New posts

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Carrie Fairchild" data-source="post: 260923" data-attributes="member: 673">Skyways - 1979 to 1981 <img src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EcbRHM1X0AMFM3F.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />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.</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?