Steve

Didn't the Goal Post become McKay's?

No. McKay's was around since the 1970s. There's a classic clip of a teenage Erica and Chuck having a burger there where he teases her about having to be the center of the universe. I think it was shown in the 20th anniversary show, but I might be mistaken about that.

How long did The Goal Post restaurant last?

Until Tom's daughter Laura was killed by a drunk driver in 1988. Tom sold it and opened a health club because he didn't want to be serving alcohol after her death.

Too bad they didn't use the final episode to finally address the fate of Bobby Martin, the soaps' answer to Chuck Cunningham and Judy Winslow. LOL

They didn't have to since Opal found his skeleton in the Martin attic years ago.

yeah...

I can't believe Willow Lake was around THEN. When the the Valley Inn come into play?

What's not to believe? I believe the Valley Inn was around since the beginning as well.

How long was the Pine Cone around?

At least since the early 1980s when I started watching.

It was a scam.

I think Peter and Jill may have been siblings by adoption but I can't remember. Maybe not.

Peter and Abby did have an affair. That was the last straw in her marriage to Gary. He caught them in bed, I believe, and casually said he wanted a divorce.

The story was confusing, one of those umbrella stories which didn't quite work. I did like Ruth Roman.

The best part of Peter Hollister by far was drunk Jill hitting Paige with the urn of his ashes.

I might not remember correctly, but I thought it was implied that Peter & Jill had been involved sexually at one point. I don't remember them being siblings by adoption.

I loved when Jill hit Paige with the urn! The second best part of the Peter Hollister story was Abby burying his body in the construction site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcPjyoJp6uo

Pat bringing the hammer down on Jesse. They seemed to use Pat a lot in 1987

I wonder how far they were going to go with Angie and Jeff.

Pat was a huge presence in Angie's life back then, which is why it felt so glaring that they didn't bring her back when Jesse & Angie returned.

I have no idea how far they wanted to go with Angie & Jeff or why Jeff was written out. I really liked that actor and thought they could've done more with him.

I am cringing at Hilary's hair and outfit. She looks like Suzanne Sugarbaker's country cousin, or like a country singer from 1940. I don't know what was going on there.

Skye looks OK.

I've never been a fashion expert, but I think Hillary's hair at least was the popular style in the late 1980s. The country look was popular around the time of Urban Cowboy, which I believe was at least 6-7 years before this, so I don't know why they put her in that outfit.

I loved how Brooke called out Skye & Hillary on not being professional in the workplace. How far AMC had fallen by the time the Fusion girls were having office catfights and pole dances!

I never knew that Brooke and Nina were best friends. When did that start exactly?

Cliff accusing Nina of being manipulative like Palmer is interesting. I wish they'd gone somewhere with this idea.

I never knew Barbara and Matt interacted.

Julie feeling trapped and isolated in Pine Valley after her adventures in New York is a great story, or potentially a great story, but Julie's so wan, it's tough to connect. I do think the dialogue in the scene with Nico is first rate.

Love seeing Phoebe snap at Adam.

Barbara is just a huge vile bitch. Unbelievable. She does her best to taunt Erica into having a miscarriage when Erica won't play along with her.

The Nick/Mona scenes are just beautiful. Nick saying he's still in love with Erica and probably always will be. They had such a fascinating relationship. I wish it had had closure on the show in those last years.

Love seeing Nina sparring with Pilar. "Which husband?" There's pure ice under all the sweetness and good manners. I wish we could see more of it.

So that's Cliff's house? I thought it was the boarding house. Oh well.

Phoebe's plot is a good filler story. Fun.

Brooke & Nina were best friends when I started watching circa 1980.

Julie was always bland, imo. Of the three actors in that triangle, I always thought Rosa Nevin would be the breakout star but it seems like she turned out to the be one less known for anything else (Robert Duncan MacNeil did a Start Trek show and Lauren Holley did Picket Fences).

I loved bitchy Barbara versus Erica. I always wished Barbara had teamed up with Natalie against her.

That guy is too young to play Jeff, and it's weird seeing him paired with Hilary, who should have been about 15-20 years his junior. And they're so handsy after barely meeting.

Nice to see so much of Phoebe's place.

Why was Cecily scheming against Hilary and Mitch?

