Videnbas

So true, practically every single character on the show is extremely unpleasant. I think it has to do with how they speak and behave - the dialogue is just so dumbed down, repetitive and confrontational, like they are all a bunch of mean high school kids. I can't remember the last time I saw a genuinely warm and friendly interaction on the show, or truly intelligent and humorous dialogue for that matter. The sad truth is that no character can speak in any other "voice" than the scriptwriters' voice, and that voice is thoroughly unlikeable.

The time to evolve Brooke was after Hope's birth, when Bridget cut ties with her and she moved in with Stephanie. That could have been Brooke's road to Damascus moment.

Yeah, I remember the year from mid 1994 (once the Morocco storyline started) to mid 1995 as some of the best B&B has ever been. I have been looking forward to seeing that particular time period of B&B for many years! I just hope the issues with the Vault will be fixed because we're currently right at the doorstep of Taylor's death storyline. I am also curious how the whole Jessica/Dylan storyline will hold up because I have virtually no memories of it. It will be a bit peculiar seeing Ivana whenever she comes on the show though, now knowing what her fate will eventually be.

I have to say Jeff was also my favorite Thorne, much because of his natural chemistry with Macy, in combination with the subtle sense of humor he brought to the character (not unlike the type of humor Susan Flannery brought to Stephanie). I also liked Clayton (although I agree that his acting was somewhat limited) but found it harder to warm up to Winsor's take on the role (he always seemed too "macho" for the role of Thorne whereas both Clayton and Jeff had a certain softness to their portrayal). Ingo I don't even count as a real Thorne. His stint was too short and too jarringly OOC. As for Thorne and Macy's singing, I loved it as a child, and rewatching it now I still feel the same because they really do sound good together (not all good voices actually blend well but theirs do, probably because his is high and hers is low, so they are almost in the same vocal range and similar in sound). They strike me as being actual "real" singers, rather than just "singing soap actors", and it does make a difference.

From what I have managed to find, 1994 was when Jeff Trachta and Bobbie Eakes did their first album together (which became a hit in the Netherlands, cue the Rotterdam storyline). But that still doesn't explain his absence because like I said, Macy was heavily involved in storylines at the time (and actually worked quite well as a standalone character without Thorne). So my guess is it actually was for plot purposes. After all, they did ship Brooke off to Paris with him too for a while, and Thorne did have occasional scenes from "Paris" so he wasn't entirely absent. But Thorne has always been a character who periodically loses momentum. That is why I think pairing him up with a supporting character like Darla (as much as I adore her) was the kiss of death for him.

Thorne even got shipped off to Paris for much of early 1994. And, oddly, during this period Macy had significantly MORE air time than usual.

B&B: Pretty much all of them.

I agree - watching these classic B&B episodes I am surprised to realize that Ridge's love life is actually one of the *least* interesting storylines in my mind (back in the day Bridge vs Tridge was always the major frontburner story and one that I was following with a lot of interest). Maybe it's knowing that 30 years on he still won't have made up his mind that kills the romance for me. On the other hand, my appreciation for Stephanie, Sheila and the Spectra gang just keeps growing when watching these episodes the second (or third) time around. There are just so many subtleties and nuances in their scenes that completely passed me by the first time. Bridge vs Tridge may be very soapy, but subtle they are not.

Using VLC Player, the dialogue window where you can cut away the black frame is accessed via Control+E (Windows) or Command+E (Mac). I reread my reply and I don't see how it constituted a "hideous attack". I just felt that there would have been more constructive and polite ways to make a suggestion to the uploader that they change the video format if possible, rather than saying how you wished that someone other than them was still uploading, and that it was so unfortunate that the new uploads were unwatchable to you. I remember there was a previous Angel who was so discouraged by similar comments that they stopped uploading. Fingers crossed this issue can be fixed! And again, thanks so much to everyone who is making the Vault possible! It truly is a dream come true for us classic B&B fans! According to my notes, Sheila's first episode is #1293.

I'd like to ask you an honest question (and it may come across as blunt): If you do not have anything against buying 1994 episodes from Gilson, why do you point out twice in the same post how "unfortunate" it is? (And no, paying for things is not unfortunate, it's normal. Getting things for free is fortunate.) I honestly didn't even notice the difference between the recent and not so recent uploads until you pointed it out. I can't see any actual noticeable difference in picture quality, only the black frame that wasn't there before. And that can easily be zoomed away with a few clicks of the mouse (it never bothered me though).

I agree - in theatre, "recasts" happen all the time. In movies and TV I think it's more difficult because the medium has a lower "suspension of disbelief" threshold (greater demands on realism) and also more focus on closeups. Nevertheless, recasts on soaps can be successful, especially IMO "leading man/leading lady" types (where the character is needed more than the actor). "Character actors" are harder to replace because they usually bring more of their personal quirks to the role and build the role around those (case in point, Sally Spectra). And another category of characters that usually could not be recast are, paradoxically, very minor supporting characters (temporary characters unrelated to the main families, doctors, police officers, sidekicks), because they are not important enough to warrant the break of believability that a recast entails - it's easier to replace them with another character altogether filling the same plot function.

There is a difference between being non-recastable because an actor has been playing the character for so long there would be no point in recasting because the character might as well be killed off when the actor retires, and being non-recastable because the actor and character is truly one of a kind. Like Darlene Conley's Sally Spectra or Susan Flannery's Stephanie Forrester - THAT'S non-recastable.

You may be on to something - they may not want the same episodes available on YT and VL at the same time. I wonder what this means for the VL episodes though - could it mean that they are only planning to continue throughout season 9? I guess it's only speculation and we'll see eventually - I just hope we'll get to fill that season 8-9 gap somehow.

