Neighbours: Bonza or Dag?

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It's great to have it back after two weeks in the wilderness due to W*******N!...It's the ultimate nothing ever changes even when major things happen show, so much better than boring/depressing stuff like Eastenders and Coronation Street!...And Home and Away returns next week!...Sorry about the Bonza and Dag, couldn't resist!

― james e l, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I have only seen 80's neighbours back when it was on the cbc, but I will say CLASSIC because of Guy Pearce. And Harold and Madge, and Charlene and Henry's ridiculous perms.

But it does not have the cutest former member of Spandau Ballet, so it obviously cannot be as cool as Eastenders.

― Nicole, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Nicole: I thought you lived in USA?

― the pinefox, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I do, but since I am rather close to Canada I get the CBC (Canadian version of BBC) and they used to show neighbours (but stopped awhile back). I don't even watch Eastenders (though it is possible to get BBC/Eastenders if you want to pay ridiculous amounts of money for your cable television like my sister does), but anything with Martin Kemp warrants a classic from me.

― Nicole, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But Neighbours did have some of the best scenes to grace a soap opera. I doubt some of these will ever be surpassed. Who cannot recall fondly the time Jim and Doug got boxed on mushrooms and saw truffle snuffling pigs in front of their faces. And if that doesn't do it for you there was the episode where Bouncer had his dream. The only bad thing about Neighbours these days is that it no longer forms one half of the apex of daytime tv scheduling; the days when it was followed by Going for Gold.

― Jonnie, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Neighbours? where would Western civilisation be without? seriously, if you don't like neighbours you must be some kind of mental defective.

― Fat Nick, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

But surely you must have noticed how it's gone badly downhill recently? (In fact, the last few years).

Bill

― Bill, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's definitley gone down hill...but hey it's still better than watching sweaty men in white clothes hitting each others balls with raquettes.

― Fatnick, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Lou's bus!

― DG, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

It's exercise in reality s.t.r.e.t.c.h.i.n.g that Neighbours even exists, 12-some years after its Jason n' Kylie peak. Crap show, unfathomably popular. But then youse Brits love yr Coro.

― AP, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I think the appeal of Neighbours is its high-quality inanity. It's the polar opposite of something like Sunset Beach, were they have no budget or talent, yet desperately try to be dramatic. Watching relatively talented people make carefully written glossy TV about nothing in particular is what makes it brilliant. It's highly distilled pure TV: Nothing really happens, no one has real financial problems, sex/alcohol/drugs are never mentioned, nothing has any consequences. In fact no one has any major worries, yet it still seems somehow realistic.

It's exercise in reality s.t.r.e.t.c.h.i.n.g that Neighbours even exists, 12-some years after its Jason n' Kylie peak. Crap show, unfathomably popular. But then youse Brits love yr Coro.

This mythical 1988 peak is ridiculous. I have UK Gold, and the old episodes are really no different. Maybe it's less talked about now there's Big Brother etc, but it's just as good/bad.

The gradual cleansing of sex (remember the teenage pregnancy/use condoms storyline?), alcohol (There's a pub, but no one gets drunk - When Tad did it was only talked about, once, and then became an unnamed offence), drugs (what are those?) and the complete lack of a token homosexual (there were 2 references in one episode - nothing before or since) or ethnic minority just add to the bizarre eutopia of the whole thing (NB I'm not knocking those groups, I just mean that as a one-less-thing-to-worry-about unrealistic purity, it is middle class eutopia remember. This needs further discussion). And I live for the random pointless public information non-storylines.

― Graham, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

What I stumbled on in the above post: Is Neighbours being racist/homophobic by not having token ethnic minorities/gays, or is it just continuing the being unlike other TV by not pandering to silly tokenism and Hollyoaks-esque "issues"? But it's only Neighbours, so should we care?

― Graham, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I've just realised why the above question is silly. Neighbours is all about forgetting difficult issues. All racism/homophobia inherent in this policy is because the producers don't think the audience is comfortable with it yet for it to feature on a braindead show. A show like Neighbours shouldn't be used to tackle social problems.

