We Could've Been Great Together: OLTL's Missed Opportunity Couples

[TeeVee329]

3 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

I would have been down for a Shane coming out story. I know there was a danger of it becoming all about Rex, but as low an opinion as I have of him, I don't see him freaking out about having a gay kid.

I actually bet they would have done what GH did with Kristina - the one you'd expect to have a problem, but also one of the show's golden totems - Sonny/Rex - is super accepting ("Connie, Lois, and I went to gay clubs at the time!") while the parent you'd expect would have no issue with it - Alexis/Gigi - would be painted as the one struggling to accept it.

Roxy would have been thrilled though lol.

Edited December 2, 2020 by TeeVee329

[Melgaypet]

I honestly think it would be out of character for either Rex or Gigi to have a problem with a gay child, so the Kristina parallel doesn't quite work for me. Now if it were Jack, I could see them pulling that shit, with Todd being surprisingly accepting, though I would hit the roof if they wrote Blair as homophobic. I could see Dorian being problematic about it, in the other direction, like after years of basically ignoring Jack, she decided him being gay made him one of her girls and started meddling in his life.

 

ETA: Remember way back, pre-Hope, when it looked like Langston and Cole were going to hook up? They were going to a grief support held by Andrew and bonding over being orphans. Then the strike happened, with goodbye-forever-sexing and sack-grabbing and oh-my-god-I'm-knocked-up and running away? I wasn't excited about Langston/Cole, but I can't help but think that would have been better than what we got. And then, instead of being the put-upon ingenue, Starr could have found her inner bitch and declared war. Maybe take a page from her mother's book and seduce Markko for revenge. (Though NOT getting pregnant! No teen baby story!)

Edited December 3, 2020 by Melgaypet

[TeeVee329]

1 hour ago, Melgaypet said:

I honestly think it would be out of character for either Rex or Gigi to have a problem with a gay child, so the Kristina parallel doesn't quite work for me.

But it was kinda OOC for Alexis to have a problem, didn't you think?  And it was very OCC that Sonny wasn't just super accepting, but was, like, hanging out in gay clubs back in the day in NYC.  Not.

I do agree with your larger point that, IC, Rex and Gigi wouldn't have a problem with it, which is only punctuated, as I mentioned, by Fish and Kyle being extended members of their family through Sierra Rose and Roxy.

1 hour ago, Melgaypet said:

I wasn't excited about Langston/Cole, but I can't help but think that would have been better than what we got.

I would have gladly taken it to cut all the Fords off at the pass. 

The problem - and it's kinda an issue on GH too - is that the teen scene was primarily a quad with some intermittent interlopers - your Hannahs, your Catfish Michelles, etc.  These groups really need six or seven solid players so you can mix it up more so every pairing doesn't feel like Destined Forever Love.

[Dandesun]

18 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

I honestly think it would be out of character for either Rex or Gigi to have a problem with a gay child, so the Kristina parallel doesn't quite work for me. Now if it were Jack, I could see them pulling that shit, with Todd being surprisingly accepting, though I would hit the roof if they wrote Blair as homophobic. I could see Dorian being problematic about it, in the other direction, like after years of basically ignoring Jack, she decided him being gay made him one of her girls and started meddling in his life.

 

 

I refuse to accept any world where obvious local drag icons Blair and Dorian are anything but absolutely 100% accepting of their gay son/great-nephew. Dorian announced she was gay to win an election. Was it a lame story? Yes. Yes, it was. Although I still think it's funny that the two matriarchs of Llanview were basically duking it out over who was more progressive.

Obviously, if they went in that direction with Jack, it would be been Todd being the unreasonable asshole like he was when Starr dared to grow up and become sexually active. I'd love it if they actually surprised everyone with the idea that Jack couldn't possibly confide in Todd that he was gay or bi because Todd would never accept it... only to have Todd actually love his son no matter what. They could do a whole thing with the 'giving Jack away and telling Blair he was dead' horror show and have Todd say something along the lines of 'I promised myself that I would never, ever hurt my son again.' Hell, Jack could have come out to Blair first and SHE could be worried about Todd's reaction and try to work with him to figure out where he stood on the concept.

Not that they would ever do that. Soaps long ago lost the ability to do nuance or take their time with something.

[TeeVee329]

8 hours ago, Dandesun said:

I refuse to accept any world where obvious local drag icons Blair and Dorian are anything but absolutely 100% accepting of their gay son/great-nephew.

I am sad fellow Southerners Blair and Kyle never got together for fiercetinis.

