A Chronological History of Australian Soap

[Alison Carr]

 

[Alison Carr]

 

[Alison Carr]

 

[Mel O'Drama]

my character was going to go on a journey similar to that of her mother in the original mini series. I was to be the ugly duckling who throughout the course of the show developed into the beautiful swan. Sadly that angle of the show was dropped at the last minute leaving me with very little to actually do.

Despite it being yet more repetition of the mini-series, it sounds far more appealing than what we got with Sarah, who barely registered with me.

They went this route anyway with the Saskia Post character, but they might as well have kept it in the family.

for revenge, there was one particular scene where I was throwing poor Peta Toppano around the bedroom and my tie became loose, I made a point of looking straight down the camera and dramatically straightening my tie, it was left in the final edit too and now when you next watch it you will really notice it and see how pointed it was.

I can clearly picture that scene now, so it must have made an impression on me.





All this Return To Eden talk is giving me a yen to play the soundtrack. I think I'll do just that as I prepare dinner later on.

 

[Willie Oleson]

They went this route anyway with the Saskia Post, but they might as well have kept it in the family.

Especially in the family since the daughter would fall in love with her stepfather. Talk about missed opportunity.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Home and Away - 1988 to present

​

After a somewhat unplanned summer hiatus, we're back to wander through the annals of Aussie soap. And what better show to return with than Home and Away. Stung by rival Ten's success with their former show Neighbours, Seven were desperate to launch a rival soap to get a piece of the international action that the Ramsay Street residents were enjoying. Head of drama, Alan Bateman, found his inspiration during a stopover in a NSW country town, where a planned home for foster kids from the city faced opposition from the locals. Seeing the potential for drama from such a conflict, Bateman put together an outline called Refuge, set in coastal Summer Bay. Seven weren't convinced but audience research proved positive and production began with the gentler sounding title of Home and Away.

Despite going into production, the opening scripts still needed some work. Sons and Daughters scribe Bevan Lee stated "The idea of the family coming to the seaside was fantastic but the way it was done was all wrong". Shooting was put on hold for three weeks while Lee reworked the opening storylines "I say I co-created H&A because I recreated it and stayed on as head writer for the first 15 months". Changes included Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) being rewritten as a local outsider who is embraced by the new family (the original script saw Bobby arrive in Summer Bay as one of the Fletchers' foster kids). Speaking about the foster kid premise, producer John Holmes (who'd launched both versions of Neighbours) said "H&A was always set up in a way that we could rejuvenate the show when necessary. To this day, the show has been able to return again and again to it's original concept which is ready made for lots of soapie conflict".

The original cast was mostly made up of young unknowns, with the parental roles filled by familiar but not huge star names who'd done the rounds of the other Aussie soaps. The biggest "name" was Carol Willesee. New to acting, Carol was best known as the wife of current affairs TV stalwart Mike Willesee and would play matriarch Pippa Fletcher. However, none of her scenes were to make it to air due to a disagreement over contract terms. Carol maintained that Seven told her she could have school holidays off, as well as late starts and early finishes in order to spend more time with her family. Seven maintained that this wasn't workable on a five day a week show, so Carol was out and Vanessa Downing was in.

The premiere telemovie aired in January 1988, with the daily serial commissioned with the unenviable task of going up against the Nine News at 6pm daily. However, good opening reviews gave hope that they'd manage the uphill struggle against their strong competition. The show began with city couple Tom (Roger Oakley) and Pippa Fletcher (Vanessa Downing) and their ragtag band of foster kids Frank (Alex Papps), Carly (Sharyn Hodgson), Steven (Adam Willits), Lynn (Helena Vozich) and Sally (Kate Ritchie) upping sticks and buying a caravan park in Summer Bay. Former caravan park owner Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) faced opposition from his teenage daughter Roo (Justine Clarke) as he tried to introduce new girlfriend Ailsa (Judy Nunn) into their lives while local tearaway Bobby was found squatting in the caravan park before being taken in by the Fletchers. Summer Bay High's stuffy deputy headmaster Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn) watched disapprovingly as his new neighbours ("the bad blood brood") took in his worst student.

