adam436

I think they could have to be honest - if only one of them left in 1990 and the other stayed, Lance could have continued as Marilyn's husband and Martin in a similar function to Adam (had he not been around). I just feel the writers had made them so co-dependant on each other and written them into the corner with their ridiciulous stories it was hard to come back from that.

I'd say they were filling that void before Lance and Martin left. Once Adam and Matt became a partnership (around episode 350ish?), Lance and Martin were reduced to silly stuff like the band, the goldfish funeral and the hotdog stand. The money making schemes and hopelessly trying to crack onto the latest newcomer was left to Matt and Adam. For example, the Summer Bay Bunyip story is something that Martin would have led in his early days, but instead it was driven by Adam despite Martin still being around at that point. I suspect that was the point to the extent. Lance did have a heart of gold, but his naivity and lack of intellegence was a bit farfetched at times.

Agreed. We had a number of boring early 20s characters around that time like Alex, Jesse, Josh and Scott I would have happily dropped in favour of Mav.

Matt Wilson - he worked fine as a recurring two-dimensional boyfriend for Carly in 1988, but served little purpose as a regular. The early 20s male was definitely in oversupply during Matt's regular tenure with the likes of Lance, Martin, Adam, Grant, Ben and Nick that didn't it feel like was really needed to make up numbers either. Denny Miller - the Maguire family didn't really need expanding and her romance with Casey wasn't exactly unique either. The writers clearly saw her as disposable when it came to her exit too. I think most characters have served some purpose at some point - whether that be through work, part of a family unit etc. - even if they stayed long after that purpose has been served.

Gordon Macklin could have worked as a recurring villain that perhaps could have popped up every now and then over the years, but definitely not as a regular without softening him significantly. The only time we really saw his softer side was toward the end when he was trying to reconnect with Stacey. Wasn't he meant to be a family friend of the Bellinghams as well? Perhaps they could have used that connection and had more Gordon/Morag scenes. Ron Haddrick was even still working in the 2000s when Martha and Morag were on the show, so perhaps definitely a missed opportunity there by not having him trying to connect with his granddaughter. I'd love to know whether the Macklins we always going to be drip-fed into the show to set up the Sands Resort/Macklin Corporation or whether they were originally just going to be a two-dimensional wealthy family with their role limited to Roo's pregnancy. The corporate world and wealthy characters was very much an 80s thing on soap. Most of the American soaps had it, and in Australia we had Sons and Daughters and a number of short-lived soaps. Even Neighbours had the Lassisters corporation. Perhaps the producers were trying to follow that trend. I think it would have run its course eventually, but it definitely fizzled out earlier when all the characters linked to it like Frank, Roo, Tom and Stacey were gone. If the producers really wanted to keep it chugging along, they probably would have kept Stacey on and returned her to the business world or had Tom continue to work there after his stroke, or given some of the newcomers like Ben or Adam a job working there.

He was a regular on a short-lived soap called The Power, The Passion prior to joining H&A, so he did have some acting experience. It wasn't great, so maybe Julian forgot about that as well

I suspect the producers anticipated Matt to be a bigger character than what he ended up being: he had his own tie-in novel (The Matt Wilson story), and was brought back full-time in 1989 despite being a rather forgettable and two-dimensional character (which didn't improve when he returned!) the previous year. He even appeared in the opening titles for a few weeks in 1988. I remember watching the Early Years in the late 90s and when he made his opening credits debut alongside Roo, I had no idea who he was

Bob and Craig Barnett - there was a spark of romance between him and Celia early on which fizzled out. Craig was likable enough too, perhaps moreso than some of the teens who came in the early 90s. Alan Fisher - I know his death is one of the more memorable storylines of 1988, but there was so much wasted potential. The writers have tried to milk it as much as they can over the years though with On the Crest of a Wave and introducing Alan's secret son Seb. Gus Bishop - I wonder if we would have seen more of him had Donna not left so early on. He'd have been another rebel-turned-responsible-teenager story arc if he had a longer run. the Mackins - I enjoyed Gordon and Brett as a guest villains, but they were both very two-dimensional. It's a shame H&A didn't want a regular villain in the cast like many other 80s soaps did. Stacey was one of my favourite characters too, but she got a longer run than some regular characters. A few from the "later" early years: the modern day Pattersons like Stella, Maverick and Skye. The latter two might have made good regular characters. Skye has the "wild child turned good", and Maverick as the slightly alternative character. It's a shame he got lumbered with Brodie Hanson. teenage Christopher Fletcher - as a closeted gay teenager the same age as Chris was at the time, I enjoyed that story arc. It's a shame he didn't stay beyond that or return later to live with Sally and Flynn. Chris Polous Nathan Roberts and his future wife Grace

We had already seen Bobby get married young and divorce after a few months and just recently seen Pippa widowed, so perhaps the writers felt either of those two scenarios for Carly would have been soon. Plus, what would they have done with Carly without Ben? She'd probably just end up fawning over every new male arrival like she did before Ben arrived. I assume the long-term plan was for Ben and Carly to eventually become foster parents themselves like Bobby and Sally did, but they left before it came to that. Their farm would have been a good location for kids from broken homes too.

