20somethings of the early years

[adam436]

The current H&A is predominantly 20somethings and 30somethings, but the early years was completely opposite, with them being almost the most underrepresented age group. In fact, they were almost entirely absent from 1988. There was Lance, Martin and 18 year old Frank, but otherwise that group was entirely recurring guest characters like Phillip, Stacey and Brett. 

Given how scarce that group were in the 80s and 90s, we tended to get more rounded characters and better storylines, but I still feel it was a mixed bag. Who were your favourites and who do you think didn't work out so well? I guess given the teenage focus, many of them were teachers at the school, but many seemed difficult to write for at times - Lance and Martin got repetitive, Nick was underused, others like Rob and Luke didn't last long.

Some of my favourites: 

• Steven's second stint 
• Travis and Rebecca - they were given the responsibility of Summer Bay House later on though, rather than the standard 20something storylines other characters like Kelly, Donna, Shauna etc. got. 
• Stacey Macklin - around for over a year, so pretty much an unofficial regular. She was a fun early years character who seemed to move between the older and younger characters relatively seamlessly. 
• Marilyn's second stint - she was probably lumped more with the senior cast moreso than her peers though
• Donna and Rob - I loved both their characters, but both were gone way too soon. Donna in particular, made a big impact in a short amount of time. 

Not so successful: 

• Nick Parrish - completely underused as character and generally pretty bland 
• Ben Lucini - terrible character

[Homeandawayfan.]

Yes for someone who only appeared for about 8 months, Donna Bishop was quite a prominent character, and the domestic abuse storyline was good. Also Rob crossing swords with Andrew Warren over the abuse. Donna also had grown up in The Bay so likely knew Alison Patterson, Judith Staples, Bobby, Carley etc and went to school with them. Nicola Quilter left H&A to concentrate on a singing career I think.

Edited Friday at 15:51 by Homeandawayfan.

[adam436]

Donna could do lighter stuff like the country music competition too with Irene, and her role at the school and initially living with the Rosses meant she tended to interact with a wider range of characters. As opposed to someone like Travis, who was initially limited to his fellow twenty-something and incidental interactions at the diner. Donna's exit felt quite sudden too - they'd started the story with her brother and then wrapped it up rather quickly only for her to have a blink-and-miss-it exit.

I think the writers got better and working with these characters in the mid-late 90s. It could be because the show took on a darker tone in 1995, meaning the writers could do more with that age group (i.e. Donna's abuse, Chloe's rape), or maybe those characters tended to just resonate more with the writers.  The early 90s had characters like Nick, Lucinda, Roxy, Luke, Grant, a post-high school Carly and Matt. None of them had particularly memorable storylines. Or characters like Marilyn, Lance, Martin and Adam (up to killing Bobby), who were generally used for more comic relief stuff. 

 

[joany208121]

I think they struggled with making the characters is 3D characters in the early 90s, and not just a "a cop" or "a teacher". Nick, Luke, Grant and Roxy were mainly cast as their occupation and on the flip side Lou and Ben were purely a vehicle for family dramas with limited connection to anyone outside of 2 -3 characters. This meant to an extent they only served one purpose or could work well with one age group of characters, limiting their storylines. When the show moved into the mid-late 90s with Travis, Stevo v2, Kelly and later Sally, Shauna, Harry and Vinnie we see these characters could have scenes with all ages and groupings of characters, whether it was socially or through their work. 

[Sb boy]

 The only characters  I ever cared about being 20 somethings were Martin dibble and Vinnie  come the late 90s to present  day the present day late 20 characters  were certainly. Written better  although  nowadays I could care less about the 20 somethings they force upon us I watch only for the older characters nowadays especially. Alf and maz 

[adam436]

17 hours ago, joany208121 said:

I think they struggled with making the characters is 3D characters in the early 90s, and not just a "a cop" or "a teacher". Nick, Luke, Grant and Roxy were mainly cast as their occupation and on the flip side Lou and Ben were purely a vehicle for family dramas with limited connection to anyone outside of 2 -3 characters. 

Those characters continued to be created though - I think there were just fewer of them. Charlotte Adams, Jude Lawson and James Fraser all fall into that category. Charlotte rarely interacted with anyone outside of their fellow twentysomethings unless it was a medical emergency. Jude was the same, but least had Noah around, which gave him a little more. And James was just there as Chloe's love interest and nothing more. 

I think the show struggled to write for that age group in the early 90s because the majority of the cast were either teenagers or the foster parent of a teenagers, and the writers didn't really see much of a vision beyond that. That's probably why we ended up with so many teachers in that age group. Or in Nick's case, a younger brother was introduced for him. Roxy and Lou also had family connections too, presumably to make them more relevant. 

