NEED TO KNOW
- Always Greener premiered in September 2001, quickly becoming a cult classic Aussie series.
- Starring John Howard and Anne Tenney, the show followed a city family and their rural relatives trading lives.
- Despite only running two seasons, cast members Michala Banas and Scott Major say Always Greener still holds a special place in people’s hearts.
- 25 years on, the cast remain very close, saying they are “family for life”.
A sneaky cigarette sets light to a cow fart, triggering a disastrous gas blast and fire that demolishes a ramshackle chook shed.
Not every TV show kicks off with a bang like Always Greener did, and its memorable opening is still something that is talked about 25 years later.
“I can’t believe it’s been that long! It feels more like five or 10 years,” cast member Michala Banas tells New Idea.
She played troubled city teenager Marissa Taylor, whose ill-timed smoke sparked the explosion.
“People still talk about the fact that my character set a cow’s fart alight,” Michala continues with a chuckle. “I just remember reading that script and thinking it was so funny.
“We weren’t run of the mill, the show had an edge. Some of it was really out there, left of centre.”
Why was Always Greener cancelled?
Led by John Howard and Anne Tenney, Always Greener was a quirky home-swap saga in which a family of city slickers – the upmarket Taylors – traded places with their battling rural relatives, the Todds.
The show premiered in late 2001, only to be axed in June 2003 after just two seasons due to falling ratings and rising costs.
Fans were furious and launched petitions to save their feel-good favourite, which earned a swag of Logie, Emmy and Australian Writers’ Guild nominations during its all-too-short run.
“It was fun,” adds Scott Major, who played sweet natured farmhand Tom Morgan in a segue from his bad boy roles on Neighbours and the original Heartbreak High.
“I think people needed something happy and nice. It was a relationship-driven show, like a warm blanket. Potentially that was why it did so well. It was really timely with the state of the world back then.”
Cast and crew were filming country scenes on location near Camden, NSW, when they awoke one day to discover the universe had changed irrevocably. It was September 12, 2001, and New York’s World Trade Centre had tumbled in an overnight terrorist attack.
“I’d fallen asleep with the television on and woke up very early to see this footage of the Twin Towers,” recalls Michala, who was cast as Kate Manfredi on McLeod’s Daughters after Always Greener ended.
“At first I thought it was a weird movie and changed channels, but of course the news was everywhere,” Michala adds.
“I sat up in bed, dumbstruck and quite emotional. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. It felt very strange afterwards to go on set and make this kooky show.
“It shook all of us but, as usual, the beautiful TV and film community bonded together. We all wondered what on earth was happening in the world. I remember it very vividly. That’s how I know it really is 25 years since Always Greener.”
Scott, who remains firm friends with Michala and other members of the close-knit cast, agrees saying, “There’s a very special bond with people who did that show together.
“It was a beautiful group. And I still think that cow fart scene was one of the most hilarious first episode events ever filmed for any series, anywhere!
“It was a real shame we didn’t get to make more. Who knows where my screen romance with Michala might have gone?”
Scott, now also a writer and director, was actually on a publicity photo shoot for season three when news broke that network executives had pulled the plug on Always Greener.
“I got a call from a journalist, asking for my take on the show being axed – and I didn’t even know that yet,” he exclaims.
“It was quite a shock because we were in pre-production and we’d been rating 2.8 million before someone up the chain put their foot down. It was a real shame. People who loved the show really loved it.”
