DRW50

They were there for the Dolly story - I am not sure if that was down to them as someone at the network pushed it (then again, they did supernatural stories at PC). I think Lucky Gold was there for the portrait story. Ghost Reva was right before McTavish, I think. Wiki lists her as starting right after Douglas Anderson, but I could have sworn there was some gap in-between. Maybe not. You're not wrong about the tone of GL at that time.

@EricMontreal22 Thanks! 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. I don't know if I buy that about Ceara and Jeremy being a popular couple... I didn't know Deborah mentioned Erica being on AMC. That's a very sloppy line that should have never gotten through. Erica was even mentioned on Loving as a real person after Jeremy died.

Most of them want Democrats to lose. They hate them. They hate us. They hate America. They love Trump because he has done more to end the "American empire" than anyone outside of Putin, and because he gives them permission to be bigots - he makes it cool and fun. They continue to insist that Harris lost because she didn't do all they wanted, because they can't admit how little power they have in this country outside of an increasingly tiny social media following, and half of those are Nazis.

He can always hope for another Big Brother guest hosting stint. I'd never heard of most of these shows. I'd say Extra possibly ending is an end of an era, but that era ended 10 or more years ago. These days people just go online for celebrity gossip.

I was more for Boonie. Adrienne Barbeau was also in that Balkan story. I do think some of the Zacchara dynamics worked, at least with Johnny and Claudia (I think Weitz was miscast). I remember, from the bits I watched, Benzali doing a good job, but I just didn't care. It came across to me as Guza being more ashamed than ever of having to be on a soap instead of getting to peddle his leather jacket publicity photo in primetime.

Thanks. That was all past me.

Me too. That was the role most suited to him as he could generally brood and provide the right atmosphere for the show, when he wasn't man #394 in love with McMurphy. I do feel a little bad for the actress who played Blaze that they are bringing in her whole family and shitcanned her. I'd rather they just write them all out for the sake of fairness.

Thanks for sharing that. I'm glad it was her choice and she's happy with where her life is now.

The initial story of Justus working with the mob, spurning everything that had been taught to him, could have had potential, with the Quartermaines as well as the triangle with legal eagle Dara and cop Taggert. As you said, they just didn't care. Someone also decided that Joseph C. Philips was wrong for who Justus now was, and brought in Monti Sharp, who, similar to his brief ATWT run, seemed to have lost most of what made him special on GL and just seemed slimy. I wasn't surprised he was only on for a short time. I don't even know what they did with the last Justus, beyond being a monk and being killed.

They've done a number on Chris' kids - Phoenix became a drug addict and committed suicide. Finn was physically abusive toward his wife Esther (although they made peace in his later guest appearances). In the finale, Harry was brought back to Ferndale (after the family had paid his way in spending most of the year on the run), and Chris, along with Finn, insisted he must face justice. Chris' brother Guy, and other son Frank, wanted him to get help but not go to the cops. After Harry held Chris at knifepoint, they finally agreed that Harry needed to be arrested. Sass, maybe the only one who could have added some personality, wasn't able to make it - I guess the actress wasn't available. Due to her absence, you had various Warner men with the designer stubble of angst, and Chris saying they were all cursed because of his father and the usual soap routine of rich families being damned and evil (sadly, no scene of him beating a tomb with a crowbar). He told them that he wanted to dissolve the family trust and give all the money to charity. They said, basically, lolfuckno, and removed him as head of the trust. And yes, the show has often had almost nothing but bleak material, even though a number of fans have told me the show often had comedy for many years. The nadir was 2023 when the "meet the new residents" program (Harry's reintro) led to none of them staying on the show, one being gunned down, and another having his hand smashed to pieces and becoming a drug addict. But the good news is he returned for about two days to have sex with Phil and then disappear.

That SNL is something many modern viewers probably wouldn't be able to process anyway. I think the show still has some good moments, but there's a huge dividing line between the first 25 years and the second 25 years.

