Neighbours

Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera created by Reg Watson. The show premiered in Australia on 18 March 1985. It was cancelled by its original broadcast channel during 1985. It continued on a different network and is currently the longest running Australian television drama series.

Neighbours' storylines explore the domestic lives of the residents of Ramsay Street, a short cul-de-sac of six houses in the fictional suburb of Erinsborough.

Five twenty-two-minute episodes are broadcast every week at 6:30 p.m. across Australia. The series is produced by FremantleMedia Australia, which was formed in January 2007 by the merger of Grundy Television and Crackerjack Productions.

History

Neighbours was created in 1985 by Australian TV executive Reg Watson. Watson, who based the show on British soap opera Coronation Street , proposed the idea of making a show that would focus on more realistic stories and portray teens and adults who talk openly to each other and solve their problems together. Seven Network commissioned the show, following the success of Watson's Sons and Daughters . The first episode was broadcast on 18 March 1985. The Melbourne-produced programme underperformed in the Sydney market. It struggled for four months before Seven Network cancelled the show. The series was immediately bought by rival Network Ten. Ten began screening the series with episode 171 on 20 January 1986. On 27 October 1986 the series debuted in the UK on BBC One starting with the first episode. It soon gained a loyal audience and the show became very popular within the student market.

In 2007 the show underwent a revamp, which included a switch to recording in HDTV, introducing a new family of characters, the departure of several existing characters and a new version of the show's familiar theme song and opening titles. In addition, episode titles were abandoned, having been in use for the previous three years. Daniel Bennett, the new head of drama at Network Ten, announced that the crux of the Ramsay Street story would go "back to basics" and follow a less sensational path than of late with the emphasis on family relations and suburban reality.

In July 2008, Neighbours was branded "too white" by black and Asian viewers in Britain and in Australia there was talk of a 'White Australia Policy' when it came to casting actors for soaps. In response to the criticism, executive producer Susan Bower made a decision to add more ethnically diverse extras, small walk on roles and speaking parts, as well as introducing the character of Sunny Lee (played by Hany Lee) an exchange student from South Korea. In 2009, the show became the first Australian series to establish Twitter accounts for its characters. FremantleMedia Enterprises vice-president of licensing Ben Liebmann said, "We thought it was a really great way to continue or allow the audience to engage with the Neighbours world off-screen". The messages are overseen by the Fremantle digital team, which is integrated with the story department of the Neighbours production team.

In 2010, an extra slashed her wrist on set in front of the cast and smashed several props. The incident happened on the Charlie's Bar set. The set was cleared and taping cancelled for the day. The cast member was removed from the set by police and ambulance staff .

In early 2010 Neighbours submitted a skit for inclusion in the Logie awards. However, producers deemed it was "too risque" and the sketch was blocked .

25th anniversary

On 18 March 2010, Neighbours celebrated its 25th anniversary. Executive producer Susan Bower told Five's Holy Soap website that Neighbours would have new opening titles that would contain some "bling" to reflect the anniversary. A one hour episode about Neighbours' history and future will also be shown. Jason Donovan said he was asked to return to the show, but will not be returning due to work commitments.

Ahead of the 25th anniversary the Erinsborough village set underwent a makeover. Harold's Store and Charlie's remained the same, but the centre of the complex was upgraded. Lassiters was given a new logo and gained a second floor with outdoor seating area. Erinsborough Hospital and the police station received new facades, a used car lot was created near the garage and a new university set was created.

In April 2010, as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations, Five launched a search in Britain, similar to the competition Neighbours run in Australia with Dolly (magazine), to find someone to play the part of Poppy Rogers, a friend of Malcolm Kennedy.

Setting

Neighbours' main focus is the fictional Ramsay Street, a residential cul-de-sac in the fictional Melbourne suburb of Erinsborough.

