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| Heart and Soul went through a plethora of working titles before the series finally debuted in 2002. Oakridge, The Lives We Live, Aspects of Life and Family Secrets were all considered before the final title was decided upon. The character of Kendall was originally much older than the current incarnation. Early plans saw Jackie's daughter arrive in Oakridge as a divorced woman in her thirties who would then become involved with Wesley Abbot in his scheme to get rid of Matt from Alex's life. However, due to having more storyline scope with a younger character (and the change in direction regarding Jackie dying instead of Diane) saw the character changed to a teen played by Eden Riegel. |
| Did You Know... |
| Originally, the Will/Megan storyline was set to blow up into something a lot bigger. with the pair struggling to fight their feelings for one another despite discovering they are brother and sister. This aspect was dropped when it was decided that the whole incest vibe would make for uncomfortable reading and the pairing of Marc and Megan was proving more popular. The 'lost episodes' of season 2 were gone when the computer they were on crashed. Rather than rewrite the episodes and hold the series' progress back, it was decided to post what happened in recap form and move on with the finale. In the season 1 finale, Diane and Jackie's gun struggle was supposed to act as a cliffhanger that would see the series end for good. Then, when it was decided to scrap sister soap Lake Hope and continue on with Heart and Soul, early drafts of the second season saw Jackie survive and Diane pass away, until the idea of having Jackie leave a mess behind her in the shape of the Sterling Empire came up, and then the decision was reversed. This also paved way for the popular Diane and Joseph pairing, as well as seeing Kendall and Leo arrive on the canvas. Jessica was originally to get pregnant with a child during season 2 and be uncertain as to whether the father was Josh or Will, but this storyline was scrapped when Jessica became involved with Rex during Carrie's disappearance. Carrie and Nate's adventure on the run from DiCenzo was originally to end up with Michael and Loretta settling in Oakridge, followed by Michael's devious younger sister, Chloe, and have a big mob storyline ensue, but this plan was abandoned when it began to feel too gimmicky and didn't really fit with the nature of the series at that time. |
| The Route Not Taken... |
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| A decision was made to axe Heart and Soul at the end of its first season in favour of soldiering on with longer running sister soap Lake Hope instead. A finale episode was even written, where, at the point of Jackie and Diane's struggle over the gun, a director would yell "Cut" and the setting would shift to backstage at an ailing soap where the final episode had just been filmed. This decision was changed when response to Heart and Soul was generally more positive, and the storyline possibilites were greater than that of Lake Hope, which was quickly becoming the internet's answer to Passions. Although the final scenes never aired on the web, it is always an option they may appear one day. |
| Behind the Screen... |