DeeVee

Yes, he mentioned in interviews that they put him on ATWT for a 13 week cycle before he did GL. From the Bridget Dobson interview, it sounds like the HW of ATWT at the time was suffering from burn-out. She also said they wrote both shows for a little while. So seems like there was some scrambling around late 1979 with ATWT.

I think the obvious answer is they did not want to leave GL. I get the impression from what she said that it was like their baby. It's different when a writer is looking to come on to a different show--they would be bringing their best stuff. I suspect some of what they planned to do on GL worked its way over to ATWT--particularly the James/Barbara story. Lots of parallels with Alan and Hope--they even fell in love on an island. Then they got married and James turned into a controlling freakazoid who made her totally miserable. You can see Alan behaving that way with both Elizabeth and Jackie (though Jackie refused to put up with it--Marland totally eviserated Jackie's character after Mowery was brought in). Whatever "#1" she was referring to--network, time slot, or P&G--the smart thing to have done at the time was to put Marland at ATWT--he had recently come from GH, which was blowing up in the ratings and popular zeitgeist--and keep the Dobsons at GL. Yanking successful writers from a show for any reason is insane to me.

The wrap-up of the Roger story, perhaps. But Marland came in and immediately made it his show. He did not like the Phillip paternity story, so he accelerated some of it (one of the first things he did was have Jackie tell Justin the truth). He also had a problem with Lezlie Dalton (Elizabeth). While he kept her on the canvas for a year, most of her storyline was leading up to writing her out of the show. It seems pretty obvious the Dobsons were heavily invested in the Mike/Elizabeth/Justin/Jackie quadrangle. They had spent a lot of time setting it up. That quickly died when Marland took over. In the end, he never dealt with with Phillip's paternity, never did the big reveal--that only happened after Long took over. By then, major players in the storyline, Jackie and Elizabeth, were gone, and Hope was in the process of being yeeted out of Alan's orbit. I believe it would have played out much differently under the Dobsons. I'm also convinced that the Alan/Hope storyline would have been vastly different if the Dobsons had stayed. There was a lot of foreshadowing that Alan was going to disillusion Hope before they left. Marland mentioned in an interview that fan mail indicated they were popular with the audience, so that's why he married them off very early on. While he didn't make Alan a model husband, he eventually gave Alan a redemption arc, which was quickly dismantled by Long after he left. The Amanda storyline also would have been different. It seemed the Dobsons were making her the spoiler in the Ben/Eve story, more on the manipulative side. He gave some of those qualities to Vanessa instead, and had Amanda just be a woman in love who made some mistakes getting and keeping Ben. Early on he brought in his own characters: Nola, Kelly, Morgan, Jennifer, the Chamberlains, Trish, Josh, etc., several who became prominant that first year. Which is understandable; new writers do that all the time, but I think it's another indication he did not keep to the Dobsons storyline projections.

I've always liked Kate Jackson, been a fan since she was on Dark Shadows, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that she would not have won the Oscar if she had been cast in the role. I saw Streep in an off-off Broadway show before she did any movies and you could already tell she was going to be a star. She co-stared with Nancy Marchand and Elizabeth Wilson and she frickin' stole the show from them. I found some interviews at a Santa Barbara blog with Bridget Dobson. In this part she talks about the shift from GL to ATWT: https://pierin26santabarbara.blogspot.com/search?q=bridget+dobson&updated-max=2012-09-27T19:50:00%2B02:00&max-results=20&start=20&by-date=false How wild that the reason why the Dobsons were yanked from GL to ATWT is because they were TOO successful with GL! It had jumped over ATWT. The network and P&G saw ATWT as their #1 show. So they moved the Dobsons over to bring ATWT back up to #1, which they did. She also describes some things they did with GL, experimenting with the form. How interesting that we were discussing a page or two back how good those 1979 scenes were...well, it wasn't an accident. What makes me want to cry is just as they were talking about moving them over, the Dobsons still wrote the bible for GL--I assume for 1980, the upcoming year. The network loved it, but still moved them to ATWT, because ATWT's bible wasn't great. What I would give to read their final storyline projections for GL! There are more parts to the interview. The site is a little challenging to navigate, but it's worth reading all of the interview. Fascinating insights into the soap world at the time.

