Reilly’s
paraplegic daughter who had married Tony Benjamin. When Louise Philip finally
decided to leave the series her character Claire was killed instantly in a
bus crash while returning from a holiday in The original taping of Claire Benjamin’s funeral on location at St Peter’s Church in Toorak had been pre-empted by Bill Stalker’s funeral that was held the same day. The recording of the funeral was therefore put back a week. Having to enact attendance at the funeral of a friend and family member was a traumatic experience for the cast who, just one week earlier, had gone through the same thing for real. TV Week reported that due to the circumstances, filming was severely scaled-back to the minimum possible time. The cast avoided the church for as long as possible, coming near the location only when necessary. Several cast members openly wept in breaks between taping. “It’s one of the hardest scenes I’ve had to do. The memories of Bill’s funeral just kept rushing back to me,” said Paula Duncan. [24] Claire’s funeral went to air in Melbourne and Sydney in the first week of April 1982. The episodes of the week following this featured the wedding and departure of Peter Fanelli. [25] LATER DEVELOPMENTSTerry Norris continued in the role of irascible buffoon Eric O’Reilly for several years, and in March 1980 he had won the Logie Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series. Norris and main co-star Gil Tucker had succeeded in being funny in their roles as comically officious but eccentric characters behind the charge counter; TV Week magazine described their rehearsals as sometimes becoming a comedy show all on their own. [26] In other developments Eric married Valerie’s mother, Lorna Close (Moya O’Sullivan). Initially Tony Benjamin was the third uniformed officer
downstairs. He was soon promoted to the rank of detective, continuing in that
role to the end of the series. After this Norris finally left the series when he was elected to
Victorian Parliament. He had won the seat of Before leaving the series and while Kurts’ appearance was still being negotiated, Norris told TV Week he approved of his potential replacement. “He’s very professional and hard working. He’s a good example to young actors. I’ve worked with Alwyn in The Last of the Australians and he’s very good to work with.” (At the time, much the same was being said of Norris himself.) Norris also admitted “I’m going to miss the cast and crew of Cop Shop because they are the happiest team I’ve worked with.” [28] Norris returned for the show’s final episodes taped in late 1983. Cop Shop is notable for
taping one storyline overseas in 1982 when JJ and Georgiou follow their leads
to an investigation in THE ENDProduction was finally wound-up in December 1983 due to
declining ratings. Though
it had once rated 46 in The final episode was recorded 22 December 1983. Due to
the backlog of episodes the closing episodes went to air in By the end of the series Reg
Wallis was gone and the popular Terry Norris was back behind the charge
counter playing Eric O’Reilly as if he had never left. There’s a small
transformation for the officious Eric when he decides to adopt a relaxed,
flexible approach to the fundraiser he is organising with There is extra tension on this stakeout as Mike’s wife Danni is at home and about to give birth to their child. Previously she had tearfully begged Mike not to go on the dangerous stakeout, and then she goes in to labour before his return. Amanda gets Danni to hospital but Danni tearfully frets over Mike’s absence. Luckily Mike manages to make it to Danni’s beside soon afterwards to meet his new baby daughter, who is named Amanda Claire. She is named Amanda after the attending Amanda King, and Claire after Eric’s late daughter Claire. With the highly popular returning character of Eric also present in the scene where the baby’s name is revealed its seems odd that none of her names are Erica, however JJ’s daughter had already been named Erica, after Eric. In the end Tony and Mike have made peace over their rivalry for promotion, however Tom Shannon announces he is not leaving after all. However, JJ is resigning. He has finally given in to the demands of his latest love, Kate Ryan (Lyn Semmler), and resigned from the force. Things end with a farewell party for JJ in the Riverside CID office where the cast of characters raise a glass and call out three cheers for their departing colleague. Finally JJ experiences a lengthy sequence of flashbacks, before happily leaving the station to catch a taxi off to pastures new. Over its run the series basically stuck to its original formula of light comedy mixed with crime mystery and some explosive action sequences. Over the program’s many cast changes the general mix of character types was always maintained: departing characters would conveniently be replaced by someone else who was basically the same character. Perhaps the key thing that generated the show’s high levels of popularity was the charismatic cast (especially with their soap opera style romances) and the essentially believable characters. Cop Shop repeated by Channel Seven in a week day afternoon slot in the late 1980s. The rerun later switched to a late-night timeslot to play out the remaining episodes through the early 1990s. |
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Originally uploaded May 2000 Last updated 31 May 2009 |
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