Which characters were axed?

[jodlebirger]

On 6. august 2016 at 8:22 PM, cadyctslover said:

Martha and Hugo were probably axed, due to Jodi's sour relationship with Network 7 and Bernard's involvement in the unpopular people smuggling storyline.

Elijiah was definitely axed. For a character I actually really liked during his original stint in 2010, they made a real mess of his return in 2011. They were clearly relying on his eventual pairing with Leah, because when the producers realised the idea made everyone's skin crawl he was immediately written out. Jay Laga'aia publicly accused the show (and Network 7) of neglecting ethnic diversity on Home and Away (he is right about that), but I strongly suspect he was in fact axed because the character was not sustainable.

Gina never seemed to have much of a fan following, and her exit facilitated the relationship between John and Marilyn.

Spencer Harrington.

Jessica Grace Smith pretty much admitted that it wasn't her choice to leave the show.

I would be very surprised if Oscar, Hannah, Skye and Wayne, and Greg Snelgrove were not all axed.

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Josh and Andy, Chris Harrington

 

Gina wasn't axed. Remember clearly that Sonia Todd wanted to leave to do other acting stuff. And she was on "Janet King" which was aired in Australia in early 2014, and most likely filmed in 2013. It was probably a planned departure and they build up the romance with John and Marilyn.

It was first said she was axed, then she said she wanted to go.... But it was probably the best for both parts because of the situation, no matter who came up with the idea first. 

Sid Walker was axed. Robert Mammone claimed it was because he was critical to the storylines and tried to change them. 

About Jay Laga'aia... he accused channel 7 for neglecting ethnic diversity on Home and away and to explore storylines like that. And the channel said that wasn't true because they have had several people with different ethnicity on the show. But I understood that Mr. Laga'aia meant the characters storylines, and the lack of storylines about cultural differences. But I think that Mr. Laga'aia missed the point, because I don't think ethnicity had anything to do with it, but more that they aren't that willing to really give characters over 40 good storylines and development. Just like they are favour just one type of the younger characters, the hunks and not give others the same opportunity. He wasn't the right type for love triangles or for the bombs and big blows, and then they wrote him out. And I actually think they wrote Spencer Harrington/Andrew Morley and Liam Murphy/Axle Whitehead out for the same reason, even he is young. 

Probably was Skye, Tank/Wayne and Mr. Snelgrove axed just to give room for the Morgans. Probably marks the shift from focus of the teens to focus on the twenty's group again I am afraid. 

 

[CaptainHulk]

Chris had personality. Spencer was only really  a two trick pony , tbh. (Get mad, Lust after Maddy)

[Red Ranger 1]

6 hours ago, adam436 said:

I haven't seen the full article/interview, but is it possible that Philippa meant the actors knew who was going to die in the explosion or who killed Charlotte because there were 7 actors leaving the show, so it could have literally been any one of them? Oscar, Hannah and even a few of the others being axed would fit in with the "massacre" rumours that emerged late last year though.

If any of those 7 were axed, there are certainly others I would have gone for over them (e.g. Phoebe, Kat, Ash, Nate). I guess that's always the case when a character is axed though - there is always going to be someone who will say "I would have axed this person over that person" and so on.

I don't have the magazine anymore but I seem to remember she said Jake Speer rang her to tell her he'd been called into the office and told his character was going to be killed off and that she was upset to find out he was leaving.She also said she'd thought Kyle was going to be the killer because they all knew he was leaving, suggesting they didn't think anyone else was.She said she had to film little bits that she was told to play as if Evie was the killer which didn't get used.(Presumably equivalents of the bit where Matt's being accused and Josh's reaction shot pretty much screams "He did it!"

5 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Spencer was only really  a two trick pony , tbh. (Get mad, Lust after Maddy)

Or Sasha.Or Evelyn.(To be honest, breaking him and Maddy up was pretty much the beginning of the end for his character, they struggled to find a role for him after that.)

[Luke39]

2 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

I don't have the magazine anymore but I seem to remember she said Jake Speer rang her to tell her he'd been called into the office and told his character was going to be killed off and that she was upset to find out he was leaving.She also said she'd thought Kyle was going to be the killer because they all knew he was leaving, suggesting they didn't think anyone else was.She said she had to film little bits that she was told to play as if Evie was the killer which didn't get used.(Presumably equivalents of the bit where Matt's being accused and Josh's reaction shot pretty much screams "He did it!"

Or Sasha.Or Evelyn.(To be honest, breaking him and Maddy up was pretty much the beginning of the end for his character, they struggled to find a role for him after that.)

TBF you could say the same about Maddy. Seeing their sole purpose comng to H and A, was to be together. 

[jodlebirger]

9 hours ago, Luke39 said:

TBF you could say the same about Maddy. Seeing their sole purpose comng to H and A, was to be together. 

could be said about all the characters, actually except from Irene and Alf. All they do is getting together and breaking up.....

