All Soaps: Vintage Articles

[DRW50]

The story with the dying patient and Susan sounds interesting. Is Rhys still around?

Between some of that story, her stealing the family dog's body (!), and then the tizzy over Sarah's return, Susan reads as somewhat mentally disturbed here.

She looks so much like one of my relatives in those hospital photos, it's a little eerie.

Very frank interview with Nicola Charles (perhaps more frank than her ex might have liked). I'll have to check out some of her return. It sounds like they could have done more with her and Karl.

The male stripper article smells like a PR stunt, but if there ever was any raunchy footage I wish they'd put it on DVD, for Jesse Spencer and Alan at least. I think Daniel McLachlan showed his ass on The Bill later on, and wasn't he a stripper on one of those Comic Relief specials.

Don't let Eric read that Kylie article.

What soap role did Kimberly Davies play?

What was the story with the dummy?

[soapgirluk]

no Rhys died recently after the gas explosion at Toadie & Sonia's Wedding

Kimberly Davies played Annalise Hartman, her characters non wedding was 1 of my favourite ever. Her fiance jilted her to become a priest lol

[Bright Eyes]

What did you think of Katya and the actress her who played her? I thought she was completely awful on Dollhouse.

[Ben]

I loved that story, too. Some people didn't, but I loved the whole story arc of Mark grappling with his feelings for Annalise, and his Church calling. I loved their characters. And the guy who played Mark was great - he went on to play a psycho rapist on Home & Away, and was really good on there, too.

I loved Katya. She really brought the drama. Obviously, Dichen Lachman wasn't great, but I felt she improved from how she started. They didn't give her too many emotional scenes, which was good, and the nature of her stories didn't really warrant them. At least she had chemistry with most of her co-stars, except for wooden Ned. I hated that pairing. Ned sucked with everyone they paired him with, in a vein attempt to make him interesting.

Sadly, Rhys has now left. Ben Barber decided to quit, which was a shame. He was a very interesting character. Some found him to cold and selfish, but that was part of his charm, as he was different, and his backstory really explained a lot of that.

The Susan/Jim/Karl story sounds (and should have been) interesting, but they bungled it up the moment they had Susan split from Karl for no logical reason. They couldn't explain Susan's motivations at this point, so the whole story ended up being really bad. They should have stayed together, and explored Susan's need to discover herself as a couple. After all, all she ever did was become a journalist.

Stealing Audrey's body was so funny, in a cringe-y way. Karl had to sieve through the hard rubbish looking for her body, and their relief at finding her was so genuine. I can see how Susan must look completely crazy when reading these all together. They could have possibly done more with Sarah & Karl, but I did love how well it was written. You could see the strong narrative flow, the beginning, middle and end, the pacing and plotting was good. The moment Sarah and Karl kissed. and she realized he didn't feel the same as her, and that she can't recapture the past, was so sad. You could see she still loved him, and really regretted marrying that other doctor. There was room for Sarah to stay permanently, as they built up a connection with Paul, but at the same time, Sarah and her two kids wouldn't have really fitted in with all the new families arriving.

I was surprised by NC's frankness, too. But I love interviews like that. I commend her for being so honest.

The stripper story was well planned. They made a proper story out of it, and had weeks of rehearsals, with Drew being so nervous that he locked himself in his house! And Harold rocking back and forth in his chair, locked in an anxious trance, right at the point when he was supposed to be on stage. Yeah, Daniel MacPherson did get naked on The Bill, and appear in one of the Comic Relief specials.

As soapgirluk said, Kimberley Davies played Annalise. You'll read more on her when I post the Harold/Lou stuff.

Oh, the ventriloquist! I had to do a quick Google on this, and now I kinda remember it. The dummy belonged to boring Richard Jones, a guest character who moved in with Sarah and Ben Atkins. He didn't last long, as Bob the dog didn't like the dummy and tore it to shreds, forcing Richard to leave, devastated.

[Ben]

2006: Katya Kinski stories

2007

[DRW50]

Did Katya go back or did she stay on the run?

The Guy story sounds absurd, especially when Katya managed to shock him with the defib.

Was Max involved in her exit story at all? That Katya/Max story is far more interesting to me, and the second photo of them is pretty hot.

I wonder if Harold spoke with Paul about taking revenge on your son's killer.

They must have wanted to wrap up the evil twin story once and for all.

[Ben]

When Susan, Karl and Zeke tracked Katya down, she didn't really have the chance to make a decision, as Janelle Timmins and her cop boyfriend, Steiger were also in the area, and he arrested her. She ended up being beaten in prison, and decided to testify against Guy, which got her a suspended sentence. She was last seen giving evidence at Max's trial (for accidentally killing Cameron), which he got off from, as Robert made an appearance that proved he was totally pyscho and Max was right to fear or Katya's safety. Katya left town after getting a job as a nurse for the Adelaide Crows, wanting a fresh start.

The Guy stuff was all from the sensational era, and you really had to believe it to see it. At this point in the show's history, they were never short on drama. LOL.

