Franko

"Disturbing" is an accurate way to put it. I've already watched the episodes for the last week in February and ... well, it's a sustained display of Robyn Bernard at the absolute limits of her acting ability. (Teaser for my next post: the week does include some interesting moments for Martha Scott & David Doyle, and especially Finola Hughes & Don Galloway.) Lucy debuted on Monday, April 14, 1986. The big reveal was in the final moments of the Friday, April 25 episode. Exactly. Monica's seeing Edward at his lowest behavior, and Alan only a couple notches above his worst. The writers clearly wanted the Qs' poverty to feel deserved and justified.

Be warned that if you do rewatch, there's lots of ersatz Twilight Zone music. It's like, okay, we've got it, it's a surreal comedy! As for Kathryn, my memory is that she's the straight woman. She doesn't have the joke/baggage of blatantly playing against type, like John and Dan Aykroyd had. And she's not vamping like there's no tomorrow, like Cathy Moriarty did. It's begging for a remake, but they wouldn't have the guts to tackle it in this day and age.

Thanks for the tag, @DRW50. That is some hairdo on Kathryn Walker, who played Fawn. My go-tos for Kathryn are Neighbors, where she played John Belushi's wife (and Lauren-Marie Taylor's mom!), and Special Bulletin, where she's kind of a Barbara Walters takeoff.

I've said it many times, but the young men of DOOL and Passions from 1999-2004 helped me understand that liking guys wasn't a phase. That said, the shows did tend to over-indulge. I revisited some of the Salem Stalker era and it's like every episode seemed to have some combination of Jason Cook, Kyle Brandt, Eric Winter, and/or Kyle Lowder shirtless or in their underwear.

Week Eight, Part II (Conclusion) Sean Swindles the Quartermaines: Despite Laurelton using up most of the week's oxygen, this storyline still had a significant surge. Quentin Quartermaine, single again, reconciles with Celia. She's once again her dad's sole heiress, and will get annual trust fund payments, too. Edward and Alan fear that Celia and Jimmy Lee's independence (in a manner of speaking) means they can take on Sean themselves. Monica: "Alan, if the situation were reversed, wouldn't you and Edward do exactly the same thing to Jimmy Lee?" Alan: "What does that have to do with anything, Monica? Of course we would do that. It's business. Whatever works." Monica: "And every man for himself, right?" Monica tells Sean, who lets Dimitri know that Pilar's role is to undermine Jimmy Lee and Celia. Once that's done, Monica admits that she's scared about how fast things are going with her and Sean. She doesn't want to throw out the relationship. In fact, she wanted to have both Sean and her life as a Quartermaine, which she thought was safe and sound. Disgusted by Alan's lack of morality in business and certain that extends to love, Monica says being with Sean is where she wants to be. Speaking of missing morals, consider that on Friday, Edward wants to have Jimmy Lee arrested as part of a scheme to keep him in line. It's moments like this where I'm curious if Papa Q ever thought to himself, "Well, no wonder Tracy was willing to let me die." Anyway, Dimitri stalls Celia, Pilar cozies up to Jimmy Lee, Jimmy Lee goes to take a shower, Pilar gets into bed, Jimmy Lee comes out in just a towel ... and Celia catches the compromising situation. Mike's Paternity: Jeff's allowed to stay with the Webbers, even though Mike comes thisclose to preventing it. The social worker has to take both of the youths' feelings into consideration. Even though Mike's mad about sharing his room and school supplies with Jeff, and initially complains to the social worker. he still eventually does the right thing and walks back his griping. Soon after, Ginny stands up to both Mike and Derek. Mike's grounded, Derek can stay out of it, Mike's forbidden from hanging around the studio, Ginny doesn't want to hear it from Mike, and if Derek doesn't stop trying to influence Mike against Ginny and Rick, she'll get a court order. "Listen, I am sick and tired of playing games with him. It is high time that you and Mike figure that out." Go Ginny! Frisco and Felicia: Along with talking about Laurelton, they get some romantic/comic relief material on Thursday. Frisco throws out his back, and nobody at the Brownstone will let him go to the police academy. "Help me! I'm being held prisoner! In my own house!" On Friday, Frisco's well enough to do some barely subtle snooping and eavesdropping. Other thoughts: -- Trixie's still around, albeit offscreen. Ruby says she's got to get back to Kelly's, or else Trixie will quit. The great Jessie Brewer and Dan Rooney drought continues.

