DRW50

Kenya is so thirsty for a fight. Now that Nene's gone she's just itchin for someone and it drives her mad that Kim knows that unlike Kenya she actually has CLASS and has earned recognition in the public arena for her life and her work. It just drives Kenya bonkers If she had class she wouldn't be on this show, and she and Kenya both earned fame only to end up on a cheesy reality show. Not much for Kim to be morally superior about, especially since she's actively ashamed to be on the show and can't hide it.

He'd be their dream come true. He's the epitome of out of touch big city etc. etc. They'd have to invent him if he didn't exist.

Cain and Charity were lovers when they were teenagers. Cain never knew he had a daughter until Debbie, who'd arrived in the village at about 13 as a foster child to Paddy and his wife at the time, put it together and realized Cain and Charity were her parents. Ross lied to Debbie over and over. The last straw was when she learned Ross and her ex Andy (father of her kids) had shot Robert and kept her in the dark about the whole thing, leading to Robert holding Ross at gunpoint in their home.

Genuinely disgusted by this tweet: I was wary last week and that's gone up about a million now. Rather than sending a message about how manipulative abusers can be, they are instead trying to create a mystery about whether or not Aaron was sexually abused by his father. Not just in a tweet, but in the episode tonight as well. Sexual abuse should not be used for ambiguity in this type of plotline. This is a soap with a very well known (for Emmerdale anyway) character. This story was an opportunity to explore abuse and to get people who have been abused to seek help. This is telling them they are right to stay silent. I'm really upset with this.

She was fired. Several years back I think she implied Don Hastings had her fired.

Personally Bernie's behavior toward Planned Parenthood just proves to me that they made a good decision in not endorsing him. I'm getting very tired of people throwing around the word "establishment" like a slur. I'd be more bothered by it if these organizations didn't want to have that role - they are an establishment. That's why they made these endorsements. It's why they fight to be dominant organizations. In HRC's case, they often seem far more interested in that role than in actually doing anything to help with lgbt rights. If it was said in the context of establishment being a terrible thing, I'd be more bothered by the comments, but I generally saw it as him saying they are corporate organizations and she is along the same lines. I can see why they weren't happy about it, and I do think PP does good work, but I thought this time he had a point.

I saw your comments about Brad - I will just never get that casting. I guess these were the dying days of the antihero "rugged" type casting, but while he's a passable actor, he has little charisma and is just pervy looking. And he had a huge role on the show, which makes it even more bewildering. I'm not sure if they were going for a Tony Geary or Gerald Anthony type of anti-casting, but Gerald Anthony was a hot piece of ass and Geary...well, he had charisma and acting talent, even if he never did anything for me physically. I wonder if that's one of the first examples of ATWT "going ABC." And just like almost all the other attempts, it was a mistake.

They should have brought her back, absolutely. She could have easily been recast, and would have brought some drama for Margo and Katie and Craig - I could have seen her possibly falling for Hal, and that causing some family strife. There's a line in that episode where she says she and Margo are like "oil and water," and all I kept thinking was - do people in real life actually say that? I tend to wonder if they intended Margo to be quite as full-on as she ended up being, or if they found themselves giving some of Cricket's planned material to her. You've probably already seen it but there's another 1972 episode that's been on YT for a few years - in worse condition, but watchable. I hope you get to see the 1980 GL as well. I'm going to be reuploading some of the ATWT episodes I used to have on Steph Stokes. I put the partial July 1983 up yesterday and will try to get the March 1992 up today. Eventually there are more...of course maybe someday I'll know how to transfer the very few I have on VHS onto Youtube...

Yes. The soap magazines I had of that time (not a lot admittedly) mentioned Eileen being very sick (I think with hepatitis) but never said whether Lisa was written out or recast. I guess she was recast. Betsy seems a lot more like Lisa here than I remember her seeming in the bits of 83-84 I've seen - I guess it's partly because she has a much better screen partner. I'm not sure I said it, but I can see it here. I wonder if they had any plans at this time to knock her up, or if that was later writers. Was it the strike writers? What surprises me is this character hung around for over 3 years, even if she all but ceased to exist after she left. I hope you get to watch the 1972 episode soon.

No. That was the recast.

This must have been after Cindy Pickett left and they were looking for a recast. They work overtime to keep Jackie offcamera. You can tell the Marland trademarks, between campy Vanessa, the therapy language with Hope and Amanda, all the talk about Morgan (proto-Lily). And then like Lily, she was a bit of a nasty girl (as shown in Katie's dislike of her) before being made into a more mainstream heroine. Hope and Amanda seem less passive and downbeat here than they did a year or two later. That little bit where Barbara's whole mood is crushed when she sees Adam and Sara together really gets to me. I like the slight edge Maureen Garrett brings to the scene with Holly and Rita. Lenore Kasdorf made everything about Rita seem so believable, so normal, helped by the writing. Rita worrying about how Sara could never see her the same way again...the awkwardness with Ed. She really was so special. I guess she was of that era and wouldn't have been the same with Reva and company, but I wish we knew.

