Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[cadyctslover]

1 hour ago, Blaxland 89 said:

And look how the current episodes are dealing with Shannon's sexuality in the repeats. Might not be perfect, but for that time I'd say it was a positive thing. They weren't scared of complaint but 22 years later they could be! Something's wrong here.

There's definitely something wrong here. From what I can tell it's coming from a level higher up that the H&A production team.

I believe there is someone at Network 7 actively preventing the team from introducing 'diversity' on the show. For the Australian viewers here, what is the rest of 7's content like? Do they promote much/any diversity in the rest of their content?

[Matt]

16 minutes ago, cadyctslover said:

There's definitely something wrong here. From what I can tell it's coming from a level higher up that the H&A production team.

I believe there is someone at Network 7 actively preventing the team from introducing 'diversity' on the show. For the Australian viewers here, what is the rest of 7's content like? Do they promote much/any diversity in the rest of their content?

Winners & Losers showed a wide spectrum of characters - diverse in culture, race, and sexuality.

[cadyctslover]

20 minutes ago, Matt said:

Winners & Losers showed a wide spectrum of characters - diverse in culture, race, and sexuality.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

Another drama show on the same network, also with John Holmes and Julie McGauren credited as Executive Producers. And the outgoing Script Producer/Series Script Executive wanted to increase diversity on the show, but was prevented from doing so. This narrows it down to the Series Producer. The nosedive I feel the show has taken under Lucy's control is subjective, but would she really prevent the promotion of diversity within the show?

[Matt]

34 minutes ago, cadyctslover said:

Interesting, thanks for the info.

Another drama show on the same network, also with John Holmes and Julie McGauren credited as Executive Producers. And the outgoing Script Producer/Series Script Executive wanted to increase diversity on the show, but was prevented from doing so. This narrows it down to the Series Producer. The nosedive I feel the show has taken under Lucy's control is subjective, but would she really prevent the promotion of diversity within the show?

But Packed to the Rafters didn't have a single gay character in its six years on air (apart from 1 lesbian couple for 2 eps in season 2) but had a Greek character. All Saints had Charlotte, a lesbian-turned-straight after Sarah Walker left... Always Greener had 2 gay characters back in the early 00s but one was closeted and the other pretended to be straight, but no racial diversity. Blue Heelers, whilst not an in-house Seven Network drama, never had a gay character. To my knowledge, Marshall Law never had gay characters or racial diversity.

Don't twist what I said and use it against me. I've made it very clear, you can't blame the Series Producer for everything that you don't like about the show.

[cadyctslover]

Oh calm down, it was a rhetorical question. And also please read what I said more carefully, I am doubtful that she would really be behind that move.

[Matt]

The insinuation was enough.

[dee123]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Winners & Losers showed a wide spectrum of characters - diverse in culture, race, and sexuality.

Really? Winners & Losers? Jonathan was a fay voice and hand swish away from being a character on Are You Being Served? The minorities you are correct, they did well for Aussie network television.

Oops, i see your comment after this went into much more details about the history of 7 shows.

Apologizes.

 

[Matt]

If anyone wishes to hear a former Script Producer briefly touch on gay characters on Home and Away, go to the 35-min mark of the latest Australian Screenwriters Podcast

[atrus]

Thanks for the heads-up.

For anyone struggling to find it, here is the reference:

HOST: But do you think over in England they can get away with more, even though the timeslots are actually similar?

HOLLY LYONS: Yeah, I think they definitely do, because - like Emmerdale would have gay relationships, and gay kisses, and I know Home & Away, erm, doesn't like to do that very often...

This is a subject I try to keep abreast of, as I think H&A's current policy towards gay storylines is crazy - particularly given the recent material with Tabitha and Olivia which in my view was highly offensive, given the context. In an interview earlier this year, former script producer Sarah Walker made references to a storyline that I strongly suspect is that of Charlie and Joey from H&A. If so, it sheds a little more light on the prevailing attitude of the network:

[Walker] was working on a mainstream drama when she wrote a same-sex relationship into the script. When it aired, a storm of controversy erupted and “everyone at the network freaked out”. In the aftermath, the writers were told that there was never to be another gay storyline in the show. And so there hasn’t.

A few months later, a fairly innocent line in a script merely mentioning lesbians caught the attention of executives, one of whom sent the stern message back that his wife and kids “don’t need to see this kind of s**t on TV”. These anecdotes aren’t from the 1970s or 80s, but just several years ago.

“That was quite distressing,” Walker recalls. “Imagine if that was a conversation about an indigenous person or storyline. It would be outrageous. No one would ever say something like that. I was told there was to be no mention of gays and lesbians on the show — no references at all.”

[samdanfan]

2 hours ago, atrus said:

Thanks for the heads-up.

For anyone struggling to find it, here is the reference:

HOST: But do you think over in England they can get away with more, even though the timeslots are actually similar?

HOLLY LYONS: Yeah, I think they definitely do, because - like Emmerdale would have gay relationships, and gay kisses, and I know Home & Away, erm, doesn't like to do that very often...

This is a subject I try to keep abreast of, as I think H&A's current policy towards gay storylines is crazy - particularly given the recent material with Tabitha and Olivia which in my view was highly offensive, given the context. In an interview earlier this year, former script producer Sarah Walker made references to a storyline that I strongly suspect is that of Charlie and Joey from H&A. If so, it sheds a little more light on the prevailing attitude of the network:

[Walker] was working on a mainstream drama when she wrote a same-sex relationship into the script. When it aired, a storm of controversy erupted and “everyone at the network freaked out”. In the aftermath, the writers were told that there was never to be another gay storyline in the show. And so there hasn’t.

A few months later, a fairly innocent line in a script merely mentioning lesbians caught the attention of executives, one of whom sent the stern message back that his wife and kids “don’t need to see this kind of s**t on TV”. These anecdotes aren’t from the 1970s or 80s, but just several years ago.

“That was quite distressing,” Walker recalls. “Imagine if that was a conversation about an indigenous person or storyline. It would be outrageous. No one would ever say something like that. I was told there was to be no mention of gays and lesbians on the show — no references at all.”

I believe other shows have had that issue as well.