Why does H&A ignore its past?

[EndlessSummer]

As compared to Neighbours which has 11 returning and long lasting charecters from the year 2012. H&A only has 7? It seems H&A Ignores its roots as I am surprised Lyn Collignwood, Alex Papps and Norman Coburn has not returned even on a guest contract basis. As most new charecters seem to stay for only a few years. Us long term fans deserve better!

[j.laur5]

1 hour ago, EndlessSummer said:

As compared to Neighbours which has 11 returning and long lasting charecters from the year 2012. H&A only has 7? It seems H&A Ignores its roots as I am surprised Lyn Collignwood, Alex Papps and Norman Coburn has not returned even on a guest contract basis. As most new charecters seem to stay for only a few years. Us long term fans deserve better!

Lyn and Norman are in their 80s and I think want to relax in their prime years. 

They brought back Sally/ Olivia/Jett/ Celia /Colleen/Morag /Heath and Bianca . 

Martha came back after being presumed dead before the show began. 

[EndlessSummer]

1 hour ago, j.laur5 said:

Lyn and Norman are in their 80s and I think want to relax in their prime years. 

They brought back Sally/ Olivia/Jett/ Celia /Colleen/Morag /Heath and Bianca . 

Martha came back after being presumed dead before the show began. 

 

It is understandable that they want to relax in their prime years but Lyn and Norman have not been in the media at all. So I wonder what are they up to? 

That is true but that is only a handful of characters as compared to Neighbors as they have a great mix of both old and new characters to attract viewers from the past and present generation. They probably can do this due to their huge cast list. 

I'm glad Martha returned despite the first storyline not being well written. As for Morag, I hope they give her the send-off that she deserves with Summer Bay having a special service with character returns of Celia, Colleen, Barabara, Sally, and Donald.

[Lunar]

It could just be that some of the OG actors don't want to come back, or how they would make them fit into the show currently as opposed to just bringing them back for nostalgia. I feel like when characters come back it has to make sense and be for a reason.

I think Neighbours have just been a bit luckier in having some of the older actors stick around for longer, and not killing them off (apart from Sonya recently - which I'm guessing they did so they could bring back Finn and the new characters they're bringing in. They've definitely got a lot of flack for it though).

[jakeyy.]

Bring back Hayley Smith and Scott Hunter, can bring back relations to the families, Bec Cartwright is interested to come back, what I have heard on the rumour mill.

[EndlessSummer]

38 minutes ago, jakeyy. said:

Bring back Hayley Smith and Scott Hunter, can bring back relations to the families, Bec Cartwright is interested to come back, what I have heard on the rumour mill.

If only the rumor mill came true then we would have a lot of characters return!

[adam436]

On 06/05/2019 at 13:04, Lunar said:

It could just be that some of the OG actors don't want to come back, or how they would make them fit into the show currently as opposed to just bringing them back for nostalgia. I feel like when characters come back it has to make sense and be for a reason.

 

I feel like the show began to ignore its past in 2008, as a huge part of the show died with Sally. That was the last we saw of Floss and any of the Fletcher foster children, who no longer had a reason to return, and a huge chunk of the show's past was no longer relevant in the present show (if that makes sense!). 

There has been a few returnees since 2008 though: Pippa's forgettable 2009 stint, Duncan in 2016, Gypsy and Will at different points, Celia in 2012-2013, Sally in 2013 and of course, Morag kept appearing sporadically up until Cornelia's passing. There's also been more recent returnees in characters such as Jett, Xavier and Heath and Bianca. A few minor characters have also returned. The long-forgotten Quinn Jackson was revived again, though that was merely just a vehicle for introducing Ryder, and Olivia Fraser, the daughter of iconic character Chloe. Olivia's stint could have lead to appearances from James and Diana (perhaps James to fill in the gaps on what happened to Olivia and Diana to try and "charm" her granddaughter away from Irene/Summer Bay), but instead she was merely just a "name" to give Irene a new stray. 

Of course there are random returnees who would have no place in today's show, but also many whose returns would be relevant. Frank Morgan and Don Fisher could have unfinished business with their ex wives, any of Irene's children or foster children could easily return for a visit and Alf and Leah also have family who seem to have been completely forgotten. If the show really wanted to, the show could even orchestrate the return of any classic character, when you consider Marilyn had few meaningful connections when she returned in 2010. 

 

On 06/05/2019 at 09:42, EndlessSummer said:

It is understandable that they want to relax in their prime years but Lyn and Norman have not been in the media at all. So I wonder what are they up to? 

 

I'd love Norman Coburn to return for a guest stint, and he recently appeared in an episode of Rosehaven. Just out of interest, Dan Bennett had this to say in an interview with BTTB:  

Marilyn Chambers received an electric shock and fell into a coma. When she eventually awoke, it was discovered she had amnesia, and under the impression it was 1996, believed she was still married to Donald Fisher. Just before the accident, Alf conveniently went to visit Donald. Was the idea to bring him back ever toyed with?

 Yep. We had a huge Fisher story planned. I hope it plays out one day.

