chrisml

JFP and the writers destroyed Mindy and made her utterly pathetic (typical JFP move). I wonder if CBS forced Barbara Crampton on JFP and the show. After the Ann Hamilton debacle, they might not have trusted her instincts, and decided to go with a big name to CBS viewers. A shame Crampton didn't work out. Carrington Garland definitely would have been a good fit, and she had worked with V.I. when he played Scott on Santa Barbara.

Yes, I was. I should have made that clear as it never dawned on me to connect Pamela K. Long to the Strasser anecdote. That was my fault as Pamela Long is the "Long" more associated with GL.

As we've all discussed before, Marcy Walker was hired to save JFP's job. JFP had no plans for her, and Walker never forgave her for the way she was treated. Her costars were equally baffled by her treatment. I think Long was there for a little of Walker's tenure but I'm not sure (my knowledge of post-Maureen's death GL is spotty). She was certainly there for all the workplace mistreatment that was going on during the time that McKinsey quit. She knew what JFP was like and what went down with those workplace meetings. Sydney Penny was very strong on Santa Barbara. Kim Zimmer just did not work and her entrance along was too laughable for her to be taken seriously.

I think GL worked better without Kim Zimmer because there was not the need to make it the Reva Shayne hour. Even when Kim Zimmer was there, someone like Michelle Forbes was more interesting and pulled focus away from Zimmer and Reva. I think that's why the Watros/Zimmer relationship could be rocky because Watros's performance was so much more compelling and Zimmer knew it. I am not attacking Zimmer's talent as I think she's exceptionally talented. I just think GL worked better when it was not centred on one person. when Long tried to make SB into the Jodie hour, it failed miserably as Zimmer (to her credit) acknowledges.

I agree. Good point about Zimmer's tenure on the show. I like Kim Zimmer so I'm not anti-Reva, but I don't think the show needed Reva by the time she left. As you say, JFP set about destroying the show and doing anything she could to save her job once her decisions did not go over well. When JFP brought back Zimmer, it felt as if she were punishing Zimmer for being forced to use her to get the ratings back up. Always feels like that JFP hates women.

I came across a Michael Logan column where he discusses a plot where Alec Mapa played a psychic who reunited Cass and Frankie. Does anyone remember this storyline? I have no memory of this at all. There's no date on the column except that the column does mention a DAYS storyline coping the plot from GHOST so the storyline would have to be after the 1990 release of the film.

I remember people being overjoyed that Kim Zimmer was leaving GL and that she was not missed. I'm sure some people missed her, but I don't think her departure left the same mark as Susan Lucci or Erika Slezak leaving their respective soaps. I was not watching GL when she returned full time, but I recall some people were not happy to see GL returning to the Reva Shayne hour.

I may have asked this before, but the search didn't come up with results. How long did Deas put on that terrible accent? I had stopped watching GL consistently at that point, and I found his performances so hard to stomach. The accent just made it worse. I assume the execs felt the same way as he eventually lost it.

The gorilla stuff was nonsense and a waste of time. It was an insult to waste the previous few minutes of a show on that idiocy. I hated it. I don't care if it was a tribute to a good writer or not. I appreciate the accurate information though, and it's nice when people confirm information so thank you Watson. I'm also glad Beverlee McKinsey did not return as Iris because she was not my Iris. Carmen Duncan was. I understand this is not true for everyone, but McKinsey was Alexandra and Duncan was Iris because I was not old enough to see McKinsey on AW or Texas. While I had given up AW yrs before it's end, I would have been angered if Iris had returned with McKinsey playing her.

I never liked Buzz or Deas on the show. Thought he was a waste of time and storyline. I still can't forget that awful accent he did. Granted, I was not watching regularly at that point which was good because I could not have handled his nonsense on a consistent basis. I wish Deas well on his health journey, but as Buzz, I would never have hired him or created the character. I did not like how desperate and pathetic they made Alex and Mindy towards the end of McKinsey and Simms' tenure. I'm not surprised McKinsey had enough especially with the workplace troubles she spoke out about in the Logan interview (something JFP and her supporters refuse to acknowledge even to this day).

If the Dobsons had worked with what they were given and not wanted to reset, I think the show could have righted itself. Instead, they were so intent on working out their grievances through their writing. It was not fun to watch. When they did work with what was there (Flame/Michael), it was great. It also felt that they were punishing A. Martinez for supporting Phelps because they gave him one insulting story after another. I don't know if that's the case (or if it was just bad writing), but it felt that Martinez was being punished the same way Sorel was punished for her previous relationship with Rauch.

