DRW50

Thanks. Did Matt have a brother? I guess Maggie had a daughter? There was a little girl in the episode.

March 1985 SOD. John Kelly Genovese remembers LIAMST.

Not exactly the most flattering photos for an ad. I wish I could see the premiere that got so many complaints.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the fans just never noticed. Emmerdale, the UK soap I used to watch, dropped "Farm" in the late 80's but a lot of older fans still call it Emmerdale Farm. James Lipton isn't much of an actor either, if the few GL episodes of that era I've seen are any indication, but he did have a sincerity and boy next door appeal which made it obvious why he was so popular. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't left GL, if he would have lasted a long time, or if he was probably being phased out anyway.

The 90 minutes does seem like a bad idea, to the point where I end up wondering if they just had people improvise half the material. From the synopses I've read of the late 70's it seems like John had become a very weak man who made a lot of horrible relationship choices. I wonder if the show felt he was therefore disposable. It never made sense to me why they just wrote Michael out. I guess they thought they had Dennis, Jamie, and Joey, but in 90 minutes, that's not really enough younger men, especially since Jamie/Dennis shared the same storylines. What did you think of the Angie/Willis/Gwen stories? Did you like Toni Kalem or Maeve Kinkead better?

Thanks for reading. I wish we could see more of Peggy too, and Peggy/Roger. It's kind of the forgotten relationship for his character. I remember someone once saying that the story with Alan and Ed living side by side happened to help set up the Rita/Alan affair, but watching the clips from 1979, it seemed like it happened several years earlier. When exactly did Ed move in there? I know the clip where Ed and Roger are fighting has a different set. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=pdnwF5O_Z4Y

Thank you for letting me know. I'm glad he had such a long life. I wish these actors had been interviewed in later years to talk about their shows, or what they could remember of their shows. I think the only person connected to Brighter Day who has spoken about it in recent years is Sam Hall.

What was the point where you think Lemay's work declined? Was it around where he felt it declined (the era of Sven, then Pat's murder trial)? I wonder if P&G didn't want a longtime heroine to be with a younger man. I notice that the times AW did this it was with new or recently returned characters (Elena, Susan, and of course Felicia, although she seemed to flirt more than have serious relationships with younger men). This didn't seem to really change until the 90s, with Donna/Matt.

Thank you so much for reading! I know this stuff has a limited audience so I'm happy when other people enjoy it. Do you know what happened to Blair? His last credit at IMDB is around 1966. I wonder if the show didn't have any strong voice fighting for it, the way most of the CBS shows in this era did. It may have been seen as old-fashioned or warmed-over. Or perhaps the recasting of key roles caused a problem. The show really could have run for a long time with the right care.

What I don't really understand is why they got rid of Pat but kept Alice. Was it only because of the upcoming Steve story? It seems like AW had a very hard time with younger heroines beyond the early set (Alice, Pat). By the early 80s, when youth was the heyday, they only seemed to have Sally and Blaine. I guess there's Julia but I don't know if she was popular or not - the show seemed happy to discard her. I wonder if it was P&G who wanted Pat gone. You'd think, since there was a history of younger men being attracted (wasn't Marianne's boyfriend - the one Pat killed after he tried to attack her - younger?) to Pat, they might have done a Pat/Jamie storyline, especially with the tension over his book. Wouldn't that make more sense than his random relationship with long-missing Susan Shearer? What did you think of Lynn Milgrim's Susan?

I wonder if they should have just written Alice out and had him get involved with Pat. What about a Pat/Mac/Rachel/Steve story? I also wonder if fans just struggled to accept Steve's return. On paper I guess I can see why someone at AW felt Pat had nothing left to contribute, but the problem is on paper doesn't translate to onscreen. Beverly Penberthy had a very unique presence which made her fit in perfectly with the group at Cory. She could have gone beyond the Matthews. Something I notice in the 1983 episodes I've seen, compared to the 1979, is that there's a much different energy, more sarcastic and less serious. It seems like this shift took a further toll on a lot of the characters who weren't going to be able to adapt, or weren't given the chance.

I liked Justus when Joseph Phillips was in the role. I thought he was good as the dull guy who became more and more morally ambiguous. The recast with Monti Sharp was jarring - miscast, poorly written, not very well acted. By the time of Dillon and the later Justus recasts I wasn't watching that much. I thought Skye was a big cipher, brought in more because of RC's friendship with Jill than for any real reason. But I did like her relationships with Alan and AJ.

it must have killed you when Ned shared so many scenes with your favorite character, Alexis. I had the same problem with Ned. Day after day of tongue-clucking moral superiority. I hated the "gatekeeping" crap. What that really meant was enabling. He wanted the Quartermaines to be weak so he could look down on them. Guza spent most of the late 90's minimizing and humiliating the Quartermaines as much as possible. Honestly the only ones I ever actually enjoyed watching were Alan, Monica (and they had horrible writing in the late 90's onward, aside from Alan's pill addiction story), Lila...even that was tough because the three of them were so subjected to Jason propping. Edward was written as a buffoon, AJ a loser, and Emily became loathsome.

That really is an incredibly beautiful opening theme. The Betsy recast is very pretty but her speaking voice is annoying. Who is playing her husband? He looks familiar to me. Chandler Hill Harben is a very interesting recast for Christopher Reeve. I guess Ben was supposed to be hardened by the moments like prison. He is very intense and has some charisma. I'm not quite sure if he was suited to playing triangles with "good" women like Mia and Betsy. The fight scene was hilariously bad but then that's true of most soaps.

So how many actors were fired in the 1975 purge (I think it was 1975)? I know that Sharon DeBord and Lucille Wall were let go, and Augusta Dabney and Peter Hansen. I can't remember the rest. Do you think this was needed or do you think it hurt the show and helped cause a further ratings drop? Were Lucille's health problems a factor? And, given the serious medical problems Emily McLaughlin had at this time, I wonder how close they were to letting her go.

In a September 1984 Digest, John Kelly Genovese remembers "From These Roots."

In a May 1983 SOD, John Kelly Genovese reviews AW.

Thanks for the details! Was that David with Arlene then, in this episode? Do you think they should have kept David around? It sounds like such complex and rich emotional drama.

I took a powder for most of the 00's so I feel kind of like I don't have the right to complain too much but it is just so frustrating seeing what this show easily could have been with common sense and effort. The last year shows some of that unrealized potential. And even then, with some of the great moments, there was the spitefulness of Goutman. I guess I should be happy it ended fairly intact considering what has become of shows like GH.

Thanks. I am glad they don't seem TOO bitter. ATWT and GL are the two I always have the most attachment for, probably always will.

Mystery Science Theater 3000.

That was the first time I saw GH. Seeing those again I mostly just take away how I wish they hadn't ragged on Emily McLaughlin's looks, especially since she had a pretty sad life.

The Tracy/Monica fight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VneCvSTrQY&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Apparently no one on Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten has access to a shower. So what's going on with Vanessa on AWZ?

saynotoursoap posted an episode with Iris a few days ago. I posted it in the Video thread, if you haven't seen it yet. Her work in the episode is so incredible - there's a scene where she is hugging him and has her head on his shoulder, and doesn't want to let go, then catches herself, and looks horrified and ashamed.