Were Pippa and Michael the foster parents from hell?

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

9 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

One time when I think Pippa didn’t do right thing was when she went on holidays in Sydney to visit her parents and not take Christopher with her as Christopher was her birth son and was only 6 years old and leaving him with Michael who had 4 other children to look after already as well as his job. 

Was this in 1995 when Pippa's mum died?

[j.laur5]

5 minutes ago, homeandawayroxsomuch. said:

Was this in 1995 when Pippa's mum died?

No it was in 1994 before they separated temporarily.

[cymbaline]

The point of Pippa's visit to her mum's was so that Michael could reconnect with the kids. He had fallen out with just about all of them because of the troubles at home and him behaving like a jerk. By then, Christopher was 6 and may have even been adopted by Michael. Chris can be heard referring to Michael as "Dad" in some episodes shot around that time and there does seem to have been a nice connection between them. As far as Christopher was concerned, his parents were Pippa and Michael. At that age, Chris would've been going to school anyway so there'd be no need for Michael to be looking after him during the daytime. 

[CaptainHulk]

I'm just gutted Dennis Coard never got to appear in Neighbours as Lars Nilsson. He's literally the only actor I could think of for that role.

[cymbaline]

Might that have been a bit too gimmicky? It would've been fun though. 

I wonder did Dennis ever audition for a part on Neighbours? I know he has done theatre work but if you look at his filmography on IMDB, he hasn't set the world on fire. 

[CaptainHulk]

9 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Might that have been a bit too gimmicky? It would've been fun though. 

I wonder did Dennis ever audition for a part on Neighbours? I know he has done theatre work but if you look at his filmography on IMDB, he hasn't set the world on fire. 

No. He would have nailed it. He and Bonnie/Bea would have played well off each other and it would be amusing to see him argue with Debra/Liz, too.

[adam436]

On 05/05/2022 at 08:21, cymbaline said:

Might that have been a bit too gimmicky? It would've been fun though. 

There are so many actors I could see in that role over Dennis Coard, that it absolutely would have been gimmicky

[CaptainHulk]

14 hours ago, adam436 said:

There are so many actors I could see in that role over Dennis Coard, that it absolutely would have been gimmicky

To me, It'd only be gimmicky if he stuck on a cartoonishly bad swedish accent

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree!

[cymbaline]

On 07/05/2022 at 00:21, adam436 said:

There are so many actors I could see in that role over Dennis Coard, that it absolutely would have been gimmicky

Yeah, turns out he's quite a limited actor. He was great in Return Home and generally did alright as Michael on H&A. But I've seen him in other TV shows and let's just say the results are variable. 

[CaptainHulk]

And if he even did, it would have only been a guest shot and They wouldn't have needed Lars for more than 3eps.

I just figured if they could have Gail Easdale with her limited acting experience (which is true because harvesting credits for her before 2016 is difficult) play opposite RL hubby Stefan Dennis, Debra and Dennis could  play a divorced couple biting the heads off one another.

Steering it  back to Michael and Pippa, it seemed like they were never out of debt at times. If Michael tightened belts any more, everyone would have turned purple!