DRW50

From what someone in the AMC thread said, she also went to McTavish and they had a good conversation as far as Jean knew...I guess McTavish must have felt Jean was going to SOD to try to pressure her. Or maybe she was looking for any excuse to justify such an ugly killing. It helps explain more why she went out of her way to have Brent being so callous and making digs against Nadine. It's a very bad way to write. I am trying to remember if any GL cast have ever said much about their time working with Megan.

Thanks. I didn't remember he was at AMC. Looks like he was there at the same time as McTavish, if IMDB is accurate.

They may have even gotten another brief Jenny return by that point, although it would have spoilt the power of her death if she was still alive. If Bobby had returned from camp just to harangue Dixie about her pregnancy, I'd respect the story more.

Happy Ryan's Hope Day, everyone.

That's a great idea. It's a shame Greg's only returns were when Dixie was dead. I remember wondering why they didn't have him stay on more often as Lau had aged well and still worked well with Debbi and Darnell. Maybe Greg could have some kind of secret drug addiction Dixie could counsel him through, and she might wonder if he's only fixating on her because she came back from the dead and Jenny never did. I think MEK and Cady still had chemistry up to a point - even their 1998/99 reunion I can buy - but Tad was just so self-righteous and dour by then. After the scenes where seemingly every Martin man in Pine Valley (Paul was busy, I guess) hounded Dixie about having an abortion, I just had no more interest.

Either that or, "Megan didn't say anything about MY facelift, so go read her damn book!" (not saying Kim had a facelift, just thought it was a funny line...) That's also around the peak of her success at GL, probably. Her brief mention of how poorly Laibson handled talent does make me wonder if that's why he never worked in soaps again, AFAIK. I hadn't heard anything along those lines about him at AW, but he mishandled so much at GL.

It's interesting she doesn't mention Kim (beyond the book) or almost anyone at GL, even though she got her daytime start there. Beyond what @Mitch64 mentioned (I wasn't surprised about Maureen being a lesbian, after she returned and was put in some of the Otalia scenes, but the Mimi Torchin stuff did surprise [and reminded me of how messy the latter's SPW run increasingly seemed]), all she says with GL is the somewhat offputting story of how she merrily murdered Nadine because Jean Carol went to SOD to ask her for storyline. I read that blurb back in the day and it never came across as arrogant to me - at most it was a little foolhardy. Her response came across as borderline sadistic. And she talked about Frank Beaty, just sharing more about his breakdown. She did praise his work highly. She also mentioned that she only felt safe in her headwriting job at GL for the first three months.

Thanks for sharing all these details. The ship has likely sailed about fans ever liking Natalia, so Eva should just enjoy the paychecks. I never do any of these, but I hope someone eventually asks Rena about Loving in them. If only contract players can attend these gatherings they're going to lack some big names.

Thanks. Ryan makes more sense than Zach in this instance. I guess Pratt was trying to make up for all the lesbian conversion stories he didn't get to write in primetime or on GH... You're right that these stories, under other circumstances, or with other characters, might have worked more, but not this way.

@dc11786 Always appreciate seeing your posts on the show. I think the show picks up again somewhere after this point, but they do likely lose that edge or social commentary they had in some of these transition episodes. What you mention about Nancy is why I struggle with my feelings for the character. She is just so nasty, with no filter or attempts at camp or fun. I appreciate the honesty, but it can be difficult to watch.

The hype for that story was probably one of the times I could most credibly accuse a soap of queerbaiting. And they both left as soon as they could, to their credit. I still have some vague memory of rumors they might have tried to pair up Bianca and Zach, although that may have just been paranoid fans.

Looks like two other episodes are also on Youtube but I don't want to clog the thread. I didn't know that about Brull.

I remember how grimly lit the place was by the time of that Satin Slayer story - was it just one person who was killed there or was it more? So depressing. I may be wrong about Henry. I remember Palmer being at the restaurant, and then how cliched Henry's family was. They spent so much time avoiding what people wanted to see with Elizabeth Hendrickson and only caved in when she and Eden Reigel were leaving the show. Then they broke up when Eden came back. Still, it was better than anything she has done on Y&R. I can't even remember what they did with Liza in those last few years. I guess they kept having her dance around Adam until he married Krystal. During the plane crash story, poor Julia Barr was stuck in the most unflattering white pants for what felt like 2 or more weeks. They are still burned into my mind. Even in a thankless role I was impressed with Bethea's warmth. I never knew if they were thinking of pairing her with Jack.

The pilot is available, not sure about the rest.

