Midweek Mention... Neighbours (Again)
Neighbours — Episode 234 (Charlene’s Debut)
We dove back into Ramsay Street for a pure hit of Aussie soap nostalgia: Neighbours ep. 234, a.k.a. the first-ever appearance of Charlene (a tiny, feral Kylie Minogue) breaking into a house and into British hearts.
Why this episode slaps
- Iconic entrance: Scott grabs a “burglar” in the window… hat comes off… “Charlene!” Cue destiny, perms, and pop superstardom.
- Peak mullet era: Two mullets before the first ad break. Oxygen levels dangerously low in those singlets.
- Budget telly charm: Cricket in the yard, sprinklers on, a helicopter shot that looks like a camcorder on a fishing line… and yes, a boom mic cameo at 4:42. Chef’s kiss.
- Daphne’s Café drama: Eviction threats, gender-role argy-bargy, and Shane trying to mansplain her out of a job. Meanwhile Paul Robinson is already scheming, smarming, and hair-gelling.
- Max’s feelings summit: The blokiest man in Erinsborough attempts group therapy (“I read it in an American magazine”), gets laughed out of his own lounge. Bless.
Faces you forgot were here
- Guy Pearce looking about twelve and already magnetic.
- Jason Donovan 2.0 (post–mysterious-riverbed recast).
- The Robinson clan (Helen forever), and an army of future chart acts and horror-movie alumni warming up in the background.
Stats & trivia
- Aired (AU): 17 Apr 1986
- Aired (UK): 28 Sep 1987 (we waited 17 months for Kylie and still turned up in our millions)
- Episodes on IMDb: 9,300+ (and somehow all roads still lead back to Daphne’s espresso machine)
Verdict
Still daft, still cozy, still weirdly gripping. The fashion is a hate crime and the production is held together with gaffer tape, but the charisma-to-cost ratio remains undefeated.
Strong recommend. Now hum the theme tune and pretend you didn’t.
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Until next time, we remain...
Bad Dads
Neighbours Again
Dan: This was a show that we all grew up watching.
Reegs: Yeah.
Sidey: I don't think Christian
did. No,
cris: I didn't.
Reegs: And we'd done done it for the pod before as well, haven't we?
Yeah.
Dan: Wow. Okay. I didn't think we had, did not. Home and away.
Reegs: No, we did it with the Don't worry darling.
Episode.
Dan: Oh, well we are, we're
Sidey: go. Here we are again.
Dan: is how strong it is. We are revisiting neighbors, of course. That's when good neighbors become
Sidey: I waited till we did that. Then
Reegs: Yeah. Yeah.
Dan: So this was the episode where Charlene, Kylie Minogue made a debut.
Reegs: It was episode 234. Yeah,
Sidey: Yeah, it
Dan: an absolute
Sidey: can find it on YouTube, I think with thousands of others.
Reegs: Yeah.
Under the neighbor's
Dan: I think it's on Prime as well.
Sidey: Only the
Reegs: get it to work the
Sidey: 50, the most recent 15 series are on nabs. Or interestingly as well. If you go onto IMDB and click episode guide, there are 9,300 plus episodes. Yeah,
Dan: Yeah.
Sidey: so it's strong [00:01:00] content.
Dan: you get the full Ramsay Street experience if you wanna go on there.
Reegs: And this is the start of us reviewing nabs one episode at a time.
Sidey: Strap
Reegs: Our new midweek
Dan: reverse
Sidey: with no, no order. Yeah. This one says this is way back when, but it does have
Reegs: Well, not way back when this aired in Australia on the 17th of April, 1986 and in the UK on the 28th of September, 1987. So we had to wait three years
Dan: see
this and we got some stars in
Sidey: Yeah,
Reegs: We've got some mullets in
Sidey: mullet content was exceptional.
Reegs: And two in the opening scene, two black wife, Peter vest type
Sidey: that Clive, no, not Clive. Yes.
Reegs: Max who I didn't remember, and Shane who I also didn't remember. Yeah,
Dan: I remembered Shane and Clive. That was the, the Ginger guy. I didn't remember this episode to be honest, but we've got Jason Donovan,
Sidey: Yeah. So remembe
