16 hours ago, DRW50 said:

It is very realistic that, IIRC, Laura is never happy with anyone Dick gets involved with. I imagine whoever he gets with after he leaves LA (the show was still in LA all through the '50s right?) would get that same bitterly frosty shoulder.

Dick was next married to Marie. Laura wasn't crazy about her either but the relationship wasn't as antagonistic as the Laura/Kathy relationship. But Marie wasn't as scandalous as Kathy was. She was just a farm girl from Iowa and Laura was such a snob so there was disapproval there. Yes, the show was set in Los Angeles throughout the 50s. Dick and Marie left town together in 1962. The show was still set in Los Angeles at that time.

15 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Helene Benedict was the next snobby society matron who disapproved of her daughter Anne getting involved with Paul Fletcher. And like the Grants, Henry was much the much more tolerant father.

Actually, it was the other way around. At least, at first. Helene was the more tolerant one but Henry hated Paul and tried to break Paul and Anne up. Helene tried to rein him in. Part of his hatred for Paul was because of snobbery because Anne was due to marry a guy from another prominent family when she broke it off to be with Paul and Paul came from a very modest background. But it was also mistrust because he thought Paul was a conman when he learned what Paul was saying about his identity didn't add up. He actively tried to investigate Paul and expose him. Paul was just hiding the fact that he was illegitimate which was shameful for him in 1959. A story that couldn't be written today. Anne was furious with her father and wouldn't talk to him for a while.

14 hours ago, vetsoapfan said:

Marland almost always came across as a gentleman. I was really disappointed when, in a magazine interview, he snidely referred to Hulswit as a "dodo bird," whom Lenore Kasdorf allegedly couldn't stand working with and begged to be separated from.

Imagine anyone thing Peter Simon was "a more dashing leading man."🙄

PS was good on SFT, but as Ed Bauer, he was listless and morose, and lacked the charm and passion MH brought to the role. A few years later, when TPTB slaughtered the Bauer family, it would have been a comforting link to the past to have Hulswit in the role. Instead, we had the sparse remains of the core family on screen, and a non-descript actor as "new Ed" (which is how I referred to him for the next 27 years, LOL).

Dalton, as Elizabeth, was never one of my favorite actresses, but it was short-sighted and damaging to the drama, to have Elizabeth just disappear and remain off-camera, in limbo for years. We didn't even know if she was alive or dead for the longest time, until it was acknowledged she had died years before.

An actress of Maureen Garrett's caliber should never have been written out. She and MH's Ed worked beautifully together.

Yes, she became a supporting, talk-to character; supporting instead of a lead. I hated the way she was written out: announcing she was taking a three-month sabbatical from Cedars...and then disappearing into the ether and never being seen or heard from again. Why not just SAY she was retiring or moving away permanently?

Again, a poster in this forum who is a more creative than the actual TGL scribes from the 1980s, and from after Nancy Curlee's departure.

@vetsoapfan and I are very biased when it comes to Mart Hulswit as Ed 😁, aren't we? No one else who played Ed Bauer had both warmth and charm like Hulswit did. And yet Hulswit could turn it to irritation, anger, and even aggression at the drop of a hat if someone kept at him enough, which was mostly Roger Thorpe (to be fair). IMHO, Gentry lacked true warmth. Simon had zero charisma at all. Van Vleet was completely out of his depth. For example, could Hulswit's Ed take on Roger in a fist fight? Not likely, but he would absolutely try. Imagine Peter Simon as Ed Bauer in Santo Domingo chasing Roger Thorpe through the jungles in 1980. I'm just not seeing it. Hulswit's Ed might be difficult to imagine roaming around Santo Domingo, as well, but his Ed would act on complete instinct if someone he knew and loved was in danger.

I think that eventually under the Dobsons, Mike and Elizabeth would have ended up together, as would Ed and Holly. I always thought Hulswit and Garrett had good chemistry.

5 minutes ago, zanereed said:

@vetsoapfan and I are very biased when it comes to Mart Hulswit as Ed 😁, aren't we? No one else who played Ed Bauer had both warmth and charm like Hulswit did. And yet Hulswit could turn it to irritation, anger, and even aggression at the drop of a hat if someone kept at him enough, which was mostly Roger Thorpe (to be fair).

Yep, we are very biased indeed. I adored Hulswit, and he was my favorite Ed, for the reasons you outlined. I never fully forgave Marland for promoting MH's dismissal. Ed Bauer never recovered.

5 minutes ago, zanereed said:

IMHO, Gentry lacked true warmth. Simon had zero charisma at all. Van Vleet was completely out of his depth.

I will readily admit that Gentry was excellent as Ed in his first tenure on the show, and captured the character's essence extremely well. I was Team Gentry at the time. But as Ed grew older and matured, he changed under Hulswit's interpretation to the point where MH became the one and only Ed Bauer to me (just like Judith Light became the one and only Karen Wolek on OLTL when she assumed that role). When Gentry returned to TGL many years later, he no longer fit the character (IMHO), although I'd take him over Simon or RVV in a heartbeat.

5 minutes ago, zanereed said:

For example, could Hulswit's Ed take on Roger in a fist fight? Not likely, but he would absolutely try. Imagine Peter Simon as Ed Bauer in Santo Domingo chasing Roger Thorpe through the jungles in 1980. I'm just not seeing it. Hulswit's Ed might be difficult to imagine roaming around Santo Domingo, as well, but his Ed would act on complete instinct if someone he knew and loved was in danger.

I think that eventually under the Dobsons, Mike and Elizabeth would have ended up together, as would Ed and Holly. I always thought Hulswit and Garrett had good chemistry.

All of this: perfectly said. Bravo!

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by vetsoapfan

vetsoapfan knows where I stand on the Ed issue. Mart Hulswit was the most likable Ed but I just can't look at the character as a likable character. So I have sort of a mental disconnect when I see Hulswit in the role. To me, Robert Gentry best personified the role. I had no problem with him when he reprised the role because he was acting like the Ed I'm most familiar with. Basically, douchey. Peter Simon's Ed was douchey too but in more of a wimpy way. Robert Gentry's was just a cranky jerk. That's Ed to me. Hulswit was, by far, the most likable Ed but, in my opinion, Gentry was the best Ed. The less said about RVV, the better. That was just a collective bad dream we all had.

Did anyone here buy Kim Zimmer's book, "I'm Just Sayin'"? I started a Jammy binge, and I still love them after all this time. I don't care lol. But Zimmer's Reva really anchored the show. I know she goes into detail about the show's final days which were tough to get through. The shaky cameras did me in.