applcin

They sound very committed to the show and very pleased with the viewership. That's good to hear, especially since they have a smaller number of affiliates than some of the other classic tv stations.

I don't dislike Nancy but I think she and Mike are a huge mismatch. Nancy Donohue reminds me of a young Diana Muldaur.

Yes, I watch her when she's doing therapy or conversing/arguing with other doctors. It's the story with Mike I'm not caring for.

Catching up on some shows and see that Jeff Fahey (Gary Corelli, OLTL) was on Grimm a few weeks back.

Ah...I've actually been skipping Mike, who's also not that interesting a performer to me (along with Jody, Liz, Townsend). Nancy is another character I watch only in relation to a couple other characters. And the two of them together are just dull. He seems immature for her.

Having seen some photos of a young LL, that wig really does her no favors. Too bad they don't get rid of Karen, have LL ditch the wig and let her come back as Karen's cousin or something, lol. Today, they might do something like that.

I've gotten used to Lydia Bruce now. Her Maggie is more ladylike and more compassionate. She doesn't give anybody the side eye.

Were Matt & Maggie married when the show premiered or did that happen onscreen? I wondered that when Matt told Nick he married Maggie in his scrubs in his office.

Into mid-January 69 now.

Not really feeling the impact of Ed's crisis as I don't find the actor particularly compelling. Anna is good and believable but I'm just not feeling Ed at all, which is probably what's contributing to my feeling that Nick acted like a jerk and overreacted when he went off on his wife and stepdaughter over a friend/colleague. Or that it impacted Steve the way it did when they barely shared any scenes together. The other part of that is the sometimes fast pace of the episodes, where they encapsulate a single day into 23 minutes. The downside, I think, might be that, in the missing time, it's implied, of course, that these characters are all interacting, building relationships (and drinking even more coffee) but we're not seeing it. I'm watching the story moreso because of the other characters involved.

I did rather like Matt FINALLY calling Karen out on her attitude when she told him she was quitting and going back to Germany and, again, when telling Maggie about it. That being said, while Karen has been tiresome, Steve has been a little too physically aggressive with her in his frustration. And even though Nick does tend to overreact to certain situations and some people, I do agree that Steve is smart-alecky at times, too.

I'm still behind as I didn't watch for a week or so and I've slowed the binge a bit. Trying to play catch up on other shows, too, both old and new.

I just watched Christmas 1968. I love how they let JP break that fourth wall again and address the viewers, and this time the "fearsome foursome" all got in on it. Matt and Nick imitating each other was funny. We've seen Matt do it before, make fun of Nick, but Gerald's impersonation of JP's voice was pretty spot on, lol. These are my two favorite guys on the show, even though Nick can still be, as Gerald called him, "abrasive" at times.

Also kind of amusing...I noticed the credits used to have GG as simply "Nick Bellini" while Matt and Althea were "Dr." but now that Nick's married, he's "Dr. Nick Bellini."
Although...am I alone in thinking that sometimes Nick seems like he should be running a nightclub or something, lol? It's like he's this brilliant doctor, then he's this guy from the Chicago streets who sounds like he could be operating a gin joint.

These guys are very natural actors. I'm kind of comparing them to some of the performances from early Ryan's Hope...where you can see some obvious prompter reading but these guys make it look like they're just spontaneously saying everything without a script. Makes me wonder how much latitude some of them had, like if they could say the lines slightly different than the actual words written. Gerald, especially, seems to somewhat ad lib at times...not out of unpreparedness but out of knowing how his character talks.

I wonder how the show is performing for Retro TV. I'm still wishing other classic soaps can have similar opportunities on these over-the-air diginets.

So, what were your thoughts on the wedding itself?

Nick and Althea have become my favorites so I pretty much liked it! I can see how they became so popular. I only vaguely remembered Gerald on General Hospital and I never watched ATWT where Elizabeth was so I'm kinda just seeing them "fresh".

It did bring home how small the cast was. I mean, all the regulars were there and they all had their thoughtful voiceovers. At first I thought it odd that Althea's uncle was brought in to give her away...but there wasn't really anybody in the cast left to do it who would have been appropriate! The sound effects, particularly when the minister talked over N & A's thoughts, got a little wonky, though. And sometimes Gerald's voiceover sounded less like Nick and more like Gerald, if you know what I mean.

The reception was a little odd, I guess, maybe because of set and budget constraints. They obviously used a hospital set and the room was so small, even that small group were practically on top of one another. They might have tried at least to change the red blinds, lol.

