Roger's return was exactly what GL needed to emerge from those really bad years in second half of the 1980s. Once Robert Calhoun became EP, GL finally hit its stride.

Didn't Holly just come back for a visit and Pam was impressed by Maureen Garrett? Decided to bring her on full time?

7 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Didn't Holly just come back for a visit and Pam was impressed by Maureen Garrett? Decided to bring her on full time?

I always assumed she was brought back for the "Blake is Christina" reveal in anticipation of Roger's return, but I never heard that was supposed to be a temporary gig. IIRC, that happened Christmas 1988. I think Zaslow returned January 1989.

4 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I always assumed she was brought back for the "Blake is Christina" reveal in anticipation of Roger's return, but I never heard that was supposed to be a temporary gig. IIRC, that happened Christmas 1988. I think Zaslow returned January 1989.

Maureen Garrett returned December 1988. Michael Zaslow returned January 1989 but Roger was unmasked in March I think and Springfield learned Roger was alive in May.

12 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Didn't Holly just come back for a visit and Pam was impressed by Maureen Garrett? Decided to bring her on full time?

Long said in an interview that she thought Holly should return for a visit after the Chrissy reveal, but Maureen impressed her and she decided to bring her back full time. She said she had longterm plans for Roger and Blake, but had to ease Holly in until she could come up with longterm plans for her

19 hours ago, DeeVee said:

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.

I remember thinking that Bea should have a harder edge. She raised 7 kids on her own, turned her house into a business....and that big nice house must have cost some cash..so Tom was over extended or he was up and coming, and to have that end and think your husband ran out on you must have been hard and made you hard to survive. When they recast Mo with Parker they had Bea back for one day to make the transition, it would have been a good time to bring her back with Charita, but I would have made her tougher...(I see her giving Hawk hell, as he was living in the BH at that time, and also putting Claire in her place, Irish moms may come off sweet but f*ck with their kid and the rosary beads become a weapon.) but could Lawson have played that?

Long was stuck with a happily married couple who had one of the first crazed fan bases. Add that in , the stories Nola could have been involved in (the cabing msytery.) were going on during maternity leaves, etc. Nola 2.0 was the perfect time to bring back a more edgy Nola...despite what the Qualos think, anybody could have an affair and Quint cheating could have done that. But they chose to make Nola a depressed looser instead. That would also have been a great time for her to find out Mo died because Ed and Lillian f*cked, and have her hell bent for leather on both of them.

1 hour ago, bboy875 said:

Long said in an interview that she thought Holly should return for a visit after the Chrissy reveal, but Maureen impressed her and she decided to bring her back full time. She said she had longterm plans for Roger and Blake, but had to ease Holly in until she could come up with longterm plans for her

What Long said was, "That woman is sexy as HELL" when she saw her on screen during the Christmas Eve episodes.. so she brought her back....(they did Holly's hair in a bun kind of thing to make her look old enough to be Blakes mom.

I actually like Long's version of Holly best...smart, funny, sexy, ambitious with the chink being Roger...( One of my favorite lines when she came back after her guest shot, going to see Blake at the Spaulduing mansion..."This isn't a home...this is BERUIT!"