Mitch64

On 8/13/2023 at 1:05 PM, GLATWT88 said:

I was watching a bit of Nov. 1981 GL on YouTube yesterday prompted by the 80s ratings thread and I was just thinking to myself woah "Tony" is kinda hot. John Wesley Shipp too...

Tony Reardon was all kinds of "hot" no kinda about it! They wrote him as the perfect working class guy, tough, but loved his Mom and his little sister (but had her number) was nice but no push over. I always thought Frank Cooper was a very water down and boring copy of Tony Reardon.  While Harley started out as a take on Nola, Ehlers had the talent and charisma to go her own way, not poor Frankie D, who actually is a the luckiest guy to work on soaps. They just..kept him around.

7 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

he vendetta she had against Rose, Emily, and Carly made perfect sense. I always felt that Babs saw three versions of herself in them. I think the plus side to it all was that it revitalized the importance of Barbara on the canvas. I just wish that Hogan would've been smart enough to utilize Kim and Lisa during that time as they were her two moral compasses. There should've been tons of material of them talking Barbara off the cliff. 

 

I've said too that ATWT missed out on the Lisa/Carly/Babs dynamic the last decade. They should've tossed the three into each other's orbit and had them form a fashion house, which consisted of a lot of comedic backstabbing and undermining one another while forming a sisterhood. I've always hated that Carly and Lisa's friendship was never repaired. 

I liked the lead up to Babs going nuts..the explosion, her scars, feeling stupid that she let a man use her again like James did, and her isolation from her family and friends...with James pulling the strings when she moved into Fairwinds and manipulating her. But, she should have snapped out of it and eventually saved the women and they should have had her shoot James in his final moments he would laugh and say, "Now you are truly like me...I win!" and kill him once and for all (I can out sick Shefffer, I would have her bury him in her backyard put a patio down and then have a scene  LIsa, " Oh that horrible James I hope he never comes back."  Babs..smirking "Oh, maybe he finallyy went to hell and stayed there." That could have made her darker but not silly, OTT crazy selfish stupid that Sheffer made her.  Agreed that the disconnect was Kim, Bob and Lisa not even trying to get through to her and loosing that connection.

Agreed also on Lisa and Carly...Lisa always took in the strays and bad girls and she was supportive of other women (going back to her managing the bookstore and original Fashions days) Having Carly, Babs and Lisa giving each other [!@#$%^&*] but circling wagons when one was threatened was way past what Sheffer or Gautman could think of women.

6 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

And then in her book she did an awful thing & threw Costume Designer Shawn Reeves under the bus saying something like it was beneath him to shop in the chubby girls section. 

They never knew how to dress her, and that includes in Rauch's time, but it got worse the older she got.  I remember them dressing her up as a Queen doing that dumb ass storyline and she looked like someone's mom getting ready to embarrass her kids at Halloween.  Rauch just stuffed her into things (and Reva would NEVER wear a beige pantsuit!)

12 hours ago, Vee said:

I have made many complaints about the Reva Show era in the late 90s-early 2000s over the years. I even think some of the truly bad changes to the show were ironically to Kim's advantage as a performer, stripped of a lot of the Rauch-era artifice.

It's odd, but I hadn't enjoyed Reva (since her Pam Long hey day) as much as I did after the new production. Agreed, his artifice (I never got why the industry thought overly lit beige sets and pastels made great production choices.) In a way, with more money and talent, the production changes could have really benefited GL, a show about families that didn't need masked balls, secret agents or jewell thieves, and Reva, who even when in her 80s big hair, padded shoulders era was a down to earth character. I think Zimmer really stepped up too without the reliance on her acting ticks she had been doing for years. Also it didn't hurt that Zimmer just was "f*ck it" and didn't worry about the weight, which was also a Reva thing to do "There's more to love boys!" 

