A. Moltke in 1897

[David]

I'm trying to get an interview with her now.
There's a lot we don't know. She certainly deserved maternity leave, but the fact that she never returned to the show, the fact that Curtis killed Vicky off during the Leviathin story--after she had declined an offer to return--tells me that there may have been more backstage drama going on than we think.

[michael c]

perhaps...


but by the time she would have available to return to work in 1970, as the been said, the storyline had moved in drastically different directions.

and who knows by that point Curtis might have already had his eye on winding the whole thing down and it just wasn't worth the trouble.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Plus as was already pointed out, killing off Vicki was merely a last minute justification for Peter's ghost to be used because Dennis Patrick's Paul Stoddard was unavailable than it was an actual plot development that had been planned. Yes, Curtis could be vindictive - but I've never seen anything to indicate that was the case in that instance (where, say, it was with Marie Wallace being dropped from hoDS).

[michael c]

do tell mysterious...


what happened with Marie and HODS???

[David]

Marie was on a soap called Somerset when HODS was filmed--and Clarice Blackburn was on Where the Heart Is. Both were major players on those other shows, under contract, working several days a week, and couldn't get time off to do HODS.
It always sounded to me that Marie wanted to do HODS but couldn't, that it was amicable. Where did the vindictiveness come in?
Blackburn couldn't do HODS either but they got her back for three more DS episodes after HODS and a NODS cameo.....

[Midnite]

(where, say, it was with Marie Wallace being dropped from hoDS).

Ditto Denise Nickerson, who has said (during one of the old DS Halloween parties) that she and her mom asked to be released from her contract to do Neon Ceiling, and Curtis did so begrudgingly and then cut her costume ball scene from HoDS.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Marie was on a soap called Somerset when HODS was filmed ...
It always sounded to me that Marie wanted to do HODS but couldn't, that it was amicable. Where did the vindictiveness come in?

We're getting way OT here, but Marie has said on many occasions that she was cast as Nancy Hodiak (Barnabas' second victim in the hoDS script). However, after it got out that she'd auditioned and won the role of India Delaney on Somerset, Marie was suddenly informed that it was decided that none of the Nancy Hodiak scenes would be shot and her services were no longer required for hoDS. And Marie has said she believed that DC made that decision not only because she dared to get a job with another soap, but also because she got a job on a soap that was going to go up against DS at 4pm.

[David]

I've heard stories of Curtis' dealings with NBC in 1991 and WB in 2004 that helped kill those shows.
I don't think he was a nice guy.

[MagnusTrask]

Some people have their own ideas as to what constitutes "disloyalty", and after having moved on to major involvements, DC may have thought it was presumptuous for some actors to feel they could just drop back into the "family" for short parts whenever they happened to be free.  Fiction is full of characters with power who feel "betrayal" deeply.  No, this is not a justification of DC.

[michael c]

coincidentally someone posted this week on one of the FB boards an article from one of the old "soap weeklies" announcing Moltke's then upcoming departure from DS...


interestingly at the time at least her exit was being reported more as "maternity leave" than a permanent departure with Alexandra "undecided" about whether or not she would "return to work" or become a full time stay at home mother.

in retrospect obviously her mind was already made up and she had no intention of coming back but back then that was how the story was being covered.

[IluvBarnabas]

The show would have been a little different to some degree if Alexandra had stayed I don't think anyone can argue about that. But to what extent we'll never know.

I could see Alexandra as Rachel or even Amanda, but I don't think Dan would have casted her as Kitty, seeing as he truly believed that the viewers believed no one would ever buy her as anyone but Kitty (which I think is a bunch of bullocks myself).