Carson's Law is an Australian television series made by Crawford Productions for the Ten Network between 1982-1984.
The series was a period piece set in the 1920s and starred Lorraine Bayly as progressive solicitor Jennifer Carson.
The episodes revolved around the cases taken on by Jennifer, and the various personal intrigues of her family.
[1] The series' premiere was billed as a 90-minute "movie-length" episode on 24 January 1983, with another two-hour episode in the same timeslot the following night, before settling into its twice-weekly 60-minute format the following week.
Carson's Law was noted for its quality scripts and period production values.
Despite being popular in Melbourne, where the series was based and filmed, it did not succeed in Sydney.
Attempts to revamp the series to make it appeal more to Sydney audiences eventually alienated the programme's core audience, and it was cancelled in 1984 after 184 episodes.
The final episode aired on ATV-10 on 1 December 1984 [citation needed]; after being shuffled around the TEN-10 schedule, then reduced to one episode per week, then pushed back from 8:30pm to 9:30pm and, finally, to the even later 10:40pm slot, the final episode eventually aired in Sydney on 18 April 1985.
Carson's Law was bought by several members of the UK ITV network.
TVS aired edited half-hour episodes on Thursdays and Fridays at 3.30pm in 1987 and 1988.
At the same time, Yorkshire Television showed a considerable number of episodes on Thursdays at 1.30pm between October 1984 and March 1988.
Television South West screened a slightly lower number in their 6.35pm slot on Tuesdays during 1984.
Ulster Television aired episodes on Monday nights at 11.10pm up until at least October 1992.
Carson's Law was also shown in Portuguese television, and is being currently[when?]
re-played at RTP memoria (trans.
Carson's Law was shown in Catalan television (TV3) as well.
Carson's Law was also shown in the Netherlands for its entirety by the NCRV broadcasting company.
The company adapted the title to simply 'The Carsons'.
Carson's Law was also shown in Israeli television (Channel 2, experimental broadcasting).
It was called The race to the top of Jennifer Carson ("Ha-Merotz La-Tzameret Shel Jennifer Carson").
It ran on a weekly basis for about two years.
Carson's Law was also shown in Germany in the early 90s.
The first 13 episodes of the series was released onto Region 2 DVD in the Netherlands in September 2009.
The disc set has removable Dutch subtitles with all audio in English.
In Australia seven volumes covering the entire series of 184 episodes are available to purchase from the Crawford Australia website (Region 4).
[2][3] From November 2015 all seven volumes can be purchased in the rest of the world through Crawford's UK distributor, Eaton Films Ltd.
The series was filmed at the Global Television Studios in Nunawading, Melbourne in the set next to where Prisoner was filmed with only a partition separating the two programmes.
Note: the first episode "The Clan" has been designated as episodes 1&2, as per the numbering on the Crawford Productions DVD release.
Faith, Hope And Fencing Wire 67.
Street Games, Night Moves 72.