BetterForgotten

Somewhere along the way the narrative NBC and JER were portraying for this show changed. It was never initially sold as a “parody of soaps.” The supernatural element was talked about, so we knew it wasn’t a traditional soap but we were lead to believe it would be more in the vein of a Dark Shadows mixed with JER’s DOOL. After a while, JER just gave up on that when he realized that was NEVER going to be the case and people were laughing unintentionally at his creation. That whole “parody” element was then the selling point long after the show launched. Say what you want about him and for all his own issues, Tom Lagan strangely knew how to interpret Reilly’s DOOL material. At his own creation, JER didn’t have someone like that who could check his material and somewhat execute it in a believable way. He had all the power and Lisa de Cazotte was his workerbee producer.

Passion was a poorly plotted mess, stretching things out for the sake of of doing it with absolutely no long-term goal (this was very evident past the first two years or so).

Passions was never as tightly run of a ship on JER's end as some would want to believe. There have been numerous stories of JER giving his breakdown writers only enough information for one episode, with the direction to "stretch it out for a week or more" and nothing else. With that kind of lazy management, is it any wonder why this show was the way it was? There were talented people on that writing team (many of whom wrote for JER/Curlee/Demorest on GL's early 90's team), but they were given piss poor direction, and JER clearly had no idea what he wanted to do with his own creation after a while.

Cass also appeared on GL in 2002 as Tony Santos's lawyer.

If a remember correctly, one of the big internet rumours had been P&G wanted to keep Linda Dano and move Felicia Gallant to GL when AW ended. At the same time, ABC apparently wanted to buy the rights to the Felicia Gallant character but P&G wouldn't sell it to them, so they had to drudge up that forgotten Grethel 'Rae' Cummings character Dano had played almost 20 years before when she inked a deal with them. It's amazing that an older actress like Dano was in such hot demand on daytime after AW wrapped. That's unheard of today. I also wonder how Felicia would have faired on Paul Rauch's GL (he's the one that hired Dano at AW) had she stayed in the P&G family.

Were Monticello and Henderson ever mentioned on GL, ATWT, or AW? I know The Brighter Day is the other soap that exists in that Irna Phillips universe.

In many ways, the crap writing and decimation of Sharon's character over the past 15 years mirrored that of the show. Sharon was Bell's last big/popular heroine who he invested A LOT into. She may not have been everyone's cup of tea (much like the show), but the tearing down of that character coincided with the tearing down of the show itself and ultimately what Bell established.

Perhaps Irna should have thought about another setting - how many towns supposedly based in Illinois can you write about without retreading somewhat? I guess she had intended for AW to be an even stronger companion show to ATWT, but when CBS couldn't find room on its daytime schedule for it, she had to tone those ties down a bit. I wonder how much that hindered her initial development of the show. Didn't Agnes juggle writing for GL and AW for about a year, and then she also juggled writing for AW when her own creation (OLTL) also debuted? Credit to her for juggling multiple shows at once and keeping the quality in-tact on all of them.

And Vinnie Morrison was played by FOJ Kevin McClatchy. It's sad to think that whole story is incredibly timely in today's word, yet no soap today would even dare to tell it.

Monti played Justus 98-99, under Wendy Riche and Guza. Still wasted though. M'Fundo Morrison was the Justus that JFP and Guza wasted (he played Justus 2003-2006).

Ugh.

I wonder if that's why Beverlee McKinsey wasn't in these episodes (though it was explained why Alex wasn't at the wedding), she hated traveling to that Brooklyn studio and admitted that's partly why she didn't return to AW after Texas (that, and she felt they had ruined Iris on Texas). That iconic studio was later home to ATWT after AW ended. Sadly, it was torn down in 2014 - so that history is sadly no more.

On the flip slide, Long and Kobe did bring Beverlee McKinsey/Alexandra to the show. It must have been wonderful for soap fans to see lightening strike twice with Ms. McKinsey after she iconically played Iris for so long.

I generally consider Pam Long's second HW stint her best stint, but I wonder how much of that is due to the influence of Robert Calhoun, Nancy Curlee and Trent Jones (her Co-HWs for much of that second stint).

I still hold Roger and Holly's returns to GL as the best character returns on a soap opera I've ever seen since my time watching soaps. Talk about breathing new life into a show (at least for a few years anyway).

The resurgent DAYS in the 90's (thanks to Reilly) made it easy for NBC to cancel AW. AW didn't benefit from the influx of younger viewers checking out DAYS, which lead NBC to believe DAYS and AW were no longer compatible shows. And to be frank, they really weren't any longer at DAYS had significantly deviated from its original formula, and AW was still very much a traditional P&G soap (and when NBC tried to force the supernatural crap on it, it bombed).

30 years ago today Roger Thorpe was unmasked and revealed to be alive to the citizens of Springfield! Holly (Maureen Garrett) lets out a bone-chilling scream I won't ever forget! I probably consider this the unofficial start of 'my era' of GL. Thank you, Michael Zaslow for sharing your talent with us in the limited time you had on earth. You and Roger Thorpe brought so much joy and entertainment to my young soap-viewing life. Truly unforgettable. Gone, but never forgotten.

I do think Brenda Epperson was able to turn Ashley into a more conventional soap heroine, but she didn't have the same 'Ice Princess' quality Eileen's Ashley had and that was an important element of the character.

I was talking more so about the mid to end point of Monty's tenure. A lot of the press articles from the mid to late 80's often criticized the show for catering to the lowest common denominator and for the heavily plot-driven writing. Gordon Russell was supposed to be transferred over to GH from OLTL before his death - Monty and Russell would have been an interesting combination. Too bad we never got to see that happen. Likewise, Nancy Curlee was supposed to replace the Labine's in 1996, but she backed out when she got pregnant again, and we got Guza instead...

I have to say that Wendy Riche/Claire Labine/Guza really "de-sexualized" Laura - Genie was dressed so damn matronly in the 90's, you'd think she was well into her 50's at some points. I guess the weight gain after her real-life pregnancies made this easier on them to do so.

Frankly, it seemed strange that the audience even accepted Luke & Laura regardless of the rape - did the 15 year age difference between Geary and Francis not bother people in a more conservative era? Or did Genie always read as "older" even though she was a teenager?

Holly felt a ton of guilt and shame over connecting with Roger sexually again though, it wasn't like she slept with him and all was forgiven over night. It took years for them to even get that to that point again, and when it finally happened, she had a hard time accepting it for months afterward. The rape was always thrown in Roger's face - whether it be by Holly, Ed, Alexandra, or Ross and that never really stopped. GL, during its best years, always reminded us that Roger and Holly were deeply messed up people and it was wrong (yet strangely delicious) for them to feel the attraction they always felt for one another. The annoying thing with Luke was that the show had to pretend it never happened, so it never allowed to become an integral part of Luke's character. Even after the revisitation, they never really incorporated it into the character, other than to destroy Luke & Laura (to appease Geary).

At least with Roger and Jack, their behavior was never brushed aside and what they did was very integral to what their characters were about. They were never really forgiven for anything, and in Roger's case, he was always the town pariah, even when his intentions were good. He never became the hero of the universe like Luke.

Well, thought GH was very popular during that time it was never really praised for great writing. I guess a lot of it doesn’t really hold up in 2019 either if we look past nostalgia. It was generally very plot heavy. Monty seemed to love employing her sister Norma to write the show - maybe because she knew how much control she would have in that dynamic.