The Man from Snowy River is an Australian adventure drama television series based on Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River". Released in Australia as Banjo Paterson's The Man from Snowy River, the series was subsequently released in both the United States and the United Kingdom as Snowy River: The McGregor Saga.
The series follows the adventures of Matt McGregor (Andrew Clarke), a successful Australian rancher, and his family. Matt is the hero immortalized in Banjo Paterson's poem "The Man from Snowy River", and the series is set 25 years after his famous ride. Patterson's poem was also the basis for two films The Man from Snowy River, and The Man from Snowy River II.
During the late 1800s widower Matt McGregor, his adult sons Collin and Rob, plus adolescent daughter Danni, live and work on their cattle ranch named Langara. Widow Kathleen O'Neil and her young son Michael live on a nearby smaller property. To earn needed money Kathleen teaches school and runs the local newspaper. Matt and Kathleen eventually wed.
Wealthy and unscrupulous Oliver Blackwood, along with Matt's bitter nephew Luke, habitually cause trouble for the McGregors.
Stars and guest stars of the series included notable and future notable actors.
The Man from Snowy River was nominated for the Logie Award for Most Popular Series in 1995.
When the series was distributed to some countries, the title was changed for various reasons.
The series was aired on Family Channel in the US, BBC Two in the UK, and WIC-owned and independent stations in Canada.
On 27 June 1995, the pilot was released on VHS
On 5 March 2002, a number of single episode videos were released on VHS. These include episodes "New Business", "Grand Opening", "Black Sheep", "Comeback", "The Grand Duke", and "Prince of Hearts"
In 2003, a region 1 DVD of the series pilot was released.
In 2004, season 4 was released as a 3 disk set, this time in region 4. This was followed by season 1 (3 disks) and season 2 (4 disks) in 2005, and season 3 (4 disks) in 2006.
On 25 January 2005, three 2-episode DVDs from the series were released in region 1. These episodes were the same as they had previously released on VHS.
In 2006, a 3-episode DVD was released in region 1, containing episodes previously released on VHS and DVD. In early 2007, a second DVD was released containing the remaining three previously released episodes. Later in 2007, a third DVD was released. Though the DVD case misreports two of the episodes as titles from the previous release, the actual contents are three never-before released episodes.
In 2008, all three of their previous DVDs was released as a set. The package contained one DVD case for "There was more than one wild west!" and a new double DVD case for the other two. The erroneous episode information for the third volume was corrected on the box and the double DVD case.
In 2010, a combined 2-DVD package was released containing the last two DVDs (Adventure in the Australian Outback and A Different Breed of Cowboy).
In 2010, the entire series was released for region 4, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the poem.
In 2011, season 1 was released for region 2 with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish subtitles.
Geoff Burrowes producer of the Snowy River films sued the producers of the series for using the title. The case settled out of court.