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.

[CaptainHulk]

10 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. 

In 1993-94 Times were tough for the Rosses. You could play Summer Bay House Bingo to the amount of times Michael said "We're gonna have to tighten our belts". Or run a drinking game.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Today Summer Bay feels more like a city suburb than a small remote town on the coast.

[cymbaline]

It is a pity it lost the small-town feel it had at the very beginning. There was something nice about most of the locals having history that went a long way back. Inevitably that couldn't last once the turnover of actors began. I wonder was the mid 90's introduction of locals (Travis, Donna, Rob et al) an attempt to bring that back? There was a nice age mix in the beginning and it is a shame they moved so far away from that. Firstly, when they went for the teen-heavy formula and latterly, with the older cast. 

I wonder how a Home and Away-esque soap closer to the original formula would fare in this day and age? There was something nice and homely about a lot of it and I think that has been lost in the modern-day iteration. It's still hard to process how Home and Away went from occasional fisticuffs in the diner to the River Boys and post-watershed TV specials. It's never going to happen but I'd love to see a reboot of 1988 H&A. 

[Homeandawayfan.]

We need a "Summer Bay Life" style book or official blog sanctioned by Channel 7, similar to the "Weatherfield Life" book written by Daran Little in 1992 charting the lives of the residents of Coronation Street before 1960. This Summer Bay Life should chart the lives of Summer Bay from 1852 to early January 1988, and even features backstories of characters who were not originally from Summer Bay, or ones who came in after the show began, for instance the names of the grandparents of Donald Fisher for example, and focusing on Alf's mother's family the Townsend's as well as the Scottish Australian Stewart's.

I think Walter Bertram's mother was a Standish by birth if she used to live in the old Standish House.

While H&A did have some old fashioned sets in 1988, it was still a modern show for the time, as the school was modern inside and out, and the teens were very modern and young, they liked music and movies etc. And the location was bright and exotic. I think Summer Bay was meant to be a bit daggy when H&A began, to show that it needed a shakeup, and the arrival of boisterous foster kids saw to that.

Edited November 8 by Homeandawayfan.

[cymbaline]

We're in fantasy land now so why not aim higher?  A TV series  A series set in 1960's or 1970's Summer Bay already has some juicy material that could be expanded upon. Alf sowing his wild oats, then settling down with Martha. Celia and Les's doomed romance. Fisher & Barbara's marriage. Morag concealing her pregnancy after her knee trembler with Fisher. Matt Wilson's family, especially his brother who was shot by Al Simpson. Other families who would've been around then include the Smarts, the Dibbles, the Nashes. The circus could come to town, giving us a look at Floss and Neville while they were still performing and their surly son who couldn't wait to grow up and cut them dead. 

 

[CaptainHulk]

14 hours ago, cymbaline said:

We're in fantasy land now so why not aim higher?  A TV series  A series set in 1960's or 1970's Summer Bay already has some juicy material that could be expanded upon. Alf sowing his wild oats, then settling down with Martha. Celia and Les's doomed romance. Fisher & Barbara's marriage. Morag concealing her pregnancy after her knee trembler with Fisher. Matt Wilson's family, especially his brother who was shot by Al Simpson. Other families who would've been around then include the Smarts, the Dibbles, the Nashes. The circus could come to town, giving us a look at Floss and Neville while they were still performing and their surly son who couldn't wait to grow up and cut them dead. 

 

That'd be great. I can see Barbara as a  surf girl who would tell Fisher to loosen up. Alf driving around town like **** of the walk, putting his father Gordon's nose out of joint.

Lance and Marty as kids and their scams  backfiring would be great. 

Al Simpson and his mistreatment of Bobby and also his "secret other family".

I can also see Floss and Nev putting on their shows while Scotty rolls his eyes.