cymbaline

Bobby's connection with Sam seemed to be far closer and more intense than any other foster parent/child relationship. He became the son she never had and the two of them had a profound effect on each other. She wasn't in Sam's life for a huge amount of time but he still spoke of her years later. He was the son she never had and she became the mum he'd always wanted. Maybe he filled the void in Bobby that had been left after losing her child and she never wanted to foster again. I wonder did the powers that be change track after they saw how Nicolle and Ryan worked together? There seems to have been a genuine affection between the two. Maybe they decided to bring in Greg and turn them into a nuclear family? Although Bobby didn't seem to ever look for another foster child, she had taken Tug under her wing before she died.

I've read that when they shoot historical films and TV shows in stately homes, the owners usually don't allow them to remove the paintings from the walls. To the people who know about these things, it jumps out at them as quickly as the Australian plugs.

You might have seen the other thread in this very forum talking about the lack of teens these days ? In answer to this question, my guess is that they prefer working with young adults. Teenagers by their nature bring more challenges to a set because they're still immature and not as worldly-wise as they think they are. It's possible they didn't want to be bothered breaking in more 15 and 16-year-olds with little acting experience. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the crew nicknamed Matt Doran and Dieter Brummer the "Overtime Boys" because the two lads were messing up their lines so much. If stories like this are true, you can understand why they'd rather hire older actors. Also, if they have older actors playing teenagers, it's easier to age them and give them adult storylines if they stay around for long enough.

Maybe they're languishing in Summer Bay limbo along with Debra Stewart, Kate Ross and other forgotten characters?

Bobby as a foster parent is another one. I think we forget how young Bobby still was when she got Sam because of how much she had packed into the previous 3 years on H&A, and because she seemed to be older than she was. Would they really give a 21/22 year old single woman a foster child? Especially when it was known that she had been a teenage tearaway, then had a short-lived marriage, then had lost her own child? That's a lot of baggage in a short space of time.

That's an interesting question and maybe one that's guided by our ages and when we started watching ? It's hard to see them getting rid of Vanessa, but equally I don't know what they'd do with Pippa now. Maybe it's a chicken and egg thing. There are no teens to live with Pippa because there's no Pippa around. She belongs to a gentler time and Irene is better suited to the edgier Home and Away. But as we know, Irene mightn't have been around for any of this if Pippa hadn't left.

Might it also have been too early in Home and Away's history for an overseas shoot? We've all heard the early actors saying they didn't expect it to last very long and that if they got a few months out of it, that'd be great. As well as that, how many other countries had they sold Home and Away to? The UK didn't begin airing it until 1989 by which time they'd long since filmed the honeymoon. That's true of a lot of TV shows when they film in a new location, isn't it? The camera crew really go to town in more ways than one, and you're left in no doubt that they're in London or New York or wherever. When they're just pretending to be abroad, all you see are hotel interiors with actors from the 'Allo 'Allo school of bad accents and big posters with "Welcome to Paris" on them.

Heather. The storyline was dreadful but if they wanted to create a secret daughter, they didn't have to re-write her history to the extent they did. Marilyn married in the early 90s, so surely they could've tied something into that. Or later on, something from the years after she split from Donald and pretended to be a barmaid on Emmerdale. We know the current powers have no respect for the first couple of decades of Home and Away's history but this was just sloppy. Was that really worth it in the end? Especially when she's not even on the show any more

We've seen plenty of silly storylines and they're fun. These aren't quite silly storylines but they're still a bit daft to my mind 1. Killing Bobby off, then writing Greg out within weeks. 2. Promoting Ken Smith to the opening credits, then killing him off before you could say "Watch that car!" 3. On that note, never promoting Andrew Foley, Stacey Macklin or Ryan Lee to the opening credits. Goodness knows all three were around for long enough. 4. That tiny sofa in Pippa's house. It was ridiculous in so many ways. 5. Fireplaces and heating stoves in some of the houses. If it's always sunny in Summer Bay why were they in the houses? I don't remember noticing fires lit in any of them.

