OLTL: Question about 1991 cast transition

[DRW50]

I know 1991 was the big year OLTL started transitioning from Rauch to Gottlieb. I was watching some clips on Youtube where they had Megan to help introduce Andrew to viewers, Tina with Luna, etc.

When did Rauch leave and when did Gottlieb arrive? Did Malone arrive with Gottlieb or did that happen a bit later?

Just how many old characters were written out that year, or phased out by '92, and how many new characters were brought in?

How many departures were by the actor's choice? I know Fiona Hutchinson wanted to leave, and so did Jessica Tuck (who left in '92), but what about some of the others who were phased out, like Brenda, Wanda? Did Wanda have an exit?

Do you think the transition was well-handled, or did you think there were any mistakes about who was written out or brought in?

Was Luna ever on the show at the same time as Gabrielle? And did she and Tina stay friends? I don't remember enough about Krista Tesreau's tenure to remember if she ever interacted with Luna.

[Scotty]

Now let's see (I had to look some of this stuff up since throughout much of 1991 I was only 11 years old)...

From the OLTL History Pages:

"Wanda Wolek leaves Llanview (December 1993)

Wanda told her nephew Jason on Christmas Eve that she was going to leave town. Her friend, Ralph Love, was opening a bookstore in Seattle and had asked her to join him. Getting on in years, Wanda had agreed. With that, Wanda (played by Marilyn Chris for over 20 years) left the show."

Link: http://us.geocities.com/historypg/oltl1993.html

I can remember seeing both Marilyn Chris and Michael Storm in the OLTL 25th anniversary episode in the summer of 1993....so their departure was later that same year.

Of course, the most famous actor to be canned on OLTL during Rauch's tenure was Lillian Hayman. According to Wikipedia "He has also had some conflicts with several of the actors on the shows he has produced. Ellen Holly, who played Carla on One Life to Live for nearly two decades, wrote in her autobiography "One Life" about how Rauch told Lillian Haymen, who played Holly's on-screen mother, Sadie, as she was walking to her car after a day's taping that she was fired and that she had just taped her last episode." Actually, it was an assistant that told her something like "Mr. Rauch wants you to know that today was your last day" as she was walking to her car.

Rauch was EP at OLTL from 1985 until 1991 (not sure what part of the year though). Linda Gottleib was EP of OLTL from 1991-94, Michael Malone was head writer from 1991-96 and again from 2003-04. Josh Griffith held various writing positions on the show from 1991-94, and again from 2003-04.

Fiona Hutchison portrayed Gabrielle from 1987-1991, and again from 2001-04. Susan Batten played Luna Moody from 1991-95, and returned in spirit form briefly 4 different times in the years that followed, the last of which as after Gabrielle and Max's son Al died, and Luna helped Al's spirit find his way back to Marcie in the form of Michael McBain's body. This was either 2003 or 2004 (can't remember off the top of my head)....so the two characters very briefly were on the show at the same time.

In 1992, Megan died and Bo's wife Sarah died.

Ellen Holly (who had portrayed Carla Grey since show first aired in 1968), left the show in 1981. She returned in 1983, only to be fired by Rauch in 1985. Al Freeman Jr. (Ed Hall) first came to OLTL in 1972. By about 1987 he was taken off contract and placed on recurring status. He left the show in 1988, returning for a couple of episodes in 2000.

Beginning around 1994 or so, Michael Storm's appearances as Dr. Larry Wolek became increasingly sparse, until eventually it appeared as if the character (who had been around since 1968, had never even existed). I believe the last time we saw Larry was in May of 2004.

I know all this only partially answers your questions, but I hope it's a start.

[Carolyn1980]

Gottlieb came during the summer of 1991. She signed recurring players Yasmine Bleeth and Thom Christopher (Carlo) to contracts, and dumped the following contract players: Nicholas Walker (Max, to bring back James DePaiva), Bronwen Booth (Andy, Max's sister), Leonard Staab (Hunter, who married Andy, and then went on to play Roger's son on GL before his hang gliding accident), Brenda Brock (Brenda), Michael Palance (Dan Wolek), Fia Porter (can't even remember her name), Allan Dean Moore and Rika Price (who played Valerie Pettiford's sister on the show...the two incidentally later married in real life...Moore and Price, that is), Joey Thrower (Kevin Buchanan...she replaced him with Kirk Geiger), Ken Meeker (Rafe), Roger Pine (Roger Gordon), Brian Tarantina (Lucky), Neith Hunter (the awful Laura Jean, who almost ate the show), and a slew of others I can't remember....

She also let go Tonja Walker, only to re-hire her after seeing what she did with the material Malone gave her right before her supposed last airdate.

Incidentally, Fiona Hutchison left in March 1991, before Gottlieb arrived, because the new ABC Daytime Pres (Steve McPherson?) low-balled her on salary as part of his 5% maximum raise for daytime actors he tried to implement. She was made an example when she refused, and they wouldn't budge. Since her cache had gone up considerably, she deserved a raise, but didn't get one, so she left. Gottleib actually wanted to get her back when she arrived, but McPherson wouldn't allow it...he still held a grudge.

Also....Jensen Buchanan stopped in to the studios in the fall of 1991, but Gottlieb didn't know who she was, and Buchanan, offended, signed on with AW. OLTL was about to bring back Sarah, so it was a blow to them that they lost out on her return....although I personally preferred Grace Phillips, who was hired in her place (Mark McGarry at SOW even gave her an A+ as a recast, basically saying he hadn't thought that Buchanan was merely adequate in the part until Phillips arrived....nonetheless, Phillips was gone by summer 1992).

