Spoon

I'm a bit shocked they didn't give Reva a cancer storyline years earlier-- seems to be mandatory for soap leading ladies.

I thought GT's Dinah felt more layered, nuanced. I think she won two EMMYS for the role, not that that means anything. When Dinah got shot in the head and was dealing with mental impairment, those scenes were excellent. Tognoni's Dinah wanted to be a somewhat better person, but she had that lingering jealousy of Cassie that held her back. I forget the excuse they had for why Dinah was mad at Vanessa when she ca.e back after all the lengths she took to help her evade the authorities.

@alwaysAMC yeah, David kreizman basically reset Dinah to how she was when WM started in the role. Could so.eone refresh my memory on the murder plot? I started to lose interest when they began those wednesday "inside the light" episodes. 2002 was a brief glimmer of hope which was all dashed by ConJob. Taggart/Culliton had three stories lined up.. 1. Marah connecting with reva's stalker who was going to be revealed as jonathan. A business storyline with Holly and Josh teaming to take over Spaulding. Blake rejoined SE and the PR biz. Ben (and Marina?) started working at Spaulding. Gus being revealed to be Alan's son instead of Miguel Santos and Selina's son. ConJo. Kept this one but put their own spin with Alex drugging Alan and gaslighting. Also, Holly was helping Ed from adjusting to home life and dealing with a hinted traumatic experience in Africa. Bill/Michelle were paired. Danny was paired with Cassie. The island and mob stuff was clearly being phased out after Prince Richard died and Carmen was put into an endless coma. Also the ex-wives club with Joan Collins Alex felt like old-gl. Mindy and India briefly returned. To me the beginning of the end was ConJob. After that their was the first few months of Wheeler/ Kreizman then it all went to heck with the dragged out (nearly a year!) Harley on the run for murder and Alan putting hits on people who could exonerate her. Then the aftermath of that plot was even worse with a certain character as an off-screen bogey man pulling all the strings behind the scenes.

@alwaysAMC how are you liking the Jim/Beth relationship. The tension between Jim and Phillip is the best part. Susan is such a brat. Any of the newer characters gelling with you? Selina doesn't seem to interact much anymore with Abby. Reva wanted to experience raising young kids- it won't be until her fifth one (Colin O'Neill) where it happens. Of course Colin is still young when the show ends and she can ways abandon him later. They're really forcing the Ben/Roger parallels. This recast Annie was a flop- Watros played her as a somewhat vixen a times, albeit troubled. This recast just doesn't work- I associate her too much for her sad sack blind character on y/r. I do remember seeing signs steal a heart transplant on the tv show viper-- that was something.

The only Shayne that really clicked was Jeff Branson, but that was too little too late-- plus they stuck Hume with Marina (barf) at the end as they raised his daughter with Edmunds dead daughter. Giving Reva and prince Eddie a shared granddaughter.

One of JvD's last episodes as Ross was the introduction of Ava. Ava was the biggest dud since Gus's sister Eden. I expect a degree of OTT acting on soap operas, to me it's part of the appeal. Not everyone should be shouting and stuff, but a mix of different acting styles and energies. I think the appeal of Jonathan was that he was the most like Reva out of all of her kids. Reva finally met her match, someone who could really go head to head with her. Cheap newbies are fine, it's the characters that they play that was the issue. Instead of Ashley, Doris, Christine, Cyrus and Grady- we should've had Stacy, Peter, Jason, Kevin, Clarissa, Young Maureen and Zach. Peter could've been a new doctor or Med student at Cedars. Stacy could've easily been a lawyer, D.A. opposing Jeffrey. Create a new Four Musketeers with Jason, Kevin, Maureen II and a second female-- maybe a teenage offspring of Johnny and Roxie. Familiarity, use of legacy, building on the past-- thing I loved about soap operas.

@Reverend Ruthledge Cassie named it when she adopted the daughter, thinking Dinah was the surrogate. Dinah miscarried and passed Michelle's baby off as her own. Cassie named the baby Hope by coincidence, and Michelle kept the name because she had a cousin with that name- family name.

