DeeVee

The way they introduced them was terrible. Rick literally picked Mel up in a bar. Their "romance" was SO blah. You would think there would be something sexy about meeting like that, but they had the most insipid conversation. Like what kind of movies they liked. So boring. I don't recall the parents being used signficantly in storylines. (Though I DO remember the mother ending up in one of Reva's past lives during the time travel story, ugh). It was the same losing strategy they used with the faux Bauers: stick these people in and hope they click with the audience. The fact that they had to make Rick suddenly dying of a heart condition no one knew about before--to the point he needed a transplant (and don't even get me started on THAT) shows that they had to make it entirely plot driven because there was little to nothing to draw on from the characters. The reason the Lewises quickly became a permanent part of GL is because they immediately wove the characters into storylines: Billy and Alan's rivalry, which was both about Spaulding and Vanessa, Mindy dropped into a quadrangle with Phillip, Beth, and Rick, Josh feeling like the odd Lewis out, and then Reva rolling into town and throwing a grenade on the whole thing. A lot of this came from character. I want to give them credit for introducing a Black family to the show, but just doing that wasn't enough.

Oh, cool! Thank you!

Heck yeah, that messes up the timeline, since Alan, Elizabeth, and 10 year old Phillip arrived in Springfield--on screen--in 1978.

Well, not totally. We can assume the Lewises had an evangelical background. They didn't talk about it much, but it did surface once or twice (i.e. when Billy named Peter, which was a Biblical reference--I SO wish I could find that scene). It was FAR less of a surprise to me when Josh became a pastor than when he once mentioned in passing that he protested the Vietnam War. THAT came out of left field--like, literally. 😂

All his villains were like that. Andy, Mark Evans, Silas, gosh, even Diane. Diane was VERY different when the Dobsons wrote her. She wasn't a schemer, exactly, more a woman in love with a man she's never going to have but still trying to protect him. It's not hard to believe that that would eventually make her bitter and turn her against him, but she just became a pretty rote villain in the end. I didn't even understand half the vindictive things she was doing. (If anyone can explain how she benefited from having Alan take Phillip out of his will, PLEASE do). In Diane's case it was not being great at writing a nuanced villain and also that she was a woman, because unless the actress was especially esteemed by him, like Lisa or Jane, he didn't write them very well. And I just realized--all the nuanced villains he inherited: Ross, Alan, Roger, Lucille, Diane--were either put on the road to redemption or killed off. (I know MZ, Sofia, and Rita Lloyd were on the way out anyway, but I wonder what would have happened to their characters if they had wanted to stay). Even one he created--Nola--was eventually redeemed. Anyway, we were talking about RN. I always say that actors can surprise you when they get the right material. That definitely happened with him. It's true that this started happening before Long came on. They made Josh less sleazy--he was a good friend to Amanda, he had a complicated relationship with Morgan, he was trying to succeed in business in an honest way. His character was already evolving. I don't think they did a "redemption" thing for Josh--it was more memory holed and since few cared about sleazy Josh, they got away with it. It would have been a little difficult for him to be holier-than-thou with Reva if people were bringing up his past with Leslie Ann, etc.

Maybe a better way of putting it is romantic lead? As opposed to resident creep. Let's face it, pretty much EVERY guy who got involved with Reva was Reva's ***tch. Billy, HB, Alan, Kyle, Buzz, Richard, Jeffrey (did I miss any?) - when they were involved with her, that was their status. I wonder if any of the actors resented being paired with her for this reason.

I don't remember him ever talking about Josh/RN in interviews. I only recall he was miffed that they changed Kelly Louise's name to Stacy. I believe he said that was something that always connected him to Nola and was an issue for Morgan, again implying he wasn't done with Kelly/Nola. The post-wedding storyline for Kelly and Morgan was so flaccid, it was obvious to me he wasn't really invested in them. That may have had something to do with Jennifer Cook replacing Vigard. Tired old "marriage vs. career" story. Then Kelly wanting to have a baby when he was constantly haraunging Morgan about money because they didn't have any. Gag, I couldn't stand Kelly. He was such a jerk. Nola was too good for him. I have to say it's pretty impressive that Long came in and saw RN's potential to become a leading man, and then she made it happen. Of course, that had a lot to do with the chemistry between him and KZ. But also the family dynamic with Billy and HB, and you started to understand why he would be different around them.

