DRW50

Thanks for the memory jog. Some real mistakes there, although I know Brian was likely for health reasons. I'd forgotten about how he bungled Sharon Gabet. New characters did seem to be a big problem in this timeframe - of those listed I think Zane and Chris could have worked if they'd stayed on, but that might be generous. I like what I've seen of Dee but she would never have lasted. Neal just seems ill-conceived.

That was him, I think, yes. Her father was a venture capitalist.

Thanks. I wasn't watching closely for most of these years. That might be another plot as Chris was still a kid/early teen up to early 1998.

AW seemed to already be doing that anyway, so she may have been successful, but I am not actually sure I'd say her run at ATWT was better than AW in that period, it's just AW was in a worse position than ATWT. AW did make some questionable hirings and firings in 1985, so if she had not made those (like the waste of Jacquie Courtney, casting Taylor Miller as Sally, the exits of Ben and Perry, etc.) then it would have been an improvement. They should have realized Nancy wasn't likely to return for long anyway. The way they behaved toward Laura (allegedly) has put me off ever since I read about it here a few years ago, but clearly this was a decision many were involved with. If only they'd had a Gloria Monty-type producer who would have just recast Sandy if Rich got too big for his boots. While Rich carved out a good career playing goofs on sitcoms, nothing I've seen of his AW work is that special. That's shameful, especially for Clarice, who'd been on the show a decade. I wonder where they said Clarice and Larry were living when they made brief returns in '89 and '93. @watson71 Thanks for the newspaper article. The bit about Robert Sedgwick caught my eye (looking up his photo he looks a lot like Kyra). He has an autobiography. I wonder if he wrote about AW in it. Bob Sedgwick, brother of Kyra, dishonored family as 'drug kingpin' (nypost.com)

Yes. I have never known how long her mother (the homeless woman) was even around.

You're right, but I put a lot of that on Dolan. I can't really say HBS made the wrong choice though. She won an Emmy when they still mattered and had a steady job for another 20 years. In 1996, the show seemed to start a story where Nancy was going to get ripped off by someone - a dance studio or carnival, I don't know. I was barely watching at the time. I mainly just remember because of a few soap articles (and SPW decrying a credits crawl ending in Nancy wearing a clown nose [which is very mild in heresies compared to where ATWT would soon be]). Black and Decker did try to give many of the vets some semblance of story (probably the last writers who did). They just weren't any good.

I do wonder as they only wrote well for Nora for a few years and then it got to the point where she asked to be killed off, then was put into a coma for ages and nearly written out for good, and OLTL only ran about a year longer than ATWT (plus the reboot). Still, Nora gave her a fresh character to play, and she gets to pop up on GH every once in a while. And she didn't have to work for Chris Goutman.

I guess Kelly and Nola were eventually meant to be a couple for real (or maybe a Josh/Nola/Kelly/Morgan quad). Robert Newman - 1958 Jordan Clarke - 1950 Kim Zimmer - 1955

@SFK @Vee @dc11786 @Jonathan @slick jones @Franko @Soapsuds @marceline @FrenchFan @Paul Raven @Sapounopera @DemetriKane @John @NothinButAttitude @Contessa Donatella @Maxim @Liberty City @vetsoapfan @All My Shadows @Forever8 @Khan @TheyStartedOnSoaps @Joseph I had to laugh during the OLTL promo when they talked about the glamour of AMC, given how grimy this episode felt. You can really see the shift from where it had been a year or two earlier. The standout material here is getting to see Robert Lupone and Melissa Leo as Zach and Linda - Zach slithering and then coming completely unglued at the end, and Linda being so nasty yet managing to play kid sister to Cliff. It's still hard to believe sometimes that Melissa Leo was on a soap, especially in this more superficial era, but she's dynamite to watch. On the other hand, this Nina just looks crazy. I am not sure if they cast her based on a resemblance to Taylor Miller, but it is jarring to watch. I have not watched much of this period, so my main memory of the Brooke story was the photo in the AMC history book. Nice to see a bit more here, complete with a very campy big mama who could have made a killing on GLOW. I always forget Brooke and Mark got back together. Mark seems to be one of those characters they didn't know what to do with for most of the '80s, which is a shame, as Mark LaMura is adorable and a good actor. Brooke became tiresome in the '90s, but I give Julia Barr credit for making some of the bizarre plots they gave her in these years work. The Angie/Eugene/Jesse/Yvonne saga wasn't very popular, was it? As is often the case the story with black characters seems isolated. Nice to see Pat though. I forgot Donna and Benny were just getting together around this time. They have a sweet scene that is one of my favorite parts of the episode. Watching this I'm reminded of this whole generation of kids (Laura, Bobby, Frankie) and how wasted they all ended up being.

I agree, although I think HBS would have avoided making Margo as cold and shrewish as Dolan did in later years...although I do think Dolan worked better with Scott Holmes.

She was fired, but yes. I do think they had chemistry, but I can see where people might not. I never thought Reva and Josh were very interesting together but many loved them.

