Vee

I remember folks roasting PM when he came back to DAYS because he looked his age, unlike Austin Peck who had physically aged a bit more gracefully and had a more fruitful daytime career (but is allegedly pretty obnoxious). These heartfelt tributes even from people who only worked with him briefly in controversial stories, like Kate Mansi, are really something.

I don't remember any but who knows. I do know the story back then was that Guza kept the Dante story on ice for several years, mentioned in background, before he could finally find the right actor. It was very important to him. It's possible Pelphrey could've been in the mix but DZ seems like a very different type.

No. It had nothing to do with that. Ethan was just a very obvious replacement on canvas for JJ's Lucky as a similar 'type' and in Luke's life, since the Lucky recast was very different in the 2000s. Ethan was never very similar to Jonathan or Pelphrey.

I don't think it was. I think that's just the revisionist history Guza and Tony believed in.

Shocking and way too young. He was a classic soap matinee idol and I think what he brought to Starship Troopers and the smarmy role of Richard Hart on MP in particular really suited those roles. RIP.

Thanks very much!

I don't see any reason to believe they'd lie about it at a point when they were still less than a year on the air. I just think some of the background timeline was wonky.

IIRC they have said the Hayley reveal was planned from Day 1.

I do think Ethan is a pretty blatant Lucky replacement, both back in the day and now lol. Once JJ returned Ethan didn't really have much to do and became superfluous. If you put a gun to my head I'd rather have Jonathan back, but ND/Ethan I don't mind having around. I think he could activate some characters and shake things up a bit. I just wish it wasn't at Lucky's expense.

Exactly. It happens all the time and it's just not on my radar.

Phrasing we'll never forget. I enjoy Lynette (who I believe is alive and well) and some of Hayley's scheming still, but the overall storyline is baffling to me. Hayley was primed to kill this man six months ago. Let's wrap some of this up. Bring Marquita back in stints from time to time but end this phase.

Crossovers and the repeated blurred lines of a sister soap either being canon or in-show fiction from time to time has never bothered me that much. As noted above Y&R has done it before, Eastenders, and several other US soaps I can't name offhand have all played fast and loose like that, all in fun. And of course Dallas and Knots Landing were in continuity until they weren't, until they were again decades later. I know it's tempting to frame everything a show does as an act of unforgivable incompetence which we would never let slide if we were in charge, but these things have happened across daytime many times on the best of soaps, it's a common practice with those kind of meta soap gags. It's just not that serious IMO, especially when BTG has serious things to course-correct. So I'm not going to ding them for bringing BTG back into the P&G 'universe' which is the right move IMO. I have bigger fish to fry when it comes to this show's issues lol. I don't think he was intended to be an afterthought. They've given him a fair bit of personal angst and family backstory while Carlton has virtually none. And maybe this is all a poorly-executed feint atm to going back to Kial and Nicole. But I am inclined to agree that it was a mistake to split both Ted and Nicole and Dani and Bill in the first year. The final end for Ted and Nicole should be coming now to set new romance up. Kial and Shanice can still have been introduced into the mix with the same tension for each.

I don't think Greg Vaughan's Kial was meant to be an unimportant character. But I do think they are treating both of Nicole's suitors pretty poorly at present. If they want Kial to be the male lead for her they have to commit more to a clear trajectory there. I think Kial/Nicole is how it started and then it quickly went off the rails as Nicole began playing him and Carlton against each other. As of now I don't see it for Kial and think they might be circling back to her and Ted. I hope I'm wrong and they switch it up again. But I definitely don't think they are treating Shanice as less important than Ashley. Not anymore. The fact is Shanice has gotten a ton of POV and airtime since the new year, and Ashley considerably less than ever. Ashley has become more the foil to others, and her romance with Grayson is a subplot as part of the plasma story. If you started watching today you'd have no idea she had some deep friendship bordering on romance with Andre.

Well, it was also more than that. I think there's at least a few days in summer or fall '95 where Blair flat out says it to his face onscreen lol. As part of a precursor to their finally getting back together (with Marty urging Todd to recommit to Blair, of course) and their marrying as Marty goes off to Ireland to meet Patrick. Just a lot of sketchy layers there. I don't remember if they actually did intercut a Marty/Patrick love scene in that period with Todd and Blair ("tonight I'm your wife") but I remember the story. It might be true. I'd have to go back and look.

