alwaysAMC

I’m up to July 08, 1997. Ugh - Bridget just told Hart that she and Peter are leaving Springfield for good and moving to Minnesota to be with Dylan. I hate this on so many levels - one, where is the reunion buildup with Bridget/Dylan and two, this just feels like a quick way to get rid of Bridget/Peter before Vanessa makes her return because they don’t want to deal with it. Dinah gets Hart to accept it and Bridget/Hart/Dinah/Matt have a tearful goodbye. I can’t believe that was her final episode - what about saying goodbye to Nola and others?? Philip keeps pushing Harley about Mallet and she finally confesses they’re no longer together. Meanwhile, Jenna and Harley have teamed up against Jeffrey in this never-ending saga, and now Philip is finally given something to do on this show and he pairs up with Harley and plays along with the ruse against Jeffrey. Josh is able to find the doctor that told Annie her baby was dead, well before the ‘fall’. He convinces him to come to the trial, and just as they were having closing arguments, Josh and the doctor barge in and make the announcement. Annie freaks out and pleads with Josh to stop, but he tells her to go to hell, walks over to Reva’s side and hugs her in front of the entire courtroom LOL. The doctor then testifies that the baby was already dead so Reva couldn’t have killed the baby in the fall. Right before though, they finally have Philip arrive for the first time, and Rick/Abby give him an update. He shakes his head and says he had high hopes for Annie. This is a lost opportunity to me, because I really liked how Philip supported Annie throughout her intervention and dry-out at the Bauer cabin. The writers I guess had no interest in following up on that relationship, which is sad. Anyway, Annie demands to take the stand again, but Ross surprises her by turning on her and questioning her true motives, which upsets Annie and she makes a scene. Annie pleads to the jury and goes through Reva’s history, which really is another masterclass acting performance by Watros. I know she wins the Emmy this year, and I’d have to imagine this episode was part of her reel (I’ll have to look that up). Ross then gets Annie to admit the truth, almost like it was a therapy session on the stand. She tells Ross she cared about Blake and he should too, and then she lied for Alan and said he didn’t help her in any of this. The judge then dismisses all charges against Reva. Everyone celebrates and hugs, while Annie slowly and hurtfully walks off the stand alone. Pretty emotional here and you can’t help but feel so bad for Annie. The judge then tells Annie she will be arrested for perjury. As they’re about to arrest her, she screams in pain and collapses. She’s rushed to the hospital and has to go into emergency surgery. Rick and Alan tell her that she had to have a hysterectomy, which means she can no longer have children. She breaks down again. Meanwhile, Josh and Reva are finally having sex at Cross Creek LOL. The next morning, Rusty brings the kids over, which includes the new little actor playing Shane. Matt learns from Rick that an experimental drug that could have likely helped Vanessa’s disease was being tried in Switzerland (where she is), so Matt wants to go there and see if she’s alive. After a little more digging, Dinah and Matt realize she is likely at the nunnery where Vanessa is. They plan to go find her after Bill’s graduation the next day. Of course Hart can’t go because he’s going to help Peter/Bridget settle in and unpack in Minnesota. Michelle, Bill and Dahlia finally graduate, in late June, which seems very late LOL: Dahlia: Another reminder how weird it is that Dahlia/Marcus are together considering their age gap. Tina showed up to celebrate with Dahlia, which was a nice touch, and Griffin offered Tina a receptionist job which she accepted. Frank/Eleni finally show up at the party which seems like an afterthought. Such a lost opportunity there in storyline as Dahlia’s guardian over the last couple years. Michelle: She had another vision of Maureen congratulating her, which was sweet. And wow, prior to graduation they got Wyatt (AIDS counselor) to attend and mention Lucy. Random, but happy to see him still pop up even after Lucy is gone. Although that leads to a very random scene with Michelle giving a speech about AIDS and how a classmate died from AIDS, but I guess they’re dedicating a new memorial garden to support AIDS patients. Very nice, love the tie-back to Lucy’s story, but very random since Lucy wasn’t there haha. At the party, J finally shows up after being gone