DRW50

Y&R and B&B are always going to have a certain cushion the other soaps won't.

Always enjoy your reviews @alwaysAMC Jenna's backstory has already been summed up, but I'll add that she was initially just meant to have a brief return. When Paul Rauch joined the show, he made the return permanent, due in part to his experience with her at OLTL. I was not a fan of Jenna the first time around (I felt like Nadine was degraded for her), but Fiona was always a reliable performer and I warmed to her more in her return, even if most of the material isn't up to much. I was never a huge Reva/Josh fan but Rauch was smart to make them the rooting couple and Annie the schemer rather than the formless nature of the Annie/Josh/Buzz/Reva quad. Those Cross Creek scenes worked well as Zimmer and Newman sold them for all they were worth.

RIP Joe Marinelli. It tells you what an impact Bunny had at the time that this his work on SB gets in the headline in spite of a lengthy career. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/joe-marinelli-dead-bunny-tagliatti-santa-barbara-1236298496/

I'm one of the people out there (not that I have any role beyond bitching on here) who didn't mind the gorilla finale for AW, but I am probably going to be complaining about his ATWT choices until my last breath. I never could take Jonathan either. I think it helped Ross and Vanessa that they were rarely if ever a proper couple onscreen. We could wonder what might have been (and yes they were a natural idea for a reunion by the mid '00s). One of those times that a backstory-heavy relationship works. I didn't hate the end with Josh and Reva because they were a couple I knew would always reconcile, but I am not sure I would have chosen that as the last scene. It wasn't a terrible last scene, but given the history of the Bauers, I would have had them for the last moment. I do like that the last actual shot was of the lighthouse, from a distance. Watching again I'm also reminded of all the unnecessary music... I imagine it was more about the show than her, but that so many were willing to return, even if terrible conditions, meant she was able to work with them enough to say yes.

I haven't watched in a while, but I don't even think Luke ended up with Noah. I do like the idea of characters not having to be together just because a show was ending, but killing Reid always felt like just one more middle finger from a producer who was very adept at them. Sorry, I know it's the wrong thread.

I do wonder how other actors feel about Wheeler. I can't remember if she also cried with them. She clearly made many mistakes, which we know all about, but the idea of her constantly being hysterical seems to stem from one person in particular. I saw and enjoyed reading the Logan columns you shared. I just didn't really remember the comparison from the time, even though I read Logan fairly often. If it was intended as a slight against JFP then it was more subtle than some McTavish digs over the years. Goutman did get his share of criticism, but also a lot of support, to the point of writers at places like, IIRC, Daytime Confidential bending over backward to praise him for brave choices like...barely bringing anyone back for the show's final year, or...killing a gay character for no apparent story reason. Wheeler did get some praise, but more of the talk seemed to lean toward mocking her for being a Mormon and the agenda she had for the show, etc. I do think some of the criticism was deserved, like everyone needing to have a baby, and some of the vibes. Just the tone was often so pointed in a way that I don't know if we'd see in other cases (even Goutman).

That's exactly what happened to the Brady Bunch. At least the Golden Girls ladies had the sense to not peddle this tabloid trash. The show means a lot to generations around the world, and the people who worked on the show instead only want to talk about who called who a [!@#$%^&*] and who didn't [!@#$%^&*] on the floor.

Thanks. They didn't seem to realize the article is a year old.

People really believed Bea Arthur used Betty White's dressing room floor as a toilet. How sad. Kenneth Anger is shaking his head somewhere. As for these stories, I can believe Betty White had her issues, as many do. I know Sally Struthers had her own story. I just don't get any pleasure out of muckraking over corpses the way these GG personnel are doing. It feels a bit crass to me, especially since GG is one of those shows where I give the cast much more of the credit for the show than anyone else (I think the show should have ended about 2-3 seasons before it did).

I definitely give them credit for helping to get another soap on the air. I hope that means something good going forward.

My memory is often poor and just pops up at random, so I appreciate the kindness. I didn't realize Hayley's exit from the show was via a talk show but that's a cute nod to her Regis & Kelly success.

Thanks for sharing. A very stilted intro, but then most of these are. I'm glad this at least shows someone at CBS sees the importance of selling soaps after everyone was told for over a decade that they were wizened and worthless.

That's interesting. It doesn't read as compelling but I still wish I could see some. Did she ever try any of that Lovers & Friends show?

