''The Man from Snowy River'' is an Australian

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

television series based on

Banjo Paterson Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, (17 February 18645 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the ...

's poem "

The Man from Snowy River The Man from Snowy River may refer to: * "The Man from Snowy River" (poem), an 1890 Australian poem by Banjo Paterson. * '' The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses'' an 1895 poetry collection by Banjo Paterson (including the above) * ''The Man ...

". 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 series follows the adventures of Matt McGregor ( Andrew Clarke), a successful

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

, and his family. Matt is the hero immortalized in

's poem "

", and the series is set 25 years after his famous ride. 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 ''The Man from Snowy River II'' is a 1988 Australian drama film, the sequel to the 1982 film ''The Man from Snowy River''. It was released in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures as ''Return to Snowy River'', and in the United Kingdom as ...

''.

Synopsis

The first season was very much a soap opera with several story arcs. The primary one concerns the arrival of Matt's American nephew, who's bent on revenge, certain that Matt cheated his father out of the station Matt now owns. In subsequent seasons, there were shorter story-arcs, often featuring guest stars over a few episodes, and some episodes stood entirely on their own.

Cast

Stars and guest stars of the series included notables and future notables Andrew Clarke,

Guy Pearce Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in ...

Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including '' American Psycho'' (2000), '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), '' The Deep End'' (2001), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (20 ...

Victoria Tennant Victoria Tennant (born 30 September 1950) is a British actress. She is known for her roles in the TV miniseries ''The Winds of War'' and ''War and Remembrance'', in which she appeared as actor Robert Mitchum's on-screen love interest, Pamela Tud ...

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

, Tracy Nelson,

Lee Horsley Lee Arthur Horsley (born May 15, 1955) is an American film, television, and theater actor known for starring roles in the television series ''Nero Wolfe'' (1981), '' Matt Houston'' (1982–1985), and ''Paradise'' (1988–1991). He starred in the ...

Dean Stockwell Robert Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936 – November 7, 2021) was an American actor with a career spanning seven decades. As a child actor under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he first came to the public's attention in films including ''Anchors A ...

Chad Lowe Charles Davis Lowe II (born January 15, 1968) is an American actor. He is the younger brother of actor Rob Lowe. He won an Emmy Award for his supporting role in '' Life Goes On'' as a young man living with HIV. He has had recurring roles on '' E ...

Jane Badler Jane Badler (born December 31, 1953) is an American-Australian actress and singer. She is known for her role as Diana, the main antagonist in NBC's science fiction series '' V'' between 1983 and 1985. Badler also appeared in ABC's version of '' ...

Wendy Hughes Wendy Hughes (29 July 19528 March 2014) was an Australian actress known for her work in theatre, film and television. Her career spanned more than forty years and established her reputation as one of Australia's finest and most prolific actors. ...

Hugh Jackman Hugh Michael Jackman (born 12 October 1968) is an Australian actor. Beginning in theatre and television, he landed his breakthrough role as James "Logan" Howlett / Wolverine in the 20th Century Fox ''X-Men'' film series (2000–2017), a role ...

, and

Frances O'Connor Frances Ann O'Connor (born 12 June 1967) is a British–born Australian actress and director. She is known for her roles in the films ''Mansfield Park'' (1999), '' Bedazzled'' (2000), ''A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001), ''The Importance of ...

Nomination

Nominated for a

Logie Award The Logie Awards (officially the TV Week Logie Awards; colloquially known as The Logies) is an annual gathering to celebrate Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The first ceremony was held in 1959 as the ...

for ''Most Popular Drama'' (1996).

International distribution

When the series was distributed to some countries, the title was changed for various reasons. The series was aired on Family Channel in the US and UK, and on WIC-owned and independent stations in Canada.

Episodes

Season 1 (1994)

# The Race (1994) # Pascoe's Principles (23 September 1994) # Kathleen's Choice (23 September 1994) # Partnerships (25 September 1994) # Where There's Smoke (2 October 1994) # Tracks of Gold (9 October 1994) # Plans of Poison (16 October 1994) # Stepping Out (23 October 1994) # The Bushranger (30 October 1994) # The Rustlers (6 November 1994) # The Loneliness of Luke McGregor (13 November 1994) # Love Finds a Way (20 November 1994) # The Stampede (27 November 1994)

Season 2 (1995)

