DRW50

Oh sorry - I thought you meant the last scenes they had together on the boat after Rachel saw Steve's ghost. The scenes at the memorial were also beautifully done.

That's very true. I do respect the efforts the show made for the anniversary compared to many soap anniversaries - there were certainly issues (the Gwen mess, and as much as my heart went out to Iris in spite of her many failings, I'm not sure Robert would have been so forgiving, even all those years later), but Alice's return was a big success. I wish they'd had her come back for the 30th too but I suppose the show had changed even more by that point.

Courtney was a very warm actress, but not in a gooey way, more in a very dignified way, like what you imagine royalty to be. I can't speak for her OLTL run as much, but you can always feel that in her AW work. It was especially striking to me when she came back one last time in 1989 as the show by then was populated by performers who were so different to her. She was almost ethereally vulnerable even as she was mature and restrained - those moments she had with Rachel were beautiful. I remember Lauralee Bell going on about how hard it is to play an ingenue or a "good" character. I'd generally agree with her. Recasting can work sometimes but in many cases it doesn't, especially when viewers have a special connection with a performer. That performer is what strings the character together for them. You have to have that poise and integrity to make the inner life of a long-suffering character work. There are some performers where I don't really love watching them that much, but I respect the obvious effort it took (like Lauren Marie Taylor and Noelle Beck on Loving).

Yes that was another one. Or maybe I am just mixing them up in my head. I think this is the version I remember with the extra guitars: Here's another one (it's not that bad):

@vetsoapfan @Mona Kane Croft Another Jacqueline Courtney scene (in her last weeks before her exit, presumably). A nice little family moment. Even here you can see Hugh Marlowe struggling with his lines a bit.

Thanks. I appreciate your memories. I'm glad you got to see all this while it was airing. I hope some turns up eventually. I'd love to see more of pre-saintly Brooke and more of early Mark too. He had such charisma.

Thanks @dc11786 there have been a number of Capitol videos on Youtube but rarely that high quality.

I don't know either. By the end it had gotten a bit creaky, and they kept experimenting (remember the "rock" version - not too far off this), but Rauch just having a bare bones opening for most of his run helped exemplify the hollowness of much of his vision.

I think that was Elissa Leeds, who had also been on GL and AW as Hope Bauer (I wonder if she ever tried to go back there) and How to Survive a Marriage. I wonder if Brooke and Erica interacted much before Brooke's redemption.

Thanks for your detailed response @Mona Kane Croft . Even if Harney was an adjustment (beyond the charisma issue, her voice is also so different - I wouldn't want her to just do an imitation, but it means a lot of the quiet authority is gone), I can see why fans might have tried to accept her. I appreciate getting the POV on Alice's stories as someone who actually saw them rather than just me reading synopses. The whole triangle with Angie/Willis/Alice does sound like it would be a slog to watch. I'm not sure how it played out but it's hard to imagine sitting through Angie degrading herself over Willis and pining over him for five years, with both actors recast no less. I wonder if they may have planned to pair her off permanently with Vince but the actor didn't work out. Thanks. Sam and Clarice could have been a fun interaction - maybe he could say she reminds him of his wife. I'm reminded of when Hal died on ATWT (years later admittedly) and they kept trying to force in humor by pointing out how many kids he had by different women.

It definitely comes across as a bit more along the lines of Shameless...fitting with soaps of that period.

Thanks as always @slick jones

Was there any mention of Sam when Ada died?

Happy birthday @mikeaw1978

@Ben @Forever8 @LondonScribe From the comment this is July 1, 2004.