I like Hillary Edson, but never cared for the character of Eve and I didn't like how desperate they made Mindy towards the end. They tried to redeem Eve by giving her a tragic backstory, but it felt too forced. Another example of JFP hiring a performer and not having plans for the character. Edson at least got an emmy nomination and didn't suffer as much as Walker did.

Getting rid of Carrington Garland was just ridiculous. It was emblematic of so much of their return. They did not care about their viewers. They were too busy trying to recreate the past that they alienated the viewers that had stayed with the show: getting rid of Gocke, recasting Santana and doing little with her, recasting Pamela and doing little with it beyond those great episodes, ruining Eden/Cruz with that storyline, the rape dreams/comedy, writing off Augusta (which is more Rauch but still..), etc. It also didn't help they were paired with Paul Rauch who had no feel for the show. It's interesting to me that one of their few successes was the Michael/Flame storyline but that was scuppered because of Born's fights with Rauch. They gave Bizeau Weiss some good material, but then everything went awry bts.

I liked Elizabeth Dennehy as Blake. She's not to blame for inconsistent writing. If every actor was fired for bad writing for his/her character, we would have had very few actors left standing over the years. I remember reading that one of the reasons they fired her was because she looked like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Don't know why that would matter. re: writer's strikes. Was there ever a time when scab/fi-core writers made good decisions during a strike?

In an interview with Michael Fairman at the time of the cancellation, I found the anonymous producer's comments on McTavish and the cancellation of OLTL and AMC quite amusing considering the recent discussions. I wonder who the producer would be: https://michaelfairmantv.com/exclusive-former-soap-producer-of-canceled-soap-speaks-out-on-state-of-genre-fans-industry-reactions-and-life-post-daytime/2011/04/26/

The Brett/Marian storyline did get a lot of positive attention from viewers and the soap press. Frank Beaty was fantastic and I doubt most people could have named storylines that were going on at the same time if they had not already been named. That was the storyline everyone was talking about. That was the storyline the show only cared about. As for Khan's comment about it being transphobic, I understand that concern. It's not something I thought at the time. I just thought it was another violent and sexist storyline from McTavish. I was riveted by Beaty. He sold it whereas I was horrified by a similar story on AW with the Fax newman/Courtney/rape/Frankie's murder storyline that was told soon after. I remember a lot of people seemed to enjoy Lucy being terrorised because they did not like the character and that there was glee in the press that Brent was dressing up as JFP. It reminds me of when Turner Classic Movies looked back at Psycho and talked about the film in terms of transphobia and that's also something that never occurred to a lot of viewers because their focus was elsewhere.

I always liked Gloria and I was so annoyed when the character was allowed to just fade away. Maurice Benard was extremely sexy at some points. I think the fact that Sonny has been shoved down viewers' throats for decades has removed all of that.

Thank you to the people in this thread and the AMC one who summarized McTavish's book because I'm not reading hateful stuff. The Carol stuff as that is just catty and expected, but to put Frank Beaty's personal health stuff into her memoirs is cruel and unnecessary. It confirms for me everything I ever thought about her work. There's no need for that kind of bile.

Yes he was nude. Very attractive man.

That's the one. He was quite conceited, and you could tell he was disappointed he did not get a lot of attention. I guess he thought the AMC fans were going to show up to see him. He was beautiful in person, but he knew it so....

Maximillian Decker as Carlos? I remember him. He also did the Broadway play Take Me out where he had a full frontal nude scene. He was quite conceited at the stage door. I did not interact with him, but it was obvious he was expecting more of a crowd than he he got.

I am probably in the minority, but I think Jessica Morris was a better actress than Melissa Archer but was never given the material. I think Jessica Morris became quite good and emmy nomination worthy during Sam's death. Jen's death was needlessly brutal and added nothing to the story and it only served to loosen Hickland's ties to the show.

I just can't see OLTL doing anything with Joey as a gay man. They barely did anything with him as a straight man after a certain point. I think we would have gotten what we always got with gay storylines on soaps: the gay would sleep with a woman and because gay characters always have magical sperm, the woman would get pregnant. I'd rather have nothing than that.

IT makes sense why they didn't want Joey to be gay since they would never have done anything with the character beyond the initial coming out storyline. Is it better to do nothing or to start something and then avoid mention of it ever after? I can only imagine what subsequent producers would have done (or not done) with a gay Joey once Gottlieb left. Most likely it would have been like Dynasty's Steven all over again.

It's also available on Barnes and Noble: B&N