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Why Did Beth Ehlers' Stint on AMC Fizzle?


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On AMC? Yes. On GL? As the late Whitney Houston once said: "Hell to the no!"

No, people stopped watching GL because it sucked, and they came back because of Cynthia Watros and Annie. (Even I had to admit the Josh/Reva/Annie story had me suckered for awhile.)

Says you.

Again, says you.

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Aw, this reminds of that one time I was really drunk and posted a tirade about Kim Zimmer and her magical powers that helped GL stay afloat. Good memories, indeed...

I say Corday, Bell, Bell, and Valentini team up together and work around a way to have Beth Ehlers featured on EVERY soap opera. That will save this genre, no doubt.

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TV4Me, while I don't agree with everything you say, I am very impressed that you have the courage to express such unpopular opinions here.

I indicated earlier that I was upset that Ehlers for leaving the GL sinking ship. However, what she did was no different than what RPG, JVD, or anyone else did on that front. (Just because JVD was dropped to recurring doesn't automatically defend his actions, since others dropped to recurring stayed with the show.) For whatever reason, Beth just gets so much more flack for being disloyal than the others do. And--in contrast to what many soap fans believe--loyalty is a two-way street. For instance, while JVD was upset that GL was "disloyal" to him by dropping him to recurring, he should have also kept in mind that P&G had no obligation to keep him on contract for 26 years. (JVD is very talented, but--truth be told--he was extremely lucky that he wasn't purged like the rest of GL's cast from 1979.)

As TV4Me indicated, the incredibly over-rated Zimmer was by far the most selfish of them all. Despite her "loyalty" to GL, she refused to take any paycut, which led to other people suffering even more. What pisses me off most about her, however, was that she wrote that she wished GL had been cancelled in 2004. Though this is a statement that I actually agree with, Zimmer is a complete hypocrite for feeling this way given that she happily took P&G's money for the next five years. (If she felt that GL was so awful in 2004, she should have quit.)

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Nope, Zimmer took plenty o' paycuts through the years. What was different in 2005 was that she refused to take a paycut half-way through an existing contract that was already negotiated upon. She would gladly (and did) take a paycut after the existing contract expired and she would therefore sign a new one. And she did.

As for the "GL should've been cancelled in 2004" remark, she speaks from a fan point of view. She, like us, knew the show's quality declined severely starting in '04. We all knew it was embarrassingly bad, as did she.

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No Khan, it's not says me, it is fact. People did not come back for Cynthia Watros, she was on for two years by then and the ratings were dreadful. The Josh/Reva/Annie story was the most ridiculed/mocked/despised story of it's time. You mean Annie lying that she was pregnant and pretending to miscarry so that Reva could be charged with murder? Preposterous to the max. You'd have to be a sucker to like that and evidently you were the only one who liked it. Check the numbers fella. Look them up, since your memory is failing you. Check every poll, the ratings, read the articles, check her TVQ, etc. You are giving your biased "opinion" while I am giving facts.

R Sinclair. You are the definition of a Troll. You post in threads you have no interest in just to start trouble. Mind your own business. Don't tell people not to post in a topic you don't like. The reason you and others have thousands of posts is because you feel the need to post in every single thread and reply to every post. Guess what? Just because a thread is at the top doesn't mean you have to read it. Stick with what you like and stop bothering everyone else.

Max, they may be unpopular opinions here but these people do not represent the public. If you go back some years, what I've said was the dominant, popular sentiments.Beth was too loyal to GL from what I knew. She should've left years earlier and went to a show that appreciated her. Remember Ver Dorn being completely ignored at his final GL Fan Gathering? No one went to his table the whole luncheon. They were mad at him for taking a clueless potshot at Ricky Paull Goldin and Beth Ehlers. The fact is Jerry had as big an ego as it gets. He always mentioned he was on GL since 1979, but he was a small character. He was a fringe player all the way until the 1990's. If GL had been cancelled in 1991 as Soap Opera Digest predicted, he wouldn't have gotten his chance to be a leading man. At least half the cast left in 1989-1991 and Beth emerged as the glue that held the show together.

Gray Bunny, you'd have to be drunk to think anyone ever tuned in to watch Kim Zimmer? She drove millions of viewers away during both her stints. Well Bunny, Beth could only save one soap at a time.

Darn, I expect nothing less from you. I've seen your posts for years and you are clearly a despicable low-life. Stay classy till the end, dirtbag.