This is why all the fallout from the debate has helped them so much. They now have cover for all their cheap shots and bile, from the press and from a number of Democrats and their donors. There's a constant drip, drip, drip, for a week now. I saw a hand-wringing piece about how Democrats in rural areas now blame Biden for their inevitable wipeout in November. Today several more big donors like Abigail Disney came out saying they wouldn't support Biden and suggesting Kamala Harris instead. Sanjay Gupta was on CNN calling for extensive cognitive tests of Biden (while paying lip service to Trump already passing those tests). And from what I've read, George Stephanopoulos is grilling Biden about the same "anonymous sources" and claims against his cognition. This is exactly what they were waiting for to get to repeat the 2016 Hillary playbook. "but her emails" is what people remember, but there were also months of gaslighting about her health. Dr. Drew's interview speculating to no end about Hillary is the exact same line that Gupta is using now about Biden. And it sucks up all the media conversation to where truly alarming stories, like Project 2025, go nowhere. Some would say, "Well that's why Biden should drop out," but even if he does, they will find narratives against Harris or whoever else, because they love Trump on a personal level and they love the money he printed for them. If we all have to pay the price - any price - they're fine with it. More than fine - they're overjoyed.

Thanks. You'd think if they had a decent Ryan actor they would have held onto them, but I guess not.

Another example of the perils of today's "journalism" (whether real or by AI). Real Reason Jess Walton's Jill Isn't On 'Young And The Restless' (tvshowsace.com) If you turned on The Young And The Restless in the 1980s and 1990s, you were likely to see Jill Abbott front and center on your television screens. The character first appeared in Genoa City in 1973, played by Brenda Dickson until 1980. The role was recast with Deborah Adair, who played Jill off and on until 1986. However, the character didn’t really flourish until actress Jess Walton took over the role in 1987

@Skylover Enjoyed reading your thoughts. There are some episodes which seem to suggest awareness of the past (like Harold's scenes with JJ about his tuba) but this seemed to have noticeable errors. I'm not surprised at the lack of interest in giving Melanie that moment, as she has gotten poor material and a lack of followup - I can't even remember if she ever mentioned Sharon after Sharon's appearances early in the revival. I do remember some fans recently, on DS, talking about how contrived the writing was for Sky in 2020 (namely, getting her together when Lana).

Pierson has always seemed fine to me in the material I watched of him. Sanderford is much more generic. I don't know why they recast.

Rich was smart to trade off his TV good looks into a longtime career of aw-shucks roles. If Laura hadn't married well and moved into other ventures, she may have had more of a career...I wish she'd done more as she was so dynamic on AW. Still, she made the right choice for herself.

I remember reading about their falling out (which, sad to say, didn't really help my view of Chris and Nancy if true). I could see the part about her weight being put in for spite, but given how common this was (as Ilene Kristen was also let go from RH around the same time due to her weight), I'm not sure. I do wonder how fans at the time felt about the material for Alice. Unlike Pat, who is more slowly woven into a world of finance, and more gradually put into relationships, Alice, who had mostly just loved Steve for nearly a decade, was all over the place - marrying again, getting engaged to Willis in spite of presumably knowing of some heinous deeds from him (did she know what he did to Sharlene?), taking a large role in running Steve's company, and finally, deciding to marry her cousin's estranged husband after a period of months. This all feels very plot-driven - I think the material that most feels like it could have been character based was her being drawn to Willis, but that isn't really the same without Courtney or John Fitzpatrick (who so resembled George Reinholt - I cannot see Leon Russom as Steve's suffering younger brother) in the roles. For all of Lemay's disdain for Courtney, it doesn't seem like he put a great deal of care into writing for Alice even after she left.

This would have been an interesting idea. Laura Malone could have carried a new show. Clarice and Larry also would have made sense as characters to spin off. (it still angers me that Laura Malone was fired due to not losing weight, allegedly - clearly by that point they thought of Blaine as just a support to Sandy [who was never that compelling]) @Contessa Donatella The clip of Ada worrying about aging was very poignant, especially given Constance's health struggles at that point. The hospital set, what we see of it, also looks perfectly fine - another example of just how damaging the bankrupting "Cheers meets ER meets NYPD Blue" remodeling of JFP was.

I'm relieved to hear the news as I know there was a ton of speculation that the show was ending. I think the show has improved over the last year or so (I still think the Harry killer story was a mistake but at least the fallout with Chris has been powerful) but moving to three episodes isn't necessarily a bad thing if they make the right decisions. If they need any cast cuts I can think of a few very quickly.

Well, it depends on the soap...