Quick Questions

[cymbaline]

9 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

The McPhees could have likely bought it back by chance then totalled it themselves?

That conjured up images in my mind of the McPhees taking the van for a joyride. It's always the ones you least expect. 

[CaptainHulk]

13 hours ago, cymbaline said:

That conjured up images in my mind of the McPhees taking the van for a joyride. It's always the ones you least expect. 

Most likely Floss' idea or Nev, knowing he's short on time before the reaper comes to collect, wanting one last thrill ride!

[adam436]

I have just watched the episode in which Pippa gives birth to Christopher.

I've not seen many episodes of 1992/1993, but did they make a big deal about Pippa's heart issues with her second pregnancy? That pregnancy was due to Debra's real-life pregnancy, and the big drama obviously came afterwards with Dale's death, so I am just curious whether continuity still kicked in or whether it was conveniently forgotten under those circumstances?

[Red Ranger 1]

4 hours ago, adam436 said:

I've not seen many episodes of 1992/1993, but did they make a big deal about Pippa's heart issues with her second pregnancy? That pregnancy was due to Debra's real-life pregnancy, and the big drama obviously came afterwards with Dale's death, so I am just curious whether continuity still kicked in or whether it was conveniently forgotten under those circumstances?

It was pretty much entirely ignored apart from a throwaway remark about her having problems with her first pregnancy. I don't know if we're meant to assume medicine had moved on in the intervening years?

[cymbaline]

I stumbled across a British podcast called Soap from the Box over Christmas and one of the episodes has a chat with Debra Lawrance. Somewhere during it, Debra mentions Pippa's pregnancy. She was aware of Pippa's health problems and felt something more should've been said. But this is soapland and it sounds like the biggest issue for everybody is getting all the episodes filmed by the end of the week. 

[adam436]

13 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I don't know if we're meant to assume medicine had moved on in the intervening years?

Or maybe Pippa also got a new heart in 1990 with her new head

 

6 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Debra mentions Pippa's pregnancy. She was aware of Pippa's health problems and felt something more should've been said. But this is soapland and it sounds like the biggest issue for everybody is getting all the episodes filmed by the end of the week. 

I'd imagine given that the writers didn't plan the pregnancy (it was written in when Debra fell pregnant), they wanted it to have minimum disruption already-planned stories as possible. Plus, the drama all came afterwards with Dale's death. 

[early years fan]

I always wondered why the story writers would decide to have Dale die of cot death.  Seems such a shame Pippa going through a pregnancy and birth for such a sad outcome.

perhaps they thought she would be too busy with two young children to cope with, maybe it was just for the drama/ shock factor?  

it feels like they wrote the oregnancy in just because she was pregnant in real life?

Edited January 8 by early years fan

[nenehcherry2]

Grace Coard technically owes her life to Roger Oakley...

Roger Oakley quits (or was axed) - Vanessa quits since she misses working with him - Debra replaces her, Dennis is casted, they meet on set, fall in love, marry & she's pregnant with Grace almost immediately! 

Debra has confirmed in interviews that Dale was written in last minute because of her own pregnancy & her announcing that to the producers 3 months in. The scenes where she first announced her pregnancy (around the time Maz leaves) look like last minute inserts. And then there isn't a mention of it again for several weeks (i.e. scripts written weeks before).

Be interesting to know how soon after the production team decided to do the cot death story and why. Must have been quite a sensitive concept to pitch to Debra & Dennis given the obvious. My guess RE the why was to get the ratings in when there wasn't much else going on drama wise. 

Edited January 7 by nenehcherry2

[cymbaline]

2 hours ago, adam436 said:

Or maybe Pippa also got a new heart in 1990 with her new head

 

I'd imagine given that the writers didn't plan the pregnancy (it was written in when Debra fell pregnant), they wanted it to have minimum disruption already-planned stories as possible. Plus, the drama all came afterwards with Dale's death. 

 @Pippa's new heart. Who knows? 

I'd have to listen back to the chat with Debra again but I think she simply said they could've said a bit more about Pippa's underlying condition and Dale being a bit of a miracle. It was a brief comment in the middle of everything else. 

34 minutes ago, early years fan said:

I always wondered why the story writers would decide to have Dale die of cot death.  Seems such a shame Pippa going through a pregnancy and bieth birth for such a sad outcome.

perhaps they thought she would be too busy with two young children to cope with, maybe it was just for the drama/ shock factor?  

it feels like they wrote the oregnancy in just because she was pregnant in real life?

They definitely wrote Pippa's pregnancy in because Debra was expecting in real life. I'm pretty sure she has said in the past that she offered to leave but they said no. I have no memory of her ever explaining why they killed Dale off but it was a decision made while she was still pregnant. My guess is that they didn't want Pippa raising two young kids, as you've already surmised. Christopher used to come and go and even at that, Pippa seemed to spend half her time fobbing him off onto Sally. I don't think they wrote the cot death story for the shock value at all. It was a pragmatic way for the scriptwriters to get rid of Dale, horrible and all as it sounds. Didn't the episode where Dale dies win an award? I thought they did a good job of writing that episode and the ones after that where Pippa and Michael struggle with their terrible loss. 

[j.laur5]

So if Vanessa Downing had stayed we likely would have never gotten Dale storyline .

Personally I am alright older adult characters be more like supporting characters as it makes them feel more realistic. 

Edited January 7 by j.laur5