  

17 hours ago, joany208121 said:

When the show moved into the mid-late 90s with Travis, Stevo v2, Kelly and later Sally, Shauna, Harry and Vinnie we see these characters could have scenes with all ages and groupings of characters, whether it was socially or through their work. 

I'd agree with that and also add Rebecca, Jesse v1, Rob and Donna to the list. I think creating more well-rounded characters was part of the overall shift that occurred in the writing/tone of the show in the mid 90s. 

[nenehcherry2]

Agree with all points made. I've always seen any character between the ages of high school and earliest 30s as in the "20s" group. 

With regards to the pre-95 twenty something characters, I think it hit an all time low from late 92 / early 93 onwards... Suddenly, most of them were firmly in "junior parent" roles to the teens and never in conflict with the middle aged characters - which made them seem a bit too perfect: Nick (who'd previously had little to do with the teens other than arresting them the odd time!) was suddenly Shane's guardian (with little else going on), Roxy was suddenly a teacher (as happened with Rob further down the line), Luke came in as a teacher and, by the start of 93, the only thing which Bobby seemed to live for was housing the Bay's latest strays. And (Greg and Adam aside) none of them were in conflict with their middle aged employers or line managers (except for Luke/Don for about 2 episodes!). So they seemed to essentially all be mini parents before their time and, if anything, younger & sexier reinforcements for the oldies.

Pre-93: Marilyn was constantly sulking with Alf, Greg was pissing Michael off with second jobs, we rarely actually saw Loo teach and she had a bit of conflict with teen Sophie. And Bobby still acted 20 something when the storyline called for it until Maz left (albeit, still seemed a bit older than her actual age).

In fact, Greg seemed to be the only age appropriate 20something around come 93 (well, in any episode he was in which didn't feature Sam) with his reluctance to have Sarah or Tug living with him or awkwardness about the prospect of being the new soccer coach. And Adam just seemed downright creepy by the time the 93 gang arrived. 

Ben and Greg had some similarities, I think (although Ben was emotionally abusing Carly); both were bought in purely to marry the "outgrowing" Carly and Bobby and both also had some conflict with Michael as their boss (which put Pippa in a difficult position). 

What I liked about the 88-90 era twentysomethings was a bit more of a spread in age. So you had Frank, Lance and Martin (then Adam & Maz) at one end, aged about 19/20 (soon joined by Bobby, Carly and Matt), Brett around the 22 mark, Stacey around 24/5, Philip 26/7 (Grant would later fill that void) and then Andrew Foley in his earliest 30s. By circa 91, all 20somethings seemed the same age (even if they may not have been). You also had some non-taboo "intergenerational" dating with the teens (most notably Adam and Emma), which would have been unthinkable come 91.

Edited Sunday at 19:49 by nenehcherry2

[Sb boy]

 Adam dating Emma who was a school girl wouldn’t be done in. Home and away  today. As the producers don’t really care who is with who  as long as it’s. Age appropriate. Looking at it now. Emma was about 16 or 17 in school and Adam was  an early 20 something seems weird  same thing seemed to  occur with Shannon and Alex and later Jesse and selina  I was quite  grossed out about Adam and Emma  looking back from a 2025 point of view.  I know it wasn’t. A big age gap but. Matt Stevens looked older than dani 

[nenehcherry2]

I think the gap was smaller than that... Emma was said to be 17 and I think Adam was only supposed to be about 19 or 20 (although his age was never directly confirmed).

The actors are only 2.5 years apart in age. 

Whereas Sophie/David were 9-10 years apart and Shannon/Alex about 7. 

PS Mat Stevenson said in a recent interview that Andrew Howie had bought Adam and Emma in to the show to be Home and Away's answer to Scott and Charlene but Dannii's music career took off, meaning that she left much earlier than expected. 

Edited Sunday at 21:23 by nenehcherry2

[adam436]

10 minutes ago, nenehcherry2 said:

Mat Stevenson said in a recent interview that Andrew Howie had bought Adam and Emma in to the show to be Home and Away's answer to Scott and Charlene but Dannii's music career took off, meaning that she left much earlier than expected. 

They broke up long before that though - Emma dated Steven's friend Paul for a while before she left.

I really can't see the Scott and Charlene similarity to be honest, other than to maybe cash in on the Minogue connection. Frank and Bobby had more of that vibe in the early years in terms of the tomboy girl and the male heartthrob, but that ended pretty quickly due to Alex Papps leaving.

Another age gap romance between  a teen and young adult was Chloe and Lachie. Chloe was barely out of school and he was a fully qualified doctor.