Vee

Season 5, Episode 11 (I'll Tell You No Lies): Abby: There's nothing quite like getting what you want, except maybe getting more of what you want. Here we are. I'm sure most of you know what time this episode is, and I do too but it was no less satisfying. As Kate Bush once said, 'it's in the trees! it's coming!' Yes, Chip/Tony (who I now choose to occasionally refer to as 'Chony' as he's just about worn out his nefarious welcome) is now hiding in the frickin' trees at Westfork while Diana whines on and on to any overworked police offer within minimum aural range. She also gets a well-deserved jolt when she finally meets Cathy Geary, and her discomfort mixed with what seems like spellbound fascination is really spooky. Diana is also rude as fùck to poor Cathy - she seems to get off on telling her Chip killed Ciji somehow, which is just gross. Talk about a sociopathic teenager. I don't know if that's what Claudia Lonow intended to play or the writing called for, but it's what she's often playing. This episode, I believe, gives us the proper mention of the Wolfbridge Group as Mack interrogates the lawyer he sprung from prison for deets on his next targets, the men of power he alluded to with Ben and Karen last time. He doesn't get much out of him though while Karen drifts in and out on her growing pill haze, and there's a nice rhythm to the sequence as Mack's ranting grows more frustrated and ineffectual, realizing he can't penetrate his stool pigeon's fear or his wife's rising mental fog. Is that some new flashy art deco painting on the dining room wall? I don't remember seeing it before and it seems more Mack's upwardly mobile East Coast taste than the homey quasi-hippie furnishings Karen and Sid had for years. Nice touch. I will never get over seeing what appears to be Century City as Mack and Greg's headquarters. Greg is clearly lying to Mack about why he's receiving his commission reports. When she's mostly coherent, Karen is sliding herself into the mother role for Mary Frances Sumner far too easily. It is nice to see her back to doing middle-class domestic tasks in the driveway, painting a chair only for her medicated distraction to cause her to sit on the wet paint without thinking while talking to Mary Frances. In the moment it comes off as a light comedy bit, it isn't played for amped-up drama or angst, but it's smartly and subtly done so that we know it's another sign of Karen losing her grip. There's even more of my favorite longtime use of the cul-de-sac/Seaview Circle (still not used to this name, which I think has only been mentioned once or twice onscreen so far) as a shared suburban arena/roundtable in this sequence as across the street, Ben and Val return home still debating Sumner's motives with Lilimae and the visiting Mary Frances chiming in on Val's front lawn. But who exactly are the random mother and child wandering the cul-de-sac in the background, lol? Did someone move into the Ward house? It's so weird to have nobody extras on the scene at this juncture in the series. But there's even more classic KL suburban social drama this week, as the MacKenzies throw a barbecue like the old times and I am just delighted with all of it. The more intellectual Ben manfully tries to keep up with Mack and Eric's inscrutable Lakers discussion, though for his part Eric mostly seems just happy to be there; the Fairgate boys have always taken so easily and eagerly to Mack for the most part, and you get it at their age and in those times. I thought Eric had a beer at first tbh. Like Lilimae I can't remember the last time most of the neighborhood got together, but it feels great and still true and not inorganic to the show as it is now (it would be weirder if Gary and Abby showed up at this point, and I'm not surprised Laura opted out). But of course Lilimae throws a shoe in things by mentioning Diana, which immediately sends Karen fleeing from the room. Speaking of Abby and Laura, back at the office they're still growing partners in crime, bonded by mutual cause and mutual distaste. Laura is clearly taunting her by refusing to leave; I can't remember if she knows about Sumner for sure, but it seems clear to me she knows (even if she only catches them in the act at the end of the episode). But Abby's striking out again this week, because California's own Greg Sumner is at the MacKenzie barbecue back in humble Seaview Circle! Lilimae and Sumner shining each other on at the front door is great; they're both charmers and cons of a certain kind, and I loved how Greg dismisses Abby to Mary Frances as 'nobody important.' Abby is simply not in his league yet, and that I think is part of both her recurring arousal and her rage. Tension starts to build as Greg meets Ben, who's been suspicious of the new Greg Sumner for some time, and with Mack who won't be snowed by some of Greg's excuses about work. Ben picks up on Mack starting to rethink things about his old friend, and it's nice to see them finding connectivity via mutual skepticism and street smarts. The larger arc of the season continues to very slowly and methodically pick up steam, whereas later primetime soaps barrel through story like hamsters on meth. A nice counterpoint to the men: Val and Karen cleaning up after the barbecue and discussing her romance with Ben. These suburban-arena character roots, behaviors, arenas and motifs were all built out of the first three seasons, which makes them so sturdy and believable now even as the show