DRW50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B2h9pjBd7A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQiSmwOojxs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy6vgLgOIC8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAW-U6OYafQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCANKD7tacI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Jonathan if you're going to say that at least say it like Phoebe would. I think it's kind of sweet. At heart Erica still seems like a lonely and yearning girl here, although the painting business was ridiculous; I'm sure evne at this time she could have done better. And I can't imagine Erica ever cleaning a room, even to get a man.

Thanks for reading. I hope to have some 1984 up by next week.

Gingrich continues to get media adulation, probably for a shell game effect, to make it seem slightly less guaranteed that Romney will win. For someone who loves to rag on the media, Newt would have never had any chance without them. There's a lot of focus on last night's debate but I doubt it matters much in the long run. Or short run. This talks about media coverage of Perry and Huntsman, vs. reality. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71694.html

Do any of you who were watching regularly in 1995 remember any type of chem test between Larry and Nora's sister Susannah? The June 8, 1995 episode has them meeting, and that awful Mari Morrow Rachel teasing them. Larry asked her to join the hospital staff. It's the closest I can remember to any hint of story or romance for Larry after 1989 or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erQ8IIHHB1E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MH_uxoNT3Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWBJBBCYcdk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cZwJgJYf9k&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

More of early 1988 AW - Donna loses her baby. I hated this story, Donna's perpetual victim status, cartoonish Reginald, hammy Michael. Such wasted potential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-mzpVqzw44&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH7aX-U9E4U&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVfqgzelrSc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19NaMI3Wfiw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Did anyone catch that bit in the Mona and Erica (post Mona/Charles honeymoon) conversation where Erica tried to get Mona on her not being tan, and Mona somewhat awkwardly changed the subject? It's very cute. What a contrast to more recent soap years where parents and children endlessly go on about sex lives in a tacky manner. I'd never seen Estelle either. How long before she died? I think the actress left for her theater career. I wonder how long Erica kept trying to get Tom back. Kind of sad seeing Donna go on about getting too old to have children, when she was only about 20 or so. You can see her perpetual drive towards a breakdown. I thought Sean and Brooke were making out on the couch...oops. If you ever watched Julia Barr on RH, Linda Gibboney has the same voice. I can see why they recast Tad, as they needed a fuller teen scene and he needed to be older than Jenny, but I like this actor, he seems natural and believable in a way many soap teens just aren't. Didn't the relationship with Suzanne send him into a downward spiral?

Watching the November 1994 episode... How long was the Wildwind dining room around? I remember SOD praising that element of AMC in 1994, but for some reason I don't remember seeing that place by the time I started watching (summer/fall 1995). If you just listen to Dimitri, and don't look at him, he sounds kind of like Obama. I just realized how many stories in fall 1994 revolved around babies, or more specifically, dead babies - Gloria's, Maria's, Julia's pregnancy, Dixie sacrificing her chances of a healthy pregnancy. That's just too much at one time. I never knew Hayley held Adam at gunpoint. Too bad that was never brought up later during the years when she and Mateo seemed to bash him with every other syllable. She kept mentioning Skye...I really wish they hadn't made them rivals when Skye returned in 1996.

I think she left in early 1998 (her last scenes), so the breakup may have had something to do with it. I'm sorry she never showed up anywhere else, but it might have been a case of artist and characters blending perfectly. I thought Gloria had a unique spirit (aside from the time with Tad, which didn't do anything for me) and while I hadn't thought of it, you're right, she did blend into stories effortlessly. Even when she wasn't being used in a major role, she was a part of Michael's homophobia story, she was a part of Erica's pill addiction story. As years have passed, soaps have only done community interaction when they have "events", but for many years soaps did the everyday, normal interaction which is so crucial to make you believe these are real people. At the time I loved her scenes with Ryan, immediately busting him on his lies. And her goodbye with Stuart, who had probably been her truest friend, through everything, and had not really interacted with her in several years until that last scene. It's one of those soap exits I wish any headwriter would look at.

Steve kind of skirted that line...there's a clip from 1984 or so, when Meg Ryan was still around, where he's berating Kim, and it made me very uncomfortable. I think they wrote this off as being him being under a lot of pressure, and he did apologize, but it bothered me (although Kim's hair was so awful - a limp perm the color of a dish detergent bottle - that he might have been driven to rage). I wonder what would have happened if the show had gone with the Iva/Steve/Betsy triangle. Watching those chunks of early 1994 remind me of some of the strength the show still had at this time, even as some of those elements were being whittled away. Moments like the tender, slow pace of Mac's Alzheimer's, John's cancer. Life unfolded, day by day, in Oakdale. Duke showing up for a few episodes and clearly having a lot of doubts and a personal rut, but this mostly being left offcamera, something he will deal with in his own time, when we don't see him. Life goes on even outside of Oakdale. I miss this so much on soaps. The only place I can see this day-to-day storytelling now is on South African soaps, or in soap reruns.

Stephen and Galen were such odd characters, since they seemed to be introduced with some notice but ultimately turned into nothing. There was something very offbeat about Teresa Blake, and very 90's, in a way a lot of soaps didn't quite get. She could also be scheming, innocent, sexy, strong, weak, kooky. She almost left in late 1995 but they worked something out with her. I liked her most as part of the community, as I always like the idea of slightly broken people finding each other (soaps used to be great at this). She also had a good exit, low-key, but involving most of those who were important to her, and showing all sides of the character. McTavish sometimes desecrated her creations but thankfully Gloria was an exception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7CF1e2uoT8

I think so, yes. Do we know how many times Beverly Owen played Ann on AMC? I was reading a magazine from early 1973 and they talked about her filling in for Barcroft on a day where someone accidentally played one of Bill Mooney's commercials immediately after a big dramatic scene with Ann and Paul.

I don't watch enough to give a strong opinion. I don't think it's as bad as many claim, a lot of that is just an easy target. If I never have to hear about the wonders of Melissa Suffield again, it will be too soon.

Why is Erica wearing racing stripes? It's interesting to see Gloria with the Chandlers here, since she would share stories with them for several years, after reforming. I don't remember her ever having a lot to do with Erica. Teresa Blake had such a melancholy acting style which can sometimes work beautifully. One of her lines after she was trying to get back into nursing (after the Anna Claire fiasco) was, "I only know how to take people, or take care of them."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRkD2VLP3o0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL4a6sMebFs

Quent, I was also shocked when Shannon appeared. I read that everyone at the show worked hard to keep this a surprise. I was initially very happy to see Shannon again. I think this was probably one of the last real surprises on any soap. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffeMIgAIvQs

Who was Chris? I think BJ Jefferson would have been a good replacement for Debbi.

Wilson was too old to play Kelly. Parucha was the one with the crazy eyes wasn't he?

In one of the July 1995 episodes there's scene after scene of Alec's pecs, Noah's pecs, Mateo in a tight t-shirt.

Like how the media pounced on Kerry's "I voted for it before I voted against it."