BetterForgotten

She mentions Ellen Holly in that clip. I’d love an hour with her and Ms. Holly.

It doesn't surprise me that he missed the mark on what he did well as opposed to what he didn't though...

Pelphrey and Zimmer trying to out-diva one another almost every day was when I knew there was no saving this show. Peapack was just the final nail.

Yeah, she's Tweeted about it before. Alan is such a hack that would never dream to ask the specific questions fans want to learn more about.

Did anyone even bother to ask Courtney about writing the Maureen/Lillian kitchen scenes or what it was like writing for the show during the Curlee/Demorest era?

James Harmon Brown is ancient. 🤐

Phelps and Derwin hated each other so much that she later hired Derwin at OLTL so he could stink up that show too in a front-burner romance with Erika Slezak?

Sheffer got a lot of hype because he made the show so plot and stunt driven. Anyone else would have gotten torn to shreds for some of the things the soap press let him get away with in the early 00's. The equally AWFUL Leah Laiman did him a favour in many ways - making the show so boring, yet ridiculously plotted. People had become accustomed to the show having a ridiculous element, but Sheffer's hype machine and stunts were better done.

And I could watch Maureen Garrett play anything. No histrionics or annoying tics, always a believable and realistic performance. It's sometimes hard to reconcile this Holly with the one who returned a decade later, but the heart of the character was always there and Maureen never phoned it in.

That 'dead leaves' music is probably one of my favorite soap themes ever. It also defines one of the best eras of this show to me.

‘Incredible’ applies to very few of those people... Will someone ask Jim Brown about covertly praising his own work on Facebook? Lol

Didn’t Marland replace them in late ‘79?

They also had fairly terrible producers in Bartholomew and Bunin to contend with at ATWT. Their transition to ATWT also coincided with the explosion of ABC Daytime, so they were likely being forced to ‘ABCfy’ the show. ATWT always had the reputation for being the most traditional and old school soap, and was often the soap cited at the time as being “uncool” when GH and AMC exploded in popularity in the late 70’s/early 80’s. At GL, they came in at a time where they likely had more freedom and support from P&G to really tell the types of stories they wanted. Their GL is pretty amazing soap, and I definitely think it surpasses Marland’s tenure in overall quality, IMO. It still felt like a P&G soap, but very contemporary and modern in its own unique way.

It was Calhoun, this opening premiered in January 1991 when Calhoun was still EP. JFP didn't arrive until the summer of 1991.

What's funny is that Gottleib improved the overall production values (lighting, directing, sets, etc) a lot, yet her opening didn't reflect those great aesthetical changes at all.

And because she was brought up, “retired soap opera star” Beth Chamberlin now runs a fitness boot camp. https://youtu.be/5Xk_pL3OBuQ

Missy Reeves has been looking hard and dry for a while now...

Is she still selling cheap jewelry on QVC?

I'm sure Carla would have been serviceable, but Betty Rea knew what she was doing when she fought for Zimmer, I guess. It's sad that we don't have a casting director in daytime with Ms. Rea's intuition and talent anymore.

Carmen was a mess of a character, much like everything else Latham wrote. Dru/Neil were having marital problems before Carmen (mainly due to fining out Lilly was Malcolm's biological daughter), Carmen saw an opportunity there and tried to weave herself in.

This is an isolated clip, but overall, Latham wrote terribly for Dru even though she kept her front-burner. Latham had scenes like Dru breaking into Carmen's closet and madly ripping up her clothes with a pair of scissors, and of course getting physical with Carmen at Newman. She often wrote Dru like a "ghetto woman" stereotype in other parts of that story. Carmen was definitely insensitive and indirect with her animosity a lot of the time though, which was the opposite of Dru and really pushed her buttons. Can a Latina like Carmen be classed as a 'Karen?" It's a complicated matter when all characters involved are underrepresented minorities.

I tend to prefer Long's second stint (after Calhoun arrives as EP). If only because I think Calhoun and Curlee and Trent Jones (who were now her Co-HWs) may have tempered some of her worst tendencies. Ratings may not have exploded, but I think the show was more tightly and cohesively executed. I've said it before, but Bob Calhoun never gets the respect for his contributions to ATWT and GL. I'm sad he never got the opportunity to steer another soap prior to his death.

Ilene would have been awful in that role, but Labine had lost the plot by the time she wrote for GL...

That’s embarrassing, but not surprising... Brown and Esensten were also breakdown writers on Nancy Curlee’s team, so they did at least have some history with GL prior to 1997. However, they’ve always struck me as writers who should be staff writers and never HW’s...