FrenchBug82

Indeed. Which makes Phyllis look dumb and hysterical but most importantly completely voids the entire storyline of any emotional investment. Why do they expect the audience to care or be particularly angry at Sally? It was a sneaky way to get out of town but it was enough of a great opportunity that Summer CHOSE to take it despite having reasons to stay in town. Fact it came from parties with an agenda is irrelevant. So why are the writers thinking this is somehow a high-stakes conflict?

They didn't know what to do with her in her last few returns but she did fine acting-wise. Billie was always very much written - at least when she was playing her - with LR's spunk so I am not worried about her acting.

I am pretty sure she will be back (I mean, Reckell left in a blaze of bitter glory and STILL came back) but I don't put it on the same level as FS. KA won't ever *need* to come back, financially or otherwise. On the other hand, whenever she does want to come back, she will be welcome. FS is very very likely to need to have a job at some point and prefer *that* entertainment job over having a real job once he realizes that pyramid schemes and YT money wear off the longer he has been off the show and his "fame" fades. But I can't imagine that he will be particularly remembered/missed in 10 years if it takes him that long to see the light. The iron is still warm but it will get a lot colder a lot faster than KA.

Yes. But I do think soap writers have a tendency to confuse "humanity" with "sanding off the edges". I do think a good writer could pull a raging bitch who is likeable and yet does not stop being a bitch or spoiled. Too often, when TPTP decide a character is a lead, then suddenly all the thorns, asperities, ugly sides of a character's personality are shaved off AND forgotten and they become generic. That was one admirable thing about Lucinda for so long that she managed to hold center-stage without ceasing to be horrible at times. And I think there was plenty of room for Lily to spoiled and brattish AND compelling without trying to brainwash us into thinking she was sweet.

Way for NCB to spoil the Yes, I know, it was obvious from the get-go yada yada but still... if that's your cliffhanger then maybe *pretend* there is a question mark as to what is going to happen for three weeks. Stupid.

No, probably not but the length of time they are setting aside to make sure everyone is ready when filming commences is telling, as it was with the Dobson "revelations"

It is so funny because I was typing this very thing when I got the notification you had replied. This is the vibe I am getting

Don't kill off Sonny. Don't kill off legacy characters with multiple ties to the canvas, period. ESPECIALLY since it won't play on-screen if he doesn't want to come back. That's just a waste. Break them up off-screen, which is plausible enough, bring back Will and have him have a life again. With Paul or someone else. I am not going to say anything mean about FS but I don't think he will feel that way in five years (how many of soap actors with a lot more, hum, potential have said this once only to come crawling back later) so keep the door open so that Sonny can always be a surprise spoiler for whatever romance Will will have gotten himself into by then some day.

Sarah Brown is actually not a bad idea because she had that extra spunk but in the end there was nothing wrong with going with an unknown. NF was fine; she was a bit too soft and swee but the writing for Cassie (and the show) by then was garbage so there was nothing anyone could have done better imho

I do think, as had been discussed a few pages back, that Lily was not recognizing her own privilege and was a bit spoiled and the "poverty tourism", the unconscious attraction towards a "simpler" way of life that she was charmed by because she didn't have to live with the actual concrete hardships was a subtext of her attraction to the Snyders. She was idealizing the "warmth" of that home because she contrasted it with her own but that was partly because it is easier to idealize a lifestyle in theory when you have the financial security to do so. So both explanations are true at the same time. And I do think Lily would have been more interesting if the writers had dared being a tad more explicit on the former even if it didn't make her sympathetic. A character with layers is always compelling and it didn't have to make her a bad person to acknowledge how spoiled she was and how clueless of it she was. I wish Holden, in one of their break-ups, had really dug deep into her about that because that actually would have made me like them more if he understood who she really was and still loved her. It is weird that the writers clearly understood that subtext enough that we could see it and yet were too afraid to make it an actual thing and wanted us to cling to the idealized version of Lily.

That'd make a lot more sense. |I thought they meant when LW left and I was like WTF lol

This strikes me as confusing. She was one of the main stars of ATWT by then. Why did they think she would even think of taking the recast of a second-tier character on another lower-rated soap?

YT has really cracked down on most options to download their videos but I know I use 4k video downloader. They have limited how many you can download per 24h recently but it is better than nothing and I don't download that much so it has never bothered me much. I think jdownloader also still works with YT but this needs to be double-checked

I feel ridiculous that I didn't know. I watched KL back to front several times! But I never saw Kojak. And looking at the Kojak pictures he looked good alright but also older than he did on KL imho which might be why.

So let me ask because I missed those conversations here at the time. What's the consensus around these parts about BC? I mean, he did give a bit of a douche vibe in real life although I never heard anything concrete. Do we "hate" him? Do we have a reason to? Or is just the character we don't want back?

