FTA-TV Failed Australian Soap Operas

Apr 28, 2008
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Breakers and Headland are the two that stand out for me from my viewing days.

I guess these thrived as a throwback to the radio serial era (think Blue Hills) and homely early television. Not as big a market for them nowadays. Could maybe work as a regional thing or niche thing, but hard to imagine a soap opera gripping the entire nation again.

There have been a few more loose types over the years which still fit the 30 min soap opera mold, something like Something in the Air. And some teen shows like Dance Academy and Blue Water High are soap-friendly.

But the soap operas like Neighbours and Home & Away which have the episodic ambivalence of a dawdling daytime soap and can put out three digit episodes a year without breaking a sweat are seemingly impossible on FTA television nowadays except for the existing fixtures.
 
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Sep 27, 2012
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Breakers and Headland are the two that stand out for me from my viewing days.

I guess these thrived as a throwback to the radio serial era (think Blue Hills) and homely early television. Not as big a market for them nowadays. Could maybe work as a regional thing or niche thing, but hard to imagine a soap opera gripping the entire nation again.

There have been a few more loose types over the years which still fit the 30 min soap opera mold, something like Something in the Air. And some teen shows like Dance Academy and Blue Water High are soap-friendly.

But the soap operas like Neighbours and Home & Away which have the episodic ambivalence of a dawdling daytime soap and can put out three digit episodes a year without breaking a sweat are seemingly impossible on FTA television nowadays except for the existing fixtures.

Blue Hills?!?! Next you'll be telling me you watched Bellbird :p
 

2006_Eagles

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My Kitchen Rules comes to mind
 
Sep 3, 2002
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Carson's Law was hardly a failure.
s**t, that brings back memories of watching it as a kid (10 / 11 at the time and back then TV's were still for almost everyone a one a house item, so as parents watched it, it was watch or do something else whilst on). I remember I liked it at the time, but haven't seen an episode in the over 30 years since.

Now I'm feeling old :(
 
Sep 26, 2017
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Would much prefer they actually gave australian shows a go, employs actors who mostly barely scrape by, up and coming writers, directors etc. instead of this bland "reality" tv s**t.
Yeah but reality tv is cheaper to produce and I believe they also don’t pay royalties to the participants as well.

Hence why we have so much of it, plus produced drama here is generally crap because the best and brightest (actors , producers, writers ect) head overseas where there’s more money and opportunity.
 
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Yeah but reality tv is cheaper to produce and I believe they also don’t pay royalties to the participants as well.

Hence why we have so much of it, plus produced drama here is generally crap because the best and brightest (actors , producers, writers ect) head overseas where there’s more money and opportunity.
Yeah i get that reality tv is cheaper but it's just mind numbing dribble, would much rather watch an aussie drama/comedy whatever show than the s**t thats served up these days.

Not all the stuff that's made is crap either and it helps the actual industry out because people are actually employed instead of working the bar or worse sitting at home and living off the dole because theres no work
 

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One problem we have here regarding local drama is government subsidy. When a show reaches 65? episodes the funding stops. A few shows have been cancelled because of this. Sea Patrol and most recently House Husbands or could have been Love Child.
 
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One problem we have here regarding local drama is government subsidy. When a show reaches 65? episodes the funding stops. A few shows have been cancelled because of this. Sea Patrol and most recently House Husbands or could have been Love Child.
I think it's 55 episodes. Underbelly is another series to fall victim. That's why they changed to "Underbelly Files" a few years back - a minor name change allowed them to get around the 55 episode limit.
 
Sep 27, 2012
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For the Prisoner fans, this just popped up on my FB feed from a page I follow called 'VFL footy in the 80s'.

Here's another photo in our (very occasional) series of football newspaper headlines as seen in Prisoner. Look closely and you'll see the headline reads "Kink to play - Pies" and what appears to be a pic of Peter Knights underneath. The episode was first broadcast in September 1985 (after Kink had left) and would've been recorded about three months earlier.

Prisoner footy headline.jpg

 

oz1235

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Yes, I quite liked it. Had a bit of a crossover with Cop Shop of same era. Sadly I think one of the popular main characters had a motorbike accident and died. It probably lead to show losing it's will for where it was going. Cannot remember how it ended but the death of a main actor really was a cruel thing to happen to a show that was doing ok for it's period. I was wrong. Just watched 5 minutes of episode on youtube. The writing was so bad it was terrible. Think the cast was popular so kept it longer than writers work deserved.
However my childhood memories of some connection to Cop Shop I can see was about the actor that died. His character from Skyways was brought over to Cop Shop when Skyways cancelled....

Wiki bit on this actor.
Stalker moved to Australia in 1979 and was a member of the original main cast of airport drama serial Skyways, playing Peter Fanelli, head of airport security. Fanelli soon proved to be one of the show's most popular characters, and when Skyways was cancelled in 1981 the character was quickly moved to the police serial Cop Shop, with Fanelli now heading Riverside CIB as a Detective Sergeant.

Death
After nine months with Cop Shop, Stalker was tired of both working in serials and of playing Fanelli.[3][4]He quit the show to explore various film offers. However, on 28 November 1981, during a weekend break between taping his final scenes for Cop Shop, he was killed when his motorcycle slid and collided with a car in wet weather in Toorak, Victoria.[5][6] His pillion passenger, then-girlfriend English actress Catherine Wilkin, suffered a fractured hip and leg injuries in the accident.
Catherine wilkin was in rafferty rules if i remember

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