adam436

I agree. In 1988, Ailsa was quite independent, stood up for what she believed in (i.e. defending Bobby and Fisher when no one else would, the Macklin resort stuff) even if meant "defying" her husband. This all got lost pretty quickly. Floss and Neville are another two characters in which the writers lost investment in pretty quickly. Maybe it was because the decision had already been made to write them out or but they'd been reduced to glorified background characters pretty quickly. I found them, especially Floss, pretty annoying anyway. I liked Lance and Martin early on, but I think they were "dumbed down" once Adam came on the scene. He took over as the comical money-making schemer, which meant they had to find a new direction for Martin. Carly was another who got lost in the 1989/1990 shift too. Pretty much everything post-Foley was terrible for her.

I forgot about Greg! At least he was realistic for a later years principal. More so than unstable Sophie, Bianca who married into the criminal Braxton family and Leah who had zero teaching experience. Sally felt wrong too, perhaps because we'd seen as a student just a few years earlier. The early principals liked Fisher, Bertram, Judith Aykroyd and Hyde seemed more realistic than those in later years. Hard to believe they held the same position as then others I mentioned.

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know any of that. It's a shame that Tom and Pippa didn't get to share much screen time in their last 6 months or so due to their absences. There was a crossover period when Tom returned and before Pippa left, most of which they were arguing, and then a few months between Pippa returning and Tom's death.

Interesting to know. I always wanted Phil and Stacey to be end game, and had the new producer came in, I wonder whether they would have. Since they both arrived around the same time, they probably would have been written out together too. Interestingly some of the new additions in 1989/1990 didn't go the distance for whatever reason. Viv, Grant, Emma and Ben all lasted less than year. It's probably a case of contracts in the early years being shorter, rather than 3 years though. Adam, Marilyn and Sophie were obviously much more successful though. It makes sense that Craig and Peter were axed. They had essentially been replaced by Adam and Matt in terms of the hair-brained money-making schemes etc, though Adam and Matt were probably less caricatures, smarter and marketed as more "sexier". It could just be a coinidence, but Fiona, Vanessa and Roger all had significant absences in 1989 and then all were gone by mid 1990 - Celia went to Europe, Tom recovered from a stroke in a city hopsital and Pippa left to care for sick parents.

One of Alison's followers is Melissa Bell in an uncredited role! Never picked that up on previous viewings of the early years. Andrew and Stacey lasted longer than some regulars and probably appeared more frequently, so it's surprising they never made the credits and I always wondered why. It was obviously their contractual status, but you'd think if they were popular, they'd have been bumped up.

I guess the issue with these two is the that the actors who played Flynn and Jack wanted to leave. Jodi Gordon was one of the most popular characters at the time, so it seemed unlikely the producers would have wanted to lose her when she wanted to stay. As for Flynn, he'd already been recast once and the producers probably had little inkling that Kate Ritchie would also be gone two years later given she had been around so long. If they knew Kate was thinking about leaving, I wouldn't be surprised if the producers came up with an alternative ending for him, perhaps send him off to work overseas and them doing long-distance until her exit came around. I've never been a fan of splitting up "happily-ever-after" couples just for one half to return in a guest stint. If one half of the couple returns as a regular it's a different story and quite necessary, which would have been the case when Roo returned in 2010, but it ruined the endings for both couples for little long-term gain. I've not seen Frank's 1991 episodes, but they certainly made a mess of Will and Gypsy in their early 2010s returns. Apparently when Ryan Kwanten left, he said he would return for Ada Nicodemou's exit. Obviously he had no idea that she would still be around 22 years later Interesting the show didn't write out Ada at that point though. Leah and Vinnie were one of the golden couples of the early 2000s and Leah didn't have the stalwart/iconic status at that point. The show had quite a strong and popular younger group of characters at that point including Hayley, Noah, Danni, Sally and Flynn, that losing Leah wouldn't have been overly detrimental to things.

