DRW50

Another I wonder about if they thought Joe Gallison would have more of an impact after his AW success. Was Agnes still involved with OLTL then?

So sad. https://deadline.com/2025/05/jill-sobule-dies-house-fire-66-1236383414/

Corey was the first. Then Ingo 5-6 months later. And then Vince was the last gasp.

Yes.

Yes. I don't know if Lenore was ever asked. Then it became a nun. Thanks. I didn't realize it was in 1987. That timeline doesn't make a lot of sense even if she would have had Ed to interact with. If they didn't ask her back in 1989 and she was willing, what a stupid error. The attempts at these feuds, or even the whole families tied together stuff like Maryanne Carruthers, never had any real impact because of how depleted the Bauers felt even by the mid '80s. And instead of expanding them, which would have been common sense, various producers were just too lazy, or too ashamed, and kept bringing on other families, or bringing in too many people at one time and not knowing how to write for them (the Spauldings in the McTavish era - as SOD said at the time, everyone in the family had the same personality).

I think they are a part of the same family, although Carla was never really scheming for the same reasons, and once her double life was exposed, she stopped.

Beyond what was listed, I think there are a few other moments early on - Nixon tested the waters of having a black female character in a larger supporting part on AW, helping to pave the way for Carla and Sadie on OLTL. Rachel/Ada is in some ways a template for Carla/Sadie, although Carla was much more tormented and her scheming was from preservation. Jordan Charney eventually arrived at OLTL after his AW success, although that was not duplicated. Doris Belack's success was, several times over.

Maybe he can use some of his connections to find whatever lost episodes are still out there.

Thanks. I'll have to check him out.

That's probably true, although as someone said earlier, not much is actually happening. The show just seems completely unsure of where to go or what to do, even as they five episodes a week to fill.

Never let it be said GH isn't realistic... Laura has been aiding and abetting "good" criminals for most of her life. She's probably just happy for the work, but she must be confused. Nothing about this character has ever made sense. They don't seem to know what they want with anything, like Tracy now working with Drew after fighting him tooth and nail. This is probably what they should have done all along, as I can believe she'd side with him over Sonny, but it's messy writing.

I didn't think they had any chemistry, but that's true for most couples on EE in recent years.

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).