Unfortunately for H&A, the good reviews didn't translate to good ratings and Seven came close to axing the show as the numbers stagnated in the early months. One of the issues was the self contained storylining. Bevan Lee said "We were trying to de-soapify the show and see each week as a bit more self contained. Unfortunately that means there was no narrative imperative for the audience to come back night after night". With the axe looming, Alan Bateman bought them more time and Bevan Lee went to work at soaping it up by introducing a peeping tom and the popular Bobby-Frank-Roo love triangle. Add to that, edgier storylines involving teen pregnancy, rape and alcoholism, and by the end of 1988, Seven had a hit on their hands. The show hit UK screens in early 1989, when ITV picked it up for their daytime and early evening schedule. It had a similarly slow start there but soon became a super hit.

As the show gained traction, some stars left for pastures new (panto in the UK / the obligatory pop career) while a raft of familiar faces entered the fray including Terrence Donovan, S&D's Cornelia Frances as battleaxe Morag Bellingham and Prisoner's Fiona Spence as her meek sister Celia while future stars Dannii Minogue, Julian McMahon, Jane Hall and Neighbours escapee Craig McLachlan played various hot young troublemakers / orphans. 1990 saw one of the biggest cast upheavals as Roger Oakley and Vanessa Downing both decided to jump ship. Rather than losing both Fletcher family figureheads, Tom was killed off via heart attack induced car crash while Pippa was recast with Debra Lawrence. The changes did little to affect the show's popularity and it continued to power on in both Australia and worldwide. As with most soaps, the innumerable cast changes and storylines would be difficult to fully record in a synopsis like this but highlights of the 90's period include tragic supercouple Shane and Angel (the sadly recently departed Dieter Brummer and Hollywood actress Melissa George), the death of Bobby and her subsequent reappearance as a vision in a fridge door during Ailsa's breakdown, Shannon's (Isla Fisher) controversial lesbian storyline that was butchered before broadcast in the UK, the romance of Marilyn (Emily Symons) and Donald, the arrival of long running matriarch Irene (Lynne McGranger), the various trials of Selina (Tempany Deckert) including falling in love with her teacher and joining a cult. Meanwhile on the future star front, Heath Ledger had a guest spot as Scott, the teen that took Sally Fletcher's virginity.

The 00's began with behind the scenes drama as UK broadcaster ITV and H&A's distributor Southern Star got into a wrangle about how much the show was worth. When ITV refused to cough up what Southern Star were asking for, the distributor shopped the show around and it was bought by the low rating Channel 5. ITV then enacted a contract clause that said the show couldn't be aired by a rival for 12 months after it had ended on ITV. UK fans were left without H&A for a full year before it finally returned on Channel 5 in July 2001. It was worth the wait for 5, as the H&A immediately became their highest rating show. Onscreen, the 00's saw original Fletcher kid Sally grow up to take centre stage as one of the show's female leads, the travails of the Sutherland clan, the reign of terror of superbitch Angie Russell (Laurie Foell), a recurring role for Rowena Wallace as June Reynolds and the stint of future Hollywood superstar Chris Hemsworth as Kim Hyde. As the decade wore on, storylines began to slip more towards crime tinged plots, something that was cemented as a hallmark of the show in the early 10's with the arrival of the super popular River Boys gang.

As of today, Home and Away is the only ongoing homegrown soap opera left on the main networks on Australian TV (Neighbours airs on a digital sister channel and The Heights is hiatus with it's fate TBC). It has aired in 80 countries worldwide and continues to be a success, particularly in Ireland and the UK.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Richmond Hill - 1988

​

Born from Ten's desire for another primetime soap to build on the strong ratings that Neighbours was pulling in at 7pm each night and Grundy's desire for another overseas sales success story, Richmond Hill was pitched by Reg Watson as a soft police drama in the vein of A Country Practice meets Waterloo Station. Based in an outer city suburb, the drama revolved around a police station, a pub, a real estate office and a farm for delinquent kids. The denizens of Richmond Hill were played by a cast of familiar faces including Amanda Muggleton as brassy barmaid Connie Ryan, Paula Duncan as bored housewife Janet Bryant, Maggie Kirkpatrick as snobbish real estate agent Ivy Hackett and Gwen Plumb as farm matriarch Mum Foote.

