Vee

That was a long time ago, and they did have him appear near the end of his life. This regime wasn't in place when Alan was killed off, unlike most of the other actors they've memorialized.

He just died, and they gave him one final appearance weeks ago as well as a HEA last year, all of which was clearly with his recent illness in mind. They will honor him onscreen but it might take time on account of much of their veteran cast dying off en masse in recent months/years, starting with Leslie Charleson and Denise Alexander. We can critique GH for many things, but this regime has always honored their veterans when they pass away.

There are named housed staff for the Duprees but we almost never see them (if at all yet). I really can't fault them for that at present with the way soap budgets are now. It's not like the lux '80s or '90s for Y&R.

The best thing the show has going for it is the intense, sustained audience engagement. Not just in this thread but all across social media and clearly, in the general audience. It's got a real viewer share, and Sheila Ducksworth's point is well taken when she talks about having to walk the tightrope between the pace classic soap fans are used to and that of the 18-29 demo used to something speedier. I understand that struggle, even if I don't think they have at all figured it out yet onscreen and I think it needs a ton of work. The stuff with Chelsea and Madison in particular is like the pace out of primetime Melrose Place, where within a week they're all but moving in together. Many such examples. The reality, both refreshing and frightening, is that no American daytime soap has had to face or try to hook an all-new audience since 1999. BTG is the first and hopefully not the last, but they have genuinely garnered a new audience that wasn't already bought in, one unused to daytime pacing. It is trying to marry the two kinds of viewers onscreen. That's a trying task and we can see the seams and issues with this all over the show, its pacing, execution, etc. But I think this being six months, it having the intense following it does is still a promising sign. I just hope that in another six months they've learned to use MVJ's lessons from the ABC soaps - not the latter-day Bell ones.

No, I think there's real issues with execution and pacing. Some of it is growing pains, and some may be larger or systemic. The family setup is certainly off AFAIC. Starting with Martin and his kids. But the Leslie reveal I don't have an issue with so much as the speed.

It's something Ducksworth talked about recently re: having to juggle the older viewership's familiarity with daytime pacing and the 18-29s' desire for something faster. I get the issue and I think it's a real one, but this isn't the way to thread that needle. Still, growing pains.

This show is barely six months old, and all this stuff was filmed long ago. I suspect the Barbara/Leslie twist in the tale was planned from the beginning of the show. The quality of the execution is a whole other issue.

The Vanessa arc with Joey is where Guza's influence seemed to show through clearest to me. She made that switch-up to mob moll fast and LB sold it well, and her chemistry with Lindstrom leveled up as a result (as did his menace a bit, finally).

LMAO!

I would not waste SB on a villain (and I think he's too young to be Dante Green). I would however bring him on for DD or someone else.

Ric will always have it bad for Liz but there is no serious pairing there. Ric and Ava could have a lot of fun together for a long time as scheming equals, as could Cody and Ava as her stud for a certain period. You can easily play both, or a Cody/Liz fling or all of the above. (Though my endgame with Cody would remain Tracy) I do think Willow/Drew and their !@#$%^&*]ed-up madness remains where the money is at.

I would keep Cody mixing it up with Ava and Ric (are they still a thing, what even happened there) and Tracy. Maybe a fling with Liz. I'm good.

I've just never bought into temp infomercial Molly and never will. Nice girl, but not ready for major story. Again, Molly is a character who needed a long break well before the many recasts.

I just assume the character is related to Luna. Again, I'd put her and Morgan Fairchild to work in the Deception outlet store inside the MC from time to time if they need to keep their insurance and call it a day.

Like I said before, I would be a little surprised if Ted is on canvas this time next year. But I don't think that necessarily has anything to do with the recast so much as I suspected that perfect husband Ted might not last long on the show when I saw the early casting notices even before BTG first aired. I think he may always have had an expiration date. I don't need Ted gone immediately but I do think he is a secondary character atm.

The Duprees are the central power family on the show - in fact, they're the only one. I don't know what that's getting at.

Given Arianna turning up a feisty teen and knowing the current soaps I suspect Will will become a grandfather and Sami a great-grandma soon enough. Another reason they should never have done the same old tired 'give the gays a baby to avoid sex scenes' trick.

I don't think writing for the couple would change much. Robinson's Ted is kind of a weenie (though he's good with Eva) and MJ had his issues. I frankly suspect Ted was always meant to be a character who won't last forever. He is a delivery system for Leslie and Eva.

Leslie can do better than Ted.

Nicole and Ted on BTG are definitely in the running for the Ellen Stewart Tribute Award.

I don't think the current Ted is long for the show tbh. I'd be surprised if the character is here in a year. But then I suspected that may have been the case with Ted from the jump when I saw the early casting notices.

I know

It makes me wonder if the alleged new hire - possibly is for Nicole. They'd be hot. But I also have my doubts they'd immediately jump to pairing one of the central female leads with

OLTL will always be my favorite soap, but the constant, embarrassing favoritism for past OLTL stars and the endless attempts to re-thread OLTL or other ABC soap stuff into the current show (as part of Frank and Ron's alleged failed dream for an "ABC supersoap" in the early '10s) have poisoned the well for a lot of what could be worthwhile crossovers. I loved little Sam on OLTL, but seeing whole stories tilted around Roger's third character and poor Patrick Gibbons struggling to act as that Boy Scout character they had him play - it was just pathetic on FV's part. Move on. In isolation I don't have an issue with characters from other ABC soaps popping up or even potentially doing stints. This stuff goes back to Marco Dane scheming with Tracy; there are places Blair could mix it up with Lucy and Deception, or Skye and her daughter could come back and make trouble (with Skye quickly leaving!). The problem is that Frank's preoccupation with this stuff has too often come at the expense of GH story and characters. So while I can see places where some visiting characters would work for appearances or short arcs, I wouldn't do any more of it for a long time. GH fans are long since over it, and they have a right to be. (As for Corinth, what I had dreamed up once was to see a hypothetical OLTL revival have its youth set make a Halloween visit there to the 'cursed town' on a teenage dare, maybe unknowingly running into the ghost of Gwyneth Alden. But you could easily do the same thing with the kids on GH - if again, the fans weren't already so sick of crossovers. At least send me my royalty check, Frank.)

I like Cady's weird character but I know she's a very acquired taste lol, especially in this bizarre role. I think they need to bring on her family/kids, I'd much rather be watching them than Derek and Ashley. I think Vanessa is a star and should be hooked to a Dupree or Dupree-adjacent male quickly.