Alan

This is totally valid criticism of KZ. She acknowledges that she needed a boss who could stand up to her (who she seems to think needed to be male) and she had her feathers ruffled by having an EP that was both female and younger than she is. I can also imagine how the clash of personalities played out: KZ's confrontational nature, demanding, confident, enjoys a good argument vs. EW's personality - sensitive, emotional, perhaps even timid. I checked out of GL before the Peapack era but @Vee and @DRW50's comments are piquing my interest. I have long thought that the best models for an aging Reva were characters from UK soaps like Pat Evans and Deirdre Barlow. Women considered "past it" by society but who still liked going out to the pub, drinking, smoking, picking up men. Even as they fulfilled their roles as wise advice-dispensing matriarchs, they never needed to settle into the propriety or saintliness of an Alice Horton or Emily Bishop. Is that what you mean?

I went to my kindle on found the relevant excerpts. I also included KZ's hilarious description of the "find your light open" which I refer to as the "teletubbies open". So in summary, Wheeler wanted to rebrand the show as the "New Guiding Light" AND renumber the episodes AND wipe the show's history. Maybe Wheeler got the idea for renumbering the show's episodes from GL's collaboration with Marvel, since comic books will often renumber their issues when they reboot, especially DC Comics. Tellingly, even after rebooting a comic, the publishers usually end up going back to the established character history that fans expect. Around this time Marvel enraged fans by erasing Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane. Maybe Wheeler took all the wrong lessons from the comics? KZ's take on Wheeler is WITHERING. Wheeler is always crying and seems to be totally in over her head. Trying to erase GL's past hints at a streak of narcissism too.

LOL! I had the same thought watching those episodes. All these women throwing themselves at Dr. Werner when Don Stewart's Mike is right there!?

Yes. At the time I had not been exposed to GL's glory years but I was a viewer in the late 90s-early 00s. Annie's Dutton's descent into madness is the first great story that comes to mind. Other highlights for me included the Phillip and Harley stories, Wendy Moniz's Dinah, the revelation of Drew's maternity, and Abby's trial. Despite their faults, outlined below, E&B's GL was fast-paced, lively, and often funny. The Mob: I didn't mind the Santos family when they first appeared. In fact I liked Carmen, Father Ray, and Abuela Maria (MC). Once Danny killed Carmen the first time, the mob stories should have sunk to the bottom of Lake Springfield with her. But they didn't. Despite that, Bethany Joy Lenz as Michelle was delightful and Susan Pratt had some great moments before being tarnished by her alliance with Carmen. Aside from Lenz, Matt Bomer, Aubrey Dollar, Brittany Snow, Laura Bell Bundy, and even Hayden Panettiere were fantastic castings of legacy characters. San Cristobel: The revelation that Reva became the princess of an island nation but no one ever noticed was ridiculous. The fantasy island stories went on for years and were ultimately pointless because they had nothing to do with the residents of Springfield. Still, San Cristobel brought David Andrew MacDonald, Crystal Chappell, and Wes Ramsey to GL. My favorite period was Millee Taggart's run as headwriter from 2002-2003. She did a lot of corrective surgery in a short time. Rick's heart transplant, his wedding to Mel, and Ed's return helped to somewhat revitalize the Bauers. Joan Collins as Alexandra was an odd casting choice that somehow worked. Phillip's Ex Wives Club was brilliant. The Alan/Olivia/Phillip triangle was also great at first. Harley was still an enjoyable character. The day-to-day episodes focused on authentic and meaningful character interactions. At last we had a headwriter who understood the importance of these characters' relationships and history in driving new stories. Unfortunately John Conboy replaced MT with Ellen Weston just as she was getting started and we never really got MT's fully realized vision for GL.

The fact that the specials will air for one week in BTG's timeslot is just perfect. It's a much better idea than the primetime movie-of-the-week premieres of the past (Loving, Capitol, PC, etc) because you are grabbing the attention of the audience that is actually viewing that timeslot. Thank you! It's everything!

This is AMAZING. It feels like the premiere has been moved up a week. So far I have loved every morsel of backstage footage and information we have gotten from the recent interviews and promos so I will love this.

My hunch is that "Estates" has been dropped since we haven't seen it used since then. I noticed Jen Jacobs use simply "Fairmont" on instagram. It makes make think perhaps Fairmont is the general town, Fairmont Crest is the gated community, and the Fairmont Crest Country Club is the amenity/building at its core. I also wonder if BTG will continue to have some characters living in DC with others living in the suburbs. I am hoping they all end up living in one town, in classic soapy fashion.

Interesting! Thanks for letting me know. If we are bringing back Clarence, we need to bring back the fabulous CBS Daytime promos with various members of the cast writhing dramatically on leopard-print chaise lounges.

She was excellent as Rachel. She had such an easy chemistry with everyone on the cast. I'm happy that DD will play a role on BTG that will put her in contact with everyone in the cast. Thanks for getting the confirmation. I never watched GH (I was always a loyal GL partisan) but I have been watching clips and episodes from the 90s to get a feel for MJV and Guza's style. I wonder if she wrote the Kwanzaa episode. It was one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen on a soap, especially for 1994. Mary Mae explains the holiday's precepts and Keesha recites the story of Clara Brown.

I am catching up on the past performances of the different actors and I'm amazed by Daphnee Duplaix's abilities. It would have been a travesty if she left show business before landing this part, as the NY Times article suggested. Sometimes we talk about actors having to spin gold from straw but I don't even know how to characterize the material DD was given on Passions. Actual dialogue from the story: "Valerie's no woman! She's your pregnant son!" "She's your son, Julian, Valerie is Vincent! You're having sex with your son!"