That makes very little sense... those who are watching from the beginning will keep watching season 5 eps. Why jump ahead to season 10 and reduce the pace of season 5? With 4 episodes a day, they'd get there soon enough eventually anyway.

I actually preferred Trachta's Thorne to any of the other Thornes - mainly because of his excellent chemistry with Eakes (and I am one of the minority(?) who actually enjoyed their singing on the show) and the subtle sense of humor he brought to the character. I also liked Norcross's fragile Thorne but agree that he might not have worked long term as a plot-driving force. For me, it was quite hard getting into Harmon as Thorne because he seemed like such a departure from the first two Thornes who both had a certain gentleness and softness to them whereas Harmon played Thorne more "rural macho" (which made it almost impossible to believe that his Thorne grew up in a mansion in Beverly Hills). Ingo as Thorne to me is just an unfortunate parenthesis. At first I was impressed with KA as Taylor but now I find her "teenage vibe" inappropriate for Taylor. It's like she acts all the time the way HT's Taylor acted during that scene when Pierce had hypnotized her into reliving the '70s. And though I am somewhat relieved that the show is more or less ignoring the OOC mess that was post 2005 Taylor, they do have to take her actual unpunished serious crimes into account (her shooting Bill was always the elephant in the room during the whole time Sheila was kept from seeing Hayes while Taylor had full access). And yes, I agree the current writing leaves a lot to be desired in terms of storytelling and characterization. That is why I'm mainly interested in watching the classic episodes.

Just now catching up on the past two weeks... The toe in a petri dish? And then everyone having a photo of the toe on their phones and waving it around? While telling bad puns? My thoughts on the writing of the show right about now (to quote Emily Dickinson): "It dropped so low in my regard I heard it hit the ground"

Yes, I'm looking forward to EVERYTHING about 1994-1995 with the possible exception of the Jessica/Dylan storyline. In fact, if I remember correctly, there was a time in the second half of 1995 when all the awesome major high stakes storylines were resolved and all that was left was basically the Jessica/Dylan/Maggie triangle which at the time felt like a D story. My most vivid memory of Jessica is a scene with her playing the violin badly.

I agree this part of B&B is very good! I found that Connor was a poorly developed character in the beginning (and his high school backstory with Brooke and Ridge didn't add up because the age difference between Brooke and Ridge is too big for them ever to have been in high school at the same time). But watching the 1994 episodes I feel that Connor has finally become more developed. IMO Connor didn't really "come alive" until they started putting him in scenes with Anthony. Somehow Anthony brings Connor to life. I agree the Kevin storyline is very refreshing and respectfully told. Kevin is a wonderful and sweet character whose disability is part of who he is but doesn't define him. And his interactions with Keith and Macy are touching (agree that it is sweet how she advocates for him even though her own life is falling apart). I really like both Keith and Kevin and wish they had stayed on the show longer.

1994 and (the first half of) 1995 were my favorite years of B&B and rewatching 1994 now, I still feel that way. I love the storylines and can't wait for some of my all time favorites (Taylor's death and resurrection, Macy and Thorne's singing career, Sheila's unraveling, Ivana's murder). I also feel the character setup from this time is some of the best the show has had. The only thing I'm uncertain of is how I'll feel about the Jessica/Dylan storyline because I don't remember much about it.

I know, I wrote a lengthy post about him a few pages back about the very same thing! He is very charming and funny, but knowing how he will turn out it's pretty much impossible to see him that way and NOT look for signs of what is to come. To me, the scene where he used his supposed grief over a dead cat to gain Macy's sympathy took on a whole new meaning knowing he will pull that exact stunt again under far more sinister circumstances. And his plan with the swimsuits is not as harmless as it at first appears (and again, he does it one more time but creepier when Macy is trying on her wedding dress right before things get macabre). And there is no way he does NOT realize that he is driving a wedge between Sally and Macy, hurting both of them in the process. (And ironically, hurting Sally and Macy - to the point of almost separating them permanently - is another thing he will do again but worse.) That being said, he is a fascinating character I really enjoy watching.

The 1994 uploads just reached a certain very infamous Big Bear incident...

I can imagine they were expensive to shoot. Classic B&B fashion shows used to have a lot of extras, choreography, lighting, music, clothes that seemed to have been made especially for the occasion, as well as feature a large part of the cast. I just watched Felicia's fashion show on the official Youtube account and it was more like a dance performance.

Yes, I agree with the "dark character pretending not to be" assessment. It is kind of telling that he is the ONLY character who managed to drive a serious wedge between Sally and Macy - while acting perfectly charming to both of them. And how his actions force "angelic" characters like Keith and Darla to do damage control. It's interesting that he just came from playing a dark character on another soap - I didn't know that! But then it makes sense that the writers may have had something dark in mind for him when casting the actor.

Yes, I am not saying all of this was intentional - some of it may have been a consequence of simply the character being kept consistent enough that he had certain behaviors that he displayed more than once. And it's also possible that certain events that were not meant as foreshadowing at the time were remembered in later storylines and retroactively became foreshadowing. Nevertheless, it's pretty neat the way it turned out. At first I thought I might just be inventing patterns that weren't there, but then when very specific and fairly unusual plot points like "feigning grief as a morbid kind of flirting" or "scheming to see the girl naked by manipulating one's own design" happened twice, it did feel like a conscious choice (after all, this kind of foreshadowing/reintegration of past plot elements is very common in fiction). And of course the "bookend" symmetry between Anthony's first scenes and his last must have been deliberate as he even reminisced about the former during the latter.

True - for the most part, the men on B&B tend to be supporting characters in the women's storylines. But it's the women who have most of the agency and whose point of view is usually explored. I still think there have been a fair amount of interesting male characters (and Clarke is definitely one of them) but they are rarely as "deep" or layered as the women and often fill a single plot function whereas the women are a lot more well-developed.