Compiled by Andrew Bailey, Sofcom
1999 marks the fortieth anniversary of what has become one of Australia's
biggest exports.... the Aussie soap!
While there had been earlier attempts at drama on Australian television,
particularly through ABC, it was not until 1959, three years after TV made its
debut in Australia, that the first home grown soap opera hit our screens.
But from such humble beginnings, Australians have seen soap operas evolve from
wholesome fare in the fifties and sixties, through the sexual revolution of the
seventies, the glitz and glamour of the eighties and the sun and surf settings of
the nineties.
In this first instalment on the history of the great Australian soap, here's a
quick look at what viewers were served up for that first decade:
Autumn Affair (ATN7, 1959)
Sydney's ATN7 produced our first soap opera, a quarter-hour series screening
weekday mornings on ATN7 and GTV9, for ten months. The leading characters played
by Muriel Steinbeck and Leonard Bullen.
Bellbird (ABC, 1967-1977)
Blue Hills was ABC's long running radio soap opera from 1949 to
1976, and Bellbird was ABC's television version of life in a
rural community. For ten years it was the lead-in to ABC's 7.00pm News. While it
was not a huge success in capital cities, it was enormously popular in rural
areas.
Motel (Seven, 1968)
Seven's next soap venture was this ill-fated half-hour series, lasting 130
episodes. The series did make one claim to fame, an early guest appearance by a
young Jack Thompson.
While Aussie soaps got off to only a modest beginning in the early years of
television, nothing prepared the nations viewers for the onslaught that was to
come in the 1970's....
Coming Up: Steaming Up In The Seventies
