Mitch64

Terrible what they did to him during that time...Wagner said that he started to get ill because he was taken off of contract. They could have at least had him give the toast. This is around the time that Fulton was fighting with Bunim and right before she left. She went red to "draw attention to herself" and..well, it was not the best look for Lisa. But this is also the time she started really leaning into the "jittery, fluttery, ditzy" side to Lisa...I'm glad that was gone when she came back. The Tom and Margo clip makes the annoying triangle of Craig/Betsy/Steve pale in comparison. Margo and Tom are both self directed people with jobs, and cause problems with each other due to their strong personalities...Craig is obsessed with Betsy, Betsy is a fool who apparently does not work, go to school or have anything else going on in her life but the men in it, and Steve is an annoying blow hard. I can't believe Kim did not give all three of them "kiddo" speeches. I think the grandma clause was still in Fulton's contract? It's also interesting, knowing Colin's antiabortion activity, that Margo seems very adamant against abortion. I forgot that I used to think Deas was hot...and could not figure out why after watching him play that troll Buzz, but I can see it here. He is totally in LOVE with Margo/Colin and it does not come off as desperate (Craig) or controlling (Steve) or sappy sweet like Babs and Gunner. It just seems natural that this man totally loves this woman, even if they both can be pains in the ass. I don't know if its was Colin who brought it out of him (I never saw that with Buzz and anyone else) or the character of Tom (Deas amazingly plays Tom as temperamental and offbeat, but also as a sweet guy who just wants to have a wife and family, an interesting combination of Lisa and Bob and he somehow makes it work. ) The Dobsons did not know what to do with any Hughes outside of Tom, so they just married Bob off. During this time they also had Kim flirt with Stan, some boring FBI agent or something that she actually became his secretary. I loved that they wrote boring "Bilan" out with a telephone call and having her sell tickets at a theater in Florida...what a weird way to write a character out.

I think it was ageism, plus Long's issues with the Bauers...and the fact that Reva had a strangle hold on a blond heroine of that age...even though Hope and Reva were completely different. I liked that they gave Van some of her edge back..I remember a Peacock scene with Vanessa, grey hair, glasses and..non glam clothes...threatens Mel of all people "I realize that you don't know me that well, so you don't realize I am not someone who will not retaliate.." (or something like that...)She was still ice cold in a way Marj would never be. I just wish they had replaced Van for Alex later on..she had much more story to tell with three kids on canvas, holdings in Spaulding so she could take the Spaulding's on for control...( I would just have gotten rid of stupid Lewis Oil.) Marland made a really dumb choice to replace this Ed with PS..as much as I like PS and think he was a good actor, he was too cold to be a Bauer. And yes, Rita was sexy as hell, so we know why SHE never came back...Zimmer would have sh*t her pants.

I love that sexy Rita knows the "back entrance by the pool so you can by pass the lobby" as you know she has been there more than once! Despite her outfit, I love devious Van and don't know why instead of recasting Alex they didn't have Vanessa partially return to her old ways. They could definitely have done it during Rauch's time when they fired Marj...and Van returned....anything to get her away for sighing away with boring Matt! Oh how the show screwed up by not recasting Mike and Hope at anytime. "You KNOW how intimidated Alan is by Mike Bauer" then in later years they only had Alan go up against....Buzzard! I love the old 4th floor nurses station and all the action...love sneaky Nola great times on the show.

It fits the pattern and I don't know that they fought it all that hard...MADD still felt that the Clone was their biggest success. It also had to come from Rauch on a certain level..remember when they were face tapping KZ to play her younger sister..but there was no way that was going to happen? So the old "Dual Role" thing was in play being bounced back and forth to give birth to the clone.