Thanks for answering my question earlier, I have another question. where I left off Dan was helping a woman on the run-- that seems to have been his exit storyline. How did storyline that conclude? I thoughtDan was good with Brenda but it seems after all the time he sought to prove her innocence that TPTB just had them go their separate ways. thanks in advance.

Kevin, not Joey. still getting the two mixed up.

Resuming my OLTL watch. I left off last year--sometime in early 1991. The Max/Asa scam began and Gabrielle wasn't in prison yet. I picked up in the Spring when Clint was seeing that woman, Vicki thought he was having an affair but it was a medical specialist and he revealed he was sick. Things start to pick up after Jake and Megan's wedding. Cord rallied the Banner staff to take paycuts. There was a big storm where Bo and Cassie were stuck at a lighthouse. The Buchanans are throwing a party and Julia seemingly killed DuAnn. This guy named John Russell appeared at the party and was chummy with Cassie, it seems like he's a returning character. Joey met a girl hiding in the stables who refuses to give her name. Max is getting close with DuAnn's daughter LeAnn. For the most part, I try to watch Monday/Wednesday/Friday episodes to cover more ground, I'm on June 13, 1991 now. I'm getting into it again. I started in 1988 thru most of 1989, then I jumped ahead to 1991 where ClassicOLTL was posting daily-- I completely missed the Mendorra stuff. I got interested again in current soaps last year (GH/Days), but I dropped hulu and peacock around Thanksgiving.

She was credited as a regular cast member and was on more often. But either way, its not important.

..and James Spaulding after his "father" Jim Lemay. The names that weren't after other characters could be random like Peyton Spaulding.

I remember that was Jerry ver Dorn/Ross's final episode on GL, when Dinah turned herself in with the baby on a Friday. He wore a mustache those final few weeks. Michelle decided to keep the name Hope since it was a family name. Michelle, should've named the baby Bebe /jk. Of course Michelle was originally named Berta after Bert (Bebe for short). Speaking of names A.J. Chamberlain (after nola's brothers Tony and Jim), Leah Bauer (after Rick's mother Leslie and Melisandre's mother Felicia). Phillip and Harley's son was initialy named Alan Jr after his heart attack but once he was better they called him Zach.

The silver lining of the final year of GL is that we got Vanessa, Phillip and **** back on contract and full time. Also, they hit a home run with the final Shayne (Jeff Branson?) -- too bad it wasn't sooner. Billy taking Lizzie under his wing as her business mentor, ER had a similarity to the first Mindy so that was a nice callback.

@P.J. it was established that Bridget and **** had several siblings so I would just have a younger sister show up. I do wish they would've brought on Stacy at some point... any point.

I thought Vanessa had decent mother/son chemistry with Daniel Cosgrove's Billy. I remember when she came to town with him for Jeva's 2002 wedding at the newly opened Beacon Hotel.

Re: Macully west. I hope you like the song "You belong to the City" by Glen Frey, because you'll be hearing that A LOT.

AW in the 80s had way too many recasts and characters/families who should've stayed on canvas longer. These moves would keep the McKinnons as a core family and shore up the Love/Hudson clan in addition to core families the Corys and a resurgent Frame family- sticking with a four core family setup. Marcus Smythe as Peter would remain on the show until 1991 (Dec 24, 1984- Nov. 20, 1991). I'd keep Duke Stroud (Vince #2) he would last until 1989 where he would leave when Denise Alexander/Mary did or recast Mary and keep him for another contract (March 31, 1985- Feb. 17, 1989). I'd stick with Kathleen Layman as MJ (the 2nd one was awful) and renew her contract in 1987 (May 17, 1990). They killed off Zane Lindquist too quickly, i'd wait a couple years so his death would be more impactful. Patrick Tovatt (March 20, 1985-August 11, 1988). The fact that Ben McKinnon was disposed of so quickly was shortsighted. He could've existed alongside Jake, i'd pair him with Nancy McGowan (replacing rando Chris Chapin). Richard Steen (July 3, 1984- May 7, 1987- leaving alongside Nancy). I wouldn't extend Cheryl McKinnon as she was clearly a placeholder until they aged up Amanda Cory. Kristen Marie (August 14, 1986- July 13, 1988). The third Nicole Love was terrible, what was wrong with the second one? Lauri Landry (November 3, 1986- July 29, 1989). I would have Nicole (recast) released from the sanitarium about five years later, that would be an interesting story. She could stalk Cass and Frankie. Stacey Winthrop. Wasn't thrilled with Hilary Edson, would recast her. Stacey recast (July 20, 1991- January 3, 1994). this would overlap with the introduction of brother Morgan.

