Xanthe

I think we were always supposed to be titillated by sweet virginal Cheryl and her pursuit of the opposite sex. Practically the first thing she did was accidentally and unknowingly get into Scott's bed. She was always pestering Scott not to think of her as a kid. And then she hung around ex-pimp Chad in order to ratchet up MJ's guilt and anxiety. I don't know if the character of Cheryl would have worked better for me if they had paired her with a badder yet age-appropriate boy. The only thing that made Scott bad was his link to Reginald which he rejected and in any case was offset by devotion to his and Cheryl's mother. He just seemed nice and too mature for her. There were a lot of extremely good girls around. We got some vixen from Paulina, Lorna, Maggie maybe? She refused to go to college and ... rebelliously took an entry-level job in her father's company. Most of her mild disobedience was because she was chasing Sam. I think her aunt Nancy went further (although still fairly mildly) off the rails -- she befriended Marley chiefly to get closer to Perry and because they were rich, after Perry's death became dependent on drugs, and got into trouble with Ada for going into debt and sleeping with Chris Chapin out of wedlock.

Did they make Cheryl unsympathetic? I thought she nobly and virtuously did not stand in Scott's way and then when Dawn had died quietly took Scott back.

As a fan of Scott and Cheryl, what did you think of the introduction of Dawn?

All of these seem to have revealed the twin in 1990 or later even if the character was born onscreen earlier than that. The reveal that Marley had a twin Victoria was in 1985 and I believe the explanation was that Donna had been drugged and out of it when she gave birth in a secret room so it was halfway reasonable all things considered. It seems harder to retcon a twin when the birth was otherwise normal. Is Donna/Vicky on AW really the earliest example of the secret twin even the mother didn't know about? (I would not count scenarios where the mother knew and thought the baby had died or kept the secret.) Agree with these. Lorna was very nicely handled.

AW: Good: Donna is Marley's mother Great: Marley has a twin Victoria Terrible: Maybe Marley and Victoria's uncle John is really their father (worse would have been the speculation that their adopted uncle Scott was their triplet). Also fairly ham-handed: Iris is not Mac's biological daughter! Except now she is back and recast and yes she is for some reason!

Hm. One obvious advantage 1995 has over 1987 is Anna Stuart vs Philece Sampler.

At this point in time Cass must be the imposter Rex Allingham, correct? It's hard to tell because he seems so Cass-like. I don't think I liked anything that was going on at this point, with the possible exception of the glimpse of poor sad Adam.

Popularity does not necessarily correlate with quality. There are a lot of other factors that get people tuning in and sticking with a serial. Writing is only part of the equation. Sometimes the hook is as shallow as finding an actor attractive. And fortunately or unfortunately, being popular already is one of the things that attracts viewers, which increases word of mouth, which sustains or improves ratings. How many times did AW try a prime time special to attract attention? Stunts drive publicity, but how do you convert that to daytime viewing?

The reference appears to be to 1993.

Jacqueline Courteney and George Reinholt (AW Alice & Steve; OLTL Pat & Tony). Denise Alexander and Chris Robinson (GH Lesley and Rick; AW Mary and Jason)

Sally started seeing Peter in the first half of 1983, and then Donna was introduced. That led to the reveal of Kevin Thatcher as Sally's son and her engagement to David after Peter dumped her and David's wife died. On a parallel track the same year Blaine's tormentor Alma Rudder was murdered. Blaine and Larry's mother Jeanne had come to town and they (at least Blaine and Clarice) found her very trying. Jeanne was taken ill and Larry found evidence that she had been injured when she fought with Alma and her wound had become fatally infected. On her deathbed she confessed that she had another son, Catlin. He arrived in Bay City under the alias Josh Peterson in early 1984 around the time Blaine and Sandy's son Alex was born. Catlin and Sally were all the rage for most of 1984. Early 1985 was the Introduction of Brittany and then Mary Page Keller was replaced by Taylor Miller in July 1985. Jake and Victoria were introduced in early 1985.

The first connection I made when I saw the announcement of her death was to Addie Mills in The House Without a Christmas Tree etc (I read the books which had incredibly photorealistic illustrations but had never seen the TV movies) only because I didn't know the name of the child who played Wednesday and didn't know enough ATWT history.

