At the Nine network season launch in 2012, then CEO David Gyngell announced the station was planning to remake the internationally successful Australian TV mini-series, 'Return To Eden'. "Eden" was the name of the waterfront home of one of TV's wealthiest characters, Stephanie Harper, a magnate who ran the vast Harper Mining empire as well as the fashion house, Tara's. However in early 2013, channel Nine decided not to proceed with the project due to costs.
The 1986 world-wide success of the glossy adult-oriented TV melodrama had a budget of $8 million, the most expensive weekly series produced in Australia. The 6-hour 1983 mini-series was a $3 million Hanna Barbera Australia and McElroy & McElroy production. 'Return To Eden' was also shown in the U.S. in September 1984 in the cities of Portland in Oregon, Salt Lake City in Utah and San Francisco and reportedly "won its ratings time slot in all three cities."
Prior to the Australian screening of the weekly series, 'Return To Eden' was pre-sold to Britain and gone to air in September 1985 in some 30 major U.S. cities. Over $2 million of the $8 million budget were spent on the lavish ten different sets created by designer Larry Eastwood, along with the imported cars and designer clothes. Producer Hal McElroy reminded, "We didn't set out to make 'Dynasty' or 'Dallas' per se. We could never emulate them, because they spend $1 million an hour - four or five times more than we have to spend."
The series picked up the storyline seven years after the mini-series ended. Producer Tim Sanders added, "Ours is a totally original idea that developed here locally. The only similarities that one would draw are the common denominators of wealth, glamor, power, big business – the ones that are implicit to the story. When we set this up it was a new series, not as just a sequel to the mini-series.
"It was very much planned in its own right and we consider it to be unique because it didn't follow any previous patterns of other series here. Where the others (including 'Sons and Daughters') shoot two hours a week on their budgets, we were inclined to shoot 30 minutes a week. Elements like music, with the whole show originally scored by Brian May and the wardrobe and sets all had priority and we spent a lot of money on them. We bought our own luxury cars so we didn't have taxi arrivals or obvious hire cars … The whole thing was conceptually geared to produce what audiences would expect from a world such as this. It will stand on its own as a high quality series in Australia."
'Return To Eden' ended its final episode with a cliffhanger, provoking an outcry. As such, three stars on the show had to be called back to a secret location to film a new ending of the final scenes. Rebecca Gilling played the high-powered mining heiress spoke to 'TV Week', "It's only 10 minutes long and it's mainly for the Brits and Canadians. I'm sure Australian audiences were unhappy with the ending here because everything was left up in the air. But you have to leave something open in a series if it is expected to continue."
'Return To Eden' was a hit in communist Poland. On her return from Poland in 1986, Rebecca described the visit, "'Return To Eden' was so popular in Poland that the polling booths changed their hours during the general election so people would be home to watch it." 'The New York Times' reported in 1985, "The Government announced tonight (October 14) that more than two-thirds of all eligible voters had cast ballots seven hours before the polling places closed in Poland's first parliamentary election since the Solidarity movement was outlawed.
"In Gdansk, however, Lech Walesa, who had supported underground Solidarity figures in their call for an election boycott, said that observation of polling places showed that fewer people were voting today than in last year's (1984) local elections. Those elections were also targets of a Solidarity boycott. The conflicting assertions of voter turnout dominated the elections much more than any tension over the outcome of any of the contests.
"In all, 820 candidates are at least technically vying for 410 seats, while 50 men and women, including Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, are on a list of unopposed nationally known candidates. There is no independent way to confirm or refute rival claims. Visits by Western journalists to polling places were not useful in establishing how many people were voting."
Rebecca Gilling continued, "We (she and husband Tony Pringle) were warned that our room would be bugged but we kept forgetting, so we probably said some dreadful things. It's something you take so much for granted living in a country like Australia and it's a good reminder of how lucky we really are. Polish socialism is not something that I would want to live under. But the Polish people didn't want to hear the truth about what we thought.
"Everywhere we went we were surrounded by people who wanted autographs. We had 'minders' who interpreted for us, but we were left alone in the street for ten minutes and we were almost mobbed. Tony and I went to the art gallery on our only day off and while we were looking at the paintings everyone else was looking at us! It was like living in a goldfish bowl."
Of her character on 'Return To Eden', "I think people will find she's still a sympathetic character, despite the fact that she's the head of a large mining company. She portrays the woman of the '80s. She has power, responsibility and a career. She's been taken away from the kitchen sink and she's in command of her relationships with men, as an equal with them."
