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Features > The Features of 2008 by David
As we welcome in 2009 and wave goodbye to 2008, now seems the perfect time to take a look back at the year gone by on Perfect Blend. We've brought you interviews with stars Adelaide Kane, Holly Valance, Alan Fletcher, Sweeney Young, Ben Lawson, Rowena Mohr, Daniel O'Connor, David Clencie and Benjamin Mitchell, as well as new executive producer Susan Bower. Character profiles and episode summaries have continued alongside comment articles and news reports, but we've also brought you many brand new features over the last 12 months...
The PB Debate
We kicked off 2008 with an argument; January saw the launch of a new comment section, The PB Debate, where two Perfect Blend Team Members go head to head to discuss a point of contention on the show. The first debate tackled the thorny issue of whether Miranda should forgive Susan after she'd run over her daughter Bridget.
Fifth Birthday Week
February saw Perfect Blend reach it's fifth birthday, which conveniently tied in with Neighbours move in the UK from BBC to Five. So we celebrated with a week of features centred around the number five, a vote on your top five arrivals, births, deaths, departures and weddings, and even a competition to win one of Toadie's shirts.
Places
Also in February, we expanded the Neighbourhood section with Places, which took a detailed look at specific locations in and around Erinsborough such as West Waratah Caravan Park, Carpenter's Mechanics, Grease Monkeys, Erinsborough Plaza and Warrinor Prison.
Crew Profiles
Another late February development: our biographies of the people who work behind the scenes on Neighbours. We began the section with two of the soaps most important crew members; creator Reg Watson and original casting director Jan Russ.
Gimme Five
On 9th March we brought you a new Interactive feature. Gimme Five challenges members of the Neighbours Message Board to create lists of their top five on subjects ranging from pets to comedy moments.
Five Years On
Another "five" related Interactive section was opened 16th March. Five Years On asks readers to give ideas on what characters will be doing five years from now.
Neighbouring Suburbs
The Neighbourhood section expanded further when it tackled the topic of Neighbours many suburbs. Eden Hills, Ansons Corner and West Caro all get a mention.
Fan Club Questionnaires
Our Reference section went back to the 1980s when we harvested some of the hand written actor's questionnaires from The Official Neighbours Fan Club. If you've ever wondered what Anne Haddy's favourite colour was or what's Stefan Dennis' favourite drink, you should certainly take a look here.
Missing Characters
The Profiles section got a boost in May with the addition of some unusual characters; those "missing" from Neighbours episodes who had been credited with appearing. This was usually due to being edited out of the episode at the last minute, so it's interesting to see who didn't quite make it on screen.
Minor Characters
Another new profiles area, this time highlighting the characters who are credited usually by a job description, but not by name. The characters are ordered by year and the episode they appeared in and links to images are provided.
Episode Summaries: New indexes
In June, Perfect Blend brought informative new indexes to it's Episode Summaries. We now provide information on when every single episode was shown in both Australia and the UK, and all the episode titles are included in full.
Spoilers: Arrivals & Departures
A simple but very useful resource; a list of all the confirmed comings and goings over future months with dates for Australia and Britain.
Spoilers: Upcoming Plots
The summer was a goldmine for spoiler junkies as July saw us launch Upcoming Plots. As the title suggests, this area of the site provided a glut of future storyline details.
Spoilers: Musical Cameos
This spoiler section highlights the exciting musical cameos that will be cropping up - usually in Erinsborough's top music venue, Charlie's.
Music Galleries
Like our Actor Galleries, Music Galleries provides images of Neighbours actors work away from the soap; in this case, singing stars glossy pop videos, which can often differ greatly from their 'look' in Ramsay Street.
Spoilers: Rumours
The Spoilers' Rumours section saw PB getting to the bottom of some of the gossip that floats around concerning forth coming storylines. Our behind the scenes source has been an invaluable and reliable help in providing exciting new information and quashing lies.
Neighbours' Sexiest Stars
The 1st October saw us open our Neighbours Sexiest Stars vote which gave you the chance to rank Neighbours actors and actresses by order of sexiness. The top 25 of each gender were revealed in December.
Out Of Erinsborough
At the end of October we went travelling with Out Of Erinsborough which provides information on the Australian and international destinations that have either been visited by, or provided a home to, Erinsborough residents.
Awards
Neighbours has won and been nominated for many awards over the years and in this page we attempt to catalogue all that acclaim.
Regular Cast Credits
November saw the launch of the Regular Cast Credits which provides the specific cast lists of regular characters/actors and tells you which episodes that list applies to.
Heights
This simple Reference source provides the heights of Neighbours actors, and, by extension, it's characters. They're listed by both name and height for ease of use.
Panto Archive
Another Reference area, seasonally launched in December; Panto Archive goes back to the late '80s and chronicles the British pantomimes that Neighbours actors have appeared in.
Unseen Christmas Tales
We ended the year with the parting gift of some fun fantasy writing that takes a look at the Christmases the Neighbours might have enjoyed off screen.
We're hopeful that 2009 will prove to be an equally productive year for The Perfect Blend as we're planning some big developments in both the Galleries and Music sections, so be sure to keep checking in throughout the year ahead.
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