alwaysAMC

You're welcome! I just looked it up and Karla is 44 years old. I must have missed the 50 year mention in the show. Since things usually happen after we bring them up, I want to throw Pam's name out there in hopes we get to see her cooky butt again soon. I've missed her! :)

I guess technically this is true... I was going to say Chelsea and Madison, but Madison isn't contract. Same with Eva and Isaiah, with Isaiah not yet on contract. Smitty and Martin's kids aren't contract, so their little relationships don't fit. Karla is just over 40 so Dani and Andre I guess don't work. Jacob and Naomi were already a couple when the show started, so they're out. So yeah, I guess you're right.

Good question! I always assume the opener and closer are significant characters to the show. I come from AMC and you always had Erica Kane close out the intro, which made sense. I think Felicia and Mac were pretty popular in the 90s. Gosh, GH's current opening is seizure-inducing to me because it's so quick. I know they have a ton of characters, and they include their recurring characters too which I love, but man it moves too quickly. I think now there is no current method to their order, they have several variations of it and the characters just seem to be in randomized order for each. I would probably have Tracy and Sonny open/close the intro given their status on the show. Carly, Jason and Alexis could also lay claim to those spots too I guess.

Yes! I love the Lois one and the Scotty/Laura/Luke overlapping that closes it out. I thought Sonny looked really good in his first intro too. Oh and Jax at the 23:07 mark of that video was his best look ever, very handsome. I liked when they added the names too. I remember AMC started doing that as well and it just helps. On the Miguel thing, I get not having the time or maybe even budget to make timely updates (GL just stopped having their characters in the intro altogether in the mid-90s partly bc of that I think, which made me so sad)... but they took the time to update it by adding Jax but not removing Miguel, so I'm guessing the idea that he was still on contract technically but was written out early so he could do his play makes sense.

Thank you! I can't wait to watch these scenes later today... always appreciate the background you give :)

Oh wow, thank you! I didn't realize they were married! Now I'm really interested in seeing their 'reunion' now that India is back. Phillip wasn't at Thanksgiving dinner because he was on their honeymoon, so they haven't run into each other just yet.

Oh that is cozy, thanks for sharing! Interesting that Jay Hammer went by Charles Jay Hammer back then, I wonder why he dropped the Charles later.

Happy that you're still enjoying it, and so great to see Robin back in the role! I just LOVE her head tilt at the 1:49 mark of that video LOL.

Ahh, thank you! For the older lady, she's first in the opening at the 12:44 mark (and a few others). I just looked up the character of Ruby and that is her - thank you :) You're right! I just looked it up and Ricky Martin left GH in October 1995 and Jax came on in January 1996. It's strange though because the one version starting at 7:15 has both characters in the opening. It goes Jax, Brenda and then Miguel (7:44 to 7:46). I guess they didn't take Ricky out of the opening for a few months after he left, interesting. Thanks again! I just love that opening of GH.

Y'all - the mid-late 90's/early 00s GH opening is Top 3 for me and I found this 30 minute video of every single iteration of the theme. I'm obsessed and this brings back so many wonderful memories. Gosh I miss AJ and Jason as brothers (Kanan's version of AJ). That storyline really grabbed me and made me interested in GH as a young teen (can you guess why haha). My parents only watched AMC, so when I was home alone during the summers, I thought it was a sin to watch GH and others when they were at work LOL. I forgot that Jax came on while Ricky Martin was still on this show! I love Lucy's eyebrow raise in those first few years. I didn't realize Rick Hearst joined GH that early enough to be in this opening, I love it. For the life of me, I don't remember Faith, Summer, Lydia or Cameron. Who is the older lady that opens it for a while in the middle? Thank gosh Tracy and Sam make it to this opening before they change it. I need to do a 90s GH watch in my retirement. Who is that running with Sonny on the beach in most of those openings? I love how Felicia and Mac ended the opening most years, they were so sweet. I need to do a top 10-20 soap opera opening thread at some point.

Oh there's nothing wrong with it - I loved it haha. I'm just saying it was more Hallmark-esque than the A-storyline. Which I said overall I loved that better because it was something I wish I had today vs. my past experiences which aligned more with Shane and Llya.

