They were both very flawed and troubled people. At times, Holly could be very unsympathetic, yet I loved her and strangely wanted the best for her. 

 

Regardless of the terrible treatment P&G gave Zas, I do think it's fitting Roger and Holly never got a happy ending. They were not that kind of couple, and someone once said they were the true definition of an anti-supercouple, and I love that. I loved watching the two of them move in and out of each other's obit at different times, but I always knew that whatever peace they found with one another was always going to be tentative, even if they loved one another deeply despite everything.

 

I could go on forever, but those of us who witnessed the greatness of these two characters are so lucky. I don't think GL/P&G ever quite expected that this duo would ever be as popular and vital to the show as they were. 

I didn't want them to have a happy ending. Just closure. I think it would've been poignant to see Roger and Holly get a true ending between the two of them. It would've pulled at my heart strings to see Roger and Holly remarry and Roger to discover he had ALS. Holly would be upset that her time with Roger, after being reunited, is being robbed and cut short. Blake would be distraught over losing her father and worrying about if the disease is hereditary and able to spread to her or her kids. 

 

That's better than the story they went on to have post Roger leaving--Holly going on to stalk people and kidnap their kids, and Blake engaging in another tryst where she questioned, who the father of her child was (again). 

 

 

But they wouldn't've wrote the story as MZ died in late '98. 

 

 

For some reason, I had it in mind that you were talking about doing the ALS story in '04, when Sebastian was introduced.  My bad.   

 

On the other hand, weren't James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten the HW's when Zaslow left?  Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted them to write that kind of story either.  By the end of '97/start of '98, which was the last time I watched GL on a consistent basis (meaning, an average of 4-5 times per week), I had soured on those two and their brand of storytelling.

Edited November 25, 201510 yr by Khan

But they wouldn't've wrote the story as MZ died in late '98. 

 

 

For some reason, I had it in mind that you were talking about doing the ALS story in '04, when Sebastian was introduced.  My bad.   

 

On the other hand, weren't James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten the HW's when Zaslow left?  Yeah, I wouldn't have wanted them to write that kind of story either.  By the end of '97/start of '98, which was the last time I watched GL on a consistent basis (meaning, an average of 4-5 times per week), I had soured on those two and their brand of storytelling.

Seeing how horrid they became, yeah, I wouldn't trust them with something so delicate. But I thought they were decent around the time they were at GL, so they might've pulled it off. 

I always say this when the MZ story comes up..it WAS terrible how MADD mismanaged the whole thing. However, I do agree that it would have been both hard for the viewers to see Zaz/Roger fail as it would have been to write and produce it...( patients have good days and bad days the disease progresses differently on people, how do you write for something months in advance..etc. )
Also working with a populaiton that is older, I know it is hard  for people to let go even when they are physically unable to do so.

The respectfull thing to do was to write Roger out for a bit (at first they did not know what was wrong with Zaz) until they found out what he was looking at. It could have been a cryptic goodbye from Roger to Holly.  I would have brought him back as maybe having Holly and Blake be his leg men as he proceeds to wreck his final revenge on the Spauldings by doing a complete takeover and kicking them out. So he could have a scene with both Holly and Blake talking about the illness, this would cause problems for both Holly and Ed (during that time I would put them togther) and Blake and Ross. The twist would be that Holly would LOVE the power and Blake wouldn't ...she finds her happiness with her family which she loosed (for a time) .  Holly would own part of Spaulding and constantly battle Alan and Alex...(she had good chem with Ron Raines) and after Zaz and Roger died I would proceed with the Sebastian story only this time it would have been a kid that Roger secretly adopted and schooled to be as ruthless as him.and that kid would have been Ed and Rita's kid...the ultimate revenge on Ed..a son that becomes Roger and HATES every everything Ed stands for.

 

 

But isn't Rita's child Alan's? I know some long time viewers claimed that it was Alan's child she beared b/c she wasn't sleeping with Ed at the time.

No she was sleeping with both. Knowing TPTB they would have made it a Spaulding (just like having Beths kid turned out to be Alan..EWWWWW) but it works better as a Bauer. Having a bad Bauer would have been fun and ultimate revenge....Roger would steal Holly from Ed (as she would become more like him and I love MG when she is being the power bitch not the poor heroine) AND steal his kid too...all from beyond the grave! Then the Rick/Bad Bauer story would have wheels as they take on the Ed/Rog roles.

But I think you could still get the same impact if child was Alan's. Ed would probably still see the child as his and take it in as surrogate as that's something Ed did a few times. Plus, there would've been Phillip added to the mix. 

 

Maybe I am being biased b/c I can't imagine the Bauers creating a toxic being. Like the Hughes of ATWT, I'd always want them to be gray characters but not morally corrupt. 

Something possessed me to watch the series finale tonight, and I had forgotten about that little moment where Bill says to Fletcher, "I miss Ben," and Fletcher responds that he misses him, too. The actors put a LOT into that small exchange, and it got to me. I just wish there had been time for more sentiments like that (er, minus the terrible foundation of Ben not being there to begin with).

 

Here's how I would have handled Michael Zaslow's illness and Roger, going back to 1997. If I'm the EP of GL and MZ comes to me and says he isn't sure what's wrong with him and needs to figure it out, I grant him that time off and I tell the writers that Roger needs to be written off the canvas for the foreseeable future - write his absence in as a mystery. Everyone loves a good mystery, right? YMMV, of course.

