User:Conquistador2k6/List of Neighbours characters (1992)

Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera created by Reg Watson. It was first broadcast on 18 March 1985. The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the serial in 1992, by order of first appearance. All characters were introduced by the show's executive producer, Don Battye who served as such until 20 November. The 8th season of Neighbours began airing from 6 January 1992. The first character to be introduced was Beth Brennan, played by Natalie Imbruglia, who first appeared in the season premiere. Benjamin Grant Mitchell arrived as Cameron Hudson in March. Felice Arena debuted as Marco Alessi in May and the following month, Dan Falzon arrived as Marco's younger brother, Rick. Chris Lloyds also joined the cast as Rod Baker, a love interest for Beth. July saw the debuts of Rebecca Ritters as Hannah Martin and George Spartels and Elspeth Ballantyne as Marco and Rick's parents, Benito and Cathy Alessi, respectively. Stephen Gottlieb, played by Lochie Daddo was the final character to be introduced in October.

Beth Brennan
Beth Brennan (also Willis), played by Natalie Imbruglia, made her debut screen appearance in the episode broadcast on 6 January 1992. Imbruglia was sixteen when she auditioned for and was cast in the role of Beth. Imbruglia later revealed that she was asked to parade up and down in a bikini during her audition and it left her with a fear of disrobing for the cameras. The actress had to relocate from Sydney to Melbourne for filming. Imbruglia's character was initially written into the show for just a few weeks and she had to wait two months to find out whether she would become a permanent cast member. She has been described as a "principled and sweet-natured girl".. British newspaper The Daily Telegraph included Imbruglia and Beth in their Top five ex-'Neighbours' stars list in 2002. In 2010, to celebrate Neighbours 25th anniversary, British satellite broadcasting company Sky profiled 25 characters of which they believed were the most memorable in the series history.

Cameron Hudson
Cameron Hudson, played by Benjamin Grant Mitchell, made his first appearance on 24 March 1992. Mitchell had recently finished appearing in the Victorian State Opera's production of The Wizard of Oz. . Prior to playing Cameron, Mitchell had guested on the serial twice in 1989, first as a Coffee shop customer persuaded by Kerry Bishop (Linda Hartley-Clark) to eat vegetarian, and Cameron's cousin, Brad Willis for two episodes.

Cameron is the son of Faye Hudson (Lorraine Bayly), who arrives in Ramsay Street in to defend his aunt Pam Willis (Sue Jones) who is accused of murdering Garth Kirby (Roy Baldwin). Cameron is able to prove Pam's innocence successfully. Cameron repairs his fraught relationship with Faye and moves in with her at Number 32. After Faye moves out, Cameron invites Beth Brennan (Natalie Imbruglia) to move in with him. Cameron becomes involved with Jacqueline Summers (Tiffany Lamb) after he helps her on a case but the relationship ends when he finds that he could be facing legal proceedings for becoming involved with a client and when Jacqueline realises he is not completely convinced of her innocence in the case.

Cameron later finds himself offside with the Martin family when he defends Raymond Chambers (Greg Parker) who is accused of trying to abduct Hannah Martin (Rebecca Ritters). Despite Chambers' ex-wife, Louise (Helen Rollinson) mentioning that he had previously tried to kidnap their daughter and a similar incident taking place in Hong Kong and eyewitness testimony from Toby Mangel (Ben Guerens), Chambers is acquitted, furthering Cameron's stress and he begins to doubt himself as a lawyer. When Cameron intervenes in a confrontation between Chambers and Toby, He is even more convinced of Chambers' guilt and when Cameron arrives home, he finds Chambers' waiting for him in the dark and he blames Cameron for his life being ruined. Cameron forces Chambers to get help and after he breaks down in tears, Chambers hands himself in to the police and confesses to the abduction. The Martins apologise for their treatment of Cameron.

After Helen Daniels (Anne Haddy) wants to rent Number 32 to the Martins, Cameron and Beth move in with Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver). During this, Cameron does some investigating and discovers Gavin Heywood (Peter Hosking) is involved in some shady business. When Heywood catches Cameron, He has him roughed up by his henchman, Noddy Morris (Richard Piper) and is about to have him thrown down a lift shaft. Cameron offers to work for Heywood to prevent being killed and uses this to gain more information. Heywood then begins involving members of Cameron's family in his business.

Cameron's life is endangered again when he overhears Heywood and Noddy plot to kill him but he engineers a plan which results in Heywood's downfall. Cameron then changes career track and becomes a journalist for the Erinsborough news but is frustrated and surprises everyone with his next career choice, stand-up comedy.

When Lou's daughter, Lauren (Sarah Vandenberg) arrives from Queensland, Cameron is smitten with her but does not know she is having an affair with Cameron's cousin, Brad (now Scott Michaelson). In order to ward off Cameron's suspicions, Lauren agrees to go out with him. The truth later emerges and Cameron leaves Erinsborough in disgust.

Marco Alessi
Marco Alessi, played by Felice Arena, made his first screen appearance as Marco during the episode broadcast on 5 May 1992. Marco was the first character introduced from the show's new Alessi family. Arena played Marco during 1992. He previously played the bit part of Bob Cooper in the serial, after winning a talent-spotting competition. Arena had to audition in front of a casting director and Neighbours cast members. A year later, he was offered the role of Marco. Marco was the first member of the new Alessi family to arrive in Ramsay Street. He joined his cousins and already established characters Caroline Alessi (Gillian Blakeney) and Christina Robinson (Gayle Blakeney) on-screen. Rick along with mother and father, Cathy and Benito (George Spartels) soon followed. Arena decided to leave Neighbours because he was unhappy with his characters first storylines. He filmed his final scenes in October. The BBC said Marco's most notable moment was "Finding his long lost sister who was adopted out by his parents before he was born." Herbison noted that despite only being in the show for a year, Arena acquired "an army of female fans."

