Neighbours (1985)

Neighbours is a long-running Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems together. Seven decided to commission the show following the success of Watson's Sons and Daughters, which aired on the network. Neighbours underperformed in the Sydney market and it struggled for months before Seven cancelled it. The show was immediately bought by rival network, Ten. After taking over production of the show, the new network had to build replica sets because Seven destroyed the originals to prevent its rival from obtaining them. Ten began screening Neighbours on 20 January 1986, beginning with episode 171. Neighbours has since become the longest running series in Australian television and in 2005, it was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame. On 11 January 2011, Neighbours moved to Ten's new digital channel, Eleven.