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As Leslie Bauer, Rodell had a sweetness and nobility that Adams lacked. Adams was a capable actress, to be sure, but her interpretation of the character was cooler and more reserved. Compare Hillary B. Smith's emotional and loving Margo Hughes to Ellen Dolan's colder, more aloof version and you'll get the idea. I wanted to protect Rodell's Leslie, but with Adams...ehhh, she could take care of herself. LOL!

 

ITA that Elizabeth was too neurotic and unstable to fit the role of the Bauer matriarch, and while I liked Trish, she was way too young for Mike. Of his remaining potential love interests, Jennifer Richards would have been the most viable, but with Don Stewart's resistance to various leading ladies, the actor was sealing Mike's fate to remain single...and be written off the show. Stewart did praise Deborah May, and claimed that she and he had on-screen chemistry, but I never found her Renee Dubois or Ivy Pierce to be particularly interesting. I saw no chemistry with Mike Bauer there, like I did with Stewart and Rodell.

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 I don't remember any chemistry between Mike and Renee, either, despite what Stewart claims. There certainly wasn't any between Mike and Ivy.

 

Oddly enough, I always wondered about pairing Mike with *Holly* post-Roger. Basically, some sort of storyline where Holly works with Mike and the Springfield PD as a plant while working for Alan Spaulding (with the premise that Alan offers Holly a job after catching wind that Holly and Roger talked about "leverage" Roger had when she was with Roger in the jungle - Alan being suspicious about how *much* Holly knows about that "leverage", so he makes Holly an offer to work for Spaulding so he can keep tabs on her to determine what she knows...). This would have led to Mike and Holly becoming closer,  bringing out jealousy in Ed (whose marriage to Rita was already still on shaky ground).

 

I also thought Rita a Mike would have possibly worked.

 

@vetsoapfan - what do you think, as you probably have even clearer memories of this time than I do.

 

Exactly. This would have helped solidify Mike and Leslie as the tentpole couple. Imagine in the 1980's after both being SORAS'd, that Mike and Leslie's son had conflict with Rick (Freddie) over the fact that once their son was born, Rick felt ignored as he felt Mike and Leslie's son was the favorite.

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The Mike Bauer actor screwed up the chance to be paired with McKinsey..but I never understood with Ed gone, they didn't recast Mike and have him and Alex fight/love each other, with Alan constantly scheming against him. The perfect opp would have been McTrash's stupid..."Alan destroys 5th Street" to get revenge on that midget Buzz. Alex as stuck in the middle and AM could have brought is Grandfather back to act as lawyer for the residents...I would then drop that plot quickly.....(Mike gets an stop and desist order against Alan) and then have Alex and Mike fight over Mike' s plan to finally have Alan back in the pokey...Alex would steal the evidence from Mike and destroy it to protect Alan...But eventually Alan would once again turn on Alex for and get her kicked out of the company and get all her assests, etc. At that point Mike starts to see the vunerable side of Alex..yada yada, they get together but Alex is not done with Alan and of course gets her revenge on him, in an entirely unethical way which cause a wedge with Mike..etc.

 

Bringing Hope back would have made it even better...but we get Alan vs. Buzzard..for years.

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Judging from past soaps with rich, intelligent writing and complex characters, I believe that even outrageous ideas and pairings can work out well in the hands of the right scribe. Who would have thought that Bill Horton raping Laura on DAYS could possibly produce a searing, longterm storyline that lasted 10 years?

 

Mike and Holly might have clicked quite well if the progression of their relationship (platonic and supportive at first) was handled sensitively. Ed would be justifiably vexed that Mike was ending up with ANOTHER one of his ex wives.

 

Mike and Rita might have clicked too. On AW, Sam Groom as Russ and Robin Strasser as Rachel had excellent chemistry, which made me occasionally hope that Rachel would soften up and grow up enough to deserve him. Lenore Kasdorf was such a fine actress. A repentant Rita may have eventually made the audience grow to care for her and root for her, the way Judith Light's endearing portrayal of Karen Wolek on OLTL made the world love her previously disposable character. If the audience grew to care for Rita and genuinely believe she was evolving towards the light, a Mike/Rita pairing might have intrigued viewers.

 

 

I agree. If the rumors are true that Don Stewart was difficult to work with, they could have just replaced him with another actor. I became focused on Jed Allen as a potential new Mike. A respected actor full of intelligence and charm, he would have been great.

 

Hope definitely should have been brought back to the canvas too. As a blood Bauer with only one marriage and one child to her name, she was still a viable character. If she had had a son after leaving Springfield, it would have helped solidify the Bauer name which she would naturally reclaim.

 

And after Bert died, they should have brought Aunt Meta back much sooner than 1996.

 

Bauer Power 4Ever!

Edited by vetsoapfan
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Very true..they should have brought Meta back for Mo's funeral and kept her there.  My enduring hate of all things Cooper started when they replaced the Reardon's (Harley and Frank were retread Nola and Tony) and then JFP killing Mo off to pay for Deas overacting and to push the Bauers out to try and make the Coopers the main family.

 

Jed Allen would have made a hot Mike...I thought he was all kinds of sexy for an older guy...him with Bev or another recast...(much as I love her..not Marj) would have been great....especially with Hope there and then Alex using her to get her revenge on Alan...(ala when she used Reva to do it..) though Alex of course would not consider it "using" Hope but taking advantage of Alan's weakness..but Mike would see it differently..all kinds of soap fun..minus Deas spitting and spinning windmill arms!

