Vee

Manny Ruiz and his twin the priest(?) were played by Robert LaSardo, a character actor who was hot at the time due to his recurring role as a druglord on nip/tuck. Guza was very fond of emulating primetime and film at the time in the laziest ways by literally hiring the same actors for similar roles, or shamelessly recreating others, like having his reinvented Jerry Jacks played by Roche take on the name "Mr. Craig" the same year the gritty Casino Royale came out. Manny was basically LaSardo's primetime character again. His story got ridiculous and I don't remember what became of him.

We talked about this in the LOV thread, but the way I remember it the black presence in their AMC run was substantial. Not only did they bring back the Hubbards from LOV/TC, but they also had Mario Van Peebles, Cassandra, Dre Woods, etc. all at once. Did I think those stories were genius or often even good, no, but there was evidence of a recurring commitment on their part. I'm sure where the Hubbards were concerned Agnes was also in the mix.

Yes, this thread really needs to get over its addiction to reposting skewed polls and not reading discussion about them. Meanwhile:

It's back up.

I see you, @EricMontreal22!

Yeah, it's backwards. By '85 or '86 I guess the Forbeses had all been supplanted by Gwyneth, Trisha, etc.? I wonder whose brainchild bringing them in was.

Nice!

The writing + performance for the killer is so layered in the LM - The moment at the end of #39 where the spectre of "Trisha" - long-haired, face unseen - 'kills' Gwyneth in her dream is terrifying, straight out of Japanese horror.

I think Maura does grand work often with dogshit as evil queen Ava on GH, but @DRW50's referring to her as "Fire Marshall Bill" from In Living Color has never left my mind. When Ava gets going, everything is a deranged rictus of some insane emotion. It's camp but it mostly works.

The pilot was a mix of interesting and bland, but you can't say the dark, gothic roots weren't there from the start - most of what works about it was all Lloyd Bridges and more importantly, the truly demonic performance from Geraldine Page. Very EON and yes, very Loving Murders. Kalember and the guy playing Roger don't work for me at all. Few others drew the eye beyond poor Bryan Cranston and the loopy woman playing Ann Alden Forbes. Susan Walters had a long way to go! I do wonder how Gwyneth, Trisha, etc. were introduced and why Curtis was there first. It is surreal to see Cabot and the Alden manor set with a predominant focus on not the Aldens but the Alden relations/in-laws, most of whom would be gone in under five years. The Forbes strand of the family is all but a nonentity by '95; no mention is made of Stacey's children being heirs. I know there's been some talk of the first year being more Dan Wakefield and Marland; I wish we knew more about Agnes' hand in things, as she clearly was keen on Chris Marcantel, took notice of Debbi Morgan and later (when?) introduced her next Erica/Mona iteration in Ava and Kate/the Rescotts. A striking contrast: Watching the '95 episodes where Cabot and Isabelle say their sweet but heartbreaking goodbyes. Beautifully written and performed quiet, melancholy scenes, but jarringly contrasted by the hard cut to B&E's edgy new characters, some of whom work and some who just don't - pulsing '90s dance beats throbbing over canted angles as lecherous Danny hits on Cassie and Lisa Lo Cicero slinks about. I don't mind a lot of the hyper-stylization of the period, and I think the LOV of '95 is far more successful than the bulk of that pilot, but what a shift. Yet you can't say evil wasn't in Corinth all along.

Viki and David Renaldi.

Uhhhhh, what the hell?!

This is the most of Y&R's past I've ever seen in a regular sustained experience. What a gift. I hope the networks rethink their libraries over the course of what is set to be a very long year.

As I'm coming up on the deaths of in the LM, I thought now was as good a time as any to finally watch the Loving pilot, full of people who will be out of the picture shortly. I hope you'll all accept my preemptive apology for questions you've all answered before. - WEHT Merrill, Roger and Ann? And I guess Susan Walters/Lorna? - When did "Clay," Gwyneth and Trisha enter the picture, and where are they? - Is that really Geraldine Page?? (Who I last saw in John Schlesinger's brilliant and demonic The Day of the Locust, a film I do not recommend watching at the outset of a terrifying global pandemic) The pilot is notably directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, esteemed music video director for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones who also helmed the original Brideshead Revisited miniseries a few years prior and the original Broadway production of Agnes of God, and long-rumored to be the illegitimate son of Orson Welles.

Did they show a '95/'96 ep? I'm not seeing it on All Access, just '98.

IIRC Lemay said that too.

@marceline I am calling you out! I am dying for your thoughts on the Loving Murders. Just got to the big scenes with Debbi and Darnell near the midway point (after Curtis' death, just before Charles is revealed as Lorraine's old flame) and damn. Sure, Jacob was largely Jesse by another name but it worked, both then and now. I'm not clear on Jacob's full backstory - something about his wife and son dying in a bombing somehow? What month did he come on in '95? I was always glad AMC never killed him off later on, as I'd grown up watching Angie and Jacob. I like to think he and Lorraine are together in Paris (his last known location), if she didn't patch it up with Charles.