for months. Also, Rick doesn’t attend the graduation and there is a throwaway comment that he’s tied up at work and couldn’t make it, which is very lazy/disappointing considering Ed isn’t there already. But they’re playing Spice Girls and En Vogue in the background which screams late 90s and I love it. Bill: Bill was valedictorian, which shocks me considering everything he went through with Vanessa’s death, fighting with Matt and living at a boarding house. Like Superman, Michael flies Vanessa back to Springfield overnight so she can watch Bill’s speech/graduation from a distance, which is really fun but so corny because she’s wearing no disguise at all other than a large hat, and she’s just walking around for anyone to see her. She watches his speech from the side stage like 20 feet away, where Matt then walks by her to take a picture of Bill LOL. Then the after party, she’s sitting out in public at a table next to the party and watching Matt/Dinah talk. Michael listens to their conversation though and starts to assume they may be in a relationship because they’re talking about their trip to Switzerland tomorrow and how happy they are - UGH. Michael tells Vanessa that Dinah is the lady that Matt has now moved on with and I’m livid - I knew I didn’t like this guy. (Although the actor that plays him is now married to Mariska Hargitay and he aged really well!). Later, Michelle goes to Point Lester the night of her graduation to find someone that may potentially have Maureen’s heart, which according to Dahlia, is a dangerous part of town. She meets some seedy characters while there, but a younger, very handsome “bad boy” named Jesse seems to take notice of her and tries to help her. Dahlia and Marcus ‘rescue’ her and gets her home before she can get to know the mystery guy more. The annual Bauer 4th of July BBQ party starts and Meta, Michelle and Rick start prepping everything. Michelle leaves early and randomly finds out where Jesse lives and invites him to the party, but he declines. Abby comes and continues to be very friendly with Rick again. Philip, Harley, Buzz, J, Nola, Reva, Josh and his small ugly sunglasses, Holly and Meg, Fletcher, Blake and the twins, Roger, Lillian and random Amanda show up (random, because she comes alone, uninvited, and Roger doesn’t seem happy to see her). Ross shows up later as a surprise and wants to talk to Blake, where he forgives her and they hug. Later after the party starts, Jesse shows up and Rick isn’t happy and kicks him out. I love seeing Rick play dad and brother to Michelle. So, Michelle runs after Jesse again back to his house and they eventually kiss. Meanwhile, Annie is chugging vodka behind Alan’s back at the Spaulding mansion because she can’t handle not being with all the happy people at the Bauer’s. But she manages to slip out and show up at the BBQ drunk, while drinking a beer, and Philip catches her before others can. I loved that Philip acknowledges her withdrawal experience last year at the cabin, but sadly drunk Annie doesn’t want to talk about that. She then starts making a spectacle, scares Marah/Shane and Reva grabs her and tells her to GTFO. Watros is yet again doing such a great job in this role. Amanda calls Alan and he rushes over to take her back to the mansion, after she screams at everyone. Ultimately, Vanessa comes to terms that Matt/Dinah are ‘together’, while Matt/Dinah travel to the nunnery in Switzerland. Matt finds her room and sees pictures of Dinah/Matt/Bill and realizes it’s really Vanessa, but Vanessa/Michael are still in Springfield. The nuns tell them that Vanessa/Michael went away on a trip, so Matt starts to think they’re now together because ‘Tess’ once told him she’s getting closer to her physical therapist. They get to Michael’s room and find an arrest record in his drawer, while Michael calls the nunnery to tell him he has to leave, after having some flashback to him being in trouble. He tells Vanessa he can’t go back to Switzerland with her anymore, but she’s ready to go live alone on another lake and asks him to join her because she trusts him completely. Then, Matt gets information that Michael was fired from his previous job in Chicago because he was charged with murdering a female patient of his! Great Friday July 4th cliffhanger! Matt/Dinah then find a picture of Michael and realize that’s the guy he saw at Bill’s graduation, and Matt realizes he was standing next to Vanessa at the graduation. Dinah/Matt book it back to Springfield to find Vanessa/Michael. This storyline is really capturing my attention, even if parts of it are a bit corny.