I do not agree that Maddy and Spencer should have stayed together, so he could have had more storylines. There were a lot other things to do with him. We need more focus on the characters as individuals. 

Spencer had a lot they could have explored more, for example his mental health, his relationship with his parents and his brother. He had a lot of personality there were a dark and sad side to him which could have given storylines; he seemed so lost in a way. He had more potential than Maddy for example, but they seemed to think that the wasn't cool enough so they dropped giving him storylines. The same goes for Oscar, it seem like the characters which have something else they could dig into, aren't the writers interest anymore. Maybe it is too challenging to write something else than love and triangles. 

 

[Red Ranger 1]

They did manage to write Maddy better once they'd split up, probably because they continued to build on the foundations that were there: She still had the bond with Roo which was always a big part of her character and the surrogate grandfather relationship with Alf. With Spencer, they seemed to just take away everything and replace it with substitutes that weren't as good: He broke up with Maddy and was suddenly meant to be in love with Sasha but from the comments on here no-one ever quite believed it, all the work on building up links with Alf, Harvey and Roo was thrown out in favour of having him move in with Irene for no real reason and he never really bonded with her... Yes, Spencer could have worked apart from Maddy but...he didn't really, and the few things they gave him, like his left field bipolar and his blink-and-you'll-miss-it internet predator storyline, felt like desperation to use a character they'd lost their grip on.

[cadyctslover]

13 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

She also said she'd thought Kyle was going to be the killer because they all knew he was leaving, suggesting they didn't think anyone else was.

What? The writers actually planned Kyle's exit storyline? It didn't seem like it!

[Ludub]

41 minutes ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

With Spencer, they seemed to just take away everything and replace it with substitutes that weren't as good: He broke up with Maddy and was suddenly meant to be in love with Sasha but from the comments on here no-one ever quite believed it, all the work on building up links with Alf, Harvey and Roo was thrown out in favour of having him move in with Irene for no real reason and he never really bonded with her... Yes, Spencer could have worked apart from Maddy but...he didn't really, and the few things they gave him, like his left field bipolar and his blink-and-you'll-miss-it internet predator storyline, felt like desperation to use a character they'd lost their grip on.

That's a pretty perfect analysis of the situation!  Spencer certainly got the raw end of the deal in his breakup with Maddy. He just ended up floating about there aimlessly in a very bland way. They really didn't know what to do with him so all of his storylines seemed very cobbled together, rushed, and ill thought out. There was absolutely no sense of any real character development for him. I think he probably could have done a much better job if he'd been given some better storylines. He did do an okay job with the internet predator storyline for all of the two or three minutes that it lasted!  That was yet another wasted opportunity! I think the writers often fail to properly explore potentially interesting plots in favour of too many sensational crime-focused ones. (But I don't think that I'm saying anything particularly new or original here. From the comments on this forum, it's clear that a lot of people feel that way). Spencer's bi-polar was handled incredibly poorly which is such a pity because it could have been a very powerful (and important) storyline for all involved. Much like Oscar's eating disorder and panic attacks, Josh's blindness, and Maddy's amputation, they just drop the most interesting stories all of a sudden (and for no good reason) mainly because health and mental health issues have to be resolved immediately or the person shipped off elsewhere. No-one can be ill or disabled in any way (or imperfect physically) for very long in Summer Bay. Get better or get out, in other words! It kind of just felt like they stuck him in random storylines here and there to fill his quota of episodes and then just left his character limping along until the end of his contract. They do that with a lot of characters unfortunately.

[Sunny Girl]

2 hours ago, Ludub said:

That's a pretty perfect analysis of the situation!  Spencer's bi-polar was handled incredibly poorly which is such a pity because it could have been a very powerful (and important) storyline for all involved. Much like Oscar's eating disorder and panic attacks, Josh's blindness, and Maddy's amputation, they just drop the most interesting stories all of a sudden (and for no good reason) mainly because health and mental health issues have to be resolved immediately or the person shipped off elsewhere.

 

No-one can be ill or disabled in any way (or imperfect physically) for very long in Summer Bay. Get better, or get out in other words!!

Yes!! This puts me in mind of the letter I wrote to the producers years ago now - Asking why there was no representation of anyone in Summer Bay having any sort of longstanding handicap.

I remember this was around the time that Mikey Dunn having autism was being explored on the show.

I never heard back from the producers - Though when I heard that they were exploring bipolar, I was quietly impressed.

It is a real shame they dropped the ball.

 

I apologise - This sounds like it went a bit off topic and may have been more suited to the Producers thread that we have ..

[CaptainHulk]

I actually cheered Spence when he belted that old perv (Never forget that bloodstain on the carpet! ).  And those times he socked Matt (who in all honesty deserved it)

Mikey was only ever meant to be a guest player. This had been the first time since Nico that they'd dealt with Autism on the show.