1 hour ago, DramatistDreamer said:

You might be asking the wrong crowd. I don’t know a single person who didn’t enjoy the character during this time, even those who loved to hate Barbara. It was such an intriguing shift in character and looking back at these episodes (I was a kid at the time 80s bad byotch Barbara was in her prime) as a writer, I really appreciate how the writing allowed the character to organically shift to a vixen from a put upon quasi heroine who had been victimized one too many times. And since the 1980s were known as the decade of decadence, Barbara as the well coiffed fashion designer (as Margo once quipped “Not a hair out of place”) selling clothes that were out of reach to all but the rich ladies and boldly mixing business with pleasure personified ‘80s excess to perfection. It was a timely character turnabout.

That frenemie to rivals dynamic could have lasted longer than it did had HBS stayed on. There were a lot of coming and goings during the 1980s, so many that it’s a wonder the storytelling managed to sustain such a high quality so consistently during the decade.

If only we knew how good we had it at the time. Look at vicious Babs and compare her with campy, nutcase OTT Sheffer Babs and the character regression exemplified the show.  Marland Babs...fun, and sometimes a campy delight but with depth and motivation ( I love how she is always treated as on of the Hughes family and her true fear of having Bob and Kim and Lisa find out her shenanigans) to...Cartoon Babs jumping out of courtroom windows (how she became a comic super villainous who knows) unscathed and with no real meaty scenes with her family. 

As soon as HBS left and dour Dolan took over for Margo, she was no match for Glam Bitchy Babs. 

8 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

It's not so much a question of it being the actor's "responsibility" as much as it is that they're in a position to help out if they choose to just like pilots when airlines get in trouble. But, it is true that at one point when soap were cheap to produce, that  the talent was cheap & by this time actor salaries had grown unbelievably. But, yes, I also understand how expensive it was & is to live where they had to live. I don't agree with you that the only morale issue was taat EW didn't cut KZ loose but I do agree with you that she should have done so. I also don't agree that it was Wheeler's decisions that led to the show cutting people but it also wasn't Zimmer's. Some people seem to think that Wheeler had this great amount of agency about what to do & what not to do when so much was dictated either by CBS or by her less than sufficient budget.

The problem began when Rauch made Zimmer the center of the show, well past Reva's expiration date of "heroine" and "love goddess that no one can deny." (and I like Zimmer...but as part of an ensemble..not the STAR...) and she kept getting fat meaty contracts and the ability to write her own ticket and sick her group of "fans" on the press and show anytime they gave Josh and Reva a day off. They made her the only game in town, and they really should have started tapering off on Jeva as soon as Annie left...(write for them, sure, but again, as part of an ensemble.) Just like idiot Cowboy giving Brad Cole a big fat contract...(uh..why???) I don't understand why TPTB didn't see that with an ensemble you have more control over the contracts and can more easily write someone off..(even if they got good press in exchange for breaking bad on their fellow actors...) 

Who in their right mind..in a youth obsessed industry, would have given the show over to a middle aged actress whose character has seen better days (again, I like Zimmer but come on...) They got the monster they created and I don't blame her for holding their balls to the fire for her contract. She was smart enough to know this was the last hurrah. 

On 8/3/2023 at 7:05 PM, Neil Johnson said:

Yes, that house stayed within the Lowell/Stewart family from day-one of the show, until it's final appearance, just a year or two before the cancellation.   At the time, the Lowell/Stewart set was the oldest set in daytime, and had been for years and years.  Far older than even the Horton house on DOOL.  

 

 

I remember it from the late 70s..but I don't know if it was around longer. Its weird that they didn't keep Nancy and Chris set but the Dobson's seemed to hate anything Hughes so we rarely saw them at home.

25 minutes ago, dc11786 said:

I can only speak for myself personally. I enjoyed Harley and Phillip. I wasnt happy when the show went with Harley and Gus, but didnt see them as problematic at first. Wheeler and Kriezman made GusH the new Danny and Michelle. They were everywhere, they did everything. It seemed like everything revolved around Harley. I remember there was a potentially great story in the fall of 2005 (or maybe 2006) where Beth was going to assume the reigns of Spaulding. She had married Alan (who I think agreed to marry Beth to get Phillip to come out of hiding). Anyway, there was a board meeting. They even brought back Mary Kay Adams again. The conclusion: Harley as CEO of Spaulding. Good grief. 

