1 hour ago, MLH said:

However, this scene they showed was of him kissing her on the cheek in the bathroom.

Roger and Rita were once romantically involved. They knew each other in Texas and were lovers while Rita was working for a rich family as a private nurse. The patient died and left her money. The family tried to get her convicted of murder.  

Later on, they became enemies because Roger was incensed that she became engaged to Ed. He blamed Ed for a lot of the bad things happening in his life. He raped her the night of her engagement party. She didn't tell anyone until late in his trial for raping Holly.

That brief flash that they showed in the compilation was likely part of a flashback sequence for when they knew each other in Texas. Not absolutely sure about that, though, but I'm pretty sure she was done with him romantically by the time he came back to Springfield.

15 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

 

I mean, if anyone wants to watch it. I still don't understand why the Reardons were front and center of that story when it had absolutely nothing to do with them.

So Annabelle suddenly becoming psychic because she moved into a house wasn't a masterstroke of storytelling? (and that's about all I watch of that story, other than cringing at Tony's karate fight with Susan Piper's cohort.)

51 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I preferred the first Vicky as she was colder and more suited to a Spaulding temperament. Platt was OK but they never did anything with her.

Through Rauch's whole run he would give token stories to black characters and nothing more - the most painfully token material imaginable on GL. I am never sure whether he wanted more and P&G stopped him, but ATWT and even AW had more in those years. It bothered me a lot with Vicky as the "black Spaulding" story should have been much more than it was. 

The scenes with Alex and Brandon were around November 1984, I think.

I think Platt divorced Tilford a few years ago. 

 

I preferred the 1st Vicky as well, though I did like Platt. Platt is now married to a woman who i believe is a women's basketball coach 

37 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That is correct. It was insulting and stupid because the entire Barbados story was about hiding a letter that would have given Victoria a Spaulding inheritance. People were willing to kill to stop it from being revealed. SO anticlimatic.

And why shouldn't Victoria take her share? White guys come to her island and get rich off of it, why not take some of it back? (Chelsea mentions during the anniversary shows in 1987 that the Spauldings accumulated wealth through Barbados interests as far back as Brandon's father). I rolled my eyes so often during that story, starting with Brandon being miraculously alive when I had watched Lucille Wexler kill him on screen.

That story I think played out most of Autumn of 1984, with the big reveal happening as part of the November sweeps for 1984. I believe it went into December as well.

I mean, if anyone wants to watch it. I still don't understand why the Reardons were front and center of that story when it had absolutely nothing to do with them.

Thanks! As years go by, timeliness get worse for me. I can't believe I watched this play out forty years ago

42 minutes ago, robbwolff said:

Karen Williams was the original Vicky. She played the role for about six months and was then replaced by Platt. I much preferred Williams over Platt. Didn't Williams' Vicky initially have an accent?

Thanks! I do remember her with an accent 

In my watching Roger and Amanda team up, there was a scene with Roger and Leo talking about how shocked they were that both Amanda and Victoria gave up the money. Even Jenna"s Dad only got a lame $5,000.00 for his invention. 

I wouldn't even step into the Spaulding mansion. It's like it's cursed.

BTW, the Roger in the 70s scared me.  That scene with Roger taking Rita to the cabin was like watching a horror movie.  

 

So I'm watching some April and May 1988 episodes, and they are SO WEIRD. The dialogue is bizarre. There's a scene between Alex and Sonni where she's supposedly consoling her over her miscarriage, and her speech is so meanering and strange.

Then there's a scene where Ed is taking care of Reva after her coma and commenting how he never witnessed Alan acting so caring towards a woman, and I'm screaming at my phone's screen, ENOUGH WITH THE HOPE ERASURE! Ed, you hated Alan but you know he really loved Hope!

Then the credits roll and it says "Story by Pam Long" with no other writers listed.

Light bulb clicks on. These episodes were written by scabs during the 1988 strike. 

All these years I blamed Pam Long for the whole "Alan never loved a woman before Reva" retcon tripe, and Phillip turning icky by using sex and gaslighting to manipulate Chelsea. This also seems to be where the Sonni and Will story started to derail. Some individual scenes are so bad. There's an obvious chem test scene between Mindy and Frank where he comes off as darn creepy.

It wasn't her or the regular breakdown and dialogue writers! It was the scabs!

