j swift

I share your naiveté with regard to hair extension, but I clearly recall Linda wearing the extensions on her talk show Attitudes, and one day during a segment where she hung upside down one of them started falling out. Here's a clip from earlier in the episode when Mitch is gifting Felicia some lingerie and she has the shorter hairdo. It looks like she was growing out the sides to attach the clips, but there are clearly extensions because her hair was not that long all the way around. I also found it funny that Mac and Cass never remarked on Felicia's hair at the party. Perhaps they were too embarrassed to ask why she was wearing a wig? To me this clip also proves that Mitch was never meant to be Felicia's long term romance because they were not a good match: (1) Who gives a woman lingerie for her 40th birthday? (2) Felicia Gallant iconically wore peignoirs with marabou trim, not lacy teddies. I Googled the musical, odd that it was written by John Pielmeier of Agnes of God fame. Also, an odd choice of music because while it sets a mood, the lyrics don't fit with the scene very well.

Donna's mention of her 7th grade teacher Mrs Cavanaugh during Felicia's party also got me thinking about whether or not Donna ever graduated from high school. Given that she spent so much time in the secret room under The Love mansion during her pregnancy with the twins, I wonder if she ever achieved a diploma? Also, this episode features a flashback to Iris and Michael's affair (they crammed a lot of story into 40 minutes in those days). Was this the first time that viewers were told of their affair? I know Iris returned four months earlier and they set up a Donna/Iris/Michael triangle, but were there any prior flashbacks to the fact that they had actually been in flagrante delicto while living in Europe? Finally, did Lisa and Felicia have a goodbye scene in the prior episode? Because it seems odd that she's going on a midnight flight to London on the night of Felicia's party, Matt visits her, and yet she doesn't even call Felicia (or Jamie) to say goodbye.

I was watching old clips based on our discussion of the history of Donna Love and I had some thoughts: (1) This is Donna's first scene - talk about weird ages, were Peter and Donna's date meant to be the same age given their racquetball rivalry? because the guy looks at least a decade older? And who's Nancy Thompson? (2) taken from Anna Stuart's return to the role on the day of Jason's murder (2a) Why was Iris hosting the birthday party for Felicia? I don't remember them being friendly enough to be given such an honor (2b) Are we to believe that Felicia put in her own extensions? Because she starts the episode with her iconic hairdo, she then puts on some Carly Simon and emerges with a whole new look. (3) Had the writers of AW learned nothing about the use of crumpled photos as red herrings from the triplet fiasco?

Excellent point, Mary's growth is the one part of that story that I can appreciate . Apparently I had this same conversation two years ago

The story contains one of the anti-feminist themes that I hate the most. Mary opts for a quick divorce from Reginald in order to be with Vince. As an audience we are supposed to applaud Mary's humility at not asking for a settlement in order to be with the man she loves, as opposed to the reality that this guy essentially kidnapped her, took her away from her kids, and owed her some cash for pain and suffering. I mean at the very least, Mary could have gotten the house in Paraguay... Also, I agree that Ben makes more sense as a historical character to bring back as a protagonist in the Marley/Jake romance than Dennis. Finally, how far do you imagine Lassiter was from Bay City? I know metaphorically it was a world away. Yet, I wonder practically how much contact the Bay City McKinnons had with the Lassiter McKinnons, given their geographic proximity.

According to the AWP, they sold the restaurant and left to be with MJ in Minnesota. I watched the scene, it was soon after Mary had completed her training as a psychologist and there was dialogue about how she was going to start a practice in their new town. Ada, who co-owned the restaurant with the McKinnons, was there to say goodbye, but there was no mention if she profited from the sale. The Reg/Mary story had so much potential that was wasted. Mary could have been snobbier after living for 17 years in Paraguay with a full household staff (but never learning Spanish). However, the production staff seemed to pattern her after Denise's portrayal of Leslie on GH, rather than knowing her range from seeing her as Susan on Days. There could have been a legitimate triangle with Reg and Vince, given that Mary had only known the benevolent side of Reginald and she might not have liked Vince's controlling nature. Instead, Reginald instantly turned to mustache-twirling villain, Mary immediately accepted life above a restaurant (and never asked for a monetary settlement from the Love's), and most of her kids who were yearning for her return left town within a year. There wasn't even a stated motivation for Reginald to return to Bay City after living abroad. EDIT: I just recalled that John had been studying medicine with the OB-GYN who attended the birth of the twins. Which is how he helped solved the mystery of Donna being haunted by the number of hospital room where she gave birth (does anyone else remember that part of the story, or are there any synopsis from the end of that plot?) and why he was in the picture. However, if he was there, it seems cruel that he let Donna go through all of the strum and drum rather than just filling her in on what he knew.

