Rewatching The Early Years

[cymbaline]

Rebecca is a curious one. They reintroduced her briefly in 1994 (different actress) before sending her on her way again. It wasn't until 1996 that they brought Rebecca back again, with Belinda Emmett this time. They might have decided to have non-relatives such as Viv move in with Fisher rather than his own daughter. She was somebody who could be introduced at any time, so they waited. 

[nenehcherry2]

On 10/06/2024 at 02:46, j.laur5 said:

I wonder if Colleen was brought in to replace Marilyn as a comedy relief character even though they were not near the same age. However they both were characters that brought in comedy and Marilyn was bit gossip and perhaps not as bad as Colleen or Celia.  
 

Eventually Irene kind of replaced both Ailsa and Pippa with Irene eventually becoming the owner of the Diner and becoming the voice of reason giving advice to her customers. Also acting as the central Foster mother as Natalie  and Shelley had their own kids with a few Foster kids on side with Natalie looking after Justine and Peta and Jesse daughter and Shelley looked after Brodie and her and Rhys nephew Max and Irene even took over Pippa job as school secretary for while.

I never found Marilyn gossipy. More someone who put her foot in it at times without meaning to. 

[j.laur5]

7 minutes ago, nenehcherry2 said:

I never found Marilyn gossipy. More someone who put her foot in it at times without meaning to. 

She bit more gossipy in current show at times but by no means as bad as Colleen or Celia . 

[nenehcherry2]

11 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

She bit more gossipy in current show at times but by no means as bad as Colleen or Celia . 

As Ailsa would say: oh, I see.

11 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

She bit more gossipy in current show at times but by no means as bad as Colleen or Celia . 

As Ailsa would say: oh, I see.

[adam436]

21 hours ago, cymbaline said:

They might have decided to have non-relatives such as Viv move in with Fisher rather than his own daughter. She was somebody who could be introduced at any time, so they waited. 

That's true - I guess the producers had no way of knowing that H&A or even Donald would have lasted so long, so it made sense to me for her to be a regular at that point. Maybe they thought one biological daughter for Fisher at a time was enough (again, the producers couldn't have known Bobby would stay so long!).

Or maybe the producers wanted to increase the Summer Bay foster children? I think at this point, we were down to just Sally and Steven. Bobby and Carly were now adults (plus Bobby had a new family), an adult Frank and Lynn had left.

Fisher fostered Viv and the Stewarts got Emma Jackson, but for some reason, the Fletchers didn't get a new permanent foster child until Sophie in 1990. Given they were the central family, I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind that - they got guest character Dodge, but no one full-time. It could have been that Roger and Vanessa both took extended breaks from the show, or maybe the producers wanted to give the other adult characters to develop more as foster parents. 

[nenehcherry2]

29 minutes ago, adam436 said:

That's true - I guess the producers had no way of knowing that H&A or even Donald would have lasted so long, so it made sense to me for her to be a regular at that point. Maybe they thought one biological daughter for Fisher at a time was enough (again, the producers couldn't have known Bobby would stay so long!).

Or maybe the producers wanted to increase the Summer Bay foster children? I think at this point, we were down to just Sally and Steven. Bobby and Carly were now adults (plus Bobby had a new family), an adult Frank and Lynn had left.

Fisher fostered Viv and the Stewarts got Emma Jackson, but for some reason, the Fletchers didn't get a new permanent foster child until Sophie in 1990. Given they were the central family, I'm not sure what the reasoning was behind that - they got guest character Dodge, but no one full-time. It could have been that Roger and Vanessa both took extended breaks from the show, or maybe the producers wanted to give the other adult characters to develop more as foster parents. 

Great point. I think it was to develop the other "oldies". What would Ailsa and Alf done without Roo, Celia and Morag about? The show had become definitively teen-centric by 1990 and it wouldn't have worked to have a middle-aged couple just bickering in their own house without a family to rub off; whilst running stores and diners does allow for inter-generational interactions to occur, they don't stimulate the most meaningful relationships. Them suddenly deciding to copy Tom & Pip by the book and applying with DOCS for "cold cases" would have been too forced. So, instead, we see them take in connections from Ailsa's past or kids whom they already knew somewhat (Curtis being the exception).

Don was an interesting one since, being the Principal, he had ready-made interactions with the teens waiting to happen. And being Bobby's Dad as she continued to grow kept him busy outside of work. I guess Viv just helped to fill out their home a bit. So it wasn't just constantly Don and Bobby hugging one minute and screaming each others' heads off the next! 

Whilst I suppose that to be the main reason, one added benefit was in enabling more teen romances (i.e. because they were residing in different homes). 

Edited June 11 by nenehcherry2

[cymbaline]

Also, to get the most out of the teenage "gangs" that became part of the formula for several years, it made sense to distribute them amongst the adults. Eventually, we had people with the Fletchers/Rosses, the Stewarts, Fisher and the Beach House. 

[adam436]

6 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

Also, to get the most out of the teenage "gangs" that became part of the formula for several years, it made sense to distribute them amongst the adults. Eventually, we had people with the Fletchers/Rosses, the Stewarts, Fisher and the Beach House. 

Another good point - in 1988, all the regular teens lived with the Fletchers except Roo, though we did have a number of recurring and extended guest characters like Alison, Sandra, Alan, Matt etc. to flesh them out. Later teen gangs had less reliance on such recurring characters.

[nenehcherry2]

9 hours ago, adam436 said:

Another good point - in 1988, all the regular teens lived with the Fletchers except Roo, though we did have a number of recurring and extended guest characters like Alison, Sandra, Alan, Matt etc. to flesh them out. Later teen gangs had less reliance on such recurring characters.

Talking about kids continuously living with at least one stable, natural parent from birth, I can only think of Roo, Haydn, Tom, Gypsy and Edward in the pre-Sutherland era. With the exception of Tom, four of those five started out as either entitled, spoiled, cunning brats (Roo & Haydn) or highly rebellious in their own way (Edward & Gypsy). "Rebels WITHOUT cause". 

Not including the legendary character of Christopher nor the rapidly aging Duncan of course!

Edited June 12 by nenehcherry2

[adam436]

I think that comes down to the fact there was a mostly stable older cast in the early years: Alf, Ailsa, Pippa, Tom/Michael, Donald, Irene. Then we got Judith, Joel and Natalie in later years, who were introduced with their teenage children.

The 2000s had more traditional families like the Sutherlands, Hunters, Holdens, Austins etc. as it somewhat drifted away from fostering.