Home and Away's lack of Returnee Characters

[Homeandawayfan.]

You could also say the Summer Bay Nutter storyline of 1988 was plot driven. But Walter had a brain injury sustained after the truck crash in one of the very first episodes in January 1988, which lead to his nutty ways.

Edited June 3 by Homeandawayfan.

[adam436]

I guess for me, the difference between character and plot driven is how those characters develop as a result of the storyline. For example, everyone thinking Pippa was having an affair with Zac the Shark Hunter was very plot-driven for me. Once it was over, everyone just went back their lives the next day as if they hadn't accused their wife/friend of an affair. Alan and Donald's relationship was character driven for Fisher, because I feel that's when Fisher became more rounded and human, as opposed to the mean headteacher. If Alan had died and Fisher had just returned to his old self the following week (like how Alf discovered he had a long-lost daughter in Quinn, then forgetting about her for 20+ years), then it would be plot-driven. 

An example of a current plot-driven story is the recent Marilyn/Heather story. The story was heightened for dramatic affect and hasn't changed as a result. If the result was that we saw Marilyn have a relationship with her adult daughter or she decided to return to fostering etc. then it would be character driven. The same goes for John and Marilyn's split - the split didn't take either of them in new directions as characters and even the build up didn't make a great deal of sense. Apart from John's romance with Brydie Carter's character (which was plot driven, since she was murdered in a whodunnit), nothing has really changed for them as individual characters. In good writing, splitting up long-term couples should be a creative choice because it should allow the characters to go in new directions from which they may not have otherwise been able to. 

Edited June 3 by adam436

[nenehcherry2]

Thanks Adam, that was super insightful!

[James Martin]

Part of the show's charm in the 2000's was when there was a major life event, people you would expect from history to be there were there; mostly for weddings but for funerals also.

Sally's second stabbing saw Pippa fly in, which you'd expect to happen in real life.  Jade made that weird brief return when Kirsty was sick, as did Shelley who also came back for Twingate.  Diana and James came back when Chloe died.  Celia came back for Roo's 2013 wedding.  Will (or was it Nick?) came back for Hayley's wedding I seem to recall.

But it was much more commonplace than it is now.  In British soaps it never really happened, although amazingly ITV managed to coax Sheila Mercier to reprise Annie Sugden in her late 80s when Jack Sugden had an onscreen funeral after an offscreen death caused by the passing of the actor.

What I particularly disliked is the way Morag went unresolved when Cornelia died.  I felt they did Cornelia an injustice by not paying an appropriate in-universe tribute by having Morag die offscreen then having an onscreen funeral in the Bay.

[adam436]

1 hour ago, James Martin said:

Sally's second stabbing saw Pippa fly in, which you'd expect to happen in real life.  Jade made that weird brief return when Kirsty was sick, as did Shelley who also came back for Twingate.  Diana and James came back when Chloe died.  Celia came back for Roo's 2013 wedding.  Will (or was it Nick?) came back for Hayley's wedding I seem to recall.

Definitely Will, he came back for both Hayley's wedding - the non-wedding to Kim and her actual wedding to Noah. I think the early 2000s was also feeding off the success of the Early Years reruns on Channel 7. 

We had the big nostalgia fests for Sally's wedding, Summer Bay's bicentenary and Alf's 60th birthday, plus sporadic appearances from characters like Lance and Morag throughout the 2000s. Carly also returned when Sally had a hysterectomy (perhaps Debra unavailable with Blue Heelers?). 

We also don't see many returns now because there aren't that many mainstay characters and those do don't really have close connections. Marilyn wasn't particularly close to any characters in her previous stints that are likely to return for a major event, John is a relatively new character in the grand scheme of things, Leah's brother Alex wasn't really that iconic or memorable as a character to warrant a return and Alf's family would all be aging at this point except for Dunca.

Irene's family is the bugbear for me - I accept that Matt Doran and Tina Thomsen might not want to return, but I feel like if the producers can recast an iconic character like Roo, then Damien and Finn shouldn't be off limits.