Dion

Yep, I certainly did notice and was wondering about that. What was the second longest gap? Was it sometime during Ron Carlivati's tenure? Cheers for the counts

Post Nighttime Hope, Jennifer (who'd been away for several years except for a brief appearance at Alice's funeral) returned to Salem and reached out to Hope who was incarcerated. Jennifer even got herself a job at the prison after Hope tipped her off about an organ trafficking scheme being operated out of the prison. But that was probably the only time they were involved in a mystery together.

I seem to recall SOD making a snarky remark about Olivia owning a radio station that she never went to, so perhaps it was part of the Richards Communications Group. Also I'm fairly sure that Richards Communications Group owned the newspaper that Vanessa worked at.

Oh yes that's right, I remember that now.

Interestingly, Laura mentioned today that "it's been so long since Amy died" (hence her rushing to have a connection with Martin). Is this the first time Amy (and Shell Kepler's) passing has been acknowledged on the show? (at around 1:40)

Mickey became a prosecutor in the DA's office at the time, so they may have been trying to establish Chris as Salem's new go-to defence attorney. Chris represented Kim (for Emma's murder) and Steve (for Duke's murder) before being written out, with Josh Taylor going full time on Valerie/The Hogan Family; previously he'd been doing that show part time while he was still on DAYS.

Aha Thanks 🙂

Herbert was actually introduced in 1987 and killed off just as quickly in a murder mystery involving the Qs (including Celia's parents Quentin and Betsy), Robert and Robert's love interest at the time. It looks like it was a weird timing though as Celia had already left the show 18 months prior and yet they had finally introduced her immediate family - well Quentin had recurred when Celia was around but he was recasted for Herbert's murder mystery storyline.

Apparently Alexandria was the daughter of an unseen and unnamed brother of Edward's.

Yeah I think everyone knew that was coming lol

I'd hazard a guess and say they probably copied the spelling from the character in The Sound of Music

Yeah, he's a game show host and was a regular on Doctor Who amongst many, many other things. He's pretty much had constant work since leaving Coronation Street, unlike other actors who leave and are never heard from again.

Anna did get an angry phone call from Frisco so at least he was acknowledged but I agree they could have done more with Frisco (even if he remained off screen). He could have been in cahoots with Liesl Obrecht to expose Peter but perhaps not fully sware (or turning a blind eye) to her methods of doing so (by brainwashing Dante).

I've often thought that it would be interesting to see Sharon and Jenny onscreen at the same time so I'm glad it's actually happening. Yeah, killing off Susan and retconning her abortion to create Adam was really just a plot device to stir up some conflict for Ken and Mike for the 5000th episode (and that renewed conflict felt a bit contrived coming so soon after Mike and Ken had finally buried the hatchet during the Freshco seige). That being said, I agree that Adam at least has cemented his place on the show.

They even killed off Jane Dawson's daughter Joanne as part of Jane's exit story 🙄. I have a feeling Martha's death was to provide extra motivation for Diana to adopt Steven-Lars, but I think they could have easily kept her and provided another reason for Diana's desire to adopt (I mean, Diana had already tried fostering, but lost custody of her foster child Mike shortly before the hurricane that killed Martha).

Yeah, basically I believe the story was that Jessie had dumped Phil after suffering a miscarriage; got engaged with Lee, but Phil found out and raped Jessie. Jessie fell pregnant and initially tried to keep it a secret until the divorce. However Phil did find out and called off the divorce. Jessie gave birth to Nancy prematurely, so Lee called off the engagement (see above) but Nancy passed away so Jessie divorced Phil. However, Lee and Jessie did not get back together because he was now in love with Meg. Jessie then married John Prentice, but he had a terminal illness. After he died, Jessie was put on trial alongside Tom Baldwin. Phil proved that Jessie and Tom were innocent (I think John's daughter Polly had accidentally given him an overdose) and Jessie remarried him. Phil then had an affair with Polly, but she died in a car accident they were in together so Phil left town and was later presumed dead in a plane crash. Jessie married Peter Taylor, but Phil secretly returned to town and started seeing Diana Maynard. Phil later found out he'd been cleared of responsibility for Polly's death so he went back to Jessie, although he ended up in some sort of accident along the way which left him impotent. Peter and Diana got together and Peter posed as the father of Diana's baby by Phil. Diana had a son named Tracy and when Phil found out he left Jessie (again) and became obsessed with Diana. Eventually Phil realized he wasn't impotent anymore, so he raped Diana. Tracy died and Diana learned she was pregnant by Phil for the second time; Diana eventually gave birth to a daughter, Martha and Phil went off to Nairobi, Kenya. Peter learned that he wasn't Martha's father, separated from Diana, and started having an affair with Augusta McLeod. Diana agreed to marry a dying patient, Owen Stratton, but he died before Peter and Diana's divorce came through and Peter reunited with Diana. Augusta learned she was pregnant by Peter and lured Phil back from Kenya but of course he ended up murdered. Jessie was initially in the frame for the crime and she and Lee had a 'moment' during this period but nothing came of it as Lee eventually married Caroline Chandler. Diana was put on trial, but it was eventually revealed that Augusta had committed the murder. Augusta eventually gave birth and I don't think Diana ever found out that Peter was the father.

He was also the songwriter that Blackie plagiarized wasn't he?

Ended up lasting 18 months as Josh Clayton in the end (though I don't know whether it was a continuous 18 months or several short runs); got killed off during the Asian Quarter story.

I was happy to see Lesley turn up at the board meeting, and that she went to Monica for help at the end.

That hasn't really been dropped though. Peter originally managed to get out of it by framing Liesl for it but she's now back in town seeking revenge. Peter also confessed to Valentin that he was behind the attempt on Andre and Franco's lives just last week.

I did see a map of Salem once in a Days book from the late 90s, early 2000s. It located Salem on both a river and a lake (with a smaller river connecting the lake with the river). I always liked that map.

Hmmmm....Laura and Scotty in the shed was pre-Monty during the September storm as far as I know. Is it possible Kin Shriner misremembered? After all, GH was notorious for its axing sprees during the period from 1975 - 78 so I image it would be easy to confuse which producer/writer did what to get rid of who lol. On a related note, that storm killed off Diana's daughter Martha and introduced both David Hamilton and Nurse Dorrie.

No not yet. That whole story got postponed by various COVID issues (including Emma Samms' battle with long COVID) so the story hasn't picked up from September (when Robert and Olivia went looking for Holly, only to encounter Ethan and then after some adventures they all concluded that Holly was really dead; only for it to be revealed that Holly really was alive and being held captive).

Yeah, they are so obviously chem testing Sam and Dante atm