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

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

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.

Ahh interesting! I didn't realize that, but it makes sense. It's interesting though, because right after her last credited episode, her two big umbrella storylines that ate up most of 1996 just finally abruptly ended (5th Street/A. Spaulding; Lonatrat), so I just assumed the new writers took charge and started their own stories, but you're right, there's likely a transition period there.

I started from 1989 and went up to 1998 and stopped. I thought just about everyone had a solid storyline in 1990. I didn't really even half way follow GL and didn't know the backstory for Michael Z, etc. Seeing what happened to him broke my heart. 

I still liked Toby Poser as Amanda, so I kept following her and the Lame Roger (I could NEVER imagine him as the Roger who raped Holly, tried to kidnap Chrissy, etc.).  It was hard to do, because she was barley shown. The Lame Roger seemed like a stuck up wanna be Spaulding. Roger liked the underdog as he was one himself. I don't think Roger would have put up with the back and forth Amanda was doing with the fake engagement, but would have been fine with the her bringing back Alan as he always was fine with people supporting family. 

I am now rewatching, because of the German dubbed YouTube channel (Springfield Stories) to fill in some missing episodes.  There were a lot missing from 1990 & it helped me makes sense of a lot of things.  I liked how Alan used the whole Beth's fake corpse thing against Roger this time.  Unfortunately, there are only 80 something vids for 1992 and it stops there. 

 

Edited July 10Jul 10 by MLH

18 hours ago, kalbir said:

I've pointed this out before, but I think Pamela Long diminished Vanessa in favor of her creations Reva and Alexandra.

Vanessa wasn't the only one. Mo, Claire, Trish--Long didn't know what to do with any woman in Reva's age group really. Mindy and Beth are her creations, and younger, so at least they had story.

31 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Vanessa wasn't the only one. Mo, Claire, Trish--Long didn't know what to do with any woman in Reva's age group really. Mindy and Beth are her creations, and younger, so at least they had story.

Its interesting as Mo really fades into the woodwork during Long's second tenure...she and Ed are rarely on (Ed at least has the doctor stuff) she gets the hots for Fletch after her friend who was married to him dies, Ed screws Holly, Mo sad sacks it around and moves into the Boardinghouse and leaves Chele with Ed...she has a scene where she discusses making curtains for a "room in my mother's house" (wouldn't she own it if Bea wasn't in town...) and just mopes around while Holly moves into her house...Its not until Reva kicks it and Long leaves that Mo moves into the matriarch role we knew her as..(I think Long was obsesses with making Sarah the matriarch, even moving her into the run the BH, but she is too tied isolated to fill that role...) 

But yes, every woman besides Alex and the younger ones all take a back seat to Reva. I would say India escaped that but she would be considered "younger" though MKA always came off as middle aged no matter what.

11 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

(I think Long was obsesses with making Sarah the matriarch, even moving her into the run the BH, but she is too tied isolated to fill that role...) 

I was thinking that, too--they also toyed with her taking over Bert's job as patient advocate at Cedars. But that didn't last long, probably because it got in the way of Sarah listening to Reva whine about her love life.

11 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I would say India escaped that but she would be considered "younger" though MKA always came off as middle aged no matter what.

That explains why even though MKA and Ariane Munker were around the same age, Christine and Alan seemed creepy but India and Alan did not.

(Still can't believe they never took advantage of their chemistry).

 Did India become broke again?  I saw some clip from late 90s, I think. She looked like an ordinary suburban housewife and not the rich fashion plate in 1990.

I also saw an old ad that had a character named Diego (Y&R) and Roger saying he is going to have to kill her.  I guess this is the whole stupid Dinah/Hart storyline.

 

19 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. 

 

Thanks! It would've been interesting to see Gary come back, but alas.

As others have said, Van didn't hate the Spauldings, but I wouldn't call her particularly close to them personally. Henry was the one who was close to Alex, Alan, and Phillip. Vanessa usually was a bystander as the Spauldings fought over the company or their position in the pecking order. 

I took Vanessa's capitulation to Roger as the product of her helplessness. She's more worried about her family than the Spauldings, and they are people who do treat each other terribly.  She knew Roger well enough to know that he'd force the information out of her and use anyone he could to do it. And she didn't really do much but confirm that there was something Alex had over Alan.

Did it ever come out that Vanessa had said anything to Roger?

I wouldn't say that Alan or Alex remembered Brandon fondly. They occasionally remembered how close they'd been as children. But Brandon was always someone they feared, even when they tried to earn his love.

11 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

yes, susan batten was the first at ‘world turns — one of the worst recasts ever —  but nothing compared to what barbara bloom did when she took over cbs daytime in 2003. left jfp in the dust.

it was like a full employment program for people she worked with at abc: after roger howarth and jon lindstrom — nothing against any of the actors —  there was noelle beck replacing martha byrne, kin shriner, stuart damon, julie pinson, and probably a few more i don’t recall off the top of my head. 

Lynn Herring, Robin Mattson, Billy Warlock, that greasy Professor who was harrassing Noah and had been on OLTL, flippin' Sarah Brown, Howarth, Real Andrews (although he was a sweetie), Howarth....basically any ABC actor who went off contract it seemed.

I have a question about Holly. I stopped watching the show consistently once the character of Roger left, although I did tune in here and there to see what was up in Springfield and specifically what Holly was doing. I did watch some of the Nursery Rhyme Stalker, although it wasn't easy. After that, I pretty much stopped altogether. 

