titan1978

It was outrageous, and I’m really happy she went public with it. The show is only good with both of them in it. This genre is filled with this crap too. It’s the same thing at GH with Genie and Tony. She spent almost all of her 1990’s era return fighting for parity with him- wages, time off, terms. And she describes it as a battle, and when she left under JFP she was tired of fighting. The only time I remember a huge hit show that’s an ensemble offering a woman more was when Julianna Margulies left ER. Rumors were at the time they offered her more to stay than the deals Anthony Edwards and Eriq La Salle ended up with when they re-signed their contracts, as all three expired at the same time. A lot more! Heather should have been the highest paid. I think I Larry Hagman deserved the most money from Dallas too- they both brought significant audience to these shows and attention. Now considering how much money Melrose made in demos, I think the rest of the OG cast deserved more money too. Even if it was a FOX show. People forget 90210, Melrose, and then X-Files made FOX a real network on par with the big three.

Yeah, it is shocking and her reaction is justified. It’s still incredibly over the top compared to the two other actors in the scene. She was a teenager and that is heavy stuff so I don’t think it’s a bad thing. It’s just so stark especially because Lisa Brown is so understated as Iva.

Oh my god!!! That was great! AAAAACCKKK

It’s funny watching the show now. I watched the show live as a youngish teen when it was airing, and I was all about Jake. Broody, moody, hot as hell Jake. I thought Billy was cute and all, but not like I lusted after Jake. Now I would much rather have Billy! Or Matt! Thankfully I have gotten over bad boys!

Lots of soaps had characters that were larger than life, but the great ones knew how to walk that line. On GH both Lucy and Tiffany could go over the top and had characterizations that were larger than life. But I always felt they managed to reign it in. Tony Geary used to be able too as well, until he became miserable shouty Luke during the latter JFP era. Lucinda on ATWT was forgiven for sometimes hammy work. For example, I never saw Larry Bryggman go anywhere near the camp of Hubbard. I also think Kim Zimmer steps over the line on GL quite often. Susan Lucci owns this type of thing. It might have been in character, but that funeral was totally campy and lacking in grief completely. I didn’t think so back then as much, but in isolation it really does scream over the top in a soap way. It could have been an Emmy clip from Soapdish. The scenes with Lily and Iva where she learns her parentage are so over the top from Lily, and yet Iva is there barely emoting, which creates this strange scene to watch.

I will forever hate ABC (Frons) for canceling AMC and OLTL, let alone at the same time. I truly wish they would have tried what many fans wants them to try- to make them both half hour shows and see if they could make a go on ABC in that format.

I liked the storyline I watched (before it was all pulled from YouTube) with Chelsea’s stalker. She really is stuck in soap ingenue role on GL from what I saw. Blair really gave her the chance to show what she was capable of as an actress.

I just don’t understand dates in soaps. Just don’t include it! A headstone could simply have the name and inscription, you could even wink at the audience with a plant or a vase filled with flowers covering the date born.

The infamous phone call luring Nina/Ryan/Victoria/Cole to the Colonnade Room. I even remember someone from the show being asked about that in soap mags and basically saying that’s not the story, just ignore this mystery element and focus on the quad.

When I watched the show again about a decade ago I felt differently about Blake than I had when I was a kid watching. I think there is ample evidence that Blake could be as ruthless as Alexis, and they probably had much more in common when they were married. I got the feeling that the children and Blake tiring of a home life as competitive as his business life did more to change the dynamic of what he wanted from a marriage. It even plays into how often he was shady and would repent because he needed to be a better man for Krystal. Alexis wanted to be an equal in all aspects of his life, and Krystal often deferred to him.

Thanks to the recent life in this thread, I just restarted from the beginning. I thought about starting when Jo arrives, but I want the whole experience again I think. Do any of us know how involved Aaron Spelling was in his shows? I have heard that on his classic shows- Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels, Dynasty, 90210 and Melrose that he was really involved in casting, especially the initial casts, tone, and the look of the shows. And not so much in storytelling, outside of basic recommendations (like adding an antagonist to boost ratings).

Zimmer left as Curlee’s more ensemble vision was just kind of starting to take hold. I wonder how Zimmer would have felt coming back to GL under those terms? I remember how cocky she was when the show started to go up in ratings as it focused on her, Josh, and Annie in the soap mags. In her absence Holly, Nadine, Vanessa, etc had become major story driving characters, and they were pretty amazing at it. Jill can take plenty of the blame for her career on soaps. Maybe AW wasn’t all her doing, but as someone that watched her work on OLTL, GH, and Y&R as it was happening- she deserves the heat she has gotten on many occasions.

