4 hours ago, Spoon said:

Making Maureen infertile limited options for the character, she should've had a miracle baby in the 90s. Mindy was also infertile and her character was sidelined, we've seen it in on other soaps. Alice on AW, Macy on B&B.

I disagree. AFAIC, Maureen was an open book, especially post Ed/Lillian. GL95 came up with the great idea of having Maureen and AM (with whom Maureen bristled) go to work for Roger. A TON of possibilities there for Maureen's development.

A lack of imagination is what limits a character.

For those who said that Terry Lester would have been a great re-cast for Alan Spaulding - I just stumbled on this article, that Terry Lester was offered a role on GL, but turned it down because he wanted to work with Douglas Marland

The GL role? It was for Buzz Cooper! (article below) Now you might say with JFP as EP, that is impossible that Lester was the first choice. But JFP only has so much sway, the network has the final say, and they wanted Lester back on their soaps. As he was a bigger name than Justin Deas

8 hours ago, DRW50 said:

@alwaysAMC Thanks for your latest recap.

I think the Santoses were responsible for Charles' heart attack, although I can't remember if it was said at the time.

Glad they finally remembered the Selena and Abby connection. I also like seeing Abby have her own voice again, which will continue.

I will say Danny was very dumb for taking Michelle back to the home of a woman who had repeatedly tried to kill her.

Is Beth Ehlers back as Harley yet? Those gender reveal scenes with Philip would have been fun in her hands, once upon a time.

So I just checked my notes... the last time we saw Charles was in July/August of 1998 (almost a year ago!). He was at the Bauer BBQ for July 4th. He fell ill and people thought he was having a heart attack, but it was actually a stroke. He was in the hospital for a bit and this is when David Grant came back to town and Vicky was also new. They both visit him in the hospital and that's the last we see of Charles. Now, in June 1999, we hear that he suspends Rick (offscreen) for his role in "kidnapping" Michelle, and then David randomly tells Vicky that the Santos family hurt Charles. I'm hoping there is more to this story coming haha.

Nope, Beth Ehlers isn't back yet! She's missed so many pivotal moments - introducing Susan to Dylan, Reva's bachelorette and then the Jeva wedding, gender reveal of her baby, the aftermath of the diner fire (Beth's last scene was the diner on fire and Susan being rescued).

I'm now into early July and we're finally in San Cristobel! The location shoot in Puerto Rico so far looks really nice - I'm excited to see how long it lasts (the location shoot only - I know San Cristobel lasts for years which is wild).

6 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

I disagree. AFAIC, Maureen was an open book, especially post Ed/Lillian. GL95 came up with the great idea of having Maureen and AM (with whom Maureen bristled) go to work for Roger. A TON of possibilities there for Maureen's development.

A lack of imagination is what limits a character.

Let me make super clear that I don't disagree with this. Absolutely, the lack of children isn't what makes a character, especially a woman, less interesting. Hope had a kid and she was a pretty blah character, at least when Marland wrote her. If anything, it was that child that kept her off the canvas permanently.

But children on soaps are important for two reasons: as plot devices and as a way to keep core families alive over the many decades that soaps exist.

Giving Maureen fertility issues was a plot device so that when Ed got another woman pregnant, it would be even more of a big deal.

In the beginning, they left it open that it was possible for Maureen to still have kids, but that it would be difficult. Then over the following years, there was a revolving door of head writers, and it became murky what the original intent was.

It should have been the central conflict between Ed and Maureen. FFS, Maureen was raising his child with another woman! He also, IIRC, never allowed Maureen to adopt Michelle. I believe this was brought up the one time they separated. (Because, heaven's to Betsy, he saw Maureen KISS Fletcher). He came up with a million excuses for why he didn't want more kids. All the time knowing that was the one thing Mo wanted the most. (PS's Ed was hard to take, and it wasn't just PS's fault. Ed was written as a total jerk most of the time).

Frankly, I love both ideas: Maureen having a surprise miracle baby AND leaving Ed to work for his dire enemy, Roger. Maybe Roger would help her hide her pregnancy, or even let Ed believe he was the father. He could also help her out in any custody dispute over Michelle.

Sweet revenge indeed.

This way we have a new Bauer/Reardon baby to bolster both core families, and Mo gets the chance to grow as a character, instead doing things just to please Ed. She could still be the matriarch, but a stronger and less sappy one.

3 hours ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

For those who said that Terry Lester would have been a great re-cast for Alan Spaulding - I just stumbled on this article, that Terry Lester was offered a role on GL, but turned it down because he wanted to work with Douglas Marland

I was going to say, "No way, he was too young to play Alan." And he was, but then I looked it up and he was actually older than Ron Raines. So probably no matter who they cast, they would have de-aged Alan.

I have a much harder time imagining him as Buzz. Other than not having any physical similarity to CB, Lester did have a lot of the qualities Alan needed. We know he can play the ruthless but charming manipulator with the patrician air because he did that on Y&R. But playing a blue collar guy like Buzz who was crazy for motorcycles? Hmmm...I can't see it. Maybe they would have written Buzz a little differently to suit Terry better.

1 minute ago, DeeVee said:

I was going to say, "No way, he was too young to play Alan." And he was, but then I looked it up and he was actually older than Ron Raines. So probably no matter who they cast, they would have de-aged Alan.

Chris Bernau was born in 1940. Ron Raines was born in 1949. Terry Lester was born in 1950.

I can't think of any big soap names available in 1994 that were close to CB birth year.

1 minute ago, kalbir said:

Chris Bernau was born in 1940. Ron Raines was born in 1949. Terry Lester was born in 1950.

