Dion

I've been watching some 1981 episodes from February 1981 - the time period is of course Diana Taylor's murder. I think i've watched about 8 or 9 episodes so far and I am enjoying it. Here are some observations: - Anne Logan has spent episode after episode crying over Jeff and whining about Diana that even Steve Hardy is sick of her lol. _ Everyone at GH is obsessed with those nurses' capes for the upcoming Port Charles Week & bicentennial. - It took an awful lot to convince Jeff that PJ was Steven Lars, but once he was convinced, he became a man on a mission. - Lots of night location shooting with Heather sneaking out of Forest Hills Psychiatric hospital and heading to Diana's apartment. - Jeff, Rick and (separately) Heather come across the scene of a major car accident also filmed on location (and at night too). - Anne's name in blood has been written rather neatly lol, and while its totally morbid, PJ/Steven-Lars is seemingly having the time of his life on his own while Diana is lying dead in the kitchen. - Heather underestimated Sarah as Sarah already figured out that Heather snuck out of Forest Hills. - It's nice to see Rick get jealous of Lesley's interactions with Bert Ramsey and Tony Cassadine Castle. - I like the way Alan and Alex scornfully refer to each other as 'cousin'. - The Disco scenes are always enjoyable, especially when a familiar song like Blondie's Rapture starts playing. - Luke and Robert have great bromance chemistry and they are starting to become allies. - I think in Alex, Bobbie's now found someone she despises more than Laura. - Lee and Gail have not forgiven Luke and Laura (and who can blame them). - Not that much Q action aside from Alex and also Alan's affair with Susan. - Diana's murder, the start of Luke and Robert becoming friends and possibly Jason's conception have all taken place on the same night (spread out over several episodes) Unfortunately the episode from Feb 26, 1981 is not available so I won't be seeing the scenes where Alice and Howard finding Diana's body. I did manage to find the parade scenes from the same episode and they were nice. -

The show/Al Rabin was very clever in that they had already developed Kim and Shane to the point where they were as prominent as Bo and Hope, so even as Bo and Hope were being transitioned out of the show in late 1986, Kim and Shane could easily take up the slack. This also gave Steve and Kayla some time to develop slowly and organically as an offshoot of Bo/Hope, Kim/Shane's storylines before they too would become the focus in 1987. It's a bit murky in my memories as I was very young at the time and not able to watch every episode but the one transition that I think was a bit jarring was Marlena's exit as she was presumed dead (Orpheus bombed the house), revealed to be alive and then presumed dead again. I remember being quite confused lol. The show had also spent quite a significant portion of the previous year developing her connection with Drake's Roman, only to have to start again with Diana. The other characters mentioned all had ties to Steve and Kayla and/or Victor and were very much supporting characters until their characters and storylines had developed enough to branch out on their own (similar to how Steve/Kayla grew out of Bo/Hope, Kim/Shane).

Ah yes, thanks for that correction regarding Rick, @Paul Raven. And it does make sense to me that Monty would make a few necessary recasts at the beginning and then refrain from doing so for most of the rest of her first tenure.

True. The only permanent one that immediately comes to mind is Heather Webber (Mary O'Brien to Robin Mattson). There had been a number of recasts in the year leading up to Monty's tenure though - Laura, Rick, Monica, Heather (Georganne LaPiere to Mary O'Brien) and Diana. And I think there were a few during Monty's second tenure - most significantly Wally Kurth as Ned, and the short-lived Anna recast.

Well the 90 minute season finale has screened and there were a few surprises to end this decade of Shortland Street on so here are a few of my thoughts: Chris should have better security at his house. Having two separate hostage crises going on at the same time didn't really work IMO. The whole incel/coercive control storyline felt rushed and undeveloped. They keep flip-flopping Zara around between love interests. Chris is a grandfather for the second time. It was nice seeing Sass again, even if it was a Skype/Video call. It went from day to night pretty quickly at the end of the episode. Of course Damo was going to find the second bomb and mistake it for a christmas present. Frank's return will hopefully add a nice new wrinkle to Kylie's life, the one story that has decent pacing. Pyro Sophia setting the gun toting farmer who'd leered at her on fire was an interesting - although predictable - twist. Only a 3 week break this year - the show will be back on January 13.

