One day in September 1996, Michael Zaslow was taping a Guiding Light scene as the nefarious Roger Thorpe --- a character he'd been playing off and on since 1971 --- when he began slurring his lines. As his speech worsened and his motor skills deteriorated over the following months, he requested a sabbatical to meet with neurologists (Webmaster's Note: This is incorrect. Zaslow did not request a leave; after taping what, unbeknownst to him, would be his final episode, he was called into the executive producer's office and told the role of Roger was being recast]. Following his diagnosis with ALS in fall of 1997, GL felt that he wouldn't be able to return to the role of Springfield's foremost villain, and made the difficult and controversial decision to recast with Dennis Parlato. (This is also incorrect information. Parlato took over the role of Roger immediately upon Zaslow's departure in April 1997, not after Zaslow's diagnosis 7 months later]. With the cards stacked against him from the get-go, Parlato lasted less than 12 months before the character was written off.
In the years that have passed since Zaslow's death, Maureen Garrett has found ways off-camera to deal with and heal from the loss of her friend and acting partner. And the time has come, she feels, for Holly to do the same on-camera. "I want closure," she confesses. "I think the audience does. There's no ignoring the tremendous power that Roger had on the show. I think they should have the character pass away off-stage, and have all the different characters whose lives he affected deal with that in some way through the use of flashbacks and memories ... some sort of saying goodbye."
Then Roger could visit Holly from beyond the grave. "I've asked if Roger could haunt her," Garrett says. "He could digitally return, and she could speak to him. It could be done! They have a whole lot of tape!"
Hey, it worked in this season's opener for "The Sopranos".
