adam436

I think I found it quite jarring because I was 16 in 2005, yet the actors who played Ric and Cassie looked so much older than me. Especially when you put them next to Tobi Atkins, who played Henry Hunter. I was a bit younger when Dylan Russell was on screen, so I probably didn't notice thr age difference so much at the time.

Yes, I recall reading somewhere there were plans for Beth to fall pregnant and not know whether she wanted to keep the baby or not. I always assumed it was Tammin Sursok's decision to leave, since she had her eyes set on a music career, but Max, Rhys and even Noah for that matter were let go by the new producer. Dan Bennett wanted give Sally pride of place at Summer Bay House and have her come full circle as a foster mum, so that meant the decision to lose Rhys, Max and Rhys and Beth's marriage were collateral damage in that. The plan for Sally and Flynn fell apart somewhat quickly too though, since Joel McIllroy decided to leave and the producers stopped at two foster teenagers (who were also dating and looked way older than their characters' ages).

I have a feeling Paula Forrest wanted to leave (I think she had a young child at the time!), but the producers fought for her to stay, so the sporadic appearances were probably a compromise. As I said, the decision to write out Rhys must have been a fairly 11th hour decision, since they'd married him off to Beth and created the blended family. Kit was another character who departed the regular cast, but didn't really "leave" until 2007. I think Channel 7 wanted to get rid of the character, but the producers wanted her to stay for vice versa?

Shelley returned a few times throughout 2003 and 2004. I'm pretty sure she returned when the truth about Jade not being a Sutherland came to light, then she returned for Kirsty and Kane's second wedding (the double wedding with Noah and Hayley), and then finally when Rhys was leaving. Given all the drama the Sutherlands had, I feel like there were probably more return appearances I've forgotten. She also returned with a new partner at one stage, though I can't remember if that was part of one of the aforementioned appearances or not. Me too! I liked Shelley and Max (who didn't arrive until much later!), but I couldn't stand Dani, Rhys, Jade, Kirsty and honourary Sutherland Brodie.

I never understood the creative reasoning behind splitting up John and Marilyn. I really liked them as a couple and neither have really developed as characters since. Given both Shane and Emily are still around, they would have been on track to rival Alf and Ailsa's as H&A's longest-running onscreen marriage at this point if they were still together. Irene must be the only long-term character to never have a permanent love interest. Ken and Barry Hyde are her only love interest who was part of the regular cast and those relationships lasted less than a year, and all the others like Paris and Lou, are only guests. Yes - Natalie and Shelley both returned for the exits of their husbands. I suspect Rhys' exit must have been quite a hasty decision, since he'd married Beth to a few months and the producers had gone to a lot of trouble to set up the Sutherlands/Hunters as a new central family unit.

I've said it before, but 1998-mid 2000 were very much transitional years for the show between Pippa and the foster kids, and the nuclear Sutherland family. I think the Nash family were meant to be the post-Pippa "shot in the arm", but it took them a year to move into Summer Bay House, and even longer before they were the sole parenting couple of the house. I imagine Travis and Rebecca were brought in as a gentle transition post-Pippa, rather than ripping off the band-aid and instilling a nuclear family in there from the start. Eventually it transitioned into the nuclear Nash family (plus foster kids Peta and Justine), but that took over 18 months. I'm not sure what went wrong - I liked all of them, but they were pretty much all written out in favour of the Sutherlands. I'd still take Joel, Peta and Justine over Rhys and the girls any day!

Both Irene and Leah worked at the school for a period, but both went back to working in the Diner again.

The Macklin Corporation kind of just fizzled out, perhaps because every character involved left - Frank, Roo, Stacey and Tom. Tom kept working there until he had his stroke, but it had pretty much run its course in my opinion. Maybe if Tom or Stacey didn't exit permanently, it would have been revived. Or at least kept as career for Tom, but only seen when the plot required. I'm sure it's been mentioned in passing in the mid-late 90s. Mostly just references to guest characters staying there, but never seen. "Upper class" characters like Diana Fraser who would never have stayed at the Caravan Park. I might be wrong though.

