What Would You Do?

[Ryan]

In many threads, theirs discussion revoling about what the's wrong with the show. So I was wondering what would you do if placed in charge of the show for 2014? I'm hoping to get deeper answers that will discuss plans deeper than give Irene more storylines etc. How would you give Irene new storylines and why perhaps do you think they would work

A New Family

This might be harking back to the 2000 and when the Sutherland family moved in, but I’d put a family into Summer Bay House. I think we need to get proper families back into the show. I know writers when trying to be edgy try and do anything, but mum, dad and 2.4 kids. I’d have two parents, probably of mid 40’s and three kids. They’d be a guy aged 21, and two girls, aged 16 and 14. Part of the problem I feel has been what job the characters should have. During the last decade there has been a tendency when a character was a cop or a doctor to have a high level of crime or accidents.Having said that I would introduce the mother as a teacher, because I think the use of the school strengthens the teenager group. As regards the father, I was thinking a builder.

With the son, he’d be a lifeguard because I’d want to try increase the prominence of the beach into the show. The girls will go to school and I think the middle one would be part of lesbian storyline. The younger one would join Jett, VJ (promoted to the full cast) and Lily in part of a younger group that would usually be involved in a mixture of storylines, but usually relatively lightweight.

A Home For Roo, Alf etc.

This has been a bugbear of mine for a while as circumstances have left to a group of not quite random people living in the house. So, with them made homeless I’d have them move into the house the Braxton’s are in. I can’t remember the exact ownership, but Roo was owning it in 2011, so I don’t think her moving in there is beyond the realms of reason. Marilyn would move into the beach house.

Departures

This is something that I didn’t want to and just cut the current cast down with a scythe, but also acknowledge that certain members of the cast are unlikely to be there. For instance with regards to the Braxtons, is it likely they all leave in 2014 as their initial 3-year contracts run out. If the Walker family leave, or even if not entirely, I’d phase the farm out of the show. It was once interesting, but I don’t think it actually aids the storylines by putting a group of character in such a distant location. I also think the Scott family are likely to leave. After 3 or so years of dodgy development, I kind of feel the characters are too flawed now. I’ve not watched a great deal of this season, but II feel that you need to give the newer characters a chance

A Purpose for Irene

One of the threads that prompted me to write think about was the neglecting of Irene both in terms of character development and actually her place in the show. One says the easy way out is to kill Irene off or something. Then we have a free house, but I think that’s slightly unfair on Lynne McGranger who should be given the dignity of deciding where she calls it quits. Irene has grown from a mother to a grandmother in age during her years and whilst I would be determined to get kids that she’d care about living with her, though quite who it would be and how they would get there I am unsure. I had thought about getting Lily there, but there’s a conundrum of what would you do as regards Gypsy; Will is less of a problem given we could have him still in jail. With Marilyn having moved in hopefully this would bring better structure.

My hope would that be that you had four different age groups.

14 yo: Jett, Lily, VJ, Girl

16-17 yo: Girl, Maddie, Spencer, 2 More Unknowns

20's: Kyle, New Guy, Zac, Ricky, New Girl

Older: Irene, Marilyn, Roo, Leah, Harvey, New Parents, John

Behind the scenes, I'd see what can be done about creating something that looks relatively like the Original House and Caravan Park.

[Jamie!]

Behind the scenes, I'd see what can be done about creating something that looks relatively like the Original House and Caravan Park.

There was a report a few years ago about how they were rebuilding the exterior of Summer Bay House which they would use for filming. Does anyone know if this was ever confirmed, or did it turn out to not be true?

[Light of the Bay]

It was probably BS from Cameron Welsh to try and keep fans happy.

Since its never been reported on since, I think it's safe to assumed that there was never any intention to build a SBH replica.

[TelephotoMarigold]

This isn't the first time that this question has been posed. Here is my answer.

Echoing Ryan's post above, the Bay needs a new family in it.

