Rewatching The Early Years

[CaptainHulk]

3 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

Agree!

The one thing H&A was generally consistent with was school years (Sam and Duncan aside). Neighbours didn't get that right often (e.g. Michael Martin and Cody Willis). 

It was evidently  clear Michael was 1-2yrs younger than Debbie in 1985 (Philip told Julie Debbie was 9 and Michael when 7 when they first met). When the Martins with  4 new heads and an extra child (Hannah) reappeared in 1992 it was still evident but Michael was smart enough to be moved into YR10 with Debbie and Rick.  

Cody lost 2yrs. In 1989 she was in YR9 with Todd and Melissa and left for the US in YR11 in 1991 but she was sitting Yr 12 in 1994. It is possible she dropped out to Marry Drew Grover in the period she was away (Nobody else willingly repeated unless it's Boyd; barely passed or Bill; missing Anne)

 

 

2 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Sally's 12th birthday party was in 1991 (Episode 817). You might remember it because she had a hippy-themed party and she kissed a kid called Peter while playing spin the bottle. 

Yes, Pete Mansell who she had  to fight Diane Robertson off for the affections of. A Saint compared to Gus or Scott or Keiran who would follow in giving Sal romantic grief.

Edited July 30 by CaptainHulk

[adam436]

4 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

The one thing H&A was generally consistent with was school years (Sam and Duncan aside). 

I'm glad you said was. 2015 saw Olivia Fraser and VJ Patterson in the same year at school, despite being born nearly 4 years apart

H&A has very rarely done that. We had children grow up on screen like Sally, Sam, VJ and Duncan, but very rarely had children or teenagers leave and then return while they were still school age. Neighbours had the aforementioned examples of Debbie, Michael, Cody and later on characters like Sky, Elle, Andrew Robinson, Holly etc., and have been very inconsistent with their ages. 

The nature of early years H&A has meant that generally hasn't been necessary - since it was about foster families rather than nuclear ones, it is probably easier to create a new teenage character than to recast a former one. For example, it was easy to create someone like Sophie or Finn, than it would be to recast Lynn Davenport and de-SORAS her to that age group. Neighbours has relied more heavily on nuclear or blood families. 

[CaptainHulk]

35 minutes ago, adam436 said:

I'm glad you said was. 2015 saw Olivia Fraser and VJ Patterson in the same year at school, despite being born nearly 4 years apart

H&A has very rarely done that. We had children grow up on screen like Sally, Sam, VJ and Duncan, but very rarely had children or teenagers leave and then return while they were still school age. Neighbours had the aforementioned examples of Debbie, Michael, Cody and later on characters like Sky, Elle, Andrew Robinson, Holly etc., and have been very inconsistent with their ages. 

The nature of early years H&A has meant that generally hasn't been necessary - since it was about foster families rather than nuclear ones, it is probably easier to create a new teenage character than to recast a former one. For example, it was easy to create someone like Sophie or Finn, than it would be to recast Lynn Davenport and de-SORAS her to that age group. Neighbours has relied more heavily on nuclear or blood families. 

At least Olivia's age was pushed  somewhat back in line (they SORASed her to 10 in 2005) she was 17 c.2015 like she should have been

[adam436]

For me, the issue wasn't so much the SORASing of characters, but the fact Olivia and VJ were the same age when we saw both characters born on screen four years apart in relatively recent history (the recast from Felix Dean to Matt Little madw it worse!).

Anything less than 2 years they probably could have got away with, but this was a near four year gap and the actor playing VJ looked about 25 when the character should have been 13.

[hapitoby]

2 hours ago, adam436 said:

For me, the issue wasn't so much the SORASing of characters, but the fact Olivia and VJ were the same age when we saw both characters born on screen four years apart in relatively recent history (the recast from Felix Dean to Matt Little madw it worse!).

Anything less than 2 years they probably could have got away with, but this was a near four year gap and the actor playing VJ looked about 25 when the character should have been 13.

Exactly. It really didn't help. VJ and Jett were meant to be the same age. Jett looked his age, Felix VJ looked a bit younger and short for his age then in 6 months he looked easily 5-10 years older and tripped in height. Does happen in real life sure but it's the same person and it looks more natural. This just felt weird. 

Matt Little was good but they should have given him a different role. It felt even more jarring when Jett found out from his birth cert, he was a year older than he believed, making him even older than VJ.

[nenehcherry2]

21 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

It was evidently  clear Michael was 1-2yrs younger than Debbie in 1985 (Philip told Julie Debbie was 9 and Michael when 7 when they first met). When the Martins with  4 new heads and an extra child (Hannah) reappeared in 1992 it was still evident but Michael was smart enough to be moved into YR10 with Debbie and Rick.  

Cody lost 2yrs. In 1989 she was in YR9 with Todd and Melissa and left for the US in YR11 in 1991 but she was sitting Yr 12 in 1994. It is possible she dropped out to Marry Drew Grover in the period she was away (Nobody else willingly repeated unless it's Boyd; barely passed or Bill; missing Anne)

 

 

Yes, Pete Mansell who she had  to fight Diane Robertson off for the affections of. A Saint compared to Gus or Scott or Keiran who would follow in giving Sal romantic grief.

