Neighbours has given us loveable rogues, bogan spunks and amnesia comebacks

The landmark soap opera is facing the axe, prompting the question of how to save the show everyone loves but no one watches.

So long, Neighbours, and thanks for all the clifftop confrontations, school gassings, bomb plots, tornadoes, balloon crashes, tabletop surgeries, kidnappings, marriages, affairs, divorces, surrogate babies, and identical twins returning from the dead.

The landmark TV show is to end after 37 fabulous years, sparking an outpouring of nostalgia for its true-blue loveable rogues, bogan spunks and amnesia comebacks.

The Trent and Hatch theme song is back where it belongs at the top of the charts, and everyone’s trying to work out how to save the show everyone loved but no one watched.

About 30,000 people so far have signed a petition – a far cry from the 20 million people who watched Scott and Charlene get hitched in 1987 to the dulcet tones of Angry Anderson’s Suddenly.

Ryan Moloney as Toadie.

Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan as Scott and Charlene.

No doubt the real-life neighbours on Pin Oak Court, Vermont South, are celebrating because they will now be able to plant new rose bushes without checking the production schedule first.

But actor Alan Fletcher is heartbroken. He’ll have to get a real job after spending 27 years playing Dr Karl Kennedy.

Neighbours kickstarted the careers of many famous Aussies – some are proud of it while others don’t include it on their CV.

Singer Kylie Minogue may have sold 80 million records worldwide but she’s still fondly remembered for her role as Charlene, the brash apprentice mechanic.

Same goes for Guy Pearce, who may be an international acting success but has a place in my heart as hot new guy Mike back in ’86 rocking a pair of lime green Speedos.

There’s also an actor named Russell Crowe, who appeared in four episodes in 1987 as Kenny the former crim. Since then, he’s done nothing much on the acting front from what I can see.

Long-running characters Dr Karl Kennedy and Susan. Picture: Steve Tanner

Such is the pull of Neighbours that Chris Hemsworth is counted among its illustrious alumni despite the fact that he appeared in only one show, for 40 seconds, before decamping to the brighter lights of Home And Away.

Over the years, we’ve loved characters like Daphne, the stripper with a heart of gold who found love with Des before dying in a car crash.

And gossipy neighbour Mrs Mangel and her son Joe, a fair-dinkum knockabout Aussie fella whose first wife was killed by duck hunters. Yes, of course she was.

Remember Dee, who Toadie drowned on her wedding day? Her evil twin came back years later to scam him out of his life savings. Dee came back as well, with Madeleine West playing both characters in a brilliant clifftop climax.

And who could forget Harold, the tuba-playing Salvation Army volunteer who disappeared in 1991 but came back to life five years later as a guy named Ted with amnesia?

There was Annalise, who was jilted at the altar by Mark, who realised he’d rather be a priest, Dr Clive, who performed emergency surgery on a kitchen table, and Bouncer, the dog who had a romantic dream about a hound called Rosie.

Ian Smith as Harold Bishop.

Other notable moments from over the years included the plane crash that killed three members of Paul Robinson’s family that was masterminded by his evil brother.

So much for Neighbours becoming good friends.

Susan Kennedy, Karl’s wife, has also been through a fair bit over the years. She’s had a relationship with a priest, been married three times, divorced, widowed, become a stepmother, a grandmother, and been in a plane crash. She was a surrogate mother to her daughter’s baby, developed MS and had amnesia after slipping on spilt milk.

Where are today’s screenwriters putting out storylines like this?

For decades, the Neighbours cast was mostly Anglo and suburban middle-class. Its first non-white family, the Lims from Hong Kong, were accused of eating their neighbour’s dog in their first episode.

Neighbours was, for a long time, Anglo and suburban middle-class.

Although vindicated, they didn’t last long – who could blame them for hightailing it out of Ramsay St? However, their dog Holly stayed around for five more years.

Over the years, Neighbours has evolved and reflected changing social times, with recent episodes featuring Korean and Indian characters, Curtis, who is hearing-impaired, Mackenzie, who is transgender, and Nate, an Afghan war veteran with PTSD played by an Indigenous actor.

Back in 1985 we had to settle for characters with names like Toadfish, Tadpole and Stonefish, along with Des, Daphne and plain Jane the Super Brain.

At this stage, the show is no longer being filmed unless it can find another international backer.

But don’t lose hope. Shows like Neighbours never die. Perhaps we’ll see it emerge again with a different name, a different identity, a bout of amnesia and an evil identical twin …