Mitch64

I think you hit it there. Long made Springfield seems like a community and a fun place to live..I wanted to hang out at Company, hit the Reardon kitchen, snoop with Nola, go to the Country Club and watch the crap hit the fan. The Three M's graduated high school when I did and I wanted to go to "Springfield U" with them, I wanted Bert Bauer as the cool older lady you talked to, I never wanted to live in Marland's Oakdale..I mean, I don't care that its Lily's birthday, I dont want to hang out in that drab Snyder kitchen with people acting like they were teleported in from a 1930s farm movie...I dont want to go into therapy, and I really dont want to talk about "honesty being the most important thing in a relationship" so really I wouldnt fit in!!! I think that is why GL in Fall of 85 seems so odd, suddenly SF is not fun anymore..Kyle Sampson is flaring his nostrils and blackmailing Roxie to have sex with him, but he is supposed to be a romantic hero, everyone is running around in fur coats like its Dynasty, Ed morphed over night into Faux Ed, Bert is gone (cant be helped) Bea is gone and the rest of the Reardons to be replaced by Hawk and the Shaynes...Alex is obsessing over a guy with weird blond hair. I think Ed wasnt BIG enough in drama like Alan etc. However, Ed would be the person besides Holly, to know which buttons to push. I would have had Ed renew his relationship with Blake and for her to consider him her "dad" again or start to, before Roger came back.

I LURVED Bridget...a more contemporary (for that time) Nola..I loved her fake teenage sarcastic nature (to cover up her insecurities) I love her intro and how she bugs uptight Ed (my fave Ed lines: "Your niece just rolled a trucker and you want her to watch Michelle" and "Go upstairs and put something else on, you look like you dance in a cage" I loved her annoyance at Chelle (and Minor's Chelle is pretty annoying, in a real kid way as opposed to a child actor way as that toothy girl was was Marah) and her eventual softening to her, her friendship with Kat (I love when they break into Gilly's apartment decorated in frills and they turn to each other "HATE IT!" her friendship and loyalty with David, her schemes and her softening and her relationship with Dylan (it actually made sense that this hot sensitive guy would like what other people would consider not conventionally attractive.) I HATED how McTavish had her revert to a more cartoonish version of her debut self and chase after Hart...at first it made sense he was the father of her kid but then they recast with Jersey Boy Grillo and she used her kid to try to trap him and she looked pathetic (they even had her considering plastic surgery in a scene where you could tell Zaz was playing against the script where he made Roger actually have concern for Bridget even as he was using her) and then she just said she was moving back to live with Dylan, dumped Company and disappeared without a good bye to anyone (no doubt Rauch thought she was, as he called woman "a dog" so who cares...) These are what I would consider my fave times also. I know people knock her but I felt Long's first run up to Fall of 85 is better then Marland's (though she never got Nola) it was fun and exciting and warm and sexy and funny (Warm, Sexy, and Funny were never Marland's qualities) and the Curlee era was must see TV..the characters (most of them) were funny and smart and complicated.

Don't forget that Bridget was locked in the Lewis attic while pregnant (how no one in the house could hear a pregnant girl walking around above them and I would think using the toilet.) while Nadine ran around with a pillow (and how Billy never saw his wife naked or partially undressed during that time...all I can say is, Nadine sure as hell must have suck a golf ball through a garden hose...) This had to come from Reilly's head, it was stupid and plot orientated and required everyone to be stupid. Bridget was locked in the attic when her Aunt Maureen died who Bridget really loved.

Laura is his mother, and I think she was an agent with Roger? Anyway, she is dead (I can't believe they never "un deaded" her.) Vanessa is Peter's adopted mother and will be his step aunt in due time, so Matt is his uncle and his stepdad. So Dinah ends up being Peter's sister with hopes to be his step mom also. Bridget and Dinah are actually cousins by marriage as Bridget's aunt is married to Dinah's uncle (though that connection is never brought up during the McLaiby reign of terror) The whole Bauer/Reardon/Chamberline/Lewis families are interconnected ( I would throw in Marler too as Ed raised Blake though that is hardly ever mentioned, plus Ross is Dinah's mom) so they make a really good, , messy, weird, multi-generational core family, but later writers threw it all away to focus on Reva and Josh and the Spaulding and the Coopers (UGGGHHHH!)

