Vee

Good for them. I hope Kober will get better material than his frequently embarrassing GH role. He used to scare the hell out of me as a kid. I've said this before, but Brittany Allen became a major genre star in the last 15 years and has grown into a hell of an actress.

I suspect that likely had to do with her being famous for Mindy, who was a superficially similar character to Tina in certain ways. And being seen as a bit of a get from CBS. But I agree they should've cast a wider net if they had to keep going with Tina, who already seemed extraneous to the canvas by mid-late '94. I do wonder if Barbara Crampton (who flopped as Mindy but could play more than light comedy) could've worked. I do think Krista still sold some of the same sort of classic bubbly, rambling Tina material they often gave to Karen in the '90s. But it was too rare vs. her being duped or whining about money, and often pitched differently from how Karen or Andrea were presented onscreen.

I've said it before but I am amazed he took that job given his being very vocal even in recent years about struggling with Todd. Maybe it's because Matt Clark is not going to be a romantic lead, or he just needs to pay some tuition lol.

#MeToo, IIRC. Someone at ABC/Disney finally got wind that they had a rape-associated serial killer as a romantic lead on the show at that time and said enough. They also told Frank no when he asked if he could bring back Todd again for the same reason.

I don't think Malone had disdain for Karen Witter's Tina at all - I think he actually really enjoyed writing for her, even if his concept of Tina was different from the '80s version and more limited in scope. But I think Tina was an afterthought without Karen in that era, and it showed with Krista. I don't think it was all KT's fault, as I've watched some of that stuff again recently and she actually is working hard (she mostly drove me nuts as a kid, but that was down to the obvious disinterest in the character by then). She was there to play a role according to the type she'd played in the past. I think also the audience was unprepared for a Tina who was now in opposition to Viki again, in on a con against her, a role that Tina had not filled on the show in almost a decade. She was supposed to have grown out of that. But to me that was one of the few elements that worked, the idea that Tina could betray her family again after all these years and what that would mean. Part of the issue was that they played up Tina's worst aspects rearing their head with Krista, especially her becoming openly money-hungry re: Todd again. (Possibly a reaction to being heartbroken again by Cain, but still.) Andrea Evans could play that stuff with a wink and a smile and some heart, and Karen's Tina really was only in on her schemes with Cain for the love of the game at that point while devoted to her kids and family. But when Krista's Tina did it she was shrill, whiny and treated as a joke by the other characters, which she was, really. The nuance and heart had left with Karen Witter. I think they were just over Tina by then, and should've retired the character for awhile when Karen and Christopher Cousins left. But I don't blame Krista for a bad situation.

Nope. Franco (especially Howarth's Franco) was about as popular as syphilis for his first several years, and it never improved that much. People were never here for a heroic serial killer. It was Frank Valentini's passion project but it was hated by the audience, particularly in the first 3-5 years. Roger's Franco eventually garnered some modest share of fans only because of the rabidly devoted Elizabeth fans who were just happy for her to have a story - any story. But he was only put with her in the first place after several failed pairings, and after FV tried and failed to fire Becky Herbst (not the first). FV put Howarth with her because he knew Liz had a devoted fanbase who would watch her with anyone, and that would make her a safe harbor for a performer he refused to let go of. But the endless rounds of Franco-centric stories during those years remained unpopular with the general audience, until finally ABCD/Disney changed management and ordered FV to kill Franco off. Outside of that modest fanbase the audience shed no tears.

Uhhhhhhh

It seems like Happy's Place was very deliberately designed to be near-identical to Reba lol, down to the cast. Shades of Lucy's shows. It's funny how TV history and tradition always comes back around like that - Lucy was far from the only one to stick to tried and true formula. I think Lucy would approve of how Reba moves.

It's a huge problem. And it reared its head last year of course. I don't think Maurice faked his illness to get out of the Mulcahey story or anything, but I don't think he does well with being challenged onscreen re: Sonny anymore, if he ever did. Even if the story had unfortunate parallels to his real life that is an aspect of the character Mo himself pushed to put onscreen in the first place. But you don't need to invoke his mental illness to call out Sonny onscreen either. I totally agree. Going back to digging up Karen and Jagger was pointless for me as well, especially with such a mediocre recast. He did have one great speech but that was more a catalyst for Mulcahey doing a larger Sonny story he didn't really get to tell. That was the only purpose White Jagger served for me. To me Karen and Jagger fulfilled a specific function for the show in their era - find a popular young couple, any couple, to help anchor the show in very troubled times. They did that in '92/'93, and then the show moved far beyond them and evolved. I don't think they had much of a place in it beyond that, though you could've brought one back solo in another role someday. The show just had other superior (IMO) character priorities, and ofc Wagger's return flopped.

Both Susan and Sarah Brown(! - FV tried her next) turned down the job in '06 for a few reasons including Susan's pregnancy, though IIRC neither liked Dena Higley's pitch. I liked Christina Chambers on SuBe but she was never anywhere near Susan's caliber of talent and it was insulting that they even put her onscreen as Marty. Once Higley was gone they approached Susan again and she returned, though her second stint ended badly onscreen and BTS.

Those Vernon/Bill scenes are real good. That relationship has always run deep onscreen and I am glad they are digging into its layers more.

She was a disastrous flop. Barely lasted a year.

Nothing he does surprises me, but I'm not shocked he's talking up daytime (which he clearly was trolling and mocking during his run) considering his career is currently a burning cinder and he has been exiled to Italy making schlock a la Kevin Spacey.

