Irene nearly axed in 2002?

[j.laur5]

After it being mentioned in another topic about whether Pippa would be axed .
 

I thought I'd like to discuss it in its own topic. 

If Irene was indeed written out there are a few things I'd  like to bring up. 

1 How would Irene be written out ?

Might she be killed off in that ferry disaster in 2002 or could she be written off with Paris after Paris went back to the city after Donald got his job back. 
 

2 Who would move into the Beach House ?

Could a new family come in such as the Hunters coming in  a little earlier or would the Beach House just disappear like Donald's house did after he left?. 
 

3 But why choose to axe Irene out of all the older characters?. 
 

Bit surprised that they considered axing Irene when she had arguably more purpose than other older characters like Colleen. Colleen had only been a regular for a few years. I am not saying Colleen should have been axed instead but I am just saying if they were going to axe an older character you'd think they would look at someone with less purpose who had not been around as long.  Also we only just lost Alisa and Pippa not too long before and Donald and Shelley were close to being written  out. 

4 Would Irene been still saved from axed if Pippa was still around?. 
 

I have noticed few people have said they think Irene would be axed if Pippa had stayed and personally I don’t think they would axed her because Irene and Pippa were very different characters like Alisa who was also very different character to both of them and I think they always would have  at least two or three mothers characters on show be it Pippa/Alisa/ or Pippa/Alisa/Irene  and later Alisa/Irene/Natalie and Alisa Irene and Shelley etc. 

They couldn’t have all teens living at Summer Bay House it be  too full as that’s why other half of teens used live with Stewart’s or later Irene’s . 
 

I think if Irene was written out with Pippa staying and Nash’s or Sutherlands or Hunters  moving  into Beach House  instead of Summer Bay House then I think Natalie or Shelley or Beth would look and feel too similar to Pippa character in being earth mother type character and even though they had there different personalities but they still come across as earth mother character as Irene  and Alisa for that matter always come across more then earth mother type character unlike other older mother female characters. 
 

In present we have four older female mother type characters on show with Irene/Leah/Marilyn/Roo and who be all their decade or more

[cymbaline]

1 How would Irene be written out?

If they didn’t use an existing storyline (like the ferry disaster) I think they’d have resurrected her alcoholism and used that as a way to kill her. Maybe a bad accident would’ve befell her while she was drunk? Or if they were being happier, she moved to be nearer to Fin and her grandchildren.
 

2 Who would move into the Beach House?

Anybody really. It has always been a house where people come and go. It has more of a rental/shared house feel to it than some of the other homes. They might not necessarily moved a family into it but they’d have found some bodies. The Beach House has been on Home and Away for over 30 years now so I guess you could consider it to be almost as iconic as Summer Bay House. 

3 But why choose to axe Irene out of all the older characters?. 

Why does anybody get axed? Often all that’s needed is a new overlord who decides that a character has run his/her course and it’s time to move them on. I agree that it’s baffling why someone would want to save Colleen over Irene but there you go. Maybe there were some hardcore Lance Smart fans out there

4 Would Irene have been saved from being axed if Pippa was still around? 

Who knows? I think it depended more on how many young/old people they wanted in the cast, rather than who was a mother figure. As we’ve seen, if they want to keep a young character and they have no home to go to, they just move them. If you think back to Sam Marshall, he did a mini-tour of Summer Bay. When Bobby and Greg were no more, he briefly lived with Donald, then he ended up with the Rosses. Then he eventually ended up back with his Uncle Donald. Mostly moves are affected by actors moving on…They could happily expand or contract housing accommodation in Summer Bay, depending on what they wanted.  

As for now, the show is very different to how it was in 2002. Now, the older characters are largely background figures and the actors who play them are happy enough with that. It’s telling that some of them actually leave the show and do some theatre work for a while before coming back.

[adam436]

22 hours ago, cymbaline said:

2 Who would move into the Beach House?

Anybody really. It has always been a house where people come and go. It has more of a rental/shared house feel to it than some of the other homes. They might not necessarily moved a family into it but they’d have found some bodies. 

Hayley moved into "The Palace" around the time the axe nearly fell on Irene, so she'd probably have stayed on there and invited Noah, Dani and Josh to move in, rather than create a new set. Unless the producers particularly wanted a new set to spice things up a bit.

 

 

22 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Why does anybody get axed? Often all that’s needed is a new overlord who decides that a character has run his/her course and it’s time to move them on.

Do we know what episode was the beginning of Coral's reign? When she took over, they told her she could pretty much keep or get rid of whomever she wanted and we lost a number of weaker characters around that time - Charlotte Adams, Jude Lawson, Brodie Hanson, Josh West. Do we know if she made the call to get rid of them? Brodie was incredibly whiny and dull, Jude was just another run-of-the-mill twentysomething (I liked him, he just didn't add much to the show!), Charlotte had crammed so much into a short space of time that she'd burnt out as a character and Josh was pretty much just "Dani's boyfriend" during his regular stint. 

[Dan F]

1 hour ago, adam436 said:

Do we know what episode was the beginning of Coral's reign?

3371

[j.laur5]

1 hour ago, Dan F said:

3371

Thanks that’s quite late in year and after ferry disaster and Paris leaving. 
 

[adam436]

Maybe Irene would have gone to jail for killing Angie?

[j.laur5]

8 hours ago, adam436 said:

Maybe Irene would have gone to jail for killing Angie?

Coral created Angie and it’s likely she'd never had existed had she not come on board . 
 

[James Martin]

Coral pushed hard against axing Irene so that wouldn't have happened.

[Homeandawayfan.]

The original Irene was very scary, she was one of those tyrannical parents who masked her abuse as "discipline". As discussed in another thread, is it no wonder Damo and Finn never went to the authorities in the early 1990s.