Rod Baker
Rod Baker, played by Chris Lloyds, made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 5 June 1992 and departed on 26 June 1992. Rod is introduced as a new love interest of established character Beth Brennan (Natalie Imbruglia). Writers depicted Rod as a former Vietnam war veteran. Rod is more than twenty years older than Beth. A writer from TVTimes said that Beth sees Rod as a both her lover and a father figure. Imbruglia defended the pair's romance stating "it's what's in the mind that counts". Beth decides she wants to be with Rod after accepting her chances of romance with Brad Willis (Scott Michaelson) were over. She decides to accept Rod's proposal of marriage but struggles to be intimate with him. Their relationship faces problems when other characters in the show disapprove of their age difference.

Rod is Beth's fiance, who arrives in Erinsborough. Jim is shocked because Rod is much older than Beth, who is only seventeen and he had been drinking with Rod earlier. Jim Robinson (Alan Dale) tries to get Rod and Beth to call off the wedding but both are adamant that they love each other. However, Beth gets cold feet due to her bad experience with her mother's boyfriend realises the marriage would not work and Rod leaves.

Rick Alessi
Rick Alessi, played by Dan Falzon, made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 8 June 1992. Rick and his family were introduced to the show following several cast departures. The character remained on-screen until 9 March 1995. Falzon was seventeen when he won the role of Rick. He told a writer for Inside Soap that Neighbours was the biggest thing he had ever done and added "Neighbours is such a big show and Rick is such a great character." Shortly after Rick's arrival in Ramsay Street, he was followed by his mother and father to form the Alessi family. Falzon promised the family and their storylines would keep viewers glued to the screen. Within a year, the entire Alessi family had departed, leaving only Rick behind. Falzon quit Neighbours in January 1995. He told Inside Soap's Richard Arnold that he thought hard about his future and what he wanted to do next, admitting it took a lot of courage to leave the show. For hishis portrayal of Rick, Falzon received a nomination for Most Popular Actor at the 1st National Television Awards. A writer for the BBC's Neighbours website said Rick's most notable moment was "Winning a trip to London to see Michael Jackson with Debbie Martin." Ian Hyland, writing for the Sunday Mirror, branded Rick a "hearthrob" [sic].

Hannah Martin
Hannah Martin, played by Rebecca Ritters, made her first on-screen appearance on 20 July 1992. Hannah is the only child of Philip and Julie Martin and the younger sister to Michael and Debbie. Ritters joined the cast of Neighbours when she was eight years old. Ritters said "It was all a bit unexpected. I never had acting classes, but I did a school play once." Ritters took a five-month break from the show in 1998 and she said she really enjoyed it. She added that she had the chance to go to school every day and have a social life, instead of being tutored on set with her co-stars. In September 1999, Inside Soap reported that the Martin family had been written out of Neighbours and that they had already filmed their final scenes. In April 2005, Ritters reprised her role as Hannah for Neighbours'  20th anniversary episode in July of that year. For her portrayal of Hannah, Ritters was nominated for "Best Young Actor" at the 1999 Inside Soap Awards. The BBC said Hannah's most notable moment was "First noticing that Helen had died."

Benito Alessi
Benito Alessi, played by George Spartels, made his first appearance during the episode broadcast on 28 July 1992. Spartels chose to leave the serial to record an album and his final scenes aired on 28 May 1993. Josephine Monroe said Benito was a second generation Italian immigrant. He was "typically Italian" and wanted his sons to excel in everything they did. Producers established a rivalry between Benito and Lou Carpenter (Tom Oliver) when they go into business together selling cars. The character's profile on BBC Online states that his most notable moment was "Admitting to Cathy that he'd had a vasectomy without her knowledge." Writer Josephine Monroe thought the "childishness" between Benito and Lou was "hilarious".

Cathy Alessi
Cathy Alessi, played by Elspeth Ballantyne, made her first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 29 July 1992 and remained until her departure on 4 August 1993. Following her stint as Meg Morris in Prisoner, Ballantyne took eight years off television to concentrate on theatre work. She then received the role of Cathy Alessi and revealed she could not turn it down. Ballantyne told David Nicholls of Inside Soap "I had a wry smile on my face when I read about the character of Cathy Alessi. She has two teenage sons, one just out of school and one still in school, and that's a very similar situation to my own." A writer for the BBC's Neighbours website said that Cathy's most notable moment was "Meeting her adopted daughter." Inside Soap's Josephine Monroe branded Cathy "supermum".

Stephen Gottlieb
Stephen Gottlieb, played by Lochie Daddo, made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 12 October 1992. Daddo's casting was announced the previous day by Shelli-Anne Couch from '.'The Sydney Morning Herald'. Daddo was initially signed until December, with an option to extend his contract for another six months. In July 1993, Chrissie Camp from TV Week reported that Daddo had decided to quit Neighbours, after twelve months of playing Stephen. Camp revealed that Daddo would film his final scenes on 6 August, while his character would remain on-screen until October. Daddo stated that the decision was mutual between himself and producers, saying "They didn't know what to do with Stephen next and I thought a year in Neighbours was long enough for me." A writer for the BBC's Neighbours website stated that Stephen's most notable moment was "Fainting while watching Phoebe giving birth on video."