titan1978

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.

Did Blake have something to do with that? I recall reading something along those lines, like either the scabs or Long when she came back from the strike decided to reveal Blake as Holly and Roger’s child, which was not the original plan.

Agreed

Heightened human emotion has become a hallmark of almost all dramatic television, which was once the domain of soaps. I don’t have a problem with soaps sometimes going off into flights of fancy. But I also prefer them to be grounded in a sense of reality. When the whole show is outlandish I often loose interest. The change of pace can be thrilling, but you need to eventually get back to human emotion for me. The GH Riche/Labine team took the sense of realism almost deadly seriously, but not so far that they didn’t have romantic comedy going on with Lois/Ned, and attempts at humor with Kevin/Lucy/Mac. They had longer scenes that were often full of little things that added to relationships and character. The thing about the show at that time was it felt so real to me, the characters were all so well defined and had a purpose. Frisco even came back for the story with Maxie’s heart, which is what should happen. There was a sense of danger and action with Luke, but it was grounded by the mob instead of WSB spies (which I loved when I was a kid), and had real stakes. I watched a lot of Curlee’s GL when the lockdowns started, and I really appreciated how that show was realized during that time. Community, history, realistic relationships and all types of characters were featured all the time. As much as I have enjoyed Y&R, what I prefer is the almost more gritty realism I got from Riche’s first 6 years or so at GH with Labine and Guza, and the HW teams led by Curlee at GL. I like it real more than I like the Reilly type of storytelling. When you look at the best of Monty’s time in GH, my favorite periods often had the umbrella storyline that was the WSB/adventure stuff, and the other main story was balanced in more human affairs. Ice Princess and Diana’s Murder in the same period is a good example.

I can’t think of a character that didn’t encounter Ruby once she took over Kelly’s. She was always great for tough but very deep love. She was incredibly grounded as a performer, and I used to love her scenes with Jackie and Tony Geary. You could just tell the three of them really enjoyed those scenes.

I will always love Robin’s Dorian, and I have seen so little of Nancy’s version. But from what I have seen, this is a perfect description. She always seems calculated and cunning, and very aware of everyone around her. She’s a really fascinating actor to watch. As a kid of the 1980’s soaps, it’s so great to see these classic episodes. Especially OLTL, because while a central figure the entire story doesn’t revolve around Viki or her relatives like it did when I first started watching. And as solid as the show was, just think with a few key recasts (Jenny, Karen), it really allows those characters to become incredible.

I’m going to need you to post that link.

@DramatistDreamerbrings up an interesting idea. I wonder if that is why the Curlee/Demorest/Reilly and others era worked so well across so many characters. Because they each contributed to the overall, but I bet they also each focused on parts of the show they were the most into. As opposed to the one singular voice.

That was fun, thanks for posting it @Forever8! Which EP was mad at Hillary? JFP? I think that lines up with when she was there, and I know HBS has had no issue speaking about how she felt about the show during her reign as EP.

When I watch episodes from that era I think it is remarkable just how much chemistry and possibilities there are in the characters you listed. There were sparks all over the place, and if many those actors had stayed, there could have been many years of potential pairings that could have worked. Everyone seemed to have chemistry on that show at that time.

Oh gross. I’ve never even thought of AT’s Emily with Sonny. Vomit. Say what you want about Reilly, but he absolutely invested in the Horton family as HW during his first round. We had Hope, Laura and Mike return, Jennifer was often in lead stories, and Lucas was revealed as a Horton. Plus we had visits from Bill, Doug and Julie. I also remember thinking Tom Horton’s memorial was one of the nicer ones.

After thinking about Liza and Marian over in the Awkward Returns thread, it occurred to me that in the time I watched soaps, AMC had the most storylines with mothers being heinous or doing something awful to their kids. Marian (although I was not watching during the affair with Tad storyline, they referenced it plenty while I was watching). Arlene Vanesssa Mary Smythe Charlotte Devane Those are just off the top of my head!

I enjoyed it. It culminated with Monica throwing the Quartermaines out and if I have my timeline correct, they moved into Kelly’s and Lila’s relish was born. Sean stole their money too if I remember correctly. It was fun.

I loved Andrea, but I also really liked Karen Witter as well. I thought that ended up being a pretty good recast back then. Do you think Witter could have played the larger than life era of Tina? Andrea had the ability back then to go big, but still make it believable for Tina. Andrea always brought a lot of charm to Tina.

Agree 100%. Didn’t Marj’s version of Alexandra Spaulding become a drug kingpin? I cannot fathom Beverlee playing that. I also cannot imagine Liz Keifer playing out some of the more villainous turns from the earlier versions of Blake. The stuff with Phillip and even the earlier stuff with Eleni. Sherry would have had a hard time hiding her true feelings about having twins with different fathers. I can only imagine her trying to act that. I accepted a lot from Mark Valley that I never would have from Matt. He was a good actor and incredibly attractive, had a little of Matt’s sarcasm but was nothing like the OG Jack. But I liked him!

I can’t imagine Tamara Braun’s Carly seducing Tony. I can see Laura Wright’s version doing it, but not TB. I also cannot imagine David Lewis playing the 1990’s era Edward Quartermaine, especially the story with the Ward family. Ingle played the sorrow and romance side better. But I did love David Lewis.