Mitch64

I can see why they moved them over to ATWT, but something was off...they just didn't work and even their second run, which was better and created Tom and Margo and Steve and Betsy was not as sophisticated as GL and they totally blew up the Hughes family. I would love to read an interview with them with their take on that time.

Would he would appreciate it if I wrote to him that in his Apollo day...also when he played the headhunting native on Gilligan's Island...I kid you not.. he was a real piece of a**!!! : ) He worked continuously..and he must have been pretty gay friendly as he played a bisexual biker in a bad movie (with a hilariously cliched campy sidekick) and in on weird Italian movie where he played a guy who continuously broke in on this guy and basically raped him..and by the third time the guy was loving it!! And this was what passed as and Italian sex comedy! It was too bad the Dobson's wrote Nick so badly..he was a chauvinistic ass who was always angry. He and Hayes had good chemistry and they were popular, but as soon as they got married they got the Nancy and Chris treatment and were rarely seen.

Wagner said he started to fail as soon as they put him on recurring, and then silently just fired him. I mean really Bunim, how much could he have cost to just keep the patriarch on? "Chris, what IS that thumping sound coming from across town? Now it seems to me that is against the Oakdale Noise Ordinance, which as you recall, was put into effect when our Lisa was ...uh, entertaining her MANY gentleman callers after 10 p.m.?"

Well that and the disco crowd was going hot and heavy like a coke fueled night at 4 a.m. at Studio 54, while across town at Nancy and Chris its early evening and dinner time. I do love that they tried to "be hip" and still keep Nancy and Chris.

Oh I agree that Miner had a whiny voice, (and I know people get mad at dissing a child actor but I could not stand the toothy Maura who was so cutesy pie MY teeth hurt during her scenes. ) and I can see both sides...I know that she would have not have been able to carry a romantic storyline, so I can see why they recast, but she was the actress there during the Maureen death so I can see an audience being boned with the actress. I just dont think Budig was the correct recast, she was way too blond and cheerleader and the writing did not help (ie. SlutChelle...the girl was into screwing her cousin before Jammy ever came along..granted not bio cousin...) Her Chele was a typical suburban princess. I think Lenz hit the mark as a Chelle bioparented by the edgy Ed and Claire, but raised by Maureen. But as you say, by the time Lenz came along they cemented her in the mob, she had no dad on canvas, MS was sick so Meta wasnt around much.

I was surprised the actress looked so good here...agreed, during the start of the Dobson era she is a complete bore (they kept having her have accidents...from falling down the stairs to being hit by a car, and going into a coma! Payback for what she did to the audience? I can see why the Dobsons swept so many characters away...everyone acted middle aged, even when they weren't. But sidelining Nancy and Chris was screwed up. I never knew why Bridget who had a weird realationship with her parents, never leaned into Nancy ruling with an iron fist. I do have to say Springfield always seemed more of a fun to place to hang out then Oakdale!

Love the Nancy and Chris scene...seems so natural..."Watch your hands, " as she gives him the cup. She seems so much more relaxed with Chris then she ever seemed even with Marland turning her into a more typical grandma. Who is the guy coming on to Mary and letting her know "Everyone turns him on..." wow, Oakdale has a swinger!

What a waste of a Reardon...they had references for years about Sean borrowing money from Ed and Mo...but they could have made him a cop who had money trouble...and cast him better then that sleevy looking guy they got who looked no way like the siblings they had previously cast. If only you were head writing...I love the idea of NotLana being a flower child that got involved with Alan and secrelty had the REAL Spaulding male heir before Phillip (letting some air out Phillips ego.) I would want a flashback of NotLana smoking a joing on the Boardinghouse porch!)

I was very surprised when I went away for college so many people in the dorm were into ATWT and GL, and the CBS lounge (back in the day of three networks different floors of the Student Center had different lounges tuned to a particular network) was always full (I remember a football player would yell out at the screen "Jame F*CKING Stenbeck..Barbara girl you in trouble NOW" and when Brown first appeared on ATWT, "Nola Reardon's in town!" ..if only it was Nola and not depressing Iva.) It was the original SON as everyone would make fun of the show at time but still come back for more.)