IIRC it was more that Howarth was talking to a friend or colleague about his issues and that's how it came up. That's all I know there. I don't know if Malone would ever have actually paired Todd and Marty were it up to him. But whatever he said to the press or told himself, the actors believed it and I do think he was fascinated by that relationship. I can't necessarily blame him or the show for focusing on the dynamic because the actors were very charged together onscreen right to the end. But looking at the material today and how it was both written and staged, however impeccably done, it still dates very poorly and seems really inappropriate in 2026. It was obviously presented (IMO) as a kind of budding emotional affair or subconscious love triangle with Marty while Todd was with Blair in '95. I do think that for all his blinders there Malone would never have gone near doing the rapemance from '08 in the way Ron Carlivati did it. They even interviewed him for comment on it at the time, and he basically gave RC the benefit of the doubt and said he would wait to see how it played out (before consummation). I have to believe Susan Haskell was sold a bill of goods about that story as well when she returned, even if it did get her an Emmy. (There were rumors at the time that they had actually intended to get Roger back in '08 and reveal that TSJ's "Todd" was not Todd mid-rapemance, but who knows.) I know she left the show very unhappy with FV/RC and her exit story a few years later, which also kept Thorsten Kaye from returning to usher her out as Patrick. She's never spoken about it to press or in public. I think Roger had just grown up a lot in his years at CBS (where he'd also had a lot of bad writing and not exactly been massively popular anymore). He was just happy to no longer be playing a rapist. But even Erika Slezak very recently (when they reunited in LA last year) said she'd always loved working with him but he was 'a pain in the ass' when he was young, and that he was much more easygoing when he returned in '11 lol. She's been much more circumspect about TSJ through the years. The RH/KDP, FL, etc. relationships are generally suspect to a lot of fanbase war stuff. But what we do know is RH and KDP had ups and downs due to his issues with his role in the '90s and '00s and that when he came back they both were a lot more comfortable with each other. I had heard Howarth approached her to mend fences shortly before or after returning to the show, and they've been spotted IRL very chummy a number of times since, including last year. All's well that ends well. I can't really blame OLTL for going ahead with Todd Manning to begin with in 1993. Yes, they cast a great actor to play a gang rapist but he took off like a rocket. It was a different time, and whether we like it or not soaps had made allowances for rapists and abusers played by exciting actors more than once. Knowing what we do now and living how we do today you certainly can't deny how much it changed and at times broke the show. Even starting in '91 again recently I can see how much Todd changed things. And any OLTL that lived today could not have two rapist twins as its leading men. They would have to be gone, or at least not around or regularly present for a long time. But do I regret that RH was there, that Todd had story? Only sometimes. The TSJ years OTOH I am increasingly inclined to throw out. Which is too bad, because when he wanted to be he could be very good. His feud with Kevin was second to none. He was also very good at playing a pure psychopath. Some of the scenes with Marty near the end of his run just before her miscarriage, where he traps her in her office and taunts her, threatening her about their kids, are insane for a romantic leading man of the show. It was just totally unacceptable. That wasn't on him, it was on the writing. He gave a very good performance as a monster in those kind of scenes, but he also was not above trolling anything that might make the character more human.

I will say this: It is the kind of random shít Frank would do to bring on another OLTL friend in an odd role lol. Look at the Kim Delaney stunt cast as Jackie, of all people.

As I said I think she could be a nice addition to a much more pared down canvas, but it would depend on the right role (like Dr. Sarah). I loved Gina on Y&R but there are not legions of fans out there wanting to come aboard for her IMO. Definitely not for her as Skye, a role that was always polarizing at GH and probably moreso post-OLTL invasion, and which was only (sometimes) popular with Robin Christopher.

The Duprees do family meetings for a ton of shít that should be an email. It's so silly.

I actually don't think they have messed with Shanice's personality much myself. But I do think Ted's comment to Nicole came out of nowhere. I agree it was a 180 from how he has been behaving for weeks, which is purely falling for Shanice. It's been good for Keith Robinson tbh, he and EJ work well together.

They're shrugging it off. I knew they would eventually. I even said so a few months back, when the June reference last came up in the GL thread. Mentioning ATWT as a fictional show back then as a gag was cute but a mistake IMO. It's better to keep the P&G/CBS soaps all in universe past and present together just in case. I said no one in the audience would really care if they decided to step across the other side of the line and kept these soaps canon to each other again, and I think that's probably true. And as DRW noted, it's far from the first time it's happened.

I agree Martin should've been their son. And I think they are holding a lot of Anita's past in reserve. It is only a matter of time before the notorious Dante Green shows up. As I told @Khan the other day, the reality is a lot of the audience (especially the newer element of the audience unused to soaps) seems to deeply value Anita and Vernon being an elder couple who are very faithful and monogamous to each other. It wouldn't matter to me personally if they'd strayed, I've watched soaps all my life. But given that audience response to even the hint that he could've been with Sharon I think you mess with that at your peril for a soap as young as this, at least for now til a point in time when the show is more secure. But I do think an illegitimate child, grandchild, etc. has to happen for one or both someday. That's the nature of the beast with soaps. For now though, I'd probably line it up to say that any out of wedlock bloodline would pre-date their marriage.

Corbin Bernsen talks briefly to Bleeding Cool about the failed 2022 revival pilot where he would have co-starred with Blair Underwood and Jill Eikenberry during an interview for his film The Yeti (with AMC's Brittany Allen). I'm not linking it because BC is full of pop-ups for those without adblock.

I do think plumbing Vernon's background (and what he could've gotten up to during his youthful years in the movement) could be very powerful. I think the show is overcautious about presenting the men (especially Vernon) as devoted and supportive. They're trying to send a message that I assume comes from MVJ after years of misogyny on soaps, but I wouldn't be shocked if it also comes from the show's immediate patron (the NAACP). I think that message has value and is important up to a point, but the men can't be totally defanged as has happened with several. I do think Vernon's role needs to expand. We know from last year's Martin drama that he is a power broker who can wield it when he chooses. He's not just a sweet old philanthropist. And I do think they desperately need more of Banneker, a la LOVING.

Gina Tognoni would be a welcome addition in the right role, but this show has too many extraneous characters as is atm without adding even more. And Gina Tognoni as Skye isn't exactly gonna rake 'em in. JFP couldn't even put Gina over as Carly, and she may have tried it more than once.

Speaking of 13 Bourbon Street, I think our very own Eric dug this AW-era '97 Malone interview up from the soap mags. Or so it seemed when I Googled around hoping something new had appeared. Thanks, Eric!