yrfan1983

What a glorious episode! It wasn’t even that eventful but it definitely kept my attention. The show was firing on all cylinders at this point. Jack was in full scoundrel playboy mode… making kissing motions towards Diane as he walked past Andy… thumbing through his black book before Lindsey walks in… this is why Jack was the character viewers “love to hate”. I’m frustrated by Diane’s indecision and was shocked at first when she was mad at Andy instead of being contrite. But their exchange had a true-life ring to it… I’m sure many viewers had found themselves in a similar situation. Overall, I really don’t like that this leads to Alex D being let go in a few short weeks, and Diane’s story ending on a very weak note. I really appreciated the dialogue writing in this ep… Lauren K really sparkled in her scenes with Jack – verbally jousting with him… flirting and blackmailing at the same time And I adored Danny and Traci’s talk with Mamie! When Mamie complimented Danny’s singing, he said “Thank you” and she said “you’re welcome” and I just so appreciate that it sounds like an actual normal real-life conversation ❤ certainly a lost art on soap operas. I also loved Traci and Mamie’s palpable familial bond. It reminds me that the ’91 scenes with Traci and Veronica Redd Forest’s Mamie rang totally false, with no feeling of true familial bond to me. I feel like maybe I did see the original airing of this ep (as a 12-year-old), because the Danny Lauren performance felt familiar… I remember thinking how sexy and glamorous they looked, and how removed and sad Traci must have felt… that Traci felt it was unattainable for her to ever be in Lauren’s place. Watching it now, I’m thinking – yikes, Danny and Lauren sounds terrible! Individually, they sound ok, but their harmony is non-existent. I blame Michael D because his harmony with Beth M also sounds awful. But wow… “Alibis” by Sergio Mendes! Talk about a forgotten ‘80s hit. I had to pull up the original on Youtube… sounds great but I don’t think I’ve heard it in almost 40 years. Looks like it only hit #29 on the chart. Surprising, but then 1984 was a huge year for pop music! Madonna, Van Halen, Prince, Tina Turner, etc. etc. no wonder Sergio Mendes didn’t rise to the top. Why did the camera keep cutting to the local “City Scene” tv host? Maybe IRL he’s a local celebrity or something? He did make me lol the way he was bopping his head… I love playful touches such as the camera lingering on Marc’s bare legs. These small efforts really elevates scenes in way that soaps don’t have the time to do any more. Jill and Marc were fun, though I’m starting to see some signs that BrendaD is losing track of her grounded manner of acting, and is leaning towards campy… it feels more like Jill is flirting *at* Marc, talking past him, than truly trying to flirt with him. Anyway, seems like their affair, once over, was never discovered and never referenced again. The one bust in this episode is the character of Eric. Such a slick “Ken doll”… why is Ashley wasting her time with him? I feel like Ashley would be drawn to someone with more depth and complexity… hmm like Victor! I watched all the commercials and it brought back a lot of great nostalgia… like the “Hanes #12 inspector”, “Sizzlean”, and especially Robert S Woods (One Life to Live!) giving tips on how to “never let ‘em see you sweat!” ❤

Wow, the lead-up to the big Traci/Danny/Lauren concert! And a rare glimpse of the Jill/Marc affair. And the quality is so crystal clear! Thank you @BoldRestless there hadn't been much newly-discovered YR archives lately and I was getting depressed 😂

Sally broke my heart at the end of 1593 when she called off the wedding 😭 over the course of Sally's time on the show, did she ever find "true love"... a worthy partner who truly loved and respected her?

