Sons and Daughters

Rowena Wallace became the second soap opera actor (rather than personality) to win the Gold Logie award in 1983, following Pat McDonald's win in 1974 for Number 96.

The series was billed as an Australian version of Dallas and was eventually screened in seventy countries.

When Rowena Wallace decided to leave the series in 1985, her character Patricia Hamilton was recast with actress Belinda Giblin, who played the character returning after extensive plastic surgery in Rio de Janeiro under the new identity Alison Carr.

Australian pop singer Normie Rowe joined the cast in the later years playing Doug Fletcher; although he had appeared in musical theatre before, this was his first major television drama role.

Creator Reg Watson, known for Crossroads and Prisoner, was inspired by the American prime-time soap operas Dallas and Knots Landing and developed two rival series simultaneously: Taurus Rising for Nine Network and Sons and Daughters for Seven Network, only the latter of which became a hit.

After Rowena Wallace left in 1985 causing a ratings decline, producers eventually convinced her to return in late 1986, this time playing Patricia's long-lost twin sister, Pamela Hudson.

In her 2003 autobiography, actress Cornelia Frances revealed that leaving the series was not her own choice but a decision by producer Posie Jacobs, who axed her character along with Judy Nunn's due to an overabundance of 'aunty' type characters in the cast.

The show's theme tune, composed by Peter Pinne and Don Battye and performed by Mick Leyton and Kerrie Biddell, was released as a 7-inch single in the UK in 1984 and reached number 68 in the charts, staying for three weeks.

A cast album titled 'All My Friends' was released, featuring the Sons and Daughters cast performing songs on the A-side and the cast of A Country Practice on the B-side, as a joint promotional effort by the Seven Network.

In a notorious 1986 season finale cliffhanger, one character was bitten by a venomous snake hidden in a wall safe, another was pursued by a great white shark, and a third was kicked in the face by a rearing racehorse, all in the same episode.