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I was actually excited at the time for Nicole to be obliterated because Cass and Frankie were a much more appealing option. The character of Nicole in this incarnation was not interesting to me. Did she have any real relationship with Donna and Victoria or Marley? All I remember is her with Cass and Felicia.

It took me a minute to work out that Cory Hutchins did exist and no one was making several egregious mistakes about the birth of Cory Ewing (Hobson/Delaney/McGowan?)

I would love to see these episodes. I missed most of it at the time (I remember the Cory double wedding and Jeanne's death) and the next thing I knew Sally was engaged to David and taking Kevin for riding lessons with Catlin/Josh.

Thank you!. So good, but I want more. How did Peter find out about Kevin? Did Sally break up with him in order to prevent him from finding out, or did he dump her? Noticed Holland Taylor in the credits, but her scene was not included.

Denise Alexander was a bright spot, but the character of Mary was dragged down by her association with Reginald. If Reginald had been more nuanced, or if Denise Alexander had played a different character (Jake's mother who starts a romantic relationship with Vince?) I would have been happier.

While I find Ada washing her hands of the issue and telling Mac he needs to talk to Rachel himself hilarious and adorable, I feel as though they didn't really set up the problem correctly. I know that things had been tense between Mac and Rachel in this period because amnesiac Rachel was not sharing a bedroom with Mac and was trying to "find herself" in ways that Mac didn't understand. But he is able to succinctly explain his issue with the outfit to Ada ("it's evening wear! for an afternoon wedding!") in a way that it seems like he should be able to say "you look beautiful, but it's evening wear when most people will be dressed for daytime." Or if he really can't bring himself to talk to Rachel directly, would Felicia really be incapable of understanding what is appropriate and helping steer her in a different direction? I don't know why they went with this angle -- I would rather have seen something (shockingly bright colour? daring decolletage?) where Mac found it harder to articulate why it should be inappropriate and it was easier to understand why he couldn't just talk to her. 1985 or 1986 (or both)? 1986 was when Michael was introduced and Cecile kidnapped Cass from his wedding and they brought Mary and Reginald "back" from the dead. I loved Michael and Donna and Cecile/Cass/Kathleen/MJ/Adam, and the storytelling was generally better-paced than 1985 (Lesoleil, Egypt/Arizona, Plains Motel drug ring; the only highlight was Victoria finding her place in the Love family), but [insert rant about cartoon villain Reginald, classification of virgins vs whores, neglect of arts in favour of white collar professionals] 1986 - 1988 was less delightful to me than the years before and after.

She essentially experienced an identity crisis, so she was experimenting and trying out different things because she didn't seem to identify with with the Rachel Mac told her she was. Mac's Rachel was so stodgy! Felicia was so fancy! Here is the outfit, which shocked Mac. No boa, but fur and spangles.

You're quite right -- Felicia and Rachel weren't really shown as friends until they needed to be in order to generate drama when Mitch "came between them". However when Rachel had amnesia they did have Rachel seek out Felicia to help her decide what to wear for Catlin and Sally's 1985 wedding. Part of making Mitch benign seems to have been in order to make him a safe father for Matthew. I'm sure I must have complained about this before, but I think Mitch's characterization was lacking when he returned in 1986. Did Mitch want anything for himself or did he only exist as an object for Rachel, Mac, Matthew, and Sam to react to? Was it the writing that neglected the character or his low-key performance that made him inscrutable to me?

Cal was a character on ATWT, I believe. Nobody ever seems to talk about the rehabilitation of Mitch from the guy who conspired with Janice to murder Mac to quiet unthreatening consort for Felicia.

The Resurgence of Mitch, that's what.

This episode is from the day of Catlin and Sally's first wedding with Mary Page Keller still in the role. (They got through the ceremony and went on their honeymoon without knowing it wasn't legal because his first wife was still alive.) I have watched the credits a couple of times and unless I am missing something, they do not include Sharon Gabet as Brittany, even though the character had been appearing for a few weeks at this point and indeed in this episode was frantically trying to get to the church to stop the wedding. Patrick Tovatt is there as Zane. Surely she was under contract and even if she didn't have spoken dialog she would have signed dialog.

I have not found it, but for what it's worth, keep in mind that the wedding will likely have started on the Friday May 2 even if the ceremony continues/concludes on the Monday. Most successful soap weddings I can think of treat the first appearance of the bride about to come down the aisle as the Friday cliffhanger.

