BetterForgotten

The scene where Annie fires Bet after Bet told her the truth about him is amazing. The building of the tension, and Annie stuck in her ways as ever. Corrie doesn't write scenes like that anymore, nor are they capable with the current crop of characters.

I always read that gay men had a strong affinity for Bet, but I don't think that's necessarily because of her unique sense of style/fashion (as this clip tries to portray). I think it had more to do with being someone vulnerable yet strong, and constantly being knocked down in life yet having the ability to persevere and holding your head up high in the end. I know that's what I identify most with when watching Bet's best years.

To be fair, it doesn't take much to be "soapier" than Generations...

Something about Dennehy wasn't quite right, and she always looked so damn old (when she wasn't) for the part. The right ingredients of actress and character writing just came together with Sherry Stringfield. She'll always be my Blake and the one that left the biggest impression on me

Sally Sussman Morina is her own worst enemy. She simply didn't have the creative talent to craft the show she wanted and it would have likely been better off in the hands of others.

I've been on a classic Corrie binge lately (mostly 70's though early 90's), and I'm just sad that the current show resembles nothing of what once made it so special. Corrie had such vivid and complex characters for a long period of time, the type of characters you couldn't find anywhere else. There is no character writing anymore, it's just one bad plot after another.

God, Marj could be such a hot damn mess, lol.

That Miami Vice inspired opening never fails to make my skin crawl...

Seems typical of Eplin's behavior knowing what we know about him now....

It would have been great if AW benefited from a Doug Marland or even a Pam Long (when she wrote to her strengths like friendships and community) type of writer in its last 20 years or so. Unfortunately, it was just mostly a rapid succession of one garden variety hack after another.

Ultimately, what I think sealed AW's fate on NBC was the ratings resurgence DAYS experienced under Reilly in the 90's. That had absolutely NO IMPACT on AW or the rest of their daytime lineup.

She was also just a very generic/basic soap writer. Very run of the mill in terms of storyline content.

What's funny is that in the mid/late 80's, NBC primetime was becoming dominant again and CBS's primetime schedule was in serious trouble. It was the reverse in daytime.

Marcy and JFP's relationship apparently went sour over how things turned out. In the late 90's there were rumblings that JFP would join AMC and Marcy was asked about it, and she seemed to give a timid response. Of course, JFP ended up at OLTL instead. Beverlee McKinsey's shoes are just too hard to fill. They did write Joan's Alex closer to character though.

And annoyingly, don't forget annoyingly.

That's part of he reason I thank my lucky stars for Heather Rattray playing Lilly (and because I still hold she was a hell a lot of more tolerable than Byrne)!

It seemed like neither Ed Trach or MADD gave AW the same attention they gave the P&G soaps on CBS. At then end, P&G seemed to give up on the show as well and they sure as hell stopped employing quality writing/producing talent there.

I didn't feel AW ended on any type of creative high - Leah Laiman and Jean Passanante's writing was boring as sh!t. But AW was generally a very neglected show, by both NBC and P&G.

Guza famously complained that Labine left "nothing" behind when he took over. He's kind of right, actually, the show was running out of fuel by the end of her tenure. But she gave him the canvas he would ape for years (namely Sonny, and Sonny and Brenda). And credit where it's due, Labine did bring this show into the 90's. It wasn't Monty's GH, but the show needed a big leap forward, and that's what Labine accomplished. It's a shame she was awful/boring as hell at OLTL and GL.

Wasn't pairing Harley with a Jewish man one of the stories she wanted to tell that got killed?

To be fair, ATWT was struggling after Marland's death, but Caso was doing the best he could and that era after Marland's death definitely isn't as bad as some make it out to be or what later came. JFP was fortunate to have great writers like Nancy Curlee, Stephen Demorest, Patrick Mulcahey, and Courtney Simon for the first half of her GL tenure. She never worked with a group of writers of that caliber again on any show she would later produce.

JFP was sent to AW, John Valente was sent from AW to ATWT, and Laibson was hired at GL. Laurence Caso was fired at ATWT (shame, he was the probably the best of this bunch). None of them lasted very long, but in JFP's case, she was eager to leave P&G for ABC. With Valente, it was speculated that he hated ATWT and never wanted to leave AW.

Roseanne's said in the past that Kathy Bowman was based on Marcy Carsey, lol.