bboy875

On 2/3/2021 at 10:36 AM, Mitch said:

I think they planned on Blake being Roger's daughter from the start..right? That is a big thing and a huge dip into history for scabs to make.  I just wonder what Long planned and how the scabs screwed it up...I would think Will "dying" would be one of them. But the show recovered so effortlessly that it makes me think that they were following Long's outline closely.

At some point when they confirmed Roger was coming back, Pam Long told Digest that Blake was supposed to be a brand new character, & she wanted her to have a big secret from her past. But the strike hit before she knew what she wanted the secret to be, and the scabs introduced her. After the strike, Chris Bernau became too sick to work and Michael Zaslow was approached as a recast Alan. He suggested they bring Roger back instead, but tptb told him Roger was dead and no one would believe he survived the fall from the cliff. Nancy Curlee later said Long didn't know who Roger was (pretty unbelievable with the yrs she head wrote the show by that point). I believe both Long and Curlee said they, along with tptb watched Roger's fall from the cliff over and over, and they didn't hear the sound of his body hit the ground, which gave them the opening to bring him back. It's funny because I read somewhere that Marland didn't want the camera to pan down because he wanted the audience to believe that Roger's body was too mangled to show on camera, falling from the high of a height. Anyways, when they decided to bring Roger back is when they decided to turn Blake into Christina. It left potholes, like Ed losing touch with her and Holly, so when Holly returned they had her fill holes talking to Ed and Maureen (Ed wanting to understand why Holly wanted him to stop talking to Chrissy). 

I think bringing back Roger led them to recast Alan, with the sole purpose of having him sent to prison in 1989. Alan's story is what ended up changing, and then ending. With Alan's plans for revenge against Alex and Philip for taking over Spaulding, and what was supposed to happen longterm, after Reva finds out Alan knew Marah was Josh's and not Kyle's. I would love to know what was to happen next.

The Edge Of Night- Nicole Cavanaugh 

Guiding Light- Jackie Marler. I will never understand why Jackie was killed off and Elizabeth left Springfield BEFORE Philip found out Jackie and Justin were his biological parents. Some of us waited for what seemed like an eternity, and they both ended up mostly forgotten by TPTB 

4 hours ago, Mitch said:

Did the show having any black writers or people of color on the show at that time? Not that they should be put into a box and only write for the black characters, but at least someone could have run the ideas by them.  I remember when Nancy Hughes was trying to teach a girl to read by using rap music. It made good use of history as she was a teacher and I know what they were trying to do..but even to my white college boy mentality it was kind of..squirmy...(why was it black character the one to not be able to read...there was no push and pull between Nancy and the character, the teen treated Nancy like everyone else on the show did at the time...) It would have been interesting to see Nancy deal with her own white privilege before there was even a term for it.

Wasn't she the Lauryn Hill character Kira? 

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

I think someone here posted synopses from 1976 - wasn't Rick missing and a big story point was about Leslie believing he was dead, or something?

 

Sorry, I know this was already answered - I was just responding to the second part.  I could swear I read something about them considering a recast of Rick not long after MOL left in 1991, but I'm not sure. 

SOD did report that the show was recasting Rick, and his next story would be about his undying love for Beth, coming off them pretending to be together while trying to prove Philip innocent of killing Neil. But then Grant Aleksander quit, so they sent Philip and Beth on their "happy ending," and scrapped plans to recast Rick. Had Aleksander stayed i don't know what would've happened because Pam Long left around the same time and I don't know what Curlee/Demorest/Reilly would've done with them.

I know they refused to have a story where Harley became involved with a Jewish man. What were the others?

SOD, when announcing her departure mentioned that one, plus Long's plan to lure back Kim Zimmer to appear in a Christmas dream of Marah's. I also remember either in 89 or 90, SOD did an article about recycled plots and the need for shows to come up with new ideas. Long stated she wanted to do a story about people with problems being preyed on by others, causing them to join a cult, but tptb told her that they didn't tell those types of stories at GL. She gave up fighting to tell the story because they would've interfered with it, turning the story into something else. I'm sure there's a lot of possible stories we'll never know about.

I remember when Pam Long was let go, I think SOW said it was ratings, however SOD said that she clashed with tptb over stories and they sqashed some of her stories. A poster or 2 on this site also say she and then exec producer Robert Calhoun didn't get along. It may have been a combination of all that. She did have that show clicking on all cylinders when she left.

Pam and Jay were partners but not actually married. She became pregnant by him on Texas, and partly because of P&G and partly because of their child, she was billed as Pamela Long Hammer, but she never married him in a legal service.

