55 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That's nice to know about Beverlee. It's tough to be a woman, especially an older woman, in the industry, but there are examples that show you don't have to be a jerk to thrive.

The younger actors especially had nothing but nice things to say about Beverlee, acknowledging she was a force to be reckoned with.  She would take them under her wings and out to dinner in an interview she gives a funny story about Derwin taking HER out to dinner, and it was usually the other way around. You could see that come out in Alex...she was always softer with the younger people, which I thought was cool and totally Alex, the woman who lost her son, twice, dealing with young people. 

 

44 minutes ago, Maxim said:

I get PTSD symptoms just by remembering that unfinished autobiography manuscript. 😂

Yea, MG looked GREAT and was still sexy..(hell, I loved the Stalker storyline as she got out of Rauch's pastel suits to slink around in leather!)

I do like how Kim did not let the most inept EP in the history of soaps, Ellen Wheeler, bully her into taking a paycut in the middle of her contract. Kim showed Wheeler who was the boss. 

I always try to see both sides so I understand that it must be tough to be the sex symbol, to be known for your beauty and body and  then to see that slipping away. I can see how that would play with someone's psyche. It doesn't excuse mistreating costars or bad behavior but I understand because aging sucks even when you're not the red dress woman. After 25, one wrong turn in bed and you could be in pain for a month. Zimmer was not kind to Watros, Colman, or Forrester. Frankly, she wasn't kind to Beth Ehlers as it was easy to figure out who she meant even for me who didn't watch the show consistently. Ehlers has children and Zimmer was protective of her own children and angry when the ATWT articles came out. Why repeat the Ehlers story when it didn't involve her?  Did she think it wouldn't matter?  Or did she just not care like the Dusay anecdote @Mitch64wrote about?

 

1 hour ago, TEdgeofNight said:

I do like how Kim did not let the most inept EP in the history of soaps, Ellen Wheeler, bully her into taking a paycut in the middle of her contract. Kim showed Wheeler who was the boss. 

That's funny, the only time I like post resurrection Reva, was during Wheeler (though I do agree she was inept.) I would have taken a page out of MADD and Rauchie and just sent Reva to heaven...(for good this time) and watched what an over 40 heavy woman could get after that.

Reva became just what she needed to be at that point, support, a unique character, and one of the last touch stones for the audience on GL. But I wouldn't have played her game.

2 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

The younger actors especially had nothing but nice things to say about Beverlee, acknowledging she was a force to be reckoned with.  She would take them under her wings and out to dinner in an interview she gives a funny story about Derwin taking HER out to dinner, and it was usually the other way around. You could see that come out in Alex...she was always softer with the younger people, which I thought was cool and totally Alex, the woman who lost her son, twice, dealing with young people. 

According to Jerry & maybe others, GL had a fine tradition of mentoring the younger actors & they had done so for years & even though circumstances changed quite a lot, they kept right on doing it. That tradition was strong at AW, too. 

2 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

Yea, MG looked GREAT and was still sexy..(hell, I loved the Stalker storyline as she got out of Rauch's pastel suits to slink around in leather!)

Maureen was  so special & she just got better with age, unlike others who I will not name.

Of course, it should not be lost on fans that everyone was asked to take a cut to allow the show to have a fraction more to produce with AND EVERYONE BUT ONE PERSON AGREED TO DO SO. This compares with budget crunches in other businesses like the airlines, etc. The execs voluntarily took their cuts first, of course. Some people have mentioned words like selfish, self-serving, nyah, we won't go down that path.

And, also if anyone tries to tell you that anyone bullied KZ, consider that it is a totally ludicrous idea. At any rate, the only bully at GL in the modern era was Rauch & he didn't go after KZ. Considering how unfairly she threw some people under the bus in her book, maybe she was a bully?! 

 

 

Edited June 18Jun 18 by Contessa Donatella

4 hours ago, Ryanc2 said:

I watched all the rest of January 1999 last night and was shocked how the month ended with a bang especially where Dinah is concerned. I won’t be too spoilery because I know there’s some people in this group who are watching old GL episodes too and they’re a few years before me. 
 

I will say though, I was shocked to find out Gina Tognoni takes over this role because I’m familiar with her role as Phyllis at Y&R. She was always the more toned down, sophisticated version of Phyllis so I’m curious to see her earlier work as Dinah on GL. I know I still have several years to go before I’ll get to see that but right now it’s hard to picture her as Dinah with the way Wendy Moniz has been playing her in these episodes. 

