Australian Global Sensation "Neighbours" Moves to America via Amazon Freevee

Streaming services giving new life to canceled series is nothing new Shows like Lucifer from Fox to Netflix Designated Survivor from ABC to Netflix and Criminal Minds on Paramount three years after CBS pulled the plug have all been resurrected Most recently on the linear programming side All Rise found a new home at OWN after being canceled by CBS and the list goes on For Neighbours the fact that it remained a viable international IP for the producing company Fremantle made it a perfect candidate for CPRBeginning its run in 1985 on Australia39s 7 Network the show was canceled after an uninspired opening Soon after it was picked up by rival Network 10 and little did they know that when a retooled version debuted in 1986 it would go on to become the longestrunning drama series in Australian television history Aussies became enamored with the lives and loves of its characters and that soon went global as 60 countries made it a cultural phenomenon England in particular embraced the series where in the mid to late 1980s it aired twice a day to a viewership of over 21 million The cast became so revered that in 1988 the whole cast was flown over to appear at the annual Royal Variety Performance for Queen Elizabeth II to sing the theme songDuring its 37year run the show became a rite of passage for many working Australian actors Some would take Hollywood by storm while others parlayed their onscreen popularity into music careers Kylie Minogue launched a successful music career and became one of the highestselling musical artists of all time Natalie Imbruglia garnered huge chart success in the US with her 1997 single quotTornquotCast members would come and go and in 1993 after eight years portraying Ramsey Street patriarch Jim Robinson Alan Dale one of the show39s original cast members became one of the first to start the US Neighbours invasion landing television roles on The OC Ugly Betty Lost and most recently The CW39s Dynasty reboot It was rumored that a pay dispute saw him leave the show but when I spoke with him some years ago about it he had a very different story quotOn that show if you asked for a chair on location so you didn39t have to sit in the gutter they called it my egoquot he revealed frankly quotMy experience on Neighbours was awful But Stefan Dennis who remains a current cast member who played my son went back after a few years in England I was thrilled for him because as an actor how do you make a living I39m grateful that I39m doing it here and that it worked out for mequotThanks to her portrayal of Barbie in the movie of the same name Margot Robbie is currently one of Hollywood39s biggest names Not only did she set record box office receipts but as a producer she also helped set records for female filmmakers Long before she became a bigscreen fashionista Robbie portrayed smallscreen fashionista Donna Freeman for a total of 327 episodes leaving the series in 2011 Five days after leaving the series she hopped on a plane to LA and while the rest is history she remains grateful for the schooling she received on the set quotNeighbours is a fantastic training groundquot she told me while promoting the ABC series Pan Am quotIt really prepares youquotI walked off that set knowing I would never have a job that difficult ever againquot she added quotIt39s very demanding as you film an episode a day and it39s on all year round with no breaks quotIt39s insane by filming standards but I wanted to learn everything I could and grasp everything I could while becoming financially set up so I could come here Should I have to be here for a couple of years before getting a job I could afford it Luckily I didn39t have to wait a few years and kept savingquotNeighbours originally made its US debut back in 1991 on KCOPTV Los Angeles and after making little impact it was shuffled to a host of other networks including WWORTV New York before being retired In 2004 the Oxygen Network tried it before dropping it Neighbours lay dormant in the US for a further 10 years until Hulu revived it in 2014 all the while retaining audiences elsewhere in the worldDespite international adulation Neighbours remained the little show that could in America Now with Amazon Freevee behind it it may finally become the show that did In anticipation of the September 18 reboot release Freevee has previous seasons and select episodes from the series39 37year history available for streaming The reboot will introduce many returning original cast members to America alongside some familiar faces like guest stars Guy Pearce reprising his role of Mike Young and former The OC star Mischa BartonNeighbours premieres exclusively Monday September 18 on Amazon FreeveeClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNetamp160

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Australian Global Sensation "Neighbours" Moves to America via Amazon Freevee

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Steve Gidlow

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