DeeVee

A few years after my grandfather and great aunt passed away, my grandmother married her widowed brother-in-law. You could have knocked us all over with a feather when they told us. My point is: it happens in RL, a lot more often than people think. In the Jack/Siobhan case, it would have been super messy, which is exactly what you want on a soap. Putting Siobhan with Joe forced them to write her as very naive and gullible, which seemed totally wrong for the character they initially introduced. I liked Rose, too, but that story also got derailed by the stupid mob stuff.

Does anyone know what happened to her post-RH? She seemed to evaporate after she left the show. Which is why I can believe she said negative things about the show--maybe it got her labeled as "difificult?" I thought she was a very good actress. I liked her performance as Siobhan. She had really good chemistry with Michael Levin. IMO, they were a bit gutless not to go for a Jack/Siobhan romance after Mary was killed off.

Or, they could have recast the role and written the character better. Maybe too much to expect, but it was a choice. Surprised they never did. Was Raines ever popular? Wait. Wait. WAIT! THEY RETCONNED THAT AGAIN????

Yes, I believe that is the case. ABC wanted Siobhan and Joe to be a very popular couple and apparently didn't think Sarah Felder was glamorous enough. I don't know if this story is true, but I heard somewhere that Felder told everyone off at her farewell party because of the reason she was fired. If it's not true, it should be! 😂

Maybe Carney and Levin didn't get along, but he got along with Tolan. Who knows. I SO agree about Tolan. I am sure my jaw hit the floor when I watched her first scene. She had been hyped like crazy by the soap mags. They swore she was going to be a sensation like Mulgrew. I thought she had a speech impediment. More likely she just couldn't remember her lines so she ended up slurring them from nervousness. Not everyone can do soap acting, it's very difficult. There's memorizing so many lines, then there's so little rehearsal. I think she was a theater actor. Maybe she was a good one. But when the camera was fixed on her, she just...sucked. I had nothing particular against Nicolette Goulet. She just wasn't Mary. She had no chemistry with Levin. She didn't even look like she belonged in that family (a similar situation when they replaced Sarah Felder with that blond chick who was laughable as a rookie cop). I don't believe it was impossible to recast the role. Kathleen Turner was doing soaps during this era. She would have been a phenomenal Mary. (Not to say that she would have been available, but just to point out there were good actors of that type around).

I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't put words in my mouth. I never said he shouldn't have been upset about it. He knew before the wedding and went through with it anyway. She offered to split up with him. He decided to stay. Then he treated her dirt, even after she had just lost her baby. If he couldn't deal with it, he should have left her. (Or, SHE should have thrown him out. The story made no sense.)

This was a HUGE story on the show for many years. Justin (Ross's brother) and Jackie Marler were Phillip's real parents. They showed a lot of the backstory in flashback when Jackie came on the show. Jackie caught Justin in bed with another woman. She was so devastated she divorced him immediately. She found out she was pregnant. I'm a little hazy on this--I THINK she told him she had an abortion, but maybe not. Maybe she just never told him she was pregnant. Anyway, she decided to give the baby up for adoption. She went to Europe (I think it was Amsterdam) to have the baby. She had the same doctor as Elizabeth Spaulding, who also was pregnant. The doctor was a personal friend of Alan's. He told Alan that Elizabeth's baby would be born dead and she would not be able to have more children. Instead of telling his wife the truth, Alan conspired with the doctor to do a baby switch. The doctor knew Jackie was planning to give her baby up, and she agreed to let the Spauldings have Phillip. Elizabeth woke up from the surgery and was told Jackie's baby was hers. Jackie almost immediately regretted it. She insinuated herself into Alan and Elizabeth's life so she could be near Phillip. They all became good friends. When Alan and Elizabeth returned to the states, they stayed with Jackie at first. Eventually, Alan and Elizabeth divorced and Jackie married him so she could be Phillip's stepmother. It was a disatrous marriage and they also divorced. Justin found out the truth. Justin and Jackie remarried. Elizabeth found out and wanted them to have custody of Phillip. Alan, of course, was furious but for some odd reason eventually agreed to it. (He did not know at the time Justin and Jackie were the bio parents). Ross and Alan had kind of an up and down relationship over the years. Ross wanted to BE like Alan in the beginning. When he was married to Carrie they were actually close friends with Alan and Hope. Their relationship totally degraded when Alan was chasing Trish Lewis and she chose Ross instead. Yes, and he also did not approve of how Alan dealt with Phillip much of the time. So they never became friends again.

Phillip and Rick became BEST friends when they first SORASed the characters. They had been at the same boarding school and came back together to finish high school. That's when they met Mindy and Beth. The four of them were together a lot and called themselved The Four Musketeers. Initially, Phillip/Mindy and Rick/Beth were paired up until Phillip fell in love with Beth.