Premiering in the same month as H&A, Richmond Hill also faced teething problems. The producer refused to label it as a cop show, with Ten's publicity exec Brian Walsh commenting "Richmond Hill tried to be too many things to too many people and I think the show suffered because of it". Walsh also stated that some of the cast's reluctance to engage in publicity, like shopping centre appearances, damaged the show's chances. He had been responsible for the publicity blitz that relaunched Neighbours as a Ten show and said of Richmond Hill "A lot of the 'serious actors' feared that I was going to do a Neighbours on them". Another element that hindered the show in it's early months was the grim tone as storylines were heavy on misery, domestic violence and rape. Paula Duncan said "I hated my character. She was always crying and it used to exhaust me". Storylines in the opening months included the rape of newly arrived Janet, Ivy's husband having an affair with Connie who was having her own troubles when her abusive ex returned and started beating her again, while Mum was being terrorised by a former farm kid from her past.

Things eventually began to lighten up with Maggie Kirkpatrick delighting in her storylines "I loved doing the comedy. It was real Golden Girls stuff with Betty Lucas. Grundy's specifically created a character as far removed from Joan Ferguson as possible. I was so grateful for that as I was never typecast". Ratings grew and while they were never huge, they were consistent enough for it to be considered a success, even beating the popular The Flying Doctors in some markets. So, when after 92 episodes, the series was axed abruptly, many were left baffled. Not least, the cast and crew when they were told on a Friday that they wouldn't be needed on Monday. "It was rating very well. It was a mystery to me why they took it off" said Paula Duncan. TV Week claimed that it may be one of the highest rating shows ever to be axed. Ten's official line was that ratings had failed to improve after a final publicity push. In reality, Ten were looking to cut costs after spending $10m on the Seoul Olympics and Valerie Hardy, the head of drama, had just commissioned the "more cutting edge" E Street and wanted Richmond Hill off the schedules to make way for it.

Like all Aussie soaps at the time, Richmond Hill had a run on UK TV. While the show itself was short-lived and pretty unremarkable, it's addition to the ITV schedules caused furore among British TV producers, as it's two episodes meant Australian soaps were now taking up 24 hours per week on UK schedules, timeslots they argued should be used for homegrown commissions. UK viewers didn't care and ate the show up while it remained on the air.

 

[AndyB2008]

With Richmond Hill, Grundy were so confident it would be renewed they extended the contracts on the key cast.

When it was axed by Ten though, Grundy still had to honour the contracts so the actors got paid although it had ceased production.

(The 2003 version of Crossroads had the same thing - the cast were on a year long contract as ITV had commissioned the show for a year until 2004, but when the ratings were dire, the contract was cut in half and the show ended early. However the actors still had to be paid by Carlton/Yvon Grace for the rest of the run.

Lucy Pargeter, when she became an Emmerdale cast member, was in Crossroads and mentioned this in an interview where she was paid the whole contract).

 

[Mel O'Drama]

While the show itself was short-lived and pretty unremarkable, it's addition to the ITV schedules caused furore among British TV producers, as it's two episodes meant Australian soaps were now taking up 24 hours per week on UK schedules, timeslots they argued should be used for homegrown commissions. UK viewers didn't care and ate the show up while it remained on the air.

It's a shame Richmond Hill didn't really have a chance to get the support from the UK audiences. By the time it began airing here, the writing was on the wall as far as it the axe goes.

I may be misremembering, but I have it in my head that ITV had planned to give RH a far more prestigious treatment than it ended up getting (perhaps even prime time). As it was, it was shown in the afternoon and was un-networked in the same way most of the underdog Eighties Aussie soaps like S&D, The Young Doctors and Prisoner were. This meant each ITV region was free to show it on different day and times and at different paces (which meant there was absolutely no chance for it to register in the ratings, which were quite important at the time).

I think my ITV region showed the series at a reasonable pace, with two regular hourly slots a week. I only watched infrequently, but my memory of it is as a reasonably light and workaday kind of show with a good heart and a great cast. I don't recall the grim, heavy tone mentioned, so perhaps I watched more of the later episodes. The opening credits made it feel, to me, like an ersatz Neighbours. I do remember recording the final episode on a red sixty minute VHS cassette which I'd been saving for something special.

Gwen Plumb had appeared in the Pilot of Home And Away, but turned down the series in order to do Richmond Hill. I often wondered how she felt about that, given H&A's longevity. But it all worked out for the best: Mum Foote was probably a far meatier role for her than gossipy Doris Peters (who was virtually Ada Simmonds redux).

