Dion

An old promo for Home and Away's shift from TV3 to TV2 in New Zealand from I think 2013.

Al Rabin. He's the one who kept the throughline that you mention. After PFS left the second time I guess Days had more of a producer era than a writer era - same goes for General Hospital with Gloria Monty once PFS (again!) left that show.

This is actually a really great April Fools (I checked the date and the comments lol)

No, Ms Wu isn't Jade. Her first name is Nina and she's likely Jade's sister or cousin or something - someone that hadn't yet been "invented" during the original Asian Quarter storyline. Anyway, I was hoping she would intercede on Brad's behalf so I am glad she has finally done so

I believe so yes.

Yeah it's a bit strange. All of a sudden Lila's like "Her mother died so young", "She reminded me of Tracy", implying a surrogate mother-daughter type relationship but they didn't seem really close before. They did have a few scenes together during the auction dramas but that was more Alex trying to manipulate Lila to get her hands on the statue rather than an attempt to show a close bond. Oh I forgot to mention that Joe and Heather had another "Summer Madness" moment so it's pretty much established that that was their song - or rather instrumental, which I do get a kick out of considering the TikTok trend. It was also surprising how central General Hospital was to the climax of the Ice Princess plot, I mean the stuff on the island was silly but the hospital stuff was top notch civil defense and medical drama for a 1980s Daytime soap.

September 24, 25 & 28 1981 Robert and Luke destroy both copies of the Carbonic snow formula. They later destroy the weather machine so the WSB can't get their hands on it. A good call too as Ballantyne is busy telling Rick and Lesley that they'll be able to control the weather of countries that step out of line. Robert refers to Luke as "Luke Streetwalker", a brief discussion comparing their situation to Star Wars follows. Laura is reunited with Rick and Lesley on the island. Corrigan wants to blackmail Alan, but Monica wants no part of Corrigan's schemes and pays him off with $5000. Meanwhile, Alan is visiting Susan in New York. He tells Susan he wants to marry her now that Monica knows everything. Joe overhears Rose telling Heather that she plans to leave with Hutch, but later Heather finds Rose crying as Hutch leaves without her. Heather is genuinely nice to Rose in these scenes. Jeremy tells Amy that he and Anne will probably be moving to Nevada to live with Jeff. A welcome home reception is organised at GH for Luke and the rest. Meanwhile Luke, Laura, Robert, Tiffany, Lesley, Rick and Ballantyne are mobbed by press at the airport. At the reception, Rick tells Monica that Alex was killed, Monica tells Rick that Alan should be the one to tell Edward and Lila. Meanwhile, Alan, Susan and Alice bring the baby (Jason) home to Susan's cottage. Joe tells Lee that Scott has changed personality. Later Joe tells Laura the same thing and adds that Scott wants to meet with her alone before he will grant the divorce. Laura tells Luke and Luke is mad. Steve teases Audrey about having met an entertainer named Trixie while on a medical conference. Audrey knows her husband probably just fell asleep reading page 2 of a fascinating medical journal. Ballantyne is not happy with Robert for destroying the weather machine and tells Robert that he will have to go to Washington DC to explain his actions. Tiffany suggests that Robert become a movie producer to produce films for her to star in. Anne gets a letter from Jeff, he's ditching her because he met someone else and "has needs" but has fallen in love with this other woman. Audrey finds Anne having what can basically be described as some sort of panic attack. As she is serving breakfast to Alan and Monica, Stella says she is happy that it is getting warmer but notes that there is still a chill in the air. Alan and Monica discuss their marital situation unaware that Lila is listening and has overheard their conversation about Susan Moore. Lila eventually interrupts, Monica excuses herself and Edward joins Alan and Lila. Alan and Edward tell Lila that Alex was killed in an accident on the island. Lila is devastated and then is angry when Alan and Edward start talking about Alex's will. At Kelly's Rose talks with Slick who tells her what he got up to during the blizzard (sought refuge at a mission and started praying for real) and starts complaining about Luke. Luke comes in, puts on an apron and serves Slick coffee and Slick is happy to see him and gives him a hug. Laura tells Lee that she is going to Mexico to see Scotty. Lee tells Laura that he wants her to ask Scotty to tell him his address and adds that an honest apology from Laura to Scotty wouldn't be out of place. Laura later goes to Kelly's and is reunited with Slick. Luke comforts Rose as she tells him all about her relationship with Hutch and that she was going to go away with him. Emma Lutz stops by Kelly's and Laura seems concerned by her overly friendly manner with Luke but later is amused by her. Lee and Gail show up at Kelly's and are surprised to find Luke helping out there. Gail makes awkward small talk with Luke, then Edward phones Kelly's looking for Lee and is surprised to hear Luke's voice on the phone. Edward talks to Lee about Alex's will. Lee then tells Gail that doesn't want to talk to Luke and Laura about Alex because he can barely stand to look at them. Monica goes to Zelda Bernstein to inquire about a divorce. Zelda tells Monica that the outcome of a divorce is a lot like the weather in Port Charles lately, unpredictable. Zelda warns Monica that the only way Monica could get total custody is if he could be proved an unfit father, so Monica says that she can prove Alan tried to kill her and Rick Webber. Alan finally tells Lila about Susan Moore and his new child. Edward angers Lila when he chauvinistically suggests she stay out of it. Joe again tells Lee how Scotty has changed, before they meet with Edward and Alan about Alex's will. Monica gives her condolences to Lila about Alex. Lila warns Monica to be careful of Alan, but Monica says that times have changed and she can take care of herself.

