Tom and Pippa

[adam436]

If Tom had not been written out in 1990, do you think Tom and Pippa #1 would have become the backbone of Home and Away?

If I remember correctly, one of the main reasons Vanessa Downing decided to leave was because she missed working with Roger Oakley, so perhaps she would have stayed longer if Roger did.

I could imagine them becoming the "golden couple" of Home and Away in the same way Karl and Susan have for Neighbours. I know we had one long-running couple in Alf and Ailsa, but they were always more supporting characters to the goings on of the Fletcher household, especially in the early days. If we had a stable couple constantly taking in foster kids, then things would have been very different. I think they would have "retired" from or at least cut back fostering around 2004 (when Sally and Flynn moved in) and perhaps becoming grand-parent figures to the children they took in.

I think if they both still around today, I think it would be a very different show.

[j.laur5]

20 hours ago, adam436 said:

If Tom had not been written out in 1990, do you think Tom and Pippa #1 would have become the backbone of Home and Away?

If I remember correctly, one of the main reasons Vanessa Downing decided to leave was because she missed working with Roger Oakley, so perhaps she would have stayed longer if Roger did.

I could imagine them becoming the "golden couple" of Home and Away in the same way Karl and Susan have for Neighbours. I know we had one long-running couple in Alf and Ailsa, but they were always more supporting characters to the goings on of the Fletcher household, especially in the early days. If we had a stable couple constantly taking in foster kids, then things would have been very different. I think they would have "retired" from or at least cut back fostering around 2004 (when Sally and Flynn moved in) and perhaps becoming grand-parent figures to the children they took in.

I think if they both still around today, I think it would be a very different show.

I agree. Don't get me wrong I like Debra's Pippa  but Vanessa gave Pippa more layers to her character than just a run of the mill mum.

I think Tom and Pippa would have kept going past 2004 as foster parents as they would only be in their 50s. I say they would have stop foresting  as many from 2010 onwards.

If  the oringal Pippa and Tom had stayed to this day then we would never have had Michael/Debra'sPippa/Joe//Natalie/Rhys/Shelley/Beth who they brought in as replacements for Tom and Pippa to run Summer Bay House and be run of the mill parents . I'm not saying their characters were boring but their core of character was to be  either a new Tom or Pippa.

As other older characters like Alf/Donald/Barry/Neville/Tony Harvey/Sid/ Elijah/John/Irene/Ailsa/Josie/Roo/Gina/Colleen/Floss/Celia/Morag and Judith were more characters in their own right than just being run of the mill parent type characters.

[Trudy Heine]

Also no violence and River boys, well not as much violence w Tom and Pippa still here. Maybe Sally would still be here, and Flynn.

[Old H&A Fan]

Mind you, Tom still did have a propensity to violence. Take Barlow for instance.

[CaptainHulk]

10 hours ago, Old H&A Fan said:

Mind you, Tom still did have a propensity to violence. Take Barlow for instance.

 

Like XXXXXXXXXXXXX  didn't deserve it for the off-color comments about Carly's rape, Battering Sandra and Kerry (the latter who he ended up killing) bullying Stevo, mocking Nico (to be fair, he wasn't the only one but that don't make it right).

Also, He bashed Zac the Shark Hunter (which was heard over the Surf Club PA).

I reckon Tom, like Alf would only smash someone for the right reasons. Had he been alive when Chris came out, It would have shocked him at first but he'd have been able to weather it a bit better than Michael, or Ian (from all accounts).

[Red Ranger 1]

I guess it's nice to speculate but I'm not sure what the chances are of them having lasted all the way to the present day.There's an even chance that Tom would have just been killed off instead of Michael in 1996, then we might have had Pippa leaving even sooner if Vanessa hadn't been willing to stay on for a year and a half without her screen partner.Even if she didn't, would she have been willing to stick around longer than Debra Lawrance or Judy Nunn? I know Ray Meagher and Lynne McGranger have been there 20-odd years but the high turnover of older adult characters suggests it's not everyone's thing.