Edited December 4, 2020 by TeeVee329

[Guest]

On 12/2/2020 at 8:45 PM, TeeVee329 said:

The problem - and it's kinda an issue on GH too - is that the teen scene was primarily a quad with some intermittent interlopers - your Hannahs, your Catfish Michelles, etc.  These groups really need six or seven solid players so you can mix it up more so every pairing doesn't feel like Destined Forever Love.

Ah, Hannah. I loved her, once she went full crazy. The only time James and teen Starr were interesting to me was when Hannah was making them dig their own graves.

[UYI]

Just a reminder that Max & Gabrielle not reuniting in 2003 was a huge missed opportunity YES IT COUNTS DAMN IT. *screams in bitterness*

[TeeVee329]

8 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

Ah, Hannah. I loved her, once she went full crazy. The only time James and teen Starr were interesting to me was when Hannah was making them dig their own graves.

It can probably be chalked up to the show in general being a dumpster fire in 2010, but I found the narrative back-and-forth with this character so weird.  She was a standard interloper at first and maybe was considered to be the person who pushed Marty down the hospital stairs.  Then, they took the time to shine her up by making her another victim of Eli's and having Marty testify for her in court and take her in and they drew all sorts of parallels between them.  But then, they immediately had Hannah go crazy and try and bury Starr and Crybaby James alive.  Very strange.

I do remember liking her energy when she showed up during the jailbreak leading up to the ABC finale, though.

[dubbel zout]

Hannah was all over the place, but once they made her bananas, Meghann Fahy went all in, and that was fun to watch.

[Hiyo]

Because it needs to be said often, Natalie and Chris could and should have been one of OLTL’s great long term couples.

 

[Handywood38]

Eh, I don't think DF and MA had a lot of chemistry. Anything would be better than Cris/Jen though! Jen Rappaport was awful on every level. 

As for Hannah, I liked MF, but the character was too plot driven. She was all over the place. Frankly, I'm so glad that they didn't make her the stair pusher. She was too plot driven as it was, and if they went that route, it would have been Stacy all over again. I liked that there was at least some buildup before she snapped (there still should have been more buildup though). Besides, evil Eli was hot. I loved when he was pure evil. I wish we could have seen him torture Ford and/or Cole in hell. 

Biggest missed opportunity is Ross/Blair (not the Billy Warlock version though!). I would say Eli/Blair, but I just loved Eli as the baddest man in Llanview. I'm glad TPTB made him the stair pusher. 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Handywood38

[drtslim]

On 12/6/2020 at 5:44 PM, TeeVee329 said:

It can probably be chalked up to the show in general being a dumpster fire in 2010, but I found the narrative back-and-forth with this character so weird.  She was a standard interloper at first and maybe was considered to be the person who pushed Marty down the hospital stairs.  Then, they took the time to shine her up by making her another victim of Eli's and having Marty testify for her in court and take her in and they drew all sorts of parallels between them.  But then, they immediately had Hannah go crazy and try and bury Starr and Crybaby James alive.  Very strange.

I do remember liking her energy when she showed up during the jailbreak leading up to the ABC finale, though.

Did we know that BB was leaving when James came along?  I actually thought that had he not been on his way out, they would've gone for a full-blown James-Starr-Cole-Hannah quad.  I wouldn't have minded seeing Hannah and Cole as an actual couple.

[TeeVee329]

5 hours ago, drtslim said:

Did we know that BB was leaving when James came along?

I don't think so, Crybaby James showed up at the start of the summer of teens, Teens, TEENS and Cole was only ousted at the end of November sweeps.

But we did know how desperate the show was to make The Ford Brothers a thing and the leading men of the younger set, with Ford The Eldest having driven Markko off-canvas and Matthew getting all sorts of screwed over for Nate.

Edited February 23, 2021 by TeeVee329

[dubbel zout]

Ah, the Wit brothers: Half, Nit, and Dim.

[peachmangosteen]

I remember Ford (forget what his first name was though lol) and James but I can not for the life of me picture Nate. I know we called him Old Man Nate but I can't remember anything about him.

[Melgaypet]

49 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

I remember Ford (forget what his first name was though lol) and James but I can not for the life of me picture Nate. I know we called him Old Man Nate but I can't remember anything about him.

Ah, Old Man Nate. Are you saying you don't recall such stories as him being blackmailed into porn with Why Is Deanna or confessing to a murder he didn't commit because he thought maybe his dead-eyed mother did it or punching Matthew into a coma? How could you forget the youngest/oldest of three interchangeable shirtless dipshits!

