Home and Away celebrates 35th birthday

As Home and Away celebrates its 35th birthday, there have been enough births, deaths, marriages, and cliffhangers to give any aspiring starlet the willies.

On January 17, 1988, the long-running soap opera made its television debut, and it is still going strong today.

There have been wrecks, tragedies, and calamities during 7945 episodes that have delighted viewers in Australia and abroad.

With the exception of 1994, there have been more than 110 deaths, with at least one character dying each year.

Their lives have been filled with joy with 34 births and 43 weddings.

As Home and Away celebrates its 35th birthday, there have been enough births, deaths, marriages, and cliffhangers to give any aspiring starlet the willies.

On January 17, 1988, the long-running soap opera made its television debut, and it is still going strong today.

There have been wrecks, tragedies, and calamities during 7945 episodes that have delighted viewers in Australia and abroad.

With the exception of 1994, there have been more than 110 deaths, with at least one character dying each year.

Their lives have been filled with joy with 34 births and 43 weddings.

Emily Symons is so devoted to the program that she has performed as Marilyn Chambers at the Bay three times: from 1989 to 1992, 1995 to 1999, and from 2010 to the present. She played Marilyn again in four episodes that took place in London in 2001.

But Ray Meagher outperforms everyone. He played Alf Stewart in the show’s pilot, and he’s still there now, 35 years later. He even owns the Guinness World Record for the longest acting run in an Australian soap opera, according to Strewth.

The 78-year-response old’s when asked why he has continued to watch the show for so long is uncomplicated: “I love it.”

“I have thoroughly enjoyed over 90 per cent of the time I’ve been here, probably 95 per cent. A lot of that goes down to core cast and core crew, a lot of them have been there as long as I have,” he said.

Stars have been killed off, brought back and put through cliffhanging story lines – who could forget when tragedy struck and Alisa died of a heart attack after lifting some heavy boxes in 2000, and then two years later when she came back from the dead.

Billie Ashford had only been married for days when she died in her husband’s arms in 2017. Tension was high when Mason Morgan was killed off in 2020 after being shot dead during a dramatic siege.

And, in 2006 Summer Bay favourite Sally was stabbed… she survived.

In its 35th season, Home and Away welcomed 28-year-old Widjabul man Kyle Manning, a member of the Bundjalung nation, as its first Indigenous main character. He’ll take on the role of Mali Hudson.

Chris Hemsworth, Isla Fisher, Naomi Watts, Julian McMahon, and the late great Heath Ledger are just a handful of the former cast members who have gone on to become some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

“Chris Hemsworth was the obvious one that you could see coming a mile off. God was very kind to him, he certainly wasn’t behind the tree when they handed out the good looks and the physique,” he said.

Stone the flamin’ crows, whose line is it anyway?

These famous quotes from Alf Stewart—”Flamin’ mongrels, strike me roan, and stone the flamin’ crows”—were actually added to the character by Mr. Meagher.

I tried to make the character an archetypal Australian rogue figure, and to do that I used some of the terms I heard growing up in the Queensland bush as a young lad, the author stated.

He once overheard a stock and station agent use the phrase “stone the flamin’ crows.”

“He would say, “Stone the flamin’ crows” 25 times in one phrase, and the more rum and cokes he drank, the more frequently he would say it. I found it to be quite humorous when I was eight or nine “Meagher stated.

On January 9, 2023, Channel 7 will once again air Home and Away.