JarrodMFiresofLove

4 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

 

I will say the first couple of episodes that Marj played Alex in late 2002 were decent, she was more understated. but I think that was because the writing was being tailored to JC as opposed to Marj... but after a short time, the writing changed and Marj became super OTT.  What's funny is that Myrna on Capitol was closer to Beverly's Alex so it confuses me how Marj didn't play that as Alex.

Conboy and Weston seemed to want Marj to camp-up Alex, which didn't work for me. If you look at Marj's credits on the IMDb you can see how many different series she did over the years. You don't get cast that often if you're not good. In old episodes of Barnaby Jones and the original Hawaii Five O, she's very subtle, very good. And she was fantastic on Capitol. In fact I thought she was better than Carolyn Jones and Marla Adams who both played Myrna before she was hired.

But her stint on Santa Barbara was over the top, just like her stint on All My Children. Somewhere along the way she lost that subtle approach to the characters she played. And she became more difficult to enjoy watching on screen.

5 hours ago, Mitch said:

 

Remember she was a friend of Rauch's and he was "retired" at that time and the whole show was changed with new writers. The story was that Joan had an agreement that she would do a book tour but after Rauch left MADD wouldn't honor it and they agreed to cut ties. I doubt Collins had a 13 week cycle in her contract..she is way too savy for that. But I think the new regime Conboy, and Weston, saw Alex differently and weren't as good as Rauch in dealing with a diva.and I think it was really hard on Collins..she was front burner and she was not used to doing soaps, so I think both sides were just like..."bye now."

 

I LOVED Joan's Alex...her cool, sarcastic lines were perfect Bev Alex...and then Marj came in screaming and throwing chairs and it was back to Cartoon Alex.

 

I loved Marj as Myrna on Capitol. But she was terrible as Alex on Guiding Light. I think when she came back at the end of 2002, she had just finished playing a cartoon villain on All My Children and she carried some of that over to Alex. It was dreadful...she butchered the character and Conboy let her do it. Wheeler didn't even try to reign her in. She should have been written off.

6 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I think Blake could have worked with Keifer playing the part.  Sherry's Blake had a sardonic sense of humor and was guarded/cold..  the Blake before her Elizabeth D (Glenn close lookalike) was cold, but tragic.  All three actresses bought out different facets of Blake's personality...but I miss the corporate Blake that Sherry played that Liz Kiefer couldn't play.

Yes, this is what didn't work for me with Keifer's portrayal. She did not come across as a woman with a background in business. In some ways she felt miscast. When they did the Wives Club episode in late 2002, where all Philip's ex-wives showed up to help Alex (now played by Joan Collins) regain control of Spaulding, having Keifer in that boardroom meeting just felt off. Like she didn't belong there. We never would have felt that with Dennehy or Stringfield in the role.

There was one episode in either 2000 or 2001 where Claire Labine had Blake baking scones for Ross and the boys. That's how much the character had changed from her days in the corporate sector. Esensten and Harmon Brown tried to give the character a bit of zest by having her become a romance novelist but that never really went anywhere and mostly felt like filler material.

Weston used Blake in some of the detective agency stuff with Harley which was mostly fluff. And Weston had Ross and Blake remarry at Christmastime in 2003. But when Kreizman and Wheeler took over they scrambled for her to be meaningful. She had maybe one good episode (when Ross died) but other than that the character was relatively useless the last five years. They didn't even age her sons or her daughter. In fact Blake and Ross' kids were hardly ever shown during Kreizman and Wheeler's regime, that's how unimportant Keifer's version had become, with no real purpose or story line  of her own.

6 hours ago, Darn said:

I can't believe Vincent Irizarry was popular as Lujack or Nick. He's super obnoxious in all the clips I've seen of him.

 

Was Joan Collins stint really not well-received? She's so good as Alexandra, closer to the Beverly McKinsey's Alex than Marj Dusay by far. I wonder why she joined one of the lowest rated soaps, anyone have any idea how much they paid her? Did her casting impact the ratings?

She was signed to a six-month contract by producer Paul Rauch in the summer of 2002. She started airing in mid-to-late September. It was a big deal at the time. She was meant to boost the show's sagging ratings. I am sure she was quite expensive. Plus they were paying for all the publicity related to her arrival.

