Soap opera

:Soap Opera redirects here. For the album by The Kinks, see Soap Opera.

Soaps in Australia

While not having nearly as many soap operas as the United States or the UK, Australia has had quite a number of well known soap operas, some of which have gained cult followings in the UK and other countries. The majority of Australian soap operas were produced for early evening or evening timeslots. They usually produce two or two-and-a-half hours of new material each week, either arranged as four or five half-hour episodes a week, or two one-hour episodes.

Related Topics:
United States - UK - Australia

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The first successful wave of Australian evening soap operas started in the late 1960s with Bellbird produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. This rural-based serial was a moderate success but built-up a consistent and loyal viewer base. The first big soap opera hit in Australia was the sex-melodrama Number 96 which began in March 1972, screening on Network Ten. Number 96 brought such rarely explored topics as homosexuality, adultery, drug use, rape-within-marriage and racism into Australian living rooms en masse. By 1973 it had become Australia's highest-rating show. In 1974 the sexed-up antics of Number 96 prompted the creation of The Box, which rivaled it in terms of nudity and sexual situations. Produced by Crawford Productions, many critics considered The Box to be a more slickly produced and better written show than Number 96. Meanwhile in 1974 the Reg Grundy Organisation created its first soap opera, and significantly Australia's first teen soap opera, Class of '74. Its attempts to hint at the sex and sin shown more openly on Number 96 and The Box meant it came under intense scrutiny of the Broadcasting Control Board who vetted scripts and altered whole storylines. By 1975 both Number 96 and The Box, perhaps as a reaction to declining ratings for both shows, de-emphasised the sex and nudity moving more in the direction of comedy. Class of '74 was renamed Class of '75 for its second year but ratings dwindled and this year would also be its last.

Related Topics:
1960s - Bellbird - Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Number 96 - 1972 - Network Ten - 1973 - 1974 - The Box - Crawford Productions - Reg Grundy Organisation - Class of '74

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A feature film version of Bellbird entitled Country Town was produced in 1971 not by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation but by two of the show's stars, Gary Gray and Terry McDermott. Number 96 and The Box also had feature film versions, both of which had the same title as the series, released in 1974 and 1975 respectively. As Australian television was in black and white until 1975 these theatrical releases all had the novelty of being in colour. The film versions of Number 96 and The Box also allowed more explicit nudity than could be shown on television at that time.

Related Topics:
Feature film - Gary Gray - Terry McDermott - Black and white

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Launched on the Nine Network in late 1976 was The Sullivans, a series chronicling the affects of World War II on a working-class Melbourne family. Produced by Crawford's this show was a ratings success and attracted many positive reviews. At around the same time Grundy's created a new teen-oriented soap, The Young Doctors, which also screened on Channel Nine starting late 1976. This show eschewed the sex and sin of Number 96 and The Box instead emphasising light-weight storylines and romance. It was also popular but unlike The Sullivans it was not a success with critics. Meanwhile in 1977 Number 96 would re-introduce nudity, with several much-publicised full-frontal nude scenes featured in an attempt to boost the show's plummeting ratings.

Related Topics:
Nine Network - 1976 - The Sullivans - Melbourne - The Young Doctors

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Bellbird, Number 96 and The Box were all cancelled in 1977; all had been experiencing declining ratings since 1975 and various attempts to revamp the shows with cast reshuffles or spectacular disaster storylines had proved only temporarily successful. Late that year they were replaced by such successful new shows as the Crawfords Produced Cop Shop (1977-1984) on Channel Seven, which was a meld of soap opera and police drama, and The Restless Years (1977-1981) on Channel Ten, which was another teen soap produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation. The Reg Grundy Organisation subsequently reached even higher levels of success with women's-prison drama Prisoner (1979-1986) on Network Ten, and melodramatic family saga Sons and Daughters (1981-1987) on the Seven Network. Both shows achieved high ratings in their first run, and unusually, found success in repeats after their original runs ended.

