alwaysAMC

It doesn't bother me much, but this is what I'm curious about - the why just two.

Me too. And it's so funny switching over to GH and Jon's there today too haha. Did he replace Ben Gavin then, or was Ben in Friday's opening? I can't remember, but it seemed like we still had an even number of people in today's opening.

Ohhh they added Jon Lindstrom to the opening! I guess he's contract now. I didn't notice any new pictures for others though.

This might be a long shot, but GL was nominated for Best Writing in 1998. Anyone know what episodes were submitted to get that nomination? Curious what storylines or special episodes got them that nom. Surely couldn't have been the clone storyline unless it was when Dolly died maybe. Is there a website that has a centralized list of what episodes performers and shows submit each year to get nominated?

Happy they're bringing back those memories! :) I forgot to mention earlier when @Spoon asked me my predictions for the Ben character going forward, and they've been teasing that he might be the young college kid that slept with Selena. So I'm assuming they'll continue with that, which would be interesting to see him interact with other characters. I do agree that Brittany Snow was a great find, proven by her current success, but my early days of Susan are not positive. She's got an agenda it seems and her whining is getting annoying. I know she stays for a while, so I'm looking forward to getting through that journey and see how her character matures. The Beth thing seems like a pure plot move just to further her into Vanessa/Matt's drama. You're right, it doesn't really make sense, and she never really seemed like the type to me that wants to work, especially from the lowest position on the totem pole haha. I actually really like Signy Coleman. She's unique in certain ways which I like. I just think it's a stretch for her to be Annie, but I'm going along with the ride haha. I think the truth serum drug is getting out of hand and lasted way longer than it should though. Re: Mindy, I can't quite remember if that's why she left (testifying against Rick), but here are my quick notes I made when watching her exit from 1995. This was very early into my GL watch journey, so I didn't have as much context on the Mindy character and the recasts before her when making these notes: Mindy just left the country and from what I read online, this was Crampton's last episode (May 26, 1995). What a very unceremonious exit, wow. She just tells Josh she's leaving for a business meeting overseas randomly at Eve's memorial and then she's gone. I guess she either pissed someone off BTS or asked to leave pretty abruptly and they just said fine, later?

LOL - Oh my! They all look shocked... did someone interrupt the wedding? Let me guess, Phillip? Lillian and Beth look great in this photo.

Oh nice, thank you! What a wonderful tribute.

Happy Anniversary AMC! I agree, my bias aside haha, but I'm surprised AMC isn't still with us. But I'm thankful for the many years we got :)

This was so beautiful, I'm so very very happy they did this. I can't believe they allowed her last name to be misspelled, but it isn't the first time I've seen errors in names/characters in the closing credits. Probably some 20-somethings in the office who didn't care and had no QA reviews unfortunately.

This was a lovely tribute, thanks again for posting! I wish Fiona's connection was better, but I'll take what we can get, I think this was during the early Covid years. LOL at her calling Rauch an overbearing male producer. The ladies all laughing after that is very telling at how popular he wasn't with them. Seeing Simms, I didn't realize, or I forgot if y'all told me, that Roger/Mindy had such a close connection/storyline together. I only saw Mindy's last few months on the show and she never really interacted with Roger. That reminds me, Mindy's departure in 1995 was one of the first departures for me and it made me realize that GL just doesn't do a good job of sending characters off. She just left overnight and there was a throw away line that she went off to Europe (or something like that). It was interesting to hear the ladies talk about when they first noticed his speech going (26:00 mark), which Fiona was first to notice. She thought maybe he was losing his hearing first, or then perhaps having a stroke. But it made me think back to Jenna's return in Dec 1996 and I just don't really remember Roger and Jenna having much interaction on the show then. Her return storyline was pretty siloed with Jenna/Buzz/Jeffrey and Harley/Phillip. Anyway, I wish Rauch would have listened to literally everyone and allowed Zaslow to stay and let Holly take care of him. The alternative was just recasting him and then shipping him out of town? What was the point. I loved seeing Jerry pop in as a surprise. So sad to think he died a year later from this interview :( I wonder how close Jerry and Liz Keifer were in the years after GL was canceled. Zaslow's daughter is very sweet. Is she Asian or was Zaslow's wife Asian? I tried to google and couldn't find anything, but I did read that his second daughter sadly passed in 2004 at 19 years old which was so sad to read too.

