DRW50

That was one of my complaints about the story we were presumably meant to be most caught up in (Rick's heart troubles and Richard dying, the trial, etc.) - I saw better versions of this on GH and St. Elsewhere. And I hated the Philip/Harley custody stuff. When those stories were resolved I did think the show improved, but it wasn't meant to be. If only they'd had guts to make other decisions like recasting Michelle.

I still don't understand why they recast Kathy with Nicolette Goulet. Goulet had such a very mannered style of speaking, which is a world away from the more natural Courtney Simon. If they wanted to bring in a brand-new character they should have done so.

Thanks. I wonder what might have been with Millee Taggart, as I felt strong work from her was just starting to come in after a somewhat rocky period through summer/early fall 2002.

I did wonder at first if Jessie and Polly were meant to be living together. I wonder whatever happens to that house. Geez. That part with Diana sounds awful. Frankly, it sounds like a porn setup. The moment with Jessie and Peter sounds like something I wish I could see. I wish they could have let Jessie have some happiness. I know in the early '80s she sort of dated that guy who worked at the hospital but that's all. At least she wasn't murdered, like Jessie 2.0 (Diana).

That's true. A lot of her time on GL also felt feverish, which isn't a word I would use for Capitol. I do think the first weeks or months of her run felt closer to what she could have been. And I enjoyed her banter with Buzz for that reason. Do you think Conboy did any better with her Alex when he was producer? (I know that period had Alex as a stalker and drug dealer but I'm not sure if that was his work)

Thanks for all the recaps @dc11786

I grew to accept Keifer, but I don't think she ever had the haunted quality Blake should have had, considering her parents. She did try very hard, even when later writers seemed to think Blake should be daffy, which was a stupid idea. I think the decay of Alex was already there even under Beverlee - there was less and less respect for her in the writing. Dusay just couldn't go up against that. I notice when on Capitol, her Myrna always had Sam Clegg to chide her as she spun out of control. Marj often played Alex as if she was still waiting for that partner to chide her. That wasn't what Alex should have been.

Thanks so much for the article. I thought it must have still been them, as I know GH was steady with viewers until starting to falter in the early '70s - just wonder how people would have felt about quite that much repetition. I get more of the older woman/younger man vibe here with Jessie and Phil than I did with Roy Thinnes. Looking up the ages I see that Martin West is actually a bit older than Roy Thinnes (maybe a year or so). He does look older than Thinnes, but he has more of a vibrant spirit here that makes you understand why poor Jessie was naive enough to yet again let him into her life. I can see why he lasted so long in the role.

@Vee @FrenchFan @GymnastGuy @depboy @dc11786 @Paul Raven @Soapsuds @Contessa Donatella @Maxim @titan1978 @AdelaideCate007 @carolineg @Planet Soap @Khan @Bright Eyes @Liberty City @Forever8 @AMCOLTLLover @cassadine1991 @soapfan770 @VelekaCarruthers @victorlord75 @vetsoapfan @slick jones @Franko @dc11786 @janea4old @BetterForgotten Amazing to think we've got at least 3 episodes now from around this period. Finding '60s GH is spotty but much better represented than most other soaps. This episode has a flashback to when Steve tells Audrey they lost their baby. I don't think that was in the other episodes we've seen (if it was, my apologies). Reading up on Polly's history I see that a year after this she dies in a car crash, pregnant, while Phil is driving. Odd seeing this in an episode focusing on the aftermath of the same happening with Steve and Audrey (very different circumstances, I know). Was that the same headwriters? I wonder if viewers ever found these stories repetitive (and this one also had another round of Jessie/Phil) or if they just loved the characters enough to not mind.

Thanks. I didn't know that.

Neither did I. Nice to hear his interpretation.

Never knew Peter Allen was on OLTL. This is 1982 apparently.

Thanks. The link hadn't been posted here. I am trying to remember if I'd ever seen the episode on Youtube in another form - the Jef and Emily scenes are a little familiar as is the funeral scene. Probably just merging them with another memory. The music they use for those opening scenes remind me of the Friday the 13th opening theme (the TV show), just with added guitars. Jef is one of the few Emily love interests I liked her with. It was nice to have a normal-seeming guy (not bad on the eye either). There's a good bit in this where Jef tells Emily what Ellen and Dani have been saying about her (as he lives in the apartment above their house) - it's a glimpse of what could have been with expanding the Stewarts if Valente hadn't fired Pat Bruder and made Emily such a monster. Such a restrained performance from Eileen Fulton, in what would turn out to be her last story, and one of her best. The funeral scenes also have a genuine atmosphere - cold and dead. The moment with Damian where he helps her say goodbye to Eduardo in Italian is so touching. The episode is also a reminder of how much I liked Kirk and Sam. I have never understood why Tom Wiggin was fired around this time. Sadly, nothing was the same with Kirk and Sam after that point. Early 1995 was a period of more improvement from ATWT than I had expected after slogging through 93 and 94...although Rosanna and Mike are there to remind me of the failures still present. Love the start with Liz Hubbard reminding us to stay tuned after the OJ recap. I'd say that's beneath Liz but she makes it seem fun so who am I to judge?

