DRW50

Sounds great.

Less than a decade later, EE would kill Mark off because they felt it was not "realistic" that he was still alive. I'm glad GH didn't do that with Robin, although I know that may have been a plan in the early '10s. The show truly did take a huge risk at the time, especially with their ratings struggles. I remember someone writing a letter in SPW saying Robin could be cured via a crystal and Casey the alien.

Thanks for reading it. That was one of my main takeaways with the 1979/1980 material, which probably isn't even seen as his best. Just compare the inner life and complexity of a character like Deborah to later "lady supercop" figures like Harley or Josie.

Thanks! Love Jerry.

There are some instances where soaps wait until the family is ready (the real life family), but I do think this sounds more like passing the buck. And the service was terrible - not anywhere near as much effort as would later be made for HB or even Henry. The lack of respect for a woman who helped make GL a beloved institution for generations was shocking and shows just how little respect that era had. Even the last years of GL had more respect.

I do wonder how much is down to personality in cases like Erika Slezak. She still had a good run under Gottlieb but that wasn't enough. A number of men on the show at the time had very unpleasant reactions toward Gottlieb, including allegedly throwing furniture around, but some of the reactions from Erika and others in the industry (IIRC Marlena de Lacroix used to call her Linda "Dirty Dancing" Gottlieb) makes me wonder if they just did not get along with her.

I think it will happen as it's just too easy to write him as a baddie to prop Sonny, Kristina, Alexis, or even Ava. I do hope they keep him around in some capacity as Rick is very good and he lit a fire under parts of a moribund show.

Likely so. I don't know if any soap hollowed itself out in those years the way GL did. It's the end result of bringing in so many teams who did not actually care about the show or have any history with it.

He did have a lot of presence, but I agree he was very intense. That was an odd period for new male hires. I remember the heavy sexual chemistry Hart and the Rob Layne around then had, culminating in them grappling on a hotel room bed.

I didn't think he seemed that much younger than Kim, even though I knew he was, as he didn't play that young to me. I do think he was dull. What I wonder about is why they didn't do more with that guy who rescued her on the island, Bill Bullimer (?). They dropped his possible relationship with her and also didn't go anywhere with his possible interest in Cassie. He was OK, even if the main talk he got was about his chest.

Most of them happened before. I would say the Selina story, the changes in Blake, the Bauer kitchen shootout, etc. were similar to past plots or character beats of theirs.

I think she was sabotaged from day one - I've said this before but I've rarely if ever seen one fired actor after another going to the press and blaming the new headwriter the way they did with her. Beyond that, I just think, similar to her OLTL run, she couldn't make the current show work or didn't have a producer who was able to actually work with her. The same cringey comedy that had managed to mostly work on GH and then became a struggle on OLTL was even more of a struggle on GL, because you couldn't just give Blake Lucy Coe's old lines - GL had many complicated characters. And in contrast to some of the attempts at comedy, there were pieces of abject misery I just couldn't get through, whether it be a shootout in the Bauer kitchen, Tony beating up Selina, or Cassie being locked up in a tower and then having a late term miscarriage via a car crash while on the run.

I'd totally forgotten. There's also mention that Brian Kerwin and Robert Hays tested. I agree the role was a lot of nothing.

Great find. Looking through the They Almost Became thread I see mention that DAYS originally wanted older actors for Roman. I also see a post saying Wayne was offered the role of Chris Stamp on AMC, but he declined.

This must have been around when Mike was on DAYS.

The same people who are outraged over this did not say a word over Trump pardons of the scum of the earth. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/trump-pardons-blackwater-contractors-jailed-for-massacre-of-iraq-civilians

https://bsky.app/profile/abetterlizard.bsky.social/post/3lcb7j57fzs2m I can't embed Bluesky, but it's a video of Deidre and Wayne at his ranch.

I did wonder what was going on when Harold had to miss a story that was clearly meant to be for him (the gas leak). Gino took it instead. I was amazed, and grateful, that he even came back for the revival. I hope he will have the sendoff he deserves. Apparently, some of the papers are saying he has terminal cancer. Heartbreaking. What a legend.

Thanks. I thought she played the mother but couldn't remember in what period.

I don't think it hurt a lot at the time - I'd say his 1996 departure hurt more.

Tom Nielson too, even if he was lucky to last that long.

Lucy Beale...later to be another iconic soap name. Thanks for the extra info. I know this has already been talked about before and I've forgotten it but were Sarah or Vanessa/Meg's father ever on in the show's earlier years? How much influence did she have on her daughters' lives when she did become a presence?

I suppose you could count Mama Bauer in GL's revamp, although I am not sure how long she was on the show.

I know this has been said, but I still feel like a number of story choices made on the show in her run scream Labine, more than any other writer (or Rauch for that matter).