KMan101

I wonder why they never brought Nancy back? Lots of potential there. Didn't they age her pretty quickly from a kid to an adult?

Yeah, turning bratty Jessica into a drugged up hooker was awful. I hated it. Danica Stewart was TERRIBLE. Passions had some HORRIBLE recasts. Ivy WAS in a wheelchair FOREVER. I don't even know how long. But she was hilarious as a bitch on wheels. She was extra bitter and nasty and bitchy and would always run into people or run over their feet if she hated them.

Yeah, Ivy was completely wasted in the last few years (I LOVED Ivy, she was definitely the Passions version of Kate Roberts). I even remember when Grace discovered what Ivy did it was almost such a non-issue. I really wonder what JER had planned. I mean, I'm glad it was addressed, but it was just not handled well at all and then Grace "died" and it was all swept under the rug.

Yeah, from the looks of it, GL had a lot more to fall back on than AW did in that time period. I guess the purging of the vets in the late 70s and early 80s was a P&G thing LOL.

It's definitely more traditional (as traditional as Passions could be) in the early years. Don't get me wrong, it's still very much "out there" but NOTHING like it turned into. 2000 was a very strong year for the show. I loved it.

I have a feeling it was all JER.

Yeah, they were so important in the beginning few years and then it was just shot to hell and all of a sudden Kay and Miguel were meant to be together. It was basically "Charity who?" when Sisco was in the role. I don't remember he used that much and didn't they just drop her? And Grace's return was even more pointless. I hate she was saddled with David Hastings and that annoying son and then she was shipped out of town. The show really shifted. I dunno if it was budget cuts, or what, but cast members were dropped and storylines really shifted. I really wish there had been an interview with Reilly about everything in regards to Passions before his death. Why he chose to do what he did, and why the show went so over the top after being really gothic traditional (while still campy and soapy).

When Nancy died, where were Don Hughes? Penny Hughes? Not to mention, many others. I also think the soap missed the boat on Andy Dixon. I would have brought him back in a heartbeat. Didn't Don have a son (Teddy, then Ryder in the '90s)? Though that storyline sounded badly mishandled. And doesn't he have a daughter? I noticed whoever was in charge around that time also tried to bring on Dani, to pretty miserable results. You bring her on, then phase out Ellen? What sense does that make? I dunno, but yeah, ATWT was badly mismanaged for a very long time. GL too. I look at their histories and for fun can come up with tons of material. Not saying it's great, but it was there to be used. P&G never seemed to really give a damn, considering their constant efforts to infuse the soap with new characters, starting even way back in the 80s when all P&G soaps phased out many veterans. While a lot of new characters took off, I think it started the downfall. The 90s for most soaps seemed to be some effort made but then the 2000s, no real effort was made to bring anyone back from the past.

So what did those who watched think of John Whitesell's time?

I never warmed to a lot of the recasts (Fox, Chad, Miguel, Paloma). I DID enjoy (though like always it lasted WAY too long) the Sheridan/Luis/Beth stuff though (the pit). I mostly watched for that. I thought JER mishandled Charity and Miguel in their returns (not to mention lame recasts for Miguel), completely downplaying their original parts on the show to cater to Kay, who was suddenly a heroine. He also brought Grace back just to kill her in a lame bus explosion (and didn't she find out what Ivy did over the PHONE. Um, that pissed me off). And while TC never made a difference to me either way, he was dropped. Liz was dropped. I didn't like what they did with Chad and the recast was BAD. I always enjoyed parts of Ethan/Theresa/Gwen but I didn't like what JER did to Gwen's character and Ethan had to of been the dumbest male ever alive. Theresa and Lindsay were always fun but sucked up way too much airtime. The bones were there but JER was just a hot mess towards the end. Way too crazy and I'm all for soaps being different but it was just a joke towards the end and it was a shame. It had mega potential in the beginning. Though I kinda enjoyed Pretty vs. Fancy, Esme, and Pilar finally getting a storyline, although I remember not really buying a lot of it. Juanita was fun.

I agree with you Carl. ATWT seemed to have a lot of untapped potential. I think GL had healthy veterans and bones, but the format it had turned into, it wasn't working, and GL had wasted away a lot of their vets between the Rauch and Conboy eras, hell, even starting with JFP. It's a shame so much of the past was ignored on both soaps.

The first two years are fantastic. Fun stuff. I just didn't care for much after 2001, though not everything was bad.

Another show I would have liked to seen. So for those who watched, and I apologize if any of this has been discussed, but what do you think worked in it's favor? What didn't? Was it really just a placeholder for another Bell (B& soap?

I would buy 1999-2001. After the double wedding and Sheridan falling for Antonio, the show was horrendous. I stopped watching regularly by 2002. I think around, what, 2005, the show got back on track for a while but I lost interest again. The last few years are so unrecognizable to me. I appreciate what Reilly tried to do but he should have kept the format he had from 1999 until 2001. It was good and worked. I thought the show had a really nice feel to it. He tried to top himself too much and that was the show's downfall. He's very lucky so many actors stuck with it for the duration.

I wonder if Loving had remained more on track it could have lasted longer? There was a TON of turnover it seems. It would find it's footing, then lose it, re-invent itself, find it's footing, lose it, and so on and so forth. Shame.

Thanks Carl. Would love to read more!

Carl, those summaries (thanks for posting them, BTW, makes me want to see LOVING all the more), are they two weeks worth? A month? And the dates, do they correspond with the summaries or ...?

What was with P&G wanting so many veterans out around the same time? Budgetary reasons or a stronger focus on youth?

Matt was definitely way more interesting with Kimberly. It's like they made him as boring and as bland as possible, which is a shame.

I remember watching the first year on SoapNet and I agree about Delia. Such a different character. Such a force. Loved it.

God, Victoria Wyndham is such a fantastic actress. Damn. Another World was a great soap. Never should have been cancelled.

Say what you will about Wheeler, but she poured a lot of time into GL and seemed to really care for the show and it's actors. I feel towards the end of the show, we saw a LOT of familiar faces return. I mean, A LOT. ATWT only brought back more recent "favorites" and bad recasts (Gwen/Will/Lucy/Mike/Simon). Frannie returned for 1 episode. Only real return was John Dixon and that was likely only because of Elizabeth Hubbard. Goutman seems to have burned a lot of bridges with the ATWT cast. Wasn't that the soap that old favorites were reluctant to return to?

I Netflixed the first season and wow, I LOVED Falcon Crest but I can't get into the first season AT ALL.

Just started TiVoing Ryan's Hope again and SoapNet is currently airing the November 1978 episodes. What I like is that the actors are real, the drama is real ... it's just a real, honest and raw soap opera. It thrives on character development, and interaction. When I watched this time-frame last time on SoapNet, I was NOT a fan of the Pat recast because Malcolm Groome IS Pat, but this guy (his name slips me) is not bad in the least. He's not Groome, but he's not bad. And this Siobhan (Sarah Felder) is my hands down favorite Siobhan. It's a shame ABC cancelled this gem of a show. It really is. But at the same time, can you even imagine what it would look like today? I shudder at the thought. I guarantee you, there'd be no one left, except for Maeve, Delia, Roger, Frank and Jack. I'm sure Ryan and Johnno (Frank and Delia's son) would be leading the "thirty/forty" crowd and we'd have a bunch of random teenagers with no ties. Just a huge gut feeling I have, consider ABC's hatred of veterans, minus the scarce few they dare allow remain.

Oh nice! Thanks! Is AOL Video gone for good?