When I started Guiding light as a child I just knew Peter as ED and always liked him. I see that so many seem to hate him and it makes me kinda upset. He did all of his stuff justice

Mart Hulswit was critical of Marland's writing. So, Marland supposedly pressured Potter to fire Hulswit and recast the character of Ed. I read that account in a book that I frustratingly cannot find to reference here. In that book, Potter stated that he regretted being pressured to fire a long-term actor on the show, and that he learned he wouldn't repeat that again.

However, even if Hulswit had survived the Potter era, I'm not certain he would have survived the Kobe era.

Gus was originally planned to be the son of Miguel Santos and Selena Matthews and it was changed by Taggart/Culliton in 2002. They planned in Gus being the son of Alan and Rita. When ConJob took over, the Alan being Gus's son was the only projected story that they kept. However they didn't want to be tied down with continuity "baggage" so they made Gus"s mom a dayplayer Nun instead. I hated ConJob, espescially coming off the brief Taggart/Culliton interim regime.

1 hour ago, AMCOLTLLover said:

When I started Guiding light as a child I just knew Peter as ED and always liked him. I see that so many seem to hate him and it makes me kinda upset. He did all of his stuff justice

I'm with you on this. Hulswit was great as Ed...and I think Simon was, too. A good many people liked Simon's portrayal. He was nominated for an Emmy at least twice, maybe even three times.

I especially liked Simon when his Ed would get pissed off. Fun to watch!

If you need some Ed/Simon support, you got it.

1 minute ago, Speed Racer said:

I'm with you on this. Hulswit was great as Ed...and I think Simon was, too. A good many people liked Simon's portrayal. He was nominated for an Emmy at least twice, maybe even three times.

I especially liked Simon when his Ed would get pissed off. Fun to watch!

If you need some Ed/Simon support, you got it.

Simon was the Ed that I grew up with as well. It was so nice to have him back in 2002 and his return was written really well and him and Holly reconnected as they should've done in '98. After Fletch took Meg have Ed support her and help her through her alcoholism. I suppose that would be too "mature" of a storyline without the flash of kidnapping a bunch of your friends children.

1 hour ago, Spoon said:

Simon was the Ed that I grew up with as well. It was so nice to have him back in 2002 and his return was written really well and him and Holly reconnected as they should've done in '98. After Fletch took Meg have Ed support her and help her through her alcoholism. I suppose that would be too "mature" of a storyline without the flash of kidnapping a bunch of your friends children.

Unfortunately, that kind of story was never gonna happen with Reva in Springfield. It's why I gave up on GL. I, too, took Annie's parachuting out of the plane as my queue to exit.

I'm not sure I would've had Holly pick up the bottle in response to Fletcher/Meg. I liked Holly best as a neurotic, which you don't often see on soaps. Further, Garrett nailed down "neurotic" with ease. Not easy to do. That said, I have no idea how I would have had Holly react. I haven't thought about it. Alexandra could be involved.

Besides, the town drunk (for a while) should have been Phillip. He would have been a real, credible threat as a drunk.

2 hours ago, zanereed said:

Mart Hulswit was critical of Marland's writing. So, Marland supposedly pressured Potter to fire Hulswit and recast the character of Ed. I read that account in a book that I frustratingly cannot find to reference here. In that book, Potter stated that he regretted being pressured to fire a long-term actor on the show, and that he learned he wouldn't repeat that again.

I get the feeling from Mart's interview that he was a bit of a troublemaker and that's what they didn't like about him, so this does not sound unbelievable to me.

It would also seem that if Marland got his way on this issue, it would make sense he would be surprised and angry when he was told Elliot was being fired. Enough that he would leave.

2 hours ago, Speed Racer said:

A good many people liked Simon's portrayal.

I was a fan of Simon when he was on SFT, I always thought he was a very good actor, he just didn't fit Ed for me.

2 hours ago, Spoon said:

Gus was originally planned to be the son of Miguel Santos and Selena Matthews and it was changed by Taggart/Culliton in 2002. They planned in Gus being the son of Alan and Rita. When ConJob took over, the Alan being Gus's son was the only projected story that they kept. However they didn't want to be tied down with continuity "baggage" so they made Gus"s mom a dayplayer Nun instead. I hated ConJob, espescially coming off the brief Taggart/Culliton interim regime.

Oh, for the love of....THAT'S the ONLY thing they kept? I can't believe that was the best idea they had.

The purpose, I suppose, was that they wanted to tie Gus to a core family, but why not make him a Bauer? Why not make him Mike's son? He certainly was enough of a law and order type to be his kid.

Then they killed him off and it was all pointless anyway.

19 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Oh, for the love of....THAT'S the ONLY thing they kept? I can't believe that was the best idea they had.

The purpose, I suppose, was that they wanted to tie Gus to a core family, but why not make him a Bauer? Why not make him Mike's son? He certainly was enough of a law and order type to be his kid.

Then they killed him off and it was all pointless anyway.

Wasn't he also supposedly going to be Rita's son at one time? Or was that a rumor?

I get the idea of having another son for Alan, but I don't know if any story of note happened. Any rivalry with Philip probably wasn't that interesting. And Rafe, Alan's only biological grandchild, was, while not horrible, not memorable either.

3 hours ago, Spoon said:

Gus was originally planned to be the son of Miguel Santos and Selena Matthews and it was changed by Taggart/Culliton in 2002. They planned in Gus being the son of Alan and Rita. When ConJob took over, the Alan being Gus's son was the only projected story that they kept. However they didn't want to be tied down with continuity "baggage" so they made Gus"s mom a dayplayer Nun instead. I hated ConJob, espescially coming off the brief Taggart/Culliton interim regime.

lol...a hw being concerned with "continuity garbage"? Say Rita died offscreen, and get on with it. By '00, (or whenever that bastard Gus popped up; ugh I hated him) the extremely few characters that would've even remembered Rita (Ed, Alan and Ross, arguably Blake and Rick...and perhaps Holly, depending on MG's exit) weren't going to be an issue.

ConJob the hw who made Ben a sex escort/serial killer and killed him off (with the assurance that they'd write Bomer back in if he changed his mind)? [!@#$%^&*] THEM (*snort*)

38 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

Wasn't he also supposedly going to be Rita's son at one time? Or was that a rumor?

I get the idea of having another son for Alan, but I don't know if any story of note happened. Any rivalry with Philip probably wasn't that interesting. And Rafe, Alan's only biological grandchild, was, while not horrible, not memorable either.

I think I remember Gus caterwauling about not wanting to be "a Spaulding", until he was given some kind of power.

I'm surprised at some point they didn't rewrite history and say the baby Alan had with Elizabeth had not died and was stolen. Then boom the now grown kid shows up in Springfield.

14 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

I'm surprised at some point they didn't rewrite history and say the baby Alan had with Elizabeth had not died and was stolen. Then boom the now grown kid shows up in Springfield.

Stolen by Brandon and raised to avenge Alan's takeover of the company. Works as well as a dayplayer nun, or whack history where Josh/Billy/Ed/Buzz and Alan all went to a carnival in Springfield.