j swift

I'm re-reading early '80 OLTL history from the anniversary book (got it for $1 on Amazon). I never realized that Larry Wolek was a real "Perils of Pauline" character during that period. From 1981 -1984 he was kidnapped every summer (and held mostly shirtless) in various jungles and basements. Ivan Kipling and Rachel Wilson (his obsessed former client) tortured him and tied him down every time the temperature turned warm in LLandview.

Jody mentions her father and brother died fighting the mob and that is her motivation to free the Republic of Eden.

Agreed but, there is still great dialogue and characters. While Jody, Nicole and Miles are cavorting in a cardboard castle, there is tons of humor and mystery. Mitzi has a cold and is fending off Gunther, Raven calls Geraldine while being held hostage and Geraldine assumes she's calling for money while Calvin and Gavin are trying to use a landline to get in touch with their loved ones. Also, it fills in Jody's backstory and we learn if we'll meet other members of her family (spoiler alert: we won't) and it is mob related which is very much in tune with EON's history. I think if they had just called it Sicily rather than Eden it would have seemed less silly. All of the bad guys were obviously Italian so to make up a phony foreign land does not give the plot any credence.

I'm watching the Eden story finale that has been recently uploaded. I know the whole thing is ridiculous but, why was the Republic of Eden having their Tricentennial Celebration in upstate New York? It is such an odd detail that they repeat in two different scenes. As an audience, we knew that they weren't in Paris or St. Moritz. So why not go to Eden? That being said, I would watch any scene with Geraldine, Raven, Mitzi, or Jodi. Geraldine is especially great in these episodes. Her TV station has a liberal leave policy as both Jodi and Nicole need time off from their live daily shows to go to the Eden party. She never moves, she is nice to everyone, and she is super cool about telling Jodi to go have fun at a summer party while she still young but to be careful.

I enjoyed the pairing of Stefan and Bobbi. There was a moment when as an audience we were unaware of Bobbi's motives. Was she going to betray Luke or Stefan? I barely recall scenes where Luke was actually spying on Stefan and Bobbi with a telescope and it was really thrilling. Looking back now, one of the anachronisms that is amusing is that everyone runs around town wearing blazers. Bobbi is off work as a nurse, she goes to seduce Stefan so, she throws on a suit jacket? Even the teens are constantly wearing blazers as if a board meetings could be called at any minute.

Myrna's bathroom with the sunken tub, telephone, and turban closet were iconic.

Did you ever notice that a signature of the Conboy producing style is a tracking shot through an archway into a rich family's cream and beige living room? It is as if the audience is eve dropping on the action. I know he was neither a set decorator nor a director but, there were definitely similarities across his shows. Looking at the daily opening scenes of Capitol and SB, the Clegg's and the Capwell's both had the same shot.

point taken - I went back, read the synopsis and, my recall was in error, I tried to erase the post but I can't. I also didn't recall that Clay was one of the victims. That being said...it is still my favorite soap serial killer story, along with Port Charles first serial killer plot, because the pace and number of victims was addicting to watch.

It's interesting to hypothesize about who would leak this info. From the OLTL perspective, they are trying to hype the recast and explain Ilene's departure. From Ilene's perspective, knowing she was never right for that part, she could be using the leak to help negotiate her next contract. However, the weight issue does both sources a disservice. I loved when the soap press was this vicious. It seems like historically soap coverage has always been both cattier than the rest of celebrity press as well as more honest about issues involving drugs, alcohol, and other darker aspects of the actors.

In the soap openings discussion someone mentioned the theme during the "Loving Murders". I'm sure others have noted the plot holes in the denouement of the story. However, my nitpik is with the actual promo. For weeks the promo suggested that the "click" would proceed every murder. However, in the end the "click" was just a locket? That locket held no clue to the murderer, we never saw Gwyneth wear it. It is entirely possible to commit each of the murders without the use of a locket. We're not even sure who gave her the locket. It was a complete red herring but, the whole publicity campaign was based on this one plot device.

Does anyone recall Ilene Kristen's role as Georgina the Geologist in the early 80's? She came to town with nu-Tony Lord to mine solariam(sp?) under Asa's house. She had a quick affair with Bo and then left town. Someone recently referenced the storyline but I've never seen clips from this period. I'm wondering how different the character was from RH's Delia? When she was on AW she played a very snobby character that was years away from Delia. Also, did anyone ever reference Georgina when Ilene came back to OLTL as Roxy?

Me too but, I was reading a tumblr SOD recap from 11/89 and Clint wants to move to Buchanan City in Arizona with Viki and the boys to get away from the stress of living in LLandview. I hate it on soaps when rich women are expected to sideline their familial wealth to be loved by the men in their lives. I was just reading a AW recap where Brian asked Iris to give up being an heir to Mac's wealth. Why did these losers want their wives to be dependent on them for financial support in order to humble them? Why would Victoria Lord give up LLandfair, her paper, and running water to go live with Clint? My advice to any soap heiress would be to hold on to what is your's, you never know when your parents will locate a long lost child and then you'll have to share the wealth.

I forgot one other source of Asa's wealth were his land holdings in Buchanan City and the island (I think it was called Blaze?). Did the Buchanan's own Buchanan City or was it just named after them? Also, what was the name of the island where Pamela lived?

