Alan

Yes, that's why I say Anita will be the 21st century version of Alice or Nancy. She will have her own distinct personality, her own weaknesses and foibles. I don't expect her to be saintly, at the same time I hope she won't be as wrathful as Stephanie Forrester, Hera incarnate. I don't think she will be a Phoebe-type snob either. Anita is a key tentpole character, mother or grandmother to half the cast, so I look forward to monologues and pep talks filled with home truths, demonstrating her hard-earned wisdom.

Tunie has been such a hardworking but unsung performer in so many different genres. It's exciting to think that she will be the 21st century Nancy Hughes or Alice Horton. I keep imagining that Anita will have her own jazzy musical cue when she appears on screen, "Anita's Theme."

I have always wondered about that. On paper, it seems like AMC was the more traditional, marketable soap. Why did Nixon think that OLTL would be an easier sell? Was ABC looking for more gritty, "relevant" drama during that time?

You definitely see the racial undertones in scene where Jill tries to have Mamie arrested. She gaslights her, lies to the cop, and then calls Mamie a threat to the Abbot family. Jill basically wrote the playbook for "Karen" behavior.

Given the political climate, I imagine that CBS will downplay the "historic first" nature of BTG in its promotional materials, similar to the strategy of the Harris campaign.

Not only has Beyond the Gates inspired me to reactivate my long-dormant SON account but all of sudden I am finding myself once again immersed in the art and history of the American soap opera. I wonder how many other lapsed soap fans who have been turned off by the dismal ghost towns of Genoa City, Salem, Port Charles, and Forrester Creations might be lured back by the promise of a brand new soap. I am thrilled to rejoin you all for this journey. I have so many thoughts to share, but I will start with this one: Do we think MVJ has followed the tradition of Irna Phillips and Agnes Nixon by penning an epigraph for her bible? Something like, "We do not live beyond these gates alone, but beyond a thousand other gates." 🤭

This is random, but I am popping in because while researching past GL actors I was surprised to find that Lezlie Dalton (Elizabeth Spaulding) emerged from an apparent forty-year retirement to appear in a short film last year. I can't find the full film, but she is in this trailer: She has the same breathy voice and slightly resembles Elizabeth Warren. Seeing her after all this time makes wish me GL had brought Elizabeth back at some point, even for a short arc.

Paul was the second actor to play Max, an urchin who Drew thought was her long-lost brother. She adopted him after finding out Selena was her actual mother. Max dated Susan but didn't do much else. Jesse Soffer was the first actor to play Max.

I feel bad for Paulo. He is the only one in this group who has not gone on to success in primetime tv, films, or theater. He has also made several references to his weight gain.

Locher: "I met you backstage after your play!" "I remember what you had in your dressing room!" "Anthony Addabbo died on my birthday!"

A few thoughts: I liked hearing about Simon and Taggart's time on Search, and how they transitioned from writers to actors. I wasn't surprised to hear that Jonathan was basically Kreizman's surrogate/stand-in character. He also mentioned Harley as one of his favorites. When Taggart asked Brown if he was "responsible" for the clone, he blamed Rauch for the idea. I didn't expect him to declare that he was a fan of kitchen sink drama or that Ryan's Hope was his favorite soap, given the kind of writing E&B are known for. Also heard some new details about the Zaslow situation. Apparently E&B convinced Rauch to give Roger ALS, but the story was pulled at the last minute. Also, no one on the panel knew that MZ played David Rinaldi in the 80s, and that when he went to OLTL he was reprising an old role, not creating a new one.

I was looking for the same information and found this blogpost explaining what happened to Keemo: https://glmanny.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/faq-whatever-happened-to-keemo-abbott/ Watching as a kid, I was a fan of Volien family and wondered where Keemo went and why Jack never mentioned him. Despite the awkward scenes with Luan and Keemo learning "American customs," the actors involved were excellent. Elizabeth Sung played Luan's excitement and reticence over going away with Jack perfectly. She fit in well with the other cast in the bachelorette party, too. I think 1994 had one of the best casts in Y&R's history.

I have been meaning to pick up those 90s coffee table books for some time but never got around to it. This is my small collection: Guiding Light: The Complete Family Album - Julie Poll Soap Opera Encyclopedia - Christopher Schemering Lorelei's Guiding Light: An Intimate Diary - Beth Chamberlin 😂 I also have some soap-related autobiographies, Susan Lucci, Kim Zimmer, Jeanne Cooper among them.

Watching the Cooper reunion now, Beth Ehlers's first comment upon meeting Justin Deas was "Here's the executive producer's boyfriend." LOL!

