EllenP

Loving Christian’s silver daddy look. Clean him up a little once he appears on the show again.

I wish they had chosen more Gloria-centric material for this week. I want to see JC back on the show when it returns.

GL’s Holly and any of her pairings after 1997! That would include Billy, Buzz, and even Ross. Holly and Ross’s re-coupling in 1999 while Blake was pregnant made Holly look so dumb. Her pairings with Billy and Buzz never made sense. She was far too smart and complex for either of them.

Definitely Y&R’s JT and Victoria—this was the start of screwing up those two generations of characters.

Y&R’s Ashley with anyone other than Victor, Brad, or Ridge/Rick when she was on B&B.

Y&R’s Chelsea with anyone—that character is so uninspired, tired, and played out. I hate that JG brought her back.

Y&R’s Kevin with anyone.

ATWT’s Barbara and Henry. Sorry Colleen.

Loved seeing Beth after all of these years. And Fiona is simply fabulously divine.

The 90s stories about the stories were great. I wish Jean Carol had been invited.

Hated JFP on Y&R but her run could have been different with a mandate to keep the music cues and sets intact. She suffered no fools among the cast there.

I loved her OLTL. It was my first exposure to that show. 

Maybe a Sharon week? That ep is right after she pushed Skye into the volcano

I hated Reva’s post-menopausal baby for a lot of reasons, 1) the menopause story had been huge storyline in 2005-06 as part of Reva’s character development and earned KZ her Emmy 2) the baby was Jeffrey’s (eww) 3) it was also part of a weird cancer recurrence arc that made no sense. That baby was unneeded and how weird for the show to end by insinuating Josh became his dad.

11 hours ago, VanessaReardon said:

Maybe you should talk to her sometime. There’s always 2 sides to a story (and sometimes even more when execs get involved). 

Correct. Everything you said. I usedto clean her house. My brother did her yard. Nicest, sweetest lady I have ever met.

This show is only played out because it lacks vision. This has gone on too long for it to not be sony/cbs interference. People hates on MAB but she has some good things brewin that made y’all  wanna tune in everyday, right?

Well,  I wish Tom well, whatever the case may be. I have always appreciated his insights into the recent (2000-present) soap writing process via twitter or blog posts.

Found an update on Kathryn Hays. This article appeared in her hometown newspaper around 2 weeks ago: https://www.bcrnews.com/2020/01/23/retired-actress-pays-visit-to-nursing-home/a5nbe3j/

I also read on the Eileen Fulton Fan Club page on Facebook that Eileen Fulton recently moved back to North Carolina. I guess she’s really retired from the NYC acting/performing scene!

12 hours ago, Neil Johnson said:

 

Yes, Josh and Reva's house had a living room (with the stairs and, I believe, a fireplace) AND a den/study.  Definitely two separate rooms. But after one of the big budget cuts, they moved the two sets together, as if they had always been one room.  The side of the set with the stairs (from the living room) was used, but was pushed together with the opposite side of the den/study set.  Not sure I am explaining it well, but maybe someone else remembers and can explain it more precisely.  They used this "combination" set only briefly and then they stopped using the entire set.  I guess Josh and Reva must have moved to a different house, or maybe they divorced and they both lived elsewhere.   

Thanks! Yes, I must be confused because they did combine the sets around early 2006, I think. I believe they got rid of the dining room portion at that point too.

Speaking of Holly’s home, parts of it became the kitchen in the updated Jessup farm house that Cassie and, later, Olivia lived in.

OMG how horrific! My condolences to Alley!

Someone under the name AlexDevane has been posting full episodes of the show from the early 2000s, pre-2005 massive budget cut. The stories sucked other than a few spots here and there like 2002-early 2003 and mid-to-late 2004. But I am amazed at how good the show looked and how many sets the show used!

Question: in Josh and Reva’s house they got from Vanessa, were there two different living rooms/dens? As I have been rewatching, the rooms look nearly identical, but one has  stairs and you can see the dining room. When I was watching at the time, I thought the rooms were one in the same. After rewatching though, I am realizing that they may not have been the same room at all! At any rate, that house was so much better than Lincoln Logs Cross Creek used in the year just before the production change.

I’ve been thinking about Marj Dusay’s death and how I wish we had recent updates from our ATWT people like Eileen Fulton, Don Hastings, Marie Masters, and Liz Hubbard. I know that we have had a Kathy Hays update in the last year when she was honored by her Illinois hometown, to which she recently moved back, and there were several pictures from the event. I just wish we could hear from the others, especially divine Ms. Eileen!

