DRW50

Thanks @EricMontreal22 for the links and thank you to @GymnastGuy and Mike Poirier for sharing them. I am glad to see anything new of this era, clips or episodes. As for Agnes Nixon "stabbing Ryan's Hope in the back," I said my views on that at the time the video first went up and they haven't changed. I can see why a fan may feel that way, but Agnes did not owe Ryan's Hope anything. If anything, Ryan's Hope may never have gotten on the air if not for the successes of AMC and OLTL. Maybe as some form of collective apology we can write a new world where Agnes, clouded with guilt, returned to OLTL and helped the Labines manage to get better stories on when they wrote for the show in 1997.

Happy birthday to one of the best - where would many of our childhoods have been without Dr. Bob.

Thanks @soapfan770

The best part of the show was probably that Madeline Kahn hosted SNL again to promote it (although NYN was canceled by the time she hosted).

The show's treatment of Rachel had been degrading ever since she came back in the guise of Mari Morrow (?). She became a drug addict and some kind of dirty dancer. Then even with the recast to Sandra P. Grant, she was still pathetic, clinging to Drew, airing out dirty laundry on Tad's talk show. By the time of the Georgie story, there were extremely ugly scenes of Georgie berating her and beating her bloody with a telephone. I'm sure today people would say it is "woke," or whatever the [!@#$%^&*], but I did see her treatment as racist. But it's not up to me to say that.

I don't think either character has ever been well served, although Molly still has a shot. Kristina needs a long break. I don't know who came up with this idea. Frank's been there a long time now and they've never claimed this before, have they? Where is "the historian"? I used to say that the Sonny shoehorning is just the show's obsessions, but after reading Genie Francis' effusive praise for Maurice as an actor, I've realized a lot of people there really must believe this [!@#$%^&*].

I'd never heard of this until it started showing up on Youtube recently. I thought Christine Cromwell was that non-daughter of Viki's on OLTL who was bodied by Ursula. I wonder if CBS really did cancel the Equalizer out of spite, given that this situation went public and got so messy.

There definitely is a notable difference for me in ATWT 1985 before and after Marland took over - the show was in a strong place (still not perfect by any means) - most of those he wrote out were not a big loss, but there was also a certain freshness, individuality and spunk which just never would have gone with his style. You can see the biggest changes with characters like Nancy, Tom and Margo (and for some reason, Betsy and Kim seem to become less close), a heavier air he plasters with a bit of a rictus grin via campery and fantasy and hijinks (Meg, Shannon, and of course Lucinda at her most deliciously out of control). You still have some edges and outsiders too, but I never get the sense it's where his heart was and it is an odd fit for what surrounds the rest of the show (and indeed many of these elements become noticeably toned down after a year or so - beyond Meg and Shannon, see John going from a pariah to Lucinda's exasperated partner, Holden going from a dangerous stable boy to a perpetually sour business whiz, etc). I don't really think Bedsow Horgan's ATWT could have been sustained, whereas, even with a few dips, I do think Marland managed to sustain his ATWT run (admittedly I'm one of those fans who genuinely connects with the increasingly darker strains of his final years), but there are moments of pre Marland '85 ATWT where I do wish we'd gotten more of that element carried over. Thanks so much @Mona Kane Croft I wouldn't have even known a "new" ATWT episode was up if not for your post. We need what ATWT stood for and meant to us more than ever in today's world.

I do keep seeing people mention Sonny's heart condition. The timing is very convenient. It would be a very gross choice, maybe the grossest story I've seen along these lines since AMC had Zach kill Josh to give Kendall a heart, but I can't rule it out.

Maybe like Patricia Routledge's successful followup to Keeping Up Appearances (Hetty Wainthrop?). I had forgotten they paired Annie McGuire with DVD's show. Lazy choice.

Nothing against Tom Lisanti, as I know he's not alone (and hell, I will admit that I did not watch Passions when it was on in part because AW was canceled), but hopefully there is someone out there who would make the book even if he doesn't. Loving has long had an outsized interest from people compared to a number of other soaps that were fairly short-lived, so the audience is there.

