person or book cover
Script cover page (Crawford Collection at the AFI Research Collection)
form y separately published work icon Son of Bluey single work   film/TV   crime  
Note: The cover page reads 'Vince Moran with Tom Hegarty.'
Issue Details: First known date: 1976... 1976 Son of Bluey
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

A crossover episode between Bluey and Homicide: in the wake of Bluey's (ultimately non-fatal) shooting, the Russell Street homicide department get involved, in the form of Don Barker (Det. Sgt. Harry White).


'Tip-offs are usually welcomed by police, but Bluey is far from happy when an anonymous note tells the authorities who killed Noel Allan Cornish. However, even Bluey couldn't possibly foresee the disaster that would follow in the wake of such information. Department B is rocked to its very foundation.

'Much against his better judgement, Bluey becomes involved in checking out the tip .. and he pays the absolute penalty.

'With Bluey out of the way, Monica finds running the Department, keeping Gary in check and handling the Assistant Commissioner is more than she can cope with. Not even Truscott's help is assistance enough to forestall the day of reckoning looming for Department B.

'Gary, with no restraining hand over him, all but runs amok. In the best Bluey traditions, he tosses away the book and goes in boots and all. His rough, tough approach to the investigation stamps him a worthy "Son of Bluey".'

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):

'JENNY: IN HER EARLY TWENTIES, JENNY LIVES UP TO TRUSCOTT'S ASSESSMENT OF HER - "A SEXY YOUNG BIT". BUT IN REGARDS SEX, SHE'S MORE LANDROVER THAN ROLLS ROYCE - HANDLES THE GOING BEST WHEN THINGS ARE A BIT ROUGH. MORE YOUR R THAN RR. SHE'S A FUN KID WHEN SHE'S IN THE MOOD FOR FUN. SHE'S A WILDCAT WHEN IT COMES TO A FIGHT.

'JOEY RAVEN: ABOUT THE SAME AGE AS JENNY, JOEY HAS LIVED ON THE FRINGE OF THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT MOST OF HIS LIFE. BUT THAT'S THE STORY OF HIS LIFE ... ALWAYS ON THE FRINGE. HE'S NEVER COME TO TERMS WITH WOMEN - PARTICULARLY JENNY. HE'S USUALLY AS EMBARRASSED AS HELL IN HER PRESENCE BUT HE ENJOYS BEING THERE. HE HAS A SOFT SPOT FOR DOUG, TOO - A SILENT "FRINGE" MATESHIP OF A KIND BUILT UP OVER THE YEARS WITH JOEY VERY MUCH THE SECOND STRING.

CAR DRIVING REQUIRED.

'DOUG STEWART DOUG, IN HIS THIRTIES, IS A BIT OF A MYSTERY MAN. IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL WHETHER HIS RETICENCE IS THE RESULT OF CAUTION (PERHAPS HE HAS SOMETHING TO HIDE) OR WHETHER IT IS SIMPLY PART OF HIS MAKE-UP. HE HAS A LONG CRIMINAL RECORD DUE MAINLY TO A LACK OF SELF-CONTROL IN A CRISIS. WHEN HE DOES HIS BLOCK HIS FISTS FLY BLINDLY - NO DIFFERENCE WHETHER IT'S A MAN OR A WOMAN ON THE RECEIVING END. BUT WHEN HE'S DOWN EMOTIONALLY, HE'S RIGHT DOWN. HE'S A VICTIM OF DEEP-SEATED INSECURITY AND DOUBTS.

'RHODA LEWIS: ABOUT THE SAME AGE AS DOUG, RHODA WAS HIS DE FACTO FOR MANY YEARS .. AND SHE'S MUCH MORE DOUG'S STYLE AND SPEED THAN JENNY IS. SHE WANTS TO RE-ESTABLISH THEIR EARLIER RELATIONSHIP AT ALL COSTS. WHETHER IT'S DOUG SHE WANTS OR WHETHER IT'S THE KEY DOUG MIGHT HOLD, WE DON'T KNOW.

'MATRON: A LITTLE YOUNGER THAN BLUEY ... BUT SHE'S A MATCH FOR HIM. WHAT SHE MAY LOSE TO HIM IN YEARS OF EXPERIENCE SHE MORE THAN COMPENSATES FOR THROUGH HER POSITION OF AUTHORITY AND THE SECURITY OF HER RELIGIOUS HABIT.

'SERGEANT TAYLOR: A SERGEANT IN THE HOMICIDE SQUAD - A SUBORDINATE IN ALL WAYS TO INSPECTOR FERRIS.

'NURSE: YOUNG AND PRETTY, WITH A BOTTOM JUST THE RIGHT SIZE FOR BLUEY TO GET HIS HANDS AROUND.

'SISTER: EFFICIENT, WITH THE AUTHORITY YOU WOULD EXPECT TO FIND IN ONE HOLDING SUCH A POSITION. SHE READILY CO-OPERATES WITH ALL HIGHER AUTHORITY - PARTICULARLY THE POLICE.

'DOCTOR: A YOUNG RESIDENT MEDICAL OFFICER OF SOME THREE OR FOUR YEARS STANDING.

'ORDERLY: A HOSPITAL ORDERLY.

'POLICE PHOTOGRAPHER.'

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: 59p.
      (Manuscript) assertion
      Note/s:
      • The script is labelled on the cover page 'Code 11514' and 'episode No. 31', although it was produced as episode thirty nine. There is no indication on the cover page of to whom this copy of the script was designated.
      • Unlike most other Bluey scripts in the Crawford Collection, this is not an original script: it is a copy printed on yellow paper.
      • There are no signs of annotation on this copy of the script.

      Holdings

      Held at: AFI Research Collection
      Local Id: SC BLU : 39
    • Melbourne, Victoria,: Crawford Productions , 1977 .
      Extent: 47 min. 33 secs (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: 39
Last amended 4 Apr 2013 15:48:53
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