I think the Marilyn story point wasn't dropped, I think it changed due to the head-writer change. I truly think the Dobson's had intended there to be something sinister that was set to come out. They set up Angela/Warren interacting with him interested in finding out what happened to Marilyn while she was jealous of her estranged husband's interest in Julia. If I recall the timeline correctly, Warren/Angela start hooking up while the Dobson's are head-writing.. I think it was right around the time Amado was killed and Craig losing his mind. The Dobson's also decided to flip the Cassie character changing her from their perspective of a grey character to being the obstacle for Warren/Angela.
I know that one the early things that Pam Long did when taking over as head-writer was bring back up the Marilyn story with flashbacks to scenes of a young David/Angela getting out of the car wondering where Marilyn was... with a crazed Cassie trying to use this as a way to break Warren/Angela up. I think the high school reunion (where Kim Zimmer's Jodie was introduced) was where the Marilyn story finally came out where Angela felt extreme guilt for the death of Marilyn.. because she was the driver, maybe jealous of Marilyn/David. The story actually made Angela more of a tragic anti-heroine than an antagonist.. and Cassie ended up having a mental break when her plan didn't work. The last scenes of Cassie were her trying to get better in a retreat and Warren telling Cassie that it was horrible they were kept apart due to lies, they couldn't go back and that he was focusing on his future with the last scenes of Cassie vowing to get better.
I would say the story was changed with the new head-writer in order to tie up the Cassie story, resolve a plot point that didn't have much focus, gave backstory on the tension between David/Angela, and made Angela sympathetic for carrying huge guilt.
Another Santa Barbara story that was dropped was involving the character of Suzanne (the real Suzanne that Eden borrowed for her split personality). Once her brief fling with Cruz ended, Pam Long had promised there was going to be a new chapter and romance in her life. The writing seemed to indicate that Ted/Suzanne were going to be a couple.. with their banter, food fight, Suzanne assuming her restoration work was ruined by ted, etc.. with the main conflict for a possible relationship being that he was dating her friend and roommate Katrina (I would have also added the Eden element.. but the show seemed determined to not mention her much). However, by mid summer, after Suzanne is injured in a fall from a cliff due to her work at restoring a photo in the haunted mansion mystery (Ballymoor).. she decided to cut ties and leave town. Made me wonder if the shaky status of the show (only given a six month pick up) caused Long to cut short whatever plans she had for Suzanne.. or if she didn't see Ted/Suzanne as working since she focused Ted eventually toward Angela's orbit, wrote out Katrina and eventually had an odd Ted/Lily/Angela/CC sort of situation develop in the last weeks of the show.
By
Soaplovers ·