When I watch this, I'm reminded of the "girlboss" era and how far away that seems now. Last year, all kinds of right-wing lunatics in the US and elsewhere went insane over a video of women in Australia having fun in an office. Today the above scene would cause all kinds of teeth-gnashing. The reality of Fusion was never anything so feminist-forward and was mostly just cattiness and man troubles in a cheap, drabby office set. I guess at least it lasted to the end of the show...didn't Erica end up there at some point? I tend to agree. I would be more curious to know how McTavish felt about "redeemed by rape" stories, which she was seemingly fine with repeatedly using when she was headwriter (she had three, including Julia). I remember liking Alberti well enough, as he had some presence, although I wasn't shocked when he was recast. Wasn't Henry meant to be a long lost child of Palmer's? I remember class consciousness being brought back in around this time, but in a clunky, dated way. You had the free clinic with poor Ellen Bethea, you had Reggie, and Trey wanting to help him only for Reggie to turn him in for arson so he could get the reward money. And Laurie and her poor-but-proud father. I remember this mainly because he was played by Robert Clohessy, whom I was very fond of via his work on Oz. IIRC they were starting to pair him with Liza before he disappeared.

This is about as 2003 as you can get, especially what they stick Elizabeth Hendrickson in. Poor Simone. Marcy Walker was still beautiful (and she looked even better when she cut her hair again before she left the show), even if they barely used her by this point. Amanda Seyfried gives a vibe of "why the hell am I doing this," but you can't look away from her. I hope she has happier memories of her time at AMC than she does of ATWT (which she was still talking about scarring her in a recent interview). Agnes also had the story with Devon and Donna Pescow. I suppose there probably were people of Agnes' generation who would be upset at a gay man leaving their property to their partner rather than family (hell, given how anti-gay a lot of people are now, they still get upset over it). The situation is nuanced rather than her acting like Agnes was joining Westboro. With that said, I also felt uncomfortable with the Agnes commentary, because some of it just went beyond dish and into open hostility. And it gives the sense that she's writing from a place of hurt, presumably down to Agnes icing her out.

She also came hard at Michael Conforti. They all seemed to get shots from her, more than the actors. I had mixed feelings about FMB as a producer, but her clear loathing of FMB may have been the toughest part to read (along with some of the doubling down on Susan), maybe because FMB recently passed (to be fair this was written long before FMB passed away). I have mixed feelings about AMC's end. I wish we could see what the original ending would have been. I didn't mind some of the returns, like Dixie and Stuart. I did not like the gunshot ending. I do get that sense in some of her first tenure for Erica, although that also has some strong material for her - it's just the strength seems to go more towards others (Kendall and Mona get more out of the stories). Her second run has the anorexia material, some of Susan's best work (even though Broderick started the story), and then the Mike stuff, which felt like a regression for Erica. Her last run has some good moments with Erica and Bianca and the Cambias murder, but after that becomes aimless. Unfortunately, I am not sure anyone knew what to do with Erica by then.

@TheyStartedOnSoaps What a reveal. Thanks. I never got to watch the Men/Women of Loving specials. Was John on there?

By the time Eileen got to Susan's age, that clause was gone.

More people are going to keep coming anyway so I'm fine with it. I do like the idea of a Keesha recast, if she is treated respectfully.

It was interesting to me how she took great pains to make sure everyone knew she didn't want to kill Dixie, but when she did, she made sure to have fun with it. Other than the many shots she gets in at Susan Lucci, she seems to save most of her invective toward writers and producers. I guess because these were the people (Lucci included) she felt hurt her and were against her, whereas the actors were just vessels. Her strongest actor hate seems to be Kiberd, which, if any of the stuff is true, I guess I get, but it shouldn't have been taken out on Trevor, who was always loved by many fans.

That could work. There would be some conflict for Sonny too, especially if he is mad at her about Gio.

Who wants to see this? Say what you will about the GH cameo, but at least the Golden Bachelorette guy was on a current hit. Is this to help Pratt out since he lost his house?

I didn't see any positive response on Twitter here, although the only popular pairings I tend to see on there were Sprina, Liaison, and the various women those fans wish Ric could be with, but I doubt anyone here, there, or Narnia were asking for Jason/Anna. Or Jason/Sasha. I know the budget is thin, but this would be the time to bring in a new love interest for Jason. I am not saying I want to see it, but he's there, he's overpaid, so why not? There's plenty of story to be found - dealing with Carly's response, to her knowing he's in the mob, and the whole mess with Sasha where he is claiming to be her baby's father. Admittedly she would need an ulterior motive to be willing to put up with this, but she could be some kind of a con who falls in love with him, as everyone falls in love with Jason.

Watching some of the clips of the show (there's an account putting up random day-to-day clips, which I appreciate, even if they seem to have been filmed through a potato), and I can finally see after all this time what good casting Travis Schuldt was as Ethan. He wasn't the best actor, but was believable as a clueless upper crust brat, yet with the inherent "goodness" of being Sam's son. Once Eric Marstolf is in the part, Ethan seems to just become more generic, although that has served Eric well on DAYS.