cymbaline

I never thought I'd see Eileen Derbyshire and Nicolle Bell quoted in the same paragraph, let along the same universe.

Ironically, she's the one who has changed the least. Apart from the inevitable wrinkles, she doesn't look any different than she did 30 years ago. That's a mixed blessing I'm sure.

It was time to try something different. If they wanted a stable middle-aged couple in Summer Bay House, they wouldn't have axed Michael. I wasn't watching H&A regularly by the time Travis and Rebecca took the reins but I like that things didn't run smoothly for them. It's funny that the most difficult of Pippa's foster kids - Justine - is the one they managed to hold onto.

Pippa and Ian's romance. I'd stopped watching H&A by then so all I've seen are random snippets on YouTube. Her chemistry with Michael jumped off the screen so I'm curious to know what she and Ian were like.

I can't speak for Adam here but I think Pippa would've been mad to ask two people she barely knew to look after things, simply based on their age. Even though Travis and Rebecca were younger they were mature, sensible people who she had known for a while. They also knew her foster kids. It made perfect sense that she'd ask people she knew and trusted to keep an eye on things. Besides, when you think of all those ridiculously young couples they routinely married on Home and Away in those early years, Travis and Rebecca looked like pensioners.

She'll probably set it to Private after this! It's lovely to see them all again and I think we'd all love to see pics from more of these meet-ups.

Another possibility is that they were trying to shake things up but weren't quite sure where to go next. They had almost 8 years of a married couple living in Summer Bay House, then another year and a half of a single parent occupying the same role. It is an interesting theory though. It might explain why they gave Pippa such a low-key exit.

Those old episodes are unlikely to see the light of day anytime soon, so they're the equivalent of the tree falling in the forest with nobody to hear it. It's very easy to make things unhappen. If they were to bring Chris back they'd need to get a move on. He's starting to get on a bit now - he'd be 36 now. Perhaps he might oust Alf et. al from his old house

When did they stop using Mike Perjanik's underscores?

When Debra Lawrance was answering (yet again) that question about Pippa coming back, she said they could bring Christopher back. In theory, he's 36 now but you know how consistent H&A's writers are when it comes to such things. I doubt they'll bring him back because they're not mad about LGBT characters. Besides, Chris would have to be insane to return to the town of doom. While he was there his father died, his next dad died, his baby brother died, his foster sister died, the town got hit by bushfires, earthquakes, cyclones... He's only alive and well because even Pippa decided it was time to go.

Did Michael adopt Christopher?

It never made it into the charts on the other side of the world though. Angry's dirge did

Also, to get the most out of the teenage "gangs" that became part of the formula for several years, it made sense to distribute them amongst the adults. Eventually, we had people with the Fletchers/Rosses, the Stewarts, Fisher and the Beach House.

Rebecca is a curious one. They reintroduced her briefly in 1994 (different actress) before sending her on her way again. It wasn't until 1996 that they brought Rebecca back again, with Belinda Emmett this time. They might have decided to have non-relatives such as Viv move in with Fisher rather than his own daughter. She was somebody who could be introduced at any time, so they waited.

I had never thought about that but I think you could be right. Gus had the potential to be a good ongoing character and it felt a bit rushed when they sent him back home. We'd seen Donna resume her relationship with Andrew - something she'd have advised other people not to even think about. Then we had her dad more or less telling her "Here's your bratty kid brother. You, with all your fancy qualifications, let's see if you can fix him." Then there are a couple of guesties who arrived with expiry dates already over their heads - the most obvious examples being Alan and Meg. Alan is somebody I would've liked to have seen more of and he had plenty of potential. Meg I'm not so sure about. She's mostly remembered now for her doomed romance with Blake, and perhaps for the tragic life imitating art aspect of Cathy Godbold's story. Would Meg have been interesting enough to keep around if she wasn't terminally ill?

I don't think Bill was a "Testie Guestie" (love that phrase, by the way!). He added some depth and poignancy to Luke's story but they were never going to keep somebody with an intellectual disability around for long. Wheelchairs are as far as they go in Summer Bay. Wes Patten who played Kevin was at the start of his professional rugby league playing career. Would he have tossed that aside for a role in a soap?

What was the story with Damian? He was in one or maybe two episodes in 1991 but wasn't seen again for months.

Some of the other characters continued to mention him after the vanishing, as if they were trying to say "No, Rob didn't do a "Matt". He isn't trapped in a cupboard in the diner"

1995 benefitted from the shake-up of the previous year. That was when they moved on the likes of Luke, Sarah, Finlay and Adam and replaced them with these newer actors. Shannon and Curtis didn't arrive until September and that put in place the final pieces of the next teenage gang. They were also lucky with the two returning old faces. Steven and Marilyn slotted back in easily but that isn't always the case with returnees.

Did Donald ever formally foster anybody?

I'd forgotten about Curtis. He was mostly a good kid apart from all the drama surrounding Laura. It would've been entertaining if they'd sent Shannon to Alf's house instead. She really could get up his nose at times.

Their drama was more low-key than later on but things did happen. Alf's supermarket went under in 1991 which shattered his self-confidence for a while. Then Karen went off the rails and he was knocked out in his shop. Ailsa went through a tough time when she was attacked in the diner and that brought on the infamous "Bobby in the fridge" incident. There wasn't anybody particularly wild living under his roof during those years. Blake mellowed out after Karen was sent to prison. Simon wasn't a rabble rouser, nor was Roxy or Sarah.

Yes, it certainly sounded like a bit of a scramble. By then, they'd been bringing Pippa back almost every year so bringing Debra in was a safe bet. She knew the ropes and people were used to Pippa being everybody's mum. Really though, would anybody have noticed or cared if there hadn't been an adult in the Beach House? They could've winged it and acted as normal.

He seems to be a troubled individual, to put it mildly. I was thinking he had been in trouble before and sure enough, I was right.

Neighbours was subsidized to the eyeballs and everybody seems to have genuinely thought it was gone. Time will tell whether Amazon continues to prop it up or not. I hope it survives but who can tell. Every soap evolves, so I don't get the logic of comparing old and new Neighbours. You could say the very same thing about every other long-running soap.