Videnbas

I am not sure. I think either pairing could have been endgame. But Brooke/Ridge makes for better narrative symmetry because it would make Caroline prescient on her dying day.

I have to say, I barely even remember anything about the last few months of 1995. I just remember, like you say, the absolute awesomeness of the spring and summer, and the feeling that everything just kind of wrapped up at Thorne and Macy's beach wedding. I even remember thinking at that point that it almost felt like the show was ending and those scenes were like an epilogue. Everyone in the cast was there, it was a joyous wedding that everyone approved of (how often has that happened?), it seemed like the principal couples were all paired up in a way that could be the end game (Eric and Stephanie were pretty friendly, Ridge had just made his decision to stay married to Brooke, Thorne and Macy finally got their happy ending after years of misery), the Forresters and Spectras were getting along okay (except for the kids), and the major psychos were safely behind bars. The A, B, and C storylines had all been resolved during the summer, and it took a while to get new frontburner storylines going. That's interesting! I have been wondering about when we'll see a shift in writing style. I'm only at early 1991 right now, so I'm not there yet. I wonder who has the most influence over the general "feel" of the show - the head writer or the executive producer. Going by what I remember, I seem to recall one clear "shift" by 1996/1997 and another one around 2003.

Yeah, you're probably right. At least there was a beginning, a middle and an end (although the story really struggled to transition from "middle" to "end" and went into a holding pattern while everybody and their mother discussed whether or not to tell the big secret).

Indeed - two dramatic confrontations at gun point in the same summer! The final scenes with Anthony and Macy were chilling, the way that everything played out like a romantic date on the surface level, but underneath it was a deadly cat and mouse game where both of them were secretly plotting to destroy the other. There were obvious hints of Shakespeare's Othello as well (with a tape recorder playing the role of the handkerchief).

I remember it as one of my favorite years. There was a lot of pretty dramatic stuff going on - Taylor's return from the dead, Anthony going crazy, Sheila going crazy...

Just curious - when would you say was the last time the show had an actual storyline? I mean a proper one with some kind of working narrative structure and a clear sense of forward motion. (as opposed to just random things happening with no purpose or goal) I can't even remember.

Do you have any examples? I agree it sometimes has the general feel of Greek mythology but I haven't been able to pinpoint that many specific myths, other than my impression that Eric/Stephanie are Zeus and Hera, and a bit more far-fetched comparison between Caroline and Helen of Troy, which would make Ridge Paris and Thorne Menelaos. I also see Stephanie as a bit of a Cassandra because she is usually right about how things will turn out but nobody believes her.

I try not to think about it because I really do like her as an actress and her character is (was) iconic.

Thank you so much for the new uploads! This is so exciting!

Agreed! I think it makes a huge difference watching this show as a mother, as opposed to watching as a little girl. And it becomes clear how complex most characters and situations were.

It is just odd. If this account is really the official one connected to the show, it's strange that they don't make an effort to make it more "professional". And I can understand that maybe the actual airdates may be hard to sort out 34 years later, but why fake it? If they don't know, at least be honest about it and name the episodes by number instead of by air date. Simply making up an air date doesn't make sense on any level. It is just completely unhelpful and confusing for any fan looking for a particular episode. And it gives the impression that the uploaders just don't care. I mean, getting a date wrong here and there is one thing. Being consistently off by 2-3 weeks is another. But, again, I'm still glad they're doing it and hope they will keep at it. And I'm kind of hoping that if the early seasons make their way back into TPTB's consciousness, they might be inspired and rediscover what made the show great to begin with. Characterization, storytelling, long-term planning, a variety of plots and characters shown every episode, and so on. EDIT: I just read and got a laugh out of the disclaimer in the info section: "This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions." I think we all understand without being warned that a show from the 80s depicts the culture of the 80s. However, that warning label might be warranted in connection with the current episodes.

I hope everything went well with your operations! And thank you so much! 🙏 I am very excited that there will be more episodes eventually - my favorite part of the show is just beginning!

