The Dobsons arrived at GL in 75 when it was still a half hour and had a small cast to work with. They had a few misfires but it was really the expansion to 60 min in 77 that allowed room for the Spauldings, Lucille/Amanda etc that it really came together.
What GL needed to compete was a young love story. The Dobsons young characters like Floyd and Lainie were afterthoughts and not the kind of characters to lead story.
Marland saw the need for that and implemented the classic soap triangle a la Laura/Scotty/Bobbie with Morgan/Kelly/Nola.
I think it was always in the works that Amanda's mother would show up but Doug probably tweaked that with the arrival of Jennifer/Morgan.
And he stated that Lucille was always intended to die so perhaps that was a Dobson thing and Marland wrote his own version.
Marland inherited a strong show with a lot of drama to be explored whereas at ATWT when the Dobsons arrived there was a bloated cast of middle aged characters and no strong storyline. They had an uphill battle to focus the show and I think a lot of their choices were misguided.
By
Paul Raven ·
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