13 minutes ago, TheyStartedOnSoaps said:

Then who would you pair Reva up with, once she broke it off with Alan?

Why did she always have to be paired with someone?

3 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Why did she always have to be paired with someone?

Because she is Reva!

11 hours ago, DeeVee said:

Michael Zaslow returning as Roger gave the show a shot in the arm. But their ratings for some reason didn't improve as much as you would think, considering the positive changes that were made.

Roger return and Robert Calhoun becoming EP are what got GL to finally hit its stride after some pretty bad years. Unfortunately the ratings did not reflect the improvement in the quality of the show. I will never believe that the tail end of supercouple Days was a better show that Calhoun era GL.

I agree that GL pretty much became the Reva show during most of the 1980's. As I have stated before, I really loved the late 70's Dobsons writing era. I can go back and watch those 1979 episodes over and over again and not get bored. I can't believe all those great characters that could have driven story for decades were written out for stupid new characters and pointless storylines. 

Characters that should have been kept on, but were quickly dumped within a few years.

Rita Bauer

Jackie Marler

Elizabeth Spaulding

Justin Marler

Ben McFarren

Holly Norris Thorpe

Diane Ballard

Barbara Norris Thorpe

Adam Thorpe

Sarah McIntyre Werner

Hope Bauer

Mike Bauer

Hillary Bauer

Amanda Wexler

Lucille Wexler (they really should have kept her around).

 

 

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

I thought maybe it was Claire, but I was thrown by how it ended up with Ed and Claire sleeping together. 

Claire and Fletcher is another example of a romantic pairing that burned out too quickly. No matter the reason why they put Claire and Fletcher together, they had potential. The soap mags liked them. Pratt and Hammer both talked on The Locher Room about how much they loved their pairing and bemoaned how it was cut short.

Of course every romantic pairing needs conflicts and separations. There was nothing inherently wrong with the baby drama. The problem was turning Claire into practically a psycho, then blaming it on a brain tumor, then shuffling her out of town.

I wouldn't have minded a romance for Bert, but HB? The guy who married the ex of both his sons? Then romanced the daughter of an old friend who he had to have known since she was a child? 😬 I don't know about that.

I think they totally missed out on some really good tension by having Fletcher and Claire together during this time..Fletch would kind of be the middleman and have the push pull between the Bauers and Claire..who didn't need to be a psycho..but an edgy woman who always felt left out (and who is her own worst enemy.) They had time to turn this around as I am watching the Bert memorial..where Claire is being a bit softer...but they could have used Bert's death to really reset the show...maybe recast Ed with MH, bring back Mike for the episodes and reintroduce a recast Hope in anticipation of Alan's return.. (I see the good old soap trope of a flash of a mysterious hand holding the SF Journal with Bert's obituary..the cuffs say AS, and on to commercial) 

I would have used that time to bring back Meta as we mentioned, and who actually feels a connection to Claire as the black sheep..giving another perspective then Claire the weird high strung baby mama. She would both put a good work in for Claire and kick her ass when needed, which would bother Mo.  A really good family storyline with no villains was screwed to make Claire a convenient nut job (I am suprised she didn't kidnap Chelle but I am sure Ryder was planning that...)

I think the Bert/H.B. thing was planned from the get go but then Charita got sick...so Long changed course...

1 hour ago, DeeVee said:

Why did she always have to be paired with someone?

Well, Zimmer would have a freaking fit is she wasnt paired up...but you are right..I liked Reva the most when she was kind of on her own, when Josh left, Kyle was married to Maeve and she bought a house, worked, was involved with other people then a grand romance (the Cain stuff didnt really count, she was helping him as he saved her.) 

29 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

I agree that GL pretty much became the Reva show during most of the 1980's. 

If any character defined GL's final 25 years, it was Reva.

29 minutes ago, SoapDope78 said:

I really loved the late 70's Dobsons writing era. I can go back and watch those 1979 episodes over and over again and not get bored.

I've accepted we'll probably never see Potter/Dobsons 1976-1978 episodes so any Potter/Dobsons episodes from 1979 and 1980 that surface are such a treat.

In my life GL had two golden eras: Potter/Dobsons/Marland and Calhoun/Long/Curlee.

On 10/8/2025 at 3:32 PM, robbwolff said:

Jack and Lainie were seen at the Bauer BBQ in July 1988, but did not show up in the clips I've seen online from the July 1987 BBQ when Alan-Michael returned. My recollection is that they first showed up in early 1988 around the time Johnny was battling cancer.

