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television, constrained at the time from such a move by Independent Broadcasting Association regulations (Willock 1992). Coronation Street and Crossroads had been stripped across three evenings, and EastEnders across two. Stripping across five days/nights had long been common in Australian television. This was first done for Number 96 (1972–1977) by Ian Holmes, later the Grundy Organisation’s president. So successful was the stripping of Neighbours across five days that the same principle has since been adopted in the UK for Home and Away. David Liddiment, Head of Entertainment at Granada, which produces Coronation Street and Families, both Neighbours competitors, went so far as to say: “In future, no-one will contemplate running a daytime serial in the UK except as a strip. It’s inevitable that you build success more quickly when you strip a soap” (Liddiment 1989: 20). Second, on scheduling, Loughton made the schedules more cost-effective by repeating each edition daily (Patterson 1992). “The time-slots chosen by the BBC were 1.30 pm, with a repeat the following morning at 9.05. It attracted a typical audience of housewives, shift workers, the unemployed, people home sick” (Oram 1988: 48). After the unexpected success of Neighbours’ first year, it was decided to reschedule the next morning repeat for the same evening, at 5:35 p.m. This was to cater for working mothers, but most of all for schoolchildren who had previously played truant to watch the series. The most famous story attributes the schedule change to the representations made to no less than Michael Grade himself by his daughter. Rescheduled in January 1988, Neighbours nearly doubled its audience to 16.25 million within six weeks. By Christmas 1988, audiences topped 20 million. Five-day stripping and repeat screenings, then, offered a regularity and familiarity significant in capturing such huge audiences, representing one-third of the UK population. The third precondition was the UK “mediascape.” This included a very broad familiarity with Australian soaps. When Neighbours was launched on October 27, 1986, The Sullivans, A Country Practice, Young Doctors, Flying Doctors, Richmond Hills, Prisoner: Cell Block H, and others had broadened the paths already beaten by many Australian films released in the UK. Michael Collins, executive in charge of production at JNP, producers of A Country Practice, maintains that the serial, screened in the UK since 1983, “was a forerunner in getting audiences used to Australian drama” (Collins 1991). And one factor contributing to Neighbours’s topping the ratings late in 1988 would have been the demise of Crossroads, the British soap created by Reg Watson, in spring 1988 after a twenty-four-year run. Fourth, tabloids, television, and un(der)employment. Under Thatcher and Murdoch, the tabloid press in Britain expanded in the mid-1980s, producing what one television executive described, albeit parodically, as “one page of news, one page of sex, and twenty-two pages of television and sport” (Patterson 1992). So when Neighbours was stripped over five days, “the papers really noticed it” (Willock 1992). Together with Woman, Woman’s Day, Jackie, Scoop, and other teen magazines, the tabloids ran myriad stories on Kylie, Jason, Peter O’Brien, and so on, as is indicated by the three sample headlines from three successive days:
DOI link for television, constrained at the time from such a move by Independent Broadcasting Association regulations (Willock 1992). Coronation Street and Crossroads had been stripped across three evenings, and EastEnders across two. Stripping across five days/nights had long been common in Australian television. This was first done for Number 96 (1972–1977) by Ian Holmes, later the Grundy Organisation’s president. So successful was the stripping of Neighbours across five days that the same principle has since been adopted in the UK for Home and Away. David Liddiment, Head of Entertainment at Granada, which produces Coronation Street and Families, both Neighbours competitors, went so far as to say: “In future, no-one will contemplate running a daytime serial in the UK except as a strip. It’s inevitable that you build success more quickly when you strip a soap” (Liddiment 1989: 20). Second, on scheduling, Loughton made the schedules more cost-effective by repeating each edition daily (Patterson 1992). “The time-slots chosen by the BBC were 1.30 pm, with a repeat the following morning at 9.05. It attracted a typical audience of housewives, shift workers, the unemployed, people home sick” (Oram 1988: 48). After the unexpected success of Neighbours’ first year, it was decided to reschedule the next morning repeat for the same evening, at 5:35 p.m. This was to cater for working mothers, but most of all for schoolchildren who had previously played truant to watch the series. The most famous story attributes the schedule change to the representations made to no less than Michael Grade himself by his daughter. Rescheduled in January 1988, Neighbours nearly