Mitch64

Yea, to all of those on GL...God, who thought those island people were interesting??? Reva ate up the show during Long's run but there was so much going on when she was not onscreen and she was mixed in with the rest of the cast....During Rauch's time it was the big REVA storyline, and oh, yea, everyone else. Even during the climax of the stalker storyline (which I liked...okay, so kill me...) Holly's moment on the bridge became all about Reva and Zimmer chewing the scenery. Talking her down should have been Ed, or better yet Blake, (since it was being a bad mother which set her off) but no..its gotta be Reva saving the day. I never thought Billy took up that much airtime...even during the Lewis takeover in 1985. I did always think it was weird that he became this....just kinda there character after jail ..I know it had to do with Jordan's issues..but when Van came back from that stupid faked death and then sighing on the internet over "Maaaatt" I thought they would have him at least pining away for Van. Oh, how could I forget that GL for a few years was "Guiding Buzz..let's watch JFP and the writers come up with scenes for Deas to chew up what was left of the scenery to get an Emmy from the lazy daytime Emmy committee"

Actually, they explained that it was an old hotel that they rehabbed, to not really attached but close, which made sense that it could be a summer hotel...as the lake could have been atttached to Lake Michigan (which makes me again say Springfield should have been in Michigan not Illinois..as Illinois has about two lighthouses and Springfield would have to a north shore suburb with their yachts and things and it never seemed like that... I know, but I am saying the rando light house they had Cassie and Reva at made them look like they were coming out of the woods...lost (and hadn't Reva lived in Springfield long enough I wanted her to pick up something pink "Oh, there's mah panties I lost in 1985!!! Was it Joshua, or Kyle, or that crazy guy Cane????") Carrying on SF real estate...I wished Rick would have moved to lighthouse (after divorcing boring Mel) and let Ross and Blake move into the Bauer house and they could have become the new tentpoles...(R.I.P. JVD!)

The clone kidnapped Reva there right? Marion kidnapped Dimbulb Lucy, Phillip locked Chelsea out in the lighthouse....light area so she wouldn't spoil Alex and his plan to take over Spaulding in the merger with Lewis, there was the infamous JFP burning down of the lighthouse...the lighthouse suddenly was restored and then years later Meta and Claire were doing a fundraiser to restore it(???) then they had the hotel built on to it...and then suddenly with the new model Reva and NuCassie are wondering around lost and end up at the lighthouse (there was no hotel attached suddenly) and its in the woods, and the last shot of the show the lighthouse is right there in a harbor with no woods to be seen. I would say the Lighthouse was in a pocket universe of its own that had some weird Twin Peaks thing going on. Oh poor Marty West had to do something to pay the rent...but it was not his fault that Conboy had a hard on for him and ruined the budget to build a baseball set to get him into a uniform or threw Dollar, one of the most talented young actors GL had in those years, and wasted her on him, or made him show his ass on...(ah Conboy, we have all seen asses in our lives, its not that exciting...) Its funny how close West's facial features are to the actor who played Shane at the last, except that actor was more masculine and actually had chemistry with his parents and the rest of the cast. That was the problem, at that time GL could not afford his lush sets...Rauch had screwed the budget up as it was...but he had a lot of the old sets refurbished before he left, like the Bauers, Company, etc. and the show didn't need production, it needed writing and casting. Blame Conboy but it was MADD who hired him, let him hire Weston, let him turn the show into something even worse then the worst of Rauch.

Interesting time at ATWT..the Dobson's are gone and Marland hadn't arrived. You can tell the writers are trying to get back a "family feeling" and an ensemble. The very start of Kim and Bob reuniting...(was Kim secretly this singer they are talking about.) Interesting seeing boring Lyla having some fire and not liking Betsy...Craig was the ultimate Momma's boy bad or good, which is what they forgot when they recast him during Gautman, and here he is starting his redemption arc..Amazing how much BVF looks and sounds like Fulton but just can't pull it off..and mmmm.Jay...I was crushing hard on him in high school. Gunnar is a bore...weird seeing Babs with no shades of grey, they are trying hard to get a storyline for Annie and Jeff but they will be written out soon.

