Does anyone know what reasons were given for the character Ellen Stewart's most recent departure on ATWT (in November 1998, according to one online source) and where she was headed? Did Ellen go off traveling or go live somewhere? Anyone know.

[Fan of Ellen]

I had a dream last night about possible spin-off fan fiction centered around the character of Ellen Lowell Stewart (mostly played by Patricia Bruder) on ATWT, doing some creative "re-imagining" of the Lowell family backstory and building off with a different branch of the Lowell family, but with Ellen as the heroine/matriarch. The story would center around her and her further adventures, maybe in Centerville or some fictional place somewhat near Oakdale, maybe even post-pandemic? 

 

So when Ellen left the show, did the writers have any dialogue which gave any clue as to where she was going or what her next steps were? I may try writing to Patricia Bruder and see if she remembers anything. Does anyone remember anything  about what happened to Ellen? According to one online source, the last time she was written off the show would have been in or around November 1998. 

[Bill Bauer]

I believe, though I'm not 100% certain, that Ellen moved to Atlanta to further David's AIDS research. He had been living there working with the CDC. Although why she would move to Atlanta with David dead and her being a fund-raiser and not a scientist, I don't know. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense which is why I don't trust my vague memory. Although they may have just wanted an excuse to explain her absence. If they didn't want the character on the show anymore (or Patricia Bruder wanted to leave), I wish they would have just killed off the character. That would have been a more respectful end to a character that had been on the show since it's very beginning than to have her just fade away and never mentioned again. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

When ATWT released Patricia Bruder from her contract in 1996, Ellen Stewart simply disappeared without explanation. Years later, she returned to Oakdale for Nancy's 80th birthday party, and that is when the show offered viewers the implausible explanation that Ellen had moved to Atlanta to do fundraising. Nancy spoke about wanting to donate, IIRC.

 

 

It didn't make sense at all. She could fundraise from anywhere, including Oakdale. 

 

 

OMG, I would have been crushed if they had fired Patricia Bruder and then killed off Ellen. I think, to be respectful to such a long-running character, they should have kept her on the show, of course, but failing that, she could have gone to live with/closer to Annie and her grandchildren. That's an explanation which would have made sense to me.

 

BTW, I also loathe when soaps just drop veteran characters without explanation and never mention them again. It is really disrespectful.

[Bill Bauer]

 

I agree that she should have stayed on the show but if they were determined to get rid of her I wouldn't be against the character dying. It would have been a dramatic, definite end to the character. I don't mind the death of long-term characters. For example, I didn't mind David Stewart's death because it was a way to celebrate and mourn the character. It's better than leaving characters in limbo with flimsy, and often nonsensical, excuses for their absence or family and friends simply forgetting they exist (which happened often on soaps). They could have given her a dramatic deathbed scene. Much better than having her move off to Atlanta which, as you pointed out, made no sense since she had no family there and could fundraise from Oakdale. Then, she never comes visit her family and her family just forgets about her and never mentions her again? That just seems more disrespectful to the character than killing her off.  

[vetsoapfan]

 

I understood (but was saddened by) the death of David Stewart, because the actor's endless and extended absences from the show left Ellen Stewart in storyline limbo, with nowhere to go. Even Henderson Forsythe commented at the time: "Honestly, I don't see what else they could have done." At least with Ellen off screen living close to Annie and the quads, she could have been brought back later on, if the show ever again found PTB who understood and respected ATWT's history.

 

I do agree, however, that having legacy characters disappear into limbo and never be mentioned again is both disrespectful and annoying to the audience. In a perfect soap world of my creating, LOL, characters would continue to be referenced as necessary, even after they were no longer seen regularly.

 

I might have killed Ellen off if Patricia Bruder had chosen to leave, herself, and made it clear she was retiring and would never return. As long as the actress was open to coming back, however, my preference would be to leave the situation open, with Ellen living happily and logically off-screen.

 

What really baffled and irked me about all this was: how the hell did Susan Stewart end up living in Ellen's house? Ellen was wont to carry grudges for decades (ask Lisa, LOL); why would she sell or lease the Stewart house to Susan of all people???

[Mona Kane Croft]

 

There was no viable explanation to explain why Susan would be living in Ellen's house all those years.  Except TPTB simply wanted to keep the set and use it.  Most people don't realize, the Steward/Lowell house was (at the time) the longest running soap opera set still in use -- having been used on ATWT since the beginning.   They also probably put Susan in Ellen's house simply to save money by using an existing set, rather than building a new set for Susan.   

