2 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

But I still wish they had brought back Meta at that time, have her take over the boardinghouse for Bea as a favor to Mo, and stick around to tangle with Claire and set the young people in town straight.

I think bringing back Meta (and Trudy) in almost any capacity would've been fine. So much of GL's rich history was gone by the mid-'80's; and I say that as someone who enjoyed the show back then (Johnny Bauer's cancer battle notwithstanding, lol).

5 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

And if they wanted to keep the late '80s GL spirit going, he could have hired junta fighters to try to kill Philip and Meredith for cheating on Rick.

LOL!!

I think Sara was done for as a character once she was saddled with Adam and none of the actors playing TJ stayed on long term. Had TJ been properly written for, I think she might have survived past Christmas 1982.

I think Barbara's days were numbered the moment that MG quit as Holly since it looked like Marland was slowly rebuilding the Norris family with Andy coming back to town in mid 1980 with Barbara and Holly a bit at odds over his intentions. I understood why Andy was chosen instead of Ken since he was a clean slate.. but the character became too one note and irredeemable too quickly by mid 1981 and was written out.

With that said, when looking at 1979/1980 episodes... Barbara seemed almost not needed especially with Bert there.

5 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

I think Sara was done for as a character once she was saddled with Adam and none of the actors playing TJ stayed on long term. Had TJ been properly written for, I think she might have survived past Christmas 1982.

I think Barbara's days were numbered the moment that MG quit as Holly since it looked like Marland was slowly rebuilding the Norris family with Andy coming back to town in mid 1980 with Barbara and Holly a bit at odds over his intentions. I understood why Andy was chosen instead of Ken since he was a clean slate.. but the character became too one note and irredeemable too quickly by mid 1981 and was written out.

With that said, when looking at 1979/1980 episodes... Barbara seemed almost not needed especially with Bert there.

Whenever I think of Barbara I think of the Guiding Plight where even Bert could barely tolerate her.

They didn't really make an effort with TJ - if Kevin Bacon had stayed, possibly, but he was a B-player even then. Chris Marcantel was adorable, but they could have found a proper recast when he left. Instead, there was that old-looking guy who was barely on. The casting across the show was iffy at that point anyway.

I think bad casting also killed Andy, along with lazy writing.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by DRW50

Regarding Marland and Philip, I think he missed a trick by not having Philip involved in Carrie's story. They could have had her "bad" alter find out about his paternity and nearly tell him, then had her end up in a coma after being knocked out, with various suspects (taking her back to the "Who Killed Diane?" story where she was the killer). They could have had Jackie do it and send Jackie away for a time to get a real actress in the part. Carrie then could have left Springfield in shame and fear of blurting out the truth someday.

Lots to digest here, board is moving fast!

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I remember Michael Logan mentioning all the fun times and stories with Marland that he couldn't share. Between that and the anecdote about Marland and the toilet at his home with a photo of someone's face in it, I think he was mostly very good at keeping his true self out of the press. Some of his interviews during GL seemed to be the exception. I imagine that experience ending in such an ugly way, combined with his experiences with A New Day in Eden and tangling with Agnes Nixon at Loving, humbled him a great deal. Whatever happened, I vastly prefer his work at ATWT to his work at GL.

Eh, I don't feel sorry for Marland or how his stint on GL ended.

Nobody liked the Carrie story but him and Jane Elliot. He was SO focused on it, the rest of the show was suffering. He stuck Amanda in that horrendous Mark Evans story, had Alan and Hope sidelined in their little cottage, had Vanessa acting like a cougar before anyone coined the term, turned Ross into an idiot (JVD made jokes about it, but you could tell he didn't like it), made the insane decision to kill off Jackie, stuck Kelly and Morgan in a dull "marriage vs. career" story...He was playing favorites. I'm sure most writers do that, but it was to the point that it was really hurting the show.

I believe Potter left not long after Marland quit. So it's an interesting question of how much longer he would have lasted on the show even if Potter hadn't told him Elliot was being fired. Under that scenario, would Kobe had been brought in? Would she (or any new producer) have wanted him to continue as writer?

Even though we often bash Kobe, there's no denying she and and Long (and Ryder) gave GL a big shot in the arm those first couple of years. If she had refrained from decimating most of the Dobsons' and Marland's characters...oh, the possibilities.

3 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

If they were going for a Marcy Walker/Robert Newman romance, it would've made more sense for Marcy to play a recast Morgan.

As that that was Marcy Walker biggest complaint, her character was not tied to anyone. Nor did it have any backstory. If she was Morgan, that character had a history with Josh and was connected to both the Bauer and Spaulding families

I love, love, LOVE this idea! I have frequently thought they should have brought Morgan back. Walker was just the right age at the time to play Morgan. They could have had Morgan retired from modeling and come back as an attorney, so then Ross would not have been the lone attornery in the main cast.

1 hour ago, DRW50 said:

Rick could have used a grandfather figure,

They wrote one for him for a short time--that German professor who was dying. Bert had befriended him and he was teaching Rick German.