grows steadily more upwardly mobile. Speaking of the other half, the dejected Abby returns home to Westfork to her loving husband and initially seems totally over him, snapping at him about Diana. Is it really just all the chase for Abby, is that why she's seemingly increasingly over Gary? She does soften a bit when Gary forces the issue about his angst over Ciji and Cathy, and does show some caring for him. That's good to see, but I still don't fully understand where Abby is at. I don't think that's a failing of the plotting or characterization this season, I think it's simply being slowly drawn out as the show explores the depth of Abby's fascination with Greg Sumner and growing into her new self and position in life and business. There's a beautiful musical montage with some melancholy, brooding music I love as the show flows from Karen needing her pills and denying herself back to Abby and Gary in bed, with Donna Mills showing Abby is miles away behind her eyes. She wants more, but gives herself instead to her husband, tenderly and openly. She doesn't seem to be settling or resigned with him in bed, but she is making a choice to console while she remains unfulfilled. It's all the same soft musical cue and swooning physical intimacy as they go right back to Karen and her aching pain, driving her back to the pills again the middle of the night. You can see Karen's eyes and face as she realizes she's becoming reactive and dependent - there's no big beat, no fuss, just Michele Lee giving us a very quiet, internal moment that becomes brisk and softly determined as she walks away without a pill. No grand theater, just simple moves and great musical score. Ben and Val are cuddly back at hers after the barbecue, but Lilimae has no time for poor Ben and I'm not sure why. Is she making Val pay for locking her away? Or is she equating Ben, who initially hid his occupation from Val, with Chip? No comment on Abby's stereotypical Mexican housekeeper and server at Westfork! Cathy wants to talk to her but Abby shuts her down, and now seems increasingly pissed about Cathy and Gary's bond. Meanwhile, "Chony" is happily sunning himself on the property as the cops prowl the land. Chip going all Defiant Ones just cracks me up, but his vaguely messianic attitude re: the increasingly frazzled Diana is disturbing. "Nobody's gonna catch me," he assures her with that sanguine Michael Sabatino vibe. "They can't. It's my karma." I did lose it when Diana muttered that 'things are beginning to get complicated'(!!). There is a really lovely, shocking moment a bit later when we see the MacKenzies + Mary Frances playing Monopoly together as a family and the rotating camera catches Diana watching them from the bushes, weeping in the night. It's surprisingly touching, even now. Lord, now Lilimae is cleaning the whole fridge. Okay. This seems like domestic toil as penance for her sins, and the scene with Val that unfolds quickly makes it clear that Lilimae is in no way over her trauma with Chip after all. There's a wonderful grace moment as Lilimae unspools her guilt over Chip with a simple grocery anecdote, how he stole from her and she let it go. "I'm telling you a story," she tells a baffled Val sorrowfully, still grappling with her torn emotions and clearly still ill. This is fascinating stuff, and something most shows would've let go by now. Across the street, Karen in the garage with Mary Frances illuminates another character-driven storyline wrought by emotional fallout at this juncture of the show. The fact is that Karen is grooming Greg's daughter to replace her own lost child, which we sympathize with while realizing it's deeply unhealthy. Once again there are very few massive musical stings or huge physical gestures that have accompanied this build over multiple episodes, just a lot of increasingly noticeable behavior, choices and cracks in the facade. It's Mary Frances' mention of Diana that breaks Karen and drives her to succumb to the pills (where they finally bring the music up more). Again, you just would not get this or Lilimae's lasting PTSD and obsessive behavior presented in such a nuanced or subtle fashion in most primetime soaps either in the '80s or '90s. As Khan and others have said in the past, it's this kind of nuance that elevates the show to TV drama first, soap second. It is not lost on me again that this sweeping spiral staircase in Abby's office palace is most likely the same one from her old house in the cul-de-sac, because it is most likely the same set redone. This is understandable budget-wise which is surely the main reason, but also fascinating thematically just as a viewer; single mom divorcee Abby Cunningham's slowly metamorphosing cozy suburban house has transmogrified into Abby Ewing's hyper-modern dead-tech Reaganite fortress. Abby wants to move on Lotus Point now over Laura's objections and snubs Sumner's phone call. Abby doesn't like being second choice, isn't used to it, but is charmed when Greg shows up and finally gifts her her beloved variance. She believes in herself and Greg as a team - she used to talk that way about Gary. Is she already thinking of her next union? Baines' long-suffering cop partner finally catches Diana in the act as the walls close in on Chip at Westfork in the stables, where yes, he comes face to face with Cathy. Down he goes on the pitchfork Friday the 13th-style - Ciji's revenge. I knew this was coming but it's so satisfying to see. Adieu, scumbag. More soon.

