Craig was loved and taken to the bosom of every woman in hopes she could "save" him. Rosanna certainly married Craig the first time because she loved him. The second time it was actually to right the grievous wrong Jennifer had done to him by trying to frame him and get sole custody of her baby.

Roseanna was crazy in love with Paul and only choose Craig because of his coldness. She was emotionally damaged goods when they married and the mutual coldness was their only bond.

BTW,ATWT made a huge mistake never totally pairing Paul and Roseanna. They were the perfect couple

Writers like Bill Bell and Marland would punish and then redeem villians only to have them go sociopathic all over again two weeks later. Hogan, outside of Bryant's death, never gave Craig a conscious and was more honest about the character's selfishness. Craig was a by any means type and didn't hide behind the illusion of love. Also, ATWT did suffer from a lack of balls in the late 1990s in that the soap lacked a strong male lead for many years. Block was not the solution but Hogan did identify that the soap lacked balance.

The problem was I never thought any of Hogan's manly men had any balls. There was absolutely nothing strong about Craig. He terrorized his teenage daughter. He stole from his son. He prayed on the weaknesses of women to try to get into their pants. He pouted, whined, and wheezed through life.

I don't think Hogan was ever honest about the character, because there was no character. Hogan can only write generic sociopaths who drag down every scene and destroy any character they touch.

I would agree that none of Hogan's heros had balls. I did like the fact that Craig was not a phoney pretending to feel love or experience redemption. The key to Craig was that he REUSED to learn his lesson. Lucinda, as an example, would cave and even do the right thing when Lilly pushed back; but Craig was made no secret of his will to power. Yes, he would sweet talk, but Craig never tried to hide his agenda. I remember Roseanna questioning whether the marriage was about money and Craig str8 up admitted he wanted Cabbot Motors.

Put it this way, I feel like a lot of soap characters have been 'redeemed' too many times only to repeat their bad behavior. Right now, Hogan has already done this a few times for Victor and Kay. I like the fact that he didn't even bother with Craig and can't figure out why fans even fall for the redemption farce. I like the idea of letting an evil character stay evil and watching the trainwreck that follows. It is a lot more realistic than watching the Newman's fall for Victor again and again.

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by Saving ATWT

I don't think he ever saw Craig as evil. I think he saw Craig as a hero. Even then, there were incredibly awkward attempts to make viewers pity him, like Hunt Block laughing through Craig "grieving" for Bryant. Or that fiasco where Craig pouted in a monastery for five minutes after he terrorized his daughter and killed SIerra's fiance.

Never mind.

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by Khan

Forget it.

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by Khan

I said never mind!

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by Khan

Just move on already!

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by Khan

Roseanna was crazy in love with Paul and only choose Craig because of his coldness. She was emotionally damaged goods when they married and the mutual coldness was their only bond.

BTW,ATWT made a huge mistake never totally pairing Paul and Roseanna. They were the perfect couple

The first time they married (in 2003), Howarth wasn't even in the role. Emotionally damaged or not, she loved the bastard.

The first time they married (in 2003), Howarth wasn't even in the role. Emotionally damaged or not, she loved the bastard.

I remember them joking about the lack of love and mutual coldness. Also, Rosebud wanted a baby bigtime. I never viewed the pairing as romantic. Roseanna was burned out at the time, over getting hurt, and took a known quanity as opposed to the risk of getting, once again, hurt.

Maybe we just viewed the motive differently. Ever notice that the show suffered when Cady was canned? Roseanna added something to the canvus. I didn dislike the character, though, during the final season.

They weren't a hearts and flowers couple. That's different from not being in love. Rosanna didn't expect to have a child with Craig, she'd had a hysterectomy at the beginning of the year.

Cady wasn't as much canned as continually pulling a Brett Favre and debating whether or not she wanted to be on the show. I did like her take on Rosanna, and was very surprised she could pull off being a bitch, given her years as AMC's sweetheart.

Edited September 14, 201114 yr by P.J.

Hogan loved the character of Craig. Well, HIS version of Craig, which was nothing like the original incarnation. Scott Bryce's Craig was a rich, fully-developed character who grew from despicable villain (the Steve/Betsy days) to leading man/romantic hero (Craig/Sierra) to somewhere in-between. Hunt Block's Craig was a joke. Very entertaining, but still a joke. He could deliver a snide remark like nobody's business, but that was about it. I have to agree with others who've said that his "acting" during Bryant's death was beyond bad. (And on a side-note, is it just me or did he always seem to be eating in almost every scene?) To be fair, I will say that his first go-round with Rosanna was enjoyable, and proof that when he didn't chew the scenery, he he was almost tolerable.

As for the other Craigs: I didn't think Jeffrey Meek was bad at all. But his dark looks made him seem miscast. I think he would have been wonderful as a Stenbeck relative. Jon Lindstrom was a total miss for me. Block was a hammy caricature, but at least he was entertaining. Lindstrom's character committed the cardinal sin...he was boring. When he appeared for the eight millionth time at Carly's see-through door, you knew his Craig would do absolutely nothing interesting.

I thought Craig was pointless by the time Lindstrom arrived. I'm not sure if anyone cared about Craig/Carly by this time - or if anyone had cared about them since somewhere around 2002. They had turned him into such a whiner. I did like him with Rosanna, but that was about it.

They weren't a hearts and flowers couple. That's different from not being in love. Rosanna didn't expect to have a child with Craig, she'd had a hysterectomy at the beginning of the year.

Cady wasn't as much canned as continually pulling a Brett Favre and debating whether or not she wanted to be on the show. I did like her take on Rosanna, and was very surprised she could pull off being a bitch, given her years as AMC's sweetheart.

Roseanna wanted to adopt after the hysterecomy. The writers made a big deal out of her grief after the operation.

I know Cady she wanted to work but Goutman refused to put her on contract. She didn't want 'recurring' when her character had more airtime than many contract players. Still, she took the work till cut by Goutman. He didn't seem to like her very much and took casting personally. From what I understand, he hated Block, too and Hunt and Cady were a real life couple. There were too many recasts on ATWT and it spoiled the show. Both Meek and Lindstrom scared me.

Cady didn't want to be on contract. She had just walked away from AMC intending to take "a break" from acting. I don't know why you'd think Goutman didn't like her---he'd directed her at AMC, and offered her the role. There was even rumors of them having an affair before her relationship with Block.

If she did eventually want a contract, it was a while after she wanted enough "freedom" to do outside projects that interested her.

I'm pretty sure that when they married, Craig was clear he didn't want any more kids (adopted or otherwise; he hadn't even wanted to play stepdaddy to Parker when he was lusting after Carly). Rosanna's hormones went into overdrive after Sage's birth.

Block's tenure completely ruined everything Craig was. He lasted five years, four being crammed down our throat and the last one a moping around uber-bent on controlling every aspect of Lucy's life. Even TIIC figured out they'd gone too far having him be responsible for her kidnapping.

I don't think Meek got a decent shake, but I'm not sure he was right for the role either. The only thing I really remember is his trying to romance Meg, and I think his charm was a little too soft and subtle. Lindstrom was reptilian enough, but by then a lot of people were so pissed at Bryce's firing there was no chance he'd succeed. And it certainly didn't help there was no chemistry with Maura. It made the entire "Craig's really trying to redeem himself and be Carly's hero" story a hopeless excercise in triteness.

Edited September 15, 201114 yr by P.J.