User:Raintheone/Episode 1 (Home and Away)

Pilot is the first episode of the Australian soap opera Home and Away. It premiered on Network Seven on 17 January 1988. The episode was written by Bevan Lee, directed by Riccardo Pellizzeri, and executively produced by Alan Bateman.

Plot
The episode begins in 1978 with Frank Morgan (Bradley Pilato) running away from a Policeman (Bruce Venables).

Frank (now played by Alex Papps) suspects that Steven is hiding something when he secretly visits his sensei Bill (Monroe Reimers) for karate practise.

The Fletchers arrive in Summer Bay and view a caravan park and house for sale from Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher). He gives Tom the business books and he pretends the business was more sucsessful than it was. Floss McPhee (Sheila Kennelly) attempts to warn Pippa, but she tell her they will make it work.

Neville McPhee (Frank Lloyd) hides Bobby Simpson (Nicolle Dickson) in a caravan, but she accidently hits Sally. Floss McPhee (Sheila Kennelly) warns Neville that Bobby is just bringing trouble.

Carly is not impressed with Martin Dibble (Craig Thomson) and Lance Smart (Peter Vroom) but is attracted to a surfer named Matt Wilson (Greg Benson). Doris Peters (Gwen Plumb) gossips about Pippa in the shop.

Production
On 4 January 1988, Robin Oliver from The Sydney Morning Herald announced that Home and Away would begin airing on the Seven Network. He added that the pilot episode would air on a Sunday evening on 17 January. The episode was written by Bevan Lee. Oliver explained that executive producer Alan Bateman had been working on the premise of series for three years. He developed the "basic story" for the characters Tom and Pippa to play out in the pilot episode. Tom and Pippa adopt children because they cannot have any of their own. But Tom is fired from his job and he decides to relocate the Fletcher family to from the city to Summer Bay. Another main narritive in the episode is the story of Bobby who divides opinion due to her aggresive manner.

Carol Willesee was originally selected to play the "pivotal role" Pippa. When filming began, the Seven Network became worried because Willesee had not signed a contract. The actress revealed that she had already arranged for time off work for family commitments. The network realised that the situation was not working and decided to recast Pippa and reshoot Willesee's scenes. Producers contacted Vanessa Downing who had previously auditioned for the role. They requested that she attend filming for the pilot the following day. Downing told James Oram in his book Home and Away: Behind The Scenes that she accepted the offer even though she was already working in theatre. Filming of the pilot episode lasted for three weeks and Downing added "which is very fast going, but they still took a lot of care". In addition Gwen Plumb stars in the episode as the "town nosey parker" Doris Peters. Doris was intended to be a regular character, but the actress decided to join the cast of Richmond Hill after filming of the pilot episode had finished.

Home media
The episode was released onto VHS under the title "Home And Away - The Movie". The episode was featured on the 2006 DVD release Home and Away: Romances as bonus material.

Reception
When the episode aired in Perth it accumulated a thirty seven per cent audience share, beating "rival" soap opera Neighbours who managed three per cent. In July 2012, the pilot was rebroadcast in the United Kingdom on 5* and an average of 221 thousand viewers watched the episode.

The Sydney Morning Herald's Oliver opined that the pilot episode made Home and Away "an immensely stronger serial" than it's rival Neighbours. Lucy Clark writing for The Sun-Herald said that the pilot episode made Home and Away appear as a "high quality soap". She added it set the scene "for a nice, warm series that just might become another long running Australian drama." After watching the episode Mark Patrick said said that the Home and Away was a "humdinger" and his "favourite character was Milko, an invisible friend of one of the brats". Eamonn McCusker of The Digital Fix said the episode was more dramatic than later episodes, but still had "as much drama as a mild bout of indigestion". While he felt the episode was "great fun", he noted that it contained "cheap television" when Bobby said "Rack off!” He also criticised the filming of beach scenes because they appeared as though they had been shot in a "force nine gale".