Family and Friends (Australian TV series) Family and Friends (Australian TV series) Family and Friends is a short-lived Australian television soap opera debuted on 7 February 1990. The series was intended to be the Nine Network's response to the already successful soaps on the rival channels - "Neighbours" and "E Street" on the Network Ten and "Home and Away" on the Seven Network. Set in a suburban community the series focused on two families - the Chandler and the Italian-Australian Rossi families - who were linked by a long-standing vendetta stemming from an accidental death in the 1950s. Old enmities were renewed by the Romeo-and-Juliet style
Sitcom The effect of a live studio audience can be imitated or enhanced by the use of a laugh track. During filming productions, the laugh track is usually prerecorded. The terms "situational comedy" or "sitcom" were not commonly used until the 1950s. There were prior examples on radio, but the first television sitcom is said to be "Pinwright's Progress", ten episodes being broadcast on the BBC in the United Kingdom between 1946 and 1947. In the United States, director and producer William Asher has been credited with being the "man who invented the sitcom", having directed over two dozen of the