Home and Away is an Australian television soap opera. It was created by Alan Bateman and commenced broadcast on the Seven Network on 17 January 1988. Bateman came up with the concept of the show during a trip to Kangaroo Point, New South Wales, where he noticed locals were complaining about the construction of a foster home and against the idea of foster children from the city living in the area. The soap opera was initially going to be called Refuge, but the name was changed to the "friendlier" title of Home and Away once production began. The show premiered with a ninety-minute pilot episode (subsequently in re-runs known as Home and Away: The Movie). Since then, each subsequent episode has aired for a duration of twenty-two minutes and Home and Away has become the second-longest drama series in Australian television. In Australia, it is currently broadcast from Mondays to Thursdays at 7:00 pm (on Thursdays, two episodes are played in a one-hour block).
Home and Away follows the lives and loves of the residents in Summer Bay, a fictional seaside town of New South Wales. The series initially focused on the Fletcher family – Tom (Roger Oakley) and Pippa (Vanessa Downing), and their five foster children, Frank Morgan (Alex Papps), Carly Morris (Sharyn Hodgson), Lynn Davenport (Helena Bozich), Steven Matheson (Adam Willits) and Sally Fletcher (Kate Ritchie) – who relocated from the city and moved into the Summer Bay House, where they took on the new job of running the caravan park, and eventually took in a sixth foster child, Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson). Home and Away was not without controversy. During the first season alone, it featured several adult-themed storylines such as teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol addiction and drug overdose. A storyline, in particular concerning rape outraged the public and a protest erupted, as viewers deemed it an inappropriate subject to be covering in an early evening time slot. The series has dealt with similar storylines over the years which have often exceeded its restricted time slot. Palm Beachin Sydney's Northern Beaches district has been used as the location for Summer Bay since 1988. The exterior scenes are filmed mainly at Palm Beach, while the interior scenes are filmed at the Australian Technology Park in Redfern.
Home and Away has been sold to over eighty countries around the world, making it one of Australia's successful media exports. It is popular in the United Kingdom, and is one of the highest-rating shows on RTÉ Television in Ireland and TV2 in New Zealand. In Australia, Home and Away is the most awarded program at the Logie Awards, with a total of forty-six wins, including Best Drama Program. Some cast members have won several other awards such as the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality on Australian Television, Silver Logie for Most Popular Actor, and Most Popular Actress. In 2015, Home and Away was inducted into the Logie Hall of Fame.