Yeah, I don't put a lot of the casting since FV on Teschner frankly. But I may be way off on that. I agree Lexi was great in the early years but is messy now. Trey was played by Erik Valdez, who I believe went on to CW shows as well. He wasn't a terrible actor but he was mediocre and the character was obnoxious and pointless.

She was awful, and I said so at the time and people got so mad! I realize Lexi has not covered herself in glory since (and that the recast went on to success on a CW sci-fi show) but woof I could not take Lindsey Morgan or "Trey," Kate's worthless long-lost son whose entire persona and storyline was a very, very lazy rehash of the already bad 'reality TV hunk' story that introduced the equally pointless Ford on OLTL.

In fairness, she wasn't his recast; Garin Wolf's crew (and I think JFP) hired her about six months prior. It was Frank though who was dazzled with her Broadway creds (given how many Broadway talents he'd worked with in NY theater at OLTL) and he and Ron went whole hog with Connie. Supposedly some kind of DID or mental illness story was on the books before they arrived, but it was Frank and Ron who created Connie onscreen. I agree the Connie saga of 2012 was one of the worst and most embarrassing aspects of that year, even if a lot of other stuff they did that year helped save GH. But no, his biggest flops - the return of the OLTL 3, Franco, Silas, Fluke and Denise - IMO came later. I personally did not think Sullivan was bad as Kate initially when she first appeared. I was not a fan of recasting Megan Ward at all but I thought she did okay with straight material, before Frank and Ron fired virtually the entire longtime daily writing team.

I remember this well. I think that was deliberate on the show's part re: this specific character, and I doubt I'm alone.

It was so low-rent, the whole storyline. It was poorly-budgeted, scripted and plotted. I assume whatever Ron had intended for Luke and Laura at one point got scrapped and this is what he threw together instead, and that part is mostly his own fault. But yes, Geary was right about Frank in an iron lung or whatever. And the A.J. mess was personal pettiness IMO from Frank and Ron, with them openly mocking Sean Kanan's body in the scripts. But the Fluke/DID debacle should never have been attempted, and based on Geary's own comments I am 99% it was Ron's own spiteful rewrite. Early on in that story, Tony told press he re-signed because of a story Ron pitched him which he agreed to immediately upon hearing the pitch - he didn't say what it was at the time. Then the "Fluke" saga began. Soon TG's medical leave took over and the story got delayed and extended. But early in the Fluke story, as we've said here before, there were many, many hints that it was Bill Eckert; stuff that would only be said or done by Bill himself. Tony Geary still adores Bill Eckert. His interviews about the character, both when he played the role and when he exited the role, are rhapsodic, passionate and later embittered. There's an infamous interview he gave E!'s soap opera talk show in late '93, as Luke and Laura were returning to great fanfare - I think it's no longer on YT - where he glowers at the camera and monologues about how poorly treated and misunderstood Bill was by the audience, and how he's still angry. As many of us have said before and you have again, Geary ultimately tried to reverse-engineer Luke into a different version of Bill. The problem was, too many fans figured out that Fluke was Bill. Ron Carlivati does not like being questioned by fans and he does not like being found out. He also had at least 6-7 months to string the story along until Geary could finish it. So what did he do? He rewrote it (which TG has confirmed at least, though not as to how) to give Luke DID instead IMO, and it shows onscreen. The final story does not make sense, is very rushed in its climax, and its embarrassing finale (with TG playing the drunken Bill Spencer howling 'come join Daddy in hell, Luke!') became gold on The Soup just before Ron's firing. We don't agree about Ethan, but that's fair enough. I do think regardless of paternity they definitely intended to slot him into a "Lucky-like" role due to Parsons' chemistry with TG, and due to GV's Lucky being a staid vanilla B-lead. Once Jonathan returned though, Ethan was excess baggage.

