Vee

Nothing he does surprises me, but I'm not shocked he's talking up daytime (which he clearly was trolling and mocking during his run) considering his career is currently a burning cinder and he has been exiled to Italy making schlock a la Kevin Spacey.

I'm just sorry we couldn't help you watch it in order. That took me a few weeks to figure out and do properly. The numbering rights itself after Halloween.

Lesli Kay did a fine job as NuLois IMO and had chemistry with Wally Kurth, etc. As someone who had very minimal tolerance for Molly on ATWT she really surprised me. But GH at that time had no interest in that side of the canvas whatsoever and it was all C-stories, right down to her inexplicable backburner pairing with Alcazar. To me it always screamed someone at the show or Brian Frons just wanting to grab LK because of her name value from other soaps.

I mean, to play devil's advocate Carlivati was often a stickler for obscure continuity (unless he didn't like it or had some new idea of his own, in which case he'd just do all sorts of shít). So his solution did in fact have its roots in PC's final storyline - the magic ring of wishes or whatever the hell it was lol. That was definitely what Carlivati was hinting at IMO; that all of PC had happened but Caleb's magic ring had made the world forget (I know). And Alison Barrington, her son, Rafe Kovich, Caleb, etc. all existed per GH (as did Christina), and Karen Wexler is still dead. So AFAIC PC happened, and you just explain it all away with one line about idk, 'those strange times, sometimes I forget they ever even happened' or Kevin saying 'Livvie and I haven't spoken in 20 years' or something lol.

Thanks so much. You always have lovely thoughts. I think the hope under this regime re: DV and Scott must have been that DV would be some ready-made long-running villain, hence the blood ties and Kin Shriner spending months scowling and growling "Bordisso!" everyday, but I never was interested in him and he flopped just like Rex Stanton. I can't remember how or when they got rid of DV. I have always wanted to see Rachel Locke return to wreak havoc on GH. I'd still want GH to make use of some of these other characters (like Christina and Serena, or perhaps a child of Livvie's) someday, while deftly sidestepping the continuity issues involved later in PC's run. The ambitious but dismal 2013 attempt at such on GH was largely handwaved as being the result of a magic spell anyway.

That remains my suspicion. AFAIK he's never shown anything before 2012, and usually not before 2015.

I was just wondering this. I always perhaps foolishly thought it was FV's ego lol but maybe there are far more practical reasons, who knows. He had no issue with them showing classic OLTL eps from the 90s in 2011, but that was 'his' baby where he worked his way up for decades. Maybe it is some other budget thing now, but I wonder why. I deeply appreciate when CBS still shows legit classics, like they have with Y&R or in the past with ATWT and GL. I would kill for GH to do it again.

I had forgotten Michael J. Anderson from Twin Peaks was on the show lol. Thank you @dc11786 . I hated the DV story with all the psychic spy nonsense, but I'm always for seeing Anderson back then and it's not like that kind of stuff wasn't a part of the GH fabric. It just felt so silly and poorly done on PC, which had been a more grounded show (until what's still to come). I remember they dug up one of Meg Bentley's 1960s suitors during the DV story - he actually showed up onscreen to talk to Scott about DV and Meg's affair. I think it was the same actor. I was shocked. My apologies if you discussed this (I'm pretty sure we have before lol). I've seen that episode recently, but I have always wanted to see more of that material even as I hate the DV story, simply to see how they characterized the long-forgotten Meg as a person 30+ years later. But the edits online are impossible to wade through for that. I might watch some of it again to see more of Gail and Lee, who I have come to appreciate much more than I did as a kid while watching classic '70s, early '90s stuff etc lately. When I first started watching ABC I didn't really get that history, in part because Scott left GH almost as soon as I started watching and when he came onto PC I saw him as a (hot) interloper for Kevin and Lucy.

