Vee

It wasn't their choice. Eden Riegel steadfastly refused to return after Chuck Pratt's run tanked the Bianca/Reese story she'd been promised, and IIRC she may have been otherwise engaged at Y&R when they did the brief recast with Christina Bennett Lind. Lind did a decent job under the circumstances, but it was better to have Riegel back (albeit in a clearly recurring capacity) on AMC 2.0 on Hulu. And yes, Michael Malone (and Josh Griffith) did the entire DID story in the '90s at OLTL. You could see the roots as early as '92 or '93, when Sloan Carpenter came to town writing a book about the 'great man' Victor Lord. As a child I started watching OLTL in summer '93. The fascination with Victor, the relationship Viki had to him, the backstory with Dorian was all unveiled to me in dialogue and it was fascinating to me that a show's history could stretch back decades to now. That was how I fell in love with soaps. But I knew from the outset something was very wrong about what they were telling me about Victor Lord. I had watched Twin Peaks live on ABC with my mother not long before this, which also featured an incest/molestation story at its center. Something about Viki's worship of her father, of the unanswered questions seemed 'wrong' to me instinctually. I suspected what it was long before they came out and said it. And going back and looking at the material recently - as far back as the summer 30th anniversary of the show in '93, where Viki has an extreme emotional reaction to them unearthing Victor's secret room while trying to save Max and Tina's sons - you can see the seeds were there very early on. (To say nothing of Erika Slezak's absolutely terrifying performance in the '80s, during the original Tina Lord story when they first discovered that Victor had sired Tina and had an affair with Viki's college roommate.) I understand why people have issues with the story, but to me it is still pretty much pitch perfect. It holds up. Certainly the case with the scenes I mentioned, and with Alan Quartermaine telling Robin she is HIV positive. I came home from school one day and there it was. She was maybe a year or 2-3 older than me. I was floored. I wish GH had a fraction of that courage today - re: COVID, abortion rights, you name it. AFAIC that is and always had been daytime's duty and social compact with its audience, not just kids coming home from school but all viewers. Now more than ever.

IIRC we have seen Bill shirtless early on in bed with Hayley.

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I've been over this before, but I watched some of the later moments mentioned on this page at GH and OLTL (the Robin/Stone story, the Victor Lord/DID saga) live and I never forgot them or where I was. Particularly Viki turning into Tommy and hurling Dorian down the stairs - I was a kid and had no idea she'd had multiple personalities, so I was terrified. I also was there live with Bianca coming out on AMC and I'll never forget it. I also have seen Dark Shadows in full, but that was because of being a kid obsessed with its reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel. I still know a lot of it backwards and forwards, even though for all intents and purposes I left it behind years ago.

I thought Faison was effective in the late '90s (until the Felicia thing became the focus, lol) and then early in his 2010s return. By the time Robin was rescued there should've been no way the Scorpios left him alive. Not a chance.

I remember that name. I'm curious what his bias is.

By that time he definitely was. I think the early-mid '90s were different, but it varies.

"Won" is a strong word.

Vanessa and Joey are actually consistently compelling and fun to me. Letting bored wife Vanessa lean into being horny for crime has worked well and LB elevated JL's game. It's too bad Guza didn't stick around longer. I'm beyond ready for Ashley to face some monkey virus.

Nathan is barely sentient, so of course we have to watch him for more years to come. (And Valentin and Charlotte)

A stunningly bad actor. Enjoy!

I like how they credit only themselves for reconceiving Drew, lol. Of course Valentin is back. And his mutant hellspawn.

I've been wondering the same thing. The secret twins angle reminded me of that.

Yep!

It's the Carly insider trading, again.

John Brotherton (Jared) reprises his role from The Conjuring in The Conjuring: Last Rites this week in theaters. I will resume babbling ceaselessly about OLTL '91 in short order.

John Brotherton (Jared Banks, OLTL) reprises his role from The Conjuring in The Conjuring: Last Rites.

I would never have put Drake in the same sentence as Ronn Moss. Drake could sell a scene any day of the week.

Since we still got a few days off and I am about to finally be all caught up, I'll just say I feel like after enduring weeks or months of Alison's actress I owe Michael Michele an apology for all these years of roasts. Damn.

From what JDP has said over the years it sounds like Frons stepped in again on the Max/Roxy stuff, prepping to cut him out of the show. I think they also, briefly, were toying with a potential Asa angle with her either at the end of Tomlin/Whitesell or beginning of Malone II - maybe a triangle with Asa and Max. Then it all evaporated, and we got some very minor hints of Max and Gabrielle trying to make Bo and Nora jealous as they reconnected over Matthew before none of it went anywhere and everyone got fired. I know what I'd do with Max (and Gabrielle) for a short arc but it'd never happen. Ah well! IIRC we had not seen hide nor hair of Luna or Susan Batten for years since Luna's death until SB made the brief cameo in the end credits during Live Week 2002 (as one of the ghosts, like Dennis Parlato, Jessica Tuck, etc.) and then a few months later we got the videotapes of Luna that Roxy found. It was a pleasant surprise at the time as again, Luna had not been seen since '95. Then they had Malone using her ghost incessantly in 2003-04 during the terrible Al/Michael story and we all got sick of her lol.

Why is the bad guy at Funky Puppies always wearing some pajamas? Seriously, every time I bother looking up in these scenes (not often!) dude looks like he is wearing some silk jammies. Is it just me?

"Professor Johnny?!" The things you see on the forum feed, I swear. Johnny doesn't even know how to read.

Does anyone just call the train the Cane Train? I feel like it's right there.

I would say it went in the opposite direction there. The way I remember it, Gabrielle's initial return at OLTL was wildly unpopular with everyone except, well, me lol. I had not been around for Gabrielle's first run, I only knew the legend and a handful of old episodes online at that time, and I found her Annie Lennox haircut and OTT campy ways insanely entertaining. There was no one like her on the show and I was all in. But the story with her marrying Asa, histrionically pawing herself and the furniture horny for Max, etc. was roasted by the mags and most fans, and within a couple months even the show was mocking them in the Trading Places episode where they had JDP and Fiona switch roles and played the Michael Bolton song, lol. Allegedly, one of the two actors found the story so radioactive that they quietly asked for Max and Gabrielle's reunion to be curtailed. That led to Gabrielle being moved to Bo and Max going towards the Roxy thing, which sadly never quite took off for Max. But I actually do think Bo and Gabrielle were fairly popular and a surprise modest success for the show. I certainly enjoyed them and I think it was only in 2002 that Fiona found her footing with the audience again. I do think Malone had planned to put both Bo and Nora and Max and Gabrielle back together, which could've been very interesting as he'd never written for Max/Gabrielle or Gabrielle at all. But instead they both fizzled out when Frons wanted the budget cut and the Holdens canned. I still miss Gabrielle. But I do think her return started a bomb and then became a reasonable success with an unlikely pairing. People were very sad to see her go. As for GH, yes I'd bring back Brenda (and teenaged/college-aged, gay af Alec) tomorrow.

Why didn't they just bring back Bill? Were they playing it cheap or was he busy?