DRW50

I think I remember reading something about McCormack being surprised she wasn't there longer, or she had moved to NY to be there longer, or something. It must have been tough for fans to see a temp playing the scenes with Jennifer, and probably tough for McCormack too. Soapcentral has some great info but some is off - the dates for Lindsay Frost Betsy are way off, I think. What did you think of the various Sandys?

Bridget/Ridge was the worst because Ridge thought she was his daughter for about 4 or 5 years. At least the other people knew they'd never been blood relatives. I'm not sure what Brad Bell was doing at this time. I think this was also around the same time they were supposedly going to have Eric get involved with teenage Caitlin, and Amber was going to have sex with underage Thomas.

Is that the Pretty Boy Floyd thing? I have an ad of that somewhere. I wonder if anyone bought it. August 1954 TV Star Parade.

Sadly I don't think so.

Ridge seems to be wearing Gene Simmons hair. No thanks. This must be one of the B&B stories most affected by fan backlash. I wasn't watching much by this point - Jennifer Finnegan...I remember her being better earlier on.

I'm sorry Lydia didn't have more work from that appearance. She's not Beverlee, but she's not trying to be. She still embodies the character, helped by good writing (today they'd never have ALex say she won't hurt her friends). She has a lot of charisma in her own way. It was fun to see her in this as I'd only seen her as Maggie. I've always wondered if B&B did any promos internationally when Lane Davies filled in as Ridge, given how popular SB was overseas. Who were your favorite temps?

Was Kathryn gone that long? I thought it was months but not that many. I think Sam was Royce's twin sister.

A very very good and very underrated temp replacement was Marc Wolf on GL, replacing Frank Beaty, with little prep, in extremely brutal scenes. He was seamless. I'm sorry he didn't get more work out of that. I also really liked the temp Lyla on ATWT - she was good and yet not an Anne Sward clone.

I'm not sure. I guess you could say a temp replacement who later became permanent, but they don't seem to work out that well (Graham Winton, whoever replaced Laura Malone on AW). Hayley Sparks seemed popular when she replaced Beth Ehlers on GL, to the point where there was talk of her permanently being in the role. Cynthia Watros got some publicity for pinch hitting for Jensen Buchanan on AW, and people seemed to enjoy the change. Anna Stuart said she had no idea how to play Vanessa until she saw the clothes.

Some months ago I posted a clip or two which had Lydia Bruce temping as Alexandra Spaulding in 1984. This episode has a few more scenes of her. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhIjyTolp4U

McCain changed all of his policies to have a credible chance of getting elected.

Irna Phillips supposedly hated Jane House (Liz) for appearing as a stripper on Broadway (in Lenny) at the same time she was playing Liz on ATWT. Irna gave Liz serious pneumonia or something like that and had her in the hospital dying. Fans called in, furious, and the brass wouldn't let Irna kill Liz off. Jane House, annoyed at Irna's writing, quit, and they recast. Irna still wanted the character dead.

That's fascinating. I never knew that. I knew about the fire being on some P&G soap but didn't know which one. Did you see the posts about the story with Wade's death, the death of Tony, etc.? What did you think of that story? Wade's death sounds so grisly to me.

I wonder what the plans were. What did you think of Cody? I wasn't watching that much but I don't remember him having a lot to do. Brody was gorgeous though. Do you know if they had a lot of plans for that stepbrother of Ashley's (the actor went on to have a big role on 24)? Was that scuppered because Eileen returned to the role, or did the show just feel it wasn't working?

Were there ever any plans for Victoria/Cody? What did you think of the stalker story?

I had no idea of all he'd went through. I can't imagine David Bailey as Alan - solid actor but I rarely saw charisma (although people have said he was brilliant on Passions, so I may be wrong). Chris just defined Alan...if that part was recastable GL never showed it. Bernau was such a perfect match to the very odd beast that was GL - witty, vulnerable, arrogant, delicious, most of all, human. It's even more of a credit to him that through all this illness he managed to keep Alan with such a romantic and sexual nature, with women as diverse as Hope, Rita, and Reva. That vitality and sexuality is something the show, for whatever reason, never bothered with for other Alan recasts.

Thanks.

I'm not even sure if they used this version of MGL at any other time. It's very moving, and appropriate for Chris Bernau, who was such a vibrant presence, so vital to GL, and irreplaceable.

Who was next...Hardy? What did you think of him?

Thanks. I knew Sam was on AW at the end (I was one of the people criticizing that writing) but I never knew he was on AMC. Watching the scenes where Laurel died, perhaps because I didn't like her, but I found most of the reactions to be very staged and fake, cliched. The only part which got to me was when Trevor was going to take a swing at Michael, and a desolate Tim stopped him - that was what finally made Trevor face reality.

Another example of the nature of "family" groups. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/walsh_gets_pro-family_award_despite_child_support.php?ref=fpb Meanwhile, Michigan is on the way to passing a law that says it's fine to bully someone as long as you have moral reasons for doing so. Isn't that nice. http://michiganmessenger.com/53702/senate-passes-license-to-bully-legislation

Was the boredom and Kenney just based on GH?

That shows a lot of class. On today's GH, they would have said Holly and Luke had an affair and sent dirty photos to Robert and Laura to prove it. Did you feel that Kenney weakened the female characters? There was a letter in SOD at the time complaining about that.

Thanks for replying. Do you know who he wrote out? I know Brian and Claudia were phased out but don't know about anyone else. Who did he bring in?

The story was so bad that I can't remember either. I think they would have worked if Nola hadn't been written as so pathetic by that time, and if it had been a real story, instead of her being in love with him overnight just as an obstacle to Jenna/Buzz. What did you think of Kirk/Sam?