Are the current producers ruining Home and Away?

[c120701]

So here it is for anyone interested. Thank you for the tip cadyctslover.

Has Louise been replaced with Dan Bennett?

[Gerard]

I'll spoiler this one...

Now that it's confirmed Brax will be leaving H&A later this year (no major surprise there), I wonder what sort of effect that will have on the current direction of the show. They could very easily replace Brax with another River Boy and continue business as usual, or they could take the series in a whole new direction if they wanted. It sounds like they have a number of months to find something to replace Brax.

H&A's current problems are much bigger than Brax alone though. Also it's impossible to predict if viewers will turn away in their droves as they're only watching for Brax. I'm not going to get too excited that there will be much change at all, but it is an opportunity for a "revamp" in storylines if they wanted one.

[John]

So here it is for anyone interested. Thank you for the tip cadyctslover.

Has Louise been replaced with Dan Bennett?

Well spotted cadyctslover. I had heard a rumour.

[Gerard]

The last season of home and away that was good in my opinion was 2011, the last 3 years have been the worst I've ever seen of the show. I can't invest in any couples because they break-up every 5 minutes or friendships because they are usually forced and become best friends in record time after a few scenes together. The story-lines are dull and boring and repetitive and its nothing like the good old home and away that I feel in love with.

I agree with this, Braxtons and the "crime element" of the series aside, it is definitely missing it's heart and warmth that it had back many years ago, where you had long lasting relationships that you could really invest in - e.g.Shane and Angel, Pippa and Michael, Flynn and Sally etc. Nowadays it's hard to remember even who's going out with who... relationships have little depth. Ironically one of the most steady relationships seems to be that of Brax and Ricky, and of course there's John and Marilyn. But aside from this it's hard to believe in any of the relationships.There's just no spark any more in the relationship storylines - they're not very believeable, and things just seem to go around in circles.

[cadyctslover]

So here it is for anyone interested. Thank you for the tip cadyctslover.

Has Louise been replaced with Dan Bennett?

I hadn't noticed that. Notice though that he replaces Louise Bowes as Network Script Executive, Gary Sewell remains as Script Producer. Gary was responsible for the last few months of the 2014 season, so draw your own conclusions. Lucy Addario is also still Series Producer, and I think she's the main problem to be honest.

Although Dan's tenure as Script Producer 2005-2006 was at times completely OTT, at least it was interesting. Under Louise she managed to make the storylines OTT, but somehow boring...

EDIT: Also, what a completely inconsiderate comment from user 'caity0212', unbelievable.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Now that it seems Louise Bowes has stepped down to be replaced by Dan Bennett and Summer Bay House exterior is returning there could be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

[Jezz]

Now that it seems Louise Bowes has stepped down to be replaced by Dan Bennett.

Interesting development if that's true as Dan was a prominent part of the show during 2005-2008 from memory. Any source to confirm this?

[TickTock]

If Dan Bennett is back, that's great news. Bring back the love.

Now that it seems Louise Bowes has stepped down to be replaced by Dan Bennett.

Interesting development if that's true as Dan was a prominent part of the show during 2005-2008 from memory. Any source to confirm this?

Dan was in Lucy Addario's position from 2004 and maybe even earlier, because I know he was responsible for the Summer Bay stalker storyline and Sarah Lewis and all that. He was still around until 2007-2008, I believe, but I could be wrong as I checked out for a while after Kate left.

[alexx]

I'm not sure what I feel about Dan Bennett because at the time he was responsible for shifting H&A in a completely different direction and it actually ruined the tone of the show and irreversibly damaged the flow of character writing. I don't think character development was his strong point by any stretch, suddenly everyone did anything and everything regardless of whether it was in character or not because it made exciting drama.

Summer Bay felt completely different when Dan Bennett produced and whilst it was quite unmissable in the short term, it really badly disrupted the atmosphere of the show and what had been created and established for the first 15 or so years. And it hasn't really recovered as far as I'm concerned.

So I don't know what to think about Dan Bennett as a producer. Having said that, there was a greater balance with almost all of the characters having something to do at one point or another and he did give Irene some decent storylines (I think I remember him saying that Irene was one of his favourte characters in the show). But I also remember that it was during his time on the show that H&A started with these stupid 'themes'. In 2005-2008 it was all about hospital or cop drama where everyone was in hospital or sent to prison/arrested once a week which had no impact at all.

[Dan F]

If Dan Bennett is back, that's great news. Bring back the love.

Now that it seems Louise Bowes has stepped down to be replaced by Dan Bennett.

Interesting development if that's true as Dan was a prominent part of the show during 2005-2008 from memory. Any source to confirm this?

Dan was in Lucy Addario's position from 2004 and maybe even earlier, because I know he was responsible for the Summer Bay stalker storyline and Sarah Lewis and all that. He was still around until 2007-2008, I believe, but I could be wrong as I checked out for a while after Kate left.

Actually Dan was Script Producer - Lucy Addario is the Series Producer. Dan didn't come on board as Script Producer until 2005 (at that time Julie McGauran was Series Producer) and it was Bevan Lee that was responsible for Sarah Lewis in 2004.

The new role that Dan appears to have taken over from Louise is 'Series Script Producer'.

When Louise first came on board she was credited as 'Supervising Script Producer', which I do know was a title created to show her being further up the hierarchy than the Script Producer of the time, and that in that role she would control all the writing and story generation. The name of that role has evidently changed to Series Script Producer, but with further Script Producers and then Associate Script Producers all being credited alongside each other in recent years, it's difficult to know who does what nowadays.