Vee

I like poor old Alice but this baffles me in every episode in this period lol. How is she still around?? I don't know the exact circumstances of what happened. Every domestic scene she has should be appended with her saying 'I murdered Diana Taylor!' Very funny that Luke's psychic flash sequence is accompanied by the famous Exorcist music, Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.

Monty and her team really did nail most casting, and allowing the actors freedom and to become tightknit. You can see the throughline in stuff from slightly later this year, when new additions like Blackie and the Templetons join Robert, Ruby, etc. in seeing Luke off on his wilderness jaunt where he will meet Holly, or in stuff from '83 or '84 and later with Anna becoming a part of the town, Bobbie, Tony, Frisco and Felicia and so on. I don't care about Laura Templeton at all but I do buy the easy rapport between most of the characters or at least actors in the mix because the town, the community and the relationships always feel so lived-in in the original Monty era. (Including, as you say, the Webbers' rising and possibly homicidal exasperation with Amy - whose inability to get off the phone and stop gabbing to a reporter contributed to Laura's abduction in January - which also cracks me up.) They also really played the deep emotion and feeling in the relationships, particularly among Ruby and Luke and Bobbie, over the years. Norma Connelly was so amazing. I'm not sure if she ever got a confrontation scene with Sarah Brown's Carly, or Helena; if she did I'd love to see it. That's what struck me about the LNL wedding episodes as well, finally rewatching them in full again with more knowledge and experience with their stories in '79, '80 and '81. It's a massive splashout, Monty is on some Baz Luhrmann shít, but it works not only because of the sumptuous production value but because you have gotten to so deeply know and care about all these people. Even the smallest characters from Beecher's Corners or the Lutzes have some history with Luke and Laura. In those Monty years they serviced every little piece.

Same here. What a talented kid.

LMAOOOO

I still find that big climax of the David Grey story so wild lol. I've only seen bits and pieces of it but I never forgot that scene. Just bonkers. I think it was Ron who had them mention 'the Treasures of Malkuth' in a local museum exhibit some years ago, or maybe it was the latest team. Another little cheap nostalgia hit, yes, but it amused me to reference the story at all with Grey and the Sword of Malkuth.

As someone who was part of an abortive project many years ago covering DS Year One in depth, what I would say is that the trade-off ultimately was how much character depth, layerings, etc. the show really lost after that first year or two. Roger, Vicki, Burke, Sam, Carolyn, Liz, etc. are all much more rich and nuanced characters in '66 than they ever were later, where many of them became largely foils and fools for Barnabas, Julia, Angelique, etc. Especially Burke Devlin, who as originally presented with Mitch Ryan (who didn't help himself with his alcohol issues BTS) was a charismatic and powerful force on the canvas too big to be duped by a vampire. It's night and day re: who most of them are in that first year vs. who they were left as later. The intensity of the show in that year was all much more not just about the gothic atmosphere and vibes but in the oppressive focus on the characters and their inner lives and contradictions. It was only the talented actors and the thumbnail sketch of who the characters started out as that gave most of them life and spark in DS' later years. And I do think the show fundamentally erred in shifting too much focus away from Vicki (any Vicki) as opposed to letting it be both Vicki and Barnabas.

I frankly don't think Labine's Brooklyn spinoff would have lasted. Rena Sofer was not going to stay on daytime forever (she became ubiquitous in primetime in the last '90s and 2000s), her relationship with Wally Kurth imploded soon after and they were supposed to be the linchpin of that show. It was a lovely idea I would've liked to see, but I don't think it had long legs. The issues RH had as a homespun NYC soap would've persisted. I think PC as a pure concept (the young doctors of General Hospital) worked. But it was rushed out of the gate so they could get a spinoff, any cost-effective spinoff cheaper than Claire's on the air ASAP, and Riche overextended herself and got involved more than she probably should have with a pretty weak setup and stories. It didn't fully coalesce onscreen for several years, and then only briefly for small periods; the talented veteran cast and GH stars/past soap stars like Lynn, Jon, Kin, Debbi Morgan, etc. held it together in the meantime. It could've been much more. And I say that as someone who liked a lot about PC and would happily reintroduce some of its characters to GH (like Kevin/Scott and Lucy's adopted daughter Christina, or Rachel and Livvie Locke, or even Chris Ramsey if Nolan North didn't hate daytime). That's an image! What kind of PC are you envisioning there? Before they're both gone I want someone to pick the brains of Racina and Susan Horgan and get them to tell us what they had envisioned at OLTL 2.0. Rewatching some of GH '81 or DAYS in that decade you can see traces of the Triskelion tattoo caper on the more recent streaming show which seems very much his style. We know they had more scripts than were filmed, per the actors.

