DRW50

I suppose it it the last gasp of the jiggle network, which was also a big selling point for Ann Jillian at the time. It's so unbelievably trashy though. I always do a double take at Susan Sullivan, who has always been the epitome of class any time I have seen her, in that getup.

That's interesting. Given how much Marland loved writing for Lisa, I can see that happening. I wonder when it would have kicked in, as everything I've seen of Kelly during and after the reveal, he was sickened by her and only kept quiet to spare Floyd's feelings. (when did Floyd find out about the whole thing anyway?)

The cast is just crazy. How many shows could boast Susan Sullivan, Louise Lasser, Marian Mercer, and Sheryl Lee Ralph? So many passed through the show. I always laugh at how they steadily got more and more covered up. The '80s in a nutshell. That "making a living" version of the song does not work...

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/pitt-discovers-bigfoot-found-footage-movie-by-george-romero/

Patricia mentioned this briefly in the interview. She said they let her go the first time because they wanted to age Dan.

Lala Kent ended up being involved with the sad reveals of Bruce Willis' decline and the coverup by those around him, as there was allegedly an incident on a film they made together. https://www.insider.com/lala-kent-bruce-willis-fired-gun-wrong-cue-2022-3

https://variety.com/2022/awards/news/summer-of-soul-chris-rock-oscars-1235219657/

I hadn't thought about Lisa. That's a good fit, especially since many said Nola got the most hate from fans than any character since early Lisa.

I get it more with Tammy Faye, because while she was a very kind person in many ways, she did take from the poor, but I don't really get it with Julia. Does anyone actually care about the real Julia Child anyway? Don't they just want to see the silly woman on TV?

I think Lisa may have been on Broadway at this time, I can't remember. She does tend to be a bit more stumbly at GL than she was at ATWT, at least early on. I feel like the main way Morgan and Kelly worked was as Morgan's infatuation. Once they are an actual couple, even though Kristen and John did have some chemistry together, the story is over. I do wonder if Marland, as you say, was doing what he would have done with Scotty and Laura - were there ever any plans under Marland to get Laura into modeling? (I know that was her exit story in 1982 - Miss Star Eyes and vanishing) I think that with Jennifer Cooke in the role, almost immediately it becomes clear that she and Kelly don't fit. Yes, they can have more intimate scenes, but that was never the appeal of Kelly and Morgan. I wish the show had leaned more into that, instead of just Josh being the baddie scheming against them. There's a scene in the wedding episodes for Carrie and Ross where Morgan is asking people over so she can try out Bert's new recipe and they can all listen to records. Everyone acts as if she's addled. It feels so much like something they would have written for Kristen - a girl playing at being a woman. With Jennifer it's just a little odd. I think it would have been more interesting if they had just quickly had Jennifer's Morgan tiring of Springfield life, her screwed up family, a husband who was rarely home and wanted a baby. Imagine the scenes where she and Josh lay around on the beach, smoking a joint, Josh joking about what a cow town Springfield is and is it REALLY true that Bert Bauer's husband faked his own death and that Ed had a child with Mike's dead wife, and Morgan feels a bit guilty, but joins in because it is all so strange and silly. Speaking of that, I was trying to remember ( @zanereed or someone else may be able to help), did Mike and Ross know each other before Ross came to town? Mike says he and Ross have known each other for years, and he sings Ross' praises. I know that Ross was, by this time, A Reformed Character, but he had only been in Springfield for 3 years, and for a year and a half or more of that time he had represented the Bauer family's archenemy on a rape charge, and then sniffed around Amanda's money for months and months. I'd certainly have forgiven Ross - just look at that face, pixels and all - but I am not sure why Mike would... Much as Marland's run tends to have Vanessa as a silly little vamp, a camp queen, and much as that can be fun at times (like her wearing black to Ross' wedding), this clip has, about midway through, a beautiful moment of Vanessa, in a dark room, remembering her times with Ross. Maeve was such an exquisitely nuanced and subtle actress. I'm so glad she got this type of moment amidst all the histrionics.