Okay, then it's still Season 1! But I still don't get why they put the airdates in there if they have no idea. If they go on to Season 2 in a separate playlist (hopefully they will go on!) it will be harder to locate the correct episode because the airdate will be wrong and the playlist number will have to be added by whatever the number of episodes in the previous playlist is. They could just make it easier for everyone if they went by episode numbers instead of made up dates. Somehow I feel it's the same thing happening that happens on screen when the writers forget the show's history. The people currently working at B&B either don't have access to information about the history of the show (even basic stuff like air dates), or they do and just don't care. I'm still glad they're posting the episodes at all, though!

Has anybody else noticed that the airdates on the official Youtube playlist are completely off? They are clearly just making them up. For example, episode 185 was the Christmas episode and they have it listed as December 7 (which obviously can't have been the intended air date). And I believe episode 188 was the last one of 1987, and still they seem to keep going in the Season 1 playlist even though Season 2 should probably start with the episode they call December 11 (episode 189). If they don't know the air dates, why don't they just name the episodes by episode numbers so they can be easily identified?

Does anyone know if Videoland is still airing episodes after 1350?

Thanks! I've been a fan for a long time and I have a pretty good idea of what went on for the first 15 years of the show. After about 2003, the show started becoming less interesting to me and I haven't been paying as close attention.

I am at the end of 1990 in my rewatch now and to me it's almost like Taylor's character is upstaged by her beauty. Taylor's been on for six months and I still haven't really got a good grasp of her personality. Sometimes she comes across a bit like a walking sculpture. It's like she hasn't really been given a point of view yet, we get very few clues about her thoughts and feelings. She is always calm, cool and kind of an observer of the action rather than a participant.

I don't think Bill Bell played favorites. I think he really made an effort to develop all his characters. If there is any one character who emerges as more central than the others, I'd say Stephanie.

I remember Caroline as very involved in launching her magazine (to the point where she clearly made that her priority over her relationship with Thorne), but maybe that comes a little later. And didn't Brooke get the job at the lab yet?

I think Caroline shows some of those qualities as well when it comes to how passionate she is about her magazine. And Sally Spectra (although she has an inexplicable weak spot where Clarke is concerned). Funny, when I think about it, there were actually MORE career-oriented women on the show in the 80s and early 90s than there are today (Kristen, Felicia, Sally, Caroline, Margo, Taylor, Brooke to some extent). These days I don't see many of them actually taking pride in their work identity.

I think it may be too late now, because too much has happened to undermine Brooke's credibility as a maternal/family oriented character. She came close in the late 90s during the Amber/Rick storyline. After Hope's birth when she was staying in Stephanie's guest house and Stephanie was helping her was also a possible turning point. Now, I think it would be harder. In order for Brooke to have an inner Stephanie she needs to actually care about keeping her family together, and that goes beyond merely disapproving of someone's choice of a love interest. She also needs to display a calculating side in order to achieve her goals. And she needs to monitor herself for behavior that could harm her loved ones.

