Do you think they'd have ever axed Pippa?

[James Martin]

A note on the plans for Irene.

As I recall from when Coral was on these forums in the mid-2000's, Bevan Lee wanted to write Irene out but was heavily talked out of doing it.  Coral's version of events was that Seven did a ton of research that saw Irene as the most popular character.  Infact I believe this all may have come out during BTTB's first Most Popular Character poll 19 (!) years back, as I distinctly recall it being mentioned, either by Dan or Chris, that Irene got an 11th-hour surge in votes.

The two short stints Bevan Lee had as showrunner were first rate television but yeah, he got that one wrong.

[Luigi Severus Fletcher]

Axing Pippa would have possibly had the show go into a weird spot like Prisoner did once Bea left and Myra left (Ailsa's passing kinda had that feel). I can see they would have brought back Marilyn to foster or have Irene become a foster parent, like through the channels like Tom/Michael and Pippa went through. Or maybe brought back Carly and Ben or Frank and Roo to become foster parents.

Also, referring to the above post, axing Irene would have probably put the show into a weird spot too.

[adam436]

On 28/02/2024 at 03:17, Luigi Severus Fletcher said:

Also, referring to the above post, axing Irene would have probably put the show into a weird spot too.

Definitely by 2002 when it was supposedly in the works, anyway. The show was very light on long-term characters at that point. We had Sally, Alf and Fisher (who left a few months into 2003 anyway!), and the newly-returned Jesse who had a lengthy stint in the 1990s, but most other characters only had a few years under their better. Leah and Colleen were still relatively new. It's hard to imagine justifying axing a character of 10 years under those circumstances, whomever it was. 

It would have left the show without a "dedicated" foster parent, which would have felt weird - this was Sally's pre-foster parents days and Alf and Fisher were generally only getting relatives like Sam and Seb by this point. 

 

 

[j.laur5]

I enjoyed Pippa most in her last couple years seeing her started to struggle with living in Summer Bay . 
 

But do think Pippa definitely still had potential left but can’t imagine Pippa in Irene storyline’s as people have posted Pippa taking on Irene storyline’s if Irene left instead as Pippa and Irene are very different characters and definitely can’t imagine Alf and Pippa becoming couple ether as again both Alisa and Pippa are very different characters. 
 

I think Pippa would taken on Shelley storyline’s more as in running dropping in centre as still think drop in centre still would be created if Pippa had stayed as good new hangout for kids. 
 

 

Edited August 14 by j.laur5

[cymbaline]

Nah, at heart Pippa was a stay at home mum. If she'd stayed on for longer, they'd have continued to send foster kids her way as per usual. Eventually they might've decided it was time for a nice new available man to move into the caravan park. 

[c120701]

I think we might have seen Pippa return to nursing or having been Flynn’s receptionist at his surgery.

[j.laur5]

8 hours ago, c120701 said:

I think we might have seen Pippa return to nursing or having been Flynn’s receptionist at his surgery.

I think Pippa going back to being nurse would suited Pippa character direction for new dramatic era. 

But Colleen being Flynn receptionist bought in some good comedy moments . 

And Ric and Cassie  being fostered by Pippa instead of Sally and Flynn as they would not had Sally and Flynn move into Summer Bay House had Pippa been still  living at Summer Bay House in 2005 and I never found Sally and Flynn believable as foster parents to Ric and Cassie as they seemed more like older siblings since Kate Richie  was like only 5-7 years older then actors playing Ric and Cassie . 

[cymbaline]

On 18/08/2024 at 20:46, c120701 said:

I think we might have seen Pippa return to nursing or having been Flynn’s receptionist at his surgery.

I'm not so sure about that. To the best of my knowledge, Pippa never gave any indication that she wanted to return to nursing even though there were times when it looked like a logical solution.  I'm thinking especially of 1994 when Haydn nearly put Michael out of business and Pippa resorted to cleaning the toilets in the Surf Club. 

[adam436]

On 19/08/2024 at 00:06, cymbaline said:

If she'd stayed on for longer, they'd have continued to send foster kids her way as per usual. 

Depends how long she stayed I guess. If she was still around today, I doubt the producers would keep the fostering element just because Pippa is still there. She'd probably either be taking in adult lodgers like Irene has or be in a "mature share house" (for lack of a better term) like Alf, Roo and Mariyln have. 

They'd probably have kept sending foster kids her way up to the mid 2010s though, so she'd probably have ended up with kids like Brodie Hanson and Peta Janossi that some of the larger families fostered. Or maybe she would have become the "foster grandmother" of the show like Alf pretty much was to the teenagers that Sally, Miles, Roo and Leah fostered or unofficially took under their wing. 

[cymbaline]

That's a fair comment. They were probably always going to get rid of the fostering and the teens eventually. Which brings us back to a version of the original question I asked. Would Pippa have been a casualty of the pivots towards the Braxtons and latterly, the adults-only cast we have now? If you remove Pippa's role as mum to the kids of Summer Bay, she doesn't have a lot going for her really. Is it fair to say that she'd have become increasingly irrelevant and if she was in that group of long-term characters today, she'd be the weakest of them.