Starting Out is an Australian television soap opera made for the Nine Network by the Reg Grundy Organisation in 1983. The series was the network's replacement for The Young Doctors, set at a medical college with an emphasis on young people getting their first experience of living away from home and leading independent lives.
The youthful cast included Gary Sweet, David Clencie, Nikki Coghill, Tottie Goldsmith and Peter O'Brien, whilst more experienced cast members complementing the young leads included Maurie Fields, Gerard Maguire, Jill Forster and Anne Phelan.
The series failed to gain sufficient ratings and was quickly cancelled and removed from the schedules after five episodes. The remaining eighty episodes were screened out-of-ratings in late 1983.
When Naga princess Suwanmala falls in love with a tree god who saves her, their forbidden romance ends in tragedy. Forced to return to her kingdom while pregnant, she entrusts her egg to the forest, where fate leads it to be swallowed by a toad. From the toad’s death emerges Uthaitaewee, who is raised by a kindly old couple and destined for an extraordinary journey.