DRW50

One thing I will say about Wink is in his last years he or someone involved with his estate has put out a slew of classic game show material, treasures that many game show devotees have loved. Not behind a Patreon or rotting on a shelf waiting for the highest bidder. And I will always have fond memories of Tic Tac Dough.

Thanks. There wasn't a ton of discussion here about the interviews beyond people saying Locher sucked so it's new to me. Moniz's Dinah was never well-written, but I can see where Maeve may have felt closer to her.

She would have been a decent choice, although she wouldn't have been able to shake Jennifer.

I totally missed that storyline...and then somehow she ends up in bed with Coop. She would have made a decent Amanda recast, now that you mention it. Or Morgan.

That would have made sense. They seemed so focused on just finding a Frankie replacement, which wasn't worth it in the end.

As a kid, I was sometimes very moved by the flashbacks (there was an early Thanksgiving episode in particular, or one around the time of Evan's cancer diagnosis), even by the silly moments like Teddy joining a protest and saying, "I don't want to take a trip on the SS censorship." I thought the girl who played a young Georgie was especially good. The show losing those elements after the first few seasons made it feel colder to me, less easy to invest in. Yet I am not sure if I would find these elements cloying and unearned now. You're right about the Trevor story. They could have had a better buildup, had him react to the whole fiasco with Georgie caring Frankie's baby and George threatening to sue for custody, but they never did. They just seemed to realize they had run out of story for Georgie and went haywire.

I think Chamberlain's first run was more consistent and competent but I don't think she had the warmth the part needed. Her second run, the writing was a mess, often terrible, but I think it tapped more into Chamberlain's range.

This was in the peak of the web soap format - ATWT had one briefly (also by fans), and then you had original concepts like The Spot, East Village, SF Blend, Gay Daze, etc. I remember a chapter where Fletcher or someone went to talk with Reva at Towers, who was on the piano bar, singing. The type of thing they had stopped doing with Reva on her return but was a fun part of her initial run. You could tell whoever wrote it genuinely loved the show.

This really does sum everything up better than I could have. The story was truly repulsive, but what I didn't appreciate until now was the lost opportunities. And I realize you are right in that Georgie should have never wanted to reconcile with John. I think they only did so as a last-minute apology to fans. I did like Alex and Big Al, but they had gotten so far away from what had initially made Alex special as a character. They diluted all of the sisters.

The story was very well-paced but I think the humor is what helped with the length. Carrie/Austin/Sami ran as long and dragged (I suppose it also helped that Drake Hogestyn was not Austin Peck). JER tried to replicate the formula later on with various Passions stories being stalled out by campy villainesses and comedy sidekicks (namely Beth and her mother), but I don't think it worked as well (frankly I just found Beth creepy, but that's for a whole other thread). Kristen and Susan were the roles of a lifetime for Eileen and she played every moment to the hilt, but it helps that John and Marlena were also worth rooting for.

I think some of this had been building up even before Jason left the last time, which is why they paired him with Britt. I do wonder if this is down to Valentini just not clicking with him - has Jason ever had any worthwhile material under his watch? The biggest disappointment is the decision to write out Jake, which should have been one of the main story points for Jason's return and was early on. As it is now beyond some kind of nostalgia boost I have no idea what the point is. I'm sure that Steve Burton would be thrilled to be in the same position Steve, Audrey, Lee and Gail were in when he joined GH. Then again, this is likely just a retirement plan for him anyway, so maybe he doesn't care? Good for him, I guess.

That's funny. At least Kate and Maggie were easy enough to say. Franco is one of those characters who only got interesting not long before he left. You aren't kidding. I do love this promo, which underlines what you said. Of course, this wasn't the end either, although the last few months of the story, with Marlena and Kristen eating snacks and forced to watch Susan and John via CCTV, are funny enough to me where the further drag out doesn't bother me. I didn't mean to dump so many promos in here, but that channel has a few others I haven't posted.

There is some fanfic that mostly focuses on a few characters or couples, rather than the whole community, on various fic warehouse type sites, like fanfic.net or Archive of Our Own. There was a broader community fic post-GL, I think sponsored by P&G and which may have just had a few writers, that ran for several years online or on Twitter, that fans could vote on or interact with, I think. That was discontinued. I'm not sure if it was archived. There may also be some stories in the fic archives here, but I haven't checked. Many years ago, around the mid '90s, there was a day to day fic online called Follyworld that had much of the cast at the time. I have no idea if that was archived. Thanks for the photo @Alan And they all went on to decent careers post-GL. Lisa did a lot for people. Staab was very good on PC. She just didn't have a role to play on GL. @Soaplovers explains it well. My guess is she was retooled as a Beth replacement because Judi Evans was leaving. The problem, as GL would later learn when they recast Beth, was that it wasn't the writing that made Beth loved by a lot of fans - it was Judi Evans. Saddling Jessie with the much older, and frankly, strange Simon did not help, although the actors certainly clicked offcamera for a few years.

Thanks. That's what I get for watching a promo and not reading more.

Obviously, Mariah was a midseason replacement, but this is still such an odd pairing. What did it replace? I don't even know why this show was greenlit...and starring Jaclyn Smith? Was this a remake of that Sissy Spacek prison movie, Marie? I know that was based on a true story. Why not cast someone more suited to the part?

Thanks @Paul Raven

A dreary story even in promos. This must be close to the end of the line for Heather's first run.

I'm reminded of how irrationally annoyed I was by the way Hope pronounced "Franco."