carolineg

I guess it's a happy ending for Nancy because Mike's a catch, but I have no idea why Mike would want to be with a woman who actively tried to ruin his life for years lol.

I don't think Ned has anything to lose. He backed out of the deal because of it, so he's in the clear as far as I can tell. Tbh, I don't really care about Carly being beholden to the Q's after all the hoops she made them jump through for Michael. Idk why Ned cares though. Perhaps he's doing a solid for his off screen bff Brenda lol? I think Carly's son being a Q and part of the merger is much more damaging than Drew though. At this point I don't really expect Carly to have any real issue based romances. It still feels like we are biding are time until the inevitable Carson reunion, so why even develop the relationship beyond the usual? I am not disagreeing with your solid ideas I just don't think we are supposed to truly invest in Sonny/Carly's non-Carson pairings.

Didn't Jason's kids get his stock? I would assume Sam controls Danny's, but I don't know who controls Jake's. Liz I think? As far as the insider trading stuff, I think Carly knowing about the merger and investing a ton of money in Aurora before the merger was finalized is illegal and enough to get in serious trouble. Any way you look at it, Carly was standing to profit significantly from a tip she got from Drew that the public had no knowledge of. The merger didn't happen, but Ned could still report them if he wanted to. My understanding is that it's much harder to prove insider trading if Carly/Drew are just casual friends and not in a romantic relationship. Anyhow, I would assume the fact that Michael is Carly's son would be way more damning evidence than Drew/Carly's possible relationship, but whatever. Obviously, someone with a better working knowledge of finance and this sort of thing can correct me if I am wrong though.

No one's talking about the fact Nancy/Mike are dating off screen? How random. I got that vibe when they talked however long ago. Does this mean Nancy's just gone? No farewell?

I think Carrie was supposed to be an older soul, but I don't think that was explicitly stated. She also had a lot of male friends (Jonah, Mike, Lucas). In her first wedding to Austin her bridesmaids were Billie (involved with her uncle), Gina/Hope (her aunt lol), Marlena (her step mom), and Wendy (who's forgettable). And putting aside Wendy, who was barely used, all these women had their own group of friends their own age. Even Sami had Jamie. I suspect it was less about Carrie and more about JER wanting Carrie to be the only young heroine in that age range and didn't bother adding anyone else. But when you think about it Carrie's never really had a female friend her entire run her age. Marlena was basically her BFF 🤣

Well, I don't know if I would say Godfrey was the best thing to happen to Sarah, but she happened lol. I am not really sure why no one brought Sarah back earlier. I could see her fitting easily into the JER Sami/Carrie/Austin/Lucas/Mike group or being brought back instead of Maggie having the insta daughter Summer. Either writers had no interest or didn't do the research. Regardless, I do think Sarah was a pretty blank slate despite her early run.

I do remember the movie now that you mention it lol. Thanks! Was this during a time with a lot of backstage upheaval? This story seems to make little sense and goes nowhere really unless we always knew it was tied to Lawrence, but I doubt it. I mostly just remember RoJohn/Carrie fighting about it a lot. I don't think so? Someone who was watching at the time would have to tell you what they thought. I have only seen clips. She didn't seem especially popular and was recast. Sarah is most famous for pretending to have an affair with Neil before she knew he was her bio dad, so I think her character was a catalyst for that story pretty much. Ill-defined and totally unmemorable is how I would describe her. She and re-cast Melissa left town with a whimper, so I think it's safe to say the character wasn't working.

Thanks! You are probably right. After I wrote the reply I doubted myself about Carrie being younger or older thinking at the end of Sarah's run she was younger. I assumed the recast of Sarah aged her a bit. I went off Christie's Carrie and the stories Sarah subsequently played while Carrie was off canvas with Anna and I thought Carrie was too young to set up an affair with Neil or be paired with Tanner. Then again, Carrie seemed to be aged when she came back as Tracy Middendorf and was teased with Lawrence, so it's possible Carrie was still older and when CC returned she was playing a version of Carrie that was slightly older than her own age. I couldn't recall if the show said it not nor do I remember this Chad lol. I thought both girls liked Emilio's younger brother. So it's probably more accurate to say Sarah was around Carrie's age (maybe a year younger), but not as young as Sami. It actually would have been nice for Carrie to have a female friend around her own age like Sarah in the 90's. Carrie had friends, but I always felt they were older than her.

