Vee

I agree that Zhao always seemed an odd fit for the property. I'm only speaking to this random theory that SMG sold her out, which is just not in line with the facts. Sarah was all in on Chloe Zhao. And I haven't found Rocha, what little I know of him, credible for a long time. He's another outrage merchant and Burnett became a RW/contrarian crank years ago. Both Zhao and Buffy are easy targets in the current online clicksphere.

That doesn't even make any sense. SMG has been fiercely and vocally supportive of Zhao from beginning to end on this project. This guy is not credible and neither is Robert Meyer Burnett.

Only on Wednesdays!

It really does give the impression that he was going to be gone gone when they filmed this and they only reached some sort of agreement recently.

Mansion security needs to stay alert. In the dark Brook can easily be mistaken for a) Klan or b) the Zodiac Killer.

She did, and Kimberly tried to electrocute them. I didn't mind the Amanda/Eve story (from the famed KL Peter Dunne team, no less). I minded that it went on too long without kicking into high gear. Eve was clearly off from the start, but they still played her as a heroine and she didn't lose her mind til the very end of the season and we had to watch too much of Peter/Eve together when it was clear Amanda and Peter reuniting was blessedly the endgame. (I do think Kyle's slow disintegration and the collapse of his and Amanda's needless marriage was well done though)

Both Charlottes are creepy as hell and always will be. It's just a bad vibe. You know what's up when Temu Anya Taylor-Joy looks at you like that and starts talking about 'my dad' in that sultry tone again.

Exactly. Heather was notoriously a total sweetheart unlike her character. So it must've been him.

He's just here to try to goose me. It's what he does to you folks in the Days threads everyday. He should've been banned for the level of conduct I mentioned years ago, but we know what it takes to get people banned around here. So I just pay 'em dust.

Also, no one cares.

And then that whole period imploded, Frank got the numbers up with his pet writers back and now you can't tell him anything! And no, I don't necessarily think bringing Steve back right then was FV either but I do think he would've always brought back Steve and Jason eventually.

I think the First Evil made perfect sense for the final villain. I had always expected it back, and was not shocked when it revealed itself in S7. But I thought that last year was a real mixed bag at best. I just did not care about Kennedy or most of the new Slayers and thought throwing them all into the mix on top of the core cast cluttered things up too much. Then they added Faith, DB Woodside's principal, Nathan Fillion as a last minute henchman, etc. There were just too many people and not enough space. You could have some of those characters but not all. I think S6 is often pretty great except for the final very rushed Dark Willow 2-3 parter, and the notorious Spike/Buffy bathroom scene just went too far. It was very well done technically and performance-wise but it didn't need to happen. But I also haven't watched much of that season (or much BTVS at all) in over 15 years. I understand why SMG was not a fan. A lot of the audience weren't fans. But I think Noxon filled the brief she was given. The hate for her was intense during the show's live years and I think she does not get enough credit for doing great work before, during and after that season while Joss was credited as the God of television. Even today you see a divide in that fandom of people decrying any attempt to continue without Joss.

I usually am when it comes to major contract or recurring roles, but I'd also cast Jessica Tuck as evil Dr. Carolyn Webber tomorrow so I'm a hypocrite.

Yeah, ASJ could've had a career a bit more successful - not at the Mark Wahlberg level with his talent, but better - if his offscreen personality wasn't likely an issue.

Eh, I've had him on Ignore for years. I only see his nonsense when people quote or address him. Which clearly isn't sitting well with him. But hey, remember when he doxxed Soapsuds and didn't get banned? I do.

To this day I have no idea what exactly happened at Melrose, other than maybe him and Heather Locklear not getting along.

I don't apologize, since the tr*ll doesn't work here. We regularly discuss GH past and present in this thread, and Errol himself has talked about merging the threads recently. When the actual staff want us to do something then we'll see. It's cute this guy is still sweating about me though.

Didn't they cut his time on MP very, very short after a lot of hype due to BTS issues with him? I think most of his story got shunted to John Enos as his brother Bobby.

Was he? They had Vanessa for a very limited window of time and the marriage to Jason happened very quickly. I assume it had to be on the books from the jump. And we both know he'd teased it years before. I just don't remember them ever prioritizing Jax in that period; he was either injured or clueless, but generally impotent and out of the loop while Brenda worried about him to other people. But I also haven't watched much of that story in years. I do agree Alec should've been Jax's.

Gross. It was real, and Ingo was right to call it out at the time. We've talked about Guza's shifting loves and interests before. I do agree he adored Jax/Brenda in the '90s. He pushed them hard and passionately through multiple iterations. But I think he grew much more fascinated with Maurice after getting him back in '99, and was all in on S&C (as was I in the SJB iteration, and some of Tamara's early time) and the mob from then on. It was obvious how little regard Guza had for Jax after returning to the show. Characters who had been his stated favorites and even creations - Jax, then Alexis (NLG used to gush about Guza in the '90s and shortly after he returned in '02) - went under his wheels multiple times, getting run down and ridiculed. I don't know why. I don't think he was ever interested in seriously doing Jax/Brenda after returning to the show. Jax seemed to be painted as an afterthought or nuisance to me in that '02 story to me. I do think caroline may be right that he didn't initially get Sonny/Brenda, and I think if it was up to him in 2010-11 she would've ended up with Dante or Jason. But Jax never entered the picture, and I do think eventually all roads led to Sonny for him after he returned to the show in '02 (until he began to tire of Mo and moved to Dante/DZ). I have no idea what the planned baby story would've looked like in '03'04 with VM. I can't see Jason offering to raise Jax's baby, so it must've been about S&B fúcking again. Maybe. I don't know.

And Linda Gottlieb of course famously produced Dirty Dancing before coming to OLTL. She was seen as a huge coup for daytime at the time for that reason.

Cullum really is out here looking all the way like Droopy Dog.

Yeah, they ruined Jerry quickly despite an excellent recast. There was no way to easily dig him out of the hole Roche started in (the death of Alan Quartermaine), and they really, really failed to even try because Guza was still hellbent on 'his' hardcore original version of Jerry after being pissed at Riche's more charming and cuddly iteration in the '90s (Julian Stone).

Soap stars in worse circumstances with ABC or the other networks have come back to their show before (maybe the worst at ABC was Michael Nader, but he doesn't quite count since he only came back to AMC 2.0 on Hulu though I'm very glad he did). Roscoe Born was blackballed for awhile for walking out on AMC. Then of course we have Missy Reeves v. Ken Corday. I can maybe see Ingo and ABC mending fences years from now, but I'd just as soon recast given how toxic he's become and I don't think they'd get much pushback on it. They're just trying to avoid giving Ingo more cause. IIRC the Kari Wuhrer situation had them gunshy for a long time too.

I will stick up for Noxon, who had a lot to say about her role in the recent years since the Whedon scandal. I also liked S6 a lot more than SMG did. I think she got the bulk of criticisms that weren't all her fault. I do think very few people have the touch for BTVS as Whedon and his team did. But Joss just can't be involved again.