Rafferty's Rules (1987)
Rafferty's Rules was an Australian television drama series which ran from 1987 to 1990 on the Seven Network. Rafferty's Rules was one of the first programs undertaken by the Seven Network's then new in-house drama unit, going into production in May 1985 as "a 15-part courtroom drama". The program had started out as a pilot episode, recorded in early 1984 with the actor Chris Haywood in the lead role. When the pilot episode was remounted later in 1984, Chris Haywood wasn't available and the lead role was re-cast to John Wood. This second recording was eventually broadcast as the program's first episode.
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Episode 1 - Nine Tenths of the Law
Release Date: 1989-02-04Michael wrestles with the concept of possession after the discovery of Aboriginal remains creates a conflict of ownership between the state and the Indigenous community.
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Episode 2 - Freedom
Release Date: 1989-02-11Michael is caught between a rock and a hard place when he is forced to decide the fate of a young boy whose doctors believe is sick, but whose parents are refusing further tests on religious grounds.
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Episode 3 - Those Who Can
Release Date: 1989-02-18Fulvio learns that his teacher and idol isn't quite the perfect magistrate that he thought after he takes over when Michael falls ill.
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Episode 4 - Sense of Duty
Release Date: 1989-02-25The courthouse becomes the centre of the fallout from a Secret Intelligence Agency training exercise.
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Episode 5 - One for the Road
Release Date: 1989-03-10Gibson faces his past after a series of alcohol-related prosecutions force him to confront the reasons he gave up drinking.
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Episode 6 - Confessions
Release Date: 1989-03-17A series of sexual assaults has consequences for the courthouse when the police fit up suspects and Paulyne is attacked in her own home.
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Episode 7 - Horse Play
Release Date: 1989-03-24Pauline finds that her personal life is mirroring her professional life when her former lover Gavin reappears and announces that he is getting married, just as she is defending a woman who refuses to accept that her marriage is over.
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Episode 8 - Truth's a Dog
Release Date: 1989-03-31Paulyne accuses an insurance company of racism when they report a Lebanese man to the police after he claims his precious rings were stolen just days after taking out a policy.
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Episode 9 - The Great Divide
Release Date: 1989-04-07Michael, Paulyne and Gibson find their ethics challenged when they deal with a man accused of raping his wife; however, it soon becomes apparent to all that the case is far more sinister than they ever could have imagined.
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Episode 10 - Quanity of Mercy
Release Date: 1989-04-14Rafferty is confronted with the limitations of the law when it comes to dispensing justice.
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Episode 11 - Peace of Mind
Release Date: 1989-04-21The courthouse finds itself becoming caught up in the deadly web of a cult. Michael is shocked when he goes on an early morning run and discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach.
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Episode 12 - Thursday the Twelfth
Release Date: 1989-04-28Michael takes responsibility for a foreign woman after she shows up on his doorstep.
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Episode 13 - Friends and Neighbours
Release Date: 1989-05-05A heatwave frays tempers at the courthouse when everyone arrives at work to find the air-conditioning broken.
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Episode 14 - The Fleet's In
Release Date: 1989-05-12The personal and the professional converge for Flicker when the anti-nuclear group his son is involved in begins protesting the arrival of nuclear warships.
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Episode 15 - Family
Release Date: 1989-05-19Rafferty's 6-year-old son goes missing.
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Episode 16 - Crispin's Day
Release Date: 1989-05-26The Bard comes into the courtroom when an elderly man reciting Shakespeare is arrested for busking without a licence.
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Episode 17 - Mum's the Word
Release Date: 1989-06-02Michael's hopes of reuniting with his estranged wife are dashed when Joanne reveals that she has come to visit to end their relationship, and then their son falls ill.
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Episode 18 - Brief Candles
Release Date: 1989-06-09An unexpected tragedy forces Paulyne to re-evaluate her life; meanwhile she struggles to remain objective while defending a man accused of manslaughter over the death of a pedestrian.
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Episode 19 - The Deep End
Release Date: 1989-06-16New Legal Aid solicitor Lisa Blake starts work at the courthouse; however, she soon finds herself coming into conflict with Michael when she grandstands in the courtroom, then fails to fully prepare a case in mitigation for a defendant.
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Episode 20 - A Matter of Circumstances
Release Date: 1989-06-23A journalist sets out to prove that corruption exists in Rafferty's court.
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Episode 21 - Waifs and Strays
Release Date: 1989-06-30Lisa continues to have problems settling in, with her abrasive nature putting Michael offside.
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Episode 22 - The Beast
Release Date: 1989-07-07Lisa begins to wonder whether evil does exist when she defends a sociopath.
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Episode 23 - Systems
Release Date: 1989-07-14The entire courthouse struggles to cope when Michael is forced to decide whether a man accused of murder has a case to answer.
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Episode 24 - Those Who Can't
Release Date: 1989-07-21Lisa defends a young man who seems to be heading for the same life of crime as his father once did, but she refuses to believe Ray Brown's claims that the father's intentions are anything but honourable.
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Episode 25 - Blood Relations
Release Date: 1989-07-28Michael's world is turned upside down after learning that he has a twenty-two year old daughter from a previous relationship.
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Episode 26 - Star Quality
Release Date: 1989-08-04Flicker's prosecution against a young policeman who has broken the law is complicated when he begins to recognise that something even more suspicious is going on.
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Episode 27 - Private Lives
Release Date: 1989-08-11More than one life is on the line after a former children's television performer is charged with propositioning young boys for sex in the changing rooms of a local swimming pool.
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Episode 28 - You Can Never Tell
Release Date: 1989-08-18A criminal nicknamed 'The Hairy Bandit' is causing havoc and the courthouse is feeling the impact.
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Episode 29 - The Affair That Never Was
Release Date: 1989-08-25Michael's divorce from Joanne officially comes through, just as former Public Solicitor Paulyne Gray reappears in his life after a six month absence.
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Episode 30 - Curtains for Ringo
Release Date: 1989-09-01Michael considers his attitudes towards both politics and rural life after his cousin comes to the city, having now been elected to Parliament and holding very different opinions to Michael.