OLTL: Question about 1991 story

[DRW50]

Thanks.

Thanks.

The stuff I've seen of Bo/Cassie is just her being nervous and wailing "BO!" and not knowing what will happen. I wonder if the more romcom stuff between them was better served.

Since Tonja Walker had played a headcase at GH I wonder if they always planned for Alex to go nuts.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Laura talks about it here:

http://soapoperasource.com/interviews/soaps/laura-bonarrigo-koffman-sos-interview.html

[Khan]

RE: Laura Koffman's arrival (as Cassie) - Oops, my bad, lol! Thanks, Y&RWorldTurner, for the interview excerpt. The summer of '91 was a mess, as far as behind-the-scenes OLTL was concerned. There was so much chaos and transition going on then that it's hard to separate what Rauch was still responsible for from what he wasn't.

But I still remember the first time Bo and Cassie "met." ;-)

I absolutely don't think so. Alex first came on the show as a straight-arrow FBI (?) agent. The character was going nowhere, though, so they had her flip out in order to keep Tonja Walker on the show.

[DRW50]

Thanks. Strange he didn't ask her to look at Ava Haddad's work, since he'd even brought her back for the Mendorra episodes. I don't think Holly's Cassie is too popular with Cassie fans...

I know Rauch made a lot of mistakes at OLTL but generally I think a lot of his recast choices, at least at that time, seemed to be pretty solid (Karen Witter, Elaine Princi, Laura).

I have a tape that someone gave me of around the time Sarah was first "dead" and I remember being so shocked at how normal Alex seemed (aside from the fried hair).

I'm glad they made her nuts though. I just love the psycho Alex stuff, all the way up to Carlo. I think that suited Tonja (the ha ha Alex stuff later on, not so much).

[Khan]

AFAIK, Nicholas Walker, who had been playing Max, was more-or-less shocked to learn he'd been let go. Now, whether Rauch was responsible for firing him/bringing JDP back, I can't say for certain. For some reason, though, I seem to recall this happening w/ Gottlieb, b/c his (JDP's) first scene back - in that hottub, surrounded by all these beautiful ladies, and smiling and saying, "I feel like my old self again!" - was written by Malone.

To this day, I'd like to know whose (not-so-) bright idea it was to pair Thrower's Kevin romantically w/ Robyn Griggs' Stephanie and to make what was otherwise a beautiful love song, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine's "Words Get in the Way," their "theme." Because, if they'd actually watch the show once in a while, they'd know it never would have worked.

[DRW50]

Something else for those watching the show at the time:

When the whole "rap" story started (this was also when Sheila showed up right?), did you feel like the show was finally addressing their shameful lack of black characters over the past 5 years, or did it just seem like tokenism? Do you think Rauch had any real intention of introducing blacks as longstanding characters or was that more Gottlieb/Malone, when they brought in Hank and Rachel?

I've only seen bits and pieces of the black stories when Rauch was there, and I think they actually did a pretty good job bring Sheila in, having her as a good friend to the Buchanans/Viki's helper, but I guess the question would be whether he had any plans for her outside of that. That's when she had the relationship with Troy right? Most of what I've seen of Troy was when he was probably being phased out for Hank. Troy seemed OK. I've never really seen his brother, or Rika Price, aside from a scene where she and Sheila were singing in the choir (poor Vanita Harbour spent ten years on soaps and never got a good role). Gottlieb wrote Rika out, didn't she?

Valerie Pettiford was such a great actress and for someone who is mostly in theater she translated to soaps so effortlessly.

[DRW50]

That is hilarious

Kind of weird that Gottlieb knew enough about the show's history to bring JDP back (given the tension between them later I wonder if she regretted that), but she didn't know enough about Jensen Buchanan to bring her back as Sarah when Jensen stopped by the studio. I guess in the long run it worked out, as Bo and Nora were such a great couple and Bo was getting too old for so many women who were half his age, but I wonder if Sarah's return would have gone down better with Jensen still in the role. Then again, perhaps they just shouldn't have brought Sarah back at all...when I watch her stories under Grace Phillips, even though Grace does a good job, I can't help thinking that Sarah was out of place in that era of OLTL.

