Should Bobby have been written out in late 1990/early 1991?

[Stewarts Point]

Perhaps a controversial sentiment, but I just think her story had been told by this point. During 1990 she seemed to become rudderless. 

Then we get her pregnancy and miscarriage. (Was that ever explained? Her would be farmer husband Geoff gave her unpasteurised milk, yet I don't think she ever asked for or was given a reason for her miscarriage). 

Then we get this kind of what can we do with Bobby moment and out of nowhere this 19/20 year old who isn't married, isn't in a relationship, doesn't own her own house, suddenly wants to and becomes a foster mother. I'm not sure this is realistic today let alone in 1991. 

And then I'm just not sure there was much point to the next two years. She looked bored and unhappy during her marriage to Greg and as for Sam...I do wonder if tptb got inspiration from that other megastar of early 1990s television, namely Bart Simpson. I think they thought this mischeveous scamp would cheer up the audience. On talking to schoolfriends at the time, let's say no one agreed with that sentiment.

I'm also of the persuasion that her tragic boat accident was a mistake in the long run. Much better she went in '90/91 to have become a recurring character. 

[j.laur5]

Yes I actually agree to point.

I think maybe Bobby could have been killed of instead of Tom, or paired up with Matt or Grant and left with them. 

Also I think Carly and Ben should have be written out in 1990 after they got married. 

[cymbaline]

Interesting points. I liked Bobby so I'd have been sorry to have seen her written out so early. On the other hand it's hard to argue against it because they seem to have run out of ideas for her. I think the character still had potential to be interesting and she still was from time to time. I'm sorry they went down the road of pairing her up with Greg. There was no chemistry between them and I think she settled because of Sam. That marriage definitely took the spark out of her and made her less interesting. We forget how young these characters (Bobby, Carly, Shane & Angel etc. ) were in those days because they seemed to be around forever. But when you stop and think about it, it's crazy. They had them all married off and settled down before they'd had the chance to blow out the candles on their 21st birthday cakes. Was that really a thing in Australia in the early 1990s? Bobby fostering Sam makes no sense but strangely, I liked the pair of them together. The lad who played Sam wasn't much of an actor but he and Nicole worked well together. I'd have preferred to see Bobby remain in the Beach House with Sam and raise him as a single mum. I liked it when she took Tug under her wing and when she was a housemate to some of the other characters (Nick, Marilyn). Something in that vein would have been preferable to pairing her off with Greg. 

The boat accident was a senseless killing, especially when we know that Greg left shortly afterwards. If they knew both adult actors were leaving anyway, simply sending them and the moppet to live somewhere else would've been a more logical solution. Steven and Marilyn are both examples of characters who returned and continued on where they'd left off. 

[j.laur5]

I would like it had Bobby and Irene had  more years on show together.

[adam436]

2 hours ago, cymbaline said:

We forget how young these characters (Bobby, Carly, Shane & Angel etc. ) were in those days because they seemed to be around forever. But when you stop and think about it, it's crazy. They had them all married off and settled down before they'd had the chance to blow out the candles on their 21st birthday cakes.

The problem was, and to an extent still is, that the writers very rarely have to transition teenagers to adulthood on a long-term basis as most of them leave within a year or so of finishing high school. The post-school characters have usually drifted for 6-12 months before moving away. Of those who did tend to stick around more than 1-2 years, Bobby, was the first so it was understandable that the writers were going to make mistakes and not always get it right. If the writers knew Bobby would stick around for 4 years after high school, perhaps she would have been given a different career that might have allowed for more development and growth. I've listed a few of the post-high school stayers below, who seemed to have mixed success: 

Shane and Angel - married off pretty quickly 

Hayley - seemed to bounce from one relationship to the next (Sam, Mitch, Noah, Alex, Josh West, Scott, Kim). I can't remember too much else she did, other than illustrating Fisher's picture book and of course, marrying Noah and the pregnancy storyline with Kim and Scott in her final year. 

Chloe - pregnant and married off to James. 

Will and Gypsy - I honestly can't remember anything that Will did post high school other than dating school-aged Dani and getting Gypsy pregnant. Gypsy fared better, moving into a share house with Vinnie, and later Shauna and Sally (I think?), working at the Drop-In Centre and the pregnancy story, but she was definitely one of the stronger teen characters the show has had. 

Sally - was around long enough to go through all the phases: share house, uni and career, a relationship and marriage to Flynn, a baby and then becoming a foster mum herself. Another transition that worked well, but she too, also had some "low" periods in my opinion. 

  

2 hours ago, cymbaline said:

The boat accident was a senseless killing, especially when we know that Greg left shortly afterwards. If they knew both adult actors were leaving anyway, simply sending them and the moppet to live somewhere else would've been a more logical solution. Steven and Marilyn are both examples of characters who returned and continued on where they'd left off. 

I'd agree with this. Like many of the other classic foster children, Bobby is someone who I could have seen returning for special occasions over the years, especially with strong links to the four mainstay original characters: she as Alf's niece, Ailsa's best friend, Sally's foster sister and Donald's daughter.

[cymbaline]

Good points. Another character you could add to that list is Finlay. If I remember the end of her story properly, she didn't get the grades she needed in her HSC and hung around a bit aimlessly for a while. She made curtains, had a fling with Haydn and eventually moved away to begin some other course they'd plucked out of thin air. It was all a bit meh really.

If Bobby had been written out in 1990/91 I would have liked to have seen her go to university. I think she would've done well and the life experience she already had under her belt would've stood to her.

[CaptainHulk]

She had way to more give at that point.

