Dan Bennett quits

[cadyctslover]

I would imagine that the remaining episodes filmed in 2015 will take us around 4 months into this year.

Then I would guess that storylines would be planned 3-4 months in advance after that point.

So.. we're likely to still see Dan Bennett material well into the 2016 season, probably until the end of August/September?

[Matt]

Dan Bennett has confirmed that his material will air until August!

https://twitter.com/DanMBennett/status/684296271151026176

[cadyctslover]

I'm a genius! 

[c120701]

On 3 January 2016 at 11:58 AM, Matt said:

Dan Bennett is credited as the Drama Executive between Ep#5171 (19th March 2007) and Ep#5460 (23rd May 2008). In his 14 months in the lead position, he was calling the shots on storylines such as Mary Casey, Karl and Susan in England, Susan's MS diagnosis, the return of Libby Kennedy and Lyn Scully, the introduction of the Parker family, Rosie and Frazer's wedding and the subsequent bus crash and the roof collapse. He's also the man who single-handedly crafted the Sam/Dan/Libby love triangle, which, in my opinion, is one of the best storylines to ever hit Ramsay Street.

As for the bomb in question, I can't recall any such storyline in his time as Drama Executive.

It's a bit of a generalisation to say he was hired to turn Neighbours into another Home and Away. The two shows were treated rather differently.

I'm not generalising. He was brought in with that brief.

http://perfectblend.net/news/11-07.htm

[James Martin]

You do wonder if there's been a creative disagreement. A very sad state of affairs if there has been, and I fear for the show's long term future.

[Homeandawayfan.]

May not have been due to Lucy's vision of the show being different to Dan's, may have been something else, maybe it was a disagreement over a storyline rather than the ongoing show.

[cadyctslover]

I wonder when we'll hear who will be replacing Dan?

When does filming resume, did it begin this week? Will Dan have to work a normal notice period of 1 month? Or will there be a 'Supervising' Series Script Executive until someone new can be found for the role?

I don't know how I feel about Sarah Walker taking this position, especially if she was responsible for writing 'An Eye For An Eye'. (Although that doesn't mean it was her idea to do the special). I wouldn't be totally against the idea of Faith McKinnon returning to that role. People talk about 2009 being a poor year, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as mid-2011 to mid-2015. The year-long mystery was just a bad idea; there was plenty of other very good material and character development during her time. I would love to see Jason Daniel return to the position, as he was Script Producer for the first half of the 2011 season (a period I really enjoyed), and during which time the show really did feel like it was moving forward while respecting its past. Yes, even I enjoyed the Braxton's during their first 6 months! I would also be interested to see them take on someone completely fresh to the show who may try to breathe fresh life into it, push it into new directions and finally move away from the endless conveyor-belt of bad boys and gangsters.

I still can't help but feel that with Dan going after only 6 months and having 'quit', something must have happened. Maybe he decided that this role was a backwards step for him and too close to the Script Producer role he held 10 years ago for the same programme. Or as indicated in his tweet, maybe he decided that life is too short not to travel when you have the option? Or... perhaps there was creative friction with another member of the team, or the network? With the startling lack of diversity in the cast continuing 6 months into Dan's material I can only imagine there is a producer (naming no names) or 'high-up' in Network 7 that is rejecting the idea - especially as Dan has directly addressed this as an issue, and something he was working on. I'm hoping I'll be proved wrong about this following the introduction of the Morgan siblings.

It will be interesting to see what direction the show takes from August 2016, because I would imagine we'll see some storyline ideas (and maybe the introduction of certain types of characters) that Dan couldn't agree with?

[James Martin]

Maybe they should look into Coral or Bevan's writing teams as a starting point for a replacement.  Someone who wrote for either of those two will have a good grounding on the show and its heritage.

Do I understand that Seven have regained the rights for the Rio Olympics having lost them for London?  So will he have plotted the Olympic cliffhanger?

[Dan F]

Dan would have been in the chair for around a year - remember we only found out about his return just before his episodes actually started to air in June. It's longer than some SP's have been in the chair.

Bevan's highly-praised tenures in 2004 and 2008 for example were only six month stints—the first of which was to bridge an awkward gap between Coral and Dan—so there's plenty of time between now and August for us to see Dan put his stamp on things and make any changes he deemed necessary.

[James Martin]

It's all in the scripts too though.  You get the impression Coral, Bevan and Dan threw a lot of the scripts back.

i think Bevan's two stints were so highly praised because even though his 2008 stint was very "on-brand" to what the show he'd previously chaired became, even if you go down another route, you have to understand what the show WAS and how it got to where it got today.  That's where we've gone fundamentally wrong recently.