The Decline and Fall of the Monty Empire Week Eight (Feb. 17-21, 1986) -- Part I Terry: "Well, there's no clouds, no shadows, and no ghosts from three years ago in my life now." Patrick: "Everything's been put to rest?" Terry: "Everything. What about your ghosts?" Patrick: "Well ... they're going." -- the new in-laws, prematurely declaring happily ever after Laurelton: Just one heading for this week, as the relationships and mystery elements were pretty much integrated. Anna learns that the Purity Water medallion used to kill Earl Moody had what is likely to have been an "O," which apparently was someone's last initial. Actually, it could be either an "O" or a "Q," but obviously they weren't going to plug Edward, et al. into this mess. (I suppose Celia could have done it, as she was the only Quartermaine not preoccupied with Susan Moore's murder.) Anyway, because of the letter's placement on the medallion, Patrick and Kevin O'Connor are considered more likely suspects than Terry Brock, Jennifer Talbot, and Ted Holmes. Now that we're supposed to take Kevin seriously as a potential murderer, his aggression is ratcheted up several notches. It's things like saying he could kill Patrick for seeming to lose Terry's wedding ring (Frisco was hiding it), or holding Terry too tightly when he puts on her necklace and later gives her a massage, and getting into a fight with Patrick over his failed sexual encounter with Terry on Valentine's Day 1983. Kevin's behavior is plausible, but it would have been more effective if it didn't seem to come out of nowhere. On the other hand, what appears to be the big reveal about Terry and Patrick has been anticpated for several months. During her intended cathartic journey down Main Street (Sherman should have had such a march), Terry remembers that after fleeing her and Patrick's motel room, she went down that same street while naked, hysterical, and being seen by various Laurelton citizens. It's like the daytime TV version of Isabella Rossellini's nude scene in Blue Velvet, but the similarity is obviously coincidental. After this, Terry once again sings "I Am So Happy (His Way Is My Way)," apparently achieving genuine catharsis while this time, various Port Charles folk watch. While Anna is literally running through Laurelton to get to the right church (and GH's directors are trying to make it look like Finola is traveling farther than she actually is), and after Terry's fainted (because sure, why not?) and Frisco and Felicia have tried everything to stall the wedding short of hijacking it for themselves, Terry and Kevin are wed. I smirked at how after all that buildup, the actual ceremony's done after five minutes of screentime. I can understand why Hilary Edson left GH after her contract expired. All of the other Brownstone residents at least have something to come back to in Port Charles. Right now, Tania exists to wear a boring bridesmaid's dress and have her turn with the "Those Laurelton folks are strange!" dialogue. Similar to Kevin's emerging tough guy routine, there's some tweaking going on with the old guard in Laurelton. It's revealed this week that Terry's pre-wedding march included her seeming to be fixated on the town hall (where her reception ended up not taking place). Later on, Terry says she recalls hearing angry voices at the hall on Valentine's Day 1983. I know that eventually, it's going to turn out that the Laureltonians are more afraid of Terry than she is of them, but that's not coming across on screen. We kept hearing about how Jennifer had to twist arms to get those people to come to the wedding, and it would have been so much more effective to see this apparent tension in a way other than rehashed observations from the Port Charles gang. Wednesday's episode includes both a meeting of the Purity Water board, which is mostly an excuse to gang up on "weak link" Sarah, and Terry and Kevin's ill-fated wedding night. It's sort of fascinating that in the end, almost everybody eventually got some kind of harsh punishment for Laurelton. Jennifer, Kevin, Ted and Sheriff Broder died. Sarah went to jail. Mrs. Russell lost her husband. Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor lost one son and ended up permanently alienated from another. Patrick and Terry faded away as characters. The winners would be Lucy, and of course, Nestlé, which undoubtedly bought Purity Water for a song at some point. Tim O'Connor: "You ask the lawyer. Until Earl Moody's will is processed, you are nothing. You are nothing to us, and you are nothing to Purity Water. You don't even belong here. ... You come off that high horse, boy! You don't even deserve to have us give you the time of day. I ought to take you by the collar and bodily throw you out of here." Patrick: "Watch it, Dad. You're not dealing with your little skinny Patrick anymore." Jennifer, a little later: "You were a very wild young boy, Patrick. Your father's right. You haven't changed. Too bad you aren't more like your brother, Kevin." The hatred for Patrick is being presented as a result of Valentine's Day 1983, but I can't shake the feeling that it's all a barely concealed allegory for long-term homophobia. It certainly would have added a bit more nuance to what happened at that motel, if one or both of Patrick and Terry were closeted. Terry being a lesbian would also add an extra wrinkle to why she's resisting sex with Kevin, although the in-universe explanation that she's got trauma works well enough on its own. Anyway, the 1986 audience is being asked to believe that Kevin's decent enough that married or not, he'll wait until Terry's ready for sex. Kevin and Terry's honeymoon is postponed for an especially contrived reason, even in-universe. Alone in the Brownstone's attic apartment and having just found out about Terry's emerging memories, Jennifer throws herself to the floor. This gives Ted an excuse to call the newlyweds (who are in NYC prior to leaving for the Caribbean) and get them back in Port Charles. It turns out Jennifer's only got a sprained ankle, but naturally, Terry wouldn't even think of leaving her ... and oh, how I loved Bobbie's barely concealed exasperation with the old crone and her lackey. That's what I'm kind of looking forward to in Martha Scott's last weeks, if there will be a time where Jennifer realizes she can't influence the situation or has found out the truth and is now horrified. What can I say, I like when a villain realizes they're powerless. On other positive notes, I was digging the jazz versions of "It's De-Lovely," "Someone to Watch Over Me," and "Blue Moon" playing during Terry and Kevin's reception. And Kevin Bernhardt had a cute body, so thanks for the underwear scene. It was also fun when Jennifer called the Brownstone a commune. Note: These commentaries will eventually receive their own thread.

