It's been great! I've learnt a lot!
I feel like the historical setting made it something slightly other than a soap, although it obviously had a whole lot of soapy things going for it. And maybe cos I (we) only discovered it after it had finished, it didn't have that open-ended soap vibe. You always knew there was an end in sight.
I hope I wasn't suggesting that it should be called a soap opera, after all, before the internet that description didn't even exist in my world and everything from Who Pays The Ferryman to Dallas was a drama series - or just TV series.
I’ve watched the first three episodes of Echo Point (the most I’ve ever seen of the show) and it’s clear why it floundered so spectacularly. The production values are no different to what H&A and Neighbours had at the time, the casting is no different and the storylines are no different. And that’s the problem. It’s a cookie cutter soap, in the same mould as what it was competing against. It offered nothing new, so while H&A may have been on its arse, I know as a viewer, I would’ve preferred to stick with established characters that I knew, playing out mediocre storylines rather than a group of new, in some cases annoying, characters that I didn’t know, playing out mediocre storylines. It was essentially H&A without the beach (there may be a beach but I’ve yet to see it).Echo Point - 1995
In 1995, Home and Away was in the ratings doldrums, so Ten made the bold move to try and kill off the main rival to it's flagship soap Neighbours, by scheduling a brand new serial directly against the struggling Summer Bay sudser. Produced by Southern Star Productions, the company behind hit drama Police Rescue, the first proposal was Back Home, a period drama set in a country town in the 60's. That idea was scrapped in favour of Bells Point, which was described as a combination of "the cool, funky, inner-city style of E Street with the relaxed bayside lifestyle of Home & Away". Bells Point was "a trendy settlement nestled just across the bay from a thriving metropolis" and would be promoted with the tagline "a cool place to be". Before shooting began, it was reworked one final time. Now called Echo Point, the show was described as "intrigue and romance set against a backdrop of shady trees, fishermen, funky music and sunsets". Production on what one press release called "Neighbours with edge" duly began around Middle Harbour in Sydney.
The show focused on four families - the Lomans, the Brennans, the Amadios and the O'Connors. Trish Loman (Victoria Nicolls) ran the marina café while salesman husband Neville (Sean Scully) was a serial cheat. Their kids were intelligent Frannie (Rebecca Murphy), schoolboy Dean (Diarmid Heidenreich) and spirited Lisa (Hayley Phillips). Trish's brother Hopper Hadley (David Woodley) was the local heartthrob who was about to settle down with single mother Coral O'Connor (Roxane Wilson). Her 15 year old daughter Belinda (future Hollywod star Rose Byrne) regarded her mother's boss, baker Maurie Bernard (John Clayton) as her adopted dad after her own father had died when she was young, although there were hints that not all was what it seemed regarding his "death" of Belinda's father. Gordon Amadio (Alan Lovell) was the local timberyard owner whose teenage daughter Edwina (Jessica Napier) wasn't too keen on his girlfriend, nurse Holly (Kimberly Davenport). Edwina would soon be distracted by the return of her troubled ex-boyfriend Zac (Martin Henderson) while Holly's own hands were full when her unhinged niece Shelley (Louise Crawford) and sensitive nephew Marty (Jack Ellis) turned up in Echo Point following the death of their mother.
Another return would provide the catalyst of Echo Point's opening mystery. After years away, Daniel Blake (Phillip Gordon) return to town to reclaim his inheritance following the death of his parents years earlier. Rumours had swirled at the time that he'd killed them but he was never charged. Now, upon returning to his childhood home, Daniel was having flashbacks of a violent struggle and gunshots. Had he actually killed his parents? And if not him, then whodunnit? The cast and crew were positive ahead of the show's launch but when the Home and Away team knew what was being scheduled against them, they began overhauling the show to have it in fighting form by the time Echo Point was due to premiere. With the show's due to go head to head on June 5th, Seven pulled out all the stops to strangle Echo Point at birth. In addition to a watch and win contest where viewers could win a trip to the Atlanta Olympics, this was also the week that fan favourite Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) made her infamous return from the grave via Ailsa's fridge. To add further to the whirlwind of publicity, a second 90's star, Marilyn (Emily Symons) also made her comeback to the Bay, albeit in human form and on a more full time basis than Bobby's ghost. The stunts worked and despite having Neighbours as it's lead in, the opening episode of Echo Point only pulled in 501,000 viewers in Sydney compared to H&A's 1,019,000. This was less viewers than the Roseanne repeats that it replaced. By the second night, viewers were down to 339,000, making it the worst soap debut since Family and Friends.
