zanereed

While the murder mystery on TGL with Diane Ballard was very good, it was a shame to lose such a rich character like Diane. Joe Bradley I didn't care either way, but I wish it would have been someone other than Diane.

Exactly. I was quite surprised by the comment from Marland regarding Hulswit. That seemed very uncommon for Marland. However, it does help to somewhat validate what I have heard about Hulswit criticizing the writing. I would LOVE for someone to interview Hulswit (I believe We Love Soaps has tried before, but no luck...). Speaking of Lemay and TGL, I was very surprised that Lemay returned to help write TGL during 1980/1981. That was the year they won the Emmy for Best Writing. Has Lemay ever stated in any interview why he returned to soap writing? It wasn't that long after he left AW, so I was just curious if anyone knows any further information there.

I believe that Doug Marland did not like Hulswit at all. I read in some publication that I can't find any longer (!) that Hulswit used to criticize the writing a lot, post-Dobsons, so I wonder if that was a factor? TPTB certainly didn't go with a much "younger" actor in Peter Simon. Simon was only 3 years younger than Hulswit.

Exactly. Try imagining this particular scene with Simon or Van Fleet:

Inspired by this thread, I took out my DVD-R's of "Roger Thorpe: The Scandal Years" and a compilation from March/April 1980 when Ed and Mike were pursuing Roger and Holly in Santo Domingo, resulting in Roger's "death" at that point. As I was watching the scenes on each disc that featured Hulswit's Ed, especially during confrontations with Roger, I tried to imagine Simon and Van Fleet acting in those scenes, and I couldn't. I could not see Simon's Ed actually having any physical confrontation with Roger at all, as Hulswit's Ed had. Even though Hulswit certainly wasn't in peak physical condition to chase Roger through the jungle (although Mike certainly looked it), I had no problem believing he was doing it because Ed was not going to give up finding Holly and bringing her home safe. I just couldn't see Simon portraying that effectively (and certainly not Van Fleet).

This is a great point. It does look like Van Fleet is trying too hard to be sensitive, doesn't it? I always thought he looked so awkward as Ed, even though I really had no problems with him on AMC.

Correct - someone else pointed that out, too. I had serious memory block on that one.

He did! You can see Peggy actually mention that to Bert during one of the 1979 episodes on YT (during the period after Roger raped Holly). I would have much rather they went with Billy as the "son" for Roger versus introducing the character of Hart.

Agreed. I appreciated that the writers in the late 1980's and 1990's did refer back to this history of Holly and Ed, but I didn't get the same level of chemistry between Garrett and Peter Simon as I did with Garrett and Hulwsit. It wasn't necessarily sexual chemistry, either, but I believed that Holly did love Hulswit's Ed versus Simon's Ed. I would have loved for Fran Myers to return with an adult Billy to interact with Roger.

The latter. It was a storyline line they could have started much earlier versus when they finally revealed it.

"Painful" is putting it mildly That was horrific to watch. Even more horrid was the fact that it happened to the Matthews family beginning in 1982 (some might say even earlier), when Pat and Alice were written out (the latter understandably) and Jim died. I really thought that they were trying to build up the Matthews family again in 1989 when they brought Russ back and introduced Olivia. I even thought that they were going to start a storyline where Josie would eventually be revealed to be the daughter of Russ. Sadly, that did not happen.

Agreed. One of most failed opportunities in the history of AW. Courtney was a valuable member of the campus, and could have easily been prominently featured in her return in 1984. The Matthews family had been obliterated by that point, and she could have been the foundation upon which that family could have been built back up again. The other opportunity would have been to bring her back full time in 1989. The show should have tried to have kept a few familiar faces in 1989, especially post-25th anniversary. I would have loved for Russ, Alice, and Pat all to have stayed on. Pat was supposed to have been running the New York branch of Cory, wasn't she? In an effort to keep Iris at bay (no pun intended), Rachel should have brought Pat back to Bay City to help run Cory Publishing. Russ already had ties to Sharlene, and I could have seen a triangle between Russ, Sharlene, and John, but not necessary a romantic one - they could have started to play out the Josie parentage story right away between the three of them.

