When did H&A become more dark?.

[adam436]

On 2/22/2018 at 01:37, Homeandawayfan. said:

Yes the fostering element was long gone by the time the Braxtons arrived in 2011. I think when the Sutherland family arrived the fostering aspect was greatly reduced.

It's came back in dribs and drabs though: 

• Roo and Harvey took in Spencer and Maddie
• Leah took in Matt
• John and Gina/Marilyn had Jett and more recently, Raffy
• Irene has had a few waifs and strays too like Olivia, Sasha and April
• Zac and Leah also essentially became guardians of Oscar and Evie too, but I can't remember at what point that happened

I remember when Leah and Zac moved into Summer Bay House, I thought they might have actually been trying to subtly bring the show back to its roots. For the first time in years, we had a large family at Summer Bay House: Zac, Leah, VJ, Hunter, Evie, Oscar and Matt. Then within 6 months, they'd basically all gone except for VJ.

[Bri1231]

Do you think the show would rate so well and not have been shoved to a different channel like seven two by now though if is stayed like the early 90s and well within its roots. I don't watch Neighbours but have seen the odd episode here or there and it looks exactly as it did back in the 90s if you know what I mean and was dumped to a digital channel. Home and Away knows its target audience and as the world has gotten more dark so Home and Away has moved with that. 

[Gerard]

I think the show's popularity has a lot to do with the channel it's on and the timeslot. Neighbours, like H&A has strayed far from its classic formula (though maybe not quite so dramatically). Neighbours always seems to come back more or less to its core family values though.

H&A went very far off course with Brax and the River Boys, but with focus back on the older characters and also bringing in a fairly regular family with the Astonis, it feels closer to how it should be. There is always high drama lurking in the background though, mainly from Ash's universe.

I get the feeling TPTB are trying to keep both the old school fans and the fans of the Rver Boy era happy. It's like mixing oil and water though.

13 hours ago, adam436 said:

It's came back in dribs and drabs though: 

• Roo and Harvey took in Spencer and Maddie
• Leah took in Matt
• John and Gina/Marilyn had Jett and more recently, Raffy
• Irene has had a few waifs and strays too like Olivia, Sasha and April
• Zac and Leah also essentially became guardians of Oscar and Evie too, but I can't remember at what point that happened

I remember when Leah and Zac moved into Summer Bay House, I thought they might have actually been trying to subtly bring the show back to its roots. For the first time in years, we had a large family at Summer Bay House: Zac, Leah, VJ, Hunter, Evie, Oscar and Matt. Then within 6 months, they'd basically all gone except for VJ.

I really thought there were getting back to the classic feel of H&A when they filled up Summer Bay House. I hadn't realised it had fallen apart again so quickly. I also thought it was odd how they tried to "associate" the Caravan Park explosion with the classic days of Tom and Pippa.

I did prefer it back in the old days when for example Alf and Ailsa fostered Blake and Karen, and Donald fostered Viv. There was a lot more structure and organization, mention of DOCS, FACS etc. focus on turning slightly wayward teens' lives around etc. It was a gift of a scanario to keep a steady stream of young characters in the series. They still have the theme to a certain extent, but it feels watered down and casual. A lot of the earlier drama was about focusing on the younger characters' past history and how it related to their behaviour now, and how becoming part of a family helped set them back on the right course, most of the time.

Now it's just police station, hospital, seige, fight, gun crime, drugs, family drama, forbidden love affair, police station... etc.

[Homeandawayfan.]

Corrie, EastEnders and Home And Away all started off as quite tough and modern but warm as well, and you felt like you had moved in with the Barlows, Fowlers/Beales, Fletchers etc. All 3 soaps dealt with death, drugs, etc. In 1988 EE and H&A featured a rape storyline. I think though in 1988, 30 years ago, the 3 shows were much more realistic than today.

[Gerard]

28 minutes ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

In 1988 EE and H&A featured a rape storyline. I think though in 1988, 30 years ago, the 3 shows were much more realistic than today.

I recall in 1989 (when Carly's rape aired in the UK) seeing it mentioned in a newspaper article. No doubt the controversy helped boost H&A's popularity back then. (In later years, such a storyline would never have seen the light of day on ITV. e.g. Chloe in 1996). Actually, the 1996 Finale is one of the most dramatic dark episodes, cut to ribbons by ITV, but was a world away from what goes on now.

[Bri1231]

I always remember that 1996 season finale. Such a mess on ITV but aired on RTE Ireland fully uncut. It was a very dark finale for that time and as I was so young, 16 at the time it was a big thing for me. 

[Gerard]

I used to watch H&A on RTE during the 1990's. They aired it about 4 months ahead of ITV (though ITV caught up in the end), and RTE continued to air it duing the haitus of the move to C5. But best of all, it wasn't censored. It was amazing comparing the cut and full versions. The bits ITV cut were of course the most dramatic bits.

The 1996 finale sequence, which if I remember correctly cut between the Summer Bay residents singing Silent Night and a terrifying chase sequence through the animal traps. Brad had set the traps, and Chloe tried to escape once she realised he had raped her. Then at the end, in the final scene of the Finale, Chloe belted Brad with a tyre iron or steering lock in (at the time at least) one of the most dramatic sequences ever. Sadly ITV viewers never got to see it... and I don't think we have seen anything anywhere near that quality in recent years.

H&A was so good back then!

[Homeandawayfan.]

4 hours ago, Gerard said:

I recall in 1989 (when Carly's rape aired in the UK) seeing it mentioned in a newspaper article. No doubt the controversy helped boost H&A's popularity back then. (In later years, such a storyline would never have seen the light of day on ITV. e.g. Chloe in 1996). Actually, the 1996 Finale is one of the most dramatic dark episodes, cut to ribbons by ITV, but was a world away from what goes on now.

Yes I remember when H&A was immensely popular back in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK. It was ITV's second soap after Corrie. It took over the slot left by Crossroads. Yes, somehow ITV managed to stop dark scenes being aired in the UK on H&A.

[Gerard]

1 hour ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

Yes I remember when H&A was immensely popular back in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK. It was ITV's second soap after Corrie. It took over the slot left by Crossroads. Yes, somehow ITV managed to stop dark scenes being aired in the UK on H&A.

H&A was hugely popular in the late 80's and early 90's on ITV. It gave the (then) immensely popular Neighbours a run for its money in the ratings. I remember it originally aired at 5:10 in the evening, then during school holidays they put on a repeat of it during Children's ITV, and brought on some guests (I remember they interviewed Roger Oakley - Tom). You can see at that point, ITV regarded it as a young person's show. But it was grittier than the usually family-friendly Neighbours at the time. I am not sure what the pinnacle of H&A's popularity was, but I remember a lot of good things being said about the series in 1992 when the heartbreaking storyline of Meg Bowman aired. (H&A obviously drew inspiration from this when Billie died, not so long ago, but the original storyline was much better I think).

I can't remember exactly when ITV started aggressively censoring H&A. It may have been around 1993, which I think was also the time when they snipped the closing credits down to a few seconds. The censoring and shortened credits really devalued the series. If modern H&A was still airing on ITV now, only about 50% of it would see the light of day

[pembie]

Its always has been pretty dark but I enjoy that