This 100% sums up my thoughts after watching it :)

I LOVE that song, so I'm already hooked :) That's great to know though about the ratings, good for them! I had no idea how popular they were until today, thank you all!

There's the P.J. I know and love! LOL :) You're right about William and Larry... and about Vince Williams. I was always so sad they never acknowledged him. He just disappeared. There was real potential with Hamp and Marcus, given they both played the sax. He could have been a mentor to him. But I guess Vince perhaps wasn't able to work much during that time and then we just got Griffin instead and Marcus stopped playing the sax after a while.

YES! I was so happy to see/hear that, especially the "I already have" reply. Although I'm guessing you may not have loved her saying Matt is right :P Here is what I wrote in my notes about that scene: Matt leaves and Jenna’s spirit shows up for Vanessa, telling her she agrees that she’s spending more time with work over family. She needs to always put family first over anything. Jenna makes her promise not to let Matt slip away and to cherish the gift she’s been given, and Vanessa promises. Vanessa asks Jenna to kiss Henry for her (her father), and Jenna says she already has and he looks marvelous. They have a tearful goodbye and it was so sweet. I also saw that she visited Holly. THIS should have been the moment that made Holly snap out of it and turn her life around, but I know it won't be since she hasn't kidnapped any of the kids yet :/ Thank you for posting this! I'll have to watch it later today. Zaslow died on Dec 6th, 1998, which was the Sunday before Jenna passed away on-screen which is interesting (the 12/04 Friday cliffhanger was Jenna crashing and then Monday 12/07 she died). Unfortunately I haven't seen or heard any acknowledgment about MZ's death on the show, but I guess in real life, his passing would have happened while they were taping likely Feb/Mar 1999 episodes? They aired a classic episode of GL the day after New Year's 1999, I wonder if that would have been MZ-centric?

I love your passion here! :) And thank you for the details! Definitely makes sense why Alex/Beth are close here in late 1998. You know I love a good umbrella story, can't wait to see it! So I've been watching more episode this morning because I wanted to see how they honored Jenna... is it her spirit getting closure with everyone? Because I'm really enjoying those moments. Some are very sweet and some are very emotional and sad. I really liked what they did here, just to give her the ability to say goodbye to everyone special to her.

Ohhh, I can't wait for this bolded part! Does it happen soon after or quite a long time after? You know, I didn't really enjoy Jenna's return storyline, which was my first introduction to the character. It felt a bit siloed, went on too long, and I didn't really enjoy Jeffrey. But, the one thing I did love about Jenna was how she made Buzz tolerable, and once Jeffrey was gone, and Jenna was more of a supporting character, I really started enjoying her and their relationship. The death scenes really got to me too, it was very heartbreaking. I knew she was eventually going to die through spoilers, but didn't know when or how... and had zero idea that Holly was sort of in the middle of it, so that was interesting to me. Thanks to you too for the background on Alex/Beth and then Beth/LuJack, etc!

Ahh, that makes sense, because Beth and LuJack were together for a bit, right? I was thinking it was a combination of both - they wanted to let her go because she was outspoken, but she wanted to go because she hated the way they treated Zaslow... is that right? The whole situation is so sad. :( Hmmm... it seems like Ben/Blake/Ross are in a stable truce now after he realized his mother actually did love him. I don't think Ross/Blake get back together for a while, so I'm going to guess that Ben and Blake give it a try dating with no outside pressures or secrets that have to be hidden. I doubt they last, but I'm going to guess that's what happens in the near-term. I'd love to see him be more human to everyone now and maybe make a friend here and there (beyond just Beth, who is now in another storyline and nowhere near Ben these days).

