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

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

29 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

When they announced the new actor, they said "Today, the role..." - so remind me, was it open for Zas to come back potentially, or did they make the decision permanently from the beginning?

This is exactly what they did with Bernau's exit. They pretended there was a chance he would come back. 

With Zaslow there was also talk about temporary medical leave, blah, blah, blah, but from things MADD said, it's clear to me they knew he wasn't going to recover, and we also know they did not want to write his illness into the show.

The reason they didn't get away with it with Zaslow is Zaslow was outspoken about his illness and treatment by TPTB. As far as I know, Bernau never spoke about it, probably because he wanted to keep his illness private.

21 minutes ago, P.J. said:

They really did a good job of integrating Roger back on the canvas. He really did step into OGAlan's shoes circa 1980. Back when Alan was truly a force to be reckoned with.

I wish more of 1977-1980 Roger vs. Alan would surface, but I've accepted that it probably won't. Those who watched in real time were most fortunate.

GL had two show-defining villains in MZ Roger and CB Alan and sadly due to real-life circumstances we didn't get Roger vs. Alan in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

We need to give MZ his flowers for Roger being CBS soap opera OG and GOAT villain. Roger ran so JR and Victor could walk.

Edited July 27Jul 27 by kalbir

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

No, this is Ben McFerren, played by Stephen Yates. He dated Hope, was married to Eve Stapleton and Amanda Wexler Spaulding and Amanda miscarries their baby at Jennifer's trial. He leaves in '81, and Eve leaves in '83 to resume their relationship.

Yes.  I mean the Ben from 1981.  That episode actually got me to like the actress playing Hope.  I didn't care for the private island stuff, but I get why she was so popular.  I don't get why they didn't bring Hope back for a storyline between her, Alan, and Roger!  Talk about a no brainer to me!

I even saw an episode with baby Alan Michael.  Makes me mad that they aged him to an 18 year old and then in the late 80s.

@Contessa Donatella I pretty much stopped watching anything beyond 1998.  The stories were not interesting and when the writing was so bad.  The whole Alan/Annie wedding...Dinah pretending she runs WSPR (with a lame version of Gilly there)...Cassie & Reva dragging this random dude to the wedding who is married to Annie.  Blake running to Lame Roger (MZ was gone) to go to Ben and tell him to leave all the Marlers alone and then Lame Roger never does anything and disappears for weeks on end. DUMB!

I did read about Ben Reade and how his character was made into a serial killer. It didn't surprise me, because they always needed over the top stuff to top the Brent/Marian, Clone Reva stuff.  I saw a YouTube character bio about him. 

Edited July 27Jul 27 by MLH
corrections

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

I wasn't watching GL in real time during MZ illness/departure, but from what I remember, the soap press reported medical leave but then it was later revealed that it was a firing. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

No need for correction. This is what happened. 

17 minutes ago, MLH said:

Yes.  I mean the Ben from 1981.  That episode actually got me to like the actress playing Hope.  I didn't care for the private island stuff, but I get why she was so popular.  I don't get why they didn't bring Hope back for a storyline between her, Alan, and Roger!  Talk about a no brainer to me!

I even saw an episode with baby Alan Michael.  Makes me mad that they aged him to an 18 year old and then in the late 80s.

@Contessa Donatella I pretty much stopped watching anything beyond 1998.  The stories were not interesting and when the writing was so bad.  The whole Alan/Annie wedding...Dinah pretending she runs WSPR (with a lame version of Gilly there)...Cassie & Reva dragging this random dude to the wedding who is married to Annie.  Blake running to Lame Roger (MZ was gone) to go to Ben and tell him to leave all the Marlers alone and then Lame Roger never does anything and disappears for weeks on end. DUMB!

I did read about Ben Reade and how his character was made into a serial killer. It didn't surprise me, because they always needed over the top stuff to top the Brent/Marian, Clone Reva stuff.  I saw a YouTube character bio about him. 

LOL, I told you about the wrong Ben. 

 

56 minutes ago, kalbir said:

I wish more of 1977-1980 Roger vs. Alan would surface, but I've accepted that it probably won't. Those who watched in real time were most fortunate.

GL had two show-defining villains in MZ Roger and CB Alan and sadly due to real-life circumstances we didn't get Roger vs. Alan in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

We need to give MZ his flowers for Roger being CBS soap opera OG and GOAT villain. Roger ran so JR and Victor could walk.

I would love to see more of the Dobson era, but I think it would take a minor miracle.

Don't forget ATWT's devious John Dixon. He seems closely modeled on Roger.

I guess I'm very impressed that Long/Curlee captured Roger's essence seemingly so easily. He'd been gone for nearly a decade. There were only a tiny handful of characters still on canvas that he'd interacted with (and if you take out the recently returned Holly and Chrissie/Blake, that number is TWO.) Yet Roger rolls into town and Spaulding starts humming with purpose and plot again. Not that Spaulding had been neglected as an entity and source of story, but it had kind of been isolated to the Spauldings backstabbing each other. Back in the early '80's, it'd been a hub of interaction, ala Cedars.

@alwaysAMC I thought Zaslow's last episode was earlier.  Thanks for reminding me what was the true last episode.

