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Posted
  On 18/04/2025 at 12:12, Sb boy said:

The Leah of 2000 and Leah of 2025 are almost like two different  people 

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To be fair, I guess you could argue that's natural character development - widowed twice, umpteen failed relationships and all the other tragedy she's experienced would change anyone.

But I agree. She's not the fun and bubbly character she was 25 years ago.

  • Like 1
Posted

While the original Diner and Alf's original house left in 2000, we still had what I see as the No 1 H&A location - Summer Bay House, and as of 2025 that still proudly stands. I feel Ailsa had run her course by 2000 and her exit was the right time. I think Judy Nunn was getting tired of playing the role. Ailsa would have know Leah as Leah arrived months before Ailsa died.

Posted (edited)
  On 27/04/2025 at 12:48, Homeandawayfan. said:

I feel Ailsa had run her course by 2000 and her exit was the right time. I think Judy Nunn was getting tired of playing the role.

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It's hard to see how Ailsa would have fitted into the post 2000 years, especially with Shauna and Duncan exiting relatively quickly after her death. The older characters (Alf, Fisher, Irene, Colleen) were largely sidelined in the early 2000s, so it's likely Ailsa would have been too had she stuck around.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mutual decision between Judy and the producers, especially as the show was clearly heading into a new era at the time. Judy has said many times she was getting bored of the role and claimed she was writing her novels on the back on scripts, so if that was obvious to the producers, I wouldn't be surprised if the producers didn't put up much of a fight to persuade her to stay.

Ironically, Judy left because she was getting bored of the role yet the late 90s were probably some of Ailsa's biggest years on the show. The Shauna reveal, the car accident and paranoia about Alf wanting her dead, dealing with teenage Duncan, PTSD after the diner siege leading to her almost shooting Alf, getting caught in the mudslide, the story with her estranged brother etc. This came after spending most of the early 90s serving at the diner or being a supporting character in her foster children's stories. 

Edited by adam436
  • Like 1
Posted

Do wonder how they would done   with Duncan exit differently as there no way Duncan could be written out to live with Morag if Ailsa was still around so ether I say Duncan be recast again or sent off too join army or boarding school or something as his behaviour getting so bad. 
 

Probably would suited Judy better when her character was more sidelined but do think Judy interest was now in writing then acting and given she never acted since leaving other when she return as ghost I think it’s safe to say Judy was bored with acting. 

Also too Judy Nunn had health scare in 2000 so maybe that play part in her decision to leave .

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted
  On 16/05/2025 at 12:23, Homeandawayfan. said:

I feel the 2000 revamp was something the show needed to a big degree.

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I definitely wouldn't say to a big degree, but there was certainly room for improvement. A cast clear-out was definitely needed in late 1999/2000 though - Chloe and Jesse had well and truly run out of steam, Justine would have become directionless post-school as others did before her and James, Tom, Judith and Harry were all pretty dull. There were some unfortunate casualties though like Joel, Natalie, Peta and Edward (his story meant he'd never become a long-termer anyway!), but overall, the cast clear-out was for the better. I guess I just feel that they went a little too far with it, especially when you take into account the other changes and the the fact that the newcomers were a bit of a mixed bag. 

The Diner revamp from the late 90s was actually quite the eyesore and became very dated very quickly, so that needed a refresh if the producers wanted to modernise the show, and I imagine the Stewart house set may have been difficult to film in because it wasn't an open-plan set in the same was the Caravan Park living area was 

Storyline-wise, I really enjoyed 1998-mid 2000. Not every storyline was great (I was really bored of Lachie/Chloe/James), but it was definitely a more engaging period than the early 90s and the 2000s. 

 

  On 16/05/2025 at 12:23, Homeandawayfan. said:

And it breezed into the new millennium with the Sutherland family and the drop in centre.

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I feel like the producers wanted to largely drop the fostering element in the early 2000s, so the drop-in centre felt like a compromise to introduce new stray teenagers as guest characters into the show (is that how Brodie Hanson came in?). Apart from Brodie Hanson, fostering was pretty much absent in the early 2000s - Alf didn't take anyone after Mitch left, the Smith children were pretty much Irene's step-kids after her relationship with Ken, Max was Rhys' nephew and Fisher's only new teenager was his grandson. It wasn't really until the likes of Tasha, Ric and Cassie came in that the idea was revisited again. 

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