It also highlights the plot hole of Reginald, Donna, and the baby pictures of her twins. Reginald shows a photo to Donna, she goes nuts, turns into Philece Sampler, that detail gets lost for a while, there's a rumor that Donna actually had triplets and Scott may have been one of them, then finally it is shown that John is in the picture which scared Donna because she feared that he could have fathered the twins. Spoiler alert: John didn't father the twins, it is all a red herring. However, if Michael left town after the twin's conception, but before their birth, why was John present when they were born? I get Reginald spiriting Michael out of town after finding out that Donna was infanticipating. That fit with the reason that Michael never knew that he shared the twins with Donna when he came back to Bay City. However, if Reginald was building secret rooms in the mansion, and hiring doctors to hide Donna in a special room at the hospital, why would he let John in to take a photo with the babies (see photo below from Another World Homepage)? Reg and Mary ran away in 1969, so if Scott was meant to be the third triplet it also didn't make sense, because where would he have been stashed for the prior two years? Also, how soon after Cheryl was born did Mary take off with Reg?

Between Elizabeth Love's disappearance, Ryan Harrison's conception, and John Hudson's Vietnam experience, I've tried to do the age math before and it is a total mess. We need a new soap term other than SORAS which indicates that post-collegiate soap characters are eternally thirtysomethings until they become grandparents. Perhaps we could call them E30s? Time just moves differently in soapland.

I apologize for repeating an earlier question but these first episodes reminded me of my quandary about Loving. I know Cabot and Isabelle came after the first year of the series, but does anyone recall the exposition about where they were when the soap debuted? Why were Ann and Roger living in their house with Curtis? And was there any mention of the Alden's company (AE?) before Cabot arrived? I seem to remember that Ava and Jack worked at Forbes construction when Jack was being a rebel and doing menial labor, but I don't remember if there was any references to Jack's maternal family's business. Also, does anyone recall the circumstances of Roger's death? My vague recollection was that he won a political appointment and left town (although I may be conflating him with Frank Ryan).

In retrospect, one of my main problems with Sunset Beach was the lack of integration of characters. When a soap is named after the town in which the characters live, that town should play a central role in the interactions of the characters. However, in Sunset Beach there were a wide swath of people who seemed to never meet each other. The soap became known for its large set devices like the earthquake and the sinking boat but, even within those plots there were characters that never shared dialogue. Some of the examples that come to mind are Cole and the other male characters his age. Cole seemed to exist on a island all of his own and mostly shared scenes with his wife and mother-in-law. Cole never spoke to Mark, Casey, or Michael. I have no memory of what his relationship was like with Ben and I barely recall any scenes between Cole and Annie. Similarly, Meg, (who was arguably the lead character), seemed to have no defined relationship with Caitlin, (the secondary lead). I think they were both on the boat that sank, but I don't remember if they liked each other or if Meg judged Caitlin for her baby switch. It seemed like a bad structure for a new soap that the writers never explored the various relationships around town, or even had people comment on the other plots going on around them. There were days when it felt as if you were tuning into a totally different show because nobody was mentioning what was happening in the news to the other people who lived in this small beach town. If you read about early Pine Valley or Bay City, there were always connections between the families in town. Even though there were strict socioeconomic divisions in Landview, you got the sense that Viki knew what going on around her. The characters in Sunset Beach might as well have lived in different countries because their actions rarely affected the lives of others in their community, and for me, that is heart and soul of a soap town.

