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Home and Away
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Home and Away (also commonly abbreviated in writing to H&A) is a Logie Award-winning Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since July 1987. It premiered on 17 January 1988, and is now one of the longest-running series on Australian television and won 34 Logie Awards since 1988.
The show initially focused on the characters of Pippa and Tom Fletcher, (as portrayed by Vanessa Downing/Debra Lawrance ,and Roger Oakley) who ran the Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a succession of foster children, most notably their adopted daughter Sally (Kate Ritchie), but the show has expanded and now focuses on the Stewart family along with the rest of the cast
985 the Seven Network axed the poorly rating soap Neighbours, but they were 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 to television on Network Ten in 1986, it initially attracted low ratings.
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Home and Away (also commonly abbreviated in writing to H&A) is a Logie Award-winning Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney by the Seven Network since July 1987. It premiered on 17 January 1988, and is now one of the longest-running series on Australian television and won 34 Logie Awards since 1988.
The show initially focused on the characters of Pippa and Tom Fletcher, (as portrayed by Vanessa Downing/Debra Lawrance ,and Roger Oakley) who ran the Summer Bay Caravan Park and lived there with a succession of foster children, most notably their adopted daughter Sally (Kate Ritchie), but the show has expanded and now focuses on the Stewart family along with the rest of the cast
History
In 1985 the Seven Network axed the poorly rating soap Neighbours, but they were 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 to television on Network Ten in 1986, it initially attracted low ratings. The Network worked hard to publicise Neighbours and their hard work was paid off when its popularity grew, by the end of 1987 it was attracting high ratings in Australia.In October 1986, Neighbours started to broadcast in the UK, where it began to attract strong viewing figures.
In late 1986, Network Seven's head of drama, 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.
Cast
Current cast members
Recurring cast
Supporting guest cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|
| Jaclyn Albergoni | Const. Watson | | Lisa Hayson-Phillips | Nurse Julie Cooper | | Maria Matteo | Nurse Gloria |
Upcoming characters
| Actor | Character |
|---|
| Kain O'Keefe | Brendan Austin | Debuts Friday 13 March 2009 | | Luke Jacobz | Angelo Rosetta | Returns Friday 13 March 2009 | | Alex Greathead | Claudia Wilks | Debuts Friday 13 March 2009 | | Debra Lawrance | Pippa Fletcher | Returns April 2009 | | Elle Joansen | Kaitlin Dason | Debuts April 2009 | | Mauricio Merino Jr | Tyson Poulos | Debuts 2009 |
Notable former cast members
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 Christmas and a two week break for recuperation mid-year. There are an average of eight weeks between shooting and airing the program. All interiors for the show are filmed at Seven Sydney's Epping studios. The exterior scenes are filmed on location mainly at Palm Beach and at Fisherman's Beach, Collaroy in Sydney's Northern Beaches region.
on Channel Seven
Home and Away is broadcast in Australia on weekdays at 19:00. The show airs for 46 weeks each year (except for occasions where worldwide events take priority such as the Olympic Games). Each new season usually begins on the second Monday in January and the season finale usually airs on the last Friday of November. The 2008 season (which started ended two weeks later than usual) began on January 28 with episode 4561 and ended on November 28 with episode 4770. The show rates well and is consistently the highest rating programme in its time slot, usually receiving between 1.3 and 1.8 million viewers per episode (nightly). In special circumstances, storylines have the ability to attract a national audience of over 2 million.
During the 2004 Olympics, there was a 17-day gap beginning after episode 3805 on Friday August 13, 2004 until Monday August 30, 2004 when episode 3806 had aired. The same occurred for the 2008 Olympics, with the 18-day gap beginning after episode 4700 on Thursday August 7, 2008. Just like with the 2004 Olympic cliff-hanger, in which a character was killed off, there was a cliff-hanger of a similar sort in 2008.