The new opening theme shots are not taped in the same lighting as the others. I am happy that the opening is updated and includes Stafford, Mealor, and others, but the difference between the shots is jarring. B&B had a similar problem with their previous 2 openings and mixing higher and lower quality cast shots.

Is a new group cast photo supposed to be coming out soon? Thought I mighta read a rumor about it a while back and that more opening title cast poses were being shot at the same time.

Traci is one of the only characters worth watching for now... and she is not on enough.

MS’s return has been a waste when it doesn’t have to be. Hoping that Phyllis’s story is shifting directions.

I want more Nikki and I actually wouldn’t mind more Victor.

Has anyone noticed the sets getting smaller again or is it just me?

1 hour ago, BetterForgotten said:

God, Marj could be such a hot damn mess, lol. 

OMG yes. I am flashing back to her first couple of days back as Alex immediately post Joan Collins. It was such a weird over the top performance even for Marj! She started to tone it down a bit after a few days and she was good for a few months before Ellen Weston took Alex’s story into clown town.

Let’s hope that Jill emerges out of this sh*t unscathed and still viable. It is obvious that the show suddenly shifted gears with this Adam story and effed up any momentum once DG whined his way out of the Traci pairing and they pigeon-holed Cane in.

1 minute ago, ChitHappens said:

 

OMG!!!!!  

Happy happy joy joy!

I appreciate reading all of these perspectives on Hogan’s ATWT. Replacing Carolyn Culliton with Jean Passanante did him no favors. The tone of the show changed noticeably when she came in around Bryant’s death and it took a while for the show get its act back together. Other than the spa storyline, the beginning and middle of 2002 were not great. It wouldn’t be until the Sage paternity story and centering Marshall Travers the show would be must-see for me, so around the end of 2002 and early 2003.

I also think that we can’t discount network interference. Barbara Bloom’s arrival at CBS in mid-2003 was terrible for ATWT (and Y&R to a lesser extent, at least immediately).

It is hard to know how much influence or power Hogan had at Y&R, even though elements of his style were evident. Maria Bell, and Paul Rauch to a lesser extent, took ownership of what we saw on screen, and Scott Hamner frequently acted as the spokesperson on a week to week basis in the soap mags.

I, too, wish that Hogan had given a long interview reflecting on his soap career. 

Martha Byrne (@MarthaByrne10) Tweeted: He was the best. What a great time we had during those atwt years. Hogan made the decision to dive into Lily’s past to make Rose an identical twin instead of a doppelgänger. This created incredible story and lots of Emmys :) https://t.co/5GgT62aXQo

I had no idea this was Hogan’s idea. This was one of my top 3 favorite stories of his, the others being CharBar/boathouse explosion and the Carly/Jack/Julia I saga. Late 2000 through summer 2001 were what happens when a soap has just the right mix of writing, acting, and production values. Some of the best soap of that decade, IMO.

This is shocking. RIP, Hogan. I loved his ATWT. He infused the show with humor and gothic elements. More importantly, he raised the stakes in the show’s storytelling. It was obvious that he was dealing with network interference in 2004 and onward. In fact, Rose’s death was to have sparked a huge umbrella story involving Holden, Lily, Dusty, and Molly, but the network nixed it. The show had to scramble, and I’m guessing that’s why the Cabot story dragged out. Whatever the case was, I loved most of his stories and how he wrote Barbara, Carly, Jessica, Jack, Hal, and so many others.

I also enjoyed his years at Y&R, but it’s hard to know who was really in charge when Hogan was there. I think Hogan would have given Y&R a much needed shot in the arm and would have been a better replacement than Griffith, but obviously that could not happen as we now know.

I’ll be spending the evening watch YT clips of Hogan’s ATWT ca. 2000-early 2002.

The campaigns should be easy to find on Youtube, but here’s a few:

Hot Enough for You, 2003

The Look that’s Got You Hooked, 2004

The Drama is Always On, 2005

You Know You Love It, 2008

The campaign for 2006 and 2007 escapes me, but the same shots were used for each of those.

Some of you may remember that under Wheeler, GL incorporated some of the 2004 promo shots into the 2005-07 opening (one of my faves from the last couple of decades, I wish it had lasted longer).

1 minute ago, Donna B said:

Barbara Bloom was a part of the abc-ification of CBS, right? Didn't she come over from ABCD? Geeze Louise, thanks so much for that.

Correct. I liked the ad campaigns for the first few years of her tenure, but that’s about the only nice thing I could say lol.