The hardest part about creating a new drama in 1984/85?
30 years of Neighbours - what have been your highlights?
The facetious answer is to create a hit! But it is a fact today as well that each episode has critical executives who are self-styled experts on drama. After firing questions about the plot and characters they sit in judgement until the ratings come out. The serial is given four or six weeks and if the ratings don't improve the axe falls! I've known serials to be cancelled after a week.
Neighbours' original format was deceptively simple. It hinged on the communication between fathers and sons (The Robinsons and The Ramseys). Jim Robinson trusted Scott and Scott trusted his father. But when that trust was broken, conflict entered their lives. And Max Ramsey could hardly bear to talk to his son, Danny, for reasons he couldn't explain and Danny was contemptuous of loud-mouthed Max.
On the casting process for the first episode...
It was important that we found the perfect two families - The Robinsons and The Ramseys - because they were to be the main characters in the serial. In 1984, many actors didn't want a long run in a daily serial and this was a problem, but we were lucky to find the excellent people we had.
Did Reg assume success would unfold from the first episode?
You have to have absolute faith in the concept working because you must convince the storyliners, writers, producer, directors, actors and eventually the viewers. And of course the Network Executives are watching with that axe. As part of my sales pitch, I claimed that Neighbours could run for 20 years. I was wrong!
I congratulate and admire everyone involved in Neighbours over its thirty successful years.
Neighbours turns 30 on March 18
Tagged in Neighbours