On 6/5/2026 at 5:46 PM, P.J. said:

Bea also does it a bit with the Kurt/Mindy/Rick/Roxie quad.

I find it a little odd that there wasn't at least one cop as a main character, although my guess would be Mike being a lawyer filled that law-and-order slot. Making all the Coopers cops was overkill. And considering Frank and Harley's parents were Buzz and Nadine, unintentionally hilarious.

Maureen wasnt yet in the matriarch role that we remember her for (and got her killed off. JFP HATED those type of roles) so having Bea there made sense. Especially since pre Chelsea we didnt see the other 3 Reardon siblings...(I would have one be a cop...instead of cheesy Rusty, Reva's brother should have been a himbo trying to get a rich wife...but for that they would have not cast as they did with boring Terrell.) I have no idea why they didnt think that her as a mother figure to the new younger characters coming in (as she was with Kurt) or value that.

Frank was okay as a cop but as Cheif...come on! Even for as soap opera Frank was too stupid to be Chief and Frankie D trying to be an authority figure was laughable...Frank always worked better as the sweet, kinda dumb, guy you could count on.

The problem was that both Frank and Rick were similar in that they were sweet, somewhat dependable guys. Maybe they should've had a stronger actor in the role of Rick, but on the flip side GA and ROL had such great chemistry together.

8 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Maureen wasnt yet in the matriarch role that we remember her for (and got her killed off. JFP HATED those type of roles)

Maureen was the anchor/tentpole of the show. GL being a community-based show needed an anchor/tentpole character to keep things grounded and JFP failed to realize that.

21 hours ago, DeeVee said:

I'm not talking about Lainie Marler, Justin and Ross's sister. I'm talking about Lainie Bauer, Johnny's mother. They didn't introduce Jack and Lainie Bauer until a year or so after Katie was written out (Hillary was written out the year before, I believe).

Anyway, my big gripe with Jack and Lainie Bauer is they didn't DO much other than hang around in the background. They never gave them any real storylines. Did they run Company for a while or something? But still, they didn't give them much to do. At least Hawk and Sarah were always involved in Reva's drama. Putting Lainie at Cedars as a nurse would have helped people see her as a major character.

Darn this show and their lack of creativity with character names. I rarely think of Johnny's parents or their names. Yes, they ran Company before Hawk and Sarah. I don't even think they were in town that long, the viewer reception and regime changes working against them.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Darn this show and their lack of creativity with character names.

Right? It's a nightmare sometimes to keep characters straight. 😂

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

I don't even think they were in town that long, the viewer reception and regime changes working against them.

I think someone said they were on a year. Which just goes to show what a big impression they made.

It makes me sad (and kind of mad) because I loved Teri Keane on EON. They did her dirty by not sitting down and planning strong material for her. Which makes me think this was all a half-hearted, half-baked enterprise. "We'll throw some people named Bauer on the show and that will shut people up about how we decimated the Bauers."

Very strong, warm, memories of Teri Keane as Martha Marceau on EON. She and Nancy as best friends.

20 hours ago, Stevel said:

Very strong, warm, memories of Teri Keane as Martha Marceau on EON. She and Nancy as best friends.

As a preschool kid my Mom LOVED Edge of Night..that and ATWT was her fave, so I remember Martha Marceau and the voice being so..comforting...( I remember a storyline, where somone was trying to drive Martha crazy, making her think that her house was haunted(maybe?) and they poured blood in her closet to freak her out...and I was hooked as a kid and I wouldnt open a closet by myself for years. Anyway, as we mentioned, TK would have been a great Meta, and she could have taken over the boardhing house from Bea like Lainie did..hell, they should have brought her back when they brought Meta...I love MS, but the show needed a strong warm figure..and I never got warmth from MS.

Terri seemed too warm and soothing to be Meta, perhaps she could have been Trudy the Bauer sibling that stopped being featured by the late 50s... but I could understand why mentions usually were made about Meta instead of Trudy since Meta had a strong impact on the show in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s... and sensing right away that Holly was not to be trusted after Ed and Holly had that alcohol infused wedding.

Still Trudy could have returned since she had always felt over-shadowed/second best in comparison to Meta... and moved to New York City with her husband and living a nice life in a a nice apartment. I could have seen them coming for visits and/or recurring as the less problematic branch of the Bauer tree.

I'm surprised we kept this thread as active as we did. I think we finally ran out of topics. 😆

1 minute ago, Spoon said:

I'm surprised we kept this thread as active as we did. I think we finally ran out of topics. 😆

Haha I've been so busy the last two weeks with work and travel, so I haven't been able to watch GL much sadly. I'm hoping to pick it back up very soon!

