DRW50

I think the first part is decent in building up the decay and delusion and introducing the central players, but the second part is a horror show, especially when Brenda Vacarro arrives and it officially becomes the Love Boat for cult murders. The runway shootout is so godawful it still makes me cringe from memory. Beyond the performances and maybe the big scene, the only other thing to really remember in the second part is the chemistry between Powers Boothe and Brad Dourif, who would have a lot of fancams if the film was made today. (This is off topic, I know, but we may as well talk a bit while we wait a decade for another episode)

Luke and Laura are one of the few soap couples where I actually do think adventure suited them more than emotion. Emotion tended to turn to Tony Geary hamming it up and also reminded me that they never had as much chemistry as advertised...not to mention the rape aspect (which they did not mention for many years, and when they did, I wished they hadn't).

I am glad we've gotten as much of Shane as we have. It's been a pleasant surprise. Nice to see Roxy too.

That's a lovely clip. Thanks.

Given how loved Laura seems to be by the show I doubt they wanted to make her look bad. I wonder if it even said "we, we, we," on the page or she just did that.

@gimmetoo Thanks for the obituary. As said in the thread, these details are often off. I read one obituary for Leslie that claimed she was on LIAMST from 1967-1973. That clearly is not true, but AI or whoever just looked at the show's lifespan and put the date. I think it's down to not being serious enough and being too difficult to categorize. If you want a streamlined family, you can't go with the Quartermaines because they were a hydra. Monty wanted to make the show serious and topical. Guza hated soaps, hated light or comedy or complexity, and wanted to focus on his favorite thugs to emulate the primetime and film work that he chased. One of the reasons Leslie probably never got an Emmy was because she was not the type of actress who wove her arms around in hospital chapels or beat her arms against the family crypt. She underplayed the pain, which always made it hit much harder. And it was so true to the character, who had to put on armor to survive her painful upbringing. You could pan a lot of writing choices, but you always felt Monica was Monica. I give a lot of that credit to Leslie. Guza had too much contempt for them to properly write toxicity. Instead, we'd have the comedy, which was often written in a condescending way, we'd have unbearable Emily endlessly telling them how terrible they were and how wonderful Jason was, along with Ned endlessly smarming to Alexis about being the "gatekeeper" as if the family were all pathetic and waiting for his guidance. One of the main reasons I was so repulsed by the tone of that era was the scene where Jason - even as we repeatedly had to hear about how dangerous and damaging the family were - read a bedtime story to Michael in the Q sitting room while using Michael's stuffed animal to cover his bleeding from a gunshot wound. The way that scene shattered the lie told day in and day out was insane, yet no one who ran the show even saw it. It's a miracle the family even survived the '00s. I'm just glad, even if she wasn't given the best, that Monica did. And as mentioned, for all my criticisms of Valentini, I'm glad that he was so respectful toward Leslie. I think of those last scenes and then I think of how JFP treated Anna Lee in a similar situation, and it's night and day.

So, in South Africa at the time of the video (December 1991), Loving ran between Amen and The Wonder Years. What a lineup...

All of those scenes are from 97-98 aren't they?

Of course, Schroeder would be bad news... That movie sounds interesting.

I'd love that (even if Frank uses it to bring Violet back...).

I like those ideas. The one where he was dead could have played into Tad's own return from the dead - what if someone claiming to be Bobby shows up years later and they struggle with whether to believe him or not because as far as they know he was murdered as a child?

I would have preferred that to the cliffhanger they used.

The Patrick Clohessy channel on Youtube is uploading Savannah's run. Savannah has a thread on here if any fans want to try to PM the mods to unlock it. Last used in 2014. Homefront is also seemingly up in full, on the YonatanDoron channel.

That would be a lovely idea. It's already become a community center of sorts anyway.