An issue which persisted at GL - when I first began looking at that show, everything was lit up like floodlamps and half the cast were Rauch's favored peroxide blondes. It was blindingly tacky and I couldn't look directly at the TV. That and the shrill characters and chintzy stories (San Cristobel, the clone) kept me away from GL for years until I got my first taste of Beverlee McKinsey on WOST.

I think some things were Frank's preference or pressure from within (like from Tony Geary or even occasionally ABC re: Sonny and the mob), but I think Ron mostly dug his own grave. I think the fatal moment was 2013 and the OLTL 3 coming back which really started a slide from their prior rise to glory (after a year full of ugly storylines and bad mistakes as well as good things), but there's a lot of lowlights.

How long have you got?

I think if it had been up to the show, both in 2010-2011 or 2012, Luke would have stopped drinking. But TG had an incredible amount of power to wield at GH because of who he was, so you got a half-assed cartoon intervention where Luke keeps drinking and Tony is still allowed to give ridiculous interviews to Michael Logan or whoever insisting that Luke is not an alcoholic, he can handle his drinking even when he gets drunk and kills people. That was such nonsense he spouted, and he used to be so insightful in his interviews re: Luke's psyche and backstory (the Bill Eckert-era interviews are a journey too, let me tell you). Even his exit interview, while self-serving, had a lot of insight. It was very clearly Ron Carlivati's intent from Day 1 to reunite Luke and Laura. That was the holy grail. He canonizes it by having Starr Manning and Cole from OLTL drive into town raving about the legend of Luke and Laura, IIRC. But he never got to do it, and ultimately that clash and other big mistakes on his part are likely a part of what cost him his job.

I think a lot of the early Todd rehabilitation story worked, particularly the stuff with Rebecca who I adored, and the early romance with Blair. But I also understood what made Howarth leave the first time, the valorization of him as a fantasy dark prince with money. While Roger came back willing to act in 2011 and did a good job then and in 2013, I don't think most of the rest of his time at OLTL was ever the same. Howarth makes it very clear in a recent podcast interview he did with a major media outlet - I think it was Slate Magazine, which talked to him and Susan and Michael Malone, among others - that he was more than happy to leave in 2003 because he 'never felt right' taking the money as Todd in those years; he said he spent it as quickly as he possibly could. It seems like even playing a miscast role on ATWT as a standard male lead was a relief for him from the burden of the rapist. Of course, he's now spent years playing a serial killer so go figure. His attitude has mellowed over time, he made that very clear too (and began doing much more press). I don't regret Roger Howarth starring on the show, and I loved a lot of Todd stories over the years. At the same time I don't think you can ever fully get away from the shadow of sexual violence cast over the show from several stories, not just his, and I don't think there is any need to ever make rapist twins leads on a soap again.

Zero. I suspect the show intended for it to be Robert until TG stepped in, enamored of Nathan Parsons in a way that definitely was not at all creepy onscreen. I suspect Tony did it twice, too - Ron Carlivati seemed revved up to finally reveal Ethan was Robert's on NP's way out the door early in '12 when Tristan Rogers first returned, only for the show to swiftly reset back to TG's preference. (Ron had also tried to handle and do away with Luke's alcoholism, until Tony began improvising drinking at the Q mansion and they just gave up.) I don't think the timeline from the occasional '80s mentions of L&L can necessarily be relied upon based on what we now know of Luke and Laura's family life from the copious mentions of backstory since they all came back. I just assumed they were back on the run sometime from the mid-late '80s onward, and led to many overseas capers, some of them together, some of them separated (hence Luke's quietly tolerated dalliances with Holly and allegedly other women, if you listen to Tony Geary which I don't much).

