Vee

I try not to think about the Luke/Felicia number from 2001, no matter how much a certain friend trolls me with the video. The image burned into my brain, though, is Felicia dancing around her living room bowlegged caterwauling "Swannee River" rehearsing for it beforehand. I love Kristina Wagner again today even though she's no thespian, but in those days with Luke Felicia was utterly unbearable and adding singing was the stake in the heart.

I do! I'll never forget this. It won't embed, so the glory has to be viewed up close! Finola Hughes' expression throughout is incredible.

Well, the JFP/Guza-era intro theme from 2004 was also just a rock and roll version of FOTH, so yes, it has the same Autumn Breeze intro FOTH incorporated.

From Susan Walters' (Lorna) new interview re: her return to Y&R:

I would assume her plan back then will come into play in some way. No one appears to have been keeping Diane locked away, at least not for awhile.

It's just speculative clickbait.

I always thought so, it's a lovely touch. I'm pretty sure that same mix of both is part of that emotional piano cue the show still plays from time to time.

I don't think he will derail the nomination, but nothing would shock me anymore. I do expect him to try to get attention over it.

I thought it was all old-fashioned by the end, but I always liked how it seems like FOTH incorporates the opening of Autumn Breeze into the beginning of the track. Or am I crazy? You can still hear both of them in the occasional GH music cue used today, mostly in only piano stuff. That beginning is timeless.

I don't think there's any excuse for the nonsense with Johnny. But I also think it's systemic. There's at least a half dozen attempts over the last 20+ years at at DAYS to tell smarter stories, but the details get bogged down in the most remedial level silliness or weird plot points in the day to day (like Johnny turning out to be... hiding behind a table??). That to me goes back to the power structure at DAYS and the hierarchy in place that executes. I could be wrong, but I feel like we've seen it again and again under multiple HWs. Good concepts get turned into Fox Kids-level stuff. That doesn't excuse stories like Ian McAllister or the Alamania caper, or other things either (the meandering use of Billie, the weird Alice/Stefano nonsense). It was far from an unrealized triumph, lol. But I just think certain things got murdered in the crib by the way DAYS has worked and dumbed everything down on the daily for ages.

Not in ages; I don't remember her.

Higley never wrote for Mitch (thank God).

Julie Montgomery (Samantha Vernon #1) looks great on Y&R's day-ahead episode. As someone who's only seen her very early in her run in the '70s and then near the end with Asa, it's a bit surreal to see her decades apart.

It's Griffith's brand, or was at the time. It worked at OLTL in the '90s and then it didn't really since. I think some of the darkness or grit he introduced worked initially for DAYS because he was so different from their usual writers, as the idea of the serial killer mystery was viable (until they killed Will) and the show got a lot more atmospheric. But by the time they'd gotten to Ciara being raped, Bo's permadeath (for now), Jigsaw is John's dad from Vietnam and Hope executing Stefano - woof. And now of course he's totally burnt out. A noticeable problem with both him and John Aniston now. I never understood why they brought Stefano back in the late 2000s or early 2010s just to have him sit around the house haranguing E.J.

It's outrageous. tbh I am tuning their crap out and just waiting for the eleventh hour when Manchin swans in to some press gaggle complaining about Jackson based on stuff he saw on Fox News. It is clear based on recent hijinks and rationales that he is among their devoted racist senior demographic.

Another thrilling run for Chandler Massey.

People razz Maggie so much these days but I've always liked Suzanne, and I remember when Maggie couldn't buy 3 minutes of airtime every 6 months. They put her with Victor and it worked and she flourished again. Stories since of course are all over the map, but I'll always love Maggie.

No surprise. If nothing else, I look fwd to more of our shared collective fury over Che Diaz.

Oh God! Branco! She always was a lunatic, even if Maura was miscast.

I generally thought Stephanie Williams was boring on every show I've seen her on, but I liked her with Doug Davidson. They would've been hot.

I remember people wondering if hiring Maura was a Sony/CBS move, over MAB's head. It wouldn't surprise me given how she was treated.

I remember some of the latter interview you posted, but where is this stuff? IIRC Maura's role on GH was originally supposed to be maybe a couple weeks, tops. I don't know if Ava was just supposed to be a cameo or if she was supposed to die and usher on Kiki and Franco. I'd love to know what was originally planned, but I don't know how anyone could've thought they would bring in Maura West for just a few days, even before we saw her onscreen and it was clear she was phenomenal on GH.

Yeah, Roman would be my choice tbh, JT or not. Though Marlena is a close second. Failing them, I'd make it someone ironic like one of the young kids.

I agree, I did find it a bit arbitrary that it wasn't Marlena or John (or Roman, as the dark horse).

I thought the actual execution scenes with Stefano were pretty well done when I saw them, tbh. I always found it surprising that this twist was the point of no return for audiences and Corday for that writing team, because I thought Hope was fully justified in executing Stefano in cold blood given what he'd done to her and her family, 'heroine' or not. The cover-up aspect of the subsequent story might've been too far, but if you were going to fire Griffith and co. for anything (and they should've, definitely) it should have been for the despicable rape of Ciara by her foster brother on the Horton living room couch.