You're welcome @DRW50

Holly returns December 1988, so a full 8 years she's absent.

So Holly was still on the canvas for quite some time after Vanessa was introduced. But during Jennifer's trial, I think Vanessa was trying to get back with Ross. They were definitely together during Jennifer's second trial, in early 1981. Holly was long gone before Vanessa became involved with Ed.

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by DeeVee

Vanessa and Ross are definitely sleeping together before Jennifer's retrial in Jan '81. According to recaps, Ross tried getting into Evie's bed around the time of Rita's party. Vanessa interrupted them and told him that Evie was too boring for him.

Vanessa and Ed don't start dating until after her suicide attempt in March '81.

It just seems odd to me Vanessa wouldn't have crossed with either Holly or Rita. Although unless all those episodes become available, we won't know for certain. Speaking of, I'd love to find Van and Nola's first meeting.

Ed was all about Holly and Rita in 1980. Then they both left and Ed pivoted towards Vanessa in 81. They split Jan 82 just in time for Maureen's arrival.

Vanessa hooked up with Mar Evans in early 82.

16 hours ago, SoapDope78 said:

We barely get any videos from 1980 especially anything between summer and Christmas of 1980 so seeing Holly being on the verge of leaving town is a nice gift.

From what I recall, the actress had only signed a 1 year contract in November 1979 and wanted to see how she felt at the end of that contract before deciding if she wanted to stay or not. Sadly, the timing of a regime change and Michael Zaslow leaving and being killed off basically made her character almost a background character through most of 1980 so I could see why she opted to leave.

Someone a long time ago had posted an interview with the actress after she left where she stated that after Roger 'dying' that she hoped the writers would focus on Holly rebuilding her life, getting her strength back, and having more agency in her life. And she stated that most of what was written for her had her playing someone meek and almost defeated by life instead of someone rebuilding their life. Even this episode showed a worn out and zombie like Holly as she was preparing to leave.

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

Someone a long time ago had posted an interview with the actress after she left where she stated that after Roger 'dying' that she hoped the writers would focus on Holly rebuilding her life, getting her strength back, and having more agency in her life.

Let's face it, that's something Marland would not have been at all interested in writing. I bet if she had stayed, he wouldn't have even used her much in the upcoming Ed/Rita/Alan/Hope mess. He probably still would have preferred to have Ed with Vanessa, a character he created. She was wise to go when she did.

17 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Let's face it, that's something Marland would not have been at all interested in writing. I bet if she had stayed, he wouldn't have even used her much in the upcoming Ed/Rita/Alan/Hope mess. He probably still would have preferred to have Ed with Vanessa, a character he created. She was wise to go when she did.

Most likely, Holly would have been used in a way where Ed was spending time with Holly and Blake for purely innocent reasons.. and Rita's insecurity would have driven her to be with Alan. That whole element did play out in the late 80s/early 90s between Ed/Maureen/Holly

I had read weekly synopsis of this period, and the only thing I could have seen her doing in 1981 was being somewhat involved in the whole Andy Norris situation since he was her brother and probably in conflict with their mother Barbara because Barbara would be blind to Andy and his true nature.

And there were some interactions in the weekly synopsis between her and Joe Bradley so I imagine perhaps she would have been occupied with that while the whole Ed/Hope/Rita/Alan story was going on in 1981

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Soaplovers

I guess after Holly being a major player throughout the 70's, Marland felt that there weren't many options that appealed to him.

He had stories and characters he wanted to explore and with MG's contract up it was a chance to make space for newbies.

Over his tenure Marland dropped, through choice or circumstance ,Holly, Rita, Lucille, Ben, Elizabeth, Diane, Ann and other characters like Peter, Mark, Steve ,Barbara.

36 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

Over his tenure Marland dropped, through choice or circumstance ,Holly, Rita, Lucille, Ben, Elizabeth, Diane, Ann and other characters like Peter, Mark, Steve ,Barbara.

Lenore Kasdorf (Rita) chose to leave, supposedly because she and her husband (also an actor) wanted to move to LA. I think Sofia Landon (Diane) also chose to go.

Mark, you mean Katie's boyfriend? Yeah, he probably was not going to last long, regardless of who was writing the show. Peter, too. He was mainly Holly's stalwart fella while she went through all her troubles. No surprise he didn't last long after Roger's exit.

There was also Greg Fairbanks, the doctor who Rita thought might be her baby daddy. Again, I doubt he was meant to be a long-term character anyway. Few probably even realized he was gone, LOL. I could be wrong, because I'm not sure of the timing of his introduction, but I've long suspected he was brought in specifically to do the baby drama because Lenore was pregnant. If she had not gotten pregnant, I am pretty certain the affair with Alan would have happened much sooner. The Dobsons were setting it up for a long time.

Marland killing off Lucille I've always felt was a mistake. He eviserated all the female antagonists that came with the Dobson era, if you think about it. He never really replaced them. Vanessa never QUITE fit that category. Yeah, she could be bitchy, but she wasn't destructive like Lucille or Diane. @P.J. I think described her as someone who liked to upset apple carts, but it was just to see what would happen more than being actually hurtful. Nola in his mind was his heroine, who did everything for love and to better herself, so she wasn't really bad.

The closest he came to a real female villain was Carrie's alternate personality.

Now that I think about it, GL was missing full-on bitch characters until the 1990s, with Annie, Dinah, and Amanda (who, IMO, was slated by the Dobsons to eventually become a more villainous character, which is kind of ironic).

Maybe the closest before that was Nadine? When Reva was introduced, it seemed she was going to be that kind of character, but that went out the window really fast. Never for one moment could I figure out what Sonni's deal was beyond being a roadblock for Josh and Reva.

Am I missing some people?