I’m up to December 07, 1998. *OMG, poor Jenna has died! Such heartbreaking scenes. India has moved into the Spaulding Mansion and runs into Alex and Beth having tea. Beth says it’s great having Alex back and asks her how long she’s staying in town, to which Alex says she’s unsure given that India and Vicky are trying to take over things. Alex tells them she feels obliged to host a celebration for Philip and Harley, but assures Beth that she wants her to be comfortable since she’s one of her dearest friends (I didn’t realize these two were so close). Buzz/Jenna/Rick/Abby throw a surprise welcome home party for Phillip and Harley, who are now back from their honeymoon. Lucy and A-M sent them a gift, which was a nice touch. Abby tells Harley that she and Rick might start trying to have a baby, and Harley tells her that she and Phillip might wait for a bit. She mentions Daisy to Abby and says she hopes she would have been happy for her. Frank and Eleni show up and Frank privately tells Jenna and Buzz that Jeffrey is getting out of jail, which scares them. Holly watches her video where she says she’s never going to stalk again, but she tells herself that Jenna messed up by losing the girls at Thanksgiving and she needs to learn a lesson. She starts looking through her nursery rhyme book for something fitting for Jenna and lands on Little Bo Peep, the rhyme about losing her sheep and not knowing where to find them (LOL). She goes to Jenna’s house, knowing she’s not home, and starts to leave the nursery rhyme note. Jenna leaves the welcome party early and walks in to see Holly. Jenna doesn’t think much of it because she’s just happy it’s not Jeffrey, buy Holly is clearly shocked that she almost got caught. Jenna eventually asks why she’s there and Holly cryptically reminds her how she should have watched the girls more closely. She starts to ramble about losing Meg and how she’s failed so miserably, and before she says more, Buzz walks in. Holly then tries to leave with her magazines and nursery rhyme, but Buzz takes them and asks what she’s hiding. She freaks out but he says he’s just joking, but her reaction confuses them. She leaves without her magazines and Jenna tells him that they were having a serious conversation beforehand and she’s just having a bad day. Buzz then tells Jenna he wants to take her away from SF forever to protect her. After a while, she agrees, cries, they kiss and say I love you to each other. Buzz leaves to give Frank the deed to the diner while Jenna starts packing. Holly comes back to retrieve her magazine and Jenna takes it and reads the Little Bo Beep nursery rhyme that was hidden inside and gets concerned. Jenna is putting the pieces together and realizes Holly is the Stalker! Holly creepily denies it and says she was a victim of the stalker too, so Jenna apologizes and says she’s just on edge because of Jeffrey. But Holly starts to act weird again and talks about how people need to protect children and Jenna didn’t, which weirds Jenna out. Jenna says she needs to call Buzz, but Holly takes the phone out of her hands and says she’s not leaving. Holly accuses her of trying to call Buzz to help her, and then tells Jenna she knows too much now. Jenna calmly tries to tell Holly she needs help and that no one has been seriously hurt, so nothing bad will happen to her. Holly starts to agree and breaks down about losing Meg. But Holly then tells Jenna she knows about how she’s passing Jeffrey’s son off as Buzz’s son, and then Jeffrey arrives, overhearing that and claiming he must be a father! He gets upset about Jenna lying, so he grabs her and says he’s taking her and the two boys to start a new life. Meanwhile, Buzz tells Frank about their plans at the diner and Frank is supportive, but Buzz then has a Nadine-syle premonition that something bad is about to happen! Buzz asks Selena to take over the diner now that he’s leaving, and she agrees. Buzz, who has the boys, calls Jenna and she begs him not to bring the boys over, but doesn’t give it away that Jeffrey is with her. Holly, who is now freaked out, goes home and contemplates her next move, but she finally decides to go to the diner and tell Buzz about Jeffrey. Buzz freaks out, hands Rocky and Coop to Holly and runs off to save Jenna. Holly declares she’s going to protect the kids at any cost and takes them home with her. Buzz arrives at the house, but Jenna and Jeffrey are gone. Jenna is driving her car with Jeffrey in tow and vows she’ll never go back to a life with Jeffrey nor let him hurt Buzz or the boys, so she purposefully speeds up and crashes the car! Wow - Jenna killed herself and Jeffrey (12/07) in a blaze of glory! Jeffrey dies on impact, but Jenna is still alive and in pain. She calls Buzz on her cell and tells him there’s been an accident and to hurry up and find her. This phone call was so heartbreaking! Buzz arrives to the crash site and Jenna is still alive. He tells her the boys are just fine, and then Frank and the medics show up and they have to saw her out of the car. She’s dying and the final thing she tells Buzz is ‘thank you for loving me’. Jenna dies and Buzz screams out in sadness. I’m sad to see Jenna go, as I warmed up to her after her initial return storyline with Jeffrey. I really liked her with Buzz and she made Buzz so tolerable for me. I guess behind the scenes, the actress wanted to leave, so I’ll be curious to see what they do with Buzz and the boys going forward. Holly is back home with the boys and Ken is there. He reveals that he found her taped confessions in the basement and knows she’s the Stalker, but tells her he understands why. Holly thinks Jenna will tell the police she’s the Stalker, so she assumes the cops are on their way to arrest her at any moment. The cops do arrive and she’s willing to be arrested, but they say they’re only there to take Rocky/Coop because there’s been an accident with Jenna, which shocks Holly. Reva has a nightmare about the cursed coin and continues to be concerned about Cassie leaving town. She sees the daily newspaper with the headline