I hadn't caught this one before! Very rare to find one with JoBeth Williams in it. One of the most interesting things about it were the credits after the episode. Charita Bauer got an isolated credit, then the rest of the actor credits were not in alphabetical order. The order did not seem to have any rhyme or reason, which is little odd. I wonder why Charita's isolated credit was changed. Maybe in a bid to "modernize" the show? I also didn't realize Hope (played by a different actress) was still on the canvas at this point of the show. They must have sent her off soon after this, because Roussel comes in as Hope either late 1978 or early 1979. The rest of the videos that were uploaded by this account around the same time seem to be from the Roger/Holly rape storyline era.

This is one of my favorite episodes that's available from 1979, for a whole bunch of reasons: Yes, the Diane/Anne relationship was so well crafted. They had many scenes of being, I guess you could say, "frienimies." It was never really chummy--they worked across the hall from each other and for men who hated each other, so proximity and circumstance dictated they be somewhat cordial. I think Anne was smart enough to suspect Diane was out to get information from her, and it was an effort for Diane to be friendly towards a woman. There's another scene I remember (I don't think it's available on YT, but it really stuck with me): Diane came over to Mike's office and insisted Anne take some chocolates someone had given her. The passive-aggressiveness from Diane, and Anne not wanting the chocolates (it's as if Diane thinks it doesn't matter if Anne gets fat or her face breaks out), the back-and-forth--it was amusing and a throwaway but also highlighted the uncomfortable nature on both sides of the relationship. One of the things that bugs me about soaps is when there are heavy exposition dumps. Diane and Anne don't reveal any specific plot points in the scene, but they DO reveal that 1) Diane is becoming disillusioned with Alan and 2) Anne is lonely (most likely because she can't shake her one-sided feelings for Mike). Both have given so much to the men they work for and don't get a whole lot in return, and that's how a lot of women were feeling then (and many still feel that way). Then Alan shows up later and emphasizes the way Diane feels by rejecting her come-on. This is before he and Hope fell in love, I don't think he even knows her that well at this point. He's already pushing Diane away, even though he and Jackie are in marital trouble because Alan lost custody of Phillip. Jackie was already thinking about leaving him when she found out she was pregnant. NOW, about that Amanda and Ben scene in the stable, here's some context: Not long before this, she had finally consumatted her marriage with a guy named Gordon. Lucille had made her so afraid of sex that she was terrified of it and couldn't go through with her wedding night. One time in the sack with Gordon and BAM...she's totally over her neuroses about sex. She immediately gives Gordon the heave ho, but then she starts picking up strange men. The one she REALLY wants is Ben, who is oblivious because of Eve, but there were plenty of other good looking and willing guys. Amanda had been studying piano for a long time. Apparently, becoming sexually free REALLY improves her piano-playing (no, I'm not making this up, that's what her teacher tells her--not about the sex thing, that the passion inside her has somehow been freed and that made her playing better) so she's getting more offers to do piano recitals. After one of these she picks up a guy who had been at the recital and sleeps with him. She disappears for a few hours and Lucille freaks and sends Ben to find her, which he does. That's what happened before Ben and Amanda end up in the barn with half their clothes off. She'd JUST had sex with this other guy, and she's already vamping Ben. The thing that really jumps out about this scene is how manipulative Amanda is, and I can't help but think they made her like that because she's Alan's daughter. (I'm not sure if that had been revealed yet at this point, but it was clearly planned for a while that she would turn out to be his child). There's a lot of nuance, though. She was messed-up because Lucille was a horrible mother, and that had a lot to do with how she acted. Sadly, once Marland took over, a lot of the nuance in characters like Diane, Amanda, and Rita mostly disappeared. I SO wish we had more of the Dobson era, sigh.