Season 22 (2009) ratings are below.
on NT1
In France, the show is not referred to as Home and Away, but is referred to as Summer Bay. The digital network NT1 has been showing episodes from Monday 4 September 2006. It is unclear how far behind they are, but it is thought that episodes currently airing are running at a similar pace to those airing in Belgium at the moment. The timeslot is currently afternoon/evening.
on 2BE
The show has been showing in Flanders (northern Belgium, with Dutch language subtitles) since Kanaal Twee (VTM's commercial sister channel, renamed 2BE in 2008) opened in 1995. Episodes currently being shown aired in Australia in September 2006. The show originally aired once a day at 18:30 but since January 2008 airs twice a day; currently each 25 minute episode first shows at 17:55 and is repeated the next day about 13:30.
 on RTÉ One and RTÉ Two
In Ireland, the national state broadcaster, RTÉ, has shown the programme since its inception.
The show airs every day of the week but there are no new episodes on Saturdays or Sundays. New episodes air at 13:25 weekdays on RTÉ One, but on special occasions such as Christmas, episodes have been known to start airing as early as 11:15. An encore presentation is screened on RTÉ Two weekdays at 18:35 with an omnibus played over two days (Saturday and Sunday). The show has consistently been RTÉ's most popular televised drama, regularly topping the ratings over the past 21 years.
The 2009 Season Premiere aired in Ireland on Tuesday, February 3 at 13:25 on RTÉ One. Due to the UK's Five having the rights to premiere the show in Europe, it cannot be shown on RTÉ when it is not shown on Five.
RTÉ are 11 episodes behind Australia.
on TV3
Episodes of Home and Away currently screen in New Zealand on TV3 weekdays at 17:30 (with replays on 12:30 the following afternoon, and a week's worth of omnibus from 10:15 on Sunday, with only one or two advertisements). Current New Zealand episodes are exactly four weeks behind Australia.
The 2009 season (Season 22) will premiere in New Zealand on Monday February 9, 2009.
For the first time in ten years, this will mean that the UK is ahead of New Zealand by a fortnight. The last time this had occurred was in 1999, a year prior to the year-long break in the UK.
 on TV2
Home and away has been aired on TV3 Norge and TV2 Norway since 1994. TV3 Norway started to screen the series, but they chose not to show the series from the beginning but instead jumped right into action to the year 1993, just before Bobby's tragic death. After a year TV2 Norway took over. They showed the series from when Shannon and Curtis came to Summer Bay in 1994 and aired every weekday at 15:40. Currently screened on TV2 Norway weekdays at 15:40 (with replays on 12:30 the day after). Norway are exactly two years behind Australia
on Net 5
On January 5, 2009, Home And Away started to air on Net 5 in the Netherlands. It is shown twice a day at 14:30 and 18:30. The show started at the same day as Out of the Blue which is show on Net 5 at 14:00.
on Five and Fiver
Home and Away first appeared on British television on Saturday, February 11, 1989. It was broadcast on ITV for the first 11 and a half years of its British history, showing episodes 1-2840. The last episode on ITV aired on Thursday June 8, 2000. At the time, ITV were 9 episodes behind Australia, hence the reason for the regular breaks at Christmas and Easter.
Home and Away made its long awaited début on Five on Monday July 16 2001. At this point, there were still 24 weeks worth of episodes from 2000 to air. The night before the first episode premiered on Five on Sunday July 15, 2001, there was a special hour long recap episode, which had not been aired in any other country around the world. As well as a recap, there were also hints of things to come such as the arrival of the Sutherland family, which had taken place three weeks into its run on Five. Episodes did originally air on Five at 6 p.m. weeknights with a re-run at 12.30 p.m. (until December 30, 2005) and then noon (from January 3, 2006- February 8, 2008). When Five picked up Neighbours, however, the re-run slot was moved to the 6.00pm slot and the episodes now have their first airing on the channel, weekdays at 2.15 p.m. In the event of a football match, Home and away will air one of its slots (the 2.15 p.m. one normally) and then do two repeats the following night from 6.00 p.m.-7.00 p.m. Five is exactly two weeks behind Australia and the 2009 season started on Five on Monday 2 February 2009. This is the first time that Five has ever aired episodes ahead of New Zealand.
