H&A Spring Break - From the Bay to LA

[Homeandawayfan.]

Was the man who attacked Ailsa the same man who was played by Steve Le Marqand who was a beggar in that episode? On IMDB he is listed as such.

Yes that was a very scary episode, same as Bobby in the fridge, in those days harsh music was a rarity unlike now. That and the Summer Bay Nutter storyline of 1988 were two very scary moments.

[beau_t]

Ailsa had been attacked in the Diner a couple of weeks previously when she was locking up. That cliffhanger always stuck in my mind as one of the genuinely scary moments of the show - a close-up of Ailsa about to walk out the Diner door, and you just see a figure coming out of the darkness behind her, with the shot freezing just before he got to her. The music made it all the more creepy.

That must have been another of ITV's infamous cuts. The real cliffhanger was much scarier - it showed the guy grabbing Ailsa from behind, and putting his hand over her mouth as she screamed for help. The freeze frame occurs as he drags her back inside away from the door. Very dark and I can actually understand why they censored it.

[Dan F]

Ailsa had been attacked in the Diner a couple of weeks previously when she was locking up. That cliffhanger always stuck in my mind as one of the genuinely scary moments of the show - a close-up of Ailsa about to walk out the Diner door, and you just see a figure coming out of the darkness behind her, with the shot freezing just before he got to her. The music made it all the more creepy.

That must have been another of ITV's infamous cuts. The real cliffhanger was much scarier - it showed the guy grabbing Ailsa from behind, and putting his hand over her mouth as she screamed for help. The freeze frame occurs as he drags her back inside away from the door. Very dark and I can actually understand why they censored it.

Yeah I've seen the full version of the scene, but wasn't sure whether the Aussie version had the freeze frame in the same place, with the scene then continuing as an extension of the recap in the next ep, if that makes any sense

Even though the end of the ep was cut down, it was still extremely effective - would be interesting to compare them side by side to see which has more effect as a cliffhanger.

[Red Ranger 1]

Only diff, Red is Curtis eventually got over Shannon and didn't pine over her like some lost puppy like Spencer is doing with Maddy. Thinking about it, It seemed at times like Curtis was the Mac Daddy of Summer Bay as he was never single for long!

Fair point, Hulk.In fact Shannon was the one who randomly wanted to get back together later on and got rebuffed.Which is ironic when you think about it because other than Curtis Shannon pretty much exclusively went for older guys (and gals), her only other boyfriend of the same age was shortly after her memories of being abused surfaced and he was basically the safe option.

The main ep featuring Bobby aired on Monday 18th September 1995 (though she'd popped up as the cliffhanger of the previous ep). It was a Friday ep in Oz, so ITV had gone out of sync somewhere (probably August Bank Holiday). ITV were just over 3 months behind Oz.

As I've been alluding to in the early years threads, ITV were out of sync by 1992 and quite possibly never got back, at least not until near the end when the gap had shrunk to the point that they needed to keep taking it off.I know that for a fact because I missed Wednesday's episode every week because of guitar practise, yet the episodes I missed "should" have been shown on Tuesday.

Damian and Fin originally went to stay with the Rosses back when Irene was a violent drunk.When she eventually bought the beach house, she asked them to move in but they chose to stay with Michael and Pippa, which is understandable, it was their first real home pretty much.Sam did stay with Don for a bit but, uncharacteristically, he had a hard time handling him (it can possibly be justified by him not being fully over Bobby's death) and felt he was better off in a family situation with other children so asked Michael and Pippa to take him in.

Ah, okay, thanks. I remember Drunken Irene's arrival very well, and being absolutely terrified by her - so I guess it would take some time for them to accept Nice Irene after that. I think I'm right in saying that Fin was in it before Damian, and lived with the Rosses at the same time as Rebekah Elmaloglou's character... I'm fairly sure Sam lived with Don again when he was a bit older, since I recall quite a long period where he acted like quite a brat towards him? He's another one of those very rare cases of a kid pretty much growing up on-screen without a cast-change, but gets forgotten because Sally is always the first you think of, having obviously lasted a lot longer.

I don't think their adoptive mother would have worried much: It's not like they were sleeping together or anything, just holding hands, occasionally kissing and calling themselves boyfriend and girlfriend.