But she was dropped after three months, in late December. The official word was she had some book launch to do (she was still writing and publishing books like her sister Jackie Collins). But I think it's because her cycle was up (cycles are 13-weeks) and instead of continuing to pay her for the full six month period they just cut their losses and got rid of her because ratings had not gone up. They brought Marj Dusay back who I am sure was much less expensive. I liked Collins in the role, at the time, but looking at it now, she feels miscast. Marj was miscast too. There was only one real Alexandra and it was Beverlee McKinsey.

6 hours ago, Darn said:

 

Ah okay. Thanks, I had a feeling it wasn't an out and out affair based on the Maureen/Holly scene I watched earlier.

 

Do you think Blake was diminished by the recast? I'm watching 92 GL and she's a much more interesting character, a real combination of her parents and not nearly as matronly looking as Elizabeth Keifer's version. I always thought she looked too old to believably be Maureen Garrett's daughter.

It was not the best recast. Keifer got better, but it was Stringfield who owned the role.

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

There is some Love of Life on Youtube that features Chandler as Ben.

Thanks. I will try to find those clips/episodes when I get a chance.

I think the character from the 70s that Long would have done well writing for (if she hadn't been killed off before Long started) would have been Jackie played by Cindy Pickett. It was exactly the kind of self-empowered female Long specialized in writing.

By the way I was just looking up the recast Carrie Mowery and found an obituary. Is this the same person?

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=173136020

13 hours ago, robbwolff said:

 

My friend had told me about the divorce a few years ago. Like I said, he used to work in the industry. He was always good for interesting behind-the-scenes stories. Back in 2013, he had filled me in on the trouble behind the scenes with the AMC and OLTL revivals well before the Prospect Park issues made headlines. He said morale was terribly low way back in March 2013. I also recall him saying that AMC had planned a cutting storyline for Miranda on AMC.

Yes, someone could (and should) write a book about the failed revivals of AMC and OLTL. That's a whole subject by itself!

24 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

 

Ben's a pretty common name though. 

 

I sometimes wonder how Jerry ver Dorn survived on GL throughout the '80s. I can only assume he was beloved backstage. I remember when he gave the goodbye to Charita Bauer when she passed away. He'd only been on the show 5 years! Yet they had razed through so much of their cast in that time, somehow he actually had become the elder statesman. 

 

I'm not sure any other soap has ever gone through their cast in such a short space of time. 

And Jerry Ver Dorn also addressed the camera at the end of the episode in 2002 that acknowledged Mary Stuart's passing. So he helped with the send-offs for two of Procter & Gamble's most beloved leading ladies.

2 hours ago, watson71 said:

 

Flood played Ella Hobbs on SFT.  I believe this is how the story played out. Suzy was killed by Ella.  Ella wanted revenge against the McCleary family after a payroll robbery that Ella orchestrated with her lover, Judge Jeremiah Henderson (William Prince), years earlier with Suzi's husband's father-in-law Malcolm McCleary (Patrick Tovatt).  Malcolm turned up alive and fled to Ireland.  Malcolm's twin brother was the one that was killed in the payroll robbery, not him. Ella held Jo hostage in the elevator shaft at Liberty House and she fell to her death as she attempted to kill Jo. 

 

After this, Flood immediately turned up on AW Rose Livingstone.  Rose worked in the accounting department at Cory Publishing.  She dated and flirted with Mac for a few months when his marriage to Rachel was strained as Mitch returned to Bay City.  Flood appeared on AW the day SFT left the airwaves as Mac's date when the North Woods Inn caught on fire.

 

 

Malcolm was the one who died. The one who was actually still alive (and had been away in Ireland) was Matt McCleary, the estranged husband of Kate McCleary and the father of the three McCleary brothers. They had all thought Matt died and their uncle Malcolm was in Ireland. The ending of the story felt a little rushed, probably because Long and Walsh wanted to facilitate a reunion between the two parents and give all the McClearys a happy ending.

8 minutes ago, robbwolff said:

 

Make that ex-wife. She dumped him. A friend who used to work in the industry said Goutman treated her like crap, just as he did with many personnel at the shows he worked at.