I can't think of any big soap names available in 1994 that were close to CB birth year.

LOL, actors are always lying about their age. I saw different source that said Raines was born in 1952. I've also seen some that said Bernau was born in 1938.

At any rate, Lester and Raines were significantly younger than he was. That's not an unusually occurance with soap recasts.

26 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

I was going to say, "No way, he was too young to play Alan." And he was, but then I looked it up and he was actually older than Ron Raines. So probably no matter who they cast, they would have de-aged Alan.

I have a much harder time imagining him as Buzz. Other than not having any physical similarity to CB, Lester did have a lot of the qualities Alan needed. We know he can play the ruthless but charming manipulator with the patrician air because he did that on Y&R. But playing a blue collar guy like Buzz who was crazy for motorcycles? Hmmm...I can't see it. Maybe they would have written Buzz a little differently to suit Terry better.

OMG---this is me this morning, reading that! I thought there's NO WAY. And to find out, eh...it's not as far off as I thought. It would've been fabulous having Terry on the show (it was fabulous having him on ATWT.) But his Buzz would've been drastically different from Justin Deas' version. Lester and Frankie D would've at least looked like they came from the same gene pool. And maybe more easily believable as a ladies' man. But I don't think Lester would've stayed that long. He seemed to be a dude who would've spoken his mind about stories or BTS goings on and said "adios" when he'd had enough.

And I can't really imagine Lester opposite either Jean Carol or Frankie D.

I can imagine him as Alan, but mostly because Jack Abbott was a younger version of Alan.

Re: Maureen, (and I feel this was brought up before), but were Claire's parental rights to Michelle terminated?

38 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Re: Maureen, (and I feel this was brought up before), but were Claire's parental rights to Michelle terminated?

Didn't she do it after her brain tumor was removed and she left with that doctor?

39 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I can imagine him as Alan, but mostly because Jack Abbott was a younger version of Alan.

I'm warming up to this idea. At first it was, nope, he doesn't physically fit the part. But he does in almost every other way.

I don't think they were looking for an Alan recast yet when they brought in Buzz.

Anyway, yeah, probably he would not have stuck around, no matter who they cast him as.

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Let me make super clear that I don't disagree with this. Absolutely, the lack of children isn't what makes a character, especially a woman, less interesting. Hope had a kid and she was a pretty blah character, at least when Marland wrote her. If anything, it was that child that kept her off the canvas permanently.

But children on soaps are important for two reasons: as plot devices and as a way to keep core families alive over the many decades that soaps exist.

Giving Maureen fertility issues was a plot device so that when Ed got another woman pregnant, it would be even more of a big deal.

In the beginning, they left it open that it was possible for Maureen to still have kids, but that it would be difficult. Then over the following years, there was a revolving door of head writers, and it became murky what the original intent was.

It should have been the central conflict between Ed and Maureen. FFS, Maureen was raising his child with another woman! He also, IIRC, never allowed Maureen to adopt Michelle. I believe this was brought up the one time they separated. (Because, heaven's to Betsy, he saw Maureen KISS Fletcher). He came up with a million excuses for why he didn't want more kids. All the time knowing that was the one thing Mo wanted the most. (PS's Ed was hard to take, and it wasn't just PS's fault. Ed was written as a total jerk most of the time).

Frankly, I love both ideas: Maureen having a surprise miracle baby AND leaving Ed to work for his dire enemy, Roger. Maybe Roger would help her hide her pregnancy, or even let Ed believe he was the father. He could also help her out in any custody dispute over Michelle.

Sweet revenge indeed.

This way we have a new Bauer/Reardon baby to bolster both core families, and Mo gets the chance to grow as a character, instead doing things just to please Ed. She could still be the matriarch, but a stronger and less sappy one.

Nice. I never understood why Ed was against Maureen adopting Michelle. Claire wasn't around anymore. Few were more maternal than Maureen.

Was this some kind of initial confluct expected to be resolved with Maureen taking over? She did anyway but not legally. Another otline/confluct lost to the previous muses.

Edited 15 minutes ago15 min by Stevel
Typo

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

LOL, actors are always lying about their age. I saw different source that said Raines was born in 1952. I've also seen some that said Bernau was born in 1938.

At any rate, Lester and Raines were significantly younger than he was. That's not an unusually occurance with soap recasts.

I have actually met Daniel Pilon a few times. He was part of my mother-in-law's circle of friends. She was closer to his bother Daniel, also an actor, who I had met more often. He said the money was so good but taking that role was the worst decision of his life. He did not elaborate beyond that except to say that trying to cover his lovely but obvious Quebecois accent with every word was most difficult.

Edited 13 minutes ago13 min by Stevel
More typos. Excuse my swollen arthritic fingers

5 minutes ago, Stevel said:

I have actually met Daniel Pilon a few times. He was part of my mother-in-law's circle of friends. She was closer to his bother Daniel, also an actor, who I had met more often. He said the money was so good but taking that role was the worst decision of his life. He did not elaborate beyond that except to say that trying to cover his lovely but obvious Quèbecois accent with every word was most difficult.

This does not surprise me AT ALL.

He was thrown into a very delicate situation, where TPTB were pretending CB was going to come back at some point. CB was very popular and people were worried about him, and even under the best of circumstances being a replacement for a popular actor is often hell. (Ask Liz Keifer about that).

I read in interview with him that he was also doing Ryan's Hope at the time, at least in the beginning. That couldn't have been fun, either.

Oh, I feel so bad. One of the things that bothered me about him as Alan was his accent! 😂 Poor guy.