Up to 1589… wow, I am in awe how the show is firing on all cylinders. Every story is working for me. The only scenes I FF through are Ridge and Taylor’s multiple rounds of lovemaking. How fun was the Fabio bachelorette party! Back when soaps had a budget. So interesting for Taylor to be in the mix. It bothers me that Taylor, the psychiatrist, is so clearly judgmental with people. First, she was almost hostile with Sheila, without a straightforward reason. One could chalk that up to Taylor being a shrewd judge of character. But then she is not welcoming to Macy. Geez, Taylor and Macy are sisters-in-law! Why can’t Taylor show some empathy to Macy, instead of immediately putting on her psychiatrist hat? Interesting that Macy broke up with Sly off-screen. I would have liked to have seen that! At least we saw the aftermath. But the writers definitely downplayed the fact that Macy must have been very sad to be with Sly romantically. Like – we should have seen Macy and Sly start to have sex, and Macy trying to keep herself from crying. Macy’s “dark night of the soul”, where she rolled around the gutter among the garbage and the rats, reminded me a bit of Days ’95 Mar-Devil when Marlena was wandering through the slums trying to fight off the devil and ended up naked at Bo and Billie’s engagement party. But with Macy, I think the show could have gone much further with her “hitting bottom”. The character of Jack is an enigma to me, and kind of a bust. I have no concept how Jack feels about Sally or how Jack really feels about Stephanie. Chris Robinson was such a success on General Hospital, but so generic on B&B. I guess it’s thus the writer’s fault? I’m assuming Sally and Jack’s impending wedding doesn’t come to pass. Surprised Jack makes it up til 1995. I feel like something went sideways story-wise with Steve Crown. On one ep – Eric gave Steve a deadline of one week to get close to Brooke. Next ep and the next 20 eps – Steve is absent and that plot point is ditched. Steve then only appears for 2 more eps to wrap up the story, before Elliott takes over as the lawyer. I wonder if something happened off-screen with Perry Stephens that prevented him appearing more. I’m so used to seeing Robert Gentry on All My Children with a moustache. So strange to see him on B&B clean-shaven!

Thanks… aw that makes me sad. Stephanie could have been a good mother figure for Macy if she had put forth the effort.

In 1587, Sally says that Stephanie is responsible for Thorne and Macy breaking up. What is she referring to? I missed that whole story as I only started watching when Sheila arrived.

Great interview, thanks! Donna is just so centered, down-to-earth, and pleasant. I want to be her friend! I want to go have drinks with her! 🤣 I love how she answered Joan's question about having kids "Maybe I'll adopt one day... ❤️

I do think he had chemistry with CK. I liked their reunion in 2011(?) when Cane was thought dead. It felt two older, more mature people reconnecting, after their disastrous youthful marriage.

What an acting tour de force by JVA! More of that to come… (how was she not nominated for an Emmy?

How about Sheila's story in 1994 - overall would you say it is good?

I don't recall all the details, but I think Scott Easton is just a stooge doing Paul Galveston's bidding, and Galveston has his own reasons for following up on Abby's wish that Gary's babies didn't exist. You'll see soon that Easton is considered easily expendable.

I didn't mind the pre-teens of the early years - the Avery boys and Brian Cunningham. They were mostly "seen but not heard". Jason was recast at least 3 times and no one cared In the later years, the kids got more of a spotlight. Meg in particular, IMO, was given too much focus. I found the Meg actor cutesy and performative, in quite a grating way. = = Vee, can't wait to hear your thoughts as the baby theft story kicks into gear. I am always haunted by the final scene of the Thanksgiving ep... so disturbing. I know this never would have happened, because the show had left Dallas far behind, but I would still have appreciated a Lucy appearance around this time. It feels like a plot hole for her to be absent where her mother is in such a crisis. I'm picturing Gary summoning her to support Val, around the time of the Thanksgiving ep, but things would backfire, because seeing Lucy only reminds Val of the trauma of JR stealing baby Lucy, and Val just spirals further.

Thorne and Karen's romance ended with a fizzle around ep 1550 or so. Feels like the character of Thorne has lost the status of lead character by this point. I was surprised when someone mentioned that Jeff Trachta was even put on recurring by 1995.

I finally reached 1573 and Brooke's glorious line: "Here's to Taylor... and here's to you... and here's to all you frickin people!!" So great. It sounds like something would say when they were really upset. Why is Thorne totally absent from the Belief story? He's not currently involved in the Macy story, so we're just not seeing him on-screen at all.

Love it! It’s all the more awesome considering KB was heavily pregnant ar the time 😂

I have to go on record as not being a fan of Meg (Sumner) McKenzie or Bobby and Betsy Gibson/Ewing (hmm what was their last name once everything shook out...?) It was unavoidable to have a younger next generation on the cul de sac. But if I wanted cute and spunky l'il kids, I'd turn on a sitcom. It would have been cool if, maybe around 1990, the show did a time jump and the kids would be recast around 16 years old, and could take on more adult storylines. Mack, Karen, Gary and Val, of course, would be magically un-aged after the time jump and look just as fabulous as ever.