She said in interviews that she was moving over to GH and then found out about being preggers...and by that time she wanted to spend time with her family and not deal with the bullshit of being a headwriter. If I was Rauch I would have hired her as a consultant for at least a year, I think she would have been able to turn Reva back into...Reva instead of that self righteous heroine they attempted to make her. Agreed, and it also effects the budget....showcasing Zimmer constantly ( and I DO like her..not that MUCH of her) gave her too much power and allowed her to write her own ticket...when its an ensemble you can say "Here's the deal, if you don't like it we have Vanessa, Holly, Alex, Amanda...whoever over here with story...." Also, you look at stuff like early 70s ATWT..which was supposed to be SO conservative and outdated...but its not..Dan and Susan have an open marriage, which ultimatley will fail, you have Dr. Shea seducing an older lonely woman from a core family, just for her money, she turns to drink when the town slut goes after him..town slut thinks she is in love, until she gets married to him and then they torture each other...it seems so much more adult and layered...sure Shea is a bad guy, but Lisa is not a psycho bitch and Claire is not perfect...Dan is not Jack Snyder..Mr. good guy being screwed over by Susan..they could be more cutting edge because they had Nancy and Chris back in the kitchen and everyone had shades of good and bad. It was a huge loss (Rae) but Rauch said to Mimi Torchin I believe that they had to compete with Skinamax (remember those bad old soft core porn movies..) so they had to cast model types...(as if anyone is watching soft corn porn at 2 in the afternoon and if they are they arent going to turn it off to watch models fully clothed in pastel business suits...) Remember Jim Lemay went from being played by a normal looking guy to being played by that muscle guy who I believe was in some of those movies...but he was still boring and no one cared when he died in that fire (R.I.P. to the actor tho..) Agreed but JFP went way too dark...look at the Bauer set, it is bright for Christmas and then they kill Mo and the house is constantly shot dark..okay, storyline reasons there but the whole show was in shadow, along with Mo dying, the recasts, Alex being a cartoon shrew schreeching, Buzz taking over the show and all the women allowing this troll to obsess them..it all became depressing. But agreed on Rauch, the blinding lights on every damn set constantly looked terrible matched with the pastel clothes. The Spaulding mansion with Alan there and Alex gone should have been lit dark and more masculine, Carmen's house should be dark and isolating as her life should have been potrayed...etc. Agreed...we spent so much time in Gradyville...why? Though I think Wheeler struck a good balance during her years, bringing people back like Van and Matt when needed for the story, she attempted to get Simon, Alex was always around (though admittedly not written correctly) and not driving story (which both she and Alan should not have been doing at that time..) Why they couldnt have just brought back Mindy earlier for Rick (his only successful pairing beside Abby IMO) leads me to believe Wheeler had better intentions then Gautman, she just didn't know how to pull it off.

I know...it has kept me awake many a night...as a matter of fact, I almost got hit by a car crossing the street I was so distracted by that scene!!! : ) I don't think they ever said who the actress was..Long just had a redhead in mind for Reva (which I can actually see) and then saw the KZ audition and was on it...which reminds me of when she saw MG, who they brought back for the aftermath of Blake being Chrissy at the Bauers for Christmas and Long was, "Damn, now that woman is SEXY!" and decided to bring her back full time. She had a great eye for talent!

And he and Weston were seen..."rocking out" to Cole and his music during a fan event..I don't know if it was before they hired him or after and I have to say, to see those old f*cks dancing to Cole's musical stylings...along with BC's frauing fans..would be more entertaining then anything the two of them came up with!

He was a piece of ASS back then! I wonder why Marland and the exec producer, both of whom knew sexy men when they saw them, didn't cast him in a regular part? He probably looked down on soaps despite his mother, and wanted bigger things, which he got, for a while. Lisa ran it...(as a little kid I remember her caring around books and I thought she worked in a library..) only ATWT in the 60s would have the town slut running a bookstore! The Dobson's did burn it down and there is a clip of Lisa and Bob talking and she discusses the bookstore she opened at the hospital, Chris and Nancy owning it, and rebuilding the original store, but that didn't happen. I can see them opening a store at the hospital so it gave Lisa a chance to be in the thick of nosing around Memorial, but its too bad they didn't open it the main one back up as book and coffee/wine shop, to give characters a place to go and discuss their problems besides the horrid Platka or whatever the hell the Nick ran. I also liked Lisa having a staff of women and they all seemed to love her and she doted on them..(Fulton was equally good with her claws out or nuturing a younger actor..)