16 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

Terri seemed too warm and soothing to be Meta, perhaps she could have been Trudy the Bauer sibling that stopped being featured by the late 50s... but I could understand why mentions usually were made about Meta instead of Trudy since Meta had a strong impact on the show in the 40s, 50s, and early 60s... and sensing right away that Holly was not to be trusted after Ed and Holly had that alcohol infused wedding.

Still Trudy could have returned since she had always felt over-shadowed/second best in comparison to Meta... and moved to New York City with her husband and living a nice life in a a nice apartment. I could have seen them coming for visits and/or recurring as the less problematic branch of the Bauer tree.

Hmmm..so Meta was meant to be a bit "tougher"? That's okay, I like tough matriarchs who are still "good" I think Nancy Hughes change from an ironwilled town matriarch, who is a little too involved in her friends and families life, to be a more Bert Bauerish grandma was not a good think. First of all, Wagner was colder then Charita (who could give someone a bear hug right after kicking their ass..hello Holly and Rita )so it didn't play that well. A gradual softening makes sense, but a total change?

If that was the case they should have brought Meta back after Bert died and involve her with Claire, (which suprisingly they did later leading up to the anniversary before MS got really sick.) She would have known what it was like to be an outsider, but also would defend her family. MS and Pratt had good antogonistic chemistry (I think in one scene Claire call Meta, "An interfering old witch" to her face and Meta laughed it off) so it would have been interesting to see that unfold during baby Chelle's early years..(not that MS was availavble at that time.) She could have still taken over the BH ( I thought it was weird that Bea, a woman who raised so many kids, and had to support them after their dad disappeared, so was "sweet"..she should have been tougher.) and tangled with everyone from Claire, to Hawk (who lived and worked there) to H.B. (and we could be spared the H.B./Alex thing.)

To add another topic...I watched the scenes with Watros and GA in her detox scenes in the Bauer cabin. What a missed opportunity that they didnt follow up on their chemistry. They could have still have the Reva trial...but let's say Alan was pulling the strings the whole time..(with a recast Alan..) Phillip is angry with Alan after finding out that he was behind the "A Spaudling" mess, as is AM (prompting him to leave town with Loosie...) and even Alex ( I do think Alex should have been given a breather at that point and "rested" so this is her time to say "Screw it, I'm going to go focus on Nick and his wife and globetrorr for a bit) Amanda is the only one to support Alan, but he does not care..all he cares about is Phillip. Phillip says he is going to work to get Alan out of Spaulding for good. InAlan's sick way he sees Annie (who he knows is obsessed with Josh) as a way to demoralize Phillip to come running back and to distract him from revenge. So knowing Phillip's penchant for victimized blondes, he puts them in each other's path, while slowly manipulating Annie to enact her revenge on Jeva. Annie comes up with her sicko plan, and it is Phillip who stands by her, putting him and Josh at odds, and Alan acting like he supports Phillip. The bomb drops, which would cause him to run into Harley's arms, etc.

I like Alan as a behind the scenes manipulator, not the bag of hot air RR played.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Mitch64

46 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

( I thought it was weird that Bea, a woman who raised so many kids, and had to support them after their dad disappeared, so was "sweet"..she should have been tougher.)

She was! In her early scenes she was brassier, tougher, and liked to suck back beers with Floyd.

I think the reason they changed her was because Nola was supposed to be a temporary character at first. But Marland was really impressed by Lisa, so when she became a contract player he did a kind of reset and changed both Nola and Bea.

50 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I like Alan as a behind the scenes manipulator, not the bag of hot air RR played.

O.K., here's a topic to talk about:

How in the ever lovin' you know what did RR get THREE Emmy nominations and Bernau got ZERO?

I recently found this out and almost had a stroke.

I know one possible answer is that Bernau might not have submitted his name--the actors have to do that to be considered.

But still, how did Raines get THREE?

THAT'S INSANE!

IMDB has over a hundred appearances from Clarice Blackburn from 87-92 as Ethel Spurrier. Who was this character and just how prominent was she? Is this just someone getting carried away?

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

How in the ever lovin' you know what did RR get THREE Emmy nominations and Bernau got ZERO?

I recently found this out and almost had a stroke.

I know one possible answer is that Bernau might not have submitted his name--the actors have to do that to be considered.

But still, how did Raines get THREE?

THAT'S INSANE!

I think during the end times of soaps (of which we are still seeing, though I would call the current soaps more as zombies..shuffling around, ravenous for viewers, but not having any direction or will to change their shuffling patterns) ANYONE could get nominated. I think RR seems to be a nice guy in real life (which I think leaked way too much over into Alan, but instead of giving him depth, made him look like a big wuss..) and probably had most of the cast voting for him, etc. I know Toby Poser gave an interview that she gave too much attention to RR's Alan over her supposed target of Ross, as she just loved RR.

But three times????