Home and Away

One of two long-running soaps on Australian TV, the other being Neighbours.

The series began in 1988, with Tom Fletcher being laid off from his job. He decided to get away from the hassles of city life, and took his wife, Pippa, and their five foster children (and imaginary friend Milco) to the coastal village of Summer Bay, where he purchased a caravan park.

Cue usual soapie stuff: romance, death, birth, weddings, cults, illegitimate children, more foster children, appearances from Cornelia Frances, long-lost siblings and the like. Only with more teenagers.

Home and Away is notable in that, unlike Neighbours, the show has had one cast member (Ray Meagher) stay on board from the very first episode. Another notable totable is that unlike most soapies, this one is aimed squarely at teens, as well as older fans who grew up with Sally (Kate Ritchie, the longest-serving female cast member, who was also in the first episode, but left in 2008).

Tropes used in Home and Away include:

• Back for the Dead: Chloe Richards.
  • Averted with Floss Mc Phee in 2004 when she thought she was dying but was revealed not ot be.
• Bilingual Dialogue: April and Bianca have had them, with Bianca speaking Italian and April speaking French.
• Bi the Way: Charlie Buckton.
• Become a Real Boy: Miles, after twenty years of being the seemingly imaginary Milco.
• Book and Switch: In the old opening credits had Stephen busting Frank by pulling a fake cover from a book that he's suppose to be reading.
• Bus Crash: Beth Hunter, Dan Baker.
• Child by Rape: Ruby was this to Charlie. She was raised by her grandparents
  • Also Shauna, who was conceived as a result of Ailsa being raped by a prison guard, and Ella, whose mother Tasha was drugged and raped by at least one member of a cult.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Rob Storey.
• Continuity Snarl: Plenty. Most notable is Jade and Kirsty Sutherland. One of their initial storylines included one locating the other through Twin Telepathy. Fast forward a few years, and they're not related at all
• Dawson Casting: While Sally grew up before a nation, other teenage characters are played: mostly. by adults.
• Deadpan Snarker: Miles Copeland.

Miles:Who calls their son 'Penn'? Does he have a sister named 'Cil'?