I know Holly left the canvas at some point in the mid-2000s. How exactly did they explain the character's absence, or did TPTB simply not explain it at all? I think I read that at some point Blake was in a coma or a bad accident and that the TPTB didn't even have her return for that. Shameful.

Thank you.

Annette

 

 

8 hours ago, DRW50 said:

 

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

Vanessa is running it because Dinah skipped town. Dinah owns it. 

8 hours ago, DeeVee said:

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.

 

Alan actually wanted to marry Vanessa twice. In '84, he decided he'd rather marry Vanessa than risk her shares coming under the Lewis influence. In '87, well, I'm not really sure why. It's probably as much about keeping her away from Ross as her business acumen or solidifying his position in the company by gaining the Chamberlain voting block.

6 hours 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.

Right? Reva rarely works. Other than right after Marah's birth, Reva never had to support her kids. Josh took care of Marah and Shayne. Dylan and Jon came to town as adults. I would suppose that HB left her money, as he always had a soft spot for her. 

5 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Right? Reva rarely works. Other than right after Marah's birth, Reva never had to support her kids. Josh took care of Marah and Shayne. Dylan and Jon came to town as adults. I would suppose that HB left her money, as he always had a soft spot for her. 

Beyond working at the paper or taking photographs it's hard to remember her working in the '80s.

Her longest lasting job is talk show host. 

22 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Vanessa is running it because Dinah skipped town. Dinah owns it. 

Thanks. Vanessa makes more sense to me as the owner. 

2 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Its interesting as Mo really fades into the woodwork during Long's second tenure...she and Ed are rarely on (Ed at least has the doctor stuff) she gets the hots for Fletch after her friend who was married to him dies, Ed screws Holly, Mo sad sacks it around and moves into the Boardinghouse and leaves Chele with Ed...she has a scene where she discusses making curtains for a "room in my mother's house" (wouldn't she own it if Bea wasn't in town...) and just mopes around while Holly moves into her house...Its not until Reva kicks it and Long leaves that Mo moves into the matriarch role we knew her as..(I think Long was obsesses with making Sarah the matriarch, even moving her into the run the BH, but she is too tied isolated to fill that role...) 

But yes, every woman besides Alex and the younger ones all take a back seat to Reva. I would say India escaped that but she would be considered "younger" though MKA always came off as middle aged no matter what.

I think Mo starts taking on the Bauer matriarch role when Charita couldn't work and Bert left town. She's suddenly everybody's friend, being stepmom to Rick and mothering Michelle from birth. She'd dole out advice to women who miscarried (or in Reva's case when she was told she shouldn't have any more children after Marah---that's a laugh and a half.) She befriends new people in town, and even thinks the villainous Roger just "really needs a guy friend".

45 minutes ago, GL Oldtimer said:

I have a question about Holly. I stopped watching the show consistently once the character of Roger left, although I did tune in here and there to see what was up in Springfield and specifically what Holly was doing. I did watch some of the Nursery Rhyme Stalker, although it wasn't easy. After that, I pretty much stopped altogether. 

I know Holly left the canvas at some point in the mid-2000s. How exactly did they explain the character's absence, or did TPTB simply not explain it at all? I think I read that at some point Blake was in a coma or a bad accident and that the TPTB didn't even have her return for that. Shameful.

Thank you.

Annette

I think they said she went to visit her mother Barbara. Then when Blake was in a coma, she was raising the kids in Europe.

16 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Beyond working at the paper or taking photographs it's hard to remember her working in the '80s.

Her longest lasting job is talk show host. 

Thanks. Vanessa makes more sense to me as the owner. 

I don't know how Dinah got the station. She had owned it in the late'90's, and at some point in the late '00's, I recall Vanessa saying that Dinah had fired her after the head injury.  The only reason I can recall Vanessa was running it was that Billy kidnapped her from there at the end, trying to surprise her with a wedding.

Reva just really coasted from man to man. They were all throwing money at her to either keep her in their lives or get them out of it. RME.

Edited July 11Jul 11 by P.J.

As someone who watched OLTL during Howarth's initial run, I purposely avoided ATWT because he was cast on the show. I was so appalled that Todd was shoved down the viewers' throats after the gang rape of Marty.  I don't think Howarth is talented enough or charismatic enough to get past that. I sure was not going to suffer through more Howarth to watch ATWT. I don't think (like most of us) that these types of hires work unless they are added organically, and it's not them being forced into the fabric of the show to save a producer's job or as a cynical attempt to raise a show's ratings. Too often, they are brought in to replace someone the audience cares about or they are brought in and the audience is expected to care about them because they are a "famous" soap name. 

FTR, I thought Real Andrews worked on ATWT and he should have been integrated into the show better. He had wonderful chemistry with Zenk. 

3 hours ago, P.J. said:

14 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

yes, susan batten was the first at ‘world turns — one of the worst recasts ever —  but nothing compared to what barbara bloom did when she took over cbs daytime in 2003. left jfp in the dust.

it was like a full employment program for people she worked with at abc: after roger howarth and jon lindstrom — nothing against any of the actors —  there was noelle beck replacing martha byrne, kin shriner, stuart damon, julie pinson, and probably a few more i don’t recall off the top of my head. 

Lynn Herring, Robin Mattson, Billy Warlock, that greasy Professor who was harrassing Noah and had been on OLTL, flippin' Sarah Brown, Howarth, Real Andrews (although he was a sweetie), Howarth....basically any ABC actor who went off contract it seemed.

thanks for filling in the blanks!