Neighbours
 1 9 8 5 - Current (Australia)
As the theme song suggests, every one who lives on Ramsay
Street needs good neighbours!
Everything in sunny Ramsay Street is as clean and straight as
its teenagers teeth. Neighbours has neat houses, quickly
tidied problems, strong young bodies, strong old biddies, token
grown men and the teeniest smidgen of sex.
Think of The Waltons in swimsuits with all mod cons and
you're close.
Neighbours debuted in Australia on 18 March 1985 on the Australian Seven
Network. The serial was very carefully conceived and marketed,
including the preparation of five different pilot scripts and two
actual pilots.
However, the show did not do well initially for Channel Seven
and after six months on the air with 170 episodes in the can, the
Seven Network announced that the show was being cancelled. The
Grundy Organisation immediately sold the series to the Ten Network
and the rest is history . . .
Neighbours underwent a facelift. Out went the gritty,
working-class focus of the original script with its emphasis on
middle-aged figures, and in came more affluent homes and
surroundings, quality brand-name clothing, more good looking
teenagers and professional and semi-professional workers.
Most of the original cast disappeared and in their place came
such characters as Charlene (Kylie Minogue), Scott (played by
Jason Donovan) and Mike (a pre-Priscilla Guy Pearce).
Neighbours was to turn these three and several others
into Stars with a capital S. In turn their presence was to be
hugely beneficial to the program.
Indeed, the on-screen wedding of Charlene and Scott made nearly
every magazine and newspaper front cover in Australia.
 In
1986, Neighbours began on British television on the BBC,
originally in the daytime but later (due to good audience
response) it was moved to an early evening timeslot. Soon, with a
good deal of media hype, Neighbours fever was
everywhere.
Neighbours consistently scored in the top three British
television dramas and repeatedly finished ahead of East Enders
and Coronation Street in the ratings. It also screens in
several other countries including Zambia and Mauritius.
Structurally it was (and still is) the most unremarkable of
shows.
Although there are a smattering of fatal accidents, dramatic
disappearances and mental breakdowns, much of the Neighbours
plot always revolved around the mundane daily activities of the
Robinsons, Clarks, Ramsays, Bishops, Willises etc etc .
Past characters frequently return to Ramsay Street and the
residents often travel to exotic locations (Japan, New Zealand,
Adelaide . . .).
Add to this the fact that there is often comic relief and you
can see why it occupies a particular niche in the world of
international soaps.
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