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Oh my goodness, thank you for sharing. I've never seen this before, but it reminded me of how much I love Agnes Nixon. It takes me back to when they had her on AMC as Aggie :) This also reminded me of how big a crush I had on Stone Phillips back in the day - one of my many missed husbands :P She said "We like to try and teach people how to cope and hope...". She did that so much on AMC. I loved how they highlighted the Terrence storyline and Cindy/Stuart storyline there towards the end.

For me, it felt too convenient, immediate and sweet (which btw, I love and wish I could have today 😛). He walks into a smoothie bar, finds the cute employee and they immediately hit it off and there is no drama or strife outside of just coming out. The main storyline between Shane and Ilya's relationship had way more interpersonal struggles, conflict and obstacles, which you don't see on Hallmark movies. With all that said, I loved both storylines and felt this show was well-written. I'm excited to see where it goes in Season 2.

Thank you for sharing!!! First of all, after seeing these Phillip/India courtship videos, I'm so curious to see how they interact in 1998/1999 when they see each other again after all this time! Grant A has never really been my type physically (first seeing him on AMC and now GL), but I do like his charisma and personality. I also find the actress playing India to be a little bland in sexuality. So for me, this couple and India herself aren't really doing it for me right now, but I'm still curious to see what happens. So in terms of timeline, was this Phillip/India courtship during Grant's first run as Phillip? I always remember the infamous Reva/Phillip Proud Mary scene, which was in 1985 when Bolger took over as Phillip (who btw is so fun and sexy in that episode). India is there with Alex and Vanessa, and it seems like she already knows Phillip, so I'm guessing that's after she first met Grant's Phillip? I'm curious though, did Phillip/India ever have a long-term relationship? She mentioned she was a virgin, so did Phillip take her virginity or did someone else? Thanks again for sharing :)

I was just introduced to this series by friends and watched it all in one evening. Replace hockey with the Army and this was my life in my 20s. Wonderfully executed. I almost preferred the more Hallmark-esque Kip and Scott storyline, maybe because it wasn't as true to life for me.

Hahaha - she really does, I've seen it twice now - Dinah and Beth. I think she may have slapped Alan years ago too, early into my watch. Basically yes... it seems as though Holly wanted to target Vanessa for not stopping WSPR about her destroying her house and pretending it was the Stalker. That and then yeah, not spending enough time with Maureen/working too much haha.

Haha yes, this drug is so ridiculous. It was introduced as an experimental truth serum, but they've gone above and beyond that now... it can be a persuasion drug, etc. Reminds me of DAYS yet again. It's a liquid form that you just have to get on your skin, anywhere on the body, and you're instantly under its spell. She put it in Josh's aftershave, so now he's applying it daily LOL. I know nothing of India, so this is good to know and odd they would use Rick and Ross if she weren't in their orbit previously. My guess is this is a romantic interest for Ross while he and Blake are separated... but we'll see. She and Ross did just arrive to the Spaulding mansion for Thanksgiving dinner, and she and Alex had a very icy exchange, so now I'm getting more excited about her return. I'm torn. On one hand, I think the storyline has been very interesting, clever and entertaining. It uses almost the entire cast as a large umbrella story, which I love. But on the other hand, as you say, it's so far fetched to believe that Holly would go this crazy. Like I said, I'm curious to see how she'll be redeemed, but it seems so out of character for Holly from what I'm seen.... no matter how drunk or desperate she gets. I know this is a soap, but if I were her, I'd be using all this energy to track down Fletcher and Meg and make things right. She's just wallowing away in SF like she has no options but to sulk about Meg basically being kidnapped.

All good! 😀 I'm only a couple episodes away from December 1998, but I knew Brittany Snow/Daisy was coming soon and I can't wait!