I'm struggling too! Ed Sheerin is probably the biggest international star to make a cameo on the show.

And then Irene got the job when Pippa left, despite being completely IT illiterate. I remember someone playing on a prank her by changing the font colour on her Word documents to white so Irene thought she'd lost all her work. Like Pippa, surely there would have been more qualified and experienced candidates...

She was also a former nurse, so she could have found work at the hospital too. The shift work might not have been great, but at least she could choose her hours since it's not a 9-5 job. I suspect they would have. She certainly wouldn't have remarried so quickly. I think the change in Pippa gave the producers the opportunity to "reset" Summer Bay House, since the new Pippa was further removed from Tom. If that makes sense.

Has it ever been established if Martha is related to the Mr Baldivis that appeared in the pilot? Or is it just a coincidence they had the same surname.

I could see Channel 7 being sold on the idea (as much as they are on first-run Australian drama these days, anyway!) on the premise that it focuses on "young Alf" with others being supporting characters, rather than an ensemble of early years characters. It also would be unlikely to be an ongoing soap opera, and probably more a limited series of 6-8 episodes. It would work if there were new characters as well (who left Summer Bay prior to 1988), to give the writers some freedom without being restricted by the existing characters' backstories. Other supporting characters could include the Patterson family and Celia's friend Betty, but the main focus would need to be on the Stewart family.

It's hard to imagine the original shop being refurbished under Celia's ownership, at least to the extent where it would have appealed to young people or been as bustling or lively as the Diner. We got the new local store, but that wasn't used as frequently as Hogan's store, plus we had the Alf/Marilyn dynamic. A pairing like that was missing from the original store. I wonder if the producers knew they were destroying the store when Celia took it over. It wouldn't surprise me.

I think H&A did try to rectify this later on with the new Diner set and the Beach House set. I guess H&A was using the appeal of the beach over sets, whereas Neighbours being suburbia, had to rely more heavily on modern interior sets and backyard swimming pools for the visual appeal. Now it feels more like a Byron Bay-esque town with Salt, the high volume of young hipsters etc.

I never realised that part! I knew it was a disused shop, but I always assumed destroying the store was part of the producers plan to modernise the show and make it more youth-focused. I'd argue the same with Pippa as well - once she was married off to Michael, she also became less interesting and likeable too. You make a good point that perhaps Tom and Pippa #1 are more fondly regarded by many fans, perhaps because they left so early on. Had they stayed as long as Michael and Pippa #2, their characters may have been treated the same way by the producers. I can see a bit of that element creeping in in 1989/1990 to be honest. Tom and Pippa felt like they were becoming secondary characters to Carly, Steven and Bobby (who had moved out anyway!), and did spend quite a bit of that time arguing with each other - Pippa making the decision to foster Dodge without consulting him, Tom becoming a workaholic, Tom thinking Pippa was having an affair, and the big argument they had on the day before he died. The only big fight I remember from their first year was Pippa hiding Danny's suicide attempt, otherwise they were largely a united front. It also didn't help that they both took rather extended breaks that didn't overlap either - Tom when he recovered from his stroke and Pippa when she had sick parents.

Given how bustling the Diner was, where were all these people hanging out before? Hogan's store was certainly never that busy The show was trying to chase a younger audience after the first year - so the new Diner and Surf Club sets were certainly in response to that. The plain General Store (which looked like old-fashioned tea rooms in some ways!) was replaced with the vibrant diner with modern background music etc, and many older characters like Neville and Floss, Morag and Celia were written out and replaced with younger characters. It could be the fact that the show was targeting a teen/family audience, but the show didn't have a pub or bar in the early years. The teen characters obviously couldn't go there, but the young adults and older characters like Alf could have met there from time to time. Instead, the twentysomethings would have dinner at the Diner or characters like Alf, Tom, Lance and Martin would just drink at home. Alf mentions going to the pub sometimes, but it was never seen.

