Franko

Holy crap, @dc11786. If that was "I'll do my best," than I think we mortals could not possibly comprehend the results if you were absolutely going for it. Amazing work.

Yup, Marie as a nun goes back to Bill Bell's writing. That said, I've always wondered if having her be torn between her vows and feelings for Alex was an attempt at capitalizing on The Thorn Birds (which was a big hit book at the time).

I would love to see Linda, Phyllis and Mary's reactions when the truth about Stephanie finally comes out. This part of the story bugs me probably more than it should. Maybe it played better than it reads, but I just don't like the idea of Hope soothing Julie's ego. I read that too fast, as "scary boobs." Amanda deserved better. Jury's out on Greg. Mickey and Maggie's first question to Cathy better be, "So ... what's the whereabouts of your mother? C'mon, don't jerk us around, we had a bad experience we don't wanna repeat." The Box O'Canes story feels like a last-ditch effort to make Steve work as a character. As for the Andersons, I wonder if the writers were starting to come up with the Chandlers at this time ...

I couldn't agree more. It's so much fun when everyone shares their thoughts. It never stops being hilarious to me that this is EH's own daughter she's writing for. You'd think he'd be all over the idea of Julie suing University Hospital and/or Bill for Laura's malpractice. Birds of a feather, I guess. Neil could probably read Alex like a book. This is what makes me so mad about the Laura story. After all she and Bill meant to the show for nearly 15 years, they receive such a downer ending. I don't know a thing about family law, but since Hope is Doug's biological child, doesn't it mean that if he keeps his nose clean, he's always got more of a right to her than Julie? Seriously. #TeamChris by a wide margin. Well, as long as Marlena's entering motherhood with both feet on the ground ... Days of Our Lives: the compelling story of an up-and-coming actress with kidney stones. Bob, Bob, Bob ... at this point, why don't you take Melissa (and maybe Stephanie) and run? Please say Marie was wearing her habit while drinking with Doug. I see they're setting the table for Jessica's arrival. IMO, she (like Mike and David) will be at least 10 years older than necessary. For all Harrower is doing wrong, I'll concede that she's writing the show better than Marcus did.

Ada's maiden name was Lucas, but to the best of my knowledge, she always went by the surname of her last or present husband. So by 1988, she was Ada Hobson.

Speaking of which, I seem to recall Jennifer (under Missy) fearing she'd inherit mental illness, but did she and Laura (under JLB) ever talk about the events of 1979?

With Mary and Stephanie as the dysfunctional princesses.

The stunt looked better than I expected. I wasn't expecting they'd show so much of it.

I mean, would you want to hang out with Margo more than you'd have to? Darn it, now I'm picturing Laura dangling Jennifer out the window, a la Michael and Blanket Jackson. I'd love to see how they executed this stunt. A plot device only a mother could write. As much as I wish Laura had a better exit storyline, I'm dying laughing as I read this. In my mind, Laura's reading the news or filing her nails, she's that unconcerned. In my mind, the Julie story comes across like failed Emmy bait.

Catching up on this thread ... Harrower's material comes off better than my first impression. I'm just not a big fan of Laura's exit (I love @beebs' solutions for making Kate Roberts/Lucas' conception more believable) and the upcoming Julie storyline. I've said it before: it's breaking my heart how badly SS was wasted on DOOL. Note to self: don't take beebs for brunch at Bernie's Beanery. (I repeat, Mary, you shoulda got that ring on your finger when you had the chance!) I'm definitely looking forward to Alex and Marie's storyline.

I mean, wouldn't that just be delicious?

I wonder if the writers were being cheeky, having Maggie, a recovering alcoholic, singing and dancing to a song made famous by fellow substance abuser Judy Garland. You're gonna flip when you read some of what I read. It's hard not to imagine Elizabeth giving barely coded pick-me-ups to Susan through the writing. As awful as it sounds, at this point I just want Margo to die already.

