vetsoapfan

I understand your feelings, which is why I made sure to clarify in number four that I was speaking exclusively for myself. If I were the ONLY daytime soap fan left in existence, I would cancel the remaining soaps because after DECADES of hoping, I have finally resigned myself to the fact that they will never recover and return to their former glory. Watching them being cannibalized and in their death throes is painful. That being said, I know that there are still fans out there who want the shows to consider, so I would settle on them remaining in production. I can simply ignore them. I know. It was weird. I was thrilled to hear that Gentry was returning to TGL, because I really had liked him as Ed Bauer, but throughout his brief comeback, something just did not feel right. He no longer fit the part. (God knows he was better than Richard Van Fleet, however.)

At the very beginning, Phoebe Tyler came across as more of a ditz than a formidible pillar of society, but that changed after a little while.

My favorite Ed Bauer is Mart Hulswit, but Robert Gentry was excellent in the role during the 1960s. It boggled my mind that GH and ABC would condone and romanticize a teen girl falling in love with and marrying her rapist. It was degenerater. Yuck. I do not miss Luke at all, either. He can stay gone, and take Sonny, Jason, and all the Roger Howarth characters with him.

Sometimes, when characters are initially introduced, they are given some scenes and material that suggests one thing, but it ends up getting dropped or changed without explanation.

For 28 years, I always referred to Peter Simon on The Guiding Light, as "the fake Ed Bauer," LOL. Although many viewers seem to embrace the low-brow camp storytelling style being foisted on modern-day soaps, I loathe it with every fiber of my being. I much preferred Laura with Scotty over Laura with that slug, Luke, on General Hospital. Speaking for myself only, I'd I'd rather see the remaining shows cancelled than watching them be further and further decimated and decapitated. Although he is regarded as a legend, I think Harding Lemay's writing took a noticeable nosedive in about 1975. I think Paul Rauch did not understand the soap opera medium and its audience, and does not deserve the kudos he's given. Ultimately, he was a destructive producer. For several decades, many nominees and winners of the Daytime Emmys have not been deserving. Several cancelled soaps deserve to be on the air today, instead of some of the ones still being produced and broadcast.

That idea may have been floated/flirted with in the show's early days, but TPTB must have changed their minds. I don't remember Mona having a drinking problem. Anyone else?

There are some performers who are so beloved, so iconic, and/or so deeply associated with their characters that the audience will never accept replacerments. TPTB may try, but it rarely if ever works. Attempting to replace Mary Stuart as Jo on Search for Tomorrow, John Beradino as Steve on General Hospital, Charita Bauer as Bert on The Guiding Light, Susan Flannery as Syephanie on The Bold and the Beautiful, Ann Flood as Nancy on The Edge of Night, etc., would have been met with similar anger from viewers. Honestly, although I rejected her as Penny Hughes, Phoebe Dorin seemed like a capable actress. She may have been embraced by the viewers in any other role, but she just was not "our" Penny.

My pleasure. As you know, I can babble on ENDLESSLY about my beloved soaps of yore, LOL!☺️ I don't think Edith or John were even referenced. Like when Papa Bauer passed away on TGL, no one mentioned Trudy. It would have made sense for the show to mention Penny, considering how hugely popular she had been, and how much the audience remembered her and wanted to see her again, but if Penny did get a mention, I did not hear it.

Personally, I thought Collins was a lot of fun in the role; significantly better than Marj Dusay, whom I always found to be breathy and hammy.

Or maybe Lynde just liked Storm more than he liked her. It's hard to say. Jacqueline Courtney only had nice things to say about Robert Woods when they were on OLTL together, but his comments about her were not always so glowing.

Storm said that when the character of Laurel died and he had to act grief-stricken on the show, it was difficult to do so, because he was so happy she was gone, LOL. On the other hand, Janice Lynde made a nice comment about Storm on Facebook a few months ago, not indicating that anything had been amiss between the two of them. From Lynde's comments on Facebook, Rauch was...not her favorite person.

The endless mistakes on imdb, soapcentral, and many other places around the internet is frustrating. It's like fangurls and fanboyz just make stuff up in their heads and post it as "fact." Phoebe Dorin appeared to be a decent actress, and she did resemble Rosemary Prinz a lot, but as @Paul Raven remarked, she was not the REAL Penny. Personally, I rejected her instantly, and as I recall, the majority of the audience was said to have condemned the replacement.

You are correct. Judge Lowell's last appearance was, I believe, in 1978. We never saw Irma. Her entire relationship with Grandpa Hughes took place off-screen. It was cute, to a degree, but after a while, I think most viewers wanted to "meet" the woman who had captured Grandpa's heart. No, the funeral was televised. Dr. Bob gave a moving eulogy, explaining that Irma was too grief-stricken to be present that day, and was with her family. I would have been REALLY VEXED if the show had skipped right over the service (the way TPTB did with Mary Matthews on AW, Bert Bauer on TGL, Mattie Lane Grimsley on TEON, etc.) I remember Chris Hughes thanking Nancy for being so kind and loving to his father for so many years, and Nancy replied, "Of course, dear. You see, he was MY FATHER TOO." I lost it and sobbed for several minutes.

