DRW50

I tried to find those scenes on Youtube once but don't know if I ever did. These scenes, plus Rachel freezing Liz out of the family, were phenomenal. It was also so nice to get to see Irene Dailey get a chance to act. I think Swajeski did a decent job at AW, but those weeks with Lemay really brought AW alive.

I'm happy to hear it. I hope he treated her respectfully. He often treats people in the audience like garbage just to show what a big man he is.

What did you think of that whole thing with Sheila's long lost evil sister or whatever it was?

Thanks. No wonder he looked familiar. Hello, Larry.

Great story. The late '90s was a good period for the show, overall. You should check out the foreign soaps forum sometime.

I keep wondering if they should have done that anti-smoking campaign 15 years earlier (of course that would have been hard for Brooke Shields...). I often feel like smoking and drinking, especially smoking, are now shown on TV at a much smaller proportion to how many people smoke and drink in real life. What I ask myself is if what we see on here, and other shows of this era, was representative, or was more, or less, compared to general society. Even when that guy Anderson was being kept away from his wife, the orderly offered him a smoke and he took it. I had a question - can anyone tell me who was playing his lawyer? I couldn't find his name in the credits. My mother said the show doesn't even seem like a soap. And in some ways it doesn't, but that's mostly because what we have seen soaps become (an endless repetition of bad acting, lazy writing, and tired "soapy" cliches) is not what this show is about.

OLTL was her best known soap, but she had the two ATWT stints, and then she was on GL for a bit in 1985 as a huge bitch nurse who was murdered in some plot with Fletcher/Ed/Maureen/Claire. An example of some of the insta-plots and general OTT melodrama pushed onto the show at that point.

That's quite odd, as Tad was that show's major young stud, and resident loveable jerk. I guess Kirk filled that role to a point but nowhere near as prominently. Of course if he hadn't quit (didn't he want to leave?) he may have filled a larger role in time, but I get the feeling Marland wasn't fond of any of that group, aside from Frannie.

Lucinda wasn't much of a maternal woman - her relationships with Sierra and Lily were horribly damaged for ages due to her not knowing what being a mother was actually supposed to entail. That's why I liked her adopting Bianca, which unfortunately went nowhere. I like both characters. I grew up with Lucinda so I'll always love her most, but Althea's great too. What makes Althea stand out is that she has actual relationships and bonds. Lucinda, due both to her character (never trusting, never accepting thanks to being neglected as a child), and the actress (Liz seemed to do scenes her way and other actors needed to take a wide berth), never really had that as such. There was Lily, and John, and Jane and Ambrose of course, but nothing like Althea and Maggie, or Althea and Nick. Lucinda was "me and me against the world." I still remember a scene after she lost Walsh Ent. and was at the stables or somewhere, all on her own...just as she'd been her whole life. It broke my heart, then and now.

That Gilles St. Clair story...when I first started watching AMC 20 years ago someone told me this was the worst story ever on the show.

Another of my favorites was John and one of Polly's nieces (I think it was the married one) puffing away dramatically in the restaurant.

When I saw that I just started thinking of the soap magazine reports at the time that the woman who played Claudette was very angry about being made the killer and being written out. Frankly I'm kind of surprised Claudette stayed as long as she did.

That was the date given when they bought those episodes - the same happened with the GL episodes uploaded on the channel.

coffeegulper had put up Victor/Nikki wedding (1984 wedding) clips, or the episode where they married.

Thank you for sharing those with us. Welcome to the board. How long are/were you a fan?

They'd already started before he took over, but yes, that seemed to be what he was writing.

