Choose your own adventure- daytime

[titan1978]

Make one (and only one) pivotal decision to impact a major change on your favorite shows-

 

GH- Douglas Marland stays as HW.  Just imagine- the rape never happens, no left handed boy, no Ice Princess.  I know he has said Laura and Luke would not have ended up together, but I know soaps- chemistry can make stories change direction.  Not that it would have been close to what we got, because the popularity was built up from his foundation by Monty and PFS.

 

DAYS- Wayne Northrop returns as the reprogrammed Roman, as “John Black”, and Drake is never on the show.  Would Wayne have fared as well with DH off the show when she quits?  Would fans have accepted Wayne in new relationships like the did Drake?  Drake was also more a typical soap hunk, and while attractive, Wayne didn’t really play him as a himbo.

 

Y&R- Brenda Dickson is not fired.  She had become so over the top, would she have been able to come back to earth for stories like Phillip’s death, and as the tone of the show evolved with the times and became their version of grounded in the 1990’s?  I almost picked Terry Lester doesn’t leave the show as Jack, but Brenda excites me more.

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by titan1978

[Franko]

AW -- No expansion to an hour, which would have an impact on AW itself (Lemay may have been less likely to burn out, but he also wouldn't get to write in the style he apparently preferred; and, of course, no 90-minute episodes, either) as well as daytime on the whole (Would any show still expand or premiere in the hour format? Who's to say?).

[Dion]

GH - Sonny leaves Brenda at the altar and never returns.

 

Brenda would have still been killed off in '98, but would Guza, Pratt and Phelps bring her back from the dead in '02 without Sonny to play off with? Or perhaps she would have been used to write out Jax. It's also possible that they may have never gotten Ingo Rademacher to return after Titans and the show would have moved on completely from the Sonny/Brenda/Jax era as early as 2000.

 

Perhaps AJ and Carly would have stuck together and become the new Alan and Monica, as some posters have suggested (though I feel that would have worked better with Sean Kanan rather than Billy Warlock, so perhaps they would have sought his return after Sunset Beach and Sean Kanan would have never gone to B&B). AJ may have also been able to grow beyond his position as the Q family screw-up; reconcile fully and then team up with Jason to take over the mob.

 

Courtney would have not been introduced, or perhaps Alicia Leigh Willis would have played another character...Sarah Webber perhaps? Then she and Liz could fight over Jason for a few years with Lucky as the 4th member of a quad.

 

Alexis and Ned may have stuck together longer, since there was no possibility of pairing her with Sonny.

 

There may have even been some room for some of the more popular characters from PC to crossover once that show wrapped up - e.g Kelly Monaco as Livvie, rather than Sam.

 

Luke and Laura would have probably remained the same, as would have how things played out with the Cassadines, Felicia and Mac.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by Dion

[j swift]

I adore this idea because Marland would have focused the story on Laura's continued self-sabotage in relationships rather than plots that were meant to redeem Luke.  She could have broken up with Scotty and Luke and go on to multiple relationships where she was romanced by good guys, but intrigued by bad boys.  Culminating in a marriage with Dr. Tom Hardy that is interrupted when she tries to save one of his nursing students from the local strip club owner and begins an affair with Sonny Corinthos (because let's face it, a Sonny-centric GH would always be inevitable).

 

AMC - What if OG Silver Kane was actually Erica's sister?  To complete the All About Eve plot that inspired the writers, Silver would have to marry Lars Bogart who would become the Addison Dewitt to her Eve Harrington (if you know, you know).  Erica would meet and marry Adam, buy Olga's modeling agency, and be forced into long rivalry with her sister.  Plot points would include Erica's attempts to push Jenny Gardner, Nina Courtland, and Pamela Kingsley into being 1980's supermodels, with Silver tempting them into a life of drugs and disco.  Eventually, Erica would see that Silver was being controlled by Lars's subtle debasement and she would help her break free of that toxic relationship.  Both women would learn a valuable lesson about loving themselves before they could be loved by somebody else and help RuPaul become the Supermodel of the World.

 

Y&R - What if John Abbot grew some balls and set up a scheme so that Victor Newman was never allowed to buy Jabot in the first place?  John senses that his old pal Katherine Chancellor is in a vulnerable place and decides to toss Jill aside, marry Katherine, and use her money to save his family's company.  Jill becomes a formidable asset to Victor when she goes to him to fund her idea for a men's skin care line and they enter into a protracted love triangle with Nikki.  John and Katherine's alliance pits Phillip Jr and Jack against each other to prove their worth within the renamed Jabot-ellor.  Brock and Ashley begin to date, but their relationship is fraught with conflict about their devotion to their respective siblings. 

 

Passions - What if Faith Standish didn't die?  She and her sister Grace reunite and achieve their full powers as witches.  They force everyone to tell the truth, they don't allow any character to have protracted monologues alone in a room, and true love prevails.  However, under those circumstances,the show blows through all of its plot lines in six months and is cancelled.  But, Another World would make a triumphant return to daytime!  

