Mitch64

This was especially true after they killed off Maureen. A Bauer needed to be the tentpole comfort character..and there was no way that Simon could do that. I do think MOL COULD have been placed there when he was older, IF they kept him from doing his "comic" mugging.

Agree, but since MH was the Ed I saw until high school, he is kind of "my Ed." The 70th anniversary show, where they brought back Don Stewart would have been the perfect time to bring him back, and try to keep him there. With the fallout about Rick's paternity of one of Blake's kids, with Ed being stuck in the middle of Rick and Ross, (and his "step daughter" ) and references to Ed finding out Blake was Rogers, the storyline would have more depth to it then the "shock" value it was played. Of course, if we are dreaming, having him in place if they went through with a " Roger has ALS" would have really been interesting. I think Simon had some energy early on...Long played him as a nice guy dad who had some edginess, and he had chemistry with Parker. It was just as the years went on Simon made Ed a cold fish... I know they did try to get MH back but I don't know how hard they tried.

Yes.... I think Toby played older and was supposed to be in her 30s...(I always someone like Alex to comment on Amanda Alex: "Well, California must have been good to you, you havent aged a day," Amanda, "Its the California sun" Alex: "Well, this Dr. Sun does excellent work dear!" They have Amanda refer to Phillip as her "little brother" just so we know. Its kind of like Deas not being that much older then Frankie D, or on ATWT Lyla actress being a few years older then Colin, its just one of those things soap viewers accept.

Maybe its the script writer who seemed to understand Alex...there are some great lines here that are true to her history "I have dealt with far WORSE then YOU!" and "Everytime my brother and I competed I WON!" E &B don't seem to know what to do with Alex, as she just disappears after this (Marj jumped to AMC as she had no filming dates scheduled.) It is too bad as this as this is an Alex which fits Marj's energy(Bev's Alex would cooly insult and threaten Annie) and still fits Alex's history..I will always love "Ya got quite a bark on ya, don't ya honey?" Yes Ed not being there is just dumb...I really don't think the role would be that hard to cast...but the whole thing is dumb...the Santos are members of the Lakeland Country Club and have been all the time but no one know them?

I do think Kimmer was at a bad place here..she knew that Reva was tangential to the story, and that Annie..or the Clone..or the island, whatever. was going to drive it not Reva anymore. She got burned by Hollywood and not getting a good role (which I think she would have been great in a sitcom) and she was in her 40s stuck in a soap..inferior material, but still on everyday and realizing what became of other women over 40s in soap, you are either a mother/grandmother or you are nothing. Funny, she loved Rauch and her worst material was under him, but then, she was on everyday. Kimmer is an actress, with a huge ego..so you think she would allow the camera to not focus on her standing there clapping (plus I am sure she actually was clapping for another actor winning something) and her being..."mean" to younger women goes back years...on the Shayne reunion on the Locher Room Kriste, who has no shits to give or is too ..flaky..now to care...said, "Oh, I know how mean you were to me when I first came on Kim Zimmer" but in a way, where they eventually became friends. I remember interviews during this time when she was complaining that now there were 6 characters during that time that were doing Reva things...(Jenna, Blake, Dinah...who knows who else) so she was grasping for relevance at this time.

Just have one couple who have kids..like almost the rest of us..you know, planning a family. To make Abby all of a sudden, "Oh I don't want kids, my career" is stupid...we all have conflict about our careers and family and it would be interesting to see people who do want to have kinds deal with a messy life like that as we all do. I think this shows that they really wanted to phase out the Bauers for years...Mo couldt have kids? Ed all of a sudden decides he doesn't want to have any more even though he married a woman who as the quote from the "Birdcage"..."is practically a breast!" Then Rick and Abby, who should be the most normal down to earth people on the show, don't have any?

I forgot about her bob!!! I always used to laugh at Reva barging in a room with Josh training behind...holding her purse figuratively. With Alan doing the same for Annie/Faux Annie I think both of them should dump their men and hook up together, as all they do is obsess over each other! Josh and Reva at this point should be becoming bored with each other..Josh should realize that he lost sexpot Reva years ago and is now stuck with this bossy soccer mom..and Reva should be appalled that she IS a boring soccer mom. Annie would have been smart to sit back and let them self destruct as they always do.

