Vee

Madame Maia. Ugh.

That's the one I'm thinking of lol.

I thought the Frank saga in the '90s, threading in Sonny more, etc. all worked. I need to rewatch the beginning of it again. I've been revisiting the November '94 stuff in Puerto Rico recently. I can't remember when they finally finished Frank off. Damian Smith was a solid villain for several years though it got a bit silly near the end. I wouldn't hate introducing one of his kids or other relations today. It is crazy to remember that they apparently almost had Sherilyn Fenn from Twin Peaks as the latest Jennifer in 2015. She (unsurprisingly for Sherilyn) backed out or something but would've been much better than Holly Gagnier, good acting coach aside.

Higley was obsessed with Daniel and Melanie and viewers absolutely despised them. I felt it was unfair re: Melanie given Molly Burnett's talent but I got it. Dena never stopped, either.

Oh God. The goop.

I'd think she would've excelled with Blair, but I don't remember Blair doing much but being stuck in Max hell that year as his partner in crime and occasionally bouncing off Todd who was still nominally with Téa, to the point that some fans I know suspected they were going back to T&B at the end of the DID mess had Howarth stayed. I really wouldn't know as I blocked so much of that year out and have not rewatched very much of it (except Cassie's spiral at the end of '98) in a long time. I don't think she would've cut Clint - the Viki/Clint/Lindsay/Sam quad seemed like her doing and her type of people to me. I suspect pivoting hard with Sam to Nora and Bo to Lindsay, instead of keeping the Nora thread with Sam going and maybe still having baby Matthew, was JFP after her, as it continued for two years. This is OT for in here, sorry. We can move as needed.

It's no slight against you to be clear, but I'm not gonna do the MarDar discourse again because we've all been over those points before haha. I will say I would really enjoy watching those years in sequence again and the stuff that I missed to get a better perspective, but I don't know if there is any archive of it out there given how strict Peacock/NBC is on DAYS stuff. (And if anyone has a link, DM me!) I always thought it was a terrible waste not to get a new Nikki/Nicholas in on contract. The late Cody Longo(?) was quite good in his brief appearance.

A blatant ripoff of Peter Straub's Ghost Story from prose and screen! I'll never get over it. Great movie btw. I've often wondered how Long would've fared at OLTL without being micromanaged by JFP. I think she may have been there less than a year. James DePaiva and I think others said Jill ran her off. I suspect the Clint/Lindsay Rappaport marriage, among other things, would've gone on longer.

Fiona was on it then? Wow. I knew about the genius child but not the robot lol. How long was Lisa on during the Long era? Were they trying to run out the rest of a contract? I can see why they tried to slot them into being sort of the wacky couple back in Springfield but I can't blame her if some of that made her want to dip, where of course she made history with Marland again at ATWT. Was the Dreaming Death, Tony and Annabelle, Jim and Hilary etc. Long? I thought some of that caper stuff was decent when I watched a fair bit of it a year or two ago (except for the unbearable Tony). idk why I thought the Dreaming Death was Jeff Ryder or whoever. There was a frenzy of creatives at both GL and OLTL in the early-mid '80s it seems like.

Remind me, as a less versed tourist of GL: Did Pam Long do much (or want to do much) with Nola before Lisa exited? Or did she just miss her? Idk why I thought Nolaerobics wasn't her but if so my mistake.

The story wasn't good for Carly at DAYS but I think Crystal Chappell played herself there BTS most of all. Her crashout during and after that was legendary (on top of the Venice webseries grift) and I pretty much ceased taking her seriously ever again, let alone wanting her back on daytime.

We know there was a bible MVJ worked on for years, IIRC. I just think she is too wedded to who she wanted Ashley to be vs. what is actually there.

I do wonder if what MVJ saw with the rampant misogyny and machismo with male characters at GH and B&B in recent years may have contributed to how they're downgraded here. I agree it's an issue but I don't think she's trying to take down Black men. It seems more like an overcorrection in another direction for fear of coming off like Dollar Bill's LA or Sonny's Hospital. Still, you can do much more. I think Doug was always going to be expendable and pathetic no matter what. Ted, we'll see. Frankly based on his initial character sketch from audition sides (perfect husband with a dark secret) I thought we were in for the Carnation Killer lol. So this is an upgrade!