Oh, wow. How fortunate that it was detected early! Sounds like she's going to be O.K., thank goodness. Wishing her all the best!

I know they would NEVER have allowed it back in the "Just Say No" era, but I can envision a flashback of her persuading Alan to get high. And telling Alan Michael about it when he got in trouble for drugs! 😂

Bridget and Matt's dad Sean could have been a cop. Better than...whatever the heck he was supposed to be. Used car salesman? In my headcanon NotLana is a former flower child and suspicious of cops. Which would be a good conflict between her and her brother. IMO, the problem with Lacey was they cast someone who was SO green. The inexperience was very visible. Maybe she could have grown into the part--it has happened--but, obviously, they weren't willing to give her the time to do it. She wan't the only Olympian in training GL had--Justin and Ross's sister Lainie was a runner with Olympic aspirations. She also quickly faded out as a character, though that may have been because of a head writer change soon after she was introduced. This is my comfort spot. Yes, I b!tch about a lot of stuff, but I still mostly love this show over many others that I've watched over the years. Viewing GL back in the day was a little bit lonely for me because my friends were all into General Hospital. I appreciate you guys. 😊

Tony! Of course! He was in TWO successive storylines where he was part of investigating something. He had the physical ability (he knew karate). After Mike left they did need a regular character who was on the side of law and order. Tony would have been a perfect choice. I don't know the exact reason he was written out other than Kobe was sweeping out most of Marland's characters. I do know there are BTS stories that Beecroft was kind of a jerk. But they could have recast the part.

They were clearly looking for the next Grant or Vincent and flopped big-time. Kurt was connected to absolutely nobody, like Jackson. Johnny was a faux Bauer, Simon was a faux Spaulding, and the writing for Rusty just wasn't there. I swear, every time he showed up on screen I wanted to take a nap. IMO, it was a mistake to make him a stick-up-his-butt cop. He did not mesh with the rest of the Shaynes. Maybe they realized that because Dylan was written more like how Rusty should have been written, troubled and impulsive. That might have made his pairing with Mindy less of a snooze fest.

Yup. I watched Lucille Wexler let Brandon die on screen in real time. He was a weak old man who could barely get out of bed. Then he shows up years later alive and remarkably spry. It reminds me of that movie Soapdish where they decided to bring back a character who had been decapitated. "He doesn't have a head! How am I supposed to write for someone who doesn't have a head!" It's a SOAP OPERA. You just do it. Jackson's journey on the show had a whole lot of bizarre ups and downs. I'm thinking they were really determined to keep him for the full length of his contract.

I keep telling myself it's 20/20 hindsight decades later, but why they would introduce Alex searching for her long-lost son, have him found, resulting in the actor and the romance they gave him becoming very popular, the kind of thing you PRAY for on a soap...and then flush two years of story and character building down the toilet will never not be a mystery to me. Yeah, maybe it was Kobe being a spiteful witch, or Long being inexperienced, but that still doesn't explain how when VI was ready to come back, they created a NEW character when they easily could have concocted some story about Lujack still being alive. They brought back Roger, and we saw him fall off a freakin' cliff! (When Judi played Beth, all the men who knew her had to be in love with her--much like Reva. Jackson I think was kept around to remind the audience that no man could know her and not be in love with her. Also, Michael Wilding had a hugely famous mother and they probably thought that gave the show some aura).

I would not disagree with that. Possibly the problem was Paul Avila Mayer had left the show. He LOVED Delia, she was one of his favorite characters. There's an interview where he admitted he was much more empathetic towards the character than Labine. The other possible thing was Delia had...I'm not going to say matured, but she had definitely evolved, and Kristen had left before most of that took place. So she might not have felt as comfortable in the role.

