Diversity

[Jezz]

Focusing on the regular cast members rather than the guesties, there was Elijah (yes I completely forgot about him), Jai, and now Andy.

It was well before my time but old clips of the show from circa 1996/1997 seem to show a young black actress who fell off a cliff. Was she a regular and was she the last (only?) black regular actor?

It really would be interesting to see a character like Neighbours' Chris Pappas, whose character is not defined by his sexuality, he just happens to be gay.

That was Stephanie Mboto and she was a regular character.

http://www.backtothebay.net/characters/mboto_stephanie.shtml

[b2sb09]

Focusing on the regular cast members rather than the guesties, there was Elijah (yes I completely forgot about him), Jai, and now Andy.

It was well before my time but old clips of the show from circa 1996/1997 seem to show a young black actress who fell off a cliff. Was she a regular and was she the last (only?) black regular actor?

It really would be interesting to see a character like Neighbours' Chris Pappas, whose character is not defined by his sexuality, he just happens to be gay.

Forgetting about Elijah is perfectly understandable since he was one of those forgettable characters. He was also one of those unfortunate ones - male of a certain age who they couldn't write for outside of a romantic pairing, so he never really stood a chance.

There was also Sarah Thompson (played by Laura Vasquez) in the mid to late 90s and Charlotte Adams (played by Stephanie Jacobsen) way back in 2001-2002. She was a regular but like Stephanie, wasn't around for that long.

I've lived in small places where there has only been a tiny school and also in regional centres and there's no lack of diversity, especially with ethnicity within the health care profession, so TPTB can hide behind the fact that Summer Bay is meant to be a small coastal town (though from the number of cops and size of the outside of that hospital, it's not that small) to ignore the lack of diversity, but given the amount of people who seem to go through that place, I really see no excuse for them to continue to shy away from more multiculteralism or a same-sex pairing, whether a guest or regular character, though preferably a regular.

Neighbours has been criticized for being too white and too straight, but at least they've made an effort to address this over the past few years. What about Home and Away? Unlike Neighbours which main focus is on a tiny cul de sac of houses, Home and Away is based in a town which seems to have a neverending trail of randoms and guesties who pass through it. I just don't get why the writers and TPTB of Home and Away continue to shy away from this.

[alice93]

We have the same problem in England with our soaps, in particular Eastenders which has been under fire for having very few characters of ethnic minorities - despite the fact that it is set in East London where there is an absolutely enormous amount of Black, Pakistani, Indian and Eastern European people living. I am also led to believe that in Sydney there are a lot of people of Middle Eastern and Meditteranian descent. I feel like Home and Away is one of those shows that just adds a 'token' person of a different minority every so often so as not to be accused of racism, yet they don't really want to.

As for the Lesbian/Gay/Bi-Sexual thing - the year is 2014 and being gay is not a big deal. Every soap I watch seems to have handled having gay characters very well with the exception of H&A. I definately think the soap should involve a gay couple in the near future. I'd also like to see them tackle bi-sexuality as I feel it is more difficult to write a bi-sexual character then a straight or gay one - too many times on tv sexuality is made out to be black and white when it is not.

[JUDE]

Will Home and Away ever be brave enough to do a "Coming out Storyline" or will they continue with the tired and relentless teenage angst girlfriend/boyfriend that they are so fond of!

I know there was the one with Charlie, but that was a complete insult and waste of time that I don't even count it.

We are now 14 yrs into the 21st Century.

[jodlebirger]

H&A producers and especially seven bosses have only interests in money and ratings. And H&A has been going on for so long, that they know how to steer the show towards good ratings and they don't want to risk anything. They know that a few elements are leading to success, drama and a lot of promotions of the show. And it is easier to promote the big blows and happenings, and the smaller happenings than promoting deeper character development and deeper storylines. As long as the show rates well, and makes money they are happy.

So I do think that character development and storylines are the second priority.

For example everything has been sensational in the past 10 years, especially from 2009 and onwards and I think it gets worse from year to year.

Martha was the first really sensation in 2006, but she was nothing against Charlie. And Ester Anderson who played her is a typical "sensationalized" actress. That was the reason why they put Joey with her, and made a lot of promos of the "couple". But if they had cared about the topic, they would have made Joey a regular and explore her character more and put her with a suitable character. Charlie was the most unbelievable lesbian in Television history.

And it was just a cheap ratings grab, including the promos and the reaction and press around the response from "conservative groups". As soon they got what they wanted (some attention) they got rid of Joey. Just awful.

And they continued to put Charlie in new sensations, for example the coupling with her and Brax.

And when we are talking about diversity, they haven't treated handicapped people right either. Remember the storyline about Brendan? well it started well, but I do think that also this became too much of a sensation, and the character was treated like he was only there for the funny scenes, and he was promoted as a fun character - very wrong.