Thanks sheilaforever and Troppo!

Ok, I just finished 1571... I am in shock that Brooke successfully claiming the Belief patent comes down to Ridge accidentally grabbing the unsigned copy of the contract and leaving Brooke with the signed version... What a dope! What a dingbat! Ridge is a failure as a businessman. Stephanie is not far behind Ridge. Her ineptness in failing to double-check the contract is one of her all-time biggest blunders.

Cold is a great word to describe the Paige and Greg vibe. They left me quite cold. Talk about the opposite of Laura and Greg! Which I assume was the point, but it didn't keep my interest. I never understood Paige in the heroine role. I guess I'm in the minority, as the show put all their eggs in the Paige basket for 6 seasons. To me, she was always somewhat of a cold b*tch, and I preferred her as the schemer we initially met in season 8.

I think Eric’s short-lived romance with Mary Frances was the show’s attempt to audition him in the young leading man role. After that, they eventually handed the young leading man mantle to Michael, and I guess they just didn’t find much purpose for Eric on the show.

1570 was directed by Susan Flannery! Do we know if this is the first ep she directed?

Sigh… I guess you’re right that the character of Diana was basically unsalvageable post-Chip… but it didn’t have to be that way. The Knots writers proved themselves as skilled creators of multi-layered, deeply felt characters. In this respect, I think they failed Diana. For example, re: Diana feeling lucky Chip chose her – I can buy that concept. However, to my recollection, nothing we saw on-screen indicated that she felt insecure in the romance department. Her arc in season 3 was focused on the family’s recovery from Sid’s death. IIRC in Seasons 1 and 2, she maybe had 1 or 2 “episode-of-the-week boyfriends”? I guess we can chalk up her insecurities to failed off-screen romances.

Some musings on the final days of Diana Fairgate Fenece and Claudia Lonow… In the KnotsLanding.net interview with David Jacobs and Michael Filerman, they both laud CL as a fantastic actress. But David J says repeatedly “Diana was not a popular character”. I wonder – was she always an unpopular character, or did that happen during Season 5? As Vee detailed, Diana devolved in S5 to a borderline psychopath – and certainly unlikeable/unrootable! Since common agreement is that CL is a great actress, to me the fault would then be with the writing… that the S5 writers failed to create a realistic portrayal of Diana torn between her love for her husband and her family, and instead presented us with an obsessed maniac. After Diana returned from her oddly-timed multiple-episode trip to visit Uncle Joe (why couldn’t we have seen this? I would have loved to see straight-talker Uncle Joe try to clear up Diana’s muddled thinking), it felt the writers tried to wrap up Diana’s story with a minimum of effort. An underwhelming, half-hearted reconciliation with Karen… which was a real let-down after 5 seasons of being shown their intense mother-daughter bond. A barely-there-before-it’s-gone receptionist job at Gary Ewing Enterprises. Multiple eps with no Diana appearance at all. It makes me wonder if the writers would have preferred to just write her off after Chip’s funeral. There’s an interesting occurrence we see with CL and later with both Teri Austin and Tonya Crowe. (maybe this happened to Pat Petersen too? But I haven’t confirmed) All 3 actors spend years not in the opening credits, but instead in the “also starring” section, or even in Tonya’s case, many years in the end credits. Finally, all are promoted to opening credits, and all 3 only last one season before being let go. Who knows all the ins-and-outs of each situation… but I surmise that it’s a contractual guarantee that after so many seasons, the actors will be added to the opening credits regardless of the writers’ future plans for the character. So, this makes me think the writers were forced to use Diana all of season 5 even after they lost interest in the character. Most of this is conjecture on my part, as things just don’t add up, and I want to know why! Come on Claudia, write that tell-all memoir! She has said she struggled with drugs during this time, and we can only imagine how that played a part. My wish for Diana is that she received an on-screen proper and thorough redemption arc. I do appreciate she got the Season 6 goodbye scenes (instead of just leaving off-screen for another Uncle Joe trip) and that we saw a more normal and mature Diana in the final season.

The early eps of season 6 were filmed on location in Oregon, which helped contribute to the beautiful look of Lotus Point. Also, production was continuous from the season 5 finale into season 6, rather than taking the customary 2 month or so break. This was all done to avoid filming in LA during the ‘84 summer Olympics.

That works, thanks!