5. The Restless Years
December 1977 November 1981On air: 3 years 11 monthsEpisodes: 780 The Restless Years was one of the earliest Australian soaps built around a cast almost entirely comprised of young, good-looking actors. Launching at the end of 1977 over the summer non-ratings period, it lasted four seasons and featured among its cast many late-teen and early twenty-something Australian actors who went on to become much in demand during the 1980s and beyond. The young cast was complemented by a small selection of older well-established cast members, including respected actress June Salter who played the female protagonist Miss Mackenzie, a former school teacher of some of the teenage characters. Salter's prematurely grey hair and pointy features were ideal for the role of an ageing former school teacher, even though Salter herself was only 45 at the time. If The Restless Years' soap credentials were ever in doubt, its schmaltzy theme tune, U.S. soap-style opening titles, cheap sets, melodramatic plots and cheesy acting cemented the fact. The final episode featured a tear-jerker flashback slideshow of all the show's former characters over a piano rendition of the theme. The Restless Years devotees were left in bits and bereft... until virtually the entire crew moved to Sons and Daughters, which basically rebooted The Restless Years when it started a couple of months later. Following the less-than stellar remake of Number 96, overseas versions of The Restless Years went into production in The Netherlands (Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden) in 1990 and in Germany (Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten) in 1992. Both series started out based on the original Australian plots, eventually moving on to original storylines. Both are also still in production, having each had around 5,000 episodes broadcast.