carolineg

Belle and Shawn do live in Hope's house. The last time they showed it was around Ciara's wedding to Theo I think. Xander, Gwen, and possibly Brady live at the Inn, which is ridiculous especially for two cash strapped people like Xander/Gwen. A lot of people were living at Jarlena's townhouse in the summer-Sami, EJ, Brady, Susan, Claire.

I liked Rafe in the beginning with Sami when they were in the safehouse. I thought him and Christie Clark had okay chemistry too even though that pairing is universally reviled. Those polls are crazy. I remember the days when Liz/Jason would win all the GH couple polls and they weren't anywhere near a couple and Jasam would be second lol.

🤣 I did not see that eye-opening, popular vote from the 10 people that still subscribe to SOD. GAMECHANGER. I clearly have it wrong then. I am not on a ton of boards, but I rarely can find a person that likes Rafe let alone ships him with anyone. And honestly, I don't even mind Rafe. He's just there like a doofus, but he doesn't bother me really. Except when he talks to the bear

There is also a weird disconnect with the writers about how popular Lucas/Sami are vs. EJ/Sami are. I know in the past with JS EJami was crazy popular (for unknown reasons), but I don't think that's the case now. Most people seem to like this EJ with Nicole and Lucas with Sami. I am 99% sure Lucas has money. I think he moved into the Pub to be closer to Sami originally. He probably saves a lot of money renting a room. As I legit don't think he's had a place to live in Salem for over a decade. He's not Brady renting a hotel for 5 years, so Lucas may be the most fiscal sound person in Salem and has been saving up for this kidnapping.

I am just confused as to what the point of Lucas kidnapping Sami was? Maybe if he staged a kidnapping with him and Sami together it would have made a tiny bit of sense, but why did he think locking her up for 3 months alone would make her love him? How long was he going to keep her there? Until she called him? EJ already dumped Sami. I am not sure why he didn't just make a move like a normal human that he mostly has been for the last 20 years. I am glad Lucas got thrown under the bus because Ali had to make a Hallmark movie. @AbcNbc247 I thought Lucas did have money. He just lives at the Pub for some unknown reason. I like Johnny and Chanel just fine, but most of their story has taken place off screen in Italy. They barely know each other.

I have to agree with @titan1978. John/Marlena's wedding would have been a great ending to the show. It did really cap off the 90's well. As long as there was something Horton related (maybe a Bo/Hope double wedding?). I kind of think the 50th anniversary might have been a good time to end GH. Obviously, with a little more closure for the characters, but that's the last time I really enjoyed the show.

I wonder how the story would have gone if it was just a lookalike not Eileen. Interesting tidbit. I totally forgot ED and JL were married briefly. @KLN Kristen and Peter were characters that were weirdly never mentioned for so long. John/Marlena never even referenced her after it was over. And of course Jen never mentioned Peter. Today's show moved a lot of stuff along, but the reveals were kind of lame? The Lucas stuff really came out of nowhere. I know it was rumored and spoiled, but nothing indicated he had done what he did on screen until today. He was a little cagey about the police post-kidnapping, but the man is too lazy to buy his own house. He planned a 3 month kidnapping? I hate it. And the Johnny/Chanel stuff was predictable as hell. Boring......I don't get why Chanel keeps getting married lol. She's like 22. Other than that I did like the show and this mix of characters. It worked. I like when Sami gets to interact with her family. Although I have to laugh at Sami's lack of concern over Marlena's possession. She's like I am so worried, but EJ is divorcing me!! At least Belle seems fairly concerned. I don't like that the entire town knows Marlena's possessed. They talk about it so casually. It should be a little more mass hysteria and a little less 'meh? I am sure 70 year old John will figure it out." lol.

It's probably already been mentioned, but I can't believe they didn't bring back Noelle especially after we found out she slept with Rex too. Knowing she slept with her sister's man makes me want to meet her more now.

I can't remember the exact incident, but I don't recall it being a secret that he had addiction issues and some out of control behavior. I don't think the soap mags even covered that up. Oh wait I just found the post explaining it- That doesn't seem that bad lol.

I remember reading the soap mags about SK's departure at the time, but I can't recall details. It's entirely possible he was temp. There was only a 3 day gap between SK and BW appearances. I assume he just wasn't popular. He had a bunch of bad stories. Plus, maybe they wanted an AJ that looked more like Burton's Jason.

Was he? BW was a fairly big name to be a temp, but SK's departure was always mysterious to me. I know he said he left due to alcohol issues, but I always assumed he was fired and would never be back. AJ had a big story back then so was the show assuming SK would be back after rehab or was the showing casting a wider net for a recast?

Gerald Hopkins does favor Stuart Damon a lot, but Kanan and Burton looked so much like brothers it was crazy. I don't think either of them look like they were Alan's sons though. Billy Warlock is a fine actor, but I have no idea what anyone was thinking casting him as Jason's brother.

I used to think Jax, Sonny, and Jason were so hot in the 90's. None of them aged particularly well. Ingo probably looks the best still, but he's Ingo so that excludes him from being hot. I think it would help if Steve found a happy medium between his super skinny 90's look and his roided out look. Comparing SBu and Ingo to Days stars like GV and EM there is no contest. The Days guys look much better. MB is quite a bit older and I like the grey, but he was so good looking and charming back in the day and that is gone now. I do think a lot of the stories and behind the scenes stuff have made all of them less likable to me over the years. MB is making a comeback into my good graces with his book and his you tube show. He comes across as a decent guy.