In all my YouTube watching, I really like Susan Moore. I kind of wish she hadn’t been killed, but I don’t see her leaving Jason with the Q’s and coming and going over the years. I read an interview with Mary O’Brian and she said they tried to get her back but she declined, and then they hired Robin as Heather. Which makes me think even more that Heather was going to have killed Diana, because Monty hated Mary’s portrayal and would never have wanted her back long term.

I thought of another one- the mysterious man with a Cassadine signet ring that was seen on GH, right around the time Stephen Nichols was released from DAYS, and rumors were he was going to appear as Stefan again. Then nothing as far as I remember. And Spencer hacking the election was completely dropped. Wasn’t he even being blackmailed about it? Laura doesn’t know if I remember correctly.

I also feel the first season is essential viewing. Michael’s arc is important to understand how he relates to Jane and everybody else, and the same with Alison and Billy. I strongly feel that because I watched it as it was airing, I fell in love with most of the original characters, which made the insanity they went through matter more. I feel the same way about Knots Landing. I love the early seasons, but the show doesn’t become fire until Gary and Val’s marriage blows up, and Abby takes center stage in her quest for money and power. But I don’t know that you care so much, especially about Abby’s machinations if you haven’t seen those early stories.

On GH, after Miranda flopped, they just gave her backstory to Alexis instead. Does anyone remember what the story was that had Lucy having a vision of Kevin encased in ice? I don’t. I also don’t remember anything coming of Tom Hardy’s belief that Dr. Hardy died due to stress the Cassadines were placing on the hospital finances. It was his motivation in helping Luke and Laura and it pretty much just went away. Another one on GH was when Genie came back for the 50th, after the initial story, they were setting up a story for her and Lucy rebranding and relaunching Deception, which was dropped abruptly and never came up again when she came back.

Anything is possible! It sounds like her that’s for sure.

Ken Shriner says she used a storm to get rid of a bunch of characters she didn’t like, and put Laura and Scotty in the shed together to survive.

I wish we could see those episodes. I would kill to see the first 6 months of Monty/Marland as well. Didn’t Monty redo the sets as the shows were airing, like GH was getting renovated as she was phasing in new sets? I also would love to see the storm she used to get rid of the characters she wanted gone right away.

I will never forget this, or the episode where it was revealed she was alive before it. That thrill of unspoiled, soapy and dramatic television, when nobody saw those twists coming.

I also thought Reid was a breath of fresh air, and reinvigorated Luke by having someone challenge him in new ways. He was a great character. I thought Paul was on DAYS too, because he brought unabashed sex appeal into the gay storyline, and had chemistry with almost the whole show.

It is crazy. I have never really watched B&B, but from the boards I know there have been so many sets of teens and young adults introduced over the last 20 years, and none of the major players are gay? And when they do go there, with a trans character, they sideline them pretty quickly after telling the initial story. And Y&R blinked on making Adam bi or fluid, which could have lead to many years of actually interesting storylines and twists. For me, Luke and Noah had exactly one hot moment, the early scene with the towel and almost kiss while shirtless and wet. And they lived on that one moment for me while I waited and hoped that something else close to that would happen again, then finally gave up.

The problem with limited representation without creative input is that these attempts on daytime are often clumsy, neutered, and either safe or exploitative (and not in the fun way), and are always disposable. The shows rarely invest enough in these characters. ATWT really was an exception with Luke. He stayed a core character, had a couple of relationships, and I get the feeling that if Van had left the show they might have recast Luke. I wish he had better stories, but that was really a wish about every soap character at that point. As a gay person, I don’t mind a villainous portrayal. I think one of these shows would benefit with a gay vixen character to shake up old fashioned triangle tropes, and the idea of a closeted, powerful gay man killing people to keep his secrets has good bones. Just not the way OLTL did it. These shows need more representation on screen and their writer’s rooms/writing teams.

Yes! I think people overlook that while Heather injected a lot into the show, and deserves plenty of credit, without CTS’s Alison the central conflict would not have been as great. When I was a kid, Jo and Sydney were my favorite characters, but Alison and Amanda were my favorite rivals.

One of the few exceptions is Knots Landing- it really takes that show almost 3 full seasons to hit it’s stride, with strong runs for several seasons, then a couple seasons lull, then it picked back up again during the first season of the Sumner Group stuff, the show had kind of reinvented itself. Then it kind of fell apart. I think Melrose was one of those burned too bright kind of shows. They burned through so much good story and really chewed characters up in their plot machine in those super long seasons. It was appointment television for me in my teen years. Way more than 90210. I really wish we had gotten a season with Alison really on top of her game and giving Amanda a run for her money. I think it could have been fun after she had been gone for her to return and wreck a little professional havoc on Amanda. And let it bring out the best and worst in each other like it always did, but with the dynamics a little more tilted towards an Alison that had her life together to really rattle Amanda.