London-born Peta Toppano, the daughter of variety entertainers Enzo Toppano and Peggy Mortimer, took over the role of Jilly Stewart, originally played by Wendy Hughes in the mini-series. "It's like 'Private Benjamin'. Goldie Hawn played it in the movie. When the series went to air another girl (Lorna Patterson, 'The Flying Doctors' mini-series) played it. The public does seem able to accept another actor stepping in. What is bizzarre is when a new actor comes in and the difference is explained away with plastic surgery. That's pretty far-fetched and that's not going to happen with me. Jilly doesn't have plastic surgery.
"I think there's got to be something about Jilly that you really can't help liking. Remember what a bitch Scarlett O’Hara was in 'Gone With The Wind'? She did some awful things. Yet there was something about her. You thought that here was a woman with an enormous amount of spunk and energy and, in a way, she was vulnerable … I incorporated my fiery Italian background into the role. I never really watched 'Dynasty' very much and I don't watch 'Sons and Daughters' so I wasn't drawing from anything.
"Jilly's my invention. I didn't think ... 'I'll take a bit of Joan Collins, a bit of Pat the Rat and a bit of this one and that one,' because I don't watch them." Peta told 'Woman's Day' at the time, "For years people have wanted to put me in the nice-little-girl slot. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I've been in the public eye since I was a child. People have a specific image of me that they don't want to let go. I'm terribly lucky that Hal McElroy had the insight to say, 'I do see another side to this girl'.
"It was bloody hard work getting the part. I really had to prove myself in screen test after screen test. I had to convince the network, which had a preconceived idea of what I could do. I think people are going to see a side of me they've never seen before. I'm sure those who saw me in 'Prisoner' won't know me in this. For a start I look totally different."
Stylist Lloyd Lomas created Peta's hairstyle for the part of Jilly. Designer George Gross dressed Peta. "It’s going to be very up-market, like 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas', and incredibly entertaining. The scripts are very good and we've got some great directors – Lex Marinos, Ken Cameron, Tim Burstall – and a cast of terrific, experienced actors."
English-born Daniel Abineri played Jake Sanders conceded “About halfway through it got really silly. And, for an actor, as soon as you can’t take something seriously it becomes very hard to play it with a straight face. Keeping a straight face for the last 10 episodes of 'Return To Eden' was unbelievably hard for all of us on the show. We were getting the scripts a day or two before shooting and peals of laughter would ring out from all the actors."
It was understood in the lead–up to the final episode where Jake Sanders would to be killed off, the producers of 'Return To Eden' reportedly inundated Daniel with memos about his tie. Daniel Abineri elaborated, "They really worried that I never had it done up tight like a real business tycoon. So, just for a little revenge, I had a scene where I had to throw Jilly around the bedroom and my tie came loose. I made a point of staring right down the lens of the camera and straightening my tie.
"The producers were cool though. They knew what I was up to.They put a big dramatic, orchestral sting in, a big 'bu-bomp' just as I straightened my tie – made it much more dramatic. I think they really go for all that 'Dynasty' stuff in Britain and 'Return To Eden' was just like 'Dynasty'. It's not something I would sit down and watch. In fact, I don't see much television. You've got to hand it to the producers for pulling it all together. It was a major TV series, a big gamble and at least they've satisfied the overseas market. I knew when I was signed for 'Return To Eden' that I couldn't muck it up because it was going to be seen all around the world."
Of the Jilly Stewart part, Peta Toppano made known, "I wanted this role more than anything in the world. It's been a gem of a role. I think that initially people will think that this was Wendy's role, but then they'll dismiss that and concentrate on what I'm doing, which is totally different from what she did. Only the character's name is the same.
"I think the audiences are going to be a bit shocked by Jilly. I think people will be surprised and my mother will have a heart attack. Everybody wants to play a baddie. Sure I was worried about it, but I was determinied to make the role mine – and I think it's very much mine now (after four episodes). It's been tough. There hasn't been a gradual slide from nice-girl roles into playing a full-on bitch. It's been feet first in the deep end."
Hal McElroy was matter-of-fact, speaking to 'Cinema Papers', "People watch television not to be educated, not to be informed, but to be entertained and as a soporific. We have to accept that as an industry. What we set out to do was make unabashed, prime time entertainment. We are not talking prestige television. With a mini-series, like 'The Dismissal' or 'Threads', you can say, 'Just for this week, stop everything and have your life changed'. Over 22 weeks (or 22 episodes), you can't change people's lives."