that a missing body was taken out of the morgue and she runs to the police station. Meanwhile, Alan visits Teri at the police station and pushes her to explain again why she showed up to Phillip/Harley’s wedding. She finally confesses that she made up the invite story, heard about the wedding and decided to go to NYC for it. Alan asks her why she would do that and she says she did it for him, because she knows how hard he took his failed wedding to Annie. Reva shows up looking for Frank but shows Teri and Alan the newspaper and says it’s not a coincidence that a body was taken from the morgue the night before Annie died. Reva thinks Annie could easily do something like this and tells them Annie faked her death and she’s still alive. They don’t believe it, but Reva tells Teri she will find Annie if it’s the last thing she does. Alan goes home and tells Alex about the body and Reva’s suspicions. Alex says she’s worried about Alan, who seems to be retreating, and he needs to take back control of Spaulding. She’s worried about his growing obsession with Teri, his willingness to let Vicky run things, and ultimately she says she misses him. Reva barges in and says they need to find Annie, which annoys Alex. Alan tells her to stop, but Reva leaves more determined to find Annie. Meanwhile, Teri goes to Josh’s office and tells him to sit down and under her spell, she tells him to convince Reva that Annie is dead. She reminds him of their good times back in their carousel days, and she starts to seduce him and kisses him. He kisses back but then snaps out of it and says he doesn’t want to kiss her or sit down. He says he can’t stop thinking of Teri and it’s driving him crazy, that he still loves Reva, and he won’t do anything she wants him to do. Reva then comes by and Teri is able to get away and reminds Josh that she was never there. Josh then tells Reva to drop the Annie thing, but Reva says he’s acting weird and has for weeks. Josh says he knows he has but doesn’t know why and then leaves. A crying Reva makes a call to find information in Detroit about a George DeMarco (Teri’s brother). Hart convinces Dinah to take her bandages off. She’s hesitant and scared at first, but after she takes them off, Peter walks in and asks why her face looks that way and she gets upset. Hart makes him apologize and Dinah says this is how everyone will view her from now on. Hart tries to console her and puts her bandages back on when Annie arrives. Hart leaves and Annie tells Dinah how the drug isn’t working well anymore and she doesn’t have much left, so she’s desperate. Ben goes to the diner for breakfast and Selena waits on him. Ben says she seems familiar, but they both go on their way. Meanwhile Blake confides in Meta about Ben’s childhood. They find a music box in the attic at the house and hidden inside are letters from Ross and Ben’s mom to her unborn child (Ben). Meta finds Ben at the diner and convinces him to see Blake, so he finally does. She shows him the letters, but he doesn’t want to read them, so she starts to read them to him. They’re sweet, loving letters but he is still angry that she gave him away. He then finds letters she wrote later in life, when he was in high school, saying how much she thinks about him every single day, and it finally gets to him. Ross shows up to see the boys, and Ben tells them they need to talk. He shows him the letters and said he killed their mother from a broken heart (for keeping her away from Ben). Ross tries to talk sense into him and asks that he finally let go of the hate from his past, which ends in what seems to be a truce. India brings Ross some necessities and snacks for his penthouse. While Ross is in another room, the landlord shows up demanding money from India, given that her last check bounced. He says he’s done some research and learned she’s flat broke, which makes her mad. She demands that he not tell Ross about this. He leaves and Ross returns and India keeps up the ruse that she is rich. Michelle convinces Jesse to apologize to Danny, so he does, but Danny doesn’t buy it. Jesse leaves and Danny then later leaves, and on his way out, kisses Michelle, leaving her shocked while he smirks on his way out. Ok, I already see the chemistry here between the new Michelle and Danny. Which makes me sad because I’m a huge Michelle/ Jesse fan, but the new recast and Jesse just seems different now for me, so I’m not as into it anymore. Phillip and Harley are enjoying their morning and someone is watching them from outside. Phillip leaves for work and then a young girl shows up at the door. She says she waited for the man outside to leave, but she’s looking for a Harley. Harley says that’s her and the girl reveals she’s Susan, her daughter! This is Brittany Snow’s first day as Susan/Daisy - 12/03! She tells Harley that her mom got sick and died, so she’s been looking for Harley in SF now ever since. Harley asks about her dad and Susan says he doesn’t want her anymore and isn’t interested in being a father now that her mother is dead. She says she’s afraid of him and begs her not to call him. Phillip comes home and is introduced to Susan, who Harley accidentally calls Daisy, the name she gave her as a baby before adoption. Harley tells Phillip she’s excited to have her back and she can’t go back to her father, but Phillip says they need to hold off and talk to the father first and not get too excited. Alan calls a Spaulding meeting with Alex, Phillip, Vanessa and Vicky (which annoys Vanessa having her there). Alan said it’s time he takes back control and turn the company around, and then introduces the newest member of Spaulding Enterprises - Beth! Vanessa is visibly upset and Phillip is shocked, but Phillip then says he thinks it’s a great idea and it doesn’t bother him. Beth says she’ll start from the bottom and work her way up. Vanessa tells Beth she’s only there to stay close to Phillip, which is pathetic, and then Alex tells them that Beth will be Vanessa’s assistant LOL. They both argue about it, but Alex insists because it’s just business.