And Robin Lang wasn't too far behind, having been born in 1953 and coming back from a Swiss boarding school in 1956.

Sep 17 to Sep 23, 1981 missing episode on the 16th, presumably Monica and Rick found out AJ needed surgery and had to go back to GH, because Noah and Anne took over running the clinic at Kellys. Jeremy and Mike have played a prank by hiding in the basement. Burt goes to look for them, but Heather - covering for Hutch who is also hiding in the basement - insists that the children aren't there. But it turns out they were there so with that sorted everyone goes back upstairs. Mikkos - not realizing he is on the wrong soap - brings out an hourglass to use as a timer til the deadline. Audrey is now included in the WSB meetings in Steve's office along with Rick, Dan, Steve and Ballantyne. I'll call this group Steve's office crew for convenience. The situation is now really getting down to the wire with power failures expected at GH (and only enough fuel to run the back up generators for about 6 hours). Monica and Alan are very stressed out about AJ, but Alan still finds the time to call Susan and the two have a conversation of which Alice overhears Susan's side of and finally learns that Alan is the father of the baby (Jason). Lesley calls Rick, she is back stateside but is in a hotel suite in New York City as she can't get to Port Charles. Luke, Laura and Robert have a fancy dinner with Mikkos and the rest. Mikkos quickly comes to respect Luke and - after the other guests have gone back into their rooms for plot convenience, leaving only Mikkos, Luke, Laura and Robert - Luke convinces Mikkos that he has come around to his way of thinking. But it is a ploy to get into the control room. Luke has explosives and tells the gaurds to drop their weapons (which Robert and Laura quickly grab) and then follows Mikkos into the control room. Mikkos and Luke are locked in there together. Inside the control room, Luke offers to call Ballantyne and convince him to surrender. During the call, Luke instead gives away the location of the island as "being off the coast of Vene..." (which Ballantyne and Steve's office crew quickly work out is Venezuela). Mikkos and Luke fight and Mikkos ends up in the ice chamber and does the whole hand against the window thing as Luke tries to get him out. Luke then has to work out the code to unlock the lever. It takes an entire episode but finally Luke inputs ICE PRINCESS into the control panel and it works. Meanwhile, Robert and Laura have Victor at gunpoint and Victor helps them set it up so Luke can contact Ballantyne. Georgia and Jessie share the same screen space and - gasp! - even talk to each other when Steve announces over the intercom that the blizzard is calming down. Ballantyne offers to fly Rick, first to New York to pick up Lesley, and then down to Venezuela and the island to see Laura. Monica overhears Rick declare his love for Lesley on the phone and doesn't look happy lol The WSB forces arrive on the island and takeover. Tiffany takes Laura to Mikkos' room to sleep. Laura ends up finding Mikkos' copy of the formula and unwittingly ends up committing it to memory before falling asleep (I wonder if that will ever come up again) before handing it over to Luke to destroy. Hutch wants Rose to spend the night with him and Rose admits that she has only ever been with her husband - Joe's father, the late Paddy (Patty?) Kelly. Anyway, Rose goes on about her husband and their relationship sure starts to sound mightily creepy to modern ears - remember, Paddy was played by Frank Parker, so Rose was basically married to Shawn Brady. Its unclear whether Rose and Hutch do the deed, but upstairs a frantic Heather is covering for them to Burt. Larry Corrigan arrives at GH to meet with Monica. He leaves a message with Amy which Amy somewhat absentmindedly gives to Alan, so Alan finds out that Corrigan is working for Monica. Alan meets Corrigan in the cafeteria, announces that he is closing the disco and fires Corrigan. Corrigan then tells Monica that the baby has been born. Upset, Monica lays into Amy for giving Alan her message, but the ever calm and ever wise Jessie pulls Monica aside and puts her back in her place by telling her that any complaints about the nursing staff should be brought to her first. Alan and Monica then have an early morning breakfast at the Floating Rib where Monica admits that she knows all about the affair and Alan's new son. Monica wants total custody of AJ. Later, Alan tells Edward that Monica knows everything and Edward admits to Alan that he has an illegitimate son himself, that Lila knows about, while Corrigan tells Kathy that she should consider leaving town before Alan finds out that she was spying on him for Monica too. Kathy says that she was thinking of heading south anyway (to get away from the cold) and Monica later finds Kathy about to depart with a suitcase in tow. Monica lets Kathy keep the car Alan gave her and is also grateful to Kathy for staying loyal. After Kathy has gone, Corrigan arrives and tells Monica that they aren't finished yet and that he wants do something involving the newborn baby. Joe returns from Mexico and is stunned to learn that Heather is not in jail (as the gun Sarah gave Joe was not the weapon used to kill Diana Taylor). The two argue and then eventually Joe admits his attraction to Heather. Summer Madness by Kool and the Gang starts playing - 40 years before it became a trend on Tik Tok lol. Joe kisses Heather, Heather slaps Joe and walks out, pausing for a moment to smile. Heather later orders Hutch to get out as soon as he can as she somewhat hypocritically doesn't want Rose ending up with a guy with a gun in his hand. Meanwhile, Joe has figured out Rose is hiding Hutch and confronts Rose about it.