That promo reminded me of the promise of RH vs. the reality. I would have loved a show about Pat, Siobhan, and Frank. The Kennedy-esque undertones, the odd differences in expectations from their parents, and their struggles with maintaining their Catholicism during the sexual revolution. However, RH was always more focused on Jill, Delia, and Joe and their stories rather than the Ryan's family issues. In the beginning there was focus on why Delia wanted to join the Ryan family, but that was never contrasted with what motivated Jill and Joe to be part of the Ryan's. Also, they always made joining the family a bonus but, I can't remember anyone who felt that Maeve and Johnny were overbearing or too involved. I always wish soaps included more insight to motivate character growth but RH is great example of a soap that started with a lot more discussions of internal motivations and then left that behind once the Labine's left the show.

Barbara had a weird character arc. She was a heroine for James and Gunner but that didn't turn out well. Apparently she craved the attention of men fighting over her so when Brian McCall refused to engage in a triangle with her and Shannon she turned into a vixen. But, it's a long way from being a vixen to seduce the local rich nerd to jumping out of a courtroom window during a competency hearing.

Was Kingsley-Malta a Marland creation? I recall endless dialogue about the care and treatment of the Kingsley-Malta account.

I assumed that she changed her name from Mary Ellen Walters to Lucinda Guest when she was forced to leave Montega and married Martin Guest. It seems more likely that she would change her first name once she was married rather than giving herself a new first and last name. Luckily the Oakdale DMV had a liberal policy around name changes given the number of assumed identities, returns from the dead, and new faces applied by plastic surgery that happened in town.

Per the OLTL Anniversary book - Viki sued for the rights to live in the main house at Llandfair (she was living in the carriage house with Clint and two little kids) after Dorian married Herb. The judge ordered her out per Victor's will which required her to move if she remarried but, Viki had to buy out Dorian's part of the house because while she couldn't live there she still owned half of the estate. This leads to the scene where she refuses to leave and Clint has to pick her up and throw her out the front door. Also, I just found out that Gretel "Rae" Cummings originally came to Llandview as the assistant of Adam (Pat Ashley's rebound guy after Tony and Paul who kept secret both his epilepsy and his larceny).

If Lily was adopted by Lucinda and Martin Guest then why wasn't she known as Lily Guest? Did James Walsh adopt Lily? How many times was Lily illegally adopted? BTW one of my soap pet peeves is when they give two characters the same first name and afterward everyone in town has to refer to them by their full name. "How's James Walsh? Where's James Stenbeck? I hate James Stenbeck. What's for supper James Walsh?"

today that guy is known as Ryan Serhant of Million Dollar Listing New York on Bravo.

yes, there is a great post Eterna scene when Viki goes off on Larry for keeping the information from her - however Larry made it up to the family by caring for Megan when she was diagnosed with Lupus

Yes, and his girlfriend Mimi was a cheerleader for the team. BTW - The Intruder was originally The Chronicle when Edwina and Clint worked there as rivals to The Banner. Edwina knew that Ivan was her father but she hated him. Ivan had been Dorian's med school mentor and she brought him to the hospital to take over for Larry when he was fired as Chief of Staff for being married to Karen the suburban hooker (I'm not fluent in labor laws but I think that would not happen today). It started the Larry/Kipling feud, which may have the most lop sided feud in soap history. Not only did Ivan put a microchip in Larry's brain, he also ruined Larry's romances with Mimi, Karen and Ivan's ex-wife Faith. Larry was cuter, kinder and saner that Ivan, so the fact that he kept getting kidnapped and tortured by an older more frail man did not speak well of Larry's heroics. Later we find out that Larry's whole med school was paid for by Victor Lord because he delivered/stole Viki's baby from Eterna? Larry, we hardly knew ye... Yes - Brad was in prison for raping Karen when Mary was born but he found out soon after he was released. Jenny had started dating Dr Peter, who figured out that Jenny wasn't the mother but didn't tell her. Brad taped Peter when he confessed to a priest. Brad kept the information to himself until he learned that he was also the father of Katrina's baby. Peter died on his wedding day (the second time that a groom died on the same day they married Jenny). Katrina found out about the baby switch but didn't want to hurt Jenny who had just lost Peter. Brad offered to marry Katrina, she agreed. But, two years after the switch, Jenny found out and gave the baby to Katrina so that Karen and Marco would stay out of jail for switching the infants. Until Jenny met David she was a trice married virgin nun with a stolen baby; certainly my award for most tortured heroine.

RHONY - Bethany got her dress at Amsale eight years ago and the sales people still call her when Tinsley drops by? I can believe that retail clerks all over Manhattan shake at the sound of Bethany's voice but, I don't believe any of them still keep in touch. Did Tinsley admit bridal shopping to Carole because she knew that Bethany was going to bring it up at supper? Dorinda was totally dismissive of Tinz when they were left alone in a room at the spa. I think it is the only time that those two ever were in a scene by themselves. That relationship gets no focus but Dorinda obviously has feelings about Tinz. They are both upper eastsiders, both were in the late 90's NYC society scene, and they both probably have equal wealth. So, they have the most in common and yet seem the least likely to hang out with each other.

A Delilah Ralston question bonanza. If Bo figures out that Asa is his pa based on the fact that Yancy was sterile then who fathered Delilah and Drew?

Hayley's dark wig, Anna Devain's scar and Patch's eye patch will go down in soap history as the oddest choices for character hair/makeup introduction in soap history. Apparently, in soapland, it is easier to get rid of a scar and a wig than an eye patch.