What did you think of Luna's arrival and the wacky past life stuff she did with Tina?

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[Khan]

To use a Maria Arena Bell-ism, Paul Rauch wanted to get "that (non-existent) Black storyline up and pumping." So what does he do? He introduces a storyline (the exact details of which, I've chosen to block from my memory) centered on the then-burgeoning hip-hop industry. Okay, fine, whatever. But as a special consultant, does he hire someone who actually knows his [!@#$%^&*]? Like, say, Chuck D.? KRS-One? Maybe even one of the members from N.W.A.? Nah. He hires Kurtis Blow. KURTIS. MUTHAFUCKIN. BLOW. Who, even when he was at his peak, was about as cutting-edge as Paul Anka. ("My name is Kurtis Blow/and I'm here to say/that basketball/is the game 2 play!" Seriously, Kurtis?)

Was it an earnest effort at righting a serious wrong on OL's canvas? Was it plain old tokenism? Who knows? All I can say is, when you read about it aloud to your mom and older brother in the car, and your mom laughs so hard she actually has to pull over and get out in order to catch her breath, you know someone's effed up.

[DRW50]

So you thought the intro of Rachel and Hank, and their relationships, was a much more sincere effort?

They could still mine so much of that story today...

[Khan]

I hated Luna from the beginning, if only b/c her arrival (via parachute) was an almost-total rip-off of Carl T. Evans' arrival as Alan-Michael Spaulding on GUIDING LIGHT. Then, she opened her mouth; and for the next four years, it's honey this, and "Love Line" that, and why is every damn scene @ Serenity Springs all of a sudden, and for the love of God, can't India von Halkein come back as Death and take this trifling Holly Hunter wannabe away?!

[MichaelGL]

Here's a question for any people familiar with OLTL out there; I was wondering, due to both characters lengthy time on the canvas, have Cassie and Tina ever been pitted up against each other like Viki/Dorian? If not, what's the attitude each character would share towards the other if they both were brought back to OLTL today and shared a scene? To me, it seems interesting, to my knowledge, that they haven't played up such an angle; like how OLTL has never fully played up a Asa/Dorian pairing and/or partnership either.

[DRW50]

The strange thing is they were both integral to the early Mitch Laurence stories, yet they weren't in the story at the same time. Tina was involved with Mitch when they worked together to fleece Viki and were working against Niki Smith. Then when Mitch returned from prison a "changed" man, and started his cult, Cassie was the one who went undercover to stop him, and was almost raped, then almost burned at the stake for her troubles. By that time Tina had moved onto the Cord storyline.

Then when Cassie was Viki's daughter-in-law, and Viki and Sloan helped Cassie and Andrew through their problems, Tina was usually focused on Cain, on Cord being back from the dead, on David Vickers.

They should have crossed paths several times but rarely did in a meaningful way.

[EricMontreal22]

Lord the show was *awful* back then. Was that DePriest (who I think is decent)?

[DRW50]

Apparently it was DePriest and Carlson.

It didn't help that I posted some of the worst scenes. Some of the later ones are better.

This has some good moments with Clint and Asa and a surprisingly good scene with Larry and Brenda (I think Brenda was potentially a great character but some of her stories, like the one about being drugged by Michael Grande, were awful):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OThDgVCQdMQ&feature=channel

This is a nice little set of scenes at the hospital, as they pray, led by Wanda. This scene also has a boyfriend of Wanda's I don't remember seeing before. Not sure how long he stayed around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leAqDXTTGt0&feature=channel

[You're Soaking in it]

Cain was absolutely created and introduced under Gottlieb / Malone... Christopher Cousins was one of Gottlieb's first hires in late 1991, and initially shared airtime with Jessica Tuck (as one of his con-artist disguses, actually). Cain moved into Tina's orbit the following year.

Not sure if this was answered already, but yes, Laura Bonarrigo's Cassie was indeed a Paul Rauch hire.