1 hour ago, alwaysAMC said:

I've seen this before and I've said this before... but the timing seems odd to me. Granted, I say this without seeing 1993-1994 haha. But for me, 1995 was so exciting. I'm guessing they convinced Kim to come back to save the show, but I'm curious if her return and Brent/Marian boosted ratings at all. For me, this cancel concern should have come in 1996. That year was generally boring and I don't think Phillip's return was helpful considering it was a dud. I like Phillip, but his return storyline just wasn't that interesting.

I was surprised that GL was in cancel territory when Laibson came on board. I do know that it was under SERIOUS consideration in the Summer of 96 when the ratings dropped below AW. Rauch was brought in to save it but the real reason GL limped on is that the Bell soap never saw the light of day.

I do like that the writers asked why TPTB let JFP run havoc over GL. But also why McLaiby kept the focus on Buzz and the Coopers for so long leading into the terrible "Save 5th Street" storyline with Deas waving his arms and yelling day in and day out. Why not just get writers in to make GL..GL again instead of going for a costly new production which will be a shot in the dark. GL was a brand name..so fix it.

One wise things that JFP did was to refuse to bring back Reva on a permanent basis. But Kim got her fans in a frenzy and I can see why McLaiby would bring her back and have Brent/Marion...as one soap columnist said, "To bang the drum loudly."

@alwaysAMC I think in 1995, it was more about expanding B&B and GL was just the low man on the totem pole. Thankfully b&b didn't expand, although it seemed like a logical move at the time.

Even when GL was bad in 2001, you'd occasionally get a glimmer of hope like with Taggart/Culliton in 2002 or very early Kreizman in 2004. IMO, the show was cooked when they let JvD walk and LW left for GH around the end of 2005. That and terrible casting choices, which GL used to excel at. There was little rootability by the time they got to Jersey and it became the Jeffrey O'Neil show.