Another World

[DRW50]

They brought in a slew of characters for the movie storyline but I don't think there were any big names. 

I do wonder if they brought Susan back for a year to try to fill some of the Pat void. I think Elena also came back around this time. 

Edited July 18, 2024 by DRW50

[Contessa Donatella]

Yes, I think it is a strange question. I say that because I don't know when the practice of firing someone to get money to hire someone else, began. Was it always the case? Or is it a peculiarly modern thing? I do not know. 

This reminds me of a question I have meant to raise here. 

What do y'all think about the idea that Jill was forced by NBC to take Robert Kelker-Kelly? He said that was the case in at least one interview. The situation as explained was that his contract status with DAYS was "pay or play" & they fired him strictly at the personal behest of Kristian Alfonso & for at least part of a year, they were paying him & he wasn't acting on DAYS. So, they didn't like that, of course, so, they came up with this great idea, have him go to work at AW. I can post the interviews and articles. My question is why the heck did he have that contract status?!!! 

Edited July 18, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
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[Mona Kane Croft]

I do believe Jill was probably forced (or at least coerced) to take RKK.  She probably was not against him returning to the cast, but was likely VERY opposed the salary someone (above her) had offered him.  On the issue of pay-or-play contracts -- as far as I know, that would be determined by the production companies, and not NBC.  NBC does not pay any of the actors on shows NBC does not directly own.  Payroll is handled by the production companies.  So, RKK's contract on DOOL would have been with Corday Productions (or whatever it was called a that time), and his contract at AW would have been with P&G Productions.  I don't think an actor's contract would have been "transferred" from one production company to another -- and not sure that would even have been legal.  But anything is possible, I suppose.  

I don't know for sure, but I assume this practice was in place long before the public ever heard about it occurring.   And even if Penberthy was not fired in order to hire a particular expensive actor, TPTB still did something with all that extra money in the casting budget.   Perhaps they paid a large salary to someone new, or maybe they hired two or three new actors with Penberthy's former salary.  So I've always been curious about that.  

[Contessa Donatella]

Of course you're right, but I am quite sure that the way it was phrased was that it was NBC applying the pressure. Given how muddy the waters could be between NBC and their shows' production companies, I guess that is just the kind of thing that went on. 

I think it adds an interesting wrinkle to the speculation that killing Frankie was at least in part to pay the high price of RKK. 

Edited July 18, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
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[Contessa Donatella]

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[DRW50]

If they had to bring him back, they should have just brought him back as Sam rather than the Shabobby nonsense. 

I wonder why JFP had such an issue against Amanda anyway. It's very odd to me that she wrote her out, the first time Amanda had ever been written off the canvas (not counting the short break between Ferguson and Tucci) and IIRC after she was fired the character was so quickly recast (with the underrated Laura Moss).

[Contessa Donatella]

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[DRW50]

For some reason lately, I don't know why, I keep thinking about how Rachel had children with four different men. Yet I don't know if this was ever commented on. I suppose because these were 30 years apart, and by the time the twins were born, I don't even think Jamie was mentioned anymore. Still, it's an interesting contrast to others in that boat like Reva Shayne, who took longer to escape the trashy/slut-shaming baggage than Rachel did. Reva's story also makes me appreciate more that all of Rachel's kids were from pregnancies seen on the show instead of weirder and weirder retcons.

[chrisml]

How long did RKK last on his return? A year? I wasn't watching then, but I know his return didn't go over well for obvious reasons. I'll never understand hiring a so-called big name and not mapping out a story for him/her.  Interesting how JFP was outraged that RKK was "forced" on the show, but she forced her friends on the viewers for decades. 

[DRW50]

About a year and a half. 

It didn't help that they completely rewrote his backstory midway through his time on the show, which just showed they never had any real motivation or interest. 

[Contessa Donatella]

OUCH!! lol, what an excellent point & so ironic. The Internet says he played Bobby Reno who was found to be Shane Roberts from 1996 to 1998. 

Eddie's page says Aug. 9, 1996 to Feb. 17, 1998 so more like 18 months rather than 2 years. I really don't think changing his character midway was as much on Jill not doing due diligence upfront as it was Michael Malone trying to use his Bourbon Street characters & backstory. After all, supposedly every individual idea he said he wanted to write was shot down! 

Edited July 20, 2024 by Contessa Donatella
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[Xanthe]

I suppose they could have had a mandate to reduce the budget overall though. Sometimes it is obvious when one character slots into the place of another but it depends on why the previous character was written out. Otherwise maybe they paid for raises for the existing cast. 

1982 was the year of the movie people, wasn't it? I don't really remember how it played out onscreen but reading about it always reminds me of Lesoleil in 1985 -- large crowd of unrelated strangers who create a bunch of temporary drama and then move on.

Thinking about Lesoleil, I always wonder why they cast John Saxon in the part of a character who seemed like he was always intended to be French. 

Victoria had nearly caught up to her by the end -- Steven with Jamie, Kirkland with Grant, and then last-minute spillover twins with Jake on ATWT.

I tend to take a very broad view of actors playing different roles in the same universe -- if they give a good enough performance it doesn’t really matter. I do think it's a problem that they brought back an actor whose on set behaviour was apparently significantly bad but I would argue that regardless of who played Shane it was weak writing to force him onto Victoria with Ryan's eyes and then twist him into Bobby Reno. But maybe I am biased because I never thought Sam and Amanda were that interesting so there was no emotional Sam resonance affecting the Shane story for me.

(ETA: Maybe I have reversed the order -- Bobby first, then Shane?)

 

Edited July 21, 2024 by Xanthe

[DRW50]

It was, yes. I do wonder how it played onscreen - on paper it's just another reminder to me of what a hollow core AW had by that point. You have a major Hollywood movie, gangsters gone wild...what IS your show? At least when Lemay made the show more Transatlantic and threw in the Chadwell scenes too he still seemed to try to tie into bread-and-butter moments in Bay City.

You're right about Vicky. The twins were kind of a dumb idea when you think about it. 

I think RKK did a good job as Sam but I agree the character didn't need to return. It's just if you are bringing him back, I think you may as well bring him back in that part, especially as (even if she wasn't on the show then) Amanda was still an important character. It's not like Sam had a rich backstory and he also had an edge to him so if they wanted RKK to come in and smolder and be bad-ass and rock his beard and all the rest they still could have done it. They even could have paired him with Vicky if they wanted it that much. Imagine Amanda's fury over that.

[Contessa Donatella]

You may consider this nitpick. You've got the order backwards. First he was racecar driver with PTSD & Ryan's corneas named Bobby Reno. Then later when Michael Malone was HW (which was only for 6 months) he somehow was discovered to be Shane Roberts. 

I suppose if either Bobby or Shane had been what I consider to be successes as characters, then I might not feel as strongly as I do that if they were bringing RKK back to Bay City then it should have been as a returning Sam Fowler! 

At the time I was quite annoyed because I was under the impression that RKK had said he would return, yes, but not as Sam. Reading articles now I'm not at all sure that was the case. 

Anyway, Sam was Mitch's brother, Amanda's lover & husband, Ally's father. 

 

[Mona Kane Croft]

Yes.  And since Sam was a fairly successful artist, that could have kept him in Rachel's orbit too, professionally (not romantically of course).  So Sam had a lot of connections on the show and, with good writing, could have made for some good drama.