So, here's my recollection of Donna Love and her reintroduction to Bay City. Peter Love had already been on the scene as an attorney at Cory Publishing. He has a introductory scene when he was smitten with Sally, and Mac notes that he knew his father (who was not named Reginald at that time). In early 1983, Donna flits into town, a few years after her divorce from Carl Hutchins. Someone had been siphoning funds from her trust account and she was low on money (it was later revealed that Carl was stealing from her). She took a job decorating one of the many refurbishments of the Cory Compound. She flirts with Mac, Rachel warns her to back off as she is recently engaged to Mac, and reminding her of their shared history as neighbors (this was a few months before the double wedding with Sandy & Blaine). The loss of funds is what motivates Marley's return to Bay City from boarding school, because Donna was having a hard time paying the tuition, and so Marley starts to attend public school where she meets Ben McKinnon and all of his friends. I mention all of this because Iris came to Bay City in 1972 and left in 1980 to move to Houston. So, it is possible that Donna was living in Europe with Carl during most of Iris's stay in Another World. We know Donna left Bay City soon after the birth of the twins to escape the gossip of her teenage pregnancy and raise Marley as her sister (given that her mother Elizabeth had disappeared years earlier it would have been suspicious that Donna suddenly had another sister - side note: I only have a vague recollection that Nicole and Peter knew that Marley was their niece not their sister). Neither Carl nor Donna referred to the marriage too often while in Bay City, (perhaps the loss of Perry made their time together too difficult to mention, or more likely, later writers forgot that they were ever wed). So, it is hard to say how long they were married because at some point after Carl's marriage to Barbara, (Perry's mother), but before his marriage to Donna, he had romantic entanglements with Justine Duvalier, (Ryan's mother), and Maria DeSilva, (Paulina's mother). Carl's affair with Felicia was a contributing factor to the end of his marriage to Donna. Perry was very close to Donna and it seems as if she had raised him as a son since he was a teenager. So, we can assume that they were together for much of the disco 1970's, as a result Donna would not have had the opportunity to attend society functions with Iris. Of course the irony of all of this was that Iris was so mortified by Rachel and Carl's romance that she shot him. However, Iris was never around to witness the animus between Carl and her father. So, her motivation to totally loose it over his romance with her step-mother that she never liked seems even more absurd in retrospect. She was never that mean toward Mitch Blake and he tried to kill Mac.

As much as I abhor the use of scabs during a strike because it destroys the purpose of a worker's union, I enjoy reading about those periods of plotlines because they were so wild and often out of character. It is like there is suddenly a substitute teacher in charge and everyone is acting nuts.

As I recall when Frankie Frame was introduced it was established that Emma (her mother) lived in Oklahoma. Which begs the question why she was known as Frankie Frame, when her parents were Ordways? Obviously, the writer's logic was that it helped viewers remember her familial relationship, but it made no actual sense that she would be known by her mother's maiden name. I think the problem with Iris's longevity was that she became an island onto herself. Her raison d'etre became preserving her father's wishes and that becomes repetitive as a character ages. Without a viable Dennis, or a long term husband, she lacked a family base for plotlines. Between Lucas and Michael, Iris was the eternal third wheel in every love triangle. As a result, she became an honorary Harrison, or an adjunct Cory, but she had no family to care for and no business to create story. As we saw with Felicia, if Iris had stayed in Bay City, it was only a matter of time before long lost children came out of the woodwork. There was also that mid-90's foray into soap realism that made bitchy divas seem obsolete. Personally, I hated that period of soapdom when money no longer motivated characters, everyone was only interested in finding eternal love, and the social issue of the moment was the focus of every plot. I prefer over the top villains and ladies who wore hats to the office. Going back to the retcon of Iris's adoption, (and the loss of Lemay's original story proposals), I wonder if the plan was for Iris to be red herring, or create reasonable doubt, for Amanda if she ever became a murder suspect because they shared the same genes and DNA evidence was a big news topic around that time.

One tends to think there are also economic issues at play for production. By that time there was less money for supporting characters like talk-to's and hit men, so the leading ladies were called upon to do things for themselves.

