alwaysAMC

I wish I could contribute to the 80s talk! Maybe one day I’m up to November 4, 1996. Oh wow, on October 8th and 9th we got a few scenes of Vanessa in bed talking to a doctor, not being able to move! However, it sounds like she’s getting special treatments from this doctor. I thought we lost Maeve for a long time, so it was a nice surprise to see her face for a bit. Bill is having a hard time living at the house, with everything reminding him of his mother. So, he moves to the boarding house and gets incorporated further in the teen/20s set. He’s getting into fights though and having a hard time coping with all the change. Company got upgraded! And honestly, it looks cheap and the same haha. The whole opening night was random and chaotic: Roger rigged the chandelier to come down on Bridget (why?), but she escaped from getting hurt thanks to Matt, and the party continues; then Matt gets into a very long, karate knife fight with some random guy in the middle of the dance floor that goes nowhere; Reva shows up alone ready to party and randomly spends most of an episode meeting, dancing and hanging out with J (so random); Rick and Abby almost have their first kiss but he stops it; and a bunch of extras are dancing out of sync to very muted music the entire night, which is very cringe to watch. Quint is courting Nola again in hopes of getting back together. This is happening very slowly, like one episode every other week on average. Bridget’s obsession over Hart is so cringe, I wish they gave her something else to do. I also find it cringe they have two different courtships happening between 20-something men and high school girls (Marcus/Dahlia; Zachary/Michelle). Buzz is walking around town with bombs and threatening to blow things up. I think they think this is funny, but it’s not since it’s real. He stopped the bomb two seconds before he, Reva and the diner blew up, and then he goes to Spaulding Mansion and threatens to blow everyone up, like it’s a funny joke. Weird. Ok, October 16 was the last episode where McTavish is credited. October 17th was the start of Annie’s intervention. Which, btw, was SO good. Everyone did a great job, but Watros really was amazing in those scenes. O’Leary stood out as well. Reva had NO business being there though. Nobody should have allowed her to be there considering she’s the trigger for Annie’s addiction. She was also a b!tch to her during it all. And a distraught Annie tells Rick about one of Blake’s baby being his - good reveal to Rick! Then Annie detoxing at the cabin with Phillip - great scenes there too! I really like the friendship they have together and Phillip’s support during the whole thing. Watros again was amazing and in particular I enjoyed the direction and camera angles, especially as she’s sobbing outside in Phillip’s arms and again in the shower, fully clothed. So Alan was A. Spaulding - shocker *yawns*. I’m just glad that’s over now, which I guess the new writers were happy to end too now that McTavish is gone. Same with the 5th Street stuff, seems like they just quickly finished that. Now I’m excited to see what the new bigger storylines are to come… Oh, Halloween night had some great cliffhangers! Dinah gets trapped in silo rain bin, not knowing that Roger set it up to trap her. It starts to storm and rain is collecting, while she’s screaming out for Peter, who is all alone with Roger now. Bridget/Hart get a flat tire and are now helpless and unable to get back to the farm. Annie/Phillip return home from the detox cabin and walk in on Reva/Josh dancing with the kids cheering them on. And finally, Blake is alone at the cabin and starts to go into labor as the storm rolls through, while Dr. Margaret tells Ross and Rick that one of the babies isn’t getting enough nutrients and may be in trouble. Rick, now knowing he’s one of the fathers, gets worried but can’t talk to Ross about it, who still thinks he’s the father of both. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Oh no, please don't tell me Martha is...

With Marcia Cross?? I'm just learning so much today - color me shocked! Haha

Wait, Larkin Malloy was gay? Haha I had no idea! Travis Montgomery, who knew!

Finally saw Miami last night and I have to echo what y'all have said. Miami is THAT girl! I'm so glad they're back.

LOL, I love Zaslow. And yeah, when I was reading that about her dreamy blue eyes, I was like are you kidding me Kim. Kim loves Kim. VERY disastrous. And she got herself into trouble with the comments she made about JR Martinez. It was a really bad look.

!!! That is so wild to me that she gets some of these basic things wrong. Same with Hamp (which even I knew, and I'm 3 months into being a big GL fan now haha). You're welcome, happy to do it! And LOL - I agree, I don't want to play detective, Kim, just tell us!