I’m up to November 20, 1998. *What a great Friday the 13th evening! November sweeps were in full effect this month. On a stormy Friday the 13th night, Matt and Vanessa are having a much needed romantic night at home and the Stalker is watching them from outside. This is the first time it can’t be Annie or Ken, since Annie is actively seen with other people and Ken is still in jail. I wonder who people were thinking this was at the time it aired. Anyway, Matt gets a message to meet up with Sean at Millennium, so he leaves a sleeping Vanessa on the couch. The Stalker comes into the house and puts a poisonous spider in her shoe - oh no! They also leave an ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’ note about Vanessa falling down. Vanessa wakes up and walks around and then we see her put her foot into the shoe with the spider (cool shot here). The spider crawls up her leg and bites her! She tries to call Matt but can’t get a hold of him, as he left his pager at home. She collapses in pain as her bite wound is getting larger. Matt saves Beth from a bad date with a random guy at Millennium by acting as her estranged husband. They dance and flirt to get him to go away, which they laugh about afterwards. Before things get too awkward, Matt remembers he’s supposed to be meeting Sean and gives him a call. Sean says they weren’t meeting tonight, so he starts to think something weird is going on. He heads back home and finds a crying Maureen but a missing Vanessa. He calls Frank to help him investigate. Frank, being at Millennium at the time with Eleni, happens to tell Beth about Vanessa. A nearby Vicky overhears and convinces Beth to go help Matt (to keep up with Vicky’s plan to get Beth between Vanessa/Matt so she can take over Spaulding from Vanessa). David also overhears this and later calls out Vicky about what she’s doing. They then flirt and kiss. Frank and Beth get to the house and they think Vanessa may have left on her own to try and find help. Matt leaves Beth with Maureen as he goes searching for her. The next morning, the cops find and escort Vanessa back home (who had passed out with fever) and finds Beth there with Matt and Maureen, which doesn’t make her happy. Vanessa thinks Beth might have been behind the spider, since she’s showing interest in Matt and would want Vanessa out of the picture. Beth says it couldn’t have been her because she was with Matt at Millennium which annoys Vanessa. Beth then storms out. The next day, Frank/Teri grill Matt about Beth and his growing friendship with her, which upsets him. He doesn’t like the accusation that Bath is the Stalker or that he’s cheating on Vanessa. He declares he loves his wife and leaves. He runs into Lillian who tells him that Beth is in a fragile state and he shouldn’t be falsely encouraging her by giving her flowers, which annoys Matt again. Elsewhere, Beth meets with Vanessa and they really get into it about Vanessa accusing Beth of being the Stalker. They trade great barbs at each other and Beth says she and Matt have talked about their attraction to each other (ugh!), which Vanessa doesn’t buy. She then says Matt built her this nice new house and she’s never in it, which is something that has bugged Matt. Vanessa doesn’t like that Matt has confided in Beth about that. Beth then tells her to think about the woman Matt has married, the woman that faked her own death, the woman who almost died giving birth to the baby she never sees, the woman who is old enough to be his mother - and SLAP, Vanessa clocks Beth across the face. Beth gets a few more jabs in and leaves. I love this rivalry! So much better than Beth vs. Harley for me. Matt then comes home and Vanessa tears into him for telling Beth private things about their relationship, saying he’s betrayed their marriage. He can’t believe Vanessa doesn’t trust that he’s acted like a gentleman and walks out of the house. Meanwhile, Beth is now crying at Lizzie’s new playhouse that Matt built (I can’t believe they actually constructed this, it’s massive so hopefully they get more use out of it). As she’s talking to herself, we see the Stalker watching her from outside. Matt then shows up and tears into Beth, but she argues back. As she’s passionately defending herself, she gets close to him and it seems like she might kiss him, but Matt ultimately leaves. Danny (Mick’s brother) shows back up at Millennium. The bartender suddenly quits on Drew and Danny offers to work, given he wants to keep an eye on the place in case he gets clues about Mick’s death. Drew relunctantly accepts, since she’s in a bind. He tells her Mick was the oldest brother, and once their dad died, Mick had to take over the father figure role for their family. Jesse/Michelle both think it’s a terrible idea that Danny is working there. Drew tries to come on to Danny in hopes to persuade him, but he’s having none of it and further scares Drew by telling her he knows all about her past. He then talks to Michelle and tells her he went to Springfield U, and he and Mick took opposite paths in life. They seem to get along, which Drew notices. The next day, Drew tries to convince Michelle to butter him up to help them and help Jesse, because they assume Jesse will be the suspect given his history with the police. At the diner, Danny surprises Michelle by telling him it’s very odd that the people that worked with Mick (Drew/Jesse) didn’t even show up to his funeral, which Michelle stutters over. Annie once again drugs Josh and reinforces the idea that he needs to sleep with Cassie, so he turns into a creep again and tells Cassie he wants her and needs to have sex with her while grabbing her arm. She locks herself in her bedroom to get away from him. She calls Hart, who just got home with Dinah from the hospital. Hart/Dinah are kissing when she calls and starts screaming in the voicemail for Hart to help her get away from this man. Hart rushes over, with Dinah in tow, since she gets angry with him about choosing Cassie over her again. Hart arrives and bangs on the door screaming for Cassie. This makes Josh snap out of it, as Cassie comes downstairs and accuses Josh of sexually abusing her to Hart/Dinah. As he’s confused and denying it, Reva and the kids come through the door and ask what’s going on. The kids leave and Cassie tells them everything that Josh has been doing, but Josh denies it and Reva can’t believe it, but is visibly upset that Cassie would accuse him, but also potentially that she may be telling the truth. Dinah pipes up and says Cassie is making this all up to get Hart away from Dinah. Josh says he did try and get into her bedroom to help her, but he would never abuse her. Hart can’t figure out who to believe, while Reva says this