Alter View Hangs - Merge Replication SQL 2005

Background - I have a publication that propigates schema changes. I have a view in which I want to remove a column.

Error - Going by what the BOL says, I use Alter View and delete the column from my select statement. I issue the alter view command against the Publication database and it just "churns". I do not get any locking errors or any other type of error, but the statement never completes execution. I watched it run for 10 minutes and cancelled the query. Executing the same statement against a copy of the database that is not being published executes in 1, 2 seconds.

Here is what I am doing:

Old View: Select table1.record_number, table1.record_date, table1.status_code, table2.status_desc,

table2.txt_sort_order

FROM table1 join table2 on table1.status_code = table2.status_code

The query I am executing:

SET ANSI_NULLS ON

GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON

GO

ALTER VIEW myview

AS

Select table1.record_number, table1.record_date, table1.status_code, table2.status_desc

FROM table1 join table2 on table1.status_code = table2.status_code

If this view is the only article in the publication, then it is a known issue.

Add a dummy table to the publication and your alter should succeed.