Also I just learned the actors who played Hart and Dinah were married in real life! I wonder, did they decide to exit the show together in 1999?

They did, yes. Grillo was actually married to another woman when they first got together, I believe. 

I haven't watched that era of GL in full but I do enjoy Tognoni's take. She is a real live wire but also capable of vulnerability. I didn't watch her on Y&R but it's remarkable to me because her work as Dinah is the complete opposite of her work as Kelly on OLTL.

1 hour ago, Mitch64 said:

That's funny, the only time I like post resurrection Reva, was during Wheeler (though I do agree she was inept.) I would have taken a page out of MADD and Rauchie and just sent Reva to heaven...(for good this time) and watched what an over 40 heavy woman could get after that.

Reva became just what she needed to be at that point, support, a unique character, and one of the last touch stones for the audience on GL. But I wouldn't have played her game.

That's how I tend to feel. I'm sure working conditions were terrible and Wheeler was a lot to deal with, but that was one of Reva's better periods since the '80s, even if she was going around yanking organs out of baby mamas with drugged tattoos, or whatever the hell that story was. Zimmer just felt natural for that tone of the show. She was never a traditional soap heroine.

A part of me does wish they'd taken her bait and written her out over someone like Ross or Holly...although neither of them were that heavy in story anyway (I guess Ross had a bit with Dinah's return, and Holly with Sebastian).

Edited June 18Jun 18 by DRW50

I've seen some of Zimmer's work on The Doctors and she was... absolutely amazing. On Guiding Light I don't find her sooo captivating. Maybe something happened with age... but the acting changed. Maybe it's just my perception that is wrong. Who knows. 

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I haven't watched that era of GL in full but I do enjoy Tognoni's take. She is a real live wire but also capable of vulnerability. I didn't watch her on Y&R but it's remarkable to me because her work as Dinah is the complete opposite of her work as Kelly on OLTL.

I am one who loved Tognoni's Dinah!!!

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

A part of me does wish they'd taken her bait and written her out over someone like Ross or Holly...although neither of them were that heavy in story anyway (I guess Ross had a bit with Dinah's return).

Not firing KZ at that pivotal moment was one of Wheeler's worst bungles!

3 minutes ago, Maxim said:

I've seen some of Zimmer's work on The Doctors and she was... absolutely amazing. On Guiding Light I don't find her sooo captivating. Maybe something happened with age... but the acting changed. Maybe it's just my perception that is wrong. Who knows. 

Others were also amazing playing that same part on THE DOCTORS! So, part of it may have been the Nola-ness of it all. 

Although I thought she was really good both on DESIGNING WOMEN and on BABYLON 5. 

 

Firing Jerry verDorn was another of incompetent Ellen Wheeler’s mistakes. You don’t fire Jerry. You just don’t. 

And, of course, as we all know Jerry verDorn was not fired, ever, from anywhere, by anyone. He was a contract player who was changed to recurring. Anyone who tells you he was fired doesn't understand the most basic things about soaps, contracts, recurring, probably do not even understand what under 5 means. 

And, he, himself, thought it might've been a network decision.

Personally, I think it was Wheeler's second worst blunder. I believe that without really thinking about it, she took him for granted. Good ole Jerry, we can count on him, BULL.

You can trust me when I tell you that when they called that next week to book him for 4 or 5 upcoming dates, she was gobsmacked that Jerry had a contract role on OLTL. If she'd only thought, she could have gotten rid of Bradley Cole, to name one.

 

Edited June 18Jun 18 by Contessa Donatella

3 hours ago, DRW50 said:

A part of me does wish they'd taken her bait and written her out over someone like Ross or Holly...although neither of them were that heavy in story anyway (I guess Ross had a bit with Dinah's return, and Holly with Sebastian).

Garrett hated her story with Sebastian as badly as she hated that Pied Piper Steal the Kids thing!!! LOL Of course, she was also incredibly articulate in how & why she hated almost everything about the new production model. I should find that & post it. Scathing!

