vetsoapfan

It's an enigma, considering many posters weren't yet involved in the show during the 1960s, so you would think most of your synopsis threads would engender roughly the same amount of attention from people interested in learning more about history. My only guess is that some comments/replies in your threads (about certain characters or historical milestones) spark ideas and questions in posters about which they want further exploration.

Robin Thomas may have been a decent-enough actor, but Mark Singleton had a "non-essential, extraneous supporting player" vibe about him. He never should have been considered as a romantic partner for a legendary leading lady like Alice. JC had had obvious chemistry with actor Tom Fuccello, when they appeared together on OLTL. He was charming, affable and sexy, and really clicked with Courtney on screen. If AW insisted on keeping Alice and Mark Singleton as a couple, they should cast Fuccello in that role. If AW wanted to resurrect Steve Frame, they should have had Jacquie Courtney on board first. A dynamic David Canary might have shown some sparks with JC, but Linda Borgenson was dull as dishwater, and the entire back-from-the-dead saga for Steve was an unmitigated flop. Since Steve was not a possibility, AW could have had Alice reenter Mac's orbit in some capacity, if only to get under Rachel's skin. Probably the only other option available to them would have been to hire a magnetic leading man for her, and hope for the best.

Oh, that's interesting; what characters would you name from before the time you began watching the show? (He had long since passed away by the time I began following TGL, but I always considered Rev. John Ruthledge to be an essential component of the series, and felt attached to him even though my exposure to episodes featuring him was scant.)

Fingers crossed.

Yes, by that time, TPTB had clued themselves in to the past and finally used it to the show's advantage. I think it was too late to salvage the character of Alice, however, who had been downplayed and sidelined since her return on the 20th anniversary.

Personally, I cringe at the idea of Carlivati being associated with any soap franchise I have ever cared about; I have loathed his low-brow, campy and sophomoric style at every series he has touched. I know SONers who would produce a more literate and erudite soap.

An emotionally unbalanced Robin ran off into the night and got hit by a car. The motorist told everyone that she had thrown herself in front of it. She did not make it.

UGH! "Scarlett" failed because its author sucked big time, not because no research into GWTW had been done. Even extensive research cannot overcome a lack of writing talent. The sequel to my beloved Wuthering Heights, written by one "Anna L'Estrange" in 1977, was a disaster as well, even though she had studied the characters' pasts from the classic novel. At least L. Virginia Browne was...adequate.

I wonder how trepidatious P&G and CBS were at the time, about introducing people of color to TGL. Even in 1976, when DAYS introduced the black Grant family to Salem, they got bombarded with hate mail. I imagine TPTB wanted to introduce Jim and Martha slowly, to have the audience warm up to them. I don't remember either one doing anything other than chatting with the white characters in, say, the hospital cafeteria.

The Averys don't get enough recognition today. They were excellent head writers on The Secret Storm and (particularly) Love is a Many Splendored Thing too.

And L. Virginia Browne, who was writing the show throughout most of 1981, had clearly studied up on the show's history, as evidenced by the references she made in characters' dialogue. You can't start writing for Scarlett O'Hara after her being abandoned at the door by Rhett Butler, if you have no idea what she had been (and what she had been through) during all the years beforehand. You would fail both the character and the audience.

Yep, Tomlin acknowledged in the press that the botching of JC's comeback rested mainly on his shoulders because he had not researched the character enough to understand her history or her significant ties to other characters. Being so incompetence was bad enough in itself, but coming out and admitting it was jaw-droppingly STOOPID. Even Vana Tribbey, when she assumed the role of Alice in 1981, said she had studied a "very long, very complicated 17-year history" of the character, to get her thoroughly familiar with the role. Tomlin's carelessness and incompetence really damaged the show.

Sally was 10 years old in 1975, the year Alice adopted her, so Alice would have been 29-ish. In 1984, a 38-year-old Courtney did not look so young that her being Sally's adopted mother seemed too blatantly ridiculous. Certainly, on-screen age discrepancies between other parent-offspring combinations on soaps have been much more noticeably egregious. Yes, she was wearing what I call a Humphrey-Bogart style private-eye hat, LOL. As time went on, Alice had her short hair flattened down with what looked like Dippity-Do at times. And what was that butch-looking, plaid lumberjack coat they had her wearing at one point? It was as if some PTB were trying to sabotage the actress' return by giving her no story, no purpose on the show, and making her look dreadful.

It was as heinous as the Rick-Webber-the-Cheating-Scumbag-Sociopath on GH. Years of history destroyed.🤮

The purging of the cast in the early 1980s was a major blow to the show and decimated its identity. The revolving door of newbies after that, and the descent into ludicrous camp, made everything worse. Michael Malone's first tenure as headwriter salvaged the series, but alas, the quality was not to last. The Victor-Lord-is-Alive garbage was total crud. UGH.