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Agreed on Rita. Bert was certainly no saint during the 1950's and early 1960's, but mellowed out under Agnes Nixon into the matriarch we knew and loved. Rita certainly could have went through a similar character evolution. Again, the Bauer brothers worked when they both had each other's back and when they were both in conflict it was still good story. Mike and Rita together would have put them right back in the thick of things again.

 

I've said this before, but I feel like the reason TPTB didn't recast Mike Bauer after they fired Don Stewart was because they *just* recast Ed Bauer, and they probably felt like another recast of a core character so soon after recasting Ed would have been too much for the audience to take. However, there was no reason why they couldn't have brought back Mike after a few months - say at Christmas - with a new actor, and Jed Allen would have been perfect as Mike. Then, Pam Long could have restarted the Mike/Lillian/Alexandria love triangle as she was originally intending.

 

 

Was the character of Gus originally supposed to be this person, but that eventually changed? I've heard rumors to that effect, but have never been certain.

 

Edited by zanereed
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The one thing I like about how the show wrote Rita was that she w asnt evil, or osycho...but basically her own worst enemy.  Her insecurity caused her marriage to Ed to go south.  I liked that when MG quit as holly...marland had holly leave in late 1980 cause she knew she was causing problems for ed/rita...but it was written in a way that Rita felt ed blamed her for holly leaving...and pulled away from Ed to Alan.  I thought Gus should have been Rita's child...eith the question if he was a Brauer or Spaulding the main story.

 

With that said, how she interacted with her sister Eve showed how Rita could be when she felt secure because she knew her sister loved her no mastter what..so she didn't end up doing the self fulfilling prophecy that she did with Ed.

 

I did like how Pam Long and Nancy Curlee picked up the holly/ed connection with Maureen feeling insecure...history is valuable and can be used for great stories.

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So many great ideas presented above...

 

Having Meta arrive for Bert's funeral and stay in town should've happened.Who could have played Meta at that time?

Mary was still on Search.

 

Marland had set the Reardons up as the second core family and then they were all pretty much dropped when there was years of story remaining.

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I had wanted Aunt Meta to return way back in 1986, after Bert passed away.

 

When Charita Bauer died, the writers had Bert go to Florida to care for Meta after Meta had had a stroke. Meta's last husband, Bruce Banning, was never mentioned at all, either when she had that stroke, or later in 1996 when she finally did return to Springfield, so we presume that after Bert passed away in Meta's home, Meta was alone. (SoapCentral claims in their biography section that Bruce and Meta had divorced, but that was never spoken of on the show.)

 

Knowing that she was alonr in another state and recovering from such a serious medical crisis could easily have compelled the Springfield branch of the family to suggest Meta come back home.

 

As for Jed Allen, he was warm, charming, and very sexy, but also a good actor with a commanding presence. His Mike, along with a returned Mart Hulswit's Ed, Elvera Roussel's Hope, and Aunt Meta, would have been a dream come true for Bauer fans who continued to clamor for the family's resurgence right up until the show was cancelled.

 

I never warmed up to Marj Dusay's Alexandra. BM's Alex was like an asp in diamonds. Marj's version was breathy and lumbering, and lacked the spark Alex needed. I thought a good recast for the character would have been Barbara Rush, who was age-appropriate and even resembled BM somewhat.

 

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Oh Lord, Bert was quite abrasive when we first met her, but life's harsh lessons taught her a thing or two, and she developed into a good, strong, loving woman. With careful writing, Rita could have evolved as well, the way AW's Rachel and ATWT's Lisa did.

 

I agree that a recast Mike would have been jarring alongside a recently-recast Ed, but if TPTB admitted that Simon was miscast, and lured Hulswit back to the show, a new Mike (particularly with a fine actor like Jed Allen in the part) could have worked.

 

The idea that Gus might be Rita's son was wishful-thinking; an idea dreamt up by creative fans who knew the show's history better than most PTB did. It would have been a smart move to bring in another son for Ed, via Rita, or even to bring back Paul Kinkaid (Hillary's brother) and have him turn out to be Bill Bauer's offspring. But the writers were all clueless and/or indifferent to the Bauers, and never bothered trying to reinvigorate the family.

Edited by vetsoapfan
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Yes, Rita was never written as a moustache-twirling villain, which is what kept  her interesting and viable. On soaps nowadays, writers often turn antagonistic characters into unrepentant degenerates who commit heinous crimes and who have no redeeming values. That's why the likes of Sonny and Jason on GH repulse me.

Edited by vetsoapfan
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Bert Bauer passed away in March, 1986, but if the writers had waited just another nine months for this to happen, Mary Stuart would have been free to play Meta after SFT's cancellation in December of that same year.

 

Of course, no one could have known that SFT would be cancelled, but

I wish Stuart had had another job to go to immediately after Search's demise.

 

I would have accepted Ann Flood as Meta, even though she was too young for the role. The hair and make-up department could have helped with that.

 

Or even Teri Keane. We did not need the fake Bauers like Jack and Lainie to be introduced, when Keane could have assumed the role of Meta.

 

(Flood and Keane playing Meta and Trudy Bauer would have been a hoot for longtime soap fans, considering they played best friends on TEON for many years.)

 

I also would have accepted Dorothy Green (ex-Jennifer Brooks, Y&R), who was 66 years old in 1986.

Edited by vetsoapfan
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