DRW50

Not sure it's worth tagging people for a 1996 episode, but this is one that doesn't seem to be on Youtube, so for completionists, here we are. @slick jones There are several speaking parts in this for short term characters so you may be interested. So much sleaze, including yet more Emily/Diego as well as pathetic Zoe's trashy rocker boyfriend leaving to have a threeway with lookalike groupies! You can tell that the writers of Eden were involved (and Eden was a better show). Just imagine how the many middle-aged and elderly conservative ATWT viewers at the time felt sitting through this:

The last few years of the show were filmed with a very reduced budget. By that point they were filming in Peapack, New Jersey.

Beth was a very desperate woman and seemed to just need a man at all times. She had also been in a very abusive relationship a few years before which left her traumatized, although the show did not properly address this. I think part of this story was also done to spite Maeve Kinkead, as the producer at the time had a bad history with her and was horrible to her (allegedly). I think this may have also replaced a potential bunk-up between Dinah and Matt that was teased at the time (Dinah buys matching robes for herself and Vanessa and then tries to trick Matt into hooking up with her). "Matessa" fans were not thrilled.

This is more interesting in soap curio terms than anything else, as I found his last run to be an odd choice for where he was by that point in his life. Maybe this one will be better suited. I wonder if we will get Carrie again or if this is about family drama. This is where a Billie return might make sense too, however briefly.

I'd forgotten about this. I suppose Blake was meant to have done this back when she wanted to hurt Philip back after Beth returned from the dead? It could have been some good drama given that Blake was pregnant with his best friend's son and Amanda also would have been fuming, but it does feel like a bit much with all the other story she had going on. I wonder how Liz would have played the material. That vengeance is far away from who her Blake ever was.

It's very funny watching this Mindy montage as you'd think she was on the Bad Girls Club. That seemed to be a side of her they phased out by the late '80s (although Krista's Mindy in her '00s returns gave the vibe she could have kicked ass if she needed to).

@Liberty City That is heartbreaking. https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/former-project-runway-designer-ah-loo-fatal-victim-shooting-no-kings-march-salt-lake-city-1237918822/

So many of the failings mentioned here remind me of soaps now. GL was a trendsetter, I suppose. There's an opening shot from 1985 or 1986 of a woman throwing furniture around at the country club and I used to think it was Reva before realizing it was Mindy.

Great to see your thoughts. We can use that language here - profanity is starred out but those words aren't. Daisy's father is named Jim. He was hot, yes. Dinah at this point was at her most interesting to me, at least in Wendy Moniz's run. She started out as more of a spoiled brat, then they made her a heroine, and finally by this time she had gone crazy, with one tragedy after another making her more unhinged. Moniz played the darker elements well and was the only one keeping the Cassie and Hart pairing moving. (is Hart still there?) I didn't realize she was on at this time. She was also on briefly in 1984 as a student who threw herself at professor Quint.

I'm glad you are still writing these mini-reviews. At the time there was not a very positive fan response to the Company revamping - it's undone when Paul Rauch takes over as producer. I do remember some of the soap magazines at the time praising the revamp episode, likely in part because they were trying to find anything on the show to praise. The Buzz part reminds me of what a book once said about a line on Space:1999 which amounted to, "We're sitting on the biggest bomb in the universe." The line was that given the quality of the show, it was never a good idea to put that idea into people's heads. I didn't realize they were starting to develop Bill more until Rauch arrived.

Thanks @slick jones I see Dan Lauria, looking hot. I suppose this was ABC's thank you and goodbye for Mooney after writing Paul out (they should have at least had him visit more often) of AMC. Never knew Amelia Marshall was on OLTL.

