Rewatching The Early Years

[j.laur5]

Cornelia Frances was type actress that could make any character she played are strong character and always put her heart and soul into it. 
 

But unfortunately I can understand why she didn’t last long on H&A as regular as direction they were taking show in she wasn’t type character that would fit in that era  of H&A and why would like to see Morag and Bobby have bit development but unfortunately writers seemed to want  keep them hating each other and was starting get bit old them throwing insults at each other. 
 

I could see Morag being one to put Lois  in her place had Morag somehow still be on show til 1991. 
 

But I think H&A did well keeping 5 original characters for first ten years though Pippa being recast. 
 

Irene and Sam and Marilyn all being around 5 years or more mark by 1998.

Edited March 4 by j.laur5

[CaptainHulk]

On 02/03/2025 at 23:07, j.laur5 said:

I could see Morag being one to put Lois  in her place had Morag somehow still be on show til 1991. 

 

"I'm afraid Miss Crawford, that Your bag of tricks is rather empty now, isn't it?" *smug Joker-esque grin from the ep she called that Boys' school for Sam, followed by Freeze-Frame and Lois with a face like a slapped arse*

[Sb boy]

I am currently rewatching the early years. Up to mid 1993  episode 1280 so along way till I reach morags. 1993 return not really  long. But I am looking forward to it  I would have loved to have seen morag. Become a regular again. From 2003 to 2011. I can’t understand why she never was added to the main credits  opening. She did more than some of the so called main cast in those years   One thing  I never understood was  why. She was softened. In her last. Stint  although still kept a  sarcastic. Tone   My personal.  Fave moment from the 2000s was Morag vs Diana Fraser

[j.laur5]

Been rewatching 1988 and 1989 episodes recently. I must say I really felt Vanessa Downing's Pippa and Sally had great chemistry, foster mum and daughter chemistry. I felt that Ailsa and Pippa seemed closer friends when Vanessa was playing Pippa. 
 

Other thing I noticed in watching Early years is how often names were reused. We had Doris Peters and Bobby's mum called Doris and other women was mentioned being Doris when Lance asked Colleen who did dad run off with and Sally had friend called offscreen Carly and other student at Summer Bay high was called Morris.

Also when Floss was going undercover to get babysitting job to meet her grandson and used Mrs Neville as her false name and surely you think Floss would think off better false surname then her husband and father of her son who’s wants nothing to with them. 

Edited Saturday at 09:49 by j.laur5

[Old H&A Fan]

They reused "Debbie" a lot in Prisoner. There was Bee's daughter Debbie, then Doreen's false name was Debbie Ray. Doreen's flatmate in Sydney when Bee escaped was called Debbie, and Ken Pierce's daughter was also named Debbie.

[cymbaline]

 

Did the writers know about the names being recycled? Maybe it doesn't really matter, just as long as you don't have two Toms or Jacks onscreen at the same time. It happens in real life as we all know, and people just work out ways to avoid confusion when needed.

Floss was caught on the hop when she was asked for her name. Neville was the first name that came into her mind so she went with that. I don't think that bogus "Mrs Neville" name was an accident either. It could be a sign that Floss was flying a bit too close to the sun. It could be a joke by the writers. Maybe it was a commentary on the sort of parents the kid had, and how much they cared about their child's day-to-day welfare.

[adam436]

22 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

Also when Floss was going undercover to get babysitting job to meet her grandson and used Mrs Neville as her false name and surely you think Floss would think off better false surname then her husband and father of her son who’s wants nothing to with them. 

Floss was not that bright, so it was probably the best she could come up with on the spot. 

 

3 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Maybe it doesn't really matter, just as long as you don't have two Toms or Jacks onscreen at the same time. It happens in real life as we all know, and people just work out ways to avoid confusion when needed.

Agreed. It really doesn't matter as long as they aren't onscreen at the same time. Tom and Jack are also really common names. The regular cast has also included at least two Nicks, two Brodies (though different spellings), two Caseys, two Liams, two Chloes, two Natalies. The list goes on

I think the closest we've had (other than namesakes like Pippa, Casey) is probably when we had Dani Sutherland and Dan Baker on the show together for a few months. I had the H&A Classics channel on last night while I was making dinner and Brodie mentioned "Dan". The episode was from 2004 (a few months before Dan arrived), but it did take me a minute to work out they were actually referring to Dani. 

[CaptainHulk]

19 hours ago, Old H&A Fan said:

They reused "Debbie" a lot in Prisoner. There was Bee's daughter Debbie, then Doreen's false name was Debbie Ray. Doreen's flatmate in Sydney when Bee escaped was called Debbie, and Ken Pierce's daughter was also named Debbie.

Neighbours had about 5 Matts, EastEnders 4 Charlie's and Corrie 3 Michaels

[j.laur5]

3 hours ago, adam436 said:

Floss was not that bright, so it was probably the best she could come up with on the spot. 

 

 

Well Floss is certainly lot more brighter then Celia and Colleen and Marilyn and Martin and Lance for that matter. 
 
 

[hapitoby]

6 hours ago, adam436 said:

Floss was not that bright, so it was probably the best she could come up with on the spot. 

 

Agreed. It really doesn't matter as long as they aren't onscreen at the same time. Tom and Jack are also really common names. The regular cast has also included at least two Nicks, two Brodies (though different spellings), two Caseys, two Liams, two Chloes, two Natalies. The list goes on

I think the closest we've had (other than namesakes like Pippa, Casey) is probably when we had Dani Sutherland and Dan Baker on the show together for a few months. I had the H&A Classics channel on last night while I was making dinner and Brodie mentioned "Dan". The episode was from 2004 (a few months before Dan arrived), but it did take me a minute to work out they were actually referring to Dani. 

The only other time I can recall is early 2005 when we had two Scotts.  Scott Hunter was on the show two years and Scott Phillips had briefly returned but they show did well (as far as I remember) to distinguish them. Tbf I think SP only returned for an ep or 2 but was referenced a bit as Gus Phillips was back and had set up Kane. The conversations re: SP didn't get confusing (again as far as I can recall) because it was usually between Kane and Kirstie and in context with their storyline.