The 1986 world-wide success of the glossy adult-oriented TV melodrama had a budget of $8 million, the most expensive weekly series produced in Australia. The 6-hour 1983 mini-series was a $3 million Hanna Barbera Australia and McElroy & McElroy production. 'Return To Eden' was also shown in the U.S. in September 1984 in the cities of Portland in Oregon, Salt Lake City in Utah and San Francisco and reportedly "won its ratings time slot in all three cities."
Prior to the Australian screening of the weekly series, 'Return To Eden' was pre-sold to Britain and gone to air in September 1985 in some 30 major U.S. cities. Over $2 million of the $8 million budget were spent on the lavish ten different sets created by designer Larry Eastwood, along with the imported cars and designer clothes. Producer Hal McElroy reminded, "We didn't set out to make 'Dynasty' or 'Dallas' per se. We could never emulate them, because they spend $1 million an hour - four or five times more than we have to spend."
The series picked up the storyline seven years after the mini-series ended. Producer Tim Sanders added, "Ours is a totally original idea that developed here locally. The only similarities that one would draw are the common denominators of wealth, glamor, power, big business – the ones that are implicit to the story. When we set this up it was a new series, not as just a sequel to the mini-series.
"It was very much planned in its own right and we consider it to be unique because it didn't follow any previous patterns of other series here. Where the others (including 'Sons and Daughters') shoot two hours a week on their budgets, we were inclined to shoot 30 minutes a week. Elements like music, with the whole show originally scored by Brian May and the wardrobe and sets all had priority and we spent a lot of money on them. We bought our own luxury cars so we didn't have taxi arrivals or obvious hire cars … The whole thing was conceptually geared to produce what audiences would expect from a world such as this. It will stand on its own as a high quality series in Australia."
'Return To Eden' ended its final episode with a cliffhanger, provoking an outcry. As such, three stars on the show had to be called back to a secret location to film a new ending of the final scenes. Rebecca Gilling played the high-powered mining heiress spoke to 'TV Week', "It's only 10 minutes long and it's mainly for the Brits and Canadians. I'm sure Australian audiences were unhappy with the ending here because everything was left up in the air. But you have to leave something open in a series if it is expected to continue."
'Return To Eden' was a hit in communist Poland. On her return from Poland in 1986, Rebecca described the visit, "'Return To Eden' was so popular in Poland that the polling booths changed their hours during the general election so people would be home to watch it." 'The New York Times' reported in 1985, "The Government announced tonight (October 14) that more than two-thirds of all eligible voters had cast ballots seven hours before the polling places closed in Poland's first parliamentary election since the Solidarity movement was outlawed.
"In Gdansk, however, Lech Walesa, who had supported underground Solidarity figures in their call for an election boycott, said that observation of polling places showed that fewer people were voting today than in last year's (1984) local elections. Those elections were also targets of a Solidarity boycott. The conflicting assertions of voter turnout dominated the elections much more than any tension over the outcome of any of the contests.
"In all, 820 candidates are at least technically vying for 410 seats, while 50 men and women, including Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, are on a list of unopposed nationally known candidates. There is no independent way to confirm or refute rival claims. Visits by Western journalists to polling places were not useful in establishing how many people were voting."
Rebecca Gilling continued, "We (she and husband Tony Pringle) were warned that our room would be bugged but we kept forgetting, so we probably said some dreadful things. It's something you take so much for granted living in a country like Australia and it's a good reminder of how lucky we really are. Polish socialism is not something that I would want to live under. But the Polish people didn't want to hear the truth about what we thought.
"Everywhere we went we were surrounded by people who wanted autographs. We had 'minders' who interpreted for us, but we were left alone in the street for ten minutes and we were almost mobbed. Tony and I went to the art gallery on our only day off and while we were looking at the paintings everyone else was looking at us! It was like living in a goldfish bowl."
Of her character on 'Return To Eden', "I think people will find she's still a sympathetic character, despite the fact that she's the head of a large mining company. She portrays the woman of the '80s. She has power, responsibility and a career. She's been taken away from the kitchen sink and she's in command of her relationships with men, as an equal with them."