Darryl was so boring the only redeeming quality would be if he was a murderous villain. I like Marland's idea that he is a true sociopath, but we never saw that play out, he was always polite (I guess in Marlandland even psycho sociopath's have manners) and nice. It would have been interesting if Margo instead of calling him "Dreamy Darryl" or whatever she kept repeating cause she knew him in high school, was a bit wary of him, as he was "popular" in hs and she was in a fringe group and she saw how he used girls back then (I always thought Margo would not be "popular" girl as she would be loud and pushy and stick up for the geeks, etc...maybe I am thinking more of Collin's Margo.) The only way for this mystery to work is if it wasnt a mystery and we the audience see that Daryl is a freak and are just biding our time to see who is next. I wonder if Leslie Dennison ever got sick of playing an invalid on PG soaps (it seems most of her time as Maeve was spent in bed while preggers with Ben.)Come to think of it, this storyline would have worked on GL with Kyle killing boring Maeve to keep the kid and have Reva...Reva gets together with Kyle again to get married, Fletcher is suspicious, and Josh could have come it to save her from getting her loud mouth silence..FOREVER..mwhahaha... Larkin Mally gave out serious psycho vibes as Kyle so it could work.

The only lighthouse's in Illinois are in Chicago and the Northern Burbs. It makes sense that Springfield was in Michigan on Lake Michigan, which would also make it close to Goshen...(not that anyone wants to relive that story..) I don't get why they just didn't say where it was...when they did say Oakdale was in Illinois. I think it goes to laziness of the soap writers and producers..along with their writing of corporations inner workings...( I get it has to be sensational and entertaining but some semblance of reality would be great..not the constant back of forth of the Spauldings ruling the corporation with no backlash from the board, stock holders or investors..and Harley becoming CEO) and the East Coast bias of the midwest (Lipton I am looking at you) that they cant even look up what weather patterns are like or like Guatman and others, thinking kitchen scenes are old fashioned and everyone eats out.. Roger has a son Hart, who knocked up Bridget Reardon, who is Ed Bauer's niece by marriage...(the Reardons are a working class family who run a boardinghouse and bar...) She and Vanessa share custody of Peter, much to Roger's dismay as, as wiley as Bridget is, Van has known Roger for years and she knows his every move. Matt is Bridget's sister (and dull as hell if you ask me..) Hart is gone from town and he and Roger have an acrimonious relationship...(as Roger has with EVERYONE...) The house is Van's and Josh moved in when he recently returned from "Europe" looking for Reva. The explanation is that they didnt have to create a new set for Josh (and wait until you see the ugly annoying set they give him later..) and it makes GL sense... Van and Josh treat each other like brother and sister, and he has kids as does Van so they formed a family unit.

I would have to disagree here. Brent was not trans..he was at most...a cross dresser for a specific purpose. I think a better writer would have emphasised how this misogynistic rapist, who obviously hates women, is running around as one..and choose to dress as an unattractive woman (I never knew what JFP looked like then, I was just struck that everyone in Springfield took a dummie pill and didnt notice this was a man..besides Rick, and was astounded that there was someone unattractive running around ..Alex said something, but they were writing her as being boorish and rude instead of noticing something was up.) The storyline also got backlash for Brent changing Lucy's HIV test to positive, which I didn't get at that time..shows have been doing that for pregnancies for years, but I guess it was 1995 when real people were getting real results and it was a death sentance at that time. This I feel was more disgusting then Brent/Marion...the incest angle, which McTrash seemed to love, and having a civil rights leader shot themselves to frame a white man. I have no idea why they didnt pair Gilly with Nick. Look I hate Buzz, and believe he should have been a victim of Brent...(cue the longest and loudest death scene in history...) but I would not have written it as a joke to get back at an actor I find intolerable. She has a thing for dead bodies laying around doesnt she? McKinsey was up for GL EP but MADD in her continued stupidity...chose Wheeler. I am sure we would have had JVD to the end if he was there..(and a better show.)

