DRW50

Not a period of the show I enjoy revisiting, but I don't think this one was available before and I can't remember if it was ever posted here. The audio isn't great. There are some good scenes here with Iva and John, and Lily and Iva (even if it is Iva having to shill for her deadbeat dad brother and his toxic relationship with Lily), although it's tough to hear them. Martha and Lisa are so emotional here - it seems much more like the actresses saying goodbye than the characters. It still makes me sad that they dumped an actress of Lisa Brown's caliber, even if logically I know Iva had been wrung out. I still loved the character, no matter what. Some decent stuff with Royce and Julie too, and Barbara and Hal, Hal's clear dissatisfaction with Fashions laying groundwork for the story that was one of the bright spots of 1994 (Barbara faking her own stalking).

I hope so. I can't remember if I'd read about her and Terrell Tilford breaking up. Congrats to her.

Thanks. A shame. Eileen was just too cold for that part, mature or not.

I never wanted a romantic relationship between them, but I think the story could have worked if it had explored why Jason keeps getting involved in these lies and also had him examine the reality that he set Michael up in a world where carnage is normalized. None of that has really happened. I'm not sure what the point is. I could see Drew blackmailing Jason, but what is the fallout if people find out Michael is the father? If they had had Michael get involved in some type of dangerous business deal, or even said that one of Drew's associates was responsible for the bombing, then the secret would be more important, but none of that happened. I do like Sasha, and I think a soap needs a character like Sasha, basically a "normal" and "nice" character who suffers. She's not alone in that on GH - you could count Liz, and others - but she doesn't have as much baggage. I think SM has a sincerity in her work which goes a long way in making you care. Unfortunately, this current story has boxed her in, whether it was meant as some attempt to cement her or not. Even when Michael inevitably returns, what are we going to get? A custody battle between Jason and Michael might be juicy, but will they have an honest conversation about Jason barely caring about his actual children?

That was the Mindy, yes (I think). I do wonder what the Dobsons wanted for Kelly with Eileen in the role. They kept trying to reset characters back to factory settings, and Eileen was never going to be able to do great as a victim.

Garland did audition for Mindy on GL, IIRC, but was not chosen. She would have been better than who they cast. I haven't watched every moment with the two Kellys, but I think both did well with where the characters were. Robin's Kelly was a long-suffering princess, and in spite of her myriad issues with the show and the producers, I think she brought a great deal of depth and honesty to constant melodramatic churn. Garland played a slightly more mature Kelly, who had more complicated romances as well as more complex relationships with family members like Eden.

You're right. I am a hypocrite. I'm sure Nicole is better looking than many (including me) ...just hard for me to watch her.

Zach Roerig has a new Western out. Day of Reckoning.

It seems like Nicole Kidman gets all those projects. Not to be mean, but I don't like looking at her plastic surgery and I don't really like watching her act.

If that character had been better handled (and maybe cast with a more exciting actor), a pairing with Vanessa and Sid Dickerson could have been interesting. They were from very different worlds, and maybe Vanessa could have gotten involved with criminal justice after everything that happened with Billy. I know P&G wouldn't have gone for it though.

I would argue that didn't really work out for OLTL either, as they only gave him actual story for about a year; it just looks better because he had primetime success and spoke graciously about the show. I do get why they wanted to age Joey, and Nathan was a decent choice, even if he wasn't as good as Chris. I do wish they had kept Kavovit - to be honest I was never sure whether he wanted to leave or was let go, as they were playing him with Tess before he left, so there was some potential story in place. Of course, if they had, he would have been dumped the way Scott Defrietas was for not being "hot" enough. Howarth was always a terrible choice as Paul, but they were just picking a name out of a hat anyway. They should have just cast him as Hutch, or Teddy Hughes, or Mark Kasnoff. Hell, say he was Grandpa Hughes reincarnated. It's not as if anything he was going to do at the show was going to matter anyway, just as it never did at GH.

He did. Smith and Kavovit worked well together for what the Emily/Paul relationship was meant to be at that time. I do understand why Paul had to be recast, even if I really liked Andy in the role...it's a shame they screwed it up so much. I wish the show hadn't put them together again later on, as it never really worked - the layers of those first few years were completely ignored as Paul was just an empty suit and Emily was a grab bag of misogyny and histrionics. This aspect makes sense - unfortunately they never got to explore it onscreen.

That would have been a great idea. Ian was mostly wasted on B&B (not even getting into his GH return).

I agree. This was one of the times Jill bringing in an FOJ might have made sense, although now I'm imagining a Vanessa/Buzz pairing.

