1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

OR, handing the family over to the next generation.

This, IMO, is one of the many reasons it was a huge mistake to kill off Alex's son. With Amanda, Phillip, Alan Michael, and Lujack, there were plenty of players and natural conflicts between the siblings/cousins to keep the Spaulding family a powerful force in SF.

I can believe RR was good in other roles (I think he could have been a decent recast for Mike Bauer--he's even a singer like Don Stewart, LOL). He just did not have the qualities that Alan needed. He was also not helped by the writing for the character.

I commented above and somehow missed your post that said almost exactly the same thing as I did. Twins! Which of us has to be the Nick?

I’m not really opposed to Marj as Alex even full-time if there’s no RR Alan. The Alex/Alan dynamic was unpleasant to watch-it wasn’t even ever fun. Alex was creepy as hell about Alan’ love life, but also she would back Alan no matter what he did even whem it came to siding against Nick. But having one elder Spaulding on the canvas like Henry/HB were would be fine.

The show for an extended period having RR, Marj, Jay Hammer, Kim Zimmer AND Justin Deas was a much more OTT acting style and constantly in each other’s plots was a complete tonal shift from how things are where I am in 1992. (Though I am very ready for no more Mallett who I have not warmed up to and Julie should’ve turned psycho much, much earlier rather than be in long boring relationships.)

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by GL95

@DeeVee The actress that played Peggy was on a Locher Room interview and she was asked if her leaving the show was her choice, or the show's choice. She said the first time she left in 1977 was her choice because she and her hubby moved out west.. but when things didn't work out, she was bought back full time in 1979 and given next to nothing to do before she was let go the second time.

I think had Fran M opted to stay beyond 1977, the whole Roger story would have gone in a totally different direction because the Roger/Peggy connection and marriage seemed to still have a lot more mileage left in it that probably would have been explored in 1978 especially with the whole Ed/Rita/Holly situation ongoing.

When she came back in 1979, it was an odd time on the show where new stories had developed since she had left in late 1977 (The Phillip story, The Amanda story, etc) that there wasn't a place to fit her in. Had the Dobson's stayed beyond December 1979.. maybe they would have figured out where to place her.. but who knows.

42 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

She said the first time she left in 1977 was her choice because she and her hubby moved out west.. but when things didn't work out, she was bought back full time in 1979 and given next to nothing to do before she was let go the second time.

Oh, wow, that's interesting. I always wondered why it seemed like she came back briefly to support Roger during the rape trial, but she also was behind the nurse's desk at Cedars. Damn missing episodes.

1977 the show was half an hour and then in 1979 it's an hour and there are a bunch of new characters she has no connection to. It's not odd that she got left out of the mix.

On 1/19/2026 at 8:06 PM, Speed Racer said:

What appears to be a mid-1990s version of Springfield's family trees can be found here:

The Guiding Light FAQ, Part 3

It's pretty decent. AlwaysAMC and GL95 take note.

Ohhh this is very helpful, thank you!

On 1/20/2026 at 11:20 AM, CrazySexyQ said:

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.

On 1/20/2026 at 1:34 PM, DRW50 said:

@alwaysAMC wrote a lot about the book while reading through it last year.

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.

On 1/20/2026 at 1:43 PM, 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!

Thanks. Much appreciated. I'll look for those posts.

Yep, thanks @DRW50 :)

I bought the book on Amazon last year and posted summaries of each chapter. I found it to be a really interesting read. She didn't really hold back much at all.

@GL95 I think that's why I hated Carmen so much. The character was basically RR's Alan. Sociopath, who you really felt little to no remorse or sympathy for unlike Zas's Roger for example. They just come off one-dimensional and cartoonish.

33 minutes ago, Spoon said:

@GL95 I think that's why I hated Carmen so much. The character was basically RR's Alan. Sociopath, who you really felt little to no remorse or sympathy for unlike Zas's Roger for example. They just come off one-dimensional and cartoonish.

The writing of course did him no favors-they didn’t make Alan an underdog even for a minute once he’s released from prison. If he’d faced much of any friction getting his standing back maybe there’s a little vulnerability there? I think one mistake too they make with the worst villains is making revenge the primary motive more than actually wanting something. Someone getting desperate to get something they want badly is so much more compelling than hurting someone who wronged you. Alan is so often just trying to hurt people without really getting much from it. At least with Roger there’s generally a clear goal pre-1996 or so.

