DeeVee

No, not at all. Marland seemed to be saying that the final decision always rested with him. If Long had to be talked into Zimmer, then it would seem she didn't have the same level of power as he did. Or perhaps she was more inclined to compromise than he was.

Thank you so much for posting this! Love interviews with writers. Hmmmm...I HATED Kelly and still do all these decades later. 😂 (Nothing against JWS, who is an excellent actor. It's no surprise he's had a very strong post-soap career). While I would rank Marland as number 2 on a list of GL headwriters (after the Dobsons), there are some things he did that still drive me right up the wall. One is how he made his so-called "heroic" characters a bunch of sanctimonious, preachy hypocrites, and that includes Kelly. He was always lecturing Morgan about her behavior, treating her like she was his little sister or child. Even after they had sex, he was lecturing her because she wanted to keep on having sex and he was like, no it's wrong. He seduced a minor and still acted like he had possession of the high moral ground. Which makes their romance creepy, in my opinion. (He did something similar with the Scotty/Laura relationship on GH, IIRC). I felt this way back then, and I was in the demographic they were targeting. Then there's what he did to Mike Bauer. I liked Mike when the Dobsons wrote him. Totally understood where the guy was coming from. He hated Alan because he wrecked his romance with Elizabeth and was afraid he would hurt Hope. But once Marland got his mits on the character, it wasn't about a personal grievance anymore. He was going after Alan for truth, justice, and the American way! He'd make speeches about Alan's terrible values when just a few months earlier he was banging Elizabeth in a hotel room while she was married to Justin. One of the most insane scenes was between Elizabeth and Mike while she was in therapy in Switzerland. She goes on and on about how good she feels with Mike because he's so honest and she totally trusts him. Then in the very next breath she tells him she knows he lied to her about Philip being her son. But that was O.K. because Mike had the right values, or whatever. This is a VERY interesting comment. As far as I know, there were at least two times Pam Long was vetoed about a casting choice. She didn't want Kim Zimmer as Reva, or at least she was not her first choice. TV Guide did an article about the casting for teenager Samantha Marler. I don't recall the name of the actress she did want, but she was overruled and Suzy Cote was cast instead. So sounds like he had an unusual amount of power for a head writer. Sheds light on why he could walk when Jane Elliot was fired without suffering career consequenses. I don't get what he meant here, either. Didn't Maureen Garrett want to leave? Then the rest in her orbit kind of had to go, too. I've heard he either had something against Lezlie Dalton or just really didn't like the character of Elizabeth. Mowery was obviously not working out as Jackie, but killing her off before the resolution of the Philip story was crazy. I believe his original plan was to have one of Carrie's alternate personalities murder her, which is even wilder. How he thought that wouldn't naturally put an end to the Carrie story is extremely puzzing. I think Lainie was slated for a romance with Ed (or possibly a problematic crush). That's what the Dobsons seemed to be setting up at the end of their run. Instead, Marland stuck her in Mike's law office answering phones until he sent her out of town. And it's strange how Evie stuck around for as long as she did, doing close to nothing. My theory is he kept her because he was planning to bring back Rita at some point.

That is correct. She received the bulk of his estate, including his Spaulding stock. Philip got money as well as material stuff like Brandon's stamp collection, but nothing close to what Amanda got. It made her so powerful at Spaulding that Alan had no choice but to work with her. He even talked about her taking over before he knew she was his daughter.

There's also a scene after Long took over between Amanda and Billy. They often talked about her being a savvy businesswoman. In this scene she actually IS one, taking on Billy Lewis and more than holding her own. There's also a sparky vibe between Cullen and Clarke. Amanda was already on the way out at this point, but nice to image the what could have been if they had done an Amanda/Ross/Billy/Vanessa quadrangle.

Toby.

