Mitch64

I think the JC time was that Rauch met her...and talked her into it to go out in a big bang (he was heading for retirement...) The push was to get GL to be "GL again" (i.e. island gone, stepping back from the mob) so it made sense to bring in this star to play a iconic character, but I don't think they thought it out more then that. I think once the ratings didnt' pop and once Rauch left (he knew how to handle a dive like JC) both sides were like, okay were out. And then we were subjected to the return of Marj and CRAZY ass writing which ruined Alex. The only storyline they had was that Gus was going to be Rita's son...which they changed to that weird nun thing with Conwest

I actually think that this COULD have been a good idea (wasnt Roger sterile after that...) as so many of Roger's issues were with his own father. Take also into account that Roger always had pissing contests with other men, and he had to ALWAYS try and be the alpha, that sometimes men put their daughters on a pedestal and are harder on their sons, it could have been good.

Not to mention, the ability to raise 7 Irish kids after her husband disappeared and converted her house to make end's meet. Originally Marland wrote her tougher, but it was more stepping on Nola's dreams, and Long got wrote her as the loving non judgemental mom... I wish they brought her back as a combo of both..a tough woman who was everyone's mom down inside. She looks so much like MH it is scary, I wish they brought her back for a guest appearances just to see them together.

It would have been great if she was played by the Drew actress...I mean did we need another character not connected to anyone (who we know down the line will be as Drews convoluted story) who is tied to yet another "record producer" storyline (they should have learned after Sampson Records or whatever.) Blanchard looks similar to Brown, and she had that nervous energy Lisa had when she was younger. Plus, in an interview Brown was talking about how talented TB was but seemed to imply she was a handful, which was a perfect daughter for Nola, who then could commiserate with Van about their pain in the ass daughters.

Oh...no more Coopers! They could have brought Stacey Chaberline back..since she is only a year or two older then Chelle, and Bill, and they had Nola back, and she is not Bill's bio cousin (like J. NoDot is not Chelles bio cousing, but someone that still skeeved me out.) But you're right, Bridget does have siblings off camera so a sister can be brought in.

The show was so obsessed with Jeva that everyone else is an afterthought. They are clearing the decks for Reva's next GREAT story, SanCrud, and building newbies around her. Both Alex and India disappear and we are told they are "traveling Europe" together, which makes no sense. Plus Rauch supposedly said MKA was a "dog"

Ha...I think you're talking to me! I think even intense actors need to play lightness and humor, which Malloy seems to have lost in the middle of his Edge run...I could never see what Raven or Reva (who admittedly was into controlling men) would see in him...I can't even imagine watching he and Lucci (with her very stylized acting) together. I thought he was hot as FauxSky for some reason! I always thought a good recast of Kyle would be Roscoe Born, who always just looked sex on a stick to me!

When I was a kid my Mom was watching so in the summer we would see the Dobson's GL waiting for "Match Game" to come one ("on most of these CBS stations.") So that was the GL I knew and "Fat ED' was my Ed (who I still think is a DILF.. PS..not so much!_ I became a regular watcher in high school with Nola's antics, though I thought the rest of Marlands GL was pretty dry. I LOVED early Long/Ryder and still think that was the perfect GL.. there was a mix of families that all got equal time with the Bauers being the center. Reva and KZ was fresh and brought a sense of sexiness and fun, the Lewis were great in first incarnation (H.B. was a total scoundrel, Billy was a force) but they didn't take over the show. Alex was introduced,(the Alex I will always think of being THE Alex, sophisticated, strong, sly, and could be your best friend or your worst enemy..not the son obsessed Alex of the Nick era, or the shrieking shrew of the Marj era) the 4 Ms..etc. Fall of 84 it all fell apart and the show was crap with the recastings, the obscuration of the Bauers, the influx of the Sampson Industry people, the Lewis domination of the show and Van became a sad sack hausfrau. I also like Long's second run, first half of JFP, and thought Taggert/Culliton was damn good!

Not his fault, he just wasn't GA's Phillip..he should have been someone Alex brought in to run the company who...I don't know, had actual business experience. He could have still been at odds with Simon (Alex looks so stupid here if she thinks this Flock of Seagulls guy could be Brandon,the Root of All Evil's son. But he was doomed to fail just because of the writing. He had WAY more chemistry with MKA than he did with JE, and they never had him in scenes with MOL, so who knows there. His Phillip spent time writing that stupid novel and it just looked crazy that India (who was madly in love with Phillip) or Beth would even consider Simon or Jackson before him. He just tutted Alex constantly and his Phillip was just there. Ha.. I remember watching the reveal at the Student Center TV lounge and everyone in hysterics...Didnt dumb Jessie go running out into a field or something when she found out? May you rot in soap opera hell for digging that up! : )

Kurt was cute...he was fantasy boyfriend material for girls and gay boys at that time, but he really was just a hunkified Rick, with no history or ties to anyone on the canvas. Mindy hadn't even been on that long..but it also was weird...the Four M's were college students one day, and then the next Phillip is being played by a handsome guy who looked about 35 years old who is suddenly shirking his "executive responsiblities" to play polo... Rick is in Med School, Beth has a career...doing "something" at Sampson and Mindy is getting a princess wedding, to a guy who basically fits the Prince Charming suit. They must have thought it filled a fantasy for the young demo, but having them as college students having young people storylines(however dramatic those were) made them more relatable. Even being a Shayne, Roxie was more relatable..she was working at Company and going to school and trying to make her way in life.

