vetsoapfan

And of any actor, TGL needed Zaslow on canvass to give the show a vital, much-needed shot in the arm and sense of continuity. Knowing Roger and Holly were back on made me start watching TGL again, even though I had sworn off it during the painfully awful mid-1980s. Nowadays, I don't mind Trusel popping in every few years or so, but back then, I always wondered why the show kept such a tepid, colorless actress.

ITA. Its radio years were astonishingly well done and mesmerizing! Every soap fan should listen to 1950's run of Meta Bauer's trial for murder. The on-screen "tribute" to Bert Bauer after the character died was badly written in the first place, but the entire situation was made significantly worse by the fact that the show did not bring back any of the actors who had worked closely with her. M O'L was there, but he was one actor among so many irrelevant newbies gathered at the Bauer house. I must say, however, that the interview just linked for us brought tears to my eyes. Who among the audience did not love and cherish Bert?

Mac and Iris were together in the hospital on the day of the big reveal. As soon as he started crowing with joy about Amanda, Iris started jumped in, demanding to know what Mac was talking about. That shocked him out of his euphoria, and he then told her that she was not his biological daughter, but that he had always loved her just the same. Iris fell apart and ran off, sobbing in the elevator. Dave Gilchrist arrived in Bay City in the fall of 1974. You're right: he never did much. His most memorable scene, to me, was when he went to Alice's house with Russ to tell her that Steve had died. She fainted dead away, and Dave and Russ carried up upstairs (and off-screen), where we heard her utter a guttural scream. The first 90-minute episode of AW was in March of 1979. Lemay was replaced as headwriter in May of that year by Tom King. I don't recall Mike Bauer crossing back over to TGL while he was on AW, either. When the character left TGL and went over to AW, I was happy to see he was still being played by Gary Pillar, whom I had liked. After Mike moved away from Bay City in 1967, I don't think we saw him back on TGL again until Don Stewart took over the role in 1968. Lemay acknowledged he was burned out, and was being heavily pressured by TPTB to write more melodramatic "stunt" stories in which he had no interest. Although I felt his material had weakened over the last few years, the writing of AW really collapsed upon his departure.

It was painfully stupid, and such a drastic deterioration in writing quality from the decade of BB and PFS writing the show.

Right.

I wanted Gerald Anthony to remain on OLTL, but Marco's pretending to be a doctor strained credulity, even though we did see him reading through medical textbooks. Neil was supposed to be an internist, and the idea that the imposter had practiced medicine and presumably written prescriptions for many years was ridiculous. Samantha passing herself off as a psychiatrist? No way. Obviously, the two women were twins, but they were easy to tell apart. Bad, bad writing that depended on the audience being morons.

The WORST, most asinine story ever devised for Neil was when the writers devised a convoluted mess about Neil Curtis not actually being Neil Curtis, but an imposter who had stolen his identity. Never mind that the "real" Neil's father had seen him and would have noticed something was amiss; a stranger passing himself off as his son. It was illogical, poorly thought out and total garbage...and then abruptly dropped. Neil became Neil once again, and no one ever mentioned him being the imposter ever again. The plot was just erased from history. I do not recall anyone mentioning Neil in decades.

Poor Amanda had an ectopic pregnancy, which was a sad story to watch. I had to roll my eyes, however, when she was wheeled into surgery for a brain tumor, wearing blue eye shadow, LOL. As far as I am concerned, Amanda's best love-match was with Neil Curtis. When she was moving out of town, Neil came to say goodbye and admitted that, "No one has ever touched me the way you did." It broke my heart. As for Leslie Jordan, he strikes me as a bit of a sh*t-disturber, to be honest; someone who would start rumors just to stir the pot and get attention.