Another thing I've noticed in the early years is the use of recurring and guest characters. On-going guest characters like Alan and Barbara Fisher, Nico Pappas, Narelle Smart and Brett Macklin are integrated into multiple storylines and the wider Summer Bay community, compared to later years in which guest characters just serve a single-storyline purpose and only interact with those directly involved in the story before being shipped out. For example, in the episodes in which I up to, Barbara has developed friendships with Tom and Bobby, serves a function as a teacher, is an integral member of the Stewart family, whilst her main story purpose is the Alan/Donald stuff. Narelle is also introduced as Lance's cousin, but then moves in with Frank and Martin, works at Alf's store, has a friendship with Bobby and gets along with pretty much everyone except Celia. The Barlows also had scenes at home without any regular characters present, which felt unusual to me too. Those Barlow domestic scenes felt very A Country Practice, where we would often see the guest characters at home to reinforce the social issue of the week. I suspect Narelle Smart was meant to stick around much longer, but it didn't eventuate for some reason. According to Wikipedia, she was tipped to replace Kylie Minogue as the #1 soap star in the UK...

I suspect not, as there would have been no need for it. Maybe she would have been Celia's daughter instead, the result of Celia spending the night with Les before he went off to war. Or would she have been too young?

Agreed! I suspect if the producers knew that Don would stay another 15 years, they wouldn't have killed him off so early. The anyriusm trigger could have pulled at any time when the actor wanted to leave. You can never predict these things though.

Sophie Taylor, Nate's ex wife. Not Sophie Simpson. She was principal around 2013/2014 I think? Between Bianca and Zac maybe?

Lance and Martin drilling a hole in the shower block so they can perve on the female guests. And it being treated as a source of comedy.

Agreed. I'm thinking more the principals from mid 2000s onwards: Sally, Brad, Bianca, Sophie etc. Don Fisher, Barry Hyde, Murray Bartlett and all the temporary ones were convincing

It's the same with the school staff too! Pretty much all the principals have seemed far too young and unconvincing for the role except for Barry Hyde, Maggie Astoni and Murray Bartlett, the latter was only a guest character. The same could be said for the senior doctors and police officers too.

From what we know in 2023, some other musings I had watching 1988 season: Lance, Roo and Bobby are all cousins, yet none of them know it yet. Alf hiding Martha being alive is a far bigger secret than Ailsa being in prison. Alf commented to Ailsa that it's a shame she never had kids. Little does he know that she had already given birth to Shauna. Sally's imaginary friend is her brother. Surely her having a brother would have been on record somewhere and Tom and Pippa would have known a brother existed. Lance and Martin wanted Ailsa's autograph because they'd never met a killer before. Many regulars in the last 10 years or so have now been killers

As I've been rewatching on 7Plus, I've been googling the actors to see what they did post H&A, and was surprised to learn Vanessa Downing was only 29 when the series began. The character was clearly meant to be older though, given she and Tom had fostered Frank 10 years earlier and the original actress, who was much closer in age to what Pippa was meant to be, pulled out at the last minute.

I feel like it was meant to be long-term, but Kate Ritchie leaving put an end to that plan. I imagine the writers wanted to give Sally "her own exit" rather than have her sail off into the sunset with Brad, so he was written out in ample time to give Sally her nostalgic exit without it being tainted by the end of her relationship with Brad. Pippa got herself a new husband within a year of Tom dying, so I figured had Sally stuck around, he was always going to be the next Mr Sally Fletcher.

Alf threatening to give Roo "a hiding" after her vendetta against Ailsa came to a head. I know they did the domestic storyline around the same time with the Barlows, but it felt different coming from Alf given he was a main character.

I agree. The "iconic moments" had a limited run in Summer last year too before being removed. 10Play have released Neighbours seasons from 2012 onwards, so perhaps it's in response to that rather than a Summer gimmick. Though I feel like if it was in response to 10Play, they'd probably have released a similar timefrime and started with 2011, the first season of the Braxtons. There must be a huge audience for nostalgia of Australian drama- A Country Practice, Sons and Daughters, Blue Heelers, All Saints, Police Rescue, Always Greener are all on 7Plus, and ABC iView and 9Now also have their share of iconic/classic Australian shows too.

