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Every city-dweller daydreams about dropping out of the rat-race and moving to the country. Every country-dweller wonders what it might be like to try their luck in the 'Big Smoke'. Always Greener is the story of two families who actually dare to give it a go.
John Howard
John Taylor
Anne Tenney
Liz Taylor
Michala Banas
Marissa Taylor
Daniel Bowden
Jason Taylor
Abe Forsythe
Campbell Todd
Natasha Lee
Kimberley Taylor
Scott Major
Tom Morgan
Caitlin McDougall
Sandra Todd
Bree Walters
Phillipa 'Pip' Todd
Clayton Watson
Mickey Steele
2002
In Allenhurst Cam recieves a phone call from a publishing agency requesting him to come in for an interview. They are unaware that he is only 16 but soon find out. After Toms declaration of love it is Sandra that opens the door. Marissa comes in but Sandra wants to talk to Tom alone. She then gets back to her sewing as Pip comes in saddened by the fact that her boyfriend bomber is gay Marissa tells Pip what Tom did and Pip thinks Tom is a romantic and is shocked that he actually did a thing like that. Sandra bids farwell to Tom making sure that they remain friends and nothing else.
Tom struggles with issues of self-esteem and identity, as he forges a new relationship with his mother. John confronts terrifying visions of a possible future as he assesses his decision to return to social work. Pregnant Eileen meanwhile decides to come off her 'nerve-pills', with distressing results.
An emotional rollercoaster for Sandra in her pressure-cooker household, as lover boy Greg returns from his holiday with unexpected plans. Agony for Pip - and danger for Nick - when she inadvertently reveals details of boofy Bomber's love life. Crazy, touching moments as Eileen continues her struggle with valium withdrawal and meets her first homosexual.
Crunch - time for the Todds and the Taylors when distressed Sandra announces a return to Inverness. Cam learns confronting lessons about life - and literature.
A debutante ball in Inverness brings together country and city. Isabelle introduces Tom to his father. Sandra and Greg have their final farewell. Shelly alows Greg to be stung by a bee, and is horrified by the consequences.
Shelley is plagued with guilt over Greg's death. Liz wonders if she's set Bert Adams up with a trans-sexual. Pip learns that trying to turn a gay man straight isn't easy.
'Do-gooders' and 'naysayers' do battle for the future of John's neighbourhood centre. Riotous antics turn sour as Jason and Kim attempt to expose the secret of Bert's glamorous 'lady' friend. Mickey rails against Sandra's efforts to help him through his grief - and earns a surprise new housemate for his trouble.
Shelley wants to tell Mickey the truth about his father's death but knows this will destroy any chance of a future with him. The dilemma forces her to make an impulsive decision. Pip discovers the truth about Cam's 'female voice'. Liz's attempts to ease Eileen's fears about childbirth lead to Eileen inviting herself to attend the birth.
In the aftermath of Shelley's disappearance, Sandra is forced to realise that she has been sadly neglecting the home front. Marissa and Mickey embark on a bold prison-visit to further the search for Shelley. Eileen and Liz attend pre-natal classes with hilarious and touching results.
John makes his first appearance on 'Good Morning Warrigong', and later cops a punch on the nose by an irate viewer. Pip and Nick get intimate, setting them on a path of unlikely romance. Cam strikes a deal with Kim over the book. Tom learns that Cam's book portrays him as a dimwit, and seeks Marissa's advice. When she assures him the portrayal is anything but uncomplimentary, they seal their attraction with a kiss.
Tom and Marissa's relationship gets off to a passionate start. Liz and Kim go to the hospital to visit Harry. When doctors offer a grave prognosis, he refuses treatment. With encouragement from Isabelle, John tries to help Angela break free of her abusive husband Les. Cam loses his virginity to a charity worker. Marissa and Tom consummate their relationship. Liz is seriously injured when electrocuted by a faulty fridge.
Liz is steely in the wake of baby Harry's death, then finally releases her emotions after the memorial service. On the bright side, her father Harry agrees to have treatment for his cancer. Katy is upset by Jason's insensitivity, and tells Isabelle they are at different stages of maturity. Sandra learns Pip and Nick are an item. Marissa and Tom decide to live in the city. Shelley is revealed, working as a hooker. Mickey receives a visit from big Nathan. The Todd's and the Taylor's agree to swap homes - officially.
Shelley's working hard for the money. Mickey and Nathan, a friend of Shelley's father Trev, are on her trail. Scumbag returns with a Thai bride, who isn't what Patch expects. Nick picks a fight with Pip to avoid intimacy. At a nightclub, Sandra sees Nick flirting with a guy, then meets handsome and groovy Pete. Is it love in the first degree? John, blaming Les for baby Harry's death, is unable to help Angela.
