Best and Worst Characters from 1988-1996

[j.laur5]

44 minutes ago, Trudy Heine said:

I didn't like Colleen, found her too annoying. Also Dodge for bullying cute lil Sal and making her say Milco wasn't real.

But hate or love  Colleen her character definitely gave show big impression. 

I think Lyn Collingwood was fine actress but unfortunately writing for Colleen just got worse in respect they just made her look sillier and sillier. 

[adam436]

On 01/05/2020 at 05:11, Skylover said:

Narelle was also one of the best characters. She should have been permanent. She was like an early Marilyn.

Wasn't there actually plans to make her permanent, but they didn't eventuate for some reason? 

 

13 hours ago, Trudy Heine said:

I didn't like Colleen, found her too annoying

She was more bearable as a guest in the 80s than she was as a regular for 12 years. Maybe because she was used sparingly instead of shoehorning into her scenes  

[Skylover]

I wasn't a fan of Colleen.

[Skylover]

Seeing Lisa Lackey squark her opinions on the 'Soaps Down Under' documentary just makes me dislike the character of Roxy even more 

[j.laur5]

On 04/05/2020 at 08:12, adam436 said:

Wasn't there actually plans to make her permanent, but they didn't eventuate for some reason? 

 

She was more bearable as a guest in the 80s than she was as a regular for 12 years. Maybe because she was used sparingly instead of shoehorning into her scenes  

I think other problem  with Colleen was she was regular in wrong era she would be better to be regular in 90s when show was more character driven.

 But Colleen definitely did give show big influence  like other long time  characters Alf/Ailsa/Donald/Pippa/Irene/John and Marilyn/Ruth/Leah/Sally. 

After Colleen left town it definitely felt more quiet place. 

[baywatcher]

When I think back to this period of the show (I haven't seen any of the episodes since they were originally transmitted, although I am toying with the idea of getting Amazon Prime so I can watch again), the character I think fondly of is Nick Parrish, who nobody else seems to have mentioned in this thread.

[Sally Keating]

On 05/05/2020 at 00:13, Skylover said:

Seeing Lisa Lackey squark her opinions on the 'Soaps Down Under' documentary just makes me dislike the character of Roxy even more 

I think most of what she said was valid, but misplaced criticism. It's like criticizing an orange for not being green and rectangular. The observations are true, but it's also not supposed to be green or rectangular, so criticizing it for that is silly. I feel like what she had to say about the show was intelligent and in some ways true, and her intentions were good, but at the end of the day it's a soap with 5 eps a week being rushed through the mill. It can't be - and isn't supposed to be - that in-depth, topical, socially accurate and high quality.

It's easy for her as an actress to criticize. I'd like to see her try to produce 5 eps a week of something with all the improvements she had in mind, while working with limits on budget, writing, how many times you can use the characters per week, keeping shareholders and advertisers happy, and all sorts of other things.

Very easy as an ex-actress of the show to sit and go "Here's all the stuff it does wrong." Easy, true, but not very helpful.

I don't say any of that hatefully though, because I feel what she said was intelligent and coming from a place of good intentions.

(Ironic that she only existed in the show in the first place because Lucinda was axed, and she was only axed because THAT actress also slagged off the show! She just made the mistake of doing it while still being on it).

[Old H&A Fan]

Well, Sally Keating. What you said here makes a lot of sense! Limited budgets, satisfaction of advertiser wants, things like that, would go towards explaining a lot of deficiencies in soaps such as Home And Away. I have always wanted well-researched, factual storylines, and that must be hard when 5 episodes are being churned out a week to keep up with demand.

As for storyline politics, is that also because of what advertisers want? Home And Away and Prisoner have seen bouts of leftist socio-political propaganda embedded into a lot of plot lines and character biographies, and I have always wondered where that emanates from. Is it the same kind of ****-stirrers behind today's "International Women's Day" and other "awareness campaigns" we keep hearing about in the media?

This subject deserves a thread all on its own!

[baywatcher]

Another character I really liked from the early years was Karen Dean, until the writers had her go off the rails but even then the performance from Belinda Jarrett was terrific.

[Old H&A Fan]

21 minutes ago, baywatcher said:

Another character I really liked from the early years was Karen Dean, until the writers had her go off the rails but even then the performance from Belinda Jarrett was terrific.

Same here. She did us a favour getting rid of David. It's a shame she regretted doing it (or maybe she regretted going too far?). Other than that, it was sad once she fell under the spell of "Revhead", then being sent to the University Of Crime (jail) which did nothing to improve her outlook on life, as was obvious with her return in 1993.