Actually, while Bill Levinson seems to have created Sonny, i'm pretty sure he got booted out and replaced by Claire Labine almost immediately afterwards, so the would have been her work I think. It was under her tenure that Frank Smith's mob was reintroduced to tie into Luke and Laura's return. I think the mob angle should have been rested for a few years after Sonny left Brenda in the rain in 1997, with the show moving on to feature different sorts of action oriented drama - like the show did after Duke and the Jeromes left or earlier when Frank Smith's mob left. Instead, Jason ended up taking over the mob for a year until Maurice Benard came back. By 98 - 99, the show had really divided itself into the Cassadine side and the mob side. The show was already too mob dominated but at least had something else still going on over on the other side of town (and Stefan actually owned GH which was a good move to tie him into the core setting). Once Endgame happened and the more villainous Cassadine's ceased to be a consistent presence in Port Charles, then the mob ended up completely taking over the show.

I had a thought to myself earlier that it would be somewhat ironic if a whole bunch of characters - mainly non-medical - were killed off in some kind of disaster, followed up by some sort of inquiry establishing that one of the reasons so many people died was because GH had chronic staff shortages.

I've been remiss in not mentioning this sooner but Nancy Brunning who was an original cast member passed away last month aged 48. Nancy played nurse Jaki Manu for just under two years (1992 - 1994). Jaki's storylines included an HIV scare after pricking herself with a needle, a relationship with the husband of a terminally ill patient (permitted by the wife as she wanted her husband to have someone after she died, but ultimately it didn't work out), and finally finding happiness with her cricketer ex-boyfriend. The character of Jaki (along with Temuera Morrison's Hone) was also a trailblazer in terms of Maori representation on NZ TV. After leaving the show, Nancy went on to have a distinguished career in NZ film and theatre. https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/117556101/the-mana-of-nancy-brunning

"...And I think I died faster than they wanted me to because I had booked a television pilot, and they were concerned that I may not be available to work on the show much longer." Interesting that she says that, I did think that the Keesha storyline developed and played out at a quicker pace than other storylines on Y&R at the time. I've always thought that the Patty mentions during this time were there because they were re-introducing Diane and wanted to remind long-time viewers of the rivalry.

Well Phoenix is definitely showing he hasn't grown up at all in the past six years. I'm liking the new business minded Bella, but am suspicious this is going to turn into another Boyd against big-pharma type storyline like Fentich three years ago.

Some spoilerish news: https://www.backtothebay.net/news/2019/11/25/home-and-away-2020-spoilers-a-new-family-set-to-make-waves/

And the second return is...

@AdamNewmanFan I can't say for certain as I'm in New Zealand and there is a slight chance they were originally cut out from our broadcasts, but I definitely first started seeing them during the era of the more jazzy version of Nadia's theme (late 90s, early 00s).

@YRfan23 That would have been much better than that twin thing Ashley ended up in with Blade and Rick.

@DRW50 Yeah Jack has now gone, not too surprising as the average stint on the show would be about three to four years but Jack lasted five. Plus they'd already written out the rest of the Hannahs. Jack and Lincoln was another storyline affected by rushed pacing, their relationship and the triangle with Nicole always felt forced. Jack and Matiu had real chemistry but again, it was only a few weeks before they were written out.

@Adamski A lot of people hate Kylie's storyline, but I quite like it. Its been going on all year but the pacing feels right which is a change from the pacing on some of the other stories (King Family dramas, Zara's brief flirtation with bisexuality). And it's given Kerry-Lee Dewing something different to do.

@ironlion The clips with Dru, Malcolm and Christel Khalil's Lily took place first in 2005. In those clips we see them with a paternity test that says that Malcolm isn't Lily's father. But Phyllis was already suspicious and learned that there were two tests. Jump forward a year or so to your clip. Here Davetta Sherwood's Lily has eavesdropped on Phyllis and Dru and learned that Malcolm was her father after all. (Christel Khalil later returned to playing Lily later on in 2006)

@DramatistDreamer Yes, Erin Doherty as Princess Anne was quite the find. Best character of the season IMO. I'll put this in spoiler tags just in case there's anyone who doesn't know about the following historical events or who has not completed the season (plus I've added my own speculation on what the first episode of season 4 could be):