I see Lacy as a prototype for Bridget..essentially giving Ed and Mo a teen daughter without having to age up Chelle. The idea was good the execution on the writing and character were lacking. MH and Bridget were a step up in "trouble making teen that Ed and Mo have to foster." Speaking of that era...(I put everything in between Long's two tenures in its own era despite the parade of writers...) I watched some clips of Simon and Jessie and they were both charming actors in their own way, its the characters they were saddled with and the writing... how could Alex ever think that bland Simon with the Canadian accent could be the spawn of Satan (Brandon.) and RS was stuck as a spineless Beth clone. The Kurt actor is also charming and I have to agree with my younger self, cute as hell, but again, stuck in a dead end character with no connections to anyone on the canvas. My biggest surprise was an Ed and Mo scene with PS and EP which must have been right after he returned. They are on the Boardinghouse porch swing, talking about how they first fell in love there and Bea and Simon is flirty and "nice" and has great chemistry with Parker and they make a nice "normal" tentpole couple. I can see why they would cast him as Ed. Why during the Long and then JFP tenure did they turn Ed into a sour [!@#$%^&*]?

I think both he and the Annabelle actress decided to leave on their own, as did Jim, who took time to film a pilot or something and it got picked up. Brown left as she wasnt being written for and there go the Reardons....tho Mo and Bea were still there and they had three other siblings who hadnt shown up so one could be a cop.

Agreed, I can see a Reardon being a cop but not a Shayne. Also the actor did not really help. Why I am sure a lot of people saw him as a hunk...(I thought he was cheesy as hell) Reva's brother needed more then tight jeans and poofy hair. They could have cast someone else and made Rusty more like Reva when she first came on the show..a social climbing gold digger. He should have resented the Lewis men for having it all , f*cking up constantly, but having a cushion of money. Instead he had his head up H.B's ass all the time. To spice Kurt/Mindy up I would have had Rusty after Mindy to get her money and to sully the Lewis princess. Mindy would have grown bored with Kurt, managing the bar and living at the Boardinghouse, even without being the "Sampson Girl" and Rusty would have been right there to egg that on.

The only reason I can see is that they would think maybe his mom would make an appearance...but even that was old hat after GH. He was such a nothing burger and had no chemistry with ANYONE. That whole era had nothing burgers..Kurt, Simon, Johnny and Rusty...(and if your related to Reva and can't get a story you are BORING!) Frankie D just missed that by having Ehlers cast as his sister and the first Eleni actress lighting a fire under him.

Pam Long said it was a misfire, but she excuses that she was "young" in her writing career, when she already had been at Texas and GL for over 2 years. They could have just had his body never recovered by the dumb explosion and had the same scenes from Alex and Beth. Alex had it out for Billy and Kyle after that but it all went to nowhere (would have been interesting with Van in the middle but she was too busy being , as one critic said, "Alice Kramden to Billy's Ralph." ) and Beth flirted with that stupid Jackson Freement (I mean really where was that going..another character with no connections to any of the families.)We as soap viewers have seen that before and would know he was alive. It's interesting about Jeff Ryder. Curlee said that the bad material was because of other factors (Kobe?) and Zimmer and her husband on the Locher Room credited him along with Long (and Jay Hammer of all people) with the great writing in creating Reva???/

I was watching a bit of GH during the aftermath of Monica's death, and the Quatermaine house and kitchen look great and huge. Now I know it is filmed in California but come on, ATWT could have afforded a nice house, or at least a kitchen set for their tentpole couple. The Bauers kept their house until Rauch left and they still had a kitchen to the end, and there were hardly any Bauers left...(and the kitchen was severely cut up during Wheeler...though in one episode they incorporated that cool living room fireplace in the kitchen set which I actually liked...a kind of family room kitchen would work and solve a lot of space issues. Tom and Margos was kind of like that..though how the characters were played at taht time did not make it seem like their house would be the one people liked to hang out at.

Oh how I hated that the Snyders were the only family left with a kitchen, when Bob and Kim of all people had to do all their eating in Lisa's hotel. I loved the ridiculousness of people just walking in and out of Bob and Kim's house at all hours of the day and night. Never felt the same way about the Snyders but glad someone like them and they kept some traditions. I wonder if NY production staff and writers thought kitchens were passe or two...midwestern?

I can see Meta adopting the Faux Bauers like Johnny, as she would desperately want a family like her brother did, (and he threw it away.) That would have made a better connection then bringing in this Lainie and Jack that no one knew (though I liked the Lainie actress as Meta, and I would have made the new Bauers...more interesting then Johnny.) Meta's cousins died in one of those car crashes that were always so plot expedient in soaps, so motherless she adopted them herself and took back the Bauer name. I never followed Irizarry's career, was he on AMC when they were doing the Beth/Phillip/Harley thing? If not that would have been an interesting development and much more interesting then Phillip, in love with good old gal Harley, but chased after by a newly psycho Beth.

Did Meta mention at the time that she too was in jail. They had forgotten so much history at that time but apprently it was a big deal that they even had a contest for the audience to vote if Meta was guilty or not. Did Meta have step kids they could have brought back...wasnt there a pain in the asss Robin who married Mike Bauer?