The Chris B post made me laugh. You agree with me but you don't like the way I said it. Talk about doublespeak. If you didn't like the way I said it, you definitely didn't like Fitz's posts, or LaurJen's posts, or Liz DC's or jaimeGL(Debbie), or parisgalJen, or 22Daisies, or Ronnie, or Rebecca Stewart, or KatieB, or Chris(obviously a different Chris), among many others. You certainly couldn't have liked Tex's(Edie) posts. She wasn't even a fan of Beth's, but boy did she hate Kim Zimmer with a passion. She was belligerant to every poster, even those who agreed with her. Of course Chris B, you don't have a problem with the Kim Zimmer fans who are responsible for most of the nasty posts in this thread. You certainly had no problem with their style of posting.

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No Gray Bunny, Zimmer did not take a pay cut after her contract was up. She used her Emmy as leverage to keep the same salary. If she had gone off contract or left, GL would still be on right now. Close to 2 million a year for her? She never, ever took a paycut at GL. All contracts can be re-negotiated every 6 months. She was off-contract at OLTL because who would want her? Kim Zimmer was on 4 soaps when they were cancelled - The Doctors, Santa Barbara, Guiding Light, and One Life To Live. Don't speak for GL fans Bunny, nobody wanted GL cancelled in 2004. They wanted it cancelled in 2008 because the show was skeletal remains and the acting, writing, directing, audio, camerawork, and lighting were dreadful.

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It should be entertaining. You are learning a lot, since you obviously don't know what you are talking about. I knew someone who knows Kim Zimmer. This person worked at GL and was a source who magazines used for backstage dirt. She couldn't reveal her identity for obvious reasons. GL was so upset about leaks that they put the show on lockdown. This person could not provide info from that point on. She wouldn't know about Zimmer's previous soap stints. Zimmer has talked about working with Alec Baldwin in many interviews.

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Concerning Zimmer and Ehlers I say that both of their monopoly on GL was one of the many things that put the show in the grave a few years early then it should. GL was the best during the Curlee/Demorest/etc era where the show was an ensemble show. After MADD hit P & G the shows became all about endless repititions of super couple trials and tribulations with no character growth. So we saw Josh/Reva. Danny/Chele, Cassie/Richard, and finally, Harley/Gus until you hated them (unless you were one of their crazed fans.)

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Well Mitch, I suggest you go back and look at all the episode counts and number of scenes and lengths of scenes and you'll find out that Ehlers did not have the airtime you claim. You are right about Zimmer though. Zimmer had to be front-burner all the time. Zimmer had to have the #1 story line at all times or she would go to the magazines and complain that she wasn't on. God forbid if Zimmer was on less than 4 episodes for even one week or we'd see the blaring headlines on magazine covers saying she wasn't being written for. Zimmer always loved her storylines, no matter how ridiculous they were, until the fan backlash. Then, she would trash the writers. She trashed all the writers. You are forgetting how easy it was for Curlee/Demorest. They didn't have to deal with Zimmer after Zimmer left in mid-1990. Zimmer didn't return until 1995 when she failed to boost GL's anemic, all-time low ratings. Actually, GL was cancelled in 1995 or 1996 but P&G threatened to never advertise on CBS again if they didn't change their mind. So GL lasted another 13-14 more years than it should have. By the way, who did you watch GL for, since you practically named most of the cast you weren't a crazed fan of?

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Wow, all this time I thought I started watching GL full-time in February 1997 because of the riveting Reva/Josh/Annie triangle, but I was wrong! I actually started watching because I knew of Ehlers' impending arrival in May 1997. I had a premonition that our Springfield savior was on her way back, so I started watching 3 months early to familiarize myself with all those other nonsense characters. And clearly I wasn't the only one awaiting Ehlers' return! Remember when GL spiked up in June to a 4.6 rating? It had nothing to do with that pesky lil' trial where Annie broke down on the witness stand. No, it was because Harley was back in town, helping out at the diner, grilling Jenna about her so-called marriage to Jeffrey Morgan! Captivating material indeed.

Since you're all about "the facts," I'd still like to hear all about Zimmer's stint on Love of Life that eventually led to the show's cancellation. I had no idea that Zimmer pulled double duty on CBS's Love of Life (which was cancelled in 1980) while also appearing on NBC's The Doctors (she was on 1979-1982). I'm surprised 2 different networks would've allowed that! Enlighten us on this. Did The Doctors and Love of Life do a special crossover event? Did Nola visit Rosehill? Inform us.

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