I loved the Max/Katya story. They had chemistry. I thought it was really interesting, and quite sad at the same time. If it had been another time or place, then maybe they would have worked, but Max was married to Steph, and they were doomed to failure. At the time, Katya received a lot of stick was the "Stax" fans; Max & Steph fans could be hardcore about their favourite couple.

I don't remember, but I think their may have been the odd scene with Paul/Harold. I do remember that Lyn Scully disposed of the gun for Paul, by throwing it into Lassister's lake.

I think they missed a trick not keeping Cameron on the show, as he proved quite popular. I think it was very short sighted killing Cameron off, and leaving Paul with two dead children (Robert languishing in jail for life). There was so much more to explore between Paul/Cameron/Elle.

[DRW50]

Whatever happened to Max?

So he and Steph both ran over people, didn't they?

[Ben]

They did.

After Elle started gaslighting Max, who committed himself to the psych unit, he ended up leaving there and disappearing for 2 months. Elle saw him with another woman and some kids, and she assumed he had a secret family. When Max returned home, it turned out he met the woman and her husband in there local church where he was sleeping, and they offered him their spare room until he could sort himself out. Steph wasn't ready to forgive Max for abandoning his family, but agreed to try again. However, they soon realised their marriage was broken, and unable to fix it, they decided to divorce. Max moved away, and got a job on an oil rig in Bass Strait.

I wasn't completely sold on his exit story. I didn't really believe that their marriage was that broken, considering Elle did make him believe he was going mad. I think TPTB found themselves in a predicament when Stephen Lovett quit, and seeing as they'd killed off Cameron, had all the gun dramas, I can see why killing off Max was probably not something they wanted to do, and sending him to jail would have been totally wrong, which only left staging a slightly contrived exit to break up Max & Steph.

2004: Lana & Sky story

[DRW50]

What did you think of the story? It's ironic that the woman who played Lana said other soaps wouldn't get such a negative reaction to a lesbian character, since a few years later Home & Away scrapped their lesbian story due to homophobic reactions.

That sounds like a crappy exit for Max. I guess at least he wasn't killed (characters who leave to go to work on oil rigs sometimes are).

[soapgirluk]

I always thought Max left as he had a new family lol

spot the Girl who wasnt watching much then So thanks for posting to clarify my wrong thoughts

[Ben]

I loved the story, and Lana's character; she was quite popular with the fans. A lot of fans wanted her to become permanent, but Neighbours didn't have the guts back in 2004 to have a permanent gay character - thankfully, that has now changed. The story was from the Karl/Izzy era, so it was well thought out and Lana was developed and a very realistic young gay character. She didn't just have one opinion, she was multi-faceted, so there was always something you could relate to and identify with her. I don't think I've seen any other gay story where the character has spoken about the loneliness and wanting to feel "normal" in such a simple, realistic, everyday kind of way, like Lana did - like when she talked about watching other people and wondering how she could be normal like them. But Lana wasn't angst-y or tormented, she was fun and energetic. Sky's role was also believable, with her questioning her own sexuality - there were some really nice scenes between Sky and Harold during all this - and ultimately realising she was straight.

Well, H&A deny cutting their gay story short due to advance filming, but either way, it all ended horribly and insultingly. I've always felt it was all a PR stunt gone bad. They wanted the buzz and increased ratings, so publicized it to a Christian group, knowing they would give them the publicity they wanted. But it all backfired spectacularly and no-one was happy. It was like they suddenly had these eyeballs that they never really wanted scrutinizing the show and the storyline, which shone a spotlight on Channel Seven. To have their first lesbian character in over a decade suffer homophobic abuse, and get raped, only for Charlie to cheat on Joey with a guy, was horrible. They really screwed the fans over with that one. It was also very random for Charlie to have done that anyway. The bottom line is, H&A is the worst soap when it comes to gay characters - they haven't had many, but what they have done has been awful.

[DRW50]

What did you think of Sky?

[Ben]

Overall, I have fond memories of Sky. When she first entered the show, she had dark hair with blue extensions, and was fun, idealistic and moralistic - quite alternative in her style. She would condemn Izzy for all her lying and scheming, she would 'front up to duck protesters, she would stand up for her friends and family... Then she went blonde... meaning, they stripped her hair back to Stephanie MacIntosh's natural hair colour, and with it went a tiny part of Sky's character. Overall, she was a pretty consistent character, until around about the OTT years, and Sky found herself in a 'who's the daddy?' situation where 3 men were contenders for being her baby daddy! That's right, she pulled an Izzy, and lied about the baby's paternity. It was really out of character for her to sleep with 3 guys like that, and even more of a disbelief that she would become a hypocrite. They did have a humorous scene where Izzy found out about her lie and pointed out the obvious, but they didn't have Izzy blackmail her, instead Izzy sympathised and urged Sky to tell the truth. It did pave the way for a couple of decent stories, and they managed to return Sky to some form of her original self before she left.

2008: Nicola West stories

[DRW50]

What was the next story for Steve and Miranda?

I remember some fans talking about Nicola, and how they liked that she caused such problems for the Parkers. Didn't she come and go a few times?

The poisoning stuff is ludicrous but some of the rest seems OK, especially the conflict between Karl and Susan.

At first I thought they meant the dog was named Nicola too.