DRW50

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

Thanks for sharing her quote @FlyRightOrchestraGuy

About the same as usual to me - Kim Medcalf doing most of the heavy lifting. Some lovely work from Paul Bradley and Karen Henthorn though.

This is just horrifying.

The more I listen to the last remix of the EON theme, the more it grows on me...the biggest downside is the really cheap graphics, especially the end with the car and then with Raven and Sky kissing in front of Chromakey.

They did reveal Austin's shooter...about a year and a half later.

Bethany Joy Lenz. https://people.com/bethany-joy-lenz-when-calls-the-heart-spinoff-exclusive-11867645

That's a good way of putting it. When I tune in many seem drab and either through budget or not wanting to rock the boat, not many changes have been made. Once upon a time I don't know if they would still keep trying so hard with Cat and her family.

Thanks. I never knew that was why they had Christian hook up with Jessica. I know he'd been straight before Chrolli so it wasn't a big leap (from what I read Ollie was only written as bi in his first stint but I haven't seen most of his run so I was wondering - soaps often do such a poor job with bi men). Appreciate the detailed response.

Thanks for that detailed explanation. I appreciate it. I wish we could see that period too. I remember being moved by the writeup of her brain tumor story in a Daytime TV special history for DAYS that I read somewhere in the early '90s. Probably the first soap magazine I read. They never said what happened to her after that, so I never even knew if she survived.

Of all the producers I think JFP had the least interest in Rachel. She seemed to immediately get more story once JFP left, and even though she wasn't heavily used under Goutman she was still a presence.

Thanks @SoapDope78 . I always get confused over just when Mary Frann left.

https://archive.org/details/blue-book-v-100-n-01-1954-11/ A men's magazine from 1954. The mention of Secret Storm is just a lead-in to the rest of the jokey article but I still thought it was worth sharing as it's so interesting to see how people felt about the soaps at the times they were airing, and getting to read a brief recap of the early story.

@dc11786 Your descriptions of each era make me want to see them too. The show seemed to change quite a bit.

@Huntress Thanks. I remember some who were eager about that UU signing and confused over what happened. I was curious (to any of you who were watching VL at the time) - where Chrolli popular with fans or was that more an international sensation but not as popular with the actual fans? It did seem like they were running out of ideas (I can't remember if one or both of them ended up having drunken sex with women).

I think it's time for some refunds all around.

From what I've seen just at a quick skim, Crystal has praised her as an actress and when Kim guested on Venice, Kim praised her.

The scene where Ross runs into the house and opens fire at the sight of Ben and Blake is one of those moments where internally I knew something was going wrong with the show (again), but I just went along for the ride. I agree this should have been the end of Blake and Ross. They only reunited as a default pairing, although the show does keep them split for a little longer than I had expected at the time.