1988 strike - what were these killed stories?

[DRW50]

There's a soap magazine cover from around early 1989 that lists these stories as being "killed" by the strike:

DAYS - something weird at the circus

GH - wedding of the year

GL - menacing faith healer

DAYS - first gay character (on DAYS)

I'm sure this has already been covered but it's news to me. Do you know anything about this? What these stories would have been?

[shadow]

I think the GL one is Roger Thorpe in disguise

[~bl~]

Yes I remember reading about the Circus Story on Days as it was previewed in one of the Sterling magazines. Since they had such a long lead time, they would occasionally mention things that didn't end up happening and this was one of them. I can't recall if the idea for the plot came from Judi Evans being from a circus family or if it was a coincidence. I wish I could remember more details, but it has been so long since I read about that.

[Mr. Vixen]

Bobbie and Jerry? I'm really not sure.

[cityfan01]

Do you mean Roy? I thought that Roy "died" the first time during the writers strike.

[Mr. Vixen]

oh [!@#$%^&*] this says 1988. I thought it said 1998!

Roy died in 1979 and came back in 199, so either way it wasn't him.

I honestly don't know.

[SFK]

I have some of the Adam Malik stuff on tape, was it published in the soap press from the very beginning that that was Michael Zaslow?

[Dion]

The GH wedding might be Robert and Cheryl perhaps? Tristan Rogers once mentioned that he felt that the evolution of Cheryl's character and the Robert/Cheryl romance had been doomed as a result of the '88 strike. Perhaps (and this is mere speculation on my part) Robert and Cheryl were originally supposed to marry, but having come to the same conclusion as Rogers did, TPTB at the time decided to cut their losses and let Cheryl go (though she'd later return) and move Robert along to another love interest (Katherine Delafield).

[juniorz1]

I forget, who played Katherine Delafield? Wasn't she a fairly popular character and actress at the time?

[Lust4Life76]

I think her name was Edie Lehman. I actually liked her given Anna Devane was Robert's soul mate.

Erik

[LoyaltoAMC]

On AMC, there was supposed to be something with Joe and Ruth (seriously LOL). They had been slowly building a mid-life crisis type storyline for Joe from the Christmas 87. Supposedly there was going to be some involvement down the line with a young nurse who developed a crush on him, but the strike happened and the entire thing was dropped. Also during the strike, the show was mid-way telling the Cindy AIDS story. Instead of letting the scabs write the story, TPTB sent the principals in the story--Stuart, Cindy, Adam, and Brooke--on some trip to Paris that kept them off-screen for a good two months during the summer. Their big strike story, if I remember correctly, was Skye in a coma, which went on forever, and some filler stuff with Phoebe trying to fix Cecily up with Juanita Ramsey's nephew, and Langley flirting with the new pool girl, Max.

[quartermainefan]

Skye in a coma was good stuff. She faked the coma and spent her time walking through the walls at the Chandler house spying on people. I don't know where she went to the bathroom.

[DRW50]

Thanks for more info on the strike. How many dropped stories did poor Joe have (wasn't the Leora story dropped?).

For some reason I always thought that stuff like Damian Lazarre and the business with Silver stalking Natalie was strike material, as it sounded so ridiculous to me. Was that not?

I remember the actress who played Cheryl complained repeatedly about how poorly written her character was, so a strike must have had impact on that. What was the strike material for her with Robert? I kind of forgot Robert was with her - I do remember some of Katherine, playing piano or whatever.

[SFK]

I never thought about it, but I guess a lot of that would have been during the strike and it was indeed one of those OTT '80s AMC storylines. Charles Keating used to pull out this little gold amulet thing that looked like a fat fancy hour hand on a clock and he would wave it in front of Silver's face to hypnotize her. Eric was talking about holograms in the LOVING thread... after Goldie went over the side of the boat and was presumed dead, her ghost starting appearing at the top of the stairs at the house on Cobbler Island but it was actually a very alive Goldie in a silk and marabou robe like something out of Blithe Spirit manipulating a hologram of herself to freak Silver out. It was weird.

[LoyaltoAMC]

Haha, yeah poor Joe and Ruth...never having a story of their own. They were definitely building something there, but it just stopped. The Damon and Silver stuff happened months before the strike. That story tied up in early Dec 1987. I think the week the story climaxed, they were #1 in the ratings, probably the last time they ever hit that. Oh the other big strike story was the aftermath of Natalie accidentally Silver, who'd gone loco at this point over her jealousy of Nat, in self-defense. There was a lot of black comedy played with Nat and Palmer, who was blackmailing her over it. The strike writers also introduced Will and Dixie, though I'm sure they were part of Lorraine Broderick's pre-strike outlines. I remember it was Dixie, played by the Ellie Mae-ish Kari Gibson, who found Silver's body at the bottom of the lake at Cortlandt Manor, where Palmer had helped Nat dispose of the body.