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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 436879" data-attributes="member: 23">From memory, I&#039;d say it generally got worse as the Nineties went on, but even in 1990 I&#039;m finding that the watchability of the series is variable depending who is on screen.Yes, 1990 is almost certainly the most significant year in the series&#039; history when it comes to departures.Regarding the Collinses, I haven&#039;t read too much about the behind-the-scenes with this, other than the official line that the Collinses were written out by necessity when Doreen died. I have wondered if other ways were considered that would have kept the rest of the family for longer.I feel&nbsp; the increase to three weekly episodes might have factored in to a number of the departures. I&#039;m sure it would have involved contractual changes and probably a bigger workload (not that I&#039;ve got anything to substantiate these suspicions).If it was a choice between having Billy and Sheila or Barry being developed, I know I&#039;d have preferred the former. In general I&#039;d say that Barry was more interesting with Sheila and Billy around, too (but there&#039;s probably a case to be made either way). Phil Redmond&#039;s book mentions &quot;Sue and John headed for theatre-land&quot;,&nbsp; so I suppose the official line was that they wanted to do more theatre work.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 436879, member: 23"] From memory, I'd say it generally got worse as the Nineties went on, but even in 1990 I'm finding that the watchability of the series is variable depending who is on screen. Yes, 1990 is almost certainly the most significant year in the series' history when it comes to departures. Regarding the Collinses, I haven't read too much about the behind-the-scenes with this, other than the official line that the Collinses were written out by necessity when Doreen died. I have wondered if other ways were considered that would have kept the rest of the family for longer. I feel the increase to three weekly episodes might have factored in to a number of the departures. I'm sure it would have involved contractual changes and probably a bigger workload (not that I've got anything to substantiate these suspicions). If it was a choice between having Billy and Sheila or Barry being developed, I know I'd have preferred the former. In general I'd say that Barry was more interesting with Sheila and Billy around, too (but there's probably a case to be made either way). Phil Redmond's book mentions "Sue and John headed for theatre-land", so I suppose the official line was that they wanted to do more theatre work. [/QUOTE]

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