Despite one small appearance, Doris Peters was kept alive in the early years of H&A, often mentioned in dialogue as a gossipy rival to Celia Stewart (who effectively replaced her for the series), managing to stir things up without even being seen again. It would have been great if Gwen had returned Doris to the series after RH was axed (and especially after Fiona Spence left the show). As it was, IMDb tells me she had a short run as a completely different H&A character in the mid-Nineties.

 

[AndyB2008]

Home and Away - 1988 to present

​

After a somewhat unplanned summer hiatus, we're back to wander through the annals of Aussie soap. And what better show to return with than Home and Away. Stung by rival Ten's success with their former show Neighbours, Seven were desperate to launch a rival soap to get a piece of the international action that the Ramsay Street residents were enjoying. Head of drama, Alan Bateman, found his inspiration during a stopover in a NSW country town, where a planned home for foster kids from the city faced opposition from the locals. Seeing the potential for drama from such a conflict, Bateman put together an outline called Refuge, set in coastal Summer Bay. Seven weren't convinced but audience research proved positive and production began with the gentler sounding title of Home and Away.

Despite going into production, the opening scripts still needed some work. Sons and Daughters scribe Bevan Lee stated "The idea of the family coming to the seaside was fantastic but the way it was done was all wrong". Shooting was put on hold for three weeks while Lee reworked the opening storylines "I say I co-created H&A because I recreated it and stayed on as head writer for the first 15 months". Changes included Bobby (Nicolle Dickson) being rewritten as a local outsider who is embraced by the new family (the original script saw Bobby arrive in Summer Bay as one of the Fletchers' foster kids). Speaking about the foster kid premise, producer John Holmes (who'd launched both versions of Neighbours) said "H&A was always set up in a way that we could rejuvenate the show when necessary. To this day, the show has been able to return again and again to it's original concept which is ready made for lots of soapie conflict".

The original cast was mostly made up of young unknowns, with the parental roles filled by familiar but not huge star names who'd done the rounds of the other Aussie soaps. The biggest "name" was Carol Willesee. New to acting, Carol was best known as the wife of current affairs TV stalwart Mike Willesee and would play matriarch Pippa Fletcher. However, none of her scenes were to make it to air due to a disagreement over contract terms. Carol maintained that Seven told her she could have school holidays off, as well as late starts and early finishes in order to spend more time with her family. Seven maintained that this wasn't workable on a five day a week show, so Carol was out and Vanessa Downing was in.

The premiere telemovie aired in January 1988, with the daily serial commissioned with the unenviable task of going up against the Nine News at 6pm daily. However, good opening reviews gave hope that they'd manage the uphill struggle against their strong competition. The show began with city couple Tom (Roger Oakley) and Pippa Fletcher (Vanessa Downing) and their ragtag band of foster kids Frank (Alex Papps), Carly (Sharyn Hodgson), Steven (Adam Willits), Lynn (Helena Vozich) and Sally (Kate Ritchie) upping sticks and buying a caravan park in Summer Bay. Former caravan park owner Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) faced opposition from his teenage daughter Roo (Justine Clarke) as he tried to introduce new girlfriend Ailsa (Judy Nunn) into their lives while local tearaway Bobby was found squatting in the caravan park before being taken in by the Fletchers. Summer Bay High's stuffy deputy headmaster Donald Fisher (Norman Coburn) watched disapprovingly as his new neighbours ("the bad blood brood") took in his worst student.

Unfortunately for H&A, the good reviews didn't translate to good ratings and Seven came close to axing the show as the numbers stagnated in the early months. One of the issues was the self contained storylining. Bevan Lee said "We were trying to de-soapify the show and see each week as a bit more self contained. Unfortunately that means there was no narrative imperative for the audience to come back night after night". With the axe looming, Alan Bateman bought them more time and Bevan Lee went to work at soaping it up by introducing a peeping tom and the popular Bobby-Frank-Roo love triangle. Add to that, edgier storylines involving teen pregnancy, rape and alcoholism, and by the end of 1988, Seven had a hit on their hands. The show hit UK screens in early 1989, when ITV picked it up for their daytime and early evening schedule. It had a similarly slow start there but soon became a super hit.

