DeeVee

Is that the genius kid who Quint and Nola took up with? I remember him on Texas. He played Pam Long's character's secret kid. According the Frank D., he was originally up for the character of Johnny Bauer. But they liked him so much (ahem, thought he was so hot, LOL) that they created the role of Frank for him. I assume they made the character Greek because the actor is Greek-American. My impression of the original Frank/Harley/Cooper dynamic is that they were a new iteration of the Reva/Roxy/Shayne dynamic. Close siblings who had been abandoned by a parent. (Altered so that Frank and Harley were abadoned by their mother instead of father, and later they find out that the father they thought was dead was actually alive). Definitely, Harley was an attempt to create a "Mini-Reva." Didn't they think Buzz was killed in Vietnam? So they grew up thinking their dad was a hero and he turned out to be a deadbeat? If so, yeah, they forgave him WAY too fast.

Many actors talk about how she could be very helpful to other actors. She would have helped him find the character, I'm sure. She knew him, she was comfortable with him. I definitely think it would have worked. (Though Davis probably is not sorry he wasn't cast. He certainly made a lot more money doing The Nanny). If I was picking an actor from Texas to play Alan, I would have gone with Donald May, even though he was a tad too old for the part. I gather he was done with soaps after Texas, though.

Alexandra Neil (Rose) was also a former Texas cast member. He never ended up being cast, but Beverlee McKinsey wanted Daniel Davis, who played Elliot Carrington on Texas, to replace Bernau as Alan. Yeah, the guy who played the butler on The Nanny. I thought that was crazy, too, at first. I watched some episodes of Texas and I could kind of see it. He played Elliot as a very urbane type, it could have worked. (Let's put it this way: he wouldn't have been a worse Alan than Raines).

Josh and Trish Lewis had been on the show since 1981. HB and Billy and Lewis Oil were talked about quite a bit at Spaulding, as early as 1981. HB and Billy were introduced on screen in 1983. Reva and Mindy were not mentioned until they were introduced in 1983. Probably one of the reasons the establishment of the Lewises was so successful is because they didn't drop out of nowhere. A lot of the tension between Josh and his father, for instance, was eluded to long before HB hit town. The show was strong because they wrote some strong storylines (and some not so strong) to sweep out a lot of characters. 1985 is about the time they finished decimating the OG Bauers (I also consider Johnny a fake Bauer) and the Reardons. Charita passed away, and Bernau and Newman left (willingly, I assume). That left a lot of holes that were hard to patch over. I agree it did not hurt the show in the short-term, but over the long-term is was disastrous. I don't think it's an coincidence that the show didn't really start to recover until MZ and MG came back as Roger and Holly, because at least they were a tether to the show's strong past.

I like all the FOJ actors. It wasn't their fault if they didn't work out on GL. The Texas invasion--again, I don't majorly dislike any of the actors. There were a few people who were let go who probably needed to go. It was the decimation of the Bauers and Reardons that I hated. (Chelsea to me is a fake Reardon). So I guess I would say that was more egregious, because even though the show did pretty well for a few years, I think this was the genesis of their long-term problems.

That was the one where everyone in town--literally--came to the airport to say goodbye to her. I thought it was funny, but at least she got to say goodbye to everyone. At least Hillary's and Leslie Ann's deaths were part of an ongoing plot (the Barbados mystery and the Dreaming Death story). Never understood why Maeve stayed on the show a good year past her usefulness to the story. Frankly, I think she wasn't even worth killing off. They could have had her and Ben leave town. (Then maybe we would have been spared the awful grown-up Ben story). I can put up with Jackie being killed off in a plane crash rather than the planned alternative, which was Carrie's alternate personality murdering her. But she was an important character for a long time and should have had a better send-off. Hope's was terrible. She signed the divorce papers, told Alan off, then walked out of his office and was never seen again. Both times Alan was written out was stupid. Running away from Federalis into the jungle, and going on a completely ridiculous and out-of-character rampage and being sent to prison. (Not to mention the end of his character, dying because he was the only blood match to save Phillip, who had copious blood relatives who could have been a match). While Roger's first exit was very memorable, they waited years after MZ passed away to have him simply die off screen and all his enemies joke and cheer about it. I'm not sure why they even bothered. Did it impact the storyline at all? I don't think so.