She still had her moments, but they really bogged her down with too many stories about leaving the kids, struggling with the kids, and cheating. She began an affair with another woman this past year, named Phil, who was an awful mess of a character (she started on the show a few months earlier in a "no labels" relationship with a male doctor - in no time she was aggressively pursuing Harper and we were meant to feel sorry for her, to the point where she was given a miscarriage, a past suicide attempt, a past abusive boyfriend, etc.). They got a lot of fans, as those pairings always do, but the show ultimately had Harper return to Drew before she died. They died in a bike crash, which I don't think was all that well done, frankly, especially the choice to have wacky music play right before the crash. They also kept having Harper run into injured or dead mothers before she died, which I found somewhat trite. TK's exit leaves a bad taste in the mouth, because he has not been seen since he and his wife (who should have stayed on the show) move back to his old homestead, but we hear every month or so that he is depressed, still can't walk, and Esther avoids seeing him because it makes her feel sad. A great way to treat a character who was a lynchpin of the show for decades. When I was writing up my comments above, I forgot to say that the story with Chris' mental breakdown over his son Harry being a murderer was also a strong plot, even if I disagree with the decision to make him a serial killer. His on/off girlfriend Selina's breast cancer story was also very good - I don't remember if you were watching when the wretched Desi was there, but Selina is Desi done right. Thaddeus, the show's Damo knockoff, is also very likeable, or would be if he was not constantly given terrible plotlines with exhausted characters.

Nicole had been going through a year of hell, starting with not liking or trusting the girl, Cassie, who had Maeve's grandchild and was living with them. Cassie had used drugs during her pregnancy and woke up in the park believing her baby was dead. As it turns out, a nurse at the hospital (the actor actually had been an extra on the show for several years as a nurse) had taken the baby and given it to his wife, Louisa, who had not been able to cope with their baby dying. Louisa tried any trick she could to stay close to the baby, including secretly breast feeding the baby. She was finally sent away to get help. The story then began to focus on Nicole's financial worries, as well as her depression over Leanne dying of cancer. The best part of the story, mostly due to the work from Sally and Jennifer Ludlum. The aftermath of the story included one of the worst scenes of any soap I watched last year, where we suddenly learned that Leanne had a priceless vase handed down generations so that Nicole could smash it...moments before learning the vase was hugely valuable. I HATE this type of writing. Nicole began to confide in a grief group chat, telling them everything...including that in a weak moment she kissed Drew. They also convinced Nicole to put spy cams in the house because Nicole was convinced Cassie had stolen jewelry from her. One of the people in the chat then spilled all the beans to Maeve, including about the kiss, wanting to show Maeve how much she had hurt Nicole. That person was kicked out of the group, and Nicole continued on with her good friends. Now we come to the part that should have been brilliant - the reveal that the group chat members were all Louisa, to gaslight Nicole and cause more instability that would lead her back into the baby's life. Unfortunately, they chose to have Louisa return to town about a week before the reveal, and as soon as she returned, I knew it was her. Using the group, Louisa lured Nicole to an abandoned factory. She held her hostage unless Maeve agreed to get her the baby. Maeve conned her with a fake baby and while she and Nicole were left at the factory together, Nicole managed to escape (not bothering to help Maeve). Louisa had realized the con and gone to the house, where she was harassing Cassie to give her the baby. When Maeve finally got there, she found Nicole trying to keep an injured Louisa alive. Louisa was taken to the hospital and soon died. Nicole and Cassie both told the police that Nicole had tried to keep her away from the baby and pushed her, leading her to hit her head on the counter. The autopsy said the injuries were more severe than that, and after a lot of angst, Nicole was arrested. There was then a lot of doubt about whether or not Cassie had killed her, and Nicole was covering for her. Maeve was torn between them. Nicole went on trial (a trial we actually saw - I guess that's where the budget went) and was acquitted. Cassie by this point had run away after Maeve had caught her with an urn with Leanne's ashes, which she'd insisted Nicole had killed Louisa with. Nicole insisted this wasn't true. But after she saw Cassie was back, she was so angry, she almost picked up the ashes and hit her too. This is when her mental block faded, and she remembered hitting Louise with the urn. Nicole spent one last Christmas with her son, Pele, and with Maeve, and said goodbye to Harper (not telling anyone of her plans), before telling Maeve that she had called the police as she was too unstable and needed to be locked up. Maeve was, of course, devastated, and the two had a teary goodbye. Now Maeve will be raising Pele, I guess, unless he's shipped to Nicole's mentally ill brother who hasn't been seen in a decade, or cute Eddie, who did make a cameo via Skype but otherwise is barely seen or mentioned and probably wouldn't be able to raise a child (Esther is happy enough to ignore that he is her son's father). The story, along with the story about Harper cheating on Drew and him having a breakdown, attempting suicide, blaming himself for the death of one of Boyd's children (a story badly truncated because the show would only keep Boyd on for a few weeks at a time, presumably due to financial reasons), took up so much time in the year, and was a huge slog. They wrote Nicole into a complete corner to where she and Maeve had no personality between them beyond tears and misery. If the show stays on I could see her returning, but it would have to be a hell of a lot better than what she's had on the show in recent times. If you want to see any of the clips, there is someone on Youtube who exclusively clipped Nicole and Nicole/Maeve stuff. If you ever want to know what else you missed this year, I'll just say try to look for the stories involving Emmett and Nazar and avoid most of the rest.