Exactly right. Personally, I would have had a big "Dr. Bob Retirement Party" that would have brought back many familiar faces for a final hurrah. I would have definitely brought back Penny. I'm not sure about Don Hughes, as Conard Fowkes had already passed away in 2009 (maybe bring back Martin West, who played Don Hughes previous to Conard, if he was up for it). But, definitely Ellen (to represent the Lowell family) and as many Stewarts as possible would return. I would have had Grant Coleman return for this event, and to have Grant either convince Lisa to leave with him and start anew or to have Grant stay with Lisa in Oakdale. I also would have loved to have had some final "closure" scene between Kim and Susan. I could see a scenario where Kim goes to Dan Stewart's grave on the anniversary of this death (more or less) and coincidentally, Susan appears around the same time. That would lead to them hashing out all of their history regarding Dan and Bob. Kathryn and Marie would have hit a home run with this, guaranteed.

Bridget and Jerome Dobson will always be at the top of my "TGL Best Writers" list. Thanks for keeping up with this and posting these links!

Correct. Both he and his wife, Fran Myers (Peggy, TGL) wrote for soaps, including TGL.

The underrated Roger Newman as Ken Norris. For those who only knew Ken as Holly's crazy brother from 1998-1999 on TGL, this is a good listen.

I'm glad more of the 1971 audio recordings are surfacing. It's great to hear Larry Gates in his non-HB Lewis role.

The Dobsons were perfect for TGL. For their ATWT, not so much. In fact, I still think their era was my favorite era of GL. I agree with Mitch - Long and Marland would have likely been a great combo for exactly the reasons stated above. If Pam and Gail Kobe hadn't completely wiped out GL's history/legacy in almost a year, I think I would have a much better impression of that era. For every Four Musketeers, there's "Brandon-Spaulding-back-from-the-dead/Susan Piper" debacle (IMHO).

HB was definitely mentioned during Marland's term. In some clips still available on YouTube from around 1982, I believe, Trish mentions to Mike about her really wanting Mike to meet her brother and her father, mentioning them both by name. I have a feeling Marland would have eventually introduced them both.

They should have at least allowed Zaz to come back to film some final scenes with Holly and Blake. At the very least those two, at least to give some sort of closure to the character. I would have been fine for them to write in the ALS. I didn't even think Roger would need to escape Springfield. I think he could have died in real time, but still had an impact for years to come in Springfield, thanks in part to Roger's will which could have instigated tons of storylines. The problem is that TGL is not a CBS brand, it's a Proctor & Gamble brand, and it seems like P & G has zero interest in doing anything with that brand. I'm guessing they don't/won't even care to ever license it.

Agreed. I miss it. I'm glad I have the Soap Classics DVDs, some DVD-Rs from trading, and YouTube to make up for that loss. In my opinion, it was really on fire in the mid to late 1970's with the Dobsons at the helm. It's too bad that not much of that era survives at all.

Robert Pickering is who you are thinking of, I believe This is one of the few photos I've found of him (2 years before he would play Mike Bauer on TGL) from "Let's Kill Uncle".

Exactly right. Halfway through Long's first writing stint (I'm thinking mid-1984) things just got weird. Susan Piper weird. That and the whole "Dreaming Death" storyline fit more in line with Dark Shadows than TGL. Nola would have made an excellent reporter. After thinking about your Quint comment, having him killed to free up Nola would have been a great idea. In fact, it really should have been Nola versus Annabelle having "visions" in that whole Piper storyline.

I would agree. I loved the Dobson era of GL. The Dobsons - while introducing new characters and families - made certain to have those characters interact with core characters. I believe the Dobsons wrote out Ken and Andy Norris, Janet Mason, Joe Werner and Leslie Bauer (though I think this was the choice of the Lynne Adams). Characters like Justin Marler interacted with Sara McIntyre. Rita was placed with Ed. Jackie Marler was placed with Mike Bauer (briefly), as were the Spauldings (more long term). Hillary Kincaid was eventually revealed to be a Bauer. Bill Bauer returned briefly. They didn't overhaul the show so much that it became unrecognizable. However, I never understood their ATWT run at all. Yes, Stewart subbed for Nicolas Coster for one episode in 1985, I think.

So am I. I think it was discussed earlier in this very thread, but I don't know that there was ever a definitive answer. I think at one point I assumed it was L. Virginia Browne's idea. But now you have me reconsidering again - as was indicated a few pages back, things that Browne said regarding her time on GL weren't always so accurate. Thank you!!! I vaguely remember this, but I haven't seen it since it aired. I only saw Don Stewart on a few nighttime shows (Profiler, X-Files, 90210) during the 1990's. I wish he would have returned to TGL beyond just the short cameo in 1997.