Mitch64

No, he grew up in Midwestern Springfield, it was bad casting, that accent was so freaking annoying. The writer's also forgot that as soon as Marj came on the scene, Alex lost all subtly and nuance and was a screeching shrew who moved her almost incestuous jealousy from her son to Alan. That is why I like Marj's short run during E&B and Faux Annie, she is a less slick version of BevAlex who is not putting up with Alan putting everything on the line for a psycho (though I do prefer JoanAlex sly slick Alex, who enjoys toying with her little "bro-theeer" and his new sex toy Olivia.

This totally encapsulates Marland's ATWT. The exec producer at the time was really responsible for pulling the Hughes family out of obscurity and making them the core the rest of the show spins around...(noticebly that wanes as the drab Snyders and their incestuous dramas unfold...) and the characters were still fun and distinct..Nancy is more of a hard ass and less the boring sweet grandma, Lisa is eccentric and wild but now has money and social standing so gives no excuses...Bob is showing an impish sense of humor (which he looses totally under Marland) John is a major pain in the ass still flicking the noses of the Hughes and Stewart's (and totally in on Lucindas schemes) Margo is still headstrong and loving and she and Tom don't spend an episode talking about how honesty is the most important thing in a relationship. I really appreciate THIS ATWT over Marland, though as you said, he has the plotting and pace down. I wonder if SBH could have moved over to GL, as her style was more...GLish.

I get what your saying, JFP and the writers did move Alex to be more neurotic...but it always has been there since Lujack's death..she took Flock of Seagulls guy into her home and business on his word he was Brandon's kid to replace Alan and her son. I do think that this was also evident in her marrying Roger...(which was a plot point, Long's original creation of Alex would have shown him to the door..) But again, JFP double down on that...and then when Marj came...hoo-boy, Alex became a neurotic screaming shrew.

It was way too soon to bring Annie back....(I can see how Zimmer may have taken her frustration out on the actress, by that time she knew that Reva had become a plot point and not the main character in the storyline, in terms of the clone, and now Annie having to be back to give Jeva a storyline and make them remotely interesting, but Kimmer, you bitch about airtime, you get it, in bad storylines) but I could have bought the character as a psycho Annie seduced off screen and convinced that she was the victim and Jeva needed to be punished. I liked Signy's cold insanity, she could have been a real threat...and yes, the only time I loved Marj/Alex was in those scenes so what did Rauch and the writers do...not have another one! Annie is on the run and sees Holly kidnap the kids ("And they think I'm crazy") and calls Reva cause, you know St. Reva has to save the day and Kimmer was actually off camera for three minutes that week. She then kidnapps Lizzie herself but Alan and India save the day. And Annie just dispears (though we find out later that Alan has been keeping her in an asulym in a replica of Jeva's house.

I thought that was weird to bring them both back for one episode on location (the one line, "Oh Chris, what is our grandson up to now" ) and not have them interact with any of the other characters, etc.(At the very least I would have had John say, "Look, were FAMILY now!!")

The episode is great...and I loved the addition of Nola at the end bruised but not beaten and plotting, I am sure Marland pattered that after "Gone with the Wind," and another reason that it made no sense with Nola coming home after Quint cheated on her, she would have been plotting a comeback and not whinging and acting bitter in the Boarding house.. (and I had no problem that Quint cheated on her it happens in the best of marriages, but I would twisted it that Nola cheated and Quint took the blame to save her the rep with Henry, her family and friends...and so Van couldn't smear her nose in it..God I love me some Van and Nola passively aggressively annoying each other...) Fletch I didn't mind as an friend type character, the same with Frank Cooper, it made Springfield look like a town that some poeple weren't dealing with constant trauma..( would have made Rick Bauer one of those, the friendly town doctor,) but they didn't need storylines or romances.

Yes, he would be in his office (but aces for the show showing him still working ) talking to Tom and also Ellen....(David was missing and Ellen would go to Chris to talk to him..) then they had him in group scenes, a party at Babs and James, sitting in the waiting room with Annie having her kids, and I think at Margo's shower when they hear John is "dead". Too bad as Chris even with Nancy on screen, could have been the wise Judge Lowell character, but the show just dimished him so much. Wagner claims that he started to physically fail after they took him off contract and you can see that he is mainly sitting In scenes.) When Nancy comes back for Bob's wedding Chris is "sick" in Arizona and when they return he needs to be helped to walk (Marcy and Stewarts wedding ) and is again mostly seen sitting down with only a few lines..which I think is great that the show PTB at that time treated him was respect and gave him as much work as they could. Wagner had a contract she was listed in the credits with the rest of the contact cast...I think she meant she never had 4-5 days a week as Nancy as she was always support. Plus, as Datalounge says, Wagner could be "vinegary" !