 

Basically, I think I'm stealing for your earlier idea in this thread. Meaning, Roger suddenly disappears from Springfield. Basically, Amanda asks Blake if she's heard from Roger. Days prior, Roger told Amanda he had business to take care of all of sudden, and he leaves. He doesn't tell Amanda where he's going, who he's meeting, why he's leaving, or when he'll be back. He just leaves (which could have all been done off camera). Blake says she hasn't talked to Roger in a while, either. They both begin to worry as the days pass. It's just like he vanished completely.

 

The next few weeks and months result a "Where's Roger?" mystery storyline, which would culminate in Amanda, Blake and possibly Holly investigating and finding some flight records which indicate that a small plane that supposedly Roger was on crashed in some remote location, killing all passengers - including Roger. Now, the mystery isn't solved as far as the "why" of Roger's disappearance. However, since Roger did not leave any trace of evidence other than the fact he was on the flight, Roger is once again declared dead. Amanda leaves Springfield (if they chose to write her out), and Blake and Holly get on with their lives...

 

...that is until (as he did with "One Life To Live") Zaslow could find a way to work in order to finally allow the writers to effectively write Roger out of GL, and use Zaslow's real life illness as the way to do it. You could educate the audience, have PGP in conjunction with Zaz's Angels to allow for donations to be made, etc (And screw the "wizend old man" comment). This would allow Zaslow and Garrett to share some final, heartfelt scenes together. They would have knocked it out of the park.

 

Basically, a few months (or whenever Zaslow could return, even briefly) after Roger is declared dead. Holly receives a cryptic phone call from Adam Thorpe, Roger's father (either a brief or long-term stay for Robert Milli as Adam) asking Holly to a private hospital wherever the writers chose - maybe it's in Oregon, where Adam was last known to reside. It could be anywhere. Holly gets a strange feeling in her gut about why Adam called, but she does it, no questions asked - leaving Fletcher to take care of Meg at a moment's notice (and Fletcher wondering what is going on).

 

Holly arrives at the hospital and meets Adam. She's not surprised that it's not Adam who is the patient. She looks straight into Adam's eyes and firmly states, "Where is he, Adam? Where's Roger?" Adam tells her to prepare herself, as he takes her to see Roger, who is now in a wheelchair. Roger tells her his condtion (ALS). He realized something was wrong with him when he was in Springfield. He had tests done privately, and when the doctors told him his condition, he fled Springfield and went to see his father. He didn't want anyone to see him like this - not Amanda, not Blake, certainly not anyone he regarded as an enemy (Alan). He faked his death carefully so that no one would ever learn the truth. He had no choice in getting ALS, but he does have a choice in how he will die. No one except his father and Holly will know about his condition.

 

Holly - feeling so many different emotions at this point - asks why Roger would tell her? Why now? After a heartfelt pause, Roger tells her that he loves her, he's never stopped loving her, and he couldn't love anyone - including Amanda - like he loves Holly. He never intended Holly to find out his condition. He wanted everyone in Springfield to remember him as he was, not the way he is now. He admits that he couldn't stop thinking about her - he became selfish - he finally had to see Holly one last time. Adam was glad to make the call to her.

 

Roger tells Holly that he's truly sorry for everything he put her through over the years. He tells her that he revised his will once he was diagnosed, and upon the time of his death, that new will shall be sent to Springfield to be read. Basically, the majority of his Spaulding stock will go to Holly, with the rest going to Blake. He will make sure Holly is taken care of financially. Holly tells her that she doesn't need his money. Roger looks up at her and just says, "Please accept this. For me." Roger insists to Holly she cannot tell Blake about his condition. He couldn't bear Blake seeing him like this. Roger and Holly look at each other one last time (both saying "I love you" and giving the audience closure between them) and Holly leaves, an emotional wreck.

 

Holly returns to Springfield feeling incredibly numb, her emotions spent from her time with Roger. Fletcher and Blake keep asking where she was, why she left, but she refuses to say anything (although she's very tempted to say something to Blake, but she keeps flashing back to Roger's plea, so she stays silent).

 

If Zaslow could still work, then the next part of the story is that Blake doesn't leave it alone, and traces where Holly went. She goes to the hospital herself. She finds Adam, who is shocked - yet very glad - to see her. Adam assumes that Holly told Blake about Roger, but Blake is in the dark. She pushes through Adam and finds Roger. She's stunned, but so happy to see her father alive. Roger at first thinks Holly went back on her word, but is relieved when Blake tells him that Holly told her nothing (which infuriates Blake). Roger tells Blake he never wanted her to see him like this. He loves her very much.

 

From there, Blake returns to Springfield livid with Holly. Adam would eventually come to Springfield to let Holly and Blake know that Roger passed away peacefully.

 

But then, there would be the issue with Roger's new will, which would have been filled with other surprises for the citizens of Springfield.

 

Roger might have finally been gone, but he wouldn't soon be forgotten...

I still wish they would have done a storyline similar to the above for R & H's final story...

January 31 1995 Digest.

 

I don't remember this Susan. Was she a cop?

 

Edited December 1, 201510 yr by DRW50

That Susan was the one who was in the Alan played by Ron Raines intro story. 

Oh. Thank you

 

What a shitpile that was.

October 10 1991 Weekly

 

 

 

 

 

I miss that man on TV. I am probably one of the few that actually liked Nick McHenry. 

He's joining DAYS so at least you can see him on there.