Home And Away Article Index for
Home And
Articles about
Home And Away
Website Links For
Home
 

Information About

Home And Away




  Caption 2007 Opening title screen
  Format Soap Opera
  Picture Format PAL ( 576i ),<br> 1080i ( HDTV )
  Runtime Approx 30 Minute s per episode
  Creator Alan Bateman
  Starring ''See Cast below''
  Network Channel Seven
  First Aired January 17 1988
  Last Aired present
  Num Episodes 4500 (as of September 7 , 2007 )
  Imdb Id 0094481
  Website http://sevencomau/homeandaway


Home and Away (commonly abbreviated to H&A) is a the 7 p.m. slot has been its stable time.

The show is broadcast on the Seven Network and its affiliates from Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. in Australia and is exported to many countries including Ireland , New Zealand , Estonia , France , Norway , Sweden , United Kingdom , Israel and many Asia n countries.

When the show began in January 1988 ratings were low but soon improved and gradually the show's popularity grew. Originally ''Home and Away'' focused primarily on the characters of Pippa and Tom Fletcher who ran the Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a succession of foster children, but eventually the show's focus broadened to focus on the lives and loves of the inhabitants of the rest of Summer Bay.


HISTORY


In 1985, Seven Network axed the poor rating soap '' Neighbours ''; they continued producing that series for its remaining contract, ultimately producing 170 episodes. However Seven Network was unaware that Network Ten , a rival Television Network , was in talks with the production team to air the soap on their network in 1986.
When ''Neighbours'' returned, on Ten, in 1986, it initially attracted low ratings.Mercado, Andrew. ''Super Aussie Soaps'', Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1-86403-191-3 p 208 The Network worked hard to publicise ''Neighbours''Mercado, Andrew. ''Super Aussie Soaps'', Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1-86403-191-3 p 208-9 by revamping the show and adding several new, younger cast members, and they launched a concerted publicity drive largely focused on these new actors.Mercado, Andrew. ''Super Aussie Soaps'', Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1-86403-191-3 p 209 This paid off for ''Neighbours'' and its popularity grew; by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings in Australia.Mercado, Andrew. ''Super Aussie Soaps'', Pluto Press Australia, 2004. ISBN 1-86403-191-3 p 231 In October 1986, ''Neighbours'' started being broadcast in the UK, where it began to attract strong viewing figures. From about 1988 to 1991 ''Neighbours'' was regularly watched by 20 million viewers in the UK.

In late 1986 the Seven Network’s head of drama at the time Alan Bateman was tasked with creating a pilot for a soap opera that was in no way a copy of ''Neighbours''. Bateman soon found his inspiration when he stopped in Kangaroo Point, New South Wales on a family outing. Chatting to locals Bateman discovered that the townspeople were angered over the construction of a home for foster children from the city. Seeing the degree of conflict the plan for the new youth centre had produced within the community, Bateman recognised the drama that could be generated by this situation and began to develop it as the basis for the new soap opera.


20TH ANNIVERSARY: 1988 - 2008


Bevan Lee, who is the Script Executive for the Seven Network , revealed to the general public that he will be returning to the role of Script Producer for the first 6 months of 2008. He will replace Sarah Walker, who has just finished her period in the role, plotting storylines right up until the end of 2007.

Bevan had worked on the show for most of its run until 2004. During that time he was responsible for many memorable storylines including the Sarah Lewis saga and Kane's cancer battle.

Bevan has promised fans that nothing dramatic will happen in the 2007 season finale, but he said that ''"My material will start with a very startling cliffhanger at the end of this year that will make regular viewers re-evaluate something that they have always taken for granted about one of the characters in the show. This cliffhanger will turn the life of that character on its head and will lead to one of the major stories of 2008.''

''Unless I'm mistaken, this cliffhanger will makes the jaws of those who have watched the show from the beginning well and truly drop. And the story will lead to the return of many old faces to the show at various stages through 2008."''" BTTB EXCLUSIVE: 20th Year News ", ''Back to the Bay'', 2007-06-27 . Retrieved on 2007-06-28 .