Didn't realize they divorced. I see on his wiki page it says their marriage ended in 2016. They were together for over 30 years.

33 minutes ago, j swift said:

How funny is little Fredrick upset on the sofa looking at Crissy?  I wonder if he's thinking, "someday she's going to implicate me as the father of one of her twins!"

 

Also, wow, Dr Sara is much prettier than I imagined when reading about her!  She was always marrying some loser on the rebound while on vacation, so I guess I thought she was frumpier.  Although, given soap casting, that could have been considered frumpy at the time...

None of them were ever frumpy. Even the older women, such as Bert and Barbara, were presented as classy and "with it."

3 hours ago, Khan said:

Was that the entire cast at that time?  Shouldn't there also be Alan and Elizabeth (and Phillip)?

Yes. Though Roger's wife Peggy and Mike's daughter Hope should be included, unless they were temporarily off screen at this time.

As I stated in previous posts the Dobsons kept things fairly basic. The show was still in the half-hour format in 1976. In 1977 the cast expanded when they went to an hour. The Spauldings were added, including Alan's assistant Diane Ballard. Ben McFaren (Steve Yates) was added. Lucille Wexler and her daughter Amanda would be added. Bill Bauer would resurface, which paved the way for his daughter Hilary to be added. Etc.

13 hours ago, j swift said:

Given his track record it would be hard to predict if a Chris Goutman memoir would be well written, but I bet he has good stories.

His wife Marcia McCabe played Sunny from 1977 up to the very last episode in 1986. She would definitely have a lot of insider knowledge. Both of them should write a book about the soap industry, with a focus on Procter & Gamble.

14 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

I think it was an 80's mentality to spend up in the hopes of keeping up with the competition and the razzamatazz of the 60 min shows.

Yes, and I think the logic was you have to go "big" in order to attract bigger audiences. They were going all the way, pulling out all the stops to make the show must-see. I'm actually glad they did that because the last year has incredibly good production values. Whereas shows today that keep cutting back on the budget are just stalling out their demise and dying a painfully slow death.

54 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

While the show failed in many, significant ways under Wheeler,  TGL was lucky to find and cast some actors who were perfect for their roles, like Pelphrey and Branson. Earlier than that, you are 100% correct: the show brought us brought remarkable talent among the younger set. Good casting can help override weak scripts in some cases.

 

William Roerick had been on the show previously in another role. He was the last actor to play Aunt Meta's third husband, Dr. Bruce Banning, in the 1970s. When he reappeared as Henry Chamberlain, it was a jolt to me at first, but I quickly adjusted because he was so perfect as Vanessa's father. No other performers would ever have been accepted as the show's most iconic figures: Bert Bauer, Roger Thorpe, Nola Reardon, Reva Shayne, etc., and I'm glad the show never tried. ATWT attempted to replace Penny Hughes and Lisa Miller a few times, without success. I like Lee Merriwether, but she simply felt wrong for the part when she took over for Mary Fickett as Ruth Martin on AMC.

Interesting comment about Roerick's previous turn on the show. I think Jordan Clarke had also been on GL in the 70s as a different character, before he appeared as Billy Lewis in the 80s. There must have been enough of a gap so fans didn't mind.

Roger actually was recast in 1997 with Dennis Parlato. He was fine on OLTL as a similar character (Michael Grande) but he felt out of place on GL. And of course, Zaslow cast a long shadow. I guess after Rauch, Esensten & Harmon Brown chose not to write Zaslow's illness into the show and dropped him, they needed Parlato to finish out the current storyline and wrap things up. But it just didn't feel right.

None of the actors ever talk about the end of the show (except for Mary Stuart who did some interviews later on). A lot of the cast from the 80s is still living. It would be nice if someone interviewed a few of them to get their behind-the-scenes impressions of the last year. As we know the production underwent a major overhaul in '86. I'd like to know more about what the atmosphere was like on the set. What was it like when they were told the show was being dropped by NBC, etc.

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

Many of the characters whom you mentioned would have also fit into my best-loved list, had I not been determined to restrict it to a reasonable length, and not include too many names.