I always find it amusing in soaps when the snobbiest characters in town have a longer rap sheet than those they look down upon. That makes sense, although does that mean that Iris didn't buy Donna's condo? Also interesting to note that there was a Bayview Tower and a Bayview Court (Bay City's version of Peachtree Street/Road in Atlanta or Beverly Blvd/Drive in Los Angeles).

I recall Donna's condo, but it made me wonder if they lived in the same building as TOPS? Was that the Love Towers where Reginald met his untimely demise off of the roof top balcony? Also, is memory failing me or wasn't this all contemporaneous with the return of Jason Frame because Iris's suspected motive at the time of his murder was that Jason was blackmailing her with knowledge that she was The Chief? That being said, I have no memory what her motive was as a suspect in Jake McKinnon's shooting. It was a sign of times that Beverly/Iris was never arrested, but Carmen/Iris was a suspect in three different gun related crimes. Your point about Donna and Iris not knowing each other is valid given that Rachel was presumed to have known Donna for years because they were neighbors. However, I guess it could be argued that Mac bought the Cory mansion right before his marriage to Rachel, so Iris did not live in that house, and thus had no chance to run into Donna at the mailbox or local grocery store (can you imagine Iris collecting the mail?). On the other hand, it was later established the Dennis was a similar age to Marley & Vicky, so it stands to reason that Dennis and Jamie would have met Marley in school before she left for her European boarding school (but now I am veering into the realm of fan fiction). I also agree with your main hypothesis that the de-Sorasing of Donna, through the casting of Ms Sampler, did the character no favors, and Donna lost a lot of her agency in the process. It is amusing that Donna acquired a southern lilt at the same time that Iris got her Aussie accent without much of an explanation in either case.

Speaking of which, the parallels between Iris finding out that she wasn't Mac's daughter and Dennis finding out that he wasn't Elliot's son are interesting. I stopped watching Texas early in its run, but I wonder if there was any exposition regarding the connection between Dennis feeling betrayed in the same way that Iris had felt betrayed. Certainly, the infamous slap that Elliot gave Iris when the paternity was revealed should have shocked Dennis enough to be more supportive of Iris, but the character of Dennis was never a Momma's-boy. All things being equal, (in hindsight), I am happy that character changes that developed for Iris in Houston never became cannon when she returned in Bay City. She lost a lot of her bite when she became the grande dame of the Southwest. Although it is odd that a few years in Australia changed her accent, while after all that time in Houston she never even uttered the word "y'all". One question, upon her return was she always referred to as Iris Cory? I still think of her as Iris Carrington because Louise always called her Mrs. Carrington, and on Texas she was known as Iris Wheeler. Also, I believe when Dennis was reintroduced he was referred to as Dennis Wheeler, so it is odd that everybody else in Bay City referred to her by her maiden name, even though they had never used it in the past. I would argue that the origin of Iris's adoption made sense because of the birth of Amanda. It cemented the relationship between Rachel and Mac, because she was able to give him the biological child that he never had (except of course for Sandy and Paulina, but he didn't yet know about them).

It is an especially interesting quandary when we consider her reintroduction through "The Chief" storyline because her biological origins did not matter in terms of the logic of that plot. My impression was that Iris was trying to manipulate Cory stock so that she could eventually save the company from ruin and win Mac's praise (given that the story was conceived prior to the actor's death). I don't believe she was trying to buyout Cory publishing in order to ruin Amanda and Matthew's financial well being. Iris had always been driven by trying to win Mac's approval. The fact that he now had established relationships with Sandy, Amanda, and Matthew would have threatened her deep seeded desire to be "Daddy's Girl." So, wanted to help him by saving his beloved company. However, establishing her as Mac's biological daughter would have no impact on that story. Mac's will had been the subject of prior storylines and even Jamie was due to inherit part of Cory Publishing just prior to the revelation that Sandy was his son. Iris had been written out of the will during her marriage to Brian Bancroft (AW was still written by Lemay at the time so he had knowledge of those events). She knew that her son Dennis had benefited from both the Wheeler and Carrington estates, because he was included in the wills of both his biological and his perceived father. So, there was no motivation for Iris to be Mac's biological daughter in order to clam his wealth, because already knew that she was getting bupkis. The establishment of Paulina as the forgotten South American Cory was written after Lemay's departure, so there was no logic in trying to establish Iris as a Cory in opposition to Paulina, because she was considered a Cory with or without a biological connection. Finally, there weren't any romantic reasons to make her a biological Cory. Sandy had already left town and Matthew was not a viable love interest. Also, her initial story involved a triangle with Donna and Michael, so her biology did not effect any potential entanglements. While it fit with Mac's rather randy past (remember when he had sex in the back of a limo and Rachel found the underwear as evidence?). It was unnecessary as a plot detail. Unless Iris's biology was somehow going to play into Evan's history...

