Neighbours

1 9 8 5 - Current (Australia)
Thousands x 30 minute episodes

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 Walton's in swimsuits with all mod cons and you're close.

This serial was carefully conceived and marketed, including the preparation of five different pilot scripts and two actual pilots. However, the program 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 Organization 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 onscreen 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 EastEnders and Coronation Street in the ratings. It also screens in several other countries including Zambia and Mauritius.

Structurally it is the most unremarkable of shows. Although there is a smattering of fatal accidents, dramatic disappearances and mental breakdowns, much of the Neighbours plot revolves around the mundane daily activities of the Robinson's, Clarks, Ramsays, Bishops, Willises etc etc. At one stage, little Lucy Robinson went blind after falling down a hole. She recovered her sight but sadly the doctors never cured her other problem - her inability to blow her nose . . .

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.