Vee

Lovely. Wonder how long it'll last.

I will say I think DF is quite a good recast from whenever I've tuned in for stints off and on. (I went through a good portion of June and August before this) His slipping the shiv with Will about yet another stepfather was great. In the past there were times I couldn't take him seriously (it was mainly the hair) but I think he's strong enough, particularly with Ali. And I'll never fully embrace Martha's Belle, but under the recent circumstances what the hell, why not at this point? They seem to have acknowledged again that E.J. is (to put it mildly) a rake and darker hat, in no way a hero, and DF (I am not going to attempt to remember how to spell his name several Thanksgiving drinks in) really plays up the snide sleaze as well as the deeper, more complicated man.

Dan O'Connor and David Kreizman would feel like going from one downmarket urgent care to idk, hospice? I did enjoy tuning in for the anniversary eps, even if E.J. as MC was a bit wild. "Many of John Black’s family are here with us tonight. Many of whom I’ve tried to kill. Our next speaker is another one of his lovely daughters I’ve fúcked."

I remember Laura being immediately accepted. Tamara had a tough introduction and rough audience response given the BTS circumstances of Sarah Brown's exit and unfortunate changes wrought on the show in 2001, but the audience quickly swung to her side following the unpopular Angel story starting up and Carly being railroaded onscreen, as well as Maurice Benard actively tanking the Angel SL and very vocally coming out in support of Tamara. By the fall of '01 it was a done deal for her winning the audience over, and better daily writing when the Guza team returned the following spring sealed it.

Re: the slowdown it's not that deep. Soaps just have off or slow weeks. Why they chose to do WinterFest in December though, idk.

I'm just surprised they didn't do WinterFest during sweeps (it starts next week). I would've pushed it up, but I do think the show is on an upswing after a couple more fallow weeks of plate-spinning.

They are definitely playing with Ted and Shanice per advance spoilers for Christmas/New Year's that ended up in Parade Magazine. I much prefer Ted and June who are very much in the Agnes Nixon AMC mold of kooky working-class character with rich man, but we'll see I guess. I wonder why they've moved off that if they have or if they're still just testing around. I hope it returns.

Jerry was never this enthusiastic and chill. He always had a much darker edge because he came back to this show literally murdering Alan Quartermaine, which meant they could never make him work the way Guza wanted. Sidwell just wants his jewels (arr me jewels!), some nice couture and some houseboys on Fire Island.

I can promise I shall also be getting back to November '91 shortly to further confuse anyone else following this thread. Happy holidays, all.

I did like Rota on 24, where he also had a comic role. I just had an impossible time taking him seriously as some major villain on this show (and still do), so I am glad they have begun letting him just go wild with it. Sidwell is obviously below some other villain and I will be glad when he and this story are gone, but I have at least begun to enjoy his casual hijinks.

As tedious as I find this whole plotline this exchange last week killed me. As bored and unimpressed as I have been with Sidwell the jewel dude as some Big Bad I do at least enjoy that they are suddenly leaning into Carlo Rota's breezy, trollish energy re: this entire story. Sidwell seems to greet everything with a jolly smile and I did love his Jason impression, and that kind of mirthful energy is very unique for any story like this on GH in the last 20 years. He could take or leave the whole thing lol.

I will say I was impressed and touched by Donnell's longtime fandom re: the show, and his enthusiasm and gratitude even now. I just wish any of it showed up onscreen, where he has been phoning it in since at least 2018 lol. I also thought he came in in early 2015 vs. the end of the year, my mistake. When did he meet Tony? During that little cameo for Tracy's original exit? Tony retired before his first airdate. There is a superficial similarity to Luke in that Curtis originally was a semi-sketchy mover and shaker with his own club. But Curtis has always been a very threadbare character much like Jordan. He coasted by on DT's initial charisma and chemistry with people like Budig and Michelle Stafford, then he rapidly dissolved. I actually don't mind Curtis the scheming CEO sometimes opposite Drew or Michael, but I would still cut him (and Jordan) tomorrow. He's often just clearly bored and his story goes nowhere interesting.

