STINGERS

'''Stingers''' (1998 - 2004) was an Australian TV police drama series. It is also aired in 65 countries, including Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iran, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and the UK.
The show received average ratings during its debut season, but after some major changes, including intensive character development, the series turned out to be a success during the following year.
Inspired by true events, Stingers chronicled the cases of a deep undercover unit of the Australian police. The series also followed their personal lives, which sometimes became intertwined with their jobs.
The original cast members include Peter Phelps, Joe Petruzzi, Kate Kendall, Ian Stenlake, Anita Hegh, and Jessica Napier. All except Kendall and Phelps left the show to pursue new challenges.
''Stingers'' ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was cancelled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the programme.

Contents

Cast

Semi-Regulars and Other Cast

Deceased cast members

Series History

DVD Releases

Trivia

See also

External links

Cast

★ Senior Constable Peter Church - Peter Phelps

★ Senior Detective Angie Piper - Kate Kendall

★ Det-Sen Sgt. Bernie Rocca - Joe Petruzzi (1998-1999)

★ Constable Oscar Stone - Ian Stenlake (1998-2002)

★ Det-Sen Sgt. (originally Det-Sgt.) Ellen 'Mac' Mackenzie - Anita Hegh (1998-2002)

★ Constable Kaye Kelso - Jessica Napier (Episodes 1-5)

★ Constable Daniella Mayo - Roxane Wilson (2000-2002)

★ Constable Christina Dichiera - Jacinta Stapleton (2002-2004)

★ Detective Inspector Luke Harris - Gary Sweet (2002-2004)

★ Senior Detective Leo Flynn - Daniel Fredriksen (2003-2004)

Semi-Regulars and Other Cast

★ Senior Detective (demoted from Detective Inspector) Bill Hollister - Nicholas Bell (1999-2001)

★ Det-Sen Sgt. Reg 'The Ferret' Masters - Richard Morgan (1999-2004)

★ Det-Sen Sgt. Bryan Gray - Jeremy Kewley (2000-2004)

★ Criminal Barrister Ingrid Burton - Rebecca Gibney (2002-2003)

★ Sophie Novak - Katrina Milosevic (2003-2004)

★ Detective Katherine Marks - Gigi Edgley (2004)

★ Detective Constable Megan Walsh - Lisa Chappell (2004)

Deceased cast members

Richard Morgan, who played Det-Sen Sgt. Reg Masters from 1999 until 2004, died of motor neurone disease on 23 December 2006. Morgan also appeared on ''The Sullivans'', ''A Country Practice'', ''Sons and Daughters'', ''MDA'', ''Blue Heelers'' and ''Something in the Air''.