Shelley phones Mickey and tells him to leave her alone. With some help from Nathan and Pete, Mickey's ode to Shelley is played on the radio. Marissa's market stall is an embarrassing failure, leading to conflict with Tom. Kim gets her braces off, but it's not the life changing experience she expects. Pip and Nick break up. Pete is exposed as 'The Love Professor', and Sandra as a thirty-something mum with two kids!
Marissa confesses her guilt over Shelley to Tom, and they track her down in the Cross. Shelley initially rejects them, then after a brief flirtation with heroin, turns up at the Steele house asking for help. Sandra pursues a relationship with Pete, but only after overcoming a few insecurities about age and glamour. John and Derek bond in the bush, where Derek reveals his fears of fatherhood. Bert helps deliver Eileen's baby boy which she promises to name after Bert!
Shelley says to Mickey 'I killed your Dad', and Mickey reacts with anger. Marissa appeals to John for help, and takes Shelley to the country. John counsels Shelley and makes her realise that she can get her life back on track. Realising she can no longer blame herself for Greg's death, she bids Mickey farewell. Jason and Kim spend an uncomfortable night at Patch's. Pete whisks Sandra away to a beach house, and they negotiate the tricky waters of sleeping together for the first time. With some help from Jennifer Anniston, Pip makes peace with Nick.
Isabelle and Katy's trip to the city leads to an argument with Tom and Marissa. The new look Shelley is revealed, increasing Marissa's feelings of failure. After clashing with Tom, she packs up her market stall - for good. Katy and Mickey meet and are attracted. Jason agonises over Katy, and walks out on an important exam. Liz notices a potential problem with Little Derek.
Pete gives Sandra a brand new car. Sandra refuses to accept the gift, until a visit to the country helps her realise that Pete's generosity is unconditional. John is won over by Pete. Infatuated with Mickey, Katy feels trapped in her relationship with Jason. Marissa tells Tom she refuses to be ordinary. Marissa attends a cattle call at a modelling agency.
Liz dreams of her father, Harry, then learns he's on his death bed. Liz implores her sister Margaret to fly out from England. Satisfied that his two daughters are reunited, he dies peacefully. After an outpouring of anger and recrimination, Liz and Margaret make their peace. Mickey goes to visit Katy, behind Jason's back.
Katy makes an excuse to get out of going to schoolies with Jason and Patch. While away, Jason sleeps with the fun loving Sylvana. Katy rejects Mickey out of loyalty to Jason. John and Liz's attempts to prepare the locals for the launch of the book backfire. Sandra and Pete clash over his support of the book. Kim goes on 'Good Morning Warrigong'.
Cam and Kim discuss the ramifications of the book on 'Sunrise'. After Patch and Jason try to replicate the exploding cow trick on Bert's prize bull, he threatens legal action. Jason confesses his infidelity to Katy, and learns that Mickey was seeing Katy. Pete's mum tells Sandra she doesn't approve of their relationship. Mickey kicks Tom and Marissa out of the house.
Marissa returns to Inverness with Tom, but turns down his marriage proposal - and the chance to audition for "Home and Away". Tom turns down Isabelle's offer to reveal his father's identity. Bert relives his yearning to be a surfer, and John fulfils his yearning to kick a winning goal. Katy decides to act on her yearning, and lands on Mickey's doorstep.
It's one week till Christmas and everyone is under pressure. John must regain the upport of the community and increase business at the neighbourhood centre. Eileen wants to raise money for the centre appeal. Jason is taking comfort in the bottle. Katy and Mickey want to make amends with Jason, so they can enjoy Christmas together. Sandra is determined to find the perfect gift for Pete's Mum and Pip wants to rekindle her friendship with Nick. The strains of the festive season are brought into perspective when troubled farmer, Les Doyle, attempts suicide, despite John's attempts to help him.
Liz tries hopelessly to keep her family together on Christmas Day. Sandra's dream Christmas turns to a cynical nightmare at Pete's mother's. Pip and Cam are too cool for Christmas but succumb to traditional festivities when Nick and Shelley show up. Jason goes out depressed and comes home drunk creating comic chaos for Eileen and Derek's plans - and everyone ends up at the neighbourhood centre, where the surprises just keep on coming.
Tensions flare and old wounds are opened on Boxing Day. Pete and Sandra clash over his mother, Isabelle and Tom clash over his father, and Jason and Mickey clash over Katy.