No worries @Adamski, here's 2019: Ali walked in on Kylie and Dylan and attempted to resuscitate Dylan but Dylan died. Ali later realised that Kylie had killed Dylan but then promptly forgot due to memory loss caused by his brain tumour. Kate found Denise's money and blaming Denise for Mo's death, decided to keep it for herself. Kate also found out she was pregnant with Mo's baby. Claire was suspected of killing her rapist Ian Reid, but Kylie provided her with an alibi. Later Jack (who recovered from the plane crash), Claire and Lincoln called off the surrogacy agreement when Nicole announced she was pregnant with Lincoln's child and wanted Jack and Lincoln to raise the baby. Leanne was furious and attempted to convince her daughter not to give her child up. Te Rongopai began investigating a pharmaceuticals company for faulty IUDs. The Pharma company's lawyer Kelly-Anne turned out to be Damo's sister and briefly dated Boyd for a while. Hawks turned up again after having broken up with Sass. Hawks began seeing Esther and also suffered from issues caused by his amputation. Hawks and Esther eventually broke up and Hawks left town. Kylie began acting passive-aggressively, by undermining Nicole, taking her job and getting Kate offside - though she did help Blue when he decided that he wasn't ready to have Top surgery. Kylie also slept with Lincoln's brother Prince. Later on Kylie killed her former school teacher after learning he'd killed his wife. Ali soon started to remember what happened the night Dylan died. Kylie prepared to kill Ali, but couldn't go through with it. Ali died of the brain tumour soon afterwards, leaving Dawn devastated. Dawn relinquished custody of Ali's daughter Lucy to his mother. Natalie returned to investigate the mysterious deaths of Ian Reid and the teacher. She began dating Boyd to garner information about Kylie. Soon after Natalie learned that Boyd was still in contact with Eve and tried to convince him to turn her in. Boyd was willing to along with the plan, but at the last minute changed his mind. Boyd and Natalie broke up. Lincoln started using meth again and was arrested at the same time that Nicole went into premature labour with their daughter Kiri. By the time Lincoln was released, it was too late: Kiri had passed away. A guilt stricken Lincoln fled town, leaving Jack and Nicole to mourn the loss of the child. After Ali's death, Dawn grew close to Jean King, an elderly patient with dementia. Dawn contacted Jean's family and Jean's son Ben, his wife Cece and their two children Louis (actually Cece's stepson) and Sophia came to Ferndale. Ben, a doctor, and Cece, a social worker, got jobs at the hospital. Sophia was a pyromaniac and burned down the room at the retirement home that Jean was supposed to move into. Drew was jealous when Harper's ex Ross turned up. Ross worked at the hospital for a few weeks and then left. Chris was impressed by the lifesaving actions of a lady taxi driver Zara Mandal, and helped her to get registered to practice in NZ after learning that Zara was a heart surgeon back in India. Zara's daughter Rani soon joined her and became friends with Sophia. Zara briefly dated both Boyd and Nicole. Kylie confessed to TK that she had killed Dylan and possibly Ian Reid. The two slept together even though TK was with Te Rongopai. Te Rongopai was suspicious of Kylie and tried to find out if Kylie was a murderer, but Kylie managed to destroy her credibility. Later Te Rongopai learned that her ex husband had cancer and left town with her daughter. Leanne confessed to Nicole and Damo that she had had a son whom she gave up for adoption. Nicole and Damo tracked him down. Now Leanne had another son, Eddie to obsess about. Meanwhile, Prince's ex Angel started working at reception and did not get along with Leanne. Angel started dating Eddie but the two almost broke up when Eddie slept with a still grieving Dawn. Later Angel and Eddie reconciled and helped him organise a music festival with money invested by Leanne. It predictably turned into Ferndale's version of the Fyre Festival when Eddie's business partners ran off with the money and all the acts cancelled. Eddie had a nervous breakdown and left Angel to deal with the riotous festival-goers. Nicole later figured out that Eddie was Bi-polar. Ben and Esther grew closer after the helped rescue a kidnapped baby which brought back issues for Ben. After Ben's mother, Jean committed suicide, Ben turned to Esther for support and the two started kissing. The next day, Esther revealed to Kylie that she'd changed her mind once they got to the bedroom but Ben hadn't stopped when she said no. Kylie convinced Esther to press charges. Ben denied raping Esther but it was evident Cece believed her because Ben had been forceful with her