OLTL: Character not returning for ABC finale

[SFK]

Didn't Max and Luna have twins and one was deaf which Max had a huge issue with or something (art imitating life with he and KDP's son), and then he didn't even raise them once Luna died? I watched sporadically during that period, I remember very little of Gabrielle's return beyond the haircut and the degrading almost Rauch-like cigar stomp death, which I know, is an ironic thing to say.

BTW, JDP is one of the handful of soap stars I've seen while minding my business walking in Manhattan.

[DRW50]

Max raised them for a few years (the deaf story happened after Luna died). In late 1997, after they were accidentally kidnapped by RJ (his underling didn't realize they were in the car, or something like that, and they were then presumed dead), Max sent them to live with Luna's family.

Most of what I remember of Gabrielle is her being downtrodden and sad and just kind of out of place. She did have nice chemistry with Bo, but generally she had lost her spark. But then OLTL at that time could only do a very specific type of camp, and she didn't fit into it.

[SFK]

Ah, thank you for the clarification. I suppose Gabrielle, like Tina, and sometimes I even think Blair, is a tough character to keep the magic going with, let alone trying to recapture that magic after an extended absence. You really have to bring who they were at their height back to the table, even if the "style" is different from the show in its current form. Tina, Gabrielle, at their best, they are timeless. And Tina is SO above David Vickeroshi crap parody, and bless Andrea's heart for her magnificent ability to sell [!@#$%^&*]. But I'm digressing... But real quick, when you watch the eighties stuff, its all so over the top, but it was written and played dead seriously, they weren't poking fun at themselves, laughing at their own jokes, they were just pushing the limits and writing into the stratosphere and the actors, weak and strong, just played the hell out of it like a classically trained actor plays the hell out of seeing the ghost of Hamlet's father or Jupiter descending in Cymbeline. Now, they take a Tina and they try to invoke her eighties greatness by tossing her ditzy lines, but there is so much more to who she is and was.

[IcyOne]

Oh well. Call Nicholas Walker back then.

[EricMontreal22]

I'd never read that--and didn't know Lau was in rehab

[DRW50]

Lau has basically said that the 80s (or even longer maybe, I don't know) were not an easy time for him. I always thought there must be some reason he looked about 500 times better on OLTL than he did on AW, even though a decade had passed. Between that and whatever was going on with Charles Grant at that time I'm not sure what the set was like.

[juniorz1]

What was going on with Charles Grant?!?

[DRW50]

I just meant that, like Lau, his appearance changed so much between his early soap years, his AW run, and his last soap run, on B&B. He looked fine on AW but always seemed kind of bloated. When he got to B&B he was just about perfect.

[juniorz1]

Eh, no. Not interested in Max-lite.

James DePaiva is the ONLY Max. Period. If we can't have him back, don't bring Max back at all.

I disagree about Grant. I thought he was SMOKIN on AW and actually looked bloated on B&B. Different strokes.

Anyhow, this is what I can't stand about the current OLTL and the peoiple in charge over there- they pick & choose which characters from the past they want to bring back and use. And they do it like fanboys- it's never based on where the story is most fruitful or who would click with the current cast best. This is (partly) why we never see Renee or Max or Cassie or others I and some other fans would love to see.

Renee is one I especially miss and a reason why I appreciated JFP's tenure so much.

[Khan]

Many ANOTHER WORLD cast members have talked at length about the horrendous conditions at their studio in Brooklyn.