I'd forgotten about Irene nearly getting the chop. Thank heavens that never happened because I think she has been a terrific character. If H&A was to have gone in some of the directions mentioned above, I don't think they'd have been great for Pippa. I couldn't see her with Alf, though it's fun to speculate on how that would've gone! I couldn't help but notice Debra Lawrance's reaction to a question about Ray Meagher when she was on the Talking Prisoner podcast. From what she didn't say, I got the impression there was no love lost between her and Ray. If she was feeling at all shaky about staying on Home and Away, that would've pushed her out the door. As for bringing in Ian permanently, they'd have had a big decision to make about casting. Patrick Dickson is mainly a theatre guy who had (has?) his own production company for years. Would he have jacked that in for the hectic filming schedule on Home and Away? Would they have recast Ian? Or sent him on his way and conjured up a new man. Would Pippa have become the new Leah in that regard? In 2023 I can't see any role at all for Pippa. Admittedly she has been gone for a long time but I can't see what they'd do with her. There are no teenagers any more, there is no school. What would she do? Work in Salt? Manage that godawful band? Come out of retirement and work as a nurse in the hospital?

As we all know, Pippa was a significant character for the first decade of Home and Away. It's hard to imagine what it would've been like without her for all sorts of reasons. But the consensus seems to be that by the time she left with Ian, she'd become jaded and the character a bit stale. If Debra Lawrance hadn't decided to leave of her own accord, does anybody think the powers that be might've axed her anyway? We know that TPTB were and are prepared to axe core cast members if their face doesn't fit. We don't know why Roger Oakley/Tom left but we know that Dennis Coard/Michael was axed. By the time they killed him off, they'd more or less run out of ideas for him. What was there left for him to do other than have an affair or scare a new batch of foster kids with his hotpants? Which brings us on to Pippa. Bumping Michael off gave the writers a good go at turning Pippa into a single mum and getting a job and all that stuff. But again, was she starting to run out of road? By her moving on, they were able to move younger people into Summer Bay House and give the place a more youthful shot.

It's classic Home and Away "yesterday's man" behaviour. The whole point of Dodge was for him to make waves for a while before getting his comeuppance. By the time they'd arrested him, he already had one foot in the bin and was about to go out with the trash. Knowing what little attention they pay to details, it's a minor miracle Dodge came back in 1995 with the correct name and face.

I'm pretty sure I read that Andrew Hill asked to leave because the filming schedule on Home and Away was interfering with his studies. It doesn't look like he left on bad terms, seeing as they brought him back twice over the next few years. His 1994 return was well done, though the romance with Fin felt a bit unnecessary. I guess that got tacked on because Andrew Hill and Tina Thomsen were a couple at the time. @nenehcherry2's point about the Michael/Haydn dynamic still stood in 1994 I thought. Michael still felt guilty about the sort of father he'd been over the years and desperately wanted to make things right between them. Interestingly they touched on the difference between parental love and foster parental love during this.

I'd have happily allowed him launch them into the middle of next week where they'd never be seen again. These days, would their perving on guests in the shower block be treated as a jolly jape and a fun storyline?

Because Martin was an idiotic jerk whose IQ was scarcely higher than Lance's? The only difference being, he thought he was smarter. Those sort of people are the most dangerous of all.

Ailsa was harbouring her dark secret which would've made her cautious about getting too close to the locals. She had also managed to get close enough to Donald Fisher to go out with him for a little while. Who knows? It's fun to speculate ?

I'd have to re-watch the old episodes to check but I got the impression Ailsa had been living in the area for a few years as well. I think a year would've been too quick for her to get settled in and get to know the locals, date Donald, then Alf. Bobby was a prickly thing so it would've taken time for her to build a rapport with her. It's hard to know how long she was going out with Alf but I don't think it was a new relationship. It was one that was going nowhere in particular, with Alf just taking her to the pub and keeping Roo out of the picture.

