GL now joins some illustrious company in the cancelled soap thread.

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

11 hours ago, MLH said:

have some questions.  Did Vanessa hate the Spaulding family and that is why she told Roger about the 'file' that would bring them down? What happened to Roger's former agency boss, Vaughn?  He was like a father figure to Roger, and i thought they worked well together. Did they drop WSPR altogether?  What did Holly do for a living after Roger and Fletcher left? Did Holly even try and find Meg?

Van had a complicated relationship with the Spauldings that was never really explored. In the retro writing Van would have known Alex and Alan all her life and since Henry and Brandon started Spaulding, she would have as much claim to it as they did, but post Long, she seems to more identify with Lewis then Spaulding.  Bev/Alex seemed to support Van, even putting her in charge several times...though then the Mindy/Alex thing came up...and when Marj/Alex hit, Van and everyone else just seemed to consider her an annoying shrew. RR's Alan was no match for Van (or anyone else.)

The folder thing seemed to have been rewritten as it went along. Was it McTavish's idea or the interim writers? Van tells Roger (because he finds her alive in Switzerland) that Alex "boasts" that she has a file that would bring not only Alan, but the entire family "down"  The parentage of Amanda would not have been something that Alex would brag to Henry about and it would not bring down the entire family...so the whole thing makes no sense, which is why I think it was rewritten from its orginal concept..(after Rauch wanted to get rid of Alex to get a younger version of her.)

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

That was true only of the late era of GL. Back during the Dobsons/Marland era they were much more defined and a fantastic dynamic. Plus, Raines was never on the same level as Zaslow. Bernau and Zaslow were like watching two champions go at it.

Totally agree. I should have clarified that I meant when Raines became Alan Spaulding.  I wish Bernau was still with GL by the time Zaslow came back, but then I don't think Roger/Holly/Chrissy would have been in the storyline, if he hadn't passed away. Makes me so nostalgic for what could have been. 

@Mitch64 That makes sense that it was a last minute rewrite for some reason.  

BTW, I always never got why the show never did a War of the Roses type divorce for Roger.  Would have been a great storyline to me. 

Edited July 10Jul 10 by MLH

15 hours ago, MLH said:

I have some questions.  Did Vanessa hate the Spaulding family and that is why she told Roger about the 'file' that would bring them down? What happened to Roger's former agency boss, Vaughn?  He was like a father figure to Roger, and i thought they worked well together. Did they drop WSPR altogether?  What did Holly do for a living after Roger and Fletcher left? Did Holly even try and find Meg?

@P.J. Gary Swanson went to prison.  I recall reading an article with the actor saying that his character was really popular and he was open to returning, but I guess when Sherry left, they went for more toned down (to me boring) Blake. Sherry's version was way more film noir. 

I wonder if Gary was that popular or if the actor just felt he was. 

You could see the toning down of Blake even in Sherry's last few months. 

I don't know if they ever said what happened to Vaughn (I'd never really seen much of him but then I haven't watched some of those episodes in decades).

Holly keeps working at WSPR up to 2003 or 2004. I think she then goes back to the Journal and briefly almost helps run Spaulding from what some here have said (I was not watching by then) until the character abruptly disappears. 

WSPR is on the show to the end. I believe Vanessa is the last owner. 

Regarding Holly and Meg, not knowing where she is leads Holly to crack up. When Fletcher returns briefly in 1999 Meg is with him. Holly gets some access to her but she is put in a special school, IIRC.

Edited July 10Jul 10 by DRW50

24 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

Van had a complicated relationship with the Spauldings that was never really explored. In the retro writing Van would have known Alex and Alan all her life and since Henry and Brandon started Spaulding, she would have as much claim to it as they did, but post Long, she seems to more identify with Lewis then Spaulding.  Bev/Alex seemed to support Van, even putting her in charge several times...though then the Mindy/Alex thing came up...and when Marj/Alex hit, Van and everyone else just seemed to consider her an annoying shrew. RR's Alan was no match for Van (or anyone else.)

This is one of those things that depended on who was writing the show. One regime, Henry is Alan's surrogate father and Vanessa is like his annoying oversexed little sister. In another one, they are enemies trying to shank each other. Then Alan suddenly wants to marry Vanessa (this only happened under Long, I believe). Which is hard to buy because Alan might have affairs with business associates, but he tended to marry "nice" women he perceived as weaker than he was. One regime, Henry was in on Brandon's dirty stuff and his affairs, in a different one he talks about Brandon like he had nothing to do with any of that.

It was NEVER consistent. 

The same with Brandon's relationship with his children. They would talk about him fondly, then a few months later talk about him as a terrifyingly abusive parent they had to protect each other from.

It's frustrating, because if they had stayed more consistent, there would have been a lot they could have drawn on for stories for these characters.

 

2 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

The folder thing seemed to have been rewritten as it went along. Was it McTavish's idea or the interim writers? Van tells Roger (because he finds her alive in Switzerland) that Alex "boasts" that she has a file that would bring not only Alan, but the entire family "down"  The parentage of Amanda would not have been something that Alex would brag to Henry about and it would not bring down the entire family...so the whole thing makes no sense, which is why I think it was rewritten from its orginal concept..(after Rauch wanted to get rid of Alex to get a younger version of her.)

It was the writing team after McTavish left. She left in October 1996 and Van tells Roger about the folder in Switzerland in January 1997, which was the first we hear about that secret. That then connects Roger to Amanda...

I had a lovely lunch, watching an episode I had never caught before--which features Alan sexually harassing Reva!

YUCK.

BTW, in 1987 I was an administrative assistant. Along with being a sexual harasser, Alan is a cheapskate. $25,000/year to be the assistant to the CEO at a multinational corporation? Even taking into consideration the time (and that SF is not a major city) that seems really low. It can't be her lack of education and experience--he said that was the rate for that job.