Characters: Grandmother, Mother, Father, 19 year old Girl, 16 year old boy, 15 year old girl,

I would have the mother having lost her job and the father's firm downsizing meaning they had to move to the Bay to move in with her mother/his mother-in-law. We see the father heading out each day to work, noting that he works in the city and away from the Bay and the mother searching for a job. The 19yo is in college and the teens begin to attend SBH.

There are a number of secrets about the family that begin to come out over a period of months.

• The Father is having an affair.
• The mother had a secret love child before she married and she wasn't sacked from her job, she quit because the child tracked her down via her work.
• The 19yo is suffering an eating disorder.

Character: Leah:

A new romance and changes to her career.

She is asked to cater for a wedding reception and begins to start a small catering business. During one event she meets "Mike", a widower with two children. At first they don't get on but later she decides to take a chance on him and they begin dating. As it grows more serious there are issues between ther respective children.

Character: Irene:

I would have Irene meet up with an old friend. Someone from her drinking days before she moved to the Bay. Starting the story slow (as in playing out over the course of months rather than weeks) we'd see them have lunch on occasion and although we can tell that the other woman is quite desperate to make amends to Irene for something we are left wondering what. Irene agrees to further meetings and slowly the story starts to come out. The woman was responsible for kidnapping Irene's last child, the disappearance of who caused Irene's final descent into alcoholism and led to Finlay, Nathan and Damian to be taken away from her.

Irene is left shocked that first off her so-called friend could do something like that and then we see that there is more to come from the story. Irene is told that her child, a girl, died recently. We see her make an emotional pilgrimage to the graveside. (an excuse for Irene to go somewhere out of the Bay).

She is unable to tell anyone the reasons for her disappearances from the Bay. Leah becoming suspicious/worried about her and asking Alf if he knows who Irene is meeting. Irene walks in on them discussing her and they argue resulting in an angry Irene storming out.

In a follow-on scene we have Alf pitching up at the graveside where Irene has gone to, moving away to a nearby bench where they sit as Irene explains that the woman in the grave is her long lost daughter and she never got a chance to know her. They have a heart to heart and Alf recounts how extensions of his family came into his life, Ric, Martha, Colleen and how he cannot envision how she is feeling. Irene asks him how he knows where she was and he points in the distance to where a teenage girl is standing next to Irene's "friend" explaining that Leah had received a call at the diner from the other woman and they'd asked her if she were ok and had been told to come to the cemetery. Irene nods and moves over to her and we hear her introduce herself. The girl informs her that she knows who she is and calls her 'Grandmother'.

The girl moves to the Bay and into the Beach house and we see her and Irene bond. Irene once again has to start dealing with the school as she takes on a parental role again. She somehow gets roped into sitting in on the board of school governors.

After one meeting she overhears that they are panning to send the kids to Yabbie Creek and amalgamate the two schools and close Summer Bay High. Leading the community she begins to fight closure of the school. They are told that only by significant fund raising can the school be kept open and the teens organise things such as a concert, car wash, bake sales etc.

Character: Alf:

After helping both Irene and Leah, Alf decides that he wants to get back out in the community and with the threatened closure in the school he runs for Mayor. Which he wins despite his opponent raking up all the gossip about Alf's past including his stint in jail and being a suspect for the murder of Penn.

Characters: Roo and Harvey:

Roo helps Leah with the set up of her new business which reminds her how much she loves event planning. She and Harvey discuss where they really want to live and eventually decide that they need to buy a house in Summer Bay. Roo accepts a job working with the Sands hotel in Yabbie Creek helping them with their events planning, such as weddings and private functions.

Harvey continues to run the boat charters and takes on more a role with the bait shop as Alf takes up the mayoral position.

Lottie moves in with them and she and Maddy take an instant dislike to each other.

Character: Rosie:

After fighting with her foster parents over her pregnancy Rosie returns to the Bay. She is unable to find a place to stay and rather than talk to Sasha she ends up sleeping rough on the beach.

