Vee

Yes, EM being some of the longtime posters' actual median age should never prevent him from being lusted after. The flashbacks have done neither Nadia nor JKJ favors!

I knew Ron would do this. The way he and FV over-rotated characters and stories plays well for DAYS' micro-budget and guarantees so it's natural he brought that structure of storytelling over from GH. But as has been said so often at both shows and eras, the problem is there is rarely consistency; people will go for weeks without being seen and events happen offscreen. You can't do that with something as big as the Possession. If it's back next week great, but I don't hold out hope for Ron to learn how to re-structure his show. He also gets various characters into story ruts and leaves them there forever (most of the rest of the canvas lol). JKJ looks like a lizard and poor Nadia Bjorlin has had some especially glaring work done since last I saw her. Oof. Eric Martsolf is still hot and unappreciated AFAIC.

I think that was their way of trying to graduate NL/Emily to A-list lead status. Putting her with MB was supposed to be the big leagues. They made over Emily a bit too; tried to present her as more adult, had her do various things to make her seem more like she could flow in Sonny's world and less like a whitebread heiress. I thought it was laughable at the time. It didn't work, but that didn't mean they should have ever murdered Emily. It was a huge mistake. Hell, if she were alive I'd recast her and put her with Dante right now.

I loved, loved, loved Gigi early on and them as a supporting B-couple. Frontburner leads, it didn't work. But Farah Fath's dry, bitchy energy was always brilliant opposite people like Erika Slezak, etc. who she clearly had a lot of reverence for (no small feat in FF's world). I am glad they didn't kill her, if only because Jack could never have been redeemed from that. Not in the way it was written and not using Andrew Trischitta as Jack, who was terrible. And yet that was apparently the original plan had they not been cancelled - Gigi would've stayed dead at his hands. The only thing that worked re: Stacy was Kim. Crystal Hunt's last few days on-air with Clint in "Hell" at the end of the show in 2012 were fun, but I could not stand her alive. I think there's some terrible [!@#$%^&*] in the last few months tbh - John stuff, Austin Peck and the "Jailbait" video, the Todd story spinning its wheels as they waited to see if they were going to go online. I think the Gigi resurrection story was very, very bad though I was happy with the end result. A lot of the show was bad IMO. The final weeks were great. I think there was a lot of very, very good stuff in '09 despite huge glaring problems, and I think 2010 is a real mess in many ways with some bright spots.

I think that had to do with RC and FV more than anything. In their world, especially Ron's, all normal male leads are simps and dupes for schemers with no real depth. The 'edgy' male characters get ahead if any do. Guza and co. though didn't fully realize what they had in DZ and JJ together. They could've run the show, period. It was the future and they let it walk. This was before the rumors. I don't remember the rumor mill getting onto them until later in the summer, and IIRC Sonny and Emily did not become overt onscreen until early fall. But it was a long time ago, so I can't be sure. I think that was their idea of a graceful exit from the whole debacle - dovetail it into a social issue story. The fact that Sonny had a torrid romance with a young woman at least half his age who he'd known since she was a child was of course not mentioned as part of that illness story as being symptomatic, but it probably should've been.

I remember seeing Sonny and Emily coming miles away. When they started the Nikolas/Courtney affair storyline in spring or summer '05, they kept having Emily stay at Greystone (Sonny's place) to sit for the boys and get close to the family; Nik was more and more unsympathetic re: her rape and they weren't communicating. He kept having run-ins with Courtney while Emily kept spending time with Sonny. I remember folks at TWOP thought I was crazy but I knew where that [!@#$%^&*] was going! And it was nauseating when it happened. I still can't watch their first kiss. Same thing happened with Liz and the serial killer a few years back. Folks didn't believe it bc he was still with Nina at the time and they just kept having run-ins at the hospital. I knew! Doubt me and court your doom!

And it worked, tbh. Not Jason so much for me, but Dante/Lucky becoming the new Luke/Scorpio of their day (they should've been the stars, period) with Sonny being pushed into a senior/elder lead role was natural, IMO. He still had story and still got into things, but he was clearly being shifted and it worked. Even with Brenda again that role was there a bit. It stayed that way til around sometime in 2013, I think. It's still where he's most viable IMO, but we've discussed that before. Guza also seemed to sour on Sonny personally and was more willing to harangue him for his flaws. That didn't last with Guza and the mob because it never did, but the tone definitely shifted and the attitude re: what they'd wrought for Michael, etc.