I'm just sorry we couldn't help you watch it in order. That took me a few weeks to figure out and do properly. The numbering rights itself after Halloween.

Lesli Kay did a fine job as NuLois IMO and had chemistry with Wally Kurth, etc. As someone who had very minimal tolerance for Molly on ATWT she really surprised me. But GH at that time had no interest in that side of the canvas whatsoever and it was all C-stories, right down to her inexplicable backburner pairing with Alcazar. To me it always screamed someone at the show or Brian Frons just wanting to grab LK because of her name value from other soaps.

I mean, to play devil's advocate Carlivati was often a stickler for obscure continuity (unless he didn't like it or had some new idea of his own, in which case he'd just do all sorts of shít). So his solution did in fact have its roots in PC's final storyline - the magic ring of wishes or whatever the hell it was lol. That was definitely what Carlivati was hinting at IMO; that all of PC had happened but Caleb's magic ring had made the world forget (I know). And Alison Barrington, her son, Rafe Kovich, Caleb, etc. all existed per GH (as did Christina), and Karen Wexler is still dead. So AFAIC PC happened, and you just explain it all away with one line about idk, 'those strange times, sometimes I forget they ever even happened' or Kevin saying 'Livvie and I haven't spoken in 20 years' or something lol.

Thanks so much. You always have lovely thoughts. I think the hope under this regime re: DV and Scott must have been that DV would be some ready-made long-running villain, hence the blood ties and Kin Shriner spending months scowling and growling "Bordisso!" everyday, but I never was interested in him and he flopped just like Rex Stanton. I can't remember how or when they got rid of DV. I have always wanted to see Rachel Locke return to wreak havoc on GH. I'd still want GH to make use of some of these other characters (like Christina and Serena, or perhaps a child of Livvie's) someday, while deftly sidestepping the continuity issues involved later in PC's run. The ambitious but dismal 2013 attempt at such on GH was largely handwaved as being the result of a magic spell anyway.

That remains my suspicion. AFAIK he's never shown anything before 2012, and usually not before 2015.

I was just wondering this. I always perhaps foolishly thought it was FV's ego lol but maybe there are far more practical reasons, who knows. He had no issue with them showing classic OLTL eps from the 90s in 2011, but that was 'his' baby where he worked his way up for decades. Maybe it is some other budget thing now, but I wonder why. I deeply appreciate when CBS still shows legit classics, like they have with Y&R or in the past with ATWT and GL. I would kill for GH to do it again.

I had forgotten Michael J. Anderson from Twin Peaks was on the show lol. Thank you @dc11786 . I hated the DV story with all the psychic spy nonsense, but I'm always for seeing Anderson back then and it's not like that kind of stuff wasn't a part of the GH fabric. It just felt so silly and poorly done on PC, which had been a more grounded show (until what's still to come). I remember they dug up one of Meg Bentley's 1960s suitors during the DV story - he actually showed up onscreen to talk to Scott about DV and Meg's affair. I think it was the same actor. I was shocked. My apologies if you discussed this (I'm pretty sure we have before lol). I've seen that episode recently, but I have always wanted to see more of that material even as I hate the DV story, simply to see how they characterized the long-forgotten Meg as a person 30+ years later. But the edits online are impossible to wade through for that. I might watch some of it again to see more of Gail and Lee, who I have come to appreciate much more than I did as a kid while watching classic '70s, early '90s stuff etc lately. When I first started watching ABC I didn't really get that history, in part because Scott left GH almost as soon as I started watching and when he came onto PC I saw him as a (hot) interloper for Kevin and Lucy.

There were a lot of layers with Sloan, who was originally intended to be a finite romantic spoiler which would ultimately lead back to a Clint/Viki reunion down the road. BTS issues (mostly Clint Ritchie's horrible tractor accident in 1993) delayed this and made the story run longer and end differently. I do think Sloan was a good if complex man who loved Viki, and I liked him BITD as a viewer (in part because I was so familiar with Roy Thinnes). My opinion as an adult remains out with the jury as I see the material from the start. But what is fascinating upon review of the later years as the Victor saga escalated is how they very, very deliberately paralleled Sloan and Victor Lord even before his exit, in dreams, visions, etc. In addition to his arrival in town and fascination with the 'Great Man' directly leading into what became maybe the most famous story in the show's history, after the Todd Manning rape trial or Karen Wolek. These kind of parallels happen with men and women in real life, these Oedipal or other darker connections, but you rarely see them explicitly play out in soap opera in the text. Other than maybe Another World, with Mac Cory and Iris (20 years before this, in a much more experimental time). Juxtaposing Sloan and Victor was a very difficult needle for the writing to thread, but they did with a lot of nuance. I remember some scenes near the conclusion of the story in '95 or '96 where Viki, made whole again, comes to terms with how similar Sloan was to her father. I'll have to dig them up again. They were well done and respectful, but it is just somewhere most soaps would never, ever dare go with a 'good' character.

They seem like lovely people whatever we think of their characters.

I'll always appreciate what Gless did with the thankless recast of Ellen Burstyn's character in the underrated, shockingly good if short-lived Exorcist TV series on Fox, which followed on from the original film. She memorably inhabited an immortal role for a short guest run.

Legit annoyed I can't find the Thanksgiving classic eps on Paramount Plus. They put the classics up in 2020 during those rerun months.

That would've been a lot of fun.