Cirrus@Austlit

Television script-writer and producer.

Rick Maier's earliest work for television was a script (episode 245) for long-running prison drama Prisoner (1981). He followed this with odd episodes for such programs as Bellamy (1981), Sons and Daughters (1982), Waterloo Station (1983), The Young Doctors (1983), Professor Poopsnagle's Steam Zeppelin (1986), and Prime Time (1986).

In 1986, he joined the writing staff of long-running soap opera Neighbours, for which he wrote at least seventeen episodes between 1986 and 1988. He followed this stint with scripts in 1989 for medical drama G.P. and American-produced Mission: Impossible, made in Australia with a number of Australian crew members.

In the 1990s, Maier scripted several telemovies: The Rogue Stallion (1990), co-written with Ysabelle Dean and directed by Henri Safran; Pirates Island (1991), based on a story by Ysabelle Dean and Wayne Doyle, and directed by Viktors Ritelis (not to be confused with the similarly named Jonathan M. Shiff Productions television series); and Cody: Fall from Grace (1996), co-written with Christopher Lee and directed by Peter Fisk.

Interspersed with these telemovies were scripts for such television programs as Lift Off (1992-1996), Deepwater Haven (1993), Sky Trackers (1994), Correlli (1995), Sweat (1996), Police Rescue (1995-1996), Fallen Angels (1997), Big Sky (1997), Murder Call (1997-1999), Mirror, Mirror II (1997-1998), and Driven Crazy (1998).

Since 2000, Maier, while continuing to work extensively in television, has shifted to a production rather than a script-writing role.

The telemovies on which he has been listed as executive producer include My Husband My Killer (2001), Heroes' Mountain (2002), A Model Daughter: The Killing of Caroline Byrne (2009), Hawke (2010), and Underground: The Julian Assange Story (2012).

The television series on which he has been listed as executive producer include Sit Down, Shut Up (2000), Wild Kat (2001), Mark Loves Sharon (2008), Good News Week (2008), Neighbours (2008-2010), Rush (2008-2011), Bondi Vet (2009), Offspring (2010-2012), Masterchef Australia (2011), Reef Doctors (2012), Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms (2012), and Puberty Blues (2012).