 

Well, I have made my dislike of the Cooper's well known...(even making Frankie D's wife cry apparently...not that I tried or even knew she was reading online listserves back in the day) They were fine for what they were, the working class family with a dysfunctional parents...Nadine and Buzz both abandoned their kids and Frank and Harley had to create their own family. That was later dropped to be the Super Dooper Coopers the self-righteous family that could do no wrong under Wheeler/Kreizman.  I liked Harley as a tough girl, and then an everywoman kind character, but when she became Reva Part 2 that EVERY man fell in love with, and Ehlers lost a lot of her weight and became blond and shrill and sharp they made Harley unbearable. 

I actually remember the Beth/Alan thing and thinking it had potential.(like a lot or Kreizman's storylines but he could not follow through.) .Beth C made a good bitch and in this instance she had a reason (to protect her family from the dumbness that was Gus) so then as nonsexual partners who were stuck with each other was good. Throw in Alex finally putting  her foot down on Beth and the eventual return of Phillip and it would have been good. But they had to have them screw and fall in love which was so nasty.  I would have had Beth have a nonLoreli alter, who was actually the one who shot Phillip (an alter created by Bradley's rape..she would have been the one that really hit Blackburn with the oar in defense of Beth) and framed Alan. Alan marries her in jail thinking he could manipulate her to do his bidding but he does not count on the alter not being a push over.  

And Harley being voted as CEO defies any real world logic..it made the clone look realistic.  The stock holders would revolt, the stocks would drop, etc.  And Harley would NEVER have accepted that. When they brought that simpering Mandy Bruno in as Marina in a triangle with Alex no less (being made fun of for being "old") I couldn't watch any scene with that family, which means I couldn't watch the show.

On 8/4/2023 at 10:08 AM, MichaelGL said:

I'm pretty sure she gave Wendy Moinz's Dinah a few good slaps too. 

I don't think so...remember..McLaiby made her the STAR and later Rauch just seemed to be bored with Van so she just wimped around.

17 hours ago, antmunoz said:

ATWT had the Stewart living room with the mantle, which existed from the 60’s until almost the show’s end. It was inexplicably Susan’s house after former MIL Ellen moved away. 

True, but there was really no continuity...it's just like it was a set, and they forgot why Susan lived there. Besides the Snyder kitchen...(and the pond) there were no landmarks like GL...even the eavesdropping porch disappeared...how was anyone to find out who anyone's baby daddy is if the porch is gone!

Anytime Vanessa let loose on Billy on GL was a great time!

On 7/25/2023 at 3:53 PM, antmunoz said:

Ben and Amanda lived in the carriage house, then Ross did for YEARS.  I have a vague memory of Marah and her friends living in it before they moved into a dormant museum  Am I right?  One of the properties connected to Carrie Carruthers’ secret tunnels.  I remember reading that the carriage house set was so old it literally fell apart. 

 

Who wound up in Reva Bend?  Didn’t Holly buy it?

Moving the Cross Creek cabin to Springfield…don’t get me started.

The Spaulding “mansion” is a retcon.  Alan and Elizabeth moved to Springfield and bought a house.  Rita pressured Ed into buying an adjacent house so they could live among the wealthy.  (Ed’s house was NICE.  We last saw the living room when Carmen died for the last time, I think.)  Hope used to come over and use Ed’s pool.  I think they were backdoor neighbors.  Only later had the Spauldings ALWAYS lived in Springfield in the mansion.  But that’s not the actual history.

 

Everyone lived in the damn Beacon by then anyway. 

