Franko

And in the Oct. 25, 1985, episode, a pre-fame Tony Shalhoub.

Thank you. That does ring a bell. I remember Theresa and Julian's drunk, giggly fake wedding (with Julian asking "Whassup?" to the minister). Was Bruce tricking the pair as a prank, or did somebody put him up to it? I especially liked Katherine recalling how dashing young Alistair was when he'd pick up Rachel for dates, and how she wished she could be her sister, then feeling guilty once Rachel had her boating accident ...

In theory, yes. I thought for sure that was also coming in the early '00s.

Watching the Mark Graison years of Dallas reminds me that John Beck was on Passions. I remember he was a friend of Julian's, but I don't 100% remember the context. IMDB says Beck played "Bruce," who I initially thought/misremembered was Gwen's father. Hidden Passions had at least five members of Julian and Ivy's young adult social circle that I was certain were going to pop up circa 2001: Clarissa Morton (brassy new money who had her man stolen by Rebecca), Jonathan Hotchkiss (Gwen's father), Mimi (Higoboom?) (a sorority sister that Pilar thought laughed like Woody Woodpecker), and the Biddles twins, Tommy and Tiffany.

Apologies if this has been posted, but Kristen Meadows in an ad for the earliest version of talk to text technology.

I hope this played better than it sounds, because I'm imagining two separate scenes (the attack by Arnie, and later Charles getting shot). In my mind, it should have been a fluid single sequence. I wonder if or how often "bastard" was uttered in this scene. Fare thee well, Christopher Reeve. I've said it before, but pop culture's gain was daytime's definite loss. Imagine seeing HIM day after day, year after year, decade after decade, conceivably until they stopped producing soaps in NYC. Well, that answers my "bastard" question. Good lord, the roads of Rosehill are packed with high-strung drivers and/or pedestrians. More sequences that I hope played better than they sound.

Seriously, the Grim Reaper needs to lay the hell off of daytime for a while. Anyway, this is how you play a back from the dead scene.

Seeing T.R. give Danny a massage made me wonder if Jane Krakowski was considered for One Life to Live's Tina recast in 1990. At that point, Jane was in Broadway's Grand Hotel and probably not interested in coming back to daytime (plus, at 21, she would have been rather young for the role), but it still felt like a what could have been moment.

This is probably an unfair generalization, but I do say it with affection: I've always thought of Felicia (and by extension, Linda Dano) as "your mother's fabulous but slightly insufferable friend." Sort of a Godmommie Mame, you know?

Thank you, @Paul Raven! I chose Love of Life because it's a show I don't have a lot of familiarity with, so I thought it would be interesting to look at this period with a more or less unspoiled view.

I intended it to be from film critics, but -- full disclosure -- lifted the Punchline and Steel Magnolias stuff from old blog posts of mine. In short, you're free to share your own criticism, yes. (I've said it before, but I consider myself a Clairee with more than a little Annelle.)

This. I'm also reminded of something from the old Cinema de Merde website, something I've tried to carry with me. "(paraphrased) We will not let our dislike for a movie impede our efforts to engage with it."

It's a sweet scene. I'm requesting Love of Life, please.

