Homeandawayfan.

Sad news, Janet would have been great in H&A. Lyn did remind me a bit of Pippa.

When H&A first began, it is known Don was quite the antagonist, especially in the pilot when he said he knows plenty of wayward teens who could make Tom Fletcher's life a misery, and trying to get them to commit perjury to put Bobby away, and for the next few months Don did still have these traits, he could even have been a classic case of Short Man Syndrome. But as we know, he mellowed when he became a regular character and Alan's premature death.

The Australia school system is different to here in the UK as far as I am aware, we have school years starting in September and usually finishing the following July. And they go by people born from 1st Sep to 31 August. So say someone born early September could try to fudge the DOB to 31 August so as to be in the same year as a mate of theirs born in August. That would be hard though, as it is usually the parents or guardians who enroll the pupils. That would have made a great storyline in H&A at some point, a character pretending to be a day or 2 older to get into the same class as a pal. I heard personally that someone once tried that at my old college, and they found he was born 1 Sep not 31 August. I think Sandra Barlow was also at SBH with Stevo and Lyn, and Sandra was said to be 14 in April 1988. I always thought Stevo was born March 1973.

I think Neighbours played a part in the British soaps becoming more youth orientated and increasing their weekly episode count in the early to mid 1990s when Neighbours was caning it on British TV.

Neighbours is also another soap who, like H&A, has never been consistent with characters ages and birthdays. But I guess Prisoner and S&D were the same.

I am wondering if there was an oversight on the writers part and they mixed up Sally's birthday with Leah's as I am sure Leah was born in Feb 1979. Leah did not appear until March 2000 I think but they may have soon got the 2 characters birthdays mixed up.

I think Sally's year of birth has been 1979 but occasionally the month and day of her birthday has jumped. I think in an earlier episode her birthday was July, and later on it was February. I think Leah was also born 1979, same as Sally.

H&A has always had a strong teen focus since it began but the first 2 years were did have some older characters, some of whom were still relatively young, in their 40s like Don Fisher, Alf Stewart, Pippa Fletcher, Tom Fletcher. And the only characters over 60 were Floss and Neville. Des Monaghan wanted to make the younger demographic even bigger in 1989 so got rid of Floss and Neville. I am now the same age group as what Don, Alf and Tom were when the show began, well 2 years older than what Tom was as he had his 40th in January 1988 in the pilot. I think Ailsa and Pippa were only late 30s in 1988.

It is like blonde Pippa went upstairs to go to bed, then during the night when everyone was asleep, she sneaked off to Yabbie Creek head transplant clinic, and came back in the late early hours and no one batted an eyelid.

I am not sure the change in style of the show in the last 16 years or so was actually intentional, maybe H&A just evolved that way and not always for the better, but may not have been a deliberate change in style.

Yes (including after the 1995 shake up) back then, the drama and big stunts, tragedy, crime etc was not in virtually every episode like today.

The show was so feel good in those days.

I do not think Tom was ever fostered. He mentioned his parents in a very early episode and hinted that he may have siblings as he talks about "us" when it came to his parents attitude to them when they were naughty.

The BTTB episode summaries is brilliant. I managed to track down the episode where Fisher's dishwasher foams like crazy when he puts too much liquid in it. Episode 967, 24 March 1992. (10 Nov 1992 UK showing). Been wanting to find what episode that was for a long time. To think this was just 33 episodes away from the 1000th episode, 8th May 1992 (Aus pace). November 1992 in the UK was when H&A was getting up to 17 million viewers, as I noted in the Viewing Figures thread.

I think the show does have a darker tone than it used to be but it does seem more lighter than 10 years ago, I quite like the light relief with the Lyrik storyline even if some see it as insufferably boring. Lyrik is better than The Banned 1986 EastEnders storyline or Afton Cooper's singing in Dallas in the early 1980s. If I had to choose 1 scene from H&A as my fave ever, it would not be Bobby's death or the wedding of Shane and Angel, or Roo jilting Frank but my fave ever scene is Don Fisher turning up to school in punk clothing. My fave H&A scene of all time.

I feel the 2000 change in H&A were quite big but at least the main nexus, Summer Bay House, remained. And still does, even though it is less seen. Neighbours also went through a similar major change 1992-1994 with the exit of the old Waterhole, and the exit of Madge, Jim, Paul, Julie, and new credits, and the introduction of the Kennedy's, Stark's and Rebecchi's. But as said, the old Neighbours format was becoming stale. H&A has survived all these years due to evolving, not always how many want it to.

I feel the Sutherland arrival in 2000 was another shot in the arm for H&A and the old Tom/Michael and Pippa format was becoming a bit stale, so the drop in centre was introduced.

Neighbours was also guilty of becoming more focused on misery and darker stories by 1992, like H&A seemed to do c1995/1996. Both shows were proper feel good shows in the first 6 years.

I feel the show started to show signs of the current format in the mid 1990s and that was almost 30 years ago now. 1995 and 1996 saw a ramping up of the drama and more focus on disasters and lives in danger etc, such as the bushfire, Angel's car crash, Saul's cult, Ailsa's attack etc in 1995. The show still stuck to its original premise until the Sutherland's arrived in 2000 and we had the drop in centre. 1988-1994 was when H&A was quite a feel good show and I wish it had stayed that way.

H&A started off as a show mainly about a foster family and their neighbours Alf, Ailsa and a nearby school which featured a lot as the foster kids were teens. H&A was like an Aussie Grange Hill, with a school element, a great setting for us who were kids/teens at the time. I always preferred H&A back then to Neighbours which seemed rather dull and slow in comparison, and not as much sunny location scenes which H&A had. Now it is the other way round. US TV show Dallas, and H&A had some fantastic exterior sunny scenes. The Fletcher's were like a fostering version of the Ewing's in some ways. Tom was more like Jock Ewing though, a much younger version, and Pippa like Miss Ellie. Sad that as of 2024, the charm, heart, warmth and original premise of H&A seems to have been traded in for endless gangsters, lives in danger, medical and sex and rock and roll. I have zero interest in endless River Boys.

Which is why I prefer Blake and Meg, Frank and Bobby and Shane and Angel and Sally and Flynn over any River Boys or gangs. Or The Brennan/Varga Murphy Show in Neighbours.

H&A does need dramatic storylines to keep the show fresh but the difference between say 2024, and 1999 H&A is that in 1999 dramatic dark OTT storylines did not happen in practically every episode. 1999 H&A had drama but also, more so, plenty of feel good moments and everyday stories and people just being them without all the melodrama.

As we both know, H&A has not just strayed from its original roots, it is a totally different show altogether, just a new show using an old show's name.

The birth order of the Stewart siblings. Alf, Morag, Celia, Barbara and Debra. The secret half sister Colleen Smart was born 1940 I think and for years it was never known she was their half sister. As for the ones outside Colleen I am sure we have at least a case of Irish twins in the siblings, maybe among Debra, Celia and/or Barbara. Alf born 1945, Morag born 1948 (or 1941/1942). That 2010 flashback to about 1950 also adds to the confusion.

Yes Chris was only almost 2 when Tom died at the wheel in April 1990. He will have no memories whatsoever of Tom. It is practically impossible to remember anything from the first 2 years of your life.