So...what happened to Althea's psychedelic bikini? Should have made an appearance on the honeymoon. Speaking of appearance, also odd that Althea was wearing a sweater and slacks on the beach, while sunbathing. Anyway, I do wish there had been a few more scenes of the honeymoon, even if they were at dinner or something. I guess over the years I just got used to seeing the soaps take the viewers along more...like part of the payoff.

It's funny. This is the first soap my mother watched when I was a toddler, so she remembers Nick, Althea, Matt, Steve. I'm watching the same episodes now that she watched when I was a tyke.

I thought Kate looked about 10 years older than her age

That seems to be the case with people in general years ago. When you look at the 20 and 30-somethings in tv and movies back then, they look older than people of that age look today.

Amy, I'll post about the wedding later when I don't have to go to work!

Hahaha - I wonder if Althea and Nick's reception was held in the lounge or the lab...

Jody Lee Bronson, that's the Southern gentleman smitten by "Liz Liz". Yes, the story where they ape Dark Shadows is very, very tedious and went on way too long - though it really only aired over 7-8 weeks. With two a day in the reruns, that was cut in half for us and still felt like an eternity.

I have to wonder if the character of Jack Fenelli on RH wasn't at least partly inspired by Nick Bellini. Both Gerald Gordon and Michael Levin are still unparalleled in the all-time soap yeller category!!

Yes, I thought it was Nick's lab!

I, too, have been noting the similarities between Nick and Jack. Although Jack, in the early years, was far more emotionally damaged and emotionally abusive, I think, and had deeper issues. Nick seems more like a simple product of the times and upbringing...the Chicago streets, the 'tude, the jealousy and machismo, which usually ends up melting away anyway. Nick's acted like a jerk many a time to Althea and other people but he comes around. Jack had some deep-seated abandonment issues and did some serious hurt.

I was reading one of the articles posted earlier about Gerald Gordon and how Nick was like the first anti-hero and how he was so popular that he basically helped turn the show into a success. I do think Jack was cast in a similar mold, even if RH didn't consciously have Nick in mind.

Well...in Michael Levin's case, I'm thinking a bald 35 year-old Jack Fenelli wouldn't have made quite the same impact with his very masculine physicality, not to mention the pairing with a 19 year-old girl! I guess the piece was a "necessary evil"!

I'm not saying DOB doesn't look fine. Steve just comes across like he should be further along in life and career.

Applcin, where are you now in the reruns?

Beginning of Dec. 1968. Nick & Althea just got home from their honeymoon. Nick fell out of the bed. Kinda disappointed that the honeymoon wasn't shown more. I guess back then they couldn't do much other than these simple, indoor sets pretending to be outdoors! I was just thinking about Ryan's Hope a decade later and how much they utilized the outdoors even in the early years, but they also had the advantage of not only filming in NYC but locating the show's town there as well. When I saw the red blinds at the wedding reception "hotel", I was like, gee, they're having their reception in the hospital!

Karen really does get tiresome to watch. "Steven, we need to talk." "Steven, I don't want to talk about it now!" Is this ice-queen, Matt-fixation bit coming to any kind of an end soon? Between her demeanor and David O'Brien's premature gray, I feel like I'm watching 2 middle-aged people playing at being younger. It's strange, I know they were both in their early 30s at this time, but they just seem older. Maybe they should have left the wig off Karen and put a dark one on Steve! Heaven knows, a few of the men on Ryan's Hope had "alternate" hair!

I've got to say, I've been pretty much skipping the Liz, Jody (is that his name?), and stalker stuff. Just not really interested in any of that at all.

Does anyone else have trouble with the Dailymotion site ? Sometimes it takes a while for the shows to load and the web page acts all freaky at times like it's continuously loading crap in the background ?

Before I got my Roku, I would watch some things directly on the dailymotion website and the small commercial video on the right side would start playing simultaneously. Now I watch on my tv through the channel dailymotion has on Roku and it's fine, plus no ads.

I'm into Sept 1968 now. Nick has been hilarious with his impatience and sexual frustration over no nooky before the wedding. In Matt's office with Althea:

Nick: That's more than a month from now. I'm telling you, I don't know if I can hold out that long.
Matt: What's the difficulty? I mean, you've waited all these years. What difference does it make?
Nick (with a look at Althea): Yeah, sure, Coach. I got the idea. Take plenty of cold showers there and play lotsa handball!

That scene cracked me up. Looked like it genuinely cracked James Pritchett up.

Were Pritchett & Gordon good friends off camera as well? They have a very easy camaraderie on screen.