 

21 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

BTW, in 1987 I was an administrative assistant. Along with being a sexual harasser, Alan is a cheapskate. $25,000/year to be the assistant to the CEO at a multinational corporation? Even taking into consideration the time (and that SF is not a major city) that seems really low. It can't be her lack of education and experience--he said that was the rate for that job.

 

Agree!

And tangentially, I've been thinking about this for a while now as I watch GL... how in the heck does Reva make enough money to have her nice house, nice clothes and support her kids? She returned to Springfield after being with the Amish, where she had no money, and worked at the diner with Buzz for minimum wage (assumption), and now that she left the diner, she really has no job. She's jet setting around the world looking for her long lost sister. Outside of this being a soap, so suspend your disbelief, I just don't get it haha.

21 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Agree!

And tangentially, I've been thinking about this for a while now as I watch GL... how in the heck does Reva make enough money to have her nice house, nice clothes and support her kids? She returned to Springfield after being with the Amish, where she had no money, and worked at the diner with Buzz for minimum wage (assumption), and now that she left the diner, she really has no job. She's jet setting around the world looking for her long lost sister. Outside of this being a soap, so suspend your disbelief, I just don't get it haha.

Josh probably pays for everything with the kids. The rest I would just assume HB paid for, in offcameraland, as he adored her. 

Either that or Alan. Did he have some role in buying the house for her? I can't remember.

Edited July 10Jul 10 by DRW50

3 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Van had a complicated relationship with the Spauldings that was never really explored. In the retro writing Van would have known Alex and Alan all her life and since Henry and Brandon started Spaulding, she would have as much claim to it as they did, but post Long, she seems to more identify with Lewis then Spaulding.  Bev/Alex seemed to support Van, even putting her in charge several times...though then the Mindy/Alex thing came up...and when Marj/Alex hit, Van and everyone else just seemed to consider her an annoying shrew. RR's Alan was no match for Van (or anyone else.)

I wonder if Vanessa and Alex had any real interaction in the mid '00s when Vanessa was finally acting like her true self again and Marj's Alex was finally more restrained. 

Edited July 10Jul 10 by DRW50

RH's Paul made me take notice of the character.  Of course, I relish in OTT scenery chewing.  SH's Paul was dull, he should've played it "bigger." It's what I expect and love about the daytime soaps over Primetime.  Same thing with Deas on GL, but it got tiresome after the first couple years.

 

Edited July 10Jul 10 by Spoon

47 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Either that or Alan. Did he have some role in buying the house for her? I can't remember.

It's not surprising you can't remember because they kept changing it, and sometimes only within a few episodes!

Reva mentions HB bought the house for her, then she talks later about having to keep working for Alan so she can pay the mortgage. 

I suppose HB could have made a down-payment? But she didn't work much, so how did she get a mortgage?

Yes, we definitely need suspension of disbelief, because Reva should have been struggling big-time.

5 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

It's not surprising you can't remember because they kept changing it, and sometimes only within a few episodes!

Reva mentions HB bought the house for her, then she talks later about having to keep working for Alan so she can pay the mortgage. 

I suppose HB could have made a down-payment? But she didn't work much, so how did she get a mortgage?

Yes, we definitely need suspension of disbelief, because Reva should have been struggling big-time.

100% - that's what I was thinking.

It was really confusing when she got back from Goshen too. She and Alan lived in a house together (not Spaulding Mansion), then she moved in with Buzz when they owned the diner, and now she's in a different house, or maybe it's the same one she had with Alan but it looks different. I guess we're just meant to 'go with it' 😂

57 minutes ago, Spoon said:

RH's Paul made me take notice of the character.  Of course, I relish in OTT scenery chewing.  SH's Paul was dull, he should've played it "bigger." It's what I expect and love about the daytime soaps over Primetime.  Same thing with Deas on GL, but it got tiresome after the first couple years.

 

while some viewers (you) “relish in OTT scenery chewing; ” others (like me:) loath it. 

and therein lies the problem with soaps that run for decades: can’t please all of the people all of the time, but soaps need to please at least some of the people some of the time. but ratings continued to drop after continued attempts to turn world turns into an abc soap and jill farren phelps moved the coopers front and center on guiding light. so… 

32 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

100% - that's what I was thinking.

It was really confusing when she got back from Goshen too. She and Alan lived in a house together (not Spaulding Mansion), then she moved in with Buzz when they owned the diner, and now she's in a different house, or maybe it's the same one she had with Alan but it looks different. I guess we're just meant to 'go with it' 😂

I think it was the same house and they just changed the design under Rauch but I'm not completely sure.

2 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

It was the writing team after McTavish left. She left in October 1996 and Van tells Roger about the folder in Switzerland in January 1997, which was the first we hear about that secret. That then connects Roger to Amanda...

True, but I am assuming they were using McTavish's outlines for a while, at least up to the anniversary show. That damn angel is still there and Chele is panting over him, Meta keeps mentioning she knows him an a "Mary Bauer" ( I know Meta was McTavish's idea for the anniversary, one of the few good ones she had but tying her to that story was the worst.. The January stuff all seems to be geared towards the anniversary, we have a lot of cameos...(Dylan, Jenna) the angel so I am thinking this big Spaulding secret is for an the anniversary and would McTavish idea of using "history" even if it wasnt on camera. I do know she wrote the lighthouse scenes for the ball or had it in her outlines as before she got fired she was boasting about all the character returns and that during the anniversary "something is going to happen to bring the town of Springfield together that will let everyone know that this is still definatley Irna Phillip's Springfield ."

So it wouldnt suprise me if she wrote the Spaulding secret and it was changed but its one of those things, like Days Salem Stalker, where I would love to know what the real purpose and ending was going to be.