Susan actually had a brain and a purpose...The bad part was, beside JFP desperately trying to make people care about her by (sickly) having her raped, she attached her to Rick Hurst to ensure her popularity. I wonder if we would have Hurst for a year more if they hadnt stuck him in a dead end marriage to Lucy.

Lord have mercy, I can't believe I read Sonia Satra and Emmy in the same sentence!!!! : ) The world truly is ending! I didn't know Toby Poser and her husband make films..and they are actually getting good reviews. I have had my fill of gore (can't anyone make anything "spooky" anymore) or I would watch it https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/526901/mike-flanagan-loves-this-gory-and-gorgeous-free-to-stream-chiller-critics-call-an-exquisite-cinematic-experience/

He and Frankie D should thank their lucky stars that they last as long as they did on characters who were just there... I do think Hammer was a better actor then Frankie (I mean, who wasnt) and that Frankie had the hunk thing going for a bit..but after middle age hit Frank hard, and Hammer never made a mark with any pairing.. I do think there was a story when Holly got preggers ( the whole Michele is Ed's kid thing was that Fletch had the snip) that there is a question of Fletch not Ed being her dad. Especially since his only good pairing was with Claire, bring her back, have her manipulate him to being in Chele's life and then for once I want a soap to be positive about adoption..and have Chelle say, "My dad and mom are Ed and Maureen Bauer and if you want to stay in my life you need to recognize that, I am Michelle Bauer." MOL and GA always have talked (lovingly) how he would constantly bitch about the writing...(and he HATED wearing the chefs hat at the Bauer BBQ.) I know he had his own money and could tell them go go to hell. I heard they asked MH to come back (lovingly know as "Fat ED") which I think would have been good, but he declined. Imagine if he came back for the 65ht anniversary and they went ahead with the Roger ALS story and they could show flashbacks of Ed/Holly/Roger during that time..ah what might have been.

Ha....like Hammer didn't like getting the attention. I never understood whey they kept Fletcher, they should have sent him off with Maeve. Oh Marion, you had a whole line up of annoying characters to kill in addition to Deenie, Buzz and Fletcher! That video is weird that it shows PS being...happy, and I forgot the nice Dad/Son chemistry he and MOL had...before PS had to purse his lips in every scene and Oleary had to do his schtick.

I think new writers were responsible for getting rid of tedious Miranda and moving him on toward Kim. I can't believe the Dobsons had widowed Kim around with Bob in an unpopular pairing and they didn't move them toward each other then. Poor Don McLaughlin was pushed into recurring, but they did have one little scene where Bob asks him to let Miranda live with he and Nancy, and refuses but later relents. Imagine if Wagner was still on and the reaction Nancy would give. They missed out on every piece of drama of having the law abiding Hughes elders deal with a drug dealer daughter in law ("And we thought having a slut like Lisa was bad!") but the Dobsons just skipped over that to have another scene of Betsy being indecisive and Meg Ryan acting like she was an epileptic.. You could tell the Dobsons could care less about the show and were just doing what they wanted to do until they got a pick up for SB.

You're right...they are about the same age. I think Velka seems an older and Sward is a cute skinny woman so seems younger? They hardly ever mentioned that she and Bob were engaged (and why did they end that, it would have been more dramatic if Bob's current step-daughter was fooling around with his other step daughter's husband not to mention finding out his current wife had a kid with the town pain in the but ... ..the Dobsons seemed to skip most dramatic events during that first run) except for John snarking at Lyla during Bob and Kim's wedding.

