According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian TV Series, c/o The Bartons was based on a sixteen-minute student film written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse while she was studying at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
Says Moran, 'Entitled The Siege of the Bartons' Bathroom, the film was in effect a kind of pilot for the series and became the basis of the first episode'. Moorhouse also contributed nearly half the scripts for the series. To quote Moran, 'The various episodes both comic and serious dealt with their family life and that of their community'.