Mitch64

I don't know...a lot of FB ATWT pages I don't belong to have popped up since then, I will try and look.

As did I..perfect combo of history, family and a side of camp and fun. They would have been a change though after the last few year's of Marland and his morose storylines at the end. Damn was Bryce pretty as hell, and then sexy Tom! But Carter's acting always made me think that Sierra was brain damaged in Montega.

She lived a long, great life! She seemed to be very classy and pragmatic about the "Gautman" years...hopefully she had money so she didn't care that much. Someone posted a scene on FB with her and EH. Lucinda finds Lisa in Earl's suite in NY...(why these ladies would want Earl besides having a gay bestie is beyond me) and they get into it..with some really good unMarland lines..."I hope he likes it with the lights out" (Liz adlib.) Its funny though, Hubbard cannot steal the scene as usual as Fulton keeps up with her (It looks like hitting Lisa with a folder is a Liz thing and Fulton comes back with "Do that again and you will be going home in a body bag!") They didn't have enough scenes where they could try to top one another.

There are times when I think MOL is sexy....around 95/96 when he was with Abby..they just never wrote Rick that well, he should have been like his grandmother, a friend to all. MOL strength was that he had good chemistry with everyone and always gave a big brother type vibe when written correctly. But soaps don't treasure chemistry unless its in a romantic relationship so people like he and Frank D were shuttled off. When they didn't write him correctly he veered into his bad mugging, which was annoying as hell.

I can see that Frank in is youth was a really great looking guy, but I never found him sexy...(maybe it was the highlights in his feathered hair..) but then I never found the soap "hot" guys sexy...( I never found JWS sexy either...)well, okay, Mark Collier on ATWT was one,but give me Ross in his suit and his glasses being uptight!

GL writers had no clue (and never wanted to do research apparently) on how corporations and board meetings are run so they would have no clue on inheritance..etc. The only way this would have worked is if Brandon had left a will leaving ALL his assets to Amanda, and she hid that..but what we saw was a will that left what he had between Alex and Victoria. They also had DNA testing in 95..why didnt Alan and Alex demand one then? I like it..can you write an alternative universe GL!!! What if "NotLana" was a Vietnam war protester? You know Brandon, Master or Evil was profiting from the war...so naturally there would be a problem there. And conservative Catholic Bea would have disapproved of her war hating free loving daughter so Lana ran off, much to Bea's dismay so she never mentioned her...(and she got hers when Nola grew up.....) Though I am now seeing NotLana and Reva, uh Rebecca getting stoned on the farm porch and I dont think I could take a stoned Reva. No, being a pain in the ass to Alex was another of her characteristics! She just came off of ATWT but would have loved if Alan had left his holdings to India instead of Amanda in 95. Though Marj huffing and puffing woudlnt have been the same in the Alex/India match ups.

I think that was Marland's idea of being "romantic' and in a relationship, but you hit the nail on the head..I always thought Craig was a little..creepy, even in his good guy days as he was soooo tied up in his partner..and he would cry if they didn't mean him for lunch.

That was my thought, but it would be so much like Jennifer and Alan it would be hard to make "new" not that this ever bothered the writers. I can see "Lana" getting a job cleaning at the mansion (or maybe since they meet at a farm, it would be the reverse of the trope and she would be the stable girl, training horses, a strong willed Irish girl and ready to take on the snobby preppy rich boy...)

The scenes as played are Ed Wood bad...Annie...FREAKS out when she hears Josh is with Reva..throws Alan's wheel chair, hits..as Dusay was calling it, "That damn bust" the bust breaks, and along Roger strolls in to find it? I don't mind a rewrite as their is wiggle room for Amanda to be Brandon's (Why did he think she was in the first place...) but make it exciting and make sense...why would Alex not destroy the will and why did she keep it..in that damn bust the EVERYONE walks past to make their latest dramatic announcement...even Marj's Alex is smarter then that..Alex should have been unaware another version of the will exists, (its just like Brandon to booby trap the mansion for shits and giggles) Roger should have been on a mission to find it and he and Holly go to Barbados to investigate...(I wouldnt put it past Rog to dig Bradon up and pull the will from his skeleton hands...) and they reintroduce the black Spauldings for a future story line...(maybe they run into Vicki who Roger gives his card to.."When you get older contact me, you have potential" ) and give Rog and Holly some alone time to simmer that toxic chemistry they have, while Fletcher stews and starts hanging around Alex for answers and their relatinsonhip starts up...(I would have them leave town together.) Alex is a wreck as Alan says "More and more I think Amanda reminds me of Father, and it scares even me." Alex, "God knows whats she would do if she ever got real power!" etc. Bring Jennifer back to town, maybe on the arms of Mike Bauer, and people catch Alex and Jennifer whispering to each other..."I thought you were never going to come back.."....and "I thought I never would..this horrible house, HIS darkness still is in every corner" ( would have had it that Brandon raped Jennifer and she hid that all these years.." Then Amanda finds out she is not only been lied to but she is child or rape..the board and the investors freeze the Spaudlings assets..leading Roger to take over...he dumps Amanda (no longer her) and the Amanda goes rogue on her own, and Phillip and Alan have to make an unsteady truce to try to pick up the pieces...(Hey, they can always take over Lewis Oil)

