Spoon

AW in the 80s had way too many recasts and characters/families who should've stayed on canvas longer. These moves would keep the McKinnons as a core family and shore up the Love/Hudson clan in addition to core families the Corys and a resurgent Frame family- sticking with a four core family setup. Marcus Smythe as Peter would remain on the show until 1991 (Dec 24, 1984- Nov. 20, 1991). I'd keep Duke Stroud (Vince #2) he would last until 1989 where he would leave when Denise Alexander/Mary did or recast Mary and keep him for another contract (March 31, 1985- Feb. 17, 1989). I'd stick with Kathleen Layman as MJ (the 2nd one was awful) and renew her contract in 1987 (May 17, 1990). They killed off Zane Lindquist too quickly, i'd wait a couple years so his death would be more impactful. Patrick Tovatt (March 20, 1985-August 11, 1988). The fact that Ben McKinnon was disposed of so quickly was shortsighted. He could've existed alongside Jake, i'd pair him with Nancy McGowan (replacing rando Chris Chapin). Richard Steen (July 3, 1984- May 7, 1987- leaving alongside Nancy). I wouldn't extend Cheryl McKinnon as she was clearly a placeholder until they aged up Amanda Cory. Kristen Marie (August 14, 1986- July 13, 1988). The third Nicole Love was terrible, what was wrong with the second one? Lauri Landry (November 3, 1986- July 29, 1989). I would have Nicole (recast) released from the sanitarium about five years later, that would be an interesting story. She could stalk Cass and Frankie. Stacey Winthrop. Wasn't thrilled with Hilary Edson, would recast her. Stacey recast (July 20, 1991- January 3, 1994). this would overlap with the introduction of brother Morgan.

Mark Pinter was GL, then ATWT, AW and back as a new character on GL. James Rebhorn was on GL, then ATWT, then back to ATWT as a different character for an episode or two in 2010. Personally, I liked Jake and Molly on ATWT. I watched AW from 85-90, so seeing that character again was a blast from the past. Cass was my favorite AW character-- he represented Carmen Santos for an episode or two. Cass Winthrop (AW, ATWT, GL) was right up there with Mitchell Dru (The Brighter Day, As the World Turns, Another World).

I googled it, technically Reva had Peri-menopause (un-completed menopause) where women can still give birth. Still silly. P&G would carry some existing contracts from their cancelled show (Sharon Gabet, Libby Larson, Harley Jane Kozak(sp), Larkin Malloy, David Forsythe). They should've moved Mary Stuart right over to GL as either Meta or Trudy after SFT was canned. Maybe Marcia McCabe as Hope.

IIRC, the show claimed that despite Reva going through menopause that her cancer treatment reversed it(?). I believe Ellen Wheeler claimed that it could happen. How many of the older women on soaps went through menopause? We know Reva had menopause because it was a big plot point. Rachel on AW was older but she didn't get menopause yet when she had Carl's twins. Re: 1985. You had all the departures plus the loss of Charita Bauer. TPTB thought the cast was largely replaceable as long as they had her as the constant-- kinda like Jo on Search. They wanted to maintain an illusion that Bert was traveling (like Sally Specra on Bold) but fan demand rightfully caused them to change their mind. Unfortunately, by the time they addressed her passing- most of the people she was on with were gone.

Poor Reva would have to wait eight years and menopause to have another child-- baby Colin O'Neil.

@alwaysAMC is reminding me why I hated B&E. I will admit that 1998 wasn't that bad, besides the Teri Demarco stuff- but a large part of that was casting. IIRC, things don't get better 😆 and Lloyd Gold is even worse but that's a year away. There is a brief novelty factor when the island people come on- but its a lot of new characters at once. Between the mob, the island and reva, there's hardly room for anyone else to get story. At the time TPTB said to the soap press was they were focusing on Reva, Michelle and Cassie as the three tentpoles/focus of the show. For what's it worth.

Calla was like a prototype for Nadine. Aging, blonde gold diggers. Here's a question, if Ross wasn't saddled with Blake-- would they have continued the revolving doors of lovers (the 80s) or would he have settled down with some other character? I would've aged the kids in the 2000s (over loser characters like Ashley Wolfe and Joey Lupo) and make the marlers a core family. They already had Dinah driving story and most of the Spaildings on canvas were biological Marlers.

