What should they do for the 35th anniversary?.

[Red Ranger 1]

13 hours ago, homeandawayroxsomuch. said:

Home and Away has got rid of what the original show was about (a family with 5 foster kids moving to a small town) over the past few years.  While Neighbours did what it said on the tin until the end (the trials and tribulations of families/friends living mostly on the same suburban cul-de-sac

Whilst I take your point, that's kind of applying a narrow definition to one and a broad definition to the other in order to make the argument work. You could turn that argument around and say Home and Away has always been about families and friends living in a coastal town while Neighbours stopped being about two families who'd lived next door to each other for generations somewhere around the late 90s. Home and Away hasn't been about a family with 5 foster kids moving to a small town since the pilot: By the next episode, they had 6 foster kids and already lived there!

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

14 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Whilst I take your point, that's kind of applying a narrow definition to one and a broad definition to the other in order to make the argument work. You could turn that argument around and say Home and Away has always been about families and friends living in a coastal town while Neighbours stopped being about two families who'd lived next door to each other for generations somewhere around the late 90s. Home and Away hasn't been about a family with 5 foster kids moving to a small town since the pilot: By the next episode, they had 6 foster kids and already lived there!

Maybe cancel what I said about the family with 5 foster kids moving to a small town, I really meant the part where there were kids and teenagers, through fostering or family (because you had the Nashes, Sutherlands, Hunters, etc.).  You may have Nik living with his uncle and Theo living with his aunt, but they're adults.  In late 2021, I felt like Theo's antics were similar to the type of stories that a 16-17 year old Shane Parrish would have had, but there aren't really the characters younger than Theo to give those stories to.

Once Raffy had left and Ryder had finished his HSC and Bella switched to TAFE, no new teen group was introduced for the first time, but it became a new heap of "young adult" characters.

[Herx]

Background students with school uniforms have also disappeared. They often used to be in the Diner, beach, Surf club but haven't seen those uniforms for a long time anywhere.

[Irishbraxton]

I hope the school, teen characters and the Foster family element make a comeback someday but I won't hold my breath, unless someone with a complete and utter passion for Home and Away who knows what it is about comes in and takes over from Addario, because Addario has drained the soul out of the show.

It's weird that Seven dont want to celebrate the show, when Home and Away ends they won't even celebrate the show the way Neighbours did in its last episode a few months before its revival was announced.

[CaptainHulk]

1 hour ago, Herx said:

Background students with school uniforms have also disappeared. They often used to be in the Diner, beach, Surf club but haven't seen those uniforms for a long time anywhere.

That's what I pointed out elsewhere. They don't even *pretend* that the school exists anymore.

[adam436]

Neighbours very much switched to the young adult focus in its final years too. There weren't really any teens around 2020/2021. The earlier teen group of Hendrix, Harlow and Mackenzie all graduated high school and weren't really replaced until the final months. Even then we just had a duo (Zara and Sadie). 

I think it felt more forced in Neighbours though, given they were constrained to six houses and the fact they also kept bringing older characters and try to slot them in among the young adults, resulting in a number of forced living situations with older characters - 35 year old Elly living with her aunt and uncle, late twenties Ned living with his ex-stepmother who also broke up his parents' marriage, Jane moving wherever her adult daughter did, Kyle and his wife living with his grandmother etc. 

[CaptainHulk]

Can't put Brad/Beth breaking up * all* on Terese; Brad himself has form for "waving it around" and cheated on Terese herself!

Sheila was gone to help Naomi raise her fella's orphaned kids quite quick.

I think there may have been a plan to bring in Elijah (Amy's Youngest son from Eric)

[Craig Newman]

I read an article this week on digital spy where a rep from 7 Network was explaining the lack of acknowledgement for the anniversary. Their view is that mentioning the age of H and A may cause viewers to turn away from it as everyone wants shiny and new these days. 

I read that as a complete insult to long standing viewers who have stuck with the show through the good and bad (most recently very bad). They seem oblivious to the fact that the only reason it’s still on air is because of the solid foundations from the earlier years. 
 

When you look at what has been ditched it appears that they want rid of any association of those times. The theme tune has been cut down, No opening titles, Summer Bay high gone, Kids gone, fostering gone, family stories gone, Past characters forgotten, retcon of legacy characters. To top it all I have noticed that they now appear to have ditched the interior set for Summer Bay House which has always been the heart of the show. Any scenes are around a table on location outside the house with either Alf, Marilyn or Roo looking frozen.

I don’t think there has ever been a show that has been so anti it’s fans and legacy as H and A is at the moment, thanks largely to the people producing it. It’s sad as it holds a special place in a lot of peoples memories. If it carries on in the current format I would be surprised if it gets another 5 years let alone 35! 
 

 

[adam436]

23 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

I think there may have been a plan to bring in Elijah (Amy's Youngest son from Eric)

There were definitely plans for a second Rodwell child that were scraped, but no details were given of his age, but I didn't know about Elijah. 

 

9 hours ago, Craig Newman said:

I read an article this week on digital spy where a rep from 7 Network was explaining the lack of acknowledgement for the anniversary. Their view is that mentioning the age of H and A may cause viewers to turn away from it as everyone wants shiny and new these days. 

I read that as a complete insult to long standing viewers who have stuck with the show through the good and bad (most recently very bad). They seem oblivious to the fact that the only reason it’s still on air is because of the solid foundations from the earlier years. 

Admittedly, I don't find 35 to be that significant of a landmark milestone in the same way 25, 30 and 40 would be, but I still find the general attitude toward H&A's age baffling. I would say H&A is now aimed at the same demographic as Hollyoaks, and they successfully cater for their demographic audience without being afraid to shy away from the past. They celebrated the 25th anniversary as best as they could during 2020 and seem to bring back past characters without going overboard like Neighbours did. As a relatively new viewer of Hollyoaks (I've only seen 2014 onwards plus the Hollyoaks Favourites collection), I would find it alienating if they shoehorned random past characters from the past in stories every few months like Neighbours does, but my favourite characters are the stalwarts like Nancy, Diane, Tony, Mercedes and John-Paul, so I were a long-term viewer, I would find it insulting if they were treated with the same contempt as the H&A producers treat their stalwarts. 

 

9 hours ago, Craig Newman said:

To top it all I have noticed that they now appear to have ditched the interior set for Summer Bay House which has always been the heart of the show. Any scenes are around a table on location outside the house with either Alf, Marilyn or Roo looking frozen.

I've mentioned it another thread recently, but I suspect when we lose Alf, we will probably lose the caravan park altogether 

[CaptainHulk]

Elijah may well have been in the plans. We knew Amy had one child with Damien off-screen (Jax, who she was pregnant with when they left) but no gender confirmed until 2022. And Amy rmarried Eric and had Elijah and Zara with.

Enders 35th anniversary week was a pretty big (Boat crash, Keane flees, Denny dies) was as was Edale's (Victoria learning the TRUTH about what happened to Sarah Sr, Andy owning it)