Here's the place to share some memorable criticism. You don't have to agree with it, of course (that's often where the fun starts). Like I mentioned to @DRW50, Sally Field was a favorite punching bag in the late '80s and early '90s. Punchline (the 1988 movie where she and Tom Hanks are stand ups): "It's impossible to tell the difference between Miss Field's routines that are supposed to be awful, and the awful ones that are supposed to be funny." -- Vincent Canby, New York Times. "It's not merely that Field is miscast; she's miscast in a role that leaves no other resource available to her except her lovability. And (David) Seltzer's script forces her to peddle it shamelessly." -- Hal Hinson, Washington Post. "As a woman who can't tell a joke, Sally Field is certainly convincing. ... Field has become an unendurable performer ... She seems to be begging the audience not to punch her. Which, of course, is the worst kind of bullying from an actor. ... She's certainly nothing like the great housewife-comedian Roseanne Barr, who is a tough, uninhibited performer. Sally Field's pandering kind of 'heart' couldn't be further from the spirit of comedy." -- David Denby, New York Steel Magnolias: The leading ladies: Dolly Parton: "She is one of the sunniest and most natural of actresses," Roger Ebert wrote. Imagining that she probably saw Truvy as an against-type role, Hinson concluded it's still well within her wheelhouse. "She's just wearing fewer rhinestones." Sally Field: "Field, as always, is a lead ball in the middle of the movie," according to Denby . M'Lynn giving her kidney to Shelby brought out David's bitchy side. "I can think of a lot more Sally Field organs that could be sacrificed." Shirley MacLaine: "(She) attacks her part with the ferociousness of a pit bull," Hinson wrote. "The performance is so manic that you think she must be taking off-camera slugs of Jolt." (I agree. If there was anyone playing to the cheap seats in this movie, it's Shirley.) Olympia Dukakis: "Excruciating, sitting on her southern accent as if each obvious sarcasm was dazzlingly witty," Denby wrote. Daryl Hannah: "Miss Hannah's performance is difficult to judge," according to Canby, which seems to suggest he took a genuine "if you can't say something nice ..." approach. Julia Roberts: "(She acts) with the kind of mega-intensity the camera cannot always absorb," Canby wrote. That comment is so fascinating in light of the nearly 40 years Julia has spent as a Movie Star. She is big. It's the audience who had to play catch up. And on that drag-ish note ... The movie itself: "You feel as if you have been airlifted onto some horrible planet of female impersonators," Hinson wrote. Canby: "Is one supposed to laugh at these women, or with them? It's difficult to tell." Every review I read acknowledged the less than naturalistic dialogue in ways both complimentary (Ebert loved the way the women talked) and cutting (Harling wrote too much exposition, repeating himself like a teenager telling a story, Denby wrote). Harling wrote with sincerity and passion, Canby acknowledged, but it's still a work of "bitchiness and greeting card truisms." The ending was less likely to inspire feeling good as it was feeling relieved, according to Denby. "(It's) as if a group of overbearing, self-absorbed, but impeccable mediocre people at last exit from the house."

I tend to have two minds about Tawny (Kathy Najimy) fainting during Soapdish's big reveal. You're the costume designer, if anything, you should have known the whole time. I guess it's an application of what TV Tropes calls the "Rule of Funny." Every time I watch Delirious, I always want the genuine romance in John and Mariel's reunion at the deli counter to last longer. Film critics had their knives out for Sally in this period. I'll start a separate thread on the movies page.

I remember Michael Logan interviewed L.A. actors/production staff about the movie. Susan Seaforth Hayes said she was dying to know Susan Lucci's reaction.

Throwing this out to the universe: finding Elisabeth Shue's episode of As the World Turns (which I guess would have been circa 1983, maybe just before RDJ started watching Search for Tomorrow).

As it happens, 40 years ago this week, ABC and CBS revealed their 1985-86 fall schedules. NBC revealed theirs the week before. ABC's would end up changing. The original plan for Tuesdays was to have Diff'rent Strokes lead the night, with He's the Mayor at 8:30, followed by Who's the Boss at 9, Growing Pains at 9:30, and Moonlighting at 10. There was some surprise over MacGruder & Loud not getting renewed, but it was considered part of Aaron Spelling's declining influence at the network. Yes, Dynasty was still a hit (for a while longer), but Aaron's shows steadily took up less and less of the schedule. Fall 1984: Seven hours, five of which were new programming (Dynasty, Hotel, Glitter, Matt Houston, T.J. Hooker, The Love Boat, Finder of Lost Loves; MacGruder & Loud aired at midseason, by which time Glitter was gone.). Fall 1985: Five hours, two of which were new programming (Dynasty, Hotel, The Colbys, Hollywood Beat, The Love Boat). Fall 1986: Three-and-a-half hours, a half-hour of which was new programming (Dynasty, Hotel, The Colbys, Life With Lucy). Fall 1987: Two hours, none of which was new programming (Dynasty and Hotel; HeartBeat premiered at midseason). Fall-winter 1988: Two hours, none of which was new programming (Dynasty and HeartBeat). This led to Variety's infamous shady headline in spring 1989: "Aaron's Dynasty Over"

The bit with the scarf reminds me of the fabled stuffed animal scene with Rick and Phillip. (That wasn't debunked, was it?)

I'm not at all surprised the 10 lowest-rated episodes are all from Season Seven. Moving The Golden Girls from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. was foolish.

As the folklore goes, Love Boat episodes generally had one "heart" story, one "laughs" story, and one "tears" story. I guess Hotel just stuck with "heart" and "tears."

And if I remember correctly, at one point, they were considering having Linda Thorson play Opal's sister.

Okay, now it's my turn to ask about the Thorntons, namely Edna. Did she and Opal have any scenes together? I ask because I was familiar with Opal first, so when I found out about Edna, my biased mind saw her as the first try for that type of character.

Randall Edwards (and Brian Tarantina), with the opening night cast of 1985's Biloxi Blues, plus director Gene Saks and playwright Neil Simon.