10 quick questions: Neighbours, Home and Away, and classic Australian soap operas

You’d be hard pressed to find an Australian who doesn’t at least have some memory of a classic soapie cliffhanger episode, tragic death or big-budget wedding Composite: Supplied

The first time I clapped eyes on an Australian soap opera, I was seven years old and sneaking a clandestine glimpse at Home and Away on the black and white TV in our holiday house. It was 1989 and there was a shark in Summer Bay – my first, but not my last, taste of the heights (and deep lows) of Australian serial drama.

From Summer Bay to Wandin Valley, from Erinsborough to Pacific Drive, Australian soapies have been putting their own spin on the heartbreaking, hilarious and sometimes just plain bonkers serial drama format since 1958. Australian soaps might not reflect our society in any meaningful way – despite occasional moments of forward-thinking casting or storylines across the years, they’re still overwhelmingly white and straight – but what they lack in diversity they, well, also lack in any sense of dramatic realism. Nothing says “Australian soapie” like dying of a brain aneurysm at your mother’s birthday street party while Hunters & Collectors play and your parents do Sharpie dances in the cul-de-sac (that’s Stingray Timmins’ death, for those who weren’t glued to Neighbours in the early-00s).

You’d be hard pressed to find an Australian who doesn’t at least have some memory of a classic soapie cliffhanger episode, tragic death or big-budget wedding, so test your knowledge of Australian soapie moments with this quiz – there are no prizes, other than to find the Home and Away theme stuck in your head for the rest of the day...

1. Home and Away bad girl Bobby Simpson died in a boating accident in 1993. She returned in 1995 when Ailsa hallucinated a visitation of Bobby’s ghost. Which major appliance did Bobby appear from within?

   1. 

      A fridge

   2. A washing machine

   3. A chest freezer

   4. A filter coffee machine

2. True or false: Bob Hawke made a cameo appearance on A Country Practice.

   1. True

   2. False

3. In 1991, E Street introduced a sadistic serial killer who was responsible for the deaths of a number of high-profile characters. What was his name?

   1. Mr Terrible

   2. Mr Evil

   3. Mr Bad

   4. Mr Scary

4. In 1985, A Country Practice broke the hearts of a nation when a beloved character died. Which Wandin Valley icon kicked the bucket and how?

   1. Fatso the wombat was run over

   2. Shirley Gilroy died in a plane crash

   3. 

      Molly Jones died of leukaemia

   4. Donna Manning died in a car accident

5. Often derided as an Australian imitation of Melrose Place, steamy late-90s series Pacific Drive nonetheless broke new ground in Aussie soap with the introduction of lesbian character Zoe Marshall (Libby Tanner). Which of these other “firsts” did Zoe NOT feature in?

   1. First recurring lesbian character on a soap opera

   2. First lesbian smooch

   3. First lesbian love triangle

   4. First lesbian wedding

6. 

   In 1989, Gumbaynggirr activist, actor and Aboriginal Tent Embassy co-founder Gary Foley appeared in a five-episode arc on A Country Practice. What character did he play?

   1. A visiting politician who causes a stir in Wandin Valley

   2. A Christian pastor and Aboriginal land rights advocate

   3. An activist who had mentored environmentalist Molly Jones when she was at university

   4. A doctor who clashes with Dr Terence Elliott over how to treat a patient

7. In one of the strangest moments to ever occur on Australian television, Neighbours viewers went inside beloved dog Bouncer’s dream in Episode #1254. What was he dreaming about?

   1. Chasing Paul Robinson’s car to stop the dodgy guy from getting away with everyone’s money

   2. Stealing a tray of sausages from the Lassiter’s Hotel kitchen

   3. 

      His doggie wedding to Rosie, Clarry’s dog from next door

   4. Becoming a superhero and solving crime in Erinsborough

8. In 2011, Home and Away introduced a group of surf dudes, Brax, Heath and Casey Braxton, inspired by Maroubra surf gang the Bra Boys. What is the fictional brothers' tattooed motto?

