Franko

Donna's misfortune extended into ATWT. She had skin cancer, then Vicky died and her ghost needed to be put to rest, then Jake remarried and ultimately died, too. According to the AWHP, Donna and Marley co-raised twins Michelle and Bridget with Jake's widow, Molly, but I'm willing to bet the ladies Love have spent most of the last 18 years with those girls (which, depending on how you look at it, may be a happy ending). Slightly off topic, but did Cass and Lila eventually breakup, or was she just off-screen whenever he'd make his later appearances on ATWT and GL?

SPOILER (Watch at your own risk. It seems to serve as a shallow but evocative coda.)

Oh, I dunno, I'm sure he would have made a fine bit player on any of the New York soaps during his theater years.

An instrumental version would have worked well, but maybe they wanted to use Carly since she had a (different) hit song at the time, "Let the River Run" (which would have been all kinds of strange playing against Felicia's makeover). If we haven't already, we should do a list of soap characters who died (or "died") while attempting to kill others. Reginald, James Stenbeck (the plane plunge in '83), I swear it happened to Carl once or twice ...

As a Broadway fan, I'm getting a kick out of the song. It's "Sleight of Hand," which was the theme to the short-lived play of the same name. The clip fades out *just* before Carly sings "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (no, really).

For no particular reason, here's Reginald falling to his death from the Love Tower. (Karma's a bitch, Reg.)

According to the AWHP: Donna, November 1987 - June 1999 (Michael, Vicky, Matthew) [Bayview Towers] Iris II, October 1988 - May 1995, remodeled in winter 1995 (Evan) [Bayview Towers] Felicia, January 1987 - June 1999, remodeled on June 8, 1989 (Mitch, Lucas, Jenna) [Love Tower] Grant, summer 1990 - June 1999, remodeled in November 1998 (Spencer) [Referred to as a hotel suite. Love Tower]

Bobbie looks like a little girl playing dress up with those shades! The Laura "lookalike" is Julie Piekarski, formerly of The Facts of Life. In my (primitive) screengrab, she looks a bit like Kristina Wagner.

No worries. I was getting a kick out of the idea that Georgia was hardcore into disco and wouldn't accept anything else.

There is nothing I would have loved more than the Campus Disco to have become the Campus Honky-tonk or something like "PCGBs." Even if Georgia doesn't approve.

Great topic! When I was middle school age (as well as watching DOOL and PASSIONS religiously and before I learned a few things about myself), I imagined a show, Seaview Heights, that I would not only headwrite, but star on. I'd play Alan Stevens, the troubled son of making a new life for herself Jan Barton, who gave me up to her sister, Sydney and husband, Victor, because she was married to an evil man named Martin (as an adult, I'm now thinking, "Martin Barton"?). Jan's best friend was Lionel, a Ned Flanders type (in decency, not being especially religious) who she relearned love from. Anyway, Alan and his sister, Sabrina, had a best friend, Bobby Green, who Sabrina liked. But he also caught the attention of scheming Janet Randall, whose sweet sister, Cassidy, became Alan's girlfriend. There was also Martin's trophy wife, Shelley (who was anorexic); Sydney's older son, Charlie, and his wife, Annie (I sure seemed fond of names which ended with vowels); and Bobby's mother, Florida, a talk show host. And these were just some of the characters. I thought an hour long show needed 32 characters, so we had a family in the fashion business (Welch Worldwide), the Randall girls had an older, slightly feminist sister (who entered into an opposites attract relationship with Martin), there were a handful of doctors, etc. Hey, I was in middle school. And it was slightly better than my idea in college, which was the reverse of Glee (student actors). Now that I'm an adult, I'd love to go back to basics, write something simpler. More organic, too -- think of the stories about COVID-19, people understanding the effects of systemic racism, new attitudes sexuality (a few years back, a community not too far from me had a hazing scandal that may or may not have been fueled by gay panic), political divide (I'd love to have a leading lady who's a newly appointed state senator), etc. that aren't being told, at least not beyond the surface. I think I'd set it in a town striving to be more than a bedroom community to a nearby city.

I totally agree. Even potentially strong friendships, like with Tony, fell by the wayside. Last night, I watched the German dub of the attic collapse and followup episodes. Something I was not at all expecting: after Tracy has a moment in A.J.'s nursery, she and Laura have it out before hugging it out. Somehow I'd never imagined those two sharing a scene BITD. I think it's a good sign of a healthy soap when there can be characters like Amy, who don't necessarily add anything story-wise, but are invaluable in fleshing out the canvas.

