Neighbours celebrates 9000 episodes – A look back at the big milestones
As Neighbours celebrates its 9000th episode on Monday, we take a look back at the other significant episodes from the show’s nearly 39-year history.
Next week, as Chelsea (Viva Bianca) continues to cement herself in Paul’s (Stefan Dennis) life, the 9000th episode sees Aaron (Matt Wilson) decide that the only way she can truly decide if she is on the right path is to take her on a tour around Erinsborough – a “Paul Robinson Greatest Hits” tour to be precise.
Paul is the only current character who was right there at the very start, appearing in episode 1, which aired in Australia on 18th March 1985. Nearly 39 years later, he’s still very much front and center.
On the tour around Erinsborough, Aaron delivers some painful insight into Paul’s dastardly history.
Meanwhile, Isla (Hana Abe-Tucker) struggles in the wake of losing David (Takaya Honda) and refuses to stop asking for her beloved Grandad. Whilst Nicolette (Hannah Monson) is concerned, it’s Remi (Naomi Rukavina) who suggests that perhaps she is asking for Paul because she connects him with David.
Meanwhile, the rift between Toadie (Ryan Moloney) and Terese (Rebekah Elmaloglou) continues to drive Toadie towards his ex-wife Melanie (Lucinda Cowden), and there’s a very real possibility that they are edging ever closer to the line that shouldn’t be crossed…
Much like Home and Away, Neighbours often doesn’t make a huge deal of its milestone ‘thousand’ episodes. However, that’s not to say that there haven’t been the odd or two that stick out in the memory banks of long-term viewers.
Traditionally, the series took a climatic approach, often having numerous stories pique in the episode. In more recent years, it’s been Neighbours at its heart – the comedy, nostalgia and, potentially, eyebrow-raising.
As the series propels towards its next major, Back to the Bay takes a look back at the previous ‘thousand episode milestones’.
Episode 1000 (7th July 1989)
Following the death of his beloved Daphne (Elaine Smith), Des (Paul Keane) and Jane (Annie Jones) joined with Henry (Craig McLachlan) and Bronwyn (Rachel Friend) to celebrate their engagement. As the party kicked off, the two couples were joined by a third – namely Kerry (Linda Hartley-Clark) and Joe (Mark Little) – who announced they too were set to tie the knot.
Meanwhile, faced with the prospect that she could lose Matt (Ashley Paske) as he prepared to move back to Adelaide, Hilary (Anne Scott-Pendlebury) grappled with his ultimatum – either she accepted and revealed his true identity, or he would leave Erinsborough.
Giving in, Hilary announced that Matt was not in fact the son of her friend – he was her son, Matthew Robinson.
Episode 2000 (10th September 1993)
With the Waterhole being freshly renovated, Helen (Anne Haddy) joined with several of her loved ones to celebrate her birthday.
With returnees in her two grandchildren Lucy (Melissa Bell) and Paul, the episode was truly in Neighbours fashion, showing exactly what good neighbours become. It also tied up several loose ends, including the reconciliation of Julie (Julie Mullins) and Philip (Ian Rawlings), whose marriage had been on the rocks for some time.
Elsewhere, Stephen (Lochie Daddo) surprised wife Phoebe (Simone Robertson) by getting out of his wheelchair, taking a step for the first time since being caught up in the gas explosion at the Lassiters complex.
Episode 3000 (23rd January 1998)
The 3000th episode came at the end of the return week in 1998, following on from the events of the cliffhanger the November earlier – where Karl (Alan Fletcher) kissed Sarah (Nicola Charles), and Ben (Brett Cousins) was caught in a fiery car crash.
While Lance (Andrew Bibby), Hannah (Rebecca Ritters) and Toadie started a bidding war between Lou (Tom Oliver) and Madge (Anne Charleston) over a jukebox, Anne (Brooke Satchwell) and Caitlin (Emily Milburn) spoke through their feelings for Billy (Jesse Spencer) and decided to draw a line in the sand.
Elsewhere, as Susan (Jackie Woodburne) prepares to leave for her new job as the principal of a high school in Wangaratta, Karl and Sarah feel the blow as Susan makes a speech to a gathering of her friends about how lucky she is to have a husband like Karl.
