Spoon

It's too bad Fletch didn't stick around, while I thought he was played out when he left- he was a refreshing familiar face to see when they returned. A bit of old GL before they blow up the whole thing that Summer. If Fletcher stayed, maybe they wouldn't have revisited ...

I think Fletcher was just part of Rauch's culling that included Bridget. Fletcher had a good run. In '97- I was like "he's still on?", so he was definitely deadwood. Another one of his early memorable stories was when him and Maureen went down to Beiruit and Ed knocked up Fletcher's girlfriend Claire (with Michelle). Fletcher and Mo had a radio talk show for some reason. This was in '85 when crazy nurse Charlotte Rampling was trying to destroy Ed's life for no apparent reason, before being murdered by her tv reporter sister for some reason. Yes, 1985 was a banner year for the show. Lol

I guess TPTB felt that having the diner and Company was redundant. Given the choice I'm glad they chose to keep Company since that setting was there since the Marland days when it was the Wired for Sound club. I guess Buzz winning the lottery was to give him capital to invest in his business. They continued treating him as middle-class compared to Spauldings, Marlers and Bauers.

@alwaysAMC re: abigail, that's the medical leave I was hinting at-- the actress irl got a cochlear implant. They were new at the time and there was somewhat of a debate in the deaf community over it. They are building up to writing that into the show.

Days is way worse, its like 8-9 months now. Seven at the very least. @alwaysAMC congrats on one year with the GL fandom. I really enjoyed reliving the show via your recaps. That show will always hold a special part in my heart, I was exposed to GL at a young age. I couldn't watch cartoons until 4! The generational viewership is what fueled soaps for generations. My grandma would listen to TGL on the radio while gardening Congrats again!

I'm at June 1994. They are clearly tweaking things to keep Todd around. At what point did they decide that he connected with the audience and they had to pivot to keep him around long term? Spoiler

That would also help crackdown redundancy. The way it is now you can have dallas conversation under either primetime soaps OR cancelled soaps.

JG can't be this bad, can he? Is it possible that he is mandated to keep things as "safe" as possible thus no real stories and an eternal holding pattern while ratings are (sadly) sustained? Either way, Y&R viewers are screwed.

Watching the March 18, 1980 episode on YT, building up to the climax in Santo Domingo. Exciting stuff. Roger was posing as room service when Chrissy called out "Roger!"

Considering Rauch, its a miracle they didn't give Reva D.I.D. to really chew the scenery.

I'd argue that Conboy might have been the worst thing to happen to GL. Taggart/Culliton's breif HW stint in 2002 showed that the show still had potential to be really good again. Cowboy just tore that all down. The show was in much worse shape when Ellen Wheeler took over. I mean I actively dislike Wheeler's run too, but she had even less of a budget to work with than Conboy did. Wheeler had some really terrible ideas like the inside the light wednesdsy bottle episodes and the Community service episodes. Peapeck might have been a necessity due to the miniscule budget, but it was executed in about the worst way possible. Especially the first month or so where they had really shaky camera work to be "edgy," probably made all the grannys still watching sick.

@DRW50 thanks for the tag.

Calling Timms (the first Paulina on another world) would be my fan casting for Beth in the 90s. CT was replaced by Judi Evans on AW. She'd also be a good Mindy but I'd bring her in as Beth. I didn't care for BC's Beth during her first go in 89. Her second stint in the role was better and out of the shadow of BE's portrayal of Beth.

More musings while the thread is dead... GL Pay or Play contracts. After Edge ends, move over Ann Flood to GL as Trudy in 1985 to compensate for the loss of Charita Bauer. My dream re-casting for Mindy in the late 90s would be Karen Witter. Been watching her as Tina on OLTL and I think she's just terrific- can play sexy works well in comic subplots as well as more serious soap fare. She took over from fan favorite Andrea Evans and held her own, physically stunning and can act- the perfect combination. I still would bring over Marcia McCabe as either Hope Bauer or Trish Lewis in 1987, after SFT ended. If Ann Flood doesn't work as Trudy, bring in Mary Stuart in early as Meta. Just thinking about the fake Bauers. Maybe if they cast Mary Stuart as Johnny and Lanie's grandmother it would be easier to accept the Bauer expansion pack-- given the goodwill MS had with longtime soap viewers (or soap geeks) as Jo on SFT. Barbara Crampton (as Mindy) seemed out-of-place on a NYC soap, she should've stayed with Bell. She'd probably fit okay on Santa Barbara as a new character.

TBF, she's playing Paulina pretty similar to her Lily Mason stint on AW.

They namedropped Lucy a couple times. I thought it was late Rauch era, they called her up to do some snooping from her end.

@DRW50 Marvel Comics Superhero, The Guiding Light.

GL should've snapped up Carl Tye Evans to reprise the role of A-M, after his Nick Scudder stint on sibling soap ATWT.

fan casting: Nichiolas Coster (SB) or Jed Allan (SB) as Alan in the 90s.

I wondered if John Conboy thought he was at the Edge of Night. Serial killers, crime stories centered around dayplayers. I think this was discussed before, but I don't think GL had any contract cops until Rusty in the mid 80s. If Tony stuck around, I would have him be a cop, or introduce Sean Reardon as a cop. It's a big, traditional Irish-American family, how did they not have a cop in it! Re: Craig. When I started atwt in the 90s Craig seemed benign, I guess he was a scoundrel back in the day. I remember Scott Bryce came back and played a more Hunt block-tinged Craig. I thought he was pretty good in updating his portrayal. Goutman must not have cared for him as he replaced him with Jeffrey meek. Yuck. I eventually warmed up to Jon Lindstrom's Craig, but it took a bit of time.

I forgot about her 2005 appearance. Was that for [Spoiler's] funeral?

For some inexplicable reason I hated Ben Warren but loved HB as Craig on ATWT. It was exactly the same character. Maybe having Maura West and Cady McClain as primary scene partners.

I hated RR's Alan so much, the only way he would work is to lean into humor. His Alan was a joke. RR and SS were both so hammy, couldn't stand either one. Dusty was a fine Alex, for her first two runs, but that 2002 run stunk. She was so hammy and different, of course the writing was poor but I wonder if her acting choices were largely influenced by her AMC run just prior? I got the vibe that AMC's Vanessa was a way OTT villain.

Also, how did they NOT pair Alan with Carmen. I mean, I hated them both, but they were both despicable characters played as over the top, mustache twirling, one-dimensional cartoon villains.

how about this for laughs.. bring on Ellen Parker as Jeffrey O'Neil's mother who is a doppelganger for Maureen. She's the opposite of Maureen of course and chain smokes and is a former prostitute who Buzz had a fling with, thus fathering Jeffrey. Ava and Marina would both be recast and be in a triangle with a returning Dr. Peter Reardon. I remember there was speculation/fear that they were going to force Jeffrey onto the Bauer family tree. TPTB were so desperate to make the audience accept him. They should've just cut their losses. Bradley Cole was way better as Jeffrey, possibly even good but there was just WAY too much propping.