Franko

Thirty years ago today ...

Yes, of course!

There's a lot of overlapping. You almost have to go year-by-year. 1993, for example, had Marlena, but also Carly, Billie and Kristen.

I KNEW I was missing somebody.

I feel confident in saying that GH's first It Girl is Emily McLaughlin. She would be followed by Denise Alexander, Genie Francis, Emma Samms, Finola Hughes (with Kristina Wagner as the girl-in-waiting), Vanessa Marcil, Sarah Joy Brown and Laura Wright. As for Days, and of course, subject to opinion, it's Maree Cheatham, Susan Seaforth Hayes (with Denise Alexander as the girl-in-waiting), Deidre Hall, Kristian Alfonso, Mary Beth Evans (with Patsy Pease as the girl-in-waiting), Melissa Reeves, Deidre again (sometimes alongside Eileen Davidson), Allison Sweeney, Arianne Zucker for a while there and I dunno, Victoria Konefal? Linsey Godfrey? Deidre yet again for nostalgia's sake?

One last song. This one goes out to the Beltway "experts":

Let's have a song, shall we?

Nice idea. 1. Monica & Rick, 1979-80 2. Alan & Lucy, 1989-91 (If only because Alan & Monica actually divorced.) 3. Alan & Susan, 1981-83 4. Monica & Ned, 1988 (with fallout in 1990 and 1996) 5. Sean & Monica, 1985-86 6. Monica & Pierce, 1996 7. Alan's not-exactly affairs: A tie among Gaby the nurse in '85, Charity in '86, Rhonda in '93, Bobbie in '95, Tammy in '98 and the perennial, Amy. 8. Monica's flirtations: A tie between Buzz in '85 and Rick in '02 (and I think she dated a doctor while divorced, too) 9. Monica & Philippe, 1982 Honorable mention: Monica & David (for the fallout that occurred in 1989 and 1992); Monica and Gail's first husband doesn't count because I don't think it affected her relationship with Alan.

Of the biggies, just Ned. He and Monica hooked up before he came to town in fall '88, with Alan finally finding out in summer '90. I didn't know that about Amy during the addiction storyline. If I remember correctly, Amy had a crush on Alan back in '79-'80, when they teamed up to outsmart Tracy regarding A.J.'s parentage. I guess they figured Susan would be a better character as Alan's mistress rather than Amy.

Rewatching scenes from Alan and Lucy's marriage has me realizing two things: (a) even though Alan and Monica weren't physical, they acted a lot like a guy and his mistress; had Lucy not slept with Scott, she would near-totally be justified in demanding Alan respect their marriage vows and (b) the dynamic between Scott and Lucy is awfully reminiscent of Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd on Moonlighting (which was already a year off the air, but my point stands; lots of trolling the prissy girl).

I'd love to know more about the ownership of WVLE. From what I recall of the 1988 and onward episodes, Max had a sizable amount of stock/ownership (having bought it from Dorian?), but when he was on his way out, Asa made a play for that. Bo owned the station at the end of 1988, but by fall 1989, it was Asa's. "We'll go on to a more important topic: me."

Based on the summaries, Bill and Holly were indeed a big deal. A slowburning one. Their first genuine date wasn't until Sept. 29, 1992 and their first time having sex wasn't until Nov. 5. And not until after they each had an AIDS test. I'm not exactly sure why, other than to remind people about the importance of safe sex. The bottom began to fall out for the couple in May 1993, when it was confirmed that Victoria was alive. Throughout 1993, Bill's relationships with Sly and Jenny were eroding and after Holly and Victoria left (again, in the course of one week at the end of July), the character was on borrowed time. Bill left town for a month, then came back for his last two-and-half-months (September-November '93). Oh, sorry, forgot to make a point -- I think they were still fairly invested in Bill up until spring '93.

Just about everybody switched partners that year.

I think Mac and Holly did unofficially date, and the show did make an effort to test John J. York and Emma Samms' chemistry. But what I'd like to know was if Tristan Rogers' departure aborted any plans to do Mac/Holly/Robert, or if there were plans for either Dominique/Mac/Holly/Robert or Mac/Holly/Robert/Anna. The first eight months of Emma's return in 1992 were essentially like this: mid-January-end of February: Continuing the Robert, Anna and Faison story. end of February-early April: Robert, Mac ... or Bill?; Wrapping up the Robert, Anna and Faison story. April-September: the Paloma/Simon Romero story, with Mac being eased out for Bill. Also, Bill lost not one, but two leading ladies in a one-week span in July '93: Holly on Friday the 23rd and Victoria (Teri Garber's character) on July 30.

