Vee

They teased bringing back Julia a few years ago during the Fluke story - they mentioned Cartullo and other stuff connected to the Barretts. Fluke was intended to be Bill Eckert until Ron Carlivati got mad that the fans figured it out, so that was the Julia connection. When they junked the Bill reveal, out went Julia and the other Eckert ties like Jenny who might've turned up. Supposedly appearances by Carson and Cheryl Richardson (Jenny) and someone to play Sly were on the table.

Quinnipiac, give me a break.

Genie has pretty much blamed the GH set and Monty for her drug problem, and IMO she's right.

Oh, them. I think the ATWT finale was the nadir of soap finales, with OLTL's (many flaws and all) being the apex. You can't close a door completely on those kind of continuing worlds that audiences have lived with for decades; I find it borderline unethical. There has to be a sense that world goes on. Even GL, which was a mess, did that.

I've never heard that Casey and Lyla weren't popular - I was under the impression they were held in esteem. Fair enough though.

She's so talented - I liked her on the show but I had no idea how good she could be as an adult. She deserves better star vehicles, though. Her film Faults with her ex (she's now with Ewan McGregor) is especially good.

I think that part was just to give him some work, though he is not acting full-time now AFAIK. I don't think it was ever going to lead that far. I think Lulu should be around for Laura but they've completely botched the character for at least a decade.

I like Casey, and I do like him with Frannie, but it was evident immediately upon his introduction how much chemistry he had with Ann Sward. I wonder when they decided to pull the trigger on that instead. I think Seth and Frannie are immediately more appealing.

The Beltway usually venerates them, but it has been turning up the pressure on Manchin and Sinema in recent weeks and the last month or two with much more pointed questions and confrontations, because they simply have nowhere else to turn and the CPC has held fast. You can tell that's gotten to Manchin. The pressure has changed and is on those two, it's not benefitting them atm. The Beltway has kept casting about for a 'noble centrists' narrative, of course, but at the moment there isn't one to find. When you have Beltway reporters admitting the split in the Dems is only the majority of the party and the president vs. two Senators and a handful of weak-kneed conservative Dems who will side with the party, that's different.

This isn't optimism, it's just pragmatism. If it happens once, it will change everything for the filibuster going forward. They won't be able to resist.

Talk about trying to make her emulate the last actress. I did not recognize Frost.

I'm surprised it took that long. Were they hoping Runyeon would come back? When was Betsy moved on to other men? There's definitely Duncan here talking to Brian about 'the ruins of an old castle on an island' in Oakdale in May '86 (5/19, to be exact). Brian says he owns it, and Duncan says he wants to build his ancestor's castle on the site instead. No clue what it is supposed to be originally. Good lord! No.

Wasn't E.J. a race car driver for years??

Lulu is in a coma due to a mob bombing, IIRC. In a facility out of state. I believe her would-be post-Dante suitor, a teacher played by Mark Lawson, also died in the bomb? DZ came back before Rylan was fired/quit - Dante was in a psychiatric facility trying to undo some sort of supervillain brainwashing for awhile - and I believe Lulu was prepared to go back to him or had gone back to him before the bombing. DZ and Kelly Monaco is a pairing on paper I think could work, but everything I have seen of them together is written and presented in the most grating way possible - from the embarrassing sports outfits and company baseball game shenanigans to her constantly yowling and the terrible face work she's had done making her look very old. If they had actual adventures like in her very, very early days and didn't base everything around her showing out like she's still 25 and a rebel, I might be a little more into it. You know things are rough when Rebecca Herbst propping up Easton #4 is a more appealing pairing.

Pretty sure it was September, but who knows how quickly it kicked in. I was under the impression Angie and the Hubbards being brought in was Agnes, but regardless of whether it was or wasn't - she was still a producer I believe, and had a creative control stake in the show - Guza and Taggert(?) were apparently still writing at the time (and they tested Angie with Trucker, which I still think is amazing).

It was the Cassadines! It made sense. Plus for years they all thought she was adopted. It is what it is!

I think that talk of breaking the filibuster has gotten this far is an indication of something else. If it happens once, it will happen again. It won't end here. That's why I'm pleased. McConnell is foolish to force this, but he has only one trick - obstruct, and hope they never touch the filibuster.

