A Country Practice - Collection 1 (Eps 1 - 148)

Product Information

Jacinta Burke; Helen Wilson; Susanna Agardy (1983), "A Country Practice" and the child audience: a case study, Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Melbourne. ISBN 0-642-87073-X episodes, Seven Network. Semi-regular cast member until episode 99 onwards (debuted in episode 1 as Norma). Retained to Network Ten 1994 series (30 episodes) Only the first 40 episodes have ever been repeated in the UK, in 1997, when ITV contractor, Anglia Television, were the only region to repeat any episodes. Unlike other Australian soaps, which became cult viewing due to multiple runs; Prisoner was broadcast twice, first on ITV, and then Channel 5; The Sullivans also had two full runs, once on ITV and repeated on UK Gold; and also Sons and Daughters, which had three runs, first on ITV, then UK Gold, and finally, Channel 5 – A Country Practice has never been repeated in the UK or achieved the cult status of other soap operas of the same vintage.

A Country Practice is the third most successful television program after Home and Away (1st) and Neighbours (2nd), at the Logie Awards, having won 29 awards during its twelve years of production. [8] Carlton Television superseded Thames Television in January 1993, and they continued to air the series using the 13:50-14:20 timeslot. In January 1995, Carlton launched a new Australian series, Blue Heelers, and it took the 14:50-15:20 slot, Monday to Wednesday, and a new series from New Zealand Shortland Street in the 13:55 slot on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with A Country Practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and this pattern continued until they became the first region to reach the last episode, in April 1996. Anglia Television was next to finish in 1997, and they then began a short repeat of the first 40 episodes. A Country Practice originally aired on Seven Network Monday (Part 1) and Tuesday (Part 2) nights at 7:30. [ citation needed] The unsuccessful 1994 Network 10 remake of the series aired originally at 7:30 on Wednesday nights, but then moved to 7:30 on Saturday nights a few weeks later. In late July, it moved to a low-rating timeslot of 5:30 Saturday evenings, directly against Channel Seven's Saturday AFL coverage.When 7 decided to dump the show, channel 10 took it up and moved location from NSW to Victoria. Of course this resulted in many actors from the 7 production not returning for the 10 version and much of what made the original great was missing too. They must have thought that it worked when they bought Neighbors, why not this? They were also struggling with finding another hit soapie at the time. A Country Practice (called "Hverdagsliv") was broadcast on TV2 from the channel's inception in 1992 to 2000.

a b 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 A Country Practice is an Australian television soap opera/serial which was broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 22 November 1993, and subsequently on Network Ten from 13 April 1994 to 5 November 1994. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,088 episodes were produced. At the time of its cancellation, A Country Practice was the longest-running Australian TV drama; however, by the late 1990s, that record was surpassed by Network Ten series Neighbours. At the height of its popularity, the show attracted 8–10 million Australian viewers weekly [ citation needed] (at a time when the population of Australia was 15 million). The series was eventually sold to, and broadcast in 48 countries. After initially airing weekly hour-long episodes (usually on Wednesdays) from 1982, both TVS and Thames Television followed Yorkshire's example of showing half-hour episodes each week. TVS initially used 14:00-14:30 from 1987 before following Thames with the 12:30-13:00, Monday to Wednesday, slot, from 1988. In 1990, both of these regions adopted the 13:50-14:20 time, on various days and frequency. The entire series was broadcast by CBC Television outlet CBET in Windsor, Ontario. 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. Its inclusion on CBET's schedule was out of necessity to fill a television schedule: because Windsor stations cannot carry programming licensed for broadcast in the United States. Many Australian soap operas, A Country Practice among them, thus found loyal audiences in the Metro Detroit area, while they otherwise remain unknown in North America.

When Shirley is involved in a minor car accident, Frank hounds her for a breath test but she resists on principle, insisting an erratically driven bus forced her to swerve into the other lane. Brendan Jones saves a young asthmatic's life but the boy's overprotective mother takes offence at Brendan's suggestion that she is contributing to her son's dependency. Molly gets a new dog, Fang, but a rash of animal poisonings has her worried. episodes Seven Network (appeared in Network Ten series 1 episode, 1994) (had previously appeared in a guest role as Mary O'Connor in 1988) In late 2005, MRA Entertainment announced they had obtained the rights to release the entire series on DVD. In 2008, Magna Pacific Pty Ltd bought out MRA Entertainment, with plans to release Series 6, however the rights were then acquired by Beyond Home Entertainment which then re-released the first 5 seasons in 2007–2008, followed by Season 6 in 2010. [11] On 27 May 2020 Via Vision Entertainment announced they would be releasing season 11 on DVD on 26 August 2020. Scottish Television started broadcasting the series in 1983 and always aired A Country Practice as hour-long episodes. Throughout the 1980s the program moved about in time and day but was generally broadcast once a week in an afternoon slot. In January 1994, after (episode #486), it was dropped from the schedules for about 4 months until June. From episode 491 screened every weekday morning at 10:55 for the duration of the summer school holidays (around 6 weeks) until 2 September. It reverted to its old weekly Tuesday slot the following week. It was the dropped completely after episode #588, during 1996. Although the company took over Grampian Television, the series continued until the end, doing so by airing daily episodes during the summer of 1998. returned as a guest in 1993) 246 episodes later guest during 1989 (had previously appeared in a guest role as Sharon Lyons in 1982)