Time to dust off the Commodore L station wagon and send the newlyweds for another fatal cliff-side drive.
I personally feel cheated having pumped out severalstories examiningNeighbours’legacy,only for the soap to pull a John Farnham (or a Tom Brady if you’re both an NFL andNeighbours fan) and backflip on retirement.
Naturally,the announcement has been met with widespread jubilation. The return ofNeighbours is being viewed as a victory for the show’s famously passionate fans.
However,before we pop more of Margot’s champagne,it’s worth stating that this decision could backfire,a classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for.’
First,the decision to endNeighbourstriggered an outpouring of goodwill from an Australian public who grew up adoring the show. But it’s no secret that while people felt sad,they also felt confused about who was actually still onNeighboursbecause they hadn’t watched it since the late 1990s.
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Outside the superfans,most people viewedNeighboursin the same way you view your childhood home:it’s comforting to know it’s still standing,but once it’s gone,you don’t give it a second thought.
Let’s also remember that theNeighboursfinale only aired in July,and with production on the reboot slated to begin in early 2023,we can expect a premiere mid-next year. At best,it will be just over a year between the farewell and the comeback.
Put simply:it’s not enough time to properly mourn theNeighbours-shaped hole in our lives. On top of that,the show risks undoing all the nice sentiment it generated by rushing the show back to air. Andrushis the operative word,given most of the cast seem to have been kept in the dark.
According to formerNeighboursstar Takaya Honda,half the cast didn’t even know Australia’s most famous cul-de-sac was back in action.
Taking to Instagram,the actor posted a photo of actors Ryan Moloney,Jackie Woodburne and Alan Fletcher accompanied by the caption,“The rest of the cast are finding out with you. Please give us time to process. We don’t know anything more.”
In fact,Moloney,Fletcher,Woodburne and Stefan Dennis are the only confirmed returning cast members.
The harsh truth is that in TV land,revival rarely means survival. We’ve seen it happen at home with the much-loved seriesSeachange(brought back in 2019 on Nine*) andPacked To The Rafters(rebooted by Amazon Prime in 2021).
Neither show received a second season and arguably risked tarnishing the legacy of the original series.
Meanwhile,US shows likeArrested DevelopmentandCommunitywere also “saved by fans” only to suffer a fate worse than death:dying twice.
I understand that the return ofNeighboursiswelcome news from an industry standpoint;the show creates jobs and is famously a training ground for those in front of and behind the camera.
But necessity is the mother of invention,and the vacuum created byNeighbours’departure may have opened the door for what Australian television desperately needs:fresh ideas.
This could have been an opportunity for all that talent – producers,cast,camera operators,writers – to come up with something new,a show not wedded to 37 years of backstory.
Ultimately,we will have to wait and see what shape the reboot takes. But I suspect this will prove that while everybody needs goodNeighbours,we deserve better than lazy reboots.
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