• • Dex Walker is much better known as an example.
• Death Is Cheap: Peter Baker was killed in a barn explosion and even had his liver donated to Jack....but then it turned out Peter was on witness protection and Jack got someone else's liver.
• Estrogen Brigade Bait: The River Boys. Oh yeah!.
• Face Heel Turn: Karen Dean, Adam Cameron, Sam Marshall briefly, Josh West.
• Fake Guest Star: Sam Holden, Melody Jones, Angelo Rosetta, Morag Bellingham in every return appearance she's made, and Kirsty Phillips in her recent return.
  • It should be noted, however, that the definition of "guest" here is simply stretched to "someone who doesn't get as much screen time as the regulars": and indeed, none of these characters have spent more than half a year onscreen IIRC.. The regular cast is onscreen almost all year round.
  • Melody and Sam were around for more than half a year.
  • Can't speak for Sam, but Melody had a reasonable absence: the character was withdrawn from school after being raped and didn't show up again until after Axel died..
  • Inverted by Roman, who was credited as a regular, but had a definite story arc. Beyond this, however, we'll be waiting for some time before he's back in the Bay.
  • It should be noted that after the example was first posted, Angelo returned to the Bay as a regular.
• Fan Service: Most men below the age of 30. Particularly notable examples in recent years include Brad, Ric, Lucas, Geoff, Aden, Romeo, Xavier and the Braxton brothers.
  • Also applies to the majority of female characters in that age bracket.
• Friends Rent Control: Summer Bay has many teens apparently able to afford their own living space while not in full-time employment.
• Heel Face Turn: Planning on staying in the Bay? Best make one of these quick!
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Madge Wilkins.
• Ho Yay:
  • Geoff Campbell and Aden Jeffries. One episode was basically nothing but them sarcastically flirting with each other, and now they argue like an old married couple..
  • Also, Xavier Austin and Romeo Smith. In one episode Romeo is helping Xavier practise breaking up with his girlfriend, only for John Palmer, Xavier's mother's boyfriend, to walk in on them and seemingly mistake it for a genuine lover's tiff. In another, Xavier asks Miles and Alf for romantic advice - specifically, starting a relationship with your best friend. Miles asks if it's Romeo.
• Idiot Ball: tends to get passed around a fair bit. As of this writing, Ruby Buckton and Angelo Rosetta are probably the biggest offenders..
• It Is Always Spring: maybe that's why the place is called Summer Bay. Never mind that it's just outside of Sydney and all....
  • It's often filmed in the middle of winter. So the actors have to work on a beach with near sub-zero temperatures after the wind chill is taken into account. Often wearing little more than a bikini or boardshorts.
• Karma Houdini: A main character kidnapped someone/tried to murder someone/really murdered someone? Nine times out of ten, they get away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The one other time, the actor wanted to leave the show.
  • One infamous example was Aden Jefferies, a bully who was given a back story about being abused by his grandfather as a child to make him seem sympathetic. A mid-season cliffhanger saw him refuse to call an ambulance for his dying father, take two women who turned up at the house hostage and finally try to murder him... because he found out his father was abused too. The entire cast, most of whom didn't know about his abuse and didn't like him, saw nothing wrong with this and the judge declared him not guilty as soon as he explained his reasons.
    • The redhead standing in his immediate vicinity may have also had something to do with that...^[1]
    • Whenever Morag has a client who's innocent, they go to jail: Kane, Ric, Alf (twice.). She represents someone who's guilty and he gets away with it...
  • Possibly even more infamous was police officer Angelo Rosetta, who accidentally shot and killed his colleague Jack Holden. He was let out of jail because he was apparently the only person who could solve a people smuggling case. Although initially met with hostility, it was forgotten about after a year, as Jack's widow gave him relationship advice and Jack's father went to the opening of his restaurant and congratulated him on the great tacos.
    • To be fair, the last bits were after Angelo had saved Martha's life from the aforementioned smugglers.
• Killed Off for Real: half of the people who've not returned to the show.
• Late Arrival Spoiler: Occasionally, the show will reference plot threads from years gone by, thanks to having the occasional former cast member turn up.
• Large Ham: Alf.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Well duh.
• Local Hangout: The Diner, The Surf Club.
• Long Bus Trip: Joey Collins was put on a three-month fishing trip. As of this writing, it has been three years...
• Luke, You Are My Father: A recent example puts a twist on it: The person admitting to it wasn't really related to the father in question. Eventually, the real daughter shows up.
• Malaproper: Colleen.
• Missing Mom: Seriously, pick any teenager, or young person. There is at least a 75 percent chance that their mother will be dead, and if not, simply not around much. There are very few exceptions, but for the ones that do exist, they'll have a Disappeared Dad, but this is far less egregiously common. The reason so few mothers are present is almost certainly so the female cast can consist of young beauties rather than offensively middle-aged women.
  • The lone subversion? Ruby Buckton.
• Mistaken for Junkie: With insulin. And, to a lesser extent, pills for cancer. To be fair to this one, Belle was an addict.
• Never Say Rape: Home and Away has done a number of well-remembered rape storylines over the years (Carly, Chloe and Dani in particular) but the word "rape" was never used onscreen, replaced by "assault", "attack", and in one infamous case, "forced her to have a baby with him." (Granted, the pregnancy was the whole point of the rape, but still). This was finally averted after Joey was raped in 2009, with further aversions in the storylines involving Charlie later that year, and Bianca in 2011. However, the word was used early in 2007, in the context of rohypnol being a date rape drug.
• The Other Darrin: mainly Flynn, Rebecca, Pippa and Hayley. This show is, like just about all British soaps, notable for a conspicuous lack of Other Darrins.
• One Steve Limit: Not played entirely straight. There have been two Bretts, two Jacks, two Joeys and two Rubys. The only ones to appear together were the Rubys: regular Ruby Buckton and guest character Ruby Leeds..
• Pac-Man Fever: A boy was recently shown playing on PSP that when turned on made the start up sound of an original Game Boy
• Psycho Lesbian: Zoe McCallister, the Summer Bay stalker.
• Put on a Bus: the other half of people who've not returned.
• Prophecy Twist: Mitzy predicted Marilyn would die. She did, but only for a few minutes.
• Recycled Script: And, how.
• Remember the New Guy?: Martin Bartlett first appeared in 2008 but he's apparently been around offscreen since Kirsty's school days.
• Repetitive Name: Robert Robertson.
• Retirony: Played straight with Charlie in the 2011 season finale.
• Rich Bitch: Amanda briefly attempted to become one in order to finance Josh's development plans.
• Sarcasm Mode: Dexter is often one of these

In response to being told it's easier to cheat in church. Dex: You're right, it's much easier to cheat in a church, with God looking down on you.

• Scandalgate: One storyline from 2005 centered around the paternity of Hayley Lawson's baby became unpopular with the fans, who were aware that Scott was the father from the beginning (the test results had been switched by the vengeful ex-girlfriend of the other prospective father, Kim) but were forced to sit through months of near misses with at least three other characters finding out but being prevented from revealing it for various reasons. The story is now dubbed "Paternitygate" on the Backtothebay message board.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Rabbit told Miles he was going to die if he fell asleep. Miles spends several days not sleeping, eventually collapsing from exhaustion on his desk - right under a ceiling fan that's hanging by a thread. Fortunately, Gina wakes him up just in time.
• Shipper on Deck Ruby trying to get Jai and Annie back together. Ruby seems to ship pretty much every couple on the show, notably Nicole/Aden and Charlie/Angelo.
• Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome: Martha, Duncan, VJ and Lily. Otherwise averted -- note remark about "growing up with Sally".
• Spear Carrier: Nurse Julie and Constable Watson.
• Suddenly Sexuality: Charlie was briefly in love with Joey before the latter girl left, at which point she went straight back to Angelo.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Miles, being a teacher who not only fosters kids, but also runs a caravan park, is obviously this to his sister Sally. Of course, he was probably set up as that so Sally fans wouldn't miss her too much. Over time he's developed into an oddball Deadpan Snarker..
• Title-Only Opening: The most recent seasons have had one. The rest had full opening sequences.
• Why Won't You Die?: Sally Fletcher in both stabbings by Rocco and Johnny Cooper in the space of a year.

1. ↑ Whatever you do, don't screw around with Morag Bellingham. It helps that most of the cast get along reasonably well with her.