OLTL: Discussion for the week November 1

[TeamEric]

I think CLP's talent is only reason Jack wasn't SORASed.

That's the 8 year old girl casting call that was rumored as Markko's younger, possibly adopted sister. The rumorville originally had Tea giving up TnToT for adoption after leaving the island.

Actually, I believe Malone wanted to add a Scarlett O'Hara type character to the canvas and instead of creating a new character, he just completely rewrote his Blair Daimler.

I have 1992 SODs and Malone discusses at length how Asa vs Max over a biracial women was an exciting new diversity for Llanview.

[TeamEric]

LMAO at idea of this dumb blonde hick Blair even knowing a few words of ANY foreign language let alone Japanese.

I found MK's Blair compelling b/c she was a sophisticated, smart bi-racial woman, a refreshingly unique character. Dumb, southern blondes are a dime a dozen in daytime. I do think KDP has made the role her own but it was an entirely new character Malone built.

[DRW50]

All Jack does is show up every once in a while to spit out overwritten one-liners. I don't think it has a lot to do with anything beyond the show not wanting to write for Todd as having a son in his later teens, and also because they think having a youngish child who adores Todd will make viewers adore Todd too.

I think there was a difference between MK's Blair early on and what she was by the end of her run. The stuff where she wanted Asa to die, where she lusted for Max while married to Asa, was all pretty much textbook Blair. I remember the scenes where she was fighting with Dorian and Addie and Addie went out the window and she wailed that it was all Dorian's fault. That is the type of scene MK and KDP could have played.

[Vee]

I'm sure Malone talked up Mia Korf after she was hired, but IIRC on his old (or perhaps still current) website he talked at length about how he had originally envisioned Blair as a Scarlett type initially, and went back to that original concept when it came time to recast. Granted, only Michael Malone would think to recast an Asian woman with a Southern blonde based on authorial intent, but there we are and it worked out.

Putting aside the early sex complex Blair had, the only difference between the Blairs is that Korf's was actually written for as a stand-alone character, whereas KDP's Blair has only been written that way rarely. She was subsumed into a supercouple collective very early in her tenure at the show and as with most soaps, the storytelling at OLTL then skewed towards the man, particularly a male lead as popular as Todd has been over the years. I think PTB really appreciate KDP as a reliable, solid performer, but they generally don't utilize her well outside of Todd. Michael Malone wrote for her as an independent character again in 2003 - the only person, for a while, who was doing anything about Mitch Laurence, the only game in town prior to RS's return - but that was largely due to the Todd vacuum on the canvas for several months prior to the recast. I absolutely think KDP could've played that same Addie/attic material that Korf got. I wish they'd do more with it, but generally it seems like KDP or someone is inserting lines about Blair's past on their own whenever they get a chance.

Oddly enough RC had apparently planned a Blair-centric storyline prior to the writer's strike - Miles Laurence was going to turn out to be Blair's brother. The strike put the kibosh on that and he appears to have lost most of his interest in really writing for her. Shame.

[SFK]

Is it bad that I'm racking my brain to remember what Miles even looked like? This show and its revolving door on crack...

[OLTL_fan]

He was played by David Chisum. He just disappeared.

[Dale]

Oh that's rich! I floved Maria Roberts! Nobody could ham it up like Barbara Luna!

GAWD! Thanks for the explanation, but now I am sorry that I asked!

[SFK]

Thanks, I had to Google. Looks a little like Ty Treadway who didn't get much sleep. It's amazing what you block out/forget.

[SFK]

And of all the devious characters from the past to bring back, Maria seems like such the obvious choice given FV/RC's penchant for camp. The way they sent Allison, Powell, and yes, even Carlo, Tina and Mitch OTT in ways that did not ring true, they could have had carte blanche with Maria. I miss that voice, she sounded like an angry little kitten.

[HeedTheMessenger2.0]

I think it's very interesting that Rex and Natalie are blood siblings after all. In the past 5 years though- the show has gone through some major maternity/paternity stories to the point it should be hands off of them for another 5 years... between Jess/Nat's babies now, and Rex- and most recently David and Schuyler/Rex, we've had enough, imo. It's a soap staple but it's definitely been overused. Especially the constant changes in Rex's parentage.

I think they really need to explain why Clint knew about Rex and wanted to keep it a secret.

I think the Bo/David and Clint/Rex parallels will play out very interesting, if they do it right. Both Rex and David were/are funny con men, and its even more interesting that they are now cousins. I also think it will help play up the Clint/Bo fued, once Bo finds out that Clint hid Rex's parentage from him all this time- AND was responsible for David going to jail. I can only assume

.

Won't it be weird that Rex and Natalie with be siblings, but NOT Jessica & Rex, even though Nat and Jess are TWINS? That's gotta be hard to explain.

The history of Nat/Rex is going to be hard to explain to non-viewers... they were siblings, then weren't, then still weren't, now are actually blood related through Clint...

[DeeeDee]

Adding Jessica makes it even better.

In addition to Nat/Rex being siblings, then not, then still not, then siblings again, Jess was Rex sibling on ONE side of his family, then she wasn't, then she was family on the OTHER side of his family now she isn't related to him at all.

[Eric83]

I am loving vindictive, psycho Marty. This is the most interesting she has been since I started watching.

[DRW50]

I wish they would just kill David off. If you really want to have a Bo/Clint rivalry, instead of huffing and puffing, have David killed while trying to escape the Moroccan prison. Bo will have lost another child and they can tell stories which aren't interrupted by Tuc showing up a few months a year for labored ha ha.

[SFK]

You know, I enjoyed David's last stint (or was it the stint before last), but

[SFK]

Absolutely! I kind of wish she would have had the chance to go off on Hannah though, a psychiatrist kicking her patient's ass, how awesome would THAT have been??