Marilyn Chris (Wanda) and Michael Storm (Larry) didn't leave until a few years later.

(BTW, Gottlieb is the one who hand-picked and hired Malone. She also hired Josh Griffith to get Malone acclimated to soap writing since he had been a novelist).

[Carolyn1980]

Forgot about your question about "new" characters she introduced:

The significant ones I can remember....

1991

Cain Rogan

Jason Webb

Luna Moody

Blair Kramer

Andrew Carpenter

Addie Kramer

1992

Sloan Carpenter

Nora Gannon

Hank Gannon

Rachel Gannon

Billy Douglas

Marty Saybrooke

Suede Pruitt

Angela Holloway (loved her)

Rebecca Lewis

Todd Manning

and recast Chris McKenna's Joey with Nathan Fillion

ETA: The tradition was seamless. While I appreciated the campiness of the Rauch years, they had really hit rock-bottom by 90-91. Suddenly, when Gottlieb arrived, she really elevated the whole genre. And all the characters she introduced were so well-defined, so distinctive, so well-acted, and so against the pretty-model-non-actor-stereotype we see today, that they were almost all universal hits.

One of the reasons Gottlieb left in 1994 was because, as she said in an interview, the network started to interfere too much. They forced her to fire Kirk Geiger because he was "too short," only to replace him with two himbos who lasted about a minute. They wouldn't let Billy Douglas have a real romance (with Joe Fiske's Rick), and wouldn't let her sign Ryan Phillipe to a contract. (Incidentally, her original plan was to have Joey Buchanan come out as gay, but they nixed that right away). They also got antsy about some stories she wanted to tackle, like race relations and abortion. She finally said f**k it, and left.

[Scotty]

Luna Moody first appeared in 1992.

And while on a minor character, Nigel (Asa's longtime butler, now working for Renee and Nora) was first seen in 1991.

[Carolyn1980]

I know sources on the internet say that, but they're wrong, lol.

Trust me...Luna dropped from the sky at Llanfair in November 1991.

ETA..here's a website that backs me up (but regardless, like I said, I was watching):

http://us.geocities.com/historypg/oltl1991.html

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Gottlieb gave the show a complete overhaul, and it's amazing that the show survived such a rapid revamp at the time.

I most remember Gottieb's production values though, so gothic and dark, it was like an East Coast version of Y&R - so dark, moody, and aesthetically beautiful!

I wish Gottlieb would produce another soap, with a better writer than Malone, who I've never been really fond of.

Gottlieb fought really hard for OLTL at the time, her production was beautiful, and I thought she had some great instincts.

[Scotty]

LeeAnn Demerest first appeared in 1991.

[Carolyn1980]

She was awesome. And she also got OLTL great publicity with her connections. I mean, the New York Times was running stories about OLTL thanks to her. She really got the show a lot of press.

[Scotty]

You're right. I looked it up in my copy of the OLTL 30th anniversary history book. She parachuted into Tina's tea party just outside of Llanfair. I don't really remember seeing it myself....my memories of that time on OLTL are fuzzy, since I was only 10 years old. lol

[Carolyn1980]

Yes, that was Yasmine Bleeth's character...but she was brought on in a recurring role by Paul Rauch. Gottlieb signed her to a contract the minute she arrived.

[Scotty]

Yep, and she would go on to hook up to Kevin and give birth to his sone Duke.

[DRW50]

Thank you both. What story did Laura Jean have? She's one I don't know much about.

Do you think they fired anyone who should have stayed? The little I've seen of Brenda, I liked her.

I didn't know just how much network interference damaged OLTL in the early 90s. The mess with Fiona (and then she was treated so badly on her return), and all that with Kirk Geiger. I never knew ABC had fired him.

Thanks again. I wish more of Wanda's exit was around. I wonder why they let her go. Any show needs that type of homespun friend character everyone can talk to. I know they replaced that with the diner but Carlotta was never that type of character.

[Scotty]

This is a little off-topic, but can anyone remember exactly how and when Herb Callison left Llanview? I know he ran against Viki for Mayor of Llanview in 1990, and lost....but what happened to him after that?

I always liked Anthony Call, and always hoped OLTL would bring Herb back to Llanview someday.

[Carolyn1980]

I liked Brenda, too, but they had made her wishy-washy by sleeping with both father and son (Larry and Dan Wolek), and Gottlieb jettisoned that story, and two of the three players, when she arrived.

Fiona was treated HORRIBLY. She signed a two year contract when she arrived at OLTL in 1987, and renewed it in 1989...which was the same year her character really took off (before that, she was a bit of a one-dimensional goody-goody). So when 1991 rolled around, and she was suddenly one of the two main young female leads (along with Jessica Tuck), it was time to pay her her worth. She'd paid her dues, and deserved it, but Steve McPherson said 5% or nothing. So she walked....and I didn't blame her. Had anyone else been ABC Pres at the time, she never would've left. And like I said, when Gottlieb wanted her (to reunite her with a returning James DePaiva), McPherson said, "No way."

As for Wanda, Marilyn Chris left in 1994 around the same time Gottlieb left, of her own volition. She said she just didn't have enough to do anymore.

ETA: Ooops....forgot to answer your ? about Laura Jean. Neith Hunter was a terrible actress who played a "femme fatale" who became involved with Dan Wolek (and part of the Larry/Brenda/Dan/LJ quadrangle). She was HORRIBLE...and ended up doing Red Shoe Diaries and other soft-porn stuff after being fired from OLTL...stuff she should've been doing in the first place, lol.