― Graham, Monday, 9 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

about australia and race ... I went there for a holiday when I was a teenager ... from a place where everybody has to learn some Maori in school and where the soaps feature ridiculously huge amounts of tokenism ie most of the female actors become lesbian at some point and it's a miracle they don't become ethnic minorities too ... to this place where the first thing I heard when I turned on the TV was a rugby league commentator saying 'Look at that black boy go!' ... A NZer would have been hated eternally for that ... I HAVE to bring this up at any possible opportunity because it has to be mentioned that Australians only allowed Aboriginals the vote about 30 years ago, it was legal to shoot Aboriginals for much of last century, and white Australians committed the only completely successful act of genocide in modern history (wiping out all the Aboriginals in Tasmania, by murdering them, not just bringing alcohol and disease) ... I recently read a news story about the murder of an Aboriginal (committed probably by a NZ ex-rugby star) and an INCIDENTAL detail was that a white man drove past this murder victim lying beside the road dying and calling to him and what he did was he ROLLED UP HIS WINDOW, he wasn't ashamed ...

So I say that race thing is significant. There is no pressure from the government or anyone else in Australia to make some token gesture by including Aboriginals in a soap. I just think that Australians deserve to be despised for all that stuff. But in many ways you're so right that neighbours is classic. 'Rack off, Scott!' And also Shark Bay. In Shark Bay they had this cool scene where the actor was saying his lines and a bag of concrete fell on his head from the roof of the warehouse where they were shooting, and the director goes 'right ... um ... keep going'.

― maryann, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

well, there was pete. he was like, an athlete or something. anyway, of course neighbours is classic. it has been exactly the same since it started, and i wouldn't have it other way.

having a bloody job means i never get to see it anymore. boo. harolds tuba in the background when something unusual happens. how did lance ever get amy? the battleaxes of old - mrs mangle, hilary etc. clive the doctor chasing after a pram with a baby in it rolling down a hill. plain jane being revealed as 'beautiful/glamarous' by the simple act of glasses removal (best ever instance of this old trick?) stonefish at the pump palace. oh, classic every time

― gareth, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I do remember one black person in Neighbours, it was about ten- fifteen years ago, I think his name was Eddie. Although, if I remember correctly, he was English. The show is a classic of course. Who could forget Jim Robinson's death scene, or the blowing-up of the coffee shop?

― Ally C, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Jim Robinson died?!? I am terribly out of the loop...

― Nicole, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

this sounds ridiculous, but the argument could be made that while the aus govt refuses to acknowledge the role of sexual identity perceptions in youth suicide rates, neighbours ain't about to start reflecting it either

― Geoff, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Yep Nicole, Jim died about 8 years ago (heart attack in the Robinson kitchen)...Madge died recently, which was an uncalled for act of brutality, she coulda just moved to Brissy or something like that...

― james e l, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

That long ago? Well, Neighbours always was shown a few years behind on the cbc to begin with. He was probably dead when it was still on the cbc.

― Nicole, Tuesday, 10 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Neighbours has always provided something for "Points of View" fans to witter inanely about. The beach ball changing its colour order as it's thrown about in the long defunct title sequence featuring Craig "Mona" Mclachlan falling in the pool, for example. And said Craig (Henry?) got quoted in the NME quote section once from when he was doing a crossword ("five letter word meaning 'female'. Chick? Broad? Skirt? Girly?").

'Neighbours' may have been rendered superfluous in the "isn't this tv awfully low budget" role by the return of 'Crossroads', which always gave these people something to chuckle about in the shaky scenery/my tie's just changed colour-type lack of continuity stakes, although it might be slicker second time arouund (I'm not in during the day either).

Oh, and Maryann mentioned 'Rack off, Scott!' which reminded me of something I've been wanting to know for some time. Does anyone in Australia actually say 'Rack off' down under, or is just a piece of absurd daytime tv bowdlerization?

― MarkH, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

leave it out, ya flaming golaar (sp?)

