Executive Producer

[-Kevin-]

I was just thinking about EP's of some shows and then I came to H&A, how long has Cam Walsh been at the helm ? Dan Bennett was the producer before him IIRC, how many years did he spend fronting the show ?

I think its time for a change in producer and let someone else have a go, and see what direction they can take the show in!

[Dan F]

There's an Executive Producer and a Series Producer for the show, and I can see you mean Series Producer. The Executive Producer is John Holmes who's been there over 15 years.

The Series Producer before Cameron Welsh was Julie McGauran (who is now Cameron's wife incidentally), she was there for 5 years from 2002 to 2007 when Cam took over.

Dan Bennett's only been a Script Producer.

[-Kevin-]

There's an Executive Producer and a Series Producer for the show, and I can see you mean Series Producer. The Executive Producer is John Holmes who's been there over 15 years.

The Series Producer before Cameron Welsh was Julie McGauran (who is now Cameron's wife incidentally), she was there for 5 years from 2002 to 2007 when Cam took over.

Dan Bennett's only been a Script Producer.

Oh I see!

Is H&A the same as the UK soaps then, because I've heard of them having various Executive Producers over the years and I've not heard about any Series Producer's of these soaps! Its all very confusing

Does Cam Walsh have the final say in what storylines go ahead ? Or is that John Holmes ?

Then there are the writers - I take it the writers only write how certain things happen that have been decided by TPTB, or do the writers have an input to the conclusion of a storyline ?

Sorry for all the questions..

[Red Ranger 1]

Okay, wild stab in the dark, anyone who knows more about television production or the behind the scenes workings of Home and Away feel free to chip in:

I suspect that in this case an Executive Producer would be a senior figure at Channel 7 with overall responsibility for the series, in much the same way that the BBC Head of Drama is sometimes credited as executive producer on shows like EastEnders or Casualty.Probably has very little to do with the day-to-day running of the show but has final approval on scripts and episode.

The Series Producer would be the person with overall creative control of the show, in charge of making major decisions like how main characters leave, what new characters are introduced and any major storylines.

Script Producers would probably report to the series producer and be the ones with most contact with the writers, in charge of lesser storylines like what certain characters do that year, how a certain relationship would develop and so on.

Writers with staff positions would be involved in brainstorming sessions to sort out storylines, probably overseen by the script producers, and have the opportunity to suggest plotlines of their own.Once it's decided exactly what happens in a certain episode, a writer would be assigned to it. There are probably also freelance writers who are just hired to write certain episodes.

Of course, all of that could be completely wrong...