Vee

I think Anderson is a complicated figure, but this is easily among his worst moments coming out trying to put a figleaf on the network's shame.

God, how sanctimonious. They must be really nervous.

I didn't mind that because it wasn't mentioned nonstop like it was supposed to be hysterical. But we're wildly OT and that's my fault as always.

Oh God, I was just thinking about this last night. He made it up out of whole cloth and then it was in every fùcking script. Heather literally painted Kelly's BLTs during her whole art fraud scheme with Franco! Same as when there were a few too many stupid quips by online fans about Joss wearing that goddamn corn costume one year. All of a sudden there were 20 corn jokes in the scripts for months to come. People still call her "Joss of the Corn" like it's still funny!

Ron's idea of characterization for Paulina began and ended at 'what if we could get Jackee? I loved 227!' That's why she's not doing more.

They've been there for awhile. That's why Biden won, and why we narrowly kept the Senate. That is going to keep working for us as long as this sick lunatic is alive and bringing the GOP rank and file into lock-step with him. He's awful, but he is also the gift that keeps on giving for us with a huge swath of otherwise uncurious but disgusted voters.

Thanks, this is helpful. I always get Tex Elman, the Hollands, etc. mixed up. I know there was some sort of weird psycho identical twin romance story with Jeff before Monty arrived, and of course the disaster (tornado?) that killed Diana's biological child. IIRC that was the first attempt at a revamp?

So much for the smash success.

After the wonderful very early clips of Jackie in the memorial thread I was doing some digging and I was surprised to realize Stuart Damon apparently debuted as Alan in as early as summer or early fall of '77, depending on what source you believe. I was under the impression Monty and Marland (whether their names were officially on or off the show) didn't get going until late in the year, but I also had thought the Qs had come in entirely with Marland. Was Alan introduced as a simple romantic spoiler for Monica/Rick/Lesley ahead of Monty and Marland?

Nina and Ava can scheme to cover Willow's tracks together! Or idk, get rid of one of her doctors lol. Frame T.J.!

I think part of it is down to the taping schedule now. IIRC John Ingle appeared a fair bit early in 2012 and throughout 2011, but they were still several months ahead at that time. And I don't think Edward had appeared in quite awhile after he got sicker. Then FV did what he did for John as he neared the end during the water crisis storyline that fall, in September '12 - something I will always be grateful to Frank for, and one of the classiest moves any EP's ever done at this or any soap. IIRC John was dead three weeks later. It's different with Jackie, who was literally on like, the other day. She's still used fairly regularly, not as much as Kristina or John J. York or Kin or Lynn Herring, but she's around. I have to stop myself using present tense. I would bring back Sarah full-time tomorrow if it was up to me - it would likely piss a lot of people off at the show and online, it probably couldn't greenlit, but I don't care. Laura is fine, Tamara is fine but there's only one. There's a reason the scenes from her era (or Tamara's) still keep coming up on social media like it was yesterday. There is not nearly as much of a sense of distance from those scenes or stories or that iteration of the character than you usually see with a long-ago performer IMO, because the material and performances were visceral, literate and modern in a way very little on daytime is today.

And it's ironic, of course, since Nina came on this show completely batshit. You can tell there's some closet bitch hiding behind Willow's eyes. I think KM could play some of that, particularly if she is positioned as the real terror while CW's Nina frantically tries to cover for/enable her. Once she is gone Nina can go full throttle again herself.

Sarah is talking to anyone and everyone about Jackie today on her Twitter feed. It's very sweet.

I remember this. I thought this stuff was hysterical with how Bobbie cannot contain her gleeful laughter at this guy leaving town. The tiny silver lining of this sad tragedy is it's gotten me fully revisiting 1996 especially for the first time in many years, as well as some of later '94/'95 I hadn't refreshed myself on, and so much of it is still so very good. I agree with you about Brad Maule - while he did return for Lucas a few years ago and did a great guest spot, I would love to see them find a way to use him here that isn't too much of a repeat. So much of his incredible and underrated work in the '90s was the heart of some of Jackie's best years too. And yes, I know Laura has been here almost twenty years and has done a fine job but they have to bring Sarah in somehow. She can play Carly in a scene like she did in 2014 or she can do a cameo like Yvette Nicole Brown's role for Sonya, I don't care. If anyone can recommend a good ep on YT from the D.L. Brock or Jake Meyer eras I'm all eyes/ears.

She'll be fine. This is Licht's takeaway despite protest from staff (who I agree with Carl should all know better):

It held mine too! It got me back to the show. I would simply argue early Carlivati was far better, lol.

I really liked Bobbie with Julian Stone's Jerry at the time, though that was apparently a hire Guza hated. I was happy with them together, but I also haven't seen much of that romance in decades lol. But I never got over them dumping Stefan and Bobbie.

Per the IG above, the clip shown of Jackie with Kin is one I've never seen and is absolutely incredible. The entire gala shown there (with many vintage clips from many shows) is on YT in high quality, but I hesitate to link to it as it is a recent upload and I don't want someone getting copyright struck - follow the TV show's name and you'll find it.

I've been slowly poring over this very early stuff but I'd never seen this, thank you so much.

To me the scene I posted a little earlier with her confronting Luke, while very dark, is some of her (and Tony's) best work and why I've always said that in those years you could've put the show on at night without it doing any brand damage to the primetime line-up. For me, anyway, it was often that good.

I think it was just meant to be the show showing solidarity with Jackie, who they probably knew was fighting cancer. But the show itself seems shocked by her passing. I have seen the 1994 saga with Bobbie's family so many times so I have definitely dug back into some '96 and '98 episodes with her and Sarah Brown, Brad Maule, etc. in addition to my late '70s/early '80s binge - I haven't seen most of the Bobbie/Tony/Carly story in decades. I may have to find the great episode in that flashback, where Bobbie counsels Liz after her rape.

I don't think we can quite reduce L&L to that, they were gigantic at the time. I think a more accurate summation would be that the media now (and perhaps then) considers the rest of the show a footnote, whereas in reality L&L was the crown jewel amongst a host of very strong stories and characters. There is a reason the silly General Hospital pop song features all those storylines too.

I didn't see this one:

Me too. That's been on my radar for a long time and I don't think it's incidental that Leslie (who was supposed to be back on her feet and onscreen this time last year) only contributed her voice to Sonya Eddy's tribute. Denise Alexander, Leslie, the Heathers (Mary O'Brien) and Chris Robinson, later Stuart Damon, etc. don't get enough credit either IMO. Or giving the show a stronger elder support system by zeroing in on Scott's family with Lee and the recently-added Gail, though that began before Monty and Marland (they ramped up that whole end of the canvas). Tony (allegedly) saved her job in that period, because Jill supposedly wanted to ship Bobbie off to Ferncliff after going psycho over Melissa Bedford, as Jensen Buchanan was supposed to be the new star. We know how that went. I'd been expecting him to appear this year anyway but I will be shocked if he doesn't for this.