Rick Alessi

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Rick Alessi
Portrayed by Dan Falzon
First appearance June 8, 1992
Episode 1696
Last appearance March 9, 1995
Episode 2339
Cause/reason left to work for Gaby Willis at Darwin Branch of Lassiter's
Profile
Age 35

Ricardo "Rick" Alessi was a fictional character in the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Dan Falzon. He first appeared in 1992 and remained until the character's departure in 1995.

[edit] Character History

Fun-loving Rick Alessi was the youngest son of stern second-generation Italian immigrant Benito Alessi and his wife, Cathy. Rick's older brother Marco let the family down by being something of a drifter so Benito put all his efforts into making Rick excel at school and enrolled him in a private boarding school. But Rick was determined to get thrown out and did all he could to get expelled. Eventually, his mischievous ways succeeded in an expulsion, and Rick arrived on Marco's doorstep in Ramsay Street, where he was staying with their cousin, Christina and her husband, Paul Robinson. Rick thought his days at school were behind him, but Benito wasn't going to simply let his son throw away his education and enrolled him at Erinsborough High School, where Rick quickly came into conflict with principal Dorothy Burke.

Rick soon became a well-known face on Ramsay Street after Benito and Cathy had moved into No. 22 after Christina and Paul left for Hawaii. With his hunky Italian looks, Rick was fancied by many of the local girls, but he only had eyes for Debbie Martin from No. 26. The pair fell in love, despite the attempts of Benito and Debbie's overbearing stepmother, Julie, to keep them apart. When Rick won a trip to London to see Michael Jackson in concert, he knew his father would never let him go away with Debbie so Marco and Deb's gran, Helen Daniels, came up with a plan to get the kids to London without Benito and Julie finding out. Debbie was supposed to be on an Outback painting holiday with Helen, while Marco chaperoned Rick to England, and Benito and Julie would be none the wiser. The plan worked until the lovers gave their concert tickets away to a young leukaemia patient they befriended in London, and appeared on a UK chat show to talk about their act of kindness. The show was transmitted in Australia, and when Julie and Benito saw it, they were furious. But the incident proved to them that Rick and Debbie were devoted to each other, and Benito and Julie had no alternative but to let them keep seeing each other.

Rick and Debbie's relationship hit a snag when Debbie walked in on a semi-dressed Rick cavorting with Annalise Hartman in No. 22. Thinking Rick had been cheating on her, Debbie stormed out, but Rick quickly caught up with her, and explained that he and Annalise were actually pretending to be together so that Rick could get caught by his parents and banned from going to Italy for the holidays with them. Debbie realised she had misunderstood the situation, and ended up feeling flattered that Rick didn't want to go away with his family so that he could be with her. Rick's plans to be left alone suffered a setback, however, when Cathy arranged for his aunt Margaret to stay with him during the holidays. But he quickly schemed to get her out of the picture and Rick then saw an opportunity to make a bit of extra cash by renting rooms out at No. 22 to backpackers.

When Benito landed a job in Sydney, he planned for the whole family to leave Erinsborough but Rick couldn't bear the idea of leaving Debbie behind. Fearful that they were soon to be parted, Rick and Debbie decided to have sex while babysitting Hope Gottlieb one night. This advancement in their relationship led to Rick resolving to stay in Erinsborough so that he could be with Debbie, and he arranged for an AusStudy grant to support himself and a part-time job at Lassiter's Hotel as a kitchen hand in exchange for lodgings in the staff quarters. Benito and Cathy were unhappy with Rick's decision, but they accepted that he was old enough to make his own decisions, and they were impressed by the maturity and commitment he demonstrated by arranging the grant and accommodation. Cathy reassured herself about leaving Rick behind by opening a savings account for him and kept it between the two of them.

Working in the kitchen at Lassiter's proved to be hard work for Rick, and he was given a hard time by head chef Harvey Johnson when he first started. Harvey intimidated Rick so much that he caused him to walk out on the job, but Harvey later apologised for the way he'd been treating him and Rick agreed to return. Rick then became friends with Harvey, and took to going clubbing with Harvey after work most nights. Debbie was unhappy with this situation, especially since Rick was also juggling his schoolwork with the job. But Debbie was really against Rick's friendship with Harvey because she fancied him and Rick eventually came to realise Debbie had feelings for him. After persuading Deb's little sister, Hannah, to let him look at Debbie's diary, Rick discovered that Debbie had feelings for Harvey and he dumped her. Debbie's infatuation with Harvey started to fizzle out after he turned his attentions towards Annalise and Beth Brennan instead. Rick, meanwhile, had started to date Sarah Lim and Debbie was overcome with jealousy by the romance, especially when Rick asked Sarah to the school dance.