I get the Brent storyline...the ratings had dropped so bad and the canvas was fractured as it became "Guiding Buzz" and they felt they had to beat a drum loudly as a columnist said..but how easy would it be to write for Amanda returning home after all these years, and realizing her father invited her back as weapon against Alex and AM and her choosing her own way (and instead of chasing Ross, they could have naturally been drawn back together working on something) and Nola wanting to fill her sister's shoes by trying to Mother Chele, Bridget and even Dinah (they could have written that Dinah spent time with Nola in Europe and that Nola encourgaged her "change of character") then Nola finds out about Ed and Lillian and the [!@#$%^&*] hits the fan! It wouldn't be hard.

Agreed. JFP blew up the whole writing team that was in place before..so we just had Anderson and whomever...and Liabson seemed at a loss and didn't understand GL..which was odd as he worked on ATWT when Marland was there. I remember him being at a fan event and taking some people aside and asking them for input (he might have been yanking their cranks or he might have seen the axe hovering...) I wonder what it could have been like if someone with talent was their to reign her in..Brent/Marion was creative..she brought back Nola (and dropped the ball) she brought back Amanda (and dropped the ball) Odd thing is, I would have loved to know what the hell she was doing with Zachary the angel...Was he reincarnated...would he become human with his great love of MancrazedChelle? I didn't care about watching it, I just would love to see what she planned.

I always thought MG's Holly was a hell of a lot sexier then Kimmer's post resurrection Reva..MG was one of the only women to created sparks with RR's Alan in one single scene and of course, they didn't follow up on it. Its too bad..if they had pursued the Roger ALS storyline, and brought a suitable Ed back, the two of them could have been dealing with Roger and once his storyline is finished for the characters and the audience, the two of them could have gotten together. Holly as the sexy sarcastic matriarch of the show after all that has gone on.."Please Blake, even Bert would have been left speachless with your behavior."

Which is weird, as she wrote for GL years ago..granted it was mostly under Ryder, but she was there acting when the show was solid. Lord, Maeve/Fletcher was dull as hell (well, poor Maeve was ) It was JFP/Anderson who put them together, and I think it was JFP, but definitely Anderson who married them off. Saddling Holly with a socially relevant storyline with dull Fletcher (and Hammer walking all over MG's lines) was the final stab and really, Holly never recovered from it. I still think the first Brent victim should have been Fletcher, with Roger being framed by Brent. You could have still had Lucy in it but not the centerpiece and have an increasingly whacked out Holly going after Roger...they should always have been in each other's orbits..just not "together" Brent could have been a great new villain but JFP wanted to sell the Lucy character so she tried to get the audiences sympathy for her with the rape. I know Rauch took all the credit for crazy Annie, but Megan laid the groundwork with her starting the lies (covering up her marriage to Rick) and her odd hyperness around the kids, along with the addiction issues. It was clear they were heading that way, but may have allowed the character to not quite go into full cartoon psycho mode so Jeva looked saintly.

I would LOVE to hear what Megan thought of Kimmer. If she got pissed that poor little Jean Carol went public asking for story, what the hell did she think of Zimmer constantly bitching to the press she wasn't on enough and getting her band of house fraus to write in DEMANDING more Reva. Not to mention she disses poor MG for getting older (and she says less popular, well, it could be the albatross called Fletcher they wrote her with) when Kimmer, as attractive as she is, was not the hot young thing that jumped in the fountain ten years before... It's so telling that the Brent/Marion storyline was one of her faves of all her storylines and she couldn't wait to see it onscreen (as it was so dark.) I do say that the storyline was really good (despite the fact the Lucy was the center of it but what were you going to do with the actress or the character..) and you can tell that everything else on GL was an afterthought for her..even Reva's return was second string and sloppily done..and after Brent was caught, the show lost all energy and McTavish was spinning her wheels after she shot her load. She did have respect for the Brent actor as she did not dish the whole story of his breakdown as she was outing people right and left. I think her material started in July or August of 95. I know Laibson announced Kimmer's return when they were filming the Bauer BBQ so McTavish was onsite at that time. Whatever happened to Douglas Anderson, who you know JFP picked so she could walk over him.