I think @Vee used to mention some lines from Tracy taunting Rae that it could have been something she met while trawling the docks.

Even all these years later I'm still impressed with the dogged work the man who ran the channel did, not only with so many classic clips (most of which I'd never seen until I found his channel), but he also had a blog where he tried to find positive moments in the show's last years. He truly loved the show. It was awful to learn he'd passed away, but at least he never had to see GL end.

Some stories can write themselves (and in the case of those two they must...).

That could have been a good story. Maybe Willow would grow jealous and that would further her embracing the dark side.

I hope you're right. This does make sense. I had forgotten B&B was under threat. I'm still not completely sure about Shortland Street either, although maybe they have a two-year deal? (I know you've said you don't watch SS now but their brand-new revamp starts next week if you are interested)

You're right, but I don't think it's as egregious as some other choices (like Cody with Dominique and Mac or Sasha with Robert and Holly). It's not a story I would have done, but I at least see the potential.

They are just images used from old promos, for now, and I don't like the overly angsty version of the theme (they've had this for a while so that's more of an excuse than the poor angsty Neighbours theme tune I guess), but it's nice to have credits again, even for just an episode a week.

Thanks. If they are putting up episodes that are already on Amazon it makes me wonder if they have been canceled.

She's not. I know they had the un-Qing so she could date Ned, but I wonder if the real reason was just Guza hating the retcon. The last year shows how much interest GH has in a black canvas - they actively suppress any attempt at that happening. I do think Gio as a long lost son of Dante and Brook Lyn wouldn't be the worst idea (Brook Lyn is already matronly and Dante already has a kid who is in his teens), but you know they are not going to do anything with the story possibilities. His being like AJ, as some have mentioned, would be the best way to go. I've never thought Skye worked on GH or OLTL (I think she was a better fit on GH than OLTL - she was just awful on there), but if the canvas ever opens up (Nina and Ava finally leaving, or more Qs going again), having her on in some capacity could work.

IIRC, one of the clear signs of the strike being near is Nixon wrote Brooke/Adam/Cindy/Stuart wrote out for an extended period.

Thanks!

It's always hard to tell. Michelle never had the big breakout moment but has never really needed it. I'd imagine few would have guessed within 5 years of leaving GL she would have been offered a central role in a Star Trek spinoff.