DRW50

Looks like two other episodes are also on Youtube but I don't want to clog the thread. I didn't know that about Brull.

I remember how grimly lit the place was by the time of that Satin Slayer story - was it just one person who was killed there or was it more? So depressing. I may be wrong about Henry. I remember Palmer being at the restaurant, and then how cliched Henry's family was. They spent so much time avoiding what people wanted to see with Elizabeth Hendrickson and only caved in when she and Eden Reigel were leaving the show. Then they broke up when Eden came back. Still, it was better than anything she has done on Y&R. I can't even remember what they did with Liza in those last few years. I guess they kept having her dance around Adam until he married Krystal. During the plane crash story, poor Julia Barr was stuck in the most unflattering white pants for what felt like 2 or more weeks. They are still burned into my mind. Even in a thankless role I was impressed with Bethea's warmth. I never knew if they were thinking of pairing her with Jack.

The pilot is available, not sure about the rest.

When I watch this, I'm reminded of the "girlboss" era and how far away that seems now. Last year, all kinds of right-wing lunatics in the US and elsewhere went insane over a video of women in Australia having fun in an office. Today the above scene would cause all kinds of teeth-gnashing. The reality of Fusion was never anything so feminist-forward and was mostly just cattiness and man troubles in a cheap, drabby office set. I guess at least it lasted to the end of the show...didn't Erica end up there at some point? I tend to agree. I would be more curious to know how McTavish felt about "redeemed by rape" stories, which she was seemingly fine with repeatedly using when she was headwriter (she had three, including Julia). I remember liking Alberti well enough, as he had some presence, although I wasn't shocked when he was recast. Wasn't Henry meant to be a long lost child of Palmer's? I remember class consciousness being brought back in around this time, but in a clunky, dated way. You had the free clinic with poor Ellen Bethea, you had Reggie, and Trey wanting to help him only for Reggie to turn him in for arson so he could get the reward money. And Laurie and her poor-but-proud father. I remember this mainly because he was played by Robert Clohessy, whom I was very fond of via his work on Oz. IIRC they were starting to pair him with Liza before he disappeared.

This is about as 2003 as you can get, especially what they stick Elizabeth Hendrickson in. Poor Simone. Marcy Walker was still beautiful (and she looked even better when she cut her hair again before she left the show), even if they barely used her by this point. Amanda Seyfried gives a vibe of "why the hell am I doing this," but you can't look away from her. I hope she has happier memories of her time at AMC than she does of ATWT (which she was still talking about scarring her in a recent interview). Agnes also had the story with Devon and Donna Pescow. I suppose there probably were people of Agnes' generation who would be upset at a gay man leaving their property to their partner rather than family (hell, given how anti-gay a lot of people are now, they still get upset over it). The situation is nuanced rather than her acting like Agnes was joining Westboro. With that said, I also felt uncomfortable with the Agnes commentary, because some of it just went beyond dish and into open hostility. And it gives the sense that she's writing from a place of hurt, presumably down to Agnes icing her out.

She also came hard at Michael Conforti. They all seemed to get shots from her, more than the actors. I had mixed feelings about FMB as a producer, but her clear loathing of FMB may have been the toughest part to read (along with some of the doubling down on Susan), maybe because FMB recently passed (to be fair this was written long before FMB passed away). I have mixed feelings about AMC's end. I wish we could see what the original ending would have been. I didn't mind some of the returns, like Dixie and Stuart. I did not like the gunshot ending. I do get that sense in some of her first tenure for Erica, although that also has some strong material for her - it's just the strength seems to go more towards others (Kendall and Mona get more out of the stories). Her second run has the anorexia material, some of Susan's best work (even though Broderick started the story), and then the Mike stuff, which felt like a regression for Erica. Her last run has some good moments with Erica and Bianca and the Cambias murder, but after that becomes aimless. Unfortunately, I am not sure anyone knew what to do with Erica by then.

@TheyStartedOnSoaps What a reveal. Thanks. I never got to watch the Men/Women of Loving specials. Was John on there?

By the time Eileen got to Susan's age, that clause was gone.

More people are going to keep coming anyway so I'm fine with it. I do like the idea of a Keesha recast, if she is treated respectfully.

It was interesting to me how she took great pains to make sure everyone knew she didn't want to kill Dixie, but when she did, she made sure to have fun with it. Other than the many shots she gets in at Susan Lucci, she seems to save most of her invective toward writers and producers. I guess because these were the people (Lucci included) she felt hurt her and were against her, whereas the actors were just vessels. Her strongest actor hate seems to be Kiberd, which, if any of the stuff is true, I guess I get, but it shouldn't have been taken out on Trevor, who was always loved by many fans.

That could work. There would be some conflict for Sonny too, especially if he is mad at her about Gio.

Who wants to see this? Say what you will about the GH cameo, but at least the Golden Bachelorette guy was on a current hit. Is this to help Pratt out since he lost his house?