As the show gained traction, some stars left for pastures new (panto in the UK / the obligatory pop career) while a raft of familiar faces entered the fray including Terrence Donovan, S&D's Cornelia Frances as battleaxe Morag Bellingham and Prisoner's Fiona Spence as her meek sister Celia while future stars Dannii Minogue, Julian McMahon, Jane Hall and Neighbours escapee Craig McLachlan played various hot young troublemakers / orphans. 1990 saw one of the biggest cast upheavals as Roger Oakley and Vanessa Downing both decided to jump ship. Rather than losing both Fletcher family figureheads, Tom was killed off via heart attack induced car crash while Pippa was recast with Debra Lawrence. The changes did little to affect the show's popularity and it continued to power on in both Australia and worldwide. As with most soaps, the innumerable cast changes and storylines would be difficult to fully record in a synopsis like this but highlights of the 90's period include tragic supercouple Shane and Angel (the sadly recently departed Dieter Brummer and Hollywood actress Melissa George), the death of Bobby and her subsequent reappearance as a vision in a fridge door during Ailsa's breakdown, Shannon's (Isla Fisher) controversial lesbian storyline that was butchered before broadcast in the UK, the romance of Marilyn (Emily Symons) and Donald, the arrival of long running matriarch Irene (Lynne McGranger), the various trials of Selina (Tempany Deckert) including falling in love with her teacher and joining a cult. Meanwhile on the future star front, Heath Ledger had a guest spot as Scott, the teen that took Sally Fletcher's virginity.

The 00's began with behind the scenes drama as UK broadcaster ITV and H&A's distributor Southern Star got into a wrangle about how much the show was worth. When ITV refused to cough up what Southern Star were asking for, the distributor shopped the show around and it was bought by the low rating Channel 5. ITV then enacted a contract clause that said the show couldn't be aired by a rival for 12 months after it had ended on ITV. UK fans were left without H&A for a full year before it finally returned on Channel 5 in July 2001. It was worth the wait for 5, as the H&A immediately became their highest rating show. Onscreen, the 00's saw original Fletcher kid Sally grow up to take centre stage as one of the show's female leads, the travails of the Sutherland clan, the reign of terror of superbitch Angie Russell (Laurie Foell), a recurring role for Rowena Wallace as June Reynolds and the stint of future Hollywood superstar Chris Hemsworth as Kim Hyde. As the decade wore on, storylines began to slip more towards crime tinged plots, something that was cemented as a hallmark of the show in the early 10's with the arrival of the super popular River Boys gang.

As of today, Home and Away is the only ongoing homegrown soap opera left on the main networks on Australian TV (Neighbours airs on a digital sister channel and The Heights is hiatus with it's fate TBC). It has aired in 80 countries worldwide and continues to be a success, particularly in Ireland and the UK.

Speaking of Home and Away, I was watching some more of Chances (which Jeremy Sims described as Home and Away with tits) and there is a episode with Nicola Quilter when she makes love to one of Connie's sons. And yes, she does show her titties in case you wondered.

Nicola Quilter of course went on to play Donna in Home and Away, then found herself in the tabloids because she had been indulging in Chances-style passionate love with Ian Kelsey after they appeared in panto. At the time, Ian Kelsey was in a relationship with Phillippa Forrester.

 

[AndyB2008]

It's a shame Richmond Hill didn't really have a chance to get the support from the UK audiences. By the time it began airing here, the writing was on the wall as far as it the axe goes.

I may be misremembering, but I have it in my head that ITV had planned to give RH a far more prestigious treatment than it ended up getting (perhaps even prime time). As it was, it was shown in the afternoon and was un-networked in the same way most of the underdog Eighties Aussie soaps like S&D, The Young Doctors and Prisoner were. This meant each ITV region was free to show it on different day and times and at different paces (which meant there was absolutely no chance for it to register in the ratings, which were quite important at the time).

I think my ITV region showed the series at a reasonable pace, with two regular hourly slots a week. I only watched infrequently, but my memory of it is as a reasonably shallow and workaday kind of show with a good heart and a great cast. I don't recall the grim, heavy tone mentioned, so perhaps I watched more of the later episodes. I do remember recording the final episode on a red sixty minute VHS cassette which I'd been saving for something special.

Gwen Plumb had appeared in the Pilot of Home And Away, but turned down the series in order to do Richmond Hill. I often wondered how she felt about that, given H&A's longevity, but it all worked out for the best: Mum Foote was probably a far meatier role for her than gossipy Doris Peters (who was virtually Ada Simmonds redux).

Doris Peters was kept alive in the early years of H&A as a gossipy rival to Celia Stewart (who effectively replaced her for the series), so it would have been great if Gwen had been able to return Doris to the series after RH was axed (and especially after Fiona Spence left the show). As it was, IMDb tells me she had a short run as a completely different H&A character in the mid-Nineties.