I'd be happy with this. Sheree really was needed this past season because she has a history with Angela's husband. Angela vs. Sheree would have been dynamite TV, IMO.

Oh wow!! This was a good find, thanks for sharing.

100% agree, it was unfortunate. Then Rauch just threw her out with barely a goodbye. So sad.

Oh she had her southern accent on full display there. Thanks, @Liberty City for posting. I think at the time, Billy and Reva had way more chemistry than Josh and Reva, but I get Josh's more reserved/sensitive side, and I think it ultimately worked out for Jeva. Gosh, that audition was just before I was born haha.

I stumbled across this June 1989 episode and I'm so glad I did. First, I've always enjoyed Rick and Philip's friendship, and Philip has a face that sometimes needs to be smacked, so watching Rick getting some licks in is satisfying. But more importantly, Beth Ehlers left a bad taste in my mouth with her stint at AMC, and I haven't been that interested in her on GL in 1997, but this episode makes me actually interested in Harley. She and Dylan have some strong chemistry here and the background music of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" enhances this for me 1000x over. I love strong, emotionally charged scenes that are enhanced by good music, and this episode did it for me. I assume Harley and Dylan don't last long at all, based on what I've seen in the 90s, but gosh they had some chemistry here. Starts at the 1:00 mark. And LOL at her starting the same song over again on the jukebox at 21:30. She really reminds me of Jennifer Grey in this episode, definitely from Dirty Dancing with the curls. Also, bonus watching Billy and Marah making cookies together, very cute.

Haha yes! I actually thought about the old clips I'd seen of Vanessa when she was wearing her huge hat... but that only works as a disguise from behind LOL.

I just watched Episode 5 with Maurice Benard and it was quite moving. Maurice is probably polarizing to people, but this was a good interview and it really moved me. Rebecca and Greg really did a great job too with Maurice. They all cried!

LOL - oh Shrimpy, poor ****. For now, I'll enjoy the shrimp That's what I assumed about Vanessa's feelings for Bill as a child. One day I will watch that. I'm currently at his graduation and she showed up to watch him graduate and give a speech, which I applaud because I couldn't imagine she would miss a milestone like that if she didn't have to... but then it was a bit cheesy that she's there on stage next to him with no disguise and no one recognizes her LOL. I'll accept the unbelievability over her missing it completely.

LOL - feel free to keep calling **** various names, I'm assuming at some point I'll start to think the same way if I keep watching But I'll keep up the recaps/thoughts; my parade has umbrellas. I actually look forward to reading my journal 10 years from now with some wine. It'll evoke some fun memories. I'm in the thick of Michael Burke and very curious to see what happens. I currently don't like him, but we'll see if that changes. I'll post my next recap this weekend because I've been able to get through quite a bit this week. While I love Vanessa and really enjoy this storyline, because it's good soap opera generally, I've always had that feeling in the back of my mind since her initial car wreck where she allowed her kids/family to think she 'died'. I just find it hard to believe, through every iteration of her decision-making, that she would be ok living (or not living) a life without her kids around.

She does look great!!! Hard to believe she was playing Kendall 30+ years ago!

Omg now that would be juicy and messy - I'd be here for it LOL.

So the previews... I wonder who the older lady is that shows up at Leslie's house? That looks fun. Otherwise, seems like Naomi and Jacob assume June is the mother, like we assumed. That's starting to fall a bit flat for me, but I guess we'll see how the kids react once they know. Maybe this is what brings Smitty/Martin back together.

And now Hayley is quickly admitting to Naomi that she faked it? I don't get the point of all of this, especially not knowing Hayley's POV in any of this.

I think so too! I don't really understand why she thinks this miscarriage is her fault though, it's not like she touched or pushed Hayley. Dani owes her nothing.

Jan twice in a week, wow! But I do miss the gossip group at OG's.

Happy to hear it! I'll keep doing them, since I'm doing them for my future self anyway!

