1 minute ago, alwaysAMC said:

Ahh that is all very interesting.  I didn't realize JFP produced SB beforehand and that's how she knew Marcy and brought her into GL.  I just saw that JFP left GL in late May '95, which I'm getting close to.  

Jill only became an EP at Santa Barbara because of the Dobsons being locked out. 

It was 1995 when P&G shuffled all of their EPs, over one show. AW, ATWT & GL. Laurie Caso got left out.  (Started a 2nd career.) 

 

7 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

I can see Alan finally sick of loosing women, becoming like his father and just using them, but we never saw that with RR's Alan. He acts like he is in LOVE with Annie, and ends up being her dupe, standing around holding her purse while she concocts another evil scheme against Java (yawn..) Alan should have been the one ecouraging Annie's dark side, so he could weaponize her against Jeva with the end result of occupying Josh so that Alan can take over Lewis..(and for shits and giggles cause Jeva 2.0 are so freaking annoying...) But we don't get that, he is butt hurt over the middle aged temptress Reva (okay...) dumping him and then he is over his heels for Annie. Not Alan at all..he should have been using them all for his benefit...(especially with Alex out of the way to stay his hand ..) 

I can't even think about him and Beth...RR/Alan looked like an old perve with her...yucckkk!

I should clarify---I was thinking about Chris Bernau's Alan caring for Reva....I forgot about Alan and Amish Reva. RME. But yeah, Alan should've been more scheming when it came to using Annie, instead of being Annie's enabler. 

Ditto about Alan and Beth. Actually, you can add Olivia and his creepy fascination with Natalia as well.

6 hours ago, alwaysAMC said:

 

Question:  Was Reva popular in the 80s and was her exit/"death" from the show a surprise and sad for fans?  Her "spirit" that is haunting Josh and ruining his chances with Annie seem a little silly only because I know she ends up alive somewhere, so this was probably more of a tease for excited fans at the time when spoilers were not a thing, keeping them on their toes as to what happened with her. She keeps calling him 'Bud' - I guess that's her nickname for him?

Yes, Reva was popular. They really retooled the show around her. 

I can't remember how big a surprise her death was to fans. I have just watched her '90 emmy acceptance speech, and she mentions they just sent out some kind of announcement (I'm not sure if it was invites to a farewell party or what). But I don't remember if that was when the news broke or if it had been circulating before that.

She called him "Bud" less than she called him "Joshua", but yeah that's a nickname for him. I'm not sure they ever exactly explained where that came from.

2 hours ago, Contessa Donatella said:

. I do hold at least 2 GL opinions that are unpopular, here, so I'm in the minority, here. I like 2 Coopers: Harley & Buzz. I'm sure part of the reason for that is that I came late to loving GL. 

I loved Harley. LOVED. (you want an unpopular opinion---I loved Lucy and Alan-Michael...) I loved Harley with Phillip. It broke my heart when I found out Grant "didn't get" them, and considered Beth his best pairing.

7 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I loved Harley. LOVED. (you want an unpopular opinion---I loved Lucy and Alan-Michael...) I loved Harley with Phillip. It broke my heart when I found out Grant "didn't get" them, and considered Beth his best pairing.

I also loved Philip & Harley together!!! Grant was smart about many things but, d'uh stupid there.  

3 hours ago, chrisml said:

I remember people being overjoyed that Kim Zimmer was leaving GL and that she was not missed. I'm sure some people missed her, but I don't think her departure left the same mark as Susan Lucci or Erika Slezak leaving their respective soaps. I was not watching GL when she returned full time, but I recall some people were not happy to see GL returning to the Reva Shayne hour. 

I think part of the reason I LOVE '89-'93 so much is because it's Reva-lite, between her maternity leave and her exit.

I'm sure some fans missed her---I recall some kind of SOD poll about who should come back, and I think Phillip was more missed at the time.

2 minutes ago, Contessa Donatella said:

I also loved Philip & Harley together!!! Grant was smart about many things but, d'uh stupid there.  

If it'd been Judi Evans, I could've accepted that. But Beth Chamberlain? NOPE.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

Yes, Reva was popular. They really retooled the show around her. 

If there was any character that defined the final 25 years of GL, it was Reva.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

I think part of the reason I LOVE '89-'93 so much is because it's Reva-lite, between her maternity leave and her exit.

With the 1990-1991 departures of Kim Zimmer, Robert Newman, Michael O'Leary, Grant Aleksander from the cast and Pamela Long from the writing team, many thought GL was going to be in for a rough stretch but I thought the show got better. Sadly it didn't last though.

Edited March 26Mar 26 by kalbir

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

I'm sure some fans missed her---I recall some kind of SOD poll about who should come back, and I think Phillip was more missed at the time.

In the modern era 2 actors took up more than anyone else on the frontburner - KZ & Grant.

1 hour ago, P.J. said:

If it'd been Judi Evans, I could've accepted that. But Beth Chamberlain? NOPE.

Love Judi. Admire Beth C.  But I feel the same as you when it comes to pairings.

3 minutes ago, kalbir said:

If there was any character that defined the final 25 years of GL, it was Reva.

With the 1990-1991 departures of Kim Zimmer, Robert Newman, Michael O'Leary, Grant Aleksander from the cast and Pamela Long from the writing team, many thought GL was going to be in for a rough stretch but I thought the show got better. Sadly it didn't last though.

Shows have suffered from one star departure, and four would usually call for a massive retooling. They had a good mixture of vets, characters ready to grow and newbies to keep the show cookin'.

