Posts posted by Franko
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Edited by Franko
The Decline and Fall of the Monty Empire
Week 14 (March 31-April 4, 1986) -- Part I
Monica, to Edward: "How dare you fly in the face of truth! ... And is it too painful for you to admit the fact that we've been swindled, that you have risked this entire family's fortune?"
Alan: "Well said, Monica."
Edward: "Your eloquence proves nothing."
Monica: "But your pigheadedness proves everything, Edward."
Laurelton: Oh, if only Terry, Bobbie, and Felicia heard what Monica's saying. Most of the Brownstone ladies are insufferable this week. What infuriates me is that I'm certain there's not going to be moments where any or all of them come to terms with the fact that they were deceived and behaved irrationally. I hope I'm wrong.
Anyway, most of the week's devoted to whether Jake will defend Kevin. He finally agrees on Friday, which means we have to have scene after scene of a begging and pleading Terry, an aggressive Bobbie, and a childish Felicia. I'm watching with an interest in finding the seams of Kevin's scheme; surely his insistence on being defending by Jake should have raised some eyebrows? Hell, Anna and Frisco end the week respectfully in opposite camps when he leaves her side (but not the police itself) after deciding he's got a conflict of interest. Jake could have done the same, or at least have been prohibited from taking Kevin's case.
Kevin wants Jake, by the way, because he's of the people and isn't well-known as a defense attorney. For his part, Ted is competent but apparently not capable of getting the job done. It's funny that these episodes aired in the spring of 1986, before the premiere of Matlock and new life for the Simple Country Lawyer trope.
Patrick: "Look, I don't think Jennifer Talbot had a real friend in Laurelton. Except maybe Ted Holmes." The O'Connor bros scoff and chuckle over this like d-bags.
In the midst of this, we get some awkward comedy when Kevin's professor can't immediately find the attendance sheet for March 17.
Back to Kevin's scheme ... by the time it's proven that he wasn't in class on the day Jennifer died, he's repeatedly insisted he was in the library and a librarian can vouch for him. Lucy is named for the first time on Tuesday. She's away for Spring Break. Less than two weeks until Lucy's arrival, and just over three until the reveal.
Frisco's personal conflict this week is about whether he has what it takes to be a cop. He and Sam are among the cadets on probation. Captain Lewis, who's on his way out at the police academy*, vows to make sure they absolutely know the penal code. Frisco's determined to do right by Lewis, and he also insists on sticking to his goal. Once he's got his first check as a police officer, then he'll get a marriage license and wed Felicia.
*I have no clue what this was about, if GH figured Don Dolan had run his course and originally planned to no longer need him after the cadets story, or if they wanted to move Dolan to more scenes with Finola, Bob, and eventually Tristan.
Soap Opera Digest recaps from this period were really the pits. Describing Sheriff Broder coming on Ginny's show to criticize Anna, SOD made it sound like Ginny had no integrity at all. That's not the case in the actual scenes. Yes, Ginny could have pushed back more against what Broder said, but she did ask questions and generally let the hick hang himself.
I still wonder why the people of Port Charles care so much about the Brownstone-Laurelton murders, or if they actually do. Lucy's library supervisor apparently isn't keeping up with the story, but on the other hand, an old lady in the park calls out Anna while she's taking Robin to school. Friday's episode also has Buzz making a televised statement supporting Anna. It's pretaped, so he can watch it with Anna, Robin, and Filomenta. Nice job, Buzz, now ask Anna out while you still can!
Speaking of Anna, she and Robin have a nice scene on Friday when Anna explains that even though her job means people will disagree with her, it's okay to have disagreements. Robin also shouldn't go around punching her classmates while defending her mom. I just really liked Finola and Kimberly's chemistry together.
As this storyline's gone on, I've lost a lot of patience with Bobbie. I keep wondering if the story just doesn't work, or if it doesn't work because Bobbie's in a role that she's just not right for. Could it have worked 20 years later with Lucas rather than Terry? Anyway, Terry caught me off guard on Friday. Not only is she ugly-crying and running her mascara nearly as badly as Tammy Faye Bakker, but:
Terry: "Jake, I think you have forgotten something. Before I got my head on straight, I was starvin' for love. Do you remember? When I crawled into your bed? You were so kind, and understanding, and you talked to me. You told me that someday I'd be able to find the man that would love me. And in order ... in order to get love, I would have to learn to love. You said something like that. Do you remember?"
I'm assuming Bobbie never found out about this.
