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[alwaysAMC]

Ok GL friends - Phillip Spaulding is back! (April 19, 1996)

Quick questions so I can get up to speed:

1) Why does Alan-Michael hate Phillip so much? Amanda put him on the wedding list and A-M got extremely upset and said he's the last person he'd ever want at his wedding.

2) Who is Meredith? With Blake's current pregnancy storyline, Rick and Ed have been talking about how Meredith (assuming Rick's girlfriend) left with Phillip's son (or something like that)? They also keep talking about how Blake/Rick were at odds over Phillip too.

3) They said Phillip left town to do community service and avoid getting arrested, or something to that effect. What did he do and why did he really leave?

Thanks in advance

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Edited 5 hours ago by alwaysAMC

[DRW50]

There was tension between Alan-Michael and Philip because Alan-Michael was sympathetic to Blake (and married her) after Philip left her to chase after an amnesiac Beth, but the show exaggerated that tension when Philip returned.

Meredith was Fletcher's sister. She was a doctor. Rick was married to her. Philip slept with her. She got pregnant with his child. When the truth came out, Meredith lost the baby, and she and Rick split up.

I think Philip had faked his death to escape murder charges (with Rick stealing a corpse to help him). Someone else will remember more.

Edited 5 hours ago by DRW50

[DeeVee]

I can't answer 1 & 3, but I can answer this:

Meredith is Fletcher's sister. She's a doctor. She and Rick fell in love. At one of the Bauer 4th of July BBQs, they had a fight. She ran into Phillip at a bar and the two of them ended up having sex.

Rick and Meredith reconciled and...you guessed it, she turned up pregnant. She didn't know for sure who the father was but she let Rick think it was his. Just before their wedding, he saw a sonogram picture. Being a doctor, he could tell how far along she was and realized he wasn't the father.

He still went through with the ceremony (why, don't ask me) and afterwards confronted her about it. She told him she picked up a stranger at a bar. Rick was bitter about it but he still stayed with her.

Eventually, the secret came out. Rick was furious about Phillip betraying him. Still, he stayed with Meredith (again, why, I don't know). She had a stillbirth and was left barren.

Meredith finally decided to leave him and left SF for good.

Rick was awful to her, including after losing the baby. Just was a creep about it. It was hard for me to ever like the character after this storyline. I don't knowl if one of the writers strikes was going on during this story, but it was so, so bad. Rick and Meredith had no chemistry. The way Rick stayed with her, the way she stayed with him, made zero sense to me.

 

[P.J.]

1) A-M had an inferiority complex when it came to Phillip. Alan had adopted Phillip (his wife Elizabeth had a stillbirth, Alan then had the babies switched) and always favored him. When A-M came to town, he got involved with Blake as his marriage to Harley was disintergrating, and Blake was married to Phillip at the time (but that marriage was crumbling because a) Beth was alive and b ) Blake kept that from Phillip). But by the time Phillip left town in '91, he and Alan-Michael were on good terms. So whatever A-M's referring to is writer laziness to further this plot.

2) Meredith Reade Bauer was Fletch's sister and Rick's ex-wife. Their marriage broke up after she discovered she couldn't have any more children. After a fight, Meredith and Phillip slept together, she got pregnant. Right before they got married, Rick realized, thanks to a sonogram, that he couldn't be the father. I believe Meredith just told him it was a random ONS, and he accepted that. Meredith had complications, and Rick couldn't decide whether to save her life or the baby's. He asked Phillip to decide for him, and Phillip chose Meredith. It wasn't until after that Rick found out that Phillip was the father, and had chosen Rick's wife over his child. 

Not sure why Rick/Blake were "at odds", other than by that time Blake had married Ross, who was Phillip's biological uncle. Phillip's bio parents are Justin and Jackie Marler.