Yes, she appeared in a few episodes. There was one episode where Georgia said "Jessie couldn't make it to the hospital because of the blizzard" but then Jessie appeared in the next one (though that may have been set the next day)

I've started watching the 1981 episodes again. I won't be doing summaries by episode again as they get a little cumbersome to do but here's a quick recap: episodes between Sep 4 and Sep 15, 1981 With Tiffany's help, Robert infiltrated the Cassadine compound but it wasn't too long before he was caught. Meanwhile, Alex persuaded Tony to go snooping with her into the ice chamber and the next minute Mikkos was like "Oh no they're dead". He later told Victor and when Victor reacted angrily, Mikkos confined him to his room with Tiffany. Hutch managed to survive an attempted hit while being transferred back to prison. He made it near Kelly's where Rose found him while out walking Mike's dog. At one point Rose had a really long flashback to when Hutch was telling Mike that Luke and Laura were his first true friends. Anyways, Heather found out Hutch was there and managed to stall Burt Ramsey from checking the Kelly's basement. Then Heather dropped hints to Rose about what she knew in an attempt to get Rose to level with her. AJ was admitted to GH with breathing problems but seems to have recovered. Meanwhile Edward is also in the hospital with heart problems and Lila is in Florida. Lesley is still in Greece, while Lee and Joe are in Mexico still searching for Scotty. Noah watched as Anne and Jeremy entertained the children in the pediatrics ward with sock puppets. Genius Jeremy also figured out that the blizzard was due to cloud seeding gone wrong. Amy moaned about Alice taking the last plane out of Port Charles to head to New York. Alice went to see Susan who has finally given birth to Jason. Alan overheard Amy moaning and with the help of a PI learned that he has another son. Ballantyne arrived in Port Charles and told Steve, Dan and Rick everything. So GH started preparing for the blizzard to get worse while Ballantyne took over Steve's office to communicate with Mikkos. Quite a number of hospital related scenes as the blizzard gets worse. Civil defense has become involved, with their representative suggesting teams of 3 (a doctor, nurse and an aide - eg Noah, Bobbie and Ruby) be sent out to treat people at home. He also commended GH for how they treated the Lassa Fever epidemic and Dan was actually cheered with the praise. Kaluga's men have been searching for Luke and Laura all over the island. Luke and Laura went back to the waterfall where they discovered an air vent leading to the carbonic snow factory. Luke and Laura snuck around the factory and eventually donned hazmat suits but Mikkos got alerted to their presence and started an ID check, so Luke and Laura tried to hide in the ice chamber but ended up getting caught after seeing the frozen corpses of Tony, Alex and the Von Stadts (very Star Trek Original series lol). Mikkos got angry at Kaluga for not catching Luke and Laura himself and sent him to his room. Rick and Monica - who were going to work from the Waterfront clinic - had to move their base of operations to Kelly's as the clinic had no power. Later they learned that Mike's grandmother was very ill, so they brought Mike and his grandmother to Kelly's. Meanwhile Heather is like "Oh I'm surprised you agreed to letting Rick and Monica turn Kellys into a clinic" to Rose as she knows that Hutch is hiding in the basement.