The reason why Gwen agreed to do Richmond Hill in the first place is because of the Reg Grundy\Reg Watson partnership, given her role as Ada Simmonds.

If it was her choice, she would've done Home and Away as it was filmed in Palm Beach where she lived.

Richmond Hill was networked at first, but as soon as the news came through that Ten axed it, some ITV regions like Central and Granada pulled out of the network screenings, similar to Santa Barbara when that flopped.

At one point, Border, Scottish and Grampian fell out of sync with the network because Richmond Hill's 2pm timeslot was handed over to a memorial service for the victims of the Lockerbie bombing. The affected episode was shown the next day, with the following episode bumped to the following week.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

The reason why Gwen agreed to do Richmond Hill in the first place is because of the Reg Grundy\Reg Watson partnership, given her role as Ada Simmonds.

Yes indeed. That makes perfect sense.

I seem to recall the Mum Foote role was created especially for Gwen to make it more enticing because they knew it was exactly the kind of character she'd want to play.

Richmond Hill was networked at first, but as soon as the news came through that Ten axed it, some ITV regions like Central and Granada pulled out of the network screenings,

Oh, I see. I hadn't realised.

I suppose that would have been very soon after it began its UK run, perhaps a month or so?

 

[AndyB2008]

The Unisexers - 1975

ABC had Bellbird and Certain Women, Ten had Number 96 and The Box (which Nine had turned down) and Seven had Class of '74/'75. But by 1975, while they had a strong daytime schedule of US soaps, Nine still hadn't got a homegrown soap of their own, either in daytime or primetime. To get in on the action, they commissioned a number of pilots including Secret Doors starring Rebecca Gilling, which was described as Bellbird with nudity. Grundys submitted two pilots, one Brady Bunch-esque premise called The Martins and the McCoys and another curious entry called Two Way Mirror. Set in the fashion industry and starring soap stalwarts including Anne Charleston, Cornelia Frances and Jill Forster, the eponymous mirror was one that characters could voyeuristically spy through as people were undressing, having sex and so on. How they were going to stretch this out to five nights a week and take on Number 96 was anyone's guess but Nine didn't have to worry about that because in the end, they opted for a series from Cash Harmon Productions of Number 96 infamy. Although given the tiresome premise of the show they chose, they might have been better off taking a chance on the mirror.

The Unisexers would follow the lives of a group of young hippies (including future Prisoner inmate Tina Bursill) who set up a commune in a Paddington mansion, complete with older live in landlords Angus and Dora. To make ends meet, the commune ran a business making unisex jeans (hence the title). With the Number 96 connection, the word "sex" in the title and the prospective drug intake and bed hopping associated with the communal hippie lifestyle, the show was on the Broadcasting Control Board's radar and they insisted that the pilot air at a later time than it's proposed 6.30pm timeslot, due to a scene where a woman appears in her bra and underwear. Producer Bill Harmon stated that the BCB's interference meant "everything we could have fun with was taboo, we were left with nothing to play with". Where TV had "lost it's virginity" with Number 96, one reporter quipped that the show was so innocent that "TV Regains It's Virginity" with The Unisexers. The family friendly 6pm timeslot didn't lend itself to a sex and sin soap either and the show had to rely on badly written comedy elements and generation gap japes to get by. With ratings collapsing, after three weeks and only 15 episodes, everyone involved agreed to pull the show off the air. After it's demise, one Nine executive optimistically described it as "a $1 million experiment". For those that are interested, some the aforementioned Two Way Mirror can be found on YouTube and it's a bizarre treat featuring a now well known theme tune. I'd post it here only it's age restricted but you'll find it if you log in. What unsurprisingly wasn't age restricted is the only clip of The Unisexers that I've found.

Although The Unisexers was a disaster, some of the actors did find success.

Tina Bursill, Steven Tandy and Patrick Ward we all know about for one. Anne Grigg went on to be part of the original cast of Chances (and one of a few surviving members, as some have since passed) before she was fired in the later retooling of the show (she was also later in a film produced by Mel Gibson (!!!) alongside a pre-Prison Break Dominic Purcell), and Tony Sheldon went on to play the Terence Stamp role in Priscilla as well as writing for Sons and Daughters.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I don't recall the grim, heavy tone mentioned, so perhaps I watched more of the later episodes.