Mitch looks like Dave Coulier.

Erica was so melodramatic in her prayer, but she was very much in control when she was with "Noelle." I like that.

Really enjoyed everything with Ross, Ellen, and Mark, then Ross with Adam and Stuart. Ellen and Mark made a good couple, with real potential to be a patriarch and matriarch if they'd been given a chance. Stuart trying to comfort Ross, only for Ross to turn against him in paranoia - so sad. I love the talk between Adam and Stuart too. Stuart loved his family so much. I feel like in later years the show sometimes just remembered his relationship with Adam.

I really like Hilary. I like that she refused to run after Mitch when he believed the worst of her. So rare. Can you imagine that on a soap today?

That's Courtney Simon, who recurred on AMC for years as Dr. Anna Tolan, in the commercial at 40 minutes.

The show had such a huge cast at this point, to the point where some just pop up for one scene (like Creed Kelly).

Hey, the woman Creed is threatening played Clarissa's mother on Clarissa Explains It All!

Phoebe hated Mitch because he wasn't good enough for Hillary, just like his sister Donna wasn't good enough for Chuck. I loved how Mitch was brought on the show; we saw him riding his motorcycle into Pine Valley one day and a couple of days later he showed up at Cortland Manor, asked for the lady of the house and collapsed. He didn't know Donna had divorced Palmer.

I can't wait to watch this episode later today. I loved the Palmer/Natalie/Ross/Ellen/Mark story!

I liked having characters pop up midway through for a scene or two and never knowing which characters would be on each day; it meant if you switched the channel you might miss something.

I always liked Hillary and really wish they'd brought her back before the network run ended. She should've been involved with Tad again before Dixie's final return from the dead, imo!

Very tense scenes with Natalie on the stand, played superbly by Kate Collins. I don't care for most soap trials but this has such a sick sense of dread to it. And having Pat speak about rape victims makes this seem less exploitive, which I appreciate. (I also liked the shade she threw at Ross' defense attorney). There are so many different elements to this - it's a true umbrella story, right down to little details like the strain on Mark/Ellen, Donna's nerves, etc.

I'd forgotten Benny was still on the show at this time.

Matt and Nina are just so blah. I guess Dack Rambo was on Dallas at this time but I wish they'd found a better partner for her. As it is this seems like filler, as does Cliff in jail. It's two different shows.

James Horan is one of those actors who to me doesn't ever have enough charisma for bad guy roles.

Appreciate getting to see some flashbacks of the night of the rape (nothing of the rape itself, just Julie and Palmer). I wonder if that's the same exterior they always used for Cortdlandt Manor.

I haven't made my way through the 6 hours ghfan89 posted yet, but this might have been the first time we saw Cliff was alive; at least that was the impression I got from that episode. I agree about Matt & Nina. I wish they'd paired him with Erica back when he was staying temporarily at her house since she was the only woman on the show I thought he had any chemistry with.

I agree about the trial. I hope somewhere out there is the episode where Julie shows up in court and admits she was the one who overheard the rape.

Natalie had a flashback of the rape before Silver came over the night she was accidentally killed by Natalie. Silver posed as a rapist trying to scare her.

I always liked Pat, and the actress who played her. She was always so emotionally available that it was easy to sympathize whatever she was saying or doing.

Thanks so much, by the way, for putting so many episodes up! I need to make more time to watch what's on YouTube. I'd love to see the episode where Nat kills Silver again.

I wish they'd brought Pat back when Angie & Jesse returned, even if it was just a short visit. She really should've been there for the wedding and the aftermath of the baby switch.

Happy 'should have been 44th anniversary' AMC.

Ditto!

Was Alfred still around at this time?

Yes, Alfred was on at the same time as Bob. Alfred came on originally as Greg's college roommate who had a crush on Liza.

Mickey Barlowe? LOL

Never heard of her. How long did she last - a couple weeks?

She was on for a few months. I have no idea if this article is correct about her run being extended, but she was the madame whose floppy disc of clients fell into Tad's hands and ended up literally kicked under the Martin family sofa. Tad went on the run with his ex-wife Dottie, which imo was great because it spoofed so many other soaps couples on the run stories, before Mickey was apprehended.

