person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Changeling single work   film/TV   crime  
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 Changeling
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Bluey's soft spot for women causes him great unhappiness when his attraction to a single mother starts him on an investigation he cannot stop even though he would like to.

'In the course of helping Monica sort out a juvenile's problems, Bluey meets an attractive woman whom he senses is in some sort of trouble. It is apparent that the woman has not reported a crime and is afraid of the police.

'Bluey sets out to help her, but his investigations unfold an 8-year old [sic] crime that cannot be forgotten. Or can it?

'A decision has to be reached on Bluey's part. Can he destroy the happiness of mother and daughter by turning his investigations into an official enquiry, or can he turn a blind eye?'

Source: Synopsis held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection (RMIT).


The script held in the Crawford Collection in the AFI Research Collection contains the following character notes (excluding regular characters):

'SHIRLEY WATSON: LATE TWENTIES AND APPEALING RATHER THAN BEAUTIFUL. GIVEN NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES SHE WOULD HAVE MARRIED IN HER EARLY TWENTIES AND SETTLED DOWN TO HAVE CHILDREN AND LOOK AFTER A HUSBAND. HER KIDNAPPING OF RHONDA ALMOST EIGHT YEARS AGO WAS BROUGHT ON BY THE BREAK UP IN HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER LOVER WHICH RESULTED FROM A MEDICALLY ADVISED ABORTION. IT WAS A TEMPORARY LAPSE BUT SHE HAS FOUND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO REVERSE THE CONSEQUENCES.

'RHONDA: EIGHT YEARS OLD AND THE CHANGELING SUBSTITUTED FOR SHIRLEY'S LOST BABY. (WHEN CASTING, WOULD BE IDEAL IF SHE HAD A BROTHER AND SISTER A BIT OLDER FOR A STILL REQUIRED IN THE SCRIPT).

'HOWARD ANDERSON: LATE THIRTIES. A SELF EMPLOYED BUSINESS MAN LIVING SLIGHTLY ABOVE HIS ADEQUATE NEEDS.

'JEAN ANDERSON: RHONDA'S REAL MOTHER. SHE SUFFERED SEVERE MENTAL ANGUISH WHEN HER DAUGHTER WAS KIDNAPPED AND HAS BEEN FAIRLY MOUSEY UNDER HER HUSBAND'S THUMB EVER SINCE. THE THOUGHT OF LOSING HER DAUGHTER FOR A SECOND TIME RESTORES SOME OF HER ORIGINAL PERSONALITY.

'PEGGY BROWNING: FORTIES AND MARRIED TO A PETTY CRIM SHE HARDLY EVER SEES. SHE'S TRIED TO BRING UP HER SON TO BE SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE EXPECTED CRIM BUT SHE HAS NEITHER THE EXPERIENCE, THE PERSONALITY NOR THE INTELLIGENCE TO EXERT MUCH INFLUENCE.

'ROBBIE: HER 16 YEAR OLD DELINQUENT SON.

'SERGEANT HENNESSY: A LOCAL PLAIN CLOTHES COP SENT TO ARREST ROBBIE.

'FLOSSIE: THIRTIES. REASONABLY JOLLY. RUNS THE "FLOSSIE'S" CLUB AND KNEW BLUEY IN THE PAST.

'PETE: ANOTHER 16 YEAR OLD DELINQUENT.

'FRED: AND ANOTHER.

'UNIFORMED COPS 1, 2 & 3

'TAXI DRIVER (ACTUAL) 1 & 2

'V.K.C. (V.O.)

'EXTRAS IN THE CLUB'.

Notes

  • This entry has been compiled from archival research in the Crawford Collection (AFI Research Collection), undertaken by Dr Catriona Mills under the auspices of the 2012 AFI Research Collection (AFIRC) Research Fellowship.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

      1976 .
      person or book cover
      Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
      Extent: 67p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is typed on thin white paper, labelled 'Code 11534' and 'Episode No. 28' on the cover page, although it was produced as episode twenty six. There is no indication of to whom this copy of the script is designated.
      • The script is amended throughout in liquid paper, which has then been typed over. The amendments are relatively minor (at a copy-editing level, reflecting minor changes to dialogue or stage directions): for example, on page 8, the stage direction 'A TAXI' has been altered to 'TAXI #2'.
      • The file includes two pages of amendments, in the form of memos sent from Denise Morgan, and signed by Morgan. The changes are relatively minor: memo one covers one short scene with only two lines of dialogue, while memo two covers seven individual amendments, most of them the alteration of a single word in a line.
      • The alterations that Denise Morgan notes in her memos have not been made, so this copy of the script seemingly reflects stage two of an editing process: the script is typed, is read over and alterations made to obvious typing errors, and then it’s sent to the script editor, who sends it back with any amendments.
      • The file for this script also includes a cast list, access to which is restricted.
      • The Crawford Collection holds two copies of this script, filed separately.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 26
      Note:
      AFI Research Collection record
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1977 .
      Extent: 47 min. 1 sec. (according to the script)p.
      Series: form y separately published work icon Bluey Robert Caswell , Vince Moran , Everett de Roche , James Wulf Simmonds , Tom Hegarty , Gwenda Marsh , Colin Eggleston , David Stevens , Peter A. Kinloch , Keith Thompson , Gregory Scott , Peter Schreck , Denise Morgan , Monte Miller , Ian Jones , John Drew , David William Boutland , Jock Blair , Melbourne : Crawford Productions Seven Network , 1976 Z1815063 1976 series - publisher film/TV crime detective

      According to Moran, in his Guide to Australian Television Series, Bluey (and its Sydney-based rival, King's Men) 'constituted an attempt to revive the police genre after the cancellations of Homicide, Division 4 and Matlock Police'.

      Don Storey, in his Classic Australian Television, summarises the program as follows:

      Bluey is a maverick cop who breaks every stereotype image. He drinks, smokes and eats to excess, and therefore is rather large, but it is his unusual investigative methods that set him apart. He has bent or broken every rule in the book at some stage, to the point where no-one else wants to work with him. But he gets results, and is therefore too valuable to lose, so the powers-that-be banish him to the basement of Russell Street Police Headquarters where he is set up in his own department, a strategem that keeps him out of the way of other cops.

      Moran adds that 'Grills, Diedrich and Nicholson turned in solid performances in the series and the different episodes were generally well paced, providing engaging and satisfying entertainment.'

      The program sold well overseas, especially in the United Kingdom. But though it rated well domestically, it was not the success that the Seven Network had hoped for, and was cancelled after 39 episodes.

      Bluey had an unexpected revival in the early 1990s when selections from the video footage (over-dubbed with a new vocal track) were presented during the second series of the ABC comedy The Late Show as the fictional police procedural Bargearse. (The Late Show had given ABC gold-rush drama Rush the same treatment in series one.)

             Number in series: 26
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Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:41:00
Gary Conway
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