I like the idea of Hope being Alan's nemesis...She becomes a lawyer like her dad and she advocates for workers and does pro bono work,etc. Having him turned on to, and totally repelled at the same time by this woman who actually has direction in her life that is not his..would be good. The big problem with Hope is that they aged AM too fast. I don't know how to write yet another woman in Alan's past..but it would work much better then that dumb nun story!

Its kind of like the Boardinghouse on GL..I think once Nola threw a party for her "friends" when she was trying to snag Kelly, and we saw a Family Room, but then we never saw anything but the kitchen and a room or two. But then the Hughes lost their entire house at the end and the Bauer's were just shoved into an increasingly smaller kitchen set too.

I think Alex's hair was a bad perm gone wrong..I think Bev or someone discussed that. Yes, sorry I don't get the Elvira love..she wasnt the best actress, was not that charismatic and well, as the years progressed she got heavier (I am saying that would be an issue if they brought her back.) I would have loved a recast Hope. But then again, I thought Kathleen Cullen was as dull as dishwater and people seem to love her on here. The scab writers brought Blake back but had no idea who she was..so she was just thrown into a pairing to bide time. No matter what Long says, it was Curlee who suggested making Blake Chrissy, etc. Long didnt; even know who Roger was. Mindy and Frank were kind of fun time fillers. I just remember him icing his chest in between chores while Mindy tried to act like she wasnt looking. Reva and Alan never made sense but they needed someone to be the spoiler and Alan had the means to switch the results. Now Alan using Reva (and vice versa) to yank Josh's crank and somehow hurt Lewis Oil yes. They missed an opportunity during the Goshen story to ammend that, and make Alan hiding Reva to keep her in his backpocket to use someday. (I would have had Reva hiding out with Lana Reardon or someone who was hiding from her abusive husband...and was opening her home to women who needed help...Alan falls for "Lana" not Reva and vows to help her get her kids back but its in his typical underhanded way...and then she gets involved with Ed and there is triangle...) Not that I don't think that Reva could give a good one out that Alan would appreciate but not love.

Agreed...they would have definately needed to bring back Ed for this...I think, if he was available Hulwist may have been able to come back...at least short term to play this out...(and feature a ton of vintage Ed/Holly/Roger flashbacks.) Ed his original nemesis and Holly, his obsession are ironically brought together in caring for Roger....(since its a soap they would keep it a secret so Fletch thinks Ed/Holly are a thing again...) And all the characters that it would involve besides them...Ross/Blake (both on fragile ground because of the twins thing..and Ross and Ed butting heads because of the twins and now Roger...Vanessa, Bridget, Peter,Hart,Dinah the Spauldings (notice the two left out...airhogs Jeva so that might be a reason they thought Roger wasnt important...) All this could be going on and a mysterious care taker claims to be Roger's son...(as I wrote before, it would be the son of Ed/Rita, though Roger found him, convinced him he was Alan's son and made him vengeful against him...so Roger wins, he prevented Ed from knowing his son..as he blames Ed of doing with Blake, and he has weaponized that son against Alan..and he managed to make a "Bad Bauer") A good producer would have at least tried to convince MADD and the net how much publicity and emmy wins this would get the show.

I think FH quit, but it was because she was being punished and not given any screen time, etc..I remember a quote that she said she did not want to just stand in the back "Hanging balloons at the Bauer BBQ" (I think they loved the BBQ as it gave them a chance to burn off actors quarantees.) This is one of the reasons I love Bev screwing them and kind of like Zimmer holding them to their contract terms. You created this Reva/Zimmer monster while putting everyone else on the backburner..deal with it. She IS loyal...and she likes guys...difficult ones even which Zaz could (rightfully) be, and she would not take half that from a woman. That is why I wonder how she and Zimmer worked those few months..THAT would be a soap!

