Also, remember, Long originally wanted Zas back as Alan. So with Ed/Mo on the outs (when she's inexplicably crushing on Fletcher), and if Zas had agreed to be Alan--yeah, I could see another round of Ed/Rita/Alan--and throw in a love child---HELL YEAH.

I don't think it would've mattered having Peter with Lenore. Rita had been gone for nearly a decade. Peter was (if not the definitive Ed) a helluva lot better in the role than Van Vleet. I'm not sure they would've had romantic chem, but Peter probably would've been salivating to be handed such a plum story.

But it didn't pan out, they ended up getting MG back, and then brought back a slew of fan faves the summer of '89.

10 hours ago, P.J. said:

Also, remember, Long originally wanted Zas back as Alan.

Was it Long who wanted that? I don't think so. She never worked with either Michael or Lenore, they were long gone by the time she started writing for GL (MG, too, to be fair).

I'm guessing this was a higher-up decision. She talked in interviews as if she was kind of blindsided by Zaslow coming back as Roger. I really don't think she would have said, "Hey, let's get the guy who played Roger to come back and play Alan."

(Honestly, I think she was way too intelligent to come up with a nutty idea like that; it totally sounds like the kind of idea some empty corporate suit would come up with).

10 hours ago, P.J. said:

So with Ed/Mo on the outs (when she's inexplicably crushing on Fletcher), and if Zas had agreed to be Alan--yeah, I could see another round of Ed/Rita/Alan--and throw in a love child---HELL YEAH.

Yeah, that would have been great, and it seems that might have been in the works when Bernau returned in '86.

They didn't need Zaslow to play Alan. It would have been a disaster, IMO. There were other actors. They could have found another known soap actor or looked outside of soaps. But possibly because of all the sensitivity over Bernau's exit/death, they wanted to avoid a big, public search. I don't know why they thought they had to wait FIVE YEARS, but a short wait was not uncalled for.

You're most likely right. I just associate the period with the HW. I'm terrible at remembering the rest of TIIC.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

I just associate the period with the HW. I'm terrible at remembering the rest of TIIC.

Oh, man, I HATED her back in 1983 when they purged the cast. I thought it was all her fault.

Now, hearing more of what was going on BTS, I realize she didn't have a lot of say in some of those things. And, honestly, I think she did a pretty good job with what they made her do.

Thanks @SoapDope78

These must be the start of the episodes @All My Shadows mentioned.

I can't remember if this episode has been up before and just deleted as I know '80s GL episodes/channels have gone away repeatedly. @P.J. do you remember?

1982-1989 GL went through so much turnover in the producing and writing ranks. GL was very fortunate to survive the 1980s, mainly because Capitol showed no growth and B&B wasn't a hit right away.

If it's true that Pamela K. Long wanted to bring Rita back at the same time she (and Nancy Curlee) brought Roger back, then I'd have to give the two credit for honoring history that way. So often, when a show decides to bring back a character, they hardly ever think about bringing back others whom that character was tied to as well.