On 23/07/2022 at 00:27, adam436 said:

The problem was, and to an extent still is, that the writers very rarely have to transition teenagers to adulthood on a long-term basis as most of them leave within a year or so of finishing high school. The post-school characters have usually drifted for 6-12 months before moving away. Of those who did tend to stick around more than 1-2 years, Bobby, was the first so it was understandable that the writers were going to make mistakes and not always get it right. If the writers knew Bobby would stick around for 4 years after high school, perhaps she would have been given a different career that might have allowed for more development and growth. I've listed a few of the post-high school stayers below, who seemed to have mixed success: 

Shane and Angel - married off pretty quickly 

Hayley - seemed to bounce from one relationship to the next (Sam, Mitch, Noah, Alex, Josh West, Scott, Kim). I can't remember too much else she did, other than illustrating Fisher's picture book and of course, marrying Noah and the pregnancy storyline with Kim and Scott in her final year. 

Chloe - pregnant and married off to James. 

Will and Gypsy - I honestly can't remember anything that Will did post high school other than dating school-aged Dani and getting Gypsy pregnant. Gypsy fared better, moving into a share house with Vinnie, and later Shauna and Sally (I think?), working at the Drop-In Centre and the pregnancy story, but she was definitely one of the stronger teen characters the show has had. 

Sally - was around long enough to go through all the phases: share house, uni and career, a relationship and marriage to Flynn, a baby and then becoming a foster mum herself. Another transition that worked well, but she too, also had some "low" periods in my opinion

Will was basically forced to be "The Man of the House" when Ken died.

Pairing Chloe with James was a panic move because Richard Grieve chucked in the towel as Lachlan and it was evident she never loved him as much as Lachie.

 

 

[nenehcherry2]

This is a very interesting topic, great concept! Agree RE the controversy!

Most teen characters stayed in the earlier years of H&A for 2 - 3 years. Anything less was presumably a bad hire, anything more likely a bonus. For that reason, I imagine that writers and producers only foresaw Bobby having a story up until about the time you mentioned. So perhaps difficult for the production team when Bobby had become immensely popular to the point of invincibility (and with lucky Nicolle, quickly earning a 100K+ salary during a recession!) whilst the show had shifted to become even more teen-focused.

For me, Bobby aged very gradually - albeit, 1993 Bobby seems much, much older & wiser than her 88 self. I think it actually all started in late 88. She goes from being a rebellious CHILD up against multiple authority figures to turning 18, leaving school, exiting the foster care system, being gifted a boring business by Ailsa, engaged to Frank and, before long, Don (who she had already started to bond with), is her loving father! She is an adult with nothing to rebel against. She is her own boss, not part of any institution. She goes from "rebel" to "feisty" (they're different things) overnight in my opinion. It would have been great to see Bobby working for an employer in a professional role. Perhaps the Macklins. Show a feisty young woman finding her way in the world still & with a purpose other than men and early marriages. Still give her a reason to rebel. Instead, she's flipping burgers and looking bored behind THAT blue counter for nearly 5 years. She seems to lose the ambition that had defined her in 88. Great job, Ailsa!

Things accelerate when the writers and Producers change in earlier 89 and then Alex Papps suddenly quits. After a bit of lull hanging around the diner like a shadow of her 88 self with some interesting haircuts (along with an election story which fits into neither of her two arcs), she joins a dating service and a whole 2-year long list of events unfold which gives her a whole new lease of life and an affirmed place in the show, albeit ultimately aging her in the process. But at least she's the centre of action again and just got better and better from then in my opinion. It felt as though Nicolle was growing with Bobby.

Whilst her fostering Sam was a true stretch of belief, I don't personally think it was at all out of character for 20 year old Bobby to push to be able to foster; after all, she was very determined when she set her mind to something but what WAS the stretch was to believe that DOCS would allow someone so young to foster an 8 year old. But, subjectively speaking, I thought it was a stroke of genius. I actually loved the on-screen chemistry between Nicky and Ryan. I also loved the initial conflict with Greg and their falling in love.

It all went flat for me after that wedding. Marilyn is suddenly gone, the Producers / Story Writers have all changed again and Bobby seemed to age more yet further. She no longer has Maz to have a peer-to-peer giggle with, she is suddenly scripted to talk to the newest generation of teens as though they were 20 years younger than her whereas she'd connected with Sophie et al like younger siblings (in 1993, it's almost like seeing a 20something girl delivering Ailsa's lines without the "Love" or Pippa's "Sweetheart") and her sole reason for being seems to be to want to help Tug. Nicolle's acting and appearance kept a sense of youth there but she was definitely written like she was in her early-to-mid 30s (and a mature thirtysomething with it). Again, none of that was out of character for Bobby but it's just a shame that she wasn't given anything else to do alongside that. But all of the 20s characters in 1993/4 (bar Adam) seemed to be defined by their relationships with the teens and I'm not sure that she and Roxy had enough in common to be believable friends. But at least have them bickering in the diner alas Bobby/Carly. I guess few characters in the 1993/4 era were gifted with decent, personalised storylines. They also seemed to start putting her in darker lipstick / eyeshadow from later 92 with ever lightening blonder hair - was this a deliberate strategy?

Maybe the Producers should have made Bobby a year or 2 younger in 88. Say Stevo's age. That way we'd have had "teen Bobby" for longer. Instead, putting year in year 12 with Carly, Roo etc made her an "adult" very quickly. But...the show was still in its infancy at that point and so still finding its long-term formula. Who really would have known then that the show would survive long-term and that Bobby was going to be around for almost 6 years?