Series History

''On Sunday July 16, 2006 at 2pm John Wild (Executive Producer) and Marcia Gardner (Script Producer) sat down with an audience at ACMI in Federation Square in Melbourne to 'explore the narrative arc and character development from the first episodes to the final series'. The event took place in the Screen Pit and was free to the public. Below is an in depth rundown written by Jeremy Kewley for the Stingers Forum:''
''Stingers'' came about in a very fast manner; they had to get the show which was only ‘jotted down on paper’ into a television series in just 11 weeks and in an 8.30pm time slot. It first began airing up towards the end of the year, on Monday nights. It was up against another new show on Channel 7 - ''Ally McBeal'', ''Stingers'' bet ''Ally McBeal'' regularly for its first 11 weeks before it went on its Christmas ratings break. When both ''Stingers'' and ''Ally McBeal'' returned after the ratings break ''Ally McBeal'' began to win in the ratings, quiet comfortably and Nine began to worry.
At this time Channel Nine and the producers had to work out how to win ratings back, they worked out that the reason so many people preferred ''Ally McBeal'' over ''Stingers'' was because ''Stingers'' had a very rough, edgy and realistic feel to it, and it seemed that this did not appeal to women, of all ages, who preferred the lightness of ''Ally McBeal''. So ''Stingers'' was moved to Tuesday night. This helped a bit, but not enough. Channel Nine were thinking about canceling the show. But Nine owner Kerry Packer liked the show and suggested that Nine should keep it on the air. Nine did, but moved it an hour later to 9.30pm. At 9.30pm on Tuesdays ''Stingers'' started to find it's audience (although this was still not a big audience). It stayed at 9:30 PM on Tuesdays up until the end of 7th season which seemed to be predominately male middle class white collar workers between the ages of 30-55.
By the middle of the second season ratings were still not spectacular enough and Channel Ninecommissioned research which showed that women were not particularly interested in ''Stingers''. As women make up 50% of the audience the producers were told to make the first major change to ''Stingers'' - make it more female friendly. These led to the departure of Joe Petruzzi, making Anita Hegh’s character the boss of the Unit. This also led to another female character being introduced, undercover operative Danni Mayo, portrayed by Roxane Wilson. This led to the show becoming more ‘lighter’ to appeal to the female audiences. Soon after, humour was added to the show, in the form of Jeremy Kewley’s character, Bryan Gray. These changes worked quiet well and ''Stingers'' steamed through Seasons 3, 4 and 5, but then Anita Hegh and Ian Stenlake decided to leave the show and this caused for another drastic change in the series.
The network was now toying with the idea of dropping the show as they were on a nationwide cost-cutting drive and ''Stingers'' (whose budget had crept up from its original $440,000 per episode to around $480,000 an episode) was considered too expensive. They dropped a bombshell on the Producers - shave around $130,000 every week from the budget or the show would have to cease production. That's a huge ask. But everyone at ''Stingers'' was keen to keep going as everyone felt there were still life in the show and plenty of stories to tell.
So things closed down for a bit while the accountants came in with their scissors and by the start of the next season the budget was chopped down to $350,000 per episode. Shooting changed from six days per episode to five days. Shooting stock changed from 16mm film to SP Betacam Videotape. The crew became smaller and writers were given less time to write each episode. The Location changed from the "Crimplex" (Warehouse/Studio/Offices by the Yarra River) to the studios of Channel Nine in Richmond. Channel Nine spent money on a big new set (plus a new "hospital ward" set and a new "pub/bar" set) and justified the cost by making sure that most of the action on the show now took place inside the studio on the new sets, with a lot less time spent on locations, with less money spent on car chases, stunts and special effects.
Channel Nine also wanted more "star power" in the show, so Gary Sweet was brought in as Luke Harris (and Roxane Wilson decided to leave), and Rebecca Gibney - who was now out of a job without ''Halifax FP'' - was put to work for the first few episodes of the new season. Most of these major changes worked quite well and most viewers at home would not have been too aware of the changes to the visual quality of the show (from film to tape, etc).
But, as John Wild humorously pointed out in - "the ratings didn't change one point!" - Channel Nine commissioned more surveys which told them that the show needed to appeal to younger viewers. So two new characters were added - those played by Daniel Frederiksen and Jacinta Stapleton. And John Wild said - "and the ratings still didn't change one point!" - Channel Nine insisted that still more star power was needed to lift the ratings - so Lisa Chappell (Logie winning ''McLeod's Daughters'' star) joined the cast. - “and the ratings didn't change one point!" - More star power in guest roles etc ... Bill Hunter, Gigi Edgley, Steve Bisley, Tottie Goldsmith - "and the ratings didn't change one point!"
Then ''Stingers'' was "rested" for a couple of weeks and replaced by repeats of '', and the repeats of '' clearly rated better than first-run episodes of ''Stingers''. (Screening a repeat episode of '' probably costs the network about $25,000 - as opposed to a first-run episode of ''Stingers'' at $350,000)
So it became clear what Nine would do. Move ''Stingers'' to 10.30pm on a permanent basis and put higher-rating repeats of CSI on at 9.30pm. Channel Nine in Adelaide did not like this move and moved ''Stingers'' to 9:30 Monday Nights, this only lasted for 5 weeks before it was moved back to 10:30 on a Tuesday night. This move to a later timeslot caused the ''Stingers'' ratings to drop even lower, giving Nine a reason to finally end the show. The Stingers curse seemed to be that it always rated well but it never rated spectacularly.

DVD Releases

★ Stingers - Series 1 was released on Region 4 DVD on 4 September, 2006 This is a six disc set with Episodes 1 - 22

★ Stingers - Series 2 was released on Region 4 DVD on 14 March, 2007 This is a six disc set with Episodes 23 - 44

★ Stingers - Series 3 was released on Region 4 DVD on 4 June, 2007 This is a six disc set with Episodes 45 - 66

Trivia

★ Peter Church's real name is Mike Fischer.

★ Oscar Stone's real name is Cameron Pierce. After the character's death, his gravestone was shown to have 'Oscar Stone' engraved on it even though there was no reason not to use his real name. This was presumably a continuity goof.

★ Kaye Kelso's real name is Emily Shaw.

★ Chris Dichiera's real name is Felicity Matthews, but this was not known to the force, as she had a criminal history under that name.

See also

★ List of Australian television series

External links

★ STINGERS: Undercover Central

★ Stingers at the National Film and Sound Archive