E Street

E Street
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Forrest Redlich
Written by	Forrest Redlich Debra Wilcock
Starring	(see list of credited cast below)
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	1 x 2-hour pilot 404 x 60-minute episodes 716 x 30-minute episodes (UK)
Production
Running time	60 minutes/30 minutes
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Picture format	4.3 PAL
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	24 January 1989 – 13 May 1993

E Street is an Australian television soap opera created by Forrest Redlich and produced by Network Ten from 24 January 1989 to 13 May 1993.

Whereas Neighbours is set in a middle-class suburb, Home and Away in a seaside town, and Richmond Hill a semi-rural ordinary community, E Street was set in a tough fictional inner-city district called Westside and stories revolved around the local community there.

The moderately successful and sedately-paced Grundy serial Richmond Hill was cancelled by Ten to make way for E Street. Richmond Hill had also been successfully sold to ITV in the UK, and was rating in the high-teens in Australia, so it was a huge gamble by Ten to axe it and replace it with the untried E Street. Indeed, it would take 3 years for a UK broadcaster to pick up the soap and E Street initially rated somewhat lower than Richmond Hill in Australia, but audience research indicated that it attracted a significant proportion of the 14–35 audience and a large male viewership - a demographic highly prized by advertisers. Later, with racier storylines, the ratings climbed, eventually eclipsing the figures that Richmond Hill had attracted. E Street ran for 404 one-hour episodes. Like many Australian soap operas before it, E Street was broadcast as two one-hour episodes each week and until the premiere of (unsuccessful) HeadLand in November 2005, it had been the last Australian soap opera to screen its episodes in this format.

E Street was modelled on A Country Practice (Forrest Redlich had worked as a writer on A Country Practice) and could initially be seen as an 'urban' version of that soap, tackling human interest, issue-led stories over two weekly hour-long episodes, with longer-running soapier elements provided by a small ensemble cast. There were further parallels: both soaps featured a police station, a local pub and a doctor's surgery. Whereas A Country Practice featured a veterinary surgery, in E Street, this was replaced with a legal centre. A more obvious comparison with A Country Practice was with the addition of Penny Cook as E Street's anchor character, Dr Elly Fielding. Penny Cook had previously had a tremendously popular run as vet Vicky Dean in A Country Practice from 1981–85 and she was the first of several well-known actors to cross over to E Street during its 4-year run, including Kate Raison, Josephine Mitchell, Joan Sydney and, briefly, Anne Tenney. Another popular member of the original cast was Tony Martin as trendy Reverend Bob Brown and his blossoming relationship with Dr Elly spanned much of the entire run of the series. Other regulars from the beginning included publican Ernie Patchett (Vic Rooney) and his teenage son, Chris (Paul Kelman). He was romancing feisty barmaid Lisa Bennett, played by Alyssa-Jane Cook who became one of the soap's most popular stars. Sarah McKillop (Katrina Sedgewick) arrived in Westside to re-open the Legal Centre at the beginning of the series, and newlyweds Paul (Warren Jones) and Rhonda Berry (Melanie Saloman) were also settling into life on Eden Street when it began.

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