Home and Away was first shown on Five Life (now Fiver) on Monday, October 16, 2006, the day after the channel's launch. Home and Away is currently sponsored by Ragú in the United Kingdom, Alan Dale is the voice of the sponsor whose famous for the role of Jim Robinson in rival soap Neighbours between 1985 and 1993. Fiver is 1 week and 4 days worth of episodes behind [Australia and the 2009 season started on Friday 30 January 2009.
Elsewhere in the world
During the 1990s, Home And Away was a runaway hit in Canada and saw audience figures that Neighbours would never see. However, due to intentional competition with other afternoon soaps such as The Bold and The Beautiful and Days of our Lives, both Home And Away and Neighbours were taken off the schedule.
Due to public demand, Canadian television networks are locked in a battle for current broadcasting rights of the show. This ultimately means that Home And Away will return to television screens across Canada in the not too distant future. Similar discussions have also been occurring amongst the major U.S. networks. It has been suggested that a commercial re-launch of the show throughout North America is on the cards following its consistent primetime success in Australia. The Seven Network has welcomed this support, announcing that expansion into the international market will allow for a larger production budget (and ultimately better viewing).
Theme song
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 soundtrack 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.
The 2007-2008 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, Network Seven decided to re-record it, making it the shortest running theme song in the programmes history.
The Home and Away theme is also used as an instrumental underscore on special occasions. It was last used during Sally's final scene and was heard several times throughout the storyline (most notably Sally and Flynn's wedding).
In 2009 the show debuted with a revamped opening and closing theme; however, for timing reasons the lyrics have been shortened slightly and the tune now runs at 15 seconds. The theme has returned to a male/female duet, after eight years of male group/solo singers. As it is much shorter, the theme will once again play at the start of every episode. From June 6-Nov 08 the opening titles were played on a completely random basis, depending on the episodes' length. The theme is accompanied by the show's first set of castless opening titles. The design of the titles is that of a collage, made up from many pictures of Palm Beach, the location used as Summer Bay. This theme has caused much controversy as it removes more lyrics from the already extremely short theme and so some may feel it has lost its character.
Ratings
The ratings for the Season 22 (2009) on Australian television are in the table below (The viewers are in millions).
| # | # | AU Air Date | Viewers (m) | Nightly Rank (#) |
|---|
| 4771 | 1 | 19 January | 1.263 | 2 | | 4772 | 2 | 20 January | 1.170 | 3 | | 4773 | 3 | 21 January | 1.170 | 5 | | 4774 | 4 | 22 January | 1.123 | 3 | | 4775 | 5 | 23 January | 1.077 | 6 | | 4776 | 6 | 26 January | 0.993 | 7 | | 4777 | 7 | 27 January | 1.429 | 4 | | 4778 | 8 | 28 January | 1.370 | 3 | | 4779 | 9 | 29 January | 1.284 | 4 | | 4780 | 10 | 30 January | 1.147 | 6 | | 4781 | 11 | 2 February | 1.235 | 5 | | 4782 | 12 | 3 February | 1.336 | 8 | | 4783 | 13 | 4 February | 1.214 | 6 | | 4784 | 14 | 5 February | 1.089 | 5 | | 4785 | 15 | 6 February | 1.104 | 6 | | 4786 | 16 | 9 February | 1.141 | 12 | | 4787 | 17 | 10 February | 1.268 | 9 | | 4788 | 18 | 11 February | | | | 4789 | 19 | 12 February | 1.093 | 6 | | 4790 | 20 | 13 February | 0.779 | 12 | | 4791 | 21 | 16 February | 1.157 | 9 | | 4792 | 22 | 17 February | 1.156 | 9 | | 4793 | 23 | 18 February | 1.115 | 6 | | 4794 | 24 | 19 February | 1.068 | 4 | | 4795 | 25 | 20 February | 0.939 | 6 | | 4796 | 26 | 23 February | 1.191 | 9 | | 4797 | 27 | 24 February | 1.161 | 9 | | 4798 | 28 | 25 February | 1.145 | 8 | | 4799 | 29 | 26 February | 1.121 | 3 | | 4800 | 30 | 27 February | 0.955 | 5 | | 4801 | 31 | 2 March | 1.178 | 6 | | 4802 | 32 | 3 March | | | | 4803 | 33 | 4 March | | | | 4804 | 34 | 5 March | | | | 4805 | 35 | 6 March | | | | 4806 | 36 | 9 March | | |
