Vee

Oh, I had an idea with Marco Dane once, before Anthony died. Long story.

God, I wish Tony Call had agreed to return as Herb Callison, just once. I've always enjoyed the stuff I've seen with him and Dorian, there used to be quite a lot of them on YT. But my understanding is Call has repeatedly said no to return offers. I would've used him, and I would've loved to see both Wolek sisters again, since the show and Brynn Thayer have both said they only voluntarily killed off Jenny to see to it that the David Renaldi story in '98 focused in on Zaslow and ALS; they were always very open to bringing her back from beneath that avalanche. I'd have Karen and Jenny pop up at the opposite ends of some mystery and intrigue; maybe Blair could consult Cassie and widow Jenny, who has David's old covert intelligence contacts, which could help with this Victor/Todd mess.

Oh, I'd forgotten it was P&G. Yeah, they would never have allowed that.

Slesar was the Echo DiSavoy storyline. It was his character, and indeed everything about her and that old story screams Edge of Night. I've said this before, but when the show started focusing in on murder mystery after murder mystery in the 2000s I would have loved to have seen a few EON people cameo as their old characters to assist the LPD from Monticello, just once. EON was, after all, an ABC soap. It was so relentlessly fun I am amazed it has never been revived.

I thought the Corringtons came in later and did the whole mob mess with the Coronals - Alex Crown (Roy Thinnes), Rob, Laurel Chapin/Coronal (briefly to be Mrs. Larry Wolek), etc. And then the whole tied-in story with Nicholas Coster(?) as that one mobster - Anthony Makkana? - and the "black quad" with Ed, Carla, Phylicia Rashad and Roger Hill from The Warriors. Delilah started working at Makkana's club and neither Bo nor Carla (who dated Hill's character, quarterback Alec Lowndes, who took a gig there) were happy. A decent amount of that whole weird period is on YT. I believe it culminated in one of the mobsters drowning Samantha Vernon, but I can't recall if that twist came in before or after Rauch came in and (wisely at the time) cleared the decks. IIRC from my reading of the old OLTL tome, Georgina Whitman was played by both Nana Visitor and Ilene Kristen. If you can imagine Ilene playing a nuclear physicist who helped create an atomic race car. I wonder why they've never done an in-joke regarding it. Have Ilene show up one day in labcoat and glasses or something as Dr. Whitman, in town for a conference, and everyone mistakes her for Roxy.

What irks me is the photo mentions Dorian and Carla story but there's absolutely no mention of the story in the article itself.

It hasn't hit me yet. I accepted the cancellation because I'd heard it was coming. Then I accepted the continuation. Then I accepted the second cancellation. Because I think eventually these brand names will return in some format, albeit very different. But no, it has not quite hit me emotionally that there's no more after next Friday. I understand it intellectually, but I'm not sure if I've totally internalized it or what.

I thought R.J. and Tea were hot as hell, and I was pissed when she walked out on him for Todd. It proved me that she simply did not want to be treated well by a good man. R.J. was absolutely shattered by her departure, and went back to crime as a result.

RC and FV did not want AE to leave at all, so I knew it had to happen eventually.

I knew she'd be back.

In honor of Stuart's happy return. I hope this hasn't been posted yet. It's just adorable and it has Jennifer Bassey to boot, along with a very game little boy playing AJ.

She's going to be a star, America!

HBS did gush heavily about both TT and Laurence Lau, and I thought LL did a fine job as Sam and had good chemistry with her but the story just was never going to work. She did also, however, say in late 2002 that Nora had been decimated by the affair with Sam and was very candid in saying how none of her stories had worked since and that the storyline was conceived simply to give Kale Browne a tie to the show. I was on the edge of my seat during February sweeps 2000, when Nora learned what Lindsay had done to Bo's fertility results in 1998, and crashed their wedding. At that time we all thought this meant Bo and Nora would reunite and it was very good storytelling. You could not miss a day. I still remember Sam - who had known of Lindsay's role for months and kept quiet - trying to physically bar Nora from leaving the house to crash the wedding. I've never wanted to kill him more.

Troy and Lindsay happened for real after OLTL finally seemed to realize everyone hated Troy/Nora. GT rehired Ty Treadway after the Colin murder mystery because he was sure everyone wanted to "finally" see HBS and TT paired for real, but the truth is they didn't have enough chemistry and Ty, while a wonderful guy, was simply not a very good actor. The subsequent romance was awful and embarrassing, and it was compounded by the plotline of Troy [!@#$%^&*] Lindsay and stringing her along to put her behind bars, which highlighted their scorching chemistry and put viewers on Lindsay's side, even though I was happy to see her finally pay for her crimes against Nora. When they went back to Troy and Lindsay having a hot affair behind Nora's back in late 2002/early '03, the S&M-esque scenes began. Their most memorable, of course, being on Griffith and Malone's first full day back in February '03 - when she screams at Troy to "take what you came for!" and shortly thereafter, Nora walks in on them together in a very explicit-seeming series of jump cuts with Troy's pants around his ankles, where it looks for all the world like he is [!@#$%^&*] Lindsay either from behind or in hindquarters heretofore unknown. I'm still surprised that made it on the air.

