soapfave06

I’m very surprised at how quick they took a plot driven turn as the year began.

Mia was amazing as Blair, rather she would have returned or not, they easily could have created a new character for Kassie. I don’t care to watch 96-early 2000s but was Kelly really necessary? Maybe that’s unpopular Oh, I love that scene between Rachel and Sheila. I hate they moved away from Kevin and Rachel, but they could have created a more interesting love interest than Ben. Yawn. By the way, was there any dropped threads or opportunities the show missed post-DID? It just got so aimless it seems come ‘96, Viki had nothing to do, Carlo came back, Luna was dead, etc. Maybe David Vickers could have been a full fledge villain? Viki and Clint back together?

Watching August 1994: It’s amazing how often the show is overhauled, almost distracts me from watching any era (The Late 80s erased history and failed to build secondary characters, the early 90s was a total reboot, the late 90s lost everything the early 90s gave (except maybe Nora, Blair, Todd?) until the early 2000s folks stayed on through the end, finally stabilizing the community) From that perspective, if Gabrielle, Megan or Sarah were still on it would go a long way outside of Max and Cord of keeping that late-80s unit alive, of course I wish AE had stayed as Tina, my all time fave Viki is so hardened IMO from her late-80s tone, which I preferred The drama with Todd being released from prison is pretty good, the show must have been very consistent in the drama going form Dorians murder trial back to the Todd terror. I absolutely adore EB’s Rachel and she feels so sidelined and soon to be gone, and unfortunately VP’s Sheila is already recast. The scenes of Blair confessing to Cassie that she ran Luna down were great, I will say Blair/Cassie/Marty/Nora are phenomenal. And Cassie getting onto Dorian for stealing Marty’s mansion is great too!

All I remember of CC Marty is her clashing with Todd and Blair and an aged Cole going to school with Starr, is that what SH turned down? That couldn’t be worse than the rapemance. I just moved and can’t wait to get the WiFi hooked up, I’ve watched some scenes on Twitter and this is the most excited I’ve been to see GH since maybe early 2019.

I wasn’t sure if there was a thread on this done already but was curious to about stories that were either not approved by the network or the show changed course on: In 1987, Tina was supposed to go to Hell the same time Viki went to Heaven (I guess after going over the falls, read this in a SOW issue from 1997) - this would have been an interesting contrast but she didn’t have the history Viki had IMO Roxy was supposed to be Rex’s father and trans RC proposed a time jump on OLTL (and GH, before getting approval on DAYS, glad it didn’t work out) RC had a Plan A and Plan B if RH didn’t return as Todd for Tales of Two Todd’s, so I’m curious what that was Tina was supposed to be arrested at her finale wedding to Cord for Victors murder but they scrapped it for their happy ending instead Vimal was supposed to stay in prison but was released when Vimal/Rama took off (that may be unpopular but I loved them!)

Very interesting stuff in 1969, awesome to see Scotty and Lee meeting and I wonder what the tone of the Tracey/Jeff stuff was, that story with the blind patient seems interesting in contrast to that of Carla on OLTL in the same year.

A shame they were never able to reposition her status after the Stefan death debacle, I enjoyed the hell out of the Julie heart storyline but after that she was wasting her time. I kind of wish they had somehow tied her into a triangle with Nicole for a worthy rival, the Jake/Stefan 2.0 never worked. I appreciate her never phoning it in, I’ve loved the character since DAYSaster and they cemented it with the wedding confrontation with Sami in January 2013. Hoping they don’t kill her off and she goes out guns blazing.

Outside of the Big 4 and Sally, from my on/off watching: Amber, Aly, JY Rick, Maya & the Avants, Deacon For me the show lost a lot when they dropped Maya and Rick, Amber could have caused problems for Rick and Maya for years. Aly was a breathe of fresh air until she went psycho and died. I recently started watching 1999-2001 and Deacon is like the anti-soap male lead, I really enjoyed his introduction and find it kind of shocking how the show just dropped Kimberly, Rick, Amber, Deacon. I started watching in 2008 but didn’t get hooked until Brooke slept with Oliver on accident so if these are unpopular then oops lol

I’m honestly getting curious for a list of repeated plots on DAYS between the brainwashing, shootings, lack of consent, evil siblings, returns from the dead. I wasn’t expecting an increased budget but they should have the most creative freedom and all they do is wash, rinse, repeat.

I was listening to old DC podcasts out of boredom while traveling to work and was reminded of my absolute favorite plot in my actual GH watching time-Metro Court Hostage Crises. I was very young when watching and even got me James/Jerry as the culprit didn’t work. Was there someone else who could have been revealed behind the mask? In my current poor memory of thinking, I was thinking it could have been Manny and Mateo? As amazing as it was I am just not sure the fallout was worth it.