In a later interview with Jesus, Bevan revealed that the character who will be involved with the 2007 season finale will be Sally Fletcher ( Kate Ritchie ). There were rumours that with Brad Armstrong ( Chris Sadrinna ) leaving the show at the end of 2007, Sally would be departing from the show as well. But Bevan clearly stated that Brad's departure has nothing to do with Sally but it is still unknown when Kate will still want to stay on the show! He said ''"As is always the case with the show, characters come and go so that the central core group can have fresh stories. Brad was always viewed on the landscape of Summer Bay as a long term guest rather than as a character stretching in to an indeterminate future."''

''As great as Chris and his character have been for the canvas of the show, Brad's departure is part of putting Sally in to a position that is more suitable for the Christmas cliffhanger revelation that propels her and other characters in to one of the major story arcs of 2008.''

''The way Brad leaves the show is very positive and satisfying and does not close the door on this character's return in the future to Summer Bay.''" BTTB EXCLUSIVE: Official News on Brad and more details on the Season Finale ", ''Back to the Bay'', 2007-07-06 . Retrieved on 2007-07-26 .

This special occasion will began with . Retrieved on 2007-09-07 .


CAST


Main cast members



Recurring cast members



MOST RECENT EPISODE



DEPARTING & UPCOMING CAST MEMBERS


Upcoming



Departing



DECEASED CAST MEMBERS



BEFORE THEY WERE STARS


Due to the relatively high profile of the show, most actors and actresses who appear on the show find that their profile is heightened, at least for a short period, though most ultimately eventually slide back into relative obscurity. However a minority of the cast have subsequently gone on to achieve success that dwarves their success on Home and Away.

Heath Ledger , who played guest character Scott Irwin in 1997, was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Ennis Del Mar in Brokeback Mountain . Naomi Watts , who played Paraplegic Julie Gibson in 1992, also went on to achieve an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Cristina Peck in 21 Grams as well as Ann Darrow in the 2005 remake of King Kong . Guy Pearce , who also appeared in the show and on Neighbours , has starred in numerous successful films, including Memento , The Count Of Monte Christo and The Time Machine . Isla Fisher who played Shannon Reed between 1994 and 1997 has subsequently gone on to appear in films such as Wedding Crashers and Scooby-Doo .

Tammin Sursok , who played Dani Sutherland ; Justin Melvey , who played teacher Harry Keller and Daniel Goddard who was guest character Eric Phillips have all gone on to appear in US soaps The Young And The Restless and The Bold And The Beautiful respectively.

Others have achieved success in US drama series such as Julian McMahon , who played Ben Lucini, went on to star in Nip/Tuck and Charmed ; Melissa George who landed roles in Alias , Friends and the 2005 film, The Amityville Horror . Chris Egan went onto appear in Empire after leaving the show in 2003 whilst Ryan Kwanten , who played lifeguard Vinnie Patterson, went on to appear in Summerland

Craig McLachlan was already well known from his role on Neighbours , but went on to achieve continued success since leaving his Home and Away role. Justine Clarke , who played Roo Stewart in the first two years of the soap, has been a presenter of Play School since 2005. Andrew McFarlane and Alex Papps , who have both had roles on Home and Away, are also presenters of Play School.

Bec Hewitt , Tammin Sursok and Dannii Minogue have all attempted to launch music careers with Dannii being the most successful, achieving 11 straight number one's on the UK Club Chart. She became a judge on 4th series of the UK talent show The X Factor


CELEBRITY GUEST APPEARANCES


Over the years a few famous faces have appeared in Home and Away. The first of these was John Farnham in 1988 where he visited an ill Sally. Frente! appeared and performed a concert in 1993. Whilst filming his travelogue series, Full Circle With Michael Palin , Palin played a British surfer who interrupted a serious conversation between the recently engaged Donald Fisher and Marilyn Chambers. Kostya Tszyu visited Summer Bay in 1997 at a fundraiser organised by Justine Welles.

In the run up to the 2000 Olympic Games , held in nearby Sydney , a number of Australian athletes had cameo roles including Ian Thorpe . During a visit to London in 2001, Nick Smith met UK band Atomic Kitten and at his book launch, Donald Fisher was asked by TV critic Tina Baker to sign her copy of his book. Later that year, Dani Sutherland managed to attract five members of The Wallabies to appear at drugs awareness event she had organised.