A few pivotal dates in 1992. As always, thank you curlyqgrl: Tuesday, Feb. 25 -- Robert leaves to search for Anna. Thursday, Feb. 27 -- Mac moves in with Holly and Robin. Monday, March 9 -- Holly receives divorce papers from Robert. Friday, March 20 -- Bill flirts with Holly at the Outback, which she now manages. Friday, March 27-Friday, April 3 -- Robert and Anna are considered dead, receive a memorial; Bill and Holly have a moment on the docks on Wednesday, April 1. Monday, April 6 -- "Mac and Bill discuss how they would like to leave PC if it weren't for their responsibilities. Bill wants in on The Outback if Mac is willing. Dominique (by now firmly part of the Deception storyline) is disappointed that Mac did not come to her if he wanted a partner in his club. Bill tells Holly he hopes she will stay on as The Outback's manager." Thursday, April 9 -- "Sean offers Mac a job as an undercover cop but he must attend the academy. Holly sets Dominique straight about her and Mac. Mac agrees to take on Bill as a partner in The Outback. Dominique tells Mac that she is tired of him shutting her out of his life." From there, Holly entered into the Paloma/Simon Romero story with Bill and Mac and eventually just Bill. Bill and Holly finally kissed on Aug. 7 and officially became a couple on Sept. 11 ("Bill tells Holly that he feels alone without her."). Meanwhile, Mac and Dominique officially broke up on May 4 and Felicia returned on May 22. So yeah, there was a lot of transition and chem testing going on, but if you hung around through summer, things had mostly worked out.

You have a lot of this right, except Alan's motivation for hurting Monica. He had already gotten revenge on the affair with Sean (which, to be fair, came after Alan fooled around with a nurse during a weak moment). No, Alan was mad at Monica due to jealousy over her closeness with Ned (Alan would learn that they actually slept together during his marriage to Lucy) and being hurt that she kept secret that Dawn was her daughter. The funny thing about Alan and Lucy is that I don't think he was ever happy about being married to her. Mostly because he rightly assumed that he was always a means to an end for Lucy, who kept deluding herself about how she felt for Scott. This one, unfortunately, is wrong. Alan and Rhonda occurred in 1993. Alan's pill addiction occurred in 1998. The stories never intertwined. I will give GH credit for the idea of a non-physical but still intimate affair. And I'll give you credit for picking up on the classism aspect.

I wonder if that wordplay came from Peter Dunne, who apparently was responsible to Ciji's successor being "C.G." Thanks for the extra info, @Broderick

I apologize if this has been posted, but I'm always up for a backstage glimpse during that era when soaps ruled the world. I can't quite make out the date at about five minutes in, but I think it says "Thursday, Oct. 21, 1982."

Bobbie played a TV reporter, which seems like it could have been a natural recurring character, but was overall sporadic.

I'm pretty fond of Donna's work in "A Star is Dead." She's playing a takeoff on Marilyn Monroe, with Peter Palmer of Lil' Abner as the Joe DiMaggio analogue, June Lockhart as her callous mother, Robert Foxworth as the JFK type and best of all, William Daniels as the politically conservative publisher of a sleazy tabloid. William laying into Donna with that voice is just something else.

It was. Val's original title was "A Family in Texas." "Capricorn" doesn't directly translate to "Ewing," but it was close enough for the writers, I guess. (Ewes being female sheep and sheep being members of the caprini species.)

Ha! Two parts of "Conundrum" are now reality. Although in that case, Southfork was completely gone to facilitate a housing development. (The first thing that came true was Linda Gray appearing on a daytime soap.)

The first person who came to mind is Kim Zimmer, although I feel like playing Constance would have been a been there, done that kind of gig for her. Assuming that David Selby would have left for Falcon Crest, what about Michael Zaslow as the daytime Tyrone?

I've said it before and I mean it: the Emmys only (slightly) respected the soaps when they had to, then they went back to praising the prestige shows to high heaven.

Don't forget Constance MacKenzie's shop on PEYTON PLACE. The idea of Cory Publishing having a lobby-mezannine bookstore is brilliant. I wish they actually had done it. Think of the subtext whenever characters come "to read." For whatever reason, Paulina comes to mind as the manager. Or if they did it back in the Laurence Lau era, Jamie (rather than have him be a doctor).