Vee

Since we've all done pretty well not mentioning the identity of the killer for first time viewers' sake, I suggest we consider spoiler-tagging it for awhile. I will ask: Were there any interviews indicating when during taping the performer was told they were the culprit? I am watching them closely. IIRC Brown came in and did a few days taping as Ben, but couldn't handle GL's schedule and quit. Hunt Block redid it all. James dePaiva (Max, OLTL) was Paul Rauch's first choice, who said no. When were Brown's drug issues? I know he and the also-DILF Randolph Mantooth (Alex) were up for the Clint recast at OLTL in 2005-2006. Both would've been closer in attitude and manner to Clint Ritchie than Jerry verDorn, but I think JVD was the best choice for reworking and reinvigorating the character.

To this day I don't get why they bothered porting Steffi over to TC when she left two months in. Was it a promotional misdirect to try and hook viewers? Were they hoping Heinle would re-sign? I don't remember what happened to Brianna, who's better here than I remember. The stuff with her and Alimi Ballard's Frankie is remarkably fun and sexy for young black characters, all often neutered today. I also remember quite a swooning finish with Lorraine and Charles reuniting - I don't recall the details on their breakup when she moved to TC for Nick.

I always felt Eric Nelsen playing A.J. on AMC 2.0 - a revival Agnes was heavily involved in crafting - was the same archetype as Marcantel/Curtis and others she'd cast and created: The poor, sensitive little rich boy with damage, played by an unconventionally attractive actor the networks would've taken issue with. IIRC it was Agnes who brought Marcantel back almost a decade later. The kid playing J.J. is Geoff Wigdor, who went on to play HIV-positive Eli on Claire Labine's OLTL in '97. He left that show to do Sleepers with Brad Pitt, where he was one of several abused boys. Last thing I remember him in was the deeply bizarre Neil Jordan film In Dreams with Annette Bening, in which he played the young version of Robert Downey Jr.'s crossdressing?/transgender? psychopath.

That scene where Ava talks about what Stacey meant to her may be the best work I've ever seen from Lisa Peluso. Very real. I've loved Lisa Lo Cicero since LOV/TC but I can't remember a thing about Jocelyn's backstory. I certainly had forgotten she was a lawyer.

Yes, I've always so appreciated the info - especially on a show with as convoluted a BTS history as this.

Man, I still have it bad for Buck 25 years later. I had a tween crush on virtually all the men on LOV/The City. I thought Darnell was the coolest dude on soaps back then - I didn't realize that, at this point at least, Jacob was simply Jesse with dreads. I dunno that he was ever anything else. But hey, it worked. I did appreciate that they never killed Jacob offscreen on AMC later on. He was little more than a Jesse stand-in most of the time, but that era meant something to me. Was the Buck/Tess/Thom Christopher/Curtis stuff a mix of Agnes and Bob Guza? This is what I mean by fascinating re: LOV - where else will you get an Arab crime boss in a bad wig, Cat Hickland scheming, a cute guy in a cage, Lisa Peluso doing Erica Kane Jr. and a hyper-earnest series of attempts at redoing Phil/Chuck/Tara Martin and youth social issue stories, two black crossover superstars and a gothic serial killer mystery all on the same show?

I watched LOV off and on before the murders. I found it a cozy little show, with the same warmth all of ABCD had at that time. No story grabbed me but I liked the vibe and some of the people. I loved the Jeffrey Osborne theme (still one of the best soap themes, ever) and loved Debbi Morgan as Angie - this was how I first became familiar with her. No one else made much of an impression with me as a kid beyond Cat Hickland, Darnell and Buck. I understand why people could've found it to be a betrayal. It was shocking to watch the core of the town be wiped out. I've also always been fond of Lauren-Marie Taylor (Stacey), who still enjoys cult fame from the Friday the 13th movies. But I think LOV had had so many interesting new resets, experiments and paradigms, some worthwhile and many failed, that a murder mystery was simply a valid capper. Today I enjoy exploring Agnes, Guza, Taggert, etc.'s many different experimental periods with the canvas, but I don't regret the Loving Murders. I wish GH would do it today. I asked the same questions re: Casey and Trisha a few years ago. All I can say is the handling of both Trisha's exit and final return are nonsensical to me unless they were praying Noelle Beck would do The City.

A bone-chilling exploration of the void that is McConnell.

I can't think of a nicer surprise for this troubled time than all of the Loving Murders returning to us. But all of '90s Loving is often a strange, fascinating show to me - as I've said before, it's full of talented actors, great characters and mood, and was kind of Agnes' petri dish for other experiments and ideas/formulas she either had done or would do again later - even at AMC 2.0 in 2013. The different phases and experiments by others as well, like the college retool. One thing Ron Carlivati's goofy Loving nod in '13 on GH did get right was presenting Corinth as an eternally haunted town, shadowed by the Alden legacy.

Best wishes to you and yours, Chit.

@DRW50

Nope.

In college I dreamed up a truly bizarre storyline involving the Marler twins and Carrie Todd (as played by Marcia Cross, who pre-DH back then was not getting much work). I won't repeat it bc it's archived here in my posts if you search. But yes, Holly would've become the lead heroine. I've always found Maureen Garrett fascinating. I do think Reva was approaching the Britsoap archetype at times in the final years - they openly wrote her as a woman who was matter of fact about casually drinking and [!@#$%^&*], being over the hill. They may have intended it to run KZ down vs. Nicole Forester or something, who knows. But it and she worked day to day even when the stories didn't.

When the show was near rock bottom, and the production value and artifice was minimal, GL got a glimpse of what Reva/Kim could and should be at that stage - a hardbitten old soap heroine/matriarch straight out of the British soap tradition. You could've put her next to Barbara Windsor and Pam St. Clement from Eastenders at that point. There was absolutely no older woman on American daytime like that in the mid-late 2000s. It's a shame the show was too much of a disaster to properly utilize this.

IIRC Kim said in her book the SB role didn't work but she enjoyed the people.

Zimmer was unbearable onscreen during the Rauch Queen of Love years, but even then you can't say she didn't give it 200%. She did very good, raw work post-Rauch in increasingly intolerable conditions; as a later viewer who didn't become more acquainted with her early years til WOST and YouTube, the later era is when she fully gained my respect. Could she be overbearing and extra in press? Sure, but she was also often right - especially about Wheeler. And her autobiography, very worth a read, is candid but also more kind to Wheeler/Peapack and her own potential culpability than I would be. She owns most of her flaws, she’s a hard worker and even in a kooky supporting role in OLTL she never tried to turn that recurring bit into the Reva Show; she did great work, knew her place on the show and over the years she’s made me a fan.

Kim has always denied she took him off the show, but if she had - based on the rumor that she was concerned about the hate he'd receive - I couldn't really blame her. She's been nothing but proud of his work with STC on AK; she's no homophobe.

Next in the Fox News Glenn Greenwald slot:

(Lynch told Beymer to call her a "c**t" to elicit this.) @DRW50 @alexisfan07

I had heard vague rumblings about JVD but don't know the details. He seems fine today. Watch it all!

LOL Zim plugging her son's show. Animal Kingdom: The hit drama in which two ex-soap kids bugger each other. Locher is providing a real service here. I'd kill for them to be able to facilitate some ABCD reunions.

RN apparently was brought to Marland after auditioning. Mo Garrett talking about starting out in the business and being taught by Charita Bauer.

Zim's Designing Women tea re: being tested for a Delta Burke replacement is wild and not surprising.