5 hours ago, chrisml said:

I always try to see both sides so I understand that it must be tough to be the sex symbol, to be known for your beauty and body and  then to see that slipping away. I can see how that would play with someone's psyche. It doesn't excuse mistreating costars or bad behavior but I understand because aging sucks even when you're not the red dress woman. After 25, one wrong turn in bed and you could be in pain for a month. Zimmer was not kind to Watros, Colman, or Forrester. Frankly, she wasn't kind to Beth Ehlers as it was easy to figure out who she meant even for me who didn't watch the show consistently. Ehlers has children and Zimmer was protective of her own children and angry when the ATWT articles came out. Why repeat the Ehlers story when it didn't involve her?  Did she think it wouldn't matter?  Or did she just not care like the Dusay anecdote @Mitch64wrote about?

 

I always try to see all sides & often to me at least there seem to be 6 or 7. 

20 hours ago, chrisml said:

Thank you @P.J.for all the videos. I appreciate them. I will bookmark them as a treat for later tonight. I'm not sure when Jordan Clarke's problems were, but Billy is quite frantic in most of what I've seen him in. The writers don't seem to know what to do with Billy and H.B. if it doesn't revolve around Reva and Kyle. Sally is the only who doesn't cater to Reva, so it's nice to see someone who doesn't fall down at Reva's feet. Zimmer needs a good nemesis; it doesn't work when everyone is in love with Reva.

Sally doesn't cater to Reva, true, but this year she's meddling in Billy and Mindy's marriages. She's on Vanessa for going back to work, and she encourages Billy to stay meddling in Mindy's. I don't know what she's doing in regards to Kyle, but I suspect she's offering up "advice" to her other son too.

Billy does seem lost---he needs someone to fight (as he later does Roger during '90-

93), and he seems to let Kyle take the lead in all the business matters. He's only fighting Vanessa, which seems almost cruel in light of the fact she's spent the last two years as a devoted wife, forgiving everything, and believed in him during the Infinity story when almost no one else did. I understand his frustration at times, but it seems out of character for him to not realize something is wrong with Vanessa.

And like you said, Reva is much the same way. Schlepping around Cedars and taking pics at summer camp isn't riveting television.

8 hours ago, Mitch64 said:

 (example, when Marj got dropped Zimmer talked to the press about where poor Marj was devastated as where was she going to find a job at "her age"..)

I've always found that hilarious. Marj had been a working actress since the '60's (hello, Hogan's Heroes and one of my favorite Star Trek episodes) not to mention having successful runs on two other soaps, a guest starring gig on Facts of Life, etc etc...but Kim was worried. Hmmmn..'K.

10 hours ago, DeeVee said:

but I thought one of Dina's earliest scenes was with Phillip while he was still played by Grant Alexander, and now he's about to return to the show and they still haven't had the reveal. Maybe someone can correct or confirm that?

Now I'm wondering if Dina was always meant to be their daughter. Who knows with the zillion writer changes.

Jennifer Gatti didn't start until '86 and Bolger had been in the role since '84. I do find it strange that they recreated anything for Beth's memorial when Bolger was gone about six weeks later.

I suppose some kind of involvement was heading Vanessa and Ross' way since the Infinity trial, but I'm not sure why it's Dinah and not Jessie. Or if there was a switch midstream. Jessie had a little crush on Phillip at Kurt and Mindy's wedding.

Edited June 19Jun 19 by P.J.

45 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Jennifer Gatti didn't start until '86 and Bolger had been in the role since '84. I do find it strange that they recreated anything for Beth's memorial when Bolger was gone about six weeks later.

I suppose some kind of involvement was heading Vanessa and Ross' way since the Infinity trial, but I'm not sure why it's Dinah and not Jessie. Or if there was a switch midstream. Jessie had a little crush on Phillip at Kurt and Mindy's wedding.

I saw the start of an episode where Vanessa was begging Ross to not go do some freedom fighter routine because Jessie was their daughter. I suppose this makes sense as a fakeout, but they might have had more short-term story out of Jessie being their daughter given his relationship with Calla. 

10 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I saw the start of an episode where Vanessa was begging Ross to not go do some freedom fighter routine because Jessie was their daughter. I suppose this makes sense as a fakeout, but they might have had more short-term story out of Jessie being their daughter given his relationship with Calla. 

Right? I guess Jessie being their daughter is just too easy. I suppose if I paid more attention to the Ross/Calla relationship, it would seem like there was some jeopardy there, but I can't stand that woman.