Oh! Lee and Meg. I don't recall if I've seen an episode with them before. Thanks @te.

You know at this point I'm not even sure if TK is coming back. TK going back home to practice medicine has basically always been the endgame that has subtly been baked in to his character arc. As for Michelle, I don;t know either. She's still on the Characters list over on the official website, but so are Boyd, Zara and Prince!

Thanks @FrenchFan GH We're finally up to the big hurricane - now I knew about David losing his wife and children, Martha Taylor dying and Laura and Scotty seeking refuge from the storm, but some of the other storm incidents are also interesting such as Gina, Gary and Adam facing negligence charges after losing a pregnant patient and Harvey the orderly accused of supplying drugs to another pregnant patient to cause her miscarriage. Poor Diana, this is the second child of hers that died. Dorrie ended up lasting two years I think, and then was mentioned again when Howard Lansing was written out as going to rekindle things with her just after Diana's murder. Days And here we have the first of many of "The Perils of Dr Evans" with Samantha managing to get Marlena locked up in Bayview lol.

Esther just up and disappeared and now we learn she's gone to stay with TK, Tilly and Aunty Kuini. So we definitely into level 3 (post Sep 21) episodes now. The location episodes last week would have been filmed just before lockdown.

I've been dying to see them together for months.

I do recall a SOD article from summer 1997 that was discussing the renewed popularity of swim shorts on soaps (they'd gone in and out of fashion throughout the years) and (amongst other soap characters) the article mentioned Thorne (then played by Winsor Harmon of course) wearing shorts then specifically added the line "Ridge will never change" lol

I thought the leap forward was in 2004?

Oh that's interesting. Y&R did often take breaks during the summer for Cricket coverage on Nine but that wouldn't account for the discrepancy as Days would have had the same breaks and yet didn't fall that much further behind (Days started in Australia in 1968 and by the mid 90s was still roughly about three years behind).

Yeah that would be about correct. New Zealand was always roughly four years behind, but the Aussie soap magazines always had articles and later summaries for Y&R that suggested Australia was about six months ahead of us.

I think, but I'm not sure, that the black book wouldn't actually have been used as evidence in court. Rather - as the book had the names and numbers of people involved in the Smith Organization in addition to the location of the gold - once Luke had mailed the decoded portions of the book to Joe Kelly, Joe and Burt Ramsey would have been able to track down witnesses who - provided they agreed to testify voluntarily i.e they couldn't be compelled to testify - would have had enough "attenuation" for their testimony to be admissible. I also believe that finding the gold bouillon was just a way of signalling to the rest of the organization that Frank Smith had been skimming extra amounts that they had not agreed to, thereby convincing enough witnesses to throw Frank Smith under the bus. Disclaimer - I pieced the above speculation together from the scant recaps of that time (curlyqgrl) and a quick wiki search of articles such as "Exclusionary rule" and "Fruit of the poisonous tree" so have no idea whether I am truly correct lol

It is! Here are the scenes First part from 2:42 - Peter Hansen does some great facial acting here, showing Lee's contempt for the Webbers and Laura. Second part of the dinner party starts at the beginning of the clip. As an added bonus, Rick and Lesley later have an intimate conversation at Kelly's - with Monica seated at a nearby table!

@j swift yes it's what Franko says above and also there was the incident where Lee fell off the wagon and burned the divorce papers, which Lee was very apologetic for. One thing that is also interesting is that Lee and Gail weren't on speaking terms with Rick and Lesley for the best part of a year and at one point Steve and Audrey tried to intervene by luring both couples (well Rick and Lesley weren't actually back together yet) to a dinner party that didn;t go down to well lol.

Delta Goodrem is interesting because there was that whole period where Neighbours devoted itself to promoting Delta's debut album. I'm not complaining though, it worked for Delta and Neighbours and the songs were good

Oh definitely. I think, in particular, the straw that broke the camel's back for me was Dante having known Brenda years before. That was a bit too much. But up until then, I liked the show's focus on him.