Don was still around when Lyla was introduced in the spring/summer..they never showed "Donald" as they called him anywhere but the Hughes law office and then they wrote him out in the fall, so it probably was the Don/Joyce set...(they should have had recently returned from the dead Joyce walk into Lyla's house..."Who are you, this is MY house.") Speaking of, Lyla was originally introd with Velka Gray(?) playing her. At that time they had Lyla (in flashbacks) as a former social climber who turned respectfull but became a bit prudy (always on Cricket, who was following in her footsteps.) Velka played Lyla as more of a hard ass who was covering up as a respectable nurse, and apologies to the Lyla fans here, I liked her interpretation better then Sword's washed out version. I know Hastings didnt like Velka (I wonder if it was an age thing) but when they replaced her with younger, cuter actress, it was weird. I like the dynamic of Lyla and Cricket, the new good time "bad girl" but the recast, and Loring's lack of acting skills, ended that, and they brought Margo in as the new wild one.

I think the Alex/Sonni scene was during the writers's strike...so who knows what they intended. But as Pam Long said, Bev said the dialogue as is, "Right down to the typos!" Yes,she wanted it to be just Deas..but the net made her include other characters (I remember there was a party at Company when the fire broke out so that must have been the writers attempt to get characters there. And it was when Matt/Van were "outed,") The funny thing is, this is epsiode is what made me REALLY hate Buzz and blanche everytime I saw Dea flapping his arms as he rushed into a scene.) I am sure they did..I didn't HATE Crampton, and actually think she was better right before they wrote her out..she is one of the only actresses Oleary had THAT kind of chemistry with, and she saw Ed pull the plug on Eve,(whcih was dropped with the new writers...) I could see that story were Mindy wrestled with her big mouth and finally had it dragged out at a hearing. I agree that Rauch turned Reva into Viki on OLTL, and took everything intereseting out of her, and left us with the most annoying parts of her (her big mouth and her past while she walked around like her [!@#$%^&*] didnt stink.)

I think all the ATWT sets in the late 70s, early 80s looked like that...it may have been a recycled set but I dont think it was supposed to be the same house Don had...interesting that they used the original set that Lyla lived in when she first came to town, I wonder if the ghost of Lisa Lorings bad acting haunted the set?

That was long writing as if SB was GL...(I remember one critic called it "Grafting a horse head on a zebra") and yes, crafted a whole family around "Jodie" a high spirited gal with a hulking ex-husband with a spoiled daughter (hmm where have I seen that before) Long even copied Nolaaerobics with GinaJeans! Yea had to be. Long was so talented and Kat a great character but she got pushed aside for air time for JFP's new fave...Lucy Cooper at that time!

Yea, I never got this as there WERE big stories planned for Walker...she returned with Josh, she was supposed to be "wild" (she jumped in the Trevi fountain naked, don't you know..first of all the ripped of "The Birds" and I cant believe GL would do another fountain routine with one of Josh's screws..) Sarah didn't like her, she was Roger's "step daughter, " the made a BIG deal of her being on GL, it was just that the character didn't work out and for some reason, Walker didn't fit. So they break her and Jarsh up and try to have her in a triangle with AM and eveyone's fave middle aged perve Alan, (which incited MarjAlex weird incest vibe she gave with RR...) and THAT didnt work out. Funny thing in the Locker Room interview JFP said the Buzz episode was supposed to just feature Deas and his monoloque and CBS said, "Uh, no." thank God, it was painful enough to see Deas unfettered and them whoring for an Emmy with him. What was the thing with 5th Street anyway, Buzz ran as far as he could from it and then he was the "King of 5th Street".. All actors are insecure, and Kimmer knew how the game was played, and she played it for all it was worth, but its more TPTB's fault that they let her and they believed Jeva was THE couple to build the show around (even Long's GL wasnt as lopsided as Rauch's GL was.) Rauch was a ageist pig so I can never understand why he went so in for Reva...but that had to play into Kim's issues also.

I wish Deas well also..but agree with you. Not only was Buzz not needed he sucked airtime from others who were there before him doing similar things..we had Ed as a fallible dad, we have Ross as the "good" dad..Roger/Alan have many more formidable enemies then Buzz, Frank was the Cooper "man" trying to keep his family together (Frank got more and more useless with Buzz there...) We have JFP to thank for making the show "Guiding Buzz" and the soap press and others who proclaimed him daytime's Pacino so we were stuck with him..(I like what Marcy Walker said about his acting parapharising "It can be self-indulgent at times!") I can see Alan finally sick of loosing women, becoming like his father and just using them, but we never saw that with RR's Alan. He acts like he is in LOVE with Annie, and ends up being her dupe, standing around holding her purse while she concocts another evil scheme against Java (yawn..) Alan should have been the one ecouraging Annie's dark side, so he could weaponize her against Jeva with the end result of occupying Josh so that Alan can take over Lewis..(and for shits and giggles cause Jeva 2.0 are so freaking annoying...) But we don't get that, he is butt hurt over the middle aged temptress Reva (okay...) dumping him and then he is over his heels for Annie. Not Alan at all..he should have been using them all for his benefit...(especially with Alex out of the way to stay his hand ..) I can't even think about him and Beth...RR/Alan looked like an old perve with her...yucckkk!

