IIRC it was more that Howarth was talking to a friend or colleague about his issues and that's how it came up. That's all I know there.
I don't know if Malone would ever have actually paired Todd and Marty were it up to him. But whatever he said to the press or told himself, the actors believed it and I do think he was fascinated by that relationship. I can't necessarily blame him or the show for focusing on the dynamic because the actors were very charged together onscreen right to the end. But looking at the material today and how it was both written and staged, however impeccably done, it still dates very poorly and seems really inappropriate in 2026. It was obviously presented (IMO) as a kind of budding emotional affair or subconscious love triangle with Marty while Todd was with Blair in '95.
I do think that for all his blinders there Malone would never have gone near doing the rapemance from '08 in the way Ron Carlivati did it. They even interviewed him for comment on it at the time, and he basically gave RC the benefit of the doubt and said he would wait to see how it played out (before consummation). I have to believe Susan Haskell was sold a bill of goods about that story as well when she returned, even if it did get her an Emmy. (There were rumors at the time that they had actually intended to get Roger back in '08 and reveal that TSJ's "Todd" was not Todd mid-rapemance, but who knows.) I know she left the show very unhappy with FV/RC and her exit story a few years later, which also kept Thorsten Kaye from returning to usher her out as Patrick. She's never spoken about it to press or in public.
I think Roger had just grown up a lot in his years at CBS (where he'd also had a lot of bad writing and not exactly been massively popular anymore). He was just happy to no longer be playing a rapist. But even Erika Slezak very recently (when they reunited in LA last year) said she'd always loved working with him but he was 'a pain in the ass' when he was young, and that he was much more easygoing when he returned in '11 lol. She's been much more circumspect about TSJ through the years.
The RH/KDP, FL, etc. relationships are generally suspect to a lot of fanbase war stuff. But what we do know is RH and KDP had ups and downs due to his issues with his role in the '90s and '00s and that when he came back they both were a lot more comfortable with each other. I had heard Howarth approached her to mend fences shortly before or after returning to the show, and they've been spotted IRL very chummy a number of times since, including last year. All's well that ends well.
I can't really blame OLTL for going ahead with Todd Manning to begin with in 1993. Yes, they cast a great actor to play a gang rapist but he took off like a rocket. It was a different time, and whether we like it or not soaps had made allowances for rapists and abusers played by exciting actors more than once. Knowing what we do now and living how we do today you certainly can't deny how much it changed and at times broke the show. Even starting in '91 again recently I can see how much Todd changed things. And any OLTL that lived today could not have two rapist twins as its leading men. They would have to be gone, or at least not around or regularly present for a long time. But do I regret that RH was there, that Todd had story? Only sometimes.
The TSJ years OTOH I am increasingly inclined to throw out. Which is too bad, because when he wanted to be he could be very good. His feud with Kevin was second to none. He was also very good at playing a pure psychopath. Some of the scenes with Marty near the end of his run just before her miscarriage, where he traps her in her office and taunts her, threatening her about their kids, are insane for a romantic leading man of the show. It was just totally unacceptable. That wasn't on him, it was on the writing. He gave a very good performance as a monster in those kind of scenes, but he also was not above trolling anything that might make the character more human.
By
Vee ·
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.