Related Topics:
Cop Shop - The Restless Years - Prisoner - Sons and Daughters

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The Young Doctors and The Sullivans ran on Nine until 1982. Thereafter Channel Nine attempted many new soap operas, several produced by The Reg Grundy Organisation including Taurus Rising, Starting Out, Waterloo Station and Possession, along with Prime Time produced by Crawford's, but none were successful and most were cancelled after only a few months. The Reg Grundy Organisation also created Neighbours for the Seven Network in 1985. This suburban-based daily serial was devised as a sedate family drama with some comedy and lightweight situations, however when the series went to air it was consigned by Seven to the 5.30 PM slot as they had recently extended their news service into the slot Neighbours would have taken. The show proved to be only a moderate success and was cancelled by Seven at the end of 1985, however the show was picked-up by Channel Ten who revamped the cast and the scripts, and after a concerted publicity drive turned the series into a major success still running today.

Related Topics:
Taurus Rising - Starting Out - Waterloo Station - Possession - Prime Time - Neighbours - 1985

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The success of Neighbours prompted the creation of somewhat similar suburban and family or teen-oriented soap operas such as Home and Away (1988-) on Channel Seven and Richmond Hill (1988) on Channel Ten. Both proved popular, however Richmond Hill emerged as only a moderate success and was cancelled after one year to be replaced on Ten by E Street (1989-1993).

Related Topics:
Home and Away - Richmond Hill - E Street

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Meanwhile Nine had still failed to find a successful new soap opera. After the failure of family drama Family And Friends in 1990 they launched the raunchier and more extreme Chances in 1991, a series that would resurrect the sex and melodrama of Number 96 and The Box in an attempt to improve the show's chances of ratings success. However it too achieved only moderate ratings, although the increasingly bizarre storylines were much-discussed and the series continued into 1992 albeit in a late-night timeslot.

Related Topics:
Family And Friends - Chances

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Several Australian soap operas have also found significant international success. In the UK starting in the mid 1980s daytime screenings of The Young Doctors, The Sullivans, Sons and Daughters, Richmond Hill and Neighbours achieved significant success. Neighbours was subsequently moved to a prime-time slot. Grundy's Prisoner began screening in the United States in 1979 and achieved high ratings in many regions there, however only the first three years of the series would be screened in that country. Prisoner was also screened in late-night timeslots in the UK beginning in the late 1980s, achieving enduring cult success there. The show became so popular in the UK that it prompted the creation of two stage plays and a stage musical based on the show, all of which toured the UK, among many other spin-offs. In the late 1990s Channel Five repeated Prisoner in the UK. As of 2005 Five are running late-night repeats of Sons and Daughters.

Related Topics:
Channel Five - 2005

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Other shows to achieve varying levels of international success include E Street, Paradise Beach (1993-1994), Pacific Drive (1995-1997). Channel Seven's Home and Away, a teen soap developed as a rival to Neighbours, has also achieved significant and enduring success on UK television.

Related Topics:
Paradise Beach - Pacific Drive

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The only two Australian soap operas still broadcast in Australia are Neighbours and Home and Away. In their home country they both attract respectable although not spectacular ratings. Both shows continue to be broadcast in the UK, and this and other lucrative overseas markets, along with Australian broadcasting laws that enforce a minimum amount of local drama production for commercial television networks, ensure that both programs remain in production. Neighbours, which is currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, was aired on the US channel Oxygen in March 2004, however it attracted few viewers, perhaps in part because it was scheduled opposite well-established and highly-popular US soap operas All My Children and The Young and The Restless, and due to low ratings it was cancelled shortly afterwards.

Related Topics:
Australia - Anniversary - US - Oxygen - March - 2004 - All My Children - The Young and The Restless

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Currently there is a new Australian soap opera entitled Headland in production which is to air sometime in 2005. It was originally intended as a spin off of Home and Away and was to be produced in conjunction with the UK's Channel Five, which screens Home and Away. Channel Five eventually pulled-out of the deal, meaning that the show - if produced - could potentially screen on another UK channel, so Five requested that the new show developed as a stand-alone series. This prevented the possibility of a Home and Away spinoff appearing on a rival station to that which screens the original.

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