Most Popular Character 2010

[jodlebirger]

Thanks again Ryan for this funny list.

hm... Remember reading peoples votes, and I think Charlie has got more votes than Aden.... So, as others have said amazing what a contorversial storyline can do... (and why on earth was it controversial??? It was more like a publicity stunt the way it was done, and she wasn't even believable in it.. Well, that's just me...)

I didn't expect belle to be in top 3, she has been dead for a while and that "oh no, why did they kill off Belle" has calmed down a bit. If this poll had been done a few months earlier, she might have been in top 2. And if the poll had been done in early 2009 in the middle of her drug storyline and after her cheating of Angelo, she wouldn't have been in top 5, so its just a question of time, sometimes. Well, but I didn't expect aden to be in top 3 either, but obviously he is... But the voting was closed before his disastrous last 4-5 weeks on the show.

Sally is probably on the top again, and I will say, amazing what a past like a child actor on the show can do to you... I saw on an another site, that little Harry was voted as the best actor last week and that says a lot... I never have understood the hype of Sally. Well I didn't watch H&A before 93/94 seasons (and not so much before 95..), so I haven't seen her as a little child, but... she wasn't in it much in her teens, the storylines revolved around other teen characters.. She did have a little fling with Vinnie, and then it was her non-wedding with Kiearan (or what his name was..), She wasn't much better as a teacher or headmaster than the other characters (I would say both fischer and Bartlett were better) and she was more like a sister figure to the teens than a mother...I do/did like the character but I don't think she was that exceptional, there are other characters who are, and have been, better.

Hm... Think that top three is like this: 1. Sally, 2. Charlie, 3. Aden.

Happy to see Leah in top 10, even I am the only one who have liked her more in the past year, than what I have seen of the 2010 season.

Irene, well that drinking storyline which totally dissapeared maybe have given her some extra votes, but I do think that no matter what those mainstay characters are doing or not doing, they are going to stay in the top 10. I am happy that this drinking storyline dissapeared, but I would have liked her to have more conversations with the young ones she is housing. She hardly didn't speak to Annie&Geoff, and not so much to belle either during their past year and a half on the show, and have we really seen her talking to Ruby?

As for Mathilda to be in the top ten; I really liked her.. She seemed realistic to me... But I liked her more without Ric.

Martha in top ten - expected that, she was Alf's grandaughter. Even if she had far too many over-the-top storylines, her interaction with Alf was very good.

If this poll had been done a few months later, Alf probably would have been in top 3, because he is in it all the time this year. But I am not like everyone else, and again I have to say, I really liked him more as a key character connecting the characters together, than having all his scenes with Miles and Marilyn and Leah. But still, I expected and wanted him to be in top 3!

I expected top three to be: 1. Sally, 2. Alf, 3. Charlie...

But I was a bit wrong with Alf there... And Charlie, that was what I believed after watching votes, not what I want... I would have want it to be Colleen!! She is so underrated!

[Foxy]

Whilst I wasn't expecting Charlie to be in the top 3, I don't think her popularity can be put solely down to her "sensationalist story" (though I genuinely can't figure if people are talking about Joey or Grant). I do think she's been pretty consistantly written, in the way that she sabotages her relationships, which has been something she's confronted this year. She is certainly one of the most solid characters we've had over the past year or so and she's provided us with some nteresting stories and scenes, both high profile and lower profile. I think Esther has played her pretty decently along the way too, always maintaining that slightly guarded part of the characters personality no matter what she's up to - I like the consistancy of that.

[jodlebirger]

Whilst I wasn't expecting Charlie to be in the top 3, I don't think her popularity can be put solely down to her "sensationalist story" (though I genuinely can't figure if people are talking about Joey or Grant). I do think she's been pretty consistantly written, in the way that she sabotages her relationships, which has been something she's confronted this year. She is certainly one of the most solid characters we've had over the past year or so and she's provided us with some nteresting stories and scenes, both high profile and lower profile. I think Esther has played her pretty decently along the way too, always maintaining that slightly guarded part of the characters personality no matter what she's up to - I like the consistancy of that.

Well, I don't know about the others, but I was thinking about her storyline with Joey as the most sensationalist storyline... That was the first one which got her a lot of attention, and the grant storyline was just an another sensationalist storyline... But that was even worse than the first one. I don't think she has been consistently written... The Ruby/Grant storyline was awful inconsistent and was hard for the writers to follow up, something that we have seen this year..

.... and first she was 26, then next she had a 16 year old daughter!! Even if she is sabotaging her relationship with Angelo, and also her relationship with Joey I think that somehow they forgot about Roman, he was the one who broke up with her because he had relationship issues, not her... hm.. thinking that her character may appeal more to the late teens and people in the twenties. I am too old, grumpy and cynical But I have seen that she is very popular (esp. on this forum), so I am not so suprised of her being in top 3... And she is a beautiful woman...

[ebrett84]

I'm shocked that Matilda's in the top 10 too. I never really disliked her but I certainly didn't find her memorable at all, she never really had any big storylines did she? This is quite puzzling

How can you forget the time she had bulimia (or was it anorexia?) and major self hate issues...for two weeks. And then went right back to playing strip poker, prancing round in a bikini and generally acting like she owned the place .

