cymbaline

Nice find Any time I hear Debra talking about her career in general, her pragmatism about money comes through. It's understandable when you consider what a precarious profession acting is, and how erratic the industry is in Australia. I think she values her time on Home and Away more for how it benefited her private and professional life than the role of Pippa itself. Dennis being gone probably made it easier for her to leave, but I don't think it made a huge difference to the timeline. I believe her when she says she wanted to spend more time near her mum (sometimes people spin yarns like this to cover up other issues). Perhaps her daughter starting school, and the hope that she would finally have another baby were also on her mind. I find her move to London for a year to be quite interesting too. That's quite an adventure for somebody of her age.

I'll never unsee the sight of Tom and Sam fighting while wearing obscenely skimpy shorts. It wasn't a pretty sight, and I'm a straight woman!

When I was a teenager I didn't get Celia at all. Rewatching years later when I was a middle-aged adult myself, I began to see her in a much more sympathetic light. Celia is an underrated character, as are Fiona Spence's performances. I too see her as a sad character and as someone who lost her way. I'm not up to date on her later appearances but I'd like to think that in the Summer Bay afterlife, she has finally met someone. I wonder will they bring her back as a guest when Ray decides to call time on Alf? I hope so. If Tom had stuck around for longer, would he be remembered less fondly? He certainly had his moments and he could be very hard on Pippa at times. Did Roger Oakley's natural charm smooth over the cracks? I see Alf and Michael as two quite similar characters. Both were grumpy and impatient and quick to jump to conclusions. Yet at the same time, they could be surprisingly tender and kind. The difference is, Ray had the Alfisms

It could well be. I was impressed that the car started at the first time of asking, despite being parked up in a garage for goodness knows how long.

Her car was from another era too. We can be confident that no funny business occurred in the back seat of this passion wagon Google Lens suggests this is a Humber Super Snipe

https://archive.is/YLSpV

Jack wasn't the most likeable of the teens but I would never describe him as unmemorable. I'd forgotten about Selina but I would rate her above the early twentysomethings.

Even still, it was the teens who were given more interesting things to do. Nick was mostly one leg of that tiresome triangle with Lucinda and Ryan. Then Shane came along and we all know where that went. I'm pretty sure if you asked people to name characters from the early years of Home and Away, Nick and Matt and Rob and Luke won't be the first ones they think of. Were they really bigger stars than Bobby, Sophie, Blake, Shane, Angel, Jack or Shannon?

The actors the producers didn't want to lose were the younger ones. It was the teens who became the show's breakout stars, not the ones who were a bit older. It's telling that Matt, Nick and Rob all left without a goodbye scene. Finlay wasn't one of the stronger teens and my guess is that most people remember her these days for her outfits.

That 2005 return is sooo Home and Away. They go to the trouble of bringing back an old character and then trash them or turn them into a psycho. Flawed and all as 1988 Brett was, I can't see him wanting to kill his own child.

Does anybody have a favourite Mike Perjanik underscore? There's a playlist of them on Youtube. Bobby's Theme is probably my favourite. The comedy ones on the other hand...let's just say they haven't aged well.

I wonder what the pay is like now? Are the older actors, in particular, still laughing all the way to the bank? They don't get much to do most of the time either.

None of those big name hires went too well, did they? Craig McLachlan didn't hang around for too long either. Even at that, his tenure was broken up by him trying to launch a music career. Richard Norton, also poached from Neighbours, turned out to be a damp squib as well. Neither Viv nor Emma are particularly memorable characters. It's hard to know if they'd have done better if they'd been introduced at a different time.

Yes that makes sense. If you think about it, Michael is a character we learned very little about. They gave him enough backstory to get him going (i.e. the divorce, the kids, the failed business) and then there was little more. Did he ever mention his parents or any siblings, for example? I wonder too if there were ever plans to bring in Kate, his estranged daughter? The writers seemed to forget about her once Michael resumed his relationship with Pippa. I've never been able to believe that the two Pippas are the same person. Even if I sort of managed that, I couldn't see VanPip being with Michael, nor DebPip with Roger. Both actors worked well with their version of Pippa so that was a job well done. Recently, I stumbled across a podcast that Debra and Dennis did with Cameron and Daddo last year https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/does-keeping-the-romance-alive-matter-debra-lawrence/id1463023422?i=1000653111872 Dennis was quick-witted and funny on it. It's a real shame that that side of him never really manifested itself on Home and Away.

Debra Lawrance has been pretty open about how good the pay on Home and Away was. I've heard her describe getting the job as "winning the lottery" and that Pippa "paid for the real estate". If you take those comments at face value, it looks like she and Dennis (presumably) benefitted from the better pay rates.