Pre-production
The show was purchased by Channel Nine without a pilot programme being produced. They commissioned 34 hours with a view to extension. Fourteen writers were assigned to the thirteen plot lines which had been devised.
The cast hadn't even been established when they started writing the series and even three months later they still had only two cast members. They were Vikki Hammond and Noni Hazelhurst.
When researching the time period, the set designer Nick Rossedale said at the time "when you are dealing with a period of time that is well within living memory, you have to watch things very carefully". Hence, the painstaking research into the reality of the show.
In 1976, the show was regarded as an ambitious project with the biggest budget ever for a commercial network series. It reputedly cost one million dollars to set up.
Read more about this topic: The Sullivans