Emma1420

They really didn't. And I never understood why. They just didn't seem to care about the Bauers at all. Alan Michael was only allowed to be a Spaulding, except for the 4th of July. Michelle eventually turned into a mob appendage, and RIck was only really permitted to be Phillip's BFF.

I like Cain, but it's a little bit ridiculous the amount of stuff he's gotten away with. However, I find his spawn Debi to be far far worse. Debi's list of victim's is longer. Everyone she screws dies or in poor old Andy's case has to leave town indefinitely. She may not pull the trigger, so to speak, but she causes them all to go mad. I still blame her, in part, for Gennie dying.

My biggest gripe was that Hope never returned to the canvas. Her absence, especially in the late 80's and 90's, was a little ridiculous.

I don't think that so many UK soaps were as focused on star-crossed lovers like US or Aussie soaps. But, I do think they used to do a better job of balancing out the dark gritty stuff with the more light hearted/comedic stuff. And I always felt like the UK soaps were much better about keeping couples together for several years before breaking them up. I like many of the darker and gritter storylines. But, I need them to be balanced out, and I get tired of seeing certain characters rotate through partners the way that they do (David and Debi are prime examples).

I've never minded the Dingles. Well I like Chas and Cain, and Marlon doesn't annoy me too much. The rest of them I could do without. I agree though that there is a general over emphasis on their stories at the expense of other character's stories. To me the two most compelling stories on the show right now are the aftermath of Vic's rape and then the grooming stuff with Jacob and Maya. However, they are both dark stories, and I feel like the show really needs something happier to balance those out. And killing off Lisa and having episode after episode of Dingles crying about her death (when let's be fair outside of Belle, I didn't think majority of them gave a toss about Lisa when she was alive). And outside of Chas & Paddy and their pregnancy, everything else seems pretty depressing. And if I wanted to watch something endlessly depressing I'll watch Eastenders instead.

Most soaps today are so terrified of losing viewers that they won't dare do anything contemporary. Plus a good story needs to be well paced, and that is something that all four of the remaining shows struggle with. I mean Emmerdale in the UK has a storyline about a teacher who groomed and abused one of her students and then a date rape story that has resulted in a pregnancy (and a rape that at least at this point isn't being used as a catalyst for a romantic pairing). I don't believe there is one US soap that has the guts or ability to tell those type of stories anymore.

I think that role was pretty close to impossible to recast. But, I do agree finding a decent actress who had great chemistry with Frank Dicopoulos or even Rick Hearst would have helped. The problem with the recast wasn't necessarily that she was a bad actress, she seemed fine, she just lack chemistry with her co-stars and was kind of bland. And at least for me, I'll take an average or even mediocre actor that can generate good chemistry and has some spark on screen over better actors who can't do that. I get over a crappy performance from time-to-time, I can't get over being boring. I think that is why Marcy Walker's Tangie always fell so flat to me. She was so bland and lacked chemistry with pretty much everyone, even though I though MW was a good actress.

I didn't realize that. But, not shocking as Guza refused to really write for any African American character. Mind you he also had zero interest in writing for any character not named Luke, Sonny, Jason, or Carly.

David and Gilly Grant were fantastic characters, and Monti Sharp had so much chemistry with everyone. I'm a little surprised that he didn't end up on another soap because he was such a great soap actor. He was a good actor in general, but not all good actors are good soap actors. The casting in the early 90's especially for the under 30 crowd was pretty terrific. Monti Sharp, Melissa Hayden, Nia Long, Rick Hearst, Melina Kanakarede, etc. Even Jocelyn Seagraves and Morgan Englund, who I thought were weaker actors, generally had good chemistry with their fellow actors, and worked well on the canvas. I think the fact that GL had such a long string of great casting made the rotating Hart's stick out more. I never understood why they recast Eleni. They should have killed off that character when Melina Kanakarede left. Because the writers clearly had no real interest in the character once MK left.