― gareth, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

Most classic moment: when a few of the men went off for a walk in the bush and Doug ate some funny looking mushrooms. Cue ace cheapo-videotape effects sequence to illustrate hellish hallucinogenic experience. Faces leerimg at the camera and laughing. Funny colours. Trails of light. It was hilarious.

― Nick, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

hated doug. hated the way he always said "i'll have to love you and leave you"

― gareth, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

yeah, we do say rack off, though it's a class/education thing, and piss off has taken over now. we do not say chuck another shrimp on the barbie, or bonza, we do use the word fuck a lot as in killer fucking dingo, and come off the grass mate just means you can't be serious

― Geoff, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

How does that work then - is 'piss off' considered to be very posh and a bit up yerself, and 'rack off' common as muck or vice versa?

Either way it doesn't sound too classy to me.....

― Emma, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

i thought australians were all about being classy ;)

― gareth, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

I forgot to mention another great thing about neighbours: The repetition. Really Neighbours has only ever had about nine characters, they just replace them with different names, different actors, and different genealogy. Notice how the new woman is indistinguishable from the old Ruth. And today they broke every TV rule ever and reintroduced the fantastically annoying Gilbert and Sullivan songs. I am aghast.

About the whole race thing: I remembered Toady's mate from uni is Chinese, so they're not against minorities, they just don't have them living in the street. I would presume this is a fair reflection of the audience.

― Graham, Wednesday, 11 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link

one year passes...

I thought at one point Neighbours did in fact introduce a Chinese/Korean family into Ramsay Street or am I imagining things.

The early eps. were classic although nothing has really changed re. the tone of the show. Des'n'Daphne, Helen Daniels' portrait of Mrs. Mangel, Clive Gibbons the ginger-haired doctor, Angry Anderson's Suddenly.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 12:15 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, I think you're imagining things. Isn't that the thing about Neighbours, that it has always been unrealistically white? I could be wrong, but...

― OCP (OCP), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 12:52 (twenty-two years ago) link

fact introduce a Chinese/Korean family into Ramsay Street

yes I remember that now! And they ran a storyline where somebody thought they were going to eat Bouncer!

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:04 (twenty-two years ago) link

AH, hooray for race relations and positive stereotyping.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:05 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bouncer went missing and there was a suggestion that the new family might be responsible. But Harold or whoever it was got a good telling off when the well to do Hong Kong Chinese (I think, but not sure) mother cottoned on to what he was implying. That's the way I remember it anyway.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:17 (twenty-two years ago) link

No hang on - that was King of the Hill.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:18 (twenty-two years ago) link

I just remember that there was a Chinese woman living in one of the houses and her acting was laughably bad. I also recall a scene where Julie Martin (nee Robinson) was launching into a tirade about immigrants whilst eating a Chinese take-away.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:19 (twenty-two years ago) link

You see, it is very clever.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:21 (twenty-two years ago) link

I seem to remember It All Turned Out OK In The End and the father joked, "They tell me Dalmatian is delicious!"

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago) link

Neighbours is so rubbish these days :(

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago) link

fact: someone smashed into the back of my car the other day, her name was Julie Martin.

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago) link

would you say that Neighbours has become more like Home & Away, with greater emphasis on the kids?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:03 (twenty-two years ago) link

i never watched H&A, i was too caught up in Henry's antics. then he went to H&A, and had a different name and stuff. what happened there?

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:09 (twenty-two years ago) link

H&A have had a spate of re-appearances of old characters, Lance, Carly, erm thats it. I want 'vinegar-tits' vera to come back.

― Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:18 (twenty-two years ago) link

I can't receive this new-fangled trendy yoof channel, I believe it's called 'Five', so I haven't seen Home & Away since it moved there :(

And I now finish work at 6pm so I don't get to see Neighbours either. Last time I saw it there was some kid with a hilarious Oirish accent on.

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago) link

Can anybody remember how many "headswaps" there were in Neighbours e.g. a character returns to the series played by another actor. I believe that the Darius Perkins/Jason Donovan thing with Scott started off this Points Of View fodder trend.

It definitely happened with Lucy Robinson and Jim's wife Beverly went from brunette to blonde.