Rick and Abby were such a lost opportunity, but all GL could think about Josh and Reva and "shocking"stories. Rick and Abby were poised to be that nice couple that are "normal" and the calm in the storm whose house everyone likes to go and hangout. Especially this phase..just let Abby be pregnant to bring in some new Bauers. This is also the point where Reva gets very annoying and becomes Springfield's biggest Karen! Why does Frank bring Jeva to barge in on the Spaulding party? Why does he let them watch as the safe is searched? I just remember this time with Kimmer in those bad beige pantsuits that Reva would never wear, with a perpetual scowl on her face and yelling. The mob stuff as we said had potential...and Lenz is a great Chelle, but it just starts off (and stays) so stupid. No one in this mob thinks that having a young woman, a doctors daughter and member of a prominent family in this medium sized town, body found with a bullet in her head, would raise any notice and concern? What happened to cutting breaks...setting up a meth addict to shoot Celle, acting like it was a mugging that got out of hand? The mob is so dumb and then Carmen camps it up as the most ineffectual mob boss in the world! the show was written by idiots for idiots! (And I kept watching so what does that say about me???)

I can't even imagine Long working with JFP, creatively and with their temperaments. Long loves old fashioned soap and community and family relationships...JFP really disdains traditional soap and is a micromanager, and Long can be a bit prickly about her work and interference. But if Long can go rounds with the ego monster Zimmer then I guess she could handle JFP. Ah, a JFP and Zimmer battle...a soap Thunderdome!

Such a weird time..(well, what wasnt a weird time on GL post Curlee leaving...) remember when they fired Labine, then they couldn't find anyone to replace her so they rehired her and MADD made a statement "The votes came in (the ratings raised by a point) and a recall was called for" or some dumb thing, they they replaced her with Lucky Gold of all writers. Rauch did sabatogue but it didn't take much...things shot down: Liv and Holly (though it would be Childrens Hour where one would not return the affection..) and Mae being Stacy Chamberlin, which might have been good but Nola was off for years, and Rick would be at least 19 years older then her. Not promising stuff.

How great that would have been to see India and Eddie scheming together. Instead of Alan and Faux Annie...India and Eddie scheme to divide and conquer Alan and Alex...by seducing them and taking them for all they are worth. They have a bet on who can get the other to marry them first...India wins (my version of Alex would be someone who learns from her mistakes so she just wants Eddie and for eye candy henchman) ..but then someone poisons Alan...with India and Eddie both suspecting the other. It was high time to get rid of Alan at that point and to push Phillip up to Spaulding patriarch. I'm sorry, I just can't stand Cole...but if we ahd to have him I prefer one who looks like he took a shower.

And Jeffery happened because ConWest went to a fan event and saw the fan fraus freaking out over Cole's "rock concert" Why TPTB thought the people who actaully have time and the inclination to go to a fan event were not representative of the viewing public at large. God I hated Jeffery worse then if Buzz/Fletcher/Richard rolled into one character. I think that Joan/Alex summed up both the island and the mob in two of her lines: Eddie: "Have you ever been to San Cristobal?" Alex: (with a bit of a sneer) "NO, but I have heard of it! I'm sure its a charming little island." Carmen: "I am Carmen Santos, and you are moving into my territory." Alex: (barely acknowleding her) "And I am ALEXANDRA SPAULDING, and I couldn't care less!"

Definatley the Island of WhiteBread people did the most damage. It was not only dumb, it was already outdated material by the time it started airing. Rauch dusted off his fairy tale island from the OLTL OTT era and pushed it on GL like it was something new. Prince Richard was one note (how do you write for a fairy tale prince...unless you he gets together with his princess and leaves town forever and then it would have all been with it.) The only way to write it was like the Dobsons did orignally with James Stenbeck, the fairy tale prince turns into a nightmare. Once Cassie is married she is only allowed to go to certain places on the island..why? Say a hot guy of color is cast as a leader of the rebels who kidnaps her and shows her what was really going on in the island..the natives working to prop up the royals and their rich friends...leaving Cassie torn...she then sees Richie is as bad as Eddie (with a more polite facade) and then works against him ( I would have had Richard be the one to hold Cassie in the tower) But no way would Rauch and team present something that was not bland tripe that they thought the fat dumbies at home still watching the soaps (their view of their audience) would love. At least the idea of the mob made some sense...the straight lace Bauers, pillar of SF contracting with this shady family. Only the execution sucked. Having no Bauer patriarch to go up against Carmen hobbled it from the start.

Eileen seems to be very much like Lisa in this (and looks great) but what was with her grimace at the end of "When I grow up I want to be just like you!"

