Everyone needs good neighbours, but alas, the time has finally come to say goodbye once and for all to the neighbors on Ramsay Street.
After 37 years and 8,903 episodes, Neighbors is no more – the emotional final episodes have aired in Australia ahead of the UK broadcast.
Ever since it was announced that the soap was being axed, certainly those of a certain age, the fans who were hooked during its heyday, we’ve been desperate for the last, oh, 20 years or so to make sure they’re to the beat
* Warning: This article contains spoilers for the final episode of Neighbours’ double bill
Okay, maybe it’s just me. But while growing up and moving on to adulthood meant we dropped our daily 5.35pm habit some time ago, it still provided comfortable television on those days when we were home and free to go. While the faces changed, like any good long time no see friend, it was never too hard to pick up where we left off.
In the 1980s and 90s, Neighbors was event TV. Scott and Charlene’s wedding, Bouncer’s dream, of course, but so are so many other relationships, love triangles, and tragedies. Brad and Beth! Phoebe and Todd! Libby and Drew! And I’m sure I’m not the only one who was convinced that Jim Robinson (Alan Dale, now of The OC and Lost fame) was singing the song. right?
So this is really the end of an era. And how do you end a show that has been such a huge part of our culture for so long?
Well, if you’re Neighbours, you have a Toadie wedding. Create a story from a history book for people to share their memories, giving viewers a walk down Ramsay Street. And invite the big ones back.
It’s no spoiler to say that Scott and Charlene are back, driving down Ramsay Street to a song that will no doubt fill fans of Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan with joy. But Hollywood star Guy Pearce and Annie Jones are also there, as are Mike Young and “Plain” Jane Harris, and there are cameos from the likes of Delta Goodrum, Holly Valance, Natalie Imbruglia and Margot Robbie.
There’s something really lovely about seeing so many stars past and present appear on screen to be a part of this final farewell. I mean Robbie is the highest paid actress in Hollywood – she’s Barbie! – Pearce hasn’t done too badly either, and Kylie Minogue is Kylie Minogue.
In an industry where big stars can sometimes feel like distancing themselves from any of their less serious roots, it’s a testament to the love for Neighbors and how these famous faces credit the show with their rise to list A
A voiceover from Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis) sets the stage for what many will be tearful. “Ramsay Street,” it begins. “It’s just an ordinary street in an ordinary neighborhood … where extraordinary things tend to happen.”
Jarrod “Toadfish” Rebecchi has married Melanie Pearson, who you may remember from the old days, the receptionist with the, um, interesting laugh who married Joe Mangel. Melanie was a resident of Ramsay Street long before Toadie and his ponytail (RIP) came on the scene, so their union provides a good reason to bring together faces from past and present (even if some of them are on video call).
But as they prepare to marry, they realize it’s time to start over. Since Toadie’s first wife Dee disappeared when she drove off a cliff just hours after their wedding, and another wedding ended in an explosion and his wife died of cancer, this seems only fair.
However, it’s not just Toadie and Melanie who want a fresh start. Everyone moves! Everyone but Karl and Susan Kennedy. So this is really goodbye. Or is it? (We won’t spoil this bit).
Elsewhere, Izzy, who recently returned as Mal’s girlfriend – yes, that’s Izzy, the woman who (temporarily) separated Karl and Susan, Ramsay Street’s favorite couple, and Mal, their eldest son -, has shown his true colors and abandoned Mal. This way? Shane Ramsay, one of the original Neighbours, apparently because he’s a man with two cars.
But at least she was honest about it, and in these last few episodes it seems like she’s finally made something of a truce with Susan.
Image: Former Neighbors star Scott Major directed the last few episodes. Image: Fremantle/Channel 5
Mike, back on his motorcycle as if the last 30 years or so had never happened, is once again wooing Plain Jane Superbrain.
And Paul Robinson, who has returned to the soap for years after an 11-year hiatus following his first stint, is involved in a romance with Terese Willis (Rebekah Elmaloglou, who you may vaguely remember as to Sophie from Home And Away).
There are some nice gestures in the past: Harold with his hose, Charlene dressed in a denim dress and looking ready to enter her old house through a window, as she did in her first scene, as well as all the messages . of old friends In the episodes that have unfolded, there have also been flashbacks to the old days.
This being a soap, some familiar faces might also return from beyond the grave. Of course, it’s all laced with a healthy dose of cheese, but surely we wouldn’t want it any other way?
Speaking to Sky News before the episodes aired, Jackie Woodburne, who plays Susan Kennedy, said the cast had been betting on how it would end. Would they be aliens? An explosion? A hole?
But while it always had its drama, in the end, Neighbors didn’t need technical trickery, explosive storylines or a wedding that ended in disaster. This was simply an opportunity to reflect and honor the people who have called Ramsay Street home.
And who better than their matriarch Susan to do the honors? “Karl…I love you,” she tells her husband, for the last time, and I’m not crying, you’re crying.
He then begins his message from the history book of Ramsay Street, entering the cul-de-sac he has called home for almost 28 years, watching the celebrations.
“Things rarely went well, of course … but they usually worked out in the end,” he says.
“Everyone deserves a place in Ramsay Street history,” Susan continues, now acknowledging the viewers; you will really need a tissue for this bit. “Even those who looked at us from afar.
“Together, we’ve been… the perfect mix.”
No longer just a step away, Neighbors is no longer there. Consider this my plea for a streamer to make a UK Gold and collect it from the start.
The Neighbors final airs in the UK on Channel 5 at 9pm on Friday 29 July