Real life pregnancies that were (or were not) incorporated into the story.

[Paul Raven]

An actress becoming pregnant is one real life event that writers have to deal with.

Which pregnancies were written into the story and which were covered up ? 

Do you recall characters being written off or replaced so actresses could have maternity leave?

The first real life pregnancy I think soaps had to deal with was Mary Stuart on Search for Tomorrow. When the widowed Jo was marrying Arthur, she was heavily pregnant and photographed from the waist up.

When Mary got pregnant again, they decided to let Arthur and Jo have a son . Mary was upset when the Hursleys decided to kill the child as she closely identified her onscreen son with her real life child.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Paul Raven

[Ryan Chamberlain]

Recent. But, Sofia Mattsson (Sasha, GH) they basically just wrote her pregnancy in out of nowhere and gave her a quick ONS with Brando because of it. 

[will81]

I mentioned this in the other thread, Melody Thomas Scott from Y&R had both her real life pregnancies written into the shows storyline. I think in both cases Bill Bell hadn't intended for Nikki to have a child.

Jaime Lynn Bauer (Y&R) was replaced by Wesley Ann Pfenning in 1980 during her maternity leave. Her real life pregnancy was not written in and the show had to work around her, unfortunately her pregnancy was rough on her and she had to go on maternity leave early. Wesley Ann Pfenning was only there briefly before Lorie was sent to New York on a book tour

Katherine Kelly Lang was replaced by Sandra Ferguson during her maternity leave around 1996, her pregnancy was not incorporated into the show on B&B and as the story goes almost didn't return and Sandra almost replaced her full time. I believe Sandra said it was down to the wire and KKL signed a new deal at the last minute. 

Lynn Topping (Y&R, Chris Foster) had her pregnancy written in in 1980, though it was undecided initially whether the show would give her twins just like she was carrying in real life. Lynn was not replaced during her maternity leave and when she returned David Hasselhoff who played her onscreen husband Snapper had struck a deal with the show to basically be a guest star while he worked on the sitcom Semi-Tough. They wanted Lynn to take the same deal, she refused and quit. She was originally going to be replaced but returned with David in early 1981.

Krista Allen (Billie #2 Days) was pregnant while filming scenes where she was forced to be hooked on drugs again, around 1997. They covered up her pregnancy by having her tied to a bed and hollowed out part of the bed so her mid section would sink slightly in and reduce her stomach. I am sure this was covered in Soap Digest back in the day.

Wasn't Alison Sweeney replaced by a guy playing Sami in drag or something while she was on maternity leave? Or was that some sort of fever dream I had, haha.

Hunter Tylo famously was fired from MP when she became pregnant and replaced with Lisa Rinna. She returned to B&B and I think her pregnancy was written in or am I confusing the timeline with when Taylor was pregnant with Thomas?

I guess this leads to Heather Locklear (MP), who was pregnant during Hunter Tylo's trial and had to testify that the show had shot around her pregnancy and covered it up to keep her on the show. I think this may have helped Hunter win her case. 

Susan Lucci (AMC) was pregnant during a storyline where ironically Erica's husband Tom wanted children and found out she was on birth control. I can't remember how she was written out but I am sure she wasn't replaced. I might be confused but I think she ended up in a mental health hospital or something.

Was Ashley pregnant on Y&R when Eileen was in real life? Around 2003? Ashley had a miscarriage though. Can someone confirm. So they wrote in the pregnancy but had her lose the baby, I assume after Eileen had given birth. I think this lead to another break down for Ashley. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by will81

[Forever8]

Wasn't Kristina Wagner both pregnancies written for Felicia as well on GH? 

I believe when Lynn Herring's was pregnant with her youngest son in 93. I believe they wrote it in for the surrogacy storyline with Scott/Dominique. Too bad GH refuses to bring back Serena for some reason I don't know. 

I do know for sure that Kirsten Storms went on maternity leave when she was pregnant. Maxie went on some retreat where she met Peter Harrell's son. 

Mary Beth Evans pregnancy was written in I believe when Kayla was pregnant with Stephanie on DAYS. 

I'm not sure about Victoria Rowell when she was pregnant with her son by Wynton Marsalis on YR. 

