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.

On 4/2/2026 at 8:06 PM, DRW50 said:

Another tidbit (I hope the fans who like to talk about the old days can see this)

Someone in the chat mentioned that they used to talk to Elvera Roussel but haven't in years. They mentioned that CBS fought for Elvera when Kobe/Long wanted her out. CBS said she's promoting a movie for us (the TV-movie various GL actors were in at the time), give her 13 weeks. So Kobe/Long did. Then 13 weeks later they fired Elvera.

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.

Sorry, what chat are you talking about? Any discussion of BTS drama from the years TGL got decimated would interest me very much. Was this a Youtube chat, or what? Thanks in advance.

20 minutes ago, vetsoapfan said:

Sorry, what chat are you talking about? Any discussion of BTS drama from the years TGL got decimated would interest me very much. Was this a Youtube chat, or what? Thanks in advance.

Sorry - this was in the Locher Room chat for his recent interview with Carl Tye Evans.

28 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Sorry - this was in the Locher Room chat for his recent interview with Carl Tye Evans.

Do you know how to get a transcript? I'd like to read the whole thing, too.

9 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Do you know how to get a transcript? I'd like to read the whole thing, too.

You can see the comments in the chat replay, I think.

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

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?

Yes, it's up on utube and it's in the vault. I remember it for the Billy/Phillip scene. It's shortly after Vanessa leaves him, and it ends with Billy finding Reva/Josh and Phillip meeting India.

From what I understand about the whole Zas as Alan becoming Roger Thorpe was that I believe the higher ups wanted Zas to come back as Alan, but that either Zas or someone else said that he would be too associated with Roger Thorpe to work as Alan Spaulding.

If they were deciding this before having Daniel Pilon come on, then that would have been during the writer strike while Long/Curlee were not on the writing staff.. and if it was after the writer strike.. then I could imagine Long panicking because anything she had planned she couldn't do because of the five month long strike and her not knowing the Roger Thorpe character would have probably approved his casting as Alan.

From the tidbits I've heard on Locher Room interviews, whenever Long is mentioned.. it usually is mentioned as someone that will listen to ideas from other people and if one is inspirational.. she'll map out a concept. Curlee had stated she was the one to convince Long to write Roger/Holly back onto the show and that both of them watched the 4/1/1980 episode to see if there was any indication that Roger hit the ground and decided there wasn't so proceeded with bringing him back. The story bringing him back up to the wedding wasn't Curlee's idea so I think that was Long's idea.. and it was an odd idea, but it fit with Roger (since he did love disguises, and a mask would be easier to pull off).

23 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Yes, it's up on utube and it's in the vault. I remember it for the Billy/Phillip scene. It's shortly after Vanessa leaves him, and it ends with Billy finding Reva/Josh and Phillip meeting India.

Thanks. I forgot about checking The Vault.