Merchandise
Books & annuals
| Name | Release Date/Year | Type Of Annual/Book |
|---|
| Home and Away Annual | 1989 | Annual | | Home and Away Special | 1989 | Annual | | Home and Away Annual | 1990 | Annual | | Home and Away Special | 1990 | Annual | | The Official Home and Away Annual | 1992 | Annual | | Home and Away Annual Authorized Edition | 1992 | Annual | | Home and Away: Behind The Scenes | 1989 | Book | | The Frank Morgan Story | 1989 | Book | | The Carly Morris & Steven Matheson Stories | 1989 | Book | | The Bobby Simpson Story | 1989 | Book | | The Matt Wilson Story | 1989 | Book | | Home and Away: Carly's Crisis | 1989 | Book | | Home and Away: Bobby & Frank | 1989 | Book | | Home and Away: 2 In 1 | 1990 | Book | | Home and Away: Dangerous Ride | 1989 | Book | | Family Matters | 1990 | Book | | Home and Away Volume 1: Summer Bay Blues | 1990 | Book | | Home and Away Volume 2: Scandal At Summer Bay | 1990 | Book | | Hearts Divided (Novel) | 2003 | Book | | Dani On Trial | 2004 | Book | | Prisoner No. 2549971 | 2004 | Book | | A Place In The Bay | October 2004 | Book | | The Long Goodbye | November 2004 | Book | | Mayday | June 2005 | Book | | Second Chances | September 2005 | Book | | Home and Away Annual 21 Years | January 2009 | Annual |
DVD, VHS & soundtracks
| Name | Release Date/Year | Type Of Annual/Book |
|---|
| Classic Home and Away | 1993 | VHS | | Home and Away: The Official Summer Bay Special | 1996 | VHS | | Home and Away: Secrets And The City | 2003 | VHS/DVD | | Home and Away: Hearts Divided | 2003 | VHS/DVD | | Home and Away: Romances (Includes Pilot Episode) | 2005 | DVD | | Home and Away: Weddings | 2006 | DVD | | Home and Away Hits | 2002 | Soundtrack | | Home and Away Hits 2 | 2003 | Soundtrack |
Other
| Name | Release Date/Year | Type Of Annual/Book |
|---|
| Fan Cards | 1988 - present | Cards | | The Game Of Home and Away | ??? | Board Game | | Home and Away The Magazine: Issue 1 | 1993 - 1994 | Magazine | | Home and Away Calendar | 2005 | Calendar |
Awards and accolades
Home and Away has been nominated for, and won numerous awards throughout its twenty year broadcast history. Most notably, the show has won 34 Logie Awards making it the most successful television series in Australian history.
Australian nominees and awards
Digital Spy Soap Awards
The first set of nominations the UK has nominated for Home and Away 2008 were the Digital Spy Soap awards. Home and Away was up for 12 out of 14 awards- the most in the UK Home and Away has ever been nominated for. However, Home and Away obtained no awards. Here are the categories in which Home and Away was nominated.
- Best Single Episode- Disaster at Sea, (aired in UK October 2007- the episode where Brad is turned down by Sally, and the boat disappears) - Beaten by Eastenders
- Storyline of the year- Kelli's revenge (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks
- Best on screen Partnership- Martha and Jack (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders
- Best Newcomer- Jazz Curtis (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders
- Best child actor- Ed Wills (Rory Tolhurst) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks
- Sexiest Male- Mark Furze (Ric Dalby) (nominee)- Beaten by Eastenders
- Sexiest Female- Jodi Gordon (Martha) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks
- Best Exit- Kim Hyde (Chris Hemsworth) (nominee)- Beaten by Hollyoaks
British Soap Awards
Home and Away, for the 7th year (out of 10), has not been nominated for any awards at the British Soap Awards.
External links
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