I couldn't find a thread for Haydn so I thought I'd start one for anybody who might remember him. He was one of the shorter lived teenagers in the main cast (October 1990-May 1991) and was one quarter of the Blake, Karen and Sophie group. He returned as a guest in 1994 and 1996. Even though he wasn't somebody you'd tag as a Bad Boy, he wasn't a good guy either. During his first run in 1990-1991 he evolved from being a spoiled brat to a nice enough teenage lad. His relationship with his father Michael was more complex and they managed to go from being estranged to being good mates to being estranged again. His return in 1994 was darker and had a lasting effect on his father's life. He had a gambling problem and lied to Michael about his plans to set up a surf shop. He stole the money Michael borrowed to get his imaginary business started. He eventually skipped town, struggling with his gambling. He resurfaced in 1996 for Michael's funeral. He seemingly had sorted his life out by now and had a fling with Marilyn (a nice lookback to 1991 when the pair of them seemed to fancy each other).

Thanks for that. She looks great in that photo and seems to be doing well for herself. I had never seen her in Home and Away until I rewatched the first season. In my opinion she was hard done by, and was written out too soon. There were weaker characters and actors in the cast. It's interesting that she never returned in the years afterwards. And that when Pippa mentioned her some years later, it was to say they were no longer in touch. They really drew a line under Lynn, didn't they?

I was a teenage girl at the time but for some reason I never fancied him. He looked and sounded older than he was, which was off-putting to me at the time ? In hindsight he was one of the more interesting young characters from the early years and could have moved nicely into young adulthood if he'd stayed. Unlike Shane who succeeded him as the bad boy hunk du jour, Blake never got consumed by a big romance or grew old before his time. He worked well as Haydn/Simon's sidekick and had a touching relationship with his sister Karen. It was fitting that when he left Summer Bay, it was to help Karen get back onto the straight and narrow. It's a pity that he's mainly remembered for that doomed romance with Meg but on the other hand, there are many characters who don't have a "Greatest hits" moment.

It wouldn't surprise me if they had, knowing how small the Australian acting industry is. But even if they did, or were friends off-screen, it doesn't change my feelings on early Alf & Ailsa. Maybe it was the writing. The early months of the show are very uneven and it took a while for things to settle down.

You could say the same about several couples in that era. Pippa and Michael is another older couple who had tied the knot within months of meeting. Though strangely, that seemed to make sense (chemistry between the actors?) whereas Alf and Ailsa's union didn't. I was surprised by that when I re-watched that first season. I remembered them as a solid couple with a "married for years" feel to them. Does anybody know how long they had been seeing each other before H&A started? It didn't seem to be a relationship that was going anywhere, until it was.

I'm not sure there was any great plan. Judy Nunn was getting married in real life and maybe the producers didn't realise what an iconic couple Alf and Ailsa would become? The alternatives are: 1. They had the wedding in secret because of Roo 2. The viewers not seeing the wedding made the marriage seem a bit less real and more fragile. Perfect for the drama that was to come next, culminating in the marriage split and Alf's tearful phone call to Ailsa. There was something cathartic about the renewal of their vows in front of their friends.

An early example of scriptwriting inconsistency? From what I remember of Steven and Sandra, there wasn't much chemistry between them. Their relationship was very chaste and the storyline could've just as easily worked if they'd just stayed friends. My guess is that the scriptwriters decided Steven needed to kiss someone and that a doomed romance was a good way to top and tail the story.

Home and Away in 2023 is so different to the series I grew up with in the 90s, I can't see any way back to the era of foster kids. At this stage, you'd need a reboot of the original show rather than an evolution of the current one. It's never going to happen but it'd be fun to have a 2nd Home and Away series aimed at a younger audience. The current show is fine for what it is. It looks great, it's very slick and there's a settled cast. But it lacks the rawness of the 80s and 90s, brought about by the young cast and perhaps the limited budget they had.