Episode 4000 (10th May 2002)
With the farewell of the five-strong Hancock family in the previous episode, Mal (Benji McNair), who had purchased No. 32 from them, battled with his father Karl.
Whilst initially perplexed, Mal learnt that Karl was jealous of his succession in life at such a young age and disliked the fact that he never saw his son anymore, as he lived in the UK with wife Catherine (Radha Mitchell).
Steph (Carla Bonner) prepared for her wedding to Marc Lambert (David Karakai), unaware of the fact that Marc and her sister Felicity (Holly Valance) had fallen in love.
Meanwhile, Lou and Rosie (Maggie Millar) found themselves caught in her church as a fire broke out. As the pair struggled through the smoke, Felicity rushed in and saved the pair from the blazing vestry.
Episode 5000 (30th June 2006) – Five Thousand and Counting
The only one of the milestone episodes to have a title as the series went through the Fun Bus era, Paul founds himself at the will of his psychotic son Robert (Adam Hunter), who had bound him in an abandoned mineshaft.
After taunting him, Robert proceeded to collapse the mineshaft around him. Meanwhile, Katya (Dichen Lachman) worried about Robert’s intentions, leading Elle (Pippa Black) and Gail (Fiona Corke) to go hunting for the campsite Paul and Robert were supposedly at.
Meanwhile, Janelle (Nell Feeney) was shocked to find out that Sky (Stephanie McIntosh) was pregnant and her son Dylan (Damien Bodie) was the father, while Zeke (Matthew Werkmeister) learnt that Karl and Susan were slowly falling back in love with one another.
Episode 6000 (27th August 2010)
Arguably the most memorable of the ‘thousand episodes’, Episode 6000 kicked off the biggest storyline of 2010.
With a countdown starting in the Monday episode, 5996, viewers were met with a title card reading “For 25 years, you’ve watched the families of Ramsay Street. They’ve loved, they’ve lied but they’ve always been there for each other. This is the countdown to the event that will blow one family apart.”
In true fashion, Paul had made numerous enemies around Erinsborough, through various manipulations and lies. As the episode went off, discussion of Paul’s deceits were they key and as the half-hour drew to an end, Paul found himself pushed off the mezzanine of the hotel.
The question that was posed: who pushed PR? With no shortage of potential culprits, it wasn’t until October that the identity was revealed…
Episode 7000 (24th October 2014)
Karl found himself over the moon when a scratchie gifted to him for his birthday by son Mal came up trumps and he won $7000. The only trouble was that after gloating of his win, Karl realised that the ticket had gone missing. It was a race to the end, as Sheila (Colette Mann) began searching for the ticket, hopeful that she would find it before Karl did.
Meanwhile, in a bid to impress prospective clients, Toadie and his wife Sonya (Eve Morey) embraced a lifestyle foreign to them, that of nudism. Leading the clients to believe that it is a way of life for them, Toadie is eventually forced to admit that they aren’t actually naturalists.
It is not before Karl too found himself in the nuddy, searching for the missing scratchie. Following the departure of the clients, Toadie then finds a letter in his mailbox that reads ‘Your wife is not who you think she is. Sonya is a drug addict. Gambling addict. Alcoholic.’
Episode 8000 (21st December 2018)
When Aaron (Matt Wilson) and David meet their elderly neighbour Valerie Grundy (Patti Newton), who lives in the elusive No. 34, they inform Piper (Mavournee Hazel), who wishes to interview her for a celebratory vlog now that she has hit 8000 subscribers.
Unfortunately, the following morning, Valerie is found dead in her armchair. It’s when the residents of Ramsay Street went to pack up her belongings that they realised Valerie was a hoarder and had several keepsakes from the Street’s history.
Elsewhere, Leo (Tim Kano) was instantly allured by Sydney crime princess Delaney Renshaw (Ella Newton), and Ned (Ben Hall) learnt about Bea’s (Bonnie Anderson) busking past.
As the show celebrates 9000 episodes, the next big milestone isn’t far away.
Upon the announcement of the series’ return late in 2022, it was confirmed that Fremantle had struck a two-year deal with Amazon. With the series premiering in September 2023, it all but confirms that the series will celebrate its 40th birthday come March 2025!
Neighbours airs Monday-Thursday on Channel Ten at 4pm, and then again on Ten Peach at 6:30pm in Australia, and on Freevee in the UK.