is all Hart’s fault for putting Cassie through this mental stress. Cassie takes Tammy and leaves for the night. Dinah finds Cassie’s broken bracelet on the floor and takes it. Meanwhile Alan visits Teri (Annie), bringing her flowers for being kind to Annie for visiting her grave. She flirts with him and offers to have dinner with him, but he sees the truth serum drug she’s been giving Josh and she freaks out and tries to take it out of his hands, but accidentally spills it all over her. She tries to quickly get him out of the house, but the drug starts working and he tells her to sit down, thinking she needs to calm down a bit. She starts to talk about how he was always so nice to her and he questions why she keeps bringing up the past like that. He demands that she tell him the truth and she tells him she’s Annie Dutton! He doesn’t believe it nor understands what she’s trying to say, but he’s weirded out by it. She gets him to leave, and the drug starts wearing off as Annie realizes what she’s done and said to him. Alan comes back and Annie backpedals her story. Later, they discuss the former Annie and Alan mentions she was barren/couldn’t have kids, but would have made a great mother. This gets to Annie and she cries saying she wishes she had children. She then kisses his cheek and leaves, which warms Alan’s heart. Annie puts the drug in Josh’s aftershave, so she’s able to control him as he continues to apply the drug daily (so dumb haha). While on the drug, Annie lures Josh to the park and tells him to leave Reva and to find Teri irresistible. Meanwhile, Reva is starting to think something is wrong with Josh too, and then Dinah comes over and tells Reva she can prove that Josh was hitting on Cassie. She reveals Cassie’s broken bracelet, which he ripped off her when trying to get her to sleep with him. The next morning, Cassie stops by and apologizes to Reva, who then shows Cassie the bracelet and begs her to tell her the truth. Cassie backtracks and starts denying everything, saying she was making it up, but Josh (on the drug) interrupts and says he did it. Jenna gets a letter from Jeffrey, telling her he knows she got married to Buzz while having a baby, which scares her because she’s afraid he’ll find out that Rocky is his son. Ugh, we’re going back to the Jeffrey thing? She tells Harley about it who encourages her to tell Buzz, so she does. Buzz gets upset, but they promise to stick together. Buzz calls the prison and gets Jeffrey’s writing privileges revoked, which relieves Jenna. Phillip and Harley plan to escape town and elope, but they run into Lizzie, who reminds them how excited she is to be their flower girl in the wedding, so they pause and rethink eloping. Phillip confides in Rick about eloping, and Rick randomly mentions that he got a letter from India (a character on the show from long ago). Beth shows up and Phillip asks if they can take Lizzie to New York so they can elope with Lizzie in tow, and Beth gets angry and says no, enraging Phillip. But, Phillip and Harley head to NYC and it’s a calamity of errors: flight delayed 5 hours, lost luggage and wedding dress, Harley’s heel breaks, hotel can’t find their reservation and it’s sold out, Phillip’s wallet is missing. Harley calls Jenna for moral support while Phillip calls Rick asking him to wire them some money. They eventually get arrested for squatting in the hotel laundry room and are taken to city hall. OMG, Alex Spaulding (Marj Dusay) shows up and bails them out (11/20)! What a complete and wonderful surprise to me, I wasn’t expecting her back! I didn’t think she returned to GL until after her time at AMC. Alex mentions that Nick, Susan, A-M and Lucy are all doing well and send their love (love the shout-outs!). Confused why she’s there, Phillip and Harley press her about why she’s in NYC and then everyone comes out and surprises them: Rick, Abby, Alan, Vicky, David, Buzz, Jenna, Frank, Eleni, Marina and Lizzie. They have Harley’s wedding dress and it appears they plan to get married right then and there with everyone in attendance. It’s amazing (and expensive I would think for the Coopers) to get everyone to NYC that quickly haha. Maybe they used the Spaulding private jet. Ross and Blake’s custody hearing starts, with Anita representing Ross. Ben doesn’t show up for Blake, so she represents herself. Anita grills her on the stand, bringing up Holly’s drinking, Blake sleeping with Ross’s brother, etc, which makes Blake break down. During a break, Blake calls Ben and leaves a voicemail begging him to help her and apologizing for anything she did to him. After she calms down, she takes the stand again and says Ross is a good man and the best father in the world. Anita grills her more but Ross interrupts and says it’s enough, just as Ben walks in and takes his seat to support Blake. Ross is on the stand next and Ben brings up the loaded gun and shooting Blake. He questions how Ross can raise two kids in a hotel room while working full-time. Ross then also admits that Blake is a wonderful mother. The judge then rules in Blake’s favor and she gets to keep the kids temporarily. Blake tells Ross he can see the kids whenever he wants and they can work something out. She then thanks Ben, but he’s cold to her and says she’s just another nameless client and he’ll send her a bill, which stuns Blake. Later that night, Blake is confiding in Meta at home when Ross stops by and asks to see the kids. They are friendly and discuss what happened in court and it seems very cordial. Blake says their love is too strong and maybe having to go through this court process is what they needed to realize that. Ross, sadly, says they can’t get back together, but kisses her and says thanks for the memories. Later, as he enters his hotel room, he’s surprised to see India von Halkein there (11/20)! Finally on 11/20, the Nursery Rhyme Stalker is revealed to be Holly! She’s looking through photos of kids/parents in her basement and then walks in front of her camera and films herself admitting that she tried to get to Beth tonight, but was interrupted by Matt. She says Beth needs to be taught a lesson and pay for spending too much time with Matt and not enough time with her little girl Lizzie. She said all the women need to be taught a lesson to always put their children first. If they don’t change, they will end up like her and Meg, where their children are taken from them. Wow, she’s gone off the deep end and to think Fletcher is really the cause of all this Stalker chaos (haha). While I knew Holly was going to be the stalker because of spoilers, the reveal was quite shocking and I wonder if people had been suspecting her in real-time. I do wonder how they redeem Holly going forward.

