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The caravan park set moved back to the estate after the house was rebuilt, and both exterior sets made their on-screen returns in 2015. The Summer Bay House is the only house to still be seen on screen since the pilot episode. After the Seven Network cancelled their soap opera Neighbours on 12 July 1985 due to low ratings, rival Network 10 picked it up and turned it into a success. A couple of years later, Seven's head of drama, Alan Bateman, became desperate to get back into the soap market and began to work out how to launch another soap that was not a copy of Neighbours. While on a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales with his family, Bateman began talking to locals who were "up in arms" over the construction of a foster home for children from the city. Seeing the degree of conflict the "influx of parentless children on a tight-knit community" was having, Bateman came away with the idea for a new serial.
There have been nine different versions of the theme song used throughout the years. The lyrics remained the same since the show's inception, but a number of verses were gradually cut back over the years due to time restrictions. The original version was sung by Karen Boddington and Mark Williams, and was used from 1988 until mid-1995. Their version was released as a single in the UK in 1989 and peaked at number 73 on the UK Singles Chart.
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The decision to remove the cast and shorten the titles was due to time restrictions. Since then, many viewers in Australia and the United Kingdom have wanted the full-length title sequence with the cast to return. In March 2009, it was alleged that Seven had agreed to censor a then-upcoming lesbian kiss scene between Charlie Buckton and Joey Collins , after receiving many complaints from conservative groups and mothers who did not want their children exposed to same-sex relationships in a family show. Seven's head of creative drama, Bevan Lee, later confirmed that the censorship allegations were in fact false and that the scene would still go to air as planned.
In addition to this, Home and Away took a transmission break on 3 April 2018 in order to broadcast the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and returned on 16 April 2018. In the United States, Home and Away was first shown briefly on the FX cable network from the channel's launch on 1 June 1994 to February 1995. Over two decades later, the show began streaming on the subscription service Hulu on 2 March 2015, beginning with the 2015 season.
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In Australia, Home and Away is the most awarded program at the Logie Awards, with a total of forty-eight wins, including Most Popular Drama Program. Some cast members have won several other awards such as the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and Most Popular Actress. A 2010 episode which featured Martha McKenzie engaging in a sexual scene with Liam Murphy on a kitchen table was deemed "too raunchy" by a television watchdog in New Zealand, where, at the time, the series was aired in a G-rated timeslot. Since 2000, Home and Away has ceased broadcast mid-season for two weeks during the Olympic Games and the episode to screen prior to this is referred to as an 'Olympic cliffhanger'. An Olympic cliffhanger episode would usually involve increased drama, with the peak of a storyline, similar to a season finale episode, and the outcome of the cliffhanger to conclude after the Olympics.
Other original cast members Norman Coburn played high school principal Donald Fisher until 2003, and Kate Ritchie departed in 2008 after 20 years playing Sally Fletcher. Both Coburn and Ritchie along with Ray Meagher entered the 2002 Guinness World Records as the longest-serving actors in an Australian drama series. Meagher now holds that record alone and he is the only remaining original cast member in the show. Meagher along with Lynne McGranger , Ada Nicodemou (Leah Patterson-Baker) and Emily Symons are the longest-serving cast members currently in Home and Away. In 2010, Georgie Parker joined the cast of Home and Away as Alf's daughter Roo Stewart, originally played by Justine Clarke in 1988–89.
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The various titles mostly featured scenes of bikini-clad women and shirtless men with surfboards at the beach. In 2018, a new series of eight-second titles were introduced along with the return of the show's theme song. The new titles, which currently change during each week, mostly feature two men or two women running down to the ocean for a surf. A 30-second version of the titles, not aired on Australian television, was released on the Home and Away website. Palm Beach in Sydney's Northern Beaches district has been used as the location for Summer Bay since Home and Away began in 1988. It has since become popular with tourists, and tours to the show's exterior sets at Palm Beach run throughout the year.
The ratings for the triple bill episodes continued to fall from 524,000 to 414,000 viewers, and on 28 March 2019, the triple bill pulled in a series low of 383,000 viewers and ranked 14th for the night. April 2019 saw a slight rise in the viewing figures; the first episode of the month drew in 740,000 viewers and ranked 9th for that night. Home and Away follows the lives and loves of the residents in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town in New South Wales. During the first season alone, it featured several adult-themed storylines such as teen pregnancy, rape, drug and alcohol addiction, drug overdose and attempted suicide.
The service no longer receives new episodes, although the complete twenty-eighth season is currently available. Although it was initially stated that the show would continue filming, the decision was later made to halt production, despite neither the cast or crew testing positive for the virus. Furthermore, on 23 March, the show was removed from Seven's schedule to make way for extended coverage on the pandemic. On 12 May 2020, it was announced that the show would recommence production following the nine-week suspension. On 19 July 2021, Home and Away was forced to postpone scheduled filming due to new COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in Sydney.
Locations within the town include the beach, a high school, diner, bait shop, garage and a surf club, which includes a gym, small kiosk and an upstairs restaurant. Characters in the show live at surrounding neighbouring areas such as the Summer Bay House, Summer Bay Caravan Park, Beach House, The Farmhouse, Pier Flat, and Saxon Avenue. Other fictional towns mentioned and sometimes seen in Home and Away are Mangrove River and Yabbie Creek. At the end of the first episode, Tom and Pippa take in their sixth foster child Bobby Simpson . They were replaced by a large photo collage showing various locations around Summer Bay.
While Seven Network executives were unconvinced by the idea, audience research was positive. The soap opera was initially called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began. S official Australian Facebook page reached one million likes, becoming the first Australian television show to reach this milestone. The Facebook page was established in November 2009 and is followed by fans mostly in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom. In 2013, Home and Away celebrated its 25th anniversary and former cast member Kate Ritchie returned for a special storyline to coincide with the celebrations.
The 2021 season has seen an increase in ratings with most episodes attracting over 600,000. June saw a rise in viewers when the month peaked at 650,000 for episode which aired on 22 June, while in July, the show continues to receive steady ratings, and again saw a further rise in ratings with 657,000 viewers tuning in on 7 July. The 2021 Olympic return episode, which aired on 9 August 2021, attracted the highest rating in over two years, with 710,000 viewers, with an even higher increase of 733,000 viewers tuning in on 10 August. On 31 March 2022, two episodes achieved new series lows of 382,000 and 364,000 viewers respectively. From 2013 until 2017, Home and Away used a series of five-second opening titles, which changed every week.
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