Absolutely. On any other show, Frank Ryan would have been a shining romantic hero. I think they made Delia so impossible so you would feel as though he had a right to cheat on her. But he was a deadbeat dad, neglectful of the women in his life, even neglectful of his family, ridiculously ambitious. Once in a while he'd show some integrity, and then he'd go back to being a self-centered jerk. But he was definitely an interesting character. When Pat was married to Delia, it was two incredibly neurotic people caught together in a very toxic relationship. Again, fascinating to watch. Yeah, when those first contracts ran out, the people leaving caused a big issue. Almost like they did too good a job with the initial casting. I actually liked the first recast for Mary. (I think her name was Mary Carney?) Part of the problem was after being so front-burner for 3 years, Mary and Jack's story was basically resolved and they had to fall back on the tired "marriage vs career" trope. Then they brought in the second and third recasts that were total misses. Plus, they were ramping up Siobhan's character. It seemed they were more interested in focusing on her once Mulgrew left.

Thanks for the factoid, that's so interesting! (The character, though, was not, LOL. Ridiculous storyline). You know what? Even though he was a core family member, I think you are right. I would much rather they had kept Alan Michael on the canvas to represent the second Spaulding generation. (Of course, they would have had to write some good stories for the character, which, who knows if they would/could have). Reva, yes, I agree. Her shelf life expired when she drove that car off the bridge. The ever increasing desperation to keep her character relevant after she came back was very difficult to watch.

I can't answer 1 & 3, but I can answer this: Meredith is Fletcher's sister. She's a doctor. She and Rick fell in love. At one of the Bauer 4th of July BBQs, they had a fight. She ran into Phillip at a bar and the two of them ended up having sex. Rick and Meredith reconciled and...you guessed it, she turned up pregnant. She didn't know for sure who the father was but she let Rick think it was his. Just before their wedding, he saw a sonogram picture. Being a doctor, he could tell how far along she was and realized he wasn't the father. He still went through with the ceremony (why, don't ask me) and afterwards confronted her about it. She told him she picked up a stranger at a bar. Rick was bitter about it but he still stayed with her. Eventually, the secret came out. Rick was furious about Phillip betraying him. Still, he stayed with Meredith (again, why, I don't know). She had a stillbirth and was left barren. Meredith finally decided to leave him and left SF for good. Rick was awful to her, including after losing the baby. Just was a creep about it. It was hard for me to ever like the character after this storyline. I don't knowl if one of the writers strikes was going on during this story, but it was so, so bad. Rick and Meredith had no chemistry. The way Rick stayed with her, the way she stayed with him, made zero sense to me.

I was a huge fan of RH the first few years, and I while I can't disagree about unlikeable characters, I still found them interesting. Mainly, I'm thinking of the Frank/Jill/Seneca triangle (with Rae added later). MY GOD, what a group of selfish, controlling, narcissistic a-holes. But I have to say, watching them torch their own lives over and over was pretty fascinating.

I have watched the scene where Vanessa reads the letter and it's lovely, but I'm really glad now that I never got around to watching the funeral. Henry ADORED Nola! He treated her like a daughter and Stacy like a granddaughter. That's why Vanessa couldn't stand her. He was crazy about all the Reardons. He spent a lot of time at the boarding house. He and Bea--they never explicitly said it was romantic, but they certainly were loving friends. This sounds worse than Bert's funeral. I really did not think that was possible.

Strangely, it was Phillip who invited Evie to go to the ball with him. She had been taking care of Samantha, so I guess it was a way to thank her for helping Justin after Jackie's death? So she was not invited by Vanessa. Phillip brought her as his plus one. That Evie stayed on the canvas so long is extremely odd, especially since Ben was gone way before her. My theory is Marland was going to bring Rita back, so they wanted Evie to remain in place as her sounding board. When he left and Potter was still EP, that might have still been the plan. Once Kobe came in, that would have been thrown in the dumpster along with a lot of other story plans and characters.

Brandy was an odd mish-mash of a character. A radical during her college days, then a journalist/romance writer, I believe? But not so much of a radical that she had a problem chasing millionaire Alan, LOL. The actress, JoBeth Williams, went on to have a pretty good movie and prime time career.

Millette Alexander got the short end of the stick once they killed off Joe. The Justin thing was a non-starter. Then she was briefly married to Alan's corrupt lawyer and HE was killed off. She was paired briefly with Adam and that ended because she believed Holly over Roger about the rape. Definitely, Marland had zero interest in her except as the therapist for the many, many of his female characters who needed therapy. It's not odd she left the show. One of the rare 1978 episodes on YT shows Alan going to Cedars for a physical check-up. He ends up with Sarah as his doctor. In between making mysoginistic comments about women doctors, he also openly flirts with her. It's very obvious they were chem testing Sarah and Alan. It's a really good scene. Bernau is both obnoxious and charming and Millette is amazing, trying to be pleasant and profesional without rolling her eyes at him, but at the same time maybe a LITTLE bit attracted to him. An interesting what-might-have-been. So it appears the Dobsons were actively looking for someone to pair her with, they just never found the right one for a long-term story.

When I was a kid, I would watch DOOL with my mom. I remember Denise as Susan so well. And later, of course, on GH. How sad to hear she has passed. RIP.

