I'm working my way through the SOD synopses, and I have Many Thoughts. Here are a few:
A couple of mysteries have been solved. I already mentioned that it is now confirmed that, yes, Bill Bauer attended Alan and Hope's wedding.
Here's another: Back when the "Who's Who in Springfield" character pages were still live, it said under Roger's that Peggy insisted Roger get a vasectomy before they married. Now, I always thought that was weird, it seemed SO out of character for Peggy, unless she was warned never to get pregnant again. BUT, OTOH, I did remember that Roger was obsessed with being in Christina's life and acknowledged as her real father because he thought he couldn't have more children.
Mystery solved: Roger and Peggy were planning to have children. When Peggy didn't get pregnant, they had tests done. It turned out that Roger had some genetic condition that made him spontaneously become infertile. (Does this condition actually exist? I have no idea).
Later on, he was obviously not infertile anymore, as he had fathered Hart and Mindy's baby that she miscarried. Either no one was around anymore who remembered this plot point, or they were like, "No one's going to remember that" and just ignored it.
Maybe he spontaneously became fertile again! Maybe the fall off the cliff did it. 😂
A few more thoughts/impressions:
Sara was once the most sought after woman in Springfield. She was either being courted, was engaged, or married continously from the time her husband Joe died until the soaps started making everything about young characters. By Marland's time, her only purpose (besides wringing her hands over her son Tim) was as the sex therapist to every woman on the show except Bert.
People in general were jumping in and out of relationships with remarkable speed while the Dobsons were writing the show. It almost gave me whiplash reading about it. Ben in particular: from Hope, to Eve, (with a one-night stand with Diane in here somewhere) to Amanda, in the space of a year, I think. That definitely settled down once Marland took over.
Speaking of Ben, I was shocked that in the early part of the Lucille Wexler storyline, she wanted Ben with Amanda and tried to make it happen. Later, she was so determined to keep them apart she tried to kill him several times. I don't know if that was because of the change over to Marland or if Lucille was just so bonkers she didn't know what she wanted.
Here's another thing that surprised me: Brandon wasn't such a bad dude during the Dobsons era. He genuinely loved Amanda. They actually met while he was in the nursing home, which I had either forgotten or didn't know. (My sister liked GH so we'd fight over the TV. She usually won, lol). Lucille always thought Amanda was Brandon's child and only towards the end of his life did he admit she was Alan's kid. Brandon was portrayed as remorseful about the break with Alan. VERY different from the cold, abusive, and controlling man that Marland, and later Long, portrayed.
I have lots more, but this is getting long. I'll post more later.
By
DeeVee ·
