Vee

I think his intro was very strong for that, and perfectly timed: A.J. turned up alive within a day or two of Jason's death in 2012. It was very deliberate and smart. He was great with Chad, with Jane, with a lot of people and had scorching chemistry with Laura Wright. They allowed the character to be sympathetic and rootable, redeemed. Brenda welcomed him back to town with open arms, and later Robin did the same. But they soured on him fast and then it became Ron writing in jokes about A.J. was fat for a year til he died. I loved BW in his day but for me it is Kanan now, period. I'd still have him back.

I just tired of the gray paint and monochrome look from a lot of Frank's earlier redesigns. He's eased up a bit on that in recent years except now there's too much deep blacks or blues and the white from HGTV lol. YMMV! He has improved the Metro Court and I love Portia's house (I don't acknowledge Curtis), and the Savoy is nice.

I always thought Billy was great, but when Sean Kanan came back he owned the part again in a very different way.

I did not know Wildwind was on the show. That's, uh, wild. It is funny as hell to me that Sonny's once-majestic penthouse set is now a fraction of the size of Laura's penthouse and pretty tiny. It's just a couch, some busts and no other room, AFAIK.

Another moment we'll never recover from.

No, I'm referring to the one he just showed lol. It had the checkerboard foyer next to that living room and I believe it was more yellow and bright at one point, which I liked. This is the one, yes. It's not as bright as I remember the color scheme getting in this shot. I see on the Wiki that this shot is after Frank 'touched it up.' The glory days:

Portia and Curtis' home is great, which is why as I've said before Curtis should not live there lol. My recent favorite set that is long gone was Jax and Carly's colorful home with the kids, with the checkerboard foyer from around 2008 or 2009 - whenever Michael came out of the coma. Exactly. I don't want both the Q mansion and Sonny's kitchen looking like an identical furniture showroom for upper middle class yuppies. I know the Quartermaine parlor/living area when I see it after decades, so I am glad to see it back in some fashion. Frank caught a bit of the JFP bug on this issue - she mangled the Y&R ranch, IIRC. Say what you will about AMC and OLTL 2.0 with the smaller dimensions and the doors that opened the wrong way lol, but they did their damndest to replicate the original locations (with some somewhat smaller) while updating the looks on locations like La Boulaie, and they accomplished that. They didn't throw it all out to make it look like Bed Bath and Beyond, which is what a lot of the Q house currently looks like.

No, Clint Ritchie got in a tractor accident on his ranch mid-story. Clint was supposed to be the ultimate victor in the Clint/Viki/Sloan triangle, but his accident meant Clint was out of the picture a lot. Sloan's originally planned demise got pushed back considerably as a result, and by the time it was done Clint was simply not a huge priority for the show (or for Erika Slezak, who was fed up with Ritchie's alcoholism). Clint hung around until the end of '98 and did have story with Carlotta and a potential reunion with Viki under Labine, but it was never the same. I thought JVD's Clint was very different from Ritchie's but also excellent. There was an edge and a razor-sharp intellect to his clashes with Viki that made them unique equals as well as at times rivals. Especially on the online show, they sold their pairing together based on that crackling edge. It was different than CR's more soulful Clint but it was still real, and you could buy it IMO based on Clint's need to take up the mantle of his father and his own issues re: their original divorce. I loved Viki and Charlie, but Charlie was also a very soulful guy. With JVD's Clint when they finally got back together, Viki had not had a man meeting her reporter's mind at that level in a long time.

The problem is that both those homes now look exactly like an HGTV show. They also look too close in identity. Sonny's overcompensating mansion (Greystone) should not have the same kind of off-brand Nancy Meyers look as the poorly-chosen Q remodel IMO. I'm very glad we're at least seeing the parlor/drawing room again with the wood. That set and its color scheme are a constant for me through the years.

Not much that I can recall. IIRC Frankie and Mia had a child together off-canvas who they gave up for adoption. The whole thing with him abandoning filmmaking because he'd filmed the overdose of Simone's brother for a documentary was silly. I think they may have mentioned Mia or the baby when CS' Frankie came on, but nothing else.

Yeah, the whole Frankie thing was odd. He was introduced as a dude living in the woods under an alias, IIRC. But it wasn't that long before Debbi and Darnell returned, AFAIK - maybe a few weeks - so I can't imagine they didn't already have the Angie/Jesse plans in the offing when he was first hired. So I don't think it was a rewrite so much as a very weird introduction.

I was just telling Darn I have never understood how Gabi has survived. Camila Banus bounced from a bland teen role gone bad on OLTL (Lola Montez) to playing Gabi who followed essentially the same personality and trajectory on DAYS, at least in her early run. She seemed to become a Dena Higley passion project, somehow - I could swear it was Dena who inexplicably got Gabi out of prison to great fanfare in the story, like this was some major character we were supposed to be super amped up about re: their return. I didn't get it. I still don't get it.

I remember Spinelli's debut. I thought he was pretty cute in an unconventional way back then and hoped he might live and hang around, and was pleased when he did. His schtick got old fast. Evangeline on OLTL was on contract almost immediately, IIRC. I think she stayed on recurring only maybe a month or two. I remember being very pleased Malone had returned and hired a new Black woman and was very excited about the character, but she didn't get much to do for the first year. What happened later is she took off being paired with ME because the intended romantic spoiler for him and Melissa Archer couldn't act, so they killed that performer (Kathy Tong) off and slotted in REG.

They mean the HBO audience.

Allegedly, it was a push from up top (Zaslav) to try to blur the lines on content.

Written by David Bowie.

Both absolutely essential legends.

Tina and Kenneth Anger?! Come on.

You're right, I do remember that parlor set. Nonetheless it's the one I most associate with the Qs as a living room space from BITD. I didn't love the version from the FV years but it's something. And no, I was thinking of this set, which I hate (though I don't love the solarium either), too much white:

Have they? Because the all-white drawing/living room set a week or two ago looked completely different, unless it's supposed to be a different set or room. It was the only one we'd seen regularly in years, whereas this new iteration looks much closer to the drawing room that was present up til the mid-2010s to me.

You don't. The first episode with Ncuti Gatwa solo (though he is likely in the anniversary specials with Tennant) is the Christmas or NYE 2023 special. They are also filming Series 14 now. It is likely to run early next year if not immediately after the holiday special.