zanereed

Yes, I began watching AW again on May 4, 1994, to see JC return as Alice, but soon realized it was going to be a bust. The show had no idea what to do with her (Gary Tomlin, the writer at the time, later admitted that he didn't know much about the Alice/Rachel history and didn't know how to use Courtney effectively). Alice was soon sporting a very, very short, severe haircut which was totally wrong for her, and wearing the most hideous, mannish clothes. They paired her with an amiable but bland actor as her romantic partner, and then gave them no story. What a disaster. It's like luring Susan Lucci back to AMC, only to shave her head, dress her in polyester pantsuits, pair Erica romantically with Walter Matthau, and then keep her in the background for the next 12 months.

What a waste!

The 1989 returns of JC and GR were better written and more satisfying, although I wish they had used some meaningful flashbacks. During the 25th anniversary gala, Alice had a brief flashback to a 1984 scene with her and Rachel, but it would have been so much better if they had used something like this:

I'll bet that the show did not want to use classic scenes, because using vintage flashbacks would have made the current episodes look so weak in comparison, LOL.

Did NBC/P & G even have much classic footage (from the late 1960's/early 1970's) available to use?

I have watched some of the 1981 episodes.. and it seemed like L. Virginia browne was trying to restore the Matthews family with bringing back Alice and Sally. It's interesting that the majority of the Matthews family were written off in 1982 when Jacker took over.

It seems that Lemay and Jacker.. theatre writers didnt seem too interested in writing the Matthews family.. was it cause they were too boring?

I think Lemay tolerated the Matthews clan, but was much more interested in writing for the Corys and Frames. It seemed from his book that he loved Bev Penberthy and Hugh Marlowe, however.

As for Jacker, I wonder if she was under pressure from P & G to get rid of the Matthews family? I think they were trying to get Marland to do something similar with the Bauers during his time on GL.

Yes, Tim (T.J.) was still there in early 1977.

Do know approximately when T.J. stopped appearing (i.e. - stopped appearing and went to "boarding school")? I was so young then and I can't remember this period as much. Thank you.

Nice photo of Charita. Rare type of photo for her.

This is the guy who played Wyatt, right?

Correct. Joe Ponazecki played Larry Wyatt at various times between the late 1970's (I think) and early 1990's.

I remember reading somewhere a few years ago that P & G tried to lure Reihholt back in the late 70's (after he left OLTL) for GL as a millionaire-type character. I wonder if this was what eventually became Alan Spaulding.

I never heard that before. Thinking about it now, Reinholt would been the right age range for the character of Alan. Although Christopher Bernau will always be "Alan" to me, I actually think Reinholt could have been a good recast of Alan when Bernau was finally too sick to play him in 1988.

I imagine the photo is from very early 1977, as Cindy Pickett debuted on Guiding Light in December 1976.

Was Tim/T.J. still on GL at that point (I barely remember him, but I assume that's who is behind Millette Alexander)?

I think this must be from late summer or fall of 1976. It looks like Ben Mcfarren and Peggy Thorpe are missing - anyone else?

Guiding Light was Kevin's first job after filming Friday the 13th, though the movie was released after he began on the soap.

I could not agree more about the disastrous miscasting of Jackie. Carrie Mowery would have been a far better casting choice to replace Lezlie Dalton as the listless, almost somnambulant Elizabeth. Potter and Marland made far too many mistakes in casting and story decisions, mistakes that undermined the solid foundation laid by the Dobsons. The Dobsons had created and nutured highly complex interactions between Ed/Rita/Holly/Mike/Elizabeth/Alan/Jackie/Justin and Hope. The decision to ignore Maureen Garrett and Lenore Kasdorf's wishes while essentially changing Jackie into Elizabeth, resulted in a collapse of the foundation and relegated front-burner Mike and Ed to the sidelines.

I wanted to follow up and ask what Maureen Garrett's wishes were.

It's definitely a nice idea. But, as Vee stated, that is WAAAAAAAAAAY too many characters and storylines for 12 hours of material. Plus, I have little hope that P & G would ever allow GL or ATWT (or any of the titles it owns) to be revived.