I love Springfield real estate! Despite how haphazard the history was against ATWT, as compared to that show, GL kept many of it sets and landmarks like..in real life. Yes, there was retconning...but at least it was connected to history, as yes, the Spaulding mansion as an old house did not exist. Alan had a mansion, drippy Hope didn't like it, they moved to a house that shared a back yard gate with the Bauers, which of course allowed Rita and Alan to get their nooners on when Ed and Hope were at work. That later was retro written to be the Spaulding mansion land abutting the Bauers but it stayed that way to the end. The Bauer house was the Bauer house to the end, Company and the Boardinghouse stayed until the end (though they called the living quarters a being "above" Company when the skanky Coopers lived there) the Carriage house lasted a long time, Reva Bend did indeed become Holly Bend when Holly bought it, but then it suddenly became the Jessup farmhouse when Cassie moved in..Vanessa and Billy's house she "gave" to Jeva, who lived there until everyone lost their homes (I heard it was so old that it was falling apart) the Bauer cabin and Cross Creek stayed in play, 5th and 7th Street still were there, as was the "Hill" that the Spaulding, the Bauers and at one time the Lewises lived.  You could never tell the georgraphy or the homes on ATWT...Chis and Nancy'ss house disappeared, as did Bob and Kim's thought the kitchen became a set at WOAK..etc ATWT didn't have any long lasting landmarks.

I can see what made ATWT so popular, even reading the synopsis kind of mesmerizes you in an odd way. People planning a family fourth of July, who is invited, who is not, all the while melodrama going on, Lisa, outcast with an "illegitimate kid," (no one would bat an eye now) dithering between Michael and Bob (and you can read between the lines that she wants the safety of the Hughes family) Bob blind...David being blackmailed, Claire , an interesting character, older, neurotic and horny still as we see, a different take from Irna's matriarchs (the Claire, Michael,Lisa triangle is a forerunner to the Alex,Roger,Mindy triangle on GL)Dan and Susan...all of this drama against a simple "Hey, who do we invite to the BBQ"  which the viewers could totally relate to.

It looks as though Irna got a bad rap..it seems that there are a lot of gray characters on this show and Lisa, Susan and Claire all were women dealing with their own sex drives and not "evil"  Interesting stuff. 

On 7/15/2023 at 8:32 AM, DRW50 said:

I wonder how much plan was in place for Jessie beyond, "New Beth." Unfortunately for them, as they soon found out with Jessie and Dinah, it was Judi Evans who made Beth stand out, not the writing. They would not find another successful ingenue again until Harley.

India was going to be Beth's cousin...kind of slutty and trashy but when MKA read for it Long, a smart cookie when picking talent...created India.  She then created Roxie (or she was in the works) to take care of the slut factor and poor Jesse just became Beth's boring bland cousin, a watered down Beth. 

9 hours ago, DRW50 said:

This wasn't an affair, but if we're talking about forced default pairings (which maybe would be better off in its own thread) then Holly dating Buzz and Billy (two men she never would have gone near romantically - especially Billy) on GL has to be on the list.

That was all to give them something to do, and of course, they were thrown together because they were in the same "age category."  Though supposedly Claire Labine "loved" them but TPTB weren't into it...(I think they had Holly tasting Buzz vs. Billy's chilli in a contest..yes, its as that boring.) 

A nice long Billy/Vanessa/Matt triangle would have been great...they were all on at the same time, I never understood why they didn't.  Billy understanding and appreciating that Van was a savy business woman and Matt wanting her to return to her boring sighing self (I actually thought Matt and Beth could have worked if they didn't have Van worrying about her age and looks, which was just not Van.)

23 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Distancing Vanessa from the Spaulding atmosphere and business dealings was a big mistake. 

Agreed.having her at Lewis Oil was stupid, and the whole concept of Lewis Oil was stupid. One multinational corporation on each show is enough. They could have just said that Lewis Corporate Offices moved back to Tulsa and just said Trish or someone else took over and kept Lewis Construction..keeping all the corporate intrigue at Spaulding. They did move her back to Spaulding and even unmasking Vickie but then they brought back Alex (for a bit) and dropped that. 

