All: What If................

[cityfan01]

What if ABC had given The City a longer chance to build on its audience? The last few months of the show were its best and viewership was on the rise.

Also, what if SuBe had been given an extra year? I know that there was going to be a huge cast turnover in an avalanche storyline.

[MichaelGL]

What if Hogan Sheffer had chosen to write for GL, rather than ATWT? Would it have affected either show's time on the air; meaning would ATWT be the show that was cancelled last year?

What if Lorraine Broderick had been given more time to write for DAYS? Would fans have liked her type of storytelling?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

What if Ryan's Hope had lasted into the 90's? Would Labine have been forced out again, and would she have had the chance to work at GH?

[Khan]

If anything, I think GUIDING LIGHT would've been gone much, much sooner (if Hogan Sheffer had chosen to write for it over ATWT). GL, like ATWT, needed someone who understood and appreciated its' valuable history; and that's just something Sheffer clearly doesn't have the knack for.

Here's a biggie: what if AMC's Jenny Gardner Nelson had lived?

[Bright Eyes]

What if Paul Rauch didn't treat Hayman and Holly like caca?

[cityfan01]

She probably would have been re-cast and after that one didn't work out (because she was "no Kim Delaney!") they would have killed her off or sent her out of town.

[cityfan01]

Loving would have most likely been cancelled much earlier. It was obvious that ABC wanted to get rid of the 10AM (eastern time) of its daytime programming to affiliates. Ryan's Hope probably would have lasted much longer than Loving did. I can't imagine a CITY-esque spin-off of RH, nor canceling it for Port Charles.

[DRW50]

Unfortunately I don't think that the firing of Hayman and Holly had any serious affect on the show itself, in terms of viewer reaction. I *do* think that they lost a major opportunity to continue the history of the Gray family and even if Hayman and Holly had been written out at some point, at least they might have made more of an effort, but as it is I don't know if things would have been much better than the blink and you'll miss it appearances of Josh Hall throughout the 80s.

I actually think that in the short term, Sheffer might have done well at GL. Most of the heart was gone from GL by 2000, and if he and Rauch at Y&R are any indication, then he would have started a few shock value stories which would have brought some viewers back (as happened with B&E when they started at GL in 1997). He might have also given Holly some WTF, desperate storylines, as he did with Barbara, which might have gotten some attention.

I think Claire would have probably been gone for good if RH had stayed on. I think it might have kept a revolving door of writers and producers, like AW had. Frankly I wonder if ABC would have even hired her the last time around if they hadn't known the show was on the way out.

What if Harding Lemay had not left AW in 1979?

[cityfan01]

Here's another one:

What if the Claire Labine "Bensonhurst" spin-off of GH would have been picked up instead of Port Charles? Seems to me that they moved Tracey Q to CITY partially to fill the void of Morgan Fairchild's Sydney, but mostly due to the fact that ABC was planning on having her on their new show, since the cancellation notice came a mere weeks (I beleive) after her character premiered.

[Khan]

ANOTHER WORLD still would have crashed and burned. Even Lemay himself admits the constant demands on him to keep the ratings up took an enormous toll on him, both physically and psychologically. NBC and PGP's decision to expand AW to 90 minutes only exacerbated the problems.

Imagine, though, what might have happened had Lemay not been pushed out again (after only one month!) as HW nine years later....

[cityfan01]

Or what if the 90-minute expansion had never happened?

[Khan]

Nope, ANOTHER WORLD, I think, still would have sputtered at the end of the '70's and into the '80's.

[DRW50]

What if there had never been an OJ Simpson case?

What if Our Private World had been a hit?

[Khan]

Nicole and Ron still would be alive, and Scott Eldridge still would not exist.

[DRW50]

Ha, Scott doesn't exist now anyway

I do wonder though, if a daytime character had been a big hit in primetime, what would that have done? Would ABC have moved Luke and Laura to primetime? Would Steve/Alice/Rachel have moved up to the night? Would Erica Kane be in primetime? Or would daytime have crashed and burned even sooner because they wanted to suddenly be like primetime?