DRW50

Thanks. Very sobering read. Josh Taylor also wrote something. It's just so awful. I can't imagine what the cast must have felt.

Very odd outfit. It's like a naughty pilgrim. They really slapped a lot of makeup on Erika in those first years.

That's interesting. Too bad they didn't ever bring her back - she wasn't able to have children so she could have competed with Liz for the affections of the various offspring. It's a little offputting that Janet, Pat, and Alice all had stories about how they were unable to have children.

Thanks. I've never seen that. I'd never heard of these people Ingrid or Sven. This story seems so convoluted but also sounds like fun. I'm always so fascinated by what they were doing with Ellen at this time. The idea of patient Ellen quitting a job...I guess this is when David still had amnesia? Or he and Ellen were estranged, at least. The idea of her being interested in another man. Too bad they never gave her a story like that after David passed away (she flirted but that was it). Karen seems like such an odd character. There are a lot of very quirky female characters on the show at this time - Karen, Margo, Ariel. I wonder how viewers reacted. I also wonder if that's why a lot of these characters were never mentioned again after leaving, even though there was certainly reason to bring back or mention Ariel and Karen in later years. I wonder if they were a little too grey for Marland.

I never knew about the short wig. I wanted to ask, what was it like during the year that Jacquie was away from the show? Did you notice her absence? What was Steve doing? I know that she came in and taped a few scenes at one point. I'd like to see more of Douglas as Elliot. It's strange that we went from that to Daniel Davis going hog wild. I think Beverlee was asexual as Iris, but as Alex she had some sexuality at times, like with Roger. So what stories did Janet have? Odd that she just vanished.

I haven't watched the clip yet but I kept wondering if they were related to John McCain.

She looks very exotic there.

Here's Mark's goodbye episode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgqefK2d3bA&feature=related

I liked Pam. I thought she worked fine as a long-term character. I guess from the show's POV she didn't, but, as an SOD review at the time said, Lily steamrolled over her, and every other female in her age range, with the exception of Meg. What I liked about Pam was that she was a decent person and a quiet person, which is something a soap needs when the other characters in that age group are OTT. Any scene with Jessica and Shannon makes me sad. I still hate what the show did to the characters when Shannon came back. Adam was conceived in late 1987 or early 1988. Margo and Tom reconciled, Margo learned she was pregnant and it had to be Hal's. She fled to Greece. She had the baby in August or September 1988. They passed the baby off as Tom's until sometime in April or May 1989, when Hal found out. The fallout went on for quite a while, as he didn't find out for a year after this that Barbara had known and kept quiet. Nella Franklin quit the nursing program and moved to California with Beau. I'm not sure what happened to Roy. The parents just faded away I guess. Mark was Glenn Harrington's brother. Shannon turned to him during her estrangement from Duncan. She didn't trust Duncan and she thought Glenn was a hero. In actuality Glenn was working for Stenbeck and had killed her Uncle Earl. Glenn was killed by Stenbeck right before Stenbeck shot Hank Elliot on the heliport. Shannon was devastated, and to compound it, learned she was carrying his baby. Mark was a very nice guy and when he came to town he and Shannon got together, and they spent a lot of time setting up the Earl Mitchell Center. Unfortunately Shannon lost her baby. Mark realized Shannon would only ever love Duncan, and he left town quietly to try to make sure Shannon didn't have to face the burden of breaking up with him. There's a very nice episode where Lyla is singing "I'll Be Seeing You" as Mark says farewell. This was a depressing story and it seems insane to me to leave Shannon and Duncan apart for a year and a half, especially since the story drained all of Shannon's humor and personality. But I will say that this was some of Margaret Reed's best dramatic work on the show. I know what you mean, but I think they could have had her as a third party without actually being one - sort of the way that John was a third party with Kim and Bob even though he long stopped having feelings for Kim. I love the idea of Carol as some sort of confidante to Lucinda. It would have been a nice humanizing effect for Lucinda, which she didn't really have (the closest was Sierra).

