Mitch64

I can understand why they paired Kim with Nick and Bob with Lyla, which is a smart thing to do to introduce two new characters and families and tie them to the core. The problem was..Nick was a d*ck and they were never invested in Bob and Lyla...(the first actress was a harder, stronger Lyla and then they recast with younger Anne Sward and she became softer and the focus moved to Margo..) I think a Bob/Kim thing at that time would have been good...with Lisa at odds with Grant, she and Bob move closer but he still has feelings for Kim, but the guilt from what happened before stops him, then its a Joyce/Grant/Lisa/Bob/Kim thing. Lisa would have a rival that she actually liked for once, Kim could move away from Bob from her guilt (so a Nick could come in here) which maybe Lisa gets a bit of her old self back and seeds the guilt in both Bob and Kim, this could go on for a while until Lisa gets distracted with some rich new guy, and the end result is Bob and Kim.

I think there were several factors..Pam did indeed need to be pulled in..and she balked at the net control which we all know does not come with the best choices. I think she was still hurting from having her Johnny Bauer is a miracle healer storyline shot down (good on the net) and then the Matt Weiss thing (bad on the net) and finally, Reva returning as a ghost to cheer up Marah that Christmas (good on the net also, as they wanted to leave the door open to Reva being alive, but as we saw, that didn't stop her..) She was most likely tired of fighting the net, her ratings weren't taking advantage of the ATWT lead in, so that along with her sauciness I am sure made the net say, "See ya!" Pam's best stories were her heart, friends and community ones (though oddly the dark as hell Sonni/Solita was damn well her best work, but that was essentially about two sisters bond, and family abuse, not Annie Dutton is EVIL camp..) and as you see here with the clunky Roger as special agent saving AM, so that big "healer" storyline always confused me.

Who is that couple that Lisa is shading when they come into the ML? I love her "Ill give you a benefit of a doubt as THIS time you are with a single man and not a married one," ..I can't believe Susan, who was there to see some of Lisa's hey day did not through up HER past (not polite I know...) Im sure Fulton missed out on playing those scenes..they don't ring that well with Powell, though she is looking great. And Lisa seems to not worry about being sued for denying service to people she doesnt like much..(if only Lucinda and John came in to make her night.) Oh boy, the gang getting together for Lyla's boring ass act..(I love how the younger people are into it).Lyla and Chelsea Reardon were neck and neck on who to FF when they had a microphone in front of them.."Hi, Im Tom Hughes and I used to be sexy as hell but now am a dour bore" There is unsexy Lily getting all the hot muscle ass by the pond...I remember thinking ATWT was so stupid and boring at the time...of if only I knew what was to come I would have enjoyed Marland more.

Reva is about to drive off that bridge and the show is about to drive into its golden age. No one noticed that Reva was showing an odd propensity for wearing post maternity clothes in RED???? Holly/MG is looking smoking hot here and I know everyone else loved her but SS' Blake is so...BIG and campy and not very sexy for the vamp she was supposed to be. Its weird to see BC's Beth not humping the Spaulding couch and acting nice and normal and its depressing what was eventually going to happen to Reva and Beth when they returned.

I liked Floyd...he was a normal background character that soaps need...stupid that they made him madly in love with Beth and a killer. Later on the show should have used Rick and Frank that way,,,just nice normal people who werent involved with a lot of drama.

She was Beth's friend but have no idea who the actress is. Damn, everyone is so young and looking good here..Ross is a piece of a** here and Billy was actually looking handsome in his hat. I loved the sick obsession Billy had with Reva and Zimmer is so good here, not the scenery chewer of later days...I love Van's cool shade she give Jeva but Maeve is not very good in the "Oh Billy" scene! Yea, not really liking Phillip turning into a pr*ck here, the triangle could have gone on without him being the bad guy.

Actually a good episode in a bad time for GL..Love Alan and Alex snarking, the ridiculous soap drama at the wedding, and them finally showing Kyle for what he is...(why is Ed one of his groomsman?) and typical drama queen Reva..going for a picturesque stroll in her wedding dress (this was real Reva, not the weird thing she became under Rauch.) This was filmed near Peapack too so it shows that the place can actually look good.

The BBQ that Vanessa just disappeared from after...I remember Matt saying.."Oh, look at that kid" and they walked off camera and Van..evaporated for a couple of years. Maeve was looking great and I got to say, as dull as Matt was..he sure was a piece of ass in that pic!

That was Marland and one of his weaknesses that I alluded to in another thread. No gossip or bitching was allowed from anyone...only BAD people complained about other people, occassionaly someone like Lisa could complain about Lucy, or Johnny or Suzie Q but that was chalked up to her eccentricities. Polite wasps do not complain or gossip on Marland's soaps. Good people all have to LIKE each other, and business people are usually bad as they let their ambition get in the way of being "honest" at all times. I loved later GL where people gossiped about each other and good characters didn't necessarily all get along.

Ha...loved Lisa as Oakdale's infamous gossip columnist "Dolly Valentine" that ended too soon, this was the begginging of the dumb reincarnation stuff.

I thought that happened. I remember Phillip asking Mo if she had Mike's number in Washington, and she was like "I think I have it somewhere..." uh, its your brother in law (even though she was estranged from Ed at that time.) I remember at the time thinking it should have been Mike crashing on the island with Alex, not Fletcher (sorry, I could not STAND Jay Hammer in those years and they kept throwing divas at him to make it work when he just worked at a pal to everyone..) and then Mike finally catching up to Alan and putting him in prison.

Such a missed opportunity. I think in an earlier time writers would have written a good triangle...Vanessa getting back to baiscs and going head to head with Alan with help from Billy, Matt and Beth being attracted to each other not because of age, but Matt feeling left out and Beth at the pint in her life where she felt lost also. I would have had Beth start an abuse counseling business, and maybe Matt helps her with construction on an abuse victims home and thing progress slowly, with not vixen's or villian or "old" women.