when they had first gotten together. The police declined to pursue the matter due to lack of evidence and an enraged Sophia torched Esther's car, leading to her being committed to a psychiatric ward. Ben later realised that Esther's version of events was true and apologised, offering to quit his job at Shortland Street if necessary. Accepting that Ben was now remorseful, Esther decided to put the matter behind her and allowed Ben to continue working at the hospital. Kate and Chris got back together, but their reunion was interrupted by the arrival of Zoe, who correctly guessed that Chris and Kate didn't love each other anymore. The gangsters came back for the money Denise had been hiding and caused Kate to go into labour. After giving birth to a boy, Kate handed over the money to the police, ended things with Chris and left town with Zoe. Jack had a new love interest Matiu (played by Amelia Reid's real life husband) and was not put off when Matiu revealed he was HIV positive. Later Margaret returned and revealed she had cancer. Matiu offered to help care for Margaret so that Jack could continue with his medical studies. The three moved away from Ferndale. Boyd's blackmailer from the year before turned out to be Deb, the drug addicted nurse whom Eve had framed for murser in 2017. Kylie felt threatened by Deb and threatened her. Deb eventually found a job somewhere else. Dylan's twin brother Daniel returned after trying to kill himself in a car accident. Kylie felt guilty and began nursing Daniel. Eventually Kylie told TK she loved Daniel. The two soon got married. Soon afterwards, Kylie became obsessed with a reverend and his pregnant wife. The wife died in childbirth and the reverend offered to let Kylie and Daniel adopt the premature baby who was still in NICU. Then a mad bomber announced they had put a bomb in the hospital. Kylie found the bomb in NICU and decided to blow herself up but the bomb didn't work. Kylie was admitted to a mental hospital and Daniel left her after learning she had killed Dylan. Kylie was then given electro-shock therapy and conveniently forgot the past year. Frustrated that she couldn't get Kylie, Natalie planted evidence that suggested Kylie had killed Ian Reid. However, Claire confessed to killing Ian Reid and Kylie was freed. Later, Kylie treated her psychiatrist at the hospital after he was beaten up by an obsessed patient. The patient had hacked into Kylie's files and mentioned the school teacher, which unnerved Kylie. Zara's ex husband turned up and entered into a dodgy deal with Chris that gave him control over the hospital. Later Zara found out and managed to blackmail her brother-in-law for information so she could buy her ex-husband's share of the hospital. Zara and Chris also started a relationship. Prince and Dawn grew closer, but Dawn announced she wanted to have Ali's baby with leftover frozen sperm (which she later changed her mind about). Angel and Prince got back together and got engaged. But Angel called it off after learning Prince kissed Dawn. Meanwhile Leanne left town with Eddie's father and Damo got together with Angel's mother Desi. Damo was also shot at one point and was the recipient of a live donor liver transplant from Drew. Harper also had her own medical issues when she had a tapeworm in her brain. Louis learned that he had a twin brother Tommy and that his biological mother Vanessa had driven into a lake with him and Tommy while suffering from post-natal depression, resulting in Tommy's death. A well meaning Sophia contacted Vanessa, who revealed that she had discovered Ben and Cece were having an affair and that's what drove her psychotic breakdown. Louis left home for a while and stayed with Harper and Drew. Louis started sleeping with Boyd's niece Shereez. After the mad bomber blew up a bomb near the school, Louis declared that he liked another girl. Shereez discovered she was pregnant, but had an abortion after Boyd refused to adopt the baby. Sophia developed a crush on Blue, but Ben figured out that he was Blue's father since he and Kate had once hooked up. Sophia attempted to continue a relationship with Blue, but Blue rejected her. Kate came back to sort out this drama and made a pass at Chris, but Chris was committed to Zara. Blue eventually left to go overseas. Louis had a surfing accident and was left paralysed. Eddie and Esther started a relationship, and within weeks Esther learned she was pregnant. Tim, Nicole's incel paramedic stalker from the year before, came back to Ferndale. At Eddie's urging, Nicole agreed to give him a chance since Tim said he had changed. Tim started dating Shereez, and while on a date, Tim risked his life to save a man who turned out to be the bomber. However it turns out that Tim is in league with the bomber.

