Khan

For some reason, whenever I see the title LOVERS AND FRIENDS, I hear this duet playing in my head:

I agree, @Darn. If I were in Frank Valentini's position, I definitely would consider shelving the story, if not axing it altogether. It's gonna be a tough story to sell with two of the characters involved in it being recast.

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If John Cunningham had wanted to leave, then the writers certainly could have handled that situation differently. They could have had Wade die from some terminal illness, or they could have had him and Janet simply move out of Henderson (although, Millee Taggart was probably wanting to stay). Killing him off in such a brutal fashion was probably the worst way to go for the audience, lol.

If not for the fact that that show was a Harding Lemay/Paul Rauch creation, I'm sure NBC would have cut it loose long before they actually did.

I've wondered that myself, @MichaelGL. Of course, GH's renaissance impacted the rest of ABCD's lineup, with all the shows experiencing ratings boosts; but it also seems that characters like Karen Wolek and Marco Dane played a major part in OLTL's surge in particular. Yet, as far as I can tell, the network didn't make any major changes behind-the-scenes to precipitate this turnaround. Gordon Russell, Sam Hall and their writing staff remained intact throughout the '70's. Any other show in OLTL's position might have experienced multiple turnovers, both on-screen and off. At any rate, I'm sure ABCD used OLTL's ratings during the mid-to-late '70's to justify phasing out many characters who had been with the show since the beginning.

IIRC, @Darn, Reva's life was in danger - probably from Edmund and his goons? - so she left Jonathan with Marissa and her husband and then escaped from the island. At some point, she suffered some kind of injury and turned up in Goshen with no memory of her lives in San Cristobel OR in Springfield either. (And yes, @Darn and @Vee, I agree that it was all so very stupid, lol.) It probably was, lol. At the time, as the story was playing out on-screen, I remember justifying Megan McTavish's choice to bring back Reva as a member of an Amish community by saying she had subconsciously recalled when she and Kyle were hiding out years before in another Amish community after his plane had crashed onto the roof of an Amish family's barn. Megan McTavish probably wasn't thinking about that story at all when she wrote it, but that was the only way I could explain why Reva turned up alive where she did.

Why was Liza wearing those eyeglasses in both scenes? Was she on a press junket in Cannes? John Cunningham and Millee Taggart shared such a nice, easy chemistry even in that brief scene. No wonder fans were upset when Wade was killed off. I could easily see him and Janet becoming an older "anchor couple" as the show aged.

I agree with all these points, @Vee.

This is how that storyline SHOULD end:

One ill-fated game of "Don't Drop the Soap" in the prison showers can really traumatize a man.

I smell a sexual harassment allegation or several coming.

I agree, lol! I'm just sorry that Chuck Todd will leave behind a show that he has helped tarnish with his utter refusal to speak truth to power when the viewers and the nation needed it.

The main thing that I remember about the period immediately before Claire Labine's start was the many "resets" to Bill Eckert's character. Whenever one characterization wouldn't work, the show would come up with another in the hopes that Bill would somehow take off.

I never understood why Cliff hated J.R. so much other than his daddy told him and his sister that J.R. and Bobby's daddy took his woman and screwed him out of a fortune when they were wildcatters. Unless I missed something, I felt like Cliff and J.R.'s feud needed to be more personal than that.

I agree. I wonder, too, what their original intentions for the story were (that is, if they had any intentions at the outset). Did they intend for Joseph Adkins to kidnap Bobbie and take her on the run or something?

Wow, even ChatGPT wants to create a backstory for James and Lucinda out of thin air, lol.

Frankly, @GLATWT88, I don't think J.R. cared, because there was no way to exploit it financially. The only things that mattered to J.R. Ewing were Ewing Oil and John Ross. Everything else was inconsequential. Now, if John Ross had come out of the closet, that would've been another matter, because his homosexuality would have threatened J.R.'s ability to pass onto the family legacy someday to his grandchildren.

I couldn't have said it better, @DRW50. Here's another favorite of mine from Cynthia Weil's catalog:

What's with the "Jeopardy"-like titles for that promo?

I agree, @j swift. She's like the female Arsenio Hall. I tried watching an episode of her show the other day, and I couldn't. She was going on and on about how meaningful it was to be nominated for the NAACP Image Award, and I was like, "So, winning the Oscar, the Golden Globe, the SAG, the Grammy, the Tony, the Daytime Emmy, the National Board of Review and the BAFTA were small potatoes?"

One of the most fantastic songwriters of all time, IMO. RIP.

I agree. You're basically just wrapping up your predecessor's storylines.

Cameron must not have TOO much cash at his disposal, though, or else he'd be able to afford a razor and buy his own clothes instead of raiding Chance's closet when he isn't looking.

That's interesting, @Paul Raven. Immediately, when I read your post, I thought, "Well, maybe Douglas Marland didn't receive on-air credit, because he was technically still employed at GH," kind of like how Frank Salisbury admitted to writing for GL some time before actually being credited on-screen because he was still writing scripts for GH, too. But I don't know exactly when Marland quit GH, so that theory might not be plausible. (Also, hasn't Bridget Dobson said in the past that P&G had them switch shows, because they found Marland's bible for ATWT unsatisfactory? Of course, I'm presuming Bridget is correct and not misremembering.) I agree with you, @Paul Raven. I think when Marland became available after leaving GH, P&G snapped him up, rather than lose out to another, non-P&G-produced show. P&G's plan was for him to replace the Dobsons at GL, and for the Dobsons to replace Ellis & Hunt at ATWT. However, for contractual or other reasons, the Dobsons were unable to leave GL before the start of the new year. (Perhaps, they needed time to wrap up their stories before leaving; or perhaps, they needed time to watch and create a bible for ATWT before officially taking over). So, P&G gave Marland the ATWT gig with the understanding that it was only temporary and that he would be moved over to GL when the Dobsons were contractually able to move over to ATWT. Thus explains why Marland didn't make any major changes at ATWT during the 13 weeks he was there. Like you said, @Paul Raven, it's a mystery, lol. I'd love to know, though, if any fans here remember what the Willows mystery was like when Ellis & Hunt were still the HW's. I think it was Christopher Schemering who described it as being "limp" before Marland took over the story. I think the issue was that Douglas Marland was too locked into his job at ATWT being a temporary one until Bridget and Jerome Dobson were ready to take over (as I've said above). Under those circumstances, he probably couldn't shake up the show TOO much, in case it interfered with the Dobsons' plans. So, he kind of had to continue on with what Ralph Ellis & Eugenie Hunt had left behind, and maybe tighten up the stories in the meantime. But you are right, @Soaplovers: compared to what soaps give us today, late '79 ATWT is a joy of watch, but in the context of the times, the Willows storyline, in particular, never quite gets off the ground. ETA: Maybe it's because I'm watching those scenes decades after the fact, but it seems silly to me that the show invested so much airtime in someone (Doug Higgins/Bennett Hadley) who clearly has no long-term potential, either as Lisa's romantic interest, or as anything else.