I'm guessing you never saw the Dobsons' version of Amanda, because she was WAY different from Marland's version, and much more interesting. Yes, she was thoroughly under Lucille's thumb, yes, she was extremely neurotic. Lucille was portrayed as even more of a psycho than under Marland, regardless of her later murder attempts. She had Amanda so freaked out about men and sex that Amanda couldn't go through with her wedding night. (Her husband was a guy named Gordon. You can see him in some of the 1979 episodes as he was Hope's boss). As Amanda becomes attracted to Ben (still married to Eve), she decides to give that sex thing another whirl. She seduces her husband and realizes, hey, she really likes sex! He is thrilled and thinks they are back together. She's like, "Oh, yeah, this was nice, but I still want a divorce. See ya!" Her music teacher notices her piano playing suddenly has passion that it had previously lacked. She starts picking up men. Lucille insists Ben look for her while she's having one of these trysts. (By the way, this episode is somewhere on YT). He finds her and realizes she had sex with some rando. He insists on driving her home and gives her a lecture about not living her life like this. They get caught in a storm and end up taking shelter in a barn, stripping off wet clothes. She starts vamping him even though she slept with another guy like an hour before! Ben manages to resist temptation but they do kiss. So the wishy-washy version of Amanda is entirely a Marland creation. In fact, it's stunning to see the difference in Amanda once Long takes over. Even though it was for a short time, she portrayed Amanda as at least having a spine. As for the Poser version, did I love Amanda being a madam? Nah, that I thought was dumb. But is it completely out of the question that she would be sexy with that mean girl streak? Not really!

Yeah, they really wrecked Alan's character when they brought him back in '95. I don't like to dump all over actors because sometimes it's just a case of miscasting and poor writing, but Raines never worked for me as Alan. Still can't believe he lasted as long as he did. They turned Alan into a two dimensional villain. He was far more complex during his initial run. Probably very few people behind the scenes were still there from when Alan was on during the 70s and 80s. Chris Bernau's portrayal of Alan was as iconic as Michael Zaslow's was of Roger. The two of them in conflict was prime soap viewing. Many episodes from that period are available on YouTube. From early 1979 (the beginning of the Holy/Roger rape story) through Roger's first exit. I highly recommend you give them a gander at some point.

True, however, Ed was considered Blake/Christina's legal father and Rick was her "brother." (Yes, I know, they eventually slept together, which was even ickier than Blake sleeping with Alan). It's hard to believe they never got pictures and never visited her. I know, I know, it's a soap opera. Maybe they explained it (like Holly's husband didn't want her ex around, or something) but it makes me think again that initially Blake was not supposed to be Christina.

Wasn't part of it also that Blake was not originally conceived to be Christina (Roger and Holly's daughter)? I seem to recall that in the beginning Blake had some kind of secret. She was always on the phone with someone but it seemed like she was talking to someone younger than herself. And then when they decided to bring back Zaslow, certainly Stringfield looked more like she could be Roger and Holly's kid. Maybe this is wishful thinking because I hate to think they had Alan and Blake sleep together knowing all the time she was the little girl who used to live next door to him. Watching that scene many years later knowing she would turn out to be Christina was a tad traumatic for me. 😄 Anyway, I liked Dennehy, I felt at the time she got a dirty deal, but it's hard to argue against Stringfield. She was very believable as Roger's progeny.

It is four decades ago, so I absolutely could be remembering it incorrectly. I'd be curious to see the interview, too. My memories of Stewart's interviews are of him complaining about a lot of things. Perhaps I'm being unfair to him. I guess they thought because of the many traumas Beth had suffered they could get away with some of the stuff they wrote for her during that period. It was really difficult to watch sometimes.

I remember reading an interview with Stewart where he complained that the women they were putting him with weren't young enough. (I think this was when he was paired with Trish, who was supposed to be around the same age as Hope). I'm going on memory, but I'm pretty sure he said he had suggested to TPTB that they pair him with Trudy, played by Amy Steel. She was a teen character who was friends with Morgan and dating Tim. Something I'm really glad they never took him up on.

So true! The whole art theft mess was one my least favorite storylines. The idea that Alan would have stolen art for kicks is so dumb. Almost as dumb as making him into a villain plucked out of a James Bond movie for the Dreaming Death storyline.

Carrie Mowery never hit it right as Jackie Marler, in my opinion. She wasn't a bad actress, she just wasn't Jackie. Larkin Malloy. I know a lot people disliked him as Kyle. I think he was a good actor, thought he was fine on EON and AMC, but for some reason he seemed out of place on GL. Michael Wilding, Jr. as Jackson. Again, I had nothing especially against him, he was O.K., unless you have a problem with nepo baby casting. But what was he doing there other than pining after Beth? He even looked confused a lot of the time. Daniel Pilon. I know he was likely always meant to be a temporary replacement. And on paper, he should have been an adequate replacement for Bernau, since he played a very similar character on RH. But MAN, he just melted into the wallpaper. It didn't help that a majority of his scenes were with two actresses who would wipe you off the screen if you didn't meet them on their level. I'd agree with both of these. I watched a few episodes of Texas recently and was surprised by how much I liked Larsen in that role. Loved Pennock on Dark Shadows, but he was seriously miscast as Justin.

