DRW50

I think a lot of the AJ/Carly material was down to Steve Burton's issues about the Jason/Carly pairing. And maybe someone at the show did think it would work to put AJ and Carly together, but no amount of times we were told they were Alan and Monica (which I hated - be yourselves, not another pairing) made up for a lack of chemistry. Other writers did try more with Billy Warlock, even if he was never leading material. IIRC he was used in a more positive way under McTavish and only when Guza/Pratt came in did they trash him. I think Sean was the definitive AJ for a lot of fans. His exit got a negative response in 1997 (I remember Mimi Torchin chiding fans and saying criticizing Billy Warlock was like if Judith Light had been criticized for taking over as Karen - good luck with that) and the way he was treated when he came back also got a negative response from fans. It just didn't matter because Ron and Frank cared more about spite than what fans wanted.

If they play into the sleaze Cameron would be a good fit, as he was always best as Ryan when Ryan was allowed to be a bit dirty. He's never worked as a sympathetic figure - at least on soaps.

I wish they'd done more to introduce Jessica's family all at once and on a more regular basis. They would show up here and there, but there was a chance to make them more of a frequent fixture in the early '90s. I would have chosen the Hughes kitchen over the Snyder farm too, although I never quite had the emotional connection to it that I did to, for some reason, the house Tom and Margo had in the late '80s and a lot of the '90s. I guess because I started ATWT in the late '80s. I can't remember when that place was redesigned but I missed seeing the old living room. Did we just see a kitchen later on or did they have a living room but just a cheaper version?

That's around when I started reading soap magazines, so I know there was an audience, but it was just hard for me to believe that was enough to kill a huge stunt which would have affected months of storyline. But if he does blame an actor leak, I guess it is true.

@asafi Thanks for the article. I'm glad Maree and Gloria managed to have some time to bond off the set and that she enjoyed filming the scenes. I hope someone may have a longer interview with Gloria about her DAYS run if she is willing.

@TheyStartedOnSoaps Great find. A shame it is unlisted. I just loved watching her as Janice. A real shot in the arm for a moribund period. We'd hear about all the work they did in the fields and once the kids grew up, they're hire hands like Rosanna, but I don't think we ever saw any of the farm on location, aside from some of Holden and Lily walking around outside in 1986. I can't remember how much Marland said about his childhood - I suppose Emma's farm was what he always wanted his family farm to be. Much as it was something of a comfort to see the Snyder kitchen up to ATWT's end, I wish they'd stuck to their guns about burning down the farm in 1994. A part of me wonders if they ended up not having the budget and just blamed the soap magazine leak. Given OJ-mania at the time it's not as if millions were poring over SPW or SOD anyway.

I think she would have left no matter what. Many young women just stay a few years and try to find bigger careers.

That or one of the old Disney villains. Given the beef between Betty and Bea I'm sure Betty loved it.

I'm not sure if they do. Joss and Dex left a dying woman so they could have sex, and she also cheated on a well-liked character, yet viewers were meant to side with them at every turn. This is the show where Sonny shot his ex-wife in the head and was still seen as a hero by many, so they probably think they can bestow the same popularity on their other pets. You'd get some good run-ins with Tracy and Lois (and Tracy and Ned) over that too.

It's an interesting quote because you could easily apply that to Barbara's actions after he arrived at ATWT. The best soaps are character-driven, but many times plot comes first. I do think they would have been better off with Lois not knowing, given how important "the truth" has always been to her, but at least it gives Rena Sofer some material, I guess. I think they would have been better off having Tracy as the one who knew.

They assume viewers will support Drew because he's played by Cameron Mathison, while Willow is just meant to be the most long-suffering ingenue. The half-hearted idea of Drew being a bad boy may be why Cameron is out there saying they are the new Luke and Laura. I guess he's right in one sense as I never gave a damn about that toxic relationship either.

I've heard that quote before too, although I don't feel like tracking it down, if I even could.

A cute caricature of Audrey Landers and Ken Kercheval (an hour into this Win Lose or Draw episode).

Judi Evans, dressed in her pajamas, is in the first two episodes.

https://ncnewsline.com/2024/11/19/legislation-would-place-nc-elections-under-gop-auditors-purview-stripping-power-from-governor/ https://www.propublica.org/article/jefferson-griffin-north-carolina-supreme-court-challenge-election-integrity-network North Carolina is getting more and more dangerous and is becoming a clearer and clearer corrupt state where the hateful state GOP do anything they can for power.

That would be nice. What the Locher Room would have been in another world. That's a good question. I'd guess music rights are the bigger issue.

Hadn't seen this before. A lot more time than I expected is spent on the Angelique vampire story (which I wasn't a huge fan of but it's interesting to hear her talk about it a bit). I miss Lara and I miss this version of the Sci-Fi Channel. I assume someone there thought the first photo was her (it's not).

That clip gives me a specific kind of rage. There are few things I hate more about modern soaps than the smug self-references. Jamey and Ron both seem so much more interested in smirking at themselves and smirking at soaps (and of course a mention of Soap Twitter - how cutting edge) than providing anything that will give them a legacy.

@asafi Sandra Nelson was extremely underrated as Phyllis. She played a lot of the darkness the portrayal later lost. It was unfortunate seeing her just slowly fade away from the canvas.

Thanks. That's amazing!

I just never bought the reunion because most of the time after the reunion took place offcamera and barely involved the kids. He blamed Denise for Amy's self-harm and told her she couldn't leave or Amy's fate would be on her. That's grotesque and was never dealt with because we're just supposed to accept Jack treating women like garbage. I can agree with you about Cindy and Ian, but that just makes the whole thing boring and pointless to me (especially since almost none was oncamera). The other issue here is that I think Michelle Collins actually has more chemistry with Adam Woodyatt than she does with Colin Salmon or Micah Balfour, and the show is so hesitant to pull the trigger on George/Cindy anyway. The whole thing was confusing and tell-don't-show and badly acted to boot.

Definitely. I knew they had some interaction, what with Trisha being Stacey's best friend, but I'd never seen them have a faceoff like this. James Horan is probably my favorite Clay, even if I'm not entirely sure why. It's lovely and timeless. I don't think they ever should have changed it.

@Ben @LondonScribe Thanks to @Forever8 for finding this.

I wonder if that would have happened if Lanna hadn't left. Thanks for the extra details. This seems beneath the characters, in some ways, and is the type of writing more mature female characters in degrading ways that reminds me of later daytime stories, but everyone involved is so easy to invest in and there's enough of a history for most of them (even if not together) where it doesn't just seem like dolls being thrown at each other. Reading the part where Don said he was going to leave Salem makes me wonder why they didn't just have him go ahead and leave (he vanishes around 85 doesn't he?)