@Maxim I suppose all this tells you what negative responses the stories must have been getting (maybe aside from the Dixie/Adam stuff). I feel bad for Nancy Addison. I'm sure you probably already know this, but IIRC the only reason Nina returned was because of fan or network backlash to the Angie/Cliff pairing. Taylor Miller is very striking in her first run, but they never allow Nina to mature the way she should have. I also have come to realize that I just don't enjoy watching Peter Bergman.

I didn't mind Fletcher with Alex. I thought Jay and Beverlee worked well together. My main complaint about the pairing is how much focus went to Fletch wanting to keep Alex in line. This was even more of an issue with Marj's Alex. Still, I liked them well enough to where I was glad Alex left Springfield with him. It annoyed me when Beverlee was in the role that no one was a true ride-or-die for Alex (Marj's Alex was so OTT I couldn't be surprised). These days on soaps, you have characters like Phyllis on Y&R who could burn down an orphanage and still have Genoa City holding a rally for her. The pairing with Vanessa never made sense beyond the show needing to stall until they got Billy and Vanessa back together. The pairing with Holly made sense as a fling but not a permanent relationship.

Yes. I did like Larry. Toward the end of his run, they did play up more of a sanctimonious, unlikeable side (even before they had him cheating), but I put that on the poor state of the writing and also the inevitable result of having to deal with KMH's Emily. Before then he did seem like a supportive, nice guy, with an easy sense of humor. I can see viewers in 1991 wanting him to be happy, especially as there was enough turnover in the male cast to where the only other young guys around were angsty Caleb, Andy, Holden, etc. The Sean story was so odd. I'd love to see Marland's story plans for 1990 because I have the issues with that year which many seem to have with 91 and 92. Much of what is done is aborted halfway through (like the Sean story or "scheming" Lily) or spinning in circles due to impending cast departures (Paul/Emily). And the last gasp of Tonio, which still goes well into 1991. The Casey right to die story is excellent (this is the story that got me hooked on ATWT) as is Kim/Bob/Susan. So much of the rest is a scramble. Burke Moses is charismatic and handsome but his energy is anathema to the Marland era - he's always about to rip someone's head off. That may have been Marland's biggest flop of a storyline.

Bea Arthur in a Jay Leno special I hadn't heard much of until yesterday.

I'm glad the tight unit of the first few decades meant Matt was always part of the family. That wouldn't have happened after the Farm era. I really like Franke and Janie too. I don't know why they got rid of them.

Oh right. That makes sense. Thanks.

Anti-hero/Willie Loomis who [!@#$%^&*]/whatever you want to call him, Harry Sowolsky, her on-and-off boyfriend of several years, had returned to break up her relationship with the rotter Dan Hollister. Dan was murdered, and Harry vanished (someone with more knowledge may be able to tell us if something weird happened behind the scenes). Ann then left to try to find Harry. She would briefly return in 1990 for the Trisha/Trucker wedding. It seems like the show gave up on the character at the same time as they were trying to prune the Alden tree by writing out Shana. I do wonder why they didn't at least bring her back when Jack died. By that point they seemed to avoid returns. I don't even know if she was mentioned in the last years. I hope she was at least told her father had died, then came back from the dead, then died again. Most of what I've seen of Callan White is so downtrodden and that gets worse as the decade goes along. She does what she can, like the Dane/Gwyn cheating story when she's becoming an alcoholic. Still, when I see her, I tend to think of a trashy Canadian softcore film she did with the guy who hosted The Hitchhiker.

That's a great idea.

Thanks. Obrecht's return scenes did feel very forced, although after seeing her have a big welcome with Willow I wonder how she'd react to Willow these days. I also watched a clip of Ellen Travolta staring down Russian gangsters. And this is the first time I realized just how strange the current placement of the Q mansion front door is.

Holly running off to scam with David makes more sense, even if depending on the writing of the time she is either much more sensible than him or much more deranged. I wonder if the fi-core writer who came up with the Blair/David stuff even knew of OLTL. If not that would explain why Tracy didn't know of Dorian. With Jackson from AMC appearing in the same timeframe I wonder if this is something Frank knew he'd only be able to get through during the strike. I think if they cut down on the cast and have tighter writing, they could still have more crossovers, but I agree it shouldn't be a priority. (still, give me Blair over Eva La Rue as the noblest homophobe).

I was rewatching a bit of Blair's GH appearance...there's something very funny about MEK doing the drawl that Kassie has naturally had all her career. I guess she should have gone with him to Sarah Sherman's vocal class to win over the haters. I had forgotten that they claimed she'd had an affair with David. That just would never have happened. She's more likely to have had an affair with Tea than David. Not really what I would have chosen for a final appearance of Blair, but still, not as bad as much of what they did with the character during Kassie's run. At least she still knew just how to play Blair.