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They'd have to purpose build s new school set because I don't think Kate would come back just to change grody sheets in the caravan park!

Well to be fair Bec looked pretty great in the ones she wore!

She was doing TAFE between shifts, it was mentioned but dropped after a while.

That Maori coat for Archie was beautiful and I'm guessing Tane wanted it to be opened that day as it was meant to be worn on his Birth day but circumstances took over so wasn't able to so the next day had to be the day. that was a lovely letter he wrote too. Tradition and family mean a lot to Tane, Harper can't get that as her family life wasn't good. Not really excusing her but Harper's emotions have been all over the place, she's just broken up with the guy she wanted to love her, a traumatic birth, then collapsing, had to have another op, but she did dress Archie in it and invited Tane to come and see him in it and seemed OK with them co-parenting. Cash is an old friend of hers so would take her side, he knew the 'old' Harper. It was a nice mention of Nikau. Someone else I'm not really excusing but Kirby was so into this new promo film she had forgotten everything and everyone else. She has been a good worker, covered for Mali when he had his hearing problem and when he got involved with the RB's, but it's all gone out of the window now. Had she designed some of those boards? Then that comment about working at the surf board shop and teaching surfing being just a stopgap was a real insult, so not surprising Mali reacted the way he did. Wonder if that That guy filming it wasn't into surfing at all was he? Will that bust up be included? He was an odd bloke and who in TPTB decided he should look like an old hippie type. Loved the interaction between Abby and Eden with Eden with Abby admitting she and Mali had said the L word and Eden trying to get all the gossip. Eden was busted alter finding her engagement ring and putting it back on and having Cash walk in on her, that will be an interesting talk.

Bob and Craig Barnett - there was a spark of romance between him and Celia early on which fizzled out. Craig was likable enough too, perhaps moreso than some of the teens who came in the early 90s. Alan Fisher - I know his death is one of the more memorable storylines of 1988, but there was so much wasted potential. The writers have tried to milk it as much as they can over the years though with On the Crest of a Wave and introducing Alan's secret son Seb. Gus Bishop - I wonder if we would have seen more of him had Donna not left so early on. He'd have been another rebel-turned-responsible-teenager story arc if he had a longer run. the Mackins - I enjoyed Gordon and Brett as a guest villains, but they were both very two-dimensional. It's a shame H&A didn't want a regular villain in the cast like many other 80s soaps did. Stacey was one of my favourite characters too, but she got a longer run than some regular characters. A few from the "later" early years: the modern day Pattersons like Stella, Maverick and Skye. The latter two might have made good regular characters. Skye has the "wild child turned good", and Maverick as the slightly alternative character. It's a shame he got lumbered with Brodie Hanson. teenage Christopher Fletcher - as a closeted gay teenager the same age as Chris was at the time, I enjoyed that story arc. It's a shame he didn't stay beyond that or return later to live with Sally and Flynn. Chris Polous Nathan Roberts and his future wife Grace

Wouldn’t minded seeing Loris Crawford stay longer as couldn’t help but wonder if there was more then meets eyes with her character and maybe find out what cause her become that way she was and maybe she more complex side to her. I would paid money to watch Morag bring Loris down and it’s shame we didn’t get see them in screen but guest Morag wasn’t going make random return in 1991 for no reason.

Danny King Pippa's wheelchair-bound brother was a memorable early guestie. Seeing him finding a new purpose in life as a wheelchair athlete was heart-warming, but it's a shame he never came back for any of the big events which occurred in Tom and Pippa's lives. Maybe he might have if John Clayton (who played him) hadn't been so busy elsewhere. Barbara Stewart Fisher's ex-wife is an underrated early years guest character. If you look back at those 1988 episodes when she's living in Summer Bay, you can see how good a foil she is for the family she has around her. Even now, it'd be lovely to see her come back to visit Alf (the sane version of her, not the loopy psycho who briefly resurfaced in the 90's). She's interesting enough in her own right. Patricia Coleman was a substitute teacher who briefly taught at the school. She and Donald were on the verge of getting together when she lost her job and had to transfer to a school nowhere near Summer Bay. I still think she would've been a good match for Donald. They had chemistry, she was the same age as he was, and she was sane. Wendy McFarlane To the best of my knowledge, Irene's country & western singer sister hasn't been back for a visit since 1995. Although she wasn't the most likeable of characters, you could buy into the idea of her and Irene being sisters It'd be fun to catch up with her in 2025 and to find out if she's still in denial about her singing career. It goes without saying that she'll be nowhere to be seen when Irene bows out this year, but it's a missed opportunity in my book. It'd also be nice to find out where her son Nelson is these days. He was last seen being transferred to a burns unit in another hospital. Mark McGregor Mark was a friend of Blake Dean's and briefly became part of the 1991 teen gang when Haydn Ross was away. He had more charisma and potential than Simon Fitzgerald, who was later drafted in to replace Haydn. David Croft This one comes with caveats. I wish they hadn't created David as a brief love interest for Sophie, and all that that entailed... Leaving that part aside, he had the potential to be a good extended guestie. It's beyond question that Guy Pearce would've soon moved on anyway but we can only dream.

In the new year, Adam said that Matt had joined the surfing circuit. I must've missed him making reference to Matt moving out later on. By then, most of the viewership would've forgotten about him anyway.

It's impossible to tell if there was any long-term plan for Carly and Ben as a couple. My guess is that they signed Julian McMahon up because he was a good-looking young man and they always like good-looking people on Home and Away. They also needed to do something with Carly. If Julian hadn't decided to leave so quickly, Ben would've become a love interest for other "lucky" ladies in the Bay. I can't see how that marriage to Carly would've lasted if they hadn't moved away. Sharyn probably would've left, no matter what else was going on. And much as I like Carly, she's not someone I could see as a foster parent in the early 1990s. I wouldn't inflict Ben on them either, but that's another story. Although the show had lost Tom, I don't think they were planning on sending foster kids to anybody other than the established older adults. They'd already expanded the fosterverse in Summer Bay to include Fisher and the Stewarts. Perhaps there's something to be read into Bobby becoming a foster parent after they'd steadied the ship at the caravan park. I don't have any strong feelings about Carly and Ben's timeline for leaving. Having said that, his reputation would've improved if they had sent them off into the sunset straight away. There were times when Ben was either downright awful, or an idiot. That foray into farming is a bit cringey at times, even though it's clearly a build-up to him re-enlisting. Carly, too, would've suffered. As has been mentioned many times here, the early 1990's wasn't a good time for young adult characters. They'd painted themselves into a corner with Carly. She hated working in the diner, she wouldn't be going on to further education, and she'd aged out of being a foster kid. It's better that she and Ben moved on,

Incidentally, nice that Nikau was remembered and I liked how really uncomfortable Eden was babysitting Tane! Also, I liked the way Tane's culture was remembered, Home and Away is one of the best soaps for this sort of thing.

We had already seen Bobby get married young and divorce after a few months and just recently seen Pippa widowed, so perhaps the writers felt either of those two scenarios for Carly would have been soon. Plus, what would they have done with Carly without Ben? She'd probably just end up fawning over every new male arrival like she did before Ben arrived. I assume the long-term plan was for Ben and Carly to eventually become foster parents themselves like Bobby and Sally did, but they left before it came to that. Their farm would have been a good location for kids from broken homes too.