Rauch and the writers would start and promise a lot of things but they would not pan out as you know...Reva. Originally they were transitioning Vanessa to be more of an Alex role....back at Spaulding and kicking ass...but then they brought Alex back and promised a big story with Alex and Vicki and then nothing. Springfield had to have known about Barbados, the Reardons were involved so you know Nola ran her mouth about it. The set up for Vicki was good...Victoria had her sugar production biz and wanted nothing from Spaulding, so it made sense that Vicki said, "This is mine too...I want it" But could you have self directed powerful black woman in Rauch's pastel paradise?

Good God no one thought that was...weird? They always treated Spaulding like it was a family owned hardware story..especially under Wheeler and Kreizman. No board, no investors, no regulatory, no concerns on changing the name of an international corporation, because its run somehow with a woman who can't balance her check book no doubt!!!! Nadine was okay in short doses but no...I actually liked original recipe Frank and Harley and poor old Pops. That is where they should have left it. Frank and Harley had a nice relationship (even if it was a direct ripoff of Tony and Nola...nice big brother and trouble making younger sister) and of course Harley was always best at making trouble or at least blue collar tough girl hiding a heart of gold. How old is MADD now...I'm sure she feels a bit wizened herself...and her body failing her (as all or ours do as we get older...)I hope she looks back on her choice and her words and feels remorse...sorry Catholic upbringing, whatever you put out in the world good or bad comes back to you and there is always a chance of redemption. What adds to it was that I am sure they didn't want to waste that much energy on a story that didn't involve Reva...so we got Cleva...Double the Zimmer chewing scenery this time in face tape..WTF???

LOL..I think Grillo went and got those tapes and had them all burned...he found his perfect screen partner! I forgot about Rob Layne..who pranced around town with a t-shirt that said "evil"! If the clone didn't tip you off that the show was geared to idiots now, that did! If only Reva had a T-Shirt that said, "Seen better days but still open for business!" And Rauch was even dumb enough to bring Rob back, recast as that dumb guy from Sunset Beach or whatever. The quotes from someone was "The ladies are going to be drooling all over their tv screens." LOL..did they mean the Rest Home that were the only ones watching??? Those scenes between he and Van are really hard to watch now..her playing an illness that was the kind that was rapidly hitting him in reality. I never knew why they didn't show Roger showing up just as Van was leaving...just one scene, "I kept your secret now you can keep mine" and then we cut. We don't know what he says to Van and when she comes back she is very nervous when anyone mentions the missing Roger..torn between telling everyone and keeping her word. And they could have worked it from there. I thought Paltro would have made a better Alan or Kyle recast.

They hit the brakes on the relationship because, as you said Moniz does not make a great heroine ( you can tell she is still playing Dark Dinah despite McTavish trying to make her the hero, so its just weird...) and Rauch/MADD were addicted to the good girl/dumb guy/bad girl formula. Problem was Grillo had more chemistry with his mirror then either one of his ladies...(I remember at the time people wondering why he wasnt cast as a Santos..now that I could buy and I think finally a Santos would be skeevy/scary.) The Dinah/Hart relationship was in full swing on screen when Grillo was a recast and eventually started banging Moniz in the dressing rooms and then left his I think, preggers wife. Dinah shoots Hart as in a misquided punishement from Rauch...they both were playing hardball at contract time and Rauch made sure (he thought) that neither could return to their old roles.

Didn't they "merge" Lewis and Spaulding when Lizzie and Bill got married? (which really there would have been a huge age difference between them but at the end they just were throwing things at the wall ...) I had always thought the Oil part was dropped from Lewis and it just became Lewis construncion, which would make more sense then having an oil company headqautered in a medium sized midwestern town (plus, Lewis Oil was so outdated and SCREAMED 80s with Dallas and Dynasty.)

Well, Grillo always skeeved me out, and that scene would really have done it...(were the writers finally finding how to use Grillo's uh, talent???)

Its interesting as Mo really fades into the woodwork during Long's second tenure...she and Ed are rarely on (Ed at least has the doctor stuff) she gets the hots for Fletch after her friend who was married to him dies, Ed screws Holly, Mo sad sacks it around and moves into the Boardinghouse and leaves Chele with Ed...she has a scene where she discusses making curtains for a "room in my mother's house" (wouldn't she own it if Bea wasn't in town...) and just mopes around while Holly moves into her house...Its not until Reva kicks it and Long leaves that Mo moves into the matriarch role we knew her as..(I think Long was obsesses with making Sarah the matriarch, even moving her into the run the BH, but she is too tied isolated to fill that role...) But yes, every woman besides Alex and the younger ones all take a back seat to Reva. I would say India escaped that but she would be considered "younger" though MKA always came off as middle aged no matter what.

