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Back in 1985, Australian visionary Reg Watson had a keen idea for a series which would wind up turning into a thirty-seven season soap opera adventure called Neighbours. The premise was simple enough and in keeping with the best of the long and storied soap industry: Focusing on the trials and tribulations of the good folks of Erinsborough, the ongoing saga was celebrated by a loyal contingent of fans that could not get enough of this gem. Loyalists instantly cottoned to the three families that were front and center in the show – the Robinsons, the Ramsays and the Clarkes and it felt as if another thirty-seven years of storylines could easily be squeezed out of this delightful world. Alas, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end…
Announced by our Collinsport fanatics over at Variety today comes the news that Neighbours is ending a nearly four decade run. The news – in best They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar fashion – came not with banners of appreciation and thanks, but rather with barely a whimper of protest. Like other charming bric-a-brac that left center-stage before it such as the telephone booth and the classic fedora, the news of its passing barely registered on the overall pop culture scale.
Neighbours has had the shadow of the dreaded cancelation ax hanging precariously over its unique and creative storytelling for some time now. Pop pundits point to the vamoosing of the show’s main money source (U.K. broadcasting staple Channel 5) as being at the heart of this canceling. Although Neighbours has valiantly held on since losing its funding in early February, the writing was apparently on the wall and the final episode will wrap this June.
In a statement regarding their unceremonious end, the Neighbours team said that “Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show…To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incredible high. From here on, we are celebrating Neighbours.”
Even though we’ve exorcised our mandatory “all good things” argument, might we add that Neighbours is too clever and fun of a soap to ever completely be expunged from our pop cultural memory banks? The series goes gently into that good night which is warmly inhabited by Little Orphan Annie decoder rings, rotary telephones and old fashioned egg creams. We know that we won’t forget Neighbours anytime soon.