Episode 10 (Homecoming): John Pleshette directs! Always nice to have him back. A lot of the focus this ep is on Sumner and Mary Frances and the interplay between them, as he flakes on her for a lunch date and then they each catch each other with their respective new partners - she knows he is fùcking Abby and not her absent mother. Danielle Brisebois is great with the Fairgate household and Eric, who eagerly hopes to slot himself into her 'past, present and future'. Steve Shaw has great comic timing with her and they really are sweet, and have chemistry bantering and making out. In the scene near the end of the ep where she's in his bedroom wearing just a t-shirt, I admit I wondered if something had already gone down. He seemed fully dressed though, and I have my doubts Eric has popped his cherry yet. There's an interesting moment early in this ep with Gary in his element at Westfork, riding on his steed with Cathy to triumphal music while Diana is the odd artist out. Cathy takes his offer to work on the ranch and then discovers Ciji's album cover, but still is willing to go out on the town with Gary and adorn herself with all-new clothes and hair, including a very Ciji-adjacent red spangled dress. "My wife's at the office," Gary drolly explains at what is presumably a Beverly Hills boutique. "She works, I shop. It's a very modern relationship." Gary is very clearly doing Cathy up a la Hitchcock's Vertigo, which I understand was the original intent for this storyline - supposedly they'd planned something where Cathy was going to gaslight or torment Gary, but I don't know the details at all of this supposed early concept. Nonetheless, Cathy here seems to be more the ingenue, lost in a whole new world and fascinated by the spectre of Ciji amidst Gary's psychosexual obsession, with Ciji seemingly more confident and capable than her. Seeing her lipsyncing to Ciji's greatest hits in her clothes practically makes Gary nut. Ciji's song hits Laura even from outside Westfork as she approaches the main house, and there's some interesting jump-cutting here to Ciji herself as both Gary and Laura look on at Cathy. They're both stunned and both clearly still smitten, on one level or another (even if I believe Ciji and Laura's relationship was at least physically platonic). Gary tells the outraged Laura that they both loved her and he's right; Ciji and that torch is something they share. I think Gary believes what he tells Laura about having pure motives, and being driven by his guilt over what happened. But that's not all of it, and you can see it in his eyes every time he watches Cathy invoke Ciji in some way. Cathy and Laura together is more pointed and accusatory, but Cathy's candid admission that she'd let Gary do whatever he wanted for what he's giving her was refreshing and not cynical. She seems, at least, very earnest. At the other end of the Ewing household, Laura is now openly fùcking with Abby about Lotus Point and Apolune, her shell company. As she coolly lays out what all her other neighbors and friends and ex-friends have gained over the last couple years (new life, wealth, love) vs. what she has - an empty home, a husband who walked out, a small child - she simply states she wants more and is willing to break or bend old rules to get it. If that means Karen (who was not exactly a pillar of support over Richard, but I don't think that's all her fault) gets the rock, so be it. Pleshette seems keen to focus in on Constance McCashin as much as possible in this episode, and there's a lot of slow zooms in on her as she tells us where she's at on her terms, both her inner and outer life. Gary and Cathy's softcore '80s workouts are too much, and clearly Abby agrees - the framing of the shots as she walks in on Cathy once again pumping iron makes it look like Abby found them mid-coitus. The look she gives Gary is beyond astonishment as she tries to process the doppelganger in their home, but she takes It remarkably in stride the next day, tolerating Gary's confused honesty about his motives, presumably because she's enjoying fùcking Greg Sumner too much. Until Eric and Mary Frances crash her party at the office, that is. Lilimae seemed a little too restrained in and out of the institution as Val finally sprung her. That seems a little too pat for me, I'm not sure where this is going. Meanwhile, Greg's secret parking lot meeting with his mysterious political benefactors is shot and played just like Alan Pakula's classic '70s conspiracy thrillers, a la The Parallax View, All the President's Men, etc. Presumably the "they" being alluded to here is the dreaded Wolfbridge Group or whatever, which both Ben and Mack later seem to allude to at dinner and after as Mack admits to Karen Ben is onto something - he's after some sort of circle of white-collar criminals (operating out of Century City! perish the thought). Again, this raises the question of when and how did they know Devane was staying, because here Greg is very clearly in bed with some murky-seeming people and drawing other characters into it as well. I did like that Mack was classy and genial enough to wipe the slate with Ben and apologize after snapping at him at dinner. He knows Ben is on the right track, but wants to do things his way. Karen couldn't give two [!@#$%^&*] about any of this though, she's still fixated on Mary Frances as a Diana substitute and too dosed on her new happy pills for sex; there's a nice pan to her pill bottle on the nightstand as she dozes off in front of a frustrated Mack. The only thing that cracks Karen's new calm is a painful lunchtime scene with Lilimae and Val. Now that she's out of the cracker barrel Lilimae's instantly gossiping and prodding people again, and that means pill time for Karen! Poor thing. Ben and Val arguing about Mack and making up was sweet. They're already very cozy together but she's not ready for him to stay over. I guess she'll just keep nailing him at his amazing house. Of course Diana is hiding Chip in the stables. What a slug.

