Mitch64

He sucks at interviewing...just as someone is about to get to an interesting point, he jumps in with an inane comment, and its not even like he is trying to stop them from besmirching his old bosses, he just does it..he is the Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore of today....(shows you how old I am) just like him they got great guests but blew it on just talking about crap (at least Alan doesn't sing "That Old Black Magic" or something from the "Fantasticks") I liked Katie too...and never understood the animosity...but granted, I didn't watch much in my last ten years, and I thought she was more fun as a schemer my favorite line "Henry, you just walked into my Henry Free Zone, now get out of it" I just watched Clue a couple of weeks ago and liked it! Lily was beyond annoying as the teenage princess of Oakdale....some old friends of mine still say when something happens "But what will Lily feel about this..did anyone tell Lily..did they check in on her?" That was all Marland as I was okay with her after he was gone...kind of the same way I was with Reva...she was annoying as hell but I was used to her. Well, who was looking at poor Steven when there was big brother Tim Daley to look at!

Poor things looks like she had spent a few years in a Montegan cell! Seriously, that is sad.

Lord..she was terrible on ATWT (though a lot of people liked her..) I would dread her scenes of sloowww talking and then spitting everything out..if she had a scene with Lily talking about Lily's problems the world "literally" stopped..uggh. However, I have to say that Tremors is a cult classic and is actually good, it is in on the joke without being super campy and Carter is also actually good in it..as her character is no damsel in distress.

Working from home today and at lunch flipping through the channels and Blue Bloods was on (hey, I'm an old man who watches old man shows...I draw the line at Matlock..) and Yvonna Wright...Mel is on the show as a detective and she is really good. Another GL miss(would have been interesting to have a strong black Bauer matriarch) as she is beautiful but forgettable there.

To bring it back around..I think that Rachel and Carl (who I remember as trying to kill her and her family) appealed to the same "demo" that was into Matt and Vanessa...women of a certain age who liked the fantasy..damn if it makes sense or not.

I just thought it was funny that a 40-50 something with an acting style, which is to say the least, an acquired taste, would boast that, thereby putting down the rest of the cast, the wrtiters, production staff, etc. Geez..if our own Kimmer never said that!

They still post about the "Marvelous Midwestern Towns," and someone inevitably talks about VW's interview when she pompously said that the president of NBC told her that the only reason they keep AW on is because of her....ooohhhhkaay Vicky!!!!

I think Irna was trying to do a story where a woman was not that obsessed with being a mom and was ambivalent about giving up her career? I hope they wrote a scene where Lisa comes in and makes over the crib "Oh Grandpa...how WONDERFUL, why I remember when you made one for me when Tom was on his way...oh how I loved that..." (as she turns to smirk to Jennifer.)

The sell out of Chamberlain stock is soon forgotten as Henry and Van are back at Spaulding with no apparent ill will. It was just another move of Long's to push Van totally into the Lewis orbit and sit around and fuss over Billy. Long wrote some of the most interesting strong female characters but then wrote others as simpering wimps....Van and also Trish, who actually has a scene where she breaks off with Ross to concentrate on her family and be just like her Mama, "And take care of the men in my family." H.B. and Billy's schtick got really old when Josh left and Ryder was writing them..I swear every time the Gates walks into a scene he does a "Whooo Hooo" Thankfully Long corrects that on her second time...(though Hawk was a walking cliche who said "Dag NABBIT" every other line, but he was a minor comic character.) Every time I see her name, I think of what they call her on DataLounge..."Lady Eye's A Popping!" which is really accurate.

They were trying the..'Spaulding man going for a society marriage but attracted to a hottie from the wrong side of the tracks." to mirror Brandon and Victoria's mom. The problem was (other then we find out Brandon f*cked anything that moved..I always wanted to a retro write where he and Aunt Meta..got it ON..) that we had Reva in that story with Kyle, and while it sucked (sorry, not a Kyle/Malloy fan..the histrionics, the flaring nostrils, boring Maeve who we could care less about..) we saw it before. And while Van was no Maeve..she shouldn't have been thrown into a role as Reva's Melanie Wilkes...Van would smash her or walk away...(unless, Alan somehow had something to hold over her, so he marries her for a society thing, she goes and bangs Ross behind Company, he suddenly finds that Van is actually a vixen with class, and Reva is exhausting, and he runs after Van, while Reva runs after Alan cause she needs a sugar daddy...) But yea, RR's Alan and Van never act like they had any kind of relationship outside of knowing each other forever. Which is good ( I hate RR's Alan, tho he did have surprising chemistry with Holly, which of course the show forgot to have him..marry Beth..cause we just can't get enough white trash storylines...)

