Mitch64

I always thought it should have been Matt and Blake who slept together and he should have been the baby daddy (no twins please...) Amanda should have been manipulating Blake into once again feeling vulnerable when Ross and Van put their heads together about Dinah (I would have them exclude both of their partners as they both couldn't stand her...) knowing full well Blake is going to be Blake and screw up...and Matt should have felt the same way and over his head with his sophisticated rich wife. I actually would have had Van not wanting to get married to Matt and fine with the arrangement as is, not wanting to complicate things (can one soap character not want to rush to the altar for once...) So much to use and it wasn't.

Agreed...and I they did try to make it more GH with a bit more sci-fi going on....I did not like Chris at all but love the Van Dein's and the Isis building...they kept all the vets front and center so it's not like it became Teen Central.

I do have to say that would have made the most sense...I know that she had her fans, but I think at the end the Hope actress really did not have that much chemistry or romantic heroine vibes anymore. I do think that when Alan came back that they should have had recast Hope with Ross...(I would have had her come back to SF for Bert's funeral...and inherit Grandma's house and Ross is her lawyer...) would have been more interesting then Ross with...Calla and stuck in the Jesse/Simon orbit. A Alan/Hope/Ross/Vanessa (who also would be hedging her bets with Alan would have been so much more interesting then what we got.

I just think post hating Reva, and Clark's return...Billy is written as way too buffoonish...something that Van would have avoided..when Billy is first intro..and he has a lust/hate thing with Reva and is clearly in contrast to SF's elites at that time, he is really good and you can see Van being attracted against her will to him. But when the push up the good ole boy, Reva Supporting guy, it falls apart. I also think after they got married Van turned into a wimp which took all the zest out of them...(I could see them as GL's Alan and Monica...loving each other but fighting and bickering to the end...) and really since that time Van was overly soft with him.

During that stupid time that Van is sighing her way to death in Switzerland, (complete with Sound of Music Nuns signing in the background...)when Roger found out she was alive and tells her his intentions (which were always vague...marry Amanda and take over Spaulding...okay) was the perfect time for her to get her business groove back on....especially when Rog tells her that Amanda is Brandon's daughter. That would have pissed her off enough to make sure her family's future is set, and knowing that placid Maaaatttttttt has no brains..she uses her computer (instead of a dumb poetry chat room) to buy up stock and make it look like Roger or someone else is making a move on Spaulding, (maybe even anonymously spilling the beans on Amanda (Roger thinking she is dying admits to Van its all a scam...) to Holly so it hits the press and stocks drop allowing her to gobble more up know they will return..when she returns she sees Alan being dragged by the nose by his trophy girlfriend and Amanda and Phillip fighting for power so she comes in and scoops it all out...(Alan can eventually threaten insider trading charges to Van to recover what he can..) Matt freaks out at this new woman and they split up (I would eventually have her and Ross be end game...NOT with Billy.)

When they first brought Brian on (interestingly, Brian was going to be Lisa's love interest..not Whit the Wig...I think they were going to do a triangle...) he was played by another actor and he was the opposite of Deas Tom Hughes...he was uptight and super ambitious and more then ready to use his dad's clout and money to get ahead..then they recast and made him boring. I would say this was one case of knowing an actor's private life which colors my perception of what he plays, but he was a sleaze on GL (screwing a mother and daughter to get their money) I think on AW too, and then on GL again playing another character during the illfated Conwest era.

Love that time on ATWT...Lisa in the middle of a family with hyper dramatic problems. I never liked Brian but really have never gotten the actor's appeal..he always comes off..sleazy and boring at the same time to me. I can't believe they never brought Diana back..or even a recast Kurt..for Lisa to fuss over.

So there was a Chamberline Corp? I would think this would have given Van enough incentive to take on the Spauldings then sitting at Lewis Oil, obsessing over Peter, taking back a big drunk like Billy, or sighing over Matt. After Van comes "back from the dead"instead of wanting a midlife baby with her bore of a husband...she should have gone back to Spaulding and tangled with Amanda and Annie ( I would have loved to see Van's icy reactions to Annie's historonics and threats...)

I remember them calling him "Dr. Bod" as opposed to Dr. Bob..but Denise has a great body herself and a great sexual energy..I wish she stayed around longer. She would have been great as one of the black Spauldings on GL.

Van and Henry were from Chicago, as the Spauldings originally were. It was rewritten during Long that the Spauldings were always in SF as Henry was. I can accept that the Spauldings had their mansion in SF and a place in Chicago where the corporate headquaters were. After Vans first go around with Billy, I don't think she would have gotten involved again with him...I think her only real love was Ross.

