vetsoapfan

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.🤮

I know that Bell used to write yearly story projections in advance while he was at DAYS; he, Pat Falken Smith and Ann Marcus have all referenced them in various interviews. He had a long-term bible for the first year of Y&R as well. I wonder when he drifted away from preparing them. They seemed to be mandatory components of the writing process on soaps.

I agree that the anecdote was probably made in jest, but the problem is...so many people end up believing it, like the gag about Phyllis Diller being Susan Lucci's and Robin Strasser's mother, LOL. Bill Bell and/or TPTB on his shows like DAYS and Y&R did have the annoying habit of dropping characters from the canvas, without any explanation, leaving them in twilight-zone limbo. Sometimes the characters would eventually reappear, but often not. I believe now the audience is to assume that poor Tommy Horton is gone for good, probably passed away.

Tommy did disappear for a few years there, and went unmentioned by other Salemites (which always annoyed me because you'd think he'd at least deserve a throw-away line or two along the lines of, "Tommy is in Hawaii on a research project."). But the pancake story is made-up BS, conceived by someone who just pulled that nonsense out of his hat.

That Tommy story is total BS.

Thank you! The more places that the video is saved, the better.

OMFG! Janice Lynde is a QUEEN! I cannot believe that she has just shared extensive material (20 minutes' worth of clips) of Y&R from 1974, in honor of the show's anniversary. We get to see Leslie Brooks in the decrepit Detroit mental hospital, victimized by fellow patients and degenerate staff. I never thought in a million years that I would see any of this again. It is chilling and mesmerizing, and really illustrates how pointless and weak the show is in 2021, compared to what it was back in 1974. I imagine that someone with computer skill and know-how will be kind enough and smart enough to store these clips in the vault, before it disappears from you-know-where.

Clearly, you are intent on giving me a stroke!!!🤔 At least it was so nice to see a picture of our beloved Jessie at the nurses' station. I miss her, Steve, Audrey, Lee, Lucille, etc.🥰

Unfortunately, I think playing a degenerate appealed to Tony Geary, and TPTB always seemed to cave in to his demands. I would have killed Luke off decades ago.🤮 Now we're stuck with a huge number of putrid degenerates on the canvas. Steve and Jessie must be rolling over in their graves.

I loathe Luke. I always hated Laura being with him. Yes, I know I am in the minority, LOL. I have always wanted Laura and Scotty to be together.

In terms of long-running characters on Love of Life, I've checked, and this is what I've come up with. --Vanessa Sterling: 1951-80 --Bruce Sterling: 1959-80 --Rick Latimer: 1960-78 --Sarah Dale: 1951-56, 1968-80 --Vivian Carlson: 1959-71, 1975 --Henry Carlson: 1959-71 --Barbara Sterling: 1959-71 --Ben Harper: 1951-58, 74-80 --Meg Dale: 1951-58, 1974-80 --Alan Sterling: 1959-70 --Charles Lamont: 1966-78 --Diana Lamont: 1966-76 --Hank Latimer: 1965, 1970-78 These are (probably) the most "durable" of the characters from the show (most played by multiple actors).

Alas, the current PTB clearly do not care about the show's long, rich history and legacy characters. There are still branches of the vintage family trees to pluck from, but I think we'll be stuck, instead, with Frank's slimy pets forever.🤮💩😪