Kind of. It seemed pretty obvious for a time that they were testing an Alex/Mike/Lillian triangle. No idea why Stewart left. Maybe someone has the gossip. I always assumed that he was swept out with most of the other actors/characters who were dominant during the Dobson/Marland eras.

I don't criticize the Dobsons a whole lot, but pairing Mike with a woman who couldn't have children was also short-sighted. Maybe they planned later for Mike to make another woman pregnant while he and Elizabeth were together/apart. (Jackie? Anne?) Of course, they couldn't know they would be abruptly switched to writing another soap. None of Marland's attempts to pair him with someone worked out. (And there were the rumors that Stewart didn't like any of the actresses/characters they were pairing him with). As has been pointed out, there was no reason why off-screen Mike couldn't have remarried and fathered more children. But on GL, characters taken off the canvas went into some kind of cryogenic storage where their lives never again progressed. 😁

That's hilarious! That period when the scabs took over was pretty dreadful, so I believe it. 😂

From what I remember, she definitely was hiding something. She was always talking on the phone to someone. The impression I got was that she was speaking to someone younger, like a sibling. No way to know if the scabs made that up or if they were working from Long's bible. Maybe she was supposed to be Rita's kid originally? Although that's a character Long never wrote for, so probably not.

It is very jarring to watch the dubbed episodes. But I'll take what I can get. 😊 It helps to plug in the gaps in my memory. I almost cried when I saw the Italian ones didn't have captioning. I can solve that problem! Peggy remarried after divorcing Roger, Billy, now Will, has taken his stepfather's name. Just like Blake had her stepfather's name when she came back to SF. Which reminds me: did they ever explain where the name Blake came from? Did she just use it because she liked it or was it her middle name?

That's so funny that you posted this because last night I was on the German channel watching episodes from this time period. I was determined to find the scene where Ross demands Diane explain why she wants Phillip left out of the will because the copy on the Spauldingfield channel loses the audio at just that moment. I found it. I don't know if it's the wonky translation, but I STILL DON'T GET IT. Something something about getting Phillip out of the way (she assumed Amanda was already out of the way because of her breakdown). Then all she would have to do is get Alan Michael (a newborn!) out of the way and she would control Spaulding. It makes ZERO sense. I was thinking since she had caught Ross buying up stock, she should have forced him to continue doing it so she could do a takeover. That probably wasn't realistic, either, but at least it makes some sense. Marland was not bad at doing character-driven plots, but when he did something totally plot-driven it stuck out like a sore thumb. Also, I noticed in this scene between Carrie and Diane they act like they don't know each other, when later on they retconned a whole past association between them. 🤔

I really like this idea, because Roger had an actual relationship with Billy. IIRC, Roger was fond of him and a decent stepfather. Which is one of the reasons Peggy took his side during the rape trial. (Roger was sh!tty in many departments, but he genuinely liked kids). @alwaysAMC You are now irrevocably down the rabbit hole. 😂 Yeah, the story is insane, but it doesn't last that long, so there's that.

I think (but I'm not 100% sure) that it was mentioned at some point that Lainie had three kids. Regardless, they could have retconned it because most would not have remembered (as I do not, lol) as her married life took place off screen. The would have been great. Though two problems: ANOTHER Bill/Billy on the canvas, there were already so many! 😂 The second problem is they probably would have had to recast Peggy, as Fran Myers was mostly writing soaps after she left as Peggy. Though I think she did still occasionally act. Maybe she could have done a guest turn to reintroduce her son to the canvas.

