Quick Questions

[CaptainHulk]

22 hours ago, cymbaline said:

 @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. 

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. 

Yes. The other eps up for the  were the two eps based around The Riff Raff Musical climax of the Tug/Shane feud.

[adam436]

23 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

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. 

I listened to that Debra Lawrence interview mentioned earlier and she said she was told about 7 months into her real-life pregnancy.

She also said the producers didn't want to or couldn't keep the baby in the show, which is why they went down the SIDS route. I guess the only other option would have been a stillbirth. Knowing the baby wouldn't be around, the producers must have known much earlier otherwise it would have made sense to not write the pregnancy into the script at all and just strategically hide it like they did with Marilyn and Leah.

Debra Lawrence was the first actress to get pregnant while working on the show though, so maybe they didn't fully think it through.

[nenehcherry2]

On 07/01/2024 at 00:51, j.laur5 said:

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. 

True. And Grace Coard likely would never have been born since Dennis and Debra met on the show.

I wonder if a big storyline would have been planned for 1993 had a) Debra not conceived and b) Nicolle not quit. Both storylines were reactive to external events.

If you minus out Dale and Bobby's deaths (and the spin-off stories they generated), 93's almost 94 level uneventful.

Edited January 8 by nenehcherry2

[adam436]

2 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

I wonder if a big storyline would have been planned for 1993 had a) Debra not conceived and b) Nicolle not quit. Both storylines were reactive to external events.

I'm going to say no, given how very little happened in the early nineties as a whole. I've not seen much of H&A from mid 1990 through to late 1994, but from what I gather, the big stories were few and far between. Other than the two you mentioned, which were both influenced by external events, the only big ones I am aware of are David's death and Sophie's subsequent pregnancy and Meg's death.

The later half of the nineties felt very more high-stakes drama with Saul's cult, Justine accused of killing a baby, Steven and Selina's relationship, the Robert Perez stuff, Chloe's rape, the earthquake, the cyclone, the fire in which Fisher lost his home and Nelson was injured, Sally going missing in the river, the deaths of Stephanie, Michael and Shane,  plus iconic weddings like Shane and Angel, Don and Marilyn. As I've mentioned, I've not seen too much of the early nineties, so my memory may be biased because I've seen these episodes. 

[cymbaline]

21 hours ago, adam436 said:

I listened to that Debra Lawrence interview mentioned earlier and she said she was told about 7 months into her real-life pregnancy.

She also said the producers didn't want to or couldn't keep the baby in the show, which is why they went down the SIDS route. I guess the only other option would have been a stillbirth. Knowing the baby wouldn't be around, the producers must have known much earlier otherwise it would have made sense to not write the pregnancy into the script at all and just strategically hide it like they did with Marilyn and Leah.

Debra Lawrence was the first actress to get pregnant while working on the show though, so maybe they didn't fully think it through.

It would've been harder to hide Debra's bump because Pippa was always on her feet scurrying around the place. Unless they sent Pippa to work in Alf's shop!

I've taken a look at a 1992 summary and you could argue that hiding Pippa's pregnancy would've been tricky without them doing some serious re-writes. There are a lot of Sophie storylines in the months after she has Tamara and Pippa has a lot of involvement with them. I also remember Debra's bump being pretty big towards the end and that she looked tired.

[CaptainHulk]

On 08/01/2024 at 22:03, cymbaline said:

It would've been harder to hide Debra's bump because Pippa was always on her feet scurrying around the place. Unless they sent Pippa to work in Alf's shop!

I've taken a look at a 1992 summary and you could argue that hiding Pippa's pregnancy would've been tricky without them doing some serious re-writes. There are a lot of Sophie storylines in the months after she has Tamara and Pippa has a lot of involvement with them. I also remember Debra's bump being pretty big towards the end and that she looked tired.

Debra, Being a rather tall Woman, it would have been too hard for her to hide the bump behind the counter and her climbing ladders would have been out of the question.

Plus her performances of Pippa's irritation at that time were legit due to hormones/exhaustion/et al, directors figured "let's use it".

Edited January 11 by CaptainHulk

[cymbaline]

They could've put plenty of boxes on the counter for her to fuss around with. Or used her basket  Did Marilyn ever climb that ladder other than when pervy schoolboys wanted to look up her skirt? They wouldn't have much luck with Pippa's skirts. 

True, you could see how tough she was finding things towards the end. I wonder did she even have much of a maternity break? It's hard to measure time on H&A but it still looks like Debra didn't have a long maternity break. Certainly not like what women tend to take today.

[Bobby Forever Missed]

10 hours ago, cymbaline said:

They could've put plenty of boxes on the counter for her to fuss around with. Or used her basket  Did Marilyn ever climb that ladder other than when pervy schoolboys wanted to look up her skirt? They wouldn't have much luck with Pippa's skirts. 

 

Narelle had that happen at Alf’s original store, i don’t remember that happening to Maz though?

Edited January 10 by Bobby Forever Missed

[Old H&A Fan]

Vinegar Tits was onto that like a shot! She demanded Norelle go home and change into a raincoat

[nenehcherry2]

9 hours ago, cymbaline said:

They could've put plenty of boxes on the counter for her to fuss around with. Or used her basket  Did Marilyn ever climb that ladder other than when pervy schoolboys wanted to look up her skirt? They wouldn't have much luck with Pippa's skirts. 

True, you could see how tough she was finding things towards the end. I wonder did she even have much of a maternity break? It's hard to measure time on H&A but it still looks like Debra didn't have a long maternity break. Certainly not like what women tend to take today.

She took six weeks off (in addition to the six weeks regular Christmas leave). This was written as her going to stay with her parents between 1153-1186 (and she had Dale off-screen, the labour scene in 1175 was an insert filmed before her maternity though it started a rumour that they'd filmed Grace's real-life birth - which Debra denied in an old interview on this site).

The mention of her "history of high blood pressure during pregnancy" (by Bobby) was actually in the build-up to her going to Coral's. It really comes across as the 93 writers suddenly being told about the 88 storyline which they weren't aware of and throwing it in loosely.

Edited January 10 by nenehcherry2