MarlandFan

Terry Lester's Jack Abbott was one of the smoothest, most effortless performances I've ever seen on daytime. He was nominated at the Emmys 4x and was robbed each time.

Now THAT would have been perfect casting. Lester would have kept us guessing (and, at the very least, riveted) for those long 18 months.

With the Crawford mystery, I think Marland was trying to re-create the plot of Hitchcock's "Suspicion" as well as delve into Frannie's pattern of falling in love with secretive, violent men. While the story went on too long, I think it might have worked if the payoff had been bolder. From Marland's original storyline projections, Daryl was supposed to be Carolyn's killer which would have been an appropriately climactic end to the story. But for some reason, Marland balked and hastily rewrote the end to have Daryl innocent -- which made no sense since Rex Smith was written off the show a few weeks later anyway. And the other potential payoff of the story would have been Frannie's deep inner dive to understand her issues with "crazy" men. But that subplot never saw fruition because Mary Ellen Stuart was also written off the show a few weeks after Rex. Instead of powerful endings to an 18-month-long story, we got nothing but anti-climaxes. And, worst of all, no stories dovetailed from any of it. Boring.

Yes, that partial episode should actually be labeled January 11, 1991. The Angel/Holden/Barkely final scene in this episode picks up immediately in the partial episode.

I absolutely agree. The 1988 strike lasted for 5 months and then it took Marland at least another 5 months to reorganize the show and begin new plotlines. I believe he had the show back in shape by mid-1989 which fed into 1990 which was a spectacular year. I don't mind his darker period in 91/92 (although the Crawford murder mystery was a major drain on everyone's patience) and I was very intrigued by new characters Neal, Scott, and the Grimaldis. Unfortunately, with his death, the promise of those new characters failed to ignite and the second half of 1993 began the show's downward spiral.

I'm a little surprised that Jennifer Ashe would be doing an ATWT anniversary bumper since she was no longer a contract player on the show in 1991. True, she made several visits throughout the early-1990s but was not a regular. The woman on the left is definitely not Martha, Susan, or Parker -- and she doesn't look like anyone who was a prominent player in 1991. (More than anyone, she looks like the actress who played evil Janice, but that actress didn't begin until 1993.) My guess is that the woman on the left is a local WCBS news anchor? Maybe this promo was shot after Jennifer made a local NYC news appearance to promote the show's anniversary? (Jennifer seems very glammed up.) EDIT: The woman does resemble Susan Marie Snyder but I've gone through some old 1991 episodes from this time period and Susan had much longer hair at the time (she had just reappeared on the show as a very pregnant Julie.) Below is a screenshot of the June 4, 1991 episode which would have been taped 4 to 6 weeks earlier, nearer to April's 35th anniversary.

I understand your point; none of us really understand what amount of alcohol can push us over the edge into illegal territory. Even the ad campaign "Buzzed driving is drunk driving" doesn't seem to answer the question. But after two previous DUIs and all of the legal headaches they bring, I would think/hope that one would avoid driving even after just one drink. Why tempt fate?

She's had 15 years of loss: the end of her marriage, ATWT's cancellation (she worked there for 32 years!), the death of her son. And getting older sucks, especially for a beautiful woman. You suddenly feel invisible. I understand how one might develop a dependency to try to numb the pain -- we all have our drugs of choice. But a third DUI is inexcusable, especially in this day and age of Uber and liquor store deliveries.

It's always exciting when a "new" Marland-era episode pops up on YouTube. I'm still hoping that one day we'll see the late-May 1986 episode where Frannie's memory suddenly returns during the Doug Cummings murder trial as well as the Labor Day 1986 episode of Chris Hughes's birth. As always, thanks to everyone who recorded, saved, and posted episodes.

Gotcha -- yes, probably was in the works mid-summer of 92.

I think I disagree with that assumption. I have no inside info at all, but if they were using Rattray as a placeholder, why go to the trouble of dramatically shifting Lily's character? With Rattray's arrival in 1990, Lily immediately became a semi-deceptive, man-hungry business woman. Since Jon Hensley had left the show, there was no plan to reunite the couple, so there was clear opportunity to take Lily (and her new portrayer) into new worlds/storylines. Also, I think I remember that Lily had some facial damage/reconstruction in the Derek explosion aftermath, so TPTB made a real effort to move on once Martha was Hollywood-bound. Maybe later on there was an eventual move in late 1992 to return to Martha, but I don't think it was the initial idea.

I agree -- the Doug Marland era is the best and I would recommend beginning with the very sparse late-1985 episodes available on YouTube (I think there are only 5 or 6 episodes from Oct/Nov/Dec). There are a LOT of episodes from 1986/87 (the best era IMO) and then a very healthy number of episodes from 1988 thru 1993 (Marland died in March of 1993). I stayed with the show until early 1994, but the quality of the writing just never recovered for me.

While Heather Rattray was a bit of a shock when she first took over the role of Lily (she was much taller than Byrne and Lily was suddenly being written as a semi-ruthless business woman), I came to like her very much. She played Lily as more mature and sophisticated than Byrne did -- which came in handy during the very traumatic Angel storyline. I was sad when Rattray left the role. Once Byrne returned in 1993, Lily immediately went back to being petulant and sour.

Yes, Marland came into the show with a tight, well-plotted 3-year bible and 1986/87 were fantastic. Unfortunately, the long 1988 writer's strike (and multiple cast changes) upset that momentum and by the time Marland returned in the fall of 1988, the show was in trouble. It took him most of 1989 to rebuild the show, which culminated in another great year, 1990.

That was my thought: that Neal would not be killed, but simply injured and then eventually leave the canvas. MKA signed with the show specifically because it was a 6-month deal, but her unexpected chemistry with Lucinda/Hubbard was so great that I think Marland would have recognized that the story needed to shift and that the audience HAD to see Lucinda know/accept Neal as her sister while Neal was alive and not after her death. That emotional connection between long-lost sisters was the real center of the entire story, not Royce and the mystery of his multiples.