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Amazon has pulled the plug on its revival series of Australian soap Neighbours after two seasons, leaving many questioning whether this was the most pointless series rescue ever. Having been on screens for almost 40 years, the long-running soap was originally axed in 2022, and saw out the final episode with a huge number of cameo appearances by many of the familiar faces who have been given their big break on the show over the years. Soon after that, Amazon Freevee agreed to pick up the series and bring it back to screens less than a year after its cancelation, making the huge celebratory series ending redundant. Now, it looks like fans have been disappointed once again.

The high-profile finale in 2022 included appearances by pop star Kylie Minogue and actors Guy Pearce and Margot Robbie, among others, and the viewership of that episode rocketed to a height the show had not seen for many years.

Gladiator star Russell Crowe has shared a surprising story behind one of his earliest acting roles. Although the Oscar-winning actor has been a part of major Hollywood productions for decades, he originally got his start on Australian television. In addition to taking part in projects like Spyforce, Rafferty's Rules, and Neighbours, he also played a potentially fibbing patient on a 1977 episode of the medical soap The Young Doctors.

Crowe recently appeared in a Vanity Fair video breaking down some major moments in his career, including his roles in A Beautiful Mind and Thor: Love and Thunder. The Pope's Exorcist star even shared the origin of that bit part on The Young Doctors, which he was hired for while on a school field trip to a television studio. Actor Roy Harris Jones recognized Crowe while he was visiting the set and brought him to meet the casting agent. Crowe said "I...

Like their characters, soap operas never truly die. After broadcasting its “series finale” just this July, long-running Australian soap “Neighbours” is already coming back, and has found a new United States and United Kingdom home in Amazon Freevee.

Amazon announced the news on Thursday, revealing that production on the revival will begin in Australia next year, with a targeted premiere date for the second half of 2023. Series stars Stefan Dennis, Alan Fletcher, Ryan Moloney, and Jackie Woodburne are confirmed to return to the revival, which will premiere for free on Amazon Freevee, Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming service, in the UK and U.S., as well as Prime Video in New Zealand and Canada. Australia’s Network 10, where the soap aired for 36 years, will retain first-run rights for the new series in its home country.

In addition, a catalogue consisting of thousands of past “Neighbours” episodes will launch on Freevee...

When Foxtel first began to craft with Fremantle Wentworth back in 2011, the hope was it would sit comfortably alongside the service’s premium HBO and BBC dramas.

While based on Reg Watson’s long-running ’80s drama Prisoner, and suitably honouring its legacy, it was not designed to a be remake. The desire was to see a modern reimagining of the characters; one that was ambitious and bold.

“We wanted to make something great for Foxtel and set the bar high. It was all part of our hopes for what we could do in the future,” executive producer and former Foxtel head of drama Penny Win recalls to If.

Originally created by Lara Radulovich and David Hannam, Fremantle Australia CEO Ian Hogg pitched Foxtel director of television Brian Walsh the series over a meal in Cannes.

By December that year, early plotting was underway, with journalist and critics Michael Idato and...

"All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1955: On Hawkins Falls, Dr. Floyd Corey (Maurice Copeland) dealt with fallout from the interview he gave to the local newspaper.

1961: On As the World Turns, David Stewart (Henderson Forsythe) and his wife Betty dealt with the aftermath of Ellen Lowell's (Patricia Bruder) revelation that Danny was her son.

Thanks to Jennifer for sending in the clip above.

1967: ABC aired the...

1968: Dark Shadows' Bathia went up in flames.

1985: Australian soap opera Neighbours premiered.

1988: General Hospital's Duke was involved in a shootout.

2004: All My Children's Bianca went into labor."Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results."

― Machiavelli

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1968: On Dark Shadows, Bathia Mapes (Anita Bolster) tried to drive Angeligue out but announced she had failed and feared for her life.

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Remember Queen Bea, the Freak, and, er 'Vinegar Tits'? We revisit the joys of Aussie women’s prison drama, Prisoner: Cell Block H…

Britain, you sent Australia your convicts. In return, we sent you a TV show celebrating them.

Strap on your nostalgia goggles, it’s time to revisit one of the most bizarre, violent, lesbian-fetishy-heart-warming dramas ever created.

Prisoner: Cell Block H (known simply as Prisoner in Australia) was a daring, one-hour show set in Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women’s prison that provides the one-word title of the original show's modern-day revival. It ran for 692 episodes from February 1979 until December 1986. It hitched a ride on the coat-tails of the successful British show Within These Walls, with a notable difference. The focus of Prisoner was mostly on the inmates, not the wardens.

The opening was short and punchy - a quick recap of the previous...

A contemporary .re-imagining. of iconic Australian series Prisoner has been commissioned by Foxtel.

Production company FremantleMedia, under the helm of director of drama Jo Porter, will produce Wentworth . a series set in the present, beginning with central character Bea Smith.s early days in prison. The storylines will include some of the original inmates and staff of the Wentworth Detention Centre (the fictional women's prison in Prisoner) and characters especially developed for the new series.

A spokeswoman said Lara Radulovich and David Hannam developed Wentworth from Reg Watson.s concept and characters.

Foxtel.s executive director of television, Brian Walsh, said it was not a remake of Prisoner . which aired in 14 countries and premiered on Ten in 1979 for an impressive 692 episodes. Foxtel will be hoping for a similar reaction.

.Wentworth will be a dynamic and very confronting drama series, developed and stylised specifically for subscription television audiences,. Walsh said in a statement.

A contemporary .re-imagining. of iconic Australian series Prisoner has been commissioned by Foxtel. Production company FremantleMedia, under the helm of director of drama Jo Porter, will produce Wentworth . a series set in the present, beginning with central character Bea Smith.s early days in prison. The storylines will include some of the original inmates and staff of the Wentworth Detention Centre (the fictional women's prison in Prisoner) and characters especially developed for the new series. A spokeswoman said Lara Radulovich and David Hannam developed Wentworth from Reg Watson.s concept and characters. Foxtel.s executive director of television, Brian Walsh, said it was not a remake of Prisoner . which aired in 14 countries...

Stefan Dennis has admitted that he thought Neighbours would only have a short run when he joined the soap in 1985. The actor, who made his first appearance as Ramsay Street legend Paul Robinson in episode one, revealed that the international success of the programme came as a huge surprise in the years that followed. Neighbours' first episode aired on March 18, 1985 - making today the drama's 25th anniversary. Speaking to the Herald Sun to mark the occasion, Dennis commented: "Who would have thought that more than 25 years ago, when Grundy Television and Reg Watson came up with yet another soap about average Australians, that it not only would outlast all other shows, but change the course of drama-serial television and all who have worked on or in it? "I clearly remember when I got the call from (more)...