Well I was tearing up by the time Clifton Davis started playing the piano. 🥲 In the first clip Sheila Ducksworth mentions that there are around 40 characters! I know many here prefer a small cast, but I love a big sprawling cast. When used properly, a big cast allows soaps to tell large scale, immersive stories about entire communities which are hard to replicate in other genres. I also love that Ducksworth says BTG will last for 100 years. She spent 3 decades midwifing this show and she is going to fight for her show!

Finally! A return to form.

It's the day I've DREAMED about.

I love that the drips of information are becoming more frequent, and we are still 23 days away! The latest promo shows even more of the character dynamics, including the potential sibling rivalry between Dani/Nicole, insinuations of Bill's influence over the Duprees, the conflicts in Martin and Smitty's marriage, Hayley's struggle to be accepted in FC. I love it! I also love the fact that the Thomases have been confirmed as rivals to the Dupree faction. It looks like they will bring class dynamics into the story as well which is terrific.

I have to admit I'm pretty jealous of people in NYC and ATL who get to attend these screenings. It would be cool if they had premieres in multiple cities across the country with different cast members attending each.

@Vee How exciting! I can't wait to properly dig into these later.

I agree. But often families who show a united front to the outside world have loads of internecine conflict. I want to see Nicole's reaction when she finds out that Dani slept with her nephew.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDvKmRkJ3ID/ The show's composer is Kurt Farquhar. His output is very diverse. I'm not familiar with any of the dramas he has worked on but I included a couple of his pieces below. I was hoping for more of a timeless Pino Donaggio-esque symphonic soundtrack, but I like the orchestral aspects the 96 Minutes score.

The scene where Billy drags Reva out of bed with Josh? The physicality with which the Lewis men treated Reva made a lot of sense storywise. In the back of their minds she was always the just the housekeeper's loose daughter - a toy they played with and threw away when they were finished. During my 80s rewatch I was stunned to see Lillian as one of Reva's bridesmaids during her aborted wedding to Kyle. Reva was so lacking in female friends she resorted to her dad's girlfriend. The other bridesmaids were sister Roxie and Dorie, a child she barely knew. In later years I loved Reva's friendship with Selena because they were both somewhat hardened, bawdy women. In their scenes together Selena brought out that side in Reva. Your post reminded me they both had a connection to Abby. And Olivia's friendship with Holly during the same era - both smart and driven women burned by neglectful/abusive men. It made sense Holly gravitated to Olivia after Van's departure. Also the famous Harley/Cassie/Blake trio.

I'm sorry to hear this, I'll be sure to watch later.

I will! As for Vivica Fox, I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up eventually in a guest role in between her Tubi and Lifetime gigs. I believe Atlanta residency is a requirement for series regulars so that limits the viability of bringing in well-known stars as contract players. While we are wish casting, it would be great to see Amelia Marshall make some recurring appearances as someone's relative. (Jacob Hawthorne's mother?) She briefly discusses MVJ in this clip.

The Prince Cardboard fans would have gone nuclear. I sort of wish GL had just gone through with with Danny/Cassie and just let the Rassies and Manniacs destroy each other. Edmund was paired up with JC's Alex but it felt more like Dame Joan hanging out with her camp gay pal than a believable romance. At the time I wondered why Edmund never shared a scene with India, who came back around that time as part of Philip's Ex-Wives Club. DAM's camp might have been a nice complement to MKA's soft butch vibe. At least it would have made more sense than putting him with Carmen.

Some soap-related digital media I'm nostalgic for: SoapCity had lots of amazing behind-the-scenes videos of ATWT and GL. The footage of how various stunts and weddings were taped were just as fascinating as watching the interactions between the actors and crew. There was BTS footage of the Lemay house fire, the earthquake, the Olivia/Josh wedding, Simon crashing into Lucinda's house and more. I wish I had saved those quicktime files but it was almost 25 years ago and I didn't have the hard drive space back then to store a lot of videos. cbs.com/daytime, one of the first sites I visited when my family first got internet in the late 90s, is fairly well preserved on archive.org. There was a great blogger named Sara Lee. She was my favorite soap columnist alongside Snark Weighs In. She had a terminal illness and I can't remember which website hosted her articles or else I would look for them on archive.org.

I get the sense that this will be more of a fly-on-wall look at B&B's day-to-day operations rather than an exhaustive chronicle of the genre, or even of B&B itself.

Speaking of Reva, in the clip below Edmund reads the Layne/Shayne sisters for absolute filth. "Your sister! Your sister! Well there's a glowing recommendation. Just a pillar of virtue and credibility. Yes your sister: a pathological serial bride born of the adulterous bed of an Oklahoma whore... I am a Winslow, the throne of this country is my right, it was my right from birth and it is my right now. And I'll be damned if I'll let a cheap little stripper and her loud mouthed slut of a sister take it away from me." DAM had great talent, it's too bad his character was inextricably tied with San Cristobel, making him unassimilable to any authentic version of GL. This clip also prompted me to look up and re-read @DRW50's comment about colonialism on San Cristobel. Cassie shoves Beth and the Black guard aside to speak to the all-white Royal Council. Why did Reva and Cassie think they were entitled to dictate what went on on that island? The writing and casting speaks to unspoken racial fantasies of colonialism and racial domination. But this era of GL wasn't mature enough to explore these themes. Later that year we would be treated to Reva's antebellum time travel with embarrassing scenes of Shari Headley playing her slave.