Whether you think they deserved it or not, Tom was arguably more physically aggressive than Michael.I'm struggling to remember Michael ever raising his hand to anyone, David was probably the closest and even then I think he basically just shoved him (and then had to spend the next year paying for it).I don't think Tom would have been as sympathetic towards Adam as Michael was, if only because he had a stronger link to Bobby: His initial reaction would probably have been more in line with Pippa and Alf's.

[Homeandawayfan.]

In the pilot Tom threatened Fisher with violence when he wanted to falsely implicate Bobby. Don the insulted Tom a few times and said he must have been a pen pusher in Nam. Tom could be handy with his fists when need be. Tom was H&A's Jim Robinson, the patriarch while Alf was the Max Ramsay.

[beau_t]

I loved in 2008 when Tom gave a message to Sally for Pippa, which she passed on. Finally tying Rodger's Tom to Debra's Pippa.

Despite its many ventures into the paranormal in the 90s, I don't think H&A would was quite ready for a full on near-death exprience episode, which is a shame, because they could have done one for Pippa when she had her accident in 1997. It would have been interesting to see her interact with Tom.

Never been one for writing fan fics, but if I was, I'd write that.

[j.laur5]

1 hour ago, beau_t said:

I loved in 2008 when Tom gave a message to Sally for Pippa, which she passed on. Finally tying Rodger's Tom to Debra's Pippa.

Despite its many ventures into the paranormal in the 90s, I don't think H&A would was quite ready for a full on near-death exprience episode, which is a shame, because they could have done one for Pippa when she had her accident in 1997. It would have been interesting to see her interact with Tom.

Never been one for writing fan fics, but if I was, I'd write that.

I found it easy to imagine Roger and Debra on screen together, but not Dennis and Vanessa together.

[CaptainHulk]

12 hours ago, Homeandawayfan. said:

In the pilot Tom threatened Fisher with violence when he wanted to falsely implicate Bobby. Don the insulted Tom a few times and said he must have been a pen pusher in Nam. Tom could be handy with his fists when need be. Tom was H&A's Jim Robinson, the patriarch while Alf was the Max Ramsay.

Very well put. Incidentally, Roger Oakley went on to play a "Jim" (Parker) in Neighbours in 2008, not so long after his H&A return! And Alf did share similarities with Max (They both cheated on their wives, Max cheated on Maria and Alf cheated on Martha Sr. with Mary Jackson, resulting in illegitimate children!)

 

10 hours ago, beau_t said:

I loved in 2008 when Tom gave a message to Sally for Pippa, which she passed on. Finally tying Rodger's Tom to Debra's Pippa.

Despite its many ventures into the paranormal in the 90s, I don't think H&A would was quite ready for a full on near-death exprience episode, which is a shame, because they could have done one for Pippa when she had her accident in 1997. It would have been interesting to see her interact with Tom.

Never been one for writing fan fics, but if I was, I'd write that.

The Kye business where she lost her memory. Incidentally, I was thinking it would have been decent to have Tom and/or Michael  visit her in a dream sequence (1996 had some pretty weird stuff and this wouldn't have been entirely out of line) In fact, Go write the fic!

 

17 hours ago, Red Ranger 1 said:

Tom was arguably more physically aggressive than Michael.I'm struggling to remember Michael ever raising his hand to anyone, David was probably the closest and even then I think he basically just shoved him (and then had to spend the next year paying for it).I don't think Tom would have been as sympathetic towards Adam as Michael was, if only because he had a stronger link to Bobby: His initial reaction would probably have been more in line with Pippa and Alf's.

 Our Resident David hater probably cheered when Michael did that. Anyhow, I reckon Tom would have been furious but nowhere as unreasonable as Alf, Tug or Greg. Yes, there's a strong chance he would have clocked Adam one and called him  but eventually he would have realised it was an accident and Adam doesn't have a malicious bone in his body but there'd never completely be "cool".