re: Signy Colman I often wonder if Vincent Irizarry had spoken to his former GL colleagues about Colman and that influenced how they received her. As for Beth Ehlers, she would go on to have her own BTS scandal in how she treated JR Martinez. I'll never understand why she felt the need to say those things.

40 minutes ago, chrisml said:

re: Signy Colman I often wonder if Vincent Irizarry had spoken to his former GL colleagues about Colman and that influenced how they received her. As for Beth Ehlers, she would go on to have her own BTS scandal in how she treated JR Martinez. I'll never understand why she felt the need to say those things.

I don't think Vincent had much overlap with Kim (the main person she criticized).

Kim seems like someone who makes up her own mind.

Kim tends to sound like a bully

It's been a tough couple of days after the deaths of Tony Geary and Rob Reiner...I was always a GL viewer first and foremost, but I did keep up with GH through the magic of the VCR back in the day.

I came across something really interesting, the very first scene where Geary appeared on GH. This is very brief (and there's also a sweet little tribute to Geary from the late Jackie Zeman at the end...man, that show has had a lot of major losses), but I immediately got Tony and Nola Reardon vibes from it:

I believe Marland was the writer at the time (I've seen conflicting dates, but he was definitely there in 1978).

And it got me thinking...Geary and Zeman were on their show as long as they wanted to be on the show, the characters stayed on for DECADES. Shouldn't that have been true of the Reardons, too? Of course, I don't compare Beecroft to Geary, but Lisa Brown was a breakout star on GL, and it's just frustrating that they couldn't figure out a way to keep her on the show as much as she wanted to be on it. She deserved that as much as Zimmer ever did, IMO. And also Mo, of course, we've talked about that a million times.

As much as I've criticized Marland about certain things, he created some incredible characters on the various soaps he worked on. I just wish GL had found a way to keep his best ones on more consistently over the years.

38 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

It's been a tough couple of days after the deaths of Tony Geary and Rob Reiner...I was always a GL viewer first and foremost, but I did keep up with GH through the magic of the VCR back in the day.

I came across something really interesting, the very first scene where Geary appeared on GH. This is very brief (and there's also a sweet little tribute to Geary from the late Jackie Zeman at the end...man, that show has had a lot of major losses), but I immediately got Tony and Nola Reardon vibes from it:

I believe Marland was the writer at the time (I've seen conflicting dates, but he was definitely there in 1978).

And it got me thinking...Geary and Zeman were on their show as long as they wanted to be on the show, the characters stayed on for DECADES. Shouldn't that have been true of the Reardons, too? Of course, I don't compare Beecroft to Geary, but Lisa Brown was a breakout star on GL, and it's just frustrating that they couldn't figure out a way to keep her on the show as much as she wanted to be on it. She deserved that as much as Zimmer ever did, IMO. And also Mo, of course, we've talked about that a million times.

As much as I've criticized Marland about certain things, he created some incredible characters on the various soaps he worked on. I just wish GL had found a way to keep his best ones on more consistently over the years.

I never really thought of the similarity. You're right, they are very similar early on.

Early Bobbie is also similar to what we know of Charlotte Bauer.

Beyond GL and GH being such different soaps, and the huge popularity of Luke, I think the biggest difference between the siblings is how quickly the show pivoted Nola away from a seedier world. Even after Bobbie was "redeemed" (which took much longer than Nola's redemption), her past was never truly gone.

Marland's choice to make the Reardons so nice outside of Nola also meant there was less backstory to mine compared to the Spencers. You had Ruby, who was kind, but also razor-sharp, a reminder of where they'd come from. Nola had Bea, who was the stock sweetie pie mother.

By 1982, Nola was moving away from most of the foundation of the character, and there wasn't very much left by the time Lisa Brown quit the show.

They could have brought some of that hard edge back in her second run, but it just never worked out, due to terrible, terrible writing from start to finish.

20 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Nola had Bea, who was the stock sweetie pie mother.

