Best/Worst character exits

[Revealed]

I've been going through the 1992 episodes again to see where Adam mentions Matt. Up to April and the nearest he's come is telling Nick and Lucinda there's a spare room at his place.

What I've discovered from skimming through these episodes is that these great ideas he has that go wrong is literally all he does. Once they end in disaster he'll disappear for a few episodes and as soon as he's back he's onto the next one.

On a side note the first episode in 1992 where we see one of the regulars in a bikini is 985 where we see Fin in one.

[cymbaline]

On 07/07/2025 at 21:37, Sb boy said:

 Adam was a character I really didn’t like. He felt by 1990 like a poor man’s.  Dibble   Even. Though  Marty. Was on his way out. It was a mistake to make such. A lothsome. Character. The get rich. Quick.  Role  Matt was just pointless really    Unlike lance who was.  A very Nieve and fun. Character  and the conscience  to Marty. Matt stevans was  a good actor  I just hated. His character. I would put. Adam. At  the top of my most hated character list. Along with. Jack Wilson 

I never liked Lance or Martin and feel they should've been written out long before they did. But hey, it'd be a very dull world if we all thought the same! They quickly ran out of ideas for Matt and Adam as well. I think staying on Home and Away for so long put the brakes on Mat Stevenson's acting career. I mostly remember Adam for the scruffy clothes and stupid scams now. When he was given something to do, you could see that Mat was a good actor. 

Jack wasn't the most likeable of characters, but I like that he never totally reformed. Unlike most of the other teens who were fostered in those years, he desperately wanted to go home and continued to be hurt by his family's rejection of him. Even though he matured and became a nicer person, causing trouble was never off the cards. Interestingly, when he came back for Sally's wedding a few years later, he apologised to Pippa for being such a pain in the you know whats. 

[adam436]

1 hour ago, cymbaline said:

I never liked Lance or Martin and feel they should've been written out long before they did. 

Martin had potential as an individual character (when you consider characters like Vinnie and Martin succeeded him), but the producers really weren't keen on breaking them up, even when Marilyn came along. I was never that keen on Lance though. I feel like they took his dim-wittedness to unrealistic levels at times.

When you look at the rubbish they were given in 1989/1990 like the fish funeral, the hotdog stand and the band story, it did felt like they belonged more in a sitcom rather than a soap. You could argue that with some of the 1988 stuff like Santa Never Stops in Summer Bay.

[cymbaline]

There were times when Lance's dim-wittedness felt uncomfortable to me. Characters who are slow on the uptake have been around forever, but Lance was a step too far. There were times when I wondered if Lance had special needs, and if it was right to be having him do x and y. Martin was the stronger character and would've managed just fine on his own. 

[adam436]

26 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

There were times when Lance's dim-wittedness felt uncomfortable to me. Characters who are slow on the uptake have been around forever, but Lance was a step too far. There were times when I wondered if Lance had special needs, and if it was right to be having him do x and y. 

I agree. I've never considered the intellectual disablity angle before, but I can see what you mean. It was toned down somewhat in 1989 when Marilyn was introduced, but for much of 1988 it certainly went too far.

 

  

29 minutes ago, cymbaline said:

Martin was the stronger character and would've managed just fine on his own. 

I agree. As I've said Adam was pretty much a new Martin, so they could have kept Martin ticking along and written out Adam and it wouldn't have made too much difference. The writers had a reluctance to break them up though, even though I feel both would have been stronger without the other - Lance could have been married off to Marilyn and had the newlyweds/young couple stories and Martin could have continued  on in Adam's storylines, but just had him interact with a wider range of characters. 

Lance and Martin as a double act was starting to run out of steam by early 1989. Perhaps that's why Marilyn was brought in to shake up the dynamic? The writers could have and should have invested more time in making them independent of the other. They could have remained BFFs, but just not so co-dependent on each other. 

Edited Friday at 23:46 by adam436

[j.laur5]

8 hours ago, cymbaline said:

There were times when Lance's dim-wittedness felt uncomfortable to me. Characters who are slow on the uptake have been around forever, but Lance was a step too far. There were times when I wondered if Lance had special needs, and if it was right to be having him do x and y. Martin was the stronger character and would've managed just fine on his own. 

But the Lance we saw in the 2000s certainly was much mature and brighter. 
 

I enjoyed Morag and Lance screens as while Morag name called Lance lot but deep down I don’t think Morag minded Lance .

I think early years was also meant to be about small town with misfits as Lance and Martin weren’t only characters in early years that didn’t seemed like they sharpest tools in shed.

[adam436]

20 hours ago, j.laur5 said:

But the Lance we saw in the 2000s certainly was much mature and brighter.

It's possible he just matured in 10 years. It does happen to some people. 

[Red Ranger 1]

11 hours ago, adam436 said:

It's possible he just matured in 10 years. It does happen to some people. 

Yes but you don't tend to stop being special needs in ten years, which suggests people are reading things into it that wasn't intended.

[cymbaline]

It's just an observation, not a declaration. He was so simple at times, it made me wonder what was going on. In reality, it was just bad writing.