2 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

CBS forced him to go to an hour. Each & every person was signed to contracts that specified a half hour. Automatically, on the exact same day, no one had a contract. They'd been on this hot new soap & suddenly they might have thought they'd find a better role or a bigger paycheck

And everyone signed a new contract except for Brenda Dickson and John McCook.

1 minute ago, Paul Raven said:

And everyone signed a new contract except for Brenda Dickson and John McCook.

But, what about Jamie Lyn Bauer? Is that not when she told him she wasn't planning to sign another contract? Or do I have the time frame wrong for her?

In 1982 JLB announced she would not renew, so Bill dropped Lorie and by years end realized the Leslie/Robert story wasn't working so they were axed.

David Hasselhoff also left as did Wings Hauser so he was faced with too many recasts and decided to drop those characters.

3 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

In 1982 JLB announced she would not renew, so Bill dropped Lorie and by years end realized the Leslie/Robert story wasn't working so they were axed.

David Hasselhoff also left as did Wings Hauser so he was faced with too many recasts and decided to drop those characters.

In the way Michael Maloney tells the story going to an hour is set up as the cause of these things happening, even though it begins in winter 1980 & Bauer tells him she needs a rest etc. in the winter of '82. He talks about the show losing 4 full share points which took him 3 years to regain. He lists having 2 Leslies, 2 Lances, 2 Snappers & 4 Gregs. 

Quote

"I was at the point where I knew I'd have to do something if one more person said to me that he or she were going to leave," Bill said. A day later, veteran cast member Jamie Lyn Bauer contacted Bill. She informed him that she wasn't going to be renewing her contract when it expired later that year. 

Maloney, M., & Bell, L. P. (2012). The Young and Restless Life 0f William J. Bell. Sourcebooks, Inc.

However, even though the recasts & contract issues seem to conflate two time periods as if they were one big time period, smashed together, it is also clear that her reasons for wanting to leave only had to do with the hour show because working so much had made her so exhausted that she felt she had to have some downtime. I'm sure Bell's attitude about being forced to go to an hour, also colored his thinking of this all as a mess he hated. 

Back to AW and those controversial firings, I think a number of factors came into play.

First of all it all happened alongside the expansion to 1 hr which meant viewers were already adjusting to new characters and storylines, so this was another change to deal with.

In terms of Mary/Virginia I think the show could have survived. Soaps did have a history of killing off major characters Kathy/Robin/Bill on TGL, Arthur on SFT, Jim/Jeff on ATWT etc.

Re George/Steve-he had been troublesome  for some time so it's understandable he had to go.

How would posters feel about a recast? Have Steve be in an accident, injured and voila John Fitzpatrick is the new Steve! Or who else could you think of for Steve?

I think losing Jacquie was the most damaging. She was an original cast member and beloved. Viewers might have accepted  a new Steve or a widowed Alice if JC was still there.

But the double whammy of losing both the actress and her co star was just too much over time.

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

I agree. I've always found it interesting that so many soap fans investigate their shows' histories, and become engrossed by past material they never even watched first-hand. AW's brilliant past held a cornucopia of fascinating characters and storylines which could have been mined for present-day drama, if only TPTB cared to do so.

Completely agree about this facet of soap opera fandom!

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Considering all the dialogue soap actors have to memorize daily, I'm astonished when certain actors can handle it flawlessly, and I'm sympathetic towards people like Hugh Marlowe, who obviously struggled a lot. I watched the show daily during Lemay's run (while I criticize him for certain things, I have always acknowledged the excellent work he did from 1971-1975), and people like Jacqueline Courtney and Virginia Dwyer were much more adept at dealing with their lines than other actors like Marlowe.

Apparently this was the sources of an ongoing feud between Beverlee McKinsey and Nicolas Coster. She had this kind of photographic memory & learned everyone's lines, not just her own. He had trouble with lots of lines. So, they were set up. Feud may be too strong a word. We could just say they didn't like each other. 

9 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Right. Sometimes even the actors, writers and producers involved get confused about past facts. Agnes Nixon's autobiography included some obvious blunders about her time on OLTL.

