1 hour ago, alwaysAMC said:

I've seen this before and I've said this before... but the timing seems odd to me. Granted, I say this without seeing 1993-1994 haha. But for me, 1995 was so exciting. I'm guessing they convinced Kim to come back to save the show, but I'm curious if her return and Brent/Marian boosted ratings at all. For me, this cancel concern should have come in 1996. That year was generally boring and I don't think Phillip's return was helpful considering it was a dud. I like Phillip, but his return storyline just wasn't that interesting.

I was surprised that GL was in cancel territory when Laibson came on board. I do know that it was under SERIOUS consideration in the Summer of 96 when the ratings dropped below AW. Rauch was brought in to save it but the real reason GL limped on is that the Bell soap never saw the light of day.

I do like that the writers asked why TPTB let JFP run havoc over GL. But also why McLaiby kept the focus on Buzz and the Coopers for so long leading into the terrible "Save 5th Street" storyline with Deas waving his arms and yelling day in and day out. Why not just get writers in to make GL..GL again instead of going for a costly new production which will be a shot in the dark. GL was a brand name..so fix it.

One wise things that JFP did was to refuse to bring back Reva on a permanent basis. But Kim got her fans in a frenzy and I can see why McLaiby would bring her back and have Brent/Marion...as one soap columnist said, "To bang the drum loudly."

@alwaysAMC I think in 1995, it was more about expanding B&B and GL was just the low man on the totem pole. Thankfully b&b didn't expand, although it seemed like a logical move at the time.

Even when GL was bad in 2001, you'd occasionally get a glimmer of hope like with Taggart/Culliton in 2002 or very early Kreizman in 2004. IMO, the show was cooked when they let JvD walk and LW left for GH around the end of 2005. That and terrible casting choices, which GL used to excel at. There was little rootability by the time they got to Jersey and it became the Jeffrey O'Neil show.

In regards to Reva and her four children, I think Jonathan was most like her in personality and how he reacted to conflict.

I liked that the show originally had Marah being more like Josh, which was a nice contrast with Reva, until that overly animated/OTT Laura Bell Bundy briefly took over. Her Marah was a very amped up Reva without any of Reva's positive traits. Mckeon's Marah was probably the most Josh like in terms of personality especially with her Marah being judgmental like her father. Other than Bundy, the other actresses at least have the same essence/aura.

Shayne changed based on whomever was playing the character.

Dylan was so low key and chill... so unlike Billy or Reva. Perhaps he had a bit of his uncle Rusty or his aunt Trish in him.

In regards to the Coopers:

Frank was used pretty well/written to the actor's strengths from 1987/88 to about 95/96 until he was made a cop and basically put onto the backburner. I actually think Buzz coming back in 1993 began the loss of focus/function of Frank's character since he was the protective older brother and resentful son of the flaky Nadine.

Early Lucy, they tried at first to make her fiesty like Harley and the actress couldn't play that so the writers focused more on being more naive/innocent. I know that her and A-M were heavily slanted as a couple from the time she came on until at least May/June 1994 (by the Bauer Barbeque 1994.. the two were broken up). I also think the writing team changing quite a bit also affected how Lucy was used and so they went more on chemistry vs actual story during the 2nd half of 1994 hence why her pairing with Matt was stopped because of his chemistry with Vanessa.

I think Frank was actually well-used in the final year or two when he was the spoilers for Otalia. His first real romance in ages, not counting that dayplayer h@@ker, darcy from the garden of eden arc. Conjob kept putting dayplayers/ minor characters in the forefront. So aggravating! Like mark pinter's 2nd GL character the senator or Colleen dion's madam character.

4 hours ago, Khan said:

In retrospect, CBS probably should've pulled the plug. Instead, TPTB kept hoping GL would get better...until they realized it wouldn't.

The P&G shows were not in a good place creatively in June 1994 (the start of OJ). As we saw in the 1990s ratings thread, the P&G shows were the bottom tier by the end of 1995. The P&G shows were effectively over in the aftermath of OJ.

In that same era CBS was dealing with losing affiliates in major media markets and the sale to Westinghouse.

3 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

I was surprised that GL was in cancel territory when Laibson came on board. I do know that it was under SERIOUS consideration in the Summer of 96 when the ratings dropped below AW. Rauch was brought in to save it but the real reason GL limped on is that the Bell soap never saw the light of day.

I believe the cancel rumors first started in the early months of 1995 but really intensified in 1996. 1995 and 1996 B&B looked like it was preparing to expand to 1 hour (I'm guessing the expansion was to coincide with the 10th anniversary in March 1997) but as we all know that didn't happen.