That's a tough one, especially if "best" means "objectively" most interesting, most complex, most well developed, best written, and so on, rather than just our personal favorites. Also, there are several very good characters who have been ruined by out of character writing (in that case, I prefer to remember them as they were when they were at their peak). But I'll give it a try. 1) Stephanie, and it isn't even close. This one pretty much goes without saying. She is everything. She has a whole universe of different thoughts and emotions inside her and she lights up every scene she is in, in a "can't take your eyes off her" kind of way. (However, I have to admit that even Stephanie's character was pulled a bit out of character at the end, when she lost her subtlety and became "Gangsta Grandma"). 2) Sally. Just as indisputably #2 as Stephanie is #1. Completely unforgettable, original, and a scene-stealer. She could easily have become a joke, but this was successfully averted by giving Sally a warm and soft heart underneath the tough surface, and by mixing her comedy with elements of tragedy. And she stayed in character no matter what, for almost two decades. This is where there is a huge distance to #3, and it gets really difficult... 3) Although I don't really like the character, I'm going to have to go with Brooke (not anymore, but as she was originally written). Original Brooke actually had a lot of subtlety and dimensions, and she truly came to life through her rivalry with Stephanie. I'd say she earned this place as long as there were many dimensions to her and she wasn't just used to create scandal. After all, the show wouldn't have been B&B without her. 4) Sheila (as written 1992-1998). The show did a good job creating a truly frightening character who still had something in her that made you almost feel sorry for her. And she was intelligent and witty. Now it gets even tougher because I try not to play favorites and un-favorites with the characters I personally like or don't like. 5) Macy. I feel this character took a while to fully develop, but once she did, she was very dynamic because she could believably cover the entire spectrum from being on top of the world to hitting rock bottom, and was equally human and relatable at both ends (whether she was performing in a stadium in front of 10000 people, or lying passed out in an alley in a pile of garbage). She also had this warmth about her, and she brought out that quality in other characters as well. 6) Caroline. She had a wonderful story arc where she really came of age before our eyes, had all of her illusions broken, picked up the pieces, moved on, built a new worldview, triumphed, was forced to face her mortality, and finally came to terms with it before her untimely death. And she was quite complex in that she had a lot of subconscious desires that went against her image of herself as a "good girl". 7) Bill Spencer Sr. The original "powerful man" on B&B, and a more commanding presence than any of his successors. Also a man of many faces - overprotective father, upstanding moral citizen, publisher of seedy magazines, respectable husband with not so respectable desires... 😎 Taylor (that's supposed to be a number 8 but the computer won't let me!) I found Taylor hard to place but her significance on the show means she has to be up there somewhere. It's hard to describe her character in the early years because there was always this cool analytical distance about her - and maybe that was exactly her strength in a show filled with characters controlled by their emotions. 9) Ridge (as played by RM). He is a one-note character for sure, but what an entertaining note! His arrogance and boyish charm make him the archetypal Don Juan and a believable object of all those women's desire. B&B wouldn't have been the same without him. 10) Eric. Not as colorful as many others on the list, but he has nevertheless been a stabilizing factor through the years as the founder of Forrester Creations and the father of six other characters who have played a major part on the show. Honorable mentions: Margo, Clarke, Thorne, Darla, Saul, Bridget, Aly, Amber (and I never even liked Amber)... oh, and Deacon. Deacon almost made my list.

I have a question for all of you who are rewatching old episodes after several decades: Are there any characters that you see completely differently this time around, compared to the first time you watched these episodes? For me, the big one is Stephanie. I used to think that she was the villain to Brooke's young heroine. Now I find myself understanding Stephanie's point of view and siding with her against Brooke, and this time around I see Stephanie as the misunderstood flawed heroine, fighting every way she can to keep her family together. Meanwhile, young Brooke is clearly a pretty self-centered girl with little understanding for what love really is beyond the fantasy of it. But I also see Eric and Ridge as a lot more flawed now than I remember.

I agree with what you wrote about Brooke. The character has become irrelevant on the show and she used to be in frontburner storylines all the time. I think it's a long term lack of direction for Brooke that has led to this point. She used to be complex in the 90s - it was the sex scandals AND her taking over Forrester AND her being a mother AND her rivalry with Stephanie. Now, Brooke is too old to be the siren, not at all focused on her career, and Stephanie is dead. So we're left with Brooke parenting her adult child as her only storyline. And that just doesn't cut it because Hope is a pretty well-adjusted grown woman who doesn't need a whole lot of parenting. What I don't understand is, this was totally predictable and avoidable. The writers had to have known that Stephanie wasn't going to be on the show forever. And Brooke's character was pretty much defined by her relationship with Stephanie. Without Stephanie, Brooke's character becomes significantly weakened. If a three falls in the forest and nobody is there to listen, does it make a sound? If Brooke does something scandalous and Stephanie isn't there to react to it, what is the point? The writers should have anticipated this by moving Stephanie's "spirit" INSIDE BROOKE. It's not enough for Brooke to have just any female rival. It needs to be "the Stephanie force". The only logical way for Brooke to remain viable without Stephanie is for Brooke to become part Stephanie. And that is not going to happen because I don't think the current writers fully understand what Stephanie was all about.

I am actually surprised Taylor on B&B has lasted this long, considering her many deaths.