Best/Worst character exits

[adam436]

Given Vinnie's colourful life off-screen since 2002, there is certainly scope for him to still be alive. I'd say the fact that we are now another three husbands down the line (maybe more by the time Ada calls it quits!) and VJ is long gone, that ship has well and truly and sailed. 

Edited May 29 by adam436

[Revealed]

The type of exits that annoy me are those where someone gets the opportunity to move elsewhere whether it's a job offer or something else but they have to move straight away. Then they leave with all their belongings packed into 2 bags. I really wish it was that simple in real life. 

Another type is where they go somewhere temporarily and then decide later down the line they're not coming back. Just seems pointless and there's no reason why they can't just make it a permanent move in the first place,

I don't mind the Matt/Rob type exits. There used to be a TV show in the UK called Byker Grove and in the early 90s at least there were quite a few characters who just suddenly weren't on the show anymore with no explanation of what happened to them. 

[cymbaline]

Pippa's exit was more drawn out, yet there are people who don't like how she went..

Let's not forget we're living in the land of television, where certain shorthands are accepted. Someone going househunting and putting things into boxes for a month doesn't make for good TV. I have no problem with characters moving away within a few episodes of the idea being floated. It's nice for the actors to have a goodbye scene, and for the audience to close that chapter on them. I never watched Byker Grove but am aware of what it was. I hate the idea of characters just randomly vanishing. Matt and Rob weren't the most memorable of characters, so I daresay most people only noticed they'd gone when they vanished from the opening credits. 

[j.laur5]

But I do think Pippa had actually run her course by time she left .

So  i wasn’t too sorry she left when she did as had she  stayed her storylines would had just  recycled and given Debra recently said in her latest interview she wasn’t going to stay long term I think Debra felt same that Pippa character went as far as she could without same old storylines happening. 
 

In lot respects I do think Irene and Ailsa had more potential than Pippa with storylines. 
 

I for one could not imagine Pippa in Irene storylines  and just like couldn’t imagine Irene in Pippa storylines . 

[Red Ranger 1]

I think it's more acceptable on something like Byker Grove, which is off screen for half a year so you can believe characters have moved away in the gap between series or just stopped attending the youth club, than with something like Home and Away which is on pretty much all year round and where we're meant to be privvy to every aspect of the characters' lives.

[Revealed]

I get that a real life type relocation won't make for good telly but the quickness of how quickly Tori had to move to London for example was ridiculous.

Characters used to vanish mid-series on Byker Grove. One example that springs to mind was Gary. Him and Angel broke up and then Angel moved away and Gary was never seen again after that. He was one of the biggest characters at the time. The thing is Summer Bay is supposed to be a close knit rural community but Big Alf is the only one who's lived there all his life. The fact it's set in a town rather than a specific street means characters can easily come and go without having to move to or move out of Summer Bay.

They did used to introduce characters who were already living in Summer Bay but I think John Palmer was the last one who was already living there before he appeared on our screens.

[adam436]

12 hours ago, Revealed said:

Another type is where they go somewhere temporarily and then decide later down the line they're not coming back. Just seems pointless and there's no reason why they can't just make it a permanent move in the first place,

I do wonder if sometimes there are behind-the-scenes reasoning for it that we aren't aware of, like maybe an actor giving short notice of their exit. 

The ones that stand out for me are Dan Baker and Beth Hunter. I understand they both had to be killed off due to their ties to Summer Bay/current characters, but why did the writers decide to kill them off off-screen after the actors had made their final appearances. It could be a timing thing with storylines - Beth died on the same day Kit gave birth and Tom Fletcher told Sally that Leah was going to need her or something along those lines. 

 

 

13 hours ago, Revealed said:

I don't mind the Matt/Rob type exits. 

Rob's exit kind of worked for me because he was slowly isolated from his regular interactions with the characters: he moved out of Irene's house, he quit his job at the school and bought the boat shed (a business regular characters had little reason to frequent) and his friendship with Donna was pretty much over. Travis and Donna left a few weeks after him as well. 