 

Edited December 25, 2020 by j swift

[titan1978]

I really like this one.  Because it really does change not just Brenda, but a huge foundation of the show.  You still have Jason there, but even he is changed because Sonny’s ambition is what kept getting them all into trouble.  Jason was very much a status quo mobster when Sonny left.

 

It leaves Carly soundly in the Quartermaine storylines as well!

If no show goes to an hour, then does Y&R expand their core families?  Interesting to think that while some of those changes might have happened due to Bell being tired of recasts, would he have taken as big a risk by creating both the Abbott’s and Williams families?  Only so much room in a half hour!

Edited December 25, 2020 by titan1978

[Franko]

Great question! It seems to me that Y&R's changes were inevitable, so I think the revamp and expansion would have happened. On the other hand, I'm less certain that P&G or Nixon soaps would have gone to an hour if AW hadn't done it first. And if DAYS hadn't done it after AW, the window of opportunity likely would have been closed by 1980.

[AbcNbc247]

GH - the role of Sonny Corinthos stays as the six month role that he was originally supposed to be. Can you imagine how different GH would be today if that had happened? I can’t even begin to list all the differences. 
 

AW - the great purge of 86-87 doesn’t happen, leaving many characters particularly Sally, Catlin, Brittany and Zane on the show to play out the drama for years to come.

 

DAYS - JER is not hired for a second stint as head writer, which would mean no Salem Stalker, no Bonnie, Jan staying as the scheming mean girl rather than a psycho. 

[DramatistDreamer]

P&G brings back Susan Bedsow-Horgan as a co-HW, alongside Douglas Marland around '91, which might have lightened the load on Marland, lightened the mood of some of the stories, as many have observed that there was a darkness and heaviness apparent in some of the storylines. Having a co-HW might have even prevented Marland's premature death, as the strain of headwriting the entire show since late '85 may indeed have taken a toll on his health in those last years of his life. If worse comes to worst, and ATWT lost Marland, as was truly the case, the show would have at least had in SBH, someone already in place that truly understood the show, its dynamic, its characters and had the capability to write reasonably compelling stories. With SBH, the continuity of storytelling would have had better consistency, and viewers might have been spared some of the ridiculous stories that followed in the next decade and a half.

Even had Marland survived his health crisis, it still would've been wise to have SBH as a co-HW, as she wrote for the show before and during Marland's tenure and he could've come to rely and trust her as a partner in the HW's position, maybe even take a vacay, which I doubt he really ever did as ATWT's HW.

Edited December 25, 2020 by DramatistDreamer

[titan1978]

Other than Patrick Mulcahey, does Marland have any other protégés that worked with him over the years?

 

When I watch the credits (when available) on his episodes, I do not recognize a lot of the names.  Compared to people like Bill Bell, Agnes Nixon, and even writers like Pam Long have teams filled with great soap writers.

 

I know Marland was not very collaborative and was really controlling of the writing.  And I have read he had a better working relationship with his first ATWT EP than with his last one (I’m talking his main stint, not the earlier brief one).

Edited December 26, 2020 by titan1978

[lilyredd]

GH- I would have kept BJ alive and no heart issue for Maxie. While beautiful performances, I think the story set a bad precedent for all other shows (we know shows like to copy). A consistent rinse repeat of killing one character for said character’s organ for another was tedious. No hiring of Phelps. 
 

GL- the show gives Beverly McKinsey all she requested to keep her on the show. 
 

OLTL- no Phelps 

 

ATWT- Marland welcomes a co-head writer by 1990. I felt there was a real switch by the time the 90s rolled around in his writing. There was such an abundance of depressing, joyless stories.  Marland was a magnificent architect but terrible interior designer. So many of his creations suffered from a “sameness” and so many stories simply a repeat. The best part of his writing was the clear plan, attention to detail, and how each and every character played a role in his stories. A real sense of community - when Lucinda lost John or her company, people reacted. When Bob is shot, people react. Unlike later years where each lived in a bubble. I still get salty watching the ‘99 story where Lucinda is on her death bed and few react- not even John! 
 

ATWT- In 1989 I wish, since they intended to end them anyway, Lucinda and John broke up.  It would have been a balanced ending- John knew she would never change nor accept Duke; Lucinda would have rightly been disgusted with John continuing to sleep with Susan (especially after she returns from her Montegan adventure and tells him her daughter was “executed” and she “found” her mass grave.)

 

Lucinda needed a real love interest outside of John - unfortunately none existed on the canvass, so I would have brought on someone new for her.

 

Also, ATWT 1989-Scott Bryce stays on as Craig or they recast immediately. Loved the story of Sierra being one “the disappeared.” I thought it was timely in that it wasn’t that long since Argentina’s junta and its horrors.