Hollyoaks:Retro
rivercity_rules
Posts: 24,270 Forum Member
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A thread to discuss Hollyoaks of yesteryear.
Memories of when the Bensons ruled the show.
When Rob Hawthorne was a true villain.
When Mandy, Cindy and Tony were kids.
When the McQueens were just a nightmare vision of the future.
When the show was truly fabulous!
Memories of when the Bensons ruled the show.
When Rob Hawthorne was a true villain.
When Mandy, Cindy and Tony were kids.
When the McQueens were just a nightmare vision of the future.
When the show was truly fabulous!
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Comments
Its hard to imagine Tony as a kid.
Or Max and Cindy played by different actors.
Mandy really doesn't seem to have aged all that much, she looked older than her years at 15 and looks younger than her years now. Odd.
Tony is such a dweeb.
Does anyone remember the spin off show where Tony had a restaurant away from the village that was similar to Il Gnosh? I think it was when Il Gnosh was Diva and the place had a multicoloured sign outside?
And her awful replacement cousin Ruth. Shudders!
I wonder what all these actors do now. I know we see Natalie Casey, Will Mellor and Jeremy Edwards now and again but not any of the others.
he could have returned to be friends with Tony.
(Also wish I'd seen the special on the speedboat, I never realised at the time that it was shown in a late night special and not just actually off-screen)
I have a vague memory of that, I can see the restaurant in my head painted in red? lol
They used to kill off everyone, suppose they still do.
Can't remember how long it lasted or anything, just the random image in my head (like a lot of things HO/Neighbours related) of the restaurant, I think it was brick outside and had stairs near the entrance.
I SOOOO Want to go on Wikipedia but these threads are keeping me up late enough without Wikipedia to keep me reading about characters a vaguely remember lol
I remember the naked on top of the bus scene being in the credits for years, even after both had left IIRC
It's easy to see Hollyoaks from yesteryear through Rose-coloured glasses, but the truth is the soap had a very rough start in it's initial few months, and Channel 4 came very close to cancelling it... Truthfully it was just plain bad -
When Hollyoaks first started rhe soap initially centred around just 7 main characters who all attended college/uni. While some of them were classic (like Jambo, and of course Tony), most of the others were useless and very badly acted. HO attracted very low viewing figures to start with and was universallly panned by the critics.
Hollyoaks only really blossomed when the some of the initial 7 were axed and the cast was SIGNIFICANTLY expanded. This happened about 6 months in when characters like CAROL and MANDY first appeared, and other background characters like CINDY were given more prominence.
Does anybody remember that?
Maybe ... lol It's confusing.
I can only remember Louise being terrible back then but then I was a kid so I wouldn't have really been looking out for acting skill.
If a channel had the decency to re-air the show, this confusion would be ended.
Of course there are going to be teething problems to begin with in the starting of a new soap, but as you say it really did pick up once the cast expanded. It was, and still is, so different to the stuffy main soaps.
How far in was the car crash? that was a prominent moment I think, really memorable moment.
Edit:Just had a sneek look, it was 1997! Can't believe it was so far into it! I remember Jude leaving though and that was before the crash so it was good before that.
again if someone would re-show it then we could more easily judge.
Dont get me wrong, they turned it around fairly quickly. Characters like Carol joined just a few months in, but that was after some big changes at the soap.
The truth is, the initial idea for the soap - 7 students and their lives, didnt work.
Hollyoaks had to turn a little bit like the other soaps in that it developed the idea of being a PLACE where FAMILIES lived, rather than a show about just one group of mates.
As I say, they turned it round real quick. But very early Hollyoaks is eyewateringly bad.
6 month turnaround is pretty good.
River City is currently better (imo) and more consistent than the main soaps, but honestly for over a year it was difficult to watch, some good bits of course, but still not great. Out Of The Blue is excellent just now aswell, but was cancelled within a few weeks. Thank God HO started when there wasn't so much competition and was given the chance to grow.
Some of the early stuff like Mandys ordeals, Robs scare tactics etc were so brilliant.
She has Judes personality. Amy reminds me of how Cindy used to be, involved herself in a few stupid things but wasn't an out and out nasty girl.
Mandy, Jambo, Kurt, Finn ... all great characters.
I've never liked Ruth!
They were quick off the mark with Hollyoaks, they spotted their flaws real quick, and changed them. Although to be fair if were really going back EastEnders and Coronation Street had really GOOD starts, attracting high viewing figures from their first episodes.
Emmerdale (Farm) didnt do so well, It attracted poor viewing figures for the first couple of years, and some ITV regions stopped showing it!
Neighbours also had a rocky start, it was actually CANCELLED by one channel in Australia, only to be picked up by another channel. Viewing figures remained bad in Australia, and the second channel were going to cancel Neighbours as well... but luckily the soap took off over here in the UK, and was saved from the axe.
Who was Rob's girlfriend/Kurt's sister? Can picture her - pasty blonde girl but can't remember her name.
Was Brookside popular from the get go? Or did it have to go through a revamp too?