The week ends with Kevin vowing to sell his Purity Water stock, part of a bequest from Jennifer, to fund a hospital in her name. That, plus the lack of a clear motive for why Kevin would kill Earl Moody or Neil Johnson, not to mention the harassment he's been getting all week, is good enough for Jake to defend Kevin. Kevin's going to trial, Frisco's also been whipped into acting on Kevin's behalf, and Anna accepts this. Devane and Jones say they'll be friendly. If either party finds something that would prove the other's right, they won't conceal it.
Bobbie: "Well, nobody seems to have noticed that a very important event has just taken place here in Jake's office. ... All of us Brownstoners are one big happy family once again." Group hug.
Man, f*ck you, Bobbie.
(Part II will be about Sean Swindles the Quartermaines, Mike's Paternity, and Bryan and Claudia, which actually isn't a total afterthought this week!)
@DRW50, @titan1978, @Vee, @carolineg, @Jdee43, @dc11786, @Khan -- After all this time, I finally realized I should tag people.
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13 minutes ago, I Am A Swede said: Maybe it's not meant to be Charlene Tilton, but Cathy Podewell?
I suppose it's possible. I assumed Audrey Landers is between Brenda Strong and Anne Francis, but maybe that's supposed to be Charlene. The lady below Priscilla Pointer -- Morgan Brittany? (A really pale version of her.)
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Another great post, @slick jones! Who did Valerie play in that production of Steel Magnolias? I'm assuming Truvy, but I could also see her doing well with M'Lynn.
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3 hours ago, SoapDope78 said: A lot of odd things about that get together.
Mitch knew he was going to a pool party where it would be wet, why didn't he wear flip flops or some type of sandals ? I was surprised when he exited the pool in a huff he didn't have on those stupid soaking wet tube socks.
Speaking of Mitch's clothing, I don't know if I've ever seen a swimsuit lining look that much like briefs.
3 hours ago, SoapDope78 said: That's the last time you see Lucy with that many friends. I guess she didn't bother to invite Muriel since she is nowhere to be seen. All those douche bags probably had names like Tad, Muffy, Tiffany, Preston, Wentworth, etc...
"Mitch, I'd like you to meet my friends, Neiman and Marcus. And over here are Sanger and Harris."
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4 minutes ago, DRW50 said: I can't believe what Jake said to Anna. Maybe I should praise the show for realism, as some people are that blunt and callous toward single women, but I wish she'd cold-cocked him.
I know, right? Part of me wants to pretend I can just smugly laugh it off as, "Oh, the bad old days," but this type of stuff's still going on. And considering GH would eventually go all-in on Anna's lovelife, I guess we're supposed to believe Jake was at least somewhat in the right with what he said.
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1 minute ago, DRW50 said: Post by @forgottencomics.bsky.social — Bluesky
"Biography" by John Roman, 1986-1989 April 17th, 1988 as seen in the Tennessean
What a find, @DRW50! That top right panel is a shining example of smell the fart acting.
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9 hours ago, Jdee43 said: Were Bryan and Claudia ever written as regular people? It seems like the writers were never color blind when it came to writing them, rather indulging in some ridiculous stereotypes with them.
I think the problem is that the show rarely had an interest in developing Bryan and Claudia beyond being "the friends." Every time I watch one of their scenes, I figure that an episode had a couple of minutes to kill or the show's fulfilling contractual obligations.
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I made it to "Deadly Combination," and the infamous moment of Ben putting Lilimae in a headlock. It's striking -- I would have cheered something like that happening in Season 7, but now, all I can think about is how Ben's at rock bottom. I'm not blowing the lid off anything new here, but Doug Sheehan deserved better.
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12 minutes ago, Khan said: I saw her not too long ago in a "Law & Order" rerun where she portrayed the wife of a closeted gay man, who basically kills his lover, because the husband doesn't have the guts. She was so effective in that part, especially in the scene where she continues with her needlepoint (or whatever) while the authorities nail her with the evidence. It was a real Madame Defarge moment, and she played it chillingly well.
Mary Beth knew how to work with props. There's a bit in Compromising Positions where she's passing along info to Susan Sarandon while tending to a plant.
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5 hours ago, Paul Raven said: Those Bob Hope specials were ratings dynamite throughout the 60's and 70's but lost their appeal as the 80's wore on as evidenced by being scheduled on Sat @8. Bob won the timeslot but #36....
When did his last special air? I wonder how much interest there was from both sides by this stage?
