DRW50

I think there have been claims that the show tried to get Lenore back after Roger's return, but it didn't happen. There's an SOD from 1986 that mentions the show's plans to bring back Hope, probably with a recast. Instead, we got the new Bauers. I assume once they decided to bring back Alan-Michael a year later as being in his late teens they gave up as they would have seen her as too old, or they thought it would be too confusing for new viewers, especially with no plans to bring Mike back. And then Alan-Michael went way down the list for characters the show cared about. I think someone here years ago claimed that Elvera was fired because Gail Kobe wanted to show that anyone could go. Which, if true, is a joke given that Kobe ran many of the cast off anyway, and also makes me wonder if she just had it in for the Bauers as it's not as if Hope was a central heroine at that point. I remember Rick's Alan-Michael in the Bauer kitchen at times but I never felt like they were important to him - he spent most of his time hanging around Spaulding Enterprises and whining about not getting enough respect. Robert Newman, IIRC, spoke of those scenes in later years and mentioned that Charita was not doing as well with her recovery as Bert was meant to be doing, which just impressed him even more at how she managed to play the scenes. That's a moving story, but it also speaks of how selfish the powers that be were at that time and how they clearly were ignoring signs they shouldn't have ignored. And then they didn't even bother to give her a proper sendoff. Sometimes I wonder how many viewers they lost for good over that farewell. Geoffrey Scott was a perfectly serviceable actor, but I don't think you can recast Billy. It's similar to Clint on OLTL. Jerry ver Dorn is one of my favorite soap actors of all time, but I never thought I was watching Clint when I saw him. There was something intrinsic to Jordan - his presence, his heart, his easy chemistry with those around him...even the way Scott tried to imitate Billy's accent grated on me. It didn't help that the show had had a slew of recasts in this period, none of them as strong as the previous portrayers - Scott was sort of a last straw.

I think they will have Frank there to the end, just to wind the show down rather than try to make improvements, although I hope I'm wrong. They had their chance and seemed to try last year and then gave up very quickly, so they may just be ready to hit the end button.

That probably did help.

Trawling through Youtube for pilots and I see this fascinating pilot that has been up around 13 years but hadn't been reuploaded over and over elsewhere that I could find. It is a sitcom adaptation of a play I'd never heard of called The Nerd. Robert Joy plays the titular role (he was, along with Mark Hamill and Rowan Atkinson, one of the actors who played the part onstage). The "normal" couple are played by two actors I always had a soft spot for - Harley Jane Kozak and John Dye (RIP). The intro alone probably tells you why it didn't get picked up. What makes this fascinating is that it was filmed in 1989 and sat on the shelf until March 1996. I'm not exactly sure NBC decided to burn this off almost a decade later - someone in the comments speculated that it is down to NBC airing a LaRouche infomercial that night and not wanting to air anything they actually cared about afterward. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nerd_(play)

There was, yes, allegedly. That's one of the reasons I say I may have been paranoid.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think she just wanted a break. When she returns there are long periods where it does feel like they are trying to push her out, but maybe I am just being paranoid.

I had forgotten about that show. Krause got on my nerves on Six Feet Under (I know Nate was meant to be annoying), but he has had a strong track record for acclaimed or popular shows. I only dip in and out of 911 but many of the fans seemed to adore his character. I imagine he went because of budget cuts, but I wonder how many will stick around.

Sorry, I didn't mean to spoil. It's not real. Maeve had wanted to leave or at least have a leave of absence. She makes some appearances and then returns on a more frequent basis again around spring 1997.

I don't know why I thought he was Little Billy for that long a period of time. I remember him as that. Billy does return briefly in fall 1996 for Vanessa's funeral but as you mentioned he was still in jail at the time. I remember being surprised they brought Jordan back, although I'm very glad they did.

This is one of the reasons why I don't get them not just making one or two more half-hour soaps. I know the timeslot is a help for B&B, but in a short attention span climate and with how busy many are now, a half-hour is as much as many are going to be able to give.

Leonard Stabb.

RIP to Priscilla Pointer, chief guest star of one of the most underrated episodes (Constant Companion).

Very little of her OLTL run is reminiscent of her past stories. My guess is JFP just told her everything and then she left, but who knows.