On Facebook someone just posted a picture of Jack Wagner as Warren #3 from 1991 (with his awful Caesar/Clooney haircut). It got me thinking about the number of recasts that occurred during that period. Warren, Mason, Kelly and Keith were all recast within months of each other and then Eden left the show. I don't know if any soap could survive that degree of cast upheaval. The cancellation of a soap is often attributed to creative issues, but it seems an important lesson that soap habits are made on repetition and once that sense of normalcy is gone the habit is easy to replace; regardless of the popularity of using actors from other soaps.

This was actually my first response to the news. She had a high profile arrest for DUI in 2002, there was also an infamous Letterman appearance when she appeared to be under the influence. These types of scandals are unfortunately more often over looked for male actors than female leads. I always associate her with the odd tidbit that she was roommates with Sandra Bernhardt when she first left AMC and moved to LA. A quick review of her IMDB page suggests that she has worked consistently since NYPD Blue, but the roles have diminished in quality and star power. So, maybe she was looking for a meatier role, and wanted to work after the stay-at-home orders restricted income for the past nine months? I would hazard to guess that there are a few former primetime actors who would relish the opportunity to work again; given the current economic climate.

@Taoboi @Chris B I get the side hustle, but am I the only looking at former daytime actor's social media posts and wondering how they are continuing to make a living (especially during stay-at-home orders)? Perhaps I worry too much, but nine years without a gig in most professions would put one at risk for poverty.

Agreed (although I would add RKK's pension for short shorts) But I have to put in a good word for Stephen Yates. He was Rachel-est of the Jamie's. They shared the same hair and an artsy vibe. They were also both vulnerable with a hair trigger temper that interfered with their relationships. It was a shame that the character changed so much in later iterations because I thought Yate's Jamie seemed like the one who really shared some character DNA with Rachel (certainly more than Amanda or Matthew ever did).

I think the reunions are a part of the franchise that are no longer necessary. First, the cast goes on WWHL several times per season, so there are ample opportunities for them to comment on the drama, far too often the reunion is a retread of what they have already stated on Twitter or WWHL. Second, they can't reference the reunion directly within the season so they are always referring to it as this obtuse situation that caused a rift in their relationships. Third, there is either never any resolution to the season's arguments or the resolution seems contrived because it happened outside of their natural milieu. I think much like the Bravo blogs that caused more trouble than they were worth, production would be better off by trying resolve story lines within the context of the 22 episodes per season.

It is interesting to recall when GH could maintain multiple plots. That summer had both Casadine island and the Diana Taylor murder plot. The previous year had the Left-handed Boy and the Quatermaine divorce saga. They were really good at balancing an outrageous action adventure with more traditional soap storylines.

I follow Alec Musser (AMC- Del Henry #2) on Instagram for the occasional shirtless pic and it got me thinking. He hasn't had a credit worthy of IMDB since 2011. However, as single man, he travels, he owns a house, and participates in expensive action sports. How do these guys who seem to never work still manage to maintain these lives? I am old enough to know that much of what is portrayed on social media is fake, but I still wonder how former daytime actors with very few subsequent jobs like Scott Bailey, Kyle Lowder, or Pierson Fode allow them to maintain a life of leisure?