Why weren't Sally, Steven, Barbara...

[beau_t]

That's what makes it stand out though. That made it look fake, and not down to earth.

But I don't get what you want the writers to do? The actors had left. And this is not real life, it's a TV show, therefore you HAVE to watch it with an acceptance of this sort of thing and (rather than pick fault with things that nobody could help) maybe enjoy what was a brilliantly written episode.

[matty]

That's what makes it stand out though. That made it look fake, and not down to earth.

But I don't get what you want the writers to do? The actors had left. And this is not real life, it's a TV show, therefore you HAVE to watch it with an acceptance of this sort of thing and (rather than pick fault with things that nobody could help) maybe enjoy what was a brilliantly written episode.

Couldn't they have brought them back for the episode though, like they did for Alf's 60th?

[alexx]

There could be any number of reasons why they weren't present, I know Emily Symons was in the UK so that was probably out of the question. The producers may have asked the actors to return but they chose not to for whatever reason. I'm sure the viewers were given reasons on screen but I cant remember so guess I'll just have to wait and see, hopefully we will get that far. I do agree that it would have been better to have Carly, Stephen etc there but as mentioned by someone else, it was written poignantly.