San Crud was supposed to be a summer storyline and as dumb as it was I could have accepted that..(but I remember back in the day, summer meant young storylines, not ones built around a 40 something gal, who, lets face it, who looked just that..what new demo were they going for) .but Rauch wanted to extend it and put all three extra actors on contract...(taking RR off for a while.) Stupid move. Lets have two locations when we barely can afford one. Ross and Van were great together and I am sorry Bloss and Billy/Van fans, they should have been end game. I guess Long and Ryder were trying to create a Billy/Van/Ross/Calla thing here, but really, Calla was such a bore (the only thing I remember about her is her ex..Gordon, cause he gave her "V.D." as we called it in the day. ) And Van..who a year or two earlier was still hell on wheels, as a small town lawyer secretary?

Frank was not my favorite but he wasn't offensive..plus I think at the end HE was paying THEM to stay on. Cole's character WAS offensive and had years to bring the ratings up to no avail..(plus I am sure those idiots were paying him more then Frank and JVD..) so just cut him loose and keep the patriarch.

They had Ross's office up into Wheeler. She had a press thing there where she annointed JVD GL's goodwill ambassador (much like Charita was) good move, until they put him on recurring!

Especially since the aftereffects are part of the reason she left. She was mad that she could not write a romance between Harley and Matt Weiss...but she also wanted to bring Reva back as a ghost at Christmas to comfort Marah. A sane head at CBS said no..for one thing that meant Reva was really dead..and Long got pissed. I guess that sane person left 5 years later when JFP cribbed the storyline to bring Kimmer back, but not really bring her back.

I would never burn Company down...it was the one consistent "location" (which was changed constantly, remember when McLaiby turned it into a "hip" nightclub looking place and Rauch ( in one good decision) turned it back into a restraunt/bar without any comment from any character? Company, the Bauer House, Cedars and the Spauling Mansion were the corner stone locations of GL (though the sets changed through the years, except for the Bauer house) I do love Nola as the nosy Bauer aunt...(GL's Liz Matthews/Lisa Grimaldi combo) and I do like Reva running a roadhouse..burn that freaking diner down (which they finally did for good) and have Reva/Buzz as friends running a dive on the outskirts of town ..though I always wanted Reva/Nola to run up against each other..they should have had Bridget/Dylan marry on screen and have some scene with the "moms" trying to arrange things and getting on each other's nerves. I remember that scene and it was written more of this skeevy old closet case coming on to sweet young Luke...but it was freaking LL who looked great and I watched it and thought "Luke you, dumb ass I would jump on THAT and forget the boring boyfriend."

Ha...I love that description and why I was always drawn more to GL. I do have to say, that theme, and also the more realistic theme of loving your family even as they pissed you off or drove you crazy, carried through from Bauers, Spauldings, the Thorpes, Lewises and the dreaded Coopers. Though I don't think the writers ever realized that was the theme. Well I am sure Ship would have no problem seeing Marty West's butt but they would have to recast Shayne...lord MW was bad...(now Kelly and the last Shayne would have been hot as hell...) I think that this would be the problem with bringing a gay storyline in that had something other then two young guys chastely fall in love like on ATWT...the storyline would be interested but some viewers would use it as an excuse to say that "See, those gays are predators..." even though we have seen that story a million times with straight characters.

While the Bert funeral was going on, Marland was over at ATWT centering the show around the Hughes and history. In an interview at the time, they asked Ryder if he watched other shows for inspiration..he said, "Everyone tells me to watch ATWT and do what they are doing, but you have to go with what you feel is right for the show." So along with Long's comments that people who are mad about the Bauers need to get over it, show that a lot of this is on the writers and not just P& G.

No Jeff Ryder was still headwriter. Its weird in a podcast, when the host was asking Pam Long about the Bauers..she says she didn't dislike them or write them out and she said she couldn't Jeff Ryder wouldnt let her as he loved GL history. Uh, no. I actually liked her 99 return..she actually made RR look good and while they had no sexual chemistry, I never felt that MKA (or RR for that matter) had that with anyone. I really thought she could have taken the place of BevAlex in the Spaulding family, an interesting combo of good and Spaulding ruthless, who took care of the ones she loved and ripped the heart out of her enemies with no remorse. But Rauchie deemed her, "a dog," and that was that.