Oh right. Thank you. I had forgotten that she would hate Dixie because Dixie went after her tooth and nail for Will's murder. I know some were always annoyed by that, as Will was evil by the end of his life, but it's believable enough that Dixie would remember the good in her brother. I guess Del and Kendall was too thin of a reason. That whole story was probably just a reason to keep Erica and Kendall from sharing scenes anyway.

Carrie was the first Skye I ever saw. She got a lot of viewer hate, not helped by poor story choices (being comatose - again! - for months, the Maddie stuff, etc.) but I thought she was a good actress, vulnerable, believable, and I actually did think she had chemistry with John Callahan. I thought her goodbye with Stuart after Adam disowned her was very moving and another reminder of how good David Canary was in those roles for so long. One of the few saving graces of 1997 was that some inappropriate and gross storylines all had strong conclusions (even the Tanner story had some knockout performances from Kelly Ripa that I never knew she had in her). I'm sorry that I never saw Robin as Skye first, because what I did see of her elsewhere on ABC Daytime really did not flatter her, but as I didn't, it's still Carrie for me.

Oh that's right. Thanks. Bleh. I know Nancy Snyder was long retired from acting but I wonder if they ever even asked her back or if she wasn't famous enough. At least we were spared casting Dinah Manhoff (nothing against Dinah) as Katrina.

And she was meant to be Teri Conn's mother, wasn't she? I guess they can still reunite when QVC unveils the Who's the Boss collection. I can just imagine Marco and Karen in Eterna - Marco trying to find gold coins and instead just getting plastic junk, and Karen telling how stupid the whole thing is and they need to find Viki and get the hell out. Karen was probably too no-nonsense for any of that period. That would be an actual good use of AI - one of those unsettling anime recreations of Karen reacting to this:

I don't think I could do that, and Jane has several decades on me. She is just fantastic. Whatever they have in the budget should go her way. And triple it.

I can't remember either. Wasn't this when Kendall and Janet were close? Was it tied to Del?

I think it would depend on what kind of work he is doing...but yes. Good for him though. That makes sense. I could also see her becoming a madam but trying to be a "good" madam. The idea of a Same Time, Next Year scenario makes sense for Karen and Larry. I'd love to see that (and her reaction to him and Dan dating the same woman).

They never would have paired her with a white man, but they could have tried her more with Zak or brought in a new man - maybe a new executive at Cory who could be tied into another developing story. Maybe he could have been tied to Reginald's dirty deeds and bringing him back to Bay City, sort of the evil mirror of Quinn helping bring Steve back to Bay City. In this story Reginald might have been less slimy and one-note and instead had more of a business rivalry with Mac, leading Quinn to be torn between friends and a new love, possibly even become a double agent for the Corys. Great idea. I wonder if Denise could have worked as Janet Matthews.

You're right. And it did work with Ordinary People. And these dramas/dramedies fared better than her variety shows. I sometimes wonder where TV would be now if the dramedies of the late '80s had been more popular with viewers. Poor Lucy tried once, with Stone Pillow, which I think was mentioned as doing well, but also caused severe health problems.

That could have worked. I think the show did start referencing Susannah again later on (or am I making that up).

Thanks @Paul Raven appreciate hearing about the earliest days of this show in such detail.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/denis-arndt-dead-heisenberg-david-e-kelley-shows-1236175515/ The recent passing of Arndt reminded me of Annie McGuire, a few episodes of which are on Youtube. This isn't a bad show, but beyond this premise (liberal wife/conservative husband) rarely working for viewers in such explicit terms, I wonder how much Mary Tyler Moore at this point in her career was hurt by people just seeing her as Mary Tyler Moore. That the very first episode is so heavily about a guest character (who is more compelling than any of the regulars) kind of says it all.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/30/arts/television/richard-chamberlain-shogun-thorn-birds.html Nothing that amazing here, but I appreciated them writing about Chamberlain's arguably biggest roles and that era of miniseries in a way that didn't feel sneering.