Sandra thinks her relationship with Pete may be over, Marissa suspects there may be more going on with Tom's father than meets the eye and Katy is surprised when Mickey makes an offer regarding their future. Jason has certainly gone a little off the rails in recent times. But tired of being the family "dropkick", he resolves to turn over a new leaf. His first goal is realised when he lands a job - as an assistant to Derek Unn. But as Jason's portrayer Daniel Bowden reveals, the character has a hidden agenda.
Sparks fly at John's marriage guidance seminar. Jason scores a win at the estate agency - at Marissa's expense. Tom learns the shocking truth about Gregory Kind's agenda. Is Pete cheating on Sandra?
Tom's world is rocked to its foundations with the results of a blood test. To tell or not to tell: Cam and Pip wrestle with the timebomb of Pete's infidelity. Liz and John become sudden co-hosts of Good Morning Warrigong - with potentially life-changing repercussions.
2001
John Taylor and his wife Liz live in the city with their three kids, rebellous Marissa, naive Kimberley and singer Jason. Their life is strenous, Kimberley is regularly bashed by Shelley Southall, Marissa is onto drugs and Jason's friend Mickey doesn't think his songs are good at all. John's sister Sandra Todd lives on a property at Inverness raising her two kids Pip and Campbell. Her life is hectic as well, she works for shonky real estate manager Derek Unn and her closest neighbour is out to kill all her pets and her family.
When the adults tell the kids of their idea, the reactions are varied. Marissa storms off to Skid (whom Liz discovers isn't that bad), Pip doesn't want to leave their dog Jack but the others are all considering it. Kim decides to put revenge on Shelley but her first plan doesn't go too well
A case of cold feet for both families as they begin to realise their decisions - are they really going to do this? Liz's decision to move and sense of herself are challenged by the humour and chaos of a school reunion. Pip declares war on puppy-killer Bert Adams. Marissa's assumptions about her father and his work are turned on their head when Mickey accompanies him on a night on the streets.
The day of the move comes and no-one is ready. As both families have to struggle with a lifetime of memories, Tom sets about to get a reference for Sandra from Derek, and to get Bert to give away one of his pups.
As the Taylors arrive in the country, after many bladder stops along the way, fights ensue over who gets which room. Kim and Jason end up getting rooms of choice while Marissa is left with the junk room. The Todd's arrival in the city is worse when they discover the house has been trashed and covered in graffiti.
Hosting a Church barbecue could help integrate the Taylors into the community at last - or ostracise them forever. Sandra's search for a job becomes serious as she realises just how much it costs to live in the city. Finding a small marijuana crop in the bush near the house, makes John realise the family haven't left all their problems behind them.
While Cam and Pip head off to a new school and Sandra accepts a date, John finally invites Skid out to the farm.
It's a regular weekend in Inverness. Jack the dog is pining for Pip, Tom is teaching Jason and John the basic tricks of the farming trade and Marissa is up surprisingly early for her first day of work. In the city, Pip goes to see Shelley but doesn't get anything out of it, a joke regarding Greg that Mickey tells Campbell doesn't go down too well and Sandra goes to another job interview for a software company, thanks to a friend of Greg's.
Sandra's 36th birthday - and her first without Robert - is fast approaching. Tom is heading to get his birth certificate and finally reveals issues of his parentage and how his adoptive father treated him. In Inverness, the church fete is looming and Jason, in an attempt to impress Isabelle, has promised he will bring a lot of cakes but the women of the family are reluctant to cook for him. The men are equally unimpressed with Marissa's campaign to advertise her clothing stall through pictures of men in frocks.
Inverness' female population are all out at Connie Linguini's kickboxing class. Well, except for Liz. She is stuck at home doing the housework and going unrecognized - this is not at all where she envisioned herself being as a farmer's wife. Jason finally gets a job as a labourer and Tom is edgy around Marissa after the picture in the previous episode and everyone else has now made him the butt of their jokes. Marissa tells Katy about Derek & Connie's relationship, something Katy finds hard to swallow. Connie, however, doesn't seem to mind how close Eileen is when she is making a move on Derek. Isabelle decides to make friends with the Taylors, which Jason takes as a very good sign.
This entire episode takes place on February 14 - Valentine's Day. Throughout this episode each character (main and recurring) takes time out in the 'Confession Room' to tell us their Valentine's hopes and dreams.
It is just a regular day at Inverness - well, sort of. Marissa is getting over her breakup with Skid, Kimmi is still jealous of Pip and John & Liz discover that Bert is planning to put a fence between their properties - making sure they pay half the price. Jason, Tom and their workmates get to work but the younger two - Patch and Scumbag, both have their eye on Marissa. In Allanhurst, Sandra has been invited by Greg Graham to the Real Estate Awards. Pip is going to a party with Bomber and Mickey and Campbell are staying home alone.
