When E Street first launched at the end of the 1980s, there had never been anything quite like it on Aussie TV.
In a TV drama landscape dominated then by the likes of Neighbours, Home And Away, A Country Practice and G.P., E Street stood out, as it was sexy, cool and looked super-stylish.
E Street launched at the end of the 80s.
(Image: Supplied)In 404 episodes over five years, E Street created several stars – including Simon Baker, who played Sam Farrell, Toni Pearen (Toni Windsor) and Melissa Tkautz (Nikki Spencer) – won four TV WEEK Logie Awards, and in many ways, changed the look of Aussie TV in the 1990s.
“It was edgy, had a cast of new faces along with some old favourites, and it looked so different to everything else on TV,” Toni, 51, tells TV WEEK.
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“And as time went on, it changed, the storylines got juicier, and we began pushing things a bit more. And when all the right parts came together, it then became a phenomenon.”
When it premiered on January 24, 1989, E Street was billed as “A Country Practice in the city”, which isn’t surprising, as the series’ creator Forrest Redlich had been a senior executive on ACP.
E Street released 404 episodes.
(Image: Supplied)The show was also created for former ACP favourite Penny Cook, in the central role of Dr Elly Fielding. The key storylines revolved around Elly’s medical work and her role as a single mum of daughter Claire (Brooke Mikey Anderson). The rest of the dramas involved the people at the police station, pub and legal aid centre in a fictional suburb of Sydney known as Westside.
The cast included such established actors as Noel Hodda (David Fielding), Vic Rooney (Ernie Patchett) and Cecily Polson (Martha O’Dare), along with new names such as Alyssa-Jane Cook (Lisa Bennett) and Warren Jones (PC Paul Berry). But it was Tony Martin as the cool Reverend Bob Brown who added spark with his on-screen romance with Elly.
“We were playing characters who each had an edge and, in some ways, were also playing aspects of our own lives,” Toni recalls. “Toni was very naive and a lot like me at that age. I actually kissed a boy for the first time in front of the cameras – that was Malcolm Kennard as Harley – before I had kissed one in real life!” she says with a laugh.
“We had a lot of fun and were a bunch of ratbags!”
(Image: Supplied)“We had a lot of fun and were a bunch of ratbags! Melissa and I were close friends, and she was with Simon for a bit. But I didn’t date anyone on the show. I wouldn’t have trusted any of them!”
Melissa’s pop music career was launched when her song, “Read My Lips” was part of a dream sequence for her character Nikki, and it went to the top of the Australian charts.
Another new cast member brought in to spice up the storyline was Scott McRae, who joined in 1992 in as lawyer Jamie Newman.
“I played the lawyer who never did any legal work the entire time I was in the show,” Scott says. “This was my first big job out of acting school, and I joined right at the height of its success, so it was quite a ride.”
While Jamie was the local nerd, he also had a charm and became involved with both Penny O’Brien (Josephine Mitchell) and Jo-Jo Adams (Kelley Abbey). Scott and Kelley’s screen romance soon boiled over into real life and the pair were together for three years.
“Kelley is a beautiful soul and a beautiful person, but it really it was a very happy team and a great group of people,” Scott says. “To this day, I’m still in contact with Bruce and Adrian Lee.”
While the madness of the Mr Bad (Vince Martin) serial-killer storyline spun on for a year and saw the show reach record ratings, it was the later storyline of Max turning into a werewolf that damaged the show, was widely criticised and its popularity quickly waned.
There were even reports Scott was fired after he openly criticised the contentious storyline.
“It’s not true, but some of us did discuss how this one was pushing it too far and I got my butt kicked for it,” Scott says. “But it was not long after that the show was over.”
After a fire storyline saw Patchett’s Pub – the local watering hole – burn down, the final episode screened on May 20, 1993, as the remaining cast read a poem by the then-deceased Reverend Bob.
The final episode screened on May 20, 1993.
(Image: Supplied)Even though Toni had left the series by this stage to pursue her music career with hits such as “In Your Room“, she believes the show came to an end prematurely.
“I always thought it was gone too soon, as people wanted more,” she says. “People still talk to me about the show and what it meant to them. E Street has lived on.”
These days, Toni runs her own performing arts school, The Talent Co, in Sydney, while Scott works as a producer and also runs a travel media and tour company, The Travelling Guy.
Scott believes E Street still has life in it and it’s time for a reboot.
“It would be insane fun and I do think it would work,” he says. “If they can do it as successfully as they did with Heartbreak High [which was rebooted to positive reviews in 2022], then they could do it with E Street.”
