antmunoz

Gus was supposed to be the son of Selena and Miguel, Sr. The storyline was stupidly changed. Patti D’Arbanville was fired. Miguel, Jr. was alive and...elsewhere. Selena had always known his whereabouts. (This child was never mentioned during Selena’s search for the other child she gave up, Drew.) Gus vs. Danny. Half-brothers. Perfect and soapy. Instead, we get Alan and a nun. Ugh. Gus did NOT need to be a Spaulding.

Saundra wasn’t aware of the Vegas on OLTL? She was Carlotta #2!

Ben Jorgensen? LOL

Does Martha really have anything to lose by being candid, tho? Alan should’ve asked Liz about her working relationships with Heather and Noelle. It would’ve been a valid question. Like, how did the onscreen mother/daughter vibe change? I wouldn’t have minded seeing Martha sit there and squirm, especially if Liz has positive things to say about them. Did anyone else catch Liz say that an actress from YOUNG DOCTOR MALONE was almost cast as Lucinda? Who could that have been? Ann Williams, who was also on THE DOCTORS, SFT, EON, and well-known to P&G? Liz mentioned Jesse Lee Soffer in connection with the gay story. Was Will even peripherally involved with Luke’s story? Did she mean to say Van Hansis? I know Luke and Jade were close, and Jade seduced Will, but the comment just seemed odd.

Valentina’s Faith popped up three months after Ashley’s Faith begged to be sent away to boarding school, at Xmas no less. NuFaith was a major brat. I believe she was expelled, was drinking, doing drugs, and shoplifting from Fashions. (“Put that scarf back where you found it, Cookie! It’s just like Ol’ Lucy’s granddaughter to take what doesn’t belong to her!”—L. Miller Grimaldi) The actress was pretty meh compared to Ashley. Faith had heart and soul. NuFaith had...silicone? Liz said on The Locher Room that Ashley was tired for the weight gain. Since the weight gain had previously been dealt with in storyline, I don’t get it. They just wanted to recast with a “hottie.” Liz called Valentina “a 45 year old in a girl’s body.” Martha laughed. Martha didn’t work with her though.

Thank you. Hunt Block was great and was playing Craig AS WRITTEN. Scott Bryce was in Hollywood doing prime-time. He would not have come back then. Should he have been fired from his second stint on ATWT? No. But Hunt was very well-received at the time, by fans and soap press. So was Heather Rattray as Lily. It’s revisionist history that they weren’t. You can blame Goutman for effing up Craig, but Block seems to get so much heat for his portrayal. It was on the page, in the script. Weirdly, when a character is NOT recast, but has major personality shifts ( Zenk’s Barbara, more than once), it’s ok.

Liz Hubbard mentioned today on The Locher Room that one of the actresses who played one of Lily’s daughters (I assume Faith) was fired because she got heavy and the show wanted to do a ballet story with the character. Liz suggested they keep her and change ballet dancing to tap dancing because the actress could tap. It didn’t work, and she was fired and replaced with a thin actress who (I’m paraphrasing) was like a 45-year old woman in a girl’s body. Martha laughed. Ashley Greiner was fired for weight gain? AFTER the diet pill storyline? For (ugh) Valentina de Angelis? I don’t recall ballet being a plot point at all. Shaking my head...so sad.

Kim never named BE but said this co-star fell in love with all her co-stars and ended marriages for them. (Well, two, Derwin and Bogue.) Bogue was supposed to leave his wife for her...but didn’t. This pissed BE off and she became very toxic on set. Didn’t life imitate art in this case? Bogue did leave his wife for Mandy Bruno just as Mallet eventually wound up with Harley’s niece Marina.

A viewer asked for a behind-the-scenes moment between Kim and Robert. Nobody knew what to say. Crystal said, “Wow, that’s...personal.” Then Alan tried to play it off as something funny, like some crazy backstage antics or something. Crystal said that people are just themselves behind the scenes, and, of course, “Zimmer takes no crap.” Everyone laughed. I didn’t interpret it as tension. CC cast Kim and Robert in VENICE recently. Just a fun comment that we all knew to be true.

The technical difficulties on these things are annoying as hell. Alan can’t get these folks on ten minutes early for a trial run? Zimmer takes no crap! Yassssss

I thought the big rumor was Beth Ann Bonner (Talia, OLTL) was almost Michelle until the cancellation was announced. Then they brought her on anyway as that jewel thief involved with Cyrus and Remy.

You’re right! Although I preferred the first opening which seemed to consist of scenes filmed solely for the opening. The second featured more cast members tho. I wish I could watch all of this in English. I really love this era of the show and especially Jennifer Cooke as Morgan.

I think you’re right, but I also don’t think JE could’ve played what BC played. JE couldn’t even play Paulina, the role she assumed on AW, as she was intended, a sexpot schemer. I preferred Cali Timmons. Paulina became Beth/Adrienne (DAYS). BC was dynamite and could play anything given her—and she was given ALOT. In many ways, she was a successor to Holly, a troubled neurotic mother who’d been done wrong by men (Bradley, Phillip, Carl). I liked Judi as young victim Beth but I don’t see her as the adult Beth. I’m not defending Lorelei or Kidnapper Beth or Cougar Beth, BTW. But BC played the hell outta that $h!+.