I think GL worked better without Kim Zimmer because there was not the need to make it the Reva Shayne hour. Even when Kim Zimmer was there, someone like Michelle Forbes was more interesting and pulled focus away from Zimmer and Reva. I think that's why the Watros/Zimmer relationship could be rocky because Watros's performance was so much more compelling and Zimmer knew it. I am not attacking Zimmer's talent as I think she's exceptionally talented. I just think GL worked better when it was not centred on one person. when Long tried to make SB into the Jodie hour, it failed miserably as Zimmer (to her credit) acknowledges.

 

8 minutes ago, chrisml said:

 I think that's why the Watros/Zimmer relationship could be rocky because Watros's performance was so much more compelling and Zimmer knew it. 

In 1997 Kim Zimmer was 42 and Cynthia Watros was 29 so an aging veteran being out-performed by a rookie more than a decade younger, yeah no surprise there was alleged beef there.

10 minutes ago, kalbir said:

In 1997 Kim Zimmer was 42 and Cynthia Watros was 29 so an aging veteran being out-performed by a rookie more than a decade younger, yeah no surprise there was alleged beef there.

Kim didn’t have the career she wanted when she left GL, and I think that insecurity still weighted on her when she returned. It didn’t help that Paul Rauch thought Reva should be the sex goddess center of everything. To her credit, though, she admitted to the tension with Watros. She also publicly said Watros deserved to win the Daytime Emmy in 1998 (which she did) over her. Even though there was some jealousy, Kim could still admit Watros was a talent to be reckoned with. Same with Michelle Forbes a decade earlier. 

1 hour ago, kalbir said:

In 1997 Kim Zimmer was 42 and Cynthia Watros was 29 so an aging veteran being out-performed by a rookie more than a decade younger, yeah no surprise there was alleged beef there.

What!!!  Annie in real life is 27 years old (in 1995 where I'm watching)?!? Robert Newman is 37... my mind is blown.  I need to go find how old the actresses that play Lucy and Bridgett are, because they seem more like 27 to me and Annie feels like 37-40.  I know this is a mind game with age, and people in the 90s looked older than they really are given the hair styles back then (like Vanessa seems much older to me than she probably is at the time - I need to go Google it).  I just can't believe the actress playing Annie was 27 at that time, and I'm seeing characters like Lucy, Bridget, Dinah who seem more like that age.  I'm 100% shocked.

My mind is blown - the actresses playing Lucy and Bridget are a year old than Watros. (Soni and Melissa were born in 1967 and Watros in 1968). Both storyline and look (hairstyle and dress) of these characters do NOT put Lucy/Bridget as older than Annie. My mind is totally blown here.

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

She felt used by JFP, as there was no real story in place for Tangie and she was only brought in because Marcy had been a star on Santa Barbara (also produced by JFP).

I don't know if you watched the episode with Buzz on a roof yelling about Fifth Street, but that was JFP's attempt at staving off cancelation rumors. She thought a big Emmy showcase for Deas would do it. 

 

Yea, I never got this as there WERE big stories planned for Walker...she returned with Josh, she was supposed to be "wild" (she jumped in the Trevi fountain naked, don't you know..first of all the ripped of "The Birds" and I cant believe GL would do another fountain routine with one of Josh's screws..) Sarah didn't like her, she was Roger's "step daughter, " the made a BIG deal of her being on GL, it was just that the character didn't work out and for some reason, Walker didn't fit. So they break her and Jarsh up and try to have her in a triangle with AM and eveyone's fave middle aged perve Alan, (which incited MarjAlex weird incest vibe she gave with RR...) and THAT didnt work out.

Funny thing in the Locker Room interview JFP said the Buzz episode was supposed to just feature Deas and his monoloque and CBS said, "Uh, no." thank God, it was painful enough to see Deas unfettered and them whoring for an Emmy with him. What was the thing with 5th Street anyway, Buzz ran as far as he could from it and then he was the "King of 5th Street"..

10 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

Kim didn’t have the career she wanted when she left GL, and I think that insecurity still weighted on her when she returned. It didn’t help that Paul Rauch thought Reva should be the sex goddess center of everything.

All actors are insecure, and Kimmer knew how the game was played, and she played it for all it was worth, but its more TPTB's fault that they let her and they believed Jeva was THE couple to build the show around (even Long's GL wasnt as lopsided as Rauch's GL was.) Rauch was a ageist pig so I can never understand why he went so in for Reva...but that had to play into Kim's issues also.

16 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

All actors are insecure, and Kimmer knew how the game was played, and she played it for all it was worth, but its more TPTB's fault that they let her and they believed Jeva was THE couple to build the show around (even Long's GL wasnt as lopsided as Rauch's GL was.) Rauch was a ageist pig so I can never understand why he went so in for Reva...but that had to play into Kim's issues also.

In terms of KZ on other shows: Great on Designing Women, also great on Babylon 5, fine on OLTL, horrible on Santa Barbara. Frankly on SB her whole family was a wash. And, yes, they added a whole 'nother family just for her. 

Edited March 26Mar 26 by Contessa Donatella

This seems like Robin Strasser is discussing JFP per Nia Long and an EP they shared.

 

3rd party unverified info (from me;-) I sat next to fab & talented #NiaLong on NYCtoLA flight, she warned me
emphatically about the EP I was working for. She was right! We both found the 1st class cabin very chilly-she wore a hoodie-
lol-it was a "warm" meeting of minds... https://t.co/AbEW0sj1pT

— Robin Strasser (@robinstrasser) March 25, 2025