heffer

I'm not too sure that anyone saw Alexandra as a "villian" in it's truest form. Some would think that she was justified (to a point) with her actions against Mindy, a woman who slept with her husband and changed the blood test that proved Nick was her son. Certaintly she was more darker towards the end of Bev's tenure. maybe more of an "antihero". As for MZ, the villainly was a little watered down during Roger's second run on the show, making his schemes more Alan-like. I am surprised Zaz didn't get any hate mail for his evilness in his first run though.

According to IMDB, Toby does voiceovers and the sporadic acting job. She also owns an indie film company that she runs with her husband and kids: http://www.wonderwheelproductions.com/ I always felt the show did a big diservice and confusion to the character by making her Alan's sister instead of his daughter.

I guess this clip demonstrates the very beginnings of writing Alexandra as a more darker character, a move that Beverly wasn't too thrilled with and (eventually) help lead to her leaving the show years later. No way would Lujack-era Alex be a somewhat willing accomplice to Roger's evil mechanisms.

I think that Lemay was more upset that JC pretty much took away the scene from their new star ingenue VW. Anyone that saw JC on both AW and OLTL would know she was a pretty competant actress, writing lines on hand or not. I also never saw evidence of Reinholt's (an actor good enough to make it to Broadway) "uneven acting" as Lemay claims. I wonder what HL thought of all the actors/actresses on daytime afterwards with his measuring stick.

I loved ADW and had no use for The Cosby Show. Two completely different type of shows, even if they shared the same universe.

I kinda agree Beth and Lujack were pushed together a little TOO quick in the beginning. The "fast love" I'm sure was due to the Bolger recast (I'm not sure they would have been so hasty if Grant was staying). Equally nonsensical though was instantly bringing Beth and Phillip back together so soon after Lujack's death. Phillip "returned" in 86?

I agree about Maeve, how anyone would think someone would choose plain old her over saucy Reva is ridiculous. Actually , I look at the Kyle era as the last of GL's glory years.Right around his departure we had the quick extermination of the Reardon clan (for me, Chelsea never felt like a "true" Reardon), deaths of Lujack and original Beth,and the start of "the Josh and Reva show" backburning a lot of characters/situations. Also, Coopermania would be right around the corner, sucking up a lot oxygen from the show. For sure, there would be times I enjoyed the show afterwords, but it never was truly the same.

This clip reminds me how much I wish Alan and Kyle would have interacted more on the show,with two of the long missed acting heavyweights of the 1980s. In fact Larkin Malloy's tenure on the show was way too brief,sacrificed perhaps for the return of the Josh and Reva show, even though IMO he had just as much chemistry with Kim Zimmer.

But wasn't that also true when CB and Beverlee were playing the roles? I guess you can argue that RR and Marj had a "different" type of dynamic, though. Everything else you said was spot on.

It's great seeing Chris Bernau looking so chipper in the interview(he had to know he was gravely ill at this point). A big "ouch" for John Tesh's closing comments, something that didn't need to be said during a supposed celebration of the show.

I'm sure a lot of people disagree with you guys, as the pairing of Lujack/Beth proved to be as popular as Phillip/Beth. In fact, it was one of few times in soap history a super couple was paired successfully IMMEDIATELY after one half was in a successful super couple. Part of the reason I didn't like the Beth/Phillip pairing after Lujack was the way he was portrayed by Bolger. Here we are having to believe the character made a complete swing back in a short time, being cordial about/with Lujack after the year before being turned into "Alan junior" (IMO unsuccessfully) after Chris Bernau took his hiatus from the show. Maybe if they brought back GA sooner, the re-pairing would have been more believable.

The writing for Beth did totally suck after Lujack's death. They paired her up with Phillip just WEEKS after the death of her supposed love of her life soulmate. What a slap in the nuts of Beth/Lujack fans. I understand the writers wanted them together due to their previous history, but they could have recast and gradually built back the relationship slowly or have Beth go out of town and come back later. It would have saved us from the ridiculous "Beth's missing" storyline. I was never a fan of the Simon character. He was too much "Lujack-lite" for me.

The Lujack death (and the departure of Judi Evans soon afterward) is (and I know I'm probably in the minority) where I pinpoint the true beginning of the very slow downward spiral of the show. To have your top popular supercouple end rather abruptly as it did took out a lot of the air in the sails which IMO it never truly got back.