I strongly disliked the Lesoleil storyline for introducing too many new characters whose only personality appeared to be foreign = exotic. Nancy's drug storyline might have been stronger if the crowd of preppies had also had more distinct individual personalities. I do like Cass and Kathleen being nosy together. Lesoleil had a whole thing about both a physical makeover and some kind of new age getting in touch with one's emotions. I would be very interested in seeing the episode with Kathleen's "visualization" as they called it, only because they showed a picture of her then-dead mother long before Denise Alexander had been cast, and it would amuse me to see how they portrayed her. I don't recall that they spent any time on Sally's visualization, but on the understanding that I despised the whole idea of the Lesoleil Woman, I think Sally's crimped hair and gold dress did not do anything to elevate the concept.

Of Harriet the Spy fame. https://www.avclub.com/a-new-biography-explores-the-rebellious-bohemian-life-1845773895

Constance Ford was with Louise Fitzhugh when she started on AW in 1967. Nancy Wickwire joined AW in 1969.

In 1987 it was too early for them to confidently and realistically expect the character to survive for any length of time, so I can understand that they needed it to be someone they could kill off. Showing the audience that anyone could contract HIV from a blood transfusion has limited value in terms of a social message since needing a blood transfusion or ensuring that the blood supply is safe is typically out of the control of an individual. So the only constructive social value in having a character who contracted HIV/AIDS indisputably through no fault of her own would be in showing that it was safe for the people of Bay City to socialize with her. As far as I recall they didn't have any controversy among regular characters about whether to accept Dawn or shun her -- Scott fell in love with her at first sight and nobly and chastely dated her. Nobody, not even Reginald, tried to keep them apart or refused to be physically near her. Only Chris Noth as the dean of her college went to court to prevent her from attending classes and maybe some random strangers yelled at her about possibly having low morals once. They didn't try to integrate any real stakes in the main cast. Nobody risked seeming to be a villain, nobody had to unlearn a prejudice. Scott took her on a beautiful vacation where she died beautifully and then came back and picked up the pieces with Cheryl. It was an isolated temporary issue storyline with very little impact.

Pat's abortion was before my time, so I don't know how it came across. Based on the 1964 synopses it played out over several weeks with Tom pressuring Pat not to have the baby and ultimately leading to his murder. I was disappointed in the way the show used abortion in all of the storylines I recall in its last 20 years -- basically the formula of pregnant woman going to abortion clinic (manipulatively, if a bad girl, like Blaine or Brittany) or sincerely, if a good girl (like Amanda) so that someone (usually the father, or some guy who believed he was the father, or in Olivia's case, interfering Marley) could catch up to her and talk her out of it. All done with very noble intentions, but they went to extremes to make Dawn a perfect innocent. Maybe that was what was necessary for the times and the sponsor and the network and the daytime audience, but it could have been so much more powerful if they had used a character with a personality, and/or deep connections to core families instead of sanitized ex-pimp Chad Rollo and tangential Love Scott Lasalle. Or even if Dawn had interacted with some less saintly patients. The timeline would not have worked out from a prostitution angle, but what if instead of sending MJ out of town they had figured out a way for her to contract HIV? Or Jamie or someone close to Jamie at the hospital?

Are you suggesting his relationship with Betty Buckley was not genuine?

Amy Carlson (Josie) is going to be on the US version of "Would I Lie To You" tonight on the CW.

Today for the first time I noticed that AW's anniversary is the same day as the Star Wars celebration of "May the Fourth". Happy anniversary to all who celebrate.

According to the AWHP 1988 synopsis The Love mansion burned down in February and I guess Donna miscarried soon after. Also at that time they talked about Reginald's having starting a fire to cover up his murder of Elizabeth years ago and also pass it off as a suicide? Little Kevin Thatcher was in two separate fires in 1984. David Thatcher started a fire in his house for the insurance money and had to save Kevin. And then at Christmas the tree in the Matthews house caught fire and Mark Singleton had to regain the ability to walk in order to rescue Kevin from that fire.

Thanks!

Extremely idle thought: could the name Mackenzie Cory have been inspired by Macdonald Carey?

The article was accompanied by photographs of both Anne Heche and Brad Pitt.

It may be an interesting piece of trivia that Brad Pitt was on AW for a couple of days once, but he doesn't deserve a photo in a story about the show's cancellation when there is not a larger one of Victoria Wyndham.