Understandable, Errol. I'll give it some thought.

Oh, wow, yeah, that's defintely inspired by the Lucy reveal.

That slide of Macdonald Carey ... chef's kiss I wonder if once Dinah's Place debuted and they did a full lineup promo, they updated some of the soap slides to include women.

If I remember right, the Ice Princess is attributed to Russell. But I think Thom Racina was involved in some way. Speaking of Lucy, I'm impressed that (to the best of my knowledge) nobody's ripped off her big reveal scene, even after all these years. I guess the closest would be Jane Sibbett's Jane on Santa Barbara (and even then, they're homaging Body Double just as much as GH), or Bruce Michael Hall's Reese on Passions (and this was a few years into the show's run, so we already knew BMH wasn't nerdy offscreen).

According to the credits on March 12, 1986, the writing staff was Credit No. 1: Pat Falken Smith and Norma Monty Credit No. 2: James E. Reilly, Patrick Smith, and Maralyn Thoma Credit No. 3: Robert Guza, Jr., Doris Silverton, Robert Soderberg, Thomas D. Citrano Credit No. 4: Story Consultant A.J. Russell

Luckily, Anna's fate as a leading lady apparently wasn't riding on Laurelton. I just keep telling myself, "A few more months until Duke, a few more months until Duke ..." Those zoom-in close ups. For a moment, I thought Jake was going to get one of his own. Poor Bobbie really got the Ellen Stewart treatment, even if she luckily didn't become a premature grandma. Laurelton was probably DOA and wouldn't really work under any circumstances, but I've been wondering how things would have gone if it was about Bobbie's youth in Florida as opposed to Terry's youth somewhere in the south. Also, in hindsight, Jennifer & Ted are clearly the first drafts for Vivian & Ivan.

Nope, actually it went back to back. From 2:30-3:15 p.m., it was OLTL, followed by GH from 3:15-4 p.m.

The first soap opera to premiere as a 60-minute program was Texas in 1980. AMC, OLTL, and GH all debuted as 30-minute shows and expanded. OLTL and GH expanded to 45 minutes each in 1976, followed by AMC to an hour in 1977, and OLTL and GH to an hour each in 1978.

Yes. We're getting closer to mid-March, when Y&R dethroned GH for a few weeks.