Josie Russell organised for Paulini Curuenavuli to appear at Pippa Saunders christening in 2004. In 2005, tennis player Lleyton Hewitt , who had recently become engaged to Home and Away actress Rebecca Cartwright had a cameo role where he play a customer in the diner that took an interest in Cartwright's character Hayley Lawson . David Koch , a presenter of Sunrise has filmed a small role and which will air in September 2007.


CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENTS


As of 8 September 2007

Summer Bay House


Caravan Park

Beach House

Hunter/Holden House

Patterson/Baker House


The Diner Flat

The Pad (formerly the Holden House)

Penthouse (formerly Amanda's mansion)


LOCATIONS

Aside from the residents' houses Summer Bay has several well-known locations including:


Filming in the United Kingdom

A few episodes of ''Home and Away'' have been filmed in the United Kingdom.

In 1998, Selina Roberts and Steven Matheson who had left the Bay a year previous made a call to Irene Roberts and were seen for the remainder of the episode.

In 2001, a storyline where Donald Fisher had his book ''Letter to Byron'' (in honour of his late son, Byron, who died in infancy) published, saw him, along with Hayley Smith and her brothers Will and Nick and their foster mother, Irene taking a trip to London. Whilst in London, Donald met up with his estranged wife Marilyn Fisher (Emily Symons) and gave the audience some closure to their marriage. British pop group Atomic Kitten made a cameo.


PRODUCTION AND BROADCAST SCHEDULE

The show is filmed five days a week for 46 weeks of the year. The crew is given a four week holiday at 's Epping studio. The exterior scenes are filmed on location mainly at Palm Beach and at Fisherman's Beach, Collaroy in Sydney's Northern Beaches region. Location filming normally takes place early in the week, though occasionally demanding schedules mean they can be on location for 4-5 days a week.


Australian broadcasts


''Home and Away'' is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 7:00 p.m.. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for occasions where worldwide events take priority such as the Olympic Games). Each new season begins on the second Monday in January, and the season finale airs on the last Friday of the Ratings Period , at the end of November (the 2006 season however, started, and thus finished, one week later than normal).

The show rates very well in its timeslot, receiving between 1.1 and 1.5 million viewers per episode. The show's main rival is '' Temptation '' on the Nine Network , which usually comes second in this timeslot. In this timeslot Network Ten screens, at various times of the year, programs such as the '' Big Brother Australia '' ''Daily Show'' , '' The Biggest Loser '', or repeats of '' The Simpsons '', which usually come third in ratings behind networks Seven and Nine.

During the broadcast there are three ad-breaks and immediately following the broadcast of each episode there is a short promotional trailer for the next episode.

Repeat episodes of the series were broadcast between 1999 and 2002, with a one-year break in 2000. The first 623 episodes (except for Episode 469, which was overlooked when Seven were showing the tennis in September 2001) were shown in this run, before it was taken off in May 2002, and so far has never returned. Restrictions due to contracts with actors who appeared in the early days of the series prevent the Seven Network from showing repeats of ''Home and Away'', or releasing DVD sets {Link without Title} .


United Kingdom broadcasts

The show has more overall viewers in the UK market than it has in its home market, but Australia, because of it's lower population, has a higher proportion of viewers than the UK.

The series commenced at 17.15 on Saturday 11 February 1989 (17.05 Sunday 12 February in LWT and Yorkshire regions). UK regions have historically had different timeslots for the programme. Most regions aired it at 5.10pm, however Central and Anglia originally showed it at 6.35pm, later 6pm. Thames and Granada then moved the show from 5.10pm to 6pm, Border at 6.30pm. TSW at 3.25pm from Wednesday 20 September 1989 after they had completed moved the series to 5.10pm in 1993. TSW's scheduling was controversial. In 1991 the lunchtime showing was 1.20pm with the repeat following at 3.25pm. TSW persisted with the 3:25pm slot for a long period (apparently to avoid having to schedule two quiz shows consecutively), despite the fact many of Home and Away's teenage followers would still have been at school at this time. By early 1992 TSW's argument was extremely hollow as they had five half hour Australian soaps follow each other from 1.20pm on some days - Home and Away, A Country Practice, The Sullivans, The Young Doctors and then the Home and Away repeat. All regions screened at 5pm from March 1999.