She never married Max - Rae married Asa, in a storyline that was pointless, barely featured, and went nowhere. That terrible storyline did offer up some classic lines, though, when Renee tried to convince Rae to divorce Asa by conning her into believing she had gone off her rocker wanting him back - "I met Asa when I was a madam in Las Vegas. He was looking for uranium and he found me. When I'm finished with the shock treatments I'm going back into the life!"

I loved Max/Roxy, yes. And Cris and Natalie, back then. Sylvia Miles was absolutely terrifying as Stella. I swear to God she looked like some sort of leviathan, risen from the briny deep of the ocean to wreak armageddon. It was as though you practically saw rancid seawater and the sands of time dripping from her wrinkled pores. She did not appear human. I did love Allison's return but even that went on too long.

Yes, it was Whitesell/Broderick, and they were mostly terrible with the exception of Bo/Gabrielle and the baby switch story with Natalie and Jessica, which was not exactly thrillingly broken down or dialogued.

Look at Eddie Alderson nonchalantly perched on Mark Derwin's head. I was so, so happy for the show when it won because I felt it truly deserved it, even when frankly Gary's stories were not very good. During his tenure as EP the show had a sense of lightness and fun and boundless optimism even when it was serving up some really goofy [!@#$%^&*]. It had come out of the hole of the JFP era and started putting itself back together again. Even when some of the stories were terrible, I couldn't begrudge it much. They all worked so hard and cared so much, and I think they still do today. I also think it was a mistake not to do Live Week every year since.

I was crushed when Luna was killed, but I also really liked Max and Maggie. I hated when she was thrown off the show in such a silly way.

I'd still bring Gabby back with Max, Tina and Cord before the end. Why not? I have heard Michael Malone say - and it may have been hyperbole - that he had been interested in having Gabrielle on the show opposite Max in the '90s, but Paul Rauch had already driven her off. I know he had planned a Max/Gabrielle/Bo/Nora quadrangle in 2003, and that would have driven the show as a frontburner story like gangbusters if it had been allowed. But it wasn't.

I remember that story. Leah Brahms from Star Trek: The Next Generation nearly got Viki killed.

Hank did not have an onscreen exit. He last appeared convincing Rae to divorce Asa - in order to be with him (cue vomiting). He was last seen luring her into a delightful game of touch football in Angel Square that spring, as I struggled to contain my lunch at the thought of Hank being pawed by Linda Dano. A few weeks later, Daniel Colson strode into the LPD and informed Nora and Bo that due to the Mitch Laurence mess, the state had dismissed Hank and appointed him as acting DA - Hank was said to have gone over to Llanview U to teach law and coach football, so he was still in town, unseen. I think they said more recently that he, Rachel and RJ had all moved to Chicago. What I never understood is how Peter Parros ended up playing virtually the exact same role - Dr. Ben - on two shows only a few years apart. When he turned up on ATWT in the same boring role I literally thought the character had crossed over.

I think if the rumors are true that they're bringing Rachel onto the new show - and I would love to believe they are - than they might as well go for new tentpole couples and pair her up with Kevin once again. That would be a new, interracial generation for the Buchanan family to cement things while you'd also have Natalie, Jessica, Joey etc. in play. That also gives a base for other Gannons to be brought back in from. I do think there's an edge and fire to Nathan Purdee as an actor and artist that they did not properly utilize in many of his later years on the show. And they could do that if, after being sacked for a serial killer (that was Hank's exit - the city dumped him offscreen for Daniel Colson in the wake of the Mitch Laurence debacle, and he went to teach law at Llanview U), Hank had grown fairly cynical and turned towards a lucrative career as a defense attorney while also struggling with his honor and moral fiber. Or perhaps, yes, as a hard-driving federal prosecutor, maybe that's more apropos. I think you could do a lot with both brothers. RJ could have been running this show years ago if daytime knew how to deal with leading men of color.

Sheila was an utterly different character as played by Valarie Pettiford versus Stephanie Williams, who took over the part and was an utter non-entity as Hank and Sheila became Bo and Nora's token black talk-tos. It was sad yet totally uninteresting and unsurprising to me as a kid when I tuned in one day and suddenly Sheila was leaving Hank for vague reasons, out of the blue. But Pettiford's Sheila had grace, strength and intelligence. I have only seen a bit of the days when Hank, Sheila and Troy Nichols occupied the canvas together. Troy always seemed like a bit of a goofy stick in the mud to me with an odd voice, a holdover from Paul Rauch's very late attempt to re-inject black characters he didn't care about into the canvas. I recall reading one of the articles here where Gottlieb talks about hiring a black writer to handle that triangle - saying she had Sheila between a "new kind of black man" and an "institutionalized one" (Troy), or something. I'd like to see more of that story, however dated the language is now. I always wanted Hank to come back to the show as a suave, "grayer" defense attorney. I figured Nathan Purdee would come back to the role if you pitched him his opening scene as being woken up in the middle of the night by one of his old friends or family - the camera pans past a beautiful young woman in bed to Hank, who picks up the phone. It would be more action than he'd gotten in his last five or six years on the show. I also had liked the idea of pairing him with Tina, just because I thought it would be two hilariously different types.

Who the Christ was Jimmy Whitman?