Soaplovers

Finally... the show has confirmed my initial theory as to why Naomi has been a moody bitch for so long. Her listing all the traumas of 2025 confirmed that she's repressed her true feelings and it has caused her to explode. Ashley continues to work in supportive friend mode. Hayley and Tomas had a good interaction.. perhaps he smartens up and realizes the scheming that Hayley is doing and gets himself hurt/killed for being smart for once.

Part of the reason was because Laken was played by a subpar actress when the show debuted. The show did try to revive the Laken/Ted thing when she was recast later on, but the actress wasn't able to make much head-way with the various 180's her character was written.

Like you said @Khan Kathleen Noone preferred playing parts like Claudia... but like you said, her strength was playing mother/daughter scenes. Not only was she at her best opposite Galina as Kate... but on Sunset Beach, her wacky/over the top man eater character Bette lacke depth/purpose until the show created her daughter for her.. and then her character took off. If you have a gift, why fight it. In regards to Strasser, she was of a certain age and wasn't going to be getting roles with depth and range like she did on daytime even though she proved she was more than capable in the mini series Baby M. To a part like Dianne on Knots Landing, you have to infuse it with layers.. and I don't think she was able to successfully do so.. but she at least did come out on top at the end. Maybe she should have been the one to play Claudia on KL instead.

Fletcher/Vanessa seemed designed as a rebound of sorts for the two of them.. and also to wake Billy up to the fact that he still cared/loved his ex-wife. Had Ross not been entangled with Blake/Holly during that period, I would have preferred that Ross/Vanessa make another go of it.... alas.. not to be.

The Chelsea/Frank/Fletcher 2nd half 1990 story was basically the writers not having any sort of plan for those three characters so they just put them together in a story to buy time and/or figure out where to put them later on was my theory. By 1991, Chelsea was written out.. Frank was put with Eleni.. and Fletcher went back to being the single dad that watched all the kids while also briefly flirting with a relationship with Alex (who was blinded by her hatred of Roger/Mindy and obsessed with her newfound son Nick). The Nick McHenry character is a prime example of why you don't kill off a popular character (Lujack) because he could have been bought back as Lujack in 1991 and had the same story with Alex/Mindy without diminishing either Alex or Mindy. Mindy wouldn't have needed to switch paternity test results nor would Alex have become obsessed with trying to claim another possible son.

How Teri Austin opted to play the scenes at Laura's funeral/wake is rumored to be the element that inspired LML to make Jill crazy. Before the funeral, her annoyance/anger is focused mostly at Gary and less on Val or Abby... but after the funeral, her anger starts to focus on Val instead of Gary.

I think the addition of Eleni in 1991 was the start of the character of Sam not being needed as much since Eleni seemed to be in the same age bracket as Sam/Harley while becoming the woman that Frank/AM end up fighting over... and that was after Eleni and Dylan briefly dated in mid 1991. Also, moving Dylan into the Bridget/Julie/Hart/Kat grouping in mid to late 1991 also didn't help Sam's place on the show. I also think the change-over in head-writers and EP in 1991 caused a shift in focusing on new characters/situations.. and once the St John story was wrapped up in early 1992.. there wasn't really any other story/coupling in place for Sam at that time and with her most likely 3 year contract coming up for renewal in early 1992... she was phased out.

You really want Tomas gone LOL In regards to Kat/Eva.. a secret to good feud is allowing both sides to cool off and not engage with one another.. or else it becomes either too stale or too over the top (I.e. Jill/Katherine on Y & R). Right now, Kat is dealing with family issues while Eva is trying to start over with a new guy that's single. If the plan was to make Derek a psycho/bad guy... than the writers were so off base. There have been hints about him being obsessive over Ashley going all the way back to episode 1 where his whole existence seemed to revolve around her. He also had the head injury, also used Shanice to make Ashley jealous, held off telling Ashley he was getting feeling his legs, basically blackmailed Shanice into not telling Ashley about his progress, threw shade at Jacob about being honest with Naomi, and then after he was found out and hanging out with Jacob.. he said he still believed he could get Ashley back. Lastly, his NYE awkwardness was him still trying to determine if he should make a move on her, but was doing the boy scout thing. Maybe they just dropped Derek when season 2 started, but the way he was acting wasn't the way someone with closure would act. Time will tell.

I could see the show going in the direction of Naomi finding out she's pregnant when she's doing the tests for the gene. I also could see an Ellie Synder (ATWT) situation where she could possibly get an abortion because of this fear and also not wanting to put her career on hold for a baby without telling Jacob. Except we don't have the conflict/stakes of Izaiah and Eva being a couple like there was when Tomas/Eva were teased. Which is why I think either his family will disapprove of her, Tomas comes back into the picture, or Kat will make trouble. You didn't like when Ashley was being all vanilla spice? LOL

One of my friends was bummed that Dani was positive and Nicole was negative because that seemed to be the predictable route... but Nicole is more like Anita in terms of how she handles crisis so it would make more sense from a dramatic standpoint to have the emotional fire plug be the one to get the positive results. Chelsea already was mature and pragmatic about the possibility of her needing to get tested herself so now we see if she or Naomi get a positive results. I think Naomi getting the positive result will cause more tensions with Jacob and make her decide not to have children even more final while Chelsea having a positive reading might not cause as much dramatic weight. Previews for next week look good.

