Vee

I agree. I still think they should at least have a fling. The complete deletion of memory re: either Pikeman/Brennan or the Wagger plot is baffling to me.

Ben did turn out to be Asa's son, which JFP clearly thought would cement him forever. Except he had little to no relationship with the Buchanans following the reveal (who he'd spent the bulk of his run actively despising) despite a lot of lip service from Asa and even the visiting Clint Ritchie once Ben was comatose, and he also lasted barely two years with minimal story after the truth came out. I don't believe Sloan was dying at the time. They knew he was ill but it didn't become terminal til much later, IIRC. The original plan (supposedly, depending on who you ask) may have been to kill Sloan regardless and have Clint win the triangle, if not for Clint Ritchie having a serious accident IRL which kept him offscreen for a considerable period starting in the summer of '93. This supposedly led to Viki and Sloan being extended and becoming more part of the firmament. But that's a lot of he said/she said BTS, and I can't be sure what's true. I like and have always liked elements of the Sloan saga and Roy Thinnes, and I think restoring Viki's primacy as an individual was important. But I do think Clint would always be the better man and I've always understood why people hated it. I think it would've been more interesting in the long run to see the Gottlieb/Malone regime reckon with restoring Viki and Clint, which for various reasons they never got the chance to do as they allegedly planned.

At this point if we get Lulu reuniting with her family by Turkey Day (they've got to, right?) I'll call it a win. This is a classic example of the FV Taping Struggle.

Re-upping this post because hoo boy, at this point in late summer '91 he can't leave soon enough for me. I always admired NW as a very different but strong Max when I saw him in scattered eps here and there in the past (particularly with Fiona), and maybe it's just the gross Lee Ann story that is making me react like this but he is so extra, effete and hammy all the time even in casual scenes that it feels eyepopping and exhausting, and him putting the moves on Lee Ann is so skeevy. You can see why they became determined to get someone not trying so hard on-camera nonstop. Very curious how contemporary viewers felt, though I'd always heard reaction to him was fairly positive.

"Kevin can't satisfy her, but Curtis can! Get away from me, wife!"

It was designed to neuter Shawn by putting him with Alexis. I have a lot of fondness for both Alexis and Nancy but that's just the truth, she couldn't buy real story at the time and was seen as over the hill at that point until Julian came along. I would happily take Shawn the tycoon back but I don't think it will happen. Brennan has a funky witch's nose. I'm just putting it out there.

It does. They expect us to believe Robert and Holly slept together immediately after her return in '92, when he was happily married to Anna (and I think she'd even been kidnapped for her exit by then, but don't quote me). Their stated angle is that Holly realized she was pregnant and had Sasha after Robert and Anna died off-camera in 1992. The problem with this is that Holly was onscreen, frontburner and in several major romances and adventure storylines nonstop from that point until the summer of 1993. It's embarrassing.

They were terrified of using him, which is why he was ultimately abandoned in a way similar to the Ashfords today - a C-pairing with Alexis nobody cared about but that FV and RC could plausibly call a pairing, and barely on for the T.J. 'story' about being his dad which crawled along for several years in the background. SB was the hottest man on the show in his tenure. Imagine them daring to heavily test him with Laura Wright today like they did when he first started.

It's always funny when people at the show tout Liz Korte as the historian of continuity. Under her watch they have retconned both Cody and Sasha as Scorpios in specific time periods where the supposed mothers were onscreen in frontburner story the entire time and could not possibly have been pregnant. The plain fact is the show thinks we're all stupid. I have no problem with Cody as Mac's son but it should've been by some fling from long ago, not Dominique.

He did have serious chemistry with Beth Ehlers, and better writing at GL helped. But as a dramatic actor Derwin has always had about one speed.

Other than fúck Zander for no reason! I felt for that poor recast, she tried.