4 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Someone up thread mentioned Mike's women..does anyone remember when Reva first hit town she was flirting with Mike? I remember her in a big fur coat sitting on his desk...(why...was he lawyer to her to get a divorce from Billy?) I just watched some of the 60th anniversary episodes..and Reva is just walking away from yet another argument with Annie, and she closes paths with Lillian and Mike walking by, and she looks surprised and quickly waves. I wonder if that was Kimmer remembering that she knew him, etc (Kimmer looks great during the anniversary episodes I must say.)

When she first came to town, Reva flirted with all the men. Billy tried to hustle her out of town because he didn't want her to meet Vanessa. HB takes Reva to the club where she dances with practically everyone there, including Henry and Ross. Mike is Reva's and Vanessa's lawyer at the time. Reva wanted to buy Vanessa's apartment, and introduced herself to Van as Anita Ruiz. I think Vanessa signs the papers and then snoops through a file on Mike's desk and finds out she's actually Reva. Boy, was she pissed. She charges out just as Billy is calling Mike to verify that Reva's going to give him a divorce. Mike verifies that she is, and he tries warning Billy that Van's coming his way, but he misunderstands. Van finds Billy and Reva drinking champagne to their divorce and dancing. Van pours champagne in Reva's shoe and slams out on them. It's hilarious.

11 minutes ago, GL95 said:

I think one mistake too they make with the worst villains is making revenge the primary motive more than actually wanting something. Someone getting desperate to get something they want badly is so much more compelling than hurting someone who wronged you. Alan is so often just trying to hurt people without really getting much from it. At least with Roger there’s generally a clear goal pre-1996 or so.

This is a really good point. Alan's "villainy." from the moment he was introduced was not solely about getting back at people. Definitely that was part of it--he wanted to get back at his father because of unnamed things his father did to him growing up. He wanted to get back at Elizabeth and Mike because he didn't want to lose control of Phillip and even though he didn't love Elizabeth, he was offended that SHE left HIM.

But what really drove Alan most of the time was having to cover up something he did that was underhanded, or not exactly legal, although he would tell himself he did it for good reasons, (i.e. doing the baby switch when Elizabeth's baby was born dead). He was usually busy hiding something he did in the past, and that would force him to do more bad things, that he would also have to hide.

For instance, he ordered his lawyer to pay someone to say he had an affair with Elizabeth so he would have a better chance to gain custody of Phillip. The witness swore on two affadavits--one claiming he had the affair with Elizabeth, one where he admits he was paid to lie about it. His lawyer, behaving kind of like the knights who murdered Thomas Becket because the king made an off-handed comment that he wanted to get rid of him, kills the guy they hired to lie. Alan didn't ASK him to do it, but he would have been implicated.

Then the lawyer is killed, and Alan's like, PHEW, got out of THAT one!

Only ROGER found the affadavits. So he he starts blackmailing Alan. And Alan has to do a bunch of things at Roger's command, like promoting him, letting him keep his job when he's accused of rape, etc. He keeps trying to convince Roger to take a job in Hong Kong so he can sweep him under the rug, but Roger won't do it.

Then Holly shoots Roger. Roger, certain he's going to be convicted of rape, orders Alan to help him fake his death. Which he does. And he thinks, hey, I'm in the clear again! Unfortunately, this makes him partially responsible for Holly going to jail for "killing" Roger. Too bad, he's about protecting himself.

Only Mike is suspicous and also upset because Hope is involved with Alan. So he has the "Roger's" body exhumed and everyone is shocked that it's not Roger.

MEANWHILE, Roger is in France and calls Alan and tells him he's coming back because he wants his daughter Christina. While Roger doesn't get his hands on her, a pregnant Rita sees him, and Roger kidnaps HER. Now Alan is partially resonsible for Rita's kidnapping and for the fact that she almost burns to death in the cabin Roger left her in, eventually losing her baby.

(This is the kind of thing that irks me about Marland. We NEVER got reveals where people gave Alan sh!t for the terrible things that happened to them because he was looking out for himself. Rita, Holly, and Hope should have torn him a new one multiple times. I don't think even Elizabeth told him off when she found out the truth about Phillip. That said, Marland did do a good job of keeping Alan consistent, until he had him punished and "redeemed").

Anyway, see what I'm saying? His villainy was his impulse ALWAYS for self-preservation, EVEN if he felt kind of bad about it. He tried to stop Roger from taking Christina, but only in ways that wouldn't have exposed his complicity.

He wasn't a good guy (though he had some good impulses) but he was a way more interesting and complex guy than the Alan RR played. (Not blaming RR for that; he didn't write the scripts).

Edited 17 minutes ago17 min by DeeVee