Yeah, that’s a phenomenal idea Vee that would also advance a lot of story. Ah, I forgot GH was on the verge of cancellation so I agree the timing was bad. In fact had they focused on GH and took the hybrid idea in 2013 once they were on the upswing and could properly balance the canvas, it would have worked better and they would have been past the PP contract debacle. In 2012 they lost many stars, every writer and had a slew of newbies so in hindsight doing the hybrid worked but I would have taken Serena over Starr any day for example. For the hospital, losing Robin and never utilizing Kelly and Lainey, I think Angie would have worked regardless but Todd, Tea, etc to a lesser extent worked. Hahaha, I second this! On a lighter note, GH has absolutely the best looking vets, I don’t watch anymore but seeing clips on Twitter: Felicia, Tracy, Holly, Robert, Mac, Anna, the ageless Liz, they are truly top tier.

I love that idea, a shame it will never happen! It would have been cool to see Jesse working alongside Mac, Robert, etc and Angie at GH as COS with David causing problems for Liz, Monica, Patrick, etc at the time I think Anna and David were great from what I’ve seen and David/Angie/Jesse were fireworks for me from PP. I agree, I don’t know what they did different with John on GH as my memory fails me but he was fun, I do kind of hate they made him the center of Faison’s unmasking though. If they could have maintained a balance of recurring rotation of GH 80s vets in a good spy mystery alongside the mob, the hospitals and the community social issue stories GH would really be the show to watch. They try, but they play too safe and build up to absolutely nothing. I still applaud them though compared to the sister soaps. Honestly the merry go round of OLTLers playing new characters every year, moving Liz to the sidelines, failing on the social issue stories (what happened to Terry? And what about Jake or one of Liz’s kids being gay?) among other soap mistakes (Y&R wasted their chance to modernize and diversify their cast circa 2017-2018, B&B wasted the Avants circa 2016, so on) led me to drop soaps period.

Wow, that’s interesting. I hate Sonny (haven’t enjoyed him since Kate 1.0) and love Tea but I agree the Guza writers would have hit gold with that. It never would have happened but I would have preferred Guza stay for the mob side of PC and Carlivati for the vet side but both would have imploded regardless. As for GH as a quasi soap, I would have liked to have seen the Hubbard’s and David Hayward at GH, been okay with a few OLTLers and then revamping GH as they did. I am one of the few who adored the Prospect Park shows though and was sad to see they failed. I never looked at it like that at the time, I was so over Jason and Sonny they could have stayed under the bus and I never would have looked back but one thing that kept GH sailing was the almost solid dialogue and character focus that Guza and writers did and that, sadly, went out the window.

I would include Hope as Gina, Steve as Stefano, Marlena as the Devil (they get a pass on this one), Abby as her alters, the list goes on rather it’s brain washing or plot contrivance for them to get through an episode. Did Jack have amnesia or was he brainwashed when he returned? The only time they didn’t use it for plot was Ben but he was treated as a hero instead of as “The Beast” to Ciara’s “The Beauty”, would have made them much more interesting IMO. At least they did stop with the Return from the Dead every New Years Eve.

I watch on and off from both being busy and the same plots being retold over and over. I’ll admit I will take the bad CGI over the same damn set over and over again lol I watched only a few scenes but I guess they simply retold BS2 where Hope was shot but Bo is now shot? Just like Bo was “programmed” the same way every single character has been programmed to the point of exhaustion on this show? I love camp/fantasy but after the absolute waste of time that was Marlena, Kate and Kayla in Purgatory/Fantasy Land (I was excited for this until it amounted to nothing) on top of them all dying multiple times and Megan will be Kristin 2.0 before we know it.

Thanks, Vee! I’m trying to choose so carefully but OLTL is my #1 forever and always, I hope you get to go!

Not sure how many have been but hoping to visit the Paley Center this year and was reviewing the availability of OLTL, does anyone know if Carla appears in the October 1968 episode available? She’s listed in the credits but not much comes of the description.

I hope they continue uploading to Summer 1995 I started with the earthquake storyline in 1994 on the YouTube downloads and I’m quite enjoying the show, not sure how popular the stories were but the James/Taylor/Ridge/Brooke and Anthony/Macy/Sally/Karen/Connor has definitely grabbed my attention, the production is stunning and of course the odd sexual psyches like the James/Taylor affair, Anthony turning to Sally when he can’t get Macy and Karen faking the pregnancy are a little odd, it’s interesting. If this wasn’t so popular, I’ll blame my having not watched a soap in months or maybe years since I gave up on the new ones after they went full fledged Hallmark

Man, what could have been. I have no interest in OLTL from Fall 1995 on, I wonder what Curlee could have done with Marty, Viki, Dorian, etc. I think they lost sight of a lot of characters after those big trial arcs and the DID story. Actually, almost the whole canvas seemed lost: Bo, Nora, the Gannons, RJ

Who all would they have lost cast wise from the long term characters had the show continued on?

Thank you both!

What air dates are the Finn and Steffy reunion and location shoot?

Started picking up on some random episodes and I am HOOKED on the April/Draper/Molly triangle. Didn't this spin out of him falsely going to prison, the train wreck, then meeting Molly, her pregnant, then the Nancy in the sanitarium plot? Molly is a delightful villain and i love how innocent she plays.

Thanks-I was wondering how Gothic they went with it. That's crazy they just swept passed it.

Either I have been watching soaps so long or they have done this entirely too much. I couldn't be bothered to care even if they brought Stefan back. They won't find what made BB as Stefan work the first time and it will all be dull. Has happened time and again.