The show was really good at that time...and then they let Sheffer have free rein and ..it wasn't. I gotta say, Ben and Denise are hot.

I found Granger more believable when he was playing Earl as a flamboyant uncle to Shannon (to hide his stupid Interpol career) The only reason Early existed is because Fulton was bitching about a love interest..(why do I like Lisa best when she is on her own and just happily meddling in everyone's business..) and the producer wanted to give his lover a job. The Interpol thing was stupid from the get go.but I could have bought it better if Earl was a closet queen who marries Lisa for her money (and he genuinely likes to spend time with an eccentric diva...) She finds out, drama ensues, kicks him to the curb..then remembers that they had a great time ("I should have known when my husband was bitchier than me!") and they become friends..and introduces her to a new man...I would say Ambrose (annoying Lucy to no end) and it would be a nice change from soaps/TVs insistence that all gay men finding love are hot young guys in their 20s.

I agree on this...I think Quola as they were called were one of the first crazy fan bases! I think saddling Nola with two kids was wrong at the start, but they could have saved it by having her constantly pushing the kids on Bea, and she would be the one pushing Annabelle into the investigation of the Cottage and then it was Quint who gets blown up and not Hillary. They had the chance to save it when she returned, I would have had it that Quint was missing during a dig and Nola comes back a rich widow. I get why Rauch wrote Quint off but they should have given them an ending (Quint wants to go back to his digs, Nola wants to stay in the states and have her own life for a change) and of course, not make Nola a depressed sap.

Long actually did write the Reardons better then Marland, under her pen the Reardon's were specifically said to be Catholic (under Marland they went to a minister..which made no sense..) and they had a warm, feisty dynamic that Long writes so well...(Beth tells Lillian when she is estranged from her over Bradley that the Reardon's are the kind of family she would like to be in..."I mean, they argue and fight all the time but its not like at our house..angry and mean..." I also remember when Roxie was taken off to the nut house, Chelsea is astounded that the Shaynes aren't together that night, she mentions her family would be and Mindy agrees her family would too, and Rusty and Phillip look like the thought hadn't crossed their minds.) that is why it is weird that she did write them off one by one and never made an attempt to rebuild them ( when she came back Lawson was back as Bea on recurring, and then she just disappeared...) Maybe she gave the Lewis' family that warm boisterousness and saw no need for another family like that?

That would have been good and you know Kimmer would have loved it. It was always weird...she washes up on San Crud (from the Keyes??) and has amnesia, then gets a bump on the head and has amnesia again but somehow is able to function enough to get to Goshen....why was Reva constantly wiping out her memory?

Wow, I'm suprised Lisa is there...didn't they always have Lisa ragging on Carly? W

I think she didn't like the couple (I am there with her on that one) but the fanbase of fraus was so vocal, and they thought they would get a ratings bump and they went through with it, but I think that would have been the perfect time to reveal his himbo past and to split them up...(actually I would have had Matt and Blake be the ones to screw opening up a Van/Ross repairing, who should have been out tentpoles..and would have no doubt a tasteful wedding. )

I always felt they should have killed off Alan YEARS before.. I would have had Annie's last rampage..real CW version..be that Alan gets shot by accident...(kind of like they did with Dinah/Hart) or better..Annie IS married to Alan, Alex comes back to keep watch, Alan begins to see the light and Annie slowly poisons' Alan, to manipulate him into signing things over , goes to far and kills him and that sets the manhunt final days of Annie is SF.) Alan was boring and doing the same crap over and over and it was time to Phillip/Amanda/AM to duke it out over Spaulding. Seeing Phillip who railed against his father for years, be put in the position of making tough choices would have been more interesting then mooning over Harley or Beth. It was a great era.

Reva from her first appearance had guy platonic friends....that hair dresser she worked with (gay coded) played by the guy who was icky Brad on ATWT, but fun here, before he disappeared...Phillip, Fletcher (the only time I liked Fletch was when he was palling around with Reva)Johnny. They dumped all that when Rauch had to make Reva/Kimmer the middle aged sex goddess all men were spell bound iwth. I was in college when they broke them up and remember then being annoyed and loosing interest that they took them out of college and relatable kinds of things, to having Phillip at Spaulding seeming about 40 now, Mindy a model, Beth..whatever she was..Rick in "Accelerated Med School," I can't believe they threw all that away. I said this before but my Poly-Sci professor looked like Ross. Me and the girl who lived a couple floors above me would RUN to class and try to get in the front row..I knew why I was doing it but one day she said..."Doesn't he look just like Ross Marler!!!" Yea, now get out of the front center seat cause I'm trying to go all Blake on him!