If I recall correctly, Allen Potter also was the one who opted not to renew Mart Hulswit's contract in 1981, evidently because Hulswit disagreed with how Ed was being written at that point. I don't know if that was Potter following orders from P & G or acting independently.

I wonder if Marland would have followed Lenore's wishes to have written Rita differently, or if that was one of the disagreements he and Potter had throughout Marland's tenure?

How long was Gail Kobe a Producer at B&B?

I believe from it's premiere in 1987 through 1990.

Here's a link to the mention of Kobe firing Stewart while he was on vacation via WLS:

http://www.welovesoaps.net/2013/08/gail-kobe-dead-at-82.html

Stewart was fired by Gail Kobe. Depending on what story you hear, Kobe fired him when Stewart was playing a golf game while on vacation. How true that story is, I've never been sure. As to why he was let go...it appeared that Stewart was resisting the Mike/Alexandra/Lilian triangle. I have no idea why. Pam Long did want to write for Mike, and she finally must have found a story she was satisfied with, as Mike didn't really have a strong storyline for quite awhile. Mike was more of the peripheral character at that point (when someone needed legal help or advice).

I have a feeling if the Mike/Alexandra/Lillian triangle would have continued to develop, there would have been ramifications between Beth and Lujack's relationship as well.

I think those may have been from the DVD sets. I'm not sure.

Anyway, the person who put up GL videos and got taken off Youtube (for other videos) is back with a new channel. They're uploading some new content - full March 1979 episodes. These have been on Youtube before in clip form, but not the full episodes (full episodes is how it should be always if possible IMO).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGd-CMhNwvTZ_b7flg44FdA

Thanks for the heads-up, Carl. I'm glad the channel is back (although I see they are posting PP again - isn't that what got them in trouble in the first place?). I hope they can re-upload that great haul of GL they had from 1981 and 1982 back up again. I was just getting started on it when they were pulled from YT.

Even so, for those that have yet to see these 1979 episodes, you are in for a treat. This is the year that Michael Zaslow should have won an Emmy for, IMHO.

I never thought Pilon's Alan was god-awful, but I agree with with soapfan770 - Pilon's Alan was all bad, all the time. As I said earlier, I tend to think that was a problem in the writing at that time and how TPTB wanted Alan portrayed, and not necessarily the way Pilon played him (but I could be wrong, either way).

Bernau's Alan was charismatic, and I didn't find Pilon's version having that same charisma. Although I never thought Pilon played Alan as a mustache-twirling villain that RR did during the later years, there was definitely something missing, as evidenced in that YT clip above that Soapsuds posted. Compare that clip above to some clips between Alan and Roger in 1979. I think they're still on YT somewhere.

I liked Pilon somewhat, but they did write him as an evil dullard that would go to lengths that the Bernau version would not go to stop Phillip and Blake's wedding. Almost as if to say "Hey look, Roger wasn't THAT bad after all"!

That's exactly WHY they wrote Pilon's version that way. I think they decided to switch out Alan for Roger (since Michael Zaslow thankfully declined to portray Alan, as TBTB originally intended). As you said, the way that they wrote Alan with Pilon in the role certainly made ME want Alan to go to jail (and off the show). I don't think it was fair to Pilon, either.

I was always wondering why no one thought to bring Robin Mattson (back) on as Hope. Even though she was only Hope for a short time in 1976/1977, she was still a "name" actress in soaps who certainly could have brought some spunk back into Springfield.

Did Mattson and Justin Deas get along during their time on "Santa Barbara"? If not, maybe that's why it never occurred.

I totally agree with you about Ross/Hope (they could have been a tentpole couple), but if you put Alan-Michael in a 7-8 year time warp between 1984-1986 and have Justin take an active part in helping raise him while Alan is lost in San Rios?

The sheer dramatic irony there.

Actually, you make a good point there. In fact, being with Justin would have been an even greater thorn in Alan's side than if Hope was with Ross. It would also go right in line with Hope's taste for older men as well.

I've said this again and again on this board, but I strongly believe the reason Hope never came back to the GL canvas was because Alan-Michael was SORAS'ed too much, too soon, in 1987. It would have been difficult to put someone like Elvera next to Carl T. Evans or Rick Hearst and make the mother/son angle believable. Not impossible, mind you...we would just have to suspend disbelief a lot in that instance.

