DRW50

I thought it might have been done to help set up the whole gimmick with viewers voting for whether or not she should get off for shooting Peter. Given that Sharon and Thomas were both already leaving (presumably), I'm not sure why they needed such a laborious setup for her shooting Peter anyway - wasn't it something about how he frightened a horse, and she shot him on reflex? I can't remember. I'm probably wrong. I'm sure someone enjoyed the Love material under DePriest, as the ratings went up, but anything I've tried to sit through has made me very uncomfortable and I just can't even watch. John Considine was so badly miscast and poorly directed, Marcus Smythe was not good as a full heel, all the women were victims...on and on and on.

I thought Joe Lambie was just great on Edge of Night - it's a shame his Search role never worked out. I'm not sure how you go from him to Robert Reed. Then again, I'm not sure how you go from Sherry Mathis to Louan Gideon. So much of those last few years it seems like you have to wade through iffy recasts. I guess that's another reason the writers found it easier to focus on the McClearys.

I'm probably making it seem more scandalous than it was - I believe it's Lucinda, Craig and Tonio in a sauna setting or somewhere, taunting Sierra (we don't see her, she's just the camera), but it's heavily implied they are both getting together with Lucinda (I think they are kissing on her arms or neck at some point but maybe I am making half this up). Early Holden was very interesting, I agree. Marland tries to go back to that here and there, mainly through his wanting to be a corporate shark. I wish they'd fully committed. I think Tonio works well for what he is in his marriages to Sierra and Meg. And Barbara and Emily, etc. were so lacking in self-worth, so I'm not surprised they got involved with him. It's just when you spend as much time as Marland did on, essentially, how many women he was dicking down, you need an actor with more charisma than the guy who played Tonio.

You're right, it probably was a sudden rewrite. I do credit Marland for trying to add a little story with Iva's biological father and sister, but more could have been done. I do remember some other fantasy sequences, including one I thought was genuinely great (Sierra having a nightmare of Craig and Tonio having a threeway with Lucinda), but they were such an odd fit for ATWT, I wasn't surprised they didn't last. I feel like I should have enjoyed Meg, and the axe she had to grind with her family, with spoiled rich girl Lily, etc. but everyone around her was so extremely earnest (I think the only Snyder who didn't become earnest and dour was Austin Peck's Brad, because Peck was just too much of a himbo), it was like dropping Cher Horowitz into the Grapes of Wrath.

Marland tends to just float Barbara along as a pot-stirrer until she is paired with Hal. I'm glad he saw it couldn't last forever (maybe her being drawn into story with the inherently dull Tonio was a wakeup call). I assume Marx and Bryce gave a lot of advance notice. I think - although someone else will know this better than I would - they may have held the role of Tom open as long as they did because they were hoping Marx might return. The original plan was for Holden to just be a spoiler to Lily/Dusty so the back-and-forth might be part of Marland adjusting the canvas. I can never remember if they always planned to say Iva was adopted or it that was also because of Lily/Holden being popular with viewers. On paper, that Lily/Meg/Dusty/Holden should have been much stronger than it was. Given how much Marland wrote Meg as a young Nola Reardon, and his original plan was to pair Kelly and Nola for real not just through Nola's scheming, I am surprised they never tried a genuine Meg/Dusty pairing. Instead, Dusty is clearly made into a B or C player, pining after Lily and being a stopgap for her, while Meg is thrown into the hellish marriage with Tonio, leading her to be put with an older set. I don't think Jennifer Ashe worked as well as a bitch or in camp mode (IIRC Marland tried to give her fantasy sequences too, which never really worked) as she did as the tortured bird in a gilded cage in the Tonio/Josh year. I wish they'd tried an Emily/Dusty pairing. That could have been something. Honestly, I think any man would prefer to be with Emily over Lily, unless they are Holden, I guess, and he was always a bore anyway.

@Maxim I think these are some of the first comments on Karen that amount to more than just saying she was a failed character, so I appreciate reading them. A great description of Ellen Wheeler's profile as well. I always figured Agnes was the reason for David/Lainie as she kept redoing the star-crossed young couple story through her run, to diminishing returns. I know Paige Turco went on to a respected run on NYPD Blue, but she always seemed very bland to me in her soap work. Not bad, but bland. I think if they were going to break up Natalie/Jeremy it probably should have been over more than Marisa and David - such a waste of the divine Nancy Addison. You can never have Erica baking cookies and wearing cardigans, but I think there were ways to allow her to mature and still be Erica. I don't know how many viewers wanted to see her with Ryan or feuding with Greenlee. I don't believe that was a good use of the character.

All I remember is a clip or photo of Kim wafting along while standing near a Greek statue, which looked a bit silly.