Was Bob brought in for this story or was he around for a while?

Bob had been around for awhile before this story began. He was Tad's best friend in high school.

I think that's Lonnie Quinn (the original Will Cortlandt).

It looks more like Robbie Duncan McNeill as Charlie Brent to me.

OK, I see no one else has admitted it yet, but I too am a Taylor Swift fan!

I've never seen her in concert, though, and while I admired her for writing her own material and not falling prey to the messed up partying of Britney, Miley, etc., I wasn't really paying too much attention to her songs until "Back to December" was released off Speak Now. When Red was released, I decided to buy it for myself as a Christmas present and I ended up later buying Speak Now, as well. I really think her songwriting has matured as she's gotten older and my favorite songs by her are "Red", "Everything Has Changed" and "Begin Again".

A promo for EVERYONE's fave Lorraine Broderick story!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSBvM5T7HV0

Just one word, Eric. WHY?????

^ That dress does her no favors, that's for sure. I really hope Fusion isn't a big part of a revamped AMC. I'm so over both Fusion and ConFusion.

ITA, I hope Fusion closed down or moved its offices to Paris, which could explain why Greenlee & Ryan are no longer in Pine Valley.

Damn, I love this show.

They played my favorite song of the moment (Rihanna's "Stay") tonight.

YES!! I love this show so much, too and that song was perfect.

this season is a little lost, all over the place, up and down, cluttered and basically a mess - yet i still think its ok drama and im still invested. after a few solid seasons ill allow them one to find its new groove. I just hope this bad run doesnt last like the last one (Season 4 - The Hospital Shooting)

The bad run imo started in October and ended with the episode right before Bailey's wedding. This show is finally getting back on track this season. I loved the tension between Arizona/Callie/Derek and Meredith/Christina. They need to keep the focus on them and give us less of those annoying new interns. Not one of them imo is a breakout character like Lexie or April were in the past.

First of all, in Dottie's original run, she did not even know Jessie or Angie because they had not been introduced.

Dottie originally was a little girl. Her father, Dr. David Thornton, was in love with Ruth Martin. David's wife (Edna) came to town with Dottie. David did not even know that he had a daughter. Dottie was sweet, but she could be bratty at times. Someone put poison in someone else's tea. However, Dottie switched the cups of tea when no one was looking, and David was poisoned.

I don't remember what happened to Dottie after that. Edna stayed in town. When Palmer was giving an elaborate ball, she became depressed because she had not been invited. She met a man from Texas named Hank Ferguson. They eventually married and moved to New Orleans.

Several years later, Dottie returned to Pine Valley. She had basically run away. She was wild, although I think that the writers may have eventually stated that she exagurated about her life in New Orleans. She bragged about going to the Quarter to hear the jazz bands. She became friends with Jessie.

Edna later came back to Pine Valley also. Hank had died, and she inherited his fortune. One storyline that was begun but was later dropped was that Dottie was developing an eating disorder. Edna insisted that she follow a strict diet because she was getting overweight (although the actress playing Dottie was not big at all).

Edna, feeling sorry for Dottie, began to pay Tad to date Dottie. Dottie feel in love with Tad, who did not love her. He felt sorry for her, so he eventually married her.

Jessie and Dottie eventually ran to New York together. There was no romance between them, although I think that Angie may have been uncomfortable.

The second actress to play Liza was Alice Haining. Liza was working at the television station, as was Dr. Cliff Warner. Cliff had a medical program, and Liza worked on it (maybe as a producer). She fell in love with Cliff. She later realized that he would only love Nina (who, I think, was married to Matt Connelly at the time). She received an offer to move to Baltimore to produce a program, and she left.

Alice is a wonderful actress. I attended high school with her, and her older sister was in my class. The whole family is creative and talented, and they were good friends with the late Christopher Wines (the original Jeff Martin on All My Children). I have seen her in many plays at her college (after I had graduated) and in professional theatre. I feel that the soap opera producers always miscast her. She was always cast in a unsympathetic role (although Liza had softened toward the end of Marcy Walker's run and continued to be pretty nice when Alice played her.)