Any others?

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago) link

four years pass...

re. the return of Lolly... I swear she was only toddler like three years ago.

― chap, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 14:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, she should be 12 by now. Also as she is a new teenager on the street she has to be troublesome until she learns from the love of her family etc etc.

Neighbours is on top form at the moment. Loving the episode titles. Memorable highlights = "From Boyds to men" and "Mad Max II" (when Max went mad).

― Not the real Village People, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Karl's transformation into a hippy is providing great oppurtunities for amusing marital bickering, which is when the Kennedies are at their best.

Am I alone in thinking Fraser is a good character?

― chap, Tuesday, 3 April 2007 21:37 (seventeen years ago) link

I think Fraser's character has improved, and you've got to love the tortured "I'm scum! SCUM!" type storylines.

― badg, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 00:05 (seventeen years ago) link

Going back to those old comments about race and Neighbours: after a year here I can honestly say that the only Aboriginal / Koori people I've met are those I've given cash to on the street in St Kilda. The Aboriginal population in Victoria is very low, for a variety of reasons, many of which have been noted above.

However north Melbourne, which is where Neighbours is actually set, has a huge population of Italians, Greeks and Serbians (all referred to, gut-wrenchingly, as 'wogs'), due to Australia's infamous 'Whites Only' immigration policy, and now a large Somalian population. I've only caught Neighbours a couple of times since I've been here, but these groups seem woefully under-represented.

The last episode I saw was set in London and featured Michael Parkinson, Neil Morrissey, Jono 'Jono' Coleman and Sinitta. My head span so I turned over to SBS instead - it's the world's greatest TV channel, don't you know.

― Huey in Melbourne, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 03:04 (seventeen years ago) link

i caught a random episode recently, it was a christmas one.

Everyone on the close was playing cricket and having a bbq in the road.

hmm

― Ste, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link

having said that, in most brit soaps all we ever show is people sitting in grotty pubs and arguing.

― Ste, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:27 (seventeen years ago) link

I will upset chap and whatnot here but I'm afraid I've lost the plot completely with Neighbours recently! Havent been home in time for the most part plus I just dont watch TV at the moment (too much personal hassle going on etc etc). I got as far as Lolly coming back and I too was a bit "wtf she cant be THAT OLD ALREADY". She was being some kind of crazy maniuplating ho, but nfi whats going on now. They're kinda trying too hard nowdays I think.

― Trayce, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:49 (seventeen years ago) link

i caught a random episode recently, it was a christmas one.

Everyone on the close was playing cricket and having a bbq in the road.

No joke, this is rly what goes on in the suburbs!

― Trayce, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 10:50 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't reckon i've seen a full episode of neighbours for at least 15 years. haven't seen it at all except for a few random nostalgic moments when i was OS for a long stretch and desperate to hear an australian accent or see a gum tree.

― gem, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 11:53 (seventeen years ago) link

You are a wise woman gem :D

― Trayce, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 12:04 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/programming/a45722/bbc-close-to-losing-neighbours.html

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 26 April 2007 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link

This is of great concern. I haven't been able to watch it as regularly as I would like of late but when I have it's been fantastic. Karl as weirdy-beardy waster drinking organic beer with Dylan is fine entertainment. Not so sure about that Lolly child - how the fuck has she reached puberty already? Didn't she only leave in nappies about 3 years ago?

Anyway, besides the point. I don't want to watch Neighbours with adverts and I certainly don't want it to disappear for a year due to whatever contractual wranglings they might have to deal with.

― Uptoeleven, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:06 (seventeen years ago) link

They only possible upside is that it might be shown in a late enough slot for grown ups with jobs to watch.

― chap, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link

what will the BBC do with the gap in their schedule? It's quite a poser for them. Moving the news forward by 25 minutes would be an extremely unpopular and undesirable move. Prior to Neighbours there was a five minute slot between Blue Peter and the news (which went out at 5.40 iirc) which would be filled by paddington, will o' the wisp, ivor the engine ect ect. Neighbours has occupied this slot since 1987 or thereabouts. Filling the lunchtime slot is no problem at all, a pebble mill type magazine show, gardening show, Rockford Files re-run or old film'd do the job quite nicely.

― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 26 April 2007 13:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I think the ABC in Australia should drop the Catherine Tate Show.

Just so the universe retains its balance, y'know.

― Drooone, Thursday, 26 April 2007 22:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Neighbours>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Catherine Tate

Todays episode title: "Of lice and hen." Ha!

― chap, Friday, 27 April 2007 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link

According to some bloke on Facebook ITV have just snagged it for a hundred mil. This may not be true.

― chap, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:40 (seventeen years ago) link

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

but yeah: maybe they'll move the news to accommodate this seismic change in the broadcasting landscape; i'm sure we've all thought it.

― That one guy that quit, Saturday, 5 May 2007 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

oh! top news:

Neighbours has filmed a London special starring Emma Bunton. The singer takes a star role in the episode called ‘What's a Spice Girl Like You...?’ to be aired in late May on BBC1.

Other cameos include Neil Morrissey (as a vicar), Michael Parkinson and Julian Clary. Former Neighbours actress Natalie Bassingthwaighte also reprises her character Izzy Hoyland, now homeless and pregnant in the big smoke.

come. on!

― CharlieNo4, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:22 (seventeen years ago) link

their cameos aren't particularly interesting.. total combined screen time 45 sec approx

― electricsound, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh do come on, ILX, get with the programme:

Youtube stuff linked to here

― Not the real Village People, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Dammit, well go here http://lowculture.proboards34.com/index.cgi?board=soap&action=display&thread=1154610355&page=25

and find the post 3/4 of the way down...

― Not the real Village People, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:08 (seventeen years ago) link

BBC pulls out of Neighbours fite

― Madchen, Friday, 18 May 2007 13:27 (seventeen years ago) link

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/178/479053323_7af46165c9_m.jpg
BONZA!

― onimo, Friday, 18 May 2007 13:48 (seventeen years ago) link

So, everyone here who watches Neighbours has a TV that receives Channel 5, right?

― Mark C, Friday, 18 May 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Are you getting confused with Home & Away?

― Madchen, Friday, 18 May 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

whoah. this can only mean one thing though, folks:

OMNIBUS!!!

― CharlieNo4, Friday, 18 May 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

haha, That one guy that quit otm.

― Frogman Henry, Friday, 18 May 2007 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Recent episodes have seen Neighbours steering in an occult/evil direction. Hails! The show has lost much of its charm.

― moley, Friday, 18 May 2007 23:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Doctors double-bill anyone?

― Just got offed, Saturday, 19 May 2007 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

No Dr. Ben Kwame = no love.

― jim, Saturday, 19 May 2007 19:42 (seventeen years ago) link

You better just hope they don't replace it with River Shitty. Scotland's worst ever soap.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 19 May 2007 19:44 (seventeen years ago) link

1) From a country that produce Garnock Way, that's some claim
2) You are wrong, River City is AWESOMES

― aldo, Saturday, 19 May 2007 19:56 (seventeen years ago) link

It's no High Road

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 19 May 2007 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Karl and Susan's continued adventures in London = teh rofflez!

― ailsa, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

River City should totally go national, btw. Roisin's accent deserves a wider audience, at least.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 16:51 (seventeen years ago) link

I got all excited seeing London in Neighbours.

― chap, Tuesday, 29 May 2007 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

There's an EVIL CLOWN stalking Pepper.

― chap, Thursday, 21 June 2007 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

In the new issue of Word there's an interview with Mark E Smith where he talks about the music, books and films he likes. The only TV programme just now that he watches is Neighbours. Apart from those Dallas DVD's that he loves.

― cheasyweasel, Thursday, 21 June 2007 13:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Another surprising celebrity Neighbours devotee is Phillip Pullman. He watches it every day when he's having his lunch, apparently.

― chap, Thursday, 21 June 2007 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

six months pass...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7194867.stm

― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I hate the Weakest Link.

― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 18 January 2008 12:26 (seventeen years ago) link

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