Mysteriously dropped Storylines

[AbcNbc247]

Interesting.

 

The more I think about it, the more I started to think Jill was scapegoated and that she wasn't completely responsible for all the problems at AW at that time

[FrenchBug82]

No one is ever "completely" responsible for the downfall of an entire show and no doubt there was network interference/sabotage.

But the fact she showed good judgement in this particular instance does not excuse all the awful calls that were on her - and that she still defends! 
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut from time to time and even the worst headwriter/producer has good stories and makes good decisions. The judgement on her is based on a broad look at everything she did.

[Mitch]

Could be..as much as I don't like what she turned GL into (GuidingBuzz) ..her first couple of years were the best it had been since I started watching it in grade school. I also think her refusal to bring Reva back was right...and her instincts were spot on..she did indeed consume the show whole. I think we GL would have still gotten the mob..I wonder if she could have fought off the clone, and I think we would NEVER have been inflicted with San Cristobel..or however you spell that hell hole.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Mitch

[DRW50]

 

I don't really think anyone would hold her responsible for all of AW's problems - many of them were clearly from NBC and P&G. The problem with JFP tends to be that in these years, she got so much breathless hype and ass-kissing from the soap press, leading to expectations for what turned to be a whole lot of garbage.

[titan1978]

Zimmer left as Curlee’s more ensemble vision was just kind of starting to take hold.  I wonder how Zimmer would have felt coming back to GL under those terms?  I remember how cocky she was when the show started to go up in ratings as it focused on her, Josh, and Annie in the soap mags.  In her absence Holly, Nadine, Vanessa, etc had become major story driving characters, and they were pretty amazing at it.

 

Jill can take plenty of the blame for her career on soaps.  Maybe AW wasn’t all her doing, but as someone that watched her work on OLTL, GH, and Y&R as it was happening- she deserves the heat she has gotten on many occasions.

[slick jones]

Not long ago Nancy Lee Grahn was on The View talking about Alexis being diagnosed with Osteoporosis, but instead alcoholism revisited has been her story.  

[allmc2008]

What interview?

[Forever8]

That reminds me of Anna being diagnosed with polycythemia (rare blood cancer) that the show got their hands slapped because I think of the drug they were advertising. And now they rarely have Anna mention her disease. 

[Mitch]

Can't remember...it was a long time ago but I remember his quote on JFP. Not that the serial killer storyline she  replaced it with was any good...

[allmc2008]

Where/when was it? 

[Jonathan]

All My Children kicked off a storyline with Jack having a heart condition. I still remember the one and only scene this was mentioned when Dr. Joe gave him the bad news. The storyline was dropped and we never heard about Jack's heart after that (except for the numerous times thereafter Erica shattered it into a million pieces).

[DRW50]

 

Yes. Walt Willey said in an interview a few years later that around this time he decided to get into shape and lost a lot of weight. As a result, they dropped the storyline.

[soapfan770]

LeMay gave that interview back in the late 90s shortly after his time as a story consultant in the mid-90’s for AW I’m going on have to dig up that one up, I believe it’s the same interview where he kind of trashed Robin Strasser while he was huffing & puffing. 
 

 

 

[Pine Charles]

I thought he looked better with some weight on.

The weight loss really aged him aesthetically.

 

Anyway, that seems like a silly reason to drop the heart storyline.

”Fit” people can have heart disease, too.

(Look at Susan Lucci!!)

Edited February 12, 2021 by Pine Charles

[j swift]

I just read that Robert Milli, who played the second Lars Bogart, quit All My Children because he objected to his character who was going to be exposed as a WWII war criminal, with a collection of stolen German art, who later escaped to South America.  Which caused a pause in the story right before November sweeps in order to hire another actor.

 

Ironically, he was replaced by Jack Betts, who had just left the role of Louis St. George on Another World, a WWII war criminal with a stolen art collection, and was best known in daytime for playing Dr. Ivan Kipling on One Life to Live, a criminal who escaped to South America.  Apparently, Mr. Betts was unconcerned about type casting.

 

As noted in a prior thread about dropped storylines, ABC had to re-edit several storylines due to news events.  GH had a terrorism storyline edited after 9/11.  Janet on AMC was going to plant a bomb, but those scenes was edited out after the Oklahoma City bombing, and OLTL had to edit out a storyline about a school shooting with actor Jonathan Groff, after the Virginia Tech college shootings occurred during production.   

 

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=3072097&page=1

Edited February 12, 2021 by j swift