Either that, or you recast Hope with an older actress. Therefore, Hope was only a decade younger than Alan versus two decades when she and Alan got together, married, and then she gave birth to A-M.

I'm loving all this talk about Hope Bauer and how she could have been used better on the show! As katie_9918 stated above, I loved how Hope was more snarky and aggressive at Alan towards the end of her run. Elvera was so good at it, and it was a shame when she was let go.

However, I would have loved to have seen Hope and Ross get together. Alan would be seething at Phillip's biological uncle dating his ex-wife. What a tangled web that would have been! I was actually wondering if the show was going to move in that direction before Hope was written out...

Carl,

Those are the episodes that are still up on YT - the ones that were on on the Soap Classics set! Its the recent ones that everyone's been chatting about from late 1981 and mid 1982 that are now gone.

It's disappointing, regardless. I could understand if they were officially out (or had been out) on DVD, but they were clearly not of broadcast quality, and certainly wouldn't harm any current campaign that P&G are touting for the classic soaps...

...oh, wait - they don't HAVE one! Like Nothin'ButAttitude pointed out above, if they would just release them officially, fans wouldn't be taking this into their own hands.

...and just like that, all of those 1981 episodes that were recently posted on YT are gone! I wonder who reported to YT that they needed to be removed, especially when other GL 1981 is still up? P & G?

They definitely needed someone for Ed to be chummy with, since Lenore Kasdorf was not going to stay on and TPTB couldn't really see a recast for Rita working (they were right, of course). Looking at the GL canvas at that point, I don't know who else they could have put Ed with that would have made sense. Well, maybe Ed and Jennifer Richards...?

SamanthaKitCat,

You make some very valid points. I don't necessarily consider myself a Bauer "purist" at all. In fact, I really liked the way Pam Long wrote the show.

For example, I think the way that Phillips parentage was finally revealed between Phillip, Alan and Justin was fantastic. It made me very psyched to see where the story would go, now that Philip finally had the knowledge that Justin was his biological father. However, not even a month later, Justin is written out!

As far as the Bauers go:

I never expected Ed Bryce to come back as Bill Bauer, so it was a surprise to me in 1983 when he DID return. However, if Bill had to die, I just wish he had a better storyline to go out on versus what he received (the "Annie Simms/Eli Simms" storyline was not a favorite of mine).

I also thought making Hope an alcoholic was a great way to advance the Alan and Hope story. It actually helped give some fire back to Hope. I understand if Elvera disagreed with the storyline and they let her go, but I've always wondered why they just didn't recast Hope when Elvera was let go?

Don Stewart allegedly disagreed with being in the Alexandra/Mike/Lillian triangle. As you stated, it was clearly being set up throughout the summer of 1984, and probably would have had an impact on the Lujack and Beth romance as well. It's debatable as to whether or not Stewart actually quit or was fired (I still believe the infamous story of Kobe firing Stewart when he was on vacation). It's a shame, though, as Long wanted to write for Stewart/Mike Bauer! I think if Simon hadn't left the show at the exact same time, they might have been tempted to recast Mike.

I never really knew why they let go of Marsha Clark (Hillary), so it was interesting to read about Marsha's apparent writing aspirations.

One final clarification - Doug Marland really didn't write Roger Thorpe into a corner. He was told when he took over the show that he had about 3 to 4 months to get rid of Roger. Honestly, I don't know what Marland could have done with Roger after Roger had raped both Rita and Holly, had faked his own death, etc. That was all done when the Dobsons were still writing GL.

I agree that Marland was probably the only one who knew how to write for Quint and Nola. I, too, think that Quint was ruined once he lost that mysterious quality, becoming Henry's son and then a college professor. To me, that wasn't Quint.

As for the background music, that seemed to be typical for GL's location footage. They had similar type of music the year prior when they filmed in Santa Domingo for Roger Thorpe's final days on the show.

Carl,

Thanks for getting more of the November 1981 episode links up here. I haven't seen that footage since it first aired, with Mike Bauer on a horse chasing after Alan in Tenerife! For being 45 years old around the time this was filmed, Don Stewart was quite the action hero on GL.