Same here. I have very vague recollections of the show (I can't recall if I watched it on UTV or if it had a run on national broadcaster RTE) but like yourself, I remember it being a breezy enough soap in a similar vein to Neighbours.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

All The Way - 1988 to 1989

​

Having already mined soapy drama from the 1920's (Carson's Law) and the 1940's (The Sullivans), Crawford's turned their attention to the 1960's for their next period soap. All The Way took it's title from a quote by Prime Minister Harold Holt, when discussing Australia's support for American troops in Vietnam. A 6 part miniseries would serve as the introduction to the show, followed by a 26 episode weekly soap.

The miniseries had a rather farfetched opening storyline involving journalist Alan Scott (Martin Sacks) returning from the UK in November 1963, having broken the story of the Profumo scandal. As he stepped off the plane, he heard that JFK had been shot, phoned the hospital in Dallas and was then the first to relay the news to Prime Minister Robert Menzies. After all of this political breaking news, Alan finally returned to his family including taxi driver dad Ray (Dennis Miller) and Beatles obsessed siblings Christine (Lisa Hensley) and Barry (Dominic McDonald). Alan's mother Lorna (Maggie Millar) was one of three sisters around which the ongoing drama would revolve. Her older sister was conservative widow Madelaine Vaughn (Diana Davidson) while another sister Elaine (Rowena Wallace) was an unhappily married politician's wife. She fell into an affair with his trade union opponent Mike (Grigor Taylor) and spent much of her time trying to hide the fling from husband Phillip (Peter Sumner), son Lindsay (Ben Mendelsohn) and daughter Diana (Jacqueline McKenzie).

The miniseries aired to lacklustre ratings, perhaps overshadowed in the Aussie saga stakes by the mega hit The Dirtwater Dynasty, which aired the week prior. Knowing they were on to a loser, Nine waited until the summer period to burn off the 26 episodes they'd already ordered. As the weekly series began, Elaine had a change of heart about running out on her husband and returned to the family home, not batting an eyelid when daughter Diana had been swapped out for daughter Penny (Dannii Minogue). A young Vince Colosimo was upped to regular status as Christine's fiancé while Noel Trevarthen showed up as Madelaine's missing presumed dead husband. Airing sporadically in two hour blocks whenever the cricket schedules allowed, the show's ratings actually improved but the will to make more episodes wasn't there. The final storyline saw Lindsay forced by his father to register for national service, only for him to go on the run.

There were many criticisms levelled at the show - the sets looked too kitsch, the 60's references in the script too laboured, the show felt unrealistically old fashioned. However Rowena Wallace reflects on the experience with humour "Ironically, years ago I'd a reading with a clairvoyant who said 'You're going to marry a politician and have to wear gloves and hats and you'll hate it' And I did!". She also laughed at the fact that her wardrobe was based on Jackie Kennedy's, saying that their attempt at the famous pale pink outfit made her look like "a crate of apricots on two sticks".

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I wonder if this ever made it to the UK. I certainly recall nothing about it at the time and I was watching any Aussie soap I could clap my eyes on.

journalist Alan Scott (Martin Sacks) returning from the UK in November 1963, having broken the story of the Profumo scandal. As he stepped off the plane, he heard that JFK had been shot, phoned the hospital in Dallas and was then the first to relay the news to Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

Oh my. That sounds like four episodes' worth of Quantum Leap.

Rowena Wallace reflects on the experience with humour "Ironically, years ago I'd a reading with a clairvoyant who said 'You're going to marry a politician and have to wear gloves and hats and you'll hate it' And I did!". She also laughed at the fact that her wardrobe was based on Jackie Kennedy's, saying that their attempt at the famous pale pink outfit made her look like "a crate of apricots on two sticks".

Ha ha.

I'd be up for watching this if it shows up on DVD. Forewarned that it's terrible I'm sure there's still plenty of entertainment value to be found.

Better yet, going on the comments above they could get Rowena to do an MST3K-style audio commentary, which would triple the fun.

 

[AndyB2008]

All The Way - 1988 to 1989

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Having already mined soapy drama from the 1920's (Carson's Law) and the 1940's (The Sullivans), Crawford's turned their attention to the 1960's for their next period soap. All The Way took it's title from a quote by Prime Minister Harold Holt, when discussing Australia's support for American troops in Vietnam. A 6 part miniseries would serve as the introduction to the show, followed by a 26 episode weekly soap.

