Mitch64

I think both he and the Annabelle actress decided to leave on their own, as did Jim, who took time to film a pilot or something and it got picked up. Brown left as she wasnt being written for and there go the Reardons....tho Mo and Bea were still there and they had three other siblings who hadnt shown up so one could be a cop.

Agreed, I can see a Reardon being a cop but not a Shayne. Also the actor did not really help. Why I am sure a lot of people saw him as a hunk...(I thought he was cheesy as hell) Reva's brother needed more then tight jeans and poofy hair. They could have cast someone else and made Rusty more like Reva when she first came on the show..a social climbing gold digger. He should have resented the Lewis men for having it all , f*cking up constantly, but having a cushion of money. Instead he had his head up H.B's ass all the time. To spice Kurt/Mindy up I would have had Rusty after Mindy to get her money and to sully the Lewis princess. Mindy would have grown bored with Kurt, managing the bar and living at the Boardinghouse, even without being the "Sampson Girl" and Rusty would have been right there to egg that on.

The only reason I can see is that they would think maybe his mom would make an appearance...but even that was old hat after GH. He was such a nothing burger and had no chemistry with ANYONE. That whole era had nothing burgers..Kurt, Simon, Johnny and Rusty...(and if your related to Reva and can't get a story you are BORING!) Frankie D just missed that by having Ehlers cast as his sister and the first Eleni actress lighting a fire under him.

Pam Long said it was a misfire, but she excuses that she was "young" in her writing career, when she already had been at Texas and GL for over 2 years. They could have just had his body never recovered by the dumb explosion and had the same scenes from Alex and Beth. Alex had it out for Billy and Kyle after that but it all went to nowhere (would have been interesting with Van in the middle but she was too busy being , as one critic said, "Alice Kramden to Billy's Ralph." ) and Beth flirted with that stupid Jackson Freement (I mean really where was that going..another character with no connections to any of the families.)We as soap viewers have seen that before and would know he was alive. It's interesting about Jeff Ryder. Curlee said that the bad material was because of other factors (Kobe?) and Zimmer and her husband on the Locher Room credited him along with Long (and Jay Hammer of all people) with the great writing in creating Reva???/

I was watching a bit of GH during the aftermath of Monica's death, and the Quatermaine house and kitchen look great and huge. Now I know it is filmed in California but come on, ATWT could have afforded a nice house, or at least a kitchen set for their tentpole couple. The Bauers kept their house until Rauch left and they still had a kitchen to the end, and there were hardly any Bauers left...(and the kitchen was severely cut up during Wheeler...though in one episode they incorporated that cool living room fireplace in the kitchen set which I actually liked...a kind of family room kitchen would work and solve a lot of space issues. Tom and Margos was kind of like that..though how the characters were played at taht time did not make it seem like their house would be the one people liked to hang out at.

Oh how I hated that the Snyders were the only family left with a kitchen, when Bob and Kim of all people had to do all their eating in Lisa's hotel. I loved the ridiculousness of people just walking in and out of Bob and Kim's house at all hours of the day and night. Never felt the same way about the Snyders but glad someone like them and they kept some traditions. I wonder if NY production staff and writers thought kitchens were passe or two...midwestern?

I can see Meta adopting the Faux Bauers like Johnny, as she would desperately want a family like her brother did, (and he threw it away.) That would have made a better connection then bringing in this Lainie and Jack that no one knew (though I liked the Lainie actress as Meta, and I would have made the new Bauers...more interesting then Johnny.) Meta's cousins died in one of those car crashes that were always so plot expedient in soaps, so motherless she adopted them herself and took back the Bauer name. I never followed Irizarry's career, was he on AMC when they were doing the Beth/Phillip/Harley thing? If not that would have been an interesting development and much more interesting then Phillip, in love with good old gal Harley, but chased after by a newly psycho Beth.

Did Meta mention at the time that she too was in jail. They had forgotten so much history at that time but apprently it was a big deal that they even had a contest for the audience to vote if Meta was guilty or not. Did Meta have step kids they could have brought back...wasnt there a pain in the asss Robin who married Mike Bauer?

It seems so odd that McTavish did not care about this when she wrote the Meg story,,,(which went to the wrong couple...this should have been a Frank Eleni story) when she was there when they wrote Ed/Claire and Pratt blames Megan for blowing up Fletch and Claire and then turning Claire into an all out psycho. Was it even mentioned that Fletch reversed the process? I am fine with it as it does work from history, but really did not want Fletch to have more story.. I could see it that Meg dies, and Fletch as her really only caregiver is crazed with grief. The bomb goes off, Claire returns (unpsycho but her usual brittle self) and Chele has to deal with all of this. But ultimately I want an adopted kid to say, "No, the guy who raised is my dad, sorry, you can be in my life but I only have one dad.") Chele would be the perfect character to do this as Mo was her Mom....(It woudl have been interesting to see adult Chele insist on adopting kids as she saw the avlue of that.)

