DRW50

I can't remember any either - there were a number of miscarriages instead. A far cry from soaps now with endless babies. Seeing Bill, Michelle and Ben as friends definitely endeared them more to viewers, at least with the original actors (the recasts never recaptured it). I don't think it helps with your memories that Shayne and Marah never had anything interesting to do as adults anyway.

I wonder if Frank is trying to sabotage Lucky's return. He had to get rid of a number of his friends, and he clearly wasn't interested in bringing Lucky back himself given that it hasn't happened over the last decade. It also seems convenient that they decided to start the story when Genie Francis was away, given some of his issues with her. Then again, they did a lousy job with Jason's return too, so maybe they are just surrendering to complete apathy.

I thought Laura Bell Bundy was OK, but I never cared enough about her or her stories. I think the circumstances of her firing ended up making people rally around her. I do think she was more believable as a Lewis and a Shayne than Lindsey McKeon, but you're right that the writing was never there. When Reva first returned there was natural conflict to be found in Marah and Shayne preferring Annie to her, but the show had to make Annie evil because that was the easier choice (and that probably did save the show from being canceled). Kimberly J Brown was the best of the Marahs, for whatever that was worth. I remember seeing a bit of an episode where she briefly returned, which must have been odd for viewers who had never seen her in the role originally and just remembered a vapid blonde tearing off her clothes and begging to be raped. IIRC he did have a very loud fanbase, which similar to the loud fanbases for Gus/Harley and Michelle/Danny seemed to dominate the show's final years. I remember being bewildered at the time because I actually DID like Bradley Cole as Richard, and I even liked Richard/Cassie (even if he had more chemistry with Edmund...), but I was not sending flowers or doing letter writing campaigns for him, and I sure wasn't interested in watching him [!@#$%^&*] Marah or Beth or whoever it was on the floor of a Chinese restaurant. I liked him at GL too, the little I remember now. I know he had one of those generic "goes overseas and is scarred by war trauma" stories soaps love. I think he did his best with some shocking material at AMC. My good will did not go far enough to watch the retcons of Nina he was involved in on Y&R. I do think having two former AMC men leading in GL's last year is a reminder of how the show had lost its identity, although AMC got their own back by hiring RPG, I suppose.

It goes on and on and on, with some of the all time worst "journalists" out there, all in a certain demographic...

He had a lot of potential and felt very natural. Failing with Marah and Shayne recasts around that period is one of the reasons it was so easy for Jonathan to just devour the show. I can't even remember if either of them had any real interaction with him.

Given the rumors that she's had to deal with for much of her career, it's also a bit saddening she is taking the same path. Between that part, the Qanon rambling, and the revelation of just how much control Randy has over his career, I mostly leave worried about the state she may be in at present.

Thanks as always @slick jones for all this work. I did a double take realizing Hardt was not Constance Towards. And thanks to @jam6242 for the James Earl Jones interview. More in depth than I had expected. I'm glad he had a positive view of the soaps.

I remember all the talk about the wrestling videos... He seems to have an Instagram where he still does casting. If it's true, good for him.

If you haven't seen Susan Dey's SNL episode she's a lot of fun and does an OK job with the comedy. (sorry I know this is off topic)

I was barely hanging on around that time but I mostly just remember him as very wooden and...not overly believable with the ladies.

He wasn't working as an actor then either. To be fair, he did seem to have success in casting, if that is the same Marty West (you can never tell with IMDB).

She is also getting a lot of support from people who are using her to stir up more racial hatred and reminding us that Trump has done nothing against black people, and so on. She is so high profile it's a dream come true for Trump, although I think opinions are much more baked in this year than in 2016 so it won't have as much impact.

@Vee Thanks. I saw some of her sycophants going around saying it wasn't an actual affair and the whole thing was being overblown, or who cares this is just typical of the industry, but if he is going around showing smut shots of her then it shows just how dangerous her actions were. And it shows just what a piece of trash RFK Jr is, 70 years old and still the toxic frat bro at heart. @janea4old That's horrible. Another example of the nihilist, slimy Gawker mentality in so many of those types of papers. The little I read about the article after you mentioned it sickened me.

I was saddened to read this, but it does remind me how many out there do believe and end up spreading these attacks (I don't think Janet meant it in a negative way).

They did, yes.

Goutman also had nudity on ATWT around the time of the moral panic, so I think other factors must have been involved. Admittedly those scenes aired earlier than GL's. I had totally forgotten he briefly walked out in December 2003: https://www.soapcentral.com/guiding-light/news/2003/1222-conboy.php

You're right. I wonder why she even had such a push for Conboy - did they have a history together in the industry? I remember being a bit excited and positive at first but you could tell nothing was going to work out. James might have been the best fit of the names mentioned. She wasn't great at AMC, but she had her moments, especially considering McTavish was so out of control during that period. (similar to her GL run...and most of her soap runs...)

To me that story that worse than any of the other plots you mentioned. I grew up watching Ben and then I had to see him used in a plot that told viewers if you are sexually abused, you will become a serial killer, and you should commit suicide. I could never forgive that storyline. I think it was the antithesis to everything GL was supposed to be - the lighthouse, redemption and a better way. If I wanted to watch that I would watch Ryan Murphy's perversions.

I don't think either of them would have been especially capable either, given their runs at AMC and OLTL, although I would have taken them over Conboy. Offputting as some of Wheeler's choices were, nothing disgusted by as much as the "psychology" BS used to push exploitive trash, especially the Ben story. I am still surprised the show even managed to survive for five years after Conboy. I suppose they benefited from CBS not having found alternative programming yet.

Thanks. It seems like the only way to ever get new clips beyond the rare finds through Youtube or Archive is from the actors who saved their tapes.

Nothing much new here about the worries over working class white men (and MOC to a degree) but I did not realize that some polling shows the parties even on social security and Medicare. Another example of how much media water-carrying benefits Trump. https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/20/trump-union-voters-democrat-fears-00180171 Speaking of trying to help Trump: https://www.augustachronicle.com/story/news/politics/elections/state/2024/09/20/georgia-elections-offices-can-hand-count-votes-on-election-night-says-board/75310521007/ A poll came out yesterday, from Morning Consult, saying Colin Allred is ahead of Ted Cruz by 1%. Trump will likely drag him over the line, but it's still a positive step.

Hilarious.

This always annoyed me. Not as much as it did with Lois & Clark, as the stunt casting ruined that show after a decent first season, but it still annoyed me. I actually preferred the first season or two (it helped that I didn't know what a piece of [!@#$%^&*] Scott Baio was), even if it was never a good program. I remember preferring Burke's Law.

Thanks. Sorry for not tagging you. I remember at the time wondering if Carly might sleep with Andy as that would have been a believable step in her plan to get Mike, given that he was Mike's good friend. One of the reasons that I was and still am so annoyed at Andy's firing in 1995 is that he was pretty well-integrated in the canvas, even with his closest partners all gone. There were so many places to go with Carly in that original run, although I think Maura was right to leave at the time given that she was having a baby and the show had had her have a miscarriage while pregnant in real life, which I hate. (I am not saying that's why she left - I assume she just wanted to focus on being a mother)

Coming from you that means a great deal. Thanks.