 

Joy Lenz was wonderful as Michelle (Rachel Miner was very good too) and could have developed into a strong tentpole character over time. It's unfortunate about the revolving-door of actresses in the role, because I think the character really clicked and left a mark on the show with Lenz and Miner playing her.

 

Beverlee McKinsey was, of course, a goddess, and any show would have been lucky to have her. When written well, Alex was a jewel in Springfield's crown.

 

Robert Newman exuded leading-man charisma, and he aged beautifully, helping the former bad-boy Josh develop into a solid hero who was never boring. Tom Pelphrey ended up being a real find, and an excellent scene partner for Kim Zimmer. Even when the character misbehaved, you wanted to watch him anyway. He had that "certain something." After some misfires, TGL finally found the right Shayne in Jeff Branson.

 

Over the decades the show presented us with so many wonderful, memorable characters.

Yes, I wanted to make sure I had a few on my list from the last decade. While I think Wheeler was a dreadful producer, and the writing became increasingly abysmal some of the new cast members in those last few years were certainly way above average and they gave us some memorable characters. I did like Gina T's version of Dinah but I think Wendy M felt more believable playing Maeve Kinkead's daughter. And while I mostly loathed late '86 and the first half of '87 (before Pam Long's return) we did get the introduction of Dinah during that period, and she became a legacy character.

I really think this show did a good job of casting the juvenile roles, especially in the late 80s, all through the 90s and early 2000s. The kid who played Little Billy was great; I loved watching little Hayden Panettiere as Lizzie; and as you said Rachel Miner was certainly good as a very young Michelle. In the 2000s, I liked the kid who played Cassie's troubled son Will-- can't remember his real name, but he was another compelling child actor on the show. Good casting goes a long way towards creating memorable characters.

Some roles, thank goodness, were never recast. Nobody else would have played Reva as well as Kim Zimmer during those five years she was away (1990-95). Similarly William Roerick was aces as Henry Chamberlain. I sincerely doubt anyone would have done justice to that part after Roerick died. I was glad they did not recast it but wrote his death into the show. Lisa Brown's Nola was another one who never could have been played by anyone else.

Female characters I loved:

HOLLY (my fave); VANESSA; JACKIE (played by Cindy Pickett); BERT; REVA; ALEXANDRA (Beverlee McKinsey's version); SALLY (Patricia Barry was an excellent actress, loved her voice); CASSIE (played by Laura Wright); MICHELLE (played by Joy Lenz, definitely my most favorite younger actress); CLAIRE (Susan Pratt was always feisty and never played a doormat); HOPE (Elvera Roussel); ANNIE (Cynthia Watros); GILLY; NOLA; DINAH (played by Wendy Moniz); HARLEY; LILLIAN; MARAH (played by Laura Bell Bundy); LIZZIE (Hayden Panettiere) and SARA (McIntyre not Shayne).

Male characters I loved:
JOSH (my fave); ROGER (Michael Zaslow); ROSS; ED (Peter Simon); ALAN (Chris Bernau & Ron Raines, loved both interpretations); H.B.; HENRY; FLETCHER; JUSTIN (Tom O'Rourke); MIKE; PHILLIP (Grant Aleksander); ALAN-MICHAEL (Rick Hearst); BILLY (Jordan Clarke); RICHARD; JIM (the adopive father of Harley's daughter, played by Anthony Addabbo, he was refreshingly decent and honest); KYLE; DAX (loved Thom Christopher's acting); FATHER RAY (the one Santos with a conscience); TONY (played by Jordi Vilasuso); HAWK; LITTLE BILLY (Bryan Buffington); JONATHAN (Tom Pelphrey was always entertaining) and SHAYNE (Jeff Branson).

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

 

I had asked this question about Holly and Roger...but I'll ask this about Josh and Reva.  Which of their love interests did you like them with best?  For me, I liked Reva with Kyle..and I liked Josh with Annie Dutton (pre going crazy).

Incidentally Long wrote a character for Tesreau on Santa Barbara.

Re: Reva's love interests outside of Josh, I liked her relationship with Richard, though ironically most of that (her having Jonathan) occurred off camera. I was always hoping for elaborate, newly constructed flashbacks of her as Princess Catherine, married to Prince Richard. It captured my imagination but we never really saw that because Richard was used more with Cassie.