Liz is stressed because of the pregnancy, and the Taylor kids have yet to find out their mother is pregnant. Meanwhile, Jason tries to win back Katy but has no such luck as she is traumitised by the abortion. The Taylor and Todd families reunite at the farm house, and compare notes on how everything is going city and country wise. Liz confesses to Sandra of her pregnancy, and later on the rest of her family. This is met with joy and pleasure, the kids being happy for their mother and that they're going to have another younger brother or sister.
John tries to get the family involved in the fire brigade, and Marissa comes along to help out too, only to be harassed by the men that get involved with Jason. Jason gets a reaction from Isobel when he is pressured into the pyronist scene, and John and Liz are disappointed in what he has done.
Tom finds the identity of his real mother and real name (Isobel Turnbull!) and Marissa tells Sandra the truth of Tom being in love with her. Jason's friends continue to get him into trouble, and he and John's relationship is at breaking point.
After Jason's drinking gets him into trouble with his friends, John tells him a family secret that he accidently killed someone in a car crash because of his drinking, and he was put in jail and released on bail. He asks Jason to keep it between themselves. We learn more truths about Isabelle, and the fact she is hiding great sandness about what she saw Tom go through his whole child hood and she did nothing to stop it, and that she wasn't really his mother and Tom had to realise that, even though she is his biological mother only. Kim gets chicken pox and Liz worries about the health of her baby. Tom confronts Marissa, and Marissa is upset by Tom's reaction. Meanwhile, the city kids are lining up for tickets to the Limp Biscuit Concert, and camping out in the city which Sandra is reluctant about. Cam meets a girl and kisses her in line, and Shelly and Pip resolve a few differences.
Kim tries to make a family video, so they go to the city and film the Todds as well. Marissa is out while the others are at tea and the younger ones are having a party. She bumps into Tom and Skid at a nightclub, and has a run in with both of them. Tom tells her, while he is drunk, that she is special and will find someone one day, like the way he loves sandra. Jason meanwhile decides not to go, and stays home trying to study as he is really going back to school. Patch and Scumbag try and trash the place, but eventually he has a falling out with them and tells them to leave.
Liz is reading a magazine with some feminist issues, and they talk about it around the table at breakfast time. It then begins the comical scenes of an old fashioned family through out the ep, relating to marriage and divorce. Irene discovers Connie's affair with her husband Derek, and throws Derek out for the night. Derek has to stay with the Taylor's, as Marissa is his secratary. While Derek is having a great time there, Irene is really upset throwing out Derek's things and burning them in a fire. Meanwhile, in the city, Greg gets out of control with Mickey about Shelly, and they have fights and Mickey goes off to the country to see Jason and spend the night there. Pip and Cam are in trouble for throwing the party which Greg tells Sandra about, and Sandra and Greg go out on a date. Tom comes to visit Pip and Cam, and he says he's worried about Sandra with Greg, as Greg has a violent streak. In the end, Irene forgives Derek and takes him back.
Marissa struggles to remember the person she was in the city. Has the country really changed her that much? Kim has been involved with some of the popular crowd from Inverness School, and she's made some friends. However, they continue to taunt one girl and Marissa tells Kim she has turned out like Shelly Southall.
This episode is set around Easter time. Liz's parents come up for a surprise visit to the country, only to reveal that Liz's father has cancer. Meanwhile, in the city, Isobel goes to visit Katy on Good Friday. Katy was going to go for a drive with Tom, but when Isobel turns up for the surprise visit their plans are ruined. Pip and Cam are worried about their mother and Greg Steele, and try to jepoardize their relationship before coming to a conclusion that it's not the right thing to do.
Katy has to come home from the city. Tom drives her home, and when they get there rumors start flying about Tom and Katy once at Bert's party, which everyone wasn't going to come to. Marissa moves back to the city, Sandra also notices her feeling a little flat and has a chat to her about Tom (after she eats all of Pip's chocolate). Marissa thinks she has the worst taste in men because Tom has not responded to her.
Marissa is depressed over her feelings for Tom. Tom comes and wants to talk to Sandra. Marissa tries to read the letter Isabelle gave him, but Tom says he would prefer Sandra do it, which makes her more upset, as Tom says he can't read. Meanwhile, Liz and John are trying to get a loan. They did not succeed and, Isabelle tells John at the pub she hasn't heard from Tom since he got the letter.
