Plus, Kelsey was a Martin and the daughter of a legacy character (Tara) and kind of answered the question on what happened to Tara after she quickly married and moved away from Pine Valley in the early 80s. She ended up with another child of the man she married because she avoided dealing with her grief over losing her first/true love Phil.. and I remember it being mentioned that Kelsey always felt unfavored and that she knew her mother and father didn't really love one another (with Tara even kind of hinting at that with Joe when she briefly came back to visit in the mid 90s played by the original actress).

I did enjoy that 1995 did try to revive the teen story focus that had been the bread and butter of the early years. Bobby being a con was so like his late mother Sybil, Anita being sheltered was the opposite of her sisters Maria/Julia/Mateo, Kelsey being the opposite of her mother OG ingenue Tara, & Scott being the adopted son of Stuart Chandler. It just happened too soon, too quick.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Soaplovers

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

Plus, Kelsey was a Martin and the daughter of a legacy character (Tara) and kind of answered the question on what happened to Tara after she quickly married and moved away from Pine Valley in the early 80s. She ended up with another child of the man she married because she avoided dealing with her grief over losing her first/true love Phil.. and I remember it being mentioned that Kelsey always felt unfavored and that she knew her mother and father didn't really love one another (with Tara even kind of hinting at that with Joe when she briefly came back to visit in the mid 90s played by the original actress).

I did enjoy that 1995 did try to revive the teen story focus that had been the bread and butter of the early years. Bobby being a con was so like his late mother Sybil, Anita being sheltered was the opposite of her sisters Maria/Julia/Mateo, Kelsey being the opposite of her mother OG ingenue Tara, & Scott being the adopted son of Stuart Chandler. It just happened too soon, too quick.

Bobby and Anita were also not well cast.

I do think there was much more to play with Kelsey's background. I know there was some fan speculation that her father was gay, although maybe I am hallucinating that. Clearly the show was not happy with Tara's return, but they could have just tried to recast again. Nancy Frangione was out of work by summer '96...

12 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Clearly the show was not happy with Tara's return, but they could have just tried to recast again.

I remember someone in the soap press commenting how AMC dressed Karen Lynn Gorney as much older than she actually was on purpose. I wonder if that had played a part in Tara's return not working out as everyone had hoped.

Revealing that Jim Jefferson was gay would've been a very interesting story to tell, I think. Especially if the writers had created a son for him and Tara in addition to Kelsey as their daughter.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

I remember someone in the soap press commenting how AMC dressed Karen Lynn Gorney as much older than she actually was on purpose. I wonder if that had played a part in Tara's return not working out as everyone had hoped.

Revealing that Jim Jefferson was gay would've been a very interesting story to tell, I think. Especially if the writers had created a son for him and Tara in addition to Kelsey as their daughter.

They must have styled her that way because of how old Charlie was. If they couldn't break his contract to get rid of him (I know he was gone by early/mid 1996), they should have just kept him offcamera. What a poor choice (McTavish said as much and was right).

The speculation I remember was that he and Michael would have been lovers at one time. That could have been explosive drama, given Kelsey's closeness to Kevin and Kevin's bond with Michael - maybe too explosive for the period, I don't know.