That was the problem...as someone upthread posted...E & B said they the focus should be on the lovers and not the families. Jill Hurst answers posts on the GL FB page often and she is quite honest about things, and she said Rauch and MADD thought the show should be all about glamour and BIG moments and I remember Rauchie in interviews saying things like the show was going to be about "PASSION" and big stakes...(how is Jeva breaking up, making up, breaking up..making up...big stakes???) and he thought business stories made his eyes glaze over...(admittedly MADD and previous writers never really made it clear what Spaulding does, who has the most stock, who are the investors, etc so it was just silly all the time.) So you have a dumbed down GL and you get a dumbed down audience who are not attracted to the show, its history or its families, but about the actors or the couple of the moment that, I guess they could have fantasies they were part of...i don't know, I never got shippers. So eventually that was all that was left, and the problem is..the couple beast is a hard animal to keep feeding, you have to repeat the same storylines over and over again, characters don't learn or grow and you have to resort to sc-fi or fantasy crap to make things different. Remember when Richie bit the big one and a fan almost got ran over crossing the street she was so upset about it? What the hell could you do with a dumb Prince, what was the storyline future for him?? That's what we were left with.

They were under the delusion that Zimmer and to a lesser degree, Newman, were the end all and be all of GL. Zimmer had her fans bombarding the studio and the boards every time she came on set that she "Knocked it out of the ballpark again!" etc, and both of them went to the press and cried if they had two straight days off. The ratings went up during the Annie trial (more Annie and Watros more the draw, plus there was a lot of stuff going on with other characters then..) and then the Clone got a lot of press, (believe it or not MADD chalked that up to their greatest success) and the ratings subsided a bit when they gave Josh and Reva a much needed rest after the clone..(all of those lookey lous were not going to stick around for anything as they were not interested in GL..just the Clone freak show..) .so net execs being lazy and dense from there were afraid to give Jeva a break. Rauch believed in a super couple to be the face of a show so with Roger and Holly gone it was Jeva.

Alan lived in a mansion...one that Rita..even though she lived in a cool house with a pool, etc, and was married to a doctor, lusted after...(also, the Spaulding lifestyle...) Since this was Marland writing, Hope was a sappy bore and didn't want to live in the mansion (where it came from, either Brandon or if Alan bought or built it, I don't know.) as she wanted to leave the trappings of uber wealth behind...(though she did not seem to mind living an upper middle class lifestyle...) and they bought the house behind Ed;s house..which Hope actually liked (bad move to live behind your sexy and always wanting more aunt..) It later was retroed during Long that it was the Spaulding mansion (and the Spauldings being there all along) which shared a boundry with the Bauer house, and Alex was at several BBQ's etc. Oddly, during Taggert's time with Joan/Alex and the start of Marj/Alex it is mentioned that the Spaulding lived in Chicago again.

The house was actually supposed to share backyards but it was actually the house that Hope made Alan buy so they were not living in the mansion. Rita liked that the back gate (haha) made it convenient for Alan to.."stop by." It was later retro written to be the Spaulding mansion, but they kept that pretty consistent to the end.

I know the Pharley's (another CRAZY fan group) hated that story, but I think O'leary and Ehlers brought out the best in each other...O'leary did not get quite that much mugging in and he was written to mostly be a good guy who wanted the best for everyone (as opposed to the Blake situation where he was practically stalking her and could care less about his practically uncle Ross' feeling about the situation) as Rick/Harley/Phillip were stuck in a bad situation with no villains (a first for a Rauch GL "triangle") and Ehlers was not the love goddess or the shrill shrew yet. I am sure Ehlers wouldn't be thrilled but I think she would have worked well if they choose it, a long term Bauer matriarch, with a return of Mallet later to spice things up, but I never liked Gus so...I just liked Rick and Harley loving each other as friends and no great "romance" as I was so tired of the great "passion" ALL soap couples were supposed to have..(it would be exhausting to be a soap character.) Yes, he did..and I do think it was interesting that Rick was in love with a woman of color and I liked the actress but they made Mel so boring. O'leary needs someone with a snappy energy like Tersau or Ehlers to offset his either making Rick a sadsack or "comedic" (which he failed miserably when doing schtick,,) I thought it would be great to have Mel have a grandmother who lives in a neighborhood effected by the Santos crimes and maybe a lawyer who would be instrumental in bringing them down. I also think it was a mistake not to use the earthquake and Alan and Olivia's misdeeds to finally end the San Crud storyline and bring everyone back and of course, the dumb time travel crap. Beth's split personality was a good idea to explain her odd behavior since her return but it reeked of typical Rauch influenced crap, with Chamerline showing her cleavage and everyone in SF too dumb to figure out its really Beth.