I'm into late August 68 now. Things have picked up again. Nick is operating on Anna. The truth is out about Karen's baby. The thing I'm not liking about this whole resolve of Matt & Maggie is that they turned it all into some imagined and exaggerated midlife crisis of Maggie's. No acknowledgement of how Karen & Matt's actions contributed to the mess. No apology from Karen of how she needled Maggie. She "liked" Matt? Please...she waged a campaign to break up his marriage. No acknowledgement from Matt that he showed an above-average interest in Karen. But maybe I missed something...I was ff-ing parts of this story.

Nick & Althea are definitely the highlight, although you wanna smack him sometimes.

BTW, Lydia Bruce reminds me of Betty White...and I think I find her the least believable as a doctor. And I'm getting distracted by Karen's tuft of blonde hair sticking out from under her wig, lol.

I actually found it pretty interesting from the first uploads up through the Anderson story. The few months of spring-summer 1968 though, seem more like an ongoing rehash (Karen, Maggie, Matt), listening to a 12 year old girl, the rather creepy Steve & Karen relationship.Maybe Nick should give his schizophrenia drug to Karen.

Maybe I'm nuts, but does anyone else see a strong facial resemblance between David O'Brien and...Jimmy Fallon? The eyes, the jaw. I know it is pure coincidence, but I do see a lot of resemblance. Ironically, both taped their respective shows at 30 Rock!!!

I think I'm more nuts...I know this post is a couple of months old (it's the page I'm up to storywise, lol). Anyway from day one I thought David reminded me of a young Phil Carey.

I'm up to early July 68 now (Karen just confirmed she's pregnant) and still waiting for something exciting to happen... and the cornpone ain't it! Been getting though the episodes a little faster since I'm ff-ing more now. Can't somebody threaten to bomb the hospital or something?

I'm still binge-watching, trying to catch up. Up to late May 68 now. As someone who has never seen the show and really has no knowledge of it other than what I read here...I'm not really finding the spring of 68 stories all that interesting. It's just after the Ralph Anderson thing...don't really care about Steve and his shenanigans, Karen has been tiresome since the beginning--I only started binge watching about a week ago and I'm bored with her--I'm tending to ff a lot of her scenes, "nu-Maggie" (to me anyway) isn't interesting me either and I'm not feeling her chemistry with Matt. I keep waiting for Althea/Nick to kick into high gear and instead there's Penny who, to me is another ff character. The guy playing Ed doesn't seem like much of an actor. I find myself wanting to see Nathan Bunker come back or someone else threaten the hospital in some way. Please tell me some interesting stuff is coming up very soon!

It's funny that I'm not recognizing right away so many of the "extras" who are otherwise so familiar to me from later roles...until I read about them here, I totally missed catching right away Bernie Barrow, Hector Elizondo, Faith Catlin. The young Maggie DePriest has a facial structure that reminds me a bit of Nancy Addison. The young James Noble has a Tony Perkins-type look and demeanor!

I just started binge watching a couple of nights ago...just up to Christmas 1967 so far. Trying not to read this thread too far ahead. I was just wondering what is the backstory of Nick, Althea & Liz as a triangle that led to Liz's suicide attempt and Althea's pregnancy?

My mom used to watch this show (and the NBC lineup) when I was a baby but I've never seen it. There's something very familiar about James Pritchett's voice to me, though. Like Douglass Watson's.

Sylvester Stallone posted a picture of him and Michael B. Jordan from the next Rocky movie, "Creed." Jordan plays Apollo's son, Adonis.

The Jack and Mary honeymoon in Ireland floored me. I was curious why TPTB went to so much expense on an actress that was leaving. Was it to give the fans a big hoopla, Kate a big sendoff? I mean, over the years, some major characters/actors have had grand exits (ex: OLTL's David & Jenny in Vienna but that involved other characters tagging along for the storyline as well) but it seems RH/ABC went all out to give Kate Mulgrew one heckuva goodbye present.

Janet Zarish (OLTL) played Henry's wife, Abigail, as an older woman on "Forever", complete with British accent.

Thanks, amybrickwallace! I do love Neil D!

Michael E. Knight was on NCIS a couple of weeks ago. His character was the victim so he bought it in about 20 seconds. He was shown longer as a corpse.

Richard Burgi will be on next week's "The Haunting Of" on LMN. Jonathan Bennett will also be on this season.

I'm gonna say it....that little kid annoyed the heck out of me!

That interview with Sharon Gabet above is really good! She really did love EON and the cast. Man, this show needs to be streamed(streamt??) somewhere!

AOL & P & G were a bit ahead of the times a few years back when they did it online and it needs to come back!

Richard was a cutie back then...my kiddie self sure thought so! One of the reasons why I hated that Roscoe Born replaced him, lol. You can definitely hear that he came down with something in the scenes after they got back from the beach.

I dunno how I'd feel if my family members were constantly posting my family's business on the internet, though.