Yeah - I'm wondering if Amanda/nuRoger were sidelined for a bit as they figured out the Zaslow situation, or maybe they just always planned for the Reva trial to take up most of that month. Harley mentioned Nadine's death briefly when she returned for a week in January 1997 for the 60th anniversary party. She just said she was sad to have missed all these significant moments (Nadine's funeral, A-M/Lucy's wedding)... but then she decides to return to catch Jenna thieving? Dumb.

I'm continuing my GL watch journey and getting more detailed in my 'watch journal', because I want my future self to enjoy the details later in life when I want to revisit this era of GL I'm not sure if y'all read these anymore because I know this era isn't a favorite for most, but I'll keep posting just in case! They are more recap-style with my opinions/reactions sprinkled throughout. I’m up to June 16, 1997 (and what a month!). Something I’ve noticed this year is that both Reva/Josh and Vanessa/Matt have distinct music used in their scenes. Whenever there is closeness and love in the scenes, their music starts and it’s definitely part of each couple’s identity now. The new Roger has really taken me out of it, which isn’t the actor’s fault, but it’s just not Roger and now I don’t really care about him or the Amanda/Roger storyline, sadly. You can tell they’ve put this storyline on the back burner too, for now. Abby is in Rick’s class now at the hospital, so they’re able to interact. They grow to be friendly again, as Abby excels in her class. Well, Alan lied on the stand in favor of Annie, so the judge ruled that Reva will stand trial for murder in 10 days. Rusty takes Marah and Shane to Oklahoma so they aren’t around for everything, which leads to a very tearful goodbye with Marah and Shane (although a couple weeks later, Marah yet again runs away and figures out how to take a bus cross state lines all the way back to Springfield LOL). Meanwhile, Alan is falling for Annie and they spend more time together. But impulsively, Annie hits Alan with a vase while panicking at Fran’s office. Reva arrives and they get Alan to the hospital, all while Reva is trying to press Alan into telling the truth, as Annie continues to panic. Alan privately forgives Annie and tells her he will take charge now and she will fall in line with him. Reva’s trial starts on June 3. The judge is an old grumpy, no-BS man and guess who the actor is - Uncle Frank from Home Alone LOL! Griffin uses some magic trick to make a point about perception in his opening, which was dumb and upset the judge. Rick’s testimony was damning towards Reva, except Annie screwed herself over by getting rid of the fetus, because an autopsy couldn’t be completed and there is no way they can fully blame the fall on the death of the baby. Ross destroys Abby’s testimony, sadly. I felt bad for Abby because she was so nervous and only wanted to help Reva, but Ross really sunk her. Rick comforts her afterwards, which was sweet, and they end up kissing. Reva starts to believe Annie’s baby was already dead before the fall, so she’s starting to figure out the truth. Josh tells Annie the hospital found the baby’s remains (which we see Annie actually swapped the label on another baby container so they were all mixed up). Annie panics and calls a clinic to ask if an autopsy would reveal whether a baby that’s already dead be shown in the results. Josh overhears, so he’s now figured out the truth and vows to get revenge on Annie. Blake struggles with whether she tells the truth about her antics with Annie, with Holly pushing her to tell the truth and Roger pushing her not to, which puts Holly and Roger at odds. Blake doesn’t want to upset Ross and ruin his first case as DA, and also doesn’t want the truth to come out that she helped Annie steal files and tap Ross’s phone. So it’ll be up to Blake’s decision this entire trial, I think. Plus she really can’t screw this up again - this is her shot at redemption with Ross. If she doesn’t say anything, she’ll be such a weakling in my eyes after 1) throwing Roger under the bus at the Lonatrat trial and then 2) failing to tell Ross so many times about her hookup with Rick and the twins. Especially now that Ross and Blake just had sex and he’s asking now to move back in with the family. She’s going to mess this up, I can just feel it haha. Meanwhile, Roger pulls Holly into a kiss, which upsets Fletcher. Whelp, the next morning after Blake and Ross finally have sex and reunite, Ross is really digging into Reva while she’s on the stand, and in an emotional moment, Blake stands up in front of everyone and screams “No, Reva is not lying, Annie is!”