The Macklin Corporation - Peak 1989 or a wasted opportunity?

[Stewarts Point]

Smackings of Martin's mullet and Dallas/Dynasty/Howard's Way yuppies descended on 1989 Summer Bay. Yet by 1990 it was as if it had never happened. 

Wouldn't the employer been useful as an ongoing post school employer? Couldn't the reality of business been better portrayed as a 'nasty capitalists give nice Tom a stroke, dump waste, slander, blackmail, behave as crooks'?

Was a part of 1990's problem that Macklins had departed? 

Did Macklins pose too much of a threat to the concept of Summer Bay in 1990 that it was best left burried?

 

 

 

 

[adam436]

I think there are several factors as to why it was dropped. 

The show was also trying to pivot to a "sexier" image by 1989/1990, so the Macklin Corporation didn't really fit in with that. Also, the corporate world seemed like a very 80s thing for soaps, so maybe they were trying to move with or ahead of the times by dropping it when they did. 

All the characters initially involved in it - Tom, Frank, Roo, Stacey - were all gone, so it made sense in a way to phase out that aspect too. Would the Macklin Corporation have been kept in the show had Roger Oakley not been written out?  Maybe - even we didn't really see it onscreen or only saw it when Tom had a work-based story. 

Another factor is that storylines were pretty much exhausted. You've listed everything the Macklin Corporation were involved in, so what else could they do? I've suggested before that Gordon Macklin could have been a full-time villain in the series (a JR Ewing/Mr Burns kind of figure), but now you've highlighted what they actually did, it would have got old pretty quickly. 

 

[cymbaline]

I agree that the Macklin Corporation didn't fit into 1990's Home and Away but I don't think they should've killed it off completely. It could've continued to operate in the background, occasionally coming back into the show when needed. And as Stewarts Point mentioned, it would've been a useful (and plausible) post-school employer. Because they narrowed the scope of Summer Bay so much, young school leavers weren't left with many options other than to get married, work in the diner or make curtains. Michael giving Shane a job as a handyman at the caravan park was a definite sign that they'd run out of ideas for potential employers. 

[adam436]

  On 15/03/2025 at 00:10, cymbaline said:

Because they narrowed the scope of Summer Bay so much, young school leavers weren't left with many options other than to get married, work in the diner or make curtains. Michael giving Shane a job as a handyman at the caravan park was a definite sign that they'd run out of ideas for potential employers. 

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I guess it wasn't too much of an issue because most younger characters were generally either leaving whilst still at school, or pretty soon after. Chloe, Selina, Shannon, Sally, Carly, Shane and Angel, Bobby and later Will, Hayley, Dani, Gypsy stuck around for a long time with mixed outcomes. Bobby owned the diner (as opposed to just working there), Selina became a trainee nurse, Sally went to uni and eventually a teacher, who at least did something different. I honestly can't remember if the others did anything different to working at the diner.

Most of the other teens either left whilst still at school, or moving away for university straight after school was their exit story (Steven, Justine, Damien). 

[CaptainHulk]

  On 15/03/2025 at 00:10, cymbaline said:

I agree that the Macklin Corporation didn't fit into 1990's Home and Away but I don't think they should've killed it off completely. It could've continued to operate in the background, occasionally coming back into the show when needed. And as Stewarts Point mentioned, it would've been a useful (and plausible) post-school employer. Because they narrowed the scope of Summer Bay so much, young school leavers weren't left with many options other than to get married, work in the diner or make curtains. Michael giving Shane a job as a handyman at the caravan park was a definite sign that they'd run out of ideas for potential employers. 

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Yup. Roo bombed her HSC but still managed to end up working for the Macklins. 

[adam436]

  On 16/03/2025 at 09:59, CaptainHulk said:

Yup. Roo bombed her HSC but still managed to end up working for the Macklins. 

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I don't know who was responsible for the hiring decisions at Macklins (was it Tom or head office/Gordon?), but given Roo's history with both the Macklins and the Fletchers, it's an achievement to get a job there after failing the HSC as well  

[cymbaline]

Perhaps their memories were even shorter than the writers's 

[Sb boy]

Justine. Never went to uni I remember correctly. She. Got. A job as a childminder and had a long running storyline over whether she  had killed it and later. Got a. Job in the city as. An actresss in early 2000

[Homeandawayfan.]

I quite like the Macklin era for the show mid 1988 to late 1989, where they were huge supporting characters, and Gordon was the JR Ewing of the pack.

Of course their legacy has remained as Martha McKenzie is Brett Macklin's daughter, and I think Marilyn mentioned the Macklin Group a few years back.

[adam436]

  On 24/03/2025 at 15:08, Homeandawayfan. said:

I quite like the Macklin era for the show mid 1988 to late 1989, where they were huge supporting characters, and Gordon was the JR Ewing of the pack.

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Me too. Gordon could have worked long-term as a JR Ewing/Mr Burns/Paul Robinson type villain, with Stacey perhaps as his voice of reason/moral compass. But with the lack of creativity of the writers when it came to the Macklin Corporation, it may have been best to rest it when they did. I also quite liked Brett too - he was better eye candy (for me anyway!) than most of the regular males in the 80s