Ford Rape Classic was named Robert. I mostly remember Duh Face James calling him Bobby.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Melgaypet

[peachmangosteen]

Ah, thanks for the memories @Melgaypet!

[UYI]

I never thought Nate looked that old and actually thought he was pretty cute. *shrug* 

[peachmangosteen]

14 hours ago, UYI said:

I never thought Nate looked that old and actually thought he was pretty cute. *shrug* 

I vaguely remember thinking he was good-looking but also definitely thinking he looked old. They are not mutually exclusive to me lol.

[UYI]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I vaguely remember thinking he was good-looking but also definitely thinking he looked old. They are not mutually exclusive to me lol.

They're not to me either--I didn't phrase that correctly. But I remember the Old Man Nate jokes at the time and mostly playing along, but at the same time not really getting it? lol I guess I would have to see scenes of him again next to the others in the teen scene at the time to accurately judge. 

Also, to get back on topic: I would have been curious how a Troy & Gabrielle fling would have gone down--without, you know, the whole he left her in a slab in a morgue thing, lol. 

Edited February 24, 2021 by UYI

[Hiyo]

I think I’d rather have seen Gabrielle with RJ.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Hiyo

[Melgaypet]

1 hour ago, UYI said:

But I remember the Old Man Nate jokes at the time and mostly playing along, but at the same time not really getting it? lol I guess I would have to see scenes of him again next to the others in the teen scene at the time to accurately judge.

Lenny Platt didn't look like a literal old man, but he did look his age, if not more. Given that he is older than both the actors who played his older brothers, and has a good a decade on Kelley Missal and Eddie Alderson (who were actual teens at the time) and his mother was played by Jessica Leccia, who was only 8 or 9 years older...well, the discrepancy between the age of the actor and the age of the character was quite noticeable. Hence, Old Man Nate.

On the upside, I don't think Platt looks much older today than he did on OLTL, so he's got that going for him.

[UYI]

2 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

Lenny Platt didn't look like a literal old man, but he did look his age, if not more. Given that he is older than both the actors who played his older brothers, and has a good a decade on Kelley Missal and Eddie Alderson (who were actual teens at the time) and his mother was played by Jessica Leccia, who was only 8 or 9 years older...well, the discrepancy between the age of the actor and the age of the character was quite noticeable. Hence, Old Man Nate.

On the upside, I don't think Platt looks much older today than he did on OLTL, so he's got that going for him.

I genuinely had no idea how much older he was than them. I knew about Brittany Underwood, Brandon Buddy and Jason Tam's age differences compared to Kristen Alderson, but I completely missed LP's. And I'm the one who usually pays attention to such things so that's weird on my part, lol.

 

[Panopticon]

I adored the way the Serial Drama blog used to snark on Nate being played by the token adult actor while the other teen characters were played by... teenagers. “Why is this gym teacher beating up his freshman student?” still cracks me up.

https://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2011/03/dear-afternoon-television-program.html

Even better than the time Dani yelled “my boyfriend made a porno, OKAY?” or whatever that was.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Panopticon

[peachmangosteen]

Oh man, Serial Drama, that brings me back. I miss the OLTL days lol.

[UYI]

It's been mentioned here before, but I wouldn't have minded more exploration of a Natalie & Al pairing. I mean, she and Cris were clearly THE couple and I get why the show chose them instead, but more with her and Al beforehand could have been fun. 

[UYI]

Speaking of Nat & Cris: I guess you can consider them not being reunited when he returned from the dead a missed opportunity, too. Seriously, were the Jolie fans THAT rabid from the beginning? 

[Handywood38]

5 hours ago, Panopticon said:

I adored the way the Serial Drama blog used to snark on Nate being played by the token adult actor while the other teen characters were played by... teenagers. “Why is this gym teacher beating up his freshman student?” still cracks me up.

https://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2011/03/dear-afternoon-television-program.html

Even better than the time Dani yelled “my boyfriend made a porno, OKAY?” or whatever that was.

Lol, Louise's sarcasm knows no bounds. 

I miss OLTL. I'm glad we have this board! It's something!

As for Jolie, I hated John but Natalie was the only woman he had any spark with. Of course, MA sparks with everyone.

 

 

[UYI]

11 hours ago, Hiyo said:

I think I’d rather have seen Gabrielle with RJ.

Oh man, imagine Max's reaction to THAT, given he and RJ were BFFs.

(Of course, I had thought at the time that Max would have shown some signs of jealousy once she and Bo got together and yet...he never really did? I was always kind of shocked by that.)