I think that Vigard and JWS had some chemistry, although I put their connection partly down to Vigard's strong presence. Beyond what @Sapounopera mentioned about Marland wanting to recreate Scotty and Laura, I think they may have also had the wedding early because they knew Shipp probably wasn't going to stay around long-term. The whole Kelly and Morgan story was, IIRC, pitched in part as fantasy vs reality - I think Marland talked about the whole image the young heroine has in her head of her first time and the pain of reality. I imagine that was what they would have done with the marriage between Kelly and Morgan too - showing the reality of a marriage compared to the fantasy. They still tried with Cooke but it didn't work because she lacked Vigard's innocence. I think the original plans for Nola were probably for her to remain as somewhat of a schemer, as initially Quint was more of a mysterious figure, not a leading man, and Nola still had some feelings for Kelly. Maybe after they became popular with viewers the show changed course. Either that or Marland's close friendship with Lisa Brown led him to be more reluctant to keep her as a bitch, given the heavy viewer hate she had to deal with and the likelihood that she wasn't going to be able to stay on the show very long. Marland's version of Trish I could see her playing. She was a drug addict, I believe, and was a heavily abused wife. There was a lot of darkness. After that point Trish became an extremely underwritten character and rested on Rebecca Hollen's inherent warmth and classiness.

I always enjoy reading your breakdowns of the episodes, especially those from rarely covered eras. I remember some saying Marland was bad at half-hour soaps, based on his Doctors work, but I agree some we've seen from him have felt well-packed (which is not the case for some other Loving periods, especially a few of the late '80s episodes available). You don't notice repetition of story beats as much. I liked that they used Jim in another story grouping as most of the time I've seen him has just been when he is focused on Shana or on his amnesia. The scene with Ava was better than I had expected - the whole thing reminded me of Delia in the early years of Ryan's Hope.

This also led to the focus group path with JFP claiming she got rid of Maureen because they said she was boring. I don't think GL got as heavily into the mode you're describing until the '00s when they started pandering so much to Gus/Harley, Tammy/Jonathan and Danny/Michelle fans and Bradley Cole fans.

Great to hear your thoughts @I Am A Swede . I think the warm presence of Fredrick Pyne can mask how difficult Matt was and why Dolly later left him. I can definitely see how much Henry mellowed as time passed and he was more of a comedic double act. That never would have been possible if Marian had stayed. Jack is a very prickly character. He remains that all through his time on the show, but it is a better fit in the '70s because the Sugdens were not so depleted and he got more pushback.

Thanks. I was going through all the last pages to remember who to tag but forgot yours.

Considering Kirsten was only on for a year, they could have managed (Y&R did with Lily, and ATWT managed to successfully replace Lucy Deakins), but they just went with a route that had nothing to do with what made the character work or what would impress viewers. I think they decided that Morgan was just the goody goody to Nola's baddie, when it hadn't been so simple. And as was often the case with soaps, they didn't even know what the young demo would want to see. Cooke did get better toward the end, but for the time she was at the center of story, she was bland and forgettable. Even many of the young women cast in horror movies or T&A comedies of the era had more personality.

I'd never heard the story about the rifle. Thanks. He was clearly a very controlled writer as so much of this never bled onto the page (although I do think those last ATWT years seemed to reflect him).

It was a well-produced show. I notice the little details like Stacey's trashed house. (I also couldn't help noticing how many day players or short-term people had lines in this episode, along with real music playing at the party - oh those bigger budgeted days). I do generally like Cabot and Isabelle, but I agree most of the Aldens, at least in the '80s, weren't that compelling. I don't think it helped that Ann and Jack were somewhat blah characters. (Trisha is too but she still works as an ingenue and a contrast to Gwyneth) Lorna and Curtis had more of a spark but they weren't as prominent. Gwyneth is carrying most of the load (and Christine Tudor is great in this episode wrestling with her desire for Dane and power vs her guilt and fondness for Cabot). It seems like the Aldens shifted into a more interesting place with the arrival of Clay/Alex. I agree that there's something compelling seeing Stacey with the college crew - they aged her up too much after this. I haven't seen a lot of Rita Mae but she was one of the best parts of this episode. I liked seeing her struggle with her age and clothes compared to the rest of the girls. In later years when they would have Corinth characters who were meant to be, frankly, white trash, they tended to be more comedic (like Egypt or Norma). Were the other girls with Stacey, Tony and Rita Mae around very often? Roya is always fascinating to watch. I love this dialogue between Ava and Kate because it boils down decades of the character outlines Agnes Nixon put on her soaps. "No, Mama. I want it all." "Baby, nobody gets it all." "I will."

I haven't seen a lot of Eubanks. I've mostly seen Callan White, who is...fine.

You can tell Russia is rattled because one of their main puppets, John Mearsheimer, was out talking about this will doom Ukraine. Another gem from the above mentioned endorsement:

Thanks. I suppose I can see their reasons but it's not as if Court was a huge part of GL. She would have done a decent job as Ann.

I don't doubt she could have, but I'm not sure the show felt the same way, given some of their firing decisions in those years. Speaking of the Ewings, did Clarice and Larry even get oncamera exits? Thanks. Given that Ben and MJ were the first two McKinnons on the canvas it would have been nice if they'd both been there. I do wonder why they didn't just have Sean as Ben's son instead of Kevin's. I know Jake and Kevin were brothers, but it wasn't as if they were close. I can't even remember if they mentioned any of Kevin's messy history when Sean arrived. Probably no time given the show was almost over.

So she turned down the Ann role? I would have liked to have seen Jennifer with some fire in her. I can see the comparisons between the two triangles now that you mention it, even if Morgan just wasn't interesting after the recast.

When did she play Lisa?