I think soaps were much braver in the 60s and 70s...in the 80s they all became generic copying Dynasty and Dallas and but the time the MADD one and Rauch got their hands on the show, no one wanted to take chances. Add to that MADD/Rauch's "formula" story (bad girl, dumb guy, good girl traingle) and anything that did not fit that formula was out...(the Clone was just another triangle we all saw before..) I always wish they had brought back a son of Roger's at that time to act as his mouthpiece and fill in if Zaz could not work (in my fanwank mind it would be the son of Rita's who Ron believes is Alan's so he adopts him off camera to hate the Spaulding's and the Bauers and be his ultimate revenge on both, but it ends up being Ed's son...) thus helping with production and creating a "what next" bad guy who has a sympathetic back story ( and I always wanted a bad Bauer..) Grillo can thank his lucky stars on his own narcissistic personality and that he has a family member connection in the film industry (thus the Marvel casting) or he would just be another run of the mill ex soap star. The relationship of he and Moniz were destined to break up given their beginnings. She gave up her career to be a stay at home mom apparently....I think she did great on Yellowstone and hopefully she has more character work like that. Yea dumb move to have Dinah kill Hart (if Roger was alive would you believe he would let that go unpunished..) so when she came back it looked ridiculous she got off (and the only time I ever agreed with Cassie..) But Rauch wanted to burn their bridge and let Moniz and Grillo (neither one a cast favorite) know that they could not come back easily.

Grillo always sounded like an ass..I don't know why they didn't take that opportunity to recast Hart...(I love Weary's comment...) For being a mediocre talent and just another lug...he sure spun a career...he must have given great slobbers to someone, somewhere...)

Agreed, Shannon was fun when she first came on and her and Harriet had fun scenes together. Duncan was a sly cad and the mystery of the castle and all that was also fun at first. But of course, Marland had to make them both earnest and dreary, so Duncan's weird sister is found out to be his daughter (which is kind of a drag...Duncan should NOT be a dad...) and then we get Shannon talking about "honesty" in a relationship along with also obsessing about Lily along with the rest of the town and it became a drag. (didn't Shannon at one time threaten to stick Babs head in the toilet at Mona Lisa...if so I think another writers snuck that in it was sooo not Marland.) Lilith was fun and campy (loved her setting bear traps to kill people and shipping bodies of victims to people as a warning...) but seemed out of place in Marland's newly dour world..its like she got confused in her directions and missed Rauch's Llanview and ended up in Oakdale.) The castle was dumb but it stuck around to be the "Earl Mitchell Home for Wayward Youth" even though Earl wasn't really dead...Again, I never understood how a ghost just followed the bricks of the castle to the midwest.

If you read Marland's bible..that was exactly what he envisioned..though it was sexier on paper then with the actors...Lily was bitchier (that Lily would never have jumped at the chance to be at the Snyder farm) and there was some dynamic with a horse whip...(you can tell Marland was a gay boy from the midwest with his fascination with sex in barns and field with hunky farm boys..and well...it was fun...) but they had to tame it down because..Martha..God love her..did not exude that kind of sexuality ( he channeled that into Emily Stewart. But yea..only Marland could manage to find an even less sexual performer in the Lily recast and still write it like every steroid farm hunk in jeans was in love with her.

I got that..I think more then the "suspense" factor..(who didn't know post 1997 what was going to happen on GL...) I think it's the fact that having a major storyline around an actor who may not be able to work on certain days, is more of a problem. They of course could have filmed his scenes ahead of time without certain actors but the immediacy of say, MG's Holly dealing with having to support Roger when he was "weak" would have been lost. On the other hand, seeing MG' Holly doing just that with MZ..given their history and their ties..would have blown away a Double KZ marathon we were treated to. If they cared and they were smart they could have done it..even for a six week storyline to wrap things up..I actually think the writers and Rauch had the talent to do it if they just would be allowed to be creative. But as usual, Rauch and the industry got it wrong..it wasn't the suspence.. there are no new stories in drama..it is the characters interactions that get you there and that is where MADD and Co always failed. Of course, the last time something happened on GL which you couldn't predict...blew up in their faces (Mo's death) so I can see where they were leary.

I love Rauch's quote when the writers wanted to address the ALS.."We all know what the outcome of that storyline is..." or something to that..as if we didn't know what the outcome of the "Clone" would be (well maybe the morons the show was pandering to didn't) or any of the Java storylines...they break up, make up, yap about "always" and then do it all over again. Same with Manny, etc.

Another episode I remember watching in real time...only drama queen Reva would wander around in her wedding dress after her aborted wedding, (and finding out that her fiance was such a d*ck that his exwife would have to hide the fact that their baby lived) wandering around the country side (and looking GREAT, Kimmer was a knock out at that time) which, believe it or not, was actually Peapack!

Remember this like it was yesterday..in the CBS TV lounge in the Student Center....this football player who LOVED ATWT and GL....yelling "James f*cking Stenbeck!!!.Barbara get ya ass out of there!"

That is one of the things, among many that really stood out during Reva 2.0. She had always had guy friends...(when she was first introduced her best friend was a hair dresser in the salon she worked at...never mentioned but played a bit gay by the guy who played Brad on ATWT and he was actually good.Reva needed a gay bestie to fix her wagon once in a while..) Reva really, really liked men, not just for sex but she just liked them, and it really seemed realistic that Reva would make friends with guys faster than other women. Phillip, Johnny, Rick, both H.B. and Billy after their breakups, Fletcher...(she was the only one who made him tolerable...) And then she returned from the dead and it was all about Josh and then her shrill sister and she jumped from plot point to plot point and became a cartoon of her old self. Long really knew how to write for and appreciated friendships. Mindy and Frank were just a little side story but he was only ever interesting and sexy with her (I could never get over FD's frosted highlighted hair...same with Rusty's pouty mullet and tail he had...)

They did...I hate when it's used as a sweeps stunt. I even hated Margo's rape as well done as it was..it took a strong funny character, and she became a morose shell of herself after that. I know the point was strong woman are raped, but old people are abused in real life and I didn't want to see Nancy Hughes being batted around. The worst is when JFP threw away a promising character like Brent Lawrence, to try to make the audience like Lucy Cooper, by having him raper her. Cynical bullshit. However, I think the producer is as inept as his statement is, was trying to say that Roger and Holly were totally dysfunctional and it was both their fault...which is why I loved them over other dysfunctional "super couples" like Jeva that TPTB could never call them out as. I don't think he was trying to blame the rape on Holly but that she brought as much crazy as Roger did.

Yea..it's funny, that is when I started tuning out...morose characters in morose storylines...all the fun of the first year of Marland died on the vine. ATWT for the rest of Marland's run was a slog to get through. I don't mind a heavy storyline but it has to be balanced....and poor Woleck was just Holden 2.0 thought looking waaayy gayer..now he and would definitely have helped Hank get over "Charles" and THAT I would have tuned into see.."Andy, I don't really care about your whining, I got to go meet my dyed blonde muscle boy for some fun!" Meanwhile GL had a balance of fun and heavy stories, family, etc and it had way lower ratings...go to show, you never can tell.

Yes, you are correct..thanks!

I hate that they got rid of the Hughes kitchen and kept the Snyder kitchen..though I do have to say that looks like a real kitchen in an old house...(HGTV would want to paint it all white..) Are you sure that was the Hughes living room...Bob and Kim lost their house and had to hang out in the hotel or in the WOAK set that suspiciously looks just like Kims old one. I think the bar is in the hotel right. For the few sets they have, they do look good.

I would had Reva on a fictional Florida key, in a mouldering mansion with a Gothic family(though Reva and gothic don't mix, she has a history with Kyle and CB's Alan who were both of that type.) Still could have the same storyline, I would keep DAM, but loose Cole, who is incredibly weak as an actor, and replace him with one of they guys they originally thought for the role, he played Cass on AW.) The storyline would go as originally planned with Eddie dying. Then instead of hooking "Richie" up with Malibu Barbie..it would be he and Holly, which would be hot. They would not be royalty but heavily invested in Spaulding which would bring them to SF. I would go with the mob. but Carmen would be trying to get out of it, and using Danny's marriage to Chele to get into legitimate SF society, and Mike, the head of the good ole crime commission would come back to investigate them. Oh what might have been.