London-born Peta Toppano, the daughter of variety entertainers Enzo Toppano and Peggy Mortimer, took over the role of Jilly Stewart, originally played by Wendy Hughes in the mini-series. "It's like 'Private Benjamin'. Goldie Hawn played it in the movie. When the series went to air another girl (Lorna Patterson, 'The Flying Doctors' mini-series) played it. The public does seem able to accept another actor stepping in. What is bizzarre is when a new actor comes in and the difference is explained away with plastic surgery. That's pretty far-fetched and that's not going to happen with me. Jilly doesn't have plastic surgery.
"I think there's got to be something about Jilly that you really can't help liking. Remember what a bitch Scarlett O’Hara was in 'Gone With The Wind'? She did some awful things. Yet there was something about her. You thought that here was a woman with an enormous amount of spunk and energy and, in a way, she was vulnerable … I incorporated my fiery Italian background into the role. I never really watched 'Dynasty' very much and I don't watch 'Sons and Daughters' so I wasn't drawing from anything.
"Jilly's my invention. I didn't think ... 'I'll take a bit of Joan Collins, a bit of Pat the Rat and a bit of this one and that one,' because I don't watch them." Peta told 'Woman's Day' at the time, "For years people have wanted to put me in the nice-little-girl slot. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I've been in the public eye since I was a child. People have a specific image of me that they don't want to let go. I'm terribly lucky that Hal McElroy had the insight to say, 'I do see another side to this girl'.
"It was bloody hard work getting the part. I really had to prove myself in screen test after screen test. I had to convince the network, which had a preconceived idea of what I could do. I think people are going to see a side of me they've never seen before. I'm sure those who saw me in 'Prisoner' won't know me in this. For a start I look totally different."
Stylist Lloyd Lomas created Peta's hairstyle for the part of Jilly. Designer George Gross dressed Peta. "It’s going to be very up-market, like 'Dynasty' and 'Dallas', and incredibly entertaining. The scripts are very good and we've got some great directors – Lex Marinos, Ken Cameron, Tim Burstall – and a cast of terrific, experienced actors."
English-born Daniel Abineri played Jake Sanders conceded “About halfway through it got really silly. And, for an actor, as soon as you can’t take something seriously it becomes very hard to play it with a straight face. Keeping a straight face for the last 10 episodes of 'Return To Eden' was unbelievably hard for all of us on the show. We were getting the scripts a day or two before shooting and peals of laughter would ring out from all the actors."
It was understood in the lead–up to the final episode where Jake Sanders would to be killed off, the producers of 'Return To Eden' reportedly inundated Daniel with memos about his tie. Daniel Abineri elaborated, "They really worried that I never had it done up tight like a real business tycoon. So, just for a little revenge, I had a scene where I had to throw Jilly around the bedroom and my tie came loose. I made a point of staring right down the lens of the camera and straightening my tie.
"The producers were cool though. They knew what I was up to.They put a big dramatic, orchestral sting in, a big 'bu-bomp' just as I straightened my tie – made it much more dramatic. I think they really go for all that 'Dynasty' stuff in Britain and 'Return To Eden' was just like 'Dynasty'. It's not something I would sit down and watch. In fact, I don't see much television. You've got to hand it to the producers for pulling it all together. It was a major TV series, a big gamble and at least they've satisfied the overseas market. I knew when I was signed for 'Return To Eden' that I couldn't muck it up because it was going to be seen all around the world."
Of the Jilly Stewart part, Peta Toppano made known, "I wanted this role more than anything in the world. It's been a gem of a role. I think that initially people will think that this was Wendy's role, but then they'll dismiss that and concentrate on what I'm doing, which is totally different from what she did. Only the character's name is the same.
"I think the audiences are going to be a bit shocked by Jilly. I think people will be surprised and my mother will have a heart attack. Everybody wants to play a baddie. Sure I was worried about it, but I was determinied to make the role mine – and I think it's very much mine now (after four episodes). It's been tough. There hasn't been a gradual slide from nice-girl roles into playing a full-on bitch. It's been feet first in the deep end."
Hal McElroy was matter-of-fact, speaking to 'Cinema Papers', "People watch television not to be educated, not to be informed, but to be entertained and as a soporific. We have to accept that as an industry. What we set out to do was make unabashed, prime time entertainment. We are not talking prestige television. With a mini-series, like 'The Dismissal' or 'Threads', you can say, 'Just for this week, stop everything and have your life changed'. Over 22 weeks (or 22 episodes), you can't change people's lives."
