Friday, June 10, 2011


RETIRED NUMBERS

Over on Mindy's Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/MindyLewisBauer), Roger Thorpe has returned to Springfield... and all the subsequent drama that entails.

While the vast majority of readers have written and tweeted me to express delight with this latest development, one person objected that, due to the tragic death of actor Michael Zaslow (I wrote about his family a few years ago, here), the character should be left to rest in peace, as well.

To me, this is akin to saying that because Christopher Reeve is gone, Superman stories can't continue.

On the other hand, Mindy's Twitter, like Another World Today, was created to be fan interactive. So I pose the question to you: Are there some soap characters who should be retired permanently, like a baseball player's number?

Let me know, below!

3 comments:

Lois said...

Yeah, but soap roles have gone to other actors, even after the iconic ones left... sure, most of them were either fired or left of their own free will, but still. While I did not see any of the Roger years on GL except for youtube clips, so I do not have that connection with the role or the actor, but it's soapland - characters never die, they just might look different every few years. And this is Twitter, all text, so you can bring back anyone you please -- and for those characters with different actors, you can imagine them to be the one you prefer. Everyone kind of gets what they want that way. LOL

Lois

Tyrus said...

I'm generally opposed to characters returning from the dead, but the way you've constructed it here, and explained it VERY WELL AND UNIQUELY, I look forward to more.

Roger was a quintessential GL charcter. I'm glad he's back in town. Looking forward to reading about his interactions with Mindy, Alex, Dinah, Holly, and Blake.

bl said...

I don't compare the situation with Superman at all, as when they changed actors for different versions, the casts were changed from top to bottom. The Lois and Clark cast was different than Smallville, which was different from the movies or the old school television show. A full reboot would be the easiest way for me to see Roger Thorpe like what was done with the last Star Trek movie.

The Mindy tweets to me are AU, and I see Roger as dead. I think one of the limiting factors for me in this is how it is Mindy's POV about Roger and not about Roger. She's on the outside looking in when it comes to how it will effect Roger's family.