More new characters came into the show and George and Paul were joined at the police station by a young new recruit, police constable Max Simmonds, played by Bruce Samazan, who became one of "E Street's" biggest stars. Max's arrival had been shortly preceded the appearance of its newest bad-boy character, the ex-prison inmate, Sonny Bennett (Richard Huggett), the brother of popular character Lisa Bennet. Addicted to speed and completely unpredictable, Sonny was also a hit with viewers and he'd been slowly built-up in the scripts with references to him being in prison included in dialogue very early in the series. Writer Alexa Wyatt admitted in an interview for the "E Street tribute site" that Sonny's eventual introduction was intended to shake up the series again and to remove several established characters that writers felt had run their course. Sonny's dark and dramatic time on "E Street" climaxed with three members of the Patchett family, Chris, Megan, and Abbey, all perishing in perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire series when they were all killed off in a highly shocking car bomb explosion. Redlich commented at the time: