Mitch64

13 hours ago, P.J. said:

Hold on to Love is my clear winner. And I like the one with Nola/Vanessa in the opening. I would KILL to see the episode of Billy dumping Vanessa on that couch.

I do like the visuals of the '70's ones with the stripey lighthouse.

Question: someone must know where Guiding Light shot their outdoor scenes in the early '80's. Specifically for Nola and Quint's wedding, and Reva's walk after the non-wedding to Kyle (which, honestly, I just rewatched and is lowkey hilarious in retrospect. I didn't even remember that was when Josh returned, but knew it the moment I caught sight of Josh's leather jacket. Robert Newman must've worn that thing forEVER.)

Believe it or not...Reva's diva wandering around the country side in her wedding dress (with no one gawky at this big blonde bride.."Frank is that THAT SHAYNE woman??? White????") was shot in Peacock.  It is actually a lovely spot so I just think Wheeler and Co. looked for the crappiest places to shoot. I have no idea where Quint and Nola's wedding shoot was...but I love the church they used for exteriors and I think they used that in the ending shot of the opening for a bit.  

The couch clip reminded me how much funny Billy and Van were at first..I have no idea why they made her a frumpy boring wife as soon as they got married.  The opening shot also has the infamous scene of Phillip watching Mindy do yoga...urban legend is that GA was pulling his leg up as he had a hard on.

2 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I much prefer the 1975 to 1981 theme over the stupidity that was the 1982 disco theme.  

Excuse me...Mr. Tony Reardon's Hiiii-YAAAA is a classic! I hated the 85- to whatever cheap ass opening!

2 hours ago, Sapounopera said:

I also like the Ritournelle. More than any intro that followed it. It's the show's logo that had no personality and creativity. 

I like it too..it feels like someone wrapped a blanket around me for some reason, probably because I was a kid and would hear it on Christmas and summer vacations in the next room, with my Mom not paying attention to what I was doing!

3 hours ago, Khan said:

I think GL blundered in domesticating Buzz and Jenna.  You don't take someone as vixenish as Fiona Hutchinson and tie her down with a husband and kids and a business that she runs with another soccer mom.

I agree...but what are you going to do when you have nutball fan cases who love Juzz? Bena??? I thought RN and Fiona had great chemistry and imagine Reva having to go toe to toe with a hottie who aint nuts? As I said, Buzz was fun as a conman that everyone thought was a weirdo..he would have made a better character on Edge of Night actually. 

Sorry, more of a GL discussion here. 

20 hours ago, Khan said:

I realize Deas isn't everyone's cup of tea (hi, @Mitch64, lol!), but I love that he refuses to "play it safe" in his work.  I've always said I'll forgive a multitude of sins except the cardinal sin of boring me, and Deas rarely, if ever, bores me.

LOL..I was actually watching these scenes and remembering that I thought he was sexy back then and still do when I rewatch. (maybe he always needed the facial hair...) but his Tom is a great combo of Bob (idealist, upright and defending the ones he loves) and Lisa (unconventional, sexual, and willing to bend a rule to get what he wants.) 

I will say he was yelly, OTT and "LOOK at me..." on Day 1 of GL. I think as Marcy Walker said, his acting could be self indulgent and I think his ego, combined with JFP's propping, and one of the writers propping of Buzz (he saw him as his own dad...) the industry delusion that he was the BEST, all made him untouchable and out of place in SF...(though I did like him when he first came on and everyone thought he was bizarre and he was a con artist...) 

I think on ATWT he was constrained by the character, the writing and the vets who surrounded him (plus Colin who gave as good as she got...) ON GL it was as if they wrote a scene ( Buzz yells, flaps his arms and the rest of the characters stand there and take it.) 

11 hours ago, DRW50 said:

The late '90s is actually the point where I had grown to accept Buzz. I really couldn't stand him in his first few years on GL. He felt so alien to the rest of the show for me.

That's actually when I started to, at least tolerate him (as I knew he wasn't going anwhere...) Once Bruce Barry told him to settle it down, and Deas got butt hurt over that....his quiter and almost sadder Buzz made sense (he was a guy who abandoned his family and really was as selfish a prick as Alan...) Buzz seemed tired world weary but still in it because of his family. That made him a better fit in SF then...flapping arms and running around the Spaulding mansion set while poor Fiona had to stand there and watch.

On 1/2/2024 at 5:53 PM, DRW50 said:

I also liked Toby Poser - I saw her before I ever saw Kathleen. She did a lot with some very silly and at times insulting material (I remember Liz Keifer saying she felt guilty for some of the comments she had to make about Amanda's appearance). She was starting to blossom into a more nuanced character when Rauch dumped her. I do wonder if things might have been different if not for Michael Zaslow's illness, but I think she would have gone anyway.

Agreed...I think Roger being written out hastened her exit but she would have been gone..she did not work with Rauch's thing...she was a bad girl but Poser always gave Amanda an bravado that she was not crazy like Annie or neurotic like Dinah...Rauch also bet that Amanda could replace Alex but that didn't work.  As I said, I loved Poser and she did well with the dumb Malibu Madame...the slooow drawn out time between Laibson and Rauch taking over and the interim writers making her Brandon's kid, which then was dropped (that could have worked with the right writing and Alex still there...Amanda..who always did not seem to fit in the Spaulding dynamic....as a Spaulding but yet, not really accepted as one...) I think she could have really worked as a smart amoral woman not letting anyone screw her over and flagrant with her sexuality...kind of like Raven on Edge of Night who had a more sterotypical male attitude on sex "Hey, it was fun but that doesn't mean we are getting married or even exclusive." 

Plus she had one of my favorite lines..pre clone...Josh attacks Alan, with overacting RN acting and overacting RR in the lab..Amanda is walking around checking things out, not concerned in the least when Alan says, "Amanda..he tried to KILL me!!" and Poser barley acknowledges this and  underplays it with a "Who HASNT???"

44 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I think he created some good characters and helped to tailor the show into a new era, while dealing with the changes P&G mandated. I also think that so many of his available episodes being washed out in print quality doesn't help my enjoyment because this adds to a lifeless atmosphere. (some of the Dobsons-era episodes are too but more are available in higher quality).

I really do love a lot of his work on ATWT, even if I am critical of some elements, so I was surprised at how much I generally don't gel with his GL run - what I have seen of it, anyway. 

I think there's just a very stilted nature to most of the canvas, even when on paper the show was moving toward a much younger, more vibrant atmosphere. 

The major contrast between the show's scheming characters (who are often one-note, hissable, and aggressive) and the "good" characters (often incredibly bland, passive) is also striking to me. Some of that is on the cast, but not entirely, because I think some of the same cast who come across as dreary in this time frame had more life before and after (if they weren't fired soon after). There are attempts at more complicated figures, like Tony, but unfortunately, I just don't find him appealing, even if most of the women his age in Springfield did, and any time he starts thrown another tantrum I just want to see somebody kick his ass. (maybe Sara's son Tim could finally put all that offscreen karate training to use)

The example that says with me most may be the whole Amanda/Morgan/Jennifer setup. You have a woman who has been broken free of years of repression, leaving a marriage, and is now running a major company, the long-lost mother who spent years toiling and is now happily reunited with her daughter, in a high-powered job, seeing a younger, handsome man, and her other daughter, who is living out a Barbie dream life (married to a Ken doll, working as a model)...and they are all wet blankets. 

That isn't entirely Marland's fault - Kristen Vigard brought so much more presence to the role of Morgan, and whoever replaced her with Jennifer Cooke (possibly one of the all-time blandest heroines on GL) sapped his writing of some of the complexity Vigard found. And he also inherited a show where a number of vibrant actresses who played heroines/anti-heroines to a tee were leaving (Cindy Pickett, Maureen Garrett, Lenore Kasdorf). If he had stayed longer, then more layered female characters brought in by him, like Maureen, might have had a chance to shine.

Still, I don't mean to ruin anyone's enjoyment of that era, and at least I guess through certain moments we can say he was the closest we got to John Waters penning a soap:

 

Oh..that was..pretty bad!!! Who was trying to kill boring Eve? Van was jumping on hot..but obviously gay Ben...glam Van was desperate and jealous of wet rag Eve?Shouldn't Ben be home protecting his wife? 

I like what you say, Jennifer and Amanda are really wet rags themselves...I know people on here like Cullen as Amanda, but I lurve Poser's A..even if it made no sense that she was deaged at least  a decade and her Malibu Madame thing was really bad. I can see Amanda moving to Cali and really letting her repression go...and becoming Vixen Amanda...(kinda like closeted guys who BURST out of the closet...) 

1 hour ago, Soaplovers said:

@Khan I didnt think Marland was horrible at GL...just that I didnt think he was a good fit for the show.

ATWT seemed cold/reserved...like you were at a country club or in a bar in New England.  They allow you in, but only to observe and not join their clique.

GL seemed more like a Bar in Chicago or in Texas.  Warm, fun, and maybe a bit messy...but very welcoming.

Marland seemed able to mimic the energy/pace of those he replaced for the first year or so especially in the plotlines he inherited...but his plotlines were either too complicated or too analytical without any heart.

The Reardons had more warmth and energy when Pam Long wrote them vs when Marland wrote them.

 

Ha..the bars are a good analogy....I think that is why I always stuck with GL even during more tedious times...it was warm and energetic and messy (at its best.) Something that made Marland...Marland was that he made the Reardon's an Irish Blue Collar family..protestant...(Bea talks about having Minister something or other marry Nola and Floyd....) .but Long made them Catholic. I do agree that Long was great at writing the Reardons..that is why I don't understand the abrupt abondoment of them in 84/85.

I also agree that Marland improves what he inherits, but then its back to cold analytical time...I thought it first year on ATWT was his best...it still had some of the campy messiness of the show he inherited but he put polish, and structure to it, while going back to the core. 

4 hours ago, Khan said:

It's almost as if he flubbed the line, like you expect the director to yell "Cut!" and everyone around to burst into laughter.

And all that was missing from her reaction was her saying, "WTF?"

That cracked me up..poor hottie Melinda...."Dee?" and viewers were supposed to think this was sexy?  To add injury to insult...Melinda dies coming on to Brad on a  boat, as she is drunk and jumps overboard!

20 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

Wait. Just for clarification. You detested Tom Pelphrey?

Is there a canonical list of all the GL characters you couldn't stand? Buzz, Harley, all other Coopers, Dusay's Alex, TP's Jonathan, it's a start. 

Well since you asked my Christmas gift to you is....

HATED at all times:

Buzz (wins the award..sorry, did not drink the soap industry Kool Aid that Deas was the BEST actor ever...yelling, flapping arms, spitting and as Marcy Walker said "self-indulgent" scene stealing does not a great actor make...and Buzz was a misogynistic ass most times and didn't fit in SF.)

Super Duper Coopers- they were fine when it was just Harley and Frank, but when it was the only intact family all patting themselves on the back on how "RIGHT" they were..nah.

Fairy Tale Island-Rassie..LW just came off as shrill sometimes...but I did start to like her with Danny and then..that ended so she jumped in the sack with the guy who tried to kill her sister and her nephew.

Hated/LIked

Harley-liked her as the tough "river rat" Nola knock off she was when first introduced....liked her okay as a more mature everywoman....HATED her during Kriezman's Love Goddess and Ehlers personal unhappiness came out and made Harley shrill and annoying.

Reva-sometimes loved original recipe Reva (who could hate a drama queen wandering the country side in a big ass wedding dress after her failed ceremony...loved her and H.B. together..shouldnt have worked but did...) HATE Post Resurrection Reva and especially Rauchie making her at the middle aged love goddess when we could all clearly see that time had past...hated her eating story so they had to reach in their asses to come up with something to keep Zimmer's mug on my screen everyday.

Marj's Alex-Marj was a victim of the writing and I felt she never GOT Alex..but sometimes she could be quite good...(Alex facing off with Faux Annie in the Spaulding Attic) the first few weeks she took over for Joan/Alex and they were still writing Alex as smart and powerful..and sometimes she was one of JFP's over the top scenery chewers on crack...popping eyes, hissing, stuttering...(my favorite scene so bad its good Roger convinces Alex the snake that bit her is venomous...she is on top of the Spaulding limo while Roger sucks the venom out..and her alternately schreicking and writing in semeiotic pleasure...so weird..)

Jonathon-again, I did not drink the soap industry Kook Aid...TP's yelling, scenery chewing and attempts at scene stealing (no one could ever top the character in a scene TP would put in a laugh like Jonathon was NEVER ever going to loose.) TP was good as Reva's spawn from hell...sociopathic oddball, but romantic antihero...no...and I think TP left at the best time..)

I also thought Matt, Frank, Rusty, Gus... all the nonentities Wheeler brought on, are just boring and useless.

Oh, and I thought Otalia was boring...put sexy CC with someone better then a Kreizman boring creation.

From my home to yours Donna for a Happy New Year!

20 hours ago, Donna L. Bridges said:

I get why it's easy to just slap a meaningful number on the end but personally I wish you'd done something like Mitch-WOW or if you were feeling humble, then, Mitch-Okay. 

Uh, okay....

1 hour ago, dc11786 said:

 

I don't remember much of what Marah was doing during this time. I remember there was an attempt to build some animosity between Marah and Reva. Marah as the stalker under the circumstances you stated (either blacking out or some other psychological issue) might have been compelling especially if Jonathan was blamed first. The only issue is that Lindsey McKeon couldn't have handled that.

. Now that I think about it, John I still would have invested in Tammy and Sandy over Tammy and Jonathan. Sandy/Jonathan having a sexual backstory would have made sense. I remember Jonathan mounting Sandy in the hospital after Lizzie ran Sandy over (which was never really resolved) and thinking that Pelphrey was definitely leaning into the potential sexual backstory. 

@Mitch64 did you use to use the other handle of just Mitch? If so, I remember you had some wickedly delicious campy story suggestions involving Jonathan/Sandy and I think Jeffrey O'Neill. I tried finding them over the years, but cannot seem to locate them.

Yes, I was just Mitch but when you had to be authenticated it would not take that handle so I had to add in a number. 

Marah as the stalker would have been great...she would have YEARS of resentment towards Reva disappearing and causing strife and trauma in their lives. She would be a daddy's girl that would see what Reva has done to turn Josh inside and out and I never accepted the Rauch/E & B plot where Marah all of a sudden turned on "Mommy Annie" when the [!@#$%^&*] hit the fan..I would have had her secretly understanding Reva pushing Annie over the edge.  But yea, McKeon couldn't act that out. 

I liked Jonathon and Tammy as a sicko dysfunctional thing....Tammy was always WAY too blond suburbany for a girl whose formative years were spent with her Mommy stripping so I could see her having a masochistic relationship with him out of lack of self esteem. But as soon as they were Twu Wuv I lost interest. In that scene Pelphery was definitely leaning into a sexual vibe deliberately trying to turn Sandathon on...I imagine it must have really freaked TPTB out.  Which leads to my plot, which I think was based on those tattoos that Jeffie, Sandy and Jonathon had that was never explained...I can't remember, maybe they were call boys with Jeffie as their pimp..Jonathon being part of a sexual scam operation with his daddy's look alike as the head of it would have been just the kind of stuff I think Pelphery would like to play out..I think he was bored with the generic bad boy with the heart of gold, so he starting chewing that damn scenery...Anyway .anything to really get the Brad Cole cows upset and get him off my screen. 

On 12/29/2023 at 10:01 AM, Dan said:

Edmund and Olivia were mixed with the Spaulding story quite successfully. Carmen had finally been sent packing in November, bringing the mob story to an (albeit temporarily since Weston would bring it back) end. The Tory nonsense was over and Blake and Ross seemed well on the way toward a reunion.

Timing is off here a bit....Carmen went into a coma when Bill tackled her as she was pulling a gun (yet again) on Chele at the Bauer house...Carmen hit her head on a step and she was carted off and everyone was like....so do we order a pizza or go out,  no one gave a damn. That was on New Year's Eve.  Eddie and Liv worked quite nicely with the Spaulding's, but Collin's sexy Alex worked better with him then Marj's whatever the hell she was doing with Alex. (though she did quite well as Alex before Weston took over.)

18 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Scott Bailey was indeed generic and never offered nothing special.

I remember the eye popping he did all the time. He was cute but not interesting but I saw him on a commercial and he aged into a very handsome man. He had chemistry with one person, Pelphery and there was one scene where TP was on top of him in a hospital bed taunting him and thought the reveal would be that Sandy was Joanthon "experimented" which made sense as TP gave Jonathon a vibe where he would do anyone as long as he could manipulate them with sex. 

Taggert/Culliton always intended the stalker to be Jonathon but didn't Weston change that to make it Alex...(picking up from a real stalker who was caught..) to stop world class journalist Reva from discovering Gus was Alan's kid with that stupid nun...(and yes, Gus was supposed to be either Alan or Ed's kid with Rita.) which led to her drugging Alan (Mac n' Cheese Alan) which JLH admitted they made him Alan's kid as they liked the way RR and RPG kidded around with each other backstage...(huh???) and then led to Alex being a drug lord so they totally butchered Alex. 

Oh I remember the days where a Rassie fan got hit by a car crossing a street she was so upset about Richie dying, and then the Manny's sending LW a stuffed big bird doll..again, I lay it all on MADD's feet that she stuck to the formula to appease those fruitcakes.  

19 hours ago, MichaelGL said:

Weston/Conboy derailed a noble attempt by Rauch/Taggart/Culliton to ground and center the show. Even though they may have gotten the ratings up for what I believe was Feb Sweeps of 2004 with that ridiculous Maryanne Carruthers story, they were just as destructive to the show's core as some of their predecessors; McTavish, B&E, etc. 

I agree, this was the last, best attempt to save GL...(Taggart/Culliton) and Weston and Conboy put the final nail in. 

17 hours ago, kalbir said:

Among Gail Kobe, Joe Willmore, JFP, Michael Laibson, Paul Rauch, John Conboy, Ellen Wheeler, which was the lesser of seven evils?

I would say MADD, who was supported Rauch in all his interference and excess, and put Weston and Conboy in place. She was the final say at P & G and she had a vision of GL which was not consistent with what the show was (gloss and glamour and ROMANCE all the time...) The P & G shows were not ABC shows and she could never get that out of her head.

Someone mentioned that McTavish had an axe to grind with GL...what was it? I know she got her start there so she should have been excited to be back. I can believe it, the way she wrote Nola was terrible (Nola, sad and lonely???) and she basically shat on Java (and I am not their biggest fan.) Rick screws what his basically his uncle's wife, and he grew up for years thinking it was his sister, and its all for shits and giggles????

23 minutes ago, soapfan770 said:

Hate to burst your bubble but Buzz and Alex were an item there in the fall of 2003 with her making secret visits to him at Company. 

No they were out in the open weren't they?  What I meant was...Alex did not have to spend her soap after life with Buzz like Lillian did. 

On 12/25/2023 at 8:23 AM, Lujack4Ever said:

Long ago I made a promise to myself that if I ever got on the very first thing I would do is bow down to the poster called Mitch. I used to think I knew a lot about GL but after reading his posts I am John Snow knowing nothing compared to him. There is one area where we are match for match...the dislike of the character of Buzz Cooper.

Not only did he suck the airtime from so many other characters but his unlikely pairings one right after another was laughable and poor Lillian ultimately getting anchored to him  The one scene I always wanted to see was Springfield descending in mass on the diner for all the free meals he promised whenever he would rudely kick people out of the diner mid-meal.

No need to bow down to the hours upon hours I spent in my misspent life watching this show! But yea...join me in the hating on Buzz Cooper table anytime! Poor Lillian, she never did have any taste....remember when she was dating Hawk???? But at least Alex, despite her complete character assasination under Conboy, managed to dodge the Buzz bullet....

On 12/21/2023 at 10:29 PM, P.J. said:

Lately I've fallen down the rabbit hole, and catching a lot of early Vanessa. (OH. MY. GOD. I'd forgotten what a trouble maker she was.) There's a lot of early 80's up, but I can't find her arrival in Springfield. Is it up?

I wish they had brought Van's edge back after her dumb coming back from the dead storyline...I hated her kowtowing to Billy and sighing over Matt. Maeve could play a cold a** b*tch quite well. 

20 hours ago, Khan said:

I don't recall whether Cleveland Amory ever liked anything, lol.

Agreed..he always hated everything and tore it to shreds..which is probably why he was popular!

Anyway, did Lisa ever mention "Eve" when Marland wrote the Eldridge's back in? I think it is cool he reached that far back (thought I wish he would have gone an even more soapy route, as he originally was going to, and bring back "Chuck" from the dead...) though it was kind of typical Marland washed out...(Scott should have been a real villain and the mother should have been mean to Lisa, instead of going to her birthday party.) 

9 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Seriously, didn't Danny have something(anything) else to do? -unknotting a chain? testing out those old pens sitting in the junk drawer?

41 seconds gone forever...

Well, he is still annoying...(every time little Paul was in danger I was hoping it would take him out...) and why does he not have a shirt on?

2 hours ago, Khan said:

I think Lucci knew she'd never land another, front-burner role like Erica. 

Lucci is a smart cookie, she got more publicity off of never winning her daytime Emmy then she would have a second string role on a quickly canceled sitcom. Back in the day there were no Desperate Housewives type shows which mixed campy comedy with more serious moments and as she was not cut out for a sitcom or a serious drama, she was smart enough to stay. 

On 12/11/2023 at 3:59 PM, Khan said:

There are soaps that I love to this day, and there are soaps that I am lukewarm about.  But PASSIONS is but one of two soaps that I have a seething hatred for.  Not only because the writing (or what I saw of it) was so awful, but also because it was racist, ageist and misogynistic trash that never should have seen the light of day.  JER was a hack who conned NBC into giving him too much creative autonomy, simply because he managed to "save" DAYS (in the ratings, if not creatively) with the few, the VERY few tricks he held up his sleeve.

The things you mentioned above were the things that ruined PASSIONS. I actually like it for a bit when I would watch it once in a while when I came home from work to each lunch...somedays it was fresh and funny and a riff on soaps when it first started and was more good humored..(at Christmas when Tabitha tried to get Santa drunk to screw her...or when they had pop up bubbles to have Tabby warn the young viewers not to do whatever ridiculous thing she and Timmy were up to..."NBC's lawyers would like me to tell you not to drive a motorcycle at midnight without a helmet, but I told them how would you be able to see my face...") but I never became invested in it..it was just a collection of skits tied loosely around a really bad soap opera. But then I tuned in years later and there was a lot of rape and serial killing and I missed the days of Tabby and Timmy fighting their "Friends in the basement," It just got mean spirited and I think mirrored JER's state of mind. 

On 12/10/2023 at 2:55 PM, Khan said:

Beyond gimmicky, it was MEAN. The energy in a lot of scenes and confrontations just had such nasty energy to them, I've felt a visceral discomfort watching them.

She did that to GL too..besides the infamous Brent/Marion (killing yet another Mom and making jokes about it..making a dumb girl believe she is HIV positive) Roger and Holly lost all their nuance and he became EVIL (even wanting to drug Dinah and murder her) Amanda an amoral madame, Josh hating Reva when she returned, AM resenting Phillip when he returned..Phillip thinking anyone in his family, including Alex, who always supported him, could frame him...and just generally all connections between the interconnected families of GL were downplayed...Bridget stopped being involved with Uncle Ed, never talked to Chele, Chele called Nola her aunt "Mrs. Chamberlin" and the same with Vanessa, her Mom's best friend..hell, McTavish even made Nola, a manic depressed loser!

On 12/11/2023 at 1:02 PM, TEdgeofNight said:

Yes, Calhoun did leave GL in good shape. And JFP took off from that and made it even better. 

That is why I never understood why and how she screwed herself and the show later...she saw what worked and what was successful..why ruin it?

11 hours ago, Khan said:

We know by now how Victor Miller and Wisner Washam felt about working with her, but I'd love to know whether others

Id love to see what they had to say, she seems such an odd person/writer.

On 12/6/2023 at 1:11 PM, China Jones said:

Wait, what? You're saying that Daisy/Susan was reverse SORASed because Ehlers didn't want to be portrayed as old enough to have a 24-year-old daughter? Why bring back Daisy/Susan at all only to have her sleep with her almost-a-brother (on a blanket, in a field, with the whole Hee Haw gang looking on.)

Was Jim Lemay ever mentioned again or did this erase his existence?

Who knows, but Kreizman sure was kissing Harley/Ehlers ass in the writing...when he wasn't blowing Jonathon/Pelphery in the writing.  Who was her almost brother? 

Jim Lemay, I have no idea...was Bridget even mentioned when NotDylan came back? And Susan wasn't nearly as bad as Leah, suddenly being older then her older brother, which made a hash out of the timeline..so Rick did not get drunk and sleep with Harley after Abby left him, he screwed her when he was married to Mel???? Did Leah find some of Cleva's growth serum laying around? Did anyone give a damn about anything at the end?

On 12/6/2023 at 4:11 PM, Soapsuds said:

Well who was around till the end? The show was so bad that I blocked out everything.

Could it have been Crystal Chappell??

God how I would love to see Chappell and Zimmer having a physical cat fight over a GL prop!!! My money's on Kimmer!

3 hours ago, Vee said:

We'll agree to disagree. I was very impressed with the Prospect Park location work, in part because it was used sparingly and looked atmospheric and very much (to me, anyway) like I'd imagined Pine Valley. Whereas GL managed to make Peapack/Springfield look like Ozark.

Ha..not to mention...de-aged Susan (such a vanity cast for Ehlers) and her boyfriend, the hit guy Grady (?) looked like they should be on the street corner dealing meth.

1 hour ago, China Jones said:

I agree with you, Khan! Much of Dame Joan's short GL stint has been posted on YouTube and I loved what I saw! I think Ms. Collins handled the role in a mischievous slightly comedic way. A couple of examples include Alexandra's takedown of Olivia at the Thanksgiving dinner table and Alex's playfully ribbing Alan about faking his heart attack.

Totally agree. I LOVED Collins as Alex...she brought back the humor, the determination, the sly put downs, the coolness of Bev..and also the warmth Bev had..(her Alex was gentle with her friends and younger people..well, younger people who didn't cross her...) The thing I noticed about Marj is that her Alex is totally and completely unpleasant..(oddly enough she reminds me of recast  Dick Sargent on Bewitched..who seemed to determined to make the character unlikeable at all times.) It seems odd to see Ed, Ross, Rick, Lillian or anyone just talk to her as "Alex" when you would run the other way if you saw her shrieking, huffing  self coming. I thought Joan gave Alex her power back (though that was also the writing) while sprinkling in sultriness that Bev did not have.  

MADD was happy with her, what she was not happy with is her paycheck and that the ratings didn't jump...hence they brought back Marj who was cheap. Also Rauchie left and he knew how to handle an old style diva (by all accounts the cast loved Joan, but she is a STAR!) It wasn't her fault that Alex had so much airtime at a time that Rauch was fighting Taggert and changing scripts right before filming..no one but a seasoned soap pro would be able to handle that.

35 minutes ago, China Jones said:

This is what confused me at first, Liberty City. I thought show taping was moved to Peapack because, obviously, it was less expensive than New York. I believed it was going to be business as usual with traditional camera work and the construction of permanent sets. It wasn't until I recently viewed the finished product that I realized the show must have been flat broke and needed to film in the cheapest possible places i.e. outdoors because the park was public, and air is free.

Yes, the budget was bad enough with Rauch, but Conboy totally f*cked it up...if they had done the move a few years earlier, and moved the sets to some other place and filmed as usual all would have been good. Again, blame MADD for not being a strategic thinker and biding time before she could grab her golden parachute. 

On 12/4/2023 at 1:56 PM, TEdgeofNight said:

Ok Mitch. I challenge you. Who was the headwriter job offered to during that time and who declined the offer?

JLH had nothing better to do so of course she accepted. What has she done since GL? At least Kreizman is still writing at Days.

I have no idea..I just heard that some people were offered it (could have been more of the usual suspects) and no one wanted it..due to PG and network interference...the pay...and everyone knew GL was going to be cancelled.  

I will take JLH over Kreizman anyway..she has written a few L & Os and Kreizman was writing for pro wrestling for a while and the crap show Days...well, nuff said. As much as I don't agree with her on many things (the Cooper family is her comfort family..yuk) she got GL and she was responsible for writing the returns correctly and the great scene with Ed and Lillian at Mo's grave..which came about 10 years too late but....I know she was one of GA's favorite writers. 

On 12/4/2023 at 11:19 PM, Khan said:

RB and LD would have been too young to play Alan, but who knows?  I'd put nothing past JFP.

The thing is, Chris Bernau made such an indelible impression as Alan that it's literally impossible to picture anyone else playing that role.  Daniel Pilon couldn't replace Bernau.  Ron Raines DEFINITELY couldn't replace Bernau.  I'm not sure anyone could've replaced Bernau.

Born is only a few years younger then Raines..and at least Alan would have been sexy again...but I think he would make a better Kyle Sampson recast..he always seemed for "feral" under his business suits.  But I do agree, both Alan and Alex should have never been recast..I get that they needed to recast Bev as she left abruptly but it should have been a temp recast or JFP should have begged Bev to come back just to wrap things up...(i.e. make peace with Nick and Mindy..) Bring back a recast Amanda (sorry, Cullen was a washed out bore) or have Van run Spaulding...then AM...then Phillip.  Alan should have never been recast but they also kept RR around too long where his snidely whiplash antics were a bore...Alan should have died years ago and the new generation could have taken over and fought it out. 

2 hours ago, Khan said:

I'll never forget Ellen Wheeler's pitiful attempt at hyping the production changes by saying things like, "We'll finally get to see Cassie plant real flowers in a real garden!".  Bitch, I don't CARE about some damn flowers.  I watch GL for the characters and their stories.  And you don't need to sweat your balls off in NJ to provide them either.

Ha...that was Wheeler also talking about Harley opening her kitchen cabinets and you can see real pots...huh..they did that on sets too (not to mention Harley's crap house with the walls not drywalled.) And she compared it to Desperate Houswives and you can believe the show as it films outside...nothing about DH was realistic or wanted to be...that is even if you could compare the junkey backyard of Harley to the meticulous take on a fantasy upscale suburb where everything was perfect..on the outside. 

5 minutes ago, TEdgeofNight said:

She was inept to say the least. Pairing her up with the god awful Jill Lorie Hurst and Kreizman was trouble from the beginning. A recipe for cancellation.

No one would take the HW job at that time...not work the hassle or the bad pay. I do say JLH really loved GL and "got it" and she was mostly responsible for the last week of returns, etc. Kreizman just sucked.

13 hours ago, Dan said:

You touched on it at the beginning, but in fairness to Roger and Holly, roughly 75% of the show after Curlee and Demorest left in March until the end of the year was mostly tremendously uneventful and boring. Shame cause it's not like Curlee and Demorest left the show in an awful position. (Some mis-steps later in their tenure but nothing that couldn't be fixed). 

Also someone correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the church set Wheeler's office? It really is a shame cause Peapack absolutely could have worked, but it was done in such an amateur way it was sabotaged from the start. 

The 7-11 embarrassingly enough was a supply closet at CBS and the church was Wheeler's office...(the altar was really her desk I think..tho I am shocked she had an office and not a folding table in a hallway.) 

It could have worked given more money spent on it (the key word here) and more care (and if it happened a few years later when hand held were much better.) Peapack is a beautiful area (Reva's aborted wedding to Kyle  was filmed there) and I actually thought some of the sets looked nice...the Towers set and Company looked better than it had in years. The sets were actually more like they did the old time soap sets, which stacked next to each other and ran a camera down the middle of the sets to film, so when Lisa was being overly dramatic on one set, Nancy was waiting to film in the kitchen.  So if they had kept cameras, filmed and lit the sets better and kept the handhelds for outside..it could have worked..at least better. 

I remember the first week of filming...Reva and FauxCassie wandering around the woods, and Jeffery being filmed from across the street with weird camera angles which in the old days meant stalker was watching...and I got excited he was going to be killed off....the worst was the Spaulding press conference in the field..(CBS couldn't let GL use a real boardroom or offices) the best was that Kimmer really adjusted to it and Reva 2.0 finally became more of a real person(stories still sucked) instead of overly dramatic love goddess.

12 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

still kept a lot of familiar characters/faces into its final decade. I didn’t feel GL was really limping until the Conboy/Weston debacle and the drastic 2005 budget cuts.

Agreed...it still had some good things occasionally happening, but it was Conboy and Westen that put the nail in the coffin and that is attributed to MADD letting it happen.