At that point a Van/Matt/Beth triangle could have worked, tossing out the old thing and just having Matt frustrated that Van was knee deep in Spaulding, and helping Beth on construction of a rape crises center...and then it slowly evolves, no need for villains or ageism.

18 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

Lololol....infinity and Michael Wilding as Jackson Freemont was cringe worthy. I hated how he called everyone Love.

He was awful on Dallas too.

AND he hung on for a couple of years...they tried to pair him with Chelsea...why in hell would an English record producer hang out in midwestern Springfield?  

But at least we had a great line from BevAlex...

Jackson: "Madame, I am an ARTISTE!"

Alex: "Who told you that, the clerk that sold you that earring?"

19 hours ago, bboy875 said:

Amanda and Brandon I think was early Rauch and I believe b4 B&E came in as headwriters. Rauch said he wanted to cut down on Spauldings so he got rid of Alex, Alan Michael and Lucy. He said to him, Alex and Amanda served the same function which is why he cut Alex and made Amanda their sister. It of course went nowhere with the backlash over Zaz's firing. He said he wrestled over what to do about Amanda, but then decided to have her leave town with recast Roger 

They seemed to still be working on McTavish outlines but I could be wrong. It just changed from Vanessa telling Roger that Alex boasted to Henry that she had a file on Alan that was her failsafe for when he got out of hand, to that.  Rauch was right to get rid of Lucy/AM at that point. AM was played by that horrible actor and Lucy did not have the previous AM to support her in scenes. I think Marj/Alex needed a "rest" at this point, JFP and the writers screwed the character up so bad...(all she did was obsess on Alan and shriek at him..) I wouldn't have minded the focus on Alan and his two children...(not sister) fighting each other over Spaulding while Alan manipulates them just as he manipulates Annie. Unfortunatley we got Amanda as his sister, Phillip mooning over Harley and seeming to never go to work, and Amanda mooning over Roger, and Annie manipulating Alan instead of the other way around.

The funny thing is, Vanessa could have filled the Alex void...(she was declawed as soon as Long brought Alex on the canvas) with the Chamberlines owning almost as much of Spaulding as the family..and her return from the dead she could have gotten her old feist back, instead of mooning over Matt and wanting a baby with him, I would have loved her to take on Alan and Annie. 

I think it was MADD or the network that wanted Marj cut. 

13 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Long/Kobe had a lot of engaging new characters and stories initially but the problem was they chipped away at the core by obliterating the Bauers and the Reardons, who Marland had set up as the next long term family as well as slowly dropping most characters from previous eras, leaving only Ross and Ed (recast) and a few others.

Then when Kobe/Long departed there were more changes and the show became  a patchwork of fractured families in dull stories and more new characters eg Simon, Jessie, Calla that viewers were supposed to be interested in.

Agreed, the summer of 84 was great..with the new colorful characters (Reva, the Four M's, Alex) mixing it up with the Bauers and the Reardon's..I never knew why they obscured Nola even before the fall....she should have been in the middle of the cabin mystery..why get rid of Justin right when it would have been dramatic. 

But in the fall it all got weird and started to fall apart. Kobe and Long actually brought in Calla and Simon and that boring girl (India was actually going to be Beth's cousin who was going to be like a Roxie....but when MKA read for it they switched the characters up. The whole mess with Infinity and the record company and Liz Taylor's kid who supposedly was going to be Beth's new love???? It seemed GL constantly screwed itself just as it got back on track.

5 hours ago, Vee said:

Thanks! Never seen much of this period.

It was filler before Betsy popped her kid out and for the drama to start. The problem was the Dobson's wrote for 5 characters constantly, so they couldn't let this triangle slowly simmer for the pregnancy and give someone else something to do for a bit. 