Returning home from a shift at Angelo's Kyle encounters her and leads her home with him. She stays with him for a number of days until she overhears him talking to someone about not wanting to be burdened and promptly runs away. She trips and falls and goes into labour. Kyle figuring out that she overhead him talking goes to find her and ends up delivering the baby.

When Rosie comes home from the hospital with the baby she finds that Kyle has found an apartment and moves in with her to help her take care of the baby.

Character: Heath and Bianca:

As Bianca tries to save the school with the aid of Irene and the kids she develops an idea for the school to provide adult literacy classes in the evenings. She persuades Zach and another teacher to run them with her. With the take up of them quite slow she feels frustrated and moans to Heath about it. He listens and after contacting a number of River Boys he enlists (blackmails/threatens) them into signing up and attending.

Brax overhears Heath plotting to attend and decides to go to rib him about them. He ends up sitting next to Heath and taking the class.

Bianca also believes that she is pregnant during this time and heads to the hospital for tests. It's revealed that she has fertility issues and even though she'd declared that she didn't want to risk another pregnancy after losing Rocco she finds that she is devastated by the news. She resolves to tell Heath but time passes and unable to properly communicate how devastated she is she withdraws from him. Heath misinterprets this as Bianca realising that she is too good for him and begins a flirtation with another woman.

As he is about to be unfaithful he realises that her behaviour is similar to when they lost Rocco, her withdrawal from him, and he heads home to talk to her.

Bianca finally tells Heath what is wrong and they go for more tests to see what can be done and decide on a course of IVF treatments. We see a real struggle to conceive and carry a baby and not have a miraculous conception after a couple of months.

Characters: Brax and Ricky:

After a brief relationship Ricky and Brax break up.

Brax continues to run Angelo's.

Roped into helping with saving the school he ends up giving surfing lessons for money. He meets the mother of one of his 'students' who takes him to task over his teaching methods and his lack of insurance etc. Later he finds her in his restaurant working for him. They have a tumultuous relationship. She doesn't want to date because she has a kid and he's still getting over Ricky.

Just as they seem to have sorted things out, Ricky returns and drops a bombshell that she is pregnant. Brax has to chose once more. Either his biological family or the one he was making.

Character: Casey and Tamara:

Still together, they move to the city. We still see them on occasion. Casey attends college and has a job.

Character: Indi, Dex, Sasha:

Indi finishes Uni and continues working in the Gym. After some time she gets a job in the city and juggles both. Then she sells a part share to Heath and moves out of the Bay.

Dex and Apirl break up. He remains in the Bay to look after Sasha and finish Uni.

Sasha helps with the fundraising to try to keep the school from closing, between that and her trying to help Rosie acclimatise to being a new mother she decides that she wants to become a social worker and help people from within the system.

She and Spencer have since split up because Maddy caused them problems. He has to repeat year 12 because with all the drama going in he failed it. He realises that he still has feelings for Sasha and tries to win her back.

[Blaxland 89]

Now that Sid is unfortunately leaving, if they felt they still wanted a doctor in it I would favour bringing back on old one rather than creating a new character. Either Kelly Watson or James Fraser. Then you could bring Olivia back to be part of a the teen group.

[samdanfan]

Oh I would love to write the following plot! This very wealty woman comes in to Summer Bay and gets Alf interested in a deal to open a wildlife park outside the town.

Skppyland with Roos and koalas other aussie wildlife

They would open it and allow some of the characters to work there! Alf would be a partner.

I second any idea to bring in younger actors as I would think thats one area Neighbours and other aussie shows has an advantage over Summer Bay. Use to not be that way!

besides that H&A is doing well in my opinion and I recommend the show to every who asks me whats the best in Aussie TV.

[Ryan]

One thing I'd also like to do would to base a storyline that was actually set in the eighties or something. Like Bobby's paternity, you'd need time setting it up and how you'd actually get there I'm unclear, but for a few episodes to a week you focuses on these group of characters that knew each other in the eighties, complete with eighties decor, music etc, and the so the truth would unravelled by actually seeing what happened back then.