Pin Oak Court, in Vermont South, is the real cul-de-sac that doubles for Ramsay Street and is used for exterior scenes on Ramsay Street. All of the houses featured in the show are real and the residents allow Neighbours to shoot external scenes in their front and back gardens and on occasions, in their garages. Neighbours has been filmed in Pin Oak Court since the series began in 1985 and it has since become popular with tourists. Tours to the cul-de-sac run throughout the year. Neighbours interior scenes are filmed at the Global Television studios in Forest Hill, the adjoining suburb in which Pin Oak Court is located.

Through much of the show's run it was not stated which city of Australia Erinsborough was located. Occasional onscreen clues suggested Erinsborough was a suburb of Melbourne, but there were few clear references to this given in dialogue. Since the 2000s it has been explicitly stated that Erinsborough is a suburb of Melbourne. Several references were made to the Parker family moving to Melbourne from Queensland, while the new titles sequence introduced in July 2007 included images of the Melbourne city skyline and the Yarra River. Other Australian locations mentioned and sometimes seen in the series include the fictitious suburbs of West Waratah, Eden Hills and Anson's Corner. Real life Australian towns in the state of Victoria such as Colac and Shepparton are sometimes referred to, Oakey in Queensland is also mentioned and sometimes seen.

Filming locations outside of Australia have included Kenya, the United States and the UK, which has seen Neighbours episodes filmed there on three occasions. In February 1990, Lyme Park in Cheshire doubled as the Ledgerwood estate set in Yorkshire. Derek Nimmo guest starred as the fictitious Lord Ledgerwood in two of the episodes. In late November 1992, the characters Rick Alessi and Debbie Martin visited London to attend a Michael Jackson concert. The second London-based storyline was broadcast in late March 2007. Susan and Karl Kennedy were seen taking a ride on the London Eye and being married on a boat on the Thames river.

Broadcasting

Through its entire run in Australia, Neighbours has been screened as a 22-minute episode each week night in an early-evening slot. Neighbours is on air for approximately 44 weeks per year. It is broadcast from early January to early December, and goes off air for approximately five weeks during the Christmas/New Year period. The show currently airs at 6:30p.m, going up against rival current affairs shows Today Tonight on the Seven Network, and A Current Affair on the Nine Network. The last five aired episodes shown are available to watch on the Neighbours official Australian website, as a part of Network Ten's Catch Up TV service.

When the show began in 1985, the first season was broadcast on the Seven Network, at 5:30 p.m. in Sydney, at 6:00p.m in Melbourne in Adelaide and at 7.00 p.m. in Brisbane. The show's transmission in other areas was varied and many regional channels declined to purchase the series. When the show debuted on Network Ten in 1986 it screened at 7:00p.m. In 1992 the show moved to 6:30 p.m. Repeat episodes of Neighbours episodes from the 1988-1991 period were broadcast between 2000 and June 2003 on Network Ten. These episodes were seen at 3:30p.m, before moving to 11:30 a.m. During 2008 Ten HD broadcast the previous week's episodes in an omnibus edition each Sunday. These omnibus editions did not return in 2009 as Ten HD was replaced by a 24-hour sports channel One HD starting March 2009.

International broadcasts

Neighbours has been sold to 57 countries around the world and is one of Australia's most successful media exports.

Neighbours has proved to be more consistently popular in the United Kingdom than in Australia, with a peak of 19.1 million viewers watching Scott and Charlene's wedding in 1988, a figure higher than the entire Australian population at the time. It was screened on BBC One from 1986 until 2008. Towards the late 2000s it was normally attracting an average of 3 million viewers for its lunchtime showing and 2.6 million viewers for its early-evening repeat. It is frequently the highest-rating daytime programme in the UK, outside of news bulletins. In 2008 the UK broadcast moved to rival channel Five after the BBC withdrew from talks to keep the show, after they were asked to pay £300m over eight years by Fremantle. Five picked up the show and began broadcasting it in February 2008. The first episode to be shown on Five — episode number 5,331 — was watched by 2.2 mill