Bob's last special, explicitly promoted as his last, aired in November 1996. By that point, he was averaging 1-2 specials a year, usually a Christmas one and a birthday one. There was a special in 2003 to celebrate his turning 100, but that was just a straight best of.
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Edited by Franko
The Decline and Fall of the Monty Empire
Week 13 (March 24-28, 1986)
Bryan, seeing Claudia and Lorena at Kelly's: "Hi. What are you doing here?"
Lorena: "Lookin' for a couple of sailors, Bryan. Get out of here, you're screwin' up our action."
I haven't yet finished my work week, so this weekend's post is going to be a little lazy, mostly stray observations rather than breaking things up by the stories.
-- Overall, this was a strong week. Yes, Laurelton took up most of the airtime, but the stories were intertwined pretty well. It's things like a hearing of the GH board over disciplining Patrick nearly resulting in Alan and Edward coming closer to the truth about Sean and Monica, or Ginny's tough love attitude with Mike being one of the reasons Tony says he's glad to not have kids at exactly the moment Tania's going to tell him she's pregnant. Only one story sticks out like a sore thumb.
-- Monday's episode included the unintentional comedy of what felt like Felicia talking-navigating-pushing Terry through the five stages of grief while Terry mourns Jennifer.
-- Anna's smart enough to play the long game, but I think she could have gloated a little about how if it wasn't for her grace in not revealing his pressure to wrap up the Brownstone-Laurelton case, and how the delay got Jennifer killed, Mayor Morgan could have been humiliated.
-- Felicia quickly begging Frisco to get married, and have a baby, and have a regular family made me wonder how Kristina Wagner would have done as Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
-- The Brownstone will probably never be as fascinating as it is now. As the week goes on, it's pretty much everyone against Patrick -- like I said, you'd think Bobbie would be more sympathetic considering she was falsely accused of murder the year before -- but to me it feels like there's two camps. We've got the splintered Laurelton four and the united Jones including Felicia. By virtue of her family ties, Bobbie should probably be another Laurelton splinter, but she and Jake seem slightly above the fray.
-- Jimmy Lee has decided that Celia walking out on him was really about greed. According to JL, Celia didn't want to share her renewed fortune. Seeing him in that compromising position with Pilar just gave Celia an excuse to split. It doesn't jibe with what we saw on screen, but then again, we were kept at a distance from Celia during her final episodes. Anyway, the point of Jimmy Lee's rationalization is so that there's still more weight to Monica's crisis over whether she can stay a Quartermaine.
-- In the long run, Lorena made the right choice with Derek, but I can't blame her for making ABSOLUTELY SURE that there was no more chance of hooking up with Jimmy Lee. The guy's so tan, he's almost the color of a raisin.
-- Different times: Alan coming into Monica's room without her consent and while she's half asleep, followed by her kicking him out, being played for comedy.
-- I'm quite positive that had Jack Wagner not left in 1987, there would have been a Frisco & Felicia kid that year or in 1988. This caused me to consider the ripple effect and wonder if in that timeline, B.J. still lives and Maxie doesn't exist. If the F&F kid's a boy, does Lucas still exist?
-- Just to clarify, Tania does tell Tony, and he is thrilled to become a dad. It's all just so, so sad in hindsight.
-- Thursday's episode has a nice, non-comedy use of Amy, sharing information about the parking situation at GH and acting as a sort of secretary for Anna.
-- I get that Jake's sticking up for his client, Patrick, but he hit below the belt with Anna on Thursday. Questioning her abilities as a mother and breadwinner is bad enough, but then things get even more personal.
Jake "And you haven't got a man in your bed. I don't believe I said that, but I'm not sorry. Because I care for you, Anna, and I hate to see you become what you're becoming."
Anna didn't say anything especially notable when she let Jake have it, but I'm glad she let him have it. Seriously, when this story is over, Anna deserves to tell a whole bunch of people to kiss her British bum.
-- Okay, here's the sore thumb moment. It's Bryan and Claudia's half-minute of marital bliss, then continued angst, all happening at the spa. It almost feels like filler after Jimmy Lee rebuffs Lorena, then Ginny gives an update on Mike. Claudia learns that Bryan went with Mike to a basketball game (Derek's also using the tough love approach), and she's happy ... until Debbie comes over and reveals she went with the guys. Apparently Debbie's going to hang around until at least the summer. I can't wait to see what other storylines she, Bryan, and Claudia will be dropped into.
-- Friday's episode ends with Anna's surprise arrest of Kevin. It turns out that Red Flynn happened to see Kevin and Jennifer arguing at the airport. I assume Lucy's going to get mentioned for the first time next week. Before that, GH teases Lucy's eventual storyline when a nurse suggests that her friend who went out with Patrick write a tell-all.