That 100% was happening in the late 2000s. I felt Guza had tired of Maurice for whatever reason.

lol I didn't realize that was from her new album (produced by Trent Reznor and sounds like it). Reznor, Halsey and Lindsey are a hell of a combination.

The only good Lydia was the first one, Jessica Ferrarone.

I believe it was an arranged marriage in exchange for her family's money, but I can't be certain.

This is essential detail, thank you.

Stefan had gotten the Cassadines into hock with various shady folks to restore the family fortune after Helena and possibly Nikolas had run it into the ground. He was determined to secure Nikolas' future and for some reason felt Emily was a poor choice of mate; I think he'd planned for Nikolas to marry bigger wealth, namely Lydia Karenin, who was heir to a major Eurotrash family. He tried to push Emily off the cliffs at Wyndemere but mistook Summer for her from behind. It was ruinous character assassination of Stefan. Summer had a whole bizarre con artist backstory with her brother or whatever who turned out to be her ex-boyfriend and a lot of rare ancient coins they'd heisted or something, and she and Luke and Lucky went on some half-ass caper to former Cassadine holdings that had been turned into Russian bordellos, and ultimately they came back emptyhanded. That whole subplot made absolutely no sense and IIRC Summer may not have been her real name, but I honestly can't remember.

Wow, '76!

I always felt it was rushed too. But everything to establish Skye on GH was heavily rushed, by JFP and Megan, and Robin is so arch and old Hollywood, as you said, that it always annoyed me, especially as an OLTL fan who'd seen them supercharge what they did to that show at GH. I've always liked RC regardless, but I never accepted Skye as a Quartermaine calling Edward "Grandfather" within weeks of her arrival, supposedly having instant connections and rivalries with people like Sonny and Ned within days or weeks, and I never will. I was very glad when she was de-Qed by Guza who clearly held all of that in contempt. Ingo and Robin did have chemistry, but I watched their romance in real time and I never bought its evolution. The Skye character only worked on the show, IMO, during her short-term stints in later years after RC went off-contract. She would come in, mix it up and leave. That I'm fine with and it suits her; there's a proud tradition of that with characters like Tracy, Marco Dane, etc. She should still be doing that tbh. But on contract as an 'honorary Quartermaine' or with Luke - please God, no.

It was very notable that Marland canned the whole Lisa-wants-to-get-Bob-back thing when he took over, and I'm glad. It was beneath her at that point IMO, and her friendship with Kim. A fair amount of reference is made to her recent renewed infatuation in '86 but it's from a position of character growth.

I just don't see a reason to take that dude on his word about anything, let alone the inner working of DOJ. Especially when the committee just officially denied it.

I am not inclined to take Rick Wilson, a grifter, seriously on anything.

tbh I think Reinholt came across much more flamboyant in his late '80s AW appearance than he had when he was younger. But Chris Bernau wasn't exactly Burt Reynolds himself, so it could've worked. That being said I suspect P&G were likely still sick of Reinholt on a permanent basis. I know Robin Strasser supposedly used to talk him up to try to get him work.

I always loved Billy on GH and always will. But I don't think it can be denied that Sean Kanan was a singular presence and considerably sexier as A.J. He should still be there today, provided he keeps his mouth shut on Twitter about his politics.

Which Marland retconned, right? Wasn't it that originally Lucinda blamed Whit for her husband's death, but it was a smokescreen for the Lily secret?

I have that memory for a lot of stuff at OLTL. It's a sickness lol. The worst of Riche/Guza's first run was still better than most of the last 20 years. It helps that the exemplary dialogue staff that had been there a long time still helped carry through a lot of dross all the way up til about 2012. 2005 was one of the show's worst years until the 2010s. I thought 2003 and 2004 got pretty bad with the Fab 4, but 2005 is when the show bottomed out on many levels, which led to a considerable reset late in the year with bringing back Kimberly McCullough complete with new love interest (Patrick), a renewed focus on the hospital around the time of Grey's Anatomy and its ascent, and the hiring of LW. Sorry to bump this, but I've been rewatching a lot of '79-'80 during the pandemic and they very often play it like they just had a ONS at the Disco and have like, jealous lover's tiffs over it. It's so strange. They seemed to try to deal with it a bit later but it never fully took.

That's the Frank Valentini Way!

Is there? I don't know one, I thought Gloria purged the Jeromes.