She was a teenager in 1990-1991, so technically no. Sarah did have stories as a teen before Linsey played her and was de-aged by quite a bit from her actual birth on the show and especially the 1990 SORASing. Sarah should be a few years older than Carrie.

I thought DF was great today again. I didn't even MIND Rafe in scenes with him. I liked Jada's spunk today. Nicole really is her own worst enemy. Sarah figured out Xander real quick. Maggie was being ridiculously naive. Are they going to pair Xander/Gwen again? Looks that way. It's a little weird Marlena is taking Susan's death so hard. She didn't even blink/know? her bff Laura died. But she wasn't up for Thanksgiving because Susan died? Lol. Where was everyone else that lives in that house at?

Was yesterday's episode the extra episode they added in? I loved EJ and Marlena, but the whole thing felt very random. Why on earth would Marlena go see EJ on Thanksgiving? All the scenes felt weird and slapped together like Gabi, Li, and Rafe. Nothing was bad, I even semi enjoyed Stephanie/Alex, but it felt like an inserted episode with people that had some guarantees to burn. Dan was very good though. Also, if I had a doll of my own likeness like Marlena it would be in the middle of my mantel at all times. Marlena showed restraint by keeping it in a box for so long🤣

Is the thread topic for endgame couples in our opinion that aren't together or didn't end together like GH's Sonny/Brenda or actual endgame couples that will end the show together like Days John/Marlena, Steve/Kayla, Bo/Hope etc? Or both lol? Since Sonny/Brenda were used as an example I am going to go with couples that aren't together, but were/are endgame in our mind- GH- Sonny/Brenda Jason/Carly Frisco/Felicia Robert/Holly Days- I can't really think of a couple that isn't already together that should be Bo/Hope, but I assume that will work itself out soon

Days-My first thought of this thread was the John/Marlena/Roman affair. 30 years, a recast, and several John/Marlena marriages later and we still hear it talked about today. The only other thing I could think of was Stefano's arrival and set up as Roman as his enemy setting up the Brady/Dimera feud. Those writing decisions have carried the show for about 40 years. About 75% of the stories today still tie back to Stefano Dimera today.

Sonny Corinthos. Regardless of what his character has become I think his 90's run was the epitome of this thread. Jason Morgan is less clear to me. SBu/Jason didn't really immediately catch fire until writing/a complete character change helped the character out. I would also assume a character like Jason Q (Morgan) was always intended to lead stories, while a character like Sonny was supposed to be short term. Other GH notables (to me) Luke Robert Dante-no one watching now would believe it was all Dante all the time on GH for about 3 years lol. I think there are a few other guys like Frisco, Duke, JJ's Lucky, early TC's Nik that were very well received and love by fans and press, but I wouldn't say carried the show, but had their "it" moments. Days- Doug was the original swinging it guy lol WN's 80's Roman-got an entire core family built around him Bo-probably the most famous hero on the show Steve-he literally made eyepatches sexy lol 90's John-might give Bo a run for his money on the hero title JS's EJ-I really couldn't stand him, but the man did carry Days for quite a few years

Thank you both! For some reason I thought TPTB or someone thought Jed might stay as recurring and the exit wasn't exactly intentional. I guess it was. Wow. I really don't blame him at all because I can't really remember what Don did after the Salem Strangler story. So happy he found meaty material again as C.C. Really strange to think John Clarke might be fired. Not that Mickey did a ton, but it seems nuts to fire an original character like that.

That article is great. JA's not wrong. He knows so much about the show and the other characters stories, which is really cool. I would love to read more about how he felt about Don's increasing unimportance after this and the fact he never got back with Marlena. @AbcNbc247 I know I have read at least quotes from him about his exit. I am not that savvy and can't find articles quickly, but I'll see if I can track it down. I think the producers/writers offered Jed a recurring contract instead and he declined, but for some reason wires got crossed and Jed knew it was his last day, but no one else did lol. Something like that, but there are people on this board who are much better at soap history than myself and might know more about it.