I feel like I owe them an apology.

8 minutes ago, MLH said:

BTW, the Roger in the 70s scared me.  That scene with Roger taking Rita to the cabin was like watching a horror movie.

They definitely whitewashed some of his past when he returned in 1989. 

One reason I wanted Rita to return was that, unlike Holly, she would never have forgiven him for what he did to her. Would have made for some interesting scenes, for sure.

Edited July 14Jul 14 by DeeVee

25 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

So I'm watching some April and May 1988 episodes, and they are SO WEIRD. The dialogue is bizarre. There's a scene between Alex and Sonni where she's supposedly consoling her over her miscarriage, and her speech is so meanering and strange.

Then there's a scene where Ed is taking care of Reva after her coma and commenting how he never witnessed Alan acting so caring towards a woman, and I'm screaming at my phone's screen, ENOUGH WITH THE HOPE ERASURE! Ed, you hated Alan but you know he really loved Hope!

Then the credits roll and it says "Story by Pam Long" with no other writers listed.

Light bulb clicks on. These episodes were written by scabs during the 1988 strike. 

All these years I blamed Pam Long for the whole "Alan never loved a woman before Reva" retcon tripe, and Phillip turning icky by using sex and gaslighting to manipulate Chelsea. This also seems to be where the Sonni and Will story started to derail. Some individual scenes are so bad. There's an obvious chem test scene between Mindy and Frank where he comes off as darn creepy.

It wasn't her or the regular breakdown and dialogue writers! It was the scabs!

I feel like I owe them an apology.

I remember the Sonni/Solita story zigzagging all over the place that summer. I've watched a few episodes after Vanessa leaves in January, and you're right it's strange. Ross is making passes at police officer Jenny (played by Mary Ellen Stuart). Sarah is bizarrely supporting Alan's romancing Reva, and nothing would convince Ed that Alan was treating a woman "well". He'd be warning them that Alan never sticks with one woman for long. Or y'know, remind her that just five months before, he was throwing a rock on Vanessa's finger while crossing the river on the downlow.

3 minutes ago, P.J. said:

and nothing would convince Ed that Alan was treating a woman "well". He'd be warning them that Alan never sticks with one woman for long.

EXACTLY what I was thinking Ed would say! In fact, I remember Jackie once saying to Alan that his problem was he fell in love ALL THE TIME, then he got bored and moved on to the next woman.

That's why the Vanessa/marriage of convenience thing never made sense to me (as well as the maid who is obviously not the maid, but a sex worker who lives in for his convenience).

O.K., I'm back to blaming Pam Long for some of it. 😁

@DeeVee That's because Michael Zaslow really didn't think he was returning.  There's a reason his character was written to be that scary. He was there for 6 months to permanently kill his character.

I forgot to add that the show started the character of Roger April 1 and ended April 1 when he went off the cliff.  Michael's last episode in 97 was in March.  I still don't get why they just didn't have a mystery illness with him being found by either Holly or Amanda on April 1. Then think of a storyline. 

Edited July 14Jul 14 by MLH

I don't know if you know it or not but I am a huge Laura Wright fan. I loved her as Cassie on Guiding Light. I love her now as Carly on General Hospital. She is the 4th Carly & I also love Sarah Joy Brown & Tamara Braun. In November Laura will celebrate 20 years as Carly, many more years than anyone else. Yesterday she was on State of Mind, not for the first time.

 

I have never seen anyone on Mo's little show, State of Mind, talk as much about soaps as she & he did yesterday. It was frankly glorious. She told in some detail the story of her leaving Guiding Light, which she dearly loved, to go to General Hospital. To me the story was quite amazing. At first she turned GH down. Then she went to GL & told them she was staying & told them what she wanted & every single thing she asked for they said NO. She was quite perplexed. Being cognizant that GL might be canceled she asked to be under contract to P&G not GL so if the worst happened she could segue right to ATWT, which she was a fan of.

 

So, she called Jill & said she'd changed her mind & would be coming there after all. Jill asked her what Ellen said. She said I haven't told her yet. Jill said, hang up the phone, call Ellen, then call me back. She did so. The conversation was very brief. Immediately Ellen had to go, got off the phone. Laura called Jill. 4 hours later, Ellen called back.