Rick thought he had hatched an ingenious plan to learn to drive without having an instructor by using a dummy he christened 'Roy' to accompany him around town as he practised. But as people began to realise what Rick was up to, he decided he had to get rid of 'Roy' and pushed him over a cliff, only for Lou Carpenter's car - which he had been using for his lessons - to follow the dummy over. Rick was forced to confess all to an irate Lou, and he made him pay off his debts by working for free at his car yard. Upon hearing of Rick's latest antics, Cathy visited Erinsborough and when she saw how tired and run down he was from all the jobs she was doing, she pleaded with him to come back to Sydney with her. But Rick insisted he wanted to stay in Erinsborough with all his mates, and so, Cathy arranged for Rick to move in with Lou at No. 24. Rick was initially dead against living with Lou because he had become used to his independence. But Lou saw a lot of himself in Rick, and, unlike his own father, treated him as the adult he was and Rick grew to be very fond of Lou, looking on him as a surrogate dad.

When Debbie fell for ex-con Darren Stark, Rick knew Darren was just stringing Debbie along, and his suspicions about Darren were confirmed when Rick caught him kissing Debbie's arch-enemy Louise Barker. Rick paid Debbie's brother, Michael, a visit in the detention centre where Darren had also been, and Michael revealed to Rick that Darren had a grudge against him and was planning to get Debbie involved in a petrol station robbery. Rick helped Michael to escape the detention centre and the two rushed to rescue Debbie from being roped into the crime with Darren. Darren was arrested, and Debbie realised Rick had been right all along. She thanked him for all he had done to help her, and apologised for the way she had treated him throughout her relationship with Darren.

Having finally had enough of school, Rick quit to run the Coffee Shop for Cathy after Phoebe and Stephen Gottlieb moved away. But Rick got on the wrong side of the staff within days of his arrival at the shop. He sacked Annalise, and cut Kristy's hours from 20 a week down to 10. Unimpressed, she quit for a job at the uni library leaving Rick in the lurch. Debbie agreed to help Rick out during the holidays and hit on a winning formula with Helen's recipe for shepherd's pie. But when she and Rick both put too much salt in the pot, they ended up with inedible pie - costing the business a lot of money. More problems abounded when Rick was smooth talked by an attractive rep into buying ten kilos of food extender, despite warnings from Debbie not to. When he realised that the extender was a waste of more money, Rick decided to add food dye to the shop's food in an effort to make the menus more colourful and attractive. But his plan backfired when young Nicholas Greenway had a hyperactive reaction to the dye and suffered a seizure. Debbie then found out that she was being paid much less than Kristy had been and told Rick if he didn't increase her wages, she'd leave. When Rick refused, Debbie quit and told Rick that she wanted to be back dated to match Kristy's wage otherwise she would tell Cathy about what a mess he was making of running the Coffee Shop. Rick had no alternative but to pay Debbie what he owed her, but Cathy subsequently found out about the mess the business was in anyway, and made Rick go back to school.

Soon after returning to school, 14-year-old Ally Slater fell for Rick, and he initially dismissed it as a simple crush. But Ally told the girls in her class that she and Rick were going out together but had to keep it a secret. When they asked her to prove it, she told them she could get Rick's necklet and wear it for a day. Ally enlisted her younger brother, Sean's help to plot a way of getting the necklet, and they eventually decided to slip some herbal tonic into Rick's drink to knock him out. The deed done, Rick came to and panicked when he realised he had lost the necklet, which held a special meaning to him as it was a gift from Marco. After 'proving' to the girls at school that she and Rick were together, Ally sneaked into Rick's bedroom to put the necklet under his bed, so that he would think he lost it there. But Ally was forced to hide in the wardrobe after hearing Rick coming, and was treated to the sight of Rick stripping down to his boxers - before he heard a movement in the wardrobe and discovered Ally standing there. She managed to talk herself out of the situation by telling Rick she had been dared by her classmates to sneak into his room, and even managed to turn the incident to her advantage by threatening to tell Lou she had been in Rick's bedroom unless Rick took her on a date. It eventually turned out that Ally was simply craving attention in the wake of her parents' messy separation, and Rick proved to be a reliable confidante for Ally during the troubled period.

When Cody Willis returned to Ramsay Street after two years in the States, Rick was instantly smitten. Although Cody was also attracted to Rick, she had had her heart broken in the States, and was reluctant to get involved with him. And Rick joined his parents for Christmas in Hong Kong soon after Cody's return, meaning that any possibilities of getting together were put on hold. When Rick returned from Hong Kong he was annoyed to hear that Cody and Michael Martin had been spending a lot of time together. Rick decided to find out once and for all where Cody stood with him, and asked her if she would still consider going out with him. Rick was thrilled when she told him she would, but Michael put a damper on things by telling Rick that he was already going out with Cody. Rick pressed ahead with his attempts to win over Cody, and they finally kissed, only for Michael to walk in on them. Rick was glad that Michael had caught them, because everything was now out in the open, and he felt confident Cody had proved she liked him as opposed to Michael. But Rick was shocked when Cody suggested they cool things off for a while so that they could spare Michael any further upset.

[edit] Family Tree

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