Episode 9 (Money Talks): Abby: And what makes you happy? Laura: Money. Still no Lisa Hartman in the opening credits - still wondering when she's added as a contract player. The police are patrolling Westfork searching for Chip/Tony while Diana whines, discovering her own self-obsessed ACAB spirit decades early. Abby, meanwhile, has one of her surprise maternal wisdom moments as she tells Diana she can’t run away from her problems to the ranch or replace Karen with her aunt, and that Chip is running from what he did instead. She's wrong about blaming Karen for Diana's estrangement, but that's Abby's resentments for you. She is still seeking a Dallas-style 'variance' to be able to work on the mysterious Lotus Point property, which makes me think Abby has been watching the same recent repetitive season of the mother show that I casually have on FreeVee where they absolutely could not stop talking about (as always) J.R. and his oil 'variance'. I didn't realize Karen is now working both in Sumner’s campaign office and out of the house for him, but that's typical Karen. The plot point about Mack's formerly jailed colleague who he is springing gets an unusual amount of play in this episode, and we discover later it's connected to his ongoing investigation as a prosecutor-investigator. More on that later on. There's some nice slasher movie camerawork as Cathy creeps up right behind Laura at the ranch to talk to Gary, leaving her gobsmacked, but the real meeting between these two is again, a bit down the road. I was amused at first when Laura suggested a shell company to Gary to stable some of his interests, same as the one Abby's hiding from him, but I should've known - in short order we learn Laura sees right through Abby’s existing scheme, calling her on her dummy corporation and her gambit to cut Karen out of Lotus Point. It seems Laura is willing to hide LP from Karen for a cut though, which did surprise me, but their relationship has unfortunately been degrading for awhile and they were never necessarily on the same emotional wavelength consistently. I suppose Laura feels abandoned by Karen over Richard whereas Laura never abandoned her after Sid. She's still clearly wrestling with her conscience re: hiding Abby's machinations from Gary, so it's interesting to see Laura - the rising liberated reformed housewife of the '80s - continue to evolve personally and professionally, and morally. Her blunt line to Abby up top in this post says a lot about where she is trying to protect herself and her emotions after Richard and Ciji. Her success is her armor, but that's the Me Decade for you. Val and Karen hit the beach again this episode, but Karen's clearly avoiding her pain over Diana when Val tries to reach out a hand, instead opting to nudge Val along re: Ben and Lilimae. Karen urges Val to go for it with Ben, which leads to some sweet silent moments at Ben’s beachhouse and then a tentative dinner, and more come here/go away between the two. This relationship has been reset a bit following the swooning passion and searing chemistry of the Gary/Val near-reunion of several recent eps, but I do like Ben and I'm curious to see how things build. Sumner and Abby continue to spar this episode; she can't put a thing past him and that both infuriates and arouses her. They absolutely crackle together, so it makes me wonder when and how this pairing went south. Greg: If you're gonna hang around you're gonna have to learn to understand politics. Abby: I understand money. Greg: They're not the same thing. Abby: Since when? Abby is apparently ready to fùck Sumner immediately after marrying the man of her dreams, which startles and surprises me. Why now? Is she so secure in her new life that she now feels she can make special exceptions? Giddy enough to sing in the shower about it, because he's another powerful step up the ladder? For his part, Sumner brushes Abby right out of his limo when he feels she's being too demanding of his time, all while hilariously using his electric razor as he leaves her on the side of the road to gather up her ego. The key to Abby still working is that they can always puncture her like this, and preserve her humanity with comedy and vulnerability, both her failings and her family connections (like Diana). Danielle Brisebois from Archie Bunker's Place is unexpectedly here, as Sumner’s daughter! I knew the character existed but wasn't expecting to see her any time soon. Jilted at the train station or wherever, Mary Frances Sumner turns up with a great opening speech roasting her gladhanding father. I know Mary Frances reappears years later but she's a hoot here, cute and fun and does have a sweet chemistry with Steve Shaw as Eric, who I'm excited to see getting what appears to be an actual story as I've always liked Eric. This is something they should continue to cultivate re: shoring up a younger generation, though I'm aware KL has many fits and starts in this area over the coming years. LOL at Eric showing up at the breakfast table looking like it's school picture day as a young yuppie to try to impress the girl. Sleepless nights for Abby and Ben (and Mack, Sumner and Karen) lead to resolution for at least one party, as Val returns to the beach house late in the night to consummate things with Ben. The scene is steamy between JVA and Doug Sheehan, and seems to deliberately crank up the carnal sensuality (including cozy beach afterglow later) in a way we've rarely gotten to see with Val before while also being deeply sweet and affectionate. Perhaps showing Val can play the same games as Gary and Abby. Abby takes her petulance over her affair with Sumner out on her husband, fed up with the easygoing cowboy mogul. She's grasping further and she's discontent when Gary finally is - because Sumner dismisses her? Because she can't control him like other men? Greg remains something of a question mark for me, as his role so far seems designed to be a destabilizing power who comes in and shakes up the paradigm of the show and character relationships while remaining somewhat mysterious and set apart. Again, I know they didn't know at first how long Devane would be around or if it was long-term, so it makes me wonder just when they knew for sure and began writing to that end, because right now his role is still intriguingly controlled. Abby crystallizes her ethos to Sumner at the end, touting her embrace of a strings-free affair of rising entrepreneurs with a famous line: "If I ever have to make a choice between love and money, money's gonna win every time." I believe her, though I still wonder where Gary fits in in her mind now. And Abby finally gets the in she wants at Lotus Point with the variance; eat your heart out, J.R.