I really liked Vivian as well. I think she, like many characters in 1996, were a victim of the rotating writers and change in executive producers. It stunk because I thought she was complicated, and while i think she was judgmental and at times pretty horrible, I understood why she was the way that she was. But, then 1996 was a mess in general. And the execution of stories was subpar at best.

I tend to forget about Marland's contribution to the Lewis's. Although I also don't think Marland was just like most HW. He had his own pets and created a bunch of new characters. It's just that generally I tended to like his new characters. Mostly, because I felt like under Long's first tenure that it GL was becoming like Texas in Springfield.

I haven't seen much of the mid-80's and so I can't comment on that, but 87 & 88 were terrible. And I wasn't a huge fan of Long. because she introduced not only Reva, but also Harley. And l hated Harley. However, she also introduced the Lewis family, and I thought they were a massive airtime suck. The best part of the Reva free years was that the airtime wealth was spread more evenly. But, mostly she was responsible for Harley. To be fair, I tolerated Harley during her first run (and I even liked Mallet with her), but her second run made me want to punch her daily.

There returns were fantastic. They gave the show a much needed shot in the arm. Because the late 80's? Was not GL at it's best.

Reva got it the worst of any of the characters. I suspect mostly because the writers were doing anything possible to keep her on the frontburner, even if they didn't have any decent ideas for her at the time. Although I also think that during the late 90's and early 00's that actors demanding to be kept on the frontburner seemed more of a thing. I rewatched a few of the episodes from the second half of 1994, and I had forgotten how stupid some of those storylines were. Alan-Michael spending a couple months crawling around on the beach. Alan doing a horrible Japanese accent. Etc.

I think Annie is a great example of how far the show had fallen in the writing department from the early 90's to the mid-to-late 90's. Annie ended up becoming a cartoon. She was entertaining after Reva showed up alive, but, she was entertaining because CW made crap out of gold, not because she was a well written character (which I think bodes well for her as Nina on GH, given that GH is terribly written), especially after her intervention.

I agree that very little seems dated. That period of the show holds up very well. While i suspect objectively 1991-1992 were the better years, I enjoyed almost the entire show until Reva showed back up in 1995. Although I tend to think that 1994 onwards the show wasn't as fresh and seemed to fall victim to more of stereotypical soap tropes the things I'd expect to see on the ABC soaps. The writing was just great back then. I understood the characters motivations, and even the weaker actors on the show (for example, the guy who played Dylan) never seemed that bad, because I understood why they were doing what they were doing. The only major misstep was killing off Maureen. And I think that was more to do with the fact that I didn''t think Peter Simon was a particularly good actor, and so I spent the majority of that storyline wanting him to just go away.

Early 90's GL (the Reva free years) was probably the best soap on the air. Or at least I thought it had the most sophisticated and character driven stories out of the soaps on the air. Granted I loved the show during that era. Because most of the characters didn't fall into typical soap opera categories. Every character seemed to be able to make mistakes and get to be the hero at times. Even the "good" girls and guys, were flawed and made mistakes. No character was completely good or bad. Unfortunately, I think by the mid-to-late 90's that type of character development and storytelling was gone for good. But, early 90's GL? Was amazing.

Recasts I loved: Rick Hearst as Alan-Michael on GL. Wendy Moniz as Dinah on GL. Genie Francis as Laura on GH. With all three of them, they took established characters and took them into adulthood. And they took characters that from my point of view were fine, if not a little bland to complex and interesting. Recasts I hated: Jacob Young as Lucky Spencer on GH...my eardrums took years to recover. The fact he won an emmy for his work there is disturbing. Pretty much any recast on ATWT after about 2000. Basically because every "recast" was really a new character with the old character's name and history. Hunt Block wasn't playing Craig, he was playing some guy with the same name. The same was true of Grayson McCouch's Dusty. I'm not opposed to characters changing and/or evolving or devolving, but they should at least have the same core. They shouldn't seem like a complete stranger. Most recasts fall more in the middle for me. And I think for some recasts their success is largely dependent on if the writer of the show or the EP thinks they are worth writing for.