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3 minutes ago, Vee said: It's a very worthwhile point. And no, they never seemed to. Alan and Monica were really the perfect ideal of a longtime soap couple of that caliber, where they could and would do anything to each other or other people and still come back together because they uniquely understood each other.
There is a great love scene they have in '82 or '83 I think - one of Stuart Damon's favorite episodes according to a SoapNet marathon - where he explodes in sexual jealousy over her for some reason or another. They are married but have been living in hate with his affairs, his love child, her contempt etc. for a long stretch. This leads to hate sex that has a couple queasy moments, but the clincher that makes it perfect is when Monica responds and they begin to do it for real, and I think she has a line like 'if you tell anyone about this i'll kill you.' And then they began to make another real go of it again after that, slowly. That's the couple to me. And it made sense for them to evolve to a better and healthier place, much much further down the road.
I love it. It sums up who Alan and Monica were at that stage in their lives. My go-to for the couple on the whole is this exchange from 2007 when they realize neither killed Rick.
Monica: "I'm relieved. You're no prize, but you're all I've got, and I didn't want to lose you."
Alan: "I love you too, darling."
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Not to hijack the thread, but I've been thinking about a long-term screen duo that I don't believe had any drama, Stuart Damon and Leslie Charleson. I wonder if it helped that as the years went on, they knew they could let anything out every couple of years when it was time for Alan and Monica to have another epic fight.
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7 hours ago, Khan said: ICAM. It seems like many of Aaron Spelling's most popular shows suffered the same kind of fate. You have PSM and "Dynasty," and Shannen Doherty and "90210" (and, I'd add, "Charmed"). But you also have Farrah Fawcett and "Charlie's Angels" and even Lauren Tewes and "The Love Boat." Heck, even "The Colbys" suffered after Barbara Stanwyck decided she had had enough, lol.
Not to mention Hervé Villechaize leaving Fantasy Island.
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@Maxim, @DRW50, @EricMontreal22, @yrfan1983
Speaking of "I'm Still Here," this supercut was just posted. Well ... points for ambition. It's not the curator's fault, it just feels like there's 24 distinct tempos to deal with. The idea of seeing the singers' younger selves juxtaposed with their performance is evocative, though.
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14 hours ago, Paul Raven said: Wk 1 1983/84 season
Thurs 8-9
CBS Magnum PI #9 22.7/37
ABC Trauma Center #43 14.1/23
NBC Gimme A Break #48 13.2/22 Mama's Family #47 13.5/21
9-10
CBS Simon & Simon #6 23.6/36
NBC We Got It Made #28/17.0/26 Cheers #19 18.4/29
ABC 9 to 5 #55 11.4/18 It's Not Easy #63 9.8/16
10-11
CBS Knots Landing #12 21.0/32
ABC 20/20 #33 18.0/27
NBC Live & In Person Pt 3 #57 10.7/18
Live and In Person was an ambitious but ultimately unpopular variety special.
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Thanks for the tag, @slick jones. I was wondering if you can help me. Did you ever look up Vance Jefferis, who played Matt McAllister on OLTL (and has been my avatar for the last year)? I ask because I'm wondering if he did some dayplayer work on GH in March 1986 as the photographer who nearly got Patrick fired.
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Just chiming in to note a few things before this weekend's mega post on March 24-28, 1986:
I'm certain that Bobbie's past won't be revealed to Jake/revisited by the show until the end of 1987. It will be interesting to see how it's presented.
You'd think that Bobbie would be even a little sympathetic towards Patrick, considering she was falsely accused of murder the year before. I'm surprised Jake hasn't thrown that back at her.
Guiding Light Discussion Thread
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps
Fantasies actually did well in the ratings, ranking No. 9 for the week of Jan. 18-24, 1982. Bear in mind, though, that this was January 1982, at the time when ABC Daytime ruled the world, and the competition was weak.
M*A*S*H (No. 17), House Calls (No. 44), and People of the Year (No. 60) on CBS. The latter was a special hosted by Bob Newhart (!) about People's 25 Most Fascinating People of 1981. Over on NBC, The Long Summer of George Adams, starring James Garner. "In 1950s Oklahoma, a railroad worker's job is threatened by automation, compounding domestic problems with his wife and the ridicule he faces from the townfolks because of his second job as a watchman." It ranked at No. 40. This was when NBC's highest-ranked program was Real People (No. 13).