Ten remained upbeat, stating "the figures are what we expected. We have great faith in the show. It's not the first day or first week that counts. You have to look six months on". The critics however were already going in for the kill, comparing the show to Arcade and referring to it as Suicide Point or What's the Point? Much to the chagrin of some of the regular cast (according to TV Week), Ten tried to boost ratings by bringing in familiar faces from other shows as guest stars including E Street's Melissa Tkautz and Paradise Beach's Ingo Rademacher. Socialite Kate Fischer was brought on for a much publicised guest spot but when ratings actually dropped during her appearances, Ten moved the show back to 6pm, out of the firing line of H&A, to no avail. Soap royalty Rowena Wallace showed up as Coral's mother Elizabeth, but with ratings continuing to fall, Ten called time on the show and shifted it to 11.30pm to play out the rest of the 130 episodes that had been commissioned. As the show ended, the opening mystery was resolved as Zac's mother returned to town to confess to accidentally killing Daniel's parents while it was a happier ending for Coral and Hopper as they got married. Despite the show being largely forgotten (although it was apparently huge in Germany), it is available to stream on Amazon Prime in the UK, possibly because it features Hollywood stars Rose Byrne and Martin Henderson in early TV roles but more likely because it was bought cheap as part of a catalogue.
The first volume of Skyways has just been released on DVD.Skyways - 1979 to 1981
After a string of false starts, Cop Shop had finally provided Seven with a successful soap. Off the back of this, they wanted to expand their soap stable, specifically to go up against Nine's hit variety hour The Don Lane Show. Initially they considered going the sex and sin route with a pilot about horny truckers called Roadhouse starring Number 96's Deborah Gray. This was canned and they turned again to Crawford's, who pitched an airport soap called Skyways. The show would follow the Cop Shop pattern of having guest stars and stand alone stories being told across it's two episodes a week while it's regular cast of airport staff would provide the serialised soapiness. The promise of another Cop Shop style success story coupled with boasts of using props worth $42m (the jets) were obviously enough to dazzle Seven, who committed to 78 episodes before a scene had been shot.
After a boozy press launch in Tasmania and print promos teasing "You won't believe what they get up to" and "Adult TV Drama Takes Off", Skyways premiered in July 1979, airing twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. Paul McFarlane (Tony Bonner) was the newly appointed head of Pacific International Airport. At work, his ambitious assistant manager Louise (Tina Bursill) was after his job, while at home he faced further strife from his teenage twins (one being played by future S&D star Andrew McKaige) and his recently returned estranged wife Elaine (Carmen Duncan). Peter Fanelli (Bill Stalker) was the airport security chief in love with recovered heroin addict/ex prostitute Faye (Kris McQuade) who would tragically die in a skydiving accident. Lesbian air hostess Robyn (Judy Morris) was similarly unlucky in love, as she fought off advances from both women and men while she hopelessly pursued her uninterested straight colleague Jackie (Deborah Coulls). Her relationship woes would come to an end when she was killed off, Psycho style, in the shower. Amidst the dramas of the regulars was a rotation of guest characters including runaways, drug smugglers, East German defectors and Arab sheikhs played variously by the likes of Bunney Brooke, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan.
Critics never took to the show. "Fasten the seatbelts. Skyways might be a long, long flight" said the Sydney Morning Herald, while the Adelaide Advertiser dramatically wished for "a fast crash landing with no survivors". Producer Jock Blair admitted that the use of chroma key technology (the first soap to use it) to insert airport and runway backgrounds was a mistake as it left scenes looking very ropey. In addition to poor reviews, dodgy looking scenes and the old issue of it not rating in Sydney because it was a Melbourne show, cast members began to depart. Seven began promoting new episodes as Skyways '80 as a host of new characters arrived but the new arrivals didn't give it the boost producers had hoped for and the show wrapped up in 1981. It ended with a bizarre episode featuring a Princess Diana lookalike, as the royal couple travelled through the airport during their Australian tour.
Unlike some other short-lived soaps, Skyways isn't remembered for being particularly bad. It just isn't particularly well remembered. In the UK, a market where most Aussie soaps got a turn, it only aired on minor satellite channels in the 80's and 90's while it also had runs in Kenya and Zambia. It's most memorable legacy is probably the transfer of character Peter Fanelli over to the more successful Cop Shop, where he stayed until the tragic death of actor Bill Stalker in 1981. A less successful transfer was the relocating of George Tippett (Brian James) to another Crawford's failure Holiday Island which we are due to visit soon.
A rather surprising development but a welcome one if it means more of the shortlived soaps get a look in on DVD or streaming.
I was about to snap it up from viavision only to discover that it's a Crawford release and consequently it will only be available in Australia/NZ and the UK.
I’d a look at the UK release and if they continue to put out the sets at that price, with that number of episodes, the whole series would cost in the region of €300. Which is a bit steep for what is really quite a niche release. Anyway, I’ve said it here before but releases like this E Street do give me hope that Pacific Drive might show up on DVD at some stage.
Crawford's due to a mix up have missed the first two episodes off.
I think something similar happened with either the Crossroads Noele Gordon collection or one of the Sons and Daughters box sets.