I liked Josh with his Venezuelan wife Sonni (before all the Solita nonsense).

10 hours ago, robbwolff said:

The child, then known as Bert Bauer Ramsey, was born in October/November 1985 when the show was still penned by Long Hammer and Ryder. Long was credited up until around January 1986 when she went on maternity leave. There's an article on this very board that was posted here back in 2010. It was published in Soap Opera Digest in April 1986. The article stated that Long was on maternity leave at that time and might not return. In fact, she moved over over to Search for Tomorrow in mid-1986. She didn't return to Guiding Light until around August 1987. The child was renamed Michelle sometime between her birth in October/November 1985 and spring 1986. There's an episode on YouTube with Maureen and Bea from April 1986 and Mo refers to the baby as Michelle. So the baby was definitely renamed well before Long returned.

 

Okay thanks for clarifying. We should indicate the dates you gave are when her material started airing on Search and on GL (when she returned in 87). So she was probably already working at Search in April 86 and her material started appearing on screen around June. In order for her material to start airing again on GL in August 87, she would have written a new bible and started taking charge of the daily writing back in May or June. 87. My guess is she had a long-term contract with P&G since her days as a head writer at Texas. And the company would move her around and put her where they needed her to fix things.

I should say that I had a slight personal connection to her. She was my favorite writer when I was in high school. As luck would have it, a girl in one of my elective classes who was two years older than me (she was class of 87 and I was class of 89) graduated and went east. We went to high school in Colorado. Anyway, the girl left town and I assumed she went off to college. We were acquaintances not really close. About a year later I got a letter from that girl who had found a job as a nanny in Connecticut (Ridgefield, CT to be exact). She told me she was the nanny for Pam Long's two sons. She remembered my talking about Pam Long being my favorite soap writer in high school and she said she told Pam about me.

I wrote my old school mate back and asked her what it was like. She said Pam was fun to work for and sometimes my friend was able to go into NYC with Pam and visit the GL studio. She said one day when she was on the set it had been announced Krista Tesreau was leaving the show. So Pam decided to have Mindy marry Will Jeffries and write Mindy out that way. I guess that was big problem at the time, how to write Mindy out since Tesreau wanted to go west and try her luck in L.A.

Flash forward to 1991. I had since graduated from high school. And I had gone west to attend film school in L.A. I took a soap writing class and our professor encouraged us to try and get internships on the various shows, you know, to "get our foot in the door." So I decided to send a letter to Pam Long who was at that point the head writer of Santa Barbara. I sent it to NBC, because I wasn't sure if she and her sons still lived back in Connecticut and had lost contact with the girl I went to high school with. Pam sent me a very nice letter saying she remembered her nanny telling her about me. It was on Santa Barbara stationary. In one of the paragraphs she made a point of telling me to make sure I stayed in college and graduated. It felt like advice a mother would give. It had just been announced that Santa Barbara was going off the air. So I ended up getting an internship and production assistant job at General Hospital instead.

46 minutes ago, slick jones said:

 

CHANDLER HILL HARBEN

 

THE EDGE OF NIGHT        Lt. Sam Fountain    1974

                                            Lt. Hewlett    1974

THE DOCTORS        Dr. Rico Bellini               1975-76

LOVE OF LIFE          Ben Harper                      1976-80

ANOTHER WORLD      Max Dekker       1980

TEXAS               Max Dekker                             1980-81

ANOTHER LIFE            Blue Nobles    1982-83

THANK YOU. What a great looking guy. Wish I had seen him on Love of Life.

3 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

 

It didnt help that his character on here wasnt served well.  

 

I saw episodes when he was on Texas and he was quite good.  He was let go and recast with Jay Hammer..which I read was a disaster.

So how many different soaps was Chandler Harben on? I don't think his credits on the IMDb are complete.

