Vee

Yes, the Drew and Willow drama exists because of Mulcahey. The current team just ran with it. But they've done a half-decent job with that as opposed to wishing it all away and rolling the clock back, even if Drew is now largely just a cartoon. They've also gotten lucky. Not just with what Mulcahey left them but with an excellent Michael recast (now being squandered on a cheap dayplayer). I don't think that Frank would ever deliberately sabotage the show, at least not from his POV or in his mind. But I do think the show heavily suffered from whatever went down BTS early last year with all parties, and I do think it seems like FV was leaning into that chaos and battling til he could get back the whip hand. Counting on the fact that he could outlast the turmoil, and he did.

Same. It's just malpractice what's being done with Alexa, Genie and the Spencers in general. And a real shame. I do think the writing chaos during the Mulcahey interregnum and corresponding ratings drop only re-cemented FV's power when he brought them up with a few quick moves after PM was ousted/quit. Now they can't tell him anything and it's all his preferences all the time. I won't be shocked if they bring back ME or RH in future. It's too bad, because I do think the network actually made some of the right moves in 2023-24.

I just cannot believe Frank is deliberately and consciously tanking Alexa Havins. Because it is deliberate. Only on this show would Lulu be painted as the unreasonable shrew for not wanting her children around a) Britt, the banned-from-Tinder embryo thief with personal ties to multiple superterrorists, and b) Valentin the Inseminator, the bug-eating attic tróll of Cassadine Island who took possession of her eggs and mixed himself up the little girl from Species. (Really? We're bleeping the entire word like it's an obscenity now? That doesn't make board tr*lls not exist.)

Same.

Mortifying.

I think the show actually improved markedly around the time he was almost out the door, though I don't think that was due to his exit. It started dragging a bit more almost a month ago.

I told you all I wasn't crazy for my conspiracy theory here! Jet fuel can't melt BLQ's steel slacks!

I warned you all it was a matter of hours, not days!

Glad to hear they'll all recur. I do hope they can get Kim and Jaleesa to appear as well.

It was in the History thread but it might as well be discussed here. Hopefully this will end the lamentations for this dude. He's done.

I don't want to hear anyone repping in the main thread for Big Hips again.

I think so but I can't remember which.

There's a much better quality version in the Classic thread.

Yes, but tbf Erika also generally welcomed more Niki because she always had fun with it, whereas I thought the alters should've been retired for good after 1995 lol.

Lindsay Rappaport doesn't appear until 1998. Anna Holbrook's Lindsay Butler is a potential romantic spoiler for a Sloan/Viki/Clint quad which doesn't work out for BTS reasons.

I hated the 2006 story almost as much as they did. I agree with a lot of Genie's complaints. The 2008 stuff was much better. I thought the 2002 reunion farce with Sally Struthers as Jennifer (along with the horrific Endgame) was cartoonish, superficial and thrown together by Jill and Megan to try to save their jobs. It was far beneath the quality of material they'd been given in the late '90s, for all that period's flaws. I wanted Luke and Laura back together, but it was so badly done. I don't think Tony and Genie were at each other's throats in the last years, or in '08 or probably much of the '90s. There were some difficult times. But I know Genie has said she spent time visiting with him in the last decade as well.

Grotesque.

They were. I think Jill's regime first had them matte'd together like that in late 2001. It was long overdue for them to be put at the end of the opening and I actually love that two-shot too, I just wish it had happened in a different regime (and Jill and Megan's reunion story for them was pretty lousy).

Those were his actual feelings for many years. He was very, very protective of LNL in the press until about 2006-7. He proudly called himself 'the keeper of the flame' and was intense about it. Then things changed. But he was always very respectful re: Genie in print.

Thanks!

Woof! Still, worth it.

I'd have Carly crash out over it as well as some new legal and financial disaster she'd gotten herself into just prior to the tragedy and then disappear, going AWOL from her family for a few weeks or months. Next time you'd see her she'd be in some ass-out no-hope saloon getting trashed and it's Sarah Brown, complete with announcer voice-over: "The role of Carly Spencer is once again being played by..." . They'd fire me the next day!

I'd kill Donna tomorrow!

Yeah, it was a big fúckin' deal when Sonny did have a live kid (Kristina) who didn't immediately die lol. Now he has far too many.

MVJ also discusses writing this brilliant series of scenes (timestamped at its beginning, but you can skip through the other segments throughout) from 1998, where Luke tells Lucky about the rape. The editing, sound design (or lack of sound/music), slow motion, fades to black are still masterful, some of the best work I have ever seen in daytime. And TG's very unsettling mix of shame, some self-pity and denial, and a touch of continued fetishization are what make his performance so mesmerizing. MVJ comments above that the only available clip of these scenes on YT for many years was very poor quality. I know which one she's talking about. Someone send her this, it's better!