I always thought at the time Wheeler took over and recast Marina with that simpering cutie girl, that we didn't need another Cooper and they should have brought Sam back as a lawyer. With Dinah back they could have been "sisters" and of course, Dinah would be jealous of the hardworking Sam. Of course at this time I would have made the Marlers the core family (Coopers were never meant to be core, sorry Hurst and the Bauers were un savable at this point) as JVD earned the right to be the patriarch of the show. "When Jordan returns in '97-ish, he's more of the support character. He's there when family needs him. I caught some silly scene when he's helping Bill break out Olivia from a nut hut or something, which is kind of funny...but a little sad, knowing he used to be a force to be reckoned with. As much as Zaslow or Deas were always lauded for their work, Jordan deserved lead emmy consideration for his work as well. He won a supporting actor emmy around '06-'07, which was long overdue, imo." Jordan we know had his issues, even Maeve had a hard time working with him...I think he was just glad to have a job, and for once GL did the right thing by keeping him around (with an out for them.) What made Billy great was he was one of those characters, like Nola at a certain time and India in her return, who just liked to stir sh*t up, and did it with a twinkle in his eye. You need those kind of characters, not bad, not self righteously good, who just liked to throw a wrench into something out and watch everyone scarmble. I think that is why he worked so well with self controlled Van, he needed her to keep him centered and she needed him to remove the stick that sometimes got up her ass.

LOL!..."What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?" Im surprised McTavish would have loved that and you know Maeve and Lisa would have gotten into it!

I love your backstory!!! You KNOW Nadine Feeney (I am making that name up but she reminds me of my friends Irish mom straight out of Ireland who thought it was very American to be "flashy" like Nadine...) was smoking in the girls room and broke bad on those "mean Reardons....I mean they act like they are saints, but are trash..their mom takes in strangers to live with them, cause their dad ran off with, I heard Mary Beth McCarthy..you know, she's a dancer over there at the Pink Fox Lounge..yes,THAT place..can you believe it??" So agree, Nadine was an Irish girl dying her hair and being swept off her feet with the little weird greek guy who parents hated!

The Now Voyager one was partly in response to Bette Davis being a GL fan and particularly a Lisa Brown fan...I think she wrote in..."You got IT!" to Brown. I am glad they dropped the Nola fantasies as only Marland did them well. The one where she is dancing with Buzz...WTF??? An occasional one done correctly, with the mentioned above "The Women," one would be good. I just wanted one of Nola writing her life novel and imagining various people in it (no we dont' need to go into the bad Phillip writes a book storyline.) Simply a scene of her imagining her and Van's younger selves..just to get Van in that big hair, shoulder pads and hat phase again..being a cold b*tch!) Yes, everything went wrong and Nola had to " save the day." Matt's suit was missing, Van's dress blew out of Bill's car, Nola had to trick Alex into agreeing to let them use the Spaulding conservatory, (actually a dumb but funny scene when she got Hawk to drop a lawsuit on Alex by tripping him and he dumped something on her expensive clothes so she was going to sue him in return..Bev Alex would have froze Hawk by sight but MarjAlex and Hawk where funny) Bad part, it led to Jay Hammer trying to be funny as he shared a room with Roger and had the shits.) It was kind of weird as Nola was against Van and Matt (yes Nola) so they should have had a scene where she finally gives in. I never liked Nadine but they ruined her by stranding her on 5th Street and mooning over Buzz. Someone mentioned it but it is weird that the Reardons and the Coopers didn't know each other at all. You would think people on 5th street would know the BH and 7th street people would stop in at the Meals on Wheels. Nadine and Mo were supposed to be close in age.

You mean he didnt want to have scenes where his romantic rival was an angel??? ; ) That was the original idea, that the Angel would be looking out for Lucy and then Hearst decided to leave, right?

That would have been smart for Amanda to hire Blake at Spaulding again to drive a wedge between her and Ross. All I remember Blake doing at that time was hanging out at Company and the diner. I also think that if they had given Hearst a storyline instead of mooning over Lucy he might have stayed. Giving his ambition back and making him more like Alan would a wedge between he and the Lucy just like what happened between he and his parents.

Agreed, he would make a perfect Alan Spaudling at this age. Its too bad he was wasted on Lucy Cooper and they couldnt give him shades of of grey in his character at that time.