 

 

[Paul Raven]

When Millee Taggart was pregnant, Search for Tomorrow wrote a surprise pregnancy for Janet. Danny Walton was the result.

ATWT I think Patricia Bruder's real life pregnancies resulted in David and Ellen Stewart having Carol Ann (Annie)in 1967 and Dawn (Dee) in 1969.

 

[AlexElizabeth]

Sasha's current pregnancy on GH has to be one of the most pointless and random I've ever seen on soaps, so I have to imagine that they wrote it in because of the actress's real life pregnancy. 

I thought that DAYS did a good job covering up Marci Miller's recent pregnancy, to the point where I didn't even know she was pregnant until she announced she had the baby and was on maternity leave. 

[Planet Soap]

Y&R: Tracey Bregman's pregnancy in 1991 gave us the Lauren/Sheila baby switch, one of the greatest plots of all time. It went on the after nearly 15 years of story material.

Edited November 10, 2021 by ironlion

[soapfan770]

To answer your questions: 

KKL- Yep she had a very traumatic 1996 and almost left the show.

Sweeney-yes Dan Wells played Sami during maternity leave while Sami was disguised as Stan.

Tylo- Two different kids; she pretty much had back to back pregnancies. Her first daughter was born in 1996 and was the source of the pregnancy firing at Melrose place. Her second daughter, born in early 98 was the pregnancy story used for Taylor being pregnant with Thomas. 
 

Davidson-Yes she really was pregnant in 2003 and had her son. Davidson’s maternity leave occurred for most of that summer and returned from leave just in time for the car accident happening. I remember Davidson commenting in SOD how silly it was having to still play pregnant after already giving birth. 

 

[will81]

Thanks for all the answers. I often wonder what Eileen really thinks about her post Bell time at Y&R. 

With Tylo I was very confused as I have such a fuzzy memory of 95 - 97 B&B even though I watched daily back then. It all melds together for some reason.

[carolineg]

Genie Francis was pregnant when Laura had Lulu.  I often wonder if the show really wanted to give L&L another kid.  I am pretty sure TG was against it, but then again I think he was against everything Luke/Laura in the 90's lol.

[Liberty City]

Maura West's first pregnancy was written into As the World Turns when she lost her daughter, Nora, with Mike Kasnoff. I cannot recall if her second or third pregnancies were written in or not. I know for her fourth pregnancy, Carly left town with Simon, and her final pregnancy was also not written in... instead, Carly developed an addiction to booze and provided some AMAZING content when she left Oakdale to go into treatment.

[AbcNbc247]

With the exception of Maxie’s last two kids, a lot of the babies born on GH recently were due to real life pregnancies: Sasha’s, Olivia’s, Maxie’s first child, both of Sabrina’s babies (was what the point of Sabrina’s lol) There’s probably more but the only real life pregnancy that wasn’t written it that I can think of was Emme Rylan. Remember that dress they had Lulu wear to the Nurses ball that year?

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It looked like a circus tent

On Days, Sydney was written in when Ali Sweeney got pregnant. 

On AW, Paulina and Vicky both got pregnant when Judi Evans and Jensen Buchanan got pregnant.

And I think on B&B Rick and Bridget were written in to accommodate both of KKL’s pregnancies.

[Markjeh]

In 2000 Carly left town when Winston Lowe found her and in 2002 she was abducted in the spa storyline. I'm 99% certain that in either case the pregnancies weren't written in.

On the contrary, I'm pretty sure all 3 of Martha Byrne's (Lily) pregnancies were written in, resulting in Faith, Natalie and Ethan. (On another note: Holden was the father in all of the cases. I find it interesting because I'm pretty sure it's highly unusual for two characters (supercouple of not) to have so many children together in soap world). 

[Liberty City]

Ah yes, the infamous spa storyline for the three pregnant women: Carly, Emily & Lily. How could I forget that one! Whew!

[Frank2803]

Cybill Shepherd was barely on the fourth season of Moonlighting because of her pregnancy 

I think they wrote around Gillian Anderson's pregnancy during the X Files. They used the big trenchcoat method to hide her pregnancy lol