
Tony Morphett
Writing
Biography
Anthony David Morphett (10 March 1938 – 2 June 2018), known under the professional pen name Tony Morphett, was an Australian screenwriter, who created or co-created many Australian television series, including Dynasty, Certain Women, Sky Trackers, Blue Heelers, Water Rats, Above the Law and Rain Shadow. Morphett wrote or co-wrote seven feature films, ten telemovies, twelve mini-series, and hundreds of episodes of television drama, as well as devising or co-devising seven TV series.
Known For

The Sullivans is an Australian drama television series produced by Crawford Productions which ran on the Nine Network from 1976 until 1983. The series told the story of an average middle-class Melbourne family and the effect World War II had on their lives. It was a consistent ratings success in Australia, and also became popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Gibraltar and New Zealand.
The Sullivans

Blue Heelers was one of Australia's longest running weekly television drama series. Blue Heelers is a police drama series set in the fictional country town of Mount Thomas. Under the watchful eye of Tom Croydon (John Wood), the men and women of Mount Thomas Police Station fight crime, resolve disputes and tackle the social issues of the day. We watch their successes and their failures and learn to grow with them and their loved ones as the heart of the series develops.
Blue Heelers

The Flying Doctors is an Australian drama series produced by Crawford Productions that revolved around the everyday lifesaving efforts of the real Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia. It was initially a 1985 mini-series based in the fictional outback town of Cooper's Crossing starring Andrew McFarlane as the newly arrived Dr. Tom Callaghan. The success of the mini series led to its return the following year as an on-going series with McFarlane being joined by a new doctor, Chris Randall, played by Liz Burch. McFarlane left during the first season and actor Robert Grubb came in as new doctor Geoff Standish. The series' episodes were mostly self-contained but also featured ongoing storylines, such as Dr. Standish's romance with Sister Kate Wellings. Other major characters included pilot Sam Patterson, mechanic Emma Plimpton, local policeman Sgt. Jack Carruthers and Vic and Nancy Buckley, who ran the local pub/hotel, The Majestic. Andrew McFarlane also later returned to the series, resuming his role as Dr. Callaghan. The popular series ran for nine seasons and was successfully screened internationally.
The Flying Doctors

Water Rats is an Australian TV police procedural broadcast on the Nine Network from 1996 to 2001.
Water Rats

A Country Practice was an Australian television drama series. At its inception, one of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, who had wrote the pilot episode and entered a script contest for the network in 1979, coming third and winning a merit award. It ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping, Sydney. After its lengthy run on the seven network it was picked up by network ten with a mainly new cast from April to November 1994 for 30 episodes, although the ten series was not as successful as its predecessor . The Channel Seven series was also filmed on location in Pitt Town, while, the Channel Ten series was filmed on location in Emerald, Victoria.
A Country Practice

The ins and outs of the classroom lives of a group of students who attend the fictional Hartley High School in Sydney.
Heartbreak High

The Man from Snowy River is an Australian television series based on Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River". Released in Australia as Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River, the series was subsequently released in both the United States and the United Kingdom as Snowy River: The McGregor Saga. The television series has no relationship to the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River or the 1988 sequel The Man from Snowy River II. Instead, the series follows the adventures of Matt McGregor, a successful squatter, and his family. Matt is the hero immortalized in Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River", and the series is set 25 years after his famous ride.
The Man from Snowy River

Sea Patrol is an Australian television drama set on board HMAS Hammersley, a fictional patrol boat of the Royal Australian Navy. The series focuses on the ship and the lives of its crew members.
Sea Patrol

Headland is an Australian drama television series produced by the Seven Network which ran from 15 November 2005 to 21 January 2006. The Seven Network filmed 52 episodes in the first series. Production on the second series had begun before any episodes were aired. Set in a university, Headland premiered in Australia on Tuesday, 15 November 2005 at 7.30pm. On 23 January 2006, the Seven Network officially announced that the series has been cancelled. The show aired on weekdays at 7.30pm in the United Kingdom on E4, re-formatted as half-hour episodes. E4 eventually dropped the show but episodes continued to be broadcast on Channel 4 at 12:30pm, this time in the original hour-long format.
headLand

Stingers brings to light the life and work of an undercover police unit located in Melbourne. This dangerous work requires complete dedication, one slip can cost an operative their life.
Stingers

MDA is an Australian television series that aired between 2002 and 2005 on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It concerned the day-to-day operation of legal firm MDA, which specialised in medical defence.
MDA

The Evil Touch is an Australian-produced television series, originally broadcast in Australia in 1973. It was an anthology series where each episode had a self-contained story and a new set of characters. Each episode feature a new cast of guest actors, although several guest stars appeared in more than one episode, playing different characters. Each story is a thriller or horror story of some variety, ranging from tales of the occult and the supernatural, science fiction horror stories, to more standard murder schemes and whodunits. Most stories feature a twist ending.
The Evil Touch

Against the Wind was a 1978 Australian television mini-series. It is a historical drama portraying both the British rule of Ireland, and the development of New South Wales and Australia. The producers were Bronwyn Binns, Ian Jones and Henry Crawford. The directors were George T. Miller and Simon Wincer. The scriptwriters were Bronwyn Binns, Ian Jones, Peter Kinlock, Tony Morphett, Paul Davies and Cliff Green. Jon English won the Logie Award in 1979 for "Best new talent" for his role in the miniseries as "Jonathan Garrett". The complete series is now available on DVD in Australia, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands in PAL format. It is also available in North American format.
Against the Wind

This classic Australian mini series was originally broadcast in 1989 as three 90 minute episodes and tells the story of a young woman who goes in search of the father she has never known. Her search takes her from Australia to England and then on to Bangkok. There she meets up with a charming young man, Arkie Regan, who plants drugs in her luggage and leaves her to her fate when the authorities find them during a routine search at the airport. Following her imprisonment in the notorious Bangkok Hilton prison she awaits the decision of the authorities on whether she should face the death penalty.
Bangkok Hilton

Boney is an Australian television series produced by Fauna Productions during 1971 and 1972, featuring James Laurenson in the title role of Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte. Two series, each of thirteen episodes were filmed. The series is centred on Bonaparte, a half-Australian Aboriginal character, created by Arthur Upfield, who wrote twenty nine novels about him from 1929 until his death in 1964.
Boney

Sky Trackers was a television series created by Jeff Peck and Tony Morphett, and produced by Patricia Edgar and Margot McDonald for the Australian Children's Television Foundation. The series was a winner of various Television Awards. The pilot was produced by Anthony Buckley.
Sky Trackers

Macauley is a swagman on the road in the 1940s looking for work. He's a laid back, laconic sort of bloke but when he gets landed with his daughter after his drunken play-girl wife in Adelaide makes him face up to what she believes are his responsibilities, neither he nor his daughter are ready for each other. But in the beginning he's all she's got, and at the end, she's all he's got.
The Shiralee

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.
The Last Wave

The life of an Irish immigrant family in Australia in the second half of the 19th century. Based on a 1959 book of history by Dame Mary Durack.
Kings in Grass Castles
Dynasty is a 1970 Australian TV series based on a novel by Tony Morphett.