1988: The land before the diner

[Stewarts Point]

1988 was the land before the diner. The diner 'was' the early years. Yet there was a time before. 

It was a time where other sets had to do the heavy lifting (Floss and Nev's wandering caravan; Nico and Lance and Martin's caravans; Ailsa's one table shop come cafe). Where time seemed to go despite the diner.

It was Ailsa before working with Bobby, Alf before his prime time shop and larger than life 'voice of summer bay persona'.

Any comments on Ailsa's shop/cafe? 

Did the diner make the early years? Or did it become a short hand in laziness? ie. Let's do another scene in the diner. Was there a more interesting variation in locations in 1988 because there was no diner to go back to?

1988 was very good yet no diner. Any thoughts?

Edited November 10, 2023 by Stewarts Point

[adam436]

I guess the General Store had a table or two for coffees, but the Diner seemed to have a bigger presence. 

Neville and Floss were axed because the producers supposedly wanted to focus on younger characters, so maybe they wanted a new "vibrant" set to mirror that.

I guess the other change was the Fletcher family shrunk a little and replaced with more townsfolk/stray teens in other households, so maybe the new set was required to facilitate those scenes? 

[Chair]

Was it usual for General Stores 

16 hours ago, adam436 said:

I guess the General Store had a table or two for coffees, but the Diner seemed to have a bigger presence.

Was it usual for General Stores to do this?

[CaptainHulk]

1 hour ago, Chair said:

Was it usual for General Stores 

Was it usual for General Stores to do this?

Depends on region. Some general stores would/will run a cafe service from about noon-two. When the Diner opened, I think Celia admitted defeat and concentrated on the shop portion.

The Diner was a focus Bobby to find Direction after Year 12 and who better to run it  with than her best friend?

 

[adam436]

56 minutes ago, CaptainHulk said:

Depends on region. Some general stores would/will run a cafe service from about noon-two. When the Diner opened, I think Celia admitted defeat and concentrated on the shop portion.

There couldn't have been a very long period with both the Diner and the General Store. The latter burnt down in early 1989, I guess because it was surplus to requirements with the Diner now in play. 

 

58 minutes ago, CaptainHulk said:

The Diner was a focus Bobby to find Direction after Year 12 and who better to run it  with than her best friend?

It gave both of them a focus/purpose really, as Ailsa was also a little directionless too. 

She was obviously married to Alf and they had their temporary split, but I don't remember her having much else to do after selling the General Store. The tension with Roo had died down, and her pregnancy only happened once the Diner was opened.

[cymbaline]

I don't think Alf or Ailsa's shops were particularly good locations. Alf's bait shop was a bit of a dungeon and a particularly poor set. Ailsa/Celia's store was a bit better but those tables never worked well in there. It was too cramped and the tables looked like an afterthought. The funny thing is, I recently had a conversation with somebody about how smallish shops seem to be taking their eating areas out. These would've only been added in recent years but never really took off. I can understand that; who wants to be trying to eat or talk when you're within arm's length of somebody who's shopping? I think they got the eating/retail balance right when they set up the diner and moved Alf on to his smaller shop (1991- ). I don't see the diner as lazy shorthand. It was an upgrade on Ailsa's shop and provided a focus for a lot of the show's action. If you think about it, just about all soaps have a pub or a coffee shop which serves as a focal point for the locals. 

It's true that it was a way to give Bobby a purpose after school but I don't think that was the main reason why she and Ailsa set it up. It was a bigger, better set and it gave them lots more flexibility. It was 2 sets for the price of 1 really; the kitchen and then the customer area. They could switch between the booths, the tables and the counter which mixed things up a bit. It lasted for a long time onscreen which says a lot about how good a location it was. 

 

[CaptainHulk]

Alf's was only Booze and Bait.

Hogan's General store was where you got Booze, News, Toiletries, and General Groceries (including knife sharpeners) et al

Edited November 17, 2023 by CaptainHulk

[cymbaline]

It also sold magazines Celia disapproved of. I wonder what publications Alfred sold in his shop? 

[adam436]

It definitely made sense to lose The General Store in favour of the diner. We essentially had two "shop sets" in 1988 - The general store and Alf's bait/booze shop - performing the same function. Characters would come in for a chat/bump into others under the pretense of buying. Introducing the Diner and essentially merging the two shop sets made sense. It also gave Alf and Celia a new dynamic working together to run their businesses from the same place. 

A diner set has pretty much been in existence in some form since it's first incarnation in 1989, so clearly it has been an integral part of the show. When you think about all the action that has occurred in them over the years, it's hard to imagine what H&A would have been like without it. 

In some ways, the Baysider Diner felt like the heart and soul of the Early Years, perhaps even moreso than Summer Bay House. I think that was largely aided by the fact that Ailsa provided a sense of continuity, as opposed to other soaps where the dining/drinking establishments where the management every few years. In fact, even the later day incarnations have remained fairly steady with both Leah and Irene. 

 

 

[j.laur5]

I think if Celia had stayed she would have ended up working in the Diner once Alf shop was destroyed in 1996. It was Fiona's choice to leave as she wanted to move to Melbourne and say we wouldn’t had Colleen back as regular in 1999 as both character served same  purpose.

But I actually think Colleen was better busybody character then Celia as just found Colleen gave show bigger impression then Celia.