Would anyone like to see new foster family move into Summer Bay House in 1998 after Pippa left?.

[j.laur5]

I know they gave Pippa an open ended exit even though we knew she left permanently, but just say if Pippa had been leaving Summer Bay for good and sold the house, would you have liked to see new foster family move in?

As remaining foster kid Sam could easily have moved in with Donald, and Justine and Tiegan could have moved in with Alf & Ailsa, or Irene or even another one moving in with Donald. 

Rebecca and Travis just did not seem believable as foster parents as they seemed too young, at least when Natalie and Joel moved in they seemed more believable given they were older. 

[nenehcherry2]

Pretty sure you've created this very same topic several times over the years now 

My own view: No (capital "N" intended). An entirely new foster family happening to coincidentally move into the very same house that another foster parent owned for 10 years wouldn't have been realistic. It wasn't as though the DOCS owned Summer Bay House. 

Whilst Pippa was at the heart of the show, we'd seen other adults move into fostering (of sorts, at least) within the first couple of years. Some of whom were original characters themselves or had significant tenure (i.e. Irene). Another foster family wasn't needed, in my view, and would have felt too forced. Besides, I personally enjoyed watching Trav & Rebecca making mistakes and realising it wasn't the best decision; I can imagine that happens all to often in reality.

"if it ain't broken, don't fix it".

Digression alert: TPTB have always been so determined to keep Summer Bay House on the show. The Beach House would appear to be only other "home set" which hit similar degrees of iconism. When both Maz and then Bobby / Greg left the show, they could have just let it disappear into the ether (as so many others did). But, no, they showed a third consecutive established Bay resident purchase it and hence it remains, 30 years on. 

Edited May 19 by nenehcherry2

[j.laur5]

2 hours ago, nenehcherry2 said:

Pretty sure you've created this very same topic several times over the years now 

My own view: No (capital "N" intended). An entirely new foster family happening to coincidentally move into the very same house that another foster parent owned for 10 years wouldn't have been realistic. It wasn't as though the DOCS owned Summer Bay House. 

Whilst Pippa was at the heart of the show, we'd seen other adults move into fostering (of sorts, at least) within the first couple of years. Some of whom were original characters themselves or had significant tenure (i.e. Irene). Another foster family wasn't needed, in my view, and would have felt too forced. Besides, I personally enjoyed watching Trav & Rebecca making mistakes and realising it wasn't the best decision; I can imagine that happens all to often in reality.

"if it ain't broken, don't fix it".

Digression alert: TPTB have always been so determined to keep Summer Bay House on the show. The Beach House would appear to be only other "home set" which hit similar degrees of iconism. When both Maz and then Bobby / Greg left the show, they could have just let it disappear into the ether (as so many others did). But, no, they showed a third consecutive established Bay resident purchase it and hence it remains, 30 years on. 

No I haven’t made a topic on this before.

[Luigi Severus Fletcher]

They could have recycled the storyline and changed parts like they did with Karen and Greg's storyline in Prisoner with Petra and Scott. The Sutherlands and Nashes just never vibed as much as The Fletchers/Rosses did.

[adam436]

7 hours ago, Luigi Severus Fletcher said:

The Sutherlands and Nashes just never vibed as much as The Fletchers/Rosses did.

I actually enjoyed the Nashes. The problem was that it in hindsight, it seems like they were just a stop gap between the Rosses and the Sutherlands.

From memory, Pippa's exit was written as temporary with her and Ian travelling around Australia, despite Debra officially leaving the show, and then made permanent the following year when Ian returned to say they'd settled in the Carrington Ranges. I'm not sure why the writers didn't rip the bandaid off straight away and make it permanent. Maybe the producers thought they could persuade Debra to come back?

Then we had a period between the Nash house burning down and Travis and Rebecca leaving where we essentially had two families in the one house. I liked them all indivually, but the set up didn't quite work.

By the time Travis and Rebecca left, Joel and Natalie only had a few months as the main parents at Summer Bay House before they started to be written out.

I agree about the Sutherlands though. I never warmed to Rhys in the same way I did to Joel, Tom and to a lesser extent Michael, and having three girls (4 with Brodie!) a similar age and personality didn't help either. They would have worked better with at least one boy in the mix, but ideally a younger child too like we had Sam and Sally in the early years. Maybe that's why Max was created?

[cymbaline]

Another possibility is that they were trying to shake things up but weren't quite sure where to go next. They had almost 8 years of a married couple living in Summer Bay House, then another year and a half of a single parent occupying the same role. It is an interesting theory though. It might explain why they gave Pippa such a low-key exit. 

[j.laur5]

I wondered why Pippa asked Rebecca & Travis to look after kids and the Park as they were only young and in their mid 20s and even though she barely knew Joel and Natalie .  I thought Joel and Natalie would be better to ask given they were older and Joel being police officer and Natalie school teacher with two kids you think they seem like better option even if Pippa had only just met them.  

While we all know Joel and Natalie were created to replace Pippa but took well over year before they move into Summer Bay House and by time Rebecca and Travis left and few months later Natalie left and Joel moved out. 
 

I was watching 2001 episodes little while ago and watching drop in centre being run by Shelley Sutherland it’s something I definitely could see Pippa doing if she had stuck around as while Pippa was not social worker like Shelley was but since she had years of being foster  parent and former nurse so  she  should been able to get qualified as being social worker as would be good direction to take Pippa character in  given her  career in something bigger then just working as school officer receptionist as I think eventually Irene  still  would taken  over  from Pippa job as school receptionist from Pippa even if Pippa had stayed as i think Irene was more suited to school receptionist then Pippa and once they found different direction for Pippa such as running drop in centre it would seem better for fit for Pippa character . 

As I say  if Pippa had stayed we wouldn’t have had characters like Natalie and Shelley . 
 

 

 

Edited June 30 by j.laur5

[j.laur5]

@adam436why are you confuse for because Joel and Natalie were still to new and strangers for them to take over running Summer Bay House. 

[cymbaline]

I can't speak for Adam here but I think Pippa would've been mad to ask two people she barely knew to look after things, simply based on their age. Even though Travis and Rebecca were younger they were mature, sensible people who she had known for a while. They also knew her foster kids. It made perfect sense that she'd ask people she knew and trusted to keep an eye on things. Besides, when you think of all those ridiculously young couples they routinely married on Home and Away in those early years, Travis and Rebecca looked like pensioners. 

[adam436]

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

I can't speak for Adam here but I think Pippa would've been mad to ask two people she barely knew to look after things, simply based on their age. 

Yes, that makes no sense to me either.

 

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

Even though Travis and Rebecca were younger they were mature, sensible people who she had known for a while. They also knew her foster kids. It made perfect sense that she'd ask people she knew and trusted to keep an eye on things.

And a softer transition for the show too. It would be quite jarring for the viewers to see a new couple come in and take over the existing foster children, and would have made no sense to farm out Tegan, Justine and Sam to other households just to move a new foster family in there.

It also gave them a new direction as characters post-wedding. I can't think what the writers would have done with them after that, other than trying for a family, so they would have probably just tread water.

Travis and Rebecca did not acquire any new foster children, so I assume the plan was for them to just see Justine and Tegan through to adulthood. If Nic and Belinda stuck around beyond that, they probably would have been given new foster children to work with.