It's true that the character's latest major story was winding down, but DAYS was insane to let Alexander's contract expire. She was one of daytime's biggest stars, and one of the most popular actresses by far on the show. It was hard adjusting to her replacement. Bennye Gatteys might have been fine playing another role, and she was an adequate actress overall, but she lacked the intensity and charisma and star appeal that Alexander was blessed with. It was like watching Linda Borgenson on AW, Victoria Mallory on Y&R or Daniel Pilon on TGL: they simply did not live up to the original actors in their roles. Susan Martin never regained the popularity she had had when Denise Alexander played her. The character started being seen less and less, and then disappeared completely, without even a write-off scene. IIF recall correctly, the last time we saw Susan was at Doug and Julie's wedding in 1976, after being MIA for months. It was a disappointing way to discard a character who had once been hugely important to Salem. I know this will sound caustic (I honestly don't mean it to be), but who the heck is Lesley Jordan, and why should we give credence to this person's assessment of Frann's character? I've honestly never heard anyone bad-mouth Frann in the last 50 years, LOL. (On the other hand, there are some actors who have been rumored to feud with people regularly.)

I wonder if Bell resented the fact that she jumped ship in the middle of a major storyline, with so much focus on her character, to go to GH. But after she left GH in 1984, it would have been wonderful to see Alexander back on DAYS, on Y&R or even B&B. She was legendary!

It was devastating. Denise Alexander hit it out of the park. I'll never forget the day she rushed into her son's hospital room after he had fallen off the swing, only to find his crib empty and the room cleared out. Realizing he had died, she started to shriek and sob in agony, as Tom Horton vainly tried to comfort her. I hate dead-baby storylines. It was hard to watch. When Susan went on trial for shooting her husband, the producers of the show received a letter from a man who wrote (something like), "My wife is pregnant and needs her rest, but she can't sleep because she's so worried about what's happening to Susan Martin." Fans were very involved with this story, and I think it was one of the earliest ones that lured a large, devoted and emotionally-attached audience to the show. I never wanted to miss a single day. And I remember it vividly, several decades later.

So was I. SWMNBN should remain in the past. 🤐

I do not believe a word she says. I think she's delusional and toxic.

For me, it's precisely BECAUSE the "new" Amanda was so completely different and foreign to the character we had known and loved (well, some of us, LOL) that I rejected her thoroughly. I probably would have warmed up to Poser in a completely new role, but not pod Amanda. I wanted my Amanda back. Grayson McCouch's faux Dusty Donovan, Hunt Block's faux Craig Montgomery, and Roger Howarth's dreadful, faux Paul Ryan revolted me in a similar fashion on ATWT. Once-beloved characters were suddenly bastardized to conform to new actors and new writers' whims. Yuck. No thank you. These ideas are great. It would be icing on the cake if LK could have been persuaded to return as Rita, and if MH had been rehired as Ed. The two of them and MG as Holly working with Zaslow would have sent me into Nirvana as a die-hard TGL fan. The problem was, while he was tolerable in low-key scenes and as a minor character, M O'L was just not leading man material. As the only Bauer male remaining on the canvas who could be groomed as a lead, it was hard to watch the character be so wasted and generally...pointless. I swear to God, so many soap fans and viewers could have written the shows better than the ((ahem)) writers who actually got hired and paid to do so.

It's always interesting to me how different viewers have such vastly opposing feelings on stories, characters and actors. There's nothing wrong with different opinions, of course, but sometimes they make me scratch my head. I thought Cullen's Amanda was absolutely wonderful, and adored her so much, whereas I loathed Poser's version. I must say, this sort of divergence of opinion must make producing soaps difficult for TPTB, who have to balance all the fans' conflicting demands. Personally, I would eagerly wipe Sonny, Jason, Carly, Sam, Franco, and various other degenerates from the canvas of GH, yet...there are fans on the internet who seem devoted to these characters. I just don't get it. Decades ago, someone said to me that she wished the soaps would stop showing long-time veterans so much, because "these old people are so boring." EGADS!!! (I do think she held a minority opinion.) Right. God knows where the idea came from, that the audience wanted everyone newly cast to be a gorgeous hair model. Most viewers were fiercely loyal to beloved veterans like Chris and Nancy Hughes, Jo Gardner and Stu Bergman, Steve and Audrey Hardy, Tom and Alice Horton, etc., etc., etc., regardless of their physical appearance. I am sure that the audience would have continued to accept Mart Hulswit's Ed because of his warmth, appeal, and the continuity he brought to the show. No one cared if he had a "dad bod." So did most of our fathers and grandfathers, and we loved them anyway. Borne, like Reinholt, had his issues, but I think either of them might have fit the role better, and brought some interesting qualities to it, that Pilon or RR did. I always love your ideas, but for decades now, I have wanted Rita to have been pregnant when she left town, but with ED'S baby. She might not know for sure who the father is, but in the end, I wanted more blood Bauers to replenish that family, which had been so decimated in the 1980s. I even wanted Hillary's brother, Paul Kinkaid, to be outed as another of Bill Bauer's children. I remember thinking that Phil MacGregor, who played Rick before M O'L, could have passed for the son of Simon's Ed and Leslie Bauer, but he was not the most charismatic actor in the world, so I did not mind him being replaced. I ended up becoming impatient with M O'L's mugging, and wished the show had cast a better actor in that should-be-vital role, however. I'm ancient enough to remember when the show put little gray "wings" in Aunt Meta's hair, waaaaay back when, to make her appear older. They could have done the same with RB.