23 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

 

The great run of Long/Kobe started to fall apart a few months before (recast Ed, writing Mike off, the obscuration of the Bauers and Reardon's for Reva and the Lewises) but some of this is still good. I am surprised at for that time, how interesting the dialogue between Victoria and Alex was "separate but equal" despite the stupidity of Brandon being alive (he didn't even need to be alive for this to work.) It also is interesting how later they screwed it up worse with Amanda being Brandon's daughter...(I always wonder if that was a McTavish storyline...) It always kills me how dumb Roxie looked on the bull, and I hate how they made Mindy suddenly into a bitch on wheels to make good ole Roxie the heroine..

I always look at Bev scenes and think how Marj would have played it..(hissing and breathing heavy no doubt.)

17 hours ago, Khan said:

I agree, @Paul Raven.  Consistency is one thing, but ATWT seemed to lapse into inertia by the late '70's.  Characters appeared to be playing the same scenarios over and over again.  The show definitely needed a jolt.

Agreed, you look at clips back then and all the men. looked middle aged ..(even Tom, and the I think the actor who played him is sexy as hell, but I like the uptight guys in suits thing ( I wonder if a bit later he would have made a good Alan Spaulding...)but his line readings and everything else makes him seem older its odd when he calls Lisa "mom".   There had to be five lawyers running around and the music just seems depressing.  The Dobsons didn't improve a lot and on their second time around the show had gutted its core and its was down to focusing on about 5 characters..(though it could be fun once in a while...) 

On 6/8/2023 at 5:57 AM, DRW50 said:

I have a vague memory of this being up before but I can't find it now and that may be on how samey the Earl Mitchell death story from around this point was. Posting in case it's new to you.

@DramatistDreamer @slick jones @soapfan770 @Mitch64 @Vee @victoria foxton @vetsoapfan @Soapsuds @P.J. @Paul Raven @Khan @DeliaIrisFan @kalbir @Soaplovers @TVFAN1144 @Sapounopera

 

Ha..I miss the Mona Lisa..."Where do you want to go eat..."  "Oh, I don't know...well...how about the Mona Lisa"...."Wow, great idea!" as if it wasn't ATWT's only restaraunt! As much as I loved the Mona Lisa and all the plot lines converging, (and it always did feel like the end of a real day when they went there..) I forgot how ugly the set was and how anyone could ever eat at those small table?

Earl was so boring(and that name...) Granger would have made a better gay foil for Lisa then her husband...I loved Lisa, but besides Bob and Grant, all her lovers and husbands were not that interesting...she was more fun mixing it up with everyone, so it would have been fun to see her with a gay friend, snarking on Lucy and Suzi Q and Ole Johnny together.  Trying to make Grant a suspect had to have been one of Marland's worst mysteries..uptight, solid Grant who was fooled by Joyce's fake brain tumor would not be a cunning murderer, and you would have to be blind to not see the new character who was suddenly involved in everything was the culprit.

I am in the minority, I found Bryce's Craig to be a whiney puss, constantly on the verge of tears about a woman in his life, and his propping of Lily was the worst out of all the Lily propers in town. So the new Craig was weird and didn't add up. 
   

On 6/4/2023 at 5:56 PM, DeliaIrisFan said:

Maybe he knew a "fresh" start would be for the best (I don't think he tried to namedrop—let alone revisit—the Willows or anything else from that brief stint in 1979 in his second run?).

Well, the whole Doug Cummings story was a bit of a reference to the Willows...(gothic, dead wife, crazy assistant, Dream's End vs. Willows.) 

While I am glad he came over to ATWT, I would have loved what he could do with GL at the time.  Bea Reardon was still on the canvas but not used, so he could have brought Lisa Brown back as Nola...(though getting past the Quolas would have been hard as she should have come back alone..) and built the Reardon's back up..He would have loved writing for Alex, and maybe brought Mike back to rebuild the Bauers and also he would be on the spot to write Bert's death. He could have reignited Vanessa and woken her up from her "I'm a Lewis," coma and  I do wonder what he would have done with Reva?