3) Back in '90, Phillip was accused of killing Beth's ex-lover Neil Everest. (Neil was killed by a bomb he planted the night of The Towers opening. He had planned to kill Phillip (and there's some weird twist where Neil had killed his wife and her children in a building collapse or something...but anyway..)  But Gary Swanson (who was plotting with Neil for some strange reason) knocked Neil out and saved Phillip.  Neil had already planted evidence implicating Phillip in the bombing (to make it look like he had been caught in his own trap), so he was charged.  Phillip, Beth and Rick faked Phillp's death. Rick and Phillip planted a cadaver and burned it in a car to make it look like an accident. Beth was pregnant with Lizzie at the time. To divert suspicion, (Mallet was already skeptical that Phillip was alive) Rick and Beth married, which upset Mindy (who was trying to start things back up with Rick) and knew nothing about the plot. When it all came out, Rick, Beth and Phillip were all given community service, and I believe Rick's MD license was suspended. Beth and Phillip went to Arizona, and Rick (I think) first got help from his uncle Mike to start community service out of state. 

 

[Khan]

And then, to finish up the story:

Phillip returned to Springfield several years later to clear his good(-ish) name in some ridiculous retcon that is best left forgotten...Beth couldn't accept that Phillip had returned to his family against her wishes, so she divorced him, went wacko and hooked up with jerk whom their grade school-aged daughter later offed...Rick married and divorced Annie in Chicago, I think, and did some other stuff that I tuned out of (on account of being disgusted with the show) before he realized he couldn't get arrested in Hollywood and came back...and AFAIK, Neil Everest stayed dead, but his daughter did not; and in fact, she went on to become a trailblazing, multiple Grammy-winning artist under the name "Billie Eilish."

[DRW50]

That guy also abused Beth (the one Lizzie killed), which the show probably should have done more with rather than just giving her a split personality and having her do whatever the plot demanded.

[Soaplovers]

Philip, like Reva, were characters that should have remained in the 80s and never been bought back to the soap.

 

[DeeVee]

Thanks for the factoid, that's so interesting! (The character, though, was not, LOL. Ridiculous storyline).

You know what? Even though he was a core family member, I think you are right. I would much rather they had kept Alan Michael on the canvas to represent the second Spaulding generation. (Of course, they would have had to write some good stories for the character, which, who knows if they would/could have).

Reva, yes, I agree. Her shelf life expired when she drove that car off the bridge. The ever increasing desperation to keep her character relevant after she came back was very difficult to watch.

[alwaysAMC]

Thank you, all - so helpful!

I didn’t realize Ross was Phillip’s bio uncle - how cool!  What happened to his real parents, and I’m assuming Ross didn’t like Alan for swapping the babies?

1. It does sound like the writers might be making some things up then with A-M and Phillip feuding, but we’ll see how it plays out. Phillip currently is in a home with a woman’s voice in the distance (not sure who this is yet), and he keeps looking at a newspaper with the Spaulding family picture. They finally revealed his face in a Friday cliffhanger, but it was so obvious his voice was Grant A’s haha. He has such a distinct voice to me.
2. Very interesting, so are Fletcher and Rick at odds then since he was the brother? Honestly in the year since Rick has been back in SF, they’ve rarely, if ever, been in a scene together that I recall. The storyline with Blake right now getting pregnant off a one-night stand with Rick from a bar night after Blake was upset with Ross, and not knowing who the father is…. sounds similar to that Meredith storyline in a way haha.  I remember someone posted an episode from the 80s of Rick smelling this scarf and Phillip lifting weights (so funny/strange), which made me think they were close friends in the beginning.  I’m guessing this storyline put them at odds - did they ever recover before they both left SF or will this be a fractured friendship when Phillip returns?
3. Sounds like I need to know more about this Beth character, as she’s pretty important to Phillip’s backstory. So I wonder if the lady he’s talking to in these current scenes is Beth, if they’re still together?   That must be when Rick went to Chicago then and met Annie during the years he left SF.

Thanks, again - this was all helpful background/context as I get to meet Phillip for the first time. I just have to get it out of my head he isn’t the bad Alec McIntyre (AMC) haha.

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[DeeVee]

Phillip and Rick became BEST friends when they first SORASed the characters. 