I do think that by the '90s, this type of freedom was much tougher to find. McTavish mentioned in her book about Agnes having to adapt as her power diminished, and how McTavish had to do the same by the time she went to OLTL. There are some writers who seemed to be able to get a lot of their voice on, like Sheffer or maybe David Kriezman, but I can have some sympathy for Jill Lorie Hurst as by that time I'm not sure if Wheeler was letting go. Of course then it gets to a point where I say oh all the bad stuff wasn't hers, which is not a great idea - I am sure she did get some material on, like Otalia, which I was OK with, so that means some of the stuff in the last year or two I would say wasn't good would have ties to her as well. That's a good question. My guess is they didn't mention it as so much time had passed. I don't remember if Peggy was ever mentioned in these years. I keep trying to remember if Fletcher possibly being Michelle's father was ever mentioned on the show or if that was just in the Follyworld fic that was being written online around the same time. Jean Carol mentioned in her ill-fated attempt to stay that she had worked with so many characters and no longer did. Another gift from JFP (I would blame Buzz, but Buzz was a fictional character...but I'll give him some blame anyway...). Bill was called Little Billy until 1993 or 1994, when he wanted to be called Bill. There was some storyline, I don't really remember it aside from reading about it in books, where Dylan as well as Nadine's boyfriend Carroll were working for some trucking gang. I think they may have been responsible for his blindness, although Ed, who had relapsed around that time, was suspected. A number of Leonard's friends and co-stars are still close with him - Jocelyn Seagrave (who played Julie) is still close with him and has done interviews with Locher Room and elsewhere about him.

Welcome to the board. Some posters who seem to have left post-November (if so, I don't blame them) used to talk about Underwood and how great she was. I wish we had more figures like her and less showboats, like JB Pritzker. Carney is a banker, the type of presence who normally would not win because he isn't seen as exciting enough, not to mention the headwinds from Trudeau being in power for a decade. Trump did him a huge favor, as he is seemingly going to do in Australia soon too with their own version of Trump (Dutton). The funniest part is Pollievre even lost his seat. I remember seeing him being pushed for years by the same grimy networks that bankroll Dave Rubin. There were so many plans for him that Trump completely demolished. Even if this country is likely pretty much over, at least other countries are learning from our mistake.

@alwaysAMC A great read. Thanks. I think it was only in these few years that Michael O'Leary tried that unfortunate hair, although I may be wrong. It just looked genuinely awful. When Rachel Miner played Michelle, she and Bill were close friends, and even had a date, mostly treated as a cute moment showing their family helping them. I assume they had no plans to revisit Bill/Michelle at this point, as Budig looked 10-15 years older than Brian Buffington. I had forgotten Alex was the one who blasted the news about Reva. McTavish paired up Hawk and Alex a lot, which I tended to enjoy. When Hart began on the show, he was very sweet and lived with his grandfather. Roger ruthlessly went after their family farm, leading to the grandfather's death. Only after all of this did Roger learn that Hart was his biological son, via some woman who was a spy with Roger or something, I don't remember. Roger tried very hard to keep the truth of his role in the farm theft from Hart. When Hart found out, he was devastated. Before he left town, he had a one-night stand with Bridget, leading to Peter's conception. Hart returned about a year later, now clearly a bad boy. He seduced his ex-girlfriend Julie right before her wedding to Dylan Lewis. Bridget exposed the cheating at their wedding. Bridget would later get involved with Dylan. You may have seen him at the start of 1995. During this time Bridget kept the truth from Hart. He likely would have learned but Leonard Staab, who played him, was nearly killed in a hang-gliding accident, leading them to temporarily recast the character long enough to write him out. When Hart was first revealed as Roger's son, Blake resented him, feeling that he would take her father's love from her. Only in later years do they become closer. You aren't wrong about any of the writing for Reva in this story. They went out of their way to give reasons as to why Josh wouldn't get back together with her as soon as she arrived. It did the characters no favors, even if the payoff was eventually worth it.

Thanks. Tyler definitely got some good material out of her exit, even if the stuff with Dinah Lee and Curtis was annoying due to how Curtis was treated. You could argue that Beck's departure was the departure that most affected and reshaped a soap. If not the most, then she's high up on the list.

I think Lisa would have returned. Kassie DePaiva wasn't at OLTL yet so she might have returned for a day. Lee Lawson. They just didn't care. I think JFP, who bragged about making viewers get invested in Maureen in the last six months of her time on GL, genuinely did not think viewers cared about Maureen and felt the only interest would be in how her loved ones reacted. People were still going to be unhappy, but at least they could have come away thinking the show had some respect for Maureen. Instead, it was clear JFP did not.

They did. So they knock BtG viewers out of the habit of watching and also get nothing in return.

I agree, although that seems to be more and more common now. One account I follow puts a weirdly positioned, very distracting timecode. Thames TV started putting weird watermarks. I do appreciate getting the see the content, of course as I would never know otherwise. I do know many reuploaded and reupload this material or even try to sell it as their own, so I get the decision for the watermark, of course, as we all do. That's a shame about the kitchen. I wonder if Lemay/Rauch felt that the only kitchen should be Ada's.

I think - admittedly I never cared about the Sonny/Mike relationship - it's tough to care about Mike without Ron Hale in the role. The conflict of Gio leaning toward Sonny would be smart if Sonny was not so played out, and if there was better setup.

Thanks. Someone in the comments said Strudwick so I wasn't sure.

This is not uncommon for soap actors - I remember one talking about their co-star going up on his lines because he or she smudged their hands on a cloth or something during taping - but if they are going to let Maurice do this they should make sure to keep his hands out of shot.