Perhaps he thought Kelly and Morgan would suffer the same fate as Scotty and Laura. Married too young, then they would split off into more mature storylines. Maybe he thought Josh would be his Luke? (Yeah, right, LOL). From what Kristen Vigard has said, the whole Kelly/Morgan thing was engraved in stone because they shot the wedding on location way, way before it aired. Which is why they had to keep her until it aired. If they hadn't been stuck with that trajectory the story might have played out differently as Marland was clearly more inspired by Nola than Morgan.

Hey, I agree, but apparently this was Marland's ultimate plan. Remember that Lisa became kind of his muse and he went to a lot of trouble to showcase her talents (the elaborate fantasy scenes, to the point where she even did musical numbers) and to redeem Nola from the manipulative villainess she started out as. So I don't think it's that unbelievable that he eventually wanted her with his male muse. Personally, I think she would have been brought down even more by seriously pairing her with Kelly than with Quint, but we'll never know how he meant to play it out.

For some reason GL was into gothic storylines at the time. Gothic novels were super-popular back then. (I had a friend who kept trying to force me to read them). The previous one was the Lucille Wexler/Amanda story. That ended with Lucille's death. The Quint story was meant to replace that. Quint was originally this super-mysterious, almost creepy guy who live in a creepy house. Like in all good gothic tomes, Nola was the "innocent" who went to work for the creepy guy and ends up falling in love with him. Maybe they were going to do a twist on the story because Marland said Kelly and Nola were his endgame. Maybe Quint was going to be the villain or spoiler for them. But of course what happened is Quint and Nola caught on. Maybe Quint was always meant to be a Chamberlain, but a more villainous one.

I think that's true. She eventually created her own ethnic/blue collar family. I still say a great opportunity was missed by not having the Coopers and Reardons being connected as old schoolmates and neighbors. Some interesting backstories could have been used to create new stories. But we're supposed to believe Buzz was involved with Alan, Billy, Josh, and Ed when he was young. 🙄

Oh, yeah, I forgot he was on AMC around that time! I don't know, though. Phillip and Alan sharing another woman? Ew. (She wouldn't have been the last one, either).

He was tangentially involved in the Dreaming Death story. And they had him and Nola involved with that genius kid for a while. Both very blah stories.

That was a major problem for soaps that introduced these kinds of non-soap-like characters. What do you do with them once their initial story runs out? One day they wake up and they're living in some podunk town with nothing to do because they've settled down and married and maybe had a baby and can't go on adventures anymore. GH sort of solved that by making their adventure characters cops. But I can't see Quint as a cop, and anyway GL had more than enough by the 90s. Didn't they make him a teacher for a while? But for some reason teachers never work on soap operas, unless you set the whole soap in a school, Degrassi-style. I suppose they could have involved him in business through Henry and Vanessa. He was a Spaulding stockholder but then he got rid of his stock, IIRC. Yeah, the minute he and Nola married, the clock was ticking on his character. I hate to say this, but they probably should have killed Quint off soon after he and Nola married. That would have freed Nola and opened up many new storyline possibilities for her. Then the show would not have lost Lisa Brown. But who knows if Kobe & Co. were interested in retaining her?

I don't remember much of the particulars about HER interview with the Locher Room, but I do remember getting the impression that she had been very, very unhappy working on GL. She seemed almost...mad. Yes, and VI did say that, which was great for the convenience of his family, but not so great for casting a part on a show. I only vaguely remember Teresa Blake on AMC, but from what I DO remember, she was a little over-the-top for my taste. Though maybe she would have reigned it in a little to play Annie.