20 hours ago, Vee said:

I would not trade the Reva post-partum story or the Josh/Harley stuff for a joint exit. I love what I've seen of those stories.

Of all the triangles Rauch and Co. were into...I can't believe they never revisited Harley and Jarsh. Well, I know its because they have to have two women fighting over one man and one woman is evil, but would have been cool to have a no villain triangle...(and saved us from Gush...) And it would have driven the Java nuts and Pharley nuts crazy!!!

7 hours ago, Khan said:

It probably was, lol.  At the time, as the story was playing out on-screen, I remember justifying Megan McTavish's choice to bring back Reva as a member of an Amish community by saying she had subconsciously recalled when she and Kyle were hiding out years before in another Amish community after his plane had crashed onto the roof of an Amish family's barn.  Megan McTavish probably wasn't thinking about that story at all when she wrote it,

Naah, McTrash was a writer during that original storyline...it was even dumber then Kyle's plane crashing into the Amish barn...Kurt the nicest dullest guy, until Frank Cooper came along, took a spear gun and  forced Kyle and Reva to parachute off the  plane, you see he was married to Roxie while she had a split of Rosie, and he was trying to save her. Reva had her big ass 80s hair and a big fur coat somehow actually crashed into the Amish barn (this was during that Harrison Ford movie being popular so it was a ripoff) and were a-okay. For reasons, Reva and Kyle didn't just go to a phone and call SF to let them know they were okay, so were subjected to scenes of Reva being washed with lemons by Kyle..(Amish don't have showers...) and if you don't think was all McTavish you don't know Megs. So yes, she was referencing that storyline, which no doubt she thought was a high point.

4 hours ago, j swift said:

It seems like Long felt some ownership over the character of Reva, which eventually caused some friction between the two women over discussions of what Reva would or wouldn't do as a character.  Zimmer writes of a lunch with Long and a CBS executive that devolved into a screaming match when discussing Zimmer's desire for some time off to go to LA for pilot season, resulting in the executive wanting to hide under the table.  And in her exit interview with SOD, Long talked about scuttled plans to bring back Reva in a dream for Christmas.

That was the exec producer who went out and puked in the street as the fight was pretty nasty.  Who knows what it was about, but Long wanted Zimmer back for a short "ghost/angel/dream" story of her visiting Marah and Zimmer was up for it. But CBS,which apparently had better taste then years later, said no, so that, and the Jewish storyline being nixed pissed Long off so she left when her contract was up. JFP used that story for the "ghost" return (so she didn't have to bring Zimmer back full time.) 

6 hours ago, AmandainNC28655 said:

This would have been an ideal storyline, capitalized on the characters history together and would have led to some interesting storylines once Reva and Kyle returned to Springfield or didn't return to springfield but she was spotted by HB or another Lewis living abroad.

But that would be hard to explain why Reva stayed away from her kids so long without amnesia and if she did have it, why Kyle didn't clue her in on who she was. They should have just left it that Reva had one bout of amnesia that lasted for years, and if they want to throw in a past life, it was under the original amnesia and she escaped from a danger and hid out in amish town.  When her memories returned it was only her recent memories, and the rest of fuzzy...(and a good explanation why she allowed Alan to talk her into keeping it a secret from her family, all she remembers was something like hitting a man and there was blood..) But I agree, instead of San Crud, have Kyle come back to town, on the arm of his wife Amanda (CC would have made a great Amanda) to take on the Spaulding and Lewises. I can't believe a Prince on an island got out of the concept room.

On 4/16/2023 at 9:01 AM, Liberty City said:

Shame Nancy Curlee did not do more post-her time at Guiding Light. Guess she likely felt she didn't want to do anything more than what she did, and I understand that. Just a shame we never got to see her shine on another soap.

I don't know why P & G didn't snap her up and away from ABC and used her as a consultant. I think she didn't want to grind of being a headwriter...(I love her comment about "Susan Lucci is NEVER going through menopause"..would have loved her to write Reva's menopause.)