More chapter summaries of Kim's book: Chapter 5 - she talks about her early days at Guiding Light. She said Reva was probably a little too hard to take in the beginning because she played her larger than life. Kim and Pam Long had such a love/hate relationship and both felt like they were part of Reva, so when they disagreed about the writing/portrayal of Reva, they would really get into it until they both saw each other’s sides and Kim would usually always then cave to what Pam wanted. Pam lived vicariously through Reva. She then talks about her friendship with Robert Newman and what a dream he’s been; they’re basically the most intimate relationship she’s ever had without being physical in the real world. They trusted each other and were so connected as scene partners. They spent nearly every day together for 2 straight years. They would sometimes get in fights, like true married couples, mostly about storylines or how they felt about their character’s reactions to things. Kim calls out the storyline where Reva is dying of cancer and Josh is ‘canoodling’ with Cassie. Kim hated it and Josh felt it was something his character would do and they got into a fight about it. Because Reva was with so many men, she warned new actors that came onto GL that their character will be in love with Reva within a week. On set she would always say Reva has a golden pu$$y, and even sang that to the tune of the Willy Wonka song “I’ve got a golden ticket”. 😳😂 She talks about the set used in the 80s and how there was a party room where lots of things went on that you could only whisper about. Lots of experimentation because after all, it was the 80s. She didn’t name names, but said one of the younger actresses at the time got so wasted one night that she ended up getting duct taped to the outside of the office door. She actually admitted that she never saw that with her own eyes. She talks about Chris Bernau - a real ballbuster. He scared lots of people because he was so focused on getting the job done right and moving on; he lived and breathed the character of Alan Spaulding. There was no laughter with him and others, but of course Kim says she got to make him laugh a lot and they gave each other sh!t. She thinks he might have gotten a bug on one of his exotic trips (he traveled a lot) and that’s what led to his early death. She liked and admired Tina Sloan (Lillian) and her work, but they rarely shared scenes together. They were friends but total opposites in real life. Tina was a classic Upper East Side elitist, married to a very rich husband and she only likely worked because she enjoyed it, not because she had to. She insisted that Kim get a car and driver vs. taking the bus to work once she moved to New Jersey, but Kim refused. She comes from a blue collar family who works hard, saves their money and didn’t want to be seen as a diva. Large party or courtroom scenes were hard to shoot because they were 16-20 hour days with several contract/day-players involved. Courtroom scenes in particular were boring for them because they had to sit in pews the entire time, so they tried to make games out of it. She admired Jerry (Ross) for having the hardest job during those scenes, delivering 5-10 pages of dialogue alone in front of everyone. Grant (Phillip) and Michael (Rick) shared a dressing room and it was known as Chez Phillipe, the party lounge. Grant made the best margaritas from scratch, but eventually it got shot down because too many actors showed up toasted on set. During the last few years of GL, she admitted that she would drink 2-3 glasses of wine at lunch each day and then go back and shoot scenes. She called it self-medicating because she was fed up with pretty much everything, but wouldn’t give GL the satisfaction of quitting. She drank to make the days more tolerable. She made pals with the on-set crew and would talk sh!t about the executives, who could overhear her, but she didn’t care. Wow - now I want to go watch some of those episodes and see if I can tell haha. Chapter 6 - she goes into the more standout actors she enjoyed and had the most privilege knowing or working with at GL: Beverlee McKinsey (Alexandra) - Kim aspired to be just like her; unlike other actors, Kim was the only one where Beverlee forgot her lines a lot, so Kim asked if it’s something she’s doing and Beverelee said she just gets lost in her blue eyes and forgets where she is (hmm); underneath her wit and charm was a hurt and angry woman, and didn’t hold her tongue when she didn’t like creative decisions that were made; tells