doubled its audience to 16.25 million within six weeks. By Christmas 1988, audiences topped 20 million. Five-day stripping and repeat screenings, then, offered a regularity and familiarity significant in capturing such huge audiences, representing one-third of the UK population. The third precondition was the UK “mediascape.” This included a very broad familiarity with Australian soaps. When Neighbours was launched on October 27, 1986, The Sullivans, A Country Practice, Young Doctors, Flying Doctors, Richmond Hills, Prisoner: Cell Block H, and others had broadened the paths already beaten by many Australian films released in the UK. Michael Collins, executive in charge of production at JNP, producers of A Country Practice, maintains that the serial, screened in the UK since 1983, “was a forerunner in getting audiences used to Australian drama” (Collins 1991). And one factor contributing to Neighbours’s topping the ratings late in 1988 would have been the demise of Crossroads, the British soap created by Reg Watson, in spring 1988 after a twenty-four-year run. Fourth, tabloids, television, and un(der)employment. Under Thatcher and Murdoch, the tabloid press in Britain expanded in the mid-1980s, producing what one television executive described, albeit parodically, as “one page of news, one page of sex, and twenty-two pages of television and sport” (Patterson 1992). So when Neighbours was stripped over five days, “the papers really noticed it” (Willock 1992). Together with Woman, Woman’s Day, Jackie, Scoop, and other teen magazines, the tabloids ran myriad stories on Kylie, Jason, Peter O’Brien, and so on, as is indicated by the three sample headlines from three successive days:
television, constrained at the time from such a move by Independent Broadcasting Association regulations (Willock 1992). Coronation Street and Crossroads had been stripped across three evenings, and EastEnders across two. Stripping across five days/nights had long been common in Australian television. This was first done for Number 96 (1972–1977) by Ian Holmes, later the Grundy Organisation’s president. So successful was the stripping of Neighbours across five days that the same principle has since been adopted in the UK for Home and Away. David Liddiment, Head of Entertainment at Granada, which produces Coronation Street and Families, both Neighbours competitors, went so far as to say: “In future, no-one will contemplate running a daytime serial in the UK except as a strip. It’s inevitable that you build success more quickly when you strip a soap” (Liddiment 1989: 20). Second, on scheduling, Loughton made the schedules more cost-effective by repeating each edition daily (Patterson 1992). “The time-slots chosen by the BBC were 1.30 pm, with a repeat the following morning at 9.05. It attracted a typical audience of housewives, shift workers, the unemployed, people home sick” (Oram 1988: 48). After the unexpected success of Neighbours’ first year, it was decided to reschedule the next morning repeat for the same evening, at 5:35 p.m. This was to cater for working mothers, but most of all for schoolchildren who had previously played truant to watch the series. The most famous story attributes the schedule change to the representations made to no less than Michael Grade himself by his daughter. Rescheduled in January 1988, Neighbours nearly doubled its audience to 16.25 million within six weeks. By Christmas 1988, audiences topped 20 million. Five-day stripping and repeat screenings, then, offered a regularity and familiarity significant in capturing such huge audiences, representing one-third of the UK population. The third precondition was the UK “mediascape.” This included a very broad familiarity with Australian soaps. When Neighbours was launched on October 27, 1986, The Sullivans, A Country Practice, Young Doctors, Flying Doctors, Richmond Hills, Prisoner: Cell Block H, and others had broadened the paths already beaten by many Australian films released in the UK. Michael Collins, executive in charge of production at JNP, producers of A Country Practice, maintains that the serial, screened in the UK since 1983, “was a forerunner in getting audiences used to Australian drama” (Collins 1991). And one factor contributing to Neighbours’s topping the ratings late in 1988 would have been the demise of Crossroads, the British soap created by Reg Watson, in spring 1988 after a twenty-four-year run. Fourth, tabloids, television, and un(der)employment. Under Thatcher and Murdoch, the tabloid press in Britain expanded in the mid-1980s, producing what one television executive described, albeit parodically, as “one page of news, one page of sex, and twenty-two pages of television and sport” (Patterson 1992). So when Neighbours was stripped over five days, “the papers really noticed it” (Willock 1992). Together with Woman, Woman’s Day, Jackie, Scoop, and other teen magazines, the tabloids ran myriad stories on Kylie, Jason, Peter O’Brien, and so on, as is indicated by the three sample headlines from three successive days:
ABSTRACT
GLOBAL NEIGHBOURS?