Set in the 1970s, at a time of sexual liberation and social change, the ABC’s new drama series Barons airs Sunday, April 24 on ABC and iview at 8:30pm, and tells the story of what happens when a new surfing counterculture and the spirit of enterprise collide.
Mediaweek spoke to Barons co-creator, lead writer, and executive producer Liz Doran about hitting the waves for the new eight part series.
Liz Doran
“Mick Lawrence and Nick Cook, who are two of the producers of the show had optioned a book about the history of the surf business, and I’d already previously worked with John Molloy (co-creator, producer) on Molly.
“In the really, really early stages I bumped into John and I was like, ‘Oh my God, John, I would love to work on a show about surfing’. Actually, to be honest, he didn’t believe me!”
Eventually, Molloy believed her and Doran jumped on board.
“I was really passionate about this idea of a surfing story, which is always told from a really male perspective, and I always really wanted to tell it including other perspectives – nonwhite men, women, and other people who weren’t necessarily fitting into that type.”
Barons kicks off in 1971, and wastes no time in tackling some of the major events of the time. Doran says that telling the story around real life happenings was one of the reasons she was so excited to get involved.
“A lot of other surf stories just tell the story of surfing and the development of new boards or wetsuits or board shorts.
“Once you start digging into this time, you go ‘well, okay, so if we start the story in 1971, what was happening in 1971?’ One of the really big things that was happening was the Vietnam War. There are really quite famous stories of famous surfers who either got called up to the war, or who were conscientious objectors, so it’s actually not a story that’s disconnected from the actual real history of surfing anyway – especially in Australia.
“It was always a story that was set in the world of surfing, rather than being a story about surfing itself.”
As with most productions that have been created in the last couple of years, Covid threw in some speedbumps along the way.
“We shot in 2021. In 2020 things got put on hold a bit while we waited out that first lockdown, then as we were getting ready to shoot, that second wave of lockdowns hit us. We lost locations, we lost cast, we had to do a lot of rewriting.”
The Barons team got permission to keep shooting through the lockdown, and in amongst all the chaos Doran says there was a silver lining.
“We didn’t think we were at the time, but we realised later we were lucky in that we shot during that second lockdown. It basically meant that there was no traffic on the roads, so it was really easy for us to get around.
“We worked in a bubble and what it meant was that the cast and crew could really bond and which was really great, because we’re making a show that was set in this other time. It was almost like we were living in this other time – we all just moved separately from everyone else.
“It was like this little bubble where we could create this beautiful other world of the 70s. It was actually weirdly kind of to our advantage, even with all the disadvantages.”
While the cast brought the 70s to life in front of the camera, the Barons directors worked on bringing it to life from behind it.
“Shawn Seet came on as the setup director, and he genuinely was our dream director, we just loved working with him. The setup that Shawn did was that really rare moment where the person who’s responsible for creating this visual thing actually creates the show that we all had in our head. Then Fadia Abboud was a second director, and was equally as amazing. It would be really remiss not to mention how beautiful their work is, along with Taylor Steele who did all the beautiful surf photography.”
For Doran, it’s not just important for Australians to see their own stories, but it’s also important for the rest of the world to hear about Australian stories as well.
“We always wanted to make a really big international show, and I really hope that’s what we’ve done.
“The idea of making a big international show was always that it would be really completely solidly based in an Australian story. The biggest compliments we get for the show from me are when people say, ‘look, it feels really big, it feels really international, it looks really beautiful, but it also feels really intrinsically Australian’.”
With Barons, Doran says the excitement of having the final product out in the world has won out over the nerves of launching a new show.
“I’m actually genuinely excited for people to see it. Often you’re a little bit like, ‘I don’t know if anyone is going to like it,’ but with this one, I’m really like, ‘yeah, just watch it. You’re going to love it’.”
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Top Image: Sharpie (Nicholas Burton), Buddy (Lincoln Younes) and Dani (Sophia Forrest)