Too often we have these secrets or massive storylines that played out in the past, like say Belle's paternity and what actually happened is told within a conversation.

[samdanfan]

Yes that was the golden decade of Aussie TV!

[Light of the Bay]

This isn't the first time that this question has been posed. Here is my answer.

Echoing Ryan's post above, the Bay needs a new family in it.

Characters: Grandmother, Mother, Father, 19 year old Girl, 16 year old boy, 15 year old girl,

I would have the mother having lost her job and the father's firm downsizing meaning they had to move to the Bay to move in with her mother/his mother-in-law. We see the father heading out each day to work, noting that he works in the city and away from the Bay and the mother searching for a job. The 19yo is in college and the teens begin to attend SBH.

There are a number of secrets about the family that begin to come out over a period of months.

• The Father is having an affair.
• The mother had a secret love child before she married and she wasn't sacked from her job, she quit because the child tracked her down via her work.
• The 19yo is suffering an eating disorder.

Character: Leah:

A new romance and changes to her career.

She is asked to cater for a wedding reception and begins to start a small catering business. During one event she meets "Mike", a widower with two children. At first they don't get on but later she decides to take a chance on him and they begin dating. As it grows more serious there are issues between ther respective children.

Character: Irene:

I would have Irene meet up with an old friend. Someone from her drinking days before she moved to the Bay. Starting the story slow (as in playing out over the course of months rather than weeks) we'd see them have lunch on occasion and although we can tell that the other woman is quite desperate to make amends to Irene for something we are left wondering what. Irene agrees to further meetings and slowly the story starts to come out. The woman was responsible for kidnapping Irene's last child, the disappearance of who caused Irene's final descent into alcoholism and led to Finlay, Nathan and Damian to be taken away from her.

Irene is left shocked that first off her so-called friend could do something like that and then we see that there is more to come from the story. Irene is told that her child, a girl, died recently. We see her make an emotional pilgrimage to the graveside. (an excuse for Irene to go somewhere out of the Bay).

She is unable to tell anyone the reasons for her disappearances from the Bay. Leah becoming suspicious/worried about her and asking Alf if he knows who Irene is meeting. Irene walks in on them discussing her and they argue resulting in an angry Irene storming out.

In a follow-on scene we have Alf pitching up at the graveside where Irene has gone to, moving away to a nearby bench where they sit as Irene explains that the woman in the grave is her long lost daughter and she never got a chance to know her. They have a heart to heart and Alf recounts how extensions of his family came into his life, Ric, Martha, Colleen and how he cannot envision how she is feeling. Irene asks him how he knows where she was and he points in the distance to where a teenage girl is standing next to Irene's "friend" explaining that Leah had received a call at the diner from the other woman and they'd asked her if she were ok and had been told to come to the cemetery. Irene nods and moves over to her and we hear her introduce herself. The girl informs her that she knows who she is and calls her 'Grandmother'.

The girl moves to the Bay and into the Beach house and we see her and Irene bond. Irene once again has to start dealing with the school as she takes on a parental role again. She somehow gets roped into sitting in on the board of school governors.

After one meeting she overhears that they are panning to send the kids to Yabbie Creek and amalgamate the two schools and close Summer Bay High. Leading the community she begins to fight closure of the school. They are told that only by significant fund raising can the school be kept open and the teens organise things such as a concert, car wash, bake sales etc.

Character: Alf:

After helping both Irene and Leah, Alf decides that he wants to get back out in the community and with the threatened closure in the school he runs for Mayor. Which he wins despite his opponent raking up all the gossip about Alf's past including his stint in jail and being a suspect for the murder of Penn.