Wow I never knew this! Thanks for the clarification. Since joining this site a few months ago and reading current posts and archives, I've learned so much backstage info about this show I've treasured since childhood! Thanks!

Thanks.

I didn't mean to imply Beth / Rick hit the sheets in 2004 / 2005. It was pretty clear this was where it was all heading, but it never really went anywhere.

I hated all of the sudden revelations that would pop up. Didn't they later reveal Beth and Coop had been sleeping together for months at the time of the reveal?

I was no longer an everyday viewer when Beth/Coop got together, I do remember Blake trying to get with him, just not sure if he was with Ashley or secretly seeing Beth at this point.

I don't know what year Long and Hammer divorced, but she did return to the show in 1987 as Pamela K. Long instead of Pamela Long-Hammer, which I think she may have still been credited as when she left in 86. I also vaguely remember a digest pic of Jay and Beverley, in I think 85, and it mentioned that he and Pam were expecting a child, so again, I'm not sure when they divorced.

For the life of me, I don't remember what horrible thing Beth did the night of Phillip's murder. In my defense, January 2005 was pretty much the end of 'Guiding Light' for me. I think I stopped taping in April because it was clear the show had no clue who killed Phillip and after teasing Jammy they went all out. Jammy devoured my affection for 'Guiding Light.'

Does anyone remember what Beth did? Didn't they reveal Phillip asked her to run off with him and the kids? Or something equally 'horrible.' All I remember of Beth from this time was the non-climax to her non-affair with Rick. Mel called Beth out on her feelings for Rick at the kids' preschool event and then the whole thing was dropped. I think Beth started flirting with motorcycle riding Sebastian next.

I believe she agreed to run off with Philip as he planned to kidnap all his kids plus the son Rick had with Harley, which I think caused Rick to be angry with her. That put an end to their bonding after Philip's death. Their affair came much later and out of no where as I think they were barely seen together until the reveal at the end of a Wednesday episode. I'm almost sure of this-2005 seems many years ago now as bad as the show became later.

Hey Y&RWorldTurner, thanks for posting the Zas/Garrett video! I've never seen this one. I find it interesting that they really wanted Roger & Holly back together. I was one who thought their relationship was too toxic for them to be fully back together, and that she might try, but could never stay with him because of the rape. But hearing them talk about what could be explored and how the writers could handle it makes me wish the writers would've gone ahead with it. Oh the missed opportunities!

Sorry for the double post. Btw, as much as I hated the Wheeler/Kreizman era (I gave up in 2008 after watching since the late 70's) they did find ways to use their recurring vets at time, unlike some other shows. And I was happy that Holly and Vanessa got the endings I always wanted for them (with Ed and Billy-never liked Van with Matt either). I guess I could never say enough about Maureen Garrett. She and Michael Zaslow will always be my favorite daytime actors, and Roger and Holly, perhaps my favorite tv characters of all time! Flawed characters with real wants and needs. I hope they come out with a whole dvd set of these two.

I just googled it just to be sure, SOD named GL best show of 1985 lol. The last I remember seeing of Louie was after he helped Maeve keep Ben from Kyle (I think she lied and told Kyle she had a miscarriage), but I don't remember an actual exit. I did see the 70th anniversary episode and thought it was quite good (wished they would've used old clips though). They did try to tie Tammy's death into the ep. In the end, Irna responded to killing off a then popular character (I think the one she killed off before.handing the show over to Agnes Nixon) and Jonathan mourned over Tammy over Irna's voice over.

I just googled it just to be sure, SOD named GL best show of 1985 lol. The last I remember seeing of Louie was after he helped Maeve keep Ben from Kyle (I think she lied and told Kyle she had a miscarriage), but I don't remember an actual exit. I did see the 70th anniversary episode and thought it was quite good (wished they would've used old clips though). They did try to tie Tammy's death into the ep. In the end, Irna responded to killing off a then popular character (I think the one she killed off before.handing the show over to Agnes Nixon) and Jonathan mourned over Tammy over Irna's voice over.

Beth/Lorelei was one of Lloyd Gold's first stories. I'm not sure if it was right away or sometime in, but Christopher Dunn was his co headwriter before Taggart came in. I remember SOD saying she was brought in to help focus the writing, before she became co headwriter. The diary did come up under Taggart, and because Beth was only gone for a few weeks before Lorelei showed up, either it wasn't in Gold's original story plans, or we were supposed to suspend disbelief regarding time frame.