Soap Writers Original Plans

[KMan101]

 

I'm not as familiar with 1995 ATWT so I'll have to check out what I can. That's good to know. I always felt he never really got a solid shot and by 1996+ there was just so much interference. I have to say I wasn't a fan of his AMC at all. At all. But I always just ... "felt" he seemed best suited for AW. lol. I could see him being a good fit for ATWT.

 

For the longest time now I thought he was one of the better script writers DAYS has. His wife ... meh (but the top honor goes to Melissa Salmons)

[ghfan89]

You are remembering correctly. Courtney was created when Guza took a break from the show (for about a year). Liz's sister Sarah was also brought back at this time and Alexis's sister Kristina was created. Guza got rid of both of them almost as soon as he came back. He didn't care about Courtney either, but was outnumbered by JFP, Frons and Pratt. Basically as soon as Pratt was gone he got rid of her.

[KMan101]

 

Ahhhh! Yep. That's what I thought! ALW should have been Sarah. Courtney didn't need to exist, lol. I was so happy they finally got rid of her. Wonder why and how Frons and JFP finally let her go?

[Mitch]

She always said she was open to coming back...she may have been b.sing but I think she meant a few weeks at a time. From all reports she liked doing GL even if she felt it exhausting and the group liked her. I just wonder what the original tie up to Alex leaving SF again and thought it was weird that she had to take a week off but then she was gone.

 

[watson71]

 

Culliton's second stint at AW in 1998 was a mess because of interference on both NBC's and P&G's part.   This is really when they were trying to turn AW into DAYS.  During this time they turned Carl back into a villain again when Charles Keating was fired from the show.  This is when fans of AW began to realize that the show was near cancellation.

[Peggy Brooks]

I remember when Kristian Alfonso first came on board, there was an exchange between Hope and Wayne Northrup’s Roman about Roman having several brothers. Of course, Bo ended up being the only one. 

I remember The Pawn took the name John Black off a plaque on the wall. Eventually, they acted like that had been his name before he was The Pawn. 

[detroitpiston]

 

ALW had been wanting to quit from the time TB left lol...Frons and JFP were dead set on recasting (Erin Torpey, Lauren Woodland, and Erin Hershey tested) but Guza sold the idea of Courtney dying during the Monkey Virus pandemic. I wanted the recast but we ended up with CarJax so I didn't mind.

[titan1978]

I had completely forgotten that Guza took a year off and it was Pratt and JFP.
 

The show got so much better when Guza and Pratt arrived.  I blame JFP for Genie leaving.  It’s pretty obvious Guza/Pratt had a big emotional story for her, even if it was gross (Rick molested Laura, if that was even the original story).  And yet, by the time Guza killed off Alan, I was pretty much done with daily viewing until Frank put Finola on contract again.

 

I remember it seemed like Courtney was already gone, then came back just to die.  Maybe it was just Guza was back and had sidelined her.

 

Does anyone think Bill Bell would ever have reintroduced Nina’s stolen child?  He so clearly loved writing for Nina for a long time, and it was unexplored territory with her.

 

I can’t remember if it was mentioned here yet- the original text message killer was not going to be Diego on GH.  Was it supposed to be Logan?  It was resolved during a writer’s strike.

[Dion]

 

 

Speaking of Mike and April, I do believe they were at one point being groomed to be the show's next supercouple - and the storylines with Robin's return, Jeremy, April's marriage to Nick were supposed to be the classic supercouple obstacles - but for whatever reason (changing HWs, balance issues with too much focus on Steve and Kayla, Michael T. Weiss leaving etc) it fizzled out and Jack and Jennifer eventually emerged as the supercouple instead.

[Khan]

 

If Bill Bell had had his way, DAYS' Doug and Julie never would have married.  Therefore, I'm inclined to think a part of him liked the idea of Nina never reuniting with her child.  He didn't always like everything tied into neat, little bows with his characters.

[Chris B]

I could be wrong, but didn't Nina's missing child come up as she was leaving in 2001? I could've sworn her exit was sudden and they had to pretty much scrap what was planned for Nina which is a shame. 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Chris B

[ghfan89]

The text message killer was meant to be Johnny, IIRC.

 

Another one that got changed was the original Valentin Cassadine story, which got replaced with James Franco as Franco. Matt Borlenghi was to play him. He was suppose to have a female relative of some sort come with him who had this past with Lucky during the year Lucky was presumed "dead". Someone else might remember more of the details better.

[Dion]

 

I think you're right there...Bell did like playing around with audience expectations and leaving stories unresolved. I don't think he would have had Nina reunite with her firstborn and I don't think he would have revealed Lily's true paternity to Neil either, just like John never found outthat Ashley wasn't his.

 

Another unresolved Nina storyline had her spend weeks obsessed with proving that Jed Sanders (Josh Taylor) was her father since Jed had a scar, only for Flo - when she finally met him - to say that Nina's father's scar was on the other side of his face! Nina never bothered looking for her father again after that.

 

 

Yes, she wrote a book about it. I think there were even rumours that Raul would turn out to be her son.

[Taoboi]

WWWWHHHAAAAT!!!! Johnny was?!?

 

And I want the tea on the Valentin story if anyone has it. I knew MB was casted, but I never knew what the story would be. I was just happy they looped back around to him in the end, but...Intrigued. 

[titan1978]

Another tidbit about that early period of Guza/Pratt on GH- Finola Hughes left AMC to go back to GH as Anna, and the plans were scrapped by GH due to something bts on GH’s end.  She alluded to this on Steve Burton and Bradford Anderson’s podcast.  It took three years for it to happen.

 

Also- was Pratt responsible for the return of classic GH characters?  Robert, Holly, Anna and Laura all came back in 2006, and then sporadically for a bit after until disappearing again.  It just doesn’t seem like territory Guza liked to visit.  Except the Laura one maybe, because it was rooted in heartbreak and he did lean in to that.

 

Valentin Cassadine is a crazy example of the scrambling going on with GH.  Cast and never aired, or at least not aired until way after the fact.