I briefly thought about Alan Michael. He really should have been the head of the next generation of Spaulding, not Phillip, and he should have had a family. But it seemed like every regime preferred Phillip, as they had him knock up as many women as possible.

I adored Melissa. She so impressed me from the baby storyline. Yes, they should have groomed her to eventually become the head of the Reardon family in SF. Not sure I like the idea of her with Rick, but that's probably because I am forever on the Rick and Mindy train. Although with the problematic recasts after Simms left, that would not have worked out. Here's an idea--have Rita return with Ed's son. That should have happened at some point anyway. In spite of Rita's humble beginnings, she would probably see Bridget as too low for her kid. She always was very upwardly-mobile.

The short that I saw said her intention was mainly to record news programs, but she recorded everything 24/7. By "everything" I assume that means network TV, not cable.

So I just watched a YT short about a woman named Marian Stokes who single-handedly recorded EVERYTHING broadcast on TV from 1977-2012 (her death). She did it 24/7. She did this because she was afraid technology would eventually be able to erase history. (Not a totally crazy notion, as it turned out). Of course my first thought was: SHE RECORDED EVERY GUIDING LIGHT EPISODE FROM 1977 UNTIL IT WENT OFF THE AIR! Apparently everything is being digitized by an internet archive company; they've been working on it since she passed away. And, yes, I did wonder if it will ever be available to the public. 😊

I think this had to do with the soaps desperately trying to modernize in the wake of General Hospital's success. The perception then was Fred or Freddy were old-fashioned names, while Rick seemed more modern. Being from that generation, I had several classmates named Rick or Ricky. It was a fashionable name for boys that age.

I think you're right. Didn't Dinah do exactly the same for Harley when she had Daisy? Helped her give birth in a car? She missed her calling as a midwife. 😂

I remember it that way, too. Oh, heck, I thought Clarissa was a GL baby who got her own name and wasn't named after anyone else. And Leah, too! Now I'm wondering about other kids on the show that weren't obviously named after someone. I recall Harley naming her kid with Rick Jude after the Beatles song "Hey, Jude" and we already discussed Beth and Alan's kid Peyton (though her middle name is after Alexandra). LOL, Reva's island guy was one of my mom's many, many soap crushes.

I'm pretty sure Hart was still alive. I seem to recall Cassie suggesting the name to Hart. (I thought to myself, "Name a kid after Roger? That is the craziest suggestion I've ever heard!") Which goes back to the stupid baby naming ideas that plagued the show as far back as the Marland years. They didn't have to name practically every kid after somebody. Was this one going to end up named "J," too, if the show had lasted longer? Have the parents look through a baby name book and pick a name they like! Yeesh.

I'm roaring, laughing at the thought of this! Someone must have been having a major brain fart when they came up with this idea. All this talk about what happened around Van's "deathbed" is reminding me of the disastrous memorial for Bert. A lot of people with little to no connection to Bert, while those who mattered to her were nowhere to be seen. And Mo's funeral, too. It seems to me when you do the death (or near death) of a major character, it's a BIG FREAKIN' DEAL. Like a birth or a wedding. Sure, you sometimes can't get certain actors to come back, or whatever, but sounds like in this case many were around.

My memory of this--and it was a LONG time ago, please keep that in mind--is that Monica's change in attitude regarding Jason was very abrupt. She made some comments in a sarcastic tone to Alan about the things Jason would need. (Was she talking about Christmas presents? Possibly, or just regular things a kid needs). But from that moment on she was loving and accepting of him as part of the family.

Right, Carter Bowden. Amanda made a deal with him to give Ben a contract that she paid for because all that Spaulding stock she inhereited made her much richer than him and it threatened his masculinity, or something. 🙄 Vanessa snooped around and found out about it. Amanda went from being the manipulator to being victimized by new manipulator Vanessa. This was when Marland wrote the show.