True, but I am assuming they were using McTavish's outlines for a while, at least up to the anniversary show. That damn angel is still there and Chele is panting over him, Meta keeps mentioning she knows him an a "Mary Bauer" ( I know Meta was McTavish's idea for the anniversary, one of the few good ones she had but tying her to that story was the worst.. The January stuff all seems to be geared towards the anniversary, we have a lot of cameos...(Dylan, Jenna) the angel so I am thinking this big Spaulding secret is for an the anniversary and would McTavish idea of using "history" even if it wasnt on camera. I do know she wrote the lighthouse scenes for the ball or had it in her outlines as before she got fired she was boasting about all the character returns and that during the anniversary "something is going to happen to bring the town of Springfield together that will let everyone know that this is still definatley Irna Phillip's Springfield ." So it wouldnt suprise me if she wrote the Spaulding secret and it was changed but its one of those things, like Days Salem Stalker, where I would love to know what the real purpose and ending was going to be.

Van had a complicated relationship with the Spauldings that was never really explored. In the retro writing Van would have known Alex and Alan all her life and since Henry and Brandon started Spaulding, she would have as much claim to it as they did, but post Long, she seems to more identify with Lewis then Spaulding. Bev/Alex seemed to support Van, even putting her in charge several times...though then the Mindy/Alex thing came up...and when Marj/Alex hit, Van and everyone else just seemed to consider her an annoying shrew. RR's Alan was no match for Van (or anyone else.) The folder thing seemed to have been rewritten as it went along. Was it McTavish's idea or the interim writers? Van tells Roger (because he finds her alive in Switzerland) that Alex "boasts" that she has a file that would bring not only Alan, but the entire family "down" The parentage of Amanda would not have been something that Alex would brag to Henry about and it would not bring down the entire family...so the whole thing makes no sense, which is why I think it was rewritten from its orginal concept..(after Rauch wanted to get rid of Alex to get a younger version of her.)

Don Stewart should have been brought back..with a wife and children born off screen. Tylo really needed to be written out but there needed to be an exit I agree...not just because of his past 80s success but just because he was there..and I hate when characters just disappear. I think having Quint propose to Nola at the ball (flashbacks to courtship and wedding) and Nola just saying "no" she has a life here, which she had to give up for Quint's career, and now she wants her own life...(of course I would not make her Ms. Sad Sack that Rauch did, I would her her open a jazz club styled on her 1930s/40 movies, and she would be like ATWT's Lisa, knowing where all the bodies were buried and who was the baby daddy.) One last dance (flashback to their engagement dance) and we are done, Quint rides off in the sunset with a promise of a reconciliation in the future.

So true...I thought it would have been interesting if Amanda had taken some of her Spaulding stock and sold it, and invested in a tech start up (they were just getting big in 95.) The guy just wants her money but dumps his wife because Amanda insists and will not be the other woman again.Unhappy in her relationship, and surrounded by a less conservative Cali vibe (which is how I would explain how dull sad sack Amanda became Theda Bara Toby Poser) she takes up with younger man Matt (who is not a prostitute but a guy who likes older rich women and the life they can give him.) The tech guy is abusive and catches Amanda and Matt in the sack and blackmails her for more money. She then finds out he lost all of it of her money when the start up tanks, and one night he is mysteriously found dead in his pool. Both Amanda and Matt think its the other one, and go their separate ways to not implicate the other (Matt know the guy is abusive and Amanda who genuinely has feelings for Matt, though not love, cause, he's a hot piece of ass but dull as hell.) It will turn out it is actually his estranged wife or son who does him in and sets them up. Amanda, broke and again alone, takes Alan up on his offer to return home and sets her sights on getting everything she gave up including Ross. I would write it that she has feelings for Ross, the savior as he once again has feelings for a conflicted woman who needs him. But this storyline that McTavish wrote sucked as you knew Amanda was going to fail, that Ross didn't have feelings for her, and neither did Matt. But it also had to portray Matt, despite his manho status as a goody goody dullard, so there were no stakes, no nuance no interest. If I wrote the end result is that Matt and Blake hit the sack, she gets preggers with one baby and eventually Van and Ross head back together after dumping their silly young partners.