the story she was told about Beverlee’s mandated contract agreement to take the same month off each year, but in 1992, no one came to renegotiate with her, so when her month came, she took it and never came back to work - she had someone clean out her dressing room and that was it; Kim was very sad and upset with the Emmys for not doing a tribute to Beverlee when she died in 2008 and they left her out of the memorial tribute they do each year (wtf!). Michael Zaslow (Roger) - apparently Zas was tired of playing Roger and wanted to make sure there was no possibility that his character could come back, so they had him die in 1980 by falling off a cliff and he insisted they show his battered and broken dead body so there was no doubt (ha - he returns 8 years later); a force to be reckoned with and took no sh!t from anyone; told it like it was and knew the character of Roger so well and fought hard for him; if a scene was written about Roger any less than who Michael thought he was, he’d throw a royal fit until it was fixed to his liking; talked about his ALS and she said it was shocking to her that GL didn’t renew his contract, leaving him sick AND without a job; fortunate that he still had friends at ABC that wrote for him on OLTL until he could no longer go on; his memorial was one of the most moving experiences of her life and she misses him terribly. Vince Williams (Hampton) - one of the nicest and gentlest man she’s ever known, never said an unkind word about anyone; in 1990, at Kim’s going away party, he played “You Are So Beautiful” on his sax as a gift to her and it was one of the best gifts she’s ever received; she then said she never had a chance to work with him again, as he died from cancer shortly after she moved back to LA. This can’t be right though, as Hamp was on GL in 1995 during her return, granted she was in Goshen that entire year so they never had a scene together, but he was also in 5-6 episodes I’ve seen throughout 1996 as well. I guess they didn’t have a chance to run into each other if they never shared and scene and he was barely on, but he certainly didn’t pass while she wasn’t at GL. Charita Bauer (Bert) - talks about losing her foot and how they wrote that into storyline (losing her leg) and would mentor Robert Newman when his character was in a car accident and became paralyzed (“old guard teaching the new regime”); Kim never worked with her, as she left GL the year before Kim started and soon passed a year later, but Robert told her so many stories of how great she was; a very salt of the earth person. Another juicy mystery to solve: she then goes on to say soap casts are like family and sometimes there is a black sheep or troublemaker that doesn’t last. She talks about an actress that fell in love with every costar of hers, and those costars who were the object of her affection were all too happy to oblige. She fell in love with one costar while she was married, so divorced her husband to be with him and move in with him. That relationship didn’t last, so her next costar conquest, who was also married (and she already remarried to someone outside the soap business), got with her so she divorced her husband, the costar was planning to get out of his marriage but then got cold feet and never left his wife. Kim said this was the first time she knew her both unmarried and now single and she was scorned like no other. The actress was miserable on set, off set, everywhere she went; her presence on set was a dark energy until she eventually left the show, however Kim was secretly upset she left because the show suffered from the loss of her character. Who could that be?? Chapter 7 - mostly about her husband, 3 kids and being pregnant while filming. She mentioned bringing her son Max on set to take care of him, which Chris Bernau (Alan) despised. However one day, she caught Chris holding her baby and cooing at him in a sweet moment, and it made her see him in a completely different light. Kim also talked about some struggles she had with never being home with her husband during the long work weeks, or some weekends when they had to do press tours or mall visits with fans. She said she wishes she would have gone straight home after work sometimes vs. going out with Robert Newman while he was single in her first few years on GL. She even said it was fun to go out with her love interest and flirt in real life (uhh…you’re married, Kim haha). She said she never had sex with any of her costars/love interests in real life, but fell in love with being in love with them on-screen.

