I'm going to have disagree a little. I think Alan's purpose during this time was to be the spoiler for Josh/Reva. Josh and Reva were always Long's endgame. Even after she left, it stayed that way, mainly because fans wanted it that way.
If Larkin Malloy had chosen to stay, he would have functioned as the spoiler. (Even off-screen he kind of did function as the spoiler, because of the whole DNA switch thing--that Alan engineered). I believe someone here said one of the reasons Malloy left even though he could have stayed was because he knew he would end up being the loser in the triangle.
I don't think Bernau cared about that kind of thing (if he did, he was REALLY quiet about it, I don't remember him complaining about storylines he was in). But to me, it was a waste of his character. If a Alan/Vanessa/Ross triangle had happened, he would have been an actual contender. It would have come more from character. He and Vanessa would have been on an equal level and would have understood each other in ways that Ross never understood her. Even when Alan was with Hope, he was never her puppy dog, like he was with Reva. He definitely would not have been Vanessa's puppy dog.
I'm pretty sure they didn't. I'm not even sure if Ed and Vanessa's affair had started before MG left.
I recently watched the whole Reva in the hospital thing on the German channel. It was SO stupid. (It's likely the scabs wrote most of this). The thing with Alan decorating the hospital room and taking over a whole floor of the hospital is something they got out of Dynasty. SO out of character.
I would have LOVED watching Alan and Reva using each other for their own purposes. That would have been fun, and believable. This crap about her being his one true love was an insult to the audience.
The funny thing is, if Lenore Kasdorf had stayed with the show, I bet that's exactly how Rita and Alan's relationship would have been. She wanted the lifestyle from being Mrs. Spaulding, he had the hots for her and liked that she wasn't judgemental about things he had done. Oh, yeah, they had Rita write Alan a letter confessing she was in love with him, but that could have been calculated.
Some were also saying he would have been a good Ed.
Yes, he just became the bombastic cartoon baddie. All the naunce and layers of the character were gone.
By
DeeVee ·
I should consider playing the lottery because I KNEW this was coming!
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/nbc-making-plans-for-a-live-tv-version-of-the-musical-the-wiz-20150116?utm_source=saDaily_newsletter&utm_medium=sailthru_newsletter