Well, it could have been interesting drama, so of course they didn't touch it. I would have given AM imposter syndrome..as if it wasn't Alan or Alex he had to impress, he had shadow of Phillip, not even a bio Spaulding, hovering all over him. Add to that his Bauer which was rarely mentioned, and he would have felt..less then his backstabbing family. When Alan was trying to steal the presidency from him during the Brent storyline, I wanted him to have a scene with Ed where he tells AM to fight for the role..."Your great grandfather was an immigrant, and he would have been so proud of you being in charge and all the good you can do to help the people who work for Spaulding and the community. He was the exact opposite of Brandon and that should be your role model." So we find out AM wants to change some things, running up against Alan and Alex, and Amanda actually taking his side..."Out with the old and in with the new, nothing personal Alex when I say...old."

Totally agree that Amanda had more then enough reason to screw over Alan and Alex and even Phillip (to give her some depth I would have her actually like AM as her "baby brother" and her old friend Hope's kid, and for AM to like her back as I would have him feel "not part of the Spaulding fold" either) . Alex could have brought out the Lucille older woman animosity in Amanda...especially since they had Alex throwing up the infamous attic in one scene. I wanted her to go to Ross with plans to get back what she deserved from Alan and Alex, and for him to be in on it and support her, kind of brining back his old power lust side. This he woudl have to keep a secret from Blake , who of course would be jealous. Alan really only threw her a bone when he signed his shares over (which never made sense why he left SF in the first place except for plot to find Reva.) so I can see her making the most of it. She did mention LTA to both Ross and Josh, but by that time the show was so cartoony and the good guys so self righteous with the "bad" guys that he didn want anything to do with her.

Here's where I agree about writing Alex off during the Rauch era, Alex needed a breather and Marj/Alex was not working out. Amanda was basically in a family where no one gave a damn about her, her father didnt really love her and would always choose the goeldn boy over her. She knew none of them from her childhood and had no lingering affection that way, she was a total outsider.She could have been Brandon the second coming without being his daughter. That is where they screwed it up.

For a show banking on one character to stir things up..(Reva had things happen to her at this point which is why I always say Zimmer had more interest in air time and her ego then quality material or what was good for the character.) they really f*cked the charater of Annie up..they wanted to grab the ratings (and to prop up Reva as their new Viki Lord) on her way out and made Annie irredeemable...and then brought her back miscast and in the dumbest plot around...( a really good actress could have played her and they could have brought her back as everyone knowing she was Annie ( I would have had Alan had enough of her, intead of the spineless chump they wrote him as, and during their last confrontation with Reva an accident happened and Annie burned her face and went into a coma pending recast and when she wakes up she thinks that REva is still dead and she is married to Josh(which of course the audience would know she is faking it.) But yea they recast Dinah which I thought was a better actress and wrote her better on her second time...they could have gotten someone better for a character they obviously thought they needed.

Can someone explain the whole "Baby Cabot" storyline to me...I quit watching at that point as I could care less about Carly or Roseanne and HATE any storyline surrounding a baby.

Hey now..we all gain weight as we age...are you a "Fattiest"??? : ) I get what you're saying, but Alan in reality (if we divorce him from Bernau, which I can't) is a midwestern guy, who conceivably could have become a "fat cat" I think the Spaulding's should have been from the east coast, or even southern, like Savannah or Charleston, some place that would give a southern gothic vibe that both Bernau and McKinnesy would be great at. RR and MD did seem more midwestern so that COULD have worked with the proper writing and direction. Clips of RR when he first was introduced was weird cause he is kind of sexy..he gives off a total different vibe then Bernau as his Alan is more physical and mischievous then what we were used to. Marj could have played a more down to earth Alex...but both of them simply became Snidely Whiplash and Myrn Clegg 2.0

Lol...it was dull as hell. Maggie was a great character, an unapologetically smart and ambitious woman who wasnt evil...(even when representing John Dixon or James) and they gave her baby fever! And yes, throwing poor Diana in there, what a waste of two good female characters. But I did like the Cal actor, and apparently Fulton did too, she did an interview at that time where she commented that after he was killed (by Doug Cummings) they had her wear black and cry and she was like "Well why don't I get to screw him first!"

I can see Alan wanting to get with Reva....while not the sex on the stick that she was during her first year, she was pretty damn hot still, and Alan, like his daddy, liked to play with the forbidden fruit..but he would have never fallen in love with her...( I remember them writing him saying he never felt love like this, apparently forgetting Hope, and I have to forget her pathetically marrying her in a coma, in a hospital room he decorated in Victorian Lace...uh, more like a bordello for Reva but...) I hate that soaps can't show sexually infatuation or attraction without it turning into huge love. An Alan and Reva dynamic which they were both using each other, and both knew it would have been better. Alan likes Reva's ass and Reva likes Alan's money and power is more than enough. It got worse when Raines played Alan falling for Amish Reva.