I don't think any show beat Ryan's Hope for bad recasts. There were SO many, but for me the worst of the worst was Kathleen Tolan. I actually liked Mary Carney, who was the first recast for Mary Ryan when Kate Mulgrew left. I was just getting used to her when they brought in Tolan. I hear she was a very good stage actress, and maybe that's true, but she was TERRIBLE in front of the camera. Clearly could not remember her lines and had a look on her face all the time like a machine gun was being pointed at her instead of a camera. I don't think anyone has mentioned GL's Ron Raines yet. He's not a terrible actor, he's another one who came from theater who's probably much better on a stage than in front of a camera. He just wasn't Alan. Just did not have the dark charm and Machiavellian menace that Alan required, IMO. I still can't believe he lasted FIFTEEN YEARS.

I read somewhere that Chuckie's death upset so many viewers that some named their babies after him. So people cared. 😁

It occurs to me this may seem contradictory when I said earlier don't change paternity out of the blue, but I think this is a different situation: For one thing, no one questioned Ed being Michelle's father because of the assumption it was impossible for Fletcher to have fathered her. In this particular case, this reveal would have a HUGE impact on the characters because of how this upended the lives of all four people involved at the time. Claire and Fletcher's romance was destroyed. Ed and Maureen's relationship survived, but it caused damage that probably never totally healed. Ed never wanted to have more children after Michelle, which kept him and Maureen from trying to find a way to become parents of their own child. So in this case, this wouldn't just be a temporary blip, it would be like a bomb going off in these characters' lives, with lots of things having to be sorted out, not the least being Michelle having to face the possibility of not being a Bauer.

YES. THANK YOU. Not only immature, but being lectured by that same grown ass man about how immature she was, before and after they had sex. (Morgan's rape happened before they had sex. The "suffering" was Nola lying about being pregnant. Because that grown ass man was too stupid to keep track of who he had slept with when). Marland even said in interviews that he created the story because he asked his teenaged niece what kind of story she would like. So, yes, he was selling the fantasy that an older boy (man) would fall in love with you, you could have sex with him, and then end up married. Every soap opera character suffers before they attain any kind of happiness, he doesn't deserve applause for that. The funny thing is, they were locked into the Kelly/Morgan marriage, because the outdoor scenes had been taped way beforehand. Vigard said in The Locher Room interview that all the outdoor scenes at Laurel Falls were taped over a few days at the same location, including the wedding. She was fired (or quit, depending on who you ask) very soon after the wedding scenes aired. So when Marland was talking about a year and a half of story going down the drain, he was likely thinking of the pre-taped material already in the can. He had no choice but to write the marriage story. Which is too bad, because IMO it was a mistake to marry them off, the subsequent story was not good. It might have been a better thing if the nework/sponsors had pressured him to abandon it. Though he might have quit the show even earlier if they had done that. As someone who has written and enjoyed reading fanfic by others (not soaps), my rule is this: Stay true to the characters and the history of the show and you can do whatever the eff you want. In this case, Fletcher fathered a child AFTER it was established he had had a vasectomy BEFORE Michelle was conceived. IMO, it is not only perfectly plausible to use that for a story, it's an excellent use of the show's history.

I don't think so, because once Marland left, he was mostly front burner until he left the show the first time, in early 1984. Nah, I think Marland just painted himself in a corner. He decided to go the redemption/happily married route for Alan and it diminished his usefulness on the canvas. Maybe he had a story planned to shake that up that didn't get a chance to happen. For instance, Rita hitting town with a kid, which would have blown up both Alan/Hope and Ed/Maureen.

I think Peter Bergman as Jack Abbott would belong on this list. Terry Lester was really popular as Jack, but I don't recall a big fan recoil when Bergman took the role. It's all his now.