   1. Sand is Thicker than Water

   2. Blood and Sand

   3. Surf, Sand, Blood

   4. Summer Bloody Summer

9. Beloved comedy show Fast Forward memorably skewered classic Australian soapies with its recurring sketch Dumb Street. How did the theme song begin?

   1. “Dumb Street, everybody visits E Street, with a little Flying Doctors…”

   2. “Dumb Street, we’re all living on E Street, Home and Away like Neighbours...”

   3. “With a little Country Practice, you can find the perfect blend…”

   4. “You know we belong together, in Erinsborough forever and ever…”

10. When Neighbours dork Toadfish finally got the girl, marrying Dee Bliss, it all ended in tragedy after the happy couple drove away for their honeymoon. What happened in that fateful Episode 4293?

    1. Their plane goes down en route to their tropical honeymoon

    2. The hotel where they’ve booked their honeymoon burns down

    3. Their car veers off the road and plunges into the ocean

    4. There is a once-in-a-century flood when they share a romantic picnic

Solutions

1:A - In 2018, Nicole Dickson revealed that she had quit acting to become an accountant after being typecast as Bobby. “I'd been on Home and Away for six years and you can get stale doing a show like that. And while I was pleased I went out with a bang, it was tougher than I imagined to find [acting] work afterwards.”, 2:A - He attended a concert supporting nuclear disarmament put on by the kids of Burrigan High in the 1986 episode Listen To The Children: Part 2. When Hawke died in 2019, the episode’s script writer Leon Saunders recalled that: “He delivered the script I'd written, from memory, word-for-word, in which he promised the kids of Wandin Valley he would do everything in his power to prevent the possibility of nuclear war.", 3:C - The show’s creator Forrest Redlich explained in a 2007 DVD release of the “Mr Bad” episodes that the storyline became a way for many actors to leave the show. “We had several cast members wanting to leave, not being pushed out [...] but we could roll all those stories together. What made us really unpredictable is that you didn't know who was going to die ... we actually knocked off some of our regular cast that wanted to leave.” , 4:C - The episode was the show’s highest-rating across 14 seasons. Actress Anne Tenney, who played Molly, told Guardian Australia in 2020 that she was worried the episode would traumatise the show’s young fans. “​​I was really concerned about kids watching because it was a family show that got fan mail from grandparents all the way down to five-year-olds.", 5:D - Zoe did get married, but not to another woman; she tied the knot with sex worker Tim so that he could stay in the country. In 1996, Lesbians On The Loose magazine featured a “scoop” photo of Zoe’s kiss with Callie, played by Danielle Spencer, and the cover line, “Too Hot For Woman’s Day”!, 6:B - “[Creator] Jim Davern rung me up and asked me if I was interested,” Foley told Guardian Australia earlier this year. “I said I was only interested if I could write my own character and my own dialogue.”, 7:C - Not everybody loved this iconic moment; cast member Anne “Madge” Charleston told the UK's Channel 5: “The whole cast was mortified [...] it reduced it to a three-year-old’s programme.”, 8:B - "What can you do?" actual Bra Boy Sunny Abberton told the Sun-Herald at the time. “As long as it's not making it into a negative thing about being territorial on the beach, and perpetuating that image that we don't want anyone else on our beach – which can get a little bit boring. We don't want that portrayed.", 9:B - A Dumb Street motif featured the characters flipping their hair behind their shoulders in a huff, and slapping fights with mistimed “whack” noises. Truly, the height of humour to those viewers who were in primary school at the time., 10:C - Shane Porteous, the former A Country Practice star, wrote this episode – and hundreds more – under his pen name John Hanlon, and scored an AWGIE award for his troubles.

Scores

1. 10 and above.

2. 9 and above.

3. 8 and above.

4. 7 and above.

5. 6 and above.

6. 5 and above.

7. 4 and above.

8. 3 and above.

9. 2 and above.

10. 0 and above.

11. 1 and above.