 

Now I can talk. Earlier I had to put things into the works because we have to have recast Cassie & time is slipping away but now I have time & I want to tell you how happy I am for you. Carly, do you think you can do this? Laura replied: I know I can knock it out of the park. Ellen was so glad. Laura says that everyone at GL was the exact same way. Her last day at the set she cried & people just held her or they cried with her. Absof*ckinglutely amazing story!!!

10 hours ago, DeeVee said:

One reason I wanted Rita to return was that, unlike Holly, she would never have forgiven him for what he did to her. Would have made for some interesting scenes, for sure.

Wait. Holly forgave Roger? I honestly do not remember that happening. When did it? What were the circumstances of it? Why in the world would she have?!!

16 hours ago, bboy875 said:

When Rauch began, he said he wanted to bring on some of the Black Spauldings and Roger would play a big part in that, but then Michael and then his replacement were fired, and stories were changed. He eventually brought on Victoria's daughter Vicky, but really didn't do anything with her (I don't know if that was him or P&G because I didn't see why he would bring her on and not do much with her). In short, we the viewers knew about Victoria for years, Roger didn't and I don't know about the rest of Springfield because the story climaxed I believe in Barbados.

Rauch and the writers would start and promise a lot of things but they would not pan out as you know...Reva.  Originally they were transitioning Vanessa to be more of an Alex role....back at Spaulding and kicking ass...but then they brought Alex back and promised a big story with Alex and Vicki and then nothing.

Springfield had to have known about Barbados, the Reardons were involved so you know Nola ran her mouth about it.  The set up for Vicki was good...Victoria had her sugar production biz and wanted nothing from Spaulding, so it made sense that Vicki said, "This is mine too...I want it"  But could you have self directed powerful black woman in Rauch's pastel paradise?

1 hour ago, Contessa Donatella said:

Wait. Holly forgave Roger? I honestly do not remember that happening. When did it? What were the circumstances of it? Why in the world would she have?!!

Maybe "forgave" is not quite the right word. There was the scene where Holly and Alex meant to set Roger up by Holly seducing him. (An insanely ridiculous plan, but anyway...) She couldn't go through with it because (no kidding) she was still traumatized by the rape.

This leads to Roger "explaining" why he raped her. Upshot, he loved her SO much (which was never true; this is what I mean by whitewashing his past).

In the end, she basically said she didn't hate him anymore.

I know lots of fans loved the post-1989 Roger/Holly dynamic, but this totally upturned their backstory. It was always Holly who was in love with him. Roger did not just rape Holly. He was a serial abuser who hurt many women, including Rita and Hillary. He caused the death of Rita's baby, could have killed HER because he left her tied up in a burning building. He indirectly caused the death of his girlfriend Renee.

This was done a lot on soaps at the time. This wasn't the worst example by any standard. Roger was never turned into a hero like certain other characters on other soaps. He still was mostly a bad guy. So I give them credit for that. But they had to skim over this part of his past so he could be a viable long-term character.

 

 

I forgot about the comment that he wasn't completely unprovoked! Ugh.

Sigh. Unfortunately, these kinds of mealy-mouthed excuses by TPTB were pretty common when dealing with rape stories on soaps. I remember Genie Francis saying Laura's rape was an "acquaintance rape" in interviews (like she was reading off of a script) as if that made it a less bad thing.

 

@alwaysAMC Don't you wish that they started the Amanda/Roger teaming up in early 1996?  It would have caused even more drama with the whole Blake pregnant by two fathers and Amanda's background with Ross. 

Amanda and Roger had a lot in common too.  Both even sang for a living and played the piano.

Although, it was hard to watch...I still cherish every episode Michael was in. I think he was finally getting happier with his storyline, but was personally depressed because he's a perfectionist.  

@DeeVee Yes.  But, to defend the writers, they had lost a big character in Alan.  I blame the storyline in 1994/1995 when they had Roger and Holly basically living together.  Then in 95 it seemed like they were back to square one.

IMO, Blake and Roger's relationship was totally one sided by the time Liz played the part.  I don't recall one storyline where she totally supported Roger at all.

@Mitch64 Speaking of Reva. When looking up old promos in the shows to compare how they were done from each decade, I noticed in the 80s that when they brought up Reva, it wouldn't even mention the storyline for her.  Just saying something like 'See Reva living life' or some ridiculous line. 

Edited July 14Jul 14 by MLH