Had the writers bothered to do their research, they could have had Holly say that she remember her own situation with Blake and Ed/Roger.. and that was why she was talking to Jenna.. and felt bad about being the accidental cause of Jenna's death. I'd forgotten this Michelle had visited Holly during Christmas with Holly being looney tunes about Meg coming home with Fletcher.

I had a friend of mine recently start watching the show and I was explaining to them about how Dani/Andre seemed to be a happy surprise and that the show listened to viewer feedback and kept them together as a couple instead of what I think was the intended plan of Andre/Ashley (which seems pretty much dormant now if today's episode was any indication). The friend asked me why Dani/Andre only seem to be shown in bed and having sex vs having actual deep conversations that a couple should have. I told them that there had been numerous conversations between the two in the past.. but that they just happened to watch during their sexy time phase of the relationship. What I liked about today's episode was the Chelsea/Kat conflict because I saw both sides of their arguments... but it is Kat's decision what she wants to do. I have to admit I like that Kat is establishing boundaries and having a life for herself away from her family. The timing is off because of what Anita's going through, but she'll visit her grandmother once she has worked through her own internal fears. And Ashley continues to excel as the supportive friend and wondering if the show will actually keep her in this realm a bit longer before trying to throw her into another insta-relationship.... time will tell.

I faintly remember Michael visiting the Cory mansion and interacting with Ada because Rachel was supposed to meet him somewhere, but he couldn't find her... and I believe that was when Rachel was knocked out on the pier and had issues with her vision. And I think during Vicky/Jamie's brief marriage.. Michael/Donna interacted with Ada whenever Steven was being watched by her. I remember one particular episode when Rachel was still having trouble with her vision that she was at the studio where Felicia had her talk show and there was a cat and mouse chase scene between Rachel and Carl I believe in 1991... the filming of it was well done. And I do remember Michael and Rachel's brief relationship, it was after his relationship with Stacey went bust. I viewed it as the writers not sure what to do with either of them so they put the two in one another's orbit. I remember she turned him down at the last minute before he left town.

Because Vanessa is a member of the club and guests of members are permitted and it wouldn't be a good look if he was rejected because he wasn't the 'right type'.

Hilary being killed off was pretty sudden and unexpected in the fall of 1984 so I wonder if that was a last minute decision due to the issues between Kobe and the actress playing Hilary? To me, watching the summer 1984 episodes.. the show seemed to be hinting at a possible pairing between her and Fletcher.. and the two had a good rapport with one another. It was probably being done because the actor that played Jim probably had indicated he wouldn't be staying beyond his contract (I know the actor said he signed a shorter contract of a year or so and he opted to leave after that expired) and the September 1984 episodes did seem to indicate a Jim/Annabelle bond that both Tony and Hilary had taken note of.

Jenner had a good arc as Abby's ex husband.. it was a short, but effective arc that helped with establishing Abby as someone not to be messed with if you cross her. Noone had potential as Claudia, she was just given a bad character that she couldn't make heads or tails out of. What baffled me was that Karen Fairgate, the know it all, was friends with her and hung out with her without ever sensing that she wasn't trust worthy. Claudia made Abby seem like a girl scout sometimes. Otherwise, the other parts seemed more like short term cameos or badly written parts.

Joey and SPS/Leslie were the highlight to me.. it was good that the show finally inserted other scenes/stories instead of focusing just on the Anita story. Ashley in supporting mode is where she is best right now, but I must confess she has better scene chemistry with Shanice than she does with Naomi in terms of friend scenes. I still wonder if she's connected to Joey as his daughter and that's why the two haven't interacted with one another yet on the show. Izaiah and Eva have chemistry, but I'm not seeing the conflict and/or forbidden aspect of their coupling like there was when she was with Tomas. I'm going to assume that either his ex will be coming into the picture to provide some conflict or the show will try to insert Tomas as an obstacle.. or maybe the show will actually make the Hawthorne's the second family of the show and have them be the obstacle for the two. I like how the show writes Vanessa and her friendships with both Dani and Nicole. With Dani, Vanessa displays a bit of that naughty element that's been missing while with Nicole.. she becomes more together and supportive. This kind of writing goes a long way in making a character more layered because you don't interact with all your friends in the same manner. Vanessa and how she interacts in 1:1 scenes with Dani and Nicole is a prime example of that.