Yep! And all the talk of horses being broken and lightning and storms. I wonder how quickly they changed their minds, because a lot of this stuff with Holden and Lily is pretty hardcore by May, before the pre-Smith Emily turns up (though she is being talked about a lot). You're also given a window into Holden's mind and emotions by this point. But the stuff where he and Meg are both basically throbbing for Lily and Dusty and he murmurs "summer's coming" and indicates the other two will not be able to resist the siblings in the hotter weather, it just drips with sex. I'm surprised they got away with some of this stuff. You don't see the youth set doing this stuff today (except for my beloved OLTL 2.0!). It is fascinating to me that Marland gave Jennifer Ashe the Meg role after being denied the full extent of the story he wanted for her on Loving, where the character there was night and day. She's amazing. It's sad to remember what a milquetoast Meg became with Marie Wilson years and years later. The gaps are coming up in the '86 playlists online, but there is still a lot of material floating around through the year thankfully. I wonder how lucky I'll be in 1987. The information on Steve may be another issue of the Wikipedia fog of war - everything says Runyeon left the show in '86 which I'm sure he did, but I wonder when Steve was indicated to have been imprisoned vs. simply having left Betsy in the lurch. It's all lumped together in online data as '86, but I am not sure that's true.

I've been waiting for this.

Ryan and some real Cassadine supervillain business, not the weak [!@#$%^&*] they've served up for many years. And yes, an actual Jason/Carly affair behind Sonny's back (however implausible for them after so many years) might work to at least get buzz for the reveal, which they utterly failed to do so far.

Yep. They aired in February, early February IIRC. Their first days - I think - included the hit and run of Starr and Cole from OLTL en route from Llanview, Robin's 'death' and the very, very swift and abrupt conclusion of the Woman in White story and her murder by Helena. I think 2003-2004 were largely awful.

People are sleeping on the greatest Alexis scene and the one that is at the core of her character and has informed all of her relationships with destructive men since, IMO. The key moment is around 13:35-13:40. "It was wrong of me to compare you to my mother." Alexis was in love with Stefan all her life, and she never got over him and has looked for him - the dark prince - in every man after. This is just after Guza returned.

I don't know - this is mid-May and Duncan just told Barbara he came across some amazing castle on an island while roaming the town(!!). Barbara reacted poorly and at first I thought it was some sort of Gunnar St. Clair/Dobsons connection bc I associate that sort of excess in ATWT with them, but she said it belonged to Brian McColl. I have no idea what it is but I assumed this is the land Duncan would eventually move his infamous castle onto. I didn't know one was already there, in Oakdale! I actually think the slow dissolution of Steve and Betsy is fascinating to watch (especially when Steve finds common cause drinking alone with the even more chauvinistic Tonio, enabling his behavior - that's the kind of stuff that would happen on double dates with supposed happy couples). I do wonder when exactly he leaves. Bios online say Craig 'died' the following spring or summer heading to Greece for Steve, but wasn't Steve already jailed and divorced from Betsy by then? I wonder how they handle the exit and I hope I get to see a lot of it. I have been hearing about the infamous Rod/Josh and William Fichtner for years. Opinions are clearly quite mixed about that story and about pairing him with anyone, but I admit I'm very curious to see how he is with a cool customer like Lindsay Frost, though that is a long way off. Holden and Meg are much more predatory and dark at this point, though still human and with their own desires and needs and throughlines; there is a really visceral sexual energy to it and some amorality and drive you don't get from most non-antagonists on soaps today. They're very compelling considering the Snyders were simultaneously being built up as a core family. I don't know when they decided Holden was going to be it for Lily and not a spoiler, but they clearly were building him up into a person with his own needs and wants three-dimensionally by now (May '86). You would not see new leads allowed to be quite this morally gray with good people very often in later years, at least not characters that didn't used to be serial killers or rapists. Jon Hensley is more interesting here than he ever was to me in the late '90s or 2000s. He seems dangerous and the relationship with Lily is semi-overtly sadomasochistic.

How exactly did Brian McColl have a castle in Oakdale? Not Duncan, Brian! On some island?!