4 hours ago, j swift said:

I would argue that the killing off of Bill allowed Bert to remain a martyr.  If Bill had stuck around or sobered up there would have been an inevitable effort to try to get Bert to forgive him and maybe even a late in life romance.  However, that would really undermine all of the work that Bert had done in raising her sons.  I feel that making a story about Bill's redemption negates Bert's agency.  I get the storyline possibilities but, I don't think that they would be worth the price of Bert's reputation.  I don't think the later Bert and Josh scenes after her amputation would have the same impact if Bert had agreed to forgive and forget Bill.

 

I completely agree with what you wrote above. Bert was a sufferer. She was valiant, and yes, a martyr. That's why she was so popular with viewers for several decades. Bad things happened to her, the family was devastated by Bill's many indiscretions. But Bert kept things together and persevered in the face of hardship, putting her sons first. Having Bill come back and experience some sort of redemption would have robbed Bert, Mike and Ed of their identities. They were defined by the life they made for themselves during Bill's absence. Bill had to reach a tragic end, that was the nature of his character.

4 hours ago, robbwolff said:

Actually Long was still head writer when Michelle was born in 1985. So she named her Bert Bauer Ramsey. If I recall correctly, Fletcher nicknamed her Bibi. Another head writer -- possibly Jeff Ryder -- was the one who changed the child's name to Michelle.

No it's the other way around. Jeff Ryder is the one who named her Bert Bauer Ramsey, and they had Claire call the baby B.B. Pam Long was on maternity leave. When she came back she changed the name to Michelle. There was some interview where she said the name was changed to reflect the baby being named after its uncle (Mike). Also they wanted the child to have the Bauer name, and B.B. Bauer (Bert Bauer Bauer) was redundant.

1 hour ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

No, I never equated being "played out" ONLY to characters who were getting older. I meant that just because a writer could no longer use a character in the exact same way as when s/he was first introduced, or just because an actor/character was advancing in years,  does not mean that s/he is no longer useful and therefore should be written out. TPTB can use the "played out" justification for eliminating anyone, regardless of age.

 

The characters eliminated by TGL at the time were of various ages, younger and older, and the majority of them (IMHO) were still viable and had stories to tell. Long and Kobe's announcing those characters were "played out" seemed to be a catch phrase used as an excuse when the actors balked at the new direction the show was taking, or when the new PTB simply did not care to write for them anymore.

I don't think you're seeing the whole picture. In another post you go on about how much you like Reva. But if Kobe/Long didn't get rid of some people there would not have been room to bring Reva and her family in, expand Josh's family, expand the Spauldings and add the Raines family, or the Cooper family later. It's unrealistic to expect a new producer and new head writer to continue using all the previous regime's characters. It just does not happen in soap land. They have been hired to bring a new vision to the show and that means cutting the deadwood and introducing vibrant new characters to carry the drama forward.

And I don't think you were really paying attention to the storyline where Bill Bauer was killed off. The point of that story was there was someone (Eli Sims) who wanted revenge against the patriarchs because of what had happened to his wife years ago. Someone had to die as he carried out his vengeance, otherwise the story would have had no gravitas. And having Eli kill someone important like Bill Bauer gave it a long-term lasting effect. You are still affected by Eli's murder spree years later, almost a decade after the show went off the air. So that tells me Kobe & Long crafted a very strong story and it made a huge impact if we're still discussing it in 2018. Other writers would have just forgotten about Bill Bauer and never mentioned him again. But Kobe & Long gave us so much more than that.

3 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

 

Yes, certainly. The natural aging process of any character/actor needs to be part of the equation. In the 1950s, TEON's Mike Karr was more of an action hero, getting involved in all sorts of crime busting, but as the decades went on, it would have been inappropriate, if not improbable, for him to be involved in physically strenuous and combative behavior. ATWT's Lisa Miller was a sexy vixen when she first appeared, but 50 years later, the exact same vixenish antics would appear ridiculous in a senior citizen. This does not mean that older characters are "played out" or should be dropped from their shows. It just means that TPTB should use them differently, according to their changing age and status. 

 

You are borrowing my phrase 'played out' and I think you are misappropriating it. Played out does not mean a character has grown old. Technically a young character could be played out too. Played out means they have outlived their usefulness having gone beyond the point where they can be logically used in the framework of existing storylines. Villains tend to be played out the fastest. When a character ends up doing the same thing again and again, or recedes into the background because there aren't any new ways to present the character, then he or she is played out.