Agreed... I hated the Clone, the Mob and San Cristobal but none of those were outright negative and ugly as the Conwest years were. Alex being a shrieking monster, (and dumb...) Brad Cole playing a misogynistic pig who we were supposed to see as a cutting edge hero (Cole did not have the chops to pulll of anti-hero thing) Ben, a legacy character reveal as serial killer (of female sex workers of course) who attempts suicide and then has the "hero" of the show berate him as he is dying...nasty, nasty stuff, which you can't say about the Rauch, the King of Chesse's stuff at its worst.

I guess Rauch and MADD were not that effective as we suffered the clone (MADD thought it was a success) and San Cristobal...(that had Rauch written all over it...outdated 80s crap the budget couldn't support, cartoon characters, showcase for who he thought the "star" was..I am surprised Reva didn't to to Eterna or back in time to the Old West) Why did CBS not like GL..what made it different than ATWT? I agree that the real baddie here is Babs Bloom, (the originator of the Clone idea) how that woman had a job all those years...

The show was so good at that time...look at all the characters interacting...whomever screwed everything up in the Fall of 85 should have been fired.

He had an affair with Annie?? But it was FauxAnnie right? FrankieD benefited from Melina's star power and Rozell's Eleni...dull as dishwater. I actually liked Frank with KT's Mindy..but he had more zest to him...(I remember him being a pool boy or something for her and he was cooling off his chest with ice and turning Mindy on..) but he became a bit of stiff middle aged bore...and I never bought him as a police chief. He was a nice optimistic guy, not very smart, so he should have stayed the owner of Meals on Wheels and that was it. And yes, Rick and Frank were nice support...no romances needed...though I wonder if KT came back if she could have lit a fire under both of them.

Which reminds me...remember when Taylor filled in as Quinton, and he and Brown had more chemistry then she and Tylo had this time around. They should have brought Taylor on as a totally new character and left Quint off camera at one of his digs. A new police chief...(save Springfield from that moron Frank Cooper...) and Nola gets nosing around in the latest crimes...

Tony Reardon was all kinds of "hot" no kinda about it! They wrote him as the perfect working class guy, tough, but loved his Mom and his little sister (but had her number) was nice but no push over. I always thought Frank Cooper was a very water down and boring copy of Tony Reardon. While Harley started out as a take on Nola, Ehlers had the talent and charisma to go her own way, not poor Frankie D, who actually is a the luckiest guy to work on soaps. They just..kept him around.

I liked the lead up to Babs going nuts..the explosion, her scars, feeling stupid that she let a man use her again like James did, and her isolation from her family and friends...with James pulling the strings when she moved into Fairwinds and manipulating her. But, she should have snapped out of it and eventually saved the women and they should have had her shoot James in his final moments he would laugh and say, "Now you are truly like me...I win!" and kill him once and for all (I can out sick Shefffer, I would have her bury him in her backyard put a patio down and then have a scene LIsa, " Oh that horrible James I hope he never comes back." Babs..smirking "Oh, maybe he finallyy went to hell and stayed there." That could have made her darker but not silly, OTT crazy selfish stupid that Sheffer made her. Agreed that the disconnect was Kim, Bob and Lisa not even trying to get through to her and loosing that connection. Agreed also on Lisa and Carly...Lisa always took in the strays and bad girls and she was supportive of other women (going back to her managing the bookstore and original Fashions days) Having Carly, Babs and Lisa giving each other [!@#$%^&*] but circling wagons when one was threatened was way past what Sheffer or Gautman could think of women.