Yup, sorry, I mean't back with the summaries (I knew you were still here). One other point of interest with the guest list: Melanie Vincz, who played Corinne, the general's girlfriend, went on to play the adult version of D.J. in that episode of Full House where the guys imagined themselves as henpecked senior citizens. And I love Tiffany and Laura's upcoming first scene. Sharon Wyatt somehow knew how to play affected just right.

Yay, you're back! That particular guest is Nigel Penny-Smith (Bernard Fox, channeling his likable bumbler character "Col. Crittenden" from Hogan's Heroes). Fox would later reprise his Bewitched character, Dr. Bombay, on Passions.

Oh, I don't doubt that. I just found it telling that by July 1980, the writers included a qualifier when Monica described it. Not only that, but Alan had his fling with a nurse prior to Sean and Monica, then Monica had her fling with Ned about a year before Alan and Lucy hooked up. I guess Alan and Monica were a bit like a volcano. Dormant did not exactly mean peaceful. Side note: when I was reading the summaries from the mid '80s, I was surprised at how Monica's bond with her long lost cousin, Lorena (Jimmy Lee's rebound girl and eventually Derek Barrington's wife) was undone. Monica ended up being closer to Celia (and even then ...) than Lorena.

It helps that Stuart and Leslie had such excellent chemistry, plus Alan & Monica had relatively long periods where they weren't having affairs/at each other's throats (snarking, on the other hand ...), but yeah, watching their early scenes, you wouldn't automatically assume this is a couple that'd make it to their fifth anniversary, let alone their 20th. I guess it was circa 1982, when the Susan/Alan/Monica/Rick/Lesley entanglements were mostly over, that A&M began their slow transition to tentpole couple. Notice the line about Alan "practically" having to rape Monica. Clearly the show was trying to keep any leading character with futures away from being considered out-and-out rapists. And finally, it's appropriate we're talking about A&M, since it's approximately 40 years since A.J.'s paternity was set straight.

I'm getting such a kick out of Erica before she was ERICA.

Close ... Spencer Treat Clark played Steven, Vicky's eldest son. You're thinking of Kirkland, though. He was the one Paulina ran into. I wouldn't mind seeing a three faces of Vicky/Marley chat. Ellen, Anne and Jensen.

I think Andrea was considered a "get" thanks to being on an ABC show (even though she had some time off). You're right, though, she didn't blossom into an A-1 star until '85-'90. If she returned to Y&R in 1990 (which obviously wasn't going to happen), it'd be a big deal.

If it had been a year later, he could have been up for A.J. or the Ned recast.

Much appreciated, Toups! By the way, gang, I found an episode guide for the early years: http://passionsepisodeguide.tripod.com/id8.html Rereading some summaries reminded me of another quirk I wasn't fond of: the "it was all a dream" fakeout. I disliked it for a couple reasons. A, it felt like cheating for a dream to be going on in real time alongside the rest of the episode. For example, in one early episode Sheridan's supposedly having a moment with Luis while at the same time, there's Gwen/Ethan/Theresa drama at the Lobster Shack. Gwen stops by the cottage ... and wakes Sheridan up. B, it was commonly (always?) used to tease advancement for a couple.

It'd be interesting to find out exactly how many days were depicted during PASSIONS' run. I swear there was a time where one night seemed to last a month's worth of episodes.

Yup. He hung around late into the final season, leaving with just a handful of episodes left.

One of my favorite memories (although I suspect I'm exaggerating it) was when Pilar overheard Ivy and Rebecca talking trash about Theresa, declared "You bitches!" and got into a mini cat fight with them both. So, we have Pilar (maid), Grace (innkeeper), Eve (doctor) and Beth (barista). Tabitha wouldn't have to work for a living, but maybe it would have been interesting in the early years, to keep up appearances, if she had some sort of seemingly altruistic job like volunteering. It would be a good way of keeping tabs on residents.

This, very much this! Very few of the women worked. I'm not 100 percent sure, but I think Grace ran a bed and breakfast at the start of the show, and Beth (pre-insanity) was either a barista or manager of the coffeehouse. Everyone else was a generic socialite or a teenager.