Characters: Roo and Harvey:

Roo helps Leah with the set up of her new business which reminds her how much she loves event planning. She and Harvey discuss where they really want to live and eventually decide that they need to buy a house in Summer Bay. Roo accepts a job working with the Sands hotel in Yabbie Creek helping them with their events planning, such as weddings and private functions.

Harvey continues to run the boat charters and takes on more a role with the bait shop as Alf takes up the mayoral position.

Lottie moves in with them and she and Maddy take an instant dislike to each other.

Character: Rosie:

After fighting with her foster parents over her pregnancy Rosie returns to the Bay. She is unable to find a place to stay and rather than talk to Sasha she ends up sleeping rough on the beach.

Returning home from a shift at Angelo's Kyle encounters her and leads her home with him. She stays with him for a number of days until she overhears him talking to someone about not wanting to be burdened and promptly runs away. She trips and falls and goes into labour. Kyle figuring out that she overhead him talking goes to find her and ends up delivering the baby.

When Rosie comes home from the hospital with the baby she finds that Kyle has found an apartment and moves in with her to help her take care of the baby.

Character: Heath and Bianca:

As Bianca tries to save the school with the aid of Irene and the kids she develops an idea for the school to provide adult literacy classes in the evenings. She persuades Zach and another teacher to run them with her. With the take up of them quite slow she feels frustrated and moans to Heath about it. He listens and after contacting a number of River Boys he enlists (blackmails/threatens) them into signing up and attending.

Brax overhears Heath plotting to attend and decides to go to rib him about them. He ends up sitting next to Heath and taking the class.

Bianca also believes that she is pregnant during this time and heads to the hospital for tests. It's revealed that she has fertility issues and even though she'd declared that she didn't want to risk another pregnancy after losing Rocco she finds that she is devastated by the news. She resolves to tell Heath but time passes and unable to properly communicate how devastated she is she withdraws from him. Heath misinterprets this as Bianca realising that she is too good for him and begins a flirtation with another woman.

As he is about to be unfaithful he realises that her behaviour is similar to when they lost Rocco, her withdrawal from him, and he heads home to talk to her.

Bianca finally tells Heath what is wrong and they go for more tests to see what can be done and decide on a course of IVF treatments. We see a real struggle to conceive and carry a baby and not have a miraculous conception after a couple of months.

Characters: Brax and Ricky:

After a brief relationship Ricky and Brax break up.

Brax continues to run Angelo's.

Roped into helping with saving the school he ends up giving surfing lessons for money. He meets the mother of one of his 'students' who takes him to task over his teaching methods and his lack of insurance etc. Later he finds her in his restaurant working for him. They have a tumultuous relationship. She doesn't want to date because she has a kid and he's still getting over Ricky.

Just as they seem to have sorted things out, Ricky returns and drops a bombshell that she is pregnant. Brax has to chose once more. Either his biological family or the one he was making.

Character: Casey and Tamara:

Still together, they move to the city. We still see them on occasion. Casey attends college and has a job.

Character: Indi, Dex, Sasha:

Indi finishes Uni and continues working in the Gym. After some time she gets a job in the city and juggles both. Then she sells a part share to Heath and moves out of the Bay.

Dex and Apirl break up. He remains in the Bay to look after Sasha and finish Uni.

Sasha helps with the fundraising to try to keep the school from closing, between that and her trying to help Rosie acclimatise to being a new mother she decides that she wants to become a social worker and help people from within the system.

She and Spencer have since split up because Maddy caused them problems. He has to repeat year 12 because with all the drama going in he failed it. He realises that he still has feelings for Sasha and tries to win her back.

Okay I'm starting a petition to get you to produce Home and Away.

Your ideas are always so clear and concise and you actually have a vision for the show!

It's a shame that TPTB seem to have no direction and we go in an endless circle of violence and lust.

I think it's definitely time for a new Script Producer, though. Louise Bowes' storylines have been rather repetitive.

[Pierced Musie]

I would sign that petition.

The idea that got me was Rosie & Kyle because that is what I had been hoping would happen.