I jumped ahead and skimmed the SOD summaries for 1979. Elizabeth Harrower seemed hell-bent on getting Susan Seaforth-Hayes an Emmy, to the detriment of Rosemary Forsyth in particular (in my opinion).

I love it!

Why, it was the Nurses Ball before the Nurses Ball!

LIVE, from Salem, it's the Cathode Machine Variety Show! I've heard of the Marx Brothers routine, and I remember reading that Julie also did a striptease while Doug sang, but it's news to me about Donna and Margo's dance number. I mean, who doesn't want to see those two do the Charleston? Well, duh. Oh, Mary, you should have let him put a ring on it. *dramatic chord*

Excellent stuff, @JAS0N47. Interesting how this stuff changed, like Marie and Bill's birth order switching.

According to the family album, published in 1995 ... Tom Jr. and Addie were 34 in 1965. Mickey was 33 and Bill was 25. Marie was 23. Also, Julie was the first born grandchild, sometime around 1949-50. It sounds as though Steve, two years younger than her, was just slightly older than Sandy, who was born before Tommy "died" in '53 but never met her dad until her teens.

You just made me imagine Iris 2.0 as a Tina Brown/Anna Wintour/Devil Wears Prada type, which would certainly have been fun for her after the Chief and Red Swan business was taken care of.

Or Charlie Sheen insisting he was "winning" ...

Great work as usual, @beebs. Where to begin? While it's fun to imagine Ann Marcus attempting a kamikaze mission with the Donna story, I fear/suspect that she and the NBC brass were loving it in the moment. "Why, we can have sex and young people and intrigue, like they do on The Young and the Restless and All My Children!" It's fascinating to compare and contrast DOOL's struggles with the more successful modernizing going on under the Dobsons at GL and Marland at GH. Wow, Bob really had to be thick-headed. I'd sympathize with him if he wasn't the weakest link in the extended Anderson story. I don't suppose Mike's sexual curiosity re-emerged while cooped up in that pit with Chris? Did Margo wait at home, taking her mind off her troubles by happily planning her funeral? Goodbye, Janice (and, for your own sake, don't come back). I had no idea about Doug and Maggie. I wonder if anybody shipped them.

Throwing it out there: Solomon Horton (Tom's long-lost Jewish brother). Also, nobody informed the judge about Janice's accident? @Titus Andronicus, don't forget that less than a decade later, she'll come back and end up in a triangle with Mike and Bill before being killed by Harper Deveraux. The sad thing is, Maggie did end up opening doors and pouring coffee for a long time after her return. Lanna Saunders' comments about the missing Hortons at Bo and Hope's wedding reminds me of how GL fans (justifiably) won't cut the show slack for how they handled Bert and Maureen's funerals. Also, how about Sherri Anderson admitting Maggie's alcoholism was poorly received?!

Ah, thank you. Realistic of DOOL, to depict a long estrangement like that.

Catching up with both juicy posts ... 1975: -- It's always interesting to see the colder side of Alice Horton. Trying to remember ... was the estrangement with Julie because she conceived Doug's baby while still legally wed to Bob? (ETA: Nope, the baby was Bob's. My homegirl, Brooke, just made everyone think Julie was cheating.) -- I'd love to see that Brooke scene. Whether Brooke or Stephanie, she's always so fascinating. Another of the characters who shouldn't have been lost in 1980. 1978: -- Considering how negatively affected Doug and Julie were by SORASing, it's frankly a good thing they didn't have a kid of their own. -- I first accidentally misread the sentence and thought Linda's friendship with Maggie was being questioned. I didn't know Mickey and Linda were still on friendly terms, but I guess it helped that there was Melissa, plus being members of Salem society ... -- If she doesn't have one already, Donna's gonna end up with such an Electra complex ... -- Hooray, Stephanie is here. And I see Bob has a Make Salem Great Again platform.

It's interesting, though ... Steve Olson had temporarily returned to the show during the summer of '72. What on earth happened to make the writers decide to get rid of a relatively established potential young male lead and have a new one?