DRW50

Speaking of Donna - I asked this in the classic GH thread but it may have gotten lost. Did any of you see Anna Stuart as Gina Dante on GH? What did you think of her?

Thanks. I can't remember if there was ever an Our Private World thread here. I'm still amazed at how poorly they handled what should have been a success, although it would have made more sense as a daytime soap, not primetime.

Parkers = Powers, although maybe Monique is waiting for Tyler Perry to bury the hatchet with her and revive The Doctors for the greatest sitcom-soap crossover ever.

It's more an anomaly when that type of product isn't among the top TV shows, although if Angela wasn't watching Three's Company, I don't blame her.

I'm not sure why they set all that up and did little with it, beyond tension between Olivia and Josie. They were right to not try to go back with Russ/Sharlene, but they could have done something with him - maybe paired him with Donna when she split with Michael. I would have recast Russ rather than bringing back Bailey. At least Liz had a few good scenes with Olivia over that run, but they never did anything to build a relationship with Josie. Josie always should have been a more compelling character than she was - consistently flat writing and iffy casting.

I still wonder if Sheffer just drew an old name out of a hat. They never even bothered, beyond claiming Mike was a deadbeat or abusive. There are still Hortons who should have returned, like Sandy...and then there was Bill, although that has likely long passed (I can't remember if he's dead). Such a waste all around.

A very dramatic promo around 15 minutes. "The untold horrors of King's Crossing," did give me a laugh.

IQ was there at least to Lujack's memorial. Not sure after that. For however reliable Soapcentral is, they say she fell when running away after seeing Ben embrace Hope. This all tied into the Georgene Granger story which reads as kind of hilarious. I wonder how those watching at the time felt about it.

The Quartermaines started out as toxic, then became much lighter, then became very toxic again, then became lighter again. It seemed to all go one way with the Capwells, probably due to some of the unpleasant and unnecessary retcons like Eden's DID.

Thanks for sharing. The triangle that never was ends in a way no one predicted. With Knots I'd say it's down to most of them having been in the industry for a long time before the show, but I know that isn't always the case.

Thank you @slick jones @jam6242 What a find. And what a fascinating life for a woman who mostly just showed up on ATWT for a few scenes to play cute.

I am seeing people on Twitter who believe he is Shiloh...

What I saw of his writing was a mess, although I did appreciate the return to longer scenes. Still, I would take him over the current writers (or most of their writers for many years now) and it was clear he was being sabotaged.

I didn't hate Richard, but looking back, he was out of place and adds a very nasty pall to the last months of the show by just being a tabloid muckraker. It didn't even enhance his storyline, as you could say Danny, Tony, and Jocelyn had their stories enhanced by being in Corinth. I might have just left that character to the premiere of The City and instead had another character on to fill the gap. A young man, maybe a fashion student, who stays at the boarding house. He's friendly when he needs to be but also a schemer, gay, dreaming of moving to New York, and similar to a younger Ava, which leads them to clash, then start to bond. During that gap between Cabot and Isabelle dying and Jeremy dying, I might have Gwyn attack him (he might make some bitchy remarks about Steffi or work with Tess against her, without knowing the full extent of Tess' vendetta against Steffi) with it taking longer for the police to even care as they don't take crimes against gay men as seriously. Maybe in a twist of irony, Gwyn is the one who pushes for his case to be taken more seriously. He'd linger in a coma for a while and have a number of injuries. Ava would have another reason to leave town, as she would see just how much has changed in Corinth comparing her early years to what happened to him. He would stay in Corinth, still recovering but regaining his old spark, another child to Kate as all of her family has gone. Then, if The City had lasted longer, I might have him move to New York.

I can't argue, but it does feel odd to me that she goes and all this family come in. That does happen on soaps surprisingly often though.

Thanks. The only reason I wasn't sure about Breen is because he debuted on ATWT several months later. I had forgotten about Roya's Ava and the gun. You're right that it's an odd choice. None of The City group worked for me on Loving as they feel so out of place. At the time I probably resented Jocelyn the most, due to us clearly being meant to root for her over Ava and Ava/Alex. @Soaplovers Thanks so much for the rundown about Cecilia. It sounds like a bit of a mess on paper, as a number of plots in those years do. What does work onscreen tends to be down to the performers.

Thanks so much @Forever8 ! I looked on Youtube and don't see any other versions of this episode. So many recurring/bit players in so many stories. Marland mostly managed to make it work but when they tried to keep on in 93/94 with this format they just couldn't. If Marland had lived I do think, brain damage or not, he would have had Holden as a loving father to Aaron. The decision to have Holden ignore his son after taking him from Iva and even spending far more time with his girlfriend's son, was horrendously damaging to Holden as a character. I never noticed how much Marcy looked like Lyla.

You aren't wrong about any of this. I imagine if Spencer returns, we will get more of his past with Emma (I'd guess he and Gio would be in a triangle with Emma), but for now they seem to not care. They should be doing more with Brook Lyn's angst and pain, especially as it is an aspect Amanda Setton is better at playing. They should have done more with Cam and Lucky during his brief return, as Cam seemed to see Franco as his "father." But they didn't even want Lucky back, in my opinion, so I'm not surprised they didn't bother.

How do you think the actress who played Blaze feels...

Thank you. We see more of Cassandra James in that promo than we likely do on the show.

Thank you @slick jones and @jam6242 . Barely even a Wiki in spite of a lengthy career. Odd. Thank you both for helping get her out there. A real looker - reminds me of Bette Davis, just more glam. I'm glad soaps were able to help her in her last career years. I wonder if anyone ever even interviewed her.

The repeated Buffy references seemed to be Passions' cultural peak.

I do wish we had more of Rita's actual exit because it seems like so much took place after she left that she should have been there for. Add in the Ed recast and how flat a lot of the Hope/Alan material feels afterward, and I wonder what might have been. I think Kobe and Vincent had a bad falling out over his wanting to be in the movie Marie, which is probably why he was killed off.

That may be it. Thanks.

It did seem like for a while they moved away from saying much about the family in comparison to stunts or couples, but I agree not much will change, especially if the idea is that Will's daughter showing up means a Horton focus. I noticed that they made sure to point out Gwen's return was set up before they took over. I guess they don't want any blame for that flop. Thanks @janea4old