The eleventh season of the Australian police-drama ''

Blue Heelers ''Blue Heelers'' is an Australian police drama series that was produced by Southern Star Group and ran for 12 years on the Seven Network, from 1994 to 2006. Although based around the policing of the town, the series generally depicted the ever ...

'' premiered on the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, and is one of ...

on 4 February 2004 and aired on Wednesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 39-episode season concluded 5 November 2004.

Overview

The programme suffered along with the

s as a whole; its ratings in a dire state. 2004 became the year in which the producers took a radical approach to shake-up their show. The 39-episode 11th season saw the programme start the year closer to the wrong end of the weekly top 50 - and sometimes out of it altogether. However, when storylines heated up towards June/July - the numbers did too - and the programme enjoyed an amicable ratings performance thereon in 2005. On 21 April 2004 ''Blue Heelers'' aired a special event: a live episode. While Paul Bishop did not appear due to film commitments, this theatre-esque event drew large ratings and was the first step made in attempting to draw viewers back to the show. The broadcast hit nearly 1.6 million viewers in April, helping Seven to narrowly win the No. 1 spot for the night; but it failed to resurrect the numbers for the show as Seven had hoped. This was followed by the overhaul of the show. Its 440th episode, "End of Innocence", aired on 6 July 2004 and saw a new family in town being suspected of ghastly crimes. The Baxter family terrorised Clancy, Jo, Tom and Grace, and shortly thereafter the terror became reality when the station was blown up and Clancy and Jo were killed. Soon after, Grace was found raped and murdered. Nick Schultz, now in Homicide, returned to investigate, and soon learned that Tom had changed as a result of these events, and was now much harsher and determined to gain vengeance on the Baxters. Four new cops arrived on the scene - the smart Detective Senior Constable Amy Fox, family man Sergeant Mark Jacobs, and ambitious rival trainees, Probationary Constables Kelly O'Rourke and Joss Peroni (whose birthdays just happen to be on the same day). In episode 445, "Checkmate", Barry Baxter was sent to jail for the terror attacks, and Nick departed Mount Thomas leaving his colleagues to face their new situation. The ratings picked up significantly during this time. In the final episodes of the season, a series of attempts on Tom's life saw him suspect Tarni Baxter (Melissa Andersen), the jailed Baxter's daughter. Although there was no proof against her, the closing moments of the season finale saw a crazy-with-rage Tom attempting to drown Tarni in a river. While some critics and fans were concerned at the new

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

style that ''Blue Heelers'' had embraced, ratings remained high for the rest of the season.this season saw the old opening credits be taken out in order to put the new version with a whole new modern tone for the start of season 11 and 12,13

Main cast

Guest actors included Charles "Bud" Tingwell,

Nicki Paull Nicola Paull (born 1962 Queensland, Australia), is an Australian actress and a registered counsellor. Though predominantly known for her work on television, she has also appeared in films and on stage, as well as performing as a voice-over arti ...

Bernard Curry Bernard Curry (born 27 March 1974) is an Australian actor, best known for his role as Jake Stewart in Wentworth, Luke Handley in Neighbours and Hugo Austin in Home and Away. Career Curry first appeared in ''Neighbours'' in 1995 as Luke Handle ...

Lesley Baker Lesley Baker (born 20 January 1944) is an Australian actress, singer, dancer and comedian. She was well known for her early appearances on In Melbourne Tonight with Graham Kennedy. After which she went on to play several roles for Crawford Pr ...

Eliza Taylor-Cotter Eliza Jane Morley ( Taylor-Cotter; born 24 October 1989), known professionally as Eliza Taylor, is an Australian actress. She is best known for her roles as Janae Timmins on the Australian soap opera ''Neighbours'' (2005–08) and as Clarke Gri ...

Danny Adcock Danny Adcock (born 29 June 1948) is an Australian actor, known for his work in television and theatre. His television acting roles include 7 different roles in Crawford Production series ''Matlock Police'' as the killer of Michael Pate's chara ...

Alan Hopgood Alan John Hopgood AM (29 September 1934 – 19 March 2022), also known as Alan Hopwood, was an Australian actor, producer, and writer. He wrote the screenplay for the 1972 film ''Alvin Purple'' and made appearances in television shows such as ...

, Daniela Duspara,

Frankie J. Holden Frankie J. Holden (born Peter Brian; 18 December 1952) , also known as Frank Holden, is an Australian singer, actor and TV presenter. In the 1970s, he fronted Ol' 55, which had a hit with "On the Prowl" from their debut album, ''Take It Grea ...

Simon Westaway Simon Westaway (born 22 December 1958) is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television series, films and theatre productions. He is most remembered as portraying Sergeant Peter "Noddy" Faithful in the crime drama series ''Phoenix'', ...

Luke Hemsworth Luke Hemsworth (born 5 November 1980) is an Australian actor who is known for his roles as Nathan Tyson in the TV series '' Neighbours'' and as Ashley Stubbs in the HBO sci-fi series ''Westworld''. He is the older brother of actors Chris Hemsw ...

and

Jeremy Lindsay Taylor Jeremy Lindsay Taylor (born Sydney, 19 September 1973) is an Australian actor. Education He finished his education at Newington College in 1991 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in drama and sociology, from the Universi ...

Reception

The show started the season with new opening credits for the modern tone set for the season and a (Live) episode. Midway through the year the show had a revamp, blowing up the station, killing off recurring character Clancy Freeman and the popular cast regular Jo Parrish. Following Jo's death 4 new cast members were added. Also a (brief) return of Nick Schultz for five episodes 441-445 all about the bombing of the station and cop a being in the blast with a handicap man. The character of Ben Stewart also departed the show a few months later. Show had an average of 1.4 Million until the Revamp began which spiked up the rating to a weekly 1.6 Million Rating

Awards

Episodes

DVD release

Season 11 Parts 1 and 2 was released on 5 August 2010. BUY Blue Heelers - Season 10 DVD

References

;General * Zuk, T
Blue Heelers: 2004 episode guide
Australian Television Information Archive. Retrieved 1 August 2007. * TV.com editors

TV.com. Retrieved 1 August 2007. ;Specific Blue Heelers seasons 2004 Australian television seasons {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Heelers (Season 11)