In fairness Malone had expanded R.J. from just being dayplayer "Jimmy Glover" in '94 after noting his talent and the audience response to him. That's how he became a real character. But yes, it would've been a horrible mistake to end him there.

1 hour ago, Khan said:

You're not alone, lol.

And I'd really love to know Malone's rationale for turning Becky Lee into an insta-racist, even though it wouldn't have jibed at all with anything longtime viewers knew about her. I mean, was it just because she was a country singer from the South, lol?

I can never remember if Malone or Laiman/Sloane/Passanante were headwriting at that time.

I noticed that when Becky Lee returned for Bo's Weekend at Drew's moment, she was reverted to her old personality.

(it took me about 7 times to post this!)

Edited 44 minutes ago44 min by DRW50

4 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I can never remember if Malone or Laiman/Sloane/Passanante were headwriting at that time.

I'm pretty sure Becky Lee and the aborted Drew/Rachel pitch with the R.J. whodunit was his last stuff. He talked about it and his plans for the racism story/interracial romance on one of his fansites or his official site in the late '90s or early 2000s, before he returned to the show IIRC.

Edited 38 minutes ago38 min by Vee

2 hours ago, Vee said:

In fairness Malone had expanded R.J. from just being dayplayer "Jimmy Glover" in '94 after noting his talent and the audience response to him. That's how he became a real character. But yes, it would've been a horrible mistake to end him there.

Had RJ done enough across canvas to warrant a murder mystery? Sheila and Rachel’s recasts damaged the prominence of those characters and Hank isn’t half the man he is in the ‘92 episodes of anything I’ve seen in that era

7 minutes ago, soapfave06 said:

Had RJ done enough across canvas to warrant a murder mystery? Sheila and Rachel’s recasts damaged the prominence of those characters and Hank isn’t half the man he is in the ‘92 episodes of anything I’ve seen in that era

I think in that period there was the whole R.J./Sheila intrigue, the Nora ONS reveal, Rachel being on drugs and what not that probably would've led into it somehow. IIRC the killer was going to be Rachel. Fortunately none of it happened, though Rachel did get a murder rap a couple years later.

And yeah, Valarie Pettiford was amazing as Sheila. Stephanie Wlliams I didn't care for. Don't get me started on Mari Morrow or Sandra Grant's Rachels. If OLTL ever somehow returned I'd just say Hank and VP's Sheila were back together, and maybe have 'em appear if you got so lucky (assuming anyone retrieved Hank from the Backrooms dimension of the Buchanan mansion where he last seen in '09).