I recall Vigard stating that she was in school at the same time as she was filming GL.. and neither would accommodate the other. So that could have been why she was always late because she had to figure out how to slip out of her classes at school to get to work.

In regards to Janet Gray and her signing another contract, I think she did that in mid 1982 right before Marland was leaving. I'm sure he would have written her as either becoming a replacement mom for Phillip/Sam with her possibly dating Justin.. or he would have written Ben/Evie reconciling slowly. Her character just got lost in the shuffle with the various head-writing/EP changes and they just wrote her in enough to fulfil whatever her guaranteed days were on her contract and eventually once Long/Culliton were officially head-writers, they just dropped her character.

10 hours ago, Stevel said:

Rita talking to her shrink about her attraction to Alan was riveting.

Is that online somewhere? I remember being very impressed, but remember none of the particulars.

13 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

Yep! They just mentioned his name being Sam. He's the same guy that arrived as Annie exited - he called the cops when Alan/India showed up. He was supposed to teach Lizzie how to ride horses with Annie.

I learned this a few months ago when I did some research on Blanchard. I was so happy to read that she won the Emmy. She's really strong on GL in 1999 and I'm so glad the character was finally given good material. Drew came on with Sugar Hill and I just don't think Taye Diggs could handle the soap grind. He messed up a few times and then out of nowhere, his character and storyline was gone. Then Marcus and Dahlia basically dropped out because that storyline dropped... so Drew was sort of lingering around until they put her in Michelle and Jesse's orbit. Once they started the Selena story with her, she really had some good material to chew on and showcase her talents.

This was the only week of GL that I watched in 1999...I was home sick with the flu.

Wiggin and Garrett had a very discernable, solid chemistry, and Garrett seemed to be really enjoying herself. I liked this a lot. Of course, any story of merit wasn't to remain in Springfield if it didn't involve Reva or the mob.

I also watched about two weeks of 2002 (I think) when there was sudden market praise about a change of writers, and how rapidly things were improving. I witnessed Garrett and Simon having great, extended scenes together. Then, anything worth watching was quickly vaporized and I turned off the show again. Being insulted by "entertainment" is not something I stick around for. Show me some intelligence and manipulate the hell out of me, and I'll stick around as a viewer.

I really admire those who stuck through the final 15 years.

In my online viewing I skipped ahead from Nancy Curlee departure in March 1994 to Michael Zaslow last episode in April 1997 to clip sets of Annie Dutton psycho turn (witness stand breakdown, overdose, exit storyline). I didn't watch anything past Annie Dutton parachuting off the plane.

10 hours ago, P.J. said:

Nearly two years seems like a long time to hold on to hope Lenore would return. I could see Marland writing her---Long not so much. Long was into "big, showy" emotions. Rita wasn't that way.

No, Lenore wasn't going to come back. I always assumed they would recast.

Once Marland left, it was very unlikely Rita would come back in any form because he was the last writer who wrote for the character. Long only wrote Holly and Roger because of the unique situation where Zaslow was asked to return as Alan and he asked to return as Roger instead. She talked about how difficult that was in interviews. (I mean, look at what happened to Dinah, Alan and Amanda when they returned to writers who never wrote the characters before. Only Reva was kind of still Reva. The rest were like different characters).

They teased Rita coming back once or twice. There is a scene in 1987 where Alan and Ed are having a fight and they bring up Rita. It seemed odd that they mentioned her out of the blue like that so possibly they thought about bringing her back. I'm thinking it's possible they might have been planning to bring back her kid with the mysterious paternity. That could have been interesting and they didn't necessarily have to bring back Rita for that.

Maybe if the Dobsons had come back to GL after SB was cancelled they could have persuaded Lenore back (she was on Santa Barbara for a while when they were still EPs). But otherwise, not likely to have ever happened.

10 hours ago, Stevel said:

Rita talking to her shrink about her attraction to Alan was riveting.

It such a shame that almost none of the period leading up to and covering Rita and Alan's affair is available. Even the German channel doesn't have it. There are only one or two episodes that take place just before Lenore leaves the show. One is where Rita was staying at a lodge where a necklace Alan gave her is stolen. Alan comes up to see her.

It's a really good scene, where he's whining to her that Hope--who found out about the affair and kicked Alan out--is spending time with Andy Norris. Rather than get upset that he's jealous of his wife being with another man, Rita's like, "A woman would be crazy to pick someone like him over YOU." They end up kissing. She really knew how to push his buttons. 😂

I don't remember the scene of her talking to Sara about her attraction to Alan, but there's one where she talks to her about the things she wants out of life, and how different it is from what Ed wants, and how she was tired of feeling guilty about it. It might be floating around on YT still.

10 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Further back, I posted an article about Vigard's firing. The claim was she was often late to the studio and unprepared.

As for her saying she wanted to leave-that might have contributed to her behaviour. Who knows what really goes on BTS?

I remember that. Was it Michael Logan? The tone of it was kind of mean, IIRC.

At this time soaps has some very young actresses playing very instense storylines. Genie Francis talked about how difficult that period of GH was for her in interviews. I know people complain about actors who are obviously not teens playing teens, but IMO that's better. It's just too much when you're that young. It's hard enough to do it when you're fully an adult. I can't blame her for finding it difficult at that time or for leaving.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by DeeVee

I thought Marland was the one who wanted rid of Mart Hulswit because the thought Ed was getting fat and not considered sexy enough ?

In my opinion Marland sucked at GL but was awesome on ATWT.

I wonder if Jane Elliot would have been better as a Jackie recast than Crazy Carrie?

Kelly & Morgan Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !