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ALL: How would you give a cancelled soap the PP treatment?


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I have a lot of ideas, most of which wouldn't happen, many of which I've forgotten, but for GL, I want to see a story where India, who is stung that no one remembered her when Philip returned from the dead or when Alan died, secretly plots with Amanda to take over Spaulding, dethroning Lizzie. They get the key votes after Lizzie clashes with Vanessa, who sides with them at the stockholder's meeting. Lizzie would then track down a son Amanda gave up for adoption long ago (as she thought she was unfit to be a mother), to help her get Spaulding back, and there would be a triangle with this guy, Lizzie, and Bill.

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I agree that K.o.l.a. B.o.o.f. should be writing for a soap. Her stuff on Y&R was GREAT and I never heard her ideas for GL, but I'm sure it was good. I think I recall her submitting a story bible to HW AMC towards the end, but she said she knew she wasn't going to get that. Her ideas for DAYS were over the top, but thats DAYS. What she did on Y&R wasn't crazy. Her favorite soap is Another World, which was hardly crazy. I think she would change her style to fit the show she was writing.

If they ever reboot ATWT or GL, I'm sure like the new AMC and OLTL they'd try to get as many former cast members back as possible. IMO, that's a mistake. You need to take ONE family or one group of characters and start fresh. These shows are off the air and it's not like fans have DVDs or anything. Don't be so boggled down in old history and what people expect. Like the new Dallas, these are completely new shows. Episode one is episode one. I would want them to stay true to the theme of each show, but reinvent them.

For ATWT, you can take Jack and Carly and Holden and Lily and those can be your tentpole couples. Focus on their children and bring on new families. I hate that it seems neither OLTL or AMC is bringing in a full new family. I want new blood and reinvention. If they try to pick up where they left off I fear they will fail. People will find ways to complain that sets have changed or comparing recasts, etc.

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I don't think Jack and Carly are at that place (and it would take time to get them there). I know Holden and Lily were popular but I think they became boring and useless long ago, and Martha Byrne is irritating in a lead role, IMO. I also don't give a rat's ass about any of the children of these couples. Bring them back, but work on fixing their characters and relationships before anything else.

I'd rather see Bob and Kim still in that role. They never came across as the stereotypical old couple, and you could build the kids and grandkids and great-grandkids around them, like Marland did.

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For me, it's more the actors than anything. I would just take two popular couples as anchors, but create a new canvas. For GL you could come up with several options, although one would probably need to be Josh and Reva. My thing is, I don't think these reboots should spend too much time dealing with the past show, which is why I'd prefer more new character so that isn't an issue. This way the new writers wouldn't feel beholden to so much backstory and what they can do with certain people. I also think (look at the AMC complaints, for example) having too many recasts at the beginning can hurt a show. With AMC about half the cast will be recast. I'm sure that's going to be confusing.

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I think this is a situation where you could easily bring in new people and connect them with past characters in a way that makes sense. You wouldn't have to work too hard on it. GL and ATWT both had very well known families all the way to the end.

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I just don't think GL in particular should rely on too much of the preexisting cast. Virtually everything about Peapack/Wheeler was radioactive, IMO, which is part of the reason I was loath to add GT's Dinah or Jonathan. Josh, Reva, Holly, Nola, Phillip, the Bauers, OTOH have prestige and are timeless.

I guess if AMC can make a very convincing case for using Cara and Griffin - who worked - you can get away with bringing Dinah back. I'd still hold back on Jonathan. The problem then is that you need at least one Lewis kid around - or grandkid, preferably - to ground Josh and Reva. I think Bill and Lizzie were a nice couple but Dan Cosgrove is basically the angel of death, and Marcy Rylan I am just tired of. They both symbolize too much of Peapack to me, at least for now.

Another thing I'd do, to get PR attention anyway, is ask Cynthia Watros back for a short-term arc, like six weeks, as Annie. She'd probably do it now. Have her menace some of the new leads and have Reva kill her off for good. Maybe you do a trial. Maybe she has a teenaged kid of her own.

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I actually thought GT's Dinah fared OK, although I don't know if she's needed (I loathed Jonathan so I have no desire to see him). You're right that most of those left at the end of GL aren't overly necessary, but there are plenty from the past who could be used to help build a future cast. If MOL got some pep back and if he hasn't had any more face work (if he hasn't had any I apologize but he looked odd in those last years), I'd say bring him and KT Mindy on as a bit of an anchor couple, with guest shots from Ed, and then have Trudy Bauer and her family move to Springfield.

I think they should also emphasize the faith element more heavily. I don't mean heavy-handed sermons, but bring in a religious character, a reverend. GL tried to do this in the last years but I don't know if it ever quite worked.

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Michael O'Leary and Frank Dicopoulos (along with Otalia and a few others) just embody Peapack to me. They completely let themselves go. I wouldn't mind them appearing later, as guests, but not right away. Say that Rick and Mindy are traveling, show a few Coopers here and there possibly (very scarcely, at least for a year) but say Frank is out of town. Instead I'd have Michelle in the Bauer house with her kids as a big central axis, with them getting tense sharing the place with Ed and Holly, who had expected to have the family home to themselves in their "60 is the new 40" autumn years - a la what Doug Marland wrote about at length in his original ATWT bible, regarding Kim and Bob and their kids having to deal with the return of Nancy and Chris to the household.

Obviously Michelle and others would have stories and love interests. But I was just spitballing, trying to figure out the right configuration of vets and young kids, which I still haven't done. New characters could be figured out later. And I know I'd want Josh and Reva there, even if I can't figure out which of their grandkids or kids or relatives to use. I wouldn't mind Bill and Lizzie at least guesting or having a short run about a year in, after everyone can be assured this is not Peapack.

I don't know if I've ever told the Marler twins story here. Sometime. It was pretty ridiculous, like Sonni/Solita ridiculous but I've never been able to give it up.

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