alwaysAMC

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.

Agreed! So glad I finally got around to watching it. I'm on episode 2 and so far it's ok... there are three new girls, so we're just getting to know them, but one is a close friend of Mia's, so I'm already wary of her. One of the others is from Texas and the other from Russia. There is a lot of talk and arguing about alcoholism, which I could see leading to a dark place. I'm mostly curious to see if they try and redeem Jody, or if she tries to be nice herself... so far, she's pushing gay parade and drag shows, so she's buttering up the LGBTQ+ audience, it feels like haha.

Thank you for the background, I can't wait to watch all of that! Wow, they tested Lucy with Josh and Matt?? That shocks me haha. Yep, when I started watching, Lucy was at the boarding house and friends with Bridgett and David, which I loved... so of course when they forgot those friendships post-Brent when Lucy/A-M were official and getting married, I was upset.

Ahh interesting, I didn't know there was much Lucy/A-M history prior to Feb 1995. At that time when I first started watching, it seems like Lucy had just taken her new job as A-M's secretary and they didn't seem to have much history at all and their interaction was new. I'm curious to see what they were like prior to that!

Since Vancouver is now on Peacock, I finally got the opportunity to watch the first season and WOW! I remember y'all talking about it here and there, especially at how VILE Jody is... and y'all weren't exaggerating. She gives Danielle Staub a run for her money haha. I'm 100% Team Mary. I felt so bad for her the entire first season. Jody - I thought the villain thing was a little performative in the beginning, but then you can just clearly tell she's a miserable [!@#$%^&*]. Her daughter Mia is just as bad, and maybe even worse. That pair is so disgusting and toxic. They bullied Mary all season, yet tried to play victim the entire time. Ronnie - I really thought she would be the one I love from the jump, but I had to side eye her the entire season. She wasn't as bad as Jody, but she had her awful moments. She's not a great drunk and I found it so cringe that she was developing a wine, yet knew NOTHING about wine except how to get drunk from it. All the professionals trying to give her advice and her thinking they were dumb was so cringe. I was saddened to read that her son we see on the show died of suicide, that she blames on alcoholism... but she stopped drinking and became sober because of it. Reiko - I thought she was a bit boring the first half of the season, but once she saw Jody's true colors when Jody tried to overcharge her at the store, I started to really like her. I'm so happy she joined Mary's side and didn't let Jody get to her. But the cars and model stuff was snooze. Christina - I really thought she would be messier than she ended up being. Her gold digging schtick didn't really live up to its hype, and she ultimately just became Mary's supportive friend. I liked her, but she seemed to have held back a bit. I was SHOCKED to hear she was only 29, since she looked and seemed older to me. I wasn't really a fan of her gay best friend. Mary - she is love and I really felt bad for her all season. Looks-wise, she actually reminds me of Brandi Redmond from the Dallas housewives. I wanted her to just punch Mia in the face many times throughout the season haha. I'm about to start Season 2 and surprised to see that Reiko and Christina don't come back, nor do they have a reunion like they did the first season. It's a much shorter season (10 episodes) compared to the first season (15 episodes).

Preach! Totally agree.

These were great! That A-M/Lucy honeymoon boat sinking promo was good. I can't believe they had a Gilly/Vivian/Griffin promo - gross haha. Way too many Lonatrat promos thoughtout the year, with both Harts. Happy to see Blake/Ross/Rick/Amanda get a couple promos too! I'd love to see any Lucy/A-M/Brent/Marian promos from 95/96. I didn't see any with a quick search sadly.

Love the Annie promos! Thanks again :) Interesting. I always wonder about characters that lose their accents over the years, were they originally intended to be short-term characters and got extended, or did the actors just get tired of it (like the recast Eleni and her Greek accent haha).

THANK YOU! I love this! So how long did Lucy keep up the southern drawl accent? She definitely didn't have that in 1995 haha. I like the last Phillip promo of that set the best - where it featured Alex, Alan, Amanda and A-M...even though that story was a dud. I was always wondering if Dinah got much promo attention since she dominated the show from 1995-1998. Always love Roger's "Quick! Turn on the light!"