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yes, I always figured that Susan living in the Stewart house arose from budgetary reasons. (I doubt anyone in charge cared about the historical significance of the set, but using it saved money, which was a driving factor in the show's later years.)

 

In terms of real life, it makes sense. In the world of Oakdale, however, I have a feeling Ellen Stewart would rather die than let Susan take over her family's beloved home.

[antmunoz]

I imagined that Ellen wanted her biological great-granddaughter Alison raised in the Stewart family home; therefore, she allowed Susan to buy, lease or live in the house. 

[DramatistDreamer]

If Emily had ownership of the house, then decided to let Susan raise Allison there (perhaps hoping that Allison would feel more of a familial foundation) where Allison would feel "grounded" rather than the feeling of being "unmoored" the way Emily felt as a child).

 

And noooo, I don't like the idea of killing off Ellen when her longtime portrayer is still among us. Soaps have done this too often, and it usually strikes me as sad and desperate when they do.

[Brolden]

Along similar lines, it always confused me that Susan went back to Stewart after divorcing Larry. She and Dan divorced before he died (he was married to Kim at that time), so why wouldn't she have gone back to Burke, but kept Stewart? It made even less sense when Alison became largely known as Alison Stewart, even if she was biologically related to Emily, Dan, and Ellen.

 

As a watcher during the 2000's, I always thought of that house as Susan's. I was shocked when those 1979 episodes were released on YouTube to find that the set was around (and largely unchanged) at that time. Makes me even sadder to think that it did eventually disappear. I believe I remember seeing some scenes there in early 2007 when Emily was drifting into prostitution, but I think it ended up one of the casualties of the massive set destructions in 07/08.

[RAW]

As I understand it, when John Valente became the EP, he felt he had to trim the cast, and he was quoted in an article that some long-term cast members would be cut.  I remember Ellen's/Patricia's final episodes in late 1994, before Xmas, because she was not in the Xmas episode that year - Evan Walsh was renting her garage apartment, and she was giving him instructions on what to take care of while she went off to visit Annie and the quads.  Even though she had been cut back to recurring over the summer of 1994, she showed up on a few episodes from time to time. But then she just disappeared.  While she was not featured in the shows 40th anniversary episode in April 1995, she was in the montage at the end of the show.  I just think it became an   "out of sight/out of mind" scenario.  She did come back in 1998 for Nancy's 80th bday, and then for the Thankgiving episode that year celebrating with Susan, Emily and Allison at Emily's apartment. But, save for a couple of mentions when Emily was kidnapped to the spa with Lily and Carly, she was largely forgotten.  Why Susan lived in her house was really because of Emily.  But, that set was the oldest set on the show dating back to the mid 1960s when it was the Lowell family home.  I was able to meet Patricia Bruder in person in NYC, and she invited me to the set for a tour. It was for the big reveal of the Whit McColl murder, and I had to be sworn to secrecy because they shot 2 weeks in advance back then.  She was very kind to invite me to the set - she was as kind as her character. We corresponded for a few years after that.  Thankfully, she did show up at the fan event for the shows 50th anniversary, and someone sent me some photos. She looked great.  There is a 5 year old YouTube interview with her (under her married name - Patricia Debrovner) here in case anyone is interested. She mentions her time on ATWT, but nothing of her leaving.  

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[Mitch64]

I can understand why they cut Ellen to recurring back in the day...Both Kim and Nancy could take over her matriarch duties concerning trying to keep that sl*t Emily in line and arguing with Susan...really, even writing her out.(lets face it, the only reason she was kept around was due to Marland and the fact that budgets were bigger back then...).but to never mention her again is weird. They should have brought her back for anniversaries, holidays and once in a while to argue with Susan over Emily. It is kind of like John just disappearing...John Dixon..who had connections to really everyone in Oakdale not even mentioned by Margo? On GL Nola just disappears..never to be seen or mentioned until the last week.  How hard is it to just write someone out. 

But agreed that they should not have killed Ellen off...but I would have brought Dee back and Betsy back (and Frannie and Andy) but they were too interested in things like boring Janet.

[Khan]

That reminds me of something that Linda Dano said to some interviewer years ago (either back when she was joining GL, or when she was leaving).  I can't remember her words exactly, but they were to the effect of, "Everybody dies or gets killed off now, nobody ever just leaves town."  And that's definitely true today.  If you aren't killed off a soap, you just stop appearing with zero explanations.

[allmc2008]

You do know the subject line is supposed to be brief, right?

"Question on Ellen's (ATWT) 1998 departure"

I do like your question though. Hey departure always pissed me off.

[RavenWhitney]

We're not gonna be shady just fierce!