I can't comment on Matt's exit as I haven't watched that era, but did Matt's had a similar foregrounding or was he still living with Adam and Marilyn and working at the diner? I believe his exit got explained later on though, so there was probably a behind-the-scenes reason Greg Benson just disappeared. 

 

11 hours ago, cymbaline said:

Pippa's exit was more drawn out, yet there are people who don't like how she went..

It was drawn out and overall I enjoyed her journey of leaving Summer Bay with Ian, but I think the issues lay with the "temporary" nature of it - she went travelling around Australia, leaving her foster children in the care of Travis and Rebecca. Ian returned later to explain they'd settled in the Carrington Ranges and to take Tegan with them.

From all accounts, it sounds like Debra Lawrence was adamant she was ready to move on, so it begs the question why the writers opted not to make it permanent from the start: Was it so that Pippa didn't look bad by completely abandoning her foster children (by the time Ian returned, Justine and Sam were settled with the Nashes and Donald)? Were the producers still hoping they could persuade Debra to come back after she'd had some time out? Was Pippa such an important character that they felt a softer exit was the best approach? 

[CaptainHulk]

On 29/05/2025 at 21:24, adam436 said:

Given Vinnie's colourful life off-screen since 2002, there is certainly scope for him to still be alive. I'd say the fact that we are now another three husbands down the line (maybe more by the time Ada calls it quits!) and VJ is long gone, that ship has well and truly and sailed. 

Elijah confirmed he had died. 

[hapitoby]

9 hours ago, CaptainHulk said:

Elijah confirmed he had died. 

Theu could easily explain that he was mistaken/ Vinnie had it set up so Leah could move on, he had to fake it yet agai

[Revealed]

On 31/05/2025 at 23:01, adam436 said:

I do wonder if sometimes there are behind-the-scenes reasoning for it that we aren't aware of, like maybe an actor giving short notice of their exit. 

The ones that stand out for me are Dan Baker and Beth Hunter. I understand they both had to be killed off due to their ties to Summer Bay/current characters, but why did the writers decide to kill them off off-screen after the actors had made their final appearances. It could be a timing thing with storylines - Beth died on the same day Kit gave birth and Tom Fletcher told Sally that Leah was going to need her or something along those lines. 

 

 

Rob's exit kind of worked for me because he was slowly isolated from his regular interactions with the characters: he moved out of Irene's house, he quit his job at the school and bought the boat shed (a business regular characters had little reason to frequent) and his friendship with Donna was pretty much over. Travis and Donna left a few weeks after him as well. 

I can't comment on Matt's exit as I haven't watched that era, but did Matt's had a similar foregrounding or was he still living with Adam and Marilyn and working at the diner? I believe his exit got explained later on though, so there was probably a behind-the-scenes reason Greg Benson just disappeared. 

 

It was drawn out and overall I enjoyed her journey of leaving Summer Bay with Ian, but I think the issues lay with the "temporary" nature of it - she went travelling around Australia, leaving her foster children in the care of Travis and Rebecca. Ian returned later to explain they'd settled in the Carrington Ranges and to take Tegan with them.

From all accounts, it sounds like Debra Lawrence was adamant she was ready to move on, so it begs the question why the writers opted not to make it permanent from the start: Was it so that Pippa didn't look bad by completely abandoning her foster children (by the time Ian returned, Justine and Sam were settled with the Nashes and Donald)? Were the producers still hoping they could persuade Debra to come back after she'd had some time out? Was Pippa such an important character that they felt a softer exit was the best approach? 

Could be they were given a break and a new contract was on the table if they wanted it. When they decided against it they were killed off. 

With Matts exit it came in the penultimate episode of 1991. In the final episode of that year as I recall he was mentioned but not seen "Matt's waiting in the car" was said at one point I believe. Then that was it. Adam did acknowledge somewhere down the line that Matt had moved out but I don't think he mentioned whether he'd left town or just found a new property to live in. He did move out at some point though because he came back for a guest stint years later.