To be honest with you if I was just going through episode by episode via Youtube now, I don't know if I could either. I took a number of long breaks (especially in the '00s). And I simultaneously am just as partial to GL as I am critical of it because ATWT and GL were "my" soaps. They'll be with me to my last days.

It probably does sound very shady, although Matt was mostly just green at first. Tammy was a little more than green, but she did get much better.

I think there were a number of little moments, some good performances, etc. I appreciated the return of Jordan Clarke, an actor I adored and never thought would be back, and somehow, he stayed (off and on) for another 13 years. I appreciated getting to see Tammy Blanchard and Matt Bomer learn how to act. I was very glad to see Vanessa written like her old self again (in the last few years of the show), which I didn't ever expect. Amy Ecklund gave some very strong performances as Abby, from the rape storyline to Abby leaving Rick. I liked that the show brought Mindy back several times after the character was consigned to the wastelands when Barbara Crampton left. She was used just enough to remind of what a good presence she was but not enough to be ruined. Ditto for India (I am disappointed we never saw India in the last few years though). The 60th and 70th anniversaries were well done (better than many soap anniversaries). Mary Stuart had some wonderful moments in an otherwise very rough period for the show. I'm glad she got to spend her last few years reminding viewers why she had been a soap icon for generations. I was always glad to see David Andrew Macdonald, even if he rarely got material up to his charisma. Ditto for Paul Anthony Stewart, maybe one of the biggest overperformers in GL history compared to what Danny should have been. There were good moments here and there with very squandered characters like Holly and Ed. I was always glad to see Ross, even if Jerry was so wasted. I appreciate that the show somehow made me care about Dinah, a character I wanted to shoot out of a cannon for the first 2-3 years of Wendy Moniz's run and a character I blamed in part for the decline of my beloved Vanessa. As others have said over the years, I'm glad GL eventually shook off a lot of the gloss and airs put on Reva. I will always appreciate the returns of the finale weeks, even if some weren't what they could have been. Even after all this time I'm still touched by the beautifully character-true and perfectly pitched farewell for Nola (I'm guessing Lisa Brown did the whole thing, not the script, but I don't care). The show ended with a lot of love and a lot of heart, which is not as common as it should be for soap finales.

SNL almost always makes their musical performances private after a week or two.

Thanks. I guess they knew most fans weren't going to pay attention, even in the VCR era.

That's a good way to look at it. Both Ally and Shana interacted with AMC characters too (I wonder if that line was before or after Shana actually met Trevor).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tony-roberts-dead-woody-allen-annie-hall-1236130177/ Tony is listed as playing a doctor on the November 1, 1994 episode. Was it just a small part?

There's another episode up now. I think I've figured out what seems odd to me. Have they used some kind of AI to upscale the thumbnails?

It was killing off so many characters, the lack of characters I could care about (beyond Victoria, I suppose) and just finding the story very heavy going that made me check out of the revival as it went along. I remember the DS anniversary book that came out in '91 or so suggesting that House of Dark Shadows being so dark was why the show lost more viewers. I don't think that's entirely true - DS was a fad with a lot of young people who were growing out of watching and the pace of the show also couldn't be sustained - but I do think DS at its core is extremely dark in ways that the ridiculousness the show could veer into post-1795 or so managed to mask or balance. The revival being more polished meant the ridiculousness was gone. The Big Finish audios, the few I've listened to, are the same - good, but incredibly bleak. I know the Tim Burton film is campier, but I have no real interest in seeing it, especially after Lara Parker's comments about hambone Helena Botham Carter being two-faced. Holy hell - as I was finishing this post the old commercial reel I was watching had KLS selling houses for Century 21. How eerie. How fitting for DS.

I think this was the scenes that got laughs at the time because Alex was holding Andi hostage with a curling iron or something along those lines. I am not sure if Alex was in those. I did wonder if they might have been thinking of moving Alex over to OLTL. I think it was around March? I can't remember.

@EricMontreal22 A lot of AMC was purged from Youtube, at least the full episodes, although some is back. There is or was a lot of '80s AMC on Archive.

Kamar going to PC to help kick the show off would have been a good idea, if it had worked out, although there was probably too much going on to really fit him in. I had forgotten about the Nora and Gannon crossovers to AMC, which may be for the best as IIRC the Cutting Edge one isn't great. I also did not remember Paul Martin returning to OLTL in 1983. That must have been difficult for Paul Mooney. I think they missed Alex appearing on OLTL in 1997. The only reason I know about the Princi Dorian/Adam Chandler crossover is the AMC cards I used to have. Jake doing a stint on GH with Lucky Lippman could have been fun, although if this was during the big Monty changeover I'm not surprised she wouldn't go for it.