End of Season vs Copyright Year

[dr98]

As I'm sure most are aware, Sons and Daughters took a production break of 6-8 weeks over the summer months. With filming being done in advance, the end of season episodes would, I guess, be filmed around September/October, therefore many episodes of the following season would be filmed prior to the break.
There were often some inaccuracies in the end credits with regards to character names etc, but I'm convinced whoever was responsible for updating the copyright year often took their eye off the ball!

Below are the respective copyright years compared to the actual season endings, all seemingly varying wildly in the number of episodes produced!

Episodes 1 - 18 - 1981
Episodes 19 - 204 - 1982 (ep 174 cliffhanger)
Episodes 205 - 428 - 1983 (ep 352 cliffhanger)
Episodes 429 - 584 - 1984 (ep 528 cliffhanger)
Episodes 585 - 736 - 1985 (ep 696 cliffhanger)
Episodes 737 - 944 - 1986 (ep 868 cliffhanger)
Episodes 945 - 972 - 1987.

I have often tried to spot where the year should have been updated, looking for things like the actors having a suntan or slight change of hairstyle etc, but never with much success..
Any thoughts anyone?

[Si-Co]

I've wondered about this myself, and thanks for researching the dates involved. Yes, they change in copyright date didn't always appear to be too relaiable, and often they would revert to showing the previous year's caption for a few episodes after the apparent production break.

What was noticeable during the 1984, 85 and 86 seasons was the 'cast clearout' which seemed to coincide with the change of copyright year.

In 1984, John and Stephen left around episode 428.

in 1985, Jill and the O'Briens left in episode 584, and Amanda a few episodes later. Samantha first appeared an episode or two later, coinciding with Irene's return.

In 1986, Barbara left in episode 736, and Samantha an episode or so later. Irene, in many ways a 'regular', swiftly followed. This was also around the time when Susan was reintroduced, and Craig and Glen first appeared too.

I have to say the only really noticeable change in an actor's appearance was Leigh's hairstyle around the 584/585 point, and Alison's to a lesser degree between 736/737. That said, others on Graham's newslist (when it was running) seemed to comment on a few more obvious hair-changes around 584/585.

Remember the bizarre 'three month time lapse' in Episode 540 - I think that would have been more authentic had they asked the actors to have their hair cut/changed etc.

[dr98]

I would agree that 584 seems correct as the end of 1984 filming and 736 the end of 1985 filming, but 428 seems far too late to be the last produced in 1983. That would mean 220+ episodes filmed that year.
I personally think somewhere between 387 (arrival of the O'Briens) and 412 where Patricia and Jill both have a notably different hairstyle (Jill mid-episode!), should be the changeover time.
It could also make sense that the O'Briens had a 12 month contract (excluding Jeff), as they departed at the end of 1984.