To be fair, in Cody's case, she wasn't SORASED as such (she'd just stayed in the US longer than planned, falling behind with her schooling) and it was mentioned several times in 94 that she was 2 years older than the others, especially when she was dating Michael. And there were mentions of her being 20, almost 21 in 1995. 

What made it all the funnier though was husky-voiced Peta Brady being and looking much older even than the character's above actual age (as well as the original actress' age). So you had a 21/2 year old actress (who looked 24!) in a school uniform, playing a 19ish year old hanging around and dating 2 guys who looked barely legal. Strange head f*** to make sense of at my very young age! 

20 hours ago, adam436 said:

I'm glad you said was. 2015 saw Olivia Fraser and VJ Patterson in the same year at school, despite being born nearly 4 years apart

H&A has very rarely done that. We had children grow up on screen like Sally, Sam, VJ and Duncan, but very rarely had children or teenagers leave and then return while they were still school age. Neighbours had the aforementioned examples of Debbie, Michael, Cody and later on characters like Sky, Elle, Andrew Robinson, Holly etc., and have been very inconsistent with their ages. 

The nature of early years H&A has meant that generally hasn't been necessary - since it was about foster families rather than nuclear ones, it is probably easier to create a new teenage character than to recast a former one. For example, it was easy to create someone like Sophie or Finn, than it would be to recast Lynn Davenport and de-SORAS her to that age group. Neighbours has relied more heavily on nuclear or blood families. 

Funny you say that... I've always said that it would have been great for Tracey Turner to instead have been a Lynn Davenport return. The actress even resembled Helena Bozich! Have her come back to Pippa's to sit her HSC (or even repeat year 11), whatever, harbouring resentment towards Pip that she had had to go back to a s****y family and an immediate jealousy of Sophie... 

PS there was no evidence that she was in Steve's year except one scene of her in a classroom with Steven and Sandra. That could have been something non curriculum related and Lynn - who was "14" - could have actually been in year 9 (or even an older year 8)...

 

Edited July 31 by nenehcherry2

[CaptainHulk]

3 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

To be fair, in Cody's case, she wasn't SORASED as such (she'd just stayed in the US longer than planned, falling behind with her schooling) and it was mentioned several times in 94 that she was 2 years older than the others, especially when she was dating Michael. And there were mentions of her being 20, almost 21 in 1995. 

What made it all the funnier though was husky-voiced Peta Brady being and looking much older even than the character's above actual age (as well as the original actress' age). So you had a 21/2 year old actress (who looked 24!) in a school uniform, playing a 19ish year old hanging around and dating 2 guys who looked barely legal. Strange head f*** to make sense of at my very young age! 

To me Cody didn't seem that much older than them  despite being miserable for a bit. Rick was never too mature and Michael's time on the streets probably made him grow up a bit (though he did do some boneheaded stuff after he'd gone on the straight and narrow)

As for H&A Lynn and Stevo were in a number of YR9 classes that Foley taught (and Matheson himself turned 15 a few weeks in)

Edited July 31 by CaptainHulk

[nenehcherry2]

1 hour ago, CaptainHulk said:

To me Cody didn't seem that much older than them  despite being miserable for a bir. Rick was never too mature and Michael's time on the streets probably made him grow up a bit (though he did do some boneheaded stuff after he'd gone on the straight and narrow)

As for H&A Lynn and Stevo were in a number of YR9 classes that Foley taught (and Matheson himself turned 15 a few weeks in)

Stevo was in year 10 by late 88 at least and qualified to be so as he was born before 31st July 73. 

I never knew about this earlier mention of him being year 9... Wonder if the writers decided to age him up slightly to speed up his teenage bracket years or just an inconsistency?

[CaptainHulk]

52 minutes ago, nenehcherry2 said:

Stevo was in year 10 by late 88 at least and qualified to be so as he was born before 31st July 73. 

I never knew about this earlier mention of him being year 9... Wonder if the writers decided to age him up slightly to speed up his teenage bracket years or just an inconsistency?

It's just I remember Stevo being in YR9 with Lynn in 1988, in 1989 in YR11 with Dodge, Viv and Emma and finishes the following year.  It is possible he quietly skipped or a writer cockup.

[Homeandawayfan.]

The Australia school system is different to here in the UK as far as I am aware, we have school years starting in September and usually finishing the following July. And they go by people born from 1st Sep to 31 August. So say someone born early September could try to fudge the DOB to 31 August so as to be in the same year as a mate of theirs born in August. That would be hard though, as it is usually the parents or guardians who enroll the pupils. That would have made a great storyline in H&A at some point, a character pretending to be a day or 2 older to get into the same class as a pal. I heard personally that someone once tried that at my old college, and they found he was born 1 Sep not 31 August.

I think Sandra Barlow was also at SBH with Stevo and Lyn, and Sandra was said to be 14 in April 1988. I always thought Stevo was born March 1973.

Edited July 31 by Homeandawayfan.