News & Gossip from the mid-1980s per The Soaps of Yesterday

[Franko]

@j swift, I'd like to take you for a rousing evening at the Cock-N-Bull Steakhouse and Lounge ...

 

Boy, they still are pushing Brad Maule (still supposedly on his way out) something fierce. He had the beautiful voice and the power to hush up the audience and backstage talent at the Heart Fund benefit. How odd that only Kin Shriner (now single!) is the only one to have his costume mentioned.

 

I'm glad to know Grant Show was having bicoastal fun, with a girl in California and closer to work/home in NYC, Tasia Valenza.

 

Time to put on our thinking caps: which "flaccid and colorless" DAYS actresses could Jon-Michael Reed be referring to? I almost thought Reed was going for the big guns, Deidre Hall and Gloria Loring, since they're mentioned right after the choice line, but I'm betting he was maybe thinking of younger castmembers. 

 

George Reinholt "wouldn't mind doing another soap." I wonder if any of the remaining New York shows -- ATWT, GL, RH, LOV, AMC, SFT -- ever considered him or took an attitude of life's too short for that kind of drama.

 

Casting that went the distance: Tom Elpin, incoming as Jake on AW.

 

TIL that Pam Blair and Martin Short were (are?) friends. I wonder if they knew each other from theater circles BITD?

 

And, sadly, daytime's first (?) AIDS death. RIP Dennis Parker.

[j swift]

@Franko Although Toyzz is playing at the Cock N' Bull.  I would rather take advantage of the $25 six video and VCR rental special at Crazy Jake's followed by the $5.95 two plate special at Hickory House.

 

Also, I always thought John Bolger was related to Ray Bolger (Wizard of Oz), just like Gregg Marx was related to Groucho?  Am I imagining it or wasn't he in an Oz related photo shoot for SOW?

 

Given that Pat Falken Smith was hired twice more at GH after Ryan's Hope, DAYS, and GL fired her, hope springs eternal in daytime (Oy, those weekly summaries of RH's Pru are painful to read)

 

I'm going with Melissa (Lisa Trusel) because we're in the height of the Pete/Ivy triangle, and Kimberly (Patsy Pease) given that Shane just quit the ISA - also they both are most memorable as flaccid and colorless IMO

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by j swift

[zanereed]

 

As I mentioned earlier, I now wish that GL had hired Reinholt to replace Chris Bernau in 1988 as Alan Spaulding (he was a much better fit IMHO than Daniel Pilon), although we may never have gotten Michael Zaslow back as Roger Thorpe, had that actually occurred.

 

 

I agree with this 100% - it has to be Trusel.

[vetsoapfan]

 

And of any actor, TGL needed Zaslow on canvass to give the show a vital, much-needed shot in the arm and sense of continuity. Knowing Roger and Holly were back on made me start watching TGL again, even though I had sworn off it during the painfully awful mid-1980s.

 

 

Nowadays, I don't mind Trusel popping in every few years or so, but back then, I always wondered why the show kept such a tepid, colorless actress.

[72Hearts]

I think I am the only one GL fan who thought Daniel Pilon was a pretty good Alan. He could twist his mouth cruelly, which I rather dug.

[Mitch]

I don't think he was bad..and I can see why they thought he could short term it for Bernau. He was better then Raines..who just looked "grouchy" when he was supposed to be evil Its too bad as watching some of the early RR and when he is at the Amish Farm he is kind of sexy..so I can see where they thought he would make a good rogue...but then he got...old so fast, and he just wasn't Alan no matter what.

[j swift]

Although I wish all of the rejudication of GL recasting was discussed on that thread, to quote myself from 3 years ago

[zanereed]

I kept seeing Pilon as Max DuBujak (his character on Ryan's Hope) during his time on TGL, which was probably my biggest issue. I guess that may be why TPTB at TGL ended up casting him in the first place?

 

Raines was a different story, altogether. I think Raines would have made a better Mike Bauer than he ever did as Alan Spaulding.

[vetsoapfan]

 

I fantasized about Jed Allen taking over the role of Mike Bauer after Don Stewart was let go. I would have been satisfied with him as Mike, Mart Hulswit returning as Ed, and Ellen Demming being lured out of retirement to play Meta Bauer in whatever capacity she was up for.

 

Now that I think about Raines, however, I also would have preferred him playing Mike instead of Alan.

 

BTW, have folks seen this?

 

 

Edited April 27, 2021 by vetsoapfan

[zanereed]

 

Jed Allen would have likely been a perfect Mike Bauer, but would he have been too perfect? Meaning, would we have looked at him and said, "It's Don Craig playing Mike Bauer!"

Please register in order to view this content

 I also doubt that they could have gotten Jed Allen to portray him, as I understood that he was firmly planted on the West Coast, and I'm not certain he could have been lured to an East Coast show?

 

@vetsoapfan, you might have mention this earlier, so I apologize for forgetting, but was Ellen Demming retired from acting by the mid-1980's? I still wonder why no one ever thought to bring Meta back in the 1980's versus waiting an entire decade before doing so.

 

Also, thank you for the YT link - I have something to watch this weekend!

 

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Well, Allen had worked on The Secret Storm, which was filmed in New York, so you never know! 

Please register in order to view this content

 

I did want Stewart to be rehired, but was open to a recast, as long as it was better than the ones we endured for some other characters.

 

 

TGL had written Bert out of the show by saying that she had gone to Florida to care for Meta, who had had a stroke. Bert passed away in Meta's home the next year, when the show finally addressed Charita Bauer's death. It would have made perfect sense for Ed to have asked Meta to come back to Springfield at that time, so he could keep an eye on her. There was no word of Meta's final husband, Bruce Banning, and what had happened to him. As far as I know, however, TGL made no mention of Meta again until they hired Mary Stuart to take over the role in 1996. I can't find any acting credits for Demming after TGL, so I imagine she was retired, although that is purely speculation on my part. In the mid-1980s, she was only 64; not too old to return to act on the show if they had asked. Heck, even in 1996, she could have returned. Many folks in their mid-70s are still healthy. I'm not sorry we got Mary Stuart, of course, but for nostalgia's sake, I would have preferred to see Demming again. I adored her. 

 

 

It ended up being too top-heavy on the "new" version of TGL from the Reva years onwards for my taste, alas.

[zanereed]

 

At that point in 1986, it would have been fine even for Mary Stuart to come on as Meta after SFT was cancelled (assuming Demming was retired from acting), stating that Bert had passed away, and then immediately have Meta became situated in Springfield.

 

@vetsoapfan- do you recall when on-screen they addressed that Meta had divorced Bruce Banning. I have this feeling that the show did mention it in passing, but I cannot recall when that was. Was it as late as 1984, when Bert went to Florida off-screen?

[vetsoapfan]

 

To my knowledge, the show never acknowledged Bruce Banning's existence at all when Bert went to take care of Meta in the mid-1980s, nor did they mention him when Meta returned to Springfield in 1996. Of course, I may have missed an off-handed comment in passing about the character.

[zanereed]

 

You are probably right. At first, I thought the show mentioned in passing that Bruce Banning had passed away (which would be an easy way to handle it), but then I read in other places like Soap Central (again, riddled with character and timeline errors) that Meta had divorced Bruce. I'm going to side with you in that the show probably never did address this at all.

 

[vetsoapfan]

 

TPTB in the 1980s and beyond (except for the marvelous writing team headed by Nancy Curlee) tended to ignore or even contradict anything that had taken place on TGL before the Kobe/Long era. I doubt they would have even given Bruce much thought, if they even knew who he was.

Edited May 3, 2021 by vetsoapfan