The miniseries had a rather farfetched opening storyline involving journalist Alan Scott (Martin Sacks) returning from the UK in November 1963, having broken the story of the Profumo scandal. As he stepped off the plane, he heard that JFK had been shot, phoned the hospital in Dallas and was then the first to relay the news to Prime Minister Robert Menzies. After all of this political breaking news, Alan finally returned to his family including taxi driver dad Ray (Dennis Miller) and Beatles obsessed siblings Christine (Lisa Hensley) and Barry (Dominic McDonald). Alan's mother Lorna (Maggie Millar) was one of three sisters around which the ongoing drama would revolve. Her older sister was conservative widow Madelaine Vaughn (Diana Davidson) while another sister Elaine (Rowena Wallace) was an unhappily married politician's wife. She fell into an affair with his trade union opponent Mike (Grigor Taylor) and spent much of her time trying to hide the fling from husband Phillip (Peter Sumner), son Lindsay (Ben Mendelsohn) and daughter Diana (Jacqueline McKenzie).

The miniseries aired to lacklustre ratings, perhaps overshadowed in the Aussie saga stakes by the mega hit The Dirtwater Dynasty, which aired the week prior. Knowing they were on to a loser, Nine waited until the summer period to burn off the 26 episodes they'd already ordered. As the weekly series began, Elaine had a change of heart about running out on her husband and returned to the family home, not batting an eyelid when daughter Diana had been swapped out for daughter Penny (Dannii Minogue). A young Vince Colosimo was upped to regular status as Christine's fiancé while Noel Trevarthen showed up as Madelaine's missing presumed dead husband. Airing sporadically in two hour blocks whenever the cricket schedules allowed, the show's ratings actually improved but the will to make more episodes wasn't there. The final storyline saw Lindsay forced by his father to register for national service, only for him to go on the run.

There were many criticisms levelled at the show - the sets looked too kitsch, the 60's references in the script too laboured, the show felt unrealistically old fashioned. However Rowena Wallace reflects on the experience with humour "Ironically, years ago I'd a reading with a clairvoyant who said 'You're going to marry a politician and have to wear gloves and hats and you'll hate it' And I did!". She also laughed at the fact that her wardrobe was based on Jackie Kennedy's, saying that their attempt at the famous pale pink outfit made her look like "a crate of apricots on two sticks".

Jacqueline McKenzie was wise to opt out when it went weekly, given she went on to roles in Ben Elton's Stark (which Kimberley Davies turned a role down to join Neighbours) and also was in the cast of The 4400 for the entire run. (She was one of 4 cast members to last out The 4400's 4 season run, alongside Joel Gretsch, Patrick Flueger and Conchita Campbell).

Dennis Miller and Dominic McDonald went on to the other failed Nine Network soap operas later, Family and Friends and Chances.

 

[AndyB2008]

And Ben Mendelsohn turned out well too despite All The Way failing.

Kylie Minogue actually wanted him for Brownie Hanson in The Delinquents due to their time working together on The Henderson Kids but it was decided to go with a imported actor for international markets (e.g America), hence the casting of Charlie Schlatter.

 

[AndyB2008]

I wonder if this ever made it to the UK. I certainly recall nothing about it at the time and I was watching any Aussie soap I could clap my eyes on.




Oh my. That sounds like four episodes' worth of Quantum Leap.




Ha ha.

I'd be up for watching this if it shows up on DVD. Forewarned that it's terrible I'm sure there's still plenty of entertainment value to be found.

Better yet, going on the comments above they could get Rowena to do an MST3K-style audio commentary, which would triple the fun.

Don't recall ATW given a UK airing at all either. And C4/ITV/BBC used to have a few Aussie shows on the schedules.

Then again most of the failed Nine Network soaps post Young Doctors/Sullivans (Chances, Paradise Beach and Pacific Drive excepted) did not get UK airings.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I wonder if this ever made it to the UK. I certainly recall nothing about it at the time and I was watching any Aussie soap I could clap my eyes on.

Don't recall ATW given a UK airing at all either. And C4/ITV/BBC used to have a few Aussie shows on the schedules.

A cursory glance over the historical TV listings sites doesn't bring anything up. Granted they're not exhaustive, it's probably safe to say All The Way didn't make it "all the way" to the UK.