titan1978

I know we saw Katherine’s driver a couple of times. Jill’s real mother was a cook (fight me, she will always be a Foster). And in one of the classic episodes, Jill yelled out a man’s name to come get her bags for her when Kay offered her a room. I just don’t have enough history to know if we ever see those people, and if they were the same background cast at all.

They axed her, and fans went ballistic. It was also clear that the show stalled out right around the same time as I recall, because they had to switch gears away from things they had been building to. Classic interference. The network and Frank got a lot of heat. More than anticipated, not helped by Frank having done it to her twice (first time when she came back for the 50th, and they were building to a Deception story with Laura and Lucy that evaporated).

All that Barbie yellow hair. When I saw Ashley... yikes! As time has gone on, I think killing Cassie was just as bad as Maureen on GL. We should have seen her grown up and react to just how awful her parents were at times. Instead we skipped having her as a teen so Sharon and Nick could seem eternally 29. Having kids never stopped Victor and Nikki from being a mess.

He had charisma. He had personality, and they didn’t make him perfect back then. He was really tough on Bo, he was too driven, and he and Marlena had both an exciting and passionate relationship, and it could also be light and flirty. They tried to strip all the fun stuff away from him when he came back in the 1990’s. I always found him incredibly attractive. Drake is too, just in a different, more soap hunk kind of way. I would take Wayne’s Roman any day though over Drake.

Wasn’t that on JFP’s OLTL? I’ve been watching a lot of 1980’s Guiding Light. Robert Calhoun really produces the hell out of that show. It looks so much more expensive once he gets there. Modern without loosing tradition. Expansive with diverse sets/locations. The new opening is very modern for the time, and the emphasis on the lighthouse really gives the show a signature logo. Great casting, excellent stories. JFP maybe inherited the most in shape show of her career, certainly from that point on. Does anyone know why he left? One thing I will give her credit for- the show does really dig deeper into emotion when Jill gets there. Something like Maureen’s death should not have happened. But it was beautifully done once they did it. It is deep and rich material for everyone.

Of all the hacks that have made daytime returns to HW, I wonder why Pam Long never really made a comeback? I think she is far less offensive, even with her mistakes, than Passanate, Griffin, McTavish, Higley, Pratt, and so many others.

I’m so glad CBS All Access finally added the episodes. Those 2004 Katherine episodes might be the last time I felt like the show was still Y&R, even if it was a more souped up and kind of trashy version of itself. I had totally forgotten the real Mac came back for a year. Great to see so much Drucilla on all these classics. Makes me miss her even more.

Peter Barton was just the right amount of pretty, bland, and stupid to be between Sheila and Lauren. Another firecracker would have destroyed the balance in that story! Danny is a fine example of frontburner then forgotten. He was on all the time for close to a decade. Then just faded away. At the time I was happy the show kept Phyllis even as they let Danny fade. For all of our complaints about LLB, and Danny for that matter, the show went to number one and really took hold during the time they were on too much. I know there was a lot to love about Y&R then- I certainly did and I could not stand Cricket. But she was on all the time, and her character and Danny’s must have been popular. I know people that could tell you all about Cricket, and barely remember Cassandra. Nina saved scenes with Cricket for me back then. I loved Nina. I could tolerate Cricket when Nina was her rival and then her friend. As someone that was annoyed by Cricket, it was hard to watch the show from about 88 to 94 without her being on 3 to 4 days a week.

I am so frustrated with CBS All Access. They even had a clip advertising the Katherine week, and never posted the episodes. They removed the ad finally from the Y&R page. It was awesome seeing the classic episodes they did post though. Just wish the others had shown up.

I have been watching a ton of 1990 to 1994ish GL. I haven’t once found Maureen boring. I love her with Michelle, and Vanessa, and Bridget. I could watch an entire episode of just her and Vanessa and be happy. I love her friendship with Roger, and her complicated relationship with Holly. Focus groups should not be dictating story. If anyone is boring to me it’s Ed. I have just spent all night watching the YouTube compilation of her death, and he’s close to awful in a lot of it. Stoic and broken is absolutely a normal way to grieve for a lot of people. I don’t need him wailing. But he is just sour all the time. Way before this in the stuff I have seen he has the same look on his face and demeanor. I think JFP has produced a lot of excellent work over the years. But the carnage in her wake of fired or killed off fan favorites and her forcing bland characters down people’s throats has done more damage than any of the good she has done. Shockingly OLTL is the only show she didn’t decimate. Plenty of forced characters though.

Talk about a deserved win, and bittersweet. It is so clear to me watching the show after the fact what a huge mistake that was. I started watching as it was airing during the Annie storyline, then dropped in and out over the years. When you watch the stuff from before 1994, it has so many good elements. I watch soaps for both the exciting characters and the ones that are more normal and relatable. I love Maureen, and Parker is fantastic.

Was the issue with Rattray‘s Lily that she didn’t have the same chemistry with Holden? I seem to recall reading that somewhere. That it also led to the Holden has amnesia storyline.