Yes. It all got gif'ed and it's still hilarious. But here's some of it timestamped (in two different embeds). Featuring BTG's Daphnee Duplaix!

She'd been gone a few years by that point, apparently? I forgot when she initially faded out, I thought around 2002-2003.

I went down a rabbit hole tonight and was shocked to discover Dara Jensen (Vanita Harbour) recurred as late as 2005. I certainly don't remember when she last appeared prior, but she apparently turned up briefly having gone into family law, to help represent Alexis re: custody for Kristina against Sonny. Wild. I wasn't watching much in early '05 - the rubberneck value as the entire show fell apart that year came a couple months later.

I think AM was on AMC as Belinda by then.

The version of the story I remember is they did indeed do that until Maria turned out to be a disaster herself, and then the Bells spoke up again lol. I may be wrong though.

Dr. Nicole has always said weird shít lol. That's just one more thing that's always needed a tune-up since the beginning. I don't think Hayley is any more or less outrageous than Leslie, the only difference is Hayley's plans are totally lethal and have a built-in shelf life.

Wasn't Lauralee one of the Bells who tried to bring the hammer down on MAB's run? Or the Lathams, or both?

Yeah, their stories weren't always the greatest (except at Loving) but B&E always stood up for the Black canvas. Their brief AMC run had maybe 5-7 Black contract players, not all of them related lol. I vaguely remember finding Vicky Spaulding stiff as hell myself. I always wanted to bring the character back with a good recast. Terrell Tilford has always been comical. I tried to support him as Rachel's love interest at OLTL in 2009 but he became best known for a memeable moment at the hospital - 'a brain is not a foot!'

Paige seems very polarizing but I get the sense people either loved her (and her with Greg) or hated her. I am very curious to get to that era and judge for myself. I know Devane critiqued the relationship in an interview a few years ago and said he found it juvenile or something.

I think the day to day writing is superior now vs. February, actually. Though it's still got plenty of room for improvement.

Never mind - misread about Barcroft.

It was so long ago, but what I remember is that a lot of fans never got over JER's shabby treatment of Matt Ashford (which continued for decades, lol) and kept demanding him back in the '90s. But at some point Mark Valley was so hot that enough people came around lol. I was not around for J&J's heyday but I was never really interested in Jack without MA either. He just had it. I still don't think he's gotten a really fair shake since after being killed like half a dozen times, but I may be alone in that. Steve Wilder OTOH, forget it.

I think it was just a combination of 1) A lot of experimenting, first with chemistry tests or tone (the past lives romp) and with other less successful things (the sort of novella-esque Eber domestic violence story, which I think likely only runs about a month total). Gottlieb has said she would bring in new people early on and only then decide who they could be with or where they would go. I think that's evident with Jason Webb in particular, as well as possibly Luna (who has a few dates with Jon Russell) though they certainly jump right on introducing a Luna and Max angle quickly, as you'll see. But I think at one point Blair and Max were endgame, and that is a topic for down the road. The other key factor I think was 2) The focus on a lot of new, ambitious objectives: Bedding in Luna, introducing Blair and Andrew, setting up the beginnings of Megan's fate or maybe chem-testing her with several men in case they could convince JT to stay - I don't know when it was finalized, but they had been hinting at Megan being ill as early as late August, at Hunter Guthrie and Andy Harrison's wedding as Gottlieb wrote those two out. Slowly unveiling Cain, which still isn't finished. Getting ready to write out Cord, as John Loprieno must've given his notice well before now yet they are still toying with him and Blair. And of course there was bringing back James DePaiva's Max to massive fanfare (and by most contemporary accounts around August of '91, they actually had not initially planned to bring Max back until someone hit on the idea of reaching out to JDP). I just think they tried a lot very quickly, and a lot of it worked in October due to an excellent dialogue staff, actors and a fresh production team and style. Next comes Gottlieb burning down Llanfair to remodel it, which I said not long ago I felt was beautifully shot with unique, daring camerawork. The lovely scenes afterward, in the wrecked drawing room, got Erika an Emmy IIRC.