I agree: although I had a great many problems with how the show was being run while Long was there originally, it became significantly worse once Ryder was on his own. Bert Bauer's memorial service was a travesty. Simon was similar on SFT: quiet, not much energy, somewhat morose. But I had no one to compare him to there; he was the only Scott I knew, so I could accept him much easier on that show. On TGL, he was following in the footsteps of the warm and wonderful Mart Hulswit, and Simon just did not cut it. He may be a fine actor, but he was miscast in this role. (To be fair, Richard Van Fleet was worse.)

It had never occurred to me to consider Reinholt for the role of Alan Spaulding, either, but now that you've mentioned it, I've been pondering the idea. I would have taken Reinholt over Pilon, as I said earlier, over Ron Raines, and certainly over Michael Zaslow, whom TPTB allegedly considered briefly for the part. I adored Zaslow tremendously, but casting such an identifiable TGL actor in another major role would have been infuriating. It annoyed me when both William Roerick and Jordan Clarke were hired to play new characters, after they had already been on the show previously as different ones. I hate that Josh Taylor is now Roman Brady on DAYS. He's Chris Kositchek to me. I hate the revolving door of characters given to Roger Howarth and Michael Easton on GH. Yuck. I never liked Dolan on TGL and I liked her even less on ATWT. She always came across as cold and brittle to me, devoid of human warmth. I don't recall her having genuine chemistry with anyone on the shows, either. I know, I know: I am a curmudgeon! Ryder didn't even seem to know (or remember) Mike existed. And he didn't mentioned Meta or Trudy (and their potential offspring) as members of the Bauer family who could have been reintroduced. Not all headwriters are professional enough and savvy enough to study the histories of the shows they take over. That's why the mediocre ones like Ryder can't use the past effectively: they don't know it. I'll never get over Gary Tomlin saying that when Jacqueline Courtney returned to AW in 1984, he didn't really know the history between Rachel and Alice, which resulted in Courtney's character floundering around with little purpose for the year she was there. What incompetence and stupidity. When Pat Falken Smith briefly assumed the reigns of TGL in 1982, I was thrilled to see how well she had researched the show and could write effectively for its varied characters. I swear, I should have been a consultant for P&G, LOL!

Thanks for that article. I thought Ryder was a bad writer for TGL, but it's always interesting to hear TPTB talk about their plans. Gail Kobe always spoke about bringing Mike and Hope back to Springfield, however, based on fans' displeasure over their absence. I'm almost certain the quote is in Schemering's book.

I think Reinholt was an interesting case in that sometimes his performances could be complex and brilliant, whereas at other times, he looked detached and bored. So many people from AW and OLTL acknowledged he was difficult to work with, but if he were able to reign in some of his bad behavior, I would have enjoyed seeing what colors he could have brought to Alan Spaulding. I certainly would have taken a gamble on him over Pilon. If Reinholt and McKinsey had ended up playing Alan and Alex at the same time, that would have been...awesome! You did not direct that question to me, but personally, I would say no. His morose, listless Ed did not generate sparks with anyone. Well, maybe Rachel Miner to a degree. I could be biased because I always wanted Mart Hulswit back in the role, but Simon just never seemed to fit.