Sometimes if a writer and producer temporarily rest a character, by putting them into a coma or sending them to jail or out of town for awhile, they can come back later with renewed purpose and storyline. Then they have something to play again. As for Lisa, she was a beloved presence on As the World Turns for a long time, but Hogan Sheffer probably felt she was played out and that's why he didn't use her. He couldn't fire Eileen Fulton so she just became a glorified extra during those years.

This happened to Jeanne Cooper on The Young and the Restless. They reached a point where Katherine Chancellor was played out (around 2008). So they gave her a new storyline where an impostor named Marge came into the picture and took over Katherine's identity for awhile. Now Cooper was playing a new character with all these new story avenues. And while Katherine was kidnapped and kept off screen it created all these new problems so that when Katherine returned and exposed the impostor as a fraud, there were all these messes she had to clean up, which gave Katherine a renewed purpose.

Besides impostors and twins, another trick soap writers use to give played out characters a renewed purpose is they bring in a long-lost child or long-lost parent, so there's something else to play. Marland did this with Lisa in the 90s when he revealed to viewers she had another son named Scott Eldridge. However subsequent writers botched that story. If they hadn't, then Eileen Fulton would have had a lot more to play in the 2000s with Lisa involved in her second son's life.

Anyway played out has nothing to do with a character's age. It has to do with whether or not they remain relevant in the show's ongoing storylines, and that can happen to a character of any age.

7 minutes ago, j swift said:

True, but at time when the soap press was filed with complaints about Reva taking over the show, it may not have been a respectful move to recycle that name for the character of her mother.

 

Also, while I demur to your Edmond Winslow/Ed Bauer point, it did lead to the clumsy writing of everyone saying their full names, if they were in the same script; which was rare.  Also, one would hardly refer to either Edmond Winslow or Michael the Clone Doctor as well written characters created by people who valued the cannon of a long running show.

 

I think there was always going to be a tension for such a long running show as to how much to respect history versus how much to allow new writers to create contemporary stories with new characters and families.  For example, Mike could have had twelve kids, but I doubt any of them would have added to the diversity of the show in later years; so there has to be some balance between nostalgia and progress.

I don't think I agree with the point that recycling a name means a writer is not respecting the canon of the show. Bill Bell who created and head wrote The Young & the Restless had John Abbott and John Silva both as regular characters on the show in the late 80s and early 90s. Silva was sometimes called by his last name but when they gave him a love story his girlfriend called him John. So there were two Johns on the show at the same time and nobody seemed to have a problem with it.

In fact it is unbelievable that on soaps there are not more repeated names, since some names are very common in real life. On GL, Long reused other names. Besides Bill Bauer there was Billy Lewis and Bill Lewis. Michelle was originally named Bert Bauer Ramsey by another head writer but was renamed by Long as Michelle Bauer, after her uncle Mike. Estensten & Brown gave Danny Santos a brother named Mick that Michelle killed. Estensten & Brown also introduced a brother for Ross named Ben Warren when there was already a character named Ben Reade. I don't remember anyone complaining about the name Ben being reused.

11 minutes ago, j swift said:

I just chuckled to think about the shift of GL from the 70's to the 80's because while there were no other Mikes, only 4 years after the departure of Dr. Sara Mcintyre we got Sarah Shayne.  Once a new set of writers repeats a first name for their new character as a heritage character, I believe, it indicates a lack of concern about the cannon of that story.  

As your post indicates there was a slightly different spelling. Sara McIntyre was another character that was played out. Kobe/Long came in at a unique point in the show's history when some of those holdovers from the 70s had run their course and in order to refresh/reset Guiding Light those people who had basically run out of storyline had to be let go.

Reusing a name might have occurred because Long had a relative or friend named Sarah she was basing Sarah Shayne on...or else the meaning of the name corresponded to Long's idea and conception of the character and what she was supposed to represent. There could have been a number of reasons this happened. The name Michael was reused...I believe the doctor in the clone Reva story was named Michael. Also Edmond was a variation of Ed. During the Conboy-Weston era, Ed Bauer and Edmond Winslow were both regularly featured characters.