After Reading This Am So Glad I Won't Be Watching Anymore. Even With The Show Going Online.

Last week, I reported here – as rumor – a June 29th claim by a source for Daytime Confidential’s Jamey Giddens that Trevor St. John (Todd) might’ve intended on quitting on OLTL over a year ago despite TPTB’s best efforts to keep him on till the very end. Furthermore, this source claimed St. John kept at it up until the last minute when he changed his mind but, by then, it was too late for the writers to reverse their Roger Howarth-fueled course. TPTB (namely, executive producer Frank Valentini) tried to do everything in their power to accommodate St. John’s many diva demands. They even let him try out for pilot season back when Todd went into a coma, which messed up their tight schedules and pushed back Howarth’s return, just to show good faith—only to have him insist he’s still gonna bail (and/or want in only as recurring). Bless their accommodating hearts.

So, let me get this straight. After St. John courteously blogged his status with OLTL the other week – he’d asked to stay on till the end but TPTB chose not to renew his contract – so-called insiders went to DC and SOD and had a field day.

They proceeded to not-so-subtly blame everything going wrong on St. John in the auspices of clearing the air and telling the whole story. They made it sound like they did everything they could to make him happy and make him feel valued [ROTFLMAOPMP], offering a renewed contract to him that would maintain his “present salary, not a cut, and he refused.” But big, bad St. John then dared ask – after they’d already written the breakdowns and scripts for the next stories – to stay only as recurring, putting these wonderful, decent, hardworking people out.

The show supposedly made it clear that St. John was one of the beloved fan favorites they wanted to stay till the end, but he had other ideas and gave them so much trouble.

Really? I heard quite a different tale, you know—the WHOLE STORY.

Why are TPTB so quick to throw St. John especially under the bus here—after all these years of faithful service andhe’s a damned good actor, one who put OLTL on the map? Other soap actors have asked and been given time off to film outside projects and try out for pilots, without question, why has St. John been singled out for condemnation because of it? Kelly Monaco (Sam, GH), for example, reportedly can take off any ole time she feels like it for any ole reason at all, but not St. John—if this version of events is to even be taken seriously. Why hasn’t anybody in the soap media gone to St. John to get his take, even if it’s a, “No comment” (actors have been gagged, btw; none of them are allowed to talk back), or, “We tried to contact so-and-so, but he couldn’t be reached?” Why should we believe a word out of any inside source’s mouth speaking on behalf of and to defend execs … after all the half-truths, deception, and backstabbing they have done to all of us in the past (oh, we’re not cancelled!)? Where’s the context?

Put yourselves in St. John’s shoes for five seconds.

Maybe just maybe you wouldn’t be loving it over at OLTL if you went through what he has. Play along with me if you will…

What if – despite what an insider told Giddens, aka SOD’s latest spiel – St. John didkeep expressing his interest in staying on with OLTL if they’d have him, if they’d have him? That the problem may not have been St. John dicking around and waffling up until the last minute so much as certain people in authority dicking St. John around? Not unheard of, considering ABC Daytime’s hardball tactics in the past with other soap actors it tries to control.

What if St. John had been led to believe no one wanted him around to continue on as Todd? What if he may have been told that they’d rather have Roger Howarth? What if he had to watch his entire storyline for the past eight years be systematically decimated, as if none of it ever mattered, as well as his salary cut—all to allegedly make way for Howarth’s return?

What if it’s TPTB who were jerking St. John around from way back about this Tale of Two Todds begging Roger Howarth back stunt, not St. John at all and, like any normal person with any sense of decency, decorum, and integrity, the poor guy spoke up with some concerns and refused to kiss ass?

And how about this scenario, folks?

What if you were Trevor St. John (Todd) and you felt like you were being made to feel as miserable as possible, so you’d have no choice but to escape (quit)? Wouldn’t this make you feel defeated? Would you want to leave where you weren’t wanted? What then?

IMHO, if whomever is in charge – be it one person or an entire clusterf*ck – preferred Roger Howarth to come back as the original Todd Manning all along, there are nicer, more professional ways of dealing with the situation. As Tyler Christopher (ex-Nikolas, GH) was heard saying to fans at a recent Chicago public appearance about his involuntary exit, people should be treated better. Whatever the truth is between both sides, one thing’s for sure: once again, ABC Daytime mishandled the situation, they didn’t do ENOUGH to keep a treasure like St. John, thus, leaving a nasty taste in my mouth.

There’s another rumor from last week that a certain OLTL actress had had enough of TPTB’s allegedly giving the shaft to St. John, risked her own job, and told them where to shove it. Expect to see her character assassinated beyond repair as punishment.

Based on my own dealings with St. John, and the feedback received by fans in attendance at his public appearances, this is not a typical self-involved, two-faced, fly-by-night, shilling actor who takes his job for granted as his due. No, this is a decent, straight-shooting man of integrity who tries to bring a level of quality and standard to every role he takes on—without walking over people in the process—who means what he says, who I couldn’t ever imagine behaving in any unprofessional manner. My guess is that he fought like hell to continue to deliver the best he could in his role for the people who mattered most to him, the viewership and his co-stars, the ones who actually gave a damn.

Besides, it’s never too late to keep St. John on. Pretend he’s Roger Howarth.

Next up to leave before the end, by her own alleged volition: Bree Williamson (Jessica).

Http://www.soapzone.com

Great column by Carol and so very true!!!!! I wonder hot OLTL will survive as the most popular actors leave and move on to bigger and better things.

Great Article. It is going to be a lot of sad days ahead watching our soap slowly go down the drain, even with it going online its just the beginning of the end. TSJ will always be Todd for me, this other thing returning as Todd will be nothing but FF material until the end of the show.

I don't believe for 2 seconds that the show went out of their way to bend over backwards to accommodate him. Not for 2 seconds. If they gave him time off to do other things, I bet it was only for the sake of allowing themselves to splurge on writing scripts for the story to boost RH.

ITA Tony!!!!! That's how I see it, too! The news of Trevor's early departure hit harder than they thought and they realized they had to do damage control so they tried to blame him. I've been through this with other actors before and what TPTB have shown is how little they care about their non-favourite actors. I think they bent over backwards to get RH back and then wanted to turf Trevor, not realizing how his fans would react and just how many fans Trevor had. It's all just BS - lies from SOD and TPTB, trying to cover their tracks and paint Trevor as the bad guy when it's really them.