I do wonder if sometimes there are behind-the-scenes reasoning for it that we aren't aware of, like maybe an actor giving short notice of their exit. The ones that stand out for me are Dan Baker and Beth Hunter. I understand they both had to be killed off due to their ties to Summer Bay/current characters, but why did the writers decide to kill them off off-screen after the actors had made their final appearances. It could be a timing thing with storylines - Beth died on the same day Kit gave birth and Tom Fletcher told Sally that Leah was going to need her or something along those lines. Rob's exit kind of worked for me because he was slowly isolated from his regular interactions with the characters: he moved out of Irene's house, he quit his job at the school and bought the boat shed (a business regular characters had little reason to frequent) and his friendship with Donna was pretty much over. Travis and Donna left a few weeks after him as well. I can't comment on Matt's exit as I haven't watched that era, but did Matt's had a similar foregrounding or was he still living with Adam and Marilyn and working at the diner? I believe his exit got explained later on though, so there was probably a behind-the-scenes reason Greg Benson just disappeared. It was drawn out and overall I enjoyed her journey of leaving Summer Bay with Ian, but I think the issues lay with the "temporary" nature of it - she went travelling around Australia, leaving her foster children in the care of Travis and Rebecca. Ian returned later to explain they'd settled in the Carrington Ranges and to take Tegan with them. From all accounts, it sounds like Debra Lawrence was adamant she was ready to move on, so it begs the question why the writers opted not to make it permanent from the start: Was it so that Pippa didn't look bad by completely abandoning her foster children (by the time Ian returned, Justine and Sam were settled with the Nashes and Donald)? Were the producers still hoping they could persuade Debra to come back after she'd had some time out? Was Pippa such an important character that they felt a softer exit was the best approach?

Given Vinnie's colourful life off-screen since 2002, there is certainly scope for him to still be alive. I'd say the fact that we are now another three husbands down the line (maybe more by the time Ada calls it quits!) and VJ is long gone, that ship has well and truly and sailed.

The short answer is yes. I read somewhere Ryan told the producers he would come back for Ada Nicodemou's exit, but of course that never happened.

It just very clumsily put together. I suspect the producers weren't planning on Richard Grieve leaving so soon, as James came in to essentially pick up Lachie's story arc. Sending Lachie to the USA was probably just a temporary solution until the writers worked out a permanent one. It wasn't really needed though. He had left and moved on with someone else, and Chloe had already married and separated by James. Other regulars like Dan Baker and Beth Hunter departed the show and then died off-screen months later (Beth's was in Summer Bay, but we never saw the actress), but at least they wrapped things up in terms of relationships etc.

Joel and Natalie Nash are up there as one of the worst for me. I had no issues with the affair story so much, but did we need the added complication of her being pregnant? Then months later, he dumped new lover Judith (who was to leave a few weeks later herself anyway!) to get back together with Natalie and he was going to raise the product of Natalie's affair as his own child. This was all a week or so after he had just been badly injured in the landslide too.

With the huge cast turnover that 2000 had, the style certainly would have been more easy to update. I dislike them now, but I enjoyed them at the time. They aren't very H&A as we knew it. It's hard to imagine the Robertson Brothers' version of the theme with the 90s style credits though. I did enjoy the little Easter eggs though - the cast sometimes reacted to things floating by like Ailsa with the shark

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. 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.

Curtis Reed and Matt Wilson. I think both characters even left to go on a competition circuit or something too, didn't they? I also have a recollection of Nick Smith being a surfer too, but my memory of those years is a little vague

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.

There was also Charlotte Adams in the early 2000s, but she was gone within a year or so too.

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.

I found her quite a sad character. Her life could have been so different - she'd have likely had a large family and dedicated her life to being a mother. Instead, she's mocked everyone in the town and considered an annoyance at times. I liked both Tom and Alf. Tom was more fatherly and a stronger patriarch figure, but Alf definitely worked for the supporting role he fulfilled - authoritarian father to contrast Tom, long-term resident, friend of the Fletchers etc. I'd actually say the roles switched when Michael came along. Alf was the warmer father figure and Michael seemed quite cold and authoritarian.

Wasn't it stated at one point that the car belonged to Alf and Celia's parents? I have a vague recollection of it anyway.

It was a big year, but there wasn't much to like about it. This was actually the year I stopped watching H&A for a good few years. My interest had been waning for a few years, but Chloe's pointless death and Jesse's exit was the final straw for me. Jesse had run his course, but he didn't need or deserve that exit. I hated the character of Josie and as already been said, a pointless character for the reasons mentioned. She was essentially early a softee version of Angie, introduced because the producers realised it was a mistake killing off Angie. I enjoyed Sally and Flynn as foster parents, but there should have been a spread of ages to mix it up. Having two teenagers who were the same age and were dating each other didn't work. I thought they might have ended up with Olivia after Chloe's death, but she was gone and forgotten about pretty quickly. Another big controversy that year was the Hayley recast. I actually preferred Ella Scott-Lynch in the role, having found Bec's Hayley to be OTT bubbly, but suddenly going from blonde to redhead was quite jarring. I wasn't a fan of the Scott/Hayley/Kim triangle either. Scott and Hayley were obviously just paired up because they were both at a loose end following Noah's and Dani's exits.

Also the Morgan siblings and Dean/Mackenzie too. With all these sibling relationships, we've never seen a younger siblings for Theo, who would actually give Leah an additional family member.

Still doesn't excuse murder or covering it up. If his actions were truly justified, he shouldn't have covered it up for years.