1988 Episode Discussion

[Red Ranger 1]

Don't know if Red Ranger's doing this, but Alf episode count is 4.

If only I could...Stupid UK rights situations.

[alexx]

Pippa and Tom were in the City buying a coffee machine so they'd asked the McPhee's to look after things while they were away.

Plus I thought Floss did the cleaning about the house. She was there a couple of days ago too when her and Bobby made up.

[Ryan]

I got the impression she did the dishes as the Fletcher's had made dinner.

[Foxy]

I can't say I'm finding this story with Alf and Ailsa all that flash. It's hard to believe, because they were such a brilliant couple in the last few years they were on-screen together, but I don't think that they have that much chemistry here at the moment. It's amazing to see how much it builds up over time and I can't wait to see it.

I think for me that's sort of the point of this story. They're very early in the relationship as far as I can tell and it's all been very 'steady' so far, just dinners down the pubs and suchlike. It's certainly not a relationship built on lust, until today Ailsa hadn't been to Alf's house before, so I think it'd be quite unatural for them to have such a good chemistry right now. Perhaps 'unatural' isn't the right word, it's rather - some couples have it straight away, some couples take time to grow.

It goes to show how much the show has changed when Pippa said "Fancy a game of...chess?"....and she literally meant chess.

There are some very interesting dynamics being set up at the moment between Alf/Ailsa/Roo, Roo/Frank, Bobby/Carly, Fisher/The Fletchers...I think overall the first week has been a bit of mixed bag, but not bad for a first week - it's certainly left me wanting to watch more to see how the set-ups are developed.

[Ryan]

I don't think you'd see 10 minutes in the middle of an episode these days given away to an octopus prank! Complete with quite catchy jaunty music actually.

I keep expecting Lynn to show up again and each episode passes by and she doesn't appear.

[Skylover]

I think Episode 6 is the weakest episode of the Early eps so far. Although I really like Martin, I hate Lance more and more as time goes by because he's just such a cliche, and really unrealistic as a human being. Carly and Fisher seem to be in absolutely every episode.

You do have to wonder what they were planning to do with Lynn in the beginning though, she doesn't even barely seem to appear in an episodes so you wonder what the writers planned to do with their character because they're not developing her in the slightest.

I find it strange that loads of the "regular" cast members weren't in the opening credits to begin with. Donald Fisher has appeared in nearly all of the episodes along with Lance, Martin and Roo, yet they don't appear anywhere in the credits. I suppose they were waiting for later characters to debut so that they could add all of the characters in at once.

Tom and Pippa continue to annoy, though I'm looking forward to Tom gatecrashing Carly's dad's house tomorrow!

[Ryan]

I'm guessing, but it may have been to do with contracts. I know Ray Meagher has said he originally signed up on a six month contract - I don't know if that was just him or everyone. Certainly Lynn leaves after six months, so maybe she was at well. However, had the show been axed quickly, perhaps to save costly pay-offs, they took Celia, Roo, Matt, Fisher, Lance and Martin on guest contracts. They are all eventually added to the credits in Episode 95 I believe.

Carly and Fisher have indeed appeared in every single episode so far, and it goes along with what some of us have said about in the past if someone had a story, that story played through. Sometimes that meant they were in more of the episodes than usual, but so be it. They have been a lot better if Red Ranger's counting is to be trusted this year than previous years.

Not to worry though, Lynn actually plays a pretty major part over the next few weeks.

[alexx]

I think with Pippa, you can tell Vanessa was more of a theater actor in her portrayal.

Ryan do you know when the 3-episodes per week contract came into place? I think there are pros and cons having seen Neighbours drop the 3-ep per week style for the past 1/12 years. Its great when the storyline is decent, but when it isn't it can be quite tiresome. I know there has been a shift in direction on Neighbours but recently we've had months and months of teenagers school deb ball storyline go on and on and on in every episode of the week pretty much and it is was horrible viewing. But overall I think its a better pace when a storyline isn't interrupted, because we, for the most part, get to see decent follow threw and nothing seems to be missed out.

I hadn't noticed Carly and Fisher in every episode. I like how a prank has progressed into a storyline about betrayal and family, we are also neatly delving into Carly's back story.

I think Lance is a great character and do feel as if I've met someone like him before...he's in his own world that seems to operate 2 seconds behind everyone else s. He does mature over time though, just generally gets older...In realistic terms, maybe he has a undiagnosed form of ADD or bipolar - yesterday at Alf's store he reminded me of a guy I knew at school who always seemed to be laughing at nothing or laughing at something in his head.

[Skylover]

I think Lance is a great character and do feel as if I've met someone like him before...he's in his own world that seems to operate 2 seconds behind everyone else s. He does mature over time though, just generally gets older...In realistic terms, maybe he has a undiagnosed form of ADD or bipolar - yesterday at Alf's store he reminded me of a guy I knew at school who always seemed to be laughing at nothing or laughing at something in his head.

I don't know what it is but I just feel like certain characterisics of Lance's are so stupid that it can't be possible, but I supose you're right that he could have an underlying psychological dysfunction. I think what gets me is that Colleen is just as cliched and stereotyped and it's annoying because she's still in the show to this very day!

[Ryan]

I think with Pippa, you can tell Vanessa was more of a theater actor in her portrayal.

Ryan do you know when the 3-episodes per week contract came into place? I think there are pros and cons having seen Neighbours drop the 3-ep per week style for the past 1/12 years. Its great when the storyline is decent, but when it isn't it can be quite tiresome. I know there has been a shift in direction on Neighbours but recently we've had months and months of teenagers school deb ball storyline go on and on and on in every episode of the week pretty much and it is was horrible viewing. But overall I think its a better pace when a storyline isn't interrupted, because we, for the most part, get to see decent follow threw and nothing seems to be missed out.

I think whenever I've done random episode counts because it's unusual for me to get full weeks outwith post 2000, I'd say it always seems to have been there in some kind of form, but there was always a lot more malleability that just disappeared and was very noticable around 2006-07. This year (2009) appears to have been better, for instance Nicole getting 5 episodes a week in the week Roman goes to jail.