The longer Ashley talks and talks and talks about her motivations and feelings the less I care. She's talked about her background plenty. Something new needs to be done with her if they want to play out her contract, or she needs to do the classic soap save of Turn Psycho and Leave.

I think Bill is the strongest and most layered male on the canvas and we need a lot more of him. It's obvious too that the normie and social media audience respond to him when he's in his element - they're into it, for the same reason Victor Newman, Sonny or to a lesser extent Dollar Bill on B&B have an audience. Andre needs a lot of work because as we've all said he is too soft for being an alleged wild-ass playboy wearing these crazy fits. He needs a club and to be on some crazy shít. Jacob is also a bore but has real heat with Kat. That can change. I think Martin and Smitty are also strong male characters in terms of having more depth and dimension, but we've never seen them in their element enough (though that's begun to change with Smitty). I want to see Martin act the Senator the same way Bill acts his professional role as the fixer. Hopefully Izaiah will be a breath of fresh air too.

It would be a smart idea to bring in the McBrides now and shore up Vanessa's sphere overall. And let's face it, Tyrell and Samantha need work lol.

I'd forgotten this scene existed. I didn't know if Jason had ever said this to her since the accident. I certainly don't remember him ever calling her 'Mom' before the other day.

"It's completely irresponsible and cruel and uncalled for. That's on the record." I'll never forget that. She had grown up basically at Stuart's knee since she was six or seven, too. What I also never forgot is that at the time IIRC Steve gave a quote that basically amounted to 'sh!t happens.' Which infuriated me back then. But these days I think he was just trying to go along to get along at the network, because he has been very vocal and fulsome with praise for Stuart in recent years on his podcast and in interviews, crediting him as a key mentor and praising him heavily when he passed away. So I can let a lot go, as Steve has been equally vocal about Leslie ever since he and Bradford got in their podcast thing. I never got over Alan being killed. I was pleased when Ron and Frank had allegedly intended to bring him back when they thought the show was going off the air in 2012 (I think the captured Robin was supposed to find him alive in the same facility she was being held in... along with Trevor St. John from OLTL), but it didn't get cancelled and Stuart's health was not great.

The show is clearly gunshy (as it was then) about making too many changes to that status quo that would alienate the Facebook, etc. crowd, even if it has changed dramatically from the Guza II days in many ways. (Case in point: The Quartermaines being the center of the show again) I'd just do it, probably shortly before bringing A.J. back and revealing Michael has known for some time. It's ludicrous that he lives there, is active in ELQ, is a key part of the family and yet he, his wife and his children all still go by Corinthos lol. Same with changing Drew's name back to up the conflict. No one can stop him from using it.

I'm also concerned about Thomson, who I don't remember as anything but a GH staffer in late Guza II. But whatever, great has come from less.

Michael should go back to the Q name, which he took briefly in the 2010s. He has been a Q in everything but name for the better part of 15 years anyway.

Supposedly he also told Robin this in the late 2000s. I don't remember it but I'm sure it's possible. He openly told Carly they fúcked up with Michael around then, and apologized to A.J. and Alan only after they were 'dead'/dead. (I don't think Jason has ever really dealt with A.J.'s last death or what Sonny did.) And yeah, Rory did well. I was shocked they remembered that used to be Susan's cottage.

MONA MENTIONED

I am sure some of her material was mixed in, but all I know is I remember the mags trumpeting that the assault on Bo and Hope at the BB fashion show was the kickoff of JER's big new umbrella storyline. Of course it's been almost 25 years so I could be wrong. We do know HWs often insert material before their name is officially on a show, too.

I don't think they always give her enough depth in the moment vs. trying to backfill it later. But I don't blame TMG for that (or Ambyr Michelle for how Eva has been inconsistent, as I said yesterday). I think the dialogue staff needs a lot of refreshing lol. I will say I think Brandon Claybon was very good this week being the rock for the family and the voice of reason with Smitty. Martin was strong in that role, not cold or unstable as he started out.