The date on this is wrong. Some Forever Fernwood audio recordings. https://archive.org/details/forever-fernwood-392-1978-01-03

You're right. Ross being involved in the story would have made more sense. If they had to include Jennifer, I could see Ross reverting to his old ways after Carrie's killing spree breaks his heart (maybe have her shoot him too), and goes after Jennifer for her money or Spaulding connections, but his heart is still with Amanda. The Mark/Vanessa/Ross/Amanda angle also makes a lot of sense. All you have to do is compare the response to this story from viewers to the response to Holly/Ross/Blake to show you what might have been (it helped that that story was not more sluggish than a houseful of slugs). Vanessa is just never best served as some type of camp or boo hiss figure - she can be campy, those moments where she fights with Nola are certainly pure camp, but stuff like pounding on Eve's door in her Jackie O sunglasses weren't putting her in a great long term place.

The thought of Amanda and Jennifer drearily wandering around in maternity dresses for months... The changes in Josh seemed to happen not that long after Marland left, but Vanessa did seem to take longer. I don't get the sense Long was hugely invested in Vanessa, as others have mentioned, but she did at least pair her with Billy, which was so important for the show's future and Vanessa's. Pinter had some sizzle with Kim Rhodes on AW, but that was 15 years later (why does it seem so much longer?) and escaped him in his other soap parts. Cook seems a little better in her last months when she's away from Kelly and written to be closer to her own age, but she was completely unsuited to the material they cast her for. Good for Court for calling out the traditional beauty standard casting. When they retcon Amanda's paternity in 1997, I do remember feeling that Alan cared about Jennifer (even if I think they got her name wrong in the retcon), so I was surprised at how little to no feeling was there when I see them in the original run. The saddest part is the time they wrote Hope out was when they were giving her material that would have been interesting and propel her into a new story. One that amused me at the time was the amount of times we got the flashback of Sarah Shayne saying, "find him for me, Reva!" (when the gender was changed, the clip stopped appearing, sadly) These posts from the moms are making me feel less odd about generally always liking Fletcher (maybe until the last few years where he lost all personality beyond sanctimony).

I do wonder how much a new producer who could have worked in tandem with Marland might have made a difference in my enjoyment. The biggest issues for me are casting, lack of energy, and character misuse. So many new characters just seemed inert and lethargic. Mark Pinter was a poor choice for a character who should have been as sexual and dynamic as Mark was intended to be. Josh and Vanessa were wasted in heel/plot mover roles. The couples often lacked chemistry, aside from Quint and Nola. Jennifer Cook was such a poor choice for Morgan that it completely wrecked the character makeup as well as her chemistry with Kelly. And then there were relationships like Tony/Hilary which on paper probably should have been compelling (the tough guy who is afraid of being hurt and the woman who is trying to think out her relationship in a very cautious, early '80s way, while her heart is with Tony) fall flat to me, as they just talk and talk and talk (like Carrie and Ross before she cracked up) and I don't find Tony in any way likeable. For me it wouldn't have been a choice - I would have never let Derek go compared to Tony (or most of the men on the canvas at that time). Some of this was fixed after Marland left (I seem to remember less of Tony haranguing Nola), but of course many other elements fell apart. One of the biggest changes I would have made was with the Amanda/Mark/Jennifer triangle. If Stephen Yates had been willing to stay, I would have had Ben and Jennifer fall in love during Amanda's extended breakdown. The whole thrust of the story of Amanda having passionate feelings for Jennifer's new husband falls flat for me because all the relationships are new or relatively new and I also don't believe in the chemistry between those involved. There would have been higher stakes in Jennifer, who had been struggling and downcast most of her life, falling in love with a gorgeous, funny, warm, caring artist...who was married to the daughter she had just reconnected with. When the truth comes out, you could also have Morgan regress into her wild child days, shattered both by her suffocating marriage and her mother falling off the pedestal. And no matter how "nice" Alan was meant to be at this time, I think he would have exploded at his old love being involved with his daughter's husband. This would also cause some conflict for Hope given her past with Ben.

