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

Let's share memories and ask questions here.

7 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Tony is one of those characters that just doesn't age well. Macho without a Cause, if you will.

One of the ugly things about Tony was his backstory of bullying Derek because he was smart. Which seems even worse after his very intelligent and educated siblings Mo and Jim were introduced. And he married a college professor! (But then there's Sean, the used car salesman sibling whose fashion sense never progressed beyond the mid-1970s).

I think Marland was trying too hard to make him read "working class" hero by heaping a lot of cliches on him.

3 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I was shocked when I heard Harley Venton, the actor who played Derek, was thisclose to getting the male lead role in the show Moonlighting before Bruce Willis was cast. And apparently, he was way more popular than TPTB realized because there was pushback when he was written out.

Maybe they missed an opportunity here. Unfortunately, Derek was, you know, one of those sanctimonious male characters Marland was fond of writing. If they had made him a little more complex, and given him more of a story beyond moping after Hillary, it's possible he could have been developed into a strong male lead.

Honestly, I have no clue what Derek does other than mope after Hillary. I only know of him from some clip sets. I don't even think he takes part in a major trial in his "blink or miss it" time on the show.

4 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I was shocked when I heard Harley Venton, the actor who played Derek, was thisclose to getting the male lead role in the show Moonlighting before Bruce Willis was cast. And apparently, he was way more popular than TPTB realized because there was pushback when he was written out.

Maybe they missed an opportunity here. Unfortunately, Derek was, you know, one of those sanctimonious male characters Marland was fond of writing. If they had made him a little more complex, and given him more of a story beyond moping after Hillary, it's possible he could have been developed into a strong male lead.

The reason I could enjoy it with Derek, or at least tolerate it, is because he had more of a humor. I do see the sanctimony though.

I'm not surprised they didn't realize he would have any fans, considering the men they were pushing at P&G at this time, like pornstache Brad on ATWT...

3 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

One of the ugly things about Tony was his backstory of bullying Derek because he was smart. Which seems even worse after his very intelligent and educated siblings Mo and Jim were introduced. And he married a college professor! (But then there's Sean, the used car salesman sibling whose fashion sense never progressed beyond the mid-1970s).

I think Marland was trying too hard to make him read "working class" hero by heaping a lot of cliches on him.

I didn't even know that. As if I couldn't hate the character more. Reminds me of when EastEnders brought in some kind of fun-loving fireman viewers were meant to love because he'd bullied Ian Beale, the town snidely, when they were in school. As soon as the fireman came on the show, he flushed Ian's head down the toilet.

When watching the Quola clips on Youtube years back, I wondered if I hit the moment where Marland's material ended because Tony suddenly started to treat Nola with some love and care, even as he still had issues with her. I know Nola was a headache even when reformed, but so much of the time in the Marland material I've seen Tony is just so unpleasant to her. 

This also seems to be when they go from being suspicious of Quint to seeing him as a member of the family.

9 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

One of the ugly things about Tony was his backstory of bullying Derek because he was smart. Which seems even worse after his very intelligent and educated siblings Mo and Jim were introduced. And he married a college professor! (But then there's Sean, the used car salesman sibling whose fashion sense never progressed beyond the mid-1970s).

I think Marland was trying too hard to make him read "working class" hero by heaping a lot of cliches on him.

Yeah, at the time, Tony was really the only blue collar in a world of doctors and lawyers (aside from the hapless Floyd.) At least that I can recall.

And admittedly, he does treat other women (like Katie and Hillary) with respect. Admittedly, Van earns his scorn.

13 minutes ago, P.J. said:

(aside from the hapless Floyd.)

Interestingly, Marland turned Floyd into a more layered character. When he was first introduced, he was clearly meant to be little more than comic relief. He was practically the village idiot.

Hillary dated him for a while, even though she liked him even less than Nola did. Maybe after the terrible experience with Roger, she was looking for his opposite and landed on Floyd. He was this very crass guy who would embarrass Hillary by being too loud and having bad manners. 

