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, 20214 yr by Paul Raven

I believe Melissa Reeves's first pregnancy was written for Abby on DAYS in 1992. 

Julia Barr's pregnancy was written in when Brooke had Laura on All My Children. I believe they were initially going to have Tom and Brooke struggle with infertility. 

Charlotte Ross' pregnancy was written in on NYPD Blue despite her character, Connie, being told she couldn't have anymore children because of a complication she had with her character's first pregnancy when she was a teen. 

When Kassie DePaiva was pregnant with her son on One Life To Live, Blair was pregnant with Brendan. I remember reading/hearing that it wasn't an easy pregnancy.

 

 

Edited November 10, 20214 yr by Forever8

4 hours ago, Frank2803 said:

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

Oh that's right, that is when she got abducted and we saw her very pregnant belly when she was being 'probed' and they made it look like 'they' (the government/aliens???) were inflating her stomach with something. 

Poor Bobbie Spencer was sent off to a "fat farm" to hide Jacklyn Zeman's pregnancy. 

12 hours ago, Forever8 said:

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. 

Both of her pregnancies were written in. The first one coincided with Lucy being married to Alan. She set out to get pregnant so that she'd forever have a finger in the Quartermaine pie. The problem was that Scott was the actual baby daddy. The baby, "Eddie Jr.", died when Lucy miscarried after Alan found out the truth.

1 hour ago, j swift said:

Poor Bobbie Spencer was sent off to a "fat farm" to hide Jacklyn Zeman's pregnancy. 

That was awful even back then!

Didn't GL use the same weight gain/fat farm story when Denise Pence (Katie) was pregnant in 79?

And AW replaced Laura Malone (Blaine) with Judy Dewey, supposedly as a temp. But Laura never came back and Judy took over the role.

2 hours ago, Forever8 said:

I believe Melissa Reeves's first pregnancy was written for Abby on DAYS in 1992. 

It was. They wrote Jennifer off as being out of town while MR was on maternity leave.

Wasn't Marcy Walker pregnant IRL when Eden was pregnant on Santa Barbara? 

I remember Jennifer Gareis was pregnant, I think for the first time. They had Pam make some type of joke insisting she's been eating something because she is "porking up" there on Bold and Beautiful. 

Katey Sagal's first pregnancy was written in "Married with Children," also having Peggy pregnant. Though sadly, in real life, it ended in stillbirth, making the previous season "a dream season." out of respect. I was reminded of this while watching her in an old TV movie this morning with Charlotte Ross in which her character was pregnant too. 

 

 

Loving had two storylines dealing with separate Noelle Beck pregnancies in 1991. She gave birth to her first at the beginning of 1991 and was temporarily replaced by Jessica Steen after threatening to walk (her contract was up for renewal) when she learned that the show wanted her to play out the death of Trisha's baby.

By mid-91 she was pregnant again and that pregnancy was also written in, so in early '92 Trisha was written out for a couple of months after having her second baby.

In between the two pregnancy stories, Trisha and Trucker adopted a baby and then saw the adoption reversed, so they had three different baby stories in 1991, which is ridiculous.

9 hours ago, Forever8 said:

Wasn't Marcy Walker pregnant IRL when Eden was pregnant on Santa Barbara?

Yes.

Lindsay Hartley's pregnancy was written in on Passions when Theresa was doing the whole surrogacy storyline with Ethan/Gwen. 

Rebecca Herbst last two pregnancies were written on GH when Liz was having Cameron and Aidan. 

I believe Heather Tom was pregnant when Katie was too on Bold and Beautiful. I remember when Katie had post-partum depression, she was on maternity leave. 

 

 

on atwt, hilliary b smith’s first pregnancy led to margo’s affair with hal and the birth of adam, who was played as an infant by her real life son.

It's cool how some of these pregnancies have led to years worth of storylines 

On 11/10/2021 at 5:15 AM, Forever8 said:

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

And her previous pregnancy wasn't. There were a lot of camera tricks, big bags and all, but towards the end, they had Kayla laying in bed due to being poisoned by Harper Deveraux.

Written in:
Kate Mulgrew (RH). But while Mary kept her baby, Kate gave hers up for adoption.
Sharon Gabet (EON) was pregnant when Raven was pregnant with her and Sky's daughter.

Not written in:
Erika Slezak (OLTL) - Christine Jones subbed when ES went out on maternity in the early 80s.

 

On 11/10/2021 at 10:00 AM, carolineg said:

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.

I've always believed it was the intent of TPTB to continue L & L in the action/adventure mode upon their return...heck, there was a lot of action just in their journey back to PC. I think Genie's pregnancy changed plans for Laura and set the character in a different direction, a more domestic one, that she may not have gone quite as soon. 

 

Edited November 12, 20214 yr by applcin

14 hours ago, applcin said:

And her previous pregnancy wasn't. There were a lot of camera tricks, big bags and all, but towards the end, they had Kayla laying in bed due to being poisoned by Harper Deveraux.

Written in:
Kate Mulgrew (RH). But while Mary kept her baby, Kate gave hers up for adoption.
Sharon Gabet (EON) was pregnant when Raven was pregnant with her and Sky's daughter.

Not written in:
Erika Slezak (OLTL) - Christine Jones subbed when ES went out on maternity.

 

I've always believed it was the intent of TPTB to continue L & L in the action/adventure mode upon their return...heck, there was a lot of action just in their journey back to PC. I think Genie's pregnancy changed plans for Laura and set the character in a different direction, a more domestic one, that she may not have gone quite as soon. 
 

I have to agree with your take on L&L.  Laura having another kid did not seem like the plan for their return.  Luke was still involved in the mob/action adventure stuff with Sonny/Frank Smith and Lucky was old enough to do his own thing, so it does seem to have changed the trajectory of Laura's story.  It did lead to the re-introduction of the Cassadines and Nik, which I did think was great, but GF's extended maternity leave and then 'weight' issues did not help her with TPTB.  I felt like Laura spent long periods of time moodily hanging out with Stefan and an inexplicably dark haired young Lulu on Spoon Island after she and Luke broke up.  It's weird because Genie is the same age as MB and a half a dozen years older than Rena Sofer and Vanessa Marcil, but she felt like an entire different generation at the time.

Edited November 12, 20214 yr by carolineg