That's amazing, I'd love to read her tribute.

Jeresa Featherstone was also amazing! She's already a star and doing amazing work, but I hope she gets to experience designing costumes for movies and win an Oscar one day!

I finally got to watch this episode and wow - what a great interview. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I didn't know anything about Michele Val Jean before this other than she wrote the BTG bible and previously worked on GH. But after watching this, I loved hearing her story and really enjoyed getting to know her. First of all, her very first mentor was Jeri Taylor! I'm a huge Jeri fan from the Star Trek universe! Then, she grew up watching AMC and said to the TV that she was going to write soap operas! Then she did! Her priority is to create characters and make sure people cared first about characters before plot takes over. While I think BTG could work a little better on that, I love that she has that on the forefront. I actually see that in many of her BTG characters, but not all. Then she talked about how she was raped... and then became good friends with Anthony Geary and he trusted her to write their story on GH where they revisit Luke raping Laura and telling Lucky after Elizabeth was raped... so she wanted to make sure rape was written correctly... this really makes me want to go back and watch that storyline, which she said made everyone win an Emmy ... and to think this interview was only a month or so before Geary's passing, wow. This episode really just made me more proud of BTG :) And the fact she's in her mid-70s and still so excited to build this show and soaps in general... it's amazing and motivating to see. I also didn't really know that Rebecca Budig was an AMC fan before joining the show, and was amazed to be working with Lucci, James Mitchell and David Canary. That warmed my heart to hear.

Thank you both! :)

Ahh interesting - I didn't know that! Did they recast because they didn't like JJ anymore, or did JJ leave on his own? Either way, AMC's gain with Young being JR. I loved Vaughan in the role too, hopefully that recast was better for everyone haha.