I found his older channel, but it only has a few GL episodes. 😢 Yikes, I hope we don't lose Spauldingfield. I am really enjoying watching what they have been uploading the past few weeks. I love that they are uploading the episodes mostly in order of air date. It has been fascinating to watch the show transition from the end of the Marland era, through the interim writers, to the early part of Long's first tenure. Thanks! I don't remember these. I wasn't watching AMC or GH much during the mid 90s.

I did not know this about her. I am so glad that someone spoke up for him. The way Zaslow was treated was atrocious.

Oh, yes, that would have worked beautifully. What like most about it is that it would subvert the audience's expection ("He's not getting involved with Reva AGAIN!" - I'm sure I screamed just this at the time). Then it would turn out the story was going in a different direction. Plus, it would eventually get Reva out his orbit.

Soaps did not handle the issue very well back then. Almost across the board, when they did this kind of story it was always centered on a young, beautiful woman tragically facing death, usually because she had a partner who was a drug addict or slept with a prostitute. It was similar to the way 19th century literature used young woman beautifully dying from consumption. I can't think of one show that had a man sick or dying from AIDs except for General Hospital. (Anyone who knows differently, feel free to correct me). GH was the only show that had the guts to have it happen to a main character, a young woman who the audience watched grow up from a little girl. (The male character who died was her boyfriend). They showed her living with HIV, going to medical school, eventually marrying and having a baby, etc. The other shows usually imported a character only for this purpose usually while, as in the case of Lucy, a main character was going through an AIDS scare. ("Fun" fact: Ellen Wheeler portrayed this type of character on All My Children). The character would inevitably die on screen (gorgeously, of course) or eventually be yeeted out of the story, as in the case of Susan on GL. I believe Susan was still alive and healthy by the end of the show. She was living off-screen with Nick. I seem to recall Alex talking about them. Hands down the cringiest of these stories was on Y&R. I think her name was Keisha. Malcolm married her the day she died. As she faded away in his arms she declared how happy she was while wearing a white wedding gown.

Funny, I'm having deja vu, too. Of people who needlessly try to stir the pot on message boards. It is the most uncomfortable feeling. I'm sure you can imagine. Really awful. Rick was once Freddy! In the moment they want to honor some character who is old or died, but then they are like, "No, you can't have a soap hero or heroine with that name!" So they change it. I remember Douglas Marland complaining in soap mags when they changed Kelly Louise to Stacy. He had a strange fondness for double names (Lesley Ann, Kelly Louise, Alan Michael). The one name they never changed that they should have was Alan Michael. Poor character lumbered with a name that sounds like a pair of shoes being thrown down some stairs. Though I have no ideas for what they could have called him instead.

I have also mulled the possibilities of bringing back this unseen sibling. I've also heard that her name is Lana. (First thing I would do, though, is change that name. Like Chelsea, it doesn't seem like a Reardon family name, since the rest of the kids have either Irish or saint's names. Naming soap characters poorly is a pet peeve of mine.) I read somewhere that she worked on cruise ships, so she would have been out of the country for a long time. She also had a couple of sons, which would have beefed up the Reardons if they had brought her into the story. My idea for NotLana is having her be an old flame of Alan's. A lot of people (including me) complain that after Hope, Alan never had a real romance. (Reva doesn't count, IMO, that was always ridiculous). There's a big gap in his backstory where she could neatly fit in. Marland bent over backwards to portray his brief encounter with Jane Marie/Jennifer as transformative. That he did a bad thing (seduced and impregnated a minor) but felt responsible for her and wanted to do right by her, even to the point where he told Hope about it before he ever laid eyes on Jennifer. The next thing we know about him after that is he married Elizabeth and started cheating on her during their honeymoon. (In my scenario, the Maryanne Carruthers story never happens.) It would make sense that something happened in between to change him from a sensitive young man to a womanizer who regularly humiliates his wife. I would date their love affair at the time Alan was in Chicago being mentored by Henry. Of course, Brandon, and maybe even Henry, wouldn't approve. The fact that she's Tom Reardon's kid connects her to the secret from the Fishing Trip Mystery storyline, which would bother both of them, plus Brandon is just a snot-headed snob who busted up Alex's love affair because Eric wasn't good enough for the Spauldings. Maybe Brandon insisted Alan marry Elizabeth, threatening to disown him like he did with Alex. Which would give him a pretty strong reason to be resentful of Elizabeth (he owes her everything but hates that it cost him NotLana). And giving NotLana a strong reason to have a lingering resentment of Alan, for chosing wealth and power over her. NotLana could come back to town many years later with her sons. She'd be "the one that got away," maybe with the secret that one of her kids is Alan's. It would be ironic if he had a male heir out there around the same time he was busy switching someone else's kid with his dead one. I think that would have been much better than making Gus his kid with a woman who had no ties to anything or anyone on the canvas (especially since they ended up killing him off). When she comes back, she could become close to Ed and Michelle for the sake of her dead sister. Maybe Ed falls in love with her. Or a returned Mike. Add perhaps a returned Hope into the mix. There would be lots of ways to weave her into the lives of both the Bauers and the Spauldings.