A few Aussie rarities have popped up on You know where, including the opening sequence to this infamous flop.Hotel Story - 1977With Number 96 and The Box on their way out, Channel Ten was on the lookout for a replacement soap. None of Cash Harmon's proposed 96 spinoffs were going anywhere fast, so they turned to Crawford Productions who offered up Hotel Story. It was envisaged as taking over The Box's soon to be vacated timeslot, allowing for continued sex and sin, this time in a luxury hotel. Terence Donovan would play the manager while Carmen Duncan and US actor Richard Lawson (current Mr Tina Knowles, former Mr Dominique Devereaux) were among the regular cast. Guest stars would pop in each week to play out episodic stories that would run alongside the serialised shenanigans of the regular cast. Kind of like a more soapy version of what was to come in The Love Boat and Hotel. A pilot was made in late 1976 but when production on the regular series (due to air twice a week for an initial thirteen weeks) began in May 1977, that was when the proverbial hit the fan. The network decided that the sex angle was out, as were a lot of the guest performers as a result of the change in tone. Actors Equity were making a fuss over the fact that Richard Lawson was getting paid a lot more than the Aussie actors. Even with the changes, the network didn't like what they saw and after only seven episodes were produced and before any made it to air, they pulled the plug with an angry cast initially only finding out about it via the newspapers. The press got further mileage out of it by reporting that gameshow host Graham Kennedy of Ten's hit Blankety Blanks had a hand in it's axing (Ten denied this, although they stated that he was a network consultant). With their axed show getting more column inches by the day, Ten ran full page ads in Melbourne and rushed out what episodes they had in order to capitalise on the coverage of the disaster. While it aired in Melbourne in July, it didn't see the light of day in Sydney until December 1977, when they put out six episodes over two weeks. Unperturbed by the whole car crash, Crawford and Ten later would later revisit the idea when they produced Holiday Island in 1981 (more on this later).
Crash Palace - 2002Crash Palace was born out of the directive that subscription channels like FOX8 had to start investing 10% of their budgets on local programming and from FOX’s desire to produce a show that could be aired internationally across their various TV networks. Breakers creator Jimmy Thomson was developing projects at FOX at the time. He responded to the call for an international project, with an idea inspired by Kings Cross, the backpacker packed area of Sydney that he was living in at the time. Crash Palace’s setting of The Royal (based on real life backpacker hostel, Original Backpackers on Victoria Street) was to be filled with a cast of characters from around the world (their nationalities would be dictated by whichever countries invested in the show’s production) and it would be edgier and feature “swearing, sex and drug taking” as well as “nastier characters” that you wouldn’t see on the likes of H&A or Neighbours.
The original opening premise was to revolve around a fire at an illegal hostel but the similarities to the real life Childers hostel tragedy in 2000 made the British backers Sky veto that plot. Instead, the show opened with British backpackers Tina (Hollyoaks star Stephanie Waring) and Kirsty (Rachel Aveling) arriving in Sydney and immediately getting involved in drama when they picked up the wrong backpack at the airport, which happened to be full of ecstasy tablets. They landed into the Royal, which was run by George (Tim McGunn) and his Brazilian wife Isabella (Lisa Bailey) who oversaw the various bedhopping and backstabbing among guests including American couple Wendy (Amelia Barrett, daughter of Carmen Duncan) and Ricky (Daniel Billet) and mother and daughter Penny (Tandi Wright) and Miranda (Jess Gower), who were both out to snare the same man, good guy caretaker Dave (played by H&A’s Dieter Brummer). Also part of the UK contingent were sleazy John (Warren Derosa - another migrant from Hollyoaks), his drug dealer mate Bryan (Toby Truslove) and Scottish Angie (Simone McAullay) who had her eye on Ricky. Argentinean Inez (Tory Mussett) and her lesbian best friend Carla (Victoria Hill) who was secretly in love with , rounded out the cast.
And so began the merry go round of drunken sexual shenanigans where people hopped in and out of each others beds, got chased by drug dealers and turned to sex work. Amidst all of the drunken debauchery that made up most of the action, the show’s two most notable plots involved the sexual assault of Tina, where every man in the hostel was a suspect (it turned out to be hostel owner George) and the sudden death of Dave following a diving accident (that may not have been an accident). The role of Dave was originally supposed to be played by Craig McLachlan and was always only going to be short term. When he dropped out, they wanted another familiar soap name and Dieter Brummer was drafted in for the limited role.
The show ran for 30 minutes, twice a week on FOX8 in Australia, Sky One in Ireland and the UK and on FOX stations in Spain and South America. After 65 episodes, series one drew to a close with cliffhangers involving a drug overdose and a dodgy hitchhiker. International partners had lost interest but Sky were due to fund a second series that would be sexier than the first. After a year passed and new management took over at Sky, it became clear that a second series wouldn’t be happening and the cliffhangers were left unresolved. To date, I believe this is the only time that an Aussie subscription channel has dipped its toe into the world of soap.
Crawfords had form for rehashing theme tunes (the intro from the god awful Two Way Mirror pilot becoming the classic piano intro to The Sullivans) so this may have popped up in another of their series.
I’m guessing if the intro and some clips exist, there must be some recordings of episodes floating around somewhere.
Sorry, I stand corrected. Two Way Mirror was actually a Grundy production. Not sure how its theme made it on to a Crawford show but I’m glad it did, as it became one of the classics.
The segment in this clip is mostly about H&A and A Country Practice but it also features the infamous Bellbird death referenced above.