8 hours ago, Panopticon said:

I adored the way the Serial Drama blog used to snark on Nate being played by the token adult actor while the other teen characters were played by... teenagers. “Why is this gym teacher beating up his freshman student?” still cracks me up.

https://serialdrama.typepad.com/serial_drama/2011/03/dear-afternoon-television-program.html

Even better than the time Dani yelled “my boyfriend made a porno, OKAY?” or whatever that was.

Taking this to the All Episode Talk thread. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

Oh man, imagine Max's reaction to THAT, given he and RJ were BFFs.

That could have led to an interesting triangle, but as you mentioned, by that point it felt like Max and Gabrielle barely seemed to acknowledge that the other existed...

It would have been fun to see RJ and Gabrielle scamming the residents of Llanview (or trying to, at any rate).

Edited February 25, 2021 by Hiyo

[UYI]

17 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

That could have led to an interesting triangle, but as you mentioned, by that point it felt like Max and Gabrielle barely seemed to acknowledge that the other existed...

It would have been fun to see RJ and Gabrielle scamming the residents of Llanview (or trying to, at any rate).

It was like the latter half of Gary Tomlin/Lorraine Broderick/Chris Whitesell's tenure they just dropped almost whatever relationship M&G had outside of being Al's parents (and even then, it was still pretty muted compared to what had been there before), in favor of what was going on with Bo & Gabrielle/Max & Roxy.

That was one thing I originally appreciated about Frank Valentini/Michael Malone/Josh Griffith's early days: Max & Gabrielle were allowed to scenes together again as friends! It happened rather abruptly, as if a bunch of offscreen conversations had occurred that we never got to see and so this was just suddenly normal again, but I still loved it all the same! 

...And it all went down the drain in the end, and their potential reunion (staying on topic, here!) never even happened, because my favorite couple was apparently the "wrong" one to love in their eyes. Blech. 

 

[Hiyo]

Quote

And it all went down the drain in the end

Honestly, it always pissed me off that both characters were written off within months of each other, and rather than having them both ride off into the sunset together, they ended up killing one of them for some dumb serial killer storyline.

[jsbt]

On 2/24/2021 at 10:00 PM, UYI said:

It was like the latter half of Gary Tomlin/Lorraine Broderick/Chris Whitesell's tenure they just dropped almost whatever relationship M&G had outside of being Al's parents (and even then, it was still pretty muted compared to what had been there before), in favor of what was going on with Bo & Gabrielle/Max & Roxy.

There were BTS reasons for that, but primarily it had to do with the Asa/Gabrielle/Max caper being seen as an embarrassing disaster for the show. It was far from genius but I loved a lot of it for sheer camp value. That said, many fans and critics hated it, and let's just say they weren't alone.

[ihavenoidea]

Hey all, I'm a long time OLTL fan who's been sucked back in through youtube, I really miss this show. I was watching some of the last few years and does anyone know why they suddenly ended Matthew and Danielle? From what I remember at the time people enjoyed them, and watching things back they were as adorable as I remember. I think I even remember RC previewing things like VicTodd and Tea fighting with Bo and Nora about Matt and Dani and none of that ever happened. Was it Ron's decision to just end them, or was it from higher up? I hated Nate.

[jsbt]

That was a change made at the executive level - I heard it was Frank Valentini the executive producer not finding Eddie Alderson (Matthew) hot enough to be lead and increasingly marginalizing him when he couldn't become a stud at like 15, but it could be the network. I was always pissed about that, and was very pleased when the online show on Hulu returned to that couple as a focus as well as a budding triangle with them and Destiny.

[ihavenoidea]

On 4/17/2021 at 7:46 AM, jsbt said:

That was a change made at the executive level - I heard it was Frank Valentini the executive producer not finding Eddie Alderson (Matthew) hot enough to be lead and increasingly marginalizing him when he couldn't become a stud at like 15, but it could be the network. I was always pissed about that, and was very pleased when the online show on Hulu returned to that couple as a focus as well as a budding triangle with them and Destiny.

Thank you! How ridiculous that they would think Eddie wasn't hot enough, he was adorable. I also think putting Danielle with Nate made the character boring, because he was all she focused on, there was so much more they could have done with Matthew/Danielle. At least they tried to fix it on the reboot.

Another question, was all the weird chemistry tests they had for Kelly when Gina Tognoni came back also mandated from higher up? Todd and Kelly in particular were pretty awful, and I didn't understand it when TSJ and FL already worked really well together, and they had just brought a new daughter for them. Kelly and John weren't much better.

