Was 2000 meant to be a "revamp"?

[adam436]

The "I'd go off and cry accordingly" sounds a little cynical, which maybe that's how it came across on set. It's a shame, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mutual decision between Judy and TPTB. 

She had some big storylines in her final 18 months, such as learning Shauna was her daughter, the mudslide and the car accident which left her thinking Alf was trying to kill her, which no doubt took up her "writing time". It sounds like she was happy just serving cups of coffee in the diner. 

[Homeandawayfan.]

The 2000 revamp was just the show reinventing itself while still feeling like "Home And Away". It still had the H&A essence to it.

[j.laur5]

3 hours ago, adam436 said:

The "I'd go off and cry accordingly" sounds a little cynical, which maybe that's how it came across on set. It's a shame, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mutual decision between Judy and TPTB. 

She had some big storylines in her final 18 months, such as learning Shauna was her daughter, the mudslide and the car accident which left her thinking Alf was trying to kill her, which no doubt took up her "writing time". It sounds like she was happy just serving cups of coffee in the diner. 

Why do you think it was mutual decision?.  .

[Jamie!]

On 27/04/2019 at 09:06, Sally Keating said:

I think you and a few of the people above have misunderstood what was bad about it.

It wasn't the lack of build up or the way she died (although that was lame). It was the fact that one minute she's grabbing her chest, and the next moment it's her funeral. Everyone's already grieved. We saw nothing of her death scenes, people finding out, rushing to the hospital, the reactions of people like Irene and Donald, the immediate reactions of Alf and Duncan... Shauna receiving the dreaded phonecall... people saying goodbye to her body (a la Bobby)... After 13 years she just blinked out of the show in one 20 second scene and there was no worthwhile aftermath at all.

I wonder if the reason why we didn't see the reactions of everyone in Summer Bay and why we didn't have people saying goodbye to her in hospital was because we had had that the previous year with Ailsa's car accident. We saw Alf and Duncan saying goodbye to her before her life support was turned off, which as we know led to her coming round in the nick of time.

Maybe the show didn't feel it was worth having everyone do that again soon afterwards, (even though I do think we should have had more than what we got).

[adam436]

There were clearly no hard feelings though as Judy returned in 2002 and appeared in the 30th anniversary special. She wouldn't have done that if there was.

[cymbaline]

True. I read those comments as flippant remarks made by somebody nearly 20 years after the event. She also said on the 30th anniversary that they'd looked after her very well while she was there. So she's definitely not doing a Melissa George. I'm sure Judy would be the first to admit that playing Ailsa benefitted not just her bank balance but her writing career. 

[Sally Keating]

8 hours ago, Jamie! said:

I wonder if the reason why we didn't see the reactions of everyone in Summer Bay and why we didn't have people saying goodbye to her in hospital was because we had had that the previous year with Ailsa's car accident.

I don't think so because that story was very self-contained. Apart from Alf and Duncan nobody else was really involved.

[j.laur5]

13 hours ago, Sally Keating said:

I don't think so because that story was very self-contained. Apart from Alf and Duncan nobody else was really involved.

I think the problem was too that most of the current cast had only arrived in the last year and only Leah and Colleen got really close to Alisa.

I think Ailsa and Shelley would have become close friends like she did with Pippa if Ailsa had stayed for longer. 

But they would never have wanted to lose one of four core original members and therefore I doubt very much they wanted to lose Judy/Ailsa.

 

[Lunar]

I guess re: the way Judy/Ailsa was written out is that unfortunately its showbusiness. You could be go above and beyond, be super professional etc and still be written out suddenly or in way that you don't necessarily agree with, if they feel its good for the show or will bring drama. 

[Sally Keating]

15 hours ago, Lunar said:

and still be written out suddenly or in way that you don't necessarily agree with, if they feel its good for the show or will bring drama. 

But they removed all the drama, that's what doesn't make sense.

On 30/04/2019 at 13:39, j.laur5 said:

I think the problem was too that most of the current cast had only arrived in the last year and only Leah and Colleen got really close to Alisa.

At the time of Ailsa's death, the current cast who were particularly close to Ailsa and whose reactions we could have seen were:

Irene
Donald
Leah
Colleen
Alf
Duncan
Shauna
Sally
Mitch

More than enough characters to have a proper episode of people finding out, being in shock, grieving, saying their goodbyes etc.

.

.

In fact they could even have used the fact Ailsa had survived her life support being turned off a year before to fuel the story, with Alf refusing to believe Ailsa was really gone "I listened to you quacks last time you said Ailsa was gone and you were all flamin' wrong! Don't worry Ails, I'm not gonna do it again"... etc. So I really don't agree that just because we'd had those scenes in the hospital the previous year it was reason to skip them all out.

Much like when Pippa refused to accept Tom had died because he'd always come back before (being missing at sea, and then the stroke). The writers didn't say "Oh we gave Tom too much life-or-death drama in the past year. We'll just brush over his actual death and all the characters who should be affected". They actually acknowledged it and used it to create an emotional scene where Pippa talks about that very thing.