To both questions: I believe so, yes. I believe both Alice and Steven had an unrealistic, idealization vision of each other, which was a major flaw in the relationship, and which resulted in all sorts of miscommunication and conflict. Alice's version of him existed a great deal in her head, which actually fit in with the show's theme of living in many different worlds, not just the actual, physical one. I adored the entire story and the characters, as flawed as they were, however. To this day, my stance is that the Alice/Steven/Rachel storyline represented daytime TV at its very best. That being said, I also appreciated the independent, stronger character of Pat Kendall, whom I saw as a grown-up version of Alice Matthews. I swear that wedding lasted eight solid weeks, not just four. It went on forever. Yes, Pat accepted a job out of town and left Llanview in 1983, even though the show had clearly been foreshadowing a romance between Pat and Michael Zaslow's David Renauldi. ABC lamely announced that they "had no story for the actress," which was BS, because the writers were already into a new one. There was more to her dismissal than we were told. Well, she may have been expensive, but she was also hugely popular, and the writers used her continuously and prominantly. Perhaps the "new team" that ABC would later bring in, after JC was axed, wanted her gone. Anyway, it was a stupid mistake to write her off. The show had already lost rhe powerhouse, Judith Light. OLTL needed to hang on to its most popular other stars. Yes, Karen Wolek revealed the truth during her breakdown on the witness stand in Viki's murder trial. Talbot tried to deny it, but it was clear he was lying. Pat went berserk and attacked him physically. That material on on youtube.

Well, I agree that Courtney's portrayal of the evil twin was lacking, but of course, Ellen Holly was bitter and resentful of JC, and had a personal axe to grind.

Jacqueline Courtney was excellent on both soaps (Harding Lemay's petulant assessment aside), and had a certain something, that special IT factor which made her a star. The only "negative" comment I could offer about Courtney's acting comes from her time on OLTL, when she was asked to play an evil twin. Her Maggie Ashley was supposedly British, sported a fabulously fake wig, and wore glasses which kept sliding down her nose and needed to be pushed back up all the time. I don't know if it was the accent, the wardrobe, the direction or WHAT, but Maggie was a caricature rather than an actual character, and poor JC simply could not pull it off. (To be fair, I don't think anyone could have. The evil twin and the storyline itself were just painful.) In general, however, Courtney shone on screen and was quite likeable.

It reminds me of TGL, which became rudderless and aimless after the destruction of the Bauer family. Suddenly, Springfield's history seemed to go back no further than 1983, and with no strong, knowledgeable producers ever in charge throughout the show's last few decades, it never rebounded.

Various people over the years noted that he was very unhappy at the time, but he really did burn a lot of bridges while he was on the soaps. Still, for the most part, his acting was stellar.

I doubt the show will ever bring back any Sugdens who are still alive and out there, somewhere. I thinks fans care more than TPTB. I wonder how many of the current PTB are even well-versed in the Sugdens' history and importance to the show. While I generally don't like recasts of long-serving actors, if I had the choice between Diane being killed off or recast, I'd vote for a recast.

Yep, I could have gotten behind Selby as a recast. I knew as soon as I saw the other three on screen that they were not going to work. Selby was sexy, magnetic and charismatic, however, and I believe he could have clicked.

Actually, Selby would have made a MUCH better and more charismatic replacement for Reinholt than Jontz, McHale or Lucia did. And anyone who came aboard to terrorize the repugnant rapist Todd would gain favor in my book.

I think it was a combination of both his not wanting to be on the show (he said OLTL's writing was "even worse than Another World's," YIKES!) and TPTB's realization that he was more trouble than he was worth. Erika Slezak said that on his last day at the studio, Reinholt ranted and raved his way down the hallways and out the door. She also said he was "crazy" while on the show. but calmed down in later years. When cutting into the soap's anniversary cake that year, the producer at the time "joked" that the cake should have been GR's heart. It looked like there was no love lost on either side. Unfortunately, however, the character of Tony (who should have been a major and influential part of the show) failed badly after Reinholt left. It was a relief when they finally killed him off after three failed recasts.

Tony was more...bombastic when George Reinholt played him (surprise, LOL!), but as @j swift mentioned, the casting of Reinholt and Courtney made it a foregone conclusion that Tony would be romantically paired with Pat, and (back then, at least) ABC did not portray degenerate rapists and murderers as romantic leads, so we knew Tony would end up being a basically-decent character. This limited any potential mystery at the beginning of his time on OLTL as to Tony's true nature and motivations. (Of course, ABC had to pair the two actors together; their chemistry and popularity were too overwhelming to ignore, and I was glad to see Reinholt and Courtney reunited on screen.) Under Reinholt, at least Tony could be impatient and angry at times. After GR left, Tony became pretty bland and lacked depth. Tom Fuccello was cast as Paul Kendall, Pat Ashley's ex-husband, and he and Courtney had significantly more chemistry together than Courtney had with Phillip McHale or (especially) Chip Lucia, the two longer-lasting recast Tonys. I was rooting for Pat and Paul to get back together, and had no interest in or loyalty to the "fake" Tonys. Well, Pat and Tony ended up getting married (under Chip Lucia) and then he died, so one could argue that the characters did "get together" until "death did them part," LOL. But Courtney and Reinholt only got to play the thwarted, star-crossed lovers while GR was there.

Technically, McHale was the third actor to play Tony Lord on OLTL. After Reinholt left, the show had an actor named Jimmy Jontz play the role briefly, when Tony was in the hospital. Apparently he did not work out and was quickly replaced by McHale. While I don't think PMcH was a good fit as Tony either, he was a lot better than the final actor cast in the part: Chip Lucia.

ITA. That entire stretch of episodes is mesmerizing. I would happily listen to the full run of radio eps of TGL than endure any of the soap episodes being produced on television today.