They had been at the same boarding school and came back together to finish high school. That's when they met Mindy and Beth. The four of them were together a lot and called themselved The Four Musketeers. Initially, Phillip/Mindy and Rick/Beth were paired up until Phillip fell in love with Beth. 

[P.J.]

Yes and no. If they had wanted to recast Phillip, then no, he didn't need to return. There were already too many recast Spauldings at this point. Regardless of how you feel about Dusay, Raines or Poser, I think the viewers had trouble connecting to them. I think the viewers loved Rick Hearst, and yes, if he had stayed, then you could've built around him. But with a lackluster Michael Dietz soon to appear, Grant Aleksander anchored the family.

Reva--pfft. Yes, she could've stayed gone. I'm unsure what the early reception to Josh/Annie was, but I thought RN and CW had good chemistry. Reva had been gone a while at this point, the audience would've accepted anyone who was good to Josh's children. 

[P.J.]

1) Ross and Alan had a history aside from Phillip. In the early '80's Alan torpedoes Ross' campaign for DA in retribution for Trish Lewis leaving him and falling for Ross. Ross then assisted Alex in kicking Alan out of Spaulding. Then in the late '80's, Vanessa and Ross break up over her working at Spaulding with Alan, and she's briefly engaged to Alan. Then Alan shot Phillip accidently, and well....you get (part) of the picture. 

Phillip trusted Ross, and their closeness really chafed at Alan.

I do not think Ross really initially held Alan adopting Phillip against him. Jackie had lied to Justin and had the baby in secret. 

Jackie discovered Justin had had an affair and divorced him. When she came to town, she actually ended up marrying Alan to be close to Phillip. Jackie and Justin eventually remarried and had a daughter named Sam. Jackie dies, and Justin leaves town about a year later. Justin makes a brief return, but it's mostly tied to Sam and then Phillip leaves in '91. Justin leaves town again. 

Rick and Phillip patch up their friendship, although there are some other rough patches.

2) No, Rick and Fletch generally got along. But I don't recall them interacting much afterward either after the divorce. Meredith had left of her own accord, and Fletch and Rick drifted into other stories.

Edited 1 hour ago by P.J.

[DeeVee]

This was a HUGE story on the show for many years.

Justin (Ross's brother) and Jackie Marler were Phillip's real parents. They showed a lot of the backstory in flashback when Jackie came on the show.

Jackie caught Justin in bed with another woman. She was so devastated she divorced him immediately. She found out she was pregnant. I'm a little hazy on this--I THINK she told him she had an abortion, but maybe not. Maybe she just never told him she was pregnant.

Anyway, she decided to give the baby up for adoption. She went to Europe (I think it was Amsterdam) to have the baby. She had the same doctor as Elizabeth Spaulding, who also was pregnant. The doctor was a personal friend of Alan's. He told Alan that Elizabeth's baby would be born dead and she would not be able to have more children.

Instead of telling his wife the truth, Alan conspired with the doctor to do a baby switch. The doctor knew Jackie was planning to give her baby up, and she agreed to let the Spauldings have Phillip. Elizabeth woke up from the surgery and was told Jackie's baby was hers.

Jackie almost immediately regretted it. She insinuated herself into Alan and Elizabeth's life so she could be near Phillip. They all became good friends. When Alan and Elizabeth returned to the states, they stayed with Jackie at first. Eventually, Alan and Elizabeth divorced and Jackie married him so she could be Phillip's stepmother. It was a disatrous marriage and they also divorced. 

Justin found out the truth. Justin and Jackie remarried. Elizabeth found out and wanted them to have custody of Phillip. Alan, of course, was furious but for some odd reason eventually agreed to it. (He did not know at the time Justin and Jackie were the bio parents). 

Ross and Alan had kind of an up and down relationship over the years. Ross wanted to BE like Alan in the beginning. When he was married to Carrie they were actually close friends with Alan and Hope. Their relationship totally degraded when Alan was chasing Trish Lewis and she chose Ross instead. Yes, and he also did not approve of how Alan dealt with Phillip much of the time. So they never became friends again.