Planned Storylines that were changed/dropped

[JackPeyton]

Stefano's will reading was fantastic! I loved that. Everyone arriving at the dimera mansion unsure of what exactly was going on. Marlena and Lexie finding out about Sami & Tony's relationship. All of it was just great.

A lot of the presents did play into storylines tho. Kate got the paper school kids holding hands and then the alien twins came and were hers (unless my time line is off here, and it could be). Hope got the blindfold and everyone thought Stefano was going to kidnap her again, and then she got kidnapped and was held in a dark room by Larry Welch. Grandpa Shawn got the boat with the little boy on it and that was to kick off the backstory of bradys vs dimeras but it changed so much after that, but they did play that beat.

and yes in that Eric Brady stalker storyline it was supposed to be his ex-boyfriend.

Wasnt Mike Horton also going to be gay in the 80's?

[Vee]

The OLTL racism storyline Malone had planned, from what I heard of it, though it may be wrong, sounded like a horrid botch of cliches and more OOC crap similar to his second run on the show. The version I was treated to involved Drew Buchanan and Rachel falling in love, much to the chagrin of a suddenly racist Becky Lee Abbott. (Somewhere Clint Ritchie is nodding, simpatico.) This situation would escalate and somehow R.J. was to end up dead. I love much of Malone's work at OLTL, but when he goes off the reservation, he goes way off.

I thought Di/Dixie on AMC was so [!@#$%^&*] stupid from the start. I mean for God's sake - Kelli Giddish looked way too young to me. She was an okay actress but Dixie? Really? That's Dixie? They all believe it, and AMC just might have tried to sell it? No fuckin' way. I thought the bits with her as "Dixie" "mothering" JR were horrid, just ridiculous-looking. Though it would have been much more soapy if she'd seduced him - Giddish and Young look like contemporaries, and a similar story has been done with David and Tina on OLTL.

JFP originally planned to blow up the hospital on GH in 2001 during her riff on "Endgame" with Stavros and Helena. The biotoxin would 'leak into the atmosphere' and somehow her favorite character, Angel, would then play a central role in the ensuing medical crisis. This was all part of Jill's plan to do what she loves to do - totally remodel all the sets on a show. Years later, Jill got to change the hospital after all.

Allegedly, the character of Melissa Bedford on GH was originally conceived by Guza on his way out in 2000-2001 or Michele ValJean. She was slated to be played by Bobbie Eakes, and be a shrink involved with Stefan. This did not pan out and Jill made Melissa into her big FOJ alongside Roy. Thankfully, unlike her many trial runs at OLTL, Roy and Melissa, the middle-aged supercouple who destroy all they touch, did not take off.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the dozens of "gay CJ Roberts" rumors that have swirled around OLTL since 2003, when Malone and Griffith allegedly planned to reintroduce the character. There were at least two dropped storylines involving people (Sarah/Flash and Paul Cramer) looking for him, and the suggestion was that Paul #1 (Brock Cuchna, pre-Paul's evil scheming days) had been his lover during their time in the service.

[DRW50]

Thanks, Vee. I couldn't remember who the racist story involve besides Rachel. So is this why Becky Lee came back as an embittered con artist, or was that aside from any racism stuff?

Did you ever hear anything about a Drew/Nora affair? I remember there were a lot of touches and caresses, and someone wrote a letter about it to Soap Opera Weekly. Then HBS said in a later interview that she suddenly got notes from the director telling her to, "Look at Drew in a motherly way," which she said was not very easy, given how handsome Victor Browne was.

[Vee]

I have a feeling Becky Lee's strange return in the mid-90s did have something to do with that aborted story, yes.

I think HBS once said there was some Drew/Nora thing planned under Labine or Levinson. Not sure.

[SFK]

I would have bought that.

I know this is TV and she reads a bit older, but Kelli Giddish is a year younger than Jacob Young, so seriously, GMAFB. They tried to make her into a bit of a bad ass in prison, but she seemed very gentle and Lainie-like, not any of the life experience of a Dixie. Not that I was a fan of Dixie Carrington Colby or whatever the hell CM and the writers were going for in that last incarnation of the character.

Oh wow, the things you forget... Count Stovall, he was in that all-black production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that was on Broadway last year, along with Giancarlo Esposito (Simone's dad).

[SFK]

They had Todd make some not-so-veiled racist comments to Rachel back in the day, I'm glad they didn't ruin Becky-Lee with that. Unlike a Clint, you just know that she wouldn't have been given the time to be redeemed, she would have left town as a bad memory save for a forgettable "forgive me" scene.

[DRW50]

This was already mentioned in the threads on Pratt and Broderick, but in 1996, AMC planned a story where after Pierce dumped Janet for Brooke, Janet started going nuts again and decided to get plastic surgery to look just like Brooke. Robin Mattson was fired and Julia Barr would have played a dual role. Nothing against Julia Barr, but the idea was horrible and seemed to be a blatant knockoff of the JER wannabe types of stories flooding daytime then. There was a big fan outcry and apparently some at AMC were also not happy with the idea, so Robin was rehired and the story was abruptly ended. No big loss.