I never saw the resemblance onscreen, and I rarely heard anyone talk about the resemblance until this thread, but maybe I was in the wrong places. There were definitely other mean-spirited elements that I noticed at the time, like the way Toby Poser was treated. You could probably go back to the Kobe era to find mean-spirited treatment of actors, like allegedly killing off characters out of spite. I do think Wheeler was hired to run out the clock. She kept the show alive longer than many probably expected. I wouldn't really blame her (I would criticize a number of her choices but I wouldn't blame her for the show ending), and I wonder if she was not seen as a crying woman if she would get as much blame.

I've always had a soft spot for Larry Poindexter so it's nice to see him too. IIRC, Hayley took over the show for a while. I think there was one called WAVE. There was some kind of talk or reality hybrid used during Gillian's murder. I can't remember if that was tied to WRCW.

Thanks @Paul Raven . We are fully into the crime story era now. I don't remember how many characters were on the show at this point, but we are lucky to hear about four or five of them in material that summed up (I assume) months of episodes.

Thanks again @Maxim I could watch Mia Korf all day. She could have run for years, although realistically they would have just ground her Blair down the way so many women were as the '90s progressed. There's another excellent scene with those three on the way soon.

Not really the update on Martin Kove or Sebastian Roche I had expected. https://deadline.com/2025/06/cobra-kai-martin-kove-bit-actress-kicked-out-convention-1236440576/

Thanks again @Paul Raven Reading the summary I was briefly worried we were going to get one of those is-it-rape scenarios with Lisa and Grant. Thankfully not. The reconciliation seems like some of the more lighthearted material I've heard of with Lisa and Grant. I can see why he was likely her favorite partner with viewers (I can never remember if it was his choice to leave the show or not). I love watching Judith McConnell and I think she could have been a natural fit for this "goddesses" era of the show. Still, I have wondered and still wonder about bringing her in at a time when the show already had so many women in her age range. It's clear with her resentment toward Kim and dating Dan and Bob, all central figures, that she was also a central figure early on, but when you are a new character, no matter how central you may be, I don't think it's a great idea to rely so heavily on unseen backstory to drive you. She already knew Kim, she already knew Kevin...what about time on new people she didn't know? I wish I could see John's outburst scene.

I think someone here a long time ago said that Crawford was seen as being too old. He had aged a bit but still looks good enough in car ads from around that time. I wonder if he suffered from being so closely tied to Brenda's Jill to where he stopped just being the town lawyer.

Thanks @alwaysAMC Those sound like the classic I'm-not-an-alcoholic lines but as we haven't heard of her having any more trouble over the last 15 years I'll take her word for it. That tribute really was garbage. I was not surprised but I was still disgusted. GL was the first of the long-running soaps to go in the era where it was said that the public didn't care about soaps anymore, so there was no effort made. IIRC, the "So Long Springfield" tours generated much more of a public response than anyone expected. I think this is one of the reasons that ATWT got more publicity and merchandise when it ended. I remember buying SPW's goodbye issue for GL. I felt like I had to do so to show support for someone, anyone, paying tribute to GL, even if by that point SPW wasn't even useful as toilet paper.

I only ever know of Laurie from that time and I agree it's hard to see her as a sub for Emily. Thanks for the other suggestions. A while back I did get to read a number of TV Dawn to Dusk issues and I agree with you about the quality. They looked very cheap, especially the covers. The cast list/character bits might have been the best part, along with some interviews here and there (I think they interviewed Diane Ladd - can't remember if anyone else did). Afternoon TV, Daily TV Serials were the best for me, Daytimers and the first decade of Weekly after that. There are a few short lived soap magazines I wish I was able to read more of (like All About Soap or Mid Day TV, etc.) but this has probably dragged on enough - sorry.

I don't think the idea of Josh as a reverend was terrible, as it's not like Josh was ever a very rigidly defined character - he was mostly just a bit of a prick who liked crazy ladies and obsessed over Reva. I think the problem is what do you do with the story once he's a reverend? Where does that go? Philip in that role might have made more sense, trying to reform after his hurtling toward the dark side (including killing someone - not that anybody gave a damn). I agree with you about the final weeks not having strong enough stories. That is probably true for the show in general long before the end. There's a certain hokey, wholesome air to the show by the end. That isn't really "my" GL, but it is closer to my GL than the show often felt in the first half of the decade. If we are going to tear our hair out over the agonies of what Wheeler did to GL and how she ruined the show, as Kim or others might, I mostly put that time to the Jonathan era (which I tended to avoid and don't care about rewatching) and how it capped off so much of the sickness and sleaze also peddled by late Rauch and Conboy, rather than the last year of the show.

Thanks for replying so quickly. Yes, I figured she meant something like Afternoon TV (that and Daytime TV being the main two). I don't know who the women in her age range were at the time that she could have temped for, if that happened.