If I recall there were errors about many things, not just OLTL. 

 

I know some people have a fondness for this opening/theme, and obviously JFP’s follow-up opening alienated some folks, but how the hell did this opening last until 1996? Such 80’s cheese that was long out of style by this point. 

33 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

I know some people have a fondness for this opening/theme, and obviously JFP’s follow-up opening alienated some folks, but how the hell did this opening last until 1996? Such 80’s cheese that was long out of style by this point. 

What is the cost/benefit in changing it though? If your brand is not cutting edge, maybe keeping the existing opening has more value because it appeals to the demographic you have. It's not as if Crystal Gayle was particularly in style in 1987.

48 minutes ago, BetterForgotten said:

I know some people have a fondness for this opening/theme, and obviously JFP’s follow-up opening alienated some folks, but how the hell did this opening last until 1996? Such 80’s cheese that was long out of style by this point. 

You can count me as one of "those people" who loved this & hated ER/NYPD BLUE! 

I'm just glad no one decided to bring that particular opening into the late '90's.  The last thing we needed was a '90's boy band version of "(You Take Me Away to) Another World."

1 hour ago, Khan said:

I'm just glad no one decided to bring that particular opening into the late '90's.  The last thing we needed was a '90's boy band version of "(You Take Me Away to) Another World."

Oh, no, groan. Just the thought of it. Now I have a mental picture of the choreography. 

10 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Re George/Steve-he had been troublesome  for some time so it's understandable he had to go.

How would posters feel about a recast? Have Steve be in an accident, injured and voila John Fitzpatrick is the new Steve! Or who else could you think of for Steve?

At the risk of once again being in the minority, I liked David Canary as a Steve re-cast.  He was blustery like Reinholt, but there was also a vulnerability that made his appeal to Alice more relatable.  I also thought the idea of Steve's re-entry was creative, because there was so much talk about his company Blackhawk before his arrival. 

But, the recast Alice, and the poor excuse for his return from the dead ultimately doomed the character.  Along with the fact, that they may have underestimated the appeal of Rachel and Mac as an "endgame" couple. 

1 minute ago, j swift said:

At the risk of once again being in the minority, I liked David Canary as a Steve re-cast.  He was blustery like Reinholt, but there was also a vulnerability that made his appeal to Alice more relatable.  I also thought the idea of Steve's re-entry was creative, because there was so much talk about his company Blackhawk before his arrival. 

But, the recast Alice, and the poor excuse for his return from the dead ultimately doomed the character.  Along with the fact, that they may have underestimated the appeal of Rachel and Mac as an "endgame" couple. 

My opinion of David Canary as a wannabe Steve Frame was so bad. Contrast that with my admiration of him on AMC!

47 minutes ago, j swift said:

At the risk of once again being in the minority, I liked David Canary as a Steve re-cast.  He was blustery like Reinholt, but there was also a vulnerability that made his appeal to Alice more relatable.  I also thought the idea of Steve's re-entry was creative, because there was so much talk about his company Blackhawk before his arrival. 

But, the recast Alice, and the poor excuse for his return from the dead ultimately doomed the character.  Along with the fact, that they may have underestimated the appeal of Rachel and Mac as an "endgame" couple. 

 

47 minutes ago, j swift said:

At the risk of once again being in the minority, I liked David Canary as a Steve re-cast.  He was blustery like Reinholt, but there was also a vulnerability that made his appeal to Alice more relatable.  I also thought the idea of Steve's re-entry was creative, because there was so much talk about his company Blackhawk before his arrival. 

But, the recast Alice, and the poor excuse for his return from the dead ultimately doomed the character.  Along with the fact, that they may have underestimated the appeal of Rachel and Mac as an "endgame" couple. 

I agree.  If L. Virginia Browne has a remained as head writer and they got the casting of Alice correct I think he had the potential to be a long time lead on the show.

You know, from what I’ve seen of L. Virginia Browne‘s work on both AW and GL, I didn’t think it was too bad.