I must have dreamed Hutton being on GL because it sounds like only Murphy appeared on the show.

I love that the person who wrote the review had a crush on Murphy because I did, too, going back to when he was on the show Alias Smith & Jones. 😁 Another reason I probably forced myself to sit through the movie.

21 minutes ago, Soapsuds said:

Brad Pitt might not have been hired by GL, but a year later Dallas hired him in the role of Randy. His acting was nothing to write home about.

When was it ever? He's a star, not an actor.

In the right role he can be good. Usually in comedy. I liked him in Burn After Reading.

But people saying he’s due an Oscar...oh, please.

2 hours ago, DRW50 said:

A year or so before ABC had had several GH cast members playing other roles in a TV-movie with Suzanne Pleshette, but playing their soap characters I don't think was ever done.

That was 'Fantasies'

That movie's awful. It would be interesting to see the ratings on it--if that was an experiment, then I assume it failed, because I can't recall any other movies tie ins being made.

Ben appeared in a few episodes prior to The Cradle Will Fall airing to cross promote.

The problem was trying to shoehorn the GL characters into the plot of a successful novel.

Had they used a script tailored to include GL characters or adapted a book that leant itself better to incorporating the soap characters things might have been different.

However The Cradle Will fall was a ratings success airing in the final week of May sweeps and finishing at #15 for the week with a 15.5/25 rating considering it was up against a repeat of The Enforcer which ranked #8 17.6/29 and Three's Company #10 17.3/28.

Kim Zimmer - How to cry at the drop of a hat

13 hours ago, DRW50 said:

They mentioned that Elvera and John Wesley Shipp were going to return for GL's 60th in 1997. They said that Rauch stopped Elvera and John from returning.

I can't see JWS returning, but it would have been cool to see he and Lisa together. A nice chat about the past and maybe him saying, "I made the wrong choice." Elvera...I just wish they had recast Hope. One would think maybe Rauch was hedging his bets and wanted to save Hope to recast in the future, but that didn't happen. At least use Hope to usher AM and Lucy off the canvas...maybe she is running a Bauer Foundation and AM leaves the evil empire of Spaulding to work for her.

2 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

I can't see JWS returning, but it would have been cool to see he and Lisa together. A nice chat about the past and maybe him saying, "I made the wrong choice." Elvera...I just wish they had recast Hope. One would think maybe Rauch was hedging his bets and wanted to save Hope to recast in the future, but that didn't happen. At least use Hope to usher AM and Lucy off the canvas...maybe she is running a Bauer Foundation and AM leaves the evil empire of Spaulding to work for her.

That would have been a lovely scene with Kelly and Nola. And a logical ending for Alan-Michael at the time. They missed so many opportunities with Hope. Reminds me of ATWT with Frannie.

9 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

That was 'Fantasies'

That movie's awful. It would be interesting to see the ratings on it--if that was an experiment, then I assume it failed, because I can't recall any other movies tie ins being made.

Ben appeared in a few episodes prior to The Cradle Will Fall airing to cross promote.

The problem was trying to shoehorn the GL characters into the plot of a successful novel.

Had they used a script tailored to include GL characters or adapted a book that leant itself better to incorporating the soap characters things might have been different.

However The Cradle Will fall was a ratings success airing in the final week of May sweeps and finishing at #15 for the week with a 15.5/25 rating considering it was up against a repeat of The Enforcer which ranked #8 17.6/29 and Three's Company #10 17.3/28.

Thanks. Maybe even with the ratings hit they thought it was too much of a headache to try again.

There is or was a news feature on Youtube where a reporter went backstage at GH to talk with Stuart Damon and Robin Mattson about Fantasies. The clips didn't look great...

Fantasies actually did well in the ratings, ranking No. 9 for the week of Jan. 18-24, 1982. Bear in mind, though, that this was January 1982, at the time when ABC Daytime ruled the world, and the competition was weak.

M*A*S*H (No. 17), House Calls (No. 44), and People of the Year (No. 60) on CBS. The latter was a special hosted by Bob Newhart (!) about People's 25 Most Fascinating People of 1981. Over on NBC, The Long Summer of George Adams, starring James Garner. "In 1950s Oklahoma, a railroad worker's job is threatened by automation, compounding domestic problems with his wife and the ridicule he faces from the townfolks because of his second job as a watchman." It ranked at No. 40. This was when NBC's highest-ranked program was Real People (No. 13).

14 minutes ago, Franko said:

NBC's highest-ranked program was Real People (No. 13).

A decade later NBC would be appointment TV.

I looked up Fantasies. It did not have just soap stars from GH. I was pretty certain I remembered Peter Bergman in it, and looking it up confirmed that. But they also had Robert S. Woods and John Gabriel, along with Bergman, so it was ABC soap stars.

This just goes to show how strong a draw soaps were back then. There was a feature film around that time called Young Doctors in Love that was a spoof of soaps. I had the opportunity to see a raw print of the film that was shown to theater bookers because I knew someone who did that and he knew I liked soaps. It starred Michael McKean and Sean Young. It was packed with cameos by soap stars, most of them from GH, but from other shows, too, including Kin Shriner, Janine Turner, Demi Moore (yeah, they were really pushing her), Jackie Zeman, Stuart Damon, etc.