But Charita always looked "older" then her age. All this discussion made me look up Bert's memorial and what a piece of crap that is. First the lethargy in the whole thing, no one is really seeming to experience any actual sadness. You have Faux Ed, and Rick..who is just sitting and moping by the fireplace (and in a following episode which is supposed to be the exact same day, he is at Company and seeming fine..) You have comments about her but they don't reference anything beyond Long and Kobe as that was the only cast that was there. They made no effort to bring anyone back...no Mike, no Hope, no Meta, no Rick's grandad who was Bert's friend for years. They could have brought in Bea to at least have a reassuring motherly presence, (but no we have Sarah Shayne coming in a short while) and they just have Mike call on the phone, "He was sorry he had to leave after the service, but he couldnt get his court date postponed.." at least say he is in the kitchen with Hope or something...) The pacing in lethargic and there is no warmth or like I said emotion...and they cut away to go to Kyle's house with boring Maeve in her bedroom and Kyle gritting his teeth at Hawk( I really don't like Malloy in this role, he is so stilted and effected and flairs his nostrils constantly) and over at Company with Flock of Segalls boy and Jesse getting into trouble with a stupid bus of tourists (they could have save the extras and maybe payed for Mike to come back...) It really exemplified to me that this was the worst period of GL, bar none...Henry and H.B. had better memorial services and at least Wheeler's dumb experiment..had some warmth and emotion to it. Poor Charita and Bert, they deserved so much better!

I'm getting close to that age..so it seems very young. Charita was playing Mama Bear to the whole town for so long we all thought she was older (and she always looked the same, from the early 70s to right before her surgery...I can imagine if she hadnt gotten sick she would have been one of the people who was unlucky to look older when they were young, but lucky to never age as they got older.

It really was the best of Marland during those years. I don't know if it was Calhoun or generally the show being kind of all over the place when Marland got there, but after Calhoun left the worst of Marland showed itself, depressing stories, stilted conversations, overly seriousness ruled the day...(I still can't believe that Lilith and Shannon's scraggily shrunken head made it in to give the show a break from conversations about "honesty in a relationship" and "What will Lily think of this!" Okay, I did spit my coffee out on that! What DID India see in that boring guy (besides it be plot dictated..) things did take a turn when Alan came back but they didn't really put them together that way...an India/Alan/Hope triangle would have been fun. Agreed, that really hurt the show and was the first nail in the coffin...I would choose Bert over Nancy as my go to grandma any day..she really was GL...sweet, funny, kinda corny, self aware, but could get all up in your face when she had it!

Too much for soaps to do at that time, but it would have been great to have Henry have a late in life coming out..."Vanessa dear...uh...Brandon and I were a bit more then just business partners...while I meant nothing more to him then what the rest of those foolish women he bedded and tossed aside, I was in love. It was destined for failure you see, but now I have met this attractive and interesting young man on a trip and its time to tell you the truth! What, you can have a "boy toy," but I cannot? Nola understood, but she does say she is the neighborhood hag, and I am not quite sure what that means!"

We could have a whole thread on this topic..However, I think that there is an in between...reading and listening to the audience (which I put in a different category then the fans) and parsing out what they want...(meaning, dumping the crazy Jeva/Manny/Mattessa's input...you know they knew who the same people writing in were.) I think they really listened to a really dumbed down portion of the audience "I could watch Pharley everyday having cute scenes, dont ever break them up" which made a dumbed down show.

The problem was when those fans dictate story decisions when they write in en masse to support a certain actor...and when that actor has them on speed dial to whip up a frenzy, as Kimmer was known to do. However, I think the real problem is that the TPTB gave into the Jevas.the Mattessas ,.the Mannys the Brad Coles. Everyone disses Gautman for saying he didnt care what the fan letters say, we needed more people like that (not that I agreed with any choices he made!)

Are you kidding, if someone posts a picture that Zimmer is even in the background...(well, okay, those are few and far between where she didn't push herself in the front and in the middle, speaking of, she would have made a great Desperate Housewives, big boozy new gal on the block..Zimmer would have given them a run for their money on getting press) she automatically says, "I love Kim and Robert..they are family and always will be..." on all the FB GL pages. And Zimmer had a whole group of these...