Ha..I never thought of Jeva being perpetual teenagers...and your right! Maybe that's why a certain segment of the audience (who I would term brain dead but..)was gaga over them the second time around, and why TPTB kept pushing them over other vets..they act like the silly younger characters they wrote for while also saying they used "older" characters. I will say Taggert tried to change that dynamic by having them grow up a bit during the Richard gets the plug pulled storyline. Reva told Josh the truth and he stood by her. I know they got rid of that new found growth during the cancer storyline (Reva hiding the truth and Josh jumping on a new woman to hurt her...) but it was nice while it lasted and I think Zimmer and Newman played it well.

Actually, its Megan McTavish fault for writing that godawful mess...where everyone ended up with diarrhea and nauseous, which is what the audience felt watching her mess of a show.

He didn't care about their opinions...but he sure would like to take the air out of his old enemies Alan and Ed! I hate when they try to paint both Roger and Holly and Jeva as "Twu Wuv" ...true passion that is going to blow up and hurt the people around them...yes. I also hated that they had Amanda, who seemed amoral to the core, pine over him. It would have been much better if these two people were using each other for their own ends, and they both know the other would betray them in a second and it turns them on.

I like it, but they would need Roger to have a final f*ck you to Springfield...and they would need someone to come in and fill out some of Zaz material when he wasn't well or if he passed suddenly. That would be a mysterious guy doing Rog's errands (kind of like Seb only better) maybe being an activist shareholder at Spaulding, inciting a revolt over all the shady Spaulding crap going on over the years. Only, Roger would say it was his son, but the guy would believe he was really Alan's kid with Roger, getting revenge on his father, but it would end up being Ed's kid..therefore Rog gets the last laugh on his two enemies. Very true!!! I was watching some of those scenes..after Rauch is there Matt trades his jeans in for a jacket and tie, which makes no sense, and he sits around with Josh drinking coffee and bitching about Annie..like two old hens. I think Sloan is having a splendid life period. She is rich, she still looks great, she was doing a job she liked for fun, she is writing books (how well I don't know..) I think it's nice as it looks like she and Beth C are still close.

Hey...don't get me wrong... I LOVE Holly and MG but TPTB at the end didn't and she disappeared for long periods of time..I would have always had her present, even if she was not on contract. I HATED her with Fletch...and as I wrote before, he would have been Brent/Marion's victim, NOT Nadine...(I would have just had her leave town..) Brent pins the evidence on Roger, Alex and Alan bribe the D.A. to prosecute on flimsy evidence...everyone else in town feels he did it except Blake..putting a wall between she and Ross, Holly at first things he did it and is out for blood, etc. I would have had the story veer from Lucy being at the center to Brent turning his attention to Roger and Holly, who together, but separately are trying to find out the truth..maybe he kidnaps Lucy, while setting a trap for Roger and Holly. After that she would be freed up to get with Ed again, who actually makes his peace that Roger will always be in the back of her mind. That would have given MG things to do when Zaz gets sick...(and how interesting to have Holly married to Ed but secretly caring for Roger..) Anyway, I did love the Stalker Storyline...Holly was smart, acerbic and sexy running around in her leather...the one thing to ruin it was Reva saving the day.

Frankie D is the luckiest "non actor" on earth, though I am convinced at the very end he was paying THEM to keep him on. I did read somewhere that he and Sloane were very cheap to keep around...Sloan as she has a rich husband and just liked doing it and Frank as well, what other show would hire after he quickly aged out of hunk status? I do think that Lilian was needed as a nurse and Frank was fine as supporting post Melina but just that. I think MOL post Abby was the same, keep him around as the town doctor but no need to create a love story for him. It's too bad as I do think that Rick and Abby had it in them to be the tent pole couple but after she left...he was adrift. I think shows do need these supporting actors...in addition to the above, Buzz could work in support (Deas was actually good with the young inexperience actors) doling out coffee (but yes, I would have just wrote he and Jenna off happy if instead of killing him) at the diner, Nola or Bridget tending bar at Company ( I still think Nola as the eccentric but supportive land lady like Mrs. Madrigal, Brown was also good with the young actors...) Doris was good as the disreputable DA but again, only when needed, (no need to give her a daughter or a story) I would even throw Holly in there, as the ironic no nonsense media queen,) those kinds of characters make a show seem more real and familiar and its nice to get a break from the hyper drama affecting everyone else in town.