Rewatching The Early Years

[nenehcherry2]

2 hours ago, cymbaline said:

A recurring theme in the early years was how broke so many people were. Fisher and the Stewarts were comfortably off but everybody else seemed to have casual or low-paid jobs. The Macklin office was one of the few places to offer anybody a career path and even then, that didn't last. It's so different to today, where they seem to be selling Summer Bay as a glossy place full of beautiful people with perfect bodies. 

OMG... I've noticed this too! Especially in the 1990-94 period, lots of characters talking about "times being tough" and "waiting for the dole cheque to come in to pay the rent" sort of lines; paralleled the early 90s recession. 

[adam436]

8 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

The original shop went in April 1989 due to the real life premises being derelict but I feel it would have been written out or majorly refurbished anyway.

It's hard to imagine the original shop being refurbished under Celia's ownership, at least to the extent where it would have appealed to young people or been as bustling or lively as the Diner. 

We got the new local store, but that wasn't used as frequently as Hogan's store, plus we had the Alf/Marilyn dynamic. A pairing like that was missing from the original store.

I wonder if the producers knew they were destroying the store when Celia took it over. It wouldn't surprise me.

[homeandawayroxsomuch.]

2 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

OMG... I've noticed this too! Especially in the 1990-94 period, lots of characters talking about "times being tough" and "waiting for the dole cheque to come in to pay the rent" sort of lines; paralleled the early 90s recession. 

I feel like the CES was mentioned a lot in the first couple of years, especially in relationship to Lance, Martin, Carly, etc.

[Dan F]

2 hours ago, adam436 said:

I wonder if the producers knew they were destroying the store when Celia took it over. It wouldn't surprise me.

As per our location page, the council gave word that they planned to demolish in September 1988, whereas Celia took over on-screen in October 1988 - the delay between filming and TX at that point was around two months, so they probably wouldn't have known when scripting it.