In later years, for both her and Geary on GH, you could see them reaching more and more for their improv dialogue, and their scene partners just in a holding pattern waiting for them to get back to the script. I wonder how she would feel if she had been on a show like GH under Monty- where the actors brought the character quite often to plot driven storytelling, so the improvisation was welcomed. I can see the criticism of Marland. I sometimes find his ATWT stilted when I watch it on YouTube. I see why people loved it, but I also feel a disconnect to it. Especially the latter years, 1990 and beyond. When I started watching GL on YouTube from the same time period, I fell in love with almost every character. ATWT did not have the same effect on me.

Even 10 years ago this would have been easier to answer. But now I think big name stars are not always the highest paid on their shows. I doubt Deidre and Drake have the highest contracts anymore. But DAYS has a lot of stars in their range but no Sweeney there now. I assume the last 5 years of her contract she was the highest in salary and guarantee. Now maybe Alfonso? I know people like Geary made a ton, but he also stopped requesting larger salaries and wanted more time off instead. And his rewrite dialogue clause to stay intact. I am sure Maurice is the highest paid GH actor. Genie might be in the Steve Burton range. LW is probably up there too. Just below them Howarth. I seem to recall from things I have read over the years that when things were really at their peak, ABC paid really well, and so did DAYS. I bet Braeden is the highest paid right now. Maurice on GH next in line. KKL on B&B I would have placed up there, but I look at the counts and she isn’t always the leader like she used to be.

And yet, I cannot imagine her acting Phillip’s “death” (stupidest retcon of all time) in 1989. Brenda had already become so campy in her acting style. It really is interesting to compare scenes from just a couple years before she left.

I love it when people post scenes of Katherine being mean. I started watching the show in the mid 1980’s, and she had a real vindictive streak that lasted into the Nina storyline. Not just catty, she was just as awful as Jill. I am grateful that the show knew to keep this fire alive for so long. Probably Alden’s greatest storyline was restarting this and the creation of Mac and that dynamic. What amazes me, is that if you look at their history, Jill should be seen with more sympathy than she is often given. She was really young, Phillip was her first lover, Katherine pretty much killed him, and took everything from Jill (like she felt Jill was going to do to her). I know by the late 1980’s, Jill was pretty much unsympathetic. But Katherine was pretty awful.

Talk about tension. And nothing but a dinner party, history, anger and pain fueling the whole thing. Also- Brenda is pretty great here. You caN see the old Jill in her panic. It’s not just the vamping and bitchiness that she was pretty much only serving by the time she left. I love Jess, but this Jill is very watchable.

So far CBS All Access has not been adding the most recent classic episodes. I actually signed back up for it and they only have up to the episode with Dru and Neil’s honeymoon.

Yeah, when you compare her GH to her OLTL and GL runs, something was off. Even when her GH kind of unraveled (after Stone died, it kind of meandered for three or four months), she and her team had things back in place for more story (which Guza inherited when she left to sell her own show). Jax, Jason’s injury, and Bobbie’s dreams about a baby (which became Carly). All of that stuff was new and had legs. I think she just does not work well with constant interference and changing direction without seeing what is and is not working. OLTL should have been a good fit. Instead it was all over the place. I did like Mel and Dorian though.

It absolutely read like a Reilly story. Plus he loved characters like Nadine. Insecure and a little trashy/married into status is his jam!

Funny you should mention Vanessa/Fletcher! I was reading on online bio of Vanessa as I was planning to dive back into watching GL, and I was shocked to read about her with Fletcher. He really got around! And I also don’t love him. Ed was sanctimonious enough, I don’t need someone else like that. Although that may just be his relationship with Alexandra, I haven’t watched enough of him to know if it carries over to others. He doesn’t really do a lot for me, but when he is in scenes with Alex and they play the longing they both have for each other, it sells me on him. I love Hillary. I loved her as Tania on GH when I was a kid, and I like her as Eve.

I absolutely love her talking about just how awful Nikki was, especially as a parent! So funny!

He would have been much more compelling as Alan. I really wish Rauch had convinced McKinsey to come back. I know rumor has it they tried a couple of times, including when they hired Joan Collins. That was probably the only story I could see her actually in as well.

Finally getting around to watching the episodes up in CBS. I had almost completely forgotten about classic Y&R scene staging. People talking to each other, turning away from them, then the second person coming in to focus over their shoulder, or across the room. The score. It all made it very heightened and dramatic even if they were just talking about basic human emotion. I miss old fashioned soap closeups too. And the costuming that makes no sense outside of soaps. In the episode I am watching (Dru and Neil honeymoon), Jill is wearing something that absolutely would have been on Sally Field in Soapdish. It just makes me smile- when soaps were not ashamed of who they were.

Bill Bell’s last story would make a great week too- Nikki shot, Victor marrying her on her deathbed. I hope for earlier stuff too, but there are some gems in those later Bill Bell years/Alden solo.