I'm not sure what the 7Plus server can handle, considering it already has the entire run of Blue Heelers, All Saints and A Country Practice, which equates to over 2,000 episodes, plus countless others. Hopefully seasons are released gradually like they were with A Country Practice.

I started watching them on the weekend. The one thing that jumps out for me is Fisher's backstory. Not only does he have a brother called Clive, who is never mentioned again, but the references to Fisher being Alf's brother in law/Roo's uncle are all present tense. Roo also told Celia she is her only niece (meaning Rebecca wasn't considered yet!) and the conversations between Donald and Ailsa implied they had an affair. I've not seen these episodes since they were repeated on Channel 7 in the late nineties, so maybe some of that will be explained when Barbara and Alan arrive.

I guess I feel it's gone too far in the other direction now. When it was a soap for teenagers, there was still a good mix of teenagers, twenty something and older characters, even though the balance was skewed toward teenagers. There are still good number of older characters, but they are all well established. If one of the six stalwarts decided to quit, I can't see the producers rushing in a new character to replace them. I think that's a good point. If ratings and awards is informing the decisions, nothing will change any time soon.

I don't think the producers have ever publicly commented on the change in the direction (it's just felt like a gradual transition over time!), but I do wonder what the reasoning behind the shift is? If the current audience is reflected in the cast make-up (i.e. predominately 20somethings), then where do the producers see H&A in 10 years time? Will it become a show about people in their thirties? I understand that audiences change and that the demographic of 20-30 years are generally no longer watching Free-to-air TV, but the show does need a shake up. I've accepted that H&A will never be a predominantly teenage soap again, but the stories are becoming quite repetitive now. It's all about Lyrik or the relationship dramas of the characters who are coupled off. I imagine there would be a share of the audience who would probably have teenage children, and might be able to relate to those storylines/characters through their own children. There are so many characters in their twenties and early thirties now that the show could easily lose 3-4 of them (I wouldn't even care who, since I don't really like any of them except for Mali and Mackenzie!), and replace them with teenagers without losing too much focus on the older group. The producers wouldn't even have to introduce parents for those teenagers, when you have Leah and Justin, Roo, Irene, John and Marilyn who could take them in, or the writers could invent a teenage sibling for an existing character. I can only speak for Neighbours and Hollyoaks, but other soaps manage to have a wider spread of ages.

It's a little hard for those shows to have such a radical change in format though when the concept of most of those is "people living on the same street". I can only speak for Neighbours, where I can say the tone and focus has definitely shifted from time to time, but it's hard to deviate from the format when the six houses are such an anchor. It has tried to rejig the format and break the confines though, with more Lassiters stories and less domestic stories. H&A has had the freedom to just add and lose new residential sets as needed because they had a whole town for people to live. Aside from Summer Bay House, and Irene's house, all the other sets over the years have pretty much disappeared when a character or household left.

I think it depends on how strongly you feel about classic H&A. I feel it died in 2000. We had a new/non-foster family in Summer Bay house, the loss of the original Diner and Stewart house set and Ailsa's death, but there were still elements of classic H&A during the next few years - Fisher was still around, Irene was still taking in stray teens etc and it was still generally an innocent/wholesome show (minus a few controversial stories such as Kirsty/Kane). 2004/2005 was definitely a significant change - the Sarah Lewis siege and the Summer Bay stalker were the beginning of it, then Chloe's pointless death, the arrival of Amanda Vale and all the drama she brought, then in 2006 we had Johnny Cooper, the Summer Bay Stalker Part 2 and the "disaster of the week", whether it be the barn explosion, the school fire, the cyclone etc. 2007-2010 felt like there were murders every few months too. The arrival of the Braxtons was definitely another siginficant turning point too, since that was the first time we had regular characters constantly flouting the law, up until then it was pretty much just guest characters/villains as the "bad guys".

Alf's disapproval of Roo's Asian boyfriend. The story involving Matt, Adam and their housemate played by Suzi Dougherty.