So why didn't they pursue it? Were they afraid.....had to have room for two Zimmers to chew scenery? I can see why they had to recast at the last minute but it should have been temporary to write Roger out until they could figure out what to do with Zaz and the character.

I forgot all about him...who could play him? Always trying to fit in Roscoe Born in at GL at that time maybe a Holly/Lindsey/Alex triangle...(ah Alex could have brought him back when Fletcher and Holly were together but her plans are fouled by the return of Claire..(throw in the "Chele might actually be Fletch's.and an Alex/Dietrich/Holly/Fletch/Claire/Ed thing would have been much better then the Meg storyline (never disliked it, just should have been Frank and Eleni's storyline.) Can we see Marj making the moves on Born???

The good old circular Bauer Spanish style fireplace, which stuck it out almost to the end..( I just watched a Inside the Light on Rick and Mel and she is having her family over to the Bauers and somehow the fireplace ended up in the kitchen..) I have ALWAYS wanted a fireplace like that and most likely why I love Spanish style. This is a good, though odd set. Most soap homes were generic, the Bauers has the Spanish element and they even mimiced plaster in the walls. Maybe I just grew up on a faster pace but I do have to say, some of this is SLOOWWWW... "Viola called..." (pause)..."Did she say anything?" (pause)..."No," (pause) "Well I better call her back" is a bit tedious..people in real life don't talk like that. Bernau is a piece of a** in his younger days, MG is ageless...Hope is dull (they needed the character back, but Rousell was like watching paint dry) and Charita was younger then, then I am now!!! No ego on her playing an adult woman's grandmother and such a comforting feeling watching her.

You hit on something intangible about ATWT and probably soaps in general..that shared experience between the generations. I remember watching ATWT and GL with my grandmother, (who I lost more then 25 years ago) my aunt (lost about 20 years) and my Mom...(a bit over a a year) and talking and laughing and making fun of and watching these goofy shows together with the same characters and actors...no TV show are ever going to come close to that again. So instead of seeing an actress you like pass, you are seeing all of those good memories of the people you lost also. It was really weird and personal when I found out Hays passed, and I am not a weird celebrity fan..it IS like you lost someone in your family.

Ewww...the aimless Anderson and Manetta era...whatever happened to Manetta? And Rusty is so damn cheesy! I wonder why they never brought a teenage or early 20s Dorie back, she would have been a funny addition to kick Moniz' Dinah's butt.

Well, since Rauchy didn't think she was "hot" enough (as looking like an actress in a Skinemax flick from the 90s) she wasn't going to get anything..so having her survive as a talk to until someone with more taste came on board..(though I wish they had chemistry tested with MOL...MAYBE Bridget could light a fire under Rick..Abby was way too perfect..) Did they ever say she and Dylan got together? I know when they brought that Friend of Babs Bloom actor on he was head over heels for Harley (yawn..) They went from CuteDylan to DopeyDylan with that recast. Speaking of..I was watching an episode on You Tube where Nick and Mindy attempt to get married for the 8th millionth time (they really beat the Alex/Nick/Mindy thing to death, poor Marj..Bev got out in the "nick" of time) and Real Dylan is going to support Bridget in the custody battle and Alex breaks in on the wedding....Vanessa tells them both to "Get out of her house" and man...does Maeve give out the ice in those scenes! She goes from slightly frentic (she wants the wedding to go well as all this crap is hitting the family fan) to loving of Mindy, to Ice Cold BIOTCH to both Alex and Dylan..all with over acting. Maeve never really got the credit she deserved and its a shame that Van got wasted in Mattessa. Its also the JFP era where everything is off the rails but its SO much better then anything we saw since then..Ed and Bridget are fighting/talking over Eve, like real people, Henry and H.B. have a great " old man" scene smoking cigars..Vans trying to keep it together, AM is trying to get what he deserves and Gilly is backing him for her own interests, the only weak part is the Nick and Mindy and Alex part which should have been OVER by then. Sorry Jilly, compared to McLaiby, Rauch and everyone else, you werent half bad.

