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McLeod's Daughters was a Logie award-winning Australian drama series that aired on the Nine Network from 2001 to 2009. It tells the story of two sisters, Claire and Tess McLeod, who are reunited after they inherit a vast outback cattle station. Thrown together after 20 years apart they pull together an all-female workforce and commit to life at Drovers Run in South Australia, 180 km from the nearest town and 400 km from the city. During the seasons, more McLeod Daughters joined; who were cousins of Claire and Tess McLeod. On 31 January 2009 the Nine Network aired the show's 224 & final episode in a movie lengh special from 9:30pm to 11:30pm.
[edit] PlotJack McLeod dies and leaves his heavily mortgaged family farm, Drovers Run, to his daughters. Tess returns home to the place she left more than 20 years before. Jack was first married to Prudence and they had a daughter Claire and a son Adam. Prue dies giving birth to Adam, leaving Jack to raise Claire. He later married Ruth Silverman, and they have a daughter, Tess. The two girls were close growing up, but were separated when Ruth took 5-year-old Tess back to the city. Tess, who recently lost her mother to breast cancer, hopes to cash out her share of the farm and opening a cafe in the city, but is disappointed to be met with a less-than-rosy financial picture and the open resentment of her older sister. Claire fires the male workforce and the sisters run the farm themselves, with the help of housekeeper Meg Fountain, her daughter Jodi, and local girl Becky. The tentative partnership is the first step in the reunited sisters' effort to heal old wounds, improve their relationship, and lift the property out of debt. Three years later… in October 2003, Claire’s best friend Stevie Hall arrived at Drovers Run to replace Becky who left with Jake to run a farm. Weeks after Stevie arrived; Claire lost her life in a tragic farm accident leaving sister Tess to run Drovers by herself with the help of Stevie and the girls. In March 2006, Tess & Nick decided to leave Drovers to run a farm in Argentina; with Tess’ sister Jodi running the family property with cousin Regan, best friend Stevie and Jodi’s best friend from boarding school Kate Manfredi who arrived in 2004. Now 2007, It’s been a fun seven years at Drovers Run for Jodi Fountain-McLeod but with the return of Rob/Matt; Jodi decides to go into witness protection with him leaving Drovers maybe forever and her family & friends too. In Jodi’s absent the family property to given to her cousins Regan, Grace & Jasmine. With only Regan running it with Stevie, Tayler & Kate, Regan’s estranged sister Grace Kingston arrives at Drovers Run after getting her letter in the mail. Then late that year Stevie & Alex marry with Regan departing to study more or her new job; leaving sister Grace in charge of the McLeod family legacy for years to come. [edit] Series historyPosie Graeme-Evans developed the idea for McLeod's Daughters in the early 1990s for her company Millennium Television in conjunction with the South Australian Film Corporation - she also developed the idea for children's television programs such as The Miraculous Mellops and Hi-5. The idea was for a television drama set on an Australian rural property with two half-sisters running the property inherited from their father with an all-female workforce. She developed the idea from stories from friends who grew up in the country and from the love of South Australian landscapes as shown in the paintings of Hans Heysen. Graeme-Evans pitched the idea to the board of the Nine Network who agreed to film a telemovie in 1996 with Jack Thompson starring as Jack McLeod who is the father and whose death leads to the two half-sisters (portrayed by Kym Wilson as Tess and Tammy MacIntosh as Claire) inheriting the property. Following the success of the telemovie shown on Mother's Day 1996 the Nine Network board agreed to commission a 22 episode series in late 2000 after the Opening Ceremony for the 2000 Sydney Olympics featured a The Man from Snowy River theme highlighting the cultural significance of the bush to Australians. The first episode of McLeod's Daughters debuted in August 2001 and proved to be a smash hit, attracting 1.89 million viewers. The first series proved to be a success attracting an average of 1.5 million viewers an episode in Australia. The show also proved to be a success when shown in New Zealand on TV2 one of TVNZ's free-to-air channels. The second series of McLeod's Daughters was equally successful, being the third most popular drama on Australian television. By 2003, the show was the most popular drama series on Australian television. Lisa Chappell who played Claire McLeod, the older McLeod daughter, left the show in October 2003 to further her acting and singing career. Her character was killed off in the landmark episode 72, 'My Noon, My Midnight'. The popularity of the program in Australia was highlighted when the show won four Logies, including Lisa Chappell winning most popular female actor, Aaron Jeffrey most popular actor and most popular Australian drama series. The show then began to decline in popularity and perceived quality. Cast turn-over was high, and increasingly far-fetched explanations were employed to explain the sudden departure of formerly important characters. Rachael Carpani's departure in 2007 meant that the show had only one original cast member left, Aaron Jeffery, who in turn left in 2008, leaving no original cast members. 2007 marked the time in which many viewers considered the show to have "jumped the shark", as the show had drifted into a new direction, that of a soap-opera (which was also reflected in the low ratings). Aaron Jeffrey's commented to The Daily Telegraph that his desire to departure from the show was due to the new direction which the show was moving in, and he did not like it. The 200th episode of McLeod's Daughters aired on 3 October 2007, with Hugh McLeod returning for this special event (Grace, Jasmine & Regan's father) - an entirely different script was written previously when one of the original cast (speculated to be Bridie Carter) agreed to come back; however it was pulled out at the last minute (from Posie Graeme-Evans blog). Ratings for this episode were very poor by Australian standards, with only 1,008,000 viewers tuning in. The final and eighth season began on 23 July 2008 with the episode 203, "Aftermath". The show aired its last episode on the 31st of January 2009 with poor ratings.[citation needed] [edit] CastMain article: List of characters from McLeod's Daughters [edit] Main
[edit] Recurring cast members
[edit] Locations[edit] DroversMain article: Drovers (Fictional Farm)
[edit] Gungellan Locations in Gungellan:
[edit] Ratings, rank and fans ranks
[edit] Home Video
[edit] VHS
[edit] DVDSony Pictures released all 8 series of McLeod's Daughters on DVD in Region 4 between 2003 - 2008. As of May 5 2008 E1 Entertainment formely known as Koch Vision has released all seasons on dvd. [edit] MerchandiseMain article: McLeod's Daughters (Merchandise) Main article: McLeod's Daughters - The Complete Seventh Series Main article: McLeod's Daughters: The Complete Sixth Series [edit] Music From McLeod's DaughtersMain article: Music From McLeod's Daughters
[edit] Awards[edit] Logie AwardsMain article: McLeod's Daughters awards McLeod's Daughters has been nominated for, and won, numerous Logie awards including Lisa Chappell who won "Most Popular new Female talent" in 2002 and Aaron Jeffery who was awarded "Most popular Actor" in 2004. McLeod's Daughters is nominated for two awards in 2008 including" Most Popular Australian Drama" and Simmone Jade Mackinnon who is nominated for most popular actress. [edit] Broadcast
[edit] See also[edit] References[edit] External links
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