Offspring bathtub ….the first cut was racier

An Offspring promo that has drawn viewer complaints was drawn from what was originally a much racier scene.

The original sequence of Asher Keddie fantasising while taking a bubble bath alluded to a lot more than what ended up in the episode, according to producer Imogen Banks, but TEN asked for changes.

“The much promoted bath scene had a lot of debate about ‘How far was too far?'” she tells TV Tonight.

“In the first cut it looked like she was seriously having a go.”

Banks, who produces both Offspring and Tangle with John Edwards, says she has considerable freedom from TEN but such discussions are par for the course between producers and networks.

“Sometimes there’s debate about what note we finish on in an episode and that’s been a bit of an ongoing debate and I think we’ll continue to have that. But I think it’s quite constructive,” she explains.

“It’s usually about really strange and really specific things in an edit.

“It’s been more about things like episode three when there’s suddenly quite a lot of nudity, and nudity is not something that we really done. Suddenly you’ve got these full tits and stuff. There was a lot of debate about how about what level of nudity was appropriate for Offspring.”

Banks and Edwards deal directly with Drama Execs Rick Maier and Claire Tonkin, who in turn deal with David Mott and Beverley McGarvey in Programming. In the lead up to the second series, the network had discussions about key characters and relationships.

“There were lots of conversations about what to do with Nina. In some ways there were two conversations, one about her professional life and one about her love life,” says Banks.

“They certainly have opinions and there are things that they like and there’s debate, but they don’t tend to prescribe storylines or anything or, so we’ve got quite a lot of freedom.

“But they are not prescriptive. They don’t say ‘You have to do this’ or ‘Can you please do this?’

“We tend to talk about what we thought was successful about the series and where we thought things failed or where we thought we could improve, or what relationships worked.”

Producers will also look back on a series and pinpoint lost opportunities that might have delivered new storylines.

“You see a lot of opportunity when you watch it and you think ‘Shit, we missed that’ or ‘Wouldn’t you love to see more of that?’ So we talk all that through and then you start thinking about the character arcs for a series.”

“But they are certainly not dictatorial, it’s pretty collaborative. I think they’ve got their eye on different things to us. And so occasionally they’ll sort of say ‘Listen you need to keep an eye on that’ or ‘You’ve got to be aware that you’re beginning to fall into this pattern or shape with the episodes and we’re not that in love with that.'”

In the case of the bathtub promo, it was the network that cut the ad. But in the cycle of production the network looks at the scenes and episode as cut by the Producers.

“We have a director’s cut and then John (Edwards) and I look at it and we have a producer’s cut and we give our notes and then the network come in. It all happens really quickly so it’s good having those fresh sets of eyes in there,” she says.

Not every character fits neatly into the story, and not every character is available to writers. This season Producers had to work around the limited availability of Don Hany, who was so prominent in the first season, but has relocated to the US. Banks won’t reveal specifics about how much of Hany viewers will see this season, but admits it presented new challenges. 

“I think that when you go into plotting the second series of a television show, in some ways it’s kind of great to have restrictions. It makes you dig deep and it makes you come up with other things. And also because obviously you go into a room and everything’s open so you can go anywhere,” she says.

“All I can say about Don is that we’re really happy with what we’ve plotted, and we think the season is fantastic for Nina. She hasn’t seen the last of him.

“But certain characters are also isolated and so it’s always a challenge to weave them back in, and then you try and have conversations with the network about what you’re thinking. So it’s quite organic. I try not to be too structured about it, there’s a certain sort of chaotic element that I like, to keep them a bit light.”

Offspring, which was renewed for a third season yesterday, pulled competitive numbers this week and was second in its slot on 954,000 viewers. It has helped solidify Asher Keddie’s star status and brought wider attention to the musical skills of Eddie Perfect (Banks confirms there will be a second Offspring album). This season also puts Perfect’s character under the spotlight with on-screen partner, Kat Stewart as Billie, which Banks notes as one of the show’s strongest pairings.

“I think we’ve mined some quite bizarre relationship combinations in this season which have been really fun. We’ve managed to find ways to have them interact that are new and fresh. Billie and Mick’s storyline is really strong, and there are lots of surprises in that and lots joy and pain. They really ride the extremes in this series, and they are pushed to the brink many times,” she says.

Offspring airs 8:30pm Mondays on TEN.