Rewatching The Early Years

[Bobby Forever Missed]

so, I’m rewatching from the pilot currently up to 229 i’m not looking forward to Nicholas Walsh as well as Stacey being more annoying, but I am looking forward to Dodge and of course Bobby’s parents, I do remember these two stories but it’s been a while

[j.laur5]

I am watching episode of my favourite quotes in early years when Alisa tells Alf Barbara is  most normal one out of you sisters. 
 

I know people have said Barbara was boring character but I think she balanced it out better by her and Alf being more normal siblings and then Morag and Celia being lager than life characters.

Alf I think basically think agreed as Alf quite often spoke down to Morag and Celia in early years but not with Barbara. 

I don’t why they ruined Barbara in 1996 just for shake of two episode drama. 

[early years fan]

Just a question, watching episode 98 before Roo and franks wedding, Don fisher phones Barbara, and she mentions that both their children are well.  I assume one is Rebecca, but who is the other child she is referring too? This is before he  finds out bobby is his daughter.

the family relations are a little confusing 

poor fisher seems to have bad luck. With 4 out of 5 children dying!

[hapitoby]

53 minutes ago, early years fan said:

Just a question, watching episode 98 before Roo and franks wedding, Don fisher phones Barbara, and she mentions that both their children are well.  I assume one is Rebecca, but who is the other child she is referring too? This is before he  finds out bobby is his daughter.

the family relations are a little confusing 

poor fisher seems to have bad luck. With 4 out of 5 children dying!

And poor Seb ended up paralysed. 

[cymbaline]

1 hour ago, early years fan said:

Just a question, watching episode 98 before Roo and franks wedding, Don fisher phones Barbara, and she mentions that both their children are well.  I assume one is Rebecca, but who is the other child she is referring too? This is before he  finds out bobby is his daughter.

the family relations are a little confusing 

poor fisher seems to have bad luck. With 4 out of 5 children dying!

She's referring to Rebecca and Alan. In episode 98 we hadn't even seen Alan yet. He didn't come along for another month or so. 

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

8 hours ago, cymbaline said:

She's referring to Rebecca and Alan. In episode 98 we hadn't even seen Alan yet. He didn't come along for another month or so. 

Alan is a definite highlight of 1988.

[cymbaline]

I wish they hadn't got rid of Barbara and Alan so soon. Both were good characters and still had plenty to give. Alan was the showier of the two but I thought Barbara was worth keeping around. It would've added a bit of spice to things if she'd continued to work in the school. They also could've had an interesting "it's complicated" relationship between her and Donald going forward. Instead of that, they put her to one side for years before bringing her back as a psycho. 

[Homeandawayfan.]

1988 was a very rollercoaster year, and was like 1986 Neighbours, very uneven in places. But both years of the 2 shows had something buzzing about them. 1988 H&A seemed to be more brighter and fun than 1988 Neighbours.

 

[CaptainHulk]

On 12/12/2023 at 14:27, Homeandawayfan. said:

1988 was a very rollercoaster year, and was like 1986 Neighbours, very uneven in places. But both years of the 2 shows had something buzzing about them. 1988 H&A seemed to be more brighter and fun than 1988 Neighbours.

 

As we touched on before,  Neighbours was in transition in 1988. Reg handed the reigns to Don, Kylie's star was soaring, Vivian Gray had had enough as Mrs Mangel due to the backlash from the public and Elaine Smith didn't want to be a series lifer so Daph dies not long after her father.  

We had Harold and Henry and later Joe for laughs. Also 

H&A was the shiny new toy and dealt with issues that made Neighbours seem a bit "Toytown" (though Bev's accidental overdosing of Margaret Brown, then later miscarrying after a mugging were anything but)

 

[adam436]

As I've been rewatching on 7Plus, I've been googling the actors to see what they did post H&A, and was surprised to learn Vanessa Downing was only 29 when the series began. The character was clearly meant to be older though, given she and Tom had fostered Frank 10 years earlier and the original actress, who was much closer in age to what Pippa was meant to be, pulled out at the last minute.