I remember watching Get on the Bus years ago, and a black actor (Wendell Pierce) was cast as a self-hating type who revealed he was only going to the Million Man March for PR purposes. He is finally bodily thrown off the bus after hurling racial slurs at the other men. With that said, I do wonder if people who tune in to see Julia Child's life story care much about her casual homophobia.

And Jane House...

Watching one of the Marland-era GL episodes I don't think I watched at the time they were originally uploaded (although most of his run blurs for me as it goes along), and I stumbled on this weird scene at about 10 minutes where Kelly is marveling over Morgan's headshots and how "sexy" one is. Beyond finding that to be...an unfortunate reminder of just how ill-cast Jennifer Cook was as a model (even if she was very pretty in a TV actress way), I am also half-convinced that this is an old publicity shot of Kristen Vigard and they just stuck Jennifer's head on. This is the type of outfit she was more likely to wear.

Unhinged propaganda. In the comments there's another one, about someone being kicked out of a party because of their Siberian husky dog.

Patricia was very much in control of this interview and got to talk about what she wanted to talk about - to be honest she seemed more interested in talking about her theater work than ATWT, which I can respect. I'd love to hear her talk more about ATWT, especially with her sharp memory, but I still appreciated seeing her and I'm glad that she seemed so happy and that the interview had none of the rambling and aimlessness some of these have had.

Me too. I think this is my first since Eileen, Melanie, or Susan Marie Snyder. That I make time to sit through these reminds me of how close ATWT still is to my heart.

Thanks for keeping us updated @Soapsuds Hearing an 85-year old woman talking about protecting our democracy, gay rights, women's rights...she represents so much that the P&G soaps and ATWT turned their back on. They are gone, and she's still here.

They were also going to recast Emily if Melanie Smith hadn't been able to return (although in another world, that recast might have been better than the one we got a year later). Considering that David hadn't been a major character in at least a decade, and Marland's ATWT was often restrained emotionally aside from select characters, I thought they did a good job paying tribute to him. A world away from the dubious sendoffs for characters like Hal or Nancy. I think the part I remember most was a letter from Hank Elliot, talking about how David had cared for AIDS patients and done AIDS research long before it was fashionable to do so. One of the few times you really felt that bite and anger in daytime about just how horribly dying gay men were treated in the '80s.

I did not know until today that Ramin Setoodeh, who wrote a number of anti-gay screeds at Newsweek, whether on telling gay actors to stay in the closet, blaming effeminate gay men on TV for same sex marriage losses in Maine, or, most unforgivably, all but blaming a young boy killed for being gay ( http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2008/07/21/2399 ), is now a big name at Variety. He even wrote a puff piece on loathsome Meghan McCain late last year, where he had to mention that they were friends. I will no longer have much faith in anything from them again. That also led me to this overwritten, incoherent defense by Aaron Sorkin, with my biggest laugh (funnier than any of his "comedy" ever was) being him begging people to keep reading Newsweek, as it is one of the few publications that still has news. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/now-that-you-mention-it-r_b_574210

The early '80s were the last time Ellen was a more prominent character, as her family was put in a more prominent role, along with her marriage to David.

That was great! So much of that was new to me. I'm always fascinated by seeing early split screen tech from those years. And all those lovely Horton family scenes. You are reminded of what good, natural, yet emotionally intuitive acting those times had. I loved getting to see some of her reactions to stories, especially her deadpan at them choosing to have Doug stabbed in the throat.

I doubt it as well - I think if they had insisted he and Jada would have left. I tend to believe the initial stories that everyone was paralyzed about what to do. I also think they were not expecting some of the backlash they have gotten from some in the industry and were hoping this would just be seen as a spectcacle/pop culture moment.

Thank you for the lovely article @jam6242