DRW50

I never really thought of the similarity. You're right, they are very similar early on. Early Bobbie is also similar to what we know of Charlotte Bauer. Beyond GL and GH being such different soaps, and the huge popularity of Luke, I think the biggest difference between the siblings is how quickly the show pivoted Nola away from a seedier world. Even after Bobbie was "redeemed" (which took much longer than Nola's redemption), her past was never truly gone. Marland's choice to make the Reardons so nice outside of Nola also meant there was less backstory to mine compared to the Spencers. You had Ruby, who was kind, but also razor-sharp, a reminder of where they'd come from. Nola had Bea, who was the stock sweetie pie mother. By 1982, Nola was moving away from most of the foundation of the character, and there wasn't very much left by the time Lisa Brown quit the show. They could have brought some of that hard edge back in her second run, but it just never worked out, due to terrible, terrible writing from start to finish.

Thanks @soapfan770 So there's another hint of the soap that may have replaced GL, I suppose. There's something very sad in hindsight about the "no signs of slowing down" line. TLW truly was a force in the Keesha story. No comment on Kurt Costner...

Thank you. I never knew that. I wonder if Lemay planned a longer Elena/Dennis affair. I've seen little of Jim Poyner's work to where I don't know if he could have pulled the story off. I did see plenty of Christina Pickles on St. Elsewhere. She was great (especially in the first 3 seasons before they lost their way with the character), but I don't know if I see her as the right choice for this type of plot. I would have hired someone like Dixie Carter (I think this is still before Dixie broke into primetime). And then Lemay tried to bring back the Alice and Rachel feel with Vicky and Lisa. Even if he'd stayed this would have been short-lived as Joanna Going was leaving and Laurence Lau's Jamie just wasn't special. I'd love to know what his long-term plans of Cecile/Jamie/Blaine would have been. They had the opportunity to directly contrast Jamie with Steve when Steve returned but I don't think they did. If Lemay had a hand in casting Cecile, Jamie and Blaine, it does help explain the high caliber of acting compared to some other hires coming soon (although I don't think the casting was the problem in AW in these years, so Rauch probably had the biggest say rather than Lemay). I wish I could see the Jamie before Bekins to see why they recast. I doubt Lemay was watching AW after he left but I do wonder what he thought of where they took Jamie. Bekins could have been phenomenal with high-caliber writing. As it was, he still did a great job, but I can't imagine Lemay just planned for him to be what he was by the time Bekins left (essentially a thoughtful thot). I can see why they flipped Blaine and Cecile. Susan Keith had a unique combination of frailty and brittleness and warmth and coldness (which is probably why Loving went back and forth with Shana so many times), and Laura Malone had the surface-strong-broken-underneath feel of '40s and '50s noir ladies. I imagine Lemay would have had a longer rehabilitation for Blaine, similar to Rachel, rather than just having her brutalized. Susan may have done well as an Alice-type figure - she never had Jacqueline Courtney's warmth, but she did have that ethereal quality. I can't see Lemay ever bringing in Sandy either. Sandy basically took all of Jamie's stories.

Good point. DAYS does know how to honor their history.

It was much easier to watch than I'd feared after hearing of this era of tumult. I guess the claims that things get much worse once the "massacre" takes place were correct. The only part which annoyed me a little was Margo and her baby voice, although it makes sense for how sheltered the character seems. Patty Weaver also has a much lighter voice here than she would on Y&R, which is natural due to aging, but I wonder if they were both trying to play younger or softer (the pigtails in Patty's hair). You can see what a good body Richard Guthrie had in some soap magazine features, which I was reminded of again seeing what a nice ass he has here. (if that's considered objectifying him, then I'll say Mary Frann looks lovely too) The Mickey/Amanda scene was the highlight. It's very difficult for a soap to present two very different points of view and have both be right, but that's the case here. I could say Mickey is being hard-edged (which seems to be the case for the Hortons until their '80s reinvention), but he's not entirely wrong. Amanda and Chris dealing with the consequences of their "true love" affair is much more compelling than what we would have gotten in later years, where Amanda would have gone to visit Alice and Alice would have told her Chris was her soulmate. The Anderson material is also really fascinating and shows you just what a horrendous decision it was to wipe them off the canvas and then gave Mary a botched recast as one last kick. Given how much some DAYS families cling on by their fingernails, I genuinely think the Andersons would still be there in some capacity if not for these choices. I've always wanted to see more of Brooke/Stephanie and now I have. Eileen Barnett is not as moving or raw as Adrienne LaRussa was, but she's perfectly fine. There was no reason to kill Brooke off. I wonder how much of the story reason to separate Mary and Chris was down to the alleged dislike between the actors. It's unfortunate if this cost the show Barbara Stanger, who is very good. (Tom should be written up for telling Mary her father's medical history) It's disconcerting watching this and knowing just how much will be lost within six months. I had a few questions: Was that something the uploader did (they make a few changes sometimes for copyright reasons) having that weird shaking before Patty went into the lengthy flashback, or was that the show's actual flashback style at the time? How long did the show have the format of commercial break, then one last scene going into the closing credits?

I know you've mentioned that before. It's always been interesting to me as I felt a real chill onscreen even by the time of Genie's 1998 return.

