SoapDope78

They could have thrown a complete curve ball and had Sue Ellen and Kristin's mother be the culprit.

His career seemed to slide into the toilet after MC ended. Everett continued to work sparingly till his death. I'm surprised he didn't wind up doing a long-term soap gig (daytime or primetime). You would think Aaron Spelling would have latched onto him for Dynasty, The Colby's or built a series around him. He did do one episode of Hotel with his old TV rival James Brolin (they were friends in real life). I saw on youtube he did an interview on Dick Cavett in 1972 where he appeared to have been drinking. The other guest was Lily Tomlin. Chad was discussing an upcoming TV special he had done about animals. He joked/commented that his wife being the most beautiful animal he owned. Lily Tomlin was disgusted and walked off the set. It was awkward and cringy. When he first came out, he handed Lily a paper bag that supposedly had panties in it. He also tried singing during his MC years and cut a couple of albums that were super cheesy.

David Hamilton looks like a poor man's Robert Reed with that 70's blow dry perm. Did David and Laura have love scenes? Ick !!! if they did. I like this original (Michael Gregory) version of Rick better than Chris Robinson's version. I recently read Gregory quit the show after the 1hour expansion. I always assumed Monty replaced him. Robinson always comes across as skeevy and having read a bit about him offscreen it fits. I seem to remember comments that Charleson and Alexander didn't like working with. I could picture someone like Chad Everett playing a recast Rick at that time.

Steve Carlson (Gary) was married to Gail Ramsey (Susan) and they had 1 child. Carlson had previously played Mark Henderson on Y&R.

Houghton like many actors had the looks, but sometimes that reads bland and boring with viewers. Ted McGinley is another example. Beck may have worked as a character on Knots if it was well written.

David James Carroll (David Crane: Season 1) as a singer guest star on the 1975 game show Musical Chairs.

Some of those actresses do look familiar but they are not ringing a bell at the moment.

John Rubinstein would have been an excellent choice or maybe Gary Frank. Bruce Fairbairn who played Ray Geary on KL and was Ontkean's replacement on The Rookies could have also worked as Earl. I have been watching The Rookies on Roku streaming and it's still a fun show to watch. Kate Jackson and Sam Melville were so believable as couple. She is so totally different there than Sabrina Duncan on Charlie's Angels. When she did Scarecrow and Mrs. King in the 80's she cast Melville as her ex-husband.

I think Michael Ontkean would have been a good choice for Earl. The character would have been charismatic, and Val would be tempted to have an affair to retaliate for Gary/Judy's fling. I could also see Ontkean's Earl going psycho and about beat Gary to death and having a hot fling with Abby.

I think that is Rita Lloyd in the Minute Rice ad at the 10:48 mark. Gil Rogers appears as her husband. I also recognized actress Liz Moses in the Kotex ad from the first season (1979-1980) of the PBS series 3-2-1- contact.

The unknown son could have worked. If Ben hadn't been in a previous relationship with Hope, maybe he could have been revealed as Mike's long-lost son.

I ran across this old 1977 ad for Pentel Rolling Writer Pens. The model looks like it could be Dianne Kay. Does anyone else think so?

Yes, it seemed like he didn't want to accept the fact he was aging into patriarch territory and made waves behind the scenes when he didn't get his way about whatever.

I'm surprised he didn't have a clause in his contract like Eileen Fulton did on ATWT. I found a few clippings and pics online but full access to old soap magazines would be a better source to dig deep. He comes across as a bit conceited in what little I find.

I agree. I would like to find some interviews or articles that reference his BTS behavior. I do know they kept his real-life marriage and children a secret for years because he was seen as the shows sex symbol and they didn't want the ladies at home to know he was not available. When you see old articles, they always have him as a swinging bachelor, show him wearing the latest hip 70's fashions, brag about his singing abilities, and include a few shirtless pics.