Finally managed to stay awake through that 1980... That had to be Margo's first episode, right? Great to get to see that. And between Veleka Gray Lyla (never thought I'd get to see her) and an overdose of Cricket, I can't wait to see Mitch's thoughts. I'll always prefer Anne Sward of course, but I do see how jarring the recast must have been. Veleka is grittier, and also quite beautiful in an older, hard-road-of-life way. Cricket...just cliche after cliche. She's a very sensual woman, but she comes across older than she should be, and her acting is straight out of porn. And that "sexy dance" - one of the very few moments of hilarity in a dull 40 minutes. I love Kim's not-so-subtle bitching about Cricket. And this episode just underscores my point about the dull younger ladies on the show compared to the vets - Kathryn Hays is so gorgeous here. Eileen Fulton probably would have been too - I guess this was when she had the hepatitis (I think it was hepatitis). Was that Betsy von Furstenburg temping for Eileen? Was this before or after Melinda died? I didn't know Sheila was still around by this point. I had to laugh at Dee being shocked as John very very mildly flirts with nurses. Does anyone know who was playing the other two nurses? The bit with Ellen and David talking about buying John off is so stilted (it's almost like a parody of a spy movie), as is Nick's big speech about trusting love, or whatever. And pervy weird Brad - just ugh. What a wonderful ONE scene with Nancy. I guess this was the first of 500 random thugs and baddies to pop into Oakdale to go after James. Well at least the ending had a bit of juice to it.

I'm so glad you'll get to see it. Most of the fans who posted here and watched back then have left the board. I hope I didn't spoil anything for you by blathering on.

A temp recast I'd never heard about - one for Jarod Ross' Philip. I don't know the kid who plays him. Philip O'Reilly? He's at 27 minutes.

Watch the 1972... I guess there must have been bits of different episodes, as I'm not sure the Paul hospital material fits the timeline? I wish we could see that dream sequence in color. It looks trippy as hell, like something from a late '60s film. This may be the closest I'll ever get to seeing Jane House as Liz (that was Jane's Liz, right?), even though we barely actually see her. I had never seen Peggy, so it's nice to know more about her. Lisa Cameron had been on AW for years, right? It's an odd setup, albeit very ATWT of the golden years, that Dan was married, in love with another woman, and had a third woman living with him (as nanny), clearly feeling something for him. I was thrown by the conversation with Peggy and Ellen about childrearing techniques, complete with talking about leaving Emily alone for an hour a day because kids need to learn to be alone (true enough, but I wonder if that helps foment Emily's many...issues). I wonder if this was part of the attempt at new and modern points of view Irna was trying to inject into ATWT, along with stuff like Tom and Carol being green and having an organic farm, or whatever. I was almost as shocked as poor Ellen when, amidst the usual "working mother" argument (at least they didn't act like Susan was a bad mother, which was a pleasant surprise) Dan all but said he and Susan had an open marriage and he didn't care what she did. And then Ellen connects it to her own past and reminds him of the pain she suffered as a child. He then throws his own childhood pain in her face. The whole thing was a bit more raw than I was expecting, especially for ATWT. I wonder if this type of attitude helped alienate some of the more conservative fans. And Susan - I never thought I'd see Marie Masters in this era. She really isn't that different from later Susan. I thought she was going to be nastier, for some reason. But I thought that guy was impotent? He didn't seem to have any problem in that area in this episode... Susan is such a fascinating, modern character, even just here. I'm so glad that she kept magically being saved from the soap scrap heap by various regimes. Does that Baxter guy end up leaving with Peggy?

July 1980 episode. There's a small fragment of GL in here as well:

Someone uploaded a July 1980 ATWT. Great treat. 1972!

I'm glad you keep Frankie's psychic powers as part of the narrative. Yet they are never used as a plot device or fix-it. Eric and Kirkland - that's just going to be a disaster, but a hot one... I'm intrigued at Christy's medical problems.

Very moving, seeing the end near for Carl, seeing him try to keep his beloved Rachel strong for when she's without him. Kirkland biting off more than he can chew...and clearly Charlie is doing the same.

Lysette Anthony, Angelique on the Dark Shadows remake of 25 years ago, will be popping up on Hollyoaks again. http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/hollyoaks/news/a781046/hollyoaks-casts-lysette-anthony-as-macs-ex-wife-marnie-and-shes-his-worst-nightmare/

The baby story has done a lot for Kirin and Vanessa. It's grounded them and made me care a lot about them both - they also feel less superfluous to the canvas. Kirin is so classically beautiful, when he's in scenes alone with men like Adam, Ross, or Nikhil, it's just screen-blinding perfection. It's like seeing the sun.

This was my 20. I had a hard time knowing who to put and there were some I probably should have but didn't in the end, like Ashley. 1. Kim Tate 2. Annie Sugden3. Jack Sugden4. Carl King5. Robert Sugden6. Viv Hope7. Zoe Tate8. Chris Tate9. Edna Birch 10. Alan Turner11. Val Lambert12. Steph Stokes13. Bernice Blackstock14. Charity Tate15. Henry Wilks16. Amos Brearly 17. Tina Dingle 18. Diane Sugden19. Terry Woods20. Matt Skilbeck

I tend to think she's going to sleep with Jai again, as she's never stopped loving Jai. I'd prefer David and Leyla get back together, as I always liked them as a couple, but if they go the cheating route it would just ruin the characters. I'm hoping they won't have Leyla do any cheating. It's become way too overused and poorly written. Joanie fell in love with Zak in a week.

When I hear people say it was so sad that she left before DTC really took over, I keep thinking, "Did you watch the show in 2009?"

Lisa Brown was let go in fall 1993, along with Anne Sward. I do think the character was tired, but getting rid of her altogether was a big mistake. I will always resent that she had to give Aaron up to Holden, who did not give a damn about that child, even preferring to spend time with his girlfriend's son over Aaron, until finally Emma had to put her foot down and tell him to start caring about his son and not just using her as a babysitter.