In the UK episode from 1993 onwards were sometimes censored for content. Two episodes were dropped in their entirety, one due to similarities to the Dunblane massacre, another due to similarities to the James Bulger kidnap & murder.

In 1999, ITV2 began broadcasting an omnibus on Saturday Mornings and by 2000, episodes aired in the UK were aired only one week after first showing in Australia. However, the shift in the UK in June 2000 from ITV to Five damaged the programme's ratings, as contract obligations kept it off air in the UK for a year. Also, Five having a smaller audience share than ITV contributed to the show achieving ratings significantly lower. Five funds more than half of the production costs, and it is officially Five's second highest rated show.

In accordance with European Union regulations for shows of this time-length, only one advertisement break is inserted into the programme at approximately the halfway point. An omnibus edition (when the week's episodes were repeated back-to-back) aired on Saturday mornings, until October 2005, and from October 2006 Five Life , a digital channel that started broadcasting on 2006-10-15 , began airing the omnibus.


Home and Away on Five

From 16 July 2001 , starting with the 2841st episode, Five aired a new episode of ''Home and Away'' at 6.00pm every weekday evening, with the episode repeated at 12.30pm, later 12.00pm, the following day, or in the case of a Friday episode, the following Monday afternoon. Furthermore, an omnibus aired on the Saturday from July 2001 to October 2005. It originally aired in an afternoon slot, then an early morning slot, before it was dropped from the schedules, later being picked up by Five Life .

On May 7 2007 this was/will be the same on May 28 2007 and August 27 2007 , no episode was/will be aired on Five for the first time since it started showing the show. Since Five have aired episodes continuously, whilst in Australia Channel Seven take a six week break over December and January, Five caught up from over a year behind and are currently only 11 weeks and 2 days in arrears. Although as off August 28 2007 this will change to 11 weeks 3 days behind as Five are commissioning a film instead. No new/recent repeat episodes will be broadcast across the Five network, but see Five Life for more details.


Home and Away on Five Life

In October 2006, schedules. Home and Away'' on Five Life rates well, with audience figures between 500,000 and 800,000. An omnibus of the episodes aired that week is shown on a Saturday.

From May 21 2007, Five Life also started repeating episodes from the 2000 season of ''Home and Away'', starting from Episode 2841, as they do not own rights to any episode previous. They air between 10.00am and 11.00am, meaning that 10 episodes are aired each week.

On May 7 , May 28 and August 27 2007 , no new episode was aired on any Five channel. However on the latter two dates, themed afternoons were aired on Five Life. These were Weddings and Sally and Flynn's relationship respectively.


UK takes a revived interest


From May 2008 ''Home and Away'' will air on the same UK network as rival Neighbours for the first time, after Five won the UK rights to Neighbours from the BBC .

In the wake of this, it seems that more and more people are turning over to ''Home and Away'' at 6.00pm each night. As a result of the new interest, Five began to put together advertising campaigns, the first for Home and Away since 2002. ''Home and Away'' is quickly rising from 2 million viewers per episode to roughly about 3.5 million.

Although confirmed earlier on Wikipedia (before deletion) that Home And Away would be moving slots because of this, at the moment it seems as though things have changed. Home And Away 's schedule timings on both channels are staying although timings of the Weekly omnibus are still not yet confirmed.
Neighbours will start airing at 6.30pm on Five straight after Home And Away on 12 May 2008 6 weeks after finishing on BBC One . It is thought that why the distance between airing on ITV1 and Five for Home And Away between 2000-1 because ITV1 was extremely unhappy to lose Home And Away as it meant their other daily import which was already not faring well with Home And Away there- Shortland Street - was about to lose more viewers because of this. Freemantle Media decided to move Neighbours as they felt it's slot was "invisible" and they wanted a quicker and easier move than ITV had done with Home And Away
Recently another set of previews have aired. The most recent airing at 6.25pm on Five on September 4 2007 with Jodi Gordon having a brief chat about the storyline with Cam Reynolds and the dancing at his club, even though the story had finished in the UK at the beginning of August.