I have been rewatching some eps from '92 and '93 tonight (including the Spring Fling) as I assembled my thoughts, so here's a few no one needed: Michael Malone was far from flawless. His AW stint is infamous and seems to have contained mostly recycled material and characters from his mythical 13 Bourbon Street pilot as well as some of OLTL (Cindy on AW in particular seems to have been a melange of Alex and Tina's 1992 storylines). I've roasted the insanity of his second OLTL stint many times, too; it went from dream to disaster very quickly and was one of the most deranged things I've ever watched short of Jim Reilly. But it was never not gonzo and entertaining, and even then there was always some smidge of poetry and soul, however misguided, to his most ill-advised work; you could always see the personal fascinations peeking through, the private obsessions and character work Malone valued, even if it was about stuff you found silly or stupid. I remember how even in 2004 he loved to stop the story flow for single episodes where random people would reconnect and talk over their problems, like when Kevin Buchanan and Jen Rappaport would sit down at Ultra Violet, get boozed up and hash out their differences over his little brother Joey, who they had both cuckolded and run out of town at different times, and discuss how Jen was ultimately a substitute for Kelly, the teenage sweetheart Kevin had taken from his brother. I remember being stunned they got that onscreen in such a plot-driven show. This is essential character stuff, beats we rarely got to see played out on bad soaps in '04 let alone today, and he and his team made the time for it even when most of the show was in the toilet (and Joey had not been onscreen for months). Darn told me (and he's right) that Malone's work defined the last 20 years of OLTL and they never stopped chasing the critical high of the Spring Fling and the DID saga after he was gone. I think that's correct, but the difference is Malone, flaws and all (and his murky fetishization of Todd and Marty aside), usually wanted to turn the page from a lot of that, whereas most of his successors did not. I think the Victor Lord/DID retcon still holds up, though I understand some people's issues with it. I think it's one of the greatest stories they ever told. I think the Dorian twist - that she didn't kill Victor, and had spent twenty years taking the scorn and hatred of the entire town to protect the woman who hated her as easily as breathing - was absolutely brilliant, even if Robin Strasser never liked it. And the Billy Douglas story and climax is still absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. I have never connected to a soap heroine more than Susan Haskell as Marty and I never will, probably because as a troubled kid I identified with her a little too much. In those days, alongside Nora, Marty was my absolute favorite, because even when she became a full-fledged heroine she always had that fire. I didn't know they let people who behaved like her or seemed as wounded as her (even before the rape) on TV, let alone on daytime television. And the fact that Bob Krimmer's Andrew, the soulful bird watcher and monastic dreamer, was seemingly Malone's onscreen avatar was so telling. His forbidden passion for two women he couldn't have - first Megan, then Marty - hits much differently to me as an adult than as a kid drawn to more outwardly flashy male characters. There's so much more to talk about, of course, like the incessant fascination with avant-garde fantasy episodes that sometimes worked and sometimes flopped in Malone's heyday, and the ones that completely tanked on a much lower budget in 2003-2004. (I'm of the opinion that the Midsummer Night's Dream epilogue to Jake and Megan's story in '92 does mostly work and was incredibly bold, but uh, don't ask me about that whole thing with Luna and Tina going into her past lives or Luna's ghost husband.) The Antonio of it all in the 2000s and the Santis. And can you completely divorce the artistry of 1993-1995's storylines from the fact that the show's leads ultimately were two rapist twin brothers woven out of Malone's work decades later? Maybe not, but I still loved those stories and even the early years of Todd's metamorphosis even if I think today he is a relic who should mostly be put away. And the hard-to-find stuff in '92 sometimes fascinates me most of all, when they were still finding their way - there has never been an Asian-American lead on a soap opera who dominated the way Mia Korf's Blair did that year since, ever. So much of how people view OLTL today, as a multicultural, socially relevant, dynamic and fiery soap, with its finger on the pulse of ugly issues other shows would shy away from, a show that is still relevant and could still be revived, is because of Michael Malone, Linda Gottlieb and their crew. If any soap is relevant to these times it's OLTL. I don't think it'll be back, but the reason it still doesn't feel dead to me is in large part thanks to a man whose work will never die. You can say whatever you want about his work onscreen, but it never settled and never went quietly. RIP. (I do hope someone finally unearths the Bourbon Street pilot now.)

