Home And Away HistoryThe seeds of Home and Away were planted when head of drama Alan Bateman stopped to buy ice-creams in a small country town in Southern NSW and got chatting to some locals, who were unhappy about a home for foster kids from the city being built in their town. Struck by the potential for plenty of storylines – and conflict – in the idea of streetwise city kids being relocated to a different environment, he went off to develop the idea and eventually Home And Away was born.
In the beginning, the story focused on Pippa (Vanessa Downing) and Tom Fletcher (Roger Oakley). Unable to have kids of their own, they had decided to become foster parents and, after Tom was retrenched from his city job, the Fletchers bought the rundown Summer Bay caravan park from Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) and moved there with their five foster children. Soon after arriving, they also took in troublesome Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson), bringing their brood to six.
The Home And Away telemovie screened in January 1988 and rated well, but, just as it took the Summer Bay locals a while to embrace the new family in town, so it took a while for the Australian public to take to this new soapie. Ratings were low in the beginning but, obviously learning its lesson from Neighbours, instead of rushing to take it off-air, Seven gave its new show time to find an audience – and gradually its popularity grew.
In some ways Home And Away had the perfect theme for a successful soapie: troubled teens with lots of problems – drugs, run-ins with the law, pregnancies, deaths, dodgy relatives turning up to cause more trouble… And the "foster kids" angle meant that there was always an excuse for bringing in new, attractive teens to replace the old attractive teens. Plus, its beachside setting afforded many opportunities for putting the attractive teens in bikinis and boardies.
When Home And Away briefly went head-to-head with Neighbours in Perth, the newer soapie managed to out-rate its old rival and Neighbours was quickly moved from that timeslot. When the show debuted in the UK in February 1989, it was slow to take off, as Neighbours had been, but soon kids were once again wagging school to see the show. Despite being on air for 18 years, it remains a ratings winner and looks set to continue for many years.