20somethings of the early years

[nenehcherry2]

16 minutes ago, adam436 said:

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.

I'm only quoting what Mat said. I agree that Emma/Adam didn't have that vibe whatsoever. Andrew Howie had been impressed with his work on Neighbours and bought him into H&A as soon as Alex Papps' departure left a void and they'd been determined to find the right role for Dannii ever since she'd failed the audition for Marilyn's role. It's interesting that they weren't paired together instantly but Carly and Adam's very confusingly written breakup does happen rather quickly (before you know it, Adam and Emma are an item, then along comes Ben). Clearly Adam/Carly were filler until both Dannii and Julian were on the books. 

The storyline with Paul was likely written when they knew that Dannii would be leaving. According to her autobiography, she gave them heaps of notice. 

Adam was never quite the same once he broke up with Maz. We had seen hints of his wheeler dealer side even before Martin left but, once 91 came along, he literally does nothing but annoy the residents with schemes (well, until the Bobby storyline). Before then, at least he had the odd romance as well and was written as a spunk who most of the younger females fancied the undies off. The post-91 twenties female characters like Loo and Roxy seem to perceive him as a bit of a creep and the teenage girls (e.g. Fin, Angel and Sarah) weren't exactly crushing on him. 

Edited Sunday at 21:54 by nenehcherry2

[adam436]

6 minutes ago, nenehcherry2 said:

According to her autobiography, she gave them heaps of notice. 

That must have been a disappointment to the producers, since she was only around for a year all up. 

Adam was a character I never really liked. I feel like he was brought in as a "sexier" and smarter Martin, with Matt as his sidekick, filling the Lance role. The show was moving to increase it's sex appeal I think, with more beach scenes (and therefore more bikini and speedos) and older characters like Floss, Neville, Celia, Morag and Tom being written out and replaced with more youngsters.

This meant both Lance and Martin became surplus to requirements. Even Marilyn migrated over to Adam and Matt eventually, completing the transition. I much preferred Martin over Adam, but he and Lance were caricatures at times.

[cymbaline]

Adam is a character who well and truly outstayed his usefulness. It wouldn't surprise me if Mat Stevenson has regrets about how long he stayed. When they gave him something different to do, he was excellent. I'm thinking of when Karen caused David Croft's death or when he had to deal with the aftermath of Bobby dying. Then, you could see that there was a decent actor lurking underneath. As far as I know, Mat went off and got a proper job after this though he has continued to act intermittently. 

 

[nenehcherry2]

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

Adam is a character who well and truly outstayed his usefulness. It wouldn't surprise me if Mat Stevenson has regrets about how long he stayed. When they gave him something different to do, he was excellent. I'm thinking of when Karen caused David Croft's death or when he had to deal with the aftermath of Bobby dying. Then, you could see that there was a decent actor lurking underneath. As far as I know, Mat went off and got a proper job after this though he has continued to act intermittently. 

 

Completely agree! Mat is a fine actor but was wasted on this 1.5 dimensional character. 

Adam was initially a very regular boy next door character who transformed into an annoyance just before Marty left (you could count that storyline with them dressing as Maz and Lance in the car as the "passing the baton" moment). As you said, there'd be moments (like when he helped Karen) where we would see those hidden dimensions but they became less explored over time (until the boat accident). 

I feel like quite a few of the actors who joined as twentysomethings were great, polished, academically trained actors (I'd put John Adam, Bruce Roberts, Ross Newton, Dee Smart and Alistair MacDougall in that camp, all had graduated from Uni with drama degrees) but they were given such shoddy characters to play. Versus the more "raw", fresh out of (or, in some cases, still in) high school talents of the kids who joined the show as teens (Sharyn, Alex, Nicolle, Rebekah, Dieter, etc). There's a difference in the style of delivery between the two types. 

Emily and Mat (like Isla years later) were somewhere between the two extremes in that they'd acted in soaps before joining the show but had no academic drama training. 

And then you had the former models with zero previous acting experience (bar commercials) alas Lisa Lackey, Julian MacMahon and Greg Benson. This showed in their performances. 

Edited Monday at 00:07 by nenehcherry2

[cymbaline]

It looks like the original plan was for Luke and Roxanne to be a hot, sexeeee couple. Their two appearances in the opening credits tells a story all of its own  Roxy and Lucinda are interchangeable in my mind. Both were fiesty, dark-haired ladies who treated the (gorgeous) men in their lives badly and just couldn't be happy. 

 

 

Even though Shane and Angel were teenagers, the writers turned them into middle-aged people as soon as they conjured Dylan up. They leapfrogged the early twentysomething years and might as well have been 30 or 40 by the time Shane was killed off. Those were grim years for anybody who wasn't a teenager or an actual middle-aged person.

[nenehcherry2]

23 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

It looks like the original plan was for Luke and Roxanne to be a hot, sexeeee couple. Their two appearances in the opening credits tells a story all of its own  Roxy and Lucinda are interchangeable in my mind. Both were fiesty, dark-haired ladies who treated the (gorgeous) men in their lives badly and just couldn't be happy. 

 

 

Even though Shane and Angel were teenagers, the writers turned them into middle-aged people as soon as they conjured Dylan up. They leapfrogged the early twentysomething years and might as well have been 30 or 40 by the time Shane was killed off. Those were grim years for anybody who wasn't a teenager or an actual middle-aged person.

Haha at the Loxy (or is it Ruke?) credits shots! 

What benefit did Angel getting custody of Dylan really bring to Shangel's storylines? He wasn't old enough to have a more meaningful role alas Sally and Sam did in their initial years; other than the custody case itself and then his childhood leukaemia (a good a story as that was), did he really add any value? 

Edited Monday at 23:46 by nenehcherry2

[adam436]

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

Roxy and Lucinda are interchangeable in my mind. Both were fiesty, dark-haired ladies who treated the (gorgeous) men in their lives badly and just couldn't be happy. 

Other than the Fisher connection, they pretty much were. I'm surprised Roxy pick up with Nick where Lucinda left, since Nick did next to nothing for the remainder of his time on the show. 

 

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

Even though Shane and Angel were teenagers, the writers turned them into middle-aged people as soon as they conjured Dylan up. They leapfrogged the early twentysomething years and might as well have been 30 or 40 by the time Shane was killed off. Those were grim years for anybody who wasn't a teenager or an actual middle-aged person.

1993-1994 was generally poor with twentysomethings. Nick was pretty forgettable, Adam had overstayed his welcome, Roxy and Luke weren't great characters. It felt like Bobby and Greg had been "aged" up too once they'd formed the family unit with Sam. Marilyn, Ryan and Lucinda had all left the previous year too.