DRW50

I agree (I probably would have just written Maxie and Spinelli out for good, as some have suggested), but you know how Frank is.

Presumably these episodes were written during Holly Gagnier's brief GH stint - Ivy is on the way home.

And Maxie is probably what Nathan fans, however many there were, would have been interested in. I suppose Frank must have arranged it in a way where his history with Maxie won't matter until whenever Kristen is able to return. If this is really Nathan.

I've gone from being vaguely annoyed by Stamos as a child (on Full House) to finding him outright repulsive in recent times, but given how many from Leslie's life are gone, I do wish they'd bring him back for a day if he's willing (no singing, please). Ditto for Mike. As you said, I do have a feeling Leslie won't get as much, as she was not an active part of the canvas in a very long time and the show will also need to have a memorial for Robert. By the time I started dipping back into GH again, Laura was about where she usually is in my viewing (sort of...there, and when she is around it's nothing I care about [like Heather's poisoned hip]). I feel bad for her fans as they have had to deal with a lot of disappointment. I've always liked Blake. He got hosed by DAYS so many times, it would be nice to see him get a chance.

That's a good point. Speaking of visuals, Brook Lynn being the only one to grin feels both wrong and right.

@janea4old @Liberty City Thanks for the articles. Very touching to hear Jane talk about such a longtime bond with Leslie. I love learning that they first got to know each other in the '60s, such a formative time for them and their careers and lives. Very striking to see that Q family portrait, with Jason, no leather jacket, just a part of the family. Interesting to see Olivia at the center given how little she's on now. Maybe they wanted to at least give LLC that crumb.

Thanks for your synopsis @alwaysAMC I wonder if this was the last soap story to revolve around a VHS tape (probably not). Reading through your breakdown of the Annie downfall I'm reminded again of just how far out they went with her by the end. I'd forgotten they went so deep into rewriting her past as some kind of schemer before she ever met Josh. I don't even think it was done to make viewers unsympathetic to her, probably just as a big shock value moment to trigger her downfall, but the choice still robs the power of the original story, of viewers seeing her slowly lose her dignity and sanity due to "always." One of those story choices you can't think too hard about. Pam Long likely would have had more sympathy for Annie in the writing, because she identified so strongly with Josh and Reva, she would also identify with those who were aggrieved by them. She knew you had to have the full fallout to make them rooting characters. There wasn't that type of effort here because they didn't really have that much investment in the characters, including Reva. I suppose at least they did, intentionally or not, take this feud to the ultimate level, on both sides, instead of having Reva as the old radio play heroine waiting for the door to be broken down.

Thanks @dc11786 so much in your writeup I hadn't heard about, especially the gay elements.

That would be a good idea to have Mike return for Lesley's goodbye. I do remember a lot of fan derision of Mikey (and Jeremy) when people would talk about those times. Speaking of returns, I see the last actor to play Dillon seemed to be pitching a return. That could work (I could see him tangling with Cody, or getting Gio into some kind of problem), although you could probably recast Dillon without much fuss.

About five or six years later.

I hadn't even thought of that. The show could use another male character in that age range - more than Laura needed two retcon brothers. And it would have worked well when Denise Alexander was still able to make appearances as Lesley. I wonder why they didn't just bring Roger Howarth back in this part instead of a retcon son for Jimmy Lee Holt (and then they killed Jimmy Lee off even though Steve Bond is still alive - unless he is unable to act now).

I can't remember if Patti was unhappy, but I think her firing was almost two years after that story started. From what some have said, she was getting big for her britches around then, arguing with fans or being online (never a great idea). I think, given that Drew was gone, she was just an easy choice to fire to free up money, similar to Anthony Addabbo, who was fired at the same time.

Someone else will know better than I do, but I think the first mention of Amy's death was here, at around 9 minutes: I'm not sure about Mike. In 1986, he left town with Rick, Ginny, and Rick Jr, moving to Omaha, to be near his biological father Derek Barrington. (this is all cribbed from a Wiki) Someone who was watching that period more than I was may know if he was mentioned in 2002. Unless they were close before Laura vanished in early 1982, f he ever did interact with Laura it would have only been briefly - maybe during her 1983 return.

At least it shows she's still in with GH. All these photos Chris McKenna is taking with his former OLTL co-stars is such a delightful surprise - never thought we'd be getting them when he was cast on the show. And you can tell it's genuine on his part, not just the usual social media flexing. If only there was a way the three could act together again.

The shows are happy to repeat themselves - we may as well do the same. I do think they had, or have, some decent chemistry - I wish they didn't often so seem like he's just her purse-holder these days.

I do wonder what the last romance on the show was that was well done or well-received by viewers. Trina/Spencer was clearly disliked by TPTB, and not intended on their part, so I'm putting that aside.

I could almost believe Carly respecting her as Carly got older, lost a child, regretted some of her choices as a mother, and then I know in the late '90s the show kept comparing Carly to Monica, but Sonny...nah.

I've seen some criticisms of Lucy being given scenes with Tracy about Monica instead of Gio, Cody or Stella being in those scenes. I wish they'd been included (well, maybe not Gio as I don't care that much about his Q ties anymore), but whatever the reason, I thought the pairing was interesting. More than anything done with Lucy in some time. They've never been close, and that worked well here. On paper, Tracy weeping on the stairs would have been too much for me, but Jane underplayed that whole scene beautifully.

She did, yes. Harley and Philip, but she was thrown into that role with several other relationships in Beth's whole last stint on the show.

That seems most likely. Probably Sinclair propaganda. Within our lifetimes all of network TV may just be propaganda from affiliates, sports, "reality," and repeats from streamers.

Unlikely as it may be, I'd actually prefer having her back once Freddie is gone, as I don't really need to see another female character reliving rape trauma, and Freddie is a waste of space. If there's any way they could Elaine Lordan back, even just for a scene, what a great way to celebrate 25 years. I haven't kept up with the show much the last few weeks - I haven't felt up to it to be honest - but I'm not too surprised Zoe's return has gotten mixed responses. Even with the writing issues at present, Zoe was mostly just a brat who was bookended by some powerful stories. I've also seen people saying the Slaters are too judgmental of her - given that some of them, Jean especially, are among the biggest hypocrites ever in soapland, I'm not shocked.

Sorry, I meant how they were treated in the '80s.

Probably because she was mostly there to cause problems for other character rather than be a character in her own right.