I know that Marland had another show in the hoppper, one more "urban" and "darker" then ATWT...I think that he may have just moved into a different phase in his writing and wanted to go there. I think that when the show wasn't picked up he transferred that feel to ATWT, which didn't fit the show. Who needs a reason??? : ) This is more ATWT to me then Marland's run. It was warm and goofy but grounded. I think SBH was working Marland during his first year or two and the combination of the two...his discipline, and her warmth and ability to create warm connections between between worked. I think Marland was a great writer but a bit too disciplined that his dialouge and interactions to me, never came off as "real" as writers like Long and Curlee and SGH.

Agreed...but we all have to admit..as good as Marland was...he was a bit..one note..good God if anyone on the show talked about "therapy" and "honesty is the key to every relationship"( I always wanted Lisa to fly in then and say, "And money and a big d*ck doesnt hurt either!!!") or ANOTHER psycho started fondling a letter opener...I do think if talented younger writers came on and Marland spent a year with them, and then was a consultant for a year or two that would have worked but unfortunatley he didnt get the chance.) His best time was the first two to three years of his work on ATWT..then after that...no sorry, Oakdale started to be full of gloom...Even Duncan and Shannon before her "death" became bores. But damn, were those three years great! I wonder how, if he lived, moving over to GL again would have worked..how would Marland and Jilly get along???

For better (for most of his run) or worse (this part of his run) ATWT was the show and material which really represented Marland's..well, I guess psyche...the wasp Hughes family and their immediate circle being oh, so polite and well, waspy (Marland's aspiration) ..the farm family (Marland's past) the constant stream of hunky muscle boys in tight jeans falling in love with the good girl and becoming part of the waspy enviornment (Marland's young sexual yearnings? Marland's aspirations.) The constant reliance on "therapy" the sexual stiffness of his characters...(Marland's repressed sexuality???) The lack of warmth even in family scenes. During the dark period maybe Marland was "going through something," All this is a bit pretentious I know and just surmising but I really do think the material reflected the man more then I have seen any other show and its writers.

I have no doubt..I was just giving my opinion..plus there were other factors involved with the ratings then just approving of the material. But IMO overall GL was more of an "enjoyable" watch..they had family, community, friends, mystery, business, love stories, some topical things, camp and of course, humor and just fun, which the at this time morose ATWT did not have. Oh yes, and sex..GL had some good heated sex going on, which ATWT was too polite (or depressed) to show.

Agreed, I LOVE bitchy Van, no one could cut someone like Maeve (okay, Bev is the queen of that...) It was a shame that they made her a matronly bore for a few years right after this. I still think instead of recasting Alex they should have had Van step into the role..they could have still had the dull as dishwater Mattessa but maybe spiced it up a bit with Van getting her mojo back.

Thank for posting! Great acting, great writing and very, very unpleasant and not fun....(just watching the bit of GL during that time against this gloomy town I can see why GL became my fave soap at the time.) Not interested in watching the fall out of a woman (who made no lasting impact on Oakdale) deal with the after effects of aborting the child created from incestuous rape! Kudos for the network for allowing this material to hit the air.

Between a minister named Wally and Don Hughes poor Lisa was really going through a bland faze!

When he first came on he wasn't bad...and he had kind of a sexy (I know weird) rascally vibe, he was just not to the manor born Alan and he always came off as too nice..so he tried to make up for it as being bombastic or grumpy.

A minister named Wally Matthews...doesn't really seem that exciting for poor Lisa after her string of men and being married to Michael Shae..did he try to "save" her???

In a perfect world Kobe would have talked Simon into leaving and recast Mike...or gone back to the well and rehired MH and then recast Mike. The Mike/Alex thing was too could to let go and never get back to. Of course years later I would have preferred RR to be cast as Mike and someone else as Alan...especially at times they made MarjAlex seem less of a control freak sister and more a jealous girlfriend (though to be fair their were always elements of that in Bev/Alex and Bernau, but Bev knew how to play subtext and Marj..knew how to chew up the scenery (God love her!!!)

Never understood why they didn't bring in the Hughes cousin's and their children. I think it would have been good to have a farm girl vixen type Carly type come to Oakdale and live with Chris and Nancy so she can deal with another Lisa type.

Loved her as Bea...can't believe Long got rid of her..twice.. with Charita gone the show needed a matriarch and they could have brought in endless Reardon kids and grandkids..and with the boardinghouse constant rotation of new young trouble makers. I can't believe as Bea she was younger then I am now!

Speedos on guys in soaps always looks so "Skinamax" and dumb....(I have really never seen anyone wear one in real life in public...) even if you could get away with it as GA obviously could (Phillip with his shirt off yes, Phillip in a speedo..no...) My favorite sets were Bob and Kim's house (consisting of living room, den, and kitchen) and how it morphed from this kind of simple house that Nick and Kim lived in, to this bigger place where people were coming in and out of all day. The traffic made no sense (with the murder rate in Oakdale wouldnt the Hughes lock their doors) but it was a great fantasy of having a center of town where people could go to when they were in trouble, or just needed to bitch about what Ole Johnny and Lucy were up to! I also loved the Bauer living room with that spanish influenced circular fireplace as I said before. Its one of the few family sets on a soap that was distinctly designed. Though as a kid I still remember the Karr's simple living room from Edge and of course, the Collingwood foyer and stairs from Dark Shadows..but the ultimate was the Collin's family crypt with the lions heads which had the pull coming out of the mouth and people would pull on that to find an entrance to a tunnel, a vampire's coffin, or a vortex or two. Always was jealous of gay little David Collins who got to run around the property unsupervised always.