As for Charlie, yeah it's the sensationalist storylines that are doing it for her. I don't know why because they were both awful. The lesbian thing lasted for about a week and was pretty much never mentioned again. It was pretty obviously never intended to serve any purpose apart from getting H&A in the newspapers for a couple of days. And there was just so much wrong with the Grant / Ruby stuff I don't know where to begin. Between this and her hideous relationship with Angelo, yeah her popularity baffles me. I guess people are just suckers for a hot chick in a police uniform. Not that I blame them.

[alexx]

I just take these polls on here with a grain of salt, I mean they obviously reflect what the majority of the back to the bay members see as a top character which is all cool, but the fact that a character written so poorly as Matilda even made it top 20 shows it isn't a fair poll. I see a good character as one that is written well, consistently, with depth and structure, whether I like the character or not, if they are written like that I will enjoy watching them - Matilda as a character didn't hold any of those techniques in character writing therefore I wouldn't even rate her top 50. Especially when sold characters like Bobby, Shannon, Ailsa, Donald, Angel etc didnt even make it top 10.

[ter06]

I think this is probably the most interesting result we've ever had! I am guessing 3.Aden, 2.Charlie and 1.Sally. I would be disgusted if either pipped Sally to the post. People seem surprised at Charlie but remember Esther was also up for Gold so is obviously very popular, the fact she was nominated for Gold means she is one of the top 8 personalities in Australia!! Very surprised at Matilda, when the likes of Morag and Marilyn didnt make the top 10. I was hoping for an Irene/Alf/Sally top 3, considering Lynne's big stories last year and Ray really gelling back into the show this year.

[Ryan]

I just take these polls on here with a grain of salt, I mean they obviously reflect what the majority of the back to the bay members see as a top character which is all cool, but the fact that a character written so poorly as Matilda even made it top 20 shows it isn't a fair poll. I see a good character as one that is written well, consistently, with depth and structure, whether I like the character or not, if they are written like that I will enjoy watching them - Matilda as a character didn't hold any of those techniques in character writing therefore I wouldn't even rate her top 50. Especially when sold characters like Bobby, Shannon, Ailsa, Donald, Angel etc didnt even make it top 10.

Since I've done some maths and that, in 2006 I ran this side-thing on our 2006 poll showing if there was any correlation between time since leaving the show and actual number of points scored.

http://www.backtothebay.net/features/bestchar06/stats.shtml

Bobby scores 440 points.

Shannon scores 440 points.

Sally (Winner) scores 389 points.

Gypsy scores 363 points.

Angel scores 333 points.

Sophie scores 204 points.

And we had a tie between Bobby and Sophie. I'm sure if I had done it for the entire there is some flaws, but seem to indicate there was at least some linearity in the turnover of viewers each year.

For instance though, were I to do the same for this year, with the winners scored being multiplied by 1 and Lynn by 20, we'd see that Lynn Davenport would be more popular than the winner.

In fact using the same method for this poll, using characters that produce interesting numbers gives us.

Gypsy 240 points

Vinnie 204 points

Shannon 176 points

Bobby 170 points

Selina 143 points

Lynn 140 points

WINNER 114 points

Angie 110 points

Ailsa 102 points

Sophie 96 points

2nd 94 points

Angel 84 points

Shane 72 points

3rd 68 points

I do accept that the actual scores that are given as the results do obviously weight greatly to the more current characters, but if we go for the linear type weighting, they actual produce a pretty interesting result, at least not one that those who watched long term would argue with.

[Jamey-Maria]

I think this is probably the most interesting result we've ever had! I am guessing 3.Aden, 2.Charlie and 1.Sally. I would be disgusted if either pipped Sally to the post. People seem surprised at Charlie but remember Esther was also up for Gold so is obviously very popular, the fact she was nominated for Gold means she is one of the top 8 personalities in Australia!! Very surprised at Matilda, when the likes of Morag and Marilyn didnt make the top 10. I was hoping for an Irene/Alf/Sally top 3, considering Lynne's big stories last year and Ray really gelling back into the show this year.

It's the logies not nation wise census data, lol. I don't think people in other countries grasp how laughable a lot of the country actually find the logies. This isn't me trying to be nasty or anything, the fact that she was nominated does mean she's popular with viewers and tv week readers but top personality in AUSTRALIA? Bit rich.

I don't get how people argue with poll results for this and say so and so don't deserve to be there when it's based on populairty. And at the end of the day there were like 6 pages of votes? This board is a small percentage of viewers at the current time. It is an indication but If you were to look at the results over a series of time youd probably get a better idea of who is consistently popular rather than the flavour of the month because of favourite couples and what not.

Regarding Matilda I'm actually suprised that people are suprised by how popular she was. She made the top five the last time this was done too if I remember correctly. I personally think all the support for Indi comes from the fact that she looks and acts very similar to Matilda, because It's hard to grasp that a character that was on for a month and barely did anything could have that many people that really loved her.

[Ryan]

106 people voted. I think we got over 200 the last time, but that was because it was our special 20th anniversary vote.

[DinerLandlord]

This is fabulous, Charlie and Aden and Sally top 3!!! I'm not surprised about Sally and Aden at all, but I'm really surprised about Charlie. I adore her and I'm thrilled so many other do too obviously, I thought she was nowhere near as popular as that.