There were a lot of layers with Sloan, who was originally intended to be a finite romantic spoiler which would ultimately lead back to a Clint/Viki reunion down the road. BTS issues (mostly Clint Ritchie's horrible tractor accident in 1993) delayed this and made the story run longer and end differently. I do think Sloan was a good if complex man who loved Viki, and I liked him BITD as a viewer (in part because I was so familiar with Roy Thinnes). My opinion as an adult remains out with the jury as I see the material from the start. But what is fascinating upon review of the later years as the Victor saga escalated is how they very, very deliberately paralleled Sloan and Victor Lord even before his exit, in dreams, visions, etc. In addition to his arrival in town and fascination with the 'Great Man' directly leading into what became maybe the most famous story in the show's history, after the Todd Manning rape trial or Karen Wolek. These kind of parallels happen with men and women in real life, these Oedipal or other darker connections, but you rarely see them explicitly play out in soap opera in the text. Other than maybe Another World, with Mac Cory and Iris (20 years before this, in a much more experimental time). Juxtaposing Sloan and Victor was a very difficult needle for the writing to thread, but they did with a lot of nuance. I remember some scenes near the conclusion of the story in '95 or '96 where Viki, made whole again, comes to terms with how similar Sloan was to her father. I'll have to dig them up again. They were well done and respectful, but it is just somewhere most soaps would never, ever dare go with a 'good' character.

They seem like lovely people whatever we think of their characters.

I'll always appreciate what Gless did with the thankless recast of Ellen Burstyn's character in the underrated, shockingly good if short-lived Exorcist TV series on Fox, which followed on from the original film. She memorably inhabited an immortal role for a short guest run.

Legit annoyed I can't find the Thanksgiving classic eps on Paramount Plus. They put the classics up in 2020 during those rerun months.

That would've been a lot of fun.

I do think "The Lucy Mysteries" could've hit.

Wasn't it her own elderly writing team she brought out of retirement? I don't think it was all Lucy's fault, but I know she brought in a lot of her own people.

Like any soap opera character with backstory since at least the Golden Age of Television. Izaiah's family are his backstory. They are not active in story in the present moment.

I still don't see how Luke or mother Hawthorne are driving active story.

I'm kinda talked out about it as I went over Max's reintroduction a while back in here when I watched this stuff. Shouldn't be too far back in the thread lol. JDP is so dynamic and vibrant at this point as opposed to Nicholas Walker that I am enjoying having him back immensely. I like the story turn with this renewed feud so far much more than I liked NW's bizarre, effete "Max Buchanan" and Asa's inexplicable devotion to him even after learning they weren't blood. I think Max and Asa's love/hate relationship is a unique throughline in some ways, but it is tedious that they kept revisiting this same well over and over particularly in the JFP era.

It's so much more entertaining than expecting me to be intimidated by Sidwell playing it straight (as uh, best he can) for the last year of shows, let alone doddering old Cyrus or Peter or whoever else in the last decade. Ryan was the only villain who came close to impressing me in recent times and he was not as effective as his 90s heyday (and overused by the end).

Word. Idk why people don't do this, including some of my family lol.

I think it is pointless judging Kelly and Morgan (or Holden and Lily or whoever else, or even Luke and Laura up to a certain point) outside of the times. The times were different, the performances were strong, the writing was well-done or at least very popular with certain audiences, etc. You take it or leave it while making whatever allowances you choose for the era.

Lovely. Wonder how long it'll last.

I will say I think DF is quite a good recast from whenever I've tuned in for stints off and on. (I went through a good portion of June and August before this) His slipping the shiv with Will about yet another stepfather was great. In the past there were times I couldn't take him seriously (it was mainly the hair) but I think he's strong enough, particularly with Ali. And I'll never fully embrace Martha's Belle, but under the recent circumstances what the hell, why not at this point? They seem to have acknowledged again that E.J. is (to put it mildly) a rake and darker hat, in no way a hero, and DF (I am not going to attempt to remember how to spell his name several Thanksgiving drinks in) really plays up the snide sleaze as well as the deeper, more complicated man.

Dan O'Connor and David Kreizman would feel like going from one downmarket urgent care to idk, hospice? I did enjoy tuning in for the anniversary eps, even if E.J. as MC was a bit wild. "Many of John Black’s family are here with us tonight. Many of whom I’ve tried to kill. Our next speaker is another one of his lovely daughters I’ve fúcked."

I remember Laura being immediately accepted. Tamara had a tough introduction and rough audience response given the BTS circumstances of Sarah Brown's exit and unfortunate changes wrought on the show in 2001, but the audience quickly swung to her side following the unpopular Angel story starting up and Carly being railroaded onscreen, as well as Maurice Benard actively tanking the Angel SL and very vocally coming out in support of Tamara. By the fall of '01 it was a done deal for her winning the audience over, and better daily writing when the Guza team returned the following spring sealed it.