It seems so odd that McTavish did not care about this when she wrote the Meg story,,,(which went to the wrong couple...this should have been a Frank Eleni story) when she was there when they wrote Ed/Claire and Pratt blames Megan for blowing up Fletch and Claire and then turning Claire into an all out psycho. Was it even mentioned that Fletch reversed the process? I am fine with it as it does work from history, but really did not want Fletch to have more story.. I could see it that Meg dies, and Fletch as her really only caregiver is crazed with grief. The bomb goes off, Claire returns (unpsycho but her usual brittle self) and Chele has to deal with all of this. But ultimately I want an adopted kid to say, "No, the guy who raised is my dad, sorry, you can be in my life but I only have one dad.") Chele would be the perfect character to do this as Mo was her Mom....(It woudl have been interesting to see adult Chele insist on adopting kids as she saw the avlue of that.)

Well, it could have been interesting drama, so of course they didn't touch it. I would have given AM imposter syndrome..as if it wasn't Alan or Alex he had to impress, he had shadow of Phillip, not even a bio Spaulding, hovering all over him. Add to that his Bauer which was rarely mentioned, and he would have felt..less then his backstabbing family. When Alan was trying to steal the presidency from him during the Brent storyline, I wanted him to have a scene with Ed where he tells AM to fight for the role..."Your great grandfather was an immigrant, and he would have been so proud of you being in charge and all the good you can do to help the people who work for Spaulding and the community. He was the exact opposite of Brandon and that should be your role model." So we find out AM wants to change some things, running up against Alan and Alex, and Amanda actually taking his side..."Out with the old and in with the new, nothing personal Alex when I say...old."

Totally agree that Amanda had more then enough reason to screw over Alan and Alex and even Phillip (to give her some depth I would have her actually like AM as her "baby brother" and her old friend Hope's kid, and for AM to like her back as I would have him feel "not part of the Spaulding fold" either) . Alex could have brought out the Lucille older woman animosity in Amanda...especially since they had Alex throwing up the infamous attic in one scene. I wanted her to go to Ross with plans to get back what she deserved from Alan and Alex, and for him to be in on it and support her, kind of brining back his old power lust side. This he woudl have to keep a secret from Blake , who of course would be jealous. Alan really only threw her a bone when he signed his shares over (which never made sense why he left SF in the first place except for plot to find Reva.) so I can see her making the most of it. She did mention LTA to both Ross and Josh, but by that time the show was so cartoony and the good guys so self righteous with the "bad" guys that he didn want anything to do with her.

Here's where I agree about writing Alex off during the Rauch era, Alex needed a breather and Marj/Alex was not working out. Amanda was basically in a family where no one gave a damn about her, her father didnt really love her and would always choose the goeldn boy over her. She knew none of them from her childhood and had no lingering affection that way, she was a total outsider.She could have been Brandon the second coming without being his daughter. That is where they screwed it up.

For a show banking on one character to stir things up..(Reva had things happen to her at this point which is why I always say Zimmer had more interest in air time and her ego then quality material or what was good for the character.) they really f*cked the charater of Annie up..they wanted to grab the ratings (and to prop up Reva as their new Viki Lord) on her way out and made Annie irredeemable...and then brought her back miscast and in the dumbest plot around...( a really good actress could have played her and they could have brought her back as everyone knowing she was Annie ( I would have had Alan had enough of her, intead of the spineless chump they wrote him as, and during their last confrontation with Reva an accident happened and Annie burned her face and went into a coma pending recast and when she wakes up she thinks that REva is still dead and she is married to Josh(which of course the audience would know she is faking it.) But yea they recast Dinah which I thought was a better actress and wrote her better on her second time...they could have gotten someone better for a character they obviously thought they needed.

Can someone explain the whole "Baby Cabot" storyline to me...I quit watching at that point as I could care less about Carly or Roseanne and HATE any storyline surrounding a baby.

Hey now..we all gain weight as we age...are you a "Fattiest"??? : ) I get what you're saying, but Alan in reality (if we divorce him from Bernau, which I can't) is a midwestern guy, who conceivably could have become a "fat cat" I think the Spaulding's should have been from the east coast, or even southern, like Savannah or Charleston, some place that would give a southern gothic vibe that both Bernau and McKinnesy would be great at. RR and MD did seem more midwestern so that COULD have worked with the proper writing and direction. Clips of RR when he first was introduced was weird cause he is kind of sexy..he gives off a total different vibe then Bernau as his Alan is more physical and mischievous then what we were used to. Marj could have played a more down to earth Alex...but both of them simply became Snidely Whiplash and Myrn Clegg 2.0