Hmm. I'd be interested to know how old they were when she adopted them, because it seems to me that if they're legally brother and sister - albeit not biologically - then she shouldn't have been allowing them to carry on together, however benign she thought it was. I think even foster carers are supposed to try and prevent that sort of thing from happening, although I don't doubt it goes on a fair bit.

Sophie was actually still there when Damian turned up, leaving a little under a year later, and even crossed over with Nice Irene for a bit.Fin moved in about six months before Damian.Sam went back to live with Don in 1998, after Pippa had left.Not sure about how old Curtis and Shannon would have been when they met, although we know Shannon lived with Katherine for long enough to vaguely remember her.

Take back what I said, that was a pretty good episode to showcase Shannon with.She was incredibly deluded and caused a lot of trouble but I agree with Slade, it was hard not to sympathise with her here.And her friendship with Selina was gold and showed how Selina had matured from the person we first met.(And I actually quite liked the Louise Crawford version.)I see Angel's gone blonde by this point.She really didn't come over very well here, going from thinking the worst of Shane to taunting Shannon in a fairly bitter manner and then back again.And ITV cut alert! I don't think we ever saw the end of that Shannon/ Angel confrontation.I think it cut out with Angel taunting her, then we see Shannon turn up at Selina's saying she said something stupid and Angel packing her bags and we don't find out what Shannon said until next episode.(Or unless you'd read Isla Fisher describing the scene in Inside Soap.Suddenly that makes sense.)Shane gets the obligatory shirtless scene.

Marilyn hasn't changed her look in 20 years.Oh well, I'm not sure I have either...Even though he seemed a bit of a larrikin, ironically O'Reilly doesn't seem that different from Marilyn's type...One of Irene's many short-lived love interests over the years.I actually remembered about Ailsa being held up at the Diner (at least when Alf alluded to it) but not that this was so soon after fridge-gate.Am I getting the timescale wrong here?Because as I remember it, O'Reilly making a mess of Don's place was nearly a year previous, around the time Rob showed up, not "a couple of months" as Alf says.

[Dan F]

Marilyn hasn't changed her look in 20 years.Oh well, I'm not sure I have either...Even though he seemed a bit of a larrikin, ironically O'Reilly doesn't seem that different from Marilyn's type...One of Irene's many short-lived love interests over the years.I actually remembered about Ailsa being held up at the Diner (at least when Alf alluded to it) but not that this was so soon after fridge-gate.Am I getting the timescale wrong here?Because as I remember it, O'Reilly making a mess of Don's place was nearly a year previous, around the time Rob showed up, not "a couple of months" as Alf says.

The hold-up was 1699, Bobby in the fridge 1709/1710 and today's episode 1714. You're right though in that it was actually 11 months after O'Reilly's previous appearance.

Of course for those that don't know, O'Reilly ended up engaged to Irene briefly - before she found out he already had a wife...or two...

[Red Ranger 1]

Thanks, Dan.I'm now wondering if ITV were ever in sync, because I'm remembering that story about how you had the different Pippas on consecutive days in the UK, suggesting they were already showing the Friday episode on the Monday by the 1990 season.

[Dan F]

They may well have been mucked up right from the first couple of seasons, as the episodes were all over the place on Seven around the season finale/opening weeks. Last 4 weeks of 1989 they only showed a single double ep per week it seems. It wasn't until 1991 that a season ended with a 'Friday' episode number. One of the many things on my to-do list is to try and sort out some UK airdates for earlier years of the show, so could be a bit of a minefield.

[c120701]

I'm sure with the taking days off the Bank Holidays etc... there would have been points where the episodes eventually fell in the right blocks, but then fell out again. It was the same with Neighbours on the BBC until it's final year with them.

[CaptainHulk]

Gosh, I forgot what a misery-guts Angel could be (Shane too, in fairness); and despite Shannon being at fault I felt bad for her when Angel tore strips - she could have shown a bit more maturity and taken account of Shannon's age, rather than buying wholesale into the idea that Shannon's crush was somehow posing a fundamental threat to her marriage.

Yeah, Angel was kind of hard to root for in this ep.

[Jamie2811]

Surprised there's no episode featuring Shannon's eating disorder storyline, maybe the one she admitted to Pippa she had a problem. But I guess they could only choose 5.