Videnbas

Oh yes, I thought about that too! It was an ENORMOUS kitchen and I can't recall seeing it before or since. I'm always a little confused about the rooms in Sally's apartment (other than the living room of course). I think we see two separate (but kind of similar) bedrooms, neither of which seems to belong to CJ.

Yes, I think the part of early 1994 that works the best is the Anthony storyline - it's entertaining to watch him utterly make a mess of the entire Spectra family and he is a compelling character because you can already see subtle hints of what will come. Sheila's storyline is also solid with Jay Garvin's death. I am currently watching later 1994 episodes and I have to agree with the poster who said things move S-L-O-W-L-Y. The Morocco storyline (which I remembered as much better than it actually is) is taking forever. Ridge and Brooke talk about being eager to get home to the kids while embarking on the longest honeymoon in the history of mankind (I fully expect Little Eric and Bridget to be in college by the time Ridge and Brooke get home). Meanwhile, Jessica and Dylan are incredibly uninteresting together, and Stephanie's obsession with her 17 year old niece's love life (and her conviction that having a boyfriend will automatically make Jessica get pregnant and drop out of school) ridiculous. To me, the parts of the second half of 1994 that I enjoy the most are Sheila's increasingly desperate attempts to salvage her marriage, and Thorne and Macy's humorous flirting at the studio.

Yes, that is truly wonderful news! I am so looking forward to the first half of 1995 because that's the one part of classic B&B that has always been so hard to find online, and it was one of my favorite periods of the show way back when it first aired. And with a bit of luck, we'll soon get there with the Videoland episodes too!

Thank you! You are amazing!

I was so into the Princess Leila storyline when I was a kid. I thought it was the best thing ever. I even reenacted it with my Barbie dolls. (this is kind of embarrassing to admit...) Let's just say that is one storyline that was far better in my memory than it is on the actual screen. (I still kind of do like the characters of Ahmed and Moustafa though. They remind me of some Turkish friends of my family when I was a kid.) So far, the second half of 1994 leaves me with mixed emotions. I like that there are actually four storylines going on at once. What I don't like is that these seem kind of "isolated" from each other - during the Bill Bell years there was usually this feeling of the entire show existing within the same world, and you got a feeling that this was a world populated with people whose lives went on and evolved and whose stories intersected in different ways. It was even hard to talk about isolated "storylines" because the character-driven writing made sure that each and every character had their own story arc and everything just grew organically from there. Everyone and everything felt "alive" in a way. Everyone and everything was connected. The world they lived in felt "real". The second half of 1994 has a different kind of plot-driven writing where each storyline exists on its own but less attention is given to the actual lives of the characters outside of the storyline they are involved in. And that makes the whole B&B universe feel less like a real world and more like a collection of unrelated stories. Very often, characters have ONE single plot-driven objective rather than an actual complex life. For example: we hardly ever see Jessica taking part in anything but her romance with Dylan. Thorne and Macy barely exist outside the studio. Taylor is isolated in Morocco. Ridge and Brooke are in a love bubble. But we see much less of the kind of scenes where many different storylines and characters can interact and develop, and too little of characters being involved in multiple storylines at once. I think this is temporary because I do remember the first half of 1995 as very good (and I hope it's not my memory painting a rosy picture).

What I find absolutely astounding is the huge deal Stephanie and Eric are making about Jessica and Dylan having sex. They talk as if Jessica is about to ruin her entire life, get pregnant, drop out of school and so on, when in fact she is being very responsible and using protection. Maybe it's a cultural difference between the US and Europe because for me this whole storyline feels like something out of a different time (1890s rather than 1990s).