This is not exactly relevant to the conversation, but I was watching some of Summer 1982, and the whole "Alan and Henry step away to start their own company with Hope" thing was a real low point for Marland, IMO. First of all, Hope was an interior decorator. It was as if she had to be part of the company to make sure Alan didn't slip back into his old ways. Or maybe Marland couldn't think of anything to do with Hope so he put her in the middle of that so they could fulfill her minimum appearances per week in her contract. I believe it's around the time that Marland steps down that the new writers do the whole struggle over Spaulding story, as you outlined. Having Alan and Henry sitting by the fire and talking about cutting back on the cutthroat atmosphere of the corporate world was a major blunder, IMO. I have no idea where Marland thought he was going with that. Having it cut short by Marland leaving was an immediate improvement to the show. Though why the oil rig was called the "Madrid Project" I will never figure out--Madrid is in the MIDDLE of Spain! It's not on the coast! You can't have off-shore drills in Madrid! Did any of these people own a MAP? (Yeah, I know, it's not really a big deal but my family lived in Spain for a while and it bugs me). Yes to all of this. It would have been great if they worked the fact that AM was a Bauer into the story. And have it really drive Alan mad! The Bauers were his nemeses for a very long time.

I was going to say this, too! Of course it was kind of screwed up because of AM's accelerated aging and Amanda's de-aging, but AM should have meant a great deal to her. They alluded to Amanda still being close to Hope during the 1987 return. Both had good reason to resent Phillip, who, no matter who was writing the show, was the only kid Alan truly cared about. They should have HATED his non-Spaulding @ss. No-brainer. So much good potential drama left behind.

Wasn't Lewis Oil part of Spaulding at that point? Or did that never happen? They talked about it for like years. Regardless, Amanda still had plenty of reasons to resent Alan.

There was SO much to pull from the past and they didn't do it. The last year before Amanda was written out the first time, Alan ruthlessly stole the Spaulding presidency from her. She founded LTA, which ultimately failed and was absorbed by Spaulding. Then when she wanted to raise Jennifer's kid, Alan actually plotted to take him from her and put him up for adoption. When she briefly returned in 1987, she handed over her proxy to Phillip and didn't even ask him what he needed it for. She was all Christmas smiles, but it was obvious she was still p!ssed about the past. It was unnecessary to make her a madam or Brandon's daughter. That's just using shock value instead of composing an actual story. She had PLENTY of reason to go medieval on Alan and even Alex, who as far as I can tell, never reached out to her over those missing years. (By the way, did they ever acknowledge that she and Josh were once partners and friends back in the day? I don't recall it, but I wasn't watching that regularly then).

I agree totally. While I didn't think EJ on Ryan's Hope was a well-conceived character, I very much enjoyed MG's performance. It's interesting that everyone being named: Alex, India, Blake, Jenna...they pulled back on all of them either because of a romantic connection, or, like in Alex's and India's cases, because of love for their children. If Alex was meant to be a bitch, you don't start off right away with a sob story about her child being stolen from her. I think they tried to harden her after Lujack was killed off, but there were always Alan's children around to soften her. And of course Simon, who for a while practically turned her into a jelly fish. I'm going to say something that's maybe a bit controversial: I don't think Marland liked Morgan. There was a kind of underlying contempt for her, especially early on. Those lectures Kelly gave her were insanely hostile a lot of the time. And it seemed like the audience was supposed to be nodding and agreeing with him. Morgan was meant to be a way for teen girls to dream about falling in love with an older boy (O.K., let's face it--man). The whole storyline was created to attract a younger audience. But I always got the feeling that she was not really loved by her own creator. I believe when Nola talked about hating Morgan, WE were supposed to hate her, too. Supposedly, Marland always meant for Kelly and Nola to get together for real at some point, so it would make sense for him to see Morgan, and not Nola, as the spoiler in the triangle. Regardless of how anyone feels about that, it is absolutely true that Nola was softened a great deal because the pairing with Quinton took off and was very popular with a vocal section of the audience. Which is probably why they had so much trouble coming up with stories for her after she had her second kid. The premise that having a child or falling in love suddenly makes someone a nicer person is very odd to me. (I never found that to be the case in real life, LOL). I don't see why characters like Alex, India, or Blake had to lose their edge because they genuinely loved someone. Roger genuinely loved Christina, but he never lost his edge.