And we have never had a regular character in wheelchair in the show, and never had a deaf character either, or blind.. or....

Seb (Fisher's grandson) was sent away shortly after he got paralyzed in the car accident.

But I am not so sure that H&A is the right series to portray character with a handicap or gay people. Or handle serious topics at all. Because the show seem to be more concerned about the big blows and sensations. It's not only about diversity either, but look what kind of treatment several sensitive topics and characters get. For example look what happened to Kane and especially Aden after portraying their really difficult childhood. And Romeo's backstory was just a mess.

I think that H&A needs to move on from all this " big sensational storylines and characters" before they can start to write serious topics with the respect they need.

[Trudy Heine]

Friends and Buffy had lesbian couples and that was years ago. What about Shannon and Mandy?

[Pacer]

Good point, I think Shannon actually left Summer Bay to be with Mandy if I'm not mistaken. But two storylines in 20 something years is a bit sparse when you consider how many relationships and love triangles the Bay generates per year.

Ethnic diversity, I'm not too fussed. Yes it isn't reflective of the times but I'd hate for them to cast solely to fill a quota and/or sensationalize it. I'd like to see more variety in the cast as a whole but it is clearly difficult for these casting agents to cast outside the typical model. It seems like most of our 'regular' looking cast were first cast as guesties before they were even accepted as a permanent. Heck they cast Isabel Lucas solely on looks to the point where they had her not speak, or speak pig latin for the first few weeks whilst she adjusted to acting.

Summer bay doesn't reflect reality whatsover in terms of cast but also in terms of storylines. Like jodlebirger mentioned above, serious topics are usually rushed through and rarely treated sensitively and true to life.

[Psychic Wombat]

I think Eastenders has more actors of ethnic extraction than most soaps, if it was to truly reflect the east end of London it would need subtitles. What amuses me is how everyone appears to get along fine together and racism is ignored like it doesn't exist, which is ingenuous.

I guess the soaps reflect their viewers demographic (and writers!) which I'm guessing is mainly white hetro-sexual, so I'm not surprised there are no Asian actors in H&A. I think there was one a while back who played young Annies love interest but that's all I can think of. Last thing I'd want to see is tokenism which just patronises those it's supposed to help, but since even hetro-sexual activity between young white people in H&A seems to be frowned upon I don't think there's any danger of that.

Edit:

I am surprised soaps don't have regular handicapped characters - now that is pretty poor.

We have the same problem in England with our soaps, in particular Eastenders which has been under fire for having very few characters of ethnic minorities - despite the fact that it is set in East London where there is an absolutely enormous amount of Black, Pakistani, Indian and Eastern European people living. I am also led to believe that in Sydney there are a lot of people of Middle Eastern and Meditteranian descent. I feel like Home and Away is one of those shows that just adds a 'token' person of a different minority every so often so as not to be accused of racism, yet they don't really want to.

As for the Lesbian/Gay/Bi-Sexual thing - the year is 2014 and being gay is not a big deal. Every soap I watch seems to have handled having gay characters very well with the exception of H&A. I definately think the soap should involve a gay couple in the near future. I'd also like to see them tackle bi-sexuality as I feel it is more difficult to write a bi-sexual character then a straight or gay one - too many times on tv sexuality is made out to be black and white when it is not.

[Pacer]

I guess the soaps reflect their viewers demographic (and writers!) which I'm guessing is mainly white hetro-sexual, so I'm not surprised there are no Asian actors in H&A. I think there was one a while back who played young Annies love interest but that's all I can think of. Last thing I'd want to see is tokenism which just patronises those it's supposed to help, but since even hetro-sexual activity between young white people in H&A seems to be frowned upon I don't think there's any danger of that.

Edit:

I am surprised soaps don't have regular handicapped characters - now that is pretty poor.

.

Actually I'm not surprised they haven't had any physically disabled characters as the producers touched on this years ago - they just can't as with all the cables it's too difficult and filming on the beach is even worse. That said I think Casey's temporary paralysis was the worst yet. Pretty sure Nick and Kane had a more concerted recovery, I remember Kane had a walking stick for a while. On terms of a disability other than physical... I don't think they would or could do it justice to be honest and I guess I'd prefer to leave that untouched rather than done as an offensive stereotype. Should be treated sensitively and I don't think H&A has the means to do that in terms of where the majority of it's drama lies.

Demographic wise, I actually ended up at Hurstville Westfield during April when the cast was there - the fans lined up were very very diverse. Maybe they figure that's the way it's always been, don't fix what isn't broken. Making such changes could go really well or badly but ultimately it's a risk to take. The network execs and producer would be unwilling to rock that boat I dare say. They don't like change much.

[Psychic Wombat]

Well, why does the disability have to be part of a story line? Lots of disabled people live among normal people, it would make more of a statement if the disability was largely ignored. Saying there's too many cables on set is a cop out, they have dogs on set in soaps.