Well, I actually enjoyed the Spectra focus during the early spring (it's so rare) and the whole Anthony storyline (for the reasons I mentioned in that very lengthy post a while back ;-)). I find it kind of fascinating how while being very charming, he is still this negative influence on everyone around him, especially on Sally and Macy, without them even noticing that he is the corrupt file that makes the entire hard drive go haywire. I found the estrangement between Sally and Macy interesting but its resolution rushed and unsatisfying (literally just one episode in which they agree to go back to normal) - I was expecting more of a development there. Anthony and Connor have excellent chemistry as pals. Taylor's "death" of course is the most anticipated event of this period and seeing it now it is obvious that Taylor was always meant to return (since the plane stopping in Morocco was mentioned very early on). I was amazed at how quickly Brooke went from planning a wedding with James to getting engaged to Ridge. And I was curious about the Jessica storyline simply because I didn't remember a lot about it (it was clearly the least "important" storyline of that time period). I remembered Jessica mainly as playing the violin badly (and she really does!) but other than that she is more immature than I remembered her, and Dylan actually didn't treat Ivana very well the way he discarded her for Jessica. There are some aspect of this storyline that strike me - first, the Forresters' obvious discomfort with Jessica's introversion. They keep pushing her to get out of the house and have "fun", but it's their kind of fun, not hers. They want her to go to the beach rather than, say, a symphony concert or the library. Second, the way the models' unhealthy relationship with food is mentioned without being problematized (Ivana saying "this is the kitchen - we don't use it much", the models always working out and talking about having to burn off two grams, Jessica suddenly swimming in the pool to get her already thin body in shape after hanging around the models). Third, how easily Jessica gave into peer pressure and got drunk on her birthday party, and how quick Sly was to take advantage (after living with Macy passed out drunk in his bed every night for weeks without taking advantage of her) - this is clearly where they decided to alter Sly's character and make him more of a bad guy and I feel he wasn't that unambiguously bad at first. My general feelings about early to mid 1994 is that the pace is lower than 1993 (which was possibly the best year so far) but that the ground work is being laid for future storylines (mainly the Princess Leila story). I remember the second half of 1994 as better, and the first half of 1995 as some of the best the show has ever been. Let's see if my expectations will be met! Oh, and I have no words for how much I loathe Eric for having a vasectomy behind his wife's back knowing she wants children!

I thought so too, but then I heard her say she was 18, and a few weeks later she said she was 19 (this was around the time of Jessica's 17th birthday party). I guess being a "super model" makes her seem older and more experienced. But learning how young she really is made me see her in a different light.

Ivana is one character I can't see this time around without thinking about her gruesome end. It makes me see her in a much more positive light than I remember. That, and the realization that she is a teenager who will never see her 20th birthday. She is only two years older than Jessica - I don't think I really understood before that she was so young.

This site has daily recaps in German. http://www.history.soap-reichundschoen.de/index.html

Thank you so much! This is wonderful news! 😊

I agree 1993 is probably the best full calendar year of the show (that I've seen so far). I remember when watching the first time around that I *really* liked the year between mid 1994 and mid 1995 too (with the Morocco storyline, Thorne and Macy's story, and Sheila's turn to the very dark side), so I am looking forward to seeing how that time period has aged. And I also thought James and Anthony were great additions to the show.

Thank you so much! You are amazing for doing this!

I don't know that there's a problem there - it's just that nothing can be added to the Vault at the moment apparently.

I think we'll just have to wait for updates on the Vault... Hopefully there's a way!

To me, the Thorne/Brooke pairing, although "hot", was forever tainted by the destruction it left in its wake, and the selfishness Thorne and Brooke showed when faced with that destruction. In addition, it was clear from the start that the underlying psychology was unhealthy for both of them and a perfect storm of two pathologies colliding - Brooke's pattern of using Ridge's family members as a replacement when she couldn't have Ridge, and Thorne's recurring obsession with "rescuing" women who were really in love with his brother. No other pairing on the show had so many "casualties" - Stephanie had a stroke, got paralyzed and almost died, the Forrester family nearly lost their matriarch, Macy fell off the wagon and did die (temporarily), the lives of the entire Spectra family were torn to shreds, Bridget was traumatized when learning about her mother and her brother, and in the end it was all for nothing. So to me, the thought of Thorne/Brooke will always leave me feeling a little sick.

I think Adam was her "true love", but they never really had a chance to build a life together because he was always on the run. But out of all the men Sally was involved with, I think he was the only one who really loved her back.

I have always thought the show let Taylor off the hook too easily for Darla's death. Sure, it was foggy, but it was also foggy the night Macy drove drunk and almost killed Kevin. And yet back in 1993 the show was 100% clear that if the driver was legally drunk, it was by definition no accident, end of story. Fog or no fog. In both cases, the fog was a contributing factor but the accidents would not have happened without the impaired reaction time and lack of attention caused by the alcohol. And since Taylor covered it up, they never even got a chance to test her blood alcohol levels. The fact that Darla fell into the road doesn't really excuse Taylor in my mind because Taylor was driving fast enough to kill somebody past the goal of her trip (Phoebe's car). That obviously implies she did not adjust her speed to the weather conditions and the circumstances. If Taylor had paid attention and actually seen the car that she was actively looking for, she wouldn't have been driving past it, and Darla could have done yoga undisturbed on that stretch of road because Taylor should have pulled over before even reaching it. I think the show didn't really treat that storyline responsibly because the way it was written implied that if you drive drunk and have an accident it's okay to blame the weather, or the victim who was killed. As if it were not possible to drive safely (slowly, with LOTS of attention on the road and the side of the road) on a dark and foggy night. A car driving slowly and carefully would not have had enough speed for a fatal impact because the driver would have expected unexpected things to show up in the fog. As for Donna, I think the show completely disregarded her entire prior history and personality when they did the recast. They have dumbed her down so much it's not funny. It's like they are mocking the character. I think Taylor's 2005 resurrection was a major jump the shark moment for me. It was such an obvious sign that everything that ever happened on the show can be undone just like that, and because of that, no storylines have any lasting impact anymore because no death is permanent, and no change is forever.