Marland turned him into a sweet, well-intentioned guy with a romantic heart. Still not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but a salt of the earth type.

That's what he was like until someone got the idea to turn him into a murdering psycho.

17 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I keep meaning to go back and finish your other recent recaps - this thread moves fast - but I did want to thank you once again, especially as you are reminding me of a great deal I'd forgotten from this period.

Matt being called Vanessa's son - another little dig from Rauch or whoever, I assume.

More hints of Cassie/Josh, which happens repeatedly in these years (the hints).

I wasn't sure if Marcus and Dahlia were still around. Poor Kevin "Daytime Emmy winner" Mambo. 

Josh sleeping with the clone always felt a little too far for me, although I had a low enough opinion of Josh to where I wasn't outraged. 

The main memory I ever have of Sean is that he had the best chest on the show.

My memory of the Beth and Carl story is of it being better than it should have been, as it helps explain some of Beth's behavior and BC as well as the guy who played Carl do some good work.

You're welcome!   If you missed any parts, just go to my profile and scroll through my activity, you'll find them quickly!  

Yeah so odd to me that Mambo wins the Emmy and has multiple nominations, but they never seem to use him. Not that I think he should have won, but you know what I mean...  I feel like GL just didn't know what to do with their black actors at the time, which is sad. 

Honestly this clone storyline is too DAYS for me, which if it were DAYS, I would love it. But, this is GL and I just think it crosses a line for me. 

Ohhh, Sean has the BEST chest - honestly if I were Reva, I would just stay on that island forever   

Ok so this is interesting... Carl was only on like 4 episodes before he was killed, so I'm curious how they had good work. I think this whole storyline is a miss for me. I sort of like how it explains Beth's time in Arizona while Phillip was in SF in the awful 1996 era... but Harley is so neurotic and Beth is so weak and desperate... and it's all for a villain that we never knew and barely saw. I just haven't enjoyed it, and when you pair this with the clone storyline, that's a long 2 months.

Btw, how did people feel about Fletcher's quick exit???  How do you take a child and leave a note to the mother demanding they never look for them?  This was a legacy, cherished character in SF... I just don't get it. I'm still waiting to see how Holly deals with this long-term, but so far, it's like she's not phased and is more worried about her daughter not getting f'ed over by Ben. 

 

27 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Btw, how did people feel about Fletcher's quick exit???  How do you take a child and leave a note to the mother demanding they never look for them?  This was a legacy, cherished character in SF... I just don't get it. I'm still waiting to see how Holly deals with this long-term, but so far, it's like she's not phased and is more worried about her daughter not getting f'ed over by Ben. 

I don't think anyone liked his exit, or the story in general. Fletcher hadn't really felt like himself for several years before he left (I say that as maybe the only Fletcher fan on here) and as you said, his exit should have had more immediate consequences than it did. 

I know what you meant about the Beth and Carl story but at the time I thought it at least laid some type of groundwork for Beth's behavior and I thought there was a certain menace in Carl.

At this point most of my view of the show was background junk food. I think if I'd had to stop and think about stuff like the clone story I would have stopped watching.

7 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Btw, how did people feel about Fletcher's quick exit???  How do you take a child and leave a note to the mother demanding they never look for them?  

Not only was that wildly un-Fletcher like, I think what always bothered me about this is they took the opportunity to write out Meg because they didn't want to deal long-term with a disabled character. 

I HATE when soaps do this kind of story only for the short-term. If you're going to do this kind of story, COMMIT to it.

I believe Meg had Down Syndrome, correct? Well, there have been working actors with Down Syndrome as far back as the 1990s. There was that show with Patti Lupone (Life Goes On, was that the name?) that had a major character with Down Syndrome. Call the Midwife has had a character with Down Syndrome as a regular character for years.