In the book he was just coming back from vacation. He was to film 4 scenes and then be off another week. He knew in his gut he was going to be fired. He thought his last one went well.  Remember that he had been asking for his speech issue to be used in the storyline (like stroke, etc. and they said no).

He was brought into an office and fired with a 'holding fee' and told to keep quiet.  At the time Michael kept quiet and was pretty much in shock & blamed himself for failing everyone. He then knew he had to fight, because he had a family to take care of. His wife was in shock with his initial reaction, because Michael never was one to just keep quiet & not fight for what he is due.

Whew, it's hard to read what happened and see it on screen. Makes me heartbroken all over again.

I agree with those saying that Reva's best storyline was from 1990. Both with Dylan and the post-partum depression. 

Edited July 27Jul 27 by MLH

6 minutes ago, MLH said:

He then knew he had to fight, because he had a family to take care of.

That's right, at the time his two daughters were teenagers I believe, so college expenses were looming.

I don't know if you've seen the Locher Room w/ MZ older daughter, but she looked ready to call out some people and put them on blast but held herself back. 

20 minutes ago, kalbir said:

That's right, at the time his two daughters were teenagers I believe, so college expenses were looming.

I don't know if you've seen the Locher Room w/ MZ older daughter, but she looked ready to call out some people and put them on blast but held herself back. 

They were younger than collage age bound.  More like 12 and 16ish. They were going to private school; Susan basically didn't work and Michael's speech treatment and later finding about his ALS wasn't cheap.

Adding to note that Helena died in 2004 at 19 years old.

Doesn't surprise me about Marika.  Helena was way more the emotional one out of the two (diagnosed with bipolar depression). I guess the guy doing the interview is associated with Procter and Gamble. I wish the interview was done by an ALS advocate/soap fan. 

Edited July 27Jul 27 by MLH

46 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Don't forget ATWT's devious John Dixon. He seems closely modeled on Roger.

might be the other way ‘round. larry bryggman began in 1969, and was pretty devious from the beginning. michael zaslow came on gl in 1971, and as i recall, grew into his deviousness over time. 

just went to soap central to check and found that ‘who’s who in…’ is no longer available. a shame, it was such a useful resource. 

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Don't forget ATWT's devious John Dixon. He seems closely modeled on Roger.

When the Dobsons moved to ATWT they did another marital rape storyline with John and Dee Stewart. So at that time, yes, I think they were modeling him at least somewhat on Roger. 

That story was a major disappointment to me, because they made it a "he said, she said" story, with Dee eventually admitting she was "mistaken." Which makes me think that MZ and MG did really have an influence on how their story played out on GL, as it's possible the Dobsons would have taken that road with that one, too.

3 hours ago, MLH said:

Yes.  I mean the Ben from 1981.  That episode actually got me to like the actress playing Hope.  I didn't care for the private island stuff, but I get why she was so popular.  I don't get why they didn't bring Hope back for a storyline between her, Alan, and Roger!  Talk about a no brainer to me!

I even saw an episode with baby Alan Michael.  Makes me mad that they aged him to an 18 year old and then in the late 80s.

@Contessa Donatella I pretty much stopped watching anything beyond 1998.  The stories were not interesting and when the writing was so bad.  The whole Alan/Annie wedding...Dinah pretending she runs WSPR (with a lame version of Gilly there)...Cassie & Reva dragging this random dude to the wedding who is married to Annie.  Blake running to Lame Roger (MZ was gone) to go to Ben and tell him to leave all the Marlers alone and then Lame Roger never does anything and disappears for weeks on end. DUMB!

I did read about Ben Reade and how his character was made into a serial killer. It didn't surprise me, because they always needed over the top stuff to top the Brent/Marian, Clone Reva stuff.  I saw a YouTube character bio about him. 

I'm still laughing, gently, at myself for describing the wrong person, in detail. 😉

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I'm still laughing, gently, at myself for describing the wrong person, in detail. 😉

LOL Yeah.  I totally forgot there would be another Ben on the show. 

5 minutes ago, MLH said:

LOL Yeah.  I totally forgot there would be another Ben on the show. 

I knew full well about the other Ben!!! 

4 hours ago, MLH said:

@alwaysAMC I thought Zaslow's last episode was earlier.  Thanks for reminding me what was the true last episode.

In the book he was just coming back from vacation. He was to film 4 scenes and then be off another week. He knew in his gut he was going to be fired. He thought his last one went well.  Remember that he had been asking for his speech issue to be used in the storyline (like stroke, etc. and they said no).

He was brought into an office and fired with a 'holding fee' and told to keep quiet.  At the time Michael kept quiet and was pretty much in shock & blamed himself for failing everyone. He then knew he had to fight, because he had a family to take care of. His wife was in shock with his initial reaction, because Michael never was one to just keep quiet & not fight for what he is due.

Whew, it's hard to read what happened and see it on screen. Makes me heartbroken all over again.

I agree with those saying that Reva's best storyline was from 1990. Both with Dylan and the post-partum depression. 

No problem... and yes, genuinely heartbreaking  

Edited July 27Jul 27 by alwaysAMC