DRW50

That would have been DePriest, yes (I didn't realize her work was still appearing in January 1997). At that time I'd just seen select clips of '80s AW, so had rose colored glasses, but I did prefer them. The best I can say about late '96 AW is you had some good actors who made you care when the writing didn't. They were also smart enough to center Rachel, even if the story was dumb (the twins and the tumor).

Tony arrived on Helena's arm - another story that seemed to be dropped.

I think Danielle was killed off in the spring and then Rib (what was his name - Jake?) a few months later, at the Nurses' Ball (starting that weird continuity issue with GH/PC where horrible things would happen on one side of the NB while the other would be fine and dandy). Someone must have taken pity on Katherine. Looking back that's where I should have known she wasn't long for the show and had very few connections left.

You're right. And then she was living back at the Q mansion for a while, for some reason. I didn't pay extremely close attention to early PC but I mostly remember the Rex story being dull and a waste of talent, and Danielle being dull, even if Rib Hillis was gorgeous. I'm not a big fan of money scheme stories in general, which didn't help. I think moving the Cassadines away from their earlier malevolent/gothic roots and into being about money schemes also made them less interesting.

Bekins was definitely the best for me, even if I wonder how he'd be with Reinholt. My introduction to the show was through AWHP. I saw some of their '80s tapes and read their site at the same time as I started watching the show, which was much worse in comparison. I think the first "new" episodes I watched were from late '96.

Neither do I. I remember her sparring with Lucy and maybe the Nurses Ball appearances (wasn't she "dead" for 98 but alive for 99?), but that's it. Reading some of the recaps I do remember some people at the time pointing out how stupid the whole gaslighting Rex story was.

This looks like Ralph Waite is going on a Godzilla-style rampage. I agree that the story lost a lot of steam very quickly. I am not sure if the show, or Ted, were worried about Gary looking too foolish, but Jill veered so far into just being pathetic that it was difficult to care. I wonder if it was cut short.

I can see the similarity, now that you mention it.

That didn't happen until a year or so after PC's premiere. Looking at IMDB she did make a number of appearances, but only a few involved the Dominique story. Port Charles Recaps: The week of January 12, 1998 on PC | Soap Central Port Charles Recaps: The week of February 16, 1998 on PC | Soap Central

Thanks. Great work.

If you want to compare: ia800506.us.archive.org/7/items/another-world_202308/Another World.mp4

That's always how a number of fans operate. The show just doesn't care about Trina, period. I think sitting through some of this is when I moved away from GH for a very long time. It was extremely uncomfortable. I don't know if they were trying to emulate the old Our Gang shorts, but it came across more like Baby Burlesks.

Cindy's return has been pretty rough as they don't even bother to write for her relationships with anyone, even her kids. Just repeats and "shocking" moments. They left so much on the table. She could be anyone. EE has been stuck in repeat and meta hell for years. I still wince at the attempts to make Sonia into Dot and the endless trumpet jokes.

Charlie always seemed too old for her.

Olivia had such a presence. And many consider Black Christmas to be their favorite horror film. Dayle Haddon has also passed away. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dayle-haddon-dead-model-actress-1236094849/

I do wonder how people would have felt if Matt had stayed as Brian for the Dixie/Brian story. The recast allowed them to just make him a brand new character.

Having Cindy attacked shows they have no faith in the story itself (with good reason). The laughable choice to literally recreate a scene from 1986 shows how little faith the show has in its own future.

That's lovely. Thank you.

Given Ron's huge ego it's hard to believe he'd willingly leave to go write for someone else, even if they are a friend. Based on the quality of his work for the last fifteen years, the idea of him shrugging and coasting his way over to another soap may be worse than him being fired.

I think that would be an interesting idea, if the Joss/Carly relationship was more compelling and if Carly didn't seem so empty these days. Still, it would have to be better than whatever else they've done with the characters.

I wonder when they decided to go from Ken to Kenny. Kenny makes more sense for who he was. That photo looks nothing like either of them. I have to laugh at Bobby being included in the ad as insurance. Her relationship with Olivia had no layers under them. She was mostly just the mean mama Olivia lectured. When she cut Olivia off as she left the show, I was thrilled, which shouldn't have been the reaction for the moment. Then we had all the money woes with Olivia and Harold, and I just did not care. It was clear the show didn't either. The only reason they or Michael seemed to get anything to do was because of the expanded episode orders of those years. I didn't mind Harold, but it was obvious Olivia got tired of him quickly, and they shouldn't have been kept together. Beyond looking good without a shirt he offered nothing to the canvas.

It's always hard for me to know what's real or not with fan followings online. With Sonny and Nina, I get the feeling many of them are Nina fans, all of Liz's pairings are mostly just Liz fans, etc. I would say Anna and Valentin are more mutual, even if I don't know why Anna fans would want the pairing at this point.

I wonder if it's his awareness of just how little he matters to the current show, compared to the hype over his coming back and the heyday of his badass shootouts and motorcycle rides. Being one of a million in the Q mansion must be deflating to him, especially since his big years were where Guza and others made sure everyone knew the Quartermaines were poisonous and pathetic. Anna and Valentin seem to have a lot of Twitter fans, for whatever reason.

I imagine everyone here keeps up with Eddie Drueding's channel, but in case you don't, he has shared some clips from 1988 episodes he does not have copies of. I suppose this explains why I have never been able to find the scene where Rachel ices Liz out. I had all those on tape but had to get rid of them several years ago. I hope they show up someday. Sadly, this also means if you haven't seen this period closely you will not realize just how odd and spread thin the show was becoming by the last month of the strike. On the positive side, that means you are spared a lot of the terrifying Chris. I love the Thanksgiving montage in this second set of clips, especially knowing it is our last Thanksgiving with Mac.

They are not good numbers but it's tough to compare to GL as that show went off 15 years ago.