9 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Now that would have been interesting! I loved Teresa on AMC (Gloria ended up being a great character). She had good chemistry with Grant A. when they were on together.

Oh, yeah, I forgot he was on AMC around that time!

I don't know, though. Phillip and Alan sharing another woman? Ew.

(She wouldn't have been the last one, either).

6 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

I read somewhere that it was between Signy Coleman and Teresa Blake (Gloria Marsh AMC) for the role. In an interview with the Locher Room, Signy's ex-husband (Vincent Irizarry) claims he pulled some string for Signy to get the part. Because he wanted his daughter on the East Coast, and that would happen if Signy got a role of a NY Soap.

Teresa Blake would have been a good choice considering that her character on AMC had been a nurse, had lost a child, and had tried to poison/kill Adam Chandler.. her approach was an interesting mix of OTT/subtlety that made her kind of scary.

I think she could have put her own spin on Annie Dutton and made her somewhat closer to the essence of Annie Dutton as played by Cynthia.

3 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I really don't think Kobe was interested in Nola and Quint. I don't think she was really interested in any of the Reardons, to be honest.

I think that's true. She eventually created her own ethnic/blue collar family.

I still say a great opportunity was missed by not having the Coopers and Reardons being connected as old schoolmates and neighbors. Some interesting backstories could have been used to create new stories.

But we're supposed to believe Buzz was involved with Alan, Billy, Josh, and Ed when he was young. 🙄

53 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That was a major problem for soaps that introduced these kinds of non-soap-like characters. What do you do with them once their initial story runs out? One day they wake up and they're living in some podunk town with nothing to do because they've settled down and married and maybe had a baby and can't go on adventures anymore.

GH sort of solved that by making their adventure characters cops. But I can't see Quint as a cop, and anyway GL had more than enough by the 90s.

Didn't they make him a teacher for a while? But for some reason teachers never work on soap operas, unless you set the whole soap in a school, Degrassi-style.

I suppose they could have involved him in business through Henry and Vanessa. He was a Spaulding stockholder but then he got rid of his stock, IIRC.

Yeah, the minute he and Nola married, the clock was ticking on his character.

I hate to say this, but they probably should have killed Quint off soon after he and Nola married. That would have freed Nola and opened up many new storyline possibilities for her. Then the show would not have lost Lisa Brown.

But who knows if Kobe & Co. were interested in retaining her?

If I recall, Quint wasn't supposed to be a super long term character, but due to his chemistry with Nola.. Marland switched gears. Had Marland not thrown a tantrum and quit, who knows if he could have incorporated Quint into the main show long term since his story arc was ongoing when he threw his tantrum.

However, Guiding Light seemed to have this issue with keeping characters on long beyond their expiration date such as:

Quint (unpopular opinion, but I think Quint/Nola should have left town after their June 1983 wedding)

Helena

India (She should have left in 1986 once Phillip dumped her, not been kept on until 1987. Her 1990 stint was four months or so and was effective, her 1998-1999 stint made no sense, her 2002 and 2005 visits were short and satisfying)

Jenna (Jenna 1st stint was perfect and ended at the righ time. Jenna 2nd stint started strong and her character was declawed).

Reva (I'll always say this, but she should have remained dead after driving off the bridge in 1990).

Richard

Edmund

Cyrus

Grady

For some odd reason, I didn't mind Olivia being on the show even though she had that regal vibe to her character that made her not fit into Springfield.. but she actually had a good run (Her briefly meeting India in 2002 made me wonder what could have been if India had extended her stay past a few episodes)

3 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Quint (unpopular opinion, but I think Quint/Nola should have left town after their June 1983 wedding)

The way things worked out that probably would have been for the best. The show dismantled their whole little group, which was one of the best things about the relationship, but kept them. I guess they didn't want the backlash of firing them immediately so just waited for Michael and Lisa to want to leave due to poor use.

You're right that many did hang on, which is part of the peril of an hour long soap. With a few exceptions, like Lillian, you just see the character slowly die.

19 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I think that's true. She eventually created her own ethnic/blue collar family.

I still say a great opportunity was missed by not having the Coopers and Reardons being connected as old schoolmates and neighbors. Some interesting backstories could have been used to create new stories.

But we're supposed to believe Buzz was involved with Alan, Billy, Josh, and Ed when he was young. 🙄

It's kind of hard to believe that Nadine and Maureen didn't know each other. I would've said they were about the same age in the early '90's. Then again, the soap convention would've been to make them friends, and I would've hated to see Maureen have to befriend that harridan.