Mark Pinter was GL, then ATWT, AW and back as a new character on GL. James Rebhorn was on GL, then ATWT, then back to ATWT as a different character for an episode or two in 2010. Personally, I liked Jake and Molly on ATWT. I watched AW from 85-90, so seeing that character again was a blast from the past. Cass was my favorite AW character-- he represented Carmen Santos for an episode or two. Cass Winthrop (AW, ATWT, GL) was right up there with Mitchell Dru (The Brighter Day, As the World Turns, Another World).

I googled it, technically Reva had Peri-menopause (un-completed menopause) where women can still give birth. Still silly. P&G would carry some existing contracts from their cancelled show (Sharon Gabet, Libby Larson, Harley Jane Kozak(sp), Larkin Malloy, David Forsythe). They should've moved Mary Stuart right over to GL as either Meta or Trudy after SFT was canned. Maybe Marcia McCabe as Hope.

IIRC, the show claimed that despite Reva going through menopause that her cancer treatment reversed it(?). I believe Ellen Wheeler claimed that it could happen. How many of the older women on soaps went through menopause? We know Reva had menopause because it was a big plot point. Rachel on AW was older but she didn't get menopause yet when she had Carl's twins. Re: 1985. You had all the departures plus the loss of Charita Bauer. TPTB thought the cast was largely replaceable as long as they had her as the constant-- kinda like Jo on Search. They wanted to maintain an illusion that Bert was traveling (like Sally Specra on Bold) but fan demand rightfully caused them to change their mind. Unfortunately, by the time they addressed her passing- most of the people she was on with were gone.

Poor Reva would have to wait eight years and menopause to have another child-- baby Colin O'Neil.

@alwaysAMC is reminding me why I hated B&E. I will admit that 1998 wasn't that bad, besides the Teri Demarco stuff- but a large part of that was casting. IIRC, things don't get better 😆 and Lloyd Gold is even worse but that's a year away. There is a brief novelty factor when the island people come on- but its a lot of new characters at once. Between the mob, the island and reva, there's hardly room for anyone else to get story. At the time TPTB said to the soap press was they were focusing on Reva, Michelle and Cassie as the three tentpoles/focus of the show. For what's it worth.

Calla was like a prototype for Nadine. Aging, blonde gold diggers. Here's a question, if Ross wasn't saddled with Blake-- would they have continued the revolving doors of lovers (the 80s) or would he have settled down with some other character? I would've aged the kids in the 2000s (over loser characters like Ashley Wolfe and Joey Lupo) and make the marlers a core family. They already had Dinah driving story and most of the Spaildings on canvas were biological Marlers.

Agree about the demos. AW seemed like a Dead man walking, its a wonder they didn't try to get a younger, "hipper" west coast-based replacement. Plus I guess SB's high production costs for low-ish ratings are what did the show in. Poaching "ringers" from other shows. I read that Rauch said hd could slash the budget, if renewed but NBC was ready to move on. Wasn't there once a rumor that P&G was interested in acquiring Santa Barbara? Too bad SB didn't stick with the four core family premise-- my favorite soap formula is core family heavy. I guess the early months were kinda boring. The 80s suffered when the shows focused in on new random characters over growing or introducing core family units.