I think they had Rick dancing by himself, which Michael O'Leary made fun of in an interview over how pathetic it was.
I didn't actually mind the wedding, but I can see why the actors would think it was ludicrous. I remember this was the peak of the "Queenie" and Hawk comic relief saga, which was NOT true to Alex, but Marj Dusay managed to make fun. That period with Hawk was probably the first time I began to like her a little more as Alex, oddly enough.
The last thing Rick Hearst did was some kind of mini-plane crash with Lucy and Alan-Michael, which I don't remember the point of. They also recreated flashbacks of Hearst's Alan-Michael and Philip with Alan-Michael styled like a preppy nightmare (tennis outfit and all) to try to retcon them as having a bad relationship at the time, which annoyed some fans as that wasn't the case.
If Sonia had stayed they seemed to be trying to go for an Alan-Michael/Lucy/Zachary the angel triangle, but she must have told them she was going, as he moved over to Michelle.
I did like that she finally got a scene with Harley before she left. It really irritated me how she was dumped onto the show as a Harley replacement (I think in the very same episode Harley left), and it felt like Harley was erased from the family in those years. Harley's brief return was so well-written. Looking back, I kind of wish that had been the last time we saw her.
Thanks. That must have been what I remembered. Considering the most GL could manage at that time was "Q," clearly that wasn't happening. I'm not sure why even as AW and ATWT tried to expand their black canvas in the mid/late '80s, GL would not until finally Gilly worked her way up from a bit part at the end of the decade.