You can tell that this is the point they start pinching the pennies and the plot are written for the sets they can use. Hence Phillip and Harley of all people hosting Christmas Eve..and Rick and Abby just extras to prop the latest Jeva drivel. The Bauer set usually used for Christmas must have been too big and expensive to put up, the same as the Spaulding set (which would at least be classy looking) so they cram everyone into Phillip and Harleys little set. And , even if you like Harley, her giving the Christmas toast is a a bit strange...(was Rauch pissed at Zimmer during this time time..I'm sure seeing Ehlers give the toast instead of JVD, and no one thought of asking her must have burned her ass!) I can't believe they had a scene where Reva actually says, "I thought you might be interested in me,' and Fletcher actually kind of looks at her like "Huh?" Something that would never happen in the Rauch era.

"And on a scale of 1 to 10 how dull are you as an actor"?

Marj only went to AMC as they offered her a three month contract (I think it went longer) and on GL she was recurring with no upcoming dates to film (too busy creating the next wildly successful Reva story.) So a bird in the hand....Too bad as they were finally writing an Alex that Marj could play.

You also have to be really young..as DeeVee said, after 911 he skyrocketed to popularity for both right and left voters, as he was (or appeared) to be very much in command and comforting during a time of obvious national crisis. He even opened the SNL first live episode after 911 with the actually funny answer to Loren Michael's question on "But can we be funny" by saying "Why start now?" He really screwed himself by his later..political alliances. This was the beginning of GL grasping at straws tho this one at least makes a bit of sense as I can see Alex knowing him (sadly they would rewrite that later duiring Weston and Kreizman with Alex being antogonistic to Harley.) At least it makes more sense then a soon to be seen appareance during the dumbest trial GL ever had.

And with one of the Village People no less! I can see why GH and GL were not busy quaking in their boots over the competition.

Im not even going to ask WTF that is...okay, yes, I am! Someone on here said that Reva and Buzz had crazy sexual chemistry but I did not see it, (manic energy yes, that had the residents of 5th Street plugging their ears no doubt with those two big mouths..)I can see them being friends and once Alan kicks her to the curb and Josh and Annie get married then I can see him giving her a job..so yea the marriage thing did not work especially as her deal with chipmunk Marah was to just let Josh and Annie marry. Three men with hard ons for Reva was not needed.

Ha...I don't mind the..idea of it...despite trashiness of it...there can be really a lot of drama that could be wrung out of this as the cuckold husband can't just dump the woman (as he would in real life once finding out) as he still has a bio kid involved. Also there is history of Blake mirroring her past, there is Ross not only being betrayed by Blake but by Rick who he has become an uncle figure to, throw in Ed knowing the truth and feeling for all sides (feeling conflicted and dredging up his own pain of his past, maybe tempted to hit the bottle again) Ross feeling betrayed when he finds out his best friend kept it from him, Holly also remembering her past but still helping Blake to cover it up..maybe enlisting Roger's help in it, and finally Roger, not a fan of Ross, but not happy at all that his oldest enemy is now going to share grandfather status with him. But none of that was played out...it was actually played like a bad sex farce at first..playing into MOL's worst tendencies, and making Rick out to be a real prick as they called him on the boards, not the least bit guilty on what he did. Ed wasnt around for the baby part of it, and the past was never mentioned. Plus, it makes Ross look so stupid, that he....uh, could not tell that Blake...recently had been with someone...which is really as Abby says, "GROSS"!

Actually, McTavish read in the paper about a similar case, so she copied it for GL.!!!

I think the artifice of the Rauch years being gone helped, but also I think Kimmer just got tired, which matched what Reva would be feeling..and Kimmer didnt have an EP up her ass all day so she just had to allow them to make Reva more of a supporting character and it worked. Imagine if Ruach had not been insistent that he could create a whole show using his old ideas (the island) as long as he had Jeva front and center. A new web series, Tired Tulsa Tramp.... Reva marrying that rapist is more unbelievable to me than the clone. Just what kind of pictures did Cole have of TPTB to keep him on so long?

I think Zimmer, if she could put her ego aside for once would have enjoyed playing that!

That was a great period for the character, (Kim got another Emmy) buying a house, getting a job...being bullied at work (Claire) interacting with characters outside the Lewis sphere, having a guy friend that wasnt in love with her (Fletcher.) This is why I hate when they brought her back she was not eager to make her own life outside of Josh..she relies on Alan's money (and he has reason to be pissed at her, he is bankrolling her life and return) then Buzz for the dumb marriage thing. I wanted to see her back at the Journal working or doing something besides having a man worship her. The next time she has a job she is a talk show host !!!! Reva is self centered, its part of her character and Long wrote it as a bad trait and she had people ...not liking her (Alex, India) where Rauch has her self centered and holier then tho, and NO one but Annie says a word against her. Once Cassie comes along there are two self righteous shrews running around town!