I didn't read that part? Carol went to SOD to ask Megan for a storyline (in all fairness, Nadine's tenure was over, but I wouldnt have killed her, and been happy about it...?)

Ha..I never go over there..now I must!!!! I have always suspected someone here posting over in the Marvelous Midwestern Threads.

The infamous Datalounge posted a link to what seems to be a rough draft of Megan McTavish book on being a soap writer. Its mostly AMC (oh does she call Lucci out and sorta outs Geary from GH...) but there is a section on GL, mostly about Laibson and Garret's issues (while also outing Maureen, but I think MG has been out for a while now.) McTavish seems..quite the character herself!

Yea...I still don't get how an actor, writer, director..someone on the set didn't say, "They met when he came back to town, it was on screen, the audience saw that..." (its like Whoopi Goldberg in Soap Dish..."He was decapitated...I looked it up..he DOESNT HAVE A HEAD!") but maybe they did and as you say, they didn't give a crap it was someone's bright idea that they did and they said "Screw it, those dummies will eat this up as long as we show Mike showing his abs in the next scene." It kind of like Amanda is Bradon's kid...which COULD have worked if they actaully watched the video and read the scripts back then (Jane Marie Stafford was her name at the time she gave birth and they said in a million times so it would be on the birth certificate) so a potentially good storyline ( Alex protecting Alan from the truth back fired and made them enemies again, Amanda the feral child of Brandon being the outsider in the family, not a kid of Alans' but totally cut off from the sibling dynamic Alan and Alex have, even when they are at each other's throats) was ruined from a write and producers laziness. Well all of them were miscast..Lizzie should not have been a cheap Paris Hilton knock off, but the last actress, who seemed more like Mindy's illegitmate kid then a child born of the angsty Phillip and Mindy, and who killed a man to protect her mother...

James is so interesting as a villain..he came on under the Dobsons as this fantasy prince until he was unmasked for what he was, but even having the affair with Margo didnt put him into the cartoon super villain hold...it was when the Dobs were fired first and the strike hit and they made James run over John, (which is stupid, he wouldve jsut dumped Margo if John was a pain) and then the stupid drug ring. When the Dobsons came back they doubled down on him being a cartoon villain and the dye was cast. When Marland first brought him back he was more brutish and a bit scary, and you can see why Lucinda had a sick hots for him. I loved the scene where James is in the Hughes kitchen and he tells Paul, "Son I want you to have these values" as tries to b.s. his way back into good graces...but he has a hold on Paul's neck as he does it and Nancy gives him the side eye that she is not buying it. Later runs dumped that (even as he ordered murders) which was too bad, Herrar hit his stride as this brutal guy who had a veneer of aristocracy to him. (which made sense James was raised as a Stenbeck but was really a bad seed changeling.) If they insisted on bringing him back, each time he should have been more and more insane..where you could see his mental deterioration each time..instead of the cartoon villain who never changes. Roger is anther character that went thorugh so many changes..but for the better until McTrash tried to revert him to being just a sociopath. John, was never a villain..he was a very complicated, selfish, but loving guy who always felt the victim against the "Hughes/Steward axis " as he said before.

I couldn't stand Bruno...Wheeler had a habit of hiring these sweet young things like Bruno, the woman who is on BTG's now (lets hope she got better) and the Lizzie actress (who I thought was good but totally miscast as Lizzie...who should have beena bit more intense and darker) Bruno was so damn sweet that it made my teeth hurt, plus, we didnt need another Cooper on screen. I liked her as Dollar gave her a sarcastic teen vibe, and the good ole, blue collar girl trying to get ahead (I wanted a scene where she finds the N.R. loves K.N. carve in the wall in Nola's bedroom..."It looks like the girl who lived her wanted to get out too") but then Bruno made her this sweet young thing who vied with Harley in giving all the men in town the hots.