I could have seen Mike being involved in the Barbados story based on the scenes/interactions between him and Alex... plus he had some interactions with Susan Piper as well during the summer 1984 episodes I believe. I have a feeling what Long had mapped out for that story had to be altered drastically due to Kobe and her tendency to fire performers. It sounded like another umbrella story that would have involved Bauers, Reardons, and the Spauldings... and I recall Reva having a scene with Susan Piper about real estate so perhaps the Lewis family was also going to be tied to the story for some reason. Had a male or female Spaulding family member had stayed on past the Barbados story, I think it would have been a better story... although I do remember Susan Piper was a great short term villainess and the way she was disposed of was pretty memorable. It's a shame that Alan still wasn't on the canvas during that time because of his complex relationship with Brandon.

That's been my biggest problem is that the show is too Dupree focused without other characters/stories that aren't connected to them being featured at the same time. You can tell the B & B influence in that aspect, but on a half hour soap.. you can get away with that.. not on an hour soap. And I was glad to see more of SPS/Leslie, Eva, and the Hawthorne men being focused on for a bit because it gave the show a bit of balance and showed that the world wasn't so claustrophobic. I know MVJ mentioned that Izaiah's new job that he recently got was going to be the first step to focusing on the campus.. so let's get those steps in. I say this after watching 80s/90s Guiding Light, ATWT, and even old school B & B that had such a large canvas and community that wasn't so contained. I hope season 2 will expand beyond the Duprees and show more of the community and world that isn't tied to them.

Except that I don't care about Chelsea or Madison.. and I don't ship them because the writers haven't spent the time focusing on them for viewers to care about them. I would keep Madison over Chelsea since we need more non Dupree's on this show.

I kind of feel after the show hooked Eva/Tomas up then he tossed her aside, he seemed to have lost the one aspect of his presence that worked.. his connection and rapport with Eva. I wish the show would pull the trigger on him being a social climbing player because the way the actor is playing Tomas is a low key player trying to pretend to be the perfect boyfriend. The writing and his performance seems to be clashing. With Ashley.. Jen Jacob isn't a bad actress and seems to play Ashley with an edge that isn't in the writing for her character 90 percent of the time. The only time where the writing and the acting come together was during that brief time she was onto Hayley and the two had that exchange at Uptown. She and Hayley had a good rapport during that exchange... but since then, the writing seems to want to portray Ashley as a Mary Sue when the actress has more back bone that conflicts with the writing. Derek always seemed to be a throwaway character to MVJ and co so naturally he was the first individual downgraded. I still think Chelsea and Madison should be written off/downgraded as well... since it doesn't seem as though the show really feel motivated to give Chelsea any sort of focus/story unlike Naomi and Kat.

I always thought some of Beth's actions post Lorelei like the Coop story, the Alan story, etc.. were a result of her DID persona Lorelei still calling the shots instead of Beth. It wasn't until the last months of the show that Beth became more like the Beth of the early years.

As a Joey fan, I'm so glad that he was added to the opening credits because the show needs characters that don't worship the ground that the Duprees walk on (and yes, I felt that way about the Capwells on Santa Barbara.. which I still think heavily influenced this show). Derek being downgraded makes sense even though he was a sweetheart, but the show heavily invested in Ashley. As a friend of mine told me, Ashley is connected to the canvas due to her job as nurse, her friendship with Naomi is focused on, her mother provides background/details over her past, and other places also share the theory that Joey might be her father. I still that could be a possibility only because of the brief scene where Vanessa introduced Jan and Joey and the facial expressions that both Jan and Joey had hinted that they weren't comfortable with one another (and also could be viewed as both trying to be there for Vanessa after Doug's death). With Guza gone, might be out of the window and perhaps the backstory of who Ashley's father is might have changed... but Joey did mention his ex recently in a conversation.

Lujack and Beth were the real deal, and he died in her arms. I always contend that Lujack was her true love and that she only went back to Phillip out of familiarity. Which is why I thought she was acting so unhinged during the 1997/1998 period because she was adrift.. not because she was actually in love with Phillip. I would agree with your sentiment about Fiona. Jenna had been watered down quite a bit especially compared to her 1992-1993 stint when she was more like an India type than the soccer mom she was turned into by 1998.

Oh yeah they did test Lucy with Matt when he first came on. In fact, I think the plan was that Vanessa/Matt were supposed to be a short term thing with the long term plan being Lucy/Matt. They had the standard bickering introduction that soaps do when they want to signal an enemy to lovers situation. Lucy/Josh wasn't so much a testing, but it was due to a dating site or video dating site where they ended up getting paired up.. and I think they had more of a friend date than an actual date. I know that he helped rescue her during a fire.. and that was where he met Annie Dutton.. but again the details are fuzzy because I haven't watched that era since I watched it live as a middle schooler.