I agree wholeheartedly. I think it would have been very soapy though. I thought young cop Dante with his Chachi hair was adorbs. And Dante/Brenda could both get a pass because they didn't know one another existed. It would have been the death knell to Sonny/Brenda though and I don't think GH ever wants to deal with that. But then Brenda pretended to sleep with Michael so Idk? The kid clearly should have been Jax's. I will say in re-watch (which I haven't done in a while) the Balkan story doesn't play that bad. I think in real time with everyone else on the show talking about the Balkan it moved very slowly. There is some good Sonny/Brenda stuff especially the actual wedding-which I thought was very well done up until Clink Boom part 15

That's a difficult question to answer because Brenda's age was clear (and she was also SORASed up to 21 in 1995-so you can age her down a year), but Sonny's was not. I believe Olivia was 15 or 16 when she gave birth to Dante. I think Sonny was older, but I am not positive. I believe Sonny is at least 10 years older than Brenda, so he was about 28 when he ran the strip club and he was a few years older when he took over the mob. That was mostly because he inherited Rivera's territory from Lily when she died, so it accelerated the rise. He was supposed to be a very young mob boss. So, anyhow, I would put Brenda sorta in the middle on age. Maybe 10 years younger than Sonny, but 10 years older than Dante. Olivia should be about 8 years older than Brenda/Carly/Jason who are all established to be the same age. Basically, if you go by established age Brenda was either born in 74 or 75 and Dante was born in 84 so that checks out, but that throws Olivia's age off by a few years. I think it's fair to say Lulu is 15 years younger than Brenda, but she should actually be 20-which is too much and I don't think Lulu is 10 years younger than Dante, but she is younger. So long winded answer, but I think the show actually said what year the "affair" happened and I think it was 2007? I am such a bad Brenda fan, but I don't feel like re-watching lol. So Dante was 23 and she was 33 and Sonny was 42/43 and that puts Lulu at about 18 or 19 which I think works. It makes Sonny statutory rapey with Olivia and I don't think that is the case, but I think it's only a variance of a couple years here and there when you break it all down. Anyhow, I thought the Balkan story was boring AF. Silly villians are sorta Sonny/Brenda's bread and butter and it just went on too long and lacked sense. Why not just kill Brenda in Rome instead of having your wife go undercover for years, call Jason, send Brenda to a place she's protected and then exact your revenge? That makes less sense than any age issues. It was hyped up to be more, but it did provide some logical reason for Brenda to leave. I think Guza actually had a much bigger idea on this (possibly Franco as the baby daddy?) and a lot of things got changed or scrapped when the return was a failure and VM refused to do Dante/Brenda. Agree 100% Alec should be aged and show up. I thought it was who Dev was going to be for awhile, but it would be really dumb for Brenda to lose her kid twice lol

I don't remember thinking much of Jason/Brenda pre-Jason Morgan. They went to prom and I think kissed, but it wasn't anything special. I remember thinking SK's AJ and Brenda were a better match. Christmas Sweater HS Jason seemed a little dull for her. In 1998 Brenda was doing some weird stuff during her breakdown like kissing Jason and the plane crash where they were interacting for awhile and it was interesting and had a palpable chemistry. Not exactly romantic, but you could tell they did actually like and were slightly attracted to one another. I was never sure if it was because Jason took over Sonny's role or if it was real. It wouldn't have worked because of Jax and Robin back then, but 2002 they were fire and I think it was legit as far as feelings. In 2010 their schtick got a little old, but you could tell they liked working together. I am not exactly a Jason/Brenda shipper, but I thought it offered a lot of interesting possibilities and they had enough chemistry to pull the story off. One of the many problems in 2010 is that the show or Mo/VM were so dead set on Sonny/Brenda at the expense of other possible storylines. The show kept telling me Sonny/Brenda were awesome (duh!) but weren't showing me at all. I think if Vanessa/Brenda was ever on the show long term Jason would have been one of her pairings and it holds up a little better than Brenda/Jax, which is a pairing that seems to have lost most fans even before Ingo became MAGA. Idk, it's just probably one of those could have been pairings on soaps because it would never happen now.

