Does the show need an injection of life, if so, then what?

[cymbaline]

H&A has never seemed to value its history, so it makes sense that they rarely bother acknowledging milestones. 

[adam436]

The show seemed to embrace and celebrate its history in the 2000s with Sally's non-wedding, Summer Bay's bicentenary, Sally's farewell and Alf's 60th bring people back.

We also had a number of characters back for Sally's wedding to Flynn, Lance's frequent appearances and other characters like Pippa, Carly, Floss and Sophie back for the visits outside of the mass returnee events.

Most of those events didn't line up with a milestone though except for Alf's 60th.

It kind of makes sense that past characters from the first 20-25 years rarely come back these, since they are mostly irrelevant now except for a handful that were closely connected to Alf, Leah and Marilyn.

[c120701]

On 16/11/2025 at 22:43, cymbaline said:

H&A has never seemed to value its history, so it makes sense that they rarely bother acknowledging milestones. 

I think they have, but where they’ve never been good is using the history when introducing characters in the past 15 years or so that could fit into the right age group.

Irene’s kids or grandsons, Alf’s family (Duncan as a more permanent character (or sufficient kids) or Martha Jnr.

It’s a shame Bondi Rescue is on 10 as Ryan Clark as Sam would be a good connection between Alf & Marilyn.

Edited November 23, 2025 by c120701

[adam436]

Even in the current format, Irene's grandchildren could have been any of the generic twentysomethings in the last 10-15 years instead of the random lodgers she ended up with.

[j.laur5]

Even Maggie could be Finlay instead and Ben could be Finlay's Husband and would only mean two sons instead of two daughters. 
 

I always thought if they ever brought back Finlay, recast Lisa McCune would be good choice for the role and we then would have both Georgia Parker and Lisa McCune on show together.

I think if Pippa had stayed there’s  a good chance children of her past foster children like Carly and Sophie children would come live with her for whatever reason.

As Irene aged it made sense for her no longer having foster children with her and by no means I am calling Irene old lady but just saying .

 

[cymbaline]

It's easier for them to conjure up brand new characters than to reach back into history and try to tie new faces to past characters. It's so easy to get something wrong. Then again, they made a mess of the Martha and Heather retcons and it probably didn't matter to anybody other than long-term fans. I've always thought Duncan would be a good character to bring back permanently, especially as he still has strong links to Summer Bay. I can't help but think they don't want to because he has too much on-screen history. 

[adam436]

4 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

I've always thought Duncan would be a good character to bring back permanently, especially as he still has strong links to Summer Bay. I can't help but think they don't want to because he has too much on-screen history. 

They would also have to acknowledge that Ailsa existed if they brought back Duncan

It some ways it feels like she was completely retconn-ed out of existence when Martha was brought back from the dead. 

[cymbaline]

Oh I'd bet good money that's exactly what has happened to Ailsa. Speaking of whom, we've just passed the 25th anniversary of Ailsa's death (Australian pace). I bet there are writers on the show who weren't even born when she tried to move those boxes. 

[CaptainHulk]

On 24/11/2025 at 19:41, adam436 said:

They would also have to acknowledge that Ailsa existed if they brought back Duncan

It some ways it feels like she was completely retconn-ed out of existence when Martha was brought back from the dead. 

Dan needs to upgrade to a anger emoji on the reaction selection

[Luigi Severus Fletcher]

On 28/08/2025 at 07:22, adam436 said:

Since the current producers seem so against younger families, David and Roo pairing would be a compromise to giving Summer Bay House an injection of life if he moved in with his daughters. 

It would also give Alf two "granddaughters", be a support for Roo during the guest foster storyline. I guess the downside would be during the early stages of the relationship development, having Roo disappear for weeks or months at a time.

Marilyn would be pushed out of Summer Bay House in that case, so I guess she would need to find a new home.

Marilyn probably needs a permanent love interest more (since Roo has Alf and the fostering stuff), but Roo would have longer-term benefits for Alf and Summer Bay House.

 

If Marilyn and David were to get together, she could move back to her old house.

The show needs a bit more diversity, Neighbours has done it, why not Home and Away?

I'd love to see an Asian family, Indian family, Hispanic family, Middle-Eastern family or a Black family move to Summer Bay, hell turn it up a notch and make the family either Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Shintoist or Muslim. That'd make for some interesting storylines. Maybe they could give Roo a foster kid of one of the aforementioned backgrounds.

Even Prisoner had people who weren't of the Christian faith in it (they had Hannah Geldschmidt (Jewish) and Yemil Bakarta (assumed to be Muslim)) and that was the 1970s and 1980s.

Edited November 27, 2025 by Luigi Severus Fletcher