"E Street" had undoubtedly moved on from its well-meaning inception. Redlich defended the storyline, branding it "pure Freudian fantasy". It ran for almost a year proving that viewers had accepted the radical changes in tone and content and perhaps emphasising this change was the problematic re-cast of the original leading character, Dr Elly Fielding. Penny Cook left the series in March 1991 after announcing her decision to leave at the end of 1990 – not wanting to lose the pivotal character for good, writers brought Elly back and she returned from her six months in Bangladesh now being played by Diane Craig. The re-cast was considered a success and Craig continued in the part until the end of the series.