THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN TELEVISION

40 YEARS OF AUSTRALIAN TV SOAPS
Pictured (l to r): Lorraine Bayly in The Sullivans; Sheila Kennelly and Gordon MacDougall in Number 96; Roger Oakley and Vanessa Downing in Home And Away;
Fiona Spence in Prisoner

In April 1999, I wrote a series of articles for the Sofcom TV Website commemorating 40 years of Australian TV soapies.  With the permission of Sofcom I have republished these articles here.
The First Decade

70s Soap Steams Up

 80s Soap Conquer The World

Surf's Up For Nineties TV

Australian TV soap was in full swing by the turn of the eighties. It was just about mandatory for each commercial network to have at least two hit soaps in its prime time schedules.
Aussie soaps like Prisoner and The Sullivans were still doing big business overseas, but the new trend overseas was glitz and glamour with shows like Dynasty and Dallas. Despite some Australian attempts to copy the formula, in the mid-eighties it took an evening soap set in middle suburban Melbourne to once again put Australian TV on the world map.
ARCADE
Ten, 1980		 Ten took the unusual path of producing this in-house, and without a pilot episode to begin with.  A fortune was spent in converting the studios into a replica shopping mall.  The results were tragic, and Ten's big-budget new series for the decade was axed after two weeks on-air.  
HOLIDAY ISLAND
Ten, 1981		 Set around a tropical holiday complex but filmed on location around a mock holiday resort constructed outside Ten's Melbourne studios - during winter.  The audience wasn't fooled and production was axed after six months.  
PUNISHMENT
Ten, 1981		 A male equivalent of Prisoner, but was never as popular.  Included in the cast list was a young Mel Gibson.  
A COUNTRY PRACTICE
Seven, 1981-1993 and Ten, 1994		 For over a thousand episodes, viewers followed the lives of the residents of rural Wandin Valley with most of the drama centred around the local hospital.  Things weren't so rosy when Ten took on the series and changed the setting and most of the characters.  
SONS AND DAUGHTERS
Seven, 1982-1988		 The blossoming romance between John and Angela was stopped short when it was discovered they were long-lost brother and sister!  A huge hit for Seven, initially screening five nights a week, and scoring a Gold Logie for Rowena Wallace in 1985.
Pat McDonald in Sons And Daughters
STARTING OUT
Nine, 1983		 The young cast of Nine's ill-fated university drama included Peter O'Brien and Tottie Goldsmith.  
WATERLOO STATION
Nine, 1983		 Another police soap/drama, taking a similar tone to Cop Shop, but with a younger cast, and  this time coming out of Sydney.  
TAURUS RISING
Nine, 1983		 Australia's answer to the big-budget US soaps Dynasty and Dallas was not a huge success.  
CARSON'S LAW
Ten, 1983-1984		 Crawfords' story of life in Melbourne in the 1920s featuring former The Sullivans star Lorraine Bayly.  
KINGS
Nine, 1984		 The short-lived tale of a Sydney family featured Ed Deveraux (Skippy), Melissa Jaffer (GP) and Deborah Lee Furness.  
NEIGHBOURS
Seven, 1985 and Ten, 1986 onwards		 Life in suburban Melbourne was not a big hit for Seven, who promptly axed it.  Ten picked it up, revamped it, and it went on to become a worldwide success.  Still going strong after 5000 episodes and still screening in sixty countries worldwide.  
POSSESSION
Nine, 1985		 Produced by Grundy Productions, this was another in Nine's string of ill-fated soaps.  
RETURN TO EDEN
Ten, 1986		 This glitzy series was the spin-off from the popular 1983 mini-series of the same name.  Featuring Rebecca Gilling, James Smillie and Peta Toppano.  
PRIME TIME
Nine, 1986		 Behind the scenes of a fictional current affairs program.  
RICHMOND HILL
Ten, 1988		 Sydney's answer to Neighbours was set in a semi-rural community.  Despite promising ratings, Network Ten axed it after one season.  
HOME AND AWAY
Seven, 1988 onwards		 Regretting the loss of Neighbours to Ten, Seven fought back with this in-house production.  Like Neighbours, it has become an international hit.  
E STREET
Ten, 1989-1993		 The semi-rural setting of Richmond Hill was replaced by the tale of life in a fictional inner-suburb, Westside. Former A Country Practice star Penny Cook was E Street's leading lady, as Dr Ellie Fielding.  E Street managed to mix suburban drama with grisly storylines not seen since Number 96, including serial-killer Mr Bad (Vince Martin) and a bomb-blast that wiped out three long-serving characters.
E Street's Mr Bad (Vince Martin)
THE POWER, THE PASSION
Seven, 1989		 Yet another daytime soap attempt - again from Seven.   Dismal ratings (up against Nine's popular variety show Midday) saw this series axed within its first year.  

 

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