Ratings the Replacements SPW 8/3/99

[R Sinclair]

THANK YOU!! Neff was gorgeous, but the absolute WORST actress All My Children ever cast. Denise Vasi is Meryl Streep compared to Neff. She would literally stumble on a line (well, all of them) and start it all over again.

[DRW50]

I just saw a promo on one of my old tapes with Mateo/Raquel1/Hayley and Neff was just making the "mean" faces like a sitcom child.

[scherra]

I remember that, it led to a remarkable scene on the eve of the verdict in which Ross seemed to have reached Ed in Africa, or his voicemail anyway, and was exhorting him to please, please come home. Remarkable because the scene lasted much longer than I'd expected, and remarkable because JvD played it with all the verve and emotions he could muster, when essentially, it was a monologue. Always blew me away when characters/actors like Ross/JvD or Vanessa/MK would get emotional.

So yes, they threw us something. But it bugged me that they wouldn't let Michelle talk about him. Made it look like she didn't care her father wasn't in her life, as if all she needed was Danny, Danny, Danny.

Wasn't that always the case with Rauch (and/or E&? He/they'd have great ideas every now & then, and it felt like GL was on an upswing again, then it petered out or fell apart completely. Heaven knows what was going on backstage and what kinds of battles he/they may or may not have waged with P&G or CBS, so I wouldn't blame everything on them, but it's difficult to look at the state of GL through its final decades, realize it still had some amazing talent and potential on its hand, yet reaching it proved so elusive and impossible until cancellation became inevitable.

[Khan]

Yeah, but if Ed had to move on from Maureen's death (and IMO, he had to), then it needed not to be w/ her own sister. That's probably why Simon fought the idea, too.

[Khan]

In retrospect, GUIDING LIGHT died, b/c three overbearing individuals - Rauch, MADD and then-CBS president Lucy Johnson - were locked in a perpetual pissing contest over whose "vision" for the show was the best. In the process, whoever was in the HW's chair at the moment was hamstrung; and entire chunks of the show's legacy were chopped off and cleared away. By the time MADD ceded the fight to Rauch's replacement, John Conboy, there truly was no hope.

[DRW50]

Why was it Lucy Johnson eventually left anyway? Right or wrong whenever I hear her name I always think of Scott DeFrietas. That and some photo where I thought she had a Trump woman's hair.

[EricMontreal22]

I still have no idea how E/B wrote a pretty good, even great Loving (and no, I don't just mean the murders), and after finding their footing, were strong on City--but haven't really been anywhere else (though, surprisingly, I think now that they're script writers for AMC they often write the best dialogue).

So did no one like Budig as Michelle? I always thought it was a bit of a coup when AMC got her and she was a liked actress--but I guess I was wrong. (While I go back and forth on Greenlee, I do really like Budig, even with the "real Greenlee" fiasco).

[DRW50]

I'm sure people liked Budig as Michelle. She was in a lot of stories for her three years on the show, and they made her a big focus in 1997, her search for her mother's heart, her love with Jesse, the blindness, etc.

[Gray Bunny]

I really liked Rebecca Budig as Michelle. Granted, I didn't see her predecessor, but I liked what I saw. I liked how they had her speaking to her mom in fantasy sequences a lot in 1997, but that fizzled in 1998.

What I didn't like about 1998 was that the show stopped being an ensemble and instead would only focus on 2 storylines at a time, leaving everything and everyone else on the backburner. Once the clone story began, it was Clone Story and Harley/Phillip/Beth during the "Who Killed Carl?" story. Then when that story ended, they concentrated on the Clone and Ross/Blake/Ben heavily. Other storylines like Michelle's blindness, Abby in prison, anything with Holly, anything with Matt & Vanessa, and even Cassie/Hart/Dinah were rarely seen.

I agree though that there was so much *potential*. And they squandered it within a year or 2 so that suddenly the show was full of brand new people in 1999 that the veterans seemed like unwanted strangers shown every now and then.

I do think GL's last creative upswing was in the fall of 2002; they really could've built up something great and restore the Bauers, the Spauldings (in a good way, not make Alex a stalker) etc. but it all went to hell in a hand basket when Conboy & Weston took over.

Sigh... what could've been...

[scherra]

I can't speak for the general viewers (obviously) but the online communities I used to hang out in the 1990s (eg. Cari D.'s GL mailing list, the ratsc newsgroup) consisted of oldtimers, with fond memories of Rachel Miner's Michelle, and they/we never really warmed up to Budig. I can't remember the occasion, but there was this scene in which Aunt Meta was sharing with a group of women her memories of Bert, of the time she stayed with her until her death... a very moving scene which Mary Stuart was playing beautifully, then RB ruined the ending with a rather perky 'I love you too, Aunt Meta' or something to the effect. She got raked over the coals for that, that day, but it was often typical of the reactions she provoked. Of course, the writing didn't help and none of her romances (her crush on her cousin J/AJ, Jesse, Zach the Angel) really took off, but I don't think RB ever felt comfortable as Michelle.

When Joie came along, most of them saw her as a better recast, but still not enamored of the writing and divided on her story with Danny (even if they could see she had better chemistry with PAS than Paolo B.). And by the time NSA stepped up, the oldtimers had all but bailed out of GL, though they were bailing out under McT/Laibson anyway.

[DRW50]

Budig definitely played her as perky and fake for a while. Then she became more calm, around the time Rauch took over, or a little before that. Rauch seemed to try to settle her in as Michelle, in having her spend more time with Bill, and in bringing back Ellen Parker to "talk" to Michelle. I think it worked, generally. The main problem was it felt like a new character and she was very cold and disconnected, which she has been throughout her soap career (the only time I've ever been impressed by her is when she is allowed to be cold, not a romantic heroine, not a poor little rich girl). I don't think that Miner fans ever accepted her...I know I didn't. But I think that after about a year or a year and a half she was accepted enough to be a substitute.

[Gray Bunny]

Wow. What's funny is that I totally remember that exactly. And I thought the same thing that she really killed the sentimental mood with that perky but oh, so vacant "I wuv you too..." It was during that Second Chances meeting thing that Vanessa organized during the summer. A very schmaltzy feel-good Bauer/GL moment, and she killed it. Other than that, I liked her

[DRW50]

Blake: I've had second, third, and fourth chances!!!

[EricMontreal22]

Interesting--this was my biggest prob (well this, and a general sense of boredom) with Brown/Esensten's time at AMC, we were stuck with virtually one story at a time. I don't remember this being a problem with their Loving or The City but of course those were also 30 minute soaps where it might not be as apparent.

I think you're spot on about GL--it does seem that arguably through the 90s it had a better sense of itself than much of post Marland ATWT, but that kinda had crumbled away after 2002 or whatever when ATWT was on a bit of an upswing (at least for Hogan's first year)--and GL never recovered. I thought bringing in Mary Stuart as Meta was inspired casting--but that didn't even last too long, did it?

[Gray Bunny]

They brought her in in late 1996 and she was seen on and off til 2002 when she died. I know she had some illnesses during the last couple years (her appearance changed drastically!) but I think they could've used her much more often than they did, especially once they ditched Robert Gentry's Ed.