It was directed by Gary Marshall so it wasn't completely awful, but there was no, um, affection for the genre so a lot of jokes landed like lead.

BTW, the theater bookers thought it was effing hilarious. I was a representative of the audience they were making the film for and I kept looking around, thinking, "What's wrong with you people? It's not that funny." Possibly some were plants by the studios to encourange the bookers to book the film, I don't know. Definitely one of the most bizarre movie going experiences of my life.

Edited 9 hours ago9 hr by DeeVee

Fantasies from 1982 is usually known for trying to combine a typical mystery thriller with a slasher film sheen.. and decided to use soap performers being killed off one by one. It was an interesting concept and I remember thinking the murders were pretty well done (especially Mattson's)... but the identity of the killer was a letdown... and the final twist makes me wonder if Brian De Palma watched it before doing Body Double.

17 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Alan-Michael was still there, barely, at the time Mike was, but left almost immediately after.

Harley and Jenna were initially just anniversary returns.

I'm not entirely sure who I would have brought back. Maybe try to get Tom O'Rourke back as Justin and bring back Sam (recast if need be), who could be a rival for Dinah.

I would've loved to get Tom O'Rourke back.

The scenes with Quint and Ben Murphy's character are on the 5/24/83 episode. (it's also the episode where a drunk Vanessa really rips into Nola.)

Two LOL vets who may have made a decent Hope recast-- Veleka Gray and Birgitta Tolksdorf. I think SFT's Marcia McCabe could've worked as either a Hope or Trish recast. I would've tried to snag back Robin Mattsen when she was on the East Coast doing AMC.

I'm at 1995 on OLTL and KT is Tina, it would've been very soap-like for her Mindy to return as a complication for Rick and Abby. Rick and Mel were a good fit in theory, but half-hearted writing for the couple after the initial health storyline did no favors. Mel should've been a Gilly recast. I liked how Rick and Mel were a doctor couple, but they decided to make her become a lawyer instead. They could've introduced a new doctor or nurse to create a triangle with Rick and mel.

Thoughts on Claire Ramsey's 2000 return? The Claire/Rick retcon was a puzzling and creepy choice-- thank goodness they didn't go down that road but it sure looked like they were hinting at it.

Birgitta left soaps after LOL ended--she was offered a role on Y&R but declined. Then she went back to Europe for a while. Apparently, she never returned to acting. Her obituary (she passed in 2024) says she worked for Saks Fifth Avenue.

I adored her when she was on LOL, my mom and I were GLUED to the TV when she played the bigamy story with Christopher Reeve. Then the show made her into one of their heroines, but unfortunately at that point LOL was in its decline.

Veleka also seemed to leave soaps around the early 1980s. Not sure why.

I've said before I think Marcia would have been a very good Hope. When SFT went off the air GL should have snapped up both Mary Stuart and Marcia, as that was a P&G soap and they were likely still on contract. But that was in 1986 when GL was a mess with revolving door of head writers, so...

58 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Birgitta left soaps after LOL ended--she was offered a role on Y&R but declined. Then she went back to Europe for a while. Apparently, she never returned to acting. Her obituary (she passed in 2024) says she worked for Saks Fifth Avenue.

I adored her when she was on LOL, my mom and I were GLUED to the TV when she played the bigamy story with Christopher Reeve. Then the show made her into one of their heroines, but unfortunately at that point LOL was in its decline.

Veleka also seemed to leave soaps around the early 1980s. Not sure why.

I've said before I think Marcia would have been a very good Hope. When SFT went off the air GL should have snapped up both Mary Stuart and Marcia, as that was a P&G soap and they were likely still on contract. But that was in 1986 when GL was a mess with revolving door of head writers, so...

Veleka seemed to have an unhappy experience on ATWT. After that she just had Y&R.

Marcia would have been a very good Hope - maybe not bright and bubbly, but thoughtful in the way Bauers so often were.

Robin would have been a good get but she was likely better suited to Gina on Santa Barbara.

34 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Veleka seemed to have an unhappy experience on ATWT. After that she just had Y&R.

Marcia would have been a very good Hope - maybe not bright and bubbly, but thoughtful in the way Bauers so often were.

Robin would have been a good get but she was likely better suited to Gina on Santa Barbara.

I meant poached from AMC, after SB ended. She probably wouldn't want to return if offered.

GL should've remained aggressive in big casting moves (make the numbers work!). Tognoni was probably the last big soap "name" to come over to GL. P&G gave her the choice between Dinah at GL or Julia (2) on ATWT (which went to Sarah Brown). GT fit right in and won an EMMY (maybe 2?) on GL.

9 minutes ago, Spoon said:

I meant poached from AMC, after SB ended. She probably wouldn't want to return if offered.

Sorry, I misread. I do think Hope returning soon after Maureen's death could have been compelling, especially if Mike came along and we saw some of their complicated relationship, maybe different approaches in how to deal with Alan-Michael. If only JFP had been better at how she used her hires...