Sponsorship

Home and Away broadcasts have received sponsorship since they moved to Five. Sponsors include:


Other international broadcasts


In New Zealand , the show used to be broadcast on TV One , later TV2 but now screens on TV3 on weekdays at 5:30pm, (repeated 10:30am on weekdays and an omnibus airs on Sundays at 10:15am). 1995 episodes were briefly shown on Prime TV at 3:30pm weekdays. New Zealand is exactly 6 weeks behind Australia.

In regularly getting into the top 5 ratings for that week. It is approximately 12 weeks (59 episodes) behind Australia. The show is now also repeated on RTÉ Two on Saturdays and Sundays (subject to no live sport etc.) with two episodes on Saturday and three on Sunday. In an email statement dated 21 August 2007, the Director of Broadcast & Acquisitions for RTÉ, stated that Five have negotiated a European premiere for the show, and there is nothing RTÉ can do about this as Five fund part of the shows production costs. This is the first time any broadcaster has over-taken the RTÉ transmission as they were always first to screen the show after Australia. Currently Five are 2 episodes ahead of the RTÉ broadcast, but this stands to change, as RTÉ will broadcast the same daily episode that Five screen. The statement from RTE also states that Five is available to less than 5% of Irish households, and their playing the episodes first hasn’t affected RTÉ ratings. Dublin City University students set up a ''Home and Away'' society in 2006 and one of the society's biggest achievements was meeting Ray Meagher who plays one of Summer Bay's oldest and most important residents, Alf Stewart.

United Kingdom however did not start airing the show until January 1989 . The pilot was not shown by ITV 1 and instead of starting on a Monday, the show had started on a Tuesday instead, but from there on in Home And Away screened most Monday's except at Bank Holiday Easter and Christmas . Bank Holiday and Easter the show was taken off for 1 or 2 days at most whereas at Christmas it could have been anything up to 2-3 weeks. However, in the last 6 months of it's stay with ITV 1 Home And Away had a rather unsettled schedule pattern. Sometimes it will just air 3 or 4 times a week. The last 3 episodes of Home And Away on that channel, 2838-2840 were shown starting on a Tuesday evening and ending that Thursday lunchtime. No more new episodes were allowed to be aired until July 2001 after.

Estonia is quite behind various other countries. The show has screened on ETV in the 1990s and on TV1 in the 2000s. Currently episodes from 2003 are shown on Kanal 2 every weekday at 6:30pm. In summertime (June-August), two episodes are shown instead of one.

Other countries that broadcast ''Home and Away'' include: .

The series is also broadcast in the following countries via the ; Cambodia ; Cook Islands ; East Timor ; Federated States Of Micronesia ; Fiji ; French Polynesia ; Guam ; Hong Kong ; India ; Indonesia ; Japan ; Kiribati ; Laos ; Macau ; Malaysia ; Maldives ; Marshall Islands ; Mongolia ; Niue ; Northern Mariana Islands ; Norway ; Pakistan ; Palau ; Papua New Guinea ; Philippines ; Samoa ; Singapore ; Solomon Islands ; South Korea ; Sri Lanka ; Taiwan ; Thailand ; Tonga ; Vanuatu ; Vietnam .


THEME

The theme's lyrics have remained the same since the pilot episode, but have been gradually reduced in length to keep newer versions of the song at a shorter length. The theme was Released As A Single in the UK in 1989 and peaked at #73 on the UK single charts. The single track includes the opening and closing themes and an additional saxophone section. Since the launch of the 1995 version of the theme tune, extracts from the second verse of the full-length sountrack have been used to close the show, as opposed to an edited version of the opening song which was used until this point. The theme was shortened in 1996, and again in 2004.
, Mark Furze and the crew during filming]]


The current theme, was recorded by 20-year-old actor and musician, Luke Dolahenty. Originally Israel Cannan sang the theme in early 2007, but due to complaints from fans, Channel Seven decided to re-do it, making it the shortest running theme tune in the programme's history.


AWARDS


''Home and Away'' has won many awards in the past, in particular at the Logies . Below is a list on Logies won:

''Home and Away'' has also been nominated for awards in the UK in the past, at such events like the BAFTAs , The British Soap Awards , Inside Soap Awards and National Television Awards . ''Home and Away'' has been nominated every year it has been broadcast in the UK from March 1988 onwards. However, it has so far been unsuccessful in all catergories nominated.


EXTERNAL LINKS