It has been discussed that Don Stewart was very vocal about who he was paired with on the show. I wonder how he felt about Lezlie Dalton or Cindy Pickett? Did he hate the Mike/Jenifer pairing and have it shut down? I know he put the kibosh on the Mike/Alex pairing. I think he was fooling himself into thinking he would always be paired with actresses way younger than him, then again Eric Braden has gotten away with it on Y&R for decades.

That would have been great if Cindy had returned as Jackie, even if for a limited run. Imagine the emotional blow up with Phillip. Lezlie Dalton as Elizabeth could have also returned for that. I cannot believe the lazy writers that came through there and who had over 25 years of time never thought of that. They were too busy writing Reva plots and creating characters nobody gave a crap about. If I were a soap writer, I would do my history research and see if anything could be mined for new storylines. Most writers don't care about the past and just throw something out there to see if it sticks or if they can shoehorn a character in by tying them to a legacy character.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure when Pickett last appeared before Mowrey took over. The scatter of episodes from the early part 1980 that are available on youtube does not feature Jackie I remember an interview with Pickett and a few years ago talking about her time on GL. Apparently, she must have kept up with the show for a while after she departed because she stated the actress they replaced her with looked nothing like her and that her character of Jackie died in a crash.

Jackie was off screen for a period in late 79. When she returned everyone kept saying they were happy to have her back. I think she kept saying she was back for good. She then showed Elizabeth her new apartment (new set) when she dropped by and Jackie mentioned she had invited Mike as her first dinner guest. Elizabeth was a bit surprised. She and Mike had dinner, and she flirted with him a bit. There is a gap in episodes into 1980. Was Jackie offscreen for another long period in early 1980?

I agree that Pickett sold Jackie as a very complex woman that you still rooted for even though she lied and manipulated the situation with Phillip. I was interested in the direction they briefly headed to in late 1979 with Jackie having feelings for Mike and wanting to cook for him at her new apartment, desiring to join him on his ski trip calling him frequently on the phone etc...A Jackie/Mike/Elizabeth triangle would have been intriguing. I don't understand Marland's supposed hatred for Lezlie Dalton and the Elizabeth character. I read somewhere that he said when he found out he was taking over, he wanted her gone asap. He also hated that entire storyline about Phillip and wanted to rush to put it to bed. The storyline was a letdown with Pickett leaving before finishing it out. I was shocked she popped up in an episode as late as June 1980 (If I remember correctly) after being offscreen for quite a while.

I wish more of 1976-1979 would surface. Cindy Pickett said early Jackie was written as a rich bitch. In the synopsis from that time Sara is often asking Justin how he could marry someone like that. I wonder how long that lasted? Jackie seemed to be beloved by everyone by 1977 except maybe Mike's secretary. I remember on a GL anniversary show they showed a clip of Justin & Jackie as a flashback to their marriage. Justin was upset with Jackie when she claimed she aborted their baby. I wonder if that episode the flashback was taken from exists in it's entirety?

I remember someone commenting on that 1977 Thanksgiving episode about Elizabeth's hair " Whoa it looks like Toni Tennille found her big rollers"

The vast majority of the 1979 episodes are now gone. I wanted to go back and see the episodes where Jackie invites Mike to dinner at her new apartment. Also the episodes where Mike & Elizabeth have an affair at the ski lodge and Jackie finds out. She confronts Elizabeth about it later.

I agree that GL pretty much became the Reva show during most of the 1980's. As I have stated before, I really loved the late 70's Dobsons writing era. I can go back and watch those 1979 episodes over and over again and not get bored. I can't believe all those great characters that could have driven story for decades were written out for stupid new characters and pointless storylines. Characters that should have been kept on, but were quickly dumped within a few years. Rita Bauer Jackie Marler Elizabeth Spaulding Justin Marler Ben McFarren Holly Norris Thorpe Diane Ballard Barbara Norris Thorpe Adam Thorpe Sarah McIntyre Werner Hope Bauer Mike Bauer Hillary Bauer Amanda Wexler Lucille Wexler (they really should have kept her around).