I don't know anything about her role on Search for Tomorrow except that she played a record producer. She then joined Loving as a sick girl who was trying to hold on to her husband (I can't really remember, but it may have been Curtis Alden.). She then was on One Life to Live as Alice Johnson. Alice was one of the more devout members of Mitch Lawrence's cult, and she was a sicko. She tried to burn Cassie Callison Coronol at the stake. She also had Allison Perkins locked in her room. (Can you believe that Allison was one of the nicer members of the cult at that time, and she tried to talk the crown out of hurting Cassie?)

She was then cast as Liza #2 on All My Children. She later joined As the World Turns in another unsympathic role.

Alice in real life is the perfect ingenue. Yet (maybe because she was attracted to these roles), she was cast in the soap operas in unsympathetic roles.

She would have been the perfect Hillary Wilson. (I hated the actress who played Hillary!)

David put the poison in Edna's tea before Dottie switched the cups.

I don't remember Dottie hanging out with Jesse at all and I think you've confused her with Tad's sister Jenny. I know Jesse didn't run off to New York with Dottie, but he did follow Jenny there after Liza falsely accused him of rape. Dottie went on the run later on with Tad during the call girl story and they ended up in New York so maybe that's what you were thinking of.

Why did Tad sleep with Marion??

He was young and horny & she was willing to give him gifts for his services. Back when he was in high school, his nickname was "Tad the Cad" although now you'd probably call him a player (unless my slang is 10 years outdated, which it might be since I was in high school when Greg, Jenny, Jesse & Angie were).

Wait, which Charlie? I started watching just as the second last Charlie had left--and I know she had a thing for a bit with the last Charlie (Lawford?) and the detective place, but wasn't she already humping away with Alec by then (and I thought her and Brian had sex). Somehow I missed this detail... lol

Wait...

Hayley lost it to Kennedy Charlie?! I blacked that out, too!

Awful!

Brian was a cutie and I would have definitely jumped him.

Yup, she did lose it to Lawford's Charlie, gross as it was. I'd have jumped either Brian, but would've tried to have a relationship with the second one (I can't remember the actor's name but he was playing Brian when Dixie was involved with him).

McTavish only had a few months, if that, to write for her. I'd put any blame or credit for her on Broderick/Behr.

Maybe we should just blame '90s Cecily on network interference.

She was getting a divorce from Nico, and was going to stay with Aunt Phoebe, but Pheebs wouldn't let Cecily stay if she wasn't willing to ask Nico for alimony.

Well, McTavish brought her back as a watered-down version. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt this once that network interference was involved, but the Cecily from the 1980s had much more of a backbone and would've definitely gotten alimony from Nico. It's too bad that her return was so mishandled imo because Rosa Nevin was great at playing a vixen.

Nice promo. Probably better than the story if it's the Silver stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE0aGAwNAw0

Yup, that was the start of the Silver storyline.

they were boring as hell. I dont know why she was brought back in the 90s, bc the decade wasnt good to her. I hadnt seen her original 80s run but I thought she was such a boring and useless character

To this day, I think AMC's writers paired up Charlie with Cecily because they were ready to dump the both of them and didn't know what else to do with them. Honestly.

I think McTavish had plans for Cecily (she was supposed to be a pot-stirrer and live with Phoebe) and when she went, they went with her.

From what I've seen, she was very entertaining in the '80s.

Her '90s stint was mismanaged and was written badly. It's too bad.

Cecily was a great, fun character in the 1980s. Imo, her 1990s return was another example of a strong female neutered by McTavish.

I was reading an old Marlena column written after Erica lost custody of Bianca. She said she didn't understand why Erica was behaving so immaturely, complete with wearing a gold lame skirt to court, that she thought Erica was supposed to have matured, and she didn't know if the show expected viewers to pity Erica or not. She also wasn't thrilled with Lucci's acting in the court scenes.

How did you feel?

I remember a lot of complaints in the soap press about the custody trial, that the trial was pretty much written to be glaringly in Travis's favor with the outcome known to anyone paying attention, and in watching some of the old Jack-Erica-Travis scenes on youtube, I think it's clear they were going that direction. IDK if the original plan was to have Travis take custody and live in Pine Valley with Barbara and the kids, and that was later scrapped, or if TPTB just didn't want to deal with Erica being a mother full time.