This is all very compelling and I'd agree your theory is more likely. But I also think that it is easier to be controlled and calculated when things are going your way; it is not incompatible with letting your emotions cloud your judgement when things come crashing down - while still being smart and calculated over all. The reason I stick to my current theory that it is probably a mix is because of something you said: the BH audience doesn't believe her. And for her to think she'd fool us when it is SO obvious it would be a much taller order than the current performances she gives, when she doesn't provide any fact or counter-narrative, tells ME that part of her behavior is indeed narcissistic delusion she can still pull it off because she is the victim and, surely, the audience will see it. She doesn't need to engage with the facts in her mind because that's not the point. The point is HER suffering. She is a smart woman: if she were thinking about this rationally, she'd know she needs a better PR plan than this transparently phony fact-less BS. Think about that Tom and the car story. That's not someone who is in control of her narrative and knows what she is doing. That is someone who sees herself as the victim and is convinced people will see it this way - even if I don't doubt she is indeed giving a performance to get the audience there like she did to get the audience where she wanted in her previous "personality"

This was 1995. Online wasn't a thing. I wonder if they could pull off a story like this now. Not just departures being leaked and stuff but fans putting together the kind of clues you mention. I was genuinely shocked at some of the twists and turns at the time. And I had NO idea it was Gwyn until the very last moment.

I think any actor who is on a show for a decade and has been involved in at least two highly popular pairings can think that the show can give them something at contract renewal. Any employee expects regular raises, regardless of what how their business does. What they do if they are not given that raise, or those non-financial parks, THAT is where we see if they have leverage. AND a key to this is General Hospital was very publicly courting her for the high-profile recast of Carly. They had approached when TB left. It was an open secret (we fans knew). That certainly gave her a point of leverage with GL and she wasn't a complete fool to think she was in demand. And in the end that's what happened. She may have stayed even after their "No dice" if she had no other option. But she had one big shiny one at her disposal and she took it. I have less sympathy for huge stars like KZ complaining not getting raises. But I don't blame people who have a family to feed in the highly insecure world of show-business asking for improvements to their contracts once they have earned their oats.

Ooooooooooooooh I am glad I asked because I didn't know. Funny how that detail clocked it lol Thanks ya'll!

OK Here is something that gets me very curious now. As we see here the main players: the men spend half an hour in makeup and the women an hour and a half. Unsurprising. But there are exceptions at the bottom: Julie Harris takes only an hour. Fine, I get it. Lilimae's makeup was more subdued than the younger women. But why did Kevin Dobson require an hour when all the other men only needed half an hour? I looked up that episode to see if I could see something plot-wise that could explain it (an accident or something) but nope. So I'd be very amused to know why.

I am really struck that she is not even trying to *fake* even empty words of empathy. I mean that would be the most basic starting point for PR and staying sympathetic. My theory as to why she can't bring herself to do that is less charitable than yours (which is weird considering what I was saying a few days ago but not contradictory). I think she can't emphatize with them because she is indignant they are doing that to *her*. It is the narcissism talking: *they* are ruining her life, embarrassing her, taking her money from her, ruining her life plan. She sees herself as the ultimate victim in all this. She probably thinks - even assuming she wasn't in on Tom's scam - that the victims just lost some money, they'll get over it while she feels her whole life is crumbling. Suffice it to say it is incredibly off-putting and ugly but it is also human in a way which goes to what I was saying about trying to put ourselves in her shoes and how her pain may be sincere. It may come from a place of narcissism but it doesn't mean it is not real.

As a side tidbit that I personally didn't know, in her Lochner interview to celebrate 30 years in daytime, Laura Wright mentions that at the time she ended up landing Cassie on Guiding Light she also had been offered (or was in contention for) a role on All My Children as a doctor and decided to go with the stripper role 😜 Anyway since this is 1997 I assume that would be the role that Alla Korot played, Allie (which is funny since LW also played an Allie on Loving).

I love LW and I would enjoy watching her but I actually agree that Cassie was not a very compelling character as is. And I hate everything San Cristobal related so obviously the whole Richard thing says nothing to me. In all fairness I think it sorta was. It was dropped quickly when she became the romantic heroine and the foil for "mean" Dinah but when she first came in she was trying to survive, it was clearly explained she had to be tough to go through the stuff she had gone through (hence her going along with Alan and Annie's plan) even though she had a conscience. But the "I am tougher than I look" thing was an early feature; it was supposed to be the "fire" that the sisters had in common and I strongly suspect that's why LW was cast in that role since that's something she does always bring to her roles

I agree with that. I wouldn't shed a tear if Leah went and I prefer people who are actually friends but I think it is more a problem of adding than substracting at this point. Noone strikes me as dead weight - I may dislike the newish ones but they are bringing stuff to the table. Housewives should only be cut when they have nothing to bring. Of course we might argue that if what they bring is fakery and artificial, what's the point? But I'd focus first on who to bring back.

Yes. Her last airdate on GL was November 3rd 2005 She first appeared as GH's Carly at the tail end of the November 4th 2005 episode.