Ryan Mason

2 hours ago, antmunoz said:

I remember MM one day, GG the next. But I don’t recall GG being off for a month after her first appearance. I recall her appearing a lot to cement the recast. 

GG’s weaker, more desperate, later addict Santana was not my favorite.

It was actually even more extreme, believe it or not. I had read that she debuted in episode 304, which aired October 3, 1985, and didn't appear again until episode 341, which as it turned out aired November 29th! And I just went back and double checked it myself and that is indeed accurate. But when I did I also saw that there was a LOT going on in that time period...Gina plotted and executed the plot to frame Eden for pulling the plug on CC, Brick and Amy got married, Dylan and Mark came to town, Angel held the clinic hostage...so it may have just been simply that Santana wasn't necessarily that involved in those things.

And I agree with you about Gina Gallego; she was probably my least favorite, but I'm not sure whether it was her or the writing. For most of her tenure I felt like Santana was an Argument Waiting To Happen and for months it seemed like her dialogue was just endless variations of "You don't LOVE me, Cruz; you love EDEN!" It got to the point where I'd see her and think "Oh great; what's she going to bitch and moan about NOW?" But then years later I enjoyed her on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!

It also goes to show the difference recasts can make. When it was Ava Lazar and Linda Gibboney in the beginning, I was rooting for Santana. By the time it was Gina Gallego and Robin Mattson, while I didn't necessarily *condone* the whole allergy pill/crack switcheroo, I was pretty solidly Team Gina.

I don't know that any of you will necessarily have an answer to this any more than I do, but this just popped back in my head recently.

The switch from Margaret Michaels to Gina Gallego as Santana, while not as jarring as Gordon Thomson replacing Terry Lester as Mason MID-EPISODE, was nonetheless rather odd.

Margaret Michaels' last episode ended with her demanding Mason tell Brandon the truth about his mother.

The very next episode, Gina Gallego, in the exact same outfit, ran disappointed from the Capwell mansion AND the episode itself 15 minutes in when Mason opted not to tell Brandon that Santana was his biological mother. There was no opening "The role of Santana Andrade is now being played by..." voiceover to announce the switch, and you didn't see Santana again for about a month. I remember when the episode first aired, my 13-year-old self was like "Wait...she LOOKS really different, but they didn't SAY she's being played by someone else...am I going nuts?" until I saw Gina Gallego's name in the closing crawl. (Again...I was all of 13! )

So I've always wondered if there was some sort of similar scheduling mixup or crisis or what have you and they had to get Gina in there early to shoot what would have been Margaret's last episode. Because that long of a gap in appearances would have made sense if they wanted to give a break between the two Santanas like soaps often try to with recasts so they won't be as jarring, but as it was was rather odd.

Again...I don't know that any of you would have any more information on this, but it's just something I've always wondered!

9 hours ago, Jdee43 said:

Watching the show, I think Mark Arnold was completely miscast as Joe.

How about Jack Wagner as Joe Perkins in 1984?

In 1984, Jack Wagner was pretty solidly ensconced and popular on General Hospital as Frisco, so unfortunately that wouldn't have worked. I do agree about Mark Arnold, though. I guess he had a pretty successful run on The Edge of Night for a few years before this, but here I feel like he basically turned Joe into Shouty McYellerson. It seemed like his Joe was just constantly yapping about something or other and it just got obnoxious after awhile. 

On 1/25/2023 at 10:54 AM, Wendy said:

Yes.

Rosemary Forsyth, known as one of the handful of actresses to play Dr. Laura Horton on Days, had the role of Sophia before Judith McConnell. But she - if I recall - was disguised as Dominic throughout her short tenure.

Yep. Judith McConnell was still in the Dominic disguise only when she first started. It was right around the same time as the Joe recast as well.

3 hours ago, Sapounopera said:

BTW, I can't remember Robin Strand at all.

He was a temp. He subbed for Justin Deas for a week or two in the spring of 1988. I remember him fondly from an episode of Square Pegs where he played the school's new hunky substitute janitor, but he was an odd choice for Keith. I just figured maybe it was an emergency situation and he was the best available on short notice?

Thinking about characters disappearing made me remember how I found it kind of hilarious that getting paired with Jane in 1987 was the kiss of death as far as your longevity on the show. She dated Pearl's brother Brian. He leaves town. Then she dates blink-and-you-miss-him Warren #2. HE leaves town. Then she dates Brick. This time they BOTH leave town!

On 1/18/2023 at 3:31 AM, Marissa Gallant said:

I feel like ending storylines on this show was a weakness. Like no one at the top realized that it is okay for stories to have long, gratifying endings. This was more "We don't know what to do with the movie, burn it. We don't know how to end Who killed Maddie make it her sister."

I feel like character exits were handled in much the same way. Unless something really definitive happened, like they were killed or went to jail, half the times I feel like we just...simply never saw them again with no actual explanation, and then eventually we'd see the character had been removed from the end credits. Sometimes down the road Soap Opera Digest would give the generic explanation the character "left town"...but we'd never actually be told that onscreen.

(And I definitely agree with you on Who Killed Madeline. There was that scene of Sheila telling David "Well, if *I* didn't kill her...and YOU didn't kill her..." and Julia snapping, "WHO DID?!?"...and I think something about Cruz saying they didn't have enough to hold them...and then nothing until about three months later Courtney suddenly starts having nightmares about blood on her hands from out of the clear blue sky.)

On 11/20/2022 at 9:17 PM, dc11786 said:

@Keri

An underlying piece of the dinner party that often is overlooked is the story about Rosa and Ruben's land. I believe it is later revealed that the land in question is part of the Oasis, which was Mason's shining achievement that not only revitalized his belief in himself, but was a major source of pride for C.C. The Andrades coming into some of the profits of the Oasis is a very intriguing idea given the plans to bring back Santana and pair her with C.C. If Santana had come back and part of C.C.'s motivation to reconnect with Santana had to do with the land, I think that is something that would have strengthened C.C.'s point of view regarding his decision to rekindle a romance with Santana. It would have also been interesting to see if Rosa would have agreed with the Blue Sky and wanted the land protected. Finally, I would have loved to seen Ruben return to unsettle whatever deals were made between Santana, Rosa, and C.C.

I remember Rosa saying she didn't want to talk about it when the land got brought up at the dinner party, and later remember thinking, "Well, I guess the writers didn't either, because I don't remember ever hearing much more about it!" Along those same lines, Pamela said she knew who Cassandra's father was, but *we* never found out who it was...or who Warren's was either, for that matter.

I can't say for certain that this had anything to do with it, but I do remember that right around the time Roberta Bizeau was replaced, Soap Opera Digest had a blind item to the effect of "A soap told an actress to make a choice--a new haircut or a new storyline. The actress happily opted for the former and split." It was a blind item so I can't say for certain that it was about Roberta Bizeau, but I do remember something about Flame going undercover in disguise on some sort of a sting operation and when it was over, she took off the wig she'd been using and her hair was suddenly short and spiky; I remember it reminding me of Marie Fredricksson of Roxette. Then she was gone shortly after and Marguerite Hickey took over long enough for Warren to send her out of town on a news assignment, if I remember right. So I always wondered if maybe TPTB nixed her chopping her hair off and then let her go when she did it anyway? Stranger things have happened in the world of soaps!