Oh the good old days...Phillip in his rugby shirt, Mr. Tony Reardon, and Reva flouncing around in a fur coat. I always liked that apt he and Rick lived in (I think even when they were supposed to be in college..) there is no way the rest of the residents did not think those two were the gay couple..brick accent wall and cozy fireplace and all. Did India say to Warren, "Shut up you FREAK!" (and I love how easy for skinny middle aged Warren pushes strapping 21 year old Phillip aside. I never thought Pilon was that bad as Alan..I thought he was better than Raines..but maybe it was the writing.

Especially in this scene, where Alex is being really nasty to Mindy. I think its funny that someone thinks this is really good, as everyone is starting to act OTT constantly (Mindy FREAKING out and throwing something...and that music!) This must be near the start of Marj's run...she has not QUITE gotten into her bad habits (popping eyes and YELLING) as they are still writing with Bev in mind (and the blondish hair they gave her. The Alex/Mindy thing had already reach its expiration point by this time, and with two recasts in the roles, there just was no connection with the audience...they should have just moved on

Ha!!!!! Yes, that was Dolan's Mo..short lived storyline, but you could tell they were testing pairing them to counter Ed/Claire but they didnt go with it. As Kyle Sampson, who only has eyes for Van...pissing Ms. Reva off !!! Well, every garbage can has a lid so its all a matter of taste...if short, sloppy, loud, chewing gum while kissing is you thing....: ) I don't see how anyone can say he understood women..he always controlled them and the women he had became shells, Jenna in particular...(I wont even go into Nola obsessing over him...) I did like when he was first on the show as "Rex Mancini" before he was the end all and be all, and still a scum, and he was working for Lewis and having a phone convo like he was in a big business deal and Van walked over and said, "This might work better" and plugged the phone in!

My hatred of Fletcher and my annoyance with Hammer's acting is second only to Dea's Buzz...and yes, Zimmer and even Deas on occasion could get away with chewing the scenery, Hammer could not. (not to mention if I read one more interview where he mentioned Fletcher's cute buns!) But he truly wasn't always like that earlier in his run..he and Zimmer actually had a nice fun friend chemistry together and he and Claire were good. They threw Fletcher at all our divas and none of it worked. Bev, Marj, Maeve, Maureen...I actually think he might have been good with Parker's Maureen when she had a crush on him (really Mo????)

The funniest thing Marland ever wrote (unintentionally ) was someone throwing pregnant Dana off a balcony or something, and characters were having a conversation in front of a window and there goes Dana flying by....and she was okay?!?!?

If ever there was a time for a serial killer to strike Springfield that was it....I think Kyle is so weird, control freak and pervy( I can't get over him forcing Roxie to a screw and his early fascination with prostitutes..) that I would have made him the secret serial killer framing Cane Harris for his crimes, as he slowly poisons boring Maeve to get rid of her. Anway, its funny, Long, when asked about how the fans still hate what she did with the Bauers, (after telling them they need to get over it) said that even if she wanted to get rid of them, she couldnt' with Jeff Ryder who knew and loved so much of GL history...(it never showed.) Blake is really Curlee's creation...Long did not know anything about Roger and Holly and Curlee had to pressure her into going along (as someone said above they asked Zaz to play Alan and he turned them down...) To Long's credit they brought Holly back for Christmas, after the Blake reveal and she tried to kill herself, and Long saw MG (with her hair up to look older no less) and was "That woman is SEXY" so wrote her back in. I'm in the minority, but I never thought SS' Blake was that great...I mean, she was funny in a campy bitch role (but she always looked to me that she could go, as my grandmother would say, "Bear hunting with a switch") but I never thought she was raised by Ed. LK's Blake was more vulnerable and screwed up and seemed more to incorporate being raised fairly normal until the [!@#$%^&*] hit the fan (she always came off as a decent person who kept screwing up her life as opposed to purposely selfish and mean. )