Robin Mattson was available at any number of times and even did ATWT towards the end. As the first adult Hope Bauer, she would’ve been a great choice to return. Hope had been offscreen for years, allegedly still struggling with alcoholism. What if she’d returned to Springfield with an edge? Ron Raines’ Alan would’ve been toast. She would’ve been great with Hunt Block’s Ben Warren (Hope liked a Ben!) in the late 90’s, although I think Robin was still on AMC at the time.

I think I’ve chatted with that same accessible actor on FB, and yes, the subject of Mary elicited virtually no response. Entertainment reporter Nelson Aspen only has the best things to say about his mentor, Mary. He was backstage at SFT and also day played as Albert. Aspen speaks negatively of the accessible actor, though. Hmmmmm. Ann Williams told her kids that Mary was jealous of her and got her fired. Mary was her son’s godmother. But Ann seemed a bit paranoid in real life as well.

Mary gave an interview to SPW about her cancer battle a few years before she passed away. She had quite a bit to say. I don’t know as I’d label her as “private.” Her autobiography certainly revealed quite a bit, including infidelity and relationships outside of marriage. She was NOT Jo, LOL.

So unnecessary. It invalidates the previous storyline, which was superior. Jennifer’s reactions would’ve been far different if Brandon as a possible babydaddy had been an option. And the birth certificate that Alexandra possessed stated “Jennifer Richards” was Amanda’s mother, right? “Jennifer” was not her name at the time. It was Jane Marie Stafford. “Richards” was her later married name. Lazy, lazy use of history. Who would you have cast as Amanda at the time other than Kathleen Cullen or Toby Poser? I’m thinking that Jackie Schultz could’ve been age appropriate and interesting, especially if Geraldine Court had returned for a guest appearance. I could see them as mother/daughter. Now I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole and I can’t stop thinking about Eve’s creepy stalker, Uncle Chet Stafford, who wanted Eve out of his niece Amanda’s way!

Did Jennifer and Morgan live in it before Ross and Carrie? Jennifer kept something hidden behind a stone in the fireplace, right? Some of the kids moved into the house before that set was retired—Marah, etc. Then they quickly started living in an old museum with hidden passages in it leading into the Carrie Carruthers story.

That set was very old by that time. Ed and Rita moved in...when? 1977? That set was almost 25 years old. I don’t think any soap set outlasted the Stewart living room on ATWT—40+ years—which endured until the end, although I don’t recall the very last time I saw it, but Susan somehow lived there with Alison.

Did Ben and Eve live in the house before Ross? Or Ben and Amanda? I’m also seeing Jennifer in that house??? And Reva Bend, later owned by Holly—same set? Storylines I remember, but sets are difficult. I do recall last seeing Ed’s living room during a confrontation between Danny, Michele and Carmen, possibly the last one. Ed’s house had a very distinctive Spanish mission style. After that, I think the set vanished.

Maybe Alex will tell us. Spill some TEA! I think the answers to all your questions ultimately arrive at “Goutman.” He threw away a lot of characters that didn’t work...and some that did. I liked Hunter. I liked Maddie. I even liked the last Lucy. You have to pretend all that Adam mess never happened. You have to. There’s no way that Chase Lawlor’s Adam became...that. Didn’t care much for Casey’s jackassery either. These were nice boys from a good home. That really happens in the real world, y’all!

I’m more interested in why Fran Myers came back for a six month stint after two years away that went nowhere. I guess a check is a check tho.

I do! Corrected. LOL I don’t know if she just vanished or if they said she’d moved back to Idaho, where she’d been for two years. I always wondered why Fran came back for six months in 1979. Peggy was basically just a nurse at Cedars with little personal storyline.

Maureen mentioned “Sebastian” when Robert, I think, was discussing storylines that were here today, gone tomorrow. Granted, the Sebastian story ran for almost a year, though. In hindsight, it accomplished nothing. The only things I liked about this story were Maureen, who can sell ANYTHING, and Holly and Michelle finally reconnecting onscreen. Blake’s obsession with another long-lost brother got on my damb nerves. She was way too protective of Hart, and now THIS GUY. Peter Simon wouldn’t return to play Ed’s role in the story which really crippled it. I would’ve asked Mart Hulswit if he wanted the work, IMO. I always felt that Holly and Ed’s last scene was filmed when Maureen filmed her previous episode a few weeks earlier. Just a hunch. It was weird that a year later, Ed wasn’t back to attend Rick and Mindy’s wedding (which seemed poised to take place the following day, which we never saw). Since everyone got paired up, I would’ve liked to have seen Ed and Holly still together even if not married. And why weren’t Phillip and Beth making it a double wedding? Maureen commented negatively on her Peapack experience in SPW at the time. No rehearsal. Just say the lines and move on. We know the drill. She was sad to see the show end but it had done her no favors the last four years. Let’s be honest, Holivia was the lesbian relationship that should’ve happened. Crystal Chappell had way more chemistry with Maureen than Jessica Leccia (even though CC and JL have coasted on that relationship for a decade), and Natalia was never credible as a woman-lovin’ woman.

Marcia McCabe promptly put every cent of alimony into her face, apparently. Did Goutman make Jen dress up as Cleo Babbitt during sex tho...?