Oh, I didn't even see this. Thanks for this. How classy of Russell to dig up his old script for her and a period that was so up and down.

I could not tolerate Ally McBeal after some time in the late second season and I suspect I'd have even less patience for it today, but I took note of this simply because of the mention of Lisa Nicole Carson and her character who sadly was phased out after her illness. I have no need for this show whatsoever, but I do like Calista Flockhart still.

Yeah, don't quote me but IIRC they were living happily for a time in the '80s and then had to start running and traversing the globe because Frank Smith's people set after them again, which led to many offscreen capers (including Luke's alleged renewed fling with Holly). I believe that was the only life Lucky had known until they attempted to settle at the diner in Canada(?), which also didn't last. Luke has always had plenty of secret cash, but for years much of it was used to keep them running.

I don't know what to begin to say. RIP.

Oh God. I'm on the go but I'll get on this in a bit. I don't know what to say. His and Linda Gottlieb's original run on OLTL is the single biggest reason I am a soap fan today.

Fun fact of the day: Gregg Marx was on the shortlist to play Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Yeah, I remember Luke selling off pieces of the Ice Princess. That kept them flush, IIRC.

A heavily revamped (and well-promoted) Days could thrive on streaming, like many legacy soaps. But not without major changes to cast, crew and production structure, and not if it is expected to prop up an entire weak service.

I think they are legitimately trying to shore up Peacock's subscribers, and think it and DAYS might be able to help each other. But I also think they are expecting far too much if they believe an aging, low-budget soap's customer base will pay a premium fee for a non-revamped program in the same poor creative and budgetary condition, on a fledgling streaming service that has very little draw to new customers for other pay content. Y&R or B&B might still be able to help Paramount Plus if they did something new, but Paramount Plus has a considerable product base already (the Star Trek renaissance, etc) and doesn't need it, and Y&R and B&B are in better shape at least budget and numbers-wise. I don't believe they have any loyalty to DAYS continuing beyond the remaining cycle unless it does the impossible, namely helps boost Peacock considerably. That is an impossible task for DAYS in its current state. So I think they see it as either it helps Peacock somehow, or they burn off its contract and let it go. That's not the same thing as intentionally killing it, but it's essentially the same attitude - if it dies, it dies. A real commitment and investment would've meant more advance notice and a much bigger revamp of the overall show, a la AMC and OLTL. I don't see a real commitment.

It's depressing but I can absolutely see her coming back to play that. I just have my doubts it'll happen. And it would be very weird to have both Lois and Olivia on the show.