[Lunar]

2 minutes ago, adam436 said:

 

I feel like the show began to ignore its past in 2008, as a huge part of the show died with Sally. That was the last we saw of Floss and any of the Fletcher foster children, who no longer had a reason to return, and a huge chunk of the show's past was no longer relevant in the present show (if that makes sense!). 

There has been a few returnees since 2008 though: Pippa's forgettable 2009 stint, Duncan in 2016, Gypsy and Will at different points, Celia in 2012-2013, Sally in 2013 and of course, Morag kept appearing sporadically up until Cornelia's passing. There's also been more recent returnees in characters such as Jett, Xavier and Heath and Bianca. A few minor characters have also returned. The long-forgotten Quinn Jackson was revived again, though that was merely just a vehicle for introducing Ryder, and Olivia Fraser, the daughter of iconic character Chloe. Olivia's stint could have lead to appearances from James and Diana (perhaps James to fill in the gaps on what happened to Olivia and Diana to try and "charm" her granddaughter away from Irene/Summer Bay), but instead she was merely just a "name" to give Irene a new stray. 

Of course there are random returnees who would have no place in today's show, but also many whose returns would be relevant. Frank Morgan and Don Fisher could have unfinished business with their ex wives, any of Irene's children or foster children could easily return for a visit and Alf and Leah also have family who seem to have been completely forgotten. If the show really wanted to, the show could even orchestrate the return of any classic character, when you consider Marilyn had few meaningful connections when she returned in 2010. 

 

 

I'd love Norman Coburn to return for a guest stint, and he recently appeared in an episode of Rosehaven. Just out of interest, Dan Bennett had this to say in an interview with BTTB:  

Marilyn Chambers received an electric shock and fell into a coma. When she eventually awoke, it was discovered she had amnesia, and under the impression it was 1996, believed she was still married to Donald Fisher. Just before the accident, Alf conveniently went to visit Donald. Was the idea to bring him back ever toyed with?

 Yep. We had a huge Fisher story planned. I hope it plays out one day.

Yeah thats true - I do wish they'd bring in more foster children at least to make it feel more like the 'old' times. I would've liked to see some of Olivia's family and is did feel a bit like she was just another random teen and not tied to history on the show - I guess because a lot of the big things that happened to her happened before she reached the Bay. Quinn appearing also felt very random and too short.

I didn't know that they'd planned a Donald storyline - I wonder why they didn't go through with it? It would've made Marilyn losing her memory a lot more interesting.

 

[j.laur5]

1 hour ago, Lunar said:

Yeah thats true - I do wish they'd bring in more foster children at least to make it feel more like the 'old' times. I would've liked to see some of Olivia's family and is did feel a bit like she was just another random teen and not tied to history on the show - I guess because a lot of the big things that happened to her happened before she reached the Bay. Quinn appearing also felt very random and too short.

I didn't know that they'd planned a Donald storyline - I wonder why they didn't go through with it? It would've made Marilyn losing her memory a lot more interesting.

 

Norman probably didn’t feel like returning as he is in his 80s now. 

[EndlessSummer]

On 09/05/2019 at 06:50, adam436 said:

 

4 hours ago, adam436 said:

I feel like the show began to ignore its past in 2008, as a huge part of the show died with Sally. That was the last we saw of Floss and any of the Fletcher foster children, who no longer had a reason to return, and a huge chunk of the show's past was no longer relevant in the present show (if that makes sense!). 

There have been a few returnees since 2008 though: Pippa's forgettable 2009 stint, Duncan in 2016, Gypsy and Will at different points, Celia in 2012-2013, Sally in 2013 and of course, Morag kept appearing sporadically up until Cornelia's passing. There have also been more recent returnees in characters such as Jett, Xavier and Heath and Bianca. A few minor characters have also returned. The long-forgotten Quinn Jackson has revived again, though that was merely just a vehicle for introducing Ryder, and Olivia Fraser, the daughter of iconic character Chloe. Olivia's stint could have lead to appearances from James and Diana (perhaps James to fill in the gaps on what happened to Olivia and Diana to try and "charm" her granddaughter away from Irene/Summer Bay), but instead she was merely just a "name" to give Irene a new stray. 

Of course, there are random returnees who would have no place in today's show, but also many whose returns would be relevant. Frank Morgan and Don Fisher could have unfinished business with their ex-wives, any of Irene's children or foster children could easily return for a visit and Alf and Leah also have family who seem to have been completely forgotten. If the show really wanted to, the show could even orchestrate the return of any classic character, when you consider Marilyn had few meaningful connections when she returned in 2010. 

Agreed, when Sally left so did the heart and soul as well as the family orientation of H&A. As they then introduced the Braxton's a few years after to presumably fill that void. 

With Celia, Sally, Morag Jett, Xavier, Heath, Banca, Will, and Gypsy return over the years it was great! But now they focus too much on introducing new characters whilst we don't have many past characters return in recent years. As for Quinn's and Duncan's return that seemed too brief which I found disappointing. As for Olivia's return, they should have had James and Diana return to contemplate on her future in the bay which is what they similarly did after Chloe's death.

I think it would be great to see Frank Morgan return as he would actually give some more depth for Roo's purpose in the bay. Frank could reconcile with Roo and get together again! The bay is currently lacking older male cast as there is currently only Alf and John so his return would be beneficial.