I finally got to watch the episode this morning. How much of that rain scene was designed for the horny viewer at home? Not sure who would win in a wet T-shirt contest between Rick, Rosita and Tara. I had mixed feelings about the episode. I felt like it was one of those that had such low lows that they felt the need to insert high highs (for this show). One of my problems with the highs is they just felt very Hollywood for me. Does that mean I disliked them? No, not entirely. They just nagged a little. Scenes like the rush against the barn door - I like the idea, I liked the scene, and yes, I'm glad for solidarity and a reminder that the group stands together and must be together to truly survive, but the way it was filmed just seemed so unlike TWD. The same with the scene walking out of the barn (although the impaled walkers amused me). And I felt like some scenes, several scenes, ran on too long, and were full of telling-not-showing. I realize when they don't tell too much, some fans say it's confusing, but I didn't need scenes like Gabriel saying, "I'm sorry I stopped believing!" I wish he'd just looked up at the rain and smiled. And the music box just felt so heavy-handed, as did Aaron's CAN-THEY-TRUST-HIM arrival. The thing is, if you keep telling us maybe we can't trust this person, then we will never trust a new character. They will always seem shady. Their first scenes also seem increasingly stilted and artificial, like that car commercial that used to run (does it still run?) where the people are confused at the man who survives the ZA with a cool car, or whatever. I also felt like there were a few too many padded scenes of talking about being sick and weak and wandering along the roadside. It felt very self-serious and borderline parody. The other small thing that annoyed me was when Michonne grabbed Sasha in the middle of Sasha going HAM on a walker. I understand why Michonne did it - Sasha was out of control and had a death wish - but the way it was framed, there was a walker right next to Sasha. I had no idea how Sasha did not get bit. So, what did I like? - Michonne in a central role, taking Sasha in hand when everyone else (aside from Maggie, who was giving more of the soft, quiet approach of mutual loss) was letting her just drown in herself. It was a new side of Michonne, and it was a reinforcement of how vital she is to the group. She has no time for these crises, and I can respect that. - The scene with Maggie and the car trunk. It went on a little, but I just liked how it represented Maggie's paralysis over her choices and over the world they lived in. Then when she wanted to kill the walker inside, do the right thing, it was too late. Overall I thought this was an episode Maggie needed, and one of her strongest in a long time. She wasn't just a part of a group, with her thoughts and feelings left for us to grasp at or make up for ourselves. We finally got to hear her voice on her terms. And frankly, as someone who has always liked the character even when it was cool to call her a selfish bitch who only cared about dick, I don't give a crap if this was some sort of afterthought writing to make up for lack of mention in 4B and 5A. I'm still glad she said it and tried to express why she hadn't mentioned Beth. If that's too late for some people, that's up to them. I still like the character, and I always will. - I liked that Carol, Glenn, Daryl and Michonne all represented different types of hope, while not being Disney-type voices of the right path. I also liked that Rick's more hardened view was challenged, but not in the old ways of seasons 2 or 3 where it was one person shouting against another person and all kinds of conflict for the sake of conflict. These people are friends, and we saw that here. - As much as I dreaded Daryl Woobie Hour, the limited scenes we got worked for me, especially the harrowing scene of him burning himself with a cigarette, so he could feel something (anything), and as a reminder that he is still, deep down, an abused child. I was shocked that scene got through. His conversation with Carol was moving, and mature, and very them at their best; it was nice to see Carol there for him. - Sasha feeling alienated and needing to be alienated, always at a distance. Yet she never just seemed sullen or unpleasant, as can happen with poor writing choices. I hadn't expected them to show as much of her struggle as they did. The scene of her killing the dogs was also a real jolt, and very interesting to me in terms of her role in the group - it was a reminder that she's always been a little separate from them, and they need this. - Even with the music box cheese, I liked the Maggie/Sasha scenes. Lauren Cohan talked to Hardwick about how much she appreciates this relationship, and I can see why. I'm glad to see it revisited. And as much as the rain scene felt a little too long for me, the shot of her and Sasha being the only two to not react did get to me.

Of the ones I can remember, it would have to be the Steve/Liz one. I think there was a John/Bonnie one I liked, and one of the first, with John in the dark glasses, bumping into Nick. And I like the ones where the characters are happily chattering away to extras (who can talk the day away as long as we can't hear them!) I also remember one of an episode I watched from later on with Lydia Bruce Maggie in bed.

Lemay wrote the material where Jamie moved in with Sharlene, Josie and Jason, and there was heavy tension between the Frames and Rachel/Mac. There were a few terrific scenes where Sharlene argued with Rachel about Janice's death and about the way the Corys had looked down on the Frames. This was also around the time Liz had some good speeches about how dirty and sleazy the Frames were and how they had infested Bay City (which is how many AW fans felt back in the day, actually). Sadly it didn't last long. I don't know if he brought any of them back (I think DePriest brought Jason in - initially his story seemed to be about reteaming him with Denise Alexander).

I know some fans thought Andrew Sachs would be related to her.

I know what you mean. I know a lot of what's going to happen (I almost wish I didn't), so I could try to watch the April and current episodes simultaneously, but I'd just decided to wait. There are some short-term stories you could always skip over, but there's no way of knowing if you would have enjoyed them and wanted to watch them, so... To me the February stuff dragged a bit but a lot starts popping in March, and April is also very exciting so far. There's one ridiculous beauty shot of Steve playfully chasing Liz through the entire hospital that I can't wait for you to see. It felt so...alive, while today's soaps are so dead.

I don't think you should skip. I'm still in April, as I'm watching with my mother, and everything builds pretty steadily, especially in the Maggie/Matt/Karen saga. There's also the Bunker story which you'd miss, and I think you'd like that.

I think Mitch said he wanted to see more of Charmane (?). Anyway, I'm not sure if this was posted before, but here's a bit of her, in the first clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reDukKoeFnU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPPIRLvHxPI You can also spot Barbara Garrick (later to return in the late '90s as Reid/David's psycho assistant) as Kirk's bitchy party date. Weird keyboard Little Richard music with Karen and Jeff. The background music in general on soaps at this time was odd I guess... The lighting is, for once in this era, appropriate in the scene with Frannie and Bob. Touching little scene. I guess Bob whooped some ass in the next episode. Charmane seems so much like an ABC soap character. I do think Marland might have had fun with her. I wish they'd brought her back to annoy Lisa later on...maybe during those years (89-91 or so) when Lisa was just listening to people and keeping baby secrets. She could have gotten a fashion talk show on WOAK or something. Or opened a trashy boutique nearby Fashions. Or thrown herself at Grant.

I sometimes see fans go on now about the good old days of the Freshco siege (1999, 2000), and so on, but to me that era of the show was just anathema to most of what made Corrie stand out. It's so needlessly grim and so generic, like something airlifted in from the last years of Brookside. Corrie can be both quaint and contemporary, but most showrunners seem to have no idea how to do this anymore. I guess 2002-2004 or so, flaws and all, were the last years they sort of did.