Why not show Meg growing up on the show? People with Down Syndrome go to school, they have hobbies, they work, they fall in love, they get married. So many opportunities for great stories missed because they decided to sweep her under the rug.

It's not quite the same thing, but I give General Hospital major kudos for totally committing to a character living with HIV, especially since she was played by an actress who literally grew up on the show.

I didn't mean to get all preachy this early in the morning, but this is the kind of thing that helped kill the show, IMO. Focusing on dumb crap like the clone instead of this character right under their noses who could have centered some truly memorable stories. 

I may have mentioned that I’m a little new to Springfield, and so far I have a deep love for the show because of such a well kept narrative with a few continuity snarls (really, Ed was out there with Alan and the Carruthers girl?), I guess I’m just asking the OGs about stuff I can’t learn from SoapCentral Who’s Who, (RIP), classicGL on YouTube (also RIP), and Spauldingfield. 
 

It’s a lofty goal, but I’d love to write a continuation with all the spawn of the original characters after September 2009. I know there was a Mindy official Twitter thread at one point, but in an age where we can do what we want irrespective of budget mostly, I’d love to give it a stab.

32 minutes ago, SanCristobelsFinest said:

I may have mentioned that I’m a little new to Springfield, and so far I have a deep love for the show because of such a well kept narrative with a few continuity snarls (really, Ed was out there with Alan and the Carruthers girl?), I guess I’m just asking the OGs about stuff I can’t learn from SoapCentral Who’s Who, (RIP), classicGL on YouTube (also RIP), and Spauldingfield. 
 

It’s a lofty goal, but I’d love to write a continuation with all the spawn of the original characters after September 2009. I know there was a Mindy official Twitter thread at one point, but in an age where we can do what we want irrespective of budget mostly, I’d love to give it a stab.

I'd certainly enjoy reading it. There were a few times I wanted to write one myself, just never did it.

@DeeVeethe mags reported that the original plans was to ape GH and have Meg die in a car accident, then have Fletcher leave town.

 

@alwaysAMC very light spoilers....  there's follow-up with Holly but you have to wait until early 1999.

15 minutes ago, Spoon said:

DeeVeethe mags reported that the original plans was to ape GH and have Meg die in a car accident, then have Fletcher leave town.

OMG, that's even worse. Kill off the inconvenient disabled kid. 

You're talking about the BJ storyline, right? Was she disabled? I don't think so. In that case, that story was handled with exceptional care and sensitivity. One of the best storylines they ever did.

Considering how they treated MZ when he became ill, and how they refused to write his illness into the show, I suppose how they handled the Meg story shouldn't be a surprise. 

No, she wasn't disabled, that was a transplant storyline.  But having a tragedy involving a child for EMMY bait.  That would be what pushes Holly over the edge in '98.

 

Its a shame Peter never returns as s teen or adult, considering how much plot was around him for a few years.  Same with Meg and the other kids born in the 90s kids that weren't Coopers.

Edited October 14Oct 14 by Spoon

10 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Why not show Meg growing up on the show? People with Down Syndrome go to school, they have hobbies, they work, they fall in love, they get married. So many opportunities for great stories missed because they decided to sweep her under the rug.

Well, this was a misguided story from the start, developed by an earlier lamented group (McLaibey) and did not fit the character of Holly...However she existed and it would have been good to bring her back for visits played by an older actress. I wanted Ed and Holly reunited before the last episode...two supremely damaged people who somehow work, and could form a basis for a different king of core couple ( I can't see Holly sitting around the Bauer kitchen listening to peoples bullshit problem without rolling her eyes.) and I can see Ed talking her into forming a relationship with her. Maybe Fletch marries another woman who really is better for whatever her name was. 

The problem is when you introduce a clone the whole concept of reality goes out the window (Michael can grow a fetus but did not put research into some real developmental issue?)

And yes Sean had a great chest and he was good with Dinah, but he came off as Reva and Dinah's gay muscle boy bestie..I never bought the dead wife story Sean..sorry!