Bill Sr DID NOT "hate" Brooke. They hardly even interacted. Him calling her out one time on her showing up uninvited to a party doesn't equal hatred or even antagonism. They were never at odds. He may have been a sounding board if Stephanie ever gossiped to him about Brooke, but that's it. Personally, he couldn't care less about Brooke - why would he? Brooke's goals always aligned with his. She wanted Ridge and he favored Thorne for both his daughters. And he may have had a bit of a crush on Stephanie by the time Eric was divorcing her for Brooke. The character Bill Sr really hated was Ridge. He also strongly disliked Clarke, Sally and Blake. Seemed to dislike his own wife Margo and her brother Jake. Occasionally schemed against Macy. That's all the characters I can think of who were on his "bad side".

That wasn't Bill Sr's party, that was the Christmas party of 1992 at the Forrester mansion. Bill didn't even really know Brooke so he was basically just relating what he had heard (most likely from Stephanie). There was no personal relationship at all between these two characters. He was just reacting (as everyone else was) to Brooke showing up uninvited to the Forrester party where nobody wanted her to be.

I was just about to write the same - I can't even remember Brooke and Bill Sr having a single conversation, or even being in the same storyline. And since Brooke wanted Ridge, and Bill Sr wanted Caroline with Thorne, their goals were even aligned.

I think we should just be patient. @ChickenNuggetz92 already said he's working to solve the problem and would keep us updated. Fingers crossed there will be a solution eventually! In the mean time, we do have a lot of episodes already to enjoy which is amazing! And with the official uploads, we know that whatever happens, we will soon be able to watch all classic episodes one way or the other, which is the most important thing.

Yes, the show was really in a good place in the summer of 1993! Interesting point that Taylor and Macy are sisters-in-law but don't seem close at all. But at least they actually have occasional scenes together (approximately one every other year or so). Brooke and Macy, as far as I know, have yet to have a single conversation. I wonder how long it will be. All the things that you wished to see with Sly and Macy, I'm actually almost sure did play out on screen. Like there was this time early on when she was drunk and we were led to believe that he took advantage and had sex with her, but then we found out the next episode when he apologized for coming on too strong that they actually hadn't slept together. And then we did see how Macy finally made the decision to sleep with him (after living with him for months without having sex with him) because he suggested she should move in with her mother, and she panicked because she knew she couldn't drink if she moved in with Sally, so she decided to sleep with Sly in order to stay with him and be able to continue drinking without her mother finding out. And I also think we did get a breakup scene where Macy moved out and Sly realized she never loved him. As for thinking the show could have gone much further with Macy "hitting bottom"... well, I won't spoil it but let's just say Macy lying drunk in the alley wasn't her true "dark night of the soul" - that is yet to come. I agree with you about Jack - he is strangely lackluster as a character. I liked him in the mob storyline, but after that was resolved, he simply seems to lose energy. He simply can't keep up with a dynamic character like Sally, and his involvement with Stephanie also doesn't really work.

Yes, that, and "events by omission" - such as Stephanie having many friendly and supportive scenes with her other daughter-in-law Taylor, but virtually none with Macy. It was especially jarring in late 1993 when Thorne/Macy and Ridge/Taylor had virtually identical marital problems (Ridge and Macy having to work closely with someone who was clearly attracted to them, because it was so important to their respective companies), and the entire Forrester family rallied around Ridge and Taylor and supported Ridge working with Brooke and encouraged Taylor to be understanding so they could get control of their company back, yet NOBODY encouraged Thorne to be equally understanding of Macy working with Anthony, who was literally Spectra's last hope.

I didn't know John McCook recorded an entire album! By the way, did anyone else see the duet with John McCook and Bobbie Eakes and immediately felt grateful that the show never went there with a Thorne/Macy/Eric triangle?