I have to dig that scene up on YT. I'm glad they gave them some kind of happy ending, even if it was really late. Interesting! I remember Justin and Sarah being involved, but I either forgot or never caught their backstory. The girl with money and social position of course turns out to be Jackie. He sort of did to Sarah what Vanessa did to his brother! I do remember Justin started out as not the greatest guy. Kind of a horn dog. It's only when Ross comes on that he becomes the "good" brother. I only have some vague memories of Ben and Hope, mostly of when they were in a positive relationship. He certainly changed over time. "Chill" would be the way I would describe Ben (along with "handsome but kind of a yawn") for most of his time on GL, so hearing he once had a violent temper is very surprising.

Ha-ha-ha, I thought it was Marland who turned Mike into a jerk, but apparently not. I get that they probably felt the Mike/Leslie story had run its course, but they should have at least let them have a kid. Especially since they were soon ensnaring him in a storyline with a woman who couldn't have children (Elizabeth). Of course, no one could have predicted there would be a dearth of Bauers a few years later. I remember this! I remember Holly sitting by the phone, desperate for Ed to call so they could stop the divorce. I forgot it was Rita who never gave him the message. What a bitch. 😂 But, yeah, this is the Rita I remember at the beginning: very determined to bag Ed. I contend that Holly never, ever got over it, never stopped regretting that the divorce went through. I wish at some point over the years they had let Holly and Ed reunite for more than a brief affair. It feels like a thread that was left hanging. There she is! I was beginning to think I had dreamed up the Rita/Tim/Evie triangle.

This is AWESOME, thank you for taking the time to post this! My first thought: My memory is a lot better than I thought it was, LOL! The first episode I clearly remember watching had a scene of Ed confronting Holly about Christina's paternity. He lamented how wonderful things had been over Christmas, so looks like I started watching the show early 1976. The only thing puzzling me is where is Evie? I thought she was around BEFORE Rita got involved with Tim, but maybe that's one gap in my memory. It makes Rita look slightly better--in that case, she didn't seduce Tim knowing her sister had a crush on him.

Not only that, but Tony, Annabelle, and Jim had zero skin in this game. The Fishing Trip story had a huge impact on the Reardons and Annabelle because it was about THEIR relatives and how what happened to them shaped their own lives. People directly and indirectly affected by this--i.e. Alan, Amanda, Philip, and even Lujack--weren't involved in this at all, either because they were off the canvas or involved in other stuff. I mostly admire Long's talent for using the past to enhance her stories in the present, but this one was a huge turkey. We saw Brandon old and decrepit dying on screen. Even if we were able to suspend disbelief, why wouldn't he have wanted revenge on Lucille, who tried to kill him? If he wanted to go live with his Barbados squeeze, who would have cared about that by then? In the end, it had little to no impact on the larger story because they were too chicken to bring in that branch of the Spauldings into the main story (until later). Just a really bad storyline that mainly existed to stretch out the GL stints of the actors who played Tony, Annabelle, and Jim.

I love MKA and feel like they never used her to her full potential with India. The character seemed to exist merely to fight with Alex and blackmail men into marrying/sleeping with her. As if! Then adopting an orphan right out of Little Orphan Annie...somebody BTS didn't like her, I think.

So Sonni would have somebody to talk to who she wasn't conspiring with (Will or Alan)? Alex kept telling Sonni how important her friends were...when she had virtually no friends. Instead they created loyal servants like Jane and Vera to give Alex people to play off of. They did that with Iris on AW, but Vivien was mostly there for comic relief Alex keeping Marah's paternity a secret was absurd. But I still love the scene between Alex and Alan where he convinces her by reminding her how they protected each other from their abusive father. Chris and Bev ATE that scene. Unfortunately, that took place only a few months before he exited the show...always thought they could have built on that, explored more how being Brandon's children screwed them both up. Maybe even used it as an explanation for the way their relationship could constantly swing from hatred to love. Instead of it being merely dictated by the plot.

Thank you for clearing that up. I wasn't watching GL regularly yet at that point, but seems to me I should have remembered the big wedding after Leslie's death (which I do remember) described in the profile. Is there a web archive of SOD summaries, or are referring to your own personal collection?

PAM!! YES!!! You have jogged my memory. She worked at Cedars. She's mentioned in a write-up of Tim's history in the show. It says she was a nurse, but I seem to remember she was a secretary at Cedars, working for either Ed or Sarah. (It's almost 50 years ago, so I definitely could be wrong). I'm certain she was an unwed mother. I recall reading an interview with the actress, Maureen Silliman (I looked it up, that's her correct name, LOL). She started on the show just before the Dobsons started writing it. She was shocked to get a script that said her character had been pregnant since she hit town. I remember a scene where she told Tim she was going to leave SF for a better job for her daughter's sake (really, I think she was upset he was serious about Rita). I don't remember them getting married and leaving town, but according to "Who's Who in Springfield" that's how the characters were written out. Mattson did All My Children for several years, so she might have been persuadable. Here's an interesting factoid I recently learned on these message boards: Elvera Roussel was in the running to play Delia on RH when the show first hit the air. How wild is it that Mattson played Delia for a while? (Though from what I saw of her performance, she was miscast). It's hard to know if Roussel would have been a good Delia. You'd think she would have been better suited to playing Faith Coleridge, but who knows? She didn't get to show a whole lot of range as Hope.