Writers Who Weren't Given Enough Time

[Mitch]

I ALWAYS thought that of not only Reva, but Josh and Reva as the tentpole couple. Unforunately the Bauers were dead in the water after Mo's death. Bert was gone, and Ed could never take the place of either of them. Chelle, married to the mob, Rick who had the best chance of being the town heart, was turned into a clown and sad sack by both the writers and MOL's performances. I thought a GL built around two core families, Josh and Reva and Ross and Blake and would have been great. When Zimmer played Bert in the anniversary episode I thought of how much similar they could have been, not only the characters, former bad girls turned shoulder to cry on after they learn from their mistakes, but the warmth, heartiness and good cheer. Reva had connections with everyone and Zimmer really had chemistry with everyone also..plus like Bert, Reva could kick ass when needed. Newman was especially good with the younger actors so he made a great "dad."

I think a big reason for this was not done, of course the lack of imagination under both Rauch and MADD, but some of it came from Zimmer herself. I remember when Cassie first came on and E & B were writing the show and Zimmer gave an interview where she said, "They actually had me say 'Tsk, Tsk, Cassie' and I thought, they really are trying to turn me into Bert Bauer." Now some of this I can understand, I mean, look at what they did to Mo who was the heart of the show and they killed as the "focus groups," considered her boring..so I can see an actress on soaps today not wanting to be put in that position (but back in the hey days that was the way to go, the Nancy Hughes, Bert Bauers, and Alice Hortons had job security.)

[DRW50]

I think Kim wanted Reva to be a trashier character - I wonder how much of some of the last few years of Reva (at least the heavy drinking and the relationship with Jeffrey) were down to Zimmer.

I would have considered doing something like having her run the boarding house and act as the pushy mentor figure to the people living there, while still having some problems of her own.

I liked the idea of what Taggart wanted to do with Reva, I just felt like it was grafted onto the character. I had seen too many heart transplant and mercy killing stories on soaps and was done with them.

[Gray Bunny]

Alls I know, is that during the fall of 2002 and into the first month of 2003, it was the last time I remember being disappointed come 2:55 and that day's episode was over. It was *that* good, IMO.

[Mitch]

Sure it was Kim, and not Wheeler and Kreizman...the whole show became trashier with them, due to budget cuts and what must have been their vision of what the audience was like, (i.e. Reva running around in bad fitting clothes looking like a mess, Harley hanging out in a backyard full of rusted junk, that sweaty looking girl who played Harley kid , and of course, lovin' cousins with the bombastic Pelphery.)

Yea, they needed Reva butting into people's lives...too bad they didnt have Billy and Van together at that time, Van could have been the rather cold, stern classy but distant matriach (the Nancy Hughes) and Reva could have been the warm, loud, funny buttinsky (the Bert Bauer.)

[Khan]

Yeah, it's on your site.

Or I thought it was. Essentially, the credits are the same, just w/ L. Virginia Browne and Gene Palumbo's name removed.

[DRW50]

I don't think Kim had anything to do with the producition values, obviously, I just meant the writing (like Reva and Jeffrey going to a dive bar and getting plastered).

[Soaplovers]

Co-sign on this! Reva would have been fantastic as the warm, loud buttinsky... with Vanessa as the stern but distant matriach... With a dash of Holly as the sarcastic, jaded matriach

[aMLCproduction]

Amend to this. Tom Lagan was terrible. Uner his pen I stopped waccthin for the first time ever

[aMLCproduction]

Yuck was not a fan of her stint at all. But it was better than Lagan. She runied Hope for me FOREVER.

[Mitch]

No I know what you ment, but the whole show became so trashy, you would have thought this warm mid western town was cursed by the Evil Queen on OUAT and all the citizens forgot who they were and woke up in a trailer park! Everything was trashy, I mean look, the Bauer kitchen disappeared but we got endless scenes of people eating hot dogs at the Springfield trashy mini mart!

[Khan]

Before she became the Patron Slut Saint of Springfield, I looked at Reva as becoming one day the next Sally Gleason.

[Vee]

I thought the only thing that really worked about GL's final years was what they did with Reva. She was finally allowed to be portrayed - due to lack of budget and consideration, and I suspect a bit of Ellen Wheeler being vindictive - as an aging, overweight good time girl with a heart of gold and an embarrassing yen for carnal pleasures even at her 'matronly' age. Which is in fact exactly what Reva was all along. Kim Zimmer knew it and played it very well, I thought, as opposed to the "queen of love" [!@#$%^&*] they gave her in the 90s and much of the early 2000s, which made the character intolerable to me for years. The Reva they ended the show on was a very raw, weathered, down to earth character, and I thought she was perfect. The British soaps would have kept her around in stories for another 20 years.

[Mitch]

Good point. I did get sick of Reva, the Goddess of Love during Rauch's time (even Pam Long didn't put her on a pedestal and there were plenty of people, from Alex, to India that would make fun of her, and plenty of men, like Fletcher and Johnny Bauer who simply saw her as a buddy.) When they finally had poor Edmund admit he was killing her because she never gave him a toss ("Southern Fried Venus," ) they had gone too far.

I do think that Reva could have been a matriarch and been true to her "trash," heritage. I always kind of saw her not in the Bauer kitchen, but behind the bar at Company, dish rag over her shoulder, tossing back a beer and consoling the women an whopping it up with the guys, handing out straight, no nonsense advice as she butt her nose in everyone's business. In between pulling Josh into the back room for a quickie!!!

I just wish they had found SOME clothes which fit her...Reva used to be a clothes horse, so I could see her wearing over the top things (which would make Van say, "Oh my,!" and Alex sneer "Dear, I didn't know shoulder pads were making a comeback..but I suppose your hey day was in the 80s so....") which still would not make her look a bloated mess.

I always wanted a scene where Reva finally discusses her plunge into middle age and her weight gain with her never aging husband Josh. "Darlin' your just the way I like you, big hot and horny"....Reva "Come over and kiss me and then lets go out for some chicken wings and beer!!"

[Khan]

IOW, you saw her as Ada.

[Mitch]

Exactly.. but an Ada who screwed a lot and had a hot, young looking husband who thought nothing was better then a nice afternoon spent in the sack with her. Kind of a fantasy we all have of aging but having someone who loved you not in spite of it, but all the more because of it! I think Reva would have also been a character who could pull it off and been a nice alternative to all of the years we spent watching older guy with hot younger women...(i.e. blustery, unsexy Alan having Annie, Olivia, etc in his sack constantly.)

I would love to see Marah come home and say to someone, "Oh God, there are at it again!!! I don't have normal parents!"