1997 was a mess. The Carly/AJ/Michael story was the highlight of the year for me and I loved Bobbie/Stefan's marriage and the re-intro of the Cassadines but that might be 96 going into 97. Miranda was a dud and I didn't think Sonny/Brenda's reunion or the Tin Man story did them any justice. Nothing says romance like 'we are about to die in a dirty cave without any air plus violent drug withdrawal sex'. It was still hot, but not ideal for an S&ber like me. Speaking of that Brenda's drug addiction didn't really go anywhere and it was coupled with Alan's (which was good), but it was all tied to Pierce Dorman's drug ring. WTF? Once Guza returned it got better. I couldn't stand Brenda's breakdown. I like the gravity of the situation, but the combo of Vanessa's acting in it and the fact you didn't want Brenda to fall apart over Sonny like that...eek. I did like the earliest hints of Jason/Brenda and the plane crash they had together. Robin/Jason were also kinda of played out? by then. Robin had outgrown him and she just let Jason get away with a lot-and they way they ended up parting wasn't good. Jax/Brenda were pretty cute in 1998 reconnecting, but they spent like an entire year doing that and it was a real waste of the extra year VM signed for. Plus, Brenda's dead mom and the disease... Awful, but I will say I thought Sonny/Brenda's first scenes at the penthouse after their non-wedding were probably my favorite S&B scenes ever. Those were so well written and done. I did like Liz's rape story because early Lucky/Liz was great. The teen scene was really good and just felt so real and authentic. I really liked early Ned/Alexis and that's a romance that tends to not get a lot of love. Jax/Alexis were fantastic too-if you don't think about anything that happened offscreen later. I remember enjoying Tony's breakdown and 1stJerry/Bobbie as well. I thought early Liason and Sonny/Carly were great too. I was not even about another Sonny epic romance but Sonny/Carly in the early days was really well done. Anyhow, I am rambling and probably getting some time periods off, but I think GH had a lot of casting misses in that time especially with younger leading ladies. Gina Cates, Miranda, Hannah, Chloe, Angel-just a lot of bad choices on those girls. It seems like Riche was distracted with PC a bit and I think there was a noticeable decline. I think by 2002, though, the show was pretty rocking and was good until half way through 2003.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed 80's Marlena/Roman while watching clips. Don/Marlena doesn't age that well because he's just kind of a dick to her, but WN's Roman is really adorable-even if he's a lot more misogynistic than John. They had such nice chemistry. It's a bit of a shame it all got thrown under the bus for Marlena/John, but I do have a hard time fitting WN's Roman in with JER's 90's Days. Unfortunately for KA she didn't real spark with anyone other than PR's Bo. I don't think her and Drake had bad chemistry, but I can't really recall anyone else she really connected with. She had chemistry with MV's Jack though, but had no chemistry with Franco-who I think she dated in real life lol. I think KA's Hope is right time, right place, right co-star kind of girl while Deidre's a little more adaptable with changes in co-stars, writing, and what not. But they are both great. Marlena >Hope to me.

I often wonder if Vanessa had stayed long term if she would have gotten played out or tired like Sonny. Brenda is just such a 90's icon I wonder how it would have felt to watch her go back and forth between Sonny/Jax/Jason for years having multiple marriages/kids. Brenda's iconic because she is rather illusive and could just pop anytime and cause chaos. If I were to define Days leading ladies I would definitely go Julie, Marlena, Hope, but as I said upthread Days had quite a few dynamic female leads that had their moments. I genuinely think Vanessa Marcil from the 90's/2000's is one of the most beautiful women in the world. Even 90's fashion didn't do her wrong lol. She's still gorgeous, but I am not a huge fan of some of her face work she's had done. To me SJB's Carly was the opposite of the it girl when she appeared. She wanted to be adored like Brenda, Robin, even Liz but wasn't. Marrying Sonny gave her a lot of cache and she one upped Brenda by actually getting Sonny to marry her. Ever since then Carly has been the girl, but I don't think that's what the character was meant for. Even if Brenda was a bad girl to begin with, she was always set up to be the pretty, rich, popular supermodel that guys fell for. Even though SJB is gorgeous I think Carly was always supposed to be more plain and much less glamourous. But obviously, early Carly and current Carly are barely the same character anymore. Marlena just really does endure. I've loved her and John since day one when I was probably 8. There is something really innocuously likable about Deidre Hall/Marlena. She's pretty (but not too intimidatingly pretty), kind, warm, works well with a lot of characters and her love interests, and has gotten great stories. What's not to like? I think KA comes off much colder than DH, but is still likeable. I also think Hope as a character was blessed/cursed with being locked in with Bo and lost direction when PR left. Due to Marlena's family/job she stands on her own a little better.

I also thought about Liz being the Hook so you aren't crazy lol. I think she's just about as good a guess as anyone at this point.

You and I always agree about this lol. Vanessa is the best! I actually don't think Carly was the it girl until she married Sonny and TB played the role. Carly was definitely not as favored as Brenda/Robin when she first started on the show. Once they left and the era of the drab 4 began she moved into it girl status. I think Marlena is the easiest choice on Days. She's the most enduring female lead, although Hope is a very close 2nd. I would probably consider Julie the first female lead/it girl though.

I don't know about the optics of making Trina a serial killer, but I actually do think it's an interesting idea.