Franko

Marlena in the pit was the Friday cliffhanger for Oct. 30, 1992. That storyline lasted through Friday, Dec. 11. Well, technically Marlena was rescued on the 9th, but there was an aftermath to deal with.

Now I'm curious about the men who were considered for Garrett before Ken Howard.

What a fun idea for a thread! ERICA KANE (AMC) Highest Point: Leading the "An American Beauty" campaign for Sensuelle. Lowest Point: The Woman of the Year meltdown.

Great choices! It might also be nice to get someone playing Dougie as an adult, paying his respects to the father he never knew.

Don Frabotta as Dave, for starters.

One more from the pre-Days days.

Damn. I almost wanted to believe it would never happen. Much love to Susan during this trying time.

Not too long ago, I wondered what would have happened if they moved Mitch to Knots Landing starting in 1982-83, after he had divorced Lucy (and as Gary and Val were divorcing). Ultimately, they didn't need another young man, since they had Chip (and it's not like Kenny was getting a plethora of airtime), but it was still a thought I had. There actually was at least one scene which all but acknowledged that anything Lucy had with at least Val was gone. Karen was worrying about being estranged from one of her kids and asked Val about the last time she talked with Lucy. Val admitted it was so long ago, she couldn't remember.

Just seeing the news now. I tell you, it's eerie ... I mean, here we are, having been talking about her (and she's certainly not a talk about once and move on kind of person, that's for sure).

In case anyone was just dying to know, the reruns of Full House and Home Improvement involved D.J. getting her learner's permit and Tim being visited by an old college buddy (Christopher McDonald).

It was promoting the storyline concerning shenanigans during the making of a horror movie in Salem. Normally, this would be a C plot on its own (it involved Carrie and Sarah), but it also somehow tied into the larger picture of Lawrence's arrival.

Personally, I'll take the "It Will Excite You" ads over the "Trying out some new software" ones.

Awful sad that Frank and Doris may or may not have been able to look past their allegedly longstanding and permanent writeoff of Bridget's worth.

The 1982 cast photo. Forty-seven people. I'll bow down to anyone who can name all the actors or characters.

I'm wondering if the preparation for and aftermath of the hour expansion had something to do with the number of less celebrated Dobsons era characters. Perhaps there was a "introduce them and we'll see if they'll end up mattering" approach. Of course, the problem is when you wind up with bloated ensembles, which happened to quite a few shows by the '80s. I'll never forget seeing that MASSIVE 1982 All My Children cast picture.

What a saga this was! Thanks, @JAS0N47! No worries, Khan.

Yeah, that's another problem I have -- just bring back Calliope. If I remember right from her 1992 appearance, she was a New York-based talk show host. Yup, I think this was the consensus we reached, that nobody (maybe not even Deidre) took this seriously, it was all just an example of demonstrating the value of the star.

Well, there was the time she nearly died in an ice storm ... And J.R. had military experience, too.

I've said it before, but I'm still amazed that Gary never conceived any children between Lucy and Bobby & Betsy.

The description of P.T. as similar to Bette Midler in Beaches came from the SOD article describing Manhattan Lives, and ever since I've read it, I've been unable to let it go. I just can't imagine who on the daytime scene would even qualify for such a role, or if they would have cast from outside the actors pool.

There's a rainy day activity just waiting to happen. P.S. Thank you for the tag! I'm always delighted when I remember how much plays and musicals performances were a part of this era of the cable networks. It seems to have died out once they were more into making their own TV movies.

Yes, that's right! And Marlena's Bette Midlereque friend, P.T. Barnum.

Reading about Ada's likely platonic marriage to Charley has me thinking about something she would likely have no use for, a "walker." For those who don't know, I'm talking about a male escort (often but not always gay) who accompanies women to social events. I don't know if soaps have ever acknowledged these types of guys, and I think if they did, it would mostly be strictly heterosexual, with escorting in the non-sexual sense (Stu & Jo), or the guy has an especially good chance of being the lady's next husband (Jackson & Erica, David & Dorian). Discuss.

I'll never stop holding out hope that there was an actual bible written for Manhattan Lives (the proposed Deidre Hall-led, New York-set spinoff to Days of Our Lives, on the chance that there's anyone here who has never heard of it), because it would be a lot of fun to compare and contrast that with how things played out on The City.

I love all of this very much. My only fly in the ointment is concern over Rosemary Prinz's avoidance of long-term commitments. (As long as we're dreaming, maybe she decided she loved working with Larry Haines so much that she was willing to keep going.)