Ha..I am suprised Wheeler didn't rent out the Peapack Anytime Fitness...but it might have been a tad too expensive for the GL budget. But I COULD see Reva in her later years embracing positive body imaging and running a health studio. "Come on girls, just because we aren't skinny anymore does not mean we can't be healthy! I know Joshua still likes to climb up on this every chance he gets so get agoing!" Well after all these years of Company being run by..whomever...I think that it kind of ran itself. I would have kept Bridget at Company (I would have kept Bridget around as the GL version of GH's Jessie Brewer, except instead of a nurse's desk it would be a bar she would sit behind and be a talk to..) and had Nola run the Tower's redone as a 1930's 40s Art Deco mold and have her be in everyone's business like Lisa. Anything would have been better then Buzz at Company and the Coopers stinking up the Boardinghouse! But I do like the idea of Nola writing romance adventure novels where the hero always was just another version of Quint. I would have loved that..Marland brings his story structure (sometimes Long's stories just ran off the rails) love of history, and Pam brings her sense of humor, family, sex and community to a show. I saw an interview on YouTube where they were both up for Emmy's and they seemed to really enjoy and respect one another. What is Long doing now?

I am sure Kobe was the leader of it...(we went from the Reardons and Bauer kitchen scene to EVERYONE flouncing around town with big hair, shoulder pads and sparkly dresses )but when Long returned..previous writers were starting to build the Reardons back...Chelsea (as dumb as that character was) and Lee Lawson was back on recurring, and she stopped that and Bea disappeared and she created the Coopers. I can see creating another down on their luck family, but why not introduce them through the Reardons...(i.e. Bea knows Pops...) It just seemed odd.

I agree..I think Long wrote quite well for the Reardons...they suddenly became Catholic (a no brainer but waspy Marland had them protestant which made no sense) they would be loud and argue but always had each others back...I don't know why she suddenly "turned: on them!

interesting..I thought it was the opposite, as the scab writers were going for Nola actually marrying Kelly, but the strike ended and Marland had to throw the quick unraveling of Nola's plans together as the first priority. While we would have been cheated the classic Kelly and Nola scenes in the Bauer patio...it would have been much more interesting to see Nola having to keep up her ruse while married to Kelly (and throwing it in Morgan's face) and for it to unravel from there, and then Thornway Road would be introduced once Kelly tossed Nola out on her ass. As it was, Nola got a great storyline and Kelly and Morgan's ended because..who cared about them? Interesting...though Nola deserved better than Speedo Boy. Speaking of typical soap ingenue..I always thought it was sad that they threw away Bridget during the Rauch era (and actually, during JFP's and Mclaiby also, when the soap ingenue role went to boring and annoying Lucy Cooper.) I fell down a rabbit hole this week watching episodes during the transition from McLaiby into Rauch and up to the Annie falls down the stairs start of E & B and see how dated the show looks compared to during JFP or even Laibson's time. The bright lights, the pastels...there are very funny scenes of Vanessa in the convent and there is constant hymnal music and nuns singing in the background. Rauch's time really took a turn from a show being about families with several quircky characters involved who looked "real" to a show where even interesting looking people start looking plasticky and everyone is obsessed with "romance" Poor Nola and Bridget didn't stand a chance with Rauch's obsession with sexy skinny blondes desperately fighting for men. I notice that anyone who isnt in a romantic relationship is tossed off, even Alex. The show really lost that feeling that it was a community with people who had other things going on besides romantic entanglements. The show just got so flat, I don't understand the critics raving about the turnaround.

Ha....yes on that damn song. Morgan was just weirdly asexual which always made me think that Speedo Boy (which we used to call Kelly) was going to turn out gay..its also weird that both of them have..asexual names...what was Marland going for? I know Marland was weird about sex scenes but the whole thing was dull as dishwater, except for Nola! Yes, Lisa seemed to muddle her lines but she reminded me of Lisa on ATWT....maybe it was on purpose as both of them were jittery schemers with a lot of lies to keep straight in their heads? And yes, Marland trotted out the "young model" storyline on ATWT also, featuring another..uh, plain model (Courtney)who everyone RAVED about!

The funniest...post....EVER!!!! His heart is in the right place, I just wish he would shut up!! Patricia looks great and more vibrant and full of energy then they let her show at least during the 70s...(I think Marland let her have more zip but by that time she was a talk to only.) If only they had let her have that smile as Ellen (my Mom always said she and David looked like they both at hemoroids all the time.) I always wish they had brought in a man who was toying with both Lisa and Ellen, and it turns out to be Michael Shea...(courtesy plastic surgery...) back for revenge. I think Lisa finding out who he is when he kisses her...("YOU!!! A man's kiss is like his fingerprints, I should know, I have both all over me!") but he blackmails her to shut up so he can marry widow Ellen and find his way into that Lowell money once and for freaking all! Then both Lisa and Ellen unite for once to take him down...Ellen," Oh, Michael, you should know never to mess with an older woman, we are much smarter, and much more ruthless than poor young things!"