Agree about the demos. AW seemed like a Dead man walking, its a wonder they didn't try to get a younger, "hipper" west coast-based replacement. Plus I guess SB's high production costs for low-ish ratings are what did the show in. Poaching "ringers" from other shows. I read that Rauch said hd could slash the budget, if renewed but NBC was ready to move on. Wasn't there once a rumor that P&G was interested in acquiring Santa Barbara? Too bad SB didn't stick with the four core family premise-- my favorite soap formula is core family heavy. I guess the early months were kinda boring. The 80s suffered when the shows focused in on new random characters over growing or introducing core family units.

@alwaysAMC no, he wasn't. He was only in the role for less than 2 years before Peter Simon's came back. I thought he was underrated-showed more emotion than stoic Peter Simon's. I need to add that it didn't help that you had a recast Phillip and Ed from 85-86 plus Kyle who was a replacement for both Alan and Josh. In 1986, all four came back.

It seems like Santa Barbara would have been more compatible with Days than AW. You'd think they'd try it at some point as both shows struggled.

I think what he is suggesting is like the soapcentral boards where they have a sub-board for every section. The threads in that section would be separate, specific topics. The problem with that is you have lots of dead threads. For example, a gh board would have say a thread about willow and say another thread about favorite characters and so forth.

Sounds like a good plan. The old WoST boards were like that and it worked well.

Reading through the thread, I wanted to mention that at the time USA Today reported that CBS offered to renew ewhart for a final season, but Bob declined-- not wanting to overstay the show's welcome. He probably regretted caving in to do one more season of Bob Newhart Show after deciding to close it out with the wife becoming pregnant (retconned as a dream). He peaced out on about 6 episodes of the final season.

I always found it a bit odd that GL was my favorite soap but I could take or leave Reva, since so much of the the show revolved completely around her. It's nice to see I'm not alone.

@alwaysAMC there's a memorable storyline (slight spoilers.....) in the Summer of 1990, where Alex enlists Holly to prove that Roger's unfaithful. If you can access that, its basically the two of them alone together for a month. You'll just love it. If the vault only goes back to 1992, there's some good roger/Holly stuff after the ross/Blake story begins with the blackout in June. Maybe the blackout would be a good starting point. It was their TV anniversary month and they had a primetime clip show about a week or so prior.

@alwaysAMC you can always learn German and watch all of 1991. 😆

@alwaysAMC any idea where you'll start when you go back? Roger's Return in 89? Reva's exit in 90? January 1990 and complete the decade?

I think Frank was actually well-used in the final year or two when he was the spoilers for Otalia. His first real romance in ages, not counting that dayplayer h@@ker, darcy from the garden of eden arc. Conjob kept putting dayplayers/ minor characters in the forefront. So aggravating! Like mark pinter's 2nd GL character the senator or Colleen dion's madam character.

@alwaysAMC I think in 1995, it was more about expanding B&B and GL was just the low man on the totem pole. Thankfully b&b didn't expand, although it seemed like a logical move at the time. Even when GL was bad in 2001, you'd occasionally get a glimmer of hope like with Taggart/Culliton in 2002 or very early Kreizman in 2004. IMO, the show was cooked when they let JvD walk and LW left for GH around the end of 2005. That and terrible casting choices, which GL used to excel at. There was little rootability by the time they got to Jersey and it became the Jeffrey O'Neil show.

@Mitch64 you really think Lucy was more dull than Frank, Coop or Marina? I liked Lucy, they should've brought her back after Harley left again.

...also, Its A Living and Too Close For Comfort-- and with lesser results, 9 to 5. Syndicators waited too long with The New WKRP, they should've gone them syndication route 5 years earlier than they did and add them to the syndication package of the original like Fame or Mama's Family did.

This day in 2009, a newly returned Phillip pulled Coop out of a burning car and interrupted Alan and Beth's wedding. Coop was trying to stop the wedding when he wrecked up as he was Beth's lover at the time-- Coop passed away from his injuries.

i got the date off of SOD online and their this day in soap history column.

I'm just glad that they aged up Clarissa during the final months. Weird that Kevin and Jason were nowhere to be seen. Also Frank D's daughter Olivia as an aged up young Maureen. They should've aged up Harley's kids once BE was gone and their was no reason to stunt their growth any longer. It's also funny that they paired Daisy/Susan with Lizzie's little brother who as of 1999 (when her and Lizzie were step-siblings/friends) hasn't even been born yet.

@alwaysAMC today in 1984 was the introduction of Alexandra Spaulding.. February 10, 1984