RIP Gil Gerard. Gil Gerard Dead: Star Of 'Buck Rogers In The 25th Century' Was 82

Emma and Tony have a good chemistry here (more than they often did as Luke/Bill and Holly - funnily enough Tony seems a bit defensive about those complains here). I never knew Emma had her own talk show. Not sure if this was common knowledge but Tony and Emma say that they insisted Bill and Holly go for AIDS tests before they made love for the first time.

Thanks @Planet Soap Interesting to hear the PR response Genie has to say (that she's wanted to return for a long time) with what she later said (ABC gave her no real choice). Another PR line from Tony ("there is no Luke without Laura") compared to his actual feelings. I like getting to see their stunt people. As you said, the money is just flowing here.

Looking on AWHP she doesn't even seem to have been there a month, so you're right. I suppose the 90 minute runtime means they had already exhausted story possibilities for the mother-daughter triangle in that month. Jamie was so important to Cecile's formative years. I wish he hadn't been replaced by Sandy and then Cass...but the same happened with Jamie in Vicky's life. I'd like to think if AW had gone on, Jamie would have returned, but that's probably naive.

Thanks @Maxim As said above, nice to see your mini-reviews again. I wonder if Josh Griffith had started by this point as the idiot plotting seems to have increased. Like you I refuse to believe Dorian would leave 100K in her home to steal. I've never seen Mia's final episode as Blair and to be honest now I'm not too sure I want to see it. Anna Holbrook was just wonderful and deserved more work than she got. Sadly, this OLTL role will be cut short. Erika is very entertaining in those library scenes. Sloan is a smooth operator but at heart Viki is still repressed and acting as if she's a teenager. I'm not criticizing the acting choice - it makes sense for Viki. Marty has some good scenes with Viki (and Jessica) in this period.

Thanks for sharing @SoapDope78 I was nervous on how long this will stay up but hopefully people can save it in time. I know this footage is available in archives but we'll never likely see it, so this is a real treat for fans in the show's 60th anniversary year.

I think that's what Soapnet would have been best served for. I know how important he was to GH but unless they dig up 5 never seen episodes from 1978 or 1979 I'm good with just one tribute episode for Tony/Luke.

I never notice that it looks like they were in separate shots.

Thanks so much @MissPalmer ! So close to getting an era I actually want to see (Lemay), but any lost AW is worth finding. Glad that this has a bit more of Lionel Johnston's Michael. I would have had so many story plans for that character if I had been writing AW at that time (admittedly they never would have gotten through anyway as I would have made him bisexual and in a relationship with an older male lawyer). @Maxim Yes it's always good to see more of Iris. How I love Beverlee. I enjoy seeing an early, tougher Blaine too...and Vivien as bodyguard. I love that arm grab from Iris. In another life she was a bouncer. This is also some of the earliest Cecile I've seen. I am not sure if she had already gone "bad" by this point and was hiding it or if she was still sweet at this time. Susan Keith's Cecile always fascinates me. @vetsoapfan You may enjoy seeing this too, especially the vintage DAYS. @slick jones @Paul Raven @dc11786 @Vee @Xanthe @Melroser @watson71 @Efulton @chrisml @Tisy-Lish @denzo30 @Khan @cody_1990 @Soaplovers @j swift @AbcNbc247 @anthonymolchan @SFK @All My Shadows @FrenchFan @jam6242

Seeing this reminds me we lost Denise not too long ago. I don't even think Lesley was appearing on GH at this time - I have a feeling they just put her in because Genie wasn't there.

The show had spent years demonizing AJ and Sonny has always had fans, so probably. Oddly they were kinder to him than the coming regimes were, IIRC.

That's a good idea. I'd think JJ would come back, and they can easily just recast Nathan again if they have to acknowledge him. A fight to the death with Helena would have been a good way (although wasn't she dead by then). Heroics probably wouldn't have worked as Luke was not a hero in his last decades. They probably should have had him pass away in a brothel.

Guza did let the whole Sonny as Michael's true father angle go on and on so I guess this is just the Britt version. I could see Britt in the Katherine role of mostly just hanging around for years being vaguely disliked by much of the populace (other than that year or so where they tried to make her Kayla).

@Vee There was a Britt and Emma scene today I think you'd enjoy.

I don't think Vincent had much overlap with Kim (the main person she criticized).

This sums it up for me. I'd be a hypocrite to act like Luke or Geary meant anything to me as a soap fan. "My" soaps were CBS, and by the time I started watching GH in the mid '90s, I felt no connection to Luke. That only hardened as time passed and Geary's clear disdain for the character and the character's foundations also hardened. I don't blame Monty for everything soaps became, any more than I blame JER, but there's such a dividing line, made worse because the better soap years are almost entirely lost to us. That Geary himself seemed to have such disgust for the L&L years informed much of his later work. I think his deconstruction of Luke, and the Luke mythos, would be much more compelling to read about in a paper than what we got onscreen, but that's true of Tony in general. He seemed to have a fascinating life, and even though I disliked Luke and what Luke ultimately did to those around him, I can appreciate his passion for reinvention and wanting to take Luke on his own journey. He never stopped wanting something more, rather than just cashing checks.

Thanks @JAS0N47