Susan Kennedy

Name	Susan Kennedy
Portrayer	Jackie Woodburne Rainey Mayo (Dream)
Introducer	Ian Bradley
Years	1994–
Classification	Current, regular
First	3 October 1994
Born	30 August 1959
Home	28 Ramsay Street
Occupation	Cafe assistant (1994) Teacher and principal at Erinsborough High (1995-2007) Journalist (2008-) Student (2010-)
Mother	Grace Smith
Sisters	Liz Conway Carmel Tyler
Husband	Karl Kennedy (??-2004, 2007-present) Alex Kinski (2005)
Sons	Malcolm Kennedy Billy Kennedy
Daughters	Libby Kennedy
Stepdaughters	Katya Kinski Rachel Kinski Holly Hoyland
Stepsons	Zeke Kinski
Grandsons	Jackson Kennedy Ben Fitzgerald
Nephews	Darcy Tyler
Nieces	Elly Conway
Relatives	Robert Tyler Ian Conway

Susan Kennedy (née Smith, previously Kinski), is a fictional character from the Australian Network Ten soap opera Neighbours, played by Jackie Woodburne. The character and her family were created by storyliners in an attempt to bring the show back to its roots. Susan made her first on-screen appearance on 3 October 1994 along with her eldest son and her only daughter. The storyliners made Susan a teacher at Erinsborough High school to give her immediate links with other characters. Since her introduction, Susan's personality and appearance have been through several changes. Her storylines have seen her sleep with a Priest, being married, divorced and widowed. Susan has become a stepmother and a grandmother and she has been central to three plots revolving around health issues: Retrograde amnesia, Multiple sclerosis and Surrogacy. She has also been central to a cyber-bullying plot. In October 2009, Susan became the longest-running female character in the show's history, having been in Neighbours for over 15 years. Woodburne has garnered various award nominations for her portrayal of Susan and the character has been well received by the public and critics.

Character creation and casting

In 1994, Neighbours' storyliners decided to introduce the "solid" Kennedy family. They felt that they needed to take the show back to its roots when it seemed that all the houses on Ramsay Street were populated with misfits and distant relatives. Alan Fletcher was cast as her husband, Karl, and Benjamin McNair, Kym Valentine and Jesse Spencer were cast as her three children, Malcolm, Libby and Billy respectively.

In October 2009, Woodburne became the longest-serving actress in the show's history, having appeared on-screen as Susan for 15 years. On her television milestone, Woodburne said, "It seems both bizarre and wonderful to me that I'm coming up to 15 years on the show, even though the world of Neighbours feels instinctive and familiar, I'm still challenged and rewarded by the work." Her children are her number one priority and she overcompensate's for her husband's disciplinarian style. British television channel, Five describe Susan as "the mother hen of the street". Woodburne has revealed that there is no chance of Susan growing her long hair back. She said "I could never grow it long again. I love the ease of having short hair. Back when it was long, I used to wash and dry my hair every morning at home before going into work. That added an extra half-hour to my day". She added "One of the upsides of this job is that in a week you might be doing absolute slapstick comedy, you might be doing high drama/tragedy and in between maybe some nice subtle interesting stuff as well, the character keeps changing and evolving depending on who she is interacting with". As Susan is normally a good person, it gave her a chance to have a character (Izzy) that she could hate. Woodbune said that it was challenging trying to change the character of Susan. During clashes with her son-in-law Daniel Fitzgerald (Brett Tucker), Susan was seen becoming controlling and bossy. Karl has cheated on Susan twice and the couple have broken up and divorced, but they later reunited and have re-married. Woodburne described them as having a "really solid foundation for a marriage" and she has said that she does not want to see Susan and Karl's relationship break up again. Following their "passionate arguments", the couple enjoy making up together.

