Homeandawayfan.

It is now 18th Jan in Australia but still 17th here, so happy birthday for yesterday H&A in Australia. The first regular episode had Matt chatting up Carly on the beach with Lynn. Carly takes Lyn's thunder from her after Matt asks Lyn to her his surf jacket zip up. "I'm Carly" says Carly to Matt, "I'm sick" says Lynn to Matt.

Bobby being recast would not have been good for me, I'd just think of her as "Not Bobby". Like the recast Cody in Neighbours was a fake. If Don Fisher was still a head at SBH today, no doubt the lippy students would reply with "OK boomer" to Flathead when he admonished them lol. Don is too old to put up with such crap now from pupils anyway.

Yes it was a slight change of the character's age but H&A has done this on numerous occasions with other characters. A 33 year old soap is bound to have such errors. Some character ages such as Don, Steven, Ailsa, Hayley and Flynn's ages have always been consistent it seems. Ailsa was hinted at being 38 in 1988 and 50 in 2000, tallies nicely.

On the romance DVD is a highlight of H&A romances from the start to 2006/2007 when the DVD was released. Yes the Pilot ep is still the only 1980s full ep on DVD. Some 1980s eps were released on VHS in 1883, 5 classic episodes. The 2000th episode video from 1996 was brilliant. They should release more classic H&A on DVD.

Managed to find a H&A Romances DVD the other day, which has the pilot episode, so bought it, mainly for the pilot episode bonus feature. I have watched all of the 1988 season now, so the pilot completes it, as it set the stage for 33 years (and counting) of drama. Nice to have a H&A episode on DVD, the movie which opened the show. Huge mistake Bobby being killed off in 1993. Although every time I open a fridge I think of Bobby.

Yes, in the 1990s, H&A had just 3 proper villains - Dodge, Saul and Perez. The days when proper villains were rare in the show but made their mark. Those 3 men were my fave villains as well. Today, H&A villains are the norm, and are regular characters.

Never say never, as Ross Kemp says about any EastEnders return. Jodi returning to H&A is probably a never say never answer.

Dodge burned down the original General Store and neighbouring flat which Phil lived in. The old shop was demolished and never rebuilt. It tied in with a real life situation surrounding the building used to film the General Store scenes. No doubt some of the foundations remain in real life and in the shows narrative.

Angel's accident was a good storyline and she ended up in a wheelchair for a few months. Back then in H&A, such occurrences were the exception. They were shocking and rare, and more realistic, today they tend to be the norm, and happen ever week or so, if that was today, Angel would be critically ill then be up and about a week later and as fit as a butchers dog.

They were a brilliant family and were a breath of fresh air. H&A was at its peak back then.

Perhaps he was older if he was in WWII, and is about the same age as Bert King, Pippa's dad. In 1988 Nev may have been 67/68 then. Lots of actors play younger characters but as said, it can work the other way, playing older characters. Nev died in 1996 (I guess aged about 75) so if still alive, he'd be about 100 now. Nev and Floss married in 1949 as they had their 39th anniversary in 1988. I guess Floss was born about 1930.

I thought I read once that they had lived at the caravan park since 1984 but whether they lived at Summer Bay before that is another story. I think in a 1988 episode Lance and Martin did say they were at school with Gary and Gary was 22 in 1988 so born c1966. Random trivia but in regard to Nev's age, I think Nev was born about 1925 as Floss said he was "60 odd" in a March 1988 episode. Nev's surname and his bagpipe interest strongly suggests Scottish blood, like Alf has.

H&A is still not without its flaws but it is head and shoulders above what it was in 2014. It has regained a lot of the original charm and balance, it still has dark stories but is much more watchable. I still dip in and out now and again. May start watching for good again soon. Neighbours now seems to be becoming the more crime driven soap now.

I do think the show did lose its comedy element when Des Monaghan took over. It became a much more serious show by the end of 1989 and seemed to stay that way. Neighbours never lost its comedy element.

In 1988, after several months, even Tom and Pippa became sidelined while the supporting characters such as the Macklins, Alison Patterson, Phil Matheson, Gary Samuels and Jeff Samuels were elevated to main character status during their short reigns. Pippa really shined though once Tom died of his heart attack in 1990.