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THE POWER, THE PASSION |
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- 1989 - 168 x 30 minute episodes - produced by ATN7 Sydney for the Seven Network - |
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The Power, The Passion is the only Australian drama since 1975 that
was specifically produced for screening during the day. The series was part of an attempt
by Channel Seven to break Channel Nine’s monopoly on daytime audiences; Seven
devised The Bert Newton Show to compete with Nine’s The Ray Martin Show, while The Power, The Passion attempted to counter Nine’s US soaps Days of our Lives and The Young and the
Restless. The Power, The Passion began on-air in March 1989. Previous
Daytime Dramas
There had actually
been four previous daytime serials in Australia. Like this one all were on
Channel Seven, all but one was produced in-house by Seven, and all were
relatively short-lived. Autumn
Affair (1958) was Australia’s first
ever television soap opera and it was shown at 9.00 a.m. each weekday
morning. The show had a small cast of six regular characters and the
storyline concentrated on a romantic triangle involving a woman and two men.
Like radio serials the show did not involve multiple perspectives; it
remained focused on a single character, played by Muriel Steinbeck, and like
its radio counterparts each episode of the show was fifteen minutes in
length. Autumn Affair featured the absolute minimum of sets or
camera movements but a lot of talk, and employed such economic measures as
having the main characters engage in telephone conversations where major plot
points would be revealed but the character on the other end of the phone
remained unseen. Not a big success the show lasted 156 episodes. Likewise The Story of Peter Grey (1961) was basically a radio-style serial
taped for television. The show featured just four main characters who did a
lot of talking and little else on the show’s two sets. James Condon had a
leading role as a clergyman in the series that lasted for 164 fifteen-minute
episodes. Among the other cast members were Thelma Scott and Lynne Murphy,
later to end up in Number 96. Meanwhile Motel
(1968) was a Crossroads-style serial set in a motel on the highway between Sydney and
Canberra and featured such actors as Bruce Barry, Ross Higgins, Harold
Hopkins, Brenda Senders, Brian James, Jack Thompson, Stuart Finch, Noel Trevarthen and Jill Forster. They played the owners of
the motel, the members of their extended family, motel workers and others in
the district, while the proximity to Canberra allowed the occasional
politician guest and political intrigue. This ambitious effort had a cast of
thirteen regulars and required three days in the studio each week. Each
episode was thirty minutes and the show screened at midday four days a week
with the episode repeated late at night. The show departed from the earlier,
radio-soap formula by featuring the more modern format of multiple characters
and narratives in an interwoven series of on-going storylines, but remained
talky nonetheless. The black-and-white series lasted 132 episodes. Finally Until Tomorrow (1975) was produced by The Reg Grundy Organisation and was
a copy of the prolific US daytime soaps. Five half-hour episodes, generally
consisting of much talk and little action, were screened each week. The show
was produced in colour and taped in Brisbane and it
lasted 180 episodes. Overview of
The Power,
The Passion
The show was much
like a small-scale version of US series Dynasty. The
story concerns three sisters; glamorous bitch Anna Wright (Susie Cato),
neurotic psychiatrist Catherine Byrne (Tracey Tainish)
and the
middle-class Ellen Edwards (Olivia Hamnett). Former
Carson’s Law star Kevin Miles took the leading role of
their widower father, international businessman Gordon Byrne, who has a
troubled relationship with his daughters. The cast included a
few familiar faces including Julian McMahon and George Mallaby,
along with former Sons and Daughters actors Ian Rawlings and Danny Roberts. Meanwhile Ross Thompson who
previously played the dull Robert Carson in Carson’s Law
was the sly and all-knowing head waiter of Gordon’s club. Also on hand was
Jane Clifton - well known for her singing exploits and for playing Margo
Gaffney in Prisoner - as aggressive newspaper journalist Carla
Graham. At the time Clifton told Melbourne’s The Sun
newspaper that the role was “a great chance for me to bury Margo. Carla is a
larger-than-life character who would kill for a story - if she wanted a story
from a doctor she would pose as a patient.” [1] Unfortunately The Power, The Passion was greeted with a resounding lack of interest while there was
continued interest in the defunct Prisoner. Margo lived on and Prisoner’s cult international success continued unabated, while The Power, The Passion would be cancelled within the year. Kevin Miles made a
hasty exit from the series after just three months on air: his character
Gordon was killed off leaving the remaining characters to squabble over his estate. The show
continued awhile, but low-ratings eventually led to its demise after about
eight months. A total of 168 half-hour episodes had been produced. Basically the series
emphasised
bitchiness, secrets and intrigue. The show looked bright and airy, in
contrast to the generally sumptuous but gloomy interiors favoured by US
daytime dramas, and though it boasted a fairly good technical standard and an excellent
cast, the show’s outrageous plots failed to excite viewers. |
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Originally uploaded October 2000 Last updated 13 July 2008 |
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