Winners & Losers launch
The stars of Winners and Losers assembled at University High School in Parkville last night for the network launch of the new drama series.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
The stars of Winners and Losers assembled at University High School in Parkville last night, site of the show’s school reunion for the network launch of the new drama series.
Today Tonight‘s Matt White hosted the event before media, Melbourne’s MKR contestants, network execs including Angus Ross, Lewis Martin and Graeme Hill plus creator Bevan Lee and Seven’s Head of Drama, John Holmes -both of whom have driven the network’s in-house drama slate for several years.
Holmes said the show comes from a very strong pedigree.
“I want to personally thank Bevan Lee for his continued support and his amazing mind that brings these ridiculous ideas up,” he said.
“Bevan was the creative talent behind All Saints, Always Greener and the iconic Packed to the Rafters which is doing pretty well at the moment.
“The show is produced by the scary, but brilliant MaryAnne Caroll who joined the network several years ago to reinvigorate All Saints. She did that very successfully, and then set up and ran City Homicide and attained strong figures there and now moves onto Winners and Losers.
“The four girls, Virginia, Melanie, Zoe and Melissa are playing characters which we hope will become as well known as Dave and Julie Rafter in coming months.
“Promos indicate it comes from the makers of Packed to the Rafters, and yes it is. But Winners and Losers is its own show. We’re very proud of it and we love it and we hope you do too.”
The show will shortly take the place of Rafters which returns later in the year.
20 Responses
Hah. I saw them at my school last year.
Thankyou for answering my Question David.
Can I also say I adore TV Tonight & never miss a day.
Cheers Robbie!
@adam – from reports on other sites the next batch of Rafters eps will be Season 5 but this could be speculation as who is going to pay $30-$40 for 6 eps of Rafters on DVD?
I’m still wondering what will they do if W&L flops, will the Rafters return sooner or are Seven planing to keep W&L going for 3 months no matter what?
This looks like a fun show, can’t wait!
They have been banging on about this show since last year … it has a lot of expectations to live up to!
Nothing I have seen of it so far has been appealing to me …
@bec, did you read the article?
Thanks, guys. I honestly cannot remember that show, just did not make it onto my radar at all.
Why are Seven being so secretive about an airdate on this? Whennnnnnnnnnn???
Always Greener ran for two seasons (about 50 episodes I think) on Seven around 2002 and 2003. It starred John Howard and Anne Tenney. It was nominated for an International Emmy in 2002 as Best International Drama.
Andrew the ABC series was called Simone De Beauvoir’s babies.
@Andrew, are you thinking of Out of the Blue?
What’s Always Greener? I’ve never heard of it. Was that a Channel 7 drama?
Yes. Always Greener
Re how many Rafters Seven has on the shelf, I would suspect none. Given that they only make 22 per year and all 22 eps of Season 3 played in the second half of last year, I would imagine it highly likely they’ve shown everything they’ve got ready by the time they suspend it next Tuesday. That would make sense of the move of taking it off. You can’t show a programme that you haven’t finished yet. They’ve shown six of the 22 eps of Season 4, meaning that the remaining 16 would play at the end of the year in the same way all of Season 3 did last year. Hot housing six episodes through to be ready to air, as these were, would also seem to make sense. Use the six episodes as a perfect promotions base to launch their new show. It’s not like this move is going to deprive the viewer of anything. However it is shown, 6 now plus 16 later or 22 straight, the Rafters viewers will still see 22 episodes of Season 4 in 2011.
Hi David,
Can I ask why is MaryAnne caroll scary???????
Scary in her level of talent perhaps? Not sure, you will have to ask John Holmes, I think it was a light remark. She is highly regarded / respected and only ever been complimentary to me and this site so I wouldn’t read too much into it.
Why was Sally Chatfield there? is she in the show?
wasn’t there a mini-series on ABC a few years ago about a group of four women who meet up again at a school reunion?
I’ll definitely have a look at this show when it airs…judging by the promos it looks good!!
Like any (most) projects I hope this does well but it seems weird they would use it to replace the Rafters, while I don’t want Parenthood removed wouldn’t it have been better to run this show after Rafters and use its huge ratings as a lead in for the new show?
I fear this will backfire, won’t rate and Parenthood will suffer as a result.
And not to be too much off topic but do we know how many more Rafters eps they have in the can and ready to air if W&L fails?