What things never made sense to you on Home and Away?

[Chair]

Steven was forced to resign due to his relationship with Selina.  One thing that has always puzzled me was Andrew was allowed to date Carly.  Had she left school by then?

[nenehcherry2]

3 hours ago, Chair said:

Steven was forced to resign due to his relationship with Selina.  One thing that has always puzzled me was Andrew was allowed to date Carly.  Had she left school by then?

She was still at school (repeating year 12, when they first started dating at least) but was over 18 and he was not working there at that point. 

Edited August 11, 2023 by nenehcherry2

[Homeandawayfan.]

On 21/07/2023 at 13:05, Bobby Forever Missed said:

I mean every place has crime even a sleepy town like Summer Bay c 1992 I mean yeah not as much like i don’t remember Nick arresting people every episode but they definitely had to have a police character to make it more realistic imo but the current format is way too far the other way 

Very true. H&A now has crime and disaster in virtually every episode. 30 years ago it was spaced out and much more exceptional.

When Alan Bateman died in 2012, someone left a comment on a online Australian newspaper website saying "The H&A he created died several years ago". I guess 2000-2005 was when that death of H&A happened.

[adam436]

On 15/08/2023 at 21:55, Homeandawayfan. said:

When Alan Bateman died in 2012, someone left a comment on a online Australian newspaper website saying "The H&A he created died several years ago". I guess 2000-2005 was when that death of H&A happened.

I think it depends on how strongly you feel about classic H&A. 

I feel it died in 2000. We had a new/non-foster family in Summer Bay house, the loss of the original Diner and Stewart house set and Ailsa's death, but there were still elements of classic H&A during the next few years - Fisher was still around, Irene was still taking in stray teens etc and it was still generally an innocent/wholesome show (minus a few controversial stories such as Kirsty/Kane). 

2004/2005 was definitely a significant change - the Sarah Lewis siege and the Summer Bay stalker were the beginning of it, then Chloe's pointless death, the arrival of Amanda Vale and all the drama she brought, then in 2006 we had Johnny Cooper, the Summer Bay Stalker Part 2 and the "disaster of the week", whether it be the barn explosion, the school fire, the cyclone etc. 2007-2010 felt like there were murders every few months too. The arrival of the Braxtons was definitely another siginficant turning point too, since that was the first time we had regular characters constantly flouting the law, up until then it was pretty much just guest characters/villains as the "bad guys". 

[Homeandawayfan.]

17 hours ago, adam436 said:

I think it depends on how strongly you feel about classic H&A. 

I feel it died in 2000. We had a new/non-foster family in Summer Bay house, the loss of the original Diner and Stewart house set and Ailsa's death, but there were still elements of classic H&A during the next few years - Fisher was still around, Irene was still taking in stray teens etc and it was still generally an innocent/wholesome show (minus a few controversial stories such as Kirsty/Kane). 

2004/2005 was definitely a significant change - the Sarah Lewis siege and the Summer Bay stalker were the beginning of it, then Chloe's pointless death, the arrival of Amanda Vale and all the drama she brought, then in 2006 we had Johnny Cooper, the Summer Bay Stalker Part 2 and the "disaster of the week", whether it be the barn explosion, the school fire, the cyclone etc. 2007-2010 felt like there were murders every few months too. The arrival of the Braxtons was definitely another siginficant turning point too, since that was the first time we had regular characters constantly flouting the law, up until then it was pretty much just guest characters/villains as the "bad guys". 

Over the years the show has gradually deviated even further. I guess we still have Summer Bay House which will probably always remain, and we have Alf, Irene, Roo and Marilyn. But they are more like background characters and that it is just endless crime and medical drama with no fostering whatsoever.

Like H&A, Emmerdale is another soap that has deviated as much as H&A has. 1993/1994 was when "old Emmerdale" was finished. The loss of the original Emmerdale farmhouse in early 1993, and the long standing Demdyke Row residences in the plane crash, plus the loss of Annie, Joe, Amos etc, and the arrival of the Dingles and Glovers, and less farming and more sensational storylines. By 1995, we only had the Woolpack and Home Farm as long standing residences, and the location scenes for the village were still in Esholt. The Sugdens were in a totally new farmhouse and the show became more Dingle and Glover and Windsor centric. Also by 1995 Jack was the last remaining original character.

1998 saw a new purpose built set which looked virtually nothing like Esholt.

Corrie, EE, Neighbours and Brookside never had such a radical change in format and visual like ED and H&A did.

 

[CaptainHulk]

The Sutherlands eventually fostered Brodie.

[adam436]

On 25/08/2023 at 00:19, Homeandawayfan. said:

Corrie, EE, Neighbours and Brookside never had such a radical change in format and visual like ED and H&A did.

It's a little hard for those shows to have such a radical change in format though when the concept of most of those is "people living on the same street". I can only speak for Neighbours, where I can say the tone and focus has definitely shifted from time to time, but it's hard to deviate from the format when the six houses are such an anchor. It has tried to rejig the format and break the confines though, with more Lassiters stories and less domestic stories. 

H&A has had the freedom to just add and lose new residential sets as needed because they had a whole town for people to live. Aside from Summer Bay House, and Irene's house, all the other sets over the years have pretty much disappeared when a character or household left. 

 

[cymbaline]

Neighbours has been cancelled twice and Brookside is long gone. That suggests that confining a soap to a residential area doesn't always work. Emmerdale changing its format didn't hurt its ratings either and it continued to attract a large audience for years. 

 

[Homeandawayfan.]

On 01/09/2023 at 12:36, cymbaline said:

Neighbours has been cancelled twice and Brookside is long gone. That suggests that confining a soap to a residential area doesn't always work. Emmerdale changing its format didn't hurt its ratings either and it continued to attract a large audience for years. 

 

I guess with H&A and Emmerdale, they could evolve. At least Emmerdale did it with aplomb and a good balance. You could also say Neighbours had a relatively radical change 1992-1995 as well. Loss of 3 more originals:- Jim, Paul, Julie, arrival of Kennedy's, Starks and Rebecchi's, and the old Waterhole being written out, and title changes etc. Emmerdale and Neighbours have both changed premises for their local pubs in the shows.

[CaptainHulk]

On 01/09/2023 at 12:36, cymbaline said:

Neighbours has been cancelled twice and Brookside is long gone. That suggests that confining a soap to a residential area doesn't always work. Emmerdale changing its format didn't hurt its ratings either and it continued to attract a large audience for years. 

 

Neighbours is more than  just Ramsay Street as the old school map showed. Eden Hills, Elliot Park, Anson's Corner, West Waratah, and in recent years, greater Melbourne.