Susan becomes involved with Tom Scully, a Priest, and they cause a scandal when they begin a relationship. Television critic Andrew Mercado said that 2004 went down as "a watershed year for controversy" after Susan slept with Tom. Tom returns in 2007 and he becomes the Principal of Erinsborough High. He also tells Susan that he never stopped loving her and wants her back. However, by then she is back with Karl. Paul has a shady past and Karl does not trust Paul, so Susan uses her new job to wind Karl up. Susan works closely with Paul and his reputation with the ladies gives Woodburne the opportunity to bring Susan's sadistic side. The society contacted a producer and discussed a possible storyline for a young character in her twenties who had a promising career and family ahead of her. She was seen undergoing an MRI scan and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Woodburne and the Neighbours writers worked closely with the MS Society to make the storyline as realistic as possible and it was praised by the society and viewers who have the condition. Following a fight with the hospital board, Susan became pregnant. However, this causes friction with her son-in-law. Following a fall, Susan loses the baby. He added "The notion of a mother being a surrogate for their daughter is something you can't pretend is not controversial. The writers embraced that and showed how Susan's decision divided the community, and has potential to divide the family". Woodburne said "Because of the time of day that our show is on—it's on at 6.30 here and day time in the UK—obviously doing something as controversial as surrogacy at that time slot we would be so restricted by censorship". Other viewers have said that Susan should not have got involved and that the storyline was ridiculous as Susan is too old.

Cyber-bullying

Following the failed surrogacy, Susan decides to enroll on a media course at Eden Hills University. In June 2010, she begins receiving threats via text messages and emails, telling her to stay away from the university. She is later followed by an unseen person in a car. Susan later spots the car outside her house and she is very frightened. He tells her that in 1995, when Susan was a teacher at Erinsborough High, she gave him a bad report and he failed his teaching course. Susan is compassionate, but she does let him get away with his crime and he is arrested. By standing up to him, Susan loses her anxiety. Susan settled into Ramsay Street and hoped to get back into teaching. The following year, Woodburne was again nominated for "Best Actress", "Best Couple" and "Best Storyline" for Susan's MS diagnosis. 2009 saw Woodburne again nominated for "Best Actress", she was also nominated alongside Fletcher, Valentine, Stasey and Werkmeister for "Best Family". In 2010, Woodburne was nominated for "Best Daytime Star". At the first Digital Spy Soap Awards ceremony, Woodburne was nominated for "Most Popular Actress". She and Fletcher were also nominated for "Best On-Screen Partnership" and their 2007 storyline in London was nominated for "Storyline of the Year".

During a feature on fictional television teachers, Susan was praised by teaching website TES Connect. Along with Will Schuester from American television show Glee, TES said that there are some teachers on television who manage to portray "convincing representations of the highs and lows of the job". They also added "Susan Kennedy from Neighbours manages to be the comforting mother figure as well as coming down hard when necessary". In May 2009, Deller praised the character and the actress in her monthly feature on the best and worst soap characters. Deller said "Jackie W is one of the best actresses in soap. She puts real soul into every scene she's in, as we saw when she said her goodbyes to Harold yesterday". Deller added "Saint Suze, though, is practically perfect in every way". They said "She slipped on milk, bumped her head and thought she was 16 again. Her failure to understand why she was living with a family on Ramsay Street lasted nearly a year". They said "strong-spirited Susan has always doted on her kids, even while putting up with cheating hubby Karl (Alan Fletcher). The modern mum has seen it all, and still comes up smiling. Susan was placed seventh in a similar survey carried out by Vouchercodes.co.uk, to find "Britain's favourite television mother". They said "viewers identified with love for her family". British newspaper, The Sun named Susan a "yummy mummy" and included her in a feature about over-30s female soap stars. Alan Fletcher has written a song dedicated to his on-screen wife entitled "I've Got a Crush on Susie K".

In April 2010, to celebrate Neighbours' 25th anniversary, British satellite broadcasting company Sky profiled 25 characters of which they believed are the most memorable in the series' history. Susan is included in the list and Sky state: "Kindly but strong matriarch Susan may not be the most medically robust woman (amnesia, multiple sclerosis, frequent questionable haircuts), but she gets by thanks to her family. She's so devoted, in fact, that after Malcolm, Billy and Libby (sort of) flew the nest, she went and inherited Zeke and Rachel from second husband Alex. Despite her big heart, she can be counted on to get fierce with anyone who tries to upset the Ramsay Street balance – her frequent fights with Izzy in the middle of the street over Karl cemented her reputation as everyone's favourite soap mum."

References

External links

Character Profile on the Neighbours Official AU website

Character Profile on the Neighbours Official UK website

Susan Kennedy at the Internet Movie Database

Category:Neighbours characters Category:Fictional schoolteachers Category:Fictional principals Category:Fictional reporters Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1994