KIDS' STUFF
Ian plans a show for some young sons and daughters

Original Sons and Daughters cast member Ian Rawlings has big TV plans once the long-running local series ends production in March.

The popular and affable star, who moved from modelling to acting at the Seven Network show's inception to take on the role of bratty Wayne Hamilton, has formed his own company, Lauren Lee Productions.

And, after recently completing the demanding producers' course at the Australian Film and Television School, Ian intends having his first venture, a children's TV series, which he has also written, in production by mid-1987.

"Hopefully I'll be ready to put the final draft on somebody's desk around January or February. If I can do that, and I get the go ahead and it's given the green light, it will be June or July when we begin production," he says.

Ian is reluctant to give away too many details of the as-yet-untitled project other than that the show will be a "children's, drama-type program".

"I'm writing the pilot for it now and I'd like to see it go into an ongoing series," he adds.

On many occasions during his time with Sons and Daughters, Ian, 27, said he wanted to experience showbusiness on the other side of the camera - as a director and a producer.

"It's finally coming to fruition," he says of his TV plans. "And I'd be silly to make a film as my first thing because I don't know that side of the business. I know television."

So will Ian be taking on a role in his own production?

"I doubt it," he replies quickly, before slowly adding: "Mmmm, maybe a little bit-part..."

Should Ian's series get the go-ahead, it will mark his debut as a producer, director and writer. And, as anyone who has tried will confess, churning out a television script, like anything, is no easy task.

"I love writing but my biggest problem is discipline," he admits. "I'll start writing and write furiously for, say, three hours, and then I'll stop and I might not pick it up again for a week. It's really hard.

"And there are so many distractions - a phone call or someone dropping in, little things like that stuff you up for 20 minutes each time. Even cups of coffee! But once I get going I'm okay, and I do love it."

Ian is philosophical that Sons and Daughters is coming to an end.

"It's five years old now. We've had a bloody good run. Most people thought it wasn't going to run for more than 13 weeks," he says. "I've really enjoyed it."

Now Ian is set to move into the next phase of his career with his new production outfit.

His planned children's TV series will bear the names of his beautiful wife, Lee, and his pretty stepdaughter, Lauren.

Both will be by his side on the new venture - Lauren, who's now nearly 10, will, after all, be Ian's immediate contact with younger viewers, while Lee, a former top model, will be more involved in the daily running of the company.

"Lee will be very involved with the company eventually," says Ian proudly.

Realising that times are tough in television circles right now, Ian still remains positive.

"The economy's in such a mess. People are cutting back, not expanding. But hopefully I'll be able to put my idea on someone's desk and say: 'Well, what do you think of that?' and they'll say: "'We want this'."

 

By: Stephen Cook
Source: TV Week
Date: 20 December 1986