. Great soap opera haha, but Blake really should have told Ross much sooner, as always. Annie looks like she’s going to kill Blake. Blake takes the stand, tells the entire truth and of course Ross questioning her gets really personal and messy. Ohh, Marah is at the courthouse and Annie freaks out and pressures Marah into telling her what Josh was saying to her. Reva sees it and pushes Annie away and they almost get into a fist fight as Fran walks in ready to take the stand! Annie has slowly spiraled for months, but she’s peak crazy right now. Fran tells the truth on the stand and Annie continues to call everyone liars. Come to find out, Alan paid Fran to tell the truth, so his scheming continues and I’m assuming this is his way to separate Annie and Josh so he can have her now. Vanessa, as Tess, tells Matt online about her illness and how she wanted to save her husband from heartache. Matt, as Robert, tells her that’s basically awful and not the right way of going about it. They eventually ‘make up’ and continue talking. Vanessa gets the strength to take a few steps and really gets excited about her progress. She decides to call Matt’s house, he answers and she chickens out and hangs up! Then they have a ‘date’, both are drinking wine and Matt is sitting there shirtless, he takes her virtual dancing, and they start revealing more about each other’s looks. Vanessa starts to freak out because she thinks she’s now cheating on Matt in real life because they’re starting to venture into cyber sex land, and she says Matt’s name, which the computer microphone picks up and allows Matt to see she used the name Matt. He is startled and cries out for Vanessa! He starts putting all the pieces together and thinks it might be Vanessa. He tells Dinah his theory and she thinks he’s crazy, but then starts to believe him, while Hart tries to bring them back to reality. Matt then tells Nola his theory, but Nola tells him Vanessa was really sick and even if she didn’t die in the car wreck, she’d be dead by now, which infuriates him. Meanwhile, Vanessa is more determined than ever to recover and plans to go back home to her family. These scenes are really good, and it doesn’t hurt that Matt is shirtless throughout haha. Oh no, then Vanessa calls Roger asking about Matt, and he tells her that Matt generally seems to be interested in a lady that he’s fallen for (Tess), which devastates Vanessa. She then tells Michael she has nothing to live for. Maureen is back! Michelle shows up at the door of the lady who she thinks has Maureen’s heart, and before she knocks, she has a vision of Maureen hugging her! Come to find out, this lady doesn’t have Maureen’s heart, so Michelle is devastated. She then sees Maureen again comforting and talking to Michelle from a distance. Harley comes back and surprises everyone at Buzz’s birthday party. Her claws are already out with Jenna. Philip keeps pushing her on where Mallet is, which she seems to evade. As Buzz leaves his party at the diner, he’s run down by Jeffrey. More of the same with this storyline: Jeffrey threatens Jenna, Buzz finds a way to find her, Buzz/Jenna hide and make out, Jeffrey catches Jenna, Jenna tells Buzz she can’t be with him… rinse and repeat.

He is!! I just randomly found him on LinkedIn and he's still very handsome, living in Dallas!

Thanks! That isn't who I was thinking of, but I know who it was reminding me of: John Loprieno. I know he's Cord on OLTL, but I was thinking more of Star Trek Voyager's "Year of Hell" that he was in. When Johnny was in the plane, with that lighting, really reminded me of John.

Thanks @Franko!!! GL fans - who is the man playing the Johnny character that's flying the plane? He looks so familiar to me!

According to Megan McTavish's unreleased/unfinished memoir - no, she didn't want out. In fact, she pushed Megan to give her a storyline, which didn't go over well with Megan, so she decided Nadine is going to die instead. It was rather bullish/flippant of Megan, but there are always two sides to a story.

Haha nice! Which episode / link? Would love to see.

I guess I'll find out tomorrow, but why would she have blood on her hands and clothes? Are we supposed to believe she put her hands down her pants and just naturally smeared it all over her clothes? I wouldn't know, but that seems odd to me LOL. But it sounds like Ashley/Naomi will be involved in the ultimate reveal that she's faking it, which I like.