B&E last from spring 97 to spring or summer 00. They're the exception. I suppose they mostly just wrote what Rauch wanted anyway, although I do think they held the show together (at least the more generic show GL was by that point) in spite of San Cristobel and the mob and some very poor choices like Holly the Pied Piper. Everything seems to spiral way out of control as soon as they leave. It's certainly fascinating to document but at the time was churning to sit through. I can't see Marland wanting to deal with Kobe. I do wonder what might have been if he'd stayed longer, as what I've watched of 1982 doesn't exactly bowl me over and I'm not sure what future story was being planned. I think you or someone else suggested the groundwork being laid for a Rita return. That would have been interesting.

After I watched the November 1988 episode, I had to pause again over the Snyders still being too casual about what Josh did to Iva, no matter how guilty he felt or how much he was meant to have reformed. Iva shouldn't have been in that position. Seth saying, "I don't like him," but having to defend him was no better. I was very impressed with Robin Morse in the scene where she questioned Tonio about his story. She was an intelligent, thoughtful actress. I guess she wasn't seen as charismatic enough, or not enough of a looker, but I appreciate her presence. The guy who plays Beau isn't bad either, although he was so limited as a character I am not surprised Marland cut his losses. The best part of the episode was the material with John, Lucinda and Susan. I wasn't expecting the flashback of John turning down an affair with Susan even as she encourages the idea, John saying in the past he would have used her, he used everyone, but he won't anymore. (and he would then go on to use her the next year). It was a look at the complexity of a reformed John I haven't seen in other episodes. Yet we still got a little of John's edge when he remarked on how unbearable the Hughes are as a group. What impressed me the most was the edge Susan still had at this time, later dulled down after her affair with Bob. She's more sarcastic, more jaded, as she should have remained. I was pleasantly surprised at the scene where she and Lucinda agreed that they did not feel sorry for Tonio over the miscarriage. I also loved where Lucinda tried to make her feel uncomfortable about Emily working with her lovers, and Susan cooly stating that she tries not to be overly involved in her daughter's life. Shannon and Harriet by this point both feel expired, but I couldn't get enough of Lilith, especially the talk about her ties to natura and not being human. Sara Botsford is flawless and so alien to most of Marland's run. I am trying to remember if Harriet was even mentioned when Shannon returned from the dead. They had been close for years.

About a minute into this interview Tina Sloan mentions having some Somerset clips in her one-woman show. If she still has those I wish she could make them available.

Thanks for the detailed writeup on Harris Yulin. Jill Larson's character name on Soaps and Scruples was Cordelia Waxler. Brody's full name was Joseph Channing, Maraffino's Angie Cartwright.

Thanks. I had forgotten Sandy had a son. I suppose they may have thought Barbara Rucker was too young for a son in his late teens/early twenties, but it could have worked and given Dee some stories in that time period. I wonder if Kevin's last appearances are as grim as the Soapcentral writeup suggests. Given how inert ATWT seemed to be by that point, probably not, but it's a harrowing read. I know ATWT was always a contemplative, at times morose show, but I do wonder how much the morbidity of much of the '70s took a toll.

They can easily just write around Spinelli, although I would always be glad to see Blake Berris back on a soap.

I don't watch enough of the show to remember who Sidwell is even meant to be a threat to.

Thanks. I totally forgot Michael was on Y&R. I guess barely watching for decades does that.

Interview with Jason Herbison about the (latest) end of Neighbours. The most interesting part for me was learning why Felix, one of the high points of the revival for me, had such an abrupt exit (the actor was very busy, apparently). https://www.backtothebay.net/news/2025/06/07/neighbours-executive-producer-discusses-the-shows-final-months/

Pratt was just a very...unique actress. She was probably more suited to '40s noir than soaps, although she did have talent and some charisma, which is probably why she managed to work in soaps for as long as she did even though I don't think any of her roles were ever well-received. Claire was probably her most popular soap role, which says it all. Barbara may have been the role which best utilized her, at least the first few years of the part.