It's so interesting to look at these old soap magazine columns. Thank you for posting them. Michael Logan complaining about the GL 50th anniversary show leaving out Nola's fantasies is a head-scratcher for me. I do recall soap columnists adoring those scenes and never could understand it back then, either. I LOATHED them, and I adore old movies more than most people do. On rewatch I like Nola much more now than I did back in the day, probably because very few of the episodes available now have those fantasy scenes bringing everything to a screeching halt. Obviously, there are people who liked them and that's O.K. But soapdom's creative pinnacle? I don't think so. It's wild how soap operas have been so incestuous for so long. Instead of firing people who were messing everything up and bringing in new people, just rotate the same failures over and over. Sure, soaps are a specialized field, not everyone can produce, write, or act in them, but you'd think they would have tried to train up more replacements from outside the industry, like they did with Harding Lemay. Especially when it became obvious the heyday of soaps was coming to an end.

Two things about this: Doing the math, it made me realize Heather Tom is FIFTY YEARS OLD. OMG, I feel so old. 😩 (I am old, but I didn't need the reminder, LOL.) As to the comments about why they killed off Maureen, gee, unless I missed something, I don't remember anything memorable involving Ed dealing with her death. Not like Jack on Ryan's Hope when Mary died, or Tony on GH when his daughter died. When Cassie died on Y&R it impacted the show literally for years. They screwed up bigtime and couldn't even be bothered to at least write something compelling to make her death worth it, story-wise. That would have been great! Or why not have the guts to write a real love triangle with Mo/Ed/Lillian? Or have Maureen not really die somehow but everyone thinks she's dead? She could have had amnesia (that would have been necessary, because she would never leave Michelle). Maybe Roger could have found her and kept her from Ed out of spite. There were like a million possibilities that did not have to end with her dying.

Thanks everyone for the kind words of welcome! LOL, I admit I love when soap women vanquish soap men, too. I've been watching these recently uploaded episodes and have wondered this for DECADES. It made zero sense to me that he married Jennifer and not the oh, so willing Amanda. I think one of the uploaded episodes might of answered it: Amanda told Jennifer she was leaving her stock in Spaulding to Jennifer. Maybe the plan was to kill Amanda and then Jennifer so he could get the stock? Still seems it would have made more sense to have him marry Amanda and get her to change her will in his favor. Possibly they were trying to find a way to keep Jennifer in a major story once the paternity storyline was over.

Hi, popping in to introduce myself. I have been lurking as a guest for a little while. I LOVE the discussion here! Was stunned to find out people are still talking about even the vintage era of soaps. I guess YT is keeping them alive. I started watching soaps as early as the 1960s, mainly because my mom watched them. (Except for Dark Shadows, that was totally a me thing). Over the decades I've probably watched almost every soap at one time or another, even oldies that have been gone for a while, like The Secret Storm, Somerset, and Love of Life. My mom's soap viewing was very much dictated by whichever male actor she had a crush on at any given moment. We started watching GL during the early part of the Dobsons era because she had a huge crush on Michael Zaslow. I was a fairly consistent viewer during the late 1970s and the 1980s. Somewhere during the 1990s I became a less regular viewer, but still checked in occassionally until the end of the show's run. It's been amazing rewatching episodes on YT. It's nice to confirm the good stuff is a good as I remembered (and the not so good stuff is, well, you know...) Anyway, looking forward to taking part in the conversation!