It's hard to imagine where they'd be without Jane. I'm glad they have allowed Tracy to have more layers. I felt the writing for Monica vs Tracy often lacked depth, but Leslie and Jane always gave their best. I was watching a clip on Twitter where Monica was looking at the family tomb and it just reminded me of how ghoulish the show's choices were to slaughter so many Quartermaines. Bless Leslie for playing the material in such an understated way to emphasize the sense of loss Monica had without gnashing teeth. Leslie always underplayed Monica's grief, which made it hit harder. It ends with a quietly sweet moment where she wishes Lila a happy birthday as we see her grave. That would be a great idea, even if Steve will never do it.

That would probably be the most dramatic, but it would make me nauseous.

I'd be surprised if it was anyone else. Either him or Olivia (passing from one Q wife to another)

Thanks so much @Wendy Claudia was just a mess, but that first season was her best, and Kathleen played the hell out of her. I notice she doesn't mention Passions. I wouldn't either... Sometimes I forget that when Kathleen was brought in to play the "older woman" on AMC, she was only 32 years old. (and only 3 years older than Mark LaMura) These days on soaps 50 year old women are written like 18 year olds.

I have a vague memory of that Lesley and Monica scene from the early '10s. Knowing Lester was Leslie's nickname on the set adds a certain sweet footnote to that confrontation. Thank you for sharing Monica's final scenes. In of themselves they aren't anything special, but they are pleasant enough, and after so many losses Monica suffered it's nice to remember her last year was spent with a houseful of people. It's depressing to know Michael probably won't be involved in Monica's death or funeral, but I hope some writer manages to use that for added poignancy - have Jason feel some regret that thanks to him Monica's grandson can't be there for her.

This has two parts. I didn't even know any news programs had a 'soap chat' segment in 2024. Amusing to see Rena have to skirt around the Gio question.

Thanks. I was probably thinking of Nick Benedict as he was the second Phil. I wonder if Rosemary was ever asked. I know there's something poignant in Amy just leaving and never returning but there was good material left unmined for a future appearance. I do hope there's more out there. I know there were a few episodes Rosemary Prinz may have had (unless these were the episodes). And yes anything in color would pop after so many kinescopes - I think we've only ever seen a minute or two, in Ann's boutique.

Thanks @All My Shadows I completely missed those when I looked through that account. The AMC I saw were just Soapnet repeats. Rosemary Prinz is such a wonderful actress. Those scenes with Phil and Amy are tough to take - just the right type of soap performance. I wish they had found a way to bring Amy back sometime before they killed Nick off, even for a visit. Or even after Nick was killed, to meet Charlie. So rare to get the screaming and wailing we get from Ruth late in the second episode too. I sometimes think the show made Ruth too stoic later on. Joe looks oddly different with that side part.

That's such a beautiful image. I'd like to believe that's what she is doing right now.

I was just thinking again recently about her absence and then was reminded in a Donna Mills interview I found yesterday about how important she and Leslie were to Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. Heartbreaking. So many losses for the GH family but this is one that directly affects so many of my GH memories. By the time I started watching GH, Monica was more of a support character, but I still appreciated Leslie's work in any scene she had. There are few soap actors who ever crackled with as much life force as Leslie did. She could often be reserved in drama and wry in comedy, but you never sensed she didn't care. No matter how rote the material might be, she always gave everything she had. I was fascinated when watching her. She was one of the most intelligent actresses soaps ever had. And something she never got enough credit for was just what an easy chemistry she had with all her scene partners, whether in love or war, in giving medical news or being a mother or having a coffee with Bobbie or putting up with Amy's nonsense. She loved the Quartermaines even when the show didn't. I remember her quote about how Gloria Monty had tried to get rid of the family with the Eckers, and by the end, most of the Eckert scenes took place in the Quartermaine living room. I'm sorry she wasn't able to be there during the relative renaissance period of the last few years for the family, but they wouldn't have even gotten to this point without her. I've never forgotten the interview she gave to SOD about how uncomfortable her debut as Monica was because she had to tell her co-stars that Patsy Rahn (Monica #1) had been fired. She was also a huge Elvis fan, and Elvis had recently passed away. Eerie as Elvis had his birthday not long ago. She has some good stories here on this subject: https://www.soapoperadigest.com/content/tbt-leslie-charleson-2/

Promo around 7 minutes in.