That really was the most pointless and ridiculous storyline H&A did up to that point - pointless in that the same exit could have been achieved without it, and ridiculous because the "twin telepathy" connection (for lack of a better term!) had already been established on many occasions. She could have left with Seb or even just moved to "the city" with Kit without the need for cutting the family off. I didn't really have strong feelings on that group of teenagers or the couplings, but that made me really mad at the time.

I feel like there had already been several couplings in that group that I never really cared for any of the pairings. Seb and Nick had both dated Kirsty and Jade, and then Jade had been with Seb, Nick and Duncan. I'm sure other teen groups weren't much better, but maybe it was the fact that Jade and Kirsty were sisters and Duncan and Seb were second cousins that made all the pairings seem worse. I don't even remember her getting with Alex. I just remember her leaving with Simon. I assume the producers would have known Melissa George wanted to leave by that point, so they could have either written her out a few months earlier with Shane, or had a situation where he had to leave the bay and then she followed later. I guess with the latter they'd have to explain why Shane couldn't return for the birth of his daughter. Another one for me is John and Marilyn - I really liked Marilyn's energy and John's grumpiness/lack of enthusiasm at times. They seemed to complement each other well. I'm still frustrated they aren't back together yet and that neither character has really developed or had any noteworthy relationships since as a result. Their separation just felt pointless.

I recall Greg Marshall, Sophie, Steven, Bobby and Colleen all had guest appearances in the Ward 17 days too, and there are definitely more. Katrina Hobbs (Kelly Watson) had a recurring role as a love interest for Connor at one point too. It's a bit surreal seeing the two Roos appear together

I agree. I was referring more to the unfortunate coincidence being they had the surname of an iconic original character. I also suspect that the lack of returnees in that case may have been to detract attention away from the horrendous retcon. If you had Duncan there, or even Celia or Colleen, then they may have had to address the fact that Alf lied to Ailsa for their entire marriage

I think it was just an unfortunate coincidence that they had the same surname as Steven and just happened to live with Irene. The show has been relatively better and bringing back at recently departed characters. We had Tori and VJ return for the wedding, Bella return for Nikau's exit, Jett make sporadic appearances for a while and Angelo return to investigate Ross' murder. I feel like Ziggy and Dean were sidelined once Lyrik, the Delaneys and Bree arrived, so the producers probably just wanted to wrap them up as quickly as possible without too much fanfare.

I suspect there are a number of characters like that - where characters were written out early, but they were contractually obliged to keep them around or have them return for guest stints. Lynn Davenport had a random return cameo following the birth of Christopher. Celia disappeared for a few months when she went to Europe, and didn't really do anything noteworthy upon her return. Didn't make him an interesting character though, it just meant the writers gave him lots to do. I honestly can't recall too much other than a romance with Josephine Mitchell's character, Carly throwing herself at him when he first arrived (as she did with every man in that era!), and constantly going head to head with Donald Fisher, which just made Grant seem really arrogant in my opinion. I suspect they were possibly planning a romance with Bobby, which never happened because he left. We know Dee Smart left rather abruptly, so it's possible that Ryan and Lucinda would have been end game and Nick Parrish just would have had the storylines he ended up with post-Lucinda? I also recall Luke Cunningham arriving not long after Ryan left, so he might have not existed had Alistair MacDougall stayed for his full two years either and he just would have been given Luke's storylines?

He wasn't very memorable in Neighbours either. I've also read he was axed from Neighbours. If he was poached, they really didn't have much luck with their poached Neighbours stars. Craig McLachlan was too, and his character was also a very forgettable character who didn't stay long. The turnover of characters did seem higher in the late 80s/early 90s than it was in later years. We had characters like Emma, Viv, Karen, Haydn, Ben, Grant, Simon and Lucinda who didn't really stay that long, even more so when you included "unofficial" regulars like Phillip, Stacey, Andrew Foley and Ryan Lee. I'd imagine contracts must have been shorter back then and there are some behind-the-scenes reasons for some of those exits (i.e. Lucinda), but was the show trying to find it's groove again after losing OG Pippa, Tom and most of the original foster family so early on? I never knew about Belinda Jarrett either! Maybe that explains why Karen got such a dark exit by 1991 H&A standards.