Yes, but I don't think they ever really interacted. There is a scene at Company where Nola is trying to get Alex to let Van use the Spaudling green house for the wedding, and Elenit and Nadine tallk something about if anyone can talk their way into something its Nola, (like they some who interacted but we never saw it). Missed op as Nola and Nadine could have been a soap opera AbFab, scheming and getting into trouble.

I disagree to a point. I think Bridget could have grown into the role..she was young but she was taking care of a kid and really two businesses, and she had a warmth and toughness for the role. I think Bridget always wanted what Mo provided and what her grandmother had done, a stable family life amid turmoil. Nola had her years out in the world, and she didnt really want to leave Springfield originally. I would have her be angry at Quint for the years that she had to live in tents away from the safety net of her family. They could have written it that they were on a dig in a remote hell hole when Mo died and Nola didn't find out until they came back to civilization. So it's really Nola that had an affair out of anger, and Quint being Quint would tell Henry and Van that he was the one who did it to save Nola embarrassment. She would be a writer and she finally gets a book deal (I would make it a meta tell all "Boardinghouse Blues" on SF as Nola of course the heroine...Morgan would be the bad girl, her prince's sister woudl be a royal bitch as Van was then and a certain woman had the habit of screwing everyman in one family and jumps in fountains.) and comes to SF to promote it. She actually like having a home base and family around her, so she stays and becomes a Mrs. Madrigal (well, without the surprise) to the young people coming in and out. I think Bridgets practical and harder edge outlook would contrast with Nola's still starry eyed outlook of telling people to run for their dreams. Of course, I would have gone with your idea of bringing in Lana Reardon and having her be one of Alan's millionth lost loves. I like the version of her being a hippy, protestor free love kind of gal (the free love part itself would curl Bea's rosary beads) and she could be the earth mother of Springfield.

His face is totally pulled back..really dumb as he is not that old and he is a good looking guy who would have matured well. But once a soap opera twunk, its hard to give up so always one I guess but..but he looks weird. Speaking of work, Irizzary never seems to age and if he had work, it's damn good.

Especially since they could havce done a storyline where Matt wanted to have a kid, but Van didn't (does any woman on a soap every not have baby fever no matter their age) and then Ross wants to have another kid and Blake doesn't. Matt knocks her up and Ross is thrilled that he gets a to raise a kid himself so that adds to Blake lying, etc.

Never understood that either..the BH was a place to introduce new younger characters to the show and audience and Irish Mom Bea would have been perfect (though during the Holly/Ed thing I wanted Mo to move out and take over the BH and tell purse lipped Ed to stuff it.) I do wish they had brought Meta back earlier (someone mentioned brining in MS right after Search ended) and she could have taken over the BH as a favor to Mo while her Mom was apparently endlessly baby sitting Tony and Annabelles kid. I am a fan of Svengoolie and he just did an interview with "horror icons" Joe Dante and Barbara Crampton and she looks GREAT. And yes, Kyle makes more sense then Alan to prop Reva...but the role did not hinge on Malloy (who I never found interesting since the early days of his Edge run) they could have recast him and at that time, Kimmer really did have chemistry with a lot of guys.

I know that actors have egos but really, you can't expect to be the "winner" all the time, your an actor, play it. The actor was a very complicated person, and I always felt he just made Kyle seem..unpleasant, he was always going to loose no matter what.

I was surprised that GL was in cancel territory when Laibson came on board. I do know that it was under SERIOUS consideration in the Summer of 96 when the ratings dropped below AW. Rauch was brought in to save it but the real reason GL limped on is that the Bell soap never saw the light of day. I do like that the writers asked why TPTB let JFP run havoc over GL. But also why McLaiby kept the focus on Buzz and the Coopers for so long leading into the terrible "Save 5th Street" storyline with Deas waving his arms and yelling day in and day out. Why not just get writers in to make GL..GL again instead of going for a costly new production which will be a shot in the dark. GL was a brand name..so fix it. One wise things that JFP did was to refuse to bring back Reva on a permanent basis. But Kim got her fans in a frenzy and I can see why McLaiby would bring her back and have Brent/Marion...as one soap columnist said, "To bang the drum loudly."

That was unfortunately never played during Rauch, who cast her as a soccer mom louder Kim Hughes. This was done to make Annie EVIL, but those kids should have been more attached to Annie, and wondering why they can't see her and why everyone gets weird when Reva and Annie are together. I never liked that sacchraney sweet Marah as she was all MommieAnnie one day and then screeching when Annie approached her. Now if she was a manipulative little witch playing both sides I could get into it. As they got older I thought both kids should be annoyed and embarrassed by Reva and always go to their dad. Kim actually COULD play subtex and the at should have been her enduring sadness that she could not connect to those twoas she would like(which is being the center of attention at all times.)