I remember thinking, "Steve should be playing these scenes."

Maybe he was supposed to. Maybe Schnabel turned down a chance to do a short-term appearance as Steve, because it was a little strange that Bert was deeply mourning someone she knew for a very short time. Whereas if it had been STEVE...

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by DeeVee

Well, if they had asked Schnabel to return and play that story, I don't blame him if he turned them down. I wouldn't want to come back to a show that I had spent 12 years of my life on just to have my character die, lol.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

5 hours ago, CrazySexyQ said:

I couldn't make it until the end. It felt like a humiliation ritual and the dragging of a dead, smelly body. I think they had Alan Spaulding die on a park bench!

It really was like watching a corpse rotting to dust in the arid desert sun.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I still think those last years were some of Zimmer's better work in her second run...but I can see why she would prefer the years when Rauch deified her.

Rauch ultimately decimated TGL the way he had OLTL and AW. Reva the Clone was one of the biggest excrement stains in soap opera history. The majority of the Reva tales in the show's dying years were total garbage: Reva the Ghost, Reva the Amish Amnesiac, Reva the San Cristocrapian Queen, Reva the Blind, Reva the Illegal Immigrant Savoir, Reva the Clone, Reva the Time Traveller...🤢

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I remember Michael Logan mentioning all the fun times and stories with Marland that he couldn't share. Between that and the anecdote about Marland and the toilet at his home with a photo of someone's face in it, I think he was mostly very good at keeping his true self out of the press. Some of his interviews during GL seemed to be the exception. I imagine that experience ending in such an ugly way, combined with his experiences with A New Day in Eden and tangling with Agnes Nixon at Loving, humbled him a great deal. Whatever happened, I vastly prefer his work at ATWT to his work at GL.

I've always felt that General Hospital showed Marland at the top of his game and was his best work. It was astonishing how he revitalized that dying show and turned it around. Talk about soap miracles.

DM also understood and used ATWT's rich history and the importance of the Hughes family to the series and the audience. I appreciated and was grateful for that.

5 hours ago, zanereed said:

@Reverend Ruthledge , I can't argue why you liked Gentry in the role. Gentry's Ed was always intense, which absolutely worked with what they were writing from 1966 to 1969. Gentry was a great contrast to both Bill and an evolving Bert. I don't remember Gentry much as Ed, so thank goodness there is some of his work out there (though I have always wanted to see his work as Ed during his final months in 1968/1969). But as @vetsoapfan mentioned, MH was the one that, IMHO, brought into Ed some warmth along with the intensity. And Stewart definitely didn't have that Papa Bauer warmth, either.

@Mitch64 - that's interesting that they tried to get Hulswit back. Do you happen to know when this was?

@Reverend Ruthledge is 100% correct in his assessment of Robert Gentry's portrayal of Ed Bauer in the 1960s, of course, but I couldn't help but be won over by MH's much needed warmth and affability, particularly after dear Papa Bauer passed away. I preferred MH over Don Stewart, who always struck me as emotionally remote (although I never would have chosen to let Stewart go if I could help it).

I had never heard that TGL tried to lure Hulswit back. I wonder when that was and who made the decision

4 hours ago, zanereed said:

By that point, I wish Rauch had brought back both Hulswit and Stewart as Ed and Mike on contract. Hulswit for exactly the reasons you stated. For Stewart as Mike, I was amazed during the 60th Anniversary event at how many people Mike interacted with before he left for DC in 1984 that were still on the show. Plus (as I think we previously discussed), having Michelle's law-and-order uncle on the show when she was involved with the Danny and the mafia storyline would have lent more weight to it.

100%, but TIIC seemed to be allergic to making good decisions which would benifit the show.

3 hours ago, Khan said:

I've said this before, I think, but if I had had my druthers, Marcy Walker would've joined GL as Emily Mason Norris, Ken's daughter, Holly's niece and Blake's cousin; and although I would've been tempted to put her in a triangle with Phillip and Rick, I think she would've ended up marrying the latter and becoming, in essence, the newest Bauer family matriarch.

I would not have hated that idea, and it would have tied MW to core characters and used the show's history. A win-win situation.

.

17 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

I've always felt that General Hospital showed Marland at the top of his game and was his best work. It was astonishing how he revitalized that dying show and turned it around. Talk about soap miracles.

DM also understood and used ATWT's rich history and the importance of the Hughes family to the series and the audience. I appreciated and was grateful for that.

I wish all of his GH run was available. GH and ATWT seemed to be the truest templates for his talent, although he certainly had strong moments elsewhere.

38 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Lots to digest here, board is moving fast!

One of the best parts of being here the last year or so has been how active the GL thread is. I never would have guessed. Discussion of so many eras. I suppose it helps that no one is coming in here repeatedly asking why fans are giving critiques and not just remembering the good times.

I still think GL could be revived today in some format, although I know that isn't likely.