Nicole basically turned into Leanne tonight...tbh it's a direction that sorta makes sense for the character should they wish to develop it further.

I absolutely loved the second episode.

Here's 2018, i'll write 2019 some other time: After surving her ordeal with Mason and having a brief affair with Curtis, Sass left Shortland Street after finding Hawks was alive and well. The cult run by TK's brother committed mass suicide in the hospital carpark. Dawn and Ali got together in the aftermath but briefly split up when Dawn had an affair with Dylan Reinhart (see more about Dylan below). Dawn and Ali later reconciled and married, but Ali was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Curtis joined the police force and had an affair with Becky, the wife of one of his instructors (Tank Reid) at the academy. Damo's ex Erin turned up to apologise for holding him hostage about - oh nine months earlier - and ended up giving birth to his baby. She didn't know she was pregnant. Not sure what exactly happened next but I think Leanne convinced her not to abandon the child. Nicole was run over by Finn, and took a while to recover, also developing anxiety issues. Later Vinnie was offered a job in Singapore and Nicole declined to go with him, leading to the end of their marriage. Esther and Finn married, but Finn began abusing her. The two separated and Esther began dating her ex boyfriend Kawe, while also suffering from a heart ailment. However Kawe was in trouble with some drug dealers or something and was pushed off a balcony. Kawe's aunt Te Rongopai convinced Boyd to give Kawe's heart to Esther. After briefly dating Boyd, Te Rongopai got together with TK. Te Rongopia's daughter Rangimarie began dating TK's nephew Ezra. A serial rapist began attacking victims in Ferndale (the first attack was actually in 2017 when a woman Dawn had a brief affair with when she was exploring her sexuality was attacked). Jack's friend Claire was raped while a few weeks later, Kate managed to fight off the attacker. Nicole's anxiety issues worsened when she had a run in with a paramedic, Tim who seemed obsessed with her. Nicole also learned that the serial rapist targeted her. Tim was suspected of being the serial rapist, but it wasn't him. Curtis and Jack's copper love interest investigated the crime. Kate's sister Zoe began having an affair with Chris and fell pregnant. Zoe also began to fall for Finn. Tragically, Zoe was raped by the serial rapist and lost the baby. The rapist turned out to be Ian Reid, the father of Curtis' police instructor Tank. Curtis' girlfriend Becky went back to her husband to support him or something. Both Zoe and Finn left Ferndale (seperately). Curtus then went undercover to expose Kawe's killers. After he did this, He and Esther almost reunited but Natalie, a fellow copper whom Curtis had briefly dated (oh Curtis!) arranged for him to get transferred to Christchurch. Drew and Harper welcomed their newborn child Billie who is intersex. Later Drew and Harper had a threesome with their nanny, who conned them out of $30K. Drew was then busted for tax evasion and after a brief stint in jail, was released and had to wear a ankle bracelet. Boyd's ex Eve returned for an episode with the twins Romulus and Remus so Boyd could perform surgery on one of them. Later on Boyd was blackmailed. Te Rongopai tried chasing after the blackmailer but failed to catch the person. Kylie's sister Julia married Dr Dylan Reinhart. Julia also agreed to be surrogate mother for Kylie and Frank. Shortly after learning Julia was pregnant, Dylan killed her in a car accident. Frank was suspicious of Dylan but ended up fleeing town after he assaulted Dylan. After a brief affair with Dawn, Dylan got with Kylie. The two married, despite Dylan's twin brother Daniel trying to warn Kylie. Dylan then tried to kill Kylie in another car accident but Dylan was injured and severely burned. In all of this drama, Julia's son Toby was not mentioned at all and now it's as if he doesn't exist! Jack got involved with a new bisexual doctor, Lincoln who was also sleeping with Nicole off and on. Lincoln was also a recreational meth user and Jack began taking meth to impress him. Later Jack recovered from his addiction and he and Lincoln decided to have a baby with the help of Jack's friend Claire. Mo was feeling jealous of Chris and for some reason, Kate, Jack, Mo and Chris went off on a plane for Christmas along with another passenger Denise. The plane crashed in the middle of nowhere and Jack was badly hurt. Mo was focused on helping Jack and ignored his own injuries. Sadly, Mo died. Meanwhile Kate realised that Denise was hiding money and that's why Denise wouldn't call for help. Ian Reid returned to the hospital and was promptly murdered. Moments later Kylie went to Dylan's room and murdered him.

Other than that it was the usual dramas with the King family, though at least this time the drama was a bit more down to earth, relatively speaking.

What does everyone think of the King family? I personally feel that they've had a bit too much drama - Jean's dementia and suicide, Sophia's pyromania, Ben drunkenly raping Esther and Cece revealing he'd also raped her, the drama with Louis' biological mother and the revelation that she killed Louis' twin brother in retaliation for Ben cheating on her with Cece, Louis getting Shereez pregnant and the subsequent abortion, Blue finding out that Ben was his father and the subsequent genetic sexual attraction story with Sophia and now Louis' surfing accident and paralysis - and that's only in 7 months! To be fair, the King family did have a pretty coherent story arc up to as far as Shereez's abortion with every incident flowing into the next incident quite seemlessly. However, the pacing was too quick (I mean there was enough storyline potential to last more than a year or so but it was exhausted in months!) and now it seems the writers are just throwing anything that sticks at the family. The pacing problems were particularly egregious during the storyline with Blue where it seemed Blue and Sophia went from strangers to kissing to potential brother and sister all in one episode! And as Blue is no longer a regular cast member (he left last year but has recurred intermittently since then) he was packed off overseas after only a few weeks. And then there's the problematic storyline of Ben and Esther - everyone including Esther moved on too fast from the rape, and Cece's revelation that Ben had forced himself on her when they first got together has been glossed over.