Aubrey's Marina was great...but they wasted her...she could have been a new Nola (since she was living in the BH I would have had her find the N.R. + K.N. thing Nola carved in her bedroom...."I don't know who this girl was but she seems to be as unhappy as I am stuck here.") And have her set her cap for a good recast Shayne and take on the Old Bag Reva when she tries to interfere.."Oh please, I heard she was back in Oklahamo giving blow jobs behind the gas station, and she acts like she is Mother of the Year...God I hate her." When they recast with that boring Kit girl and then...cutesy Mandy it was done. I love the idea of Billy and Van bonding over hell on wheels Peter. and kicking **** to the curb.Billy went to prison to protect him from Roger but that was never mentioned when Billy returned. Peter and Aubrey's Marina would raise Hell together..do a Nolaredux in that he bangs her, she gets preggers, passes that off as Shayne's with Ole Bag Reva suspicious...I could see Marina ringing a bell to get the Ole Bag to bring her some ice cream...."But Grandma...oh you hate that I am sorry, okay, Grammy, you know I can't be stressed and oh, Shayne would be mad if I lost the baby..."ah what could have been.

Yea, at that time many people were complaining about replacing vet middle aged women with new character middle aged women...like Rauch and writers just ran out of ideas on how to write for anyone but that old bag Reva (sorry, loved Kimmer in her prime, but never understood why the ageist misogynist Rauch and Company made her goddess of love when her expiration date was long past...) We got Selena over Nola (but really so he could fire Fiona for their Zaz vendetta) and Carmen over Van. But both Van and Nola got the last laugh, Van's wedding centering the last episodes and Nola returning for it and throwing a quick diss to the Coopers.

I think that..nails it!!!!

But..but...he's a COOPER!!!! It would have been interesting to see Peter coming back...with Dinah his father's murderer in town there could have been a lot of tension. I know they wanted to hand the show over to Jonathon, but Peter could have been a very conflicted character...pulled between being a blue collar nice Reardon, and his very complicated history and his genetics. But that would mean Bridget would have to come back and kick the Cooper out from Company, which I would love.

Even dumber, Wheeler dictated story (in this case Marina) on personally seeing the Mallet actor and the Marina actress...."interacting" on set and thought they were just so cute. So she told the writers to have Mallet fall under Marina's cutesy pie spell, damned the characters history. She either was really stupid and really wanted to get back at Ehlers as she split Harley/Mallet and threw Harley at that Cyrus...infuriating Ehlers as she had an affair with Bogue, he dumped her to go back to his wife, and then immediately started an affair with the Marina actress. Oh, to be a fly on the wall on the set. But also, Wheeler put Marina and AM together as she was sold on the Spaulding vs. Cooper formula, again, history be damned.

Absolutley...sad that GL had more clones running around then gay characters, and a glossed up incestuous relationship..I'm sure more people complained about Lez Liv and her boring romantic partner then they did Jon and Tams. They could have avoided this by making Jon Josh's kid..The Josh we saw was a horn dog when he first came on so I can see him cutting a swath from Oklahoma to SF. Reva didn't need another kid and it would be fun to see Reva having to deal with a step son who HATES her, but also for the first time, not be Josh's number 1 obsession.

Yes...she takes on the Alan..with Ross helping her...(the only thing is, RR's Alan is a total horndog fool and Van would have wiped the floor with him.) What is Phillips relationship with Alan here..it seems that they totally muted the animosity between them (until Taggert brought it back..) calling Alan.."dad" and just mooning over Harley.

And it wasn't that hard for them to actually just look it up..some of the writers and production staff from that time were still around..it just seems that the GL staff at that time dont really give a crap..they need to keep the plot moving and the plot at this time was to make Harley a down home gal and the Spaulding EVIL..which is amped up when Wheeler/Kreizman take over. A mere mention of Harley saying "I lived that life before, I chased it and it turned out to be a bad thing, at least for me and Im afraid to go back." A bad thing about this time is that I remember out of all the goofiness, the Spaudling Lobby and wonder why they got rid of it..perfect place for characters to interact and conspire instead of the one office they always show. Vicky had real potential as an outsider in the midst of this, and I love OG Van coming back (that scene where she tells Alan to STFU about the clone is great...I feel she knows, thinks it's beneath her to involve herself, but wants to protect Spaulding and Michael and Josh's rep. Alan is acting so dumb and Phillip is in Dinerville acting like a dope,Van is the only one keeping the office open. It all changes when they bring Alex back (who then disappears) and we did not need Marj/Alex back. They were building on Van getting back to basics and Matt being pouty and jumping on Beth. Van should have kicked Matt to the curb, icely put Beth in her place as the pathetic slut she was, and gotten with Ross again...(the India/Ross thing goes nowhere.) Terri Dimarco could have worked if it was a crazy woman that Annie manipulated into masquerading as her for revenge on her enemies ( I see the real Annie on James Stenbecks lsland living her best life as she laughs at Jeva from afar.) Oddly this is GL's highpoint concerning what comes after, (Mob/Island.)