I think it's also because Alan was part of PGP management, and still sees himself as part of management. I didn't like how he protected PGP and MADD by pivoting when Denise Pence brought up the Zaslow situation. Also if P&P someday realizes that it is sitting on a potential IP goldmine in the form of its soap archives and licenses, who are they going to ask to organize/market it? He probably doesn't want to burn bridges. He should solicit questions from fans in advance, and have a list of those questions ready at hand during these awkward pauses. It's not that difficult.

It was sad to see Gina's for the last time. That set was such a big part of Y&R for me growing up and the GCAC was a poor replacement. Were Gina and John an item at this time? My viewing was sporadic during this era.

I missed the first half, but today's show was the best so far. I echo the comments of everyone wanting Alan to improve his compere skills. It shouldn't be that difficult for him to get guests to answer questions in alphabetical order or to ask questions to guests directly. The free-for-all format doesn't work online, especially in big groups. Seeing Kristi now me made even more convinced that we were robbed of a Roxie return in the late 90s in favor of the Cassie Layne story. I didn't dislike Cassie as much as some fans, but it would have been awesome to see Kristi as Roxie return to Springfield, having lived a rough life in prostitution and/or addiction, moving in with the Lewises and stirring up trouble for Rick and Abby, or getting involved with Billy. She would have added a lot of color to the show when it (and Reva as a character) needed it. KZ was funny and blunt as always, Terrell's story about Larkin Malloy warning the younger "stud" was hilarious, Michael's story about meeting Charita was touching, and Krista is delightful.

Her second run on B&B started out promisingly. There were some great scenes of her lurking outside the Forrester mansion remembering what they had all done to her, a nasty murder-by-bees, the scene where she shoots Taylor was awesome. It later led to a goofy and forgettable arc involving a tropical country and a character played by Robin Mattson called Sugar.

Even Saundra mentioned that she felt Carmen was too one dimensional, she got tired of bullying Michelle all the time, and that she wanted Carmen to have a romantic storyline. I remember Carmen having a brief flirtation with Edmund, but what if she married Alan, tried to go straight and gain the acceptance of Springfield society? Carmen was never properly integrated into the cast, and we never saw any vulnerable sides to her character. There was so much potential in Ray, Maria, and Pilar as well that was never realized because of the cartoony nature of the mob stories. I remember SS saying in an interview years ago that she and Miriam Colon never got to have a real showdown over Carmen killing her son. I liked the Santos family at first but by the time JL left they had run their course. The mob storylines weren't right for GL, if the Santoses were to ever be a major family of GL they needed to get rid of the organized crime element. Same with the Winslows and the San Cristobel storylines which were running at the same time as the mob storylines. It just didn't fit, and gave GL an identity crisis which it briefly recovered from in 2002.

Alan mentioned that JL was first cast as Reva's teenage clone and everyone else was surprised. He said that she impressed tptb so much that she won the role of Michelle only a few months later. I loved that JL had a scrapbook of her time at GL.

Shari Shattuck for life! In all seriousness, I think that ED is the definitive Ashley. I think she is the only actress who has been able to fully flesh out Ashley in all her complexity. BE's Ashley was like a different character. She was a sweet heroine, and lacked the edge that ED brings to the role. It's the same issue with SH as Kristen on DOOL. Actresses who take over ED's roles are only able to play one note of her characters.

The sweeping Y&R score had a way of pulling you in to the show just as much as the storytelling. The cues from around this time are classic, nostalgic but not at all dated. It's a shame that Y&R and B&B have abandoned their timeless scores. The production values from this time are also top notch. It was genius to add an echo effect in the jail scene. It added so much to the drama.

I loved today's episode, and I like that so far this week the episodes have not been so Victor/Nikki centric. We got a good sampling of 1990 Y&R with the Sheila/Scott/Lauren triangle, Mamie and the Barber sisters, the mysterious Cassandra Rawlins, and of course Cricket Blair. I would love a Sheila/Lauren week. Y&R and B&B could coordinate their classic offerings. I also found it funny that today's broadcast replaced "The Stripper" with a cheap soundalike tune but didn't edit the wardrobe malfunction. The original is on youtube:

I just watched today's livestream. It was most interesting to hear that Beth Ehlers now works in the New Jersey government for an environmental agency. I was wondering what happened to her after she quit acting. Aside from Frank and Crystal, I was not familiar with this group of actors since I stopped watching several years before GL got the axe.

On twitter she mentioned that the masquerade ball episode was from before her sinus surgery.