1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

In this case, Fletcher fathered a child AFTER it was established he had had a vasectomy BEFORE Michelle was conceived. IMO, it is not only perfectly plausible to use that for a story, it's an excellent use of the show's history.

It occurs to me this may seem contradictory when I said earlier don't change paternity out of the blue, but I think this is a different situation:

For one thing, no one questioned Ed being Michelle's father because of the assumption it was impossible for Fletcher to have fathered her.

In this particular case, this reveal would have a HUGE impact on the characters because of how this upended the lives of all four people involved at the time. Claire and Fletcher's romance was destroyed. Ed and Maureen's relationship survived, but it caused damage that probably never totally healed. Ed never wanted to have more children after Michelle, which kept him and Maureen from trying to find a way to become parents of their own child.

So in this case, this wouldn't just be a temporary blip, it would be like a bomb going off in these characters' lives, with lots of things having to be sorted out, not the least being Michelle having to face the possibility of not being a Bauer.

In regards to the Morgan/Kelly situation, we all have to remember that Luke and Laura were the craze in 1979/1980/1981 and Marland had wanted to tell the story he had intended to tell with Laura/Scotty with Morgan/Kelly.

Genie Francis was 17 to 19 during the whole Luke/Laura courtship and wedding so I don't think people cared as much that a teen girl was marrying up with an adult male 30 and older at that period.

I think the 1981 wedding situation was in part to use the footage that had been filmed months before and also to compete a little with Luke/Laura since they were the top draw of GH and Marland thought that Morgan/Kelly would be that same draw only for Nola to be the top drawer of the triangle.

I remember Vigard said in the Locher Room that she had a two year deal and was going to leave when that was up so the show decided to recast Morgan right after the wedding and continue to tell the Kelly/Morgan marriage story with a new actress.

Problem was that the audience didn't have an attachment/connection to the new actress so Kelly/Morgan were doomed and eventually the show did break them up and put Morgan eventually in Josh's orbit before briefly having her be a sort of older sister type in a brief friendship arc with Phillip/Rick before she was written off.

Had the show known back in the fall of 1981 that the recast would have been a bust.. they probably would have stuck with Vigard for the rest of her contract till spring 1982 and then written her off and spun Kelly off into another orbit (I heard the rumor that Nola/Kelly were supposed to have ended up together down the line).

Kelly seems to drift aimlessly after the Morgan story ends, and Long manages to pair him with Claire Ramsey in an older woman/younger man story for a bit until he leaves in early 1984. It's a shame because Kelly and Claire did have chemistry.

Edited 45 minutes ago45 min by Soaplovers