True, I remember in the beginning that Bea had a much harder edge (and was shown sucking back beers with Floyd). You could understand a little bit why Nola was embarrased by her origins. Later, it was more like she was unreasonable in her disdain for her family. It is a shame they lost their edge.

Of course there should've always been a place for Nola in Springfield. Nola might've retained more edge under Marland's writing, but I'm not sure she would have. He's the one who started Quint/Nola. And the fantasies. I'm not sure how edgy you can keep a daydreamer.

6 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Of course there should've always been a place for Nola in Springfield. Nola might've retained more edge under Marland's writing, but I'm not sure she would have. He's the one who started Quint/Nola. And the fantasies. I'm not sure how edgy you can keep a daydreamer.

I think she'd already lost most of her edge, aside from that scene in 1982 when Morgan visits her in the hospital and the conversation turns nasty. Maybe Marland intended for Quint/Nola to be a fairy tale and then she'd crash back down to reality. I guess we'll never know.

1 minute ago, P.J. said:

Of course there should've always been a place for Nola in Springfield. Nola might've retained more edge under Marland's writing, but I'm not sure she would have. He's the one who started Quint/Nola. And the fantasies. I'm not sure how edgy you can keep a daydreamer.

Nola started as a stock character that was around a LOT on soaps back then--the poor girl who dreamed of raising herself up out of her lower class status, usually through marriage. That character has pretty much disappeared now, partly because it seems a bit regressive, and partly because if you're not rich on a soap, you will be eventually. Bobbie was the same on GH--the Laura/Scotty/Bobbie triangle was basically transplanted to GL with Morgan/Kelly/Nola.

So I don't think it was so much that she lost her edge, and it did make sense for her to be a dreamer. The positive reaction to Quint/Nola was unexpected. Supposedly, Marland always planned to put Kelly and Nola together (I totally don't get why, but whatever). And it was kind of interesting (for a while) to see the girl fantasizing about being the heroine in a movie actually becoming a heroine in an Indiana Jones style movie.

But that doesn't go very far on a soap.

Bobbie lost out in the Scotty sweepstakes but she went through a lot of stuff over the years. Making Nola a happy wife and mother of two put her in a corner. I'm not saying they couldn't have come up with stories for her, but clearly Kobe and Long were not as enamored with her as Marland was.

I'm not sure Kobe/Long didn't appreciate Nola. Long, for all her strengths, wasn't good at writing for the "happily ever after" phase of any relationship.

25 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I'm not sure Kobe/Long didn't appreciate Nola. Long, for all her strengths, wasn't good at writing for the "happily ever after" phase of any relationship.

I don't know if Kobe appreciated much of anyone who was at GL when she arrived.

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Bobbie lost out in the Scotty sweepstakes but she went through a lot of stuff over the years. Making Nola a happy wife and mother of two put her in a corner. I'm not saying they couldn't have come up with stories for her, but clearly Kobe and Long were not as enamored with her as Marland was.

I think that year gap between the two regimes is also key. Nola was so locked in to being Quint's partner in that time and doesn't really have any other outlet.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

I don't know if Kobe appreciated much of anyone who was at GL when she arrived.

If Roger, Holly, and Christina (Blake) hadn't been written out long before Kobe arrived, I'm guessing they probably wouldn't have had the longevity that they eventually ended up having on the show. (Zaslow of course would have been on much longer if he had not become ill).

Just now, DeeVee said:

If Roger, Holly, and Christina (Blake) hadn't been written out long before Kobe arrived, I'm guessing they probably wouldn't have had the longevity that they eventually ended up having on the show. (Zaslow of course would have been on much longer if he had not become ill).

I hate to even think about that...

I'll always wonder what would have become of Holly if she'd stayed on during the '80s, but I do think she was better off having that break. I'm so glad Long was willing to bring her back.

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I'm so glad Long was willing to bring her back.

I don't think it was her decision. That came about because instead of doing a permanent Alan recast they decided to bring back Roger. Same with Blake being Christina. I don't think that was Long's original plan for her.