16 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

If I recall, Quint wasn't supposed to be a super long term character, but due to his chemistry with Nola..

Reva (I'll always say this, but she should have remained dead after driving off the bridge in 1990).

I'm not sure Quint was meant to be as quirky as they made him, but he had to have been slated to be Henry's son.

No argument from me about Reva---but I know that's not the prevailing opinion.

19 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I'm not sure Quint was meant to be as quirky as they made him, but he had to have been slated to be Henry's son.

For some reason GL was into gothic storylines at the time. Gothic novels were super-popular back then. (I had a friend who kept trying to force me to read them). The previous one was the Lucille Wexler/Amanda story. That ended with Lucille's death. The Quint story was meant to replace that.

Quint was originally this super-mysterious, almost creepy guy who live in a creepy house. Like in all good gothic tomes, Nola was the "innocent" who went to work for the creepy guy and ends up falling in love with him.

Maybe they were going to do a twist on the story because Marland said Kelly and Nola were his endgame. Maybe Quint was going to be the villain or spoiler for them.

But of course what happened is Quint and Nola caught on. Maybe Quint was always meant to be a Chamberlain, but a more villainous one.

At what point did Marland change direction re Kelly/Nola?

Weren't Morgan/Kelly the supercouple with Nola as the spoiler a la Scott/Laura/Bobbie, Steve/Alice/Rachel etc.

With the villainess reforming a finding love elsewhere?

Nothing in the story suggested that Kelly and Nola were endgame unless it was going to be several years down the track.

Would Kelly decide Morgan was too immature or was the plan for Morgan to be swept away by Josh or a similar character and Kelly move onto Nola and his child? and then find out Stacey was not his?

9 minutes ago, Paul Raven said:

At what point did Marland change direction re Kelly/Nola?

Weren't Morgan/Kelly the supercouple with Nola as the spoiler a la Scott/Laura/Bobbie, Steve/Alice/Rachel etc.

With the villainess reforming a finding love elsewhere?

Nothing in the story suggested that Kelly and Nola were endgame unless it was going to be several years down the track.

Would Kelly decide Morgan was too immature or was the plan for Morgan to be swept away by Josh or a similar character and Kelly move onto Nola and his child? and then find out Stacey was not his?

I wouldn't be surprised if the material we saw with Kelly lashing out at Morgan and Josh on the island and leaving them there would have originally been their end and he would have gravitated toward Nola.

6 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Nothing in the story suggested that Kelly and Nola were endgame unless it was going to be several years down the track.

Hey, I agree, but apparently this was Marland's ultimate plan.

Remember that Lisa became kind of his muse and he went to a lot of trouble to showcase her talents (the elaborate fantasy scenes, to the point where she even did musical numbers) and to redeem Nola from the manipulative villainess she started out as. So I don't think it's that unbelievable that he eventually wanted her with his male muse.

Personally, I think she would have been brought down even more by seriously pairing her with Kelly than with Quint, but we'll never know how he meant to play it out.

I don't know at what point Marland would've thought Kelly/Nola were endgame. As he said in an interview, he created Kelly/Morgan because that's what his neice wanted to see (and no doubt, to play off Scotty/Laura). Maybe he thought that would just be a summer romance, and Kelly/Nola would get involved? Then when Kelly/Morgan took off, he revamped?

I don't think Marland would've ever considered Josh a guy to sweep Morgan off her feet. His Josh was a sleeze.

I guess Quint could've either been a red herring where Henry's son was concerned. Or maybe a little more of a match for Vanessa as originally conceived. Instead of the purse holder he morphed into.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by P.J.

10 minutes ago, P.J. said:

As he said in an interview, he created Kelly/Morgan because that's what his neice wanted to see (and no doubt, to play off Scotty/Laura). Maybe he thought that would just be a summer romance, and Kelly/Nola would get involved? Then when Kelly/Morgan took off, he revamped?

Perhaps he thought Kelly and Morgan would suffer the same fate as Scotty and Laura. Married too young, then they would split off into more mature storylines.

Maybe he thought Josh would be his Luke? (Yeah, right, LOL).

From what Kristen Vigard has said, the whole Kelly/Morgan thing was engraved in stone because they shot the wedding on location way, way before it aired. Which is why they had to keep her until it aired.

If they hadn't been stuck with that trajectory the story might have played out differently as Marland was clearly more inspired by Nola than Morgan.

You do (or at least I do) what Marland thought about Josh's turnaround/Robert Newman after Josh and Reva got huge. I don't think DM was very inspired by him either.