[jsbt]

Given past experience I suspect Brian Frons wanted Tognoni's Kelly or any other big hire paired with one of the stars like Easton or Trevor St. John, but it wouldn't shock me if the showrunners had a hand in that too. Supposedly Ron Carlivati and Valentini had wanted to tell story with her and Kevin, part of which got derailed when the actor initially cast in the Melinda murder mystery (an old flame of Kelly's from London) was a dud, but people say a lot of things and it's hard to know what was real. Still, we do know Frons didn't want Kevin back full time.

[Gigi43]

It seemed to me they didn't have a plan for Kelly beyond wanting to bring GT back and being able to advertise killing a Cramer and having it be the most inconsequential one. 

 

[TeeVee329]

Those Kelly chem tests in 2010 were brutal, though it was surprising that out of the show's quote unquote leading men, she had the best chemistry with JPL's Rex.

[Gigi43]

I wonder how GT would have played off DG's Kevin, though I have to say HT and DG's chemistry saved their story until sonfucking. 

 

I know this is "missed opportunities couples" but I don't know where else to put it, this general missed chance; I would have loved to see DG's Kevin and RHTodd interact and how would Kevin see Victor? Since Viki always sided with Todd over Kevin on the grounds of Todd's upbringing and such, I think there would be an interesting angle if Kevin aligned with Victor on the grounds that the 00's weren't his choice (he didn't even pick the face change) if his fake memories drove his actions where as Todd's actions in the 90s were 100% his 

[drtslim]

20 hours ago, Gigi43 said:

I wonder how GT would have played off DG's Kevin, though I have to say HT and DG's chemistry saved their story until sonfucking. 

DG and GT did share scenes when she returned; and he was the one with whom she had the best chemistry.  Unfortunately, TPTB didn't see fit to bring him back full-time.

Edited April 21, 2021 by drtslim

[TeeVee329]

And actually, the last time we ever saw Kevin, he was suffering through Kelly whining about her returning feelings for Joey*.  Blech.

* And there was more meh chemistry with her and Tom Degnan Joey.

[jsbt]

18 hours ago, Gigi43 said:

I wonder how GT would have played off DG's Kevin, though I have to say HT and DG's chemistry saved their story until sonfucking. 

They were excellent together in relatively limited scenes on and off over the course of a year.

[Enero]

I only watched OLTL for a brief time, but I thought Evangeline/John were fire. She was a stop off for him until he returned to the dullness that was Natalie. However, I thought there was a lot they could’ve explored with the former relationship. Though it started off as FWB it did grow into more and I thought it could’ve been THAT relationship for John and Vange. But the writers abandoned that relationship and didn’t so much as allow them to share a scene after they steered him back to Natalie, and Vangie to Cristian who was sadly way out of her league and more suited for Natalie or Layla IMHO.  
 

I also thought Vangie/Kevin had mad chemistry, and would’ve liked to have seen the writers explore a romance between the two. But I think he was divorcing Kelly at the time whom Vange was representing. 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Enero

[drtslim]

1 hour ago, Enero said:

 

I also thought Vangie/Kevin had mad chemistry, and would’ve liked to have seen the writers explore a romance between the two. But I think he was divorcing Kelly at the time whom Vange was representing. 

I definitely agree about Kevin and Evangeline.  It would've been really soapy for them to get together during Kevin and Kelly's divorce proceedings, especially if she was representing Kelly at the time.

[Melgaypet]

On 5/2/2021 at 4:27 PM, drtslim said:

I definitely agree about Kevin and Evangeline.  It would've been really soapy for them to get together during Kevin and Kelly's divorce proceedings, especially if she was representing Kelly at the time.

I agree on the Vangie/Kevin chemistry. I thought Keven and Kelly, especially as played by Gauthier and Tom, had become twisted soulmates. But Vangie and Kevin would have made a great nasty, hot affair. Once it blew up, Vangie could have been a little more hardened and bitter, which would have made her, in theory anyway, more interesting. But Higley would never have written that. Evangeline had to be perfect and wonderful, the most ethical and talented attorney, and all men were in love with her. She couldn't even really do a fuckbuddy relationship, it wasn't long before she was cooing over apartment keys and all but scrawling "Mrs. Evangeline McBain" on her legal briefs. Even when John dumped her for Natalie, it played like he knew Evangeline was the superior woman, but gosh darnit, he couldn't get that stupid Natalie out of his system! The writer bias couldn't have been more evident.