Good to hear. BTG still has major issues (as with any new soap), but good bones and I want to see it thrive. It's really engaged (in part) an all-new audience, which many said wasn't possible for soaps 10-15 years ago.

That's not exactly a riveting pitch. And Frank won't give them anything, so what's the point? ngl I've pondered it.

Anna is well rid of that creep. Carly will survive, eventually.

LOL Frank got Valentin and Carly into bed in record time for this show. I thought it would take another 6-8 months with the usual timeframe. He's taking no chances trying to keep JPS in clover. Of course Lulu is getting dragged again.

Yeah, I still think Grayson is ultimately a red herring/reluctant accomplice.

Yeah. The problem is I don't think FV has any interest in giving either anything else. They are not a priority for him unless they can service actors he cares about, and as for Becky all the OLTL guys are gone.

I think it's still doable, but last time was such a joke it would take real initiative this regime has never shown re: Lucky or Liz. I have zero interest in Dante and Liz. Two nice people FV does not care about, being nice together. A waste of both their talent and another convenient C/D-pairing like Dante and Sam.

Alexa does not need this job, either. She was retired and happy raising her family with Justin Bruening. It's crazy to me to treat her like this when you think back a decade or two ago, or consider the character. Hopefully the TG special episode and the return of Ethan augur something better for her and the family but I'm not holding my breath atm. I agree, since you were actually quoting me. Long story short, I would introduce a driven, all business Patrick-esque female surgeon for Michael who would in fact turn out to be a secret Wu connected to the family. Along with bringing back Tia Carrere's Jade for an arc with a couple teen or YA kids/grandkids for the youth set to interact with (a girl or boy for Rocco/Jake). Jade would not be what she appears to be, a sweet mother/grandmother and philanthropist returning town to reunite with friends (and be another seemingly boring love interest for Sonny, who she'd be playing) and would in fact be the true overseas power behind the Wu syndicate, which would solve the problem of me having to watch Selina Wu's acting in this storyline. But while she likely wouldn't be long for the show the children (and Michael's love interest) would remain.

Don't look at me, man, I just work here.

Ethan was always basically Temu Lucky, in the years when the show and Geary wanted someone more like their idea of Jonathan Jackson's version of the character. (Whether they succeeded is a matter of opinion at best) Once JJ did come back Ethan was extraneous. But I did like Parsons despite my recurring irritation with the character, and he did have chemistry and options with a number of people. Even if he shouldn't be Luke's son but Robert's.

Way ahead of you (idea-wise).

I've tried, but the search system is really messy.

Llanview's own Melissa Fumero (Adriana) is costarring in the new CBS procedural Einstein, with Matthew Gray Gubler (sigh) as (sighhh)... the great-grandson of Albert Einstein. Listen, I'm just glad she stays so booked and busy.

I just remember dropping a kooky little Bobby cliffhanger in one of our "make your own finale" threads for AMC 15 years ago. (God, was it that long?) My idea was to just set up a ton of random stories or cliffhangers designed to go had the show continued, without a ton of thought put into it other than fun. (One was Jamie Martin returning to town having a past with Jesse's engaged daughter Natalia, while little Kathy overheard that Frankie Hubbard and Madison North were having a secret fling.) So I just tossed a bunch of wild ideas in the pot, and I knew the last one had to be a Bobby Martin gag. Anyway, the last scene of the show (er, before Erica at the airport - never mind) would be in the Corinth police station (possibly with Alex Masters on the scene) where patrolmen would have picked up a little boy wandering the road in a ski parka, calling himself Bobby and saying his family wasn't far from town. Any AMC fan would get it. My vague idea for where it all would lead beyond the gag was that it was going to tie back to Project Orpheus, and David's final mystery patient on the actual show (which IIRC had a name beginning with "B"), as well as another hint I would drop in the finale episodes of the recently resurrected Stuart drawing visions of a burning black hospital - the same hospital the little boy would be doodling to himself (suspense music sting!). It was all very deliberately Agnes Nixon gothic. The vague idea was he would turn out to be the original Bobby's grandson as part of some new elaborate plot. But it was also just a fun gag for the thread lol. I did the whole finale synopsis once. I'll have to dig up that post.

I would again tie it into probably adding a larger Asian presence on the show with the non-Selina Wus and/or others, or possibly via the Wards. But I am just spitballing there, I have no clear idea.

Yeah, that's still likely my go-to.

I do not believe Derek can read or tell time.