DRW50

The late '90s is actually the point where I had grown to accept Buzz. I really couldn't stand him in his first few years on GL. He felt so alien to the rest of the show for me.

@Vee Thanks. Nice to see more Sarah Jane promo material being found. I can see why they cut that line but it's a fun bit.

This is beautifully put.

@Soaplovers That's a good point. Diane is more of a plot device after the Dobsons leave. With the Dobsons there are almost everyone seems to have a motivation and a complicated internal structure.

In soaps, nothing is a coincidence, so it seems fitting that I got back into watching, and talking about, the Dobsons' work on GL, we hear about Bridget passing away. I just wish more of their run was around because so much of what I have seen is top-tier, breathtakingly complex, and engrossing to watch. I often feel that the GL I prefer is messy, wild, mixed with the straight drama (similar to where the show was in the late '80s and early '90s), but somehow Bridget and Jerome got the tone so perfect in their run that they remind me just what a lost artform this more restrained, psychological touch could be.

When Threads first came around, someone I have a lot of respect for warned people against using it, saying it was run by bad people and that he was treated horribly for even asking a few basic questions about the site. I decided to avoid the place after that, and I'm very glad I did. https://mashable.com/article/threads-transphobia-anti-abortion-posts-hate-speech

Santa Barbara may be the first daytime soap I ever watched - it was not the soap (or network) my grandmother watched, and which I ended up gravitating toward, but a babysitter watched it. I think that's one of the reasons I still feel drawn to the show even as I never end up having time to do a full watch. I have to thank Bridget Dobson for how she did help me, and so many others, find our way into soaps.

Another Melba gem.

That's a good point. I guess we need to appreciate any scrap.

Among other soap names, you have Larry Gates (looking the same as he did on GL...) and Ruth Warrick as husband and wife.

As shown with the decision to hire Richard van Vleet when Peter Simon left in 1984. I'm half-surprised they brought Simon back.

I imagine P&G and their wanting to get glossier were another factor. I wonder if Peter's work at Search was what helped him - what I've seen of his ATWT role was extremely dull.

Thanks @Soapsuds . Sad to think how many more episodes of that era we might have gotten if P&G hadn't stopped releasing DVDs. I know the narrative reasons, but I wonder how viewers at the time felt about Jackie and Elizabeth trading off the same three men.

I don't think the passing of former Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson was mentioned here. This is a difficult read about how neglected she was in her rehab facility, hastening her death. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/01/04/texas-eddie-bernice-johnson-lawsuit/

I forgot she was dating Floyd. Thanks. Carter Bowden seems more her type than Floyd, given her crush on Ed, but it's always kind of awkward watching people get together just because they're being written out of the show. Then when she returned briefly in 1982 she was pregnant, although I think the actress herself was pregnant. Still, they really burnt through a lot of life changes for Lainie in a short space of time, and almost entirely offcamera. Having her stay around, maybe clash with Carrie, would have made more sense to me. I was shocked when they mentioned her briefly when Ben Warren came to town in '98 as up to that point I'd never heard her mentioned on the show and had only seen her in the GL anniversary book. I wish more of 82/83 was around just because I would like to know how much of the Eve/Ben reunion was oncamera. For a while I thought that Ben left right after his Amanda split and then Eve eventually said she was moving to Rome (?) to be with him. Then I read he came back briefly, I guess they got back together, he left again, then she eventually left.

I'm never sure how much the comments reflect viewer opinion at the time - I imagine couples like Kelly/Morgan were more fondly received than anything I've ever said about them. I can see why in the random clips it would be easy to rag on Eve but she seems alright to me, especially compared to the versions of her on ATWT around this time. The actress who played Lainie showed some comic flair in The Guiding Plight. I feel like Marland just wanted rid of the character, maybe because all she did before he arrived was pine for Ed (a decision that felt unnecessary considering Holly was already there for that purpose).

I don't think Janet is bad at all - she seems very quiet and intelligent to me when she isn't in the high drama moments (admittedly I have not seen any of the period where she is a leading lady). I think they probably kept her on as long as they did because Rita needed the support, and maybe because of her ties to Ross. She only lasted about a year without Rita, didn't she? I didn't think Lainie was on that long. I thought she was on for a year or two and then written out, aside from a guest appearance when Jackie went to stay with her. Katie was probably kept on because viewers liked her - Denise Pence mentioned Katie and Floyd being the first comic relief characters GL had.

I don't have any interest in that show but I was really happy to hear of her being cast - and it seems to be getting a positive response too.

I could see someone deciding the name sounded hokey, part of the past - similar to '50s soaps like Hawkin's Falls.

I don't think you could have recast Roger by that point. Zaslow was just too integral to the part. I guess Roger and Holly would have had an affair, and Fletcher probably still would have left the show - not far off the way the story played out.

And this was apparently the BEST photo! It looks like a photo for a sitcom that aired for a half season on the WB.

This gave me a good laugh. Neither she nor Laura look too thrilled here. And Burton looks like he just got out of boiling water. I'm aware I am not the audience for this, and many people are who aren't on here, but it's just such a huge waste of money and time. This isn't 2006. Even in 2006 it was beyond stale.

No problem. Thanks for all your hard work.

@slick jones Harry Johnson Dead: Prolific Actor Who Starred In “Harry & Louise” Ads Was 81 – Deadline https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0424766/

Sad to hear about Glynis. It was such a nice moment last year when she turned 100 (and still seemed to be lucid). I adored her in Mary Poppins. No idea Send in the Clowns was written for her.