Ryan

Pippa and Tom were in the City buying a coffee machine so they'd asked the McPhee's to look after things while they were away.

There's what turns out to be a continuity error in Episode 7 and I'mnot talking about things that we know now they didn't know, I'm talking about things we'd know they'd know.

Don't know if Red Ranger's doing this, but Alf episode count is 4. Fisher and Carly have 5, Pippa, Ailsa and Bobby have 4. Of the credited characters, Lynn brings up the rear with 2.

Morag doesn't appear till March if the episodes are aired like this. She doesn't make start her credits stint till about next November or Decemeber. Colleen's appearances for 1988 and 89 are. 36; 137 - 198; 336 - 350

There's definitely been at least two bloody's already shown, both by Martin, so that's obviously allowed.

I've heard somewhere, I think it was actually a Baycast last year, that Bevan said the show nearly axed after 4 or 5 weeks and they knew why - they had been playing it far too safe, trying to avoid the melodrama of Sons and Daughters and I think it is noticable here, there is occasionally a lack of, one doesn't want to say action becaue that springs to mind car chases and such like. This episode just seemed to roll along all episode, it all seems to be nothing-ness between the two cliffhangers - basically the car crash. The rest is basically almost like watching people on Big Brother making small talk or something.

A Chelsea Murphy Character Profile has been added.

He's the guy that talks to Ailsa about her broken down car and then Fisher talks to to stop Tom getting the job. http://www.backtothebay.net/characters/baldivis_mervin.shtml

I'm pretty sure's he unaware of Quinn at the start of the show and he's certainly unaware of Owen being his son. Talking about Roo, some of us wonder if Mervin Baldivis from the Pilot (and Episode 11) is Roo's granddad and Martha's great granddad. Alf married a girl called Martha Baldivis, but I don't think any relationship is ever established.

Short Summaries added for Episode 2773-2839, from the year 2000.

A character profile from this weeks early years.

Alf has four children Roo from his first wife, Martha Stewart. Duncan from his second wife, Ailsa. Owen, Ric's dad, from Viv Standish, from when he was a teenager. Quinn Jackson, from Mary Jackson, when he was in Vietnam.

Went back it's nine seconds from when he first sees the truck coming towards him till point of impact. Something I hadn't noticed originally, but whilst I've got the chance spotted, is how little Tom has been in this first week so far whilst Pippa seems the go to person.

Short Summaries added for the rest of 1995 and a small update in the Reference Section.

Roo is Martha's mum, a rough estimate would be that Martha should be born around June 2010 if they keep showing the show each weekday continuosly. Beth Buchanan does appear in H&A this year, but not as Roo.

Walter almost deserved to be hit by the truck, he certainly sat staring at it for 10 seconds rolling slowly towards him. Episode 3 is the episode where I think the show really starts as such. Maybe the introduction of Roo does it and takes away from the safe warmth of the Fletcher family, but no, this episode it feels like each story rolls into the other, things start overlapping and from now on things keep on happening.

Still, I'd rather they showed 1 episode a day every day for the next ten years at 5am in the morning than not at all!

Yeah, I think Roo, Celia, Lance, Martin and Fisher didn't make the credits to Episode 95, but they certainly appear to be credited whether or not they appeared in those episodes. The closing credits in the Early Years are quite funny things. Several characters go on them and then come back off, before going on them again, like Marilyn. Viv is actually on the opening titles about a week or two before her first episode! Also Stacey who we'll meet around next July or something stays for absolutely ages, and appears to appear as much if not more than the rest of the cast, but never makes the cast list. I've never understood however why each speaking role is not credited. I believe that those girls should have been a credit! Episode 2 is actually what I believe the worst episode of this block. It is very much a bridging episode between the Fletcher's moving to the Bay and the actual start of the storylines starting to roll if I can describe it that way. It sort of gets Bobby from an outsider into some sort of mainstream by getting her back into school, and well, if we want to know where slightly pointless cliffhangers started! Also worth noting for the next 10 years if they're still going you've got to have seen the previous episode to know where the new one starts and I hope you're watching the closing credits because until Episode 40, there's a bit at the end of the credits.

Having seen a lot of the first episodes already, Lynn is given surprisingly a lot of storylines throughout the first few months of the show, I believe it might be after those storylines finish that her problems start.

Gwen Plumb was offered a role in Richmond Hill at around the same time and since both series went into production, she opted to stick with the first role she was offered in Richmond Hill. RH was axed after a year. Doris Peters never appears, though Gwen Plumb makes a reappearance in 1995.

I take it Episode 1 should have aired now. I guess the Pilot resolved itself pretty well and almost stands a telemovie in it's own right and I actually find the first week pretty weak. Well, I don't know if weaks the right word, certainly Episode 2 is a bit slow, but it takes a bit to get going and all the stories running along. I guess it's no different to the one episodes guests in Episode 2343, but I always find it strange how you get one episodes in Episode 1 and then they have absolutely nothing to do with the story ever again. At least they are mere speaking extras. I watched BH 90210 and the first few episodes are full of people appearing to be important, but actually only ever appear in that 1 episode. So, will Carly survive???

By contrast, I look at the first ever episode of Headland and within the first five minutes I think Sam Atwell's character had killed a few people, it felt like I'd been introduced to about 15 different people, none who I knew who they were.

I've tried to time this with the Sydney viewers, though no doubt I've completely screwed the day up or something. I'm able to work at Aussie pace for a few weeks since I have copies of some of these episodes. Sometimes the Pilots (or Episode 0) for numerical purposes is are strange beasts. I've seen some first episodes for some TV shows that are absolutely dire and there's a fine line between going in all guns blazing and leaving the audience thinking what the hell was that at the end of the episode. I think the fact that it was given a 90 minute slot to introduce the series works well and introduces things well. I actually quite dislike the Neighbours pilots, opening with a nightmare and then a wedding being called off by the end of the first episode. Since the copy I was watching comes in three different parts (one of three I've got!), I actually tend to think of the Pilot as 3 seperate episodes and so my post will probably break it down as such. I think the fact that the we actually start of with the Fletcher's in the city, explaining who they are and what the situation and why they are moving to Summer Bay works well. It also allows us about 20 minutes or so with those seven characters and perhaps it's because I already knew who they were before I even first saw the pilot, you don't have new character overload. You then have the next 20 minutes introducing the rest of the Summer Bay residents (Floss, Neville, Alf, Ailsa, Fisher, Bobby). When comparing it to the show nowadays or even earlier, from the characters to the scenery there is this feeling of it being a quiet seaside town as such. I guess we're supposed to presume that in the following 21 years the economic boom that has hit Palm Beach has hit Summer Bay as well. Then we have Doris Peters, one assumes she is the early forerunner of what Celia turned out to be and I believe for the only time we're in an actual shop rather than the studio. It's hard actually commenting on this because you immediately want to compare with how the characters turned out, but in some of the characters, you can see that once the series gets going their characteristics change pretty quickly, taking Steven as example. Neville and Floss however compared to today series seems like some bizarre alternate universe.

Another 100 or so short episode summaries added today, taking us to the final episode of one of the shows greatest ever characters.