Also in 1996, Belinda Keefer was supposed to be killed off in the storyline about their mother Leslie Uggamms returning from witness protection or the mob or whatever, but Amelia Marshall impressed them enough that they changed it to where she survived, not that they ever did anything major with her anyway.

Didn't Camille, the voodoo woman who helped Julia and Noah in Jamaica, stay in Pine Valley briefly? Did they test her with Jack or something?

During the months of the Michael Delaney story where it still seemed like he might be an important player after the stuff about his fight to keep his teaching job ended, didn't he go on about his old love, who lived in Europe or something? I seem to remember there were rumors this was going to turn out to be Kelsey's father, Tara's ex-husband.

[SFK]

Hmm, I don't remember the Camille and Jack thing, I just remember Victoria Platt showing up on GL as Vicky Spaulding #2... and of course she's Terrell Tilford's wife.

Oh.My.God. I did not know that about Janet/Brooke, INSANE, though my curiosity is peaked imagining Julia Barr playing Janet, that is some hysterical stuff right there.

[Sindacco]

That was the start of C&Bs version of the Brady/DiMera feud. You could say they were building up for it during their entire time as headwriters.

July 2002:

The reading of Stefano's Will. Cassie and Rex arrives in Salem.

November:

John, Marlena and Tony at the DiMera Compound. John finds out he and Tony are half-brothers and Tony find the phoenix box.

December:

Tony opens the box and finds Stefano's Journal from 1960-1980. John finds out that Daphne DiMera is his mother.

January 2003:

During Colin's wake, Tony tells everyone he and John are brothers casuing Shawn Sr to have a heart attack. Tony said the first shot had been fire and declared war against the Bradys.

February:

John, Marlena and Tony all went back to the DiMera Compound. They found out that Tony and Marlena were the twins parents.

March:

Higley takes over as headwriter and drops the storyline.

I am currently uploading clips of that storyline. Check out this playlist.

http://www.youtube.com/user/FrancoMendez#p/c/026BC8E94D826F5C

[EricMontreal22]

I remember Camille cuz she was the only thing I kinda liked about the voodoo story. I don't remember Michael going on about an ex at all but i did think himand Chris would stay longer...

Didn't we have a thread about this two or so months back? Not to complaina s I love these threads but all the dropped stories I was gonna mention I remember mentioning there...

[dragonflies]

My guess is that was a plot point to get JR and Tad at the mansion the night of Stuart's murder. I never felt Pratt was going to follow through with it

[ClassicsSoapFan]

On ATWT Douglas Marland gave Dan McCloskey Alzheimers and had planned to show the disease progress in real time.

Marland died and his succesors (Juliet Law Packer and Richard Backus) moved things up and made it unfold a lot faster.

Their succesors,Henry Stern and Stephen Black decided that no one wanted to see an old man die onscreen and gave him a heart attack and killed him off.

Later. a grief stricken Nancy got involved with another grieving widow. They started taking dance lessons. It was obvious that their much younger dance instructors were going to take them for their money. The writers changed and that story was dropped never to be mentioned again.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Some other AMC stuff: There was talk that Allie Doyle was supposed to be Joe Martin's daughter from his affair with Leora Sanders in the 70s, and that Henry Chin would turn out to be Palmer's grandson. Also, it was planned to have Liza become pregnant to add conflict to the Greg/Jenny storyline, but the writers decided not to go in that direction since they had gone that route with their previous young love storyline of Cliff and Nina. I remember one of the writers talking about this in an interview. Also anyone remember the romance between red-headed Nina and Benny Sago? That storyline was a huge bust and was quickly aborted, never to be spoken of again. On Edge of Night, Chris Egan was brought on to be a new romantic interest for Derek Mallory in the last couple of years of the show. Dennis Parker the HIV positive actor who played Derek developed full-blown AIDS at this point. He could barely work and the storyline was scrapped. On GH in the Gloria Monty years, I think Steve Hardy was supposed to suffer a heart attack because of the stress of being chief of staff. Jesse was concerned about his health. I distinctly remember this, because the scene she had with Steve where she conveyed her concern took place at Kelly's, and I recall thinking at the time that that was the first time I ever saw Jesse in a scene that DIDN'T take place at the nurse's station. The storyline went nowhere.

[DRW50]

I remember the dance instructor stuff. Black and Stern did write for some of the vets, it was just awful stuff.

I think GH also planned for Audrey to get Alzheimer's. When they realized John Beradino was so ill, they scrapped the story, as they did not want to get rid of their other longest serving vet.

[DeeeDee]

Rachel Ames has to be the most mistreated vet in Daytime.