# The Hostage (13 August 1995) # The Savage Land (20 August 1995) # The Railroad (27 August 1995) # Fathers and Sons (3 September 1995) # The Manly Art (10 September 1995) # The Dry Argument (17 September 1995) # Servant of the People (1 October 1995) # The Search (8 October 1995) # The Lost Child (15 October 1995) # The Foundling (22 October 1995) # The Long Arm of the Law (29 October 1995) # The Recruit (5 November 1995) # The Reilly Gang (12 NOV 1995) # The Choice (19 November 1995) # Man and Boy (26 November 1995) # Flight of Fancy (11 February 1996) # Code of Ethics (18 February 1996) # The Cutting Edge (25 February 1996) # House of Worship (10 March 1996)

Season 3 (1995)

# A Sea of Troubles (1995) # Rough Passage (1995) # The Grand Wedding (1995) # Montana Territory (1995) # High Country Justice (1995) # The Question of Danni (1995) # The Prodigal Father: Part 1 (1995) # The Prodigal Father: Part 2 (1995) # Fire Boy 199 # Blind Faith (1995) # Shoshoni Dreaming (1995) # The Trial of Hetti Lewis (1995) # Toy Soldiers (1995) # A Mid-Winter Nights Dream (1995) # In Duty Bound (1995) # The Lion and the Lamb (1995) # Broken Hearts (1995) # Deliverance (1995) # A New Life: Part 1 (1995) # A New Life: Part 2 (1995)

Season 4 (1996)

# Comeback (1996) # The Grand Opening (1996) # Black Sheep (1996) # Prince of Hearts (1996) # The Grand Duke (1996) # New Business (1996) # Foundation Day (1996) # The Lovers (1996) # The Claimant (1996) # The Loaded Deck (1996) # Difficult Times (1996) # A Son for a Son: Part 1 (1996) # A Son for a Son: Part 2 (1996)

Video releases

On 27 June 1995, the pilot was released on VHS On 5 March 2002, a number of single episode videos were released on VHS. These include episodes "New Business", "Grand Opening", "Black Sheep", "Comeback", "The Grand Duke", and "Prince of Hearts" In 2003, a region 1 DVD of the series pilot was released. In 2004, season 4 was released as a 3 disk set, this time in region 4. This was followed by season 1 (3 disks) and season 2 (4 disks) in 2005, and season 3 (4 disks) in 2006. On 25 January 2005, three 2-episode DVDs from the series were released in region 1. These episodes were the same as they had previously released on VHS. In 2006, a 3-episode DVD was released in region 1, containing episodes previously released on VHS and DVD. In early 2007, a second DVD was released containing the remaining three previously released episodes. Later in 2007, a third DVD was released. Though the DVD case misreports two of the episodes as titles from the previous release, the actual contents are three never-before released episodes. * The DVD case erroneously reports the episodes as "Foundation Day", "The Grand Duke", and "New Business". In 2008, all three of their previous DVDs was released as a set. The package contained one DVD case for "There was more than one wild west!" and a new double DVD case for the other two. The erroneous episode information for the third volume was corrected on the box and the double DVD case. In 2010, a combined 2-DVD package was released containing the last two DVDs (''Adventure in the Australian Outback'' and ''A Different Breed of Cowboy''). In 2010, the entire series was released for region 4, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the poem. In 2011, season 1 was released for region 2 with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish subtitles.

Notes

Geoff Burrowes Geoff Burrowes (born 1945) is an Australian filmmaker best known for the movie ''The Man from Snowy River'' (1982) and the TV mini-series Anzacs (1985); he was a founding partner of the Burrowes Film Group.David Stratton, ''The Avocado Plantati ...

producer of the Snowy River films sued the producers of the series for using the title. The case settled out of court.Jacqueline Lee Lewis, "Settlement reached in 'Snowy River' title suit", ''Hollywood Reporter'', 28 September 1993 p 4

References

* ''The Dictionary of Performing Arts in Australia – Theatre . Film . Radio . Television – Volume 1'' – Ann Atkinson, Linsay Knight, Margaret McPhee – Allen & Unwin Pty. Ltd., 1996.

External links

Snowy River: The McGregor Saga (''The Man from Snowy River'')
– Australian Television Information Archive *

– TV.com
''The Man From Snowy River''
– at the National Film and Sound Archive (Australian Government website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Man from Snowy River (TV series) Australian adventure television series Man from Snowy River (TV series), The Man from Snowy River (TV series), The Man from Snowy River (TV series), The Nine Network original programming 1993 Australian television series debuts 1996 Australian television series endings Television shows set in colonial Australia Television series about families Television shows based on poems Television shows set in Victoria (Australia) Television series by MTM Enterprises