Your're right, he can play an easygoing guy or someone more instense..that is probably why I think he would have made a good Rick..a nice sweet guy but has some of his dad's issues. And of course his appearance as the gay boxer in Oz..and his quote on what he likes do and how he does it well... LOL..and they think the dialouge on soaps is bad..but at least that was hot.

Then you werent around on the forums when GL was pushing them as a supposed super couple..the fans were referring to them as LAM and we referred to them as LAME. I remember people would be posting, "Ohhh, there is a five minute love scene with LAM." which I thought was so weird, who tunes into a show to just watch their favorites in a five minute fake love scene? Oh weel I think probably that sweet young thing the Marah actress he married is keeping him close at home...she knows full well he can't keep it in his pants! I like Bogue, and thought he was sexy...but yea, I just thought he was another character, which he could have been. I thought he worked well with Gina but they paired them too late. In a far fetched world, I could see him as a recast of Rick Bauer...wholesome, with a wry sense of humor (and kinda sorta resembles Simon) but not mugging or a simp like MOL played him.

Totally agree..it was like Babs on ATWT,,I don't care how many time Marland trotted out his rules...her turn to bitch was on a dime, but well worth it to cause trouble in the Hughes family. Julie was cheaper entertainment, as she was not part to the core and you didn't have an investment into her rivals like you did Babs vs Margo, but it was just as much fun seeing her hate on Lucy, cause who the hell didn't..and cause trouble with uh "Nero divergent" Frank!

I agree..my favorite example of this was Deas...one of the veteran directors told him to "tone it down," (obviously after JFP left that anyone could tell her overacting favorite something..) and he got p*ssed and just went through the paces. The funny thing is, Buzzard was more enjoyable then so Deas needed the direction! I also remember when Simon returned in 2000..Ed was a war prisoner so there his attitude made more sense..Taggert was using him properly as a Judge Lowell kind of listeing person, and Zimmer was having a scene with him. It started off with Kimmer's little tricks for attention and the more the scene went on the more she toned it down to meet him and viola..Reva became more real (and tolerable.) and they had a good scene.

Why did his later years on GL turn Ed into a sourpuss? I can see why they thought he woudl work as Ed looking at this clip...and I remember him having a sense of humor in his early GL days, was it later on he just hated the material and it showed?

I loved orginal recipe HB, who was a complicated man at a loss on how to deal with his kids without their mother. He was a total a**hole sometimes and was mean to Josh, and vied with Billy on hating/lusting after Reva. The family was much more complicated and interesting then, (Mindy HATED Reva, Reva wasn't much inclined to like Mindy, Van was a wild woman who Billy was turned on by, until she became a boring housefrau) and I have no idea if it was Jeff Ryder or who, but they became cartoon and buffonish while being the main family in town NO ONE could beat. I get why turned HB into the sage patriarch (I am sure he was headed that way and Bert would have been the catalyst) as there was no older person to take the mantel..Henry was...Henry. The problem was, HB was more fun as a crotchey old codger and he was fixated on the Lewis family (like Sarah was with Reva) and could not be that community center the show needed. Julie was just an out and out biotch, while Bridget was a bad girl with a heart that we were supposed to root for (there was no rooting for Julie, even though I loved her nastiness.) Julie seemed the prototype for Dinah, but we were supposed to feel for Dinah, and well, you just couldnt.

I read the book, "Unscripted, the Epic Battle for a Media Empire..(yadayada) having no idea that good ole J No Dot would be a supporting character. He probably thinks its a badge of honor! Speaking of, the GL writers could have used a book like that to maybe give them an outline of a real family fight over a corporation...instead of, the, "Oh, Alan Michael, you have drawn up papers to own all of Spaudling..." or, "Let's vote for Harley Cooper as CEO, sure, she totally unfit for the role with no experience...but gosh darn it she is good gal!" Long was planning it. There was a scene where H.B. goes to talk to Bert, but she is out of town(Charita's illness) and he ends up talking to Maureen about his family and his estranged kids, that you could tell was written for he and Bert. When H.B. first came to town he wasnt the jolly Santa/Col Sanders figure..he was a bit more edgy and earthy and world weary...it wasnt until later that we got the "YeeeeHaww," everytime he came into a room.