Yay! I've been curious about your AMC viewing and can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'm telling you, you're going to love 1991-1992 of AMC! Gosh, this struck up good memories! I haven't thought about 90's OLTL in a bit, but I remember LOVING Tina and Cain back in the day! I remember being hooked during the summer when school was out. I also really loved Luna and Max. The good ol' days!

Such good memories! Totally forgot about that storyline with Timmy.

LOL at Hayley's facial expressions while Dani was talking there in the last scene. Derek is so dopey haha. Ohh that end, the mystery man finally speaks!

Well it came back on...

I switched on ABC to see if the news also pre-empted GH like they did with BTG - and dang, Ryan Lavery and Tad Martin are on! I thought for a second we had AMC back!

Ugh - will have to watch the rest tonight on Paramount. This Iran/Israel stuff isn't good 😕

We have a new set! I wonder if they repurposed an old set or if they got more space.

Wow people really watched their soaps on Friday this week! I hope everyone had a good weekend cliffhanger.

Wow, this is pretty big. I'll even tune in just to see her in action all these years later.

So it seems like Nicole doesn't know Martin's secret? I can't remember if we already knew that, but it seems like only Anita/Vernon/Bill really know, right? Derek is still so wooden. He isn't keeping pace with his costars on consistent improvement.

I love watching Eva give Kat the business. Marcel is back! And it seems like Martin recognized his name.

This week's episode was really strong. Very emotional with the three men (grandfather/father/son). I also like seeing JJ leave for rehab on his own accord. And we have a new villain to look out for - Marco! It'll also be nice knowing what happened to Mina's father, why he's in the hospital, and once he wakes, how he'll fit in.

Haha true, and I love Dani trying to help her sister, but who is going to clean all that up? That is stressing me out just seeing all the damage inside the house. 😲

Oh no! Thankfully not here in Texas (yet). LOL at Bill smiling when asked. Very good point!

I love bossy PT Shanice! Always love Leslie watching and talking about her stories haha.

I’m up to October 2, 1996. Ugh, the opening was updated to add Zachary and Dahlia, and remove Vanessa. I guess this means Maeve left the show and everyone will just assume Vanessa died in her car wreck, so sad. Matt found the MRI test results from the mail, just before Vanessa’s memorial, but Nola convinced him that no test results matter at this point. They also gave Nola the short Vanessa haircut now, so it’s throwing me off haha. Btw, how is Quint not around for any of this? He just came back full-time, but then couldn’t be available for his sister’s memorial? Billy is back! He just showed up at the hospital and gave Josh a big hug. So did Reva, and Reva finally just mentioned that she calls Dylan every week (ha!). He has 24 hours out of jail for deaths in the family, so I guess he isn’t staying right now beyond the memorial. He’s pushing Reva/Josh as a couple to Reva. I feel so bad for Matt during this whole thing. Watching him break down at the beach is heartbreaking. Rick just told Phillip about his one-night stand with Blake, and now Amanda just told Roger the truth in front of all of them about Rick being one of the fathers. Blake denies it, Roger doesn’t believe it, but Amanda is so bad and I kind of love it haha. Zachary is now obsessed with Michelle and saved her from drowning. He called her Mary until he corrected her and said she’s Michelle. Was there a Mary in the Bauer family? It seems like he recognizes her from a long time ago. It seems like Michelle is done with J for good, as she’s now developing a crush on Zachary. It looks like they’re going with a J/Dahlia/Marcus triangle, away from Michelle. So Griffin was behind his assassination attempt? Weird and I don’t care. Roger got electric shock treatments now and is acting differently, like a changed man who is overly nice, but of course it’s an act. I sure hope he ultimately gets the upper hand and we can get him out of this hospital. Blake and Hart seemed to be upset that Dinah allowed the treatments to happen, but those two are too little, too late for me. Annie is now missing work because of the pill addiction; things are getting worse. Annie just went off on Abby at work, so you can tell she’s getting angrier. What I do like about this story is how quickly others began to question her pill taking, and it’s not some secret that lasts for months. Josh just caught Reva skinny dipping at the creek and Annie found her diner apron and realized they were together. I really think Kim Zimmer puts a lot of herself into the Reva character haha. I’m in the middle of reading her book and Kim and her friends are into skinny dipping in real life! Overall, a boring month but I’m looking forward to another holiday season in Springfield for something new and fun (I love the holidays). I think I’m now going into McTavish and Laibson’s last month as HW and EP. I’ve got to say, post-Marion/Brent, McTavish’s big umbrella storylines of 1996 (Lonatrat and A. Spauling/5th Street) were huge busts. Lonatrat made everyone unlikeable and A. Spaulding/5th Street was so slow and uninteresting. Otherwise, my thoughts on the smaller B storylines: Grant family/Griffin was so gross and unnecessary; Dahlia/Marcus is boring; Holly/Fletch/Meg is nonexistent; Zachary and his meddling, I’m on the fence; Abby/Rick pairing I like; Blake/Ross/Rick and the twins I like; Annie and her pill addiction I like, but the slow Reva/Josh movement is boring and I lump Reva’s return into the 5th Street storyline because she’s mostly just with Buzz and Alan.

If all true and this is the right leading lady, it may make sense why Kim didn't mention her by name, since Courtney passed away in Dec 2010, just under a year before the book came out in 2011. That would be the respectful thing to do, and it's not like Kim was shy about name dropping others in the book. All speculation though haha.