Good idea, even though so sad if A-M died on his honeymoon, right after that expensive Universal Studios wedding (LOL). I wonder if they ever tried to woo Hearst back to GL at some point. I guess if they let A-M die in that yacht trip, we never would have had Zachary, which was dumb. I like Zachary, if he were a human, but the supernatural angel thing was a stretch. You know, I always thought of the clone storyline as being the first wild DAYS-esque storyline that GL ventured into, but Zachary might actually be the accurate choice.

I totally get that... especially the note about Nola's return. Not knowing or seeing a ton of Nola outside of clips and reading y'alls thoughts, even I thought Nola and fans deserved better out of that return (along with Quint's return). The fact that she just randomly disappeared from the show without a single acknowledgment is still mind boggling to me. I liked Cutter too, even though when I was watching, they didn't seem to know what to do with him. They teased a Mindy pairing with him before she left, and even had Cutter kiss Lucy before she met Brent. What I loved about his death (if he had to die), was the M-A-R mystery, where he was writing the name of his killer before he died... and everyone assumed it was Marcus since Roger framed him for stealing money from the Towers, and he ran by Cutter's body at the time. I thought that was a fun way to expand and merge some stories to make a bigger umbrella story. I just have to imagine that in 1995, the Brent/Marian story had to be impactful/memorable either because people were intrigued and loved it... or were totally turned off by it.

Oh shoot that's what I meant - Ric Hearst's debut as A-M :) I've seen a few clips of the prior A-M when he was with Harley. I didn't mind him, but Ric is my A-M for sure. The final recast in 1996 before Lucy/A-M left town just didn't work for me. So other friends here have told me to start in late 1989 (I think), leading up to Roger's return. Are the 1990 episodes all in the Vault? I just can't stand to miss episodes haha, I get FOMO missing things. I'd want to start at a spot where every episode is available, and then when I'm done there, I'll just have to settle for one-off episodes here and there to piece things together I think.

I love having fellow Lucy/A-M fans here! :) Since the Vault doesn't have every episode from 1989-1990, I may just start with A-M's first episode too, like you... good idea. Gosh I miss that yacht and the docks set that was so prevalent in 1995/1996.

That's very cute :) I liked them so much, as you know. So did you not remember much, or like much of the Brent/Marian saga? I know it was a departure from Guiding Light a bit haha, but it was so captivating to me.

Thank you!! You're right! I remember the Santa Claus that year too... I didn't realize he had a name "Nick" haha.

Your memory is pretty amazing! From what I understand, the 5th street fires happened over New Years, just before I started watching in February 1995, and I know Annie came to town just before that in late 1994. I got to watch Josh/Annie's early courtship which I loved. The Matt/Lucy pairing could have been very interesting, especially when you throw in Bridget being her best friend and Matt's brother, and Vanessa being Peter's co-mother with Bridgett. That could have put strain on Bridget amongst her relationships if there was a Lucy/Matt/Vanessa triangle for a bit.