Morgan Englund's mother was Cloris Leachman.

I am biased pro-Zane and anti-Mitch so it is not surprising that my first reaction was to wish that it were Zane comforting Felicia here. I had forgotten since they never did much with it but when Zane brought Brittany to town they established that Wallingford already knew him because he had travelled around a lot before settling in Bay City. I don't mind a little wacky hijink from time to time and always appreciate a normal amount of levity mixed with my drama. Wallingford was quite a nice talk-to for a variety of people over the years. Bridget's circle was more limited but Wally was positioned to have heartfelt conversations with more outsider types.

When Dee first arrived in early 1985 Wallingford talked about his parents wanting to protect him and telling him to stick to his own kind, but he didn't want to limit himself so he left home. (Not clear whether there were other little people in his family.) He also mentioned that people felt free to be rude and unkind to his face because he looked different.

I think it was around the time Felicia met Zane that Wallingford started to show signs of being interested in Felicia romantically but she was oblivious and as soon as he realized that she was interested in Zane he quietly backed off. I think he was also friendly with early bitter John Hudson. As long as Lemay had tried to write for him as a person first I don't see why Brent Collins couldn't have had a place in serious Bay City.

Have they ever combined BFTD with a Martin Guerre or Brat Farrar-style imposture story? The only case I can think of where the person back from the dead turned out not to be the person is Roman/John Black but that's not quite the same since as far as I know John believed he must be Roman.

Thank you. Loving Felicia's harder edge. And nice to see Brian! I only wish the ep had had some of Sally and Peter.

When Santa Barbara premiered it was scheduled at 9am in some markets. I don't remember what the conflict was or when it moved to 3pm.

I'm not sure what you mean by this -- do you mean that they didn't treat Iris as a fish out of water and they should have done?

Thanks. I see from the synopses that the sabotage was Milo causing accidents in order to profit from the insurance claims. But there was also some kind of scheming and intrigue around changing the script to pacify different offended parties. I was surprised to see that Cass got involved with the movie after Milo ran away -- he was scheming to help Cecile by hindering the distribution of the movie. While looking for episodes I came across what seems to be Cass' introduction -- he arrives and sees Elena and baby Maggie at Mac's house. I was very interested since in the later retcon where Cecile claimed he was Maggie's father it seemed impossible that they had known each other when Maggie was conceived, but it appears that he and Elena already know each other, so maybe he also knew Cecile as well?

What was the motive? I feel as if some kind of tax dodge could explain a lot (fiction is always full of rich people who want a business that will innocently lose money to reduce their taxes, or at least it was before we learned about money laundering) but knowing soaps it is probably revenge or stalking or something.

Mansion of the Damned sounds much more dramatic than A View From the Bay. Did Jamie write the screenplay? Who was producing the movie? If it had occurred during the Carl Hutchins years I could imagine Carl wanting to produce the movie locally in order to humiliate Mac somehow. But also a little too Lesoleil, a crowd of foreign intruders who don't add up to much or have any lasting impact. I don't think I have ever been very clear on what scandals Jamie used in his book -- in the synopses on the AWHP I see that he dates the actress who plays "Yvonne" (his character based on Cecile). Was it all about Jamie/Sandy/Blaine/Cecile or did it get into the whole Mac/Rachel/Mitch/Janice affair?

If the will stipulates that the inheritance should be split among all of the children they don't need to be named. In some cases also I think the legitimate heirs simply decide to allocate something to the newly-discovered relative which they can do as they see fit. For example when Marley learned about Victoria she voluntarily offered to split her trust fund which had been set up by their grandfather.

I thought at first that Beverlee was kidding when she said she had only just met Jerry since the first moment was Bobbie asking Jerry not to have his arm around Beverlee to give production more flexibility in the editing. I find Beverlee so charismatic. And it was interesting to me to hear her discuss the change in Iris' personality, especially talking about reacting to the other actors who might be playing the villain's rôle. In the AW thread we have talked about Nicolas Coster complaining that Beverlee delivered her lines by rote as if she simply ignored her scene partner.