Didn't Travis admit during Bianca's anorexia that he still loved Erica? Or was that something that Sean brought up - that Travis still loved Erica, and it caused problems in his relationship with Barbara, as did her sleeping around. Given how Sean described life in La Casa Montgomery, I wish they'd stuck around Pine Valley, because that could have been entertaining to watch.

I think the custody battle was basically a way to get Bianca out of Pine Valley so Erica wouldn't have to be a full-time mother. I don't agree that the character had matured too much by that point to wear gold lame to court, though. I haven't rewatched those scenes on YouTube lately but at the time I remember thinking the whole point of Jack admitting his affair with Erica on the stand was a cheap way to break them up temporarily.

Speaking of the Montgomerys, when Bianca, Kendall and Zach were having all that drama over Bianca and Zach conceiving a child behind Kendall's back, did Erica mention the circumstances behind Sean's conception? If nothing else, Erica would understand the pain that Kendall must've felt. But that was during Charles Pratt, so I wouldn't be surprised to learn it wasn't discussed.

No, she didn't mention it since Pratt didn't care about the history of the show.

Yeah, Sean just stopped appearing one day, didn't he? He must've hooked up with Kevin Sheffield.

Wouldn't it be funny if Sean & Kevin made one appearance as a couple on the reboot?

Always thought Erica and Zach should have had an affair, not Ryan and Erica. Cam and Susan had wonderful chemistry, but Zach and Erica would have been hot.... and it could put Kendall and her at odds again.

YES. TK and SL had good chemistry. I *think* that was the original plan because TK was quoted at some point early on the in Vegas storyline as saying something like he guessed he was going to be doing Susan Lucci for a while. IDK why that was dropped in favor of sticking Erica back with Jack AGAIN. I would have loved it if Zach had taken Erica up on her offer to marry him instead of Kendall. TK and SL are both great comedic performers, and that could have been very entertaining to watch.

Oh, but how I would have loved for Erica to be a foil for Maria's romance with Zach. That would have been lovely.

ITA. I thought Susan Lucci was the only woman on AMC TK had great chemistry with. It also would've been great story-wise for Erica to have split up

Zach & Maria!

I wouldn't mind if Dorothy Lyman allowed Larson to continue on as Opal, while she herself created a new role as Ray's or Opal's long-lost sister. I say I wouldn't mind, if only because I miss seeing Lyman on-screen, and I'm willing to relax a bit on my rule about prominent actors not rejoining a soap in order to portray a new and completely different character. If this were to occur, though, I would hope no one would be tempted to make any stupid "Don't I know you from somewhere?" jokes. This ain't Ron Carlivati's OLTL, for God's sake.

I love the idea of Lyman playing Opal's long-lost sister! Maybe they could say she and her sister stopped talking because her sister couldn't stand Ray and tried to talk Opal out of marrying him. Then Opal was too stubborn to try to contact her after Ray's death and admit she was right all along.

I guess Erica went on the run at one point and wore glasses and dressed down, the convent and all. This was after Silver left and as a kid I interpreted this as Erica grieving over Silver and now dressing as her.

I think that was when Erica was accused of killing Kent. Faux-Silver/Connie Wilkes is still alive as far as we know, going to jail after Tad clued in the cops to her true identity, so Erica wasn't dressing as her per se, just trying not to be noticed. The real Sliver didn't wear glasses and didn't die until 1988.

Anyway, and look how they uncermoniously killed him off! I can't remember if he even got out of his wheelchair, but Jonathan killed him in the barn or something, right? Or am I totally off? Because at the time I remember just wondering why Jonathan would even target him... There was a lot of wasted potential there. Bobby Steggert (now a successful Broadway name) was good as Sam living with Brooke, being understandably angry at his mom, and with Lily. I think he just kina disappeared off screen as so many characters around that time did--from waht I remember, but I'd be even more angry if I found out Lily ended up with the killer of my dad...

I think you're right about Edmund's death; Jonathan hit him in the back of the head in the barn. I liked Bobby Steggert as Sam too and thought there was great potential for him and Lily, but either Frons or McT chose not to go there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B66l8RbYQqY

Thanks for posting this! I hadn't seen the Swiss remote since I was a teen and it looks as suspenseful as I'd remembered.