I didn't see any positive response on Twitter here, although the only popular pairings I tend to see on there were Sprina, Liaison, and the various women those fans wish Ric could be with, but I doubt anyone here, there, or Narnia were asking for Jason/Anna. Or Jason/Sasha. I know the budget is thin, but this would be the time to bring in a new love interest for Jason. I am not saying I want to see it, but he's there, he's overpaid, so why not? There's plenty of story to be found - dealing with Carly's response, to her knowing he's in the mob, and the whole mess with Sasha where he is claiming to be her baby's father. Admittedly she would need an ulterior motive to be willing to put up with this, but she could be some kind of a con who falls in love with him, as everyone falls in love with Jason.

Watching some of the clips of the show (there's an account putting up random day-to-day clips, which I appreciate, even if they seem to have been filmed through a potato), and I can finally see after all this time what good casting Travis Schuldt was as Ethan. He wasn't the best actor, but was believable as a clueless upper crust brat, yet with the inherent "goodness" of being Sam's son. Once Eric Marstolf is in the part, Ethan seems to just become more generic, although that has served Eric well on DAYS.

I didn't know that about Rachel. Sounds like a good role for her. She was very good at playing nice-nasty on Supernatural. You're right - this would explain why Laurel was whittled away and dumped (I think she only survives McTavish by six months). I guess this is also why Felicity temped as Nora on OLTL. By that point I often got the sense we were supposed to see Erica as contemporaries to these other women, so maybe that's why Susan was more comfortable interacting with them.

Sorry - I just meant Robin might have been able to get out of that story the way she did the wedding story. Lorraine did the story but I always assumed it was a directive from up high because it didn't match anything else she wrote for Janet, and when the news came out about Robin staying, it was said that Lorraine had gone to the network with other story projections to keep Robin's Janet around. Nearly finished the book now and I just got to the stuff about Kiberd. No idea what to believe there (although the story with Kiberd and Kate has been around for a long time), but it helps explain why Laurel and Trevor were such a dreadful pairing (I don't think she was great with Jack either but IIRC Felicity was better with Michael Levin on RH). It also makes me understand Trevor's final fate a little more, although that's a lousy way for a headwriter to behave, and she should question herself about treating Cady and Jean Carol the same way for very different circumstances (I read that Jean Carol blurb - it was one of the first soap magazines I ever read - and other than being a bit presumptuous it wasn't anything worth being slaughtered over). Oh dear, I'd genuinely forgotten that. I hope she's better in that spot than she was at AMC. Admittedly, she had a poisoned chalice at AMC by that point. Not to change topics so quickly, but it's weird to read what she says about Leven and Aiden and so on right not long after it was talked about in here. I'd forgotten Aidan was recast for two months. Did we already know that JHC tried to get Megan back involved in 2009 (or use her ideas, anyway)? She truly must have been desperate by that stage. I will say Megan does a better job of running down why soaps lost most of their viewers than many outlet (which often just say OJ or working women).

Honestly Lorraine is one of the people I was 60% sure she might have beef with. I'm glad to hear that wasn't the case. Sad to say some of her comments about certain ABC execs ring a little too true.

That makes a lot of sense. I would assume Robin, with Lorraine Broderick, must have also helped come up with some way to turn around the incredibly stupid choice to have Janet get plastic surgery to look like Brooke. If so, it helps explain why Janet had such a strange, degrading exit story (complete with killing someone with a human-sized candy cane), if someone at ABC wanted to get their licks in. Unfair as some of these anecdotes are, and one-sided as they are, they do help put a lot of pieces together in why AMC was what it was in its last fifteen years. Now if only someone could write a book at the messy-ass mid '80s. The stuff about Susan supposedly not wanting to work with younger women for long - I am trying to remember how often that was true for Erica. I had a vague memory of her being friendly with Cecily or Hilary. I wonder if the reason Megan is so friendly toward Kelly in the book is just because she wanted to get on her show.

I did love watching Constance, even though she was given odd choices like slinking into Chloe's boudoir to kill her. I agree the best way to go would be killing Valentin. The new Cassadine could be the one responsible. He or she would also be a short-term character who might actually off some regular characters and severely, maybe even permanently injure others, causing a lot of fear and unease over the canvas.

The part where McTavish claims to have stopped FMB from recasting Tad with Chris Lawford was a light bulb moment - not because I necessarily believe she alone did this, but because it finally explains just why Lawford was put into a role he was so unsuited to. He wouldn't have worked as Tad either, but at least physically I get the similarity a little more. He was also closer to Tad's age than Charlie's.

Reading through the Megan McTavish memoir so kindly posted in the AMC thread, she claims to have dissuaded Felicia Minei Behr from recasting Tad with Chris Lawford.

I don't really know about all that she is inferring, but in terms of just acting, I can see why Julia would have been upset. The problem is Jim was ruined from the outset. The only way Roscoe could have stayed is with a twin - I do wonder if they had originally intended to create a twin for Jim before Roscoe quit, which is why David Forsyth ended up playing that part for a day or two. Yeah it's a little hard to believe that Agnes was on the side of abortion being a lingering trauma, JER style. Maybe she just wanted to focus more on the depression that some women do have after abortions.

Thanks so much @VelekaCarruthers !

I'm going to have to stop soon but I'm howling at some of this...I can't believe she actually had people find out Agnes' real age and went on about how Agnes repeatedly rewrote her life. I will say she lists some positive points about Agnes as well and it's more interesting than the usual deified narratives.