Marty's first scenes. Some nice scenes with Megan and the people in her life. I always love anything with Marty and Andrew. In the first scene, look for the Episodes Magazine cover with a certain AMC name. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lisjO6kBpbE

Yes that was great. My favorite was Jessica Tuck.

I don't think she should have been killed but it seemed like the show lost interest in the Tylers around that time, whether they were alive or not. Look at Linc, and Chuck a few years later. I just don't know why they wrote Paul out. He seems great to me.

I think this was Charles Colson. Or someone Colson. I always type "Chuck Colson" but then remember that's the Watergate guy. I do wish they'd kept Carol around in some role. I've said this before but I would have brought her back during the Tom/Margo breakup periods or when Margo was off the show in early 1993. She would have been a big contrast to Margo, far more than silly characters like Taylor, and it would have used Tom's past, when, aside from the story with Lien, Tom seemed to lose everything before the year 1980.

That's true about Nancy. It's something I wish I could see. I'm glad a few episodes about the fallout of Adam's paternity lie are available now, as you can see some of Nancy's reaction to this lie, and how it obviously deeply upsets her. There's an episode she's only in a few bits of, but she's at the Stewart cabin with, among others, Ellen and Dani, and there's some sadness from her, I guess because she sees Ellen with her grandchild and it reminds her of what's happened with Adam.

Yes. Ilene was backburnered and then fired due to her weight. ABC meddled again and again. Sometimes this lucked out for them (like firing the perfectly capable but quirky Andrew Robinson and ending up with the superb Daniel Hugh Kelly), but many other times it was a disaster. If we're talking about anything Agnes did to RH, I would talk more about poaching Julia Barr, although Reenie was probably a short-term character anyway.

I guess it's the lack of toupee.

I don't think it was a big mistake to write Steven out under Berridge. Wasn't this after Steven had written poison pen letters to hurt Ian? Steven probably needed to get away. The biggest mistake was that hideous storyline that told viewers being bisexual means you are mentally ill. I'm so tired of seeing that sh!t on TV. That's not what it means, really! I also had little use for the story where Jane was shot and couldn't have kids, as it basically destroyed her character, and, along with the need to have Lucy with the same annoying stories and smirks again and again and again, destroyed the Beale family.

It's not that I object to adjustments, it's that I think the adjustments made the show unwatchable, although that's just me - I know there are a lot more Joe Novak/Kim Harris fans out there. But when you get to things like ABC firing Sarah Felder because they thought she was ugly, it does seem like very bad meddling, especially considering the Barbie recast.

I think Stephanie was already off AMC by the time Kate Mulgrew was leaving RH. Wasn't Karen Gorney already back by then? I thought Karen left for good at the end of 1977.

They actually look like Donna and Leslie there.

I love those ridiculous '70s sunglasses. Carol McLaughlin meets Rhonda Weiss.

Regarding Jon Huntsman, beyond any moderation, I think he's just out of touch with his party. Going to a GOP debate and telling Nirvana jokes?

I know what you mean about child actors, but I often feel like if a child actor is good then that's why they stayed in the role. What did you think of Andy Kavitovit? I guess he and Scott aren't the same as child actors since they both came in when they were teens. Reading about this era seems very interesting and you can tell they did a lot to revitalize John, but it reads like they didn't quite get ATWT's core (either that or they were told not to focus on the core). It's a contrast to their GL work, which seemed to try to follow the show's traditions and history. At ATWT, while I can see where they made some changes they had to make, other things seem very tone deaf, like the Kim/Nick story, the one Kathryn Hays said she got the most hate mail for.

Nancy Frangione in that little girl dress is a little cringeworthy. I always imagine, around the time of Kate's funeral, some AW fan who had started watching AMC and doing a double take when he saw bitch goddess Cecile guesting as sweet Tara Martin.

That part of the recap about Steve letting Andrea burn to death because she was a whore - ugh. How did that play out? Was he lying or did he actually mean that? I know Andrea wasn't actually dead.