THANK YOU! So when I was watching 1995, the tapes must have been from the NYC area, because I had seen that first promo a TON. It was more about GL moving to 10am (which seems so early), so they played it for like a month or so during GL's run so the audience knew what to expect. LOL at the Reva Amish one, I assumed they had to do a promo over Reva's return for sure. I really love the 'Turn on the light' campaign, so those last two were amazing, thanks for sharing again. I think the other CBS soaps had a similar theme during that era with the lightening, which I really loved.

That's so sad for GL, I hate to hear it. And they picked the Griffin assassination story to feature, what a lousy choice LOL. I'd love to know what other stories they featured. I'm guessing they were mostly Reva-based.

Oh, I'm watching the Soapy episode with GH casting director Mark Teschner and Rebecca Budig (host) mentions she left GL on her own accord (which answers one question I had, because she soon after got her iconic gig at AMC and I always wondered if it was her choice to leave GL or they just wanted to replace her with the popular Reva clone actress :P )... anyway, so she left on her own accord, and she said it was such a weird exit, which was Rauch's doing, and she said Rauch was "interesting" (LOL)... but she hated that she hit 'some dude' in the head one episode and then the recast hit him on the head again in the next episode. Just interesting to hear that. She also remembered that Laura Wright was on GL with her back in the day. I love that actors remember their times on all the soaps.

Yep, just checked my notes and Nadine's body was found Jan/Feb of 1996 and Billy came back in Sept 1996. Gosh, I wish I kept more detailed notes in 1995-early 1996. It wasn't until late '96 that I kept really detailed notes. I too wish GL had longstanding rivalries... I have noticed that characters/families tend to stay in their orbits unless there is a bigger umbrella storyline, but those are few and far between, and usually there isn't a ton of long-term payoff when those characters intermingle. Or, when the characters are recast and/or come back a few years later, they don't tend to revisit their history with certain characters and it's instead serving the current moment and storyline. I still enjoy GL though haha. Oh wow, I've never seen this and that's LOL to me that this storyline got such attention. It was AWFUL and clearly it didn't resonate with viewers because that was Griffin's last major storyline. And to think it wasn't Alan at all, it was Griffin who orchestrated his own assassination attempt... and then he later becomes the prestigious judge of Springfield (with no storyline) haha. I've always been so interested in seeing more of these GL promos. The GL episodes I watch usually retained the Y&R/B&B/ATWT promos (which the majority were Y&R which tells you who was CBS's golden child in the 90s)... but obviously they wouldn't show the GL promos while GL aired, so I always wondered what the GL promos looked like or what storylines or actors they highlighted.

LOL at the bolded! 😂 I remember your hatred for Nadine because of this Billy/Van stuff. I need to go watch that full episode, but thanks for the background on how he landed himself there in that bed. I can't wait to see all that at one point... really makes me want to go back and see if Vanessa acknowledged Nadine's death... I can't remember off top of my head, and I'm thinking Billy wasn't even back by then, but when he did return, can't remember if he had a throwaway line about it or not. That's so late for ATWT considering most of the other soaps had characters in the intros throughout the 90s. I do think the spinning globe for ATWT was so iconic/marketable, that maybe they were hesitant... similar to the iconic DAYS hourglass. Ohhh was that Reva? I watched the promo (thanks @DRW50 !) and was like wait, did a man just punch a woman??? Even awful to do today, of course, but especially unheard of back then. I'm glad to know it wasn't purposeful.

Thank you! :)

What year did they do the Scrooge Christmas special? That sounds fun!

Damn that's rude of them... at least wait until Monday in case people missed yesterday's episode! 😩

😂 Isn't that something?? It was so bad but so comical. That was something I definitely remembered and had in my watch journal, but seeing it again was a fun laugh. I use a Mac, so I just press Shift+Command+4 and it allows you to screen grab anything. It'll just save down to your Recents folder and then you can choose from there to post the picture. I just delete them on my computer afterwards :)