Elizabeth Allen had played Reena's mother Victoria Bellman on Texas. She played the role of Dr. Gwen Harding on Guiding Light. Gwen was Annabelle's therapist and was killed by Eli. Mary Pat Gleason also came over from Texas. She played Jane Hogan on Guiding Light and had played the Marshalls' housekeeper Doris Hodges on Texas.

I've said this before, but I wonder who Hannah Bauer was slated to be in 1987. Mary Stuart stated in an interview that she was offered the role of Hannah shortly after Search for Tomorrow was axed. I wonder if Hannah was originally supposed to be Johnny, Lacey, and Todd's mother.

You are correct. Jack & Lainie Bauer’s  first airdate was 1/8/88. 

I know that Long bought Hawk onto the show, but did she also bring on Rusty and Sarah... or were they introduced by the writers that wrote the show during her 18 months she was off the show?

I know that Hawk/Lillian wasn't Long.. but was she the one to break them up to reunite Hawk/Sarah.. or was that the scab writers that did that?

I do think it's interesting that the show introduce older characters in the late 80s (The faux Bauer parents, Sarah, Maeve's mom in a recurring basis)... but I wonder why the show didn't think to make one of those intros either Meta or Trudy to provide a female to replace Bert.   I think characters like Sarah and Lainie weren't needed and just reminded viewers that other characters from the past could have been bought back on a recurring basis (especially after Roger/Holly came back onto the canvas).

Am I crazy or didn't several eps from '77-'78 resurface in the last few years? I know I saw some I thought were from around then. I remember an unbelievably interminable Thanksgiving sequence where Justin and Sara McIntyre cook dinner which seemed to be half-improvised and desperate to fill out the hour. It was like slow cinema.

Edited October 10Oct 10 by Vee

22 minutes ago, Vee said:

Am I crazy or didn't several eps from '77-'78 resurface in the last few years? I know I saw some I thought were from around then. I remember an unbelievably interminable Thanksgiving sequence where Justin and Sara McIntyre cook dinner which seemed to be half-improvised and desperate to fill out the hour. It was like slow cinema.

That and another episode (I think Bill Bauer spying on a ceremony meant to be a posthumous tribute to him) were put on DVD by We Love Soaps.

6 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

That and another episode (I think Bill Bauer spying on a ceremony meant to be a posthumous tribute to him) were put on DVD by We Love Soaps.

Yeah. I thought there were a few other eps floating around recently from very shortly after the Spauldings hit town.

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

I know that Long bought Hawk onto the show, but did she also bring on Rusty and Sarah... or were they introduced by the writers that wrote the show during her 18 months she was off the show?

I know that Hawk/Lillian wasn't Long.. but was she the one to break them up to reunite Hawk/Sarah.. or was that the scab writers that did that?

I do think it's interesting that the show introduce older characters in the late 80s (The faux Bauer parents, Sarah, Maeve's mom in a recurring basis)... but I wonder why the show didn't think to make one of those intros either Meta or Trudy to provide a female to replace Bert.   I think characters like Sarah and Lainie weren't needed and just reminded viewers that other characters from the past could have been bought back on a recurring basis (especially after Roger/Holly came back onto the canvas).

I think it was Sheri Anderson who brought in Sarah...that was during the bad corporate espionage thing of Lewis Oil and Josh was hiding a pregnant Reva and brought Sarah in...my question...did Long or any of the writers ever mention Sarah...I thought she would be a trashy battle axe but they made her seem like a sweet country mother...why had she not spoken to her kids? But yea, all we needed was another family member of Reva...(it would have been funny if Sarah was an old battle axe who gave Reva hell."My daughter is a slut, sure..damn where are my ciggies????"

6 minutes ago, Vee said:

Yeah. I thought there were a few other eps floating around recently from very shortly after the Spauldings hit town.

Yes I think a few other fragments or bits and pieces have shown up.

The vast majority of the 1979 episodes are now gone. I wanted to go back and see the episodes where Jackie invites Mike to dinner at her new apartment. Also the episodes where Mike & Elizabeth have an affair at the ski lodge and Jackie finds out. She confronts Elizabeth about it later.

15 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

I think it was Sheri Anderson who brought in Sarah...that was during the bad corporate espionage thing of Lewis Oil and Josh was hiding a pregnant Reva and brought Sarah in...my question...did Long or any of the writers ever mention Sarah...I thought she would be a trashy battle axe but they made her seem like a sweet country mother...why had she not spoken to her kids? But yea, all we needed was another family member of Reva...(it would have been funny if Sarah was an old battle axe who gave Reva hell."My daughter is a slut, sure..damn where are my ciggies????"

Yes, it was Sheri Anderson and her husband and co-headwriter at the time Joseph Manetta who introduced Sarah Shayne. First airdate: 1/20/87.