A mess. But JJ did those weird greasy bangs and watery eyes as Lucky, so that wouldn't exclusively rule him out for me. Many other factors would lol I saw that too. I assumed SBu was older, but he played a teen in the early 90's while JKJ played at teen in the early 2000's so I figured there was a larger gap in age. SBu looks like he is an entirely different person from 1997. His neck alone is three times the size.

He is younger than GV but older than JJ. Here's my thing-JKJ is having enough trouble playing a character he (practically) originated 20 plus years ago. I don't think he can take on someone else's iconic character. I know the writing is awful for Phillip, but JkJ is not exactly hitting the mark with his acting choices.

I mean he's older than Billy Miller, so probably not really. But I would have to agree. I can't imagine him as a contemporary to Carly or Sam even though they ages aren't far off IRL.

It is pretty tragic that this Cathy girl was so lame they scrapped her and Jessica was the 'better' version. I don't think I have ever seen anything with Cathy except for those recaps so I can't judge. Nick would have been perfect as Eugene and Calliope's kid now that you say that. I have no problem with Nick's Horton connection, but it was flimsy at best with characters that weren't that important. Are Josh and Jessica still together? I can't remember if the show clarified.

Jessica was just lame. I can't even believe they gave Josh/Jessica a son so late in the game because they were hardly mentioned. From what I remember reading from @beebs awesome recaps they used to do there was another girl that they seemed to be angling as Marie's daughter and she was dropped. From what I have seen of Josh I liked him fine. He did seem a little old for Jessica though. He was in a ton of scenes with Marlena after the rape and they were okay together. I honestly never bought Alex would be attracted to Marie. I know they tried to explain, but I just didn't get it. I think there was chances to differentiate John from Roman. In the beginning John was just the more understanding, hotter, nicer version of 90's jerky Roman. Unfortunately when they really got into exploring John's past in the late 90's and early aughts he was too tied into the Marlena pairing to take him too far from the perfect hero. The RoboJohn stuff was good at first, but the story got very muddled very quickly. If you truly asked me the difference between John and Roman to this day I would say Marlena just likes one better lol. John is a little more action hero than Roman these days but thats about it.

Probably. I feel like John used to call Kate Katherine a lot when they were together and that was gross. It's definitely more of a John thing than a RoJohn thing, so I guess that might have been something Drake put in to differentiate from the 2 characters.

John has a weird habit of calling people by their full names too. He called Abe Abraham a lot. I can't remember if he called Lexie-Alexandra though. He calls Sami Samantha a lot, but then has silly nicknames like Doc, Izzy B, and Tink for his faves I guess lol.

Well from what I have seen over the years on you tube and what not, Jessica was super lame in general. And Alex and Marie was such an odd pairing knowing what we knew about them. Weird drug and sex parties? Lol. I think Josh/Jessica were popular, but he looked to be heading toward a pairing with Marlena before Wayne was hired and then Josh ended up with a young, immature, and annoying Jessica? Too bad for him. Alex was much better when he was bad, but I feel like in a lot of ways he was usurped by Victor, who was a similar villian but with better ties on the canvas in the end.

Definitely I get that MarDevil has to cause maximum damage, but most of it is stupid. The Devil is just running around town and John is the only one who seems to have a real sense of urgency about it lol. Unless there is a twist where the Devil has caused a lot of unseen damage like Sami's kidnapping, Phillip's behavior, etc. this is getting stale. JKJ's awful hair literally takes me out of all of his scenes. Unfortunately, he is someone who has not gotten better with age.

I was wondering why Belle didn't just interview the server that gave Brady the drinks that night? I assumed Phillip paid someone off, but I guess not. Phillip explained his plan pretty well though. It is hard for me to imagine JKJ dragging EM all around town though. Why didn't Marlena just shape shift into Kayla and have someone let her into Jan's room? That would have been 1000% times easier than morphing into Steve, revealing herself to Kayla, having that drawn out confrontation, and knocking her out. Did MM and KL ever share scenes as Belle and Brady? I don't think so but I can't recall.

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. His friendship with John/Roman was fairly important. He was involved in a lot of stories with them-he was just not the lead. Soaps do need characters like that. Unfortunately it's glaring that he was a Black actor that could have lead his own stories. I thought JR did really well with the story in the mid 80's with Richard Cates and his brother getting killed.

I think it also helped that Robin had been away for awhile. Robin had made significant changes in her life and it didn't make sense for her to be re-paired with Jason (even though I loved them!). Obviously, the chemistry was there as well so it worked. It didn't seem as forced as those other pairings. Jax/Sonny were hooking up with Hannah/Sam like 5 minutes after Vanessa Marcil left. Both women were clearly set up to fail being such obvious Brenda replacements so soon after her departure. Patrick wasn't set up to be a Jason replacement. I never compared Patrick to Jason. He was set up to be Robin's love interest which I think made a huge difference and they happened to be very natural together. It helps that KMc has had chemistry with everyone she has ever been paired with and JT is a charismatic natural performer as well.