Thanks @Vee ! I remember someone here, maybe @vetsoapfan , mentioning that a bunch of 1966 episodes used to be on Youtube (I guess from the same batch of GL episodes). I had never seen them. Glad they have appeared. Really appreciate you tagging me. @slick jones you might need these as well for your lists.

Roberta Sherwood - IMDb Roberta was a singer and sometimes acted, per the mini bio.

Cady and Tamara overlapped for a few years. I don't know if they ever interacted. By the time Jon joined the show Tamara was mostly gone. The best I've seen from Jon was his '90s work as Ryan/Kevin. He lost a lot of spark after that (as did daytime in general), although he still did some good work as Ryan in his various returns. It will be interesting to see Cady in a new part. She's very up and down - sometimes excellent, sometimes very mannered. I already said this in the BtG thread but I wouldn't be shocked if Genie ever tries to move to this show if it can happen, especially with the right part, as her heart was always with more "bad" type ladies anyway.

I am happy for Jon and Cady to be moving on to new roles now that they have the chance. I think a lot of Jon's work in the '90s as Kevin was extremely good, but they lost their way with the character on Port Charles and most of what I've seen of him on GH in recent years has felt like going through the motions. His chances to act tended to be with Ryan, and how much more can you do with Ryan? Bring him back from the dead again? If BtG stays around, then given how little interest Frank has in Laura I wouldn't be shocked if Genie Francis eventually joins him, as she has always wanted bigger non-Laura roles anyway. I am not sure what role he's playing but hopefully it's going to be better use of him than what he had to do as Craig on ATWT.

I could see her on a soap again someday, probably more of a short-term spot than a big role. I actually think DAYS would not be a bad fit for her. If she had a bit more of her old energy, then a Dimera role would be in her range.

You aren't alone, as that's how he was identified by someone in the comments of the video. He did look familiar to me, but I don't really know him that well (whenever I think of him, I think of poor Sherry Mathis).

If this is true, then poor Kathryn Hays was not only getting hate mail, but having to loop old lines like she was in one of those Italian Hercules movies.

Jerry Lanning and Joanne Dusseau (who is ACTING for her life) as SNL Weekend Update characters - The Most Annoying '70s Couple You Know.

I would take them just doing their best to not only acknowledge past P&G soaps but preserve and release whatever they have remaining. I don't need their apologies because it would take a very long time to get through... Irna will be watching over them, whether they say her name or not. If that was even a real person. I am very glad they made the video and honored ATWT and GL. I just wish they'd turned the music way down (if we even needed any music) and not used GPT for research. But at least they are trying, which is more than I could have said for quite a few years now. In today's industry this may be the best they can do.

You're totally right, but I think this is part of soap history in a GPT world.

Thanks for letting us know. I'm glad they remembered ATWT and GL. It's long overdue. I hope it might mean more acknowledgment in future. I wish they could have turned the music down.

I was watching this Locher Room interview from a few years ago to see what Susan Scannell said about Another Life, but she also gave some interesting details about her time at Dynasty. It starts somewhere around 35 minutes. She says she had a MeToo incident. Her refusal to go along with what this person wanted led the show to go overbudget. This person (she doesn't give any names but does say "she" at one point) was tight with people on the show, so Susan ended up taking the fall. She only found out when a tabloid person asked what she was wearing to a reunion event, which she hadn't heard of. Susan also says that she was basically blacklisted in the industry due to this incident.

A better cover than a storyline. They really messed that story up.

It does. Imagine Meg being an ex of Elsie's American husband, going over and marrying Dennis when he comes into money...and Vanessa arrives to run the corner shop... Jean is just riveting to watch - a live wire yet also fatigued and believable. I do wish she'd been interviewed. When going through the thread a few months ago I was reminded that someone who knew her had posted here briefly to say that she had enjoyed the fan comments about her surviving episodes.

That's sad to hear. I'm glad at least one of her episodes survives. Beyond Ellen, I remember Alice from a St. Elsewhere episode (her husband, an old friend of Dr. Craig's, was getting a sex change operation).

@dc11786 is the best at giving fleshed out review/story speculation but I'm glad my thoughts were at least somewhat coherent. If I have time to go through more, I might keep adding my opinions.

I had no idea just how low they had Travis go in that story. They did this with Dimitri later on as well, but they brought Dimitri back from the brink. I'm not sure they ever managed with Travis, although I know he still has a year or two to go.

Speaking of that (I'm so grateful to the guy who ran this channel for finding some moments to clip in those last years): Much as GL's final years are criticized for a conservative slant, this is still material I don't know if any of the current soaps would go near. I can't remember who it was who talked about how much terrible music choices hurt the last few years of the show, but you aren't wrong. And the Coopers seem to be living in a building set for demolition.