12 hours ago, Vee said:

Yeah, I think the very first plan re: Vicki (per Art Wallace's bible) may have been for her to be the granddaughter of the former Collinwood butler "Hanscomb," whose daughter Betty was supposed to have had an affair with Paul Stoddard. Later they concluded she had to be Liz's daughter, but it never made it officially to the screen.

I did not remember the plan for Joe/Carolyn marrying. I had also forgotten the house by the sea, which was a clear signpost re: Vicki and Liz. I loved that whole plot element with the house.

Watching the first 90 to 100 episodes of DS, it did lean toward the butler Hanscomb being connected to Victoria, the lookalike portrait featuring B. Hanscomb (dropped after episode 97, had later writers remembered this story, the painting could have been Victoria traveling aimlessly through time), and the secretive calls between the Sr Garner attorney and Elizabeth.

The other hint dropped about Victoria was in episode 274 (her final VO episode intro) where Jason mentioned he knew a lot about Victoria and her past.. and opted to leave town never telling her.

Joe/Carolyn marrying was in the bible as something that was proposed for future story after the initial stories were done, same with the original Laura story and how Victoria tied to her.

46 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Watching the first 90 to 100 episodes of DS, it did lean toward the butler Hanscomb being connected to Victoria, the lookalike portrait featuring B. Hanscomb (dropped after episode 97, had later writers remembered this story, the painting could have been Victoria traveling aimlessly through time), and the secretive calls between the Sr Garner attorney and Elizabeth.

Yeah. In my many ideas for a revival over the years, the time-lost Vicki and whatever became of her would be a recurring thread. But I also toyed once with the idea of reinventing something super-obscure for a one-off/Monster of the Week storyline in a pilot, where some new young characters had to unearth the mystery of a ghost butler or his daughter who turns out to be named "Hanscomb." It would all be explained independently in a short new storyline, so only insane obsessives like us would have any clue it was tied to the original bible and those earliest episodes lol.