And I think they keep them just so they can say 'we try and have a Black core family.' They're almost all related and have C-plots or supporting material, nothing else. It's not a real investment in major story, it's plausible deniability. I believe Kai and Isaiah are on contract (for now). From what I can see though, Kai is just here to fob off the Trina fans and say 'look, she has a new romance' and then play them every few weeks after this initial super-cliched intro. And I have no faith in them not shackling Isaiah to Cyborg Jordan. I think Portia and Trina could be doing so much more, but that would mess up the quiet, inoffensive place FV feels he has successfully islanded all the Black characters on the show.

I don't know about that. Nikolas and Gia were popular and heavily promoted for a time. I'd still bring her back given her family is around. But I do think she and the Wards under Labine were the closest the show ever got to really substantial representation, until Sprina. And we see how uncomfortable the show has been with that. I guess a case can be made for the Ashfords, etc. being as prominent as the Wards, Dara, Taggert and so forth ended up being in the late '90s post-Labine if not moreso. But it's more about quality than quantity for me. Curtis and Jordan are dead ends, T.J. is played out, Stella is a talk-to character and the other talents (Portia, Trina) have very little story.

If you listen to the YouTube comment section 'everyone' hated the Gottlieb era too. The one or two people on many of those videos relentlessly ranting about how terrible it was compared to the genius of Rauch crack me up. Ben and Viki (I refuse to call her Blondie) had a reasonable fanbase. And Erika certainly loved it. I liked the idea on paper of a May/December passion for Viki and was open to it at the beginning as frontburner story, but in practice Ben was generally a two-dimensional rage addict with very little personality or distinguishing characteristic and he wore thin very fast. As far as the larger audience goes, at best he was very polarizing with longtime OLTL fans re: the characters he displaced, the story he dominated and his role in an intrusive family, his snarling about the evils of Asa, etc. and was often as unpopular as any other Rappaport element of the JFP era outside of the hardcore Ben/Blondie fans. A lot of people rejoiced when he went out that window. I think it was a bit of a shame Mark Derwin's own very funny, sweet IRL personality couldn't translate to the character - as a dramatic actor he was always very limited on soaps. As a person he seems like a mensch.

Absolutely. It's just fun to imagine terrifying the racist faction of the audience.

Same here. I just think you can do plenty with a blank slate like that, from a strong family of color with such a beloved legacy. And yeah, the status of that relationship made no sense lol.

I don't think Steve would care. He had no hesitation putting the moves on Senait back in the day. But I'm sure part of the audience would be scandalized, and at this point when it comes to Jason that's all I care about lol. I also think Keesha returning as a still-upstanding and strong-willed character, probably involved in activist work, would be a unique contrast to Jason for his final years. (And would stick around without him) I had no particular love for Keesha's romance with either brother in the '90s. I just think it would be an interesting and unusual angle to play for a tired character who I otherwise have zero remaining interest in lol. And it would help bring on more Wards and characters of color.

Man, Lacey looks different. I did not know Lindsay was on GL.

Lots of people hated Ben.

I would absolutely write Jason off, don't get me wrong (if I had the power to do that lol). But while I'm stuck with him I'd try to make people uncomfortable, and bring Keesha back (recast) with kids. Maybe one of them is secretly A.J.'s, who knows?

Actors say anything to promote the show. JJ said Lucky's Africa arc was great stuff too. It was boring as fúck. What are they going to say to TV Insider? "It sucks, don't watch til October"?

All true. Still, at this point my only remaining interest in Jason (since Steve claims he is ready to retire in a couple years) is scandalizing the Facebook moms by having him in a (short) dalliance with a returned Keesha Ward. Though I imagine today's GH would issue a public apology to the Klan for something like that.

It's embarrassing the "#1 soap" has been reduced to this and GH hasn't.

And very typical of the FV taping shuffle. It looks like I hope we're not in for another tiresome Lucky in Africa sojourn where we have to wait weeks to see her with her loved ones.

I always found them boring as hell simply because Jason is generally such a test pattern and Sam was his obliging shadow. Sure, they had chemistry; I just didn't care.