I think killing off Suzie was a dreadful mistake. Killing off so many of Jo's relatives over the years really hurt and isolated the character. Still, Long's writing style had improved since her first stint at TGL. I had never, ever heard any rumor about a planned wedding between Jo and Stu to cap off the end of the series. Do you remember where you saw that mentioned? As you say, they had been platonic buddies for far too long for that to be even remotely feasible. Plus, Jo and Stu were related, anyway. They had become step-siblings when their widowed parents married each other decades before. The show's final scene, played out between two life-long friends, was perfect the way it was.

Pilon was a very weak recast; I would have preferred Alan to be off-screen entirely than to watch Pilon in the role. I would have written off Alan-Michael, if his rapid aging was the cause of keeping Hope out of Springfield. They could have brought him back years later, de-SORASed to a more appropriate age if need be. But Hope's presence was needed in Springfield more than an overgrown A-M's was, IMHO. I also refuse to acknowledge Poser's dreadful pod-Amanda, and the idea that she was Alan's sister. Just no. That was impossible according to what we had all watched play out on screen. It just goes to show how little TPTB know about soap opera fans. We NEVER forget legacy characters. Heck, even in the show's final years, viewers were commenting about bringing back Trudy Bauer, a character who had not been seen since (I think) 1958. Ross Marler was the last remaining hub of the wheel. When they fired ver Dorn, I actively wanted the show cancelled. I could tolerate no more abject stupidity.

I thought that Long developed into a better writer over time, and her second stint at TGL worked better than her first. I agree that she probably would have written well for Meta. Long could be perceptive and nuanced in some of the writing for certain characters. The quote about bringing back Mike and Hope was (I believe) in Christopher Schemering's anniversary book. I'd have to check. I'm sure it was lip-service BS. Remember, it was Kobe who insisted to Mimi Torchin that plot was more important in the soaps than characters. She literally did not have a clue. I think that the decision to gut the show must have been at least agreed upon by P&G. Just like when the dreadful Mary-Ellis Bunim gutted ATWT in the early 1980s and eliminated so many of the old folk. If P&G had wanted to put the brakes on Bunim and Kobe, surely they would have had the power to stop them. But going back even further, to 1975, P&G allowed Lemay and Rauch to fire Virginia Dwyer, George Reinholt and Jacqueline Courtney from AW. Obviously, TPTB at P&G did not understand their own soaps and the audience, or just did not care about dedicated veteran viewers in their thirst to attract gum-chewing 12-year-olds. Marland said the same thing was true at GH, that ABC wanted the focus to be on the young characters whom the audience allegedly wanted to see more. But at GH, TGL and ATWT, as you say, Marland was savvy enough to introduce young leads who were nevertheless tied to the older, longer-running veteran characters of the shows. That is what preceptive writers and producers do. The show really fell apart quite quickly after the massive cast purge and structural changes. No matter what improvements came later, nothing was ever truly able to repair the damage and bring TGL back its former glory. Indeed, during its final decade, the show just kept getting worse and worse. Its cancellation was like a long-overdue mercy killing.

One of the many egregious and highly-destructive moves made by Kobe during her reign of terror. Right. Hulswit would have provided some much-needed familiarity and "comfort" to veteran viewers, what with all the other Bauers being purged from the canvas. By 1985, familiar, beloved faces were largely absent from Springfield, and so many of the newbies were complete failures. Pamela Long gave an interview once, commenting that during her first run as headwriter, she and Kobe worked diligently to eliminate "the dead wood" from the cast, but I daresay that the vast majority of the characters they axed were popular, viable, and integral to the show's core, structure and success. Aging Alan-Michael so rapidly was a major mistake, as stupid as aging Frederick's daughter Leah practically overnight years later. We needed Hope, a blood Bauer, as the matriarch after TPTB foolishly killed off Maureen. Having Hope and Mike forever off-screen left a hole in the show's heart. It still infuriates me, and bogles my mind, that Kobe and Long were permitted to cripple TGL so completely. Did NO ONE at P&G understand the show, understand the audience, or give a damn?

I am only one of the many disgruntled fans who has voiced my displeasure and distaste over ME's ridiculous multiple characters and the plethora of morally-repugnant degenerates who have permeated Port Charles for far too long.🤮