On 11/3/2022 at 5:54 PM, Paul Raven said:

Rick Ryan was another natural to appear at this time, but for whatever reason he didn't return.

He did appear in summer of 80 during a writers strike.  He was played by some muscle guy who couldn't act and was involved in that dumb start of the drug storyline, but the show was a mess at that point so they didn't do much with him and I don't think he interacted with Bob much.

It was a shame that the Dobson's killed Melinda off (supposedly the actress was getting too involved as both Zenk and the Dee actress were fighting to be the top heroine of the show...) as she was Kim's niece, Bob's step daughter, Barbara and Frannie's sister....and of course, Lisa was her friend.  So many connections to just get rid of her.

The Julia crazy storyline was during the time MADD was in charge and foisting similar storylines on her two shows...(David comes back with a new face, as does Annie) and since the Annie storyline was popular and they were trying to make Jack and Carly into Josh/Reva.  At least ATWT never got a clone, or a stupid fairy tale island.

1 hour ago, MichaelGL said:

Looking back, Guiding Light had a few well written ones...

Ed/Rita/Alan/Hope

Holly/Ross/Blake

Mindy/Roger/Alexandra 

...and also a few not so well written ones

Blake and Rick which resulted in the twins

Beth and Phillip sleeping together after their plane crash/avalanche 

Rick and Beth while Rick was married to Mel. 

 

Blake and Rick was idiotic...they were raised as brother and sister until they were , in soap time, ten years old.  It was written as a joke too, with MOL mugging through it, while it should have had a greater impact that Rick screwed his step sister, wife of his dad's best friend who was like an uncle to him.  A better way to go would have been Matt and Blake...Van kicking Matt out since she found out he was manho and the then reconciling just in time for her to find out a younger woman is carrying his kid. I would have used this as a possible path to Ross and Van getting together and becoming the core couple..but boy would the crazy Blossies go nuts.

Rick and Beth would have made sense if anyone gave too sh*ts to write it correctly so yes, a big vote on that.

On 10/30/2022 at 10:05 AM, TEdgeofNight said:

A simple google search or search of youtube credits of early 80's ATWT will easily show that Betty Rea was casting both ATWT and GL for a time.

And just to correct the misinformation that Justin Deas was almost given a whole episode of dialogue on SB - wrong. Justin was talking about when he was on GL as Buzz. Not surprising. He took over that show. 

Thank God for network interference for once...a whole hour of Deas chewing the scenery as he talks to himself??? The episode was bad enough.

On 10/29/2022 at 5:35 AM, DRW50 said:

This channel is having interviews with various soap alum, including a few GL people. (his audio isn't great). Liz Keifer is coming up on Monday. 

Justin Deas looks and sounds better than I'd expected at 74 (if this is new). He was looking in pretty rough shape by the end of GL. I think he did say he had been putting off back surgery or something while the show was still going. 

I don't see the first credit he mentions listed in his IMDB.

 

Lord, this guy is almost as bad as the Alan..."You and Scott had great scenes together.." and then Deas says, "Really, I didn't think we did that much.." and the interviewer.."Well, I guess you had to have..."

Anyway Deas is an oddball as he seems to admit but more articulate and not annoying...( I know, I know, he's actaully not Buzz...)He looks great for being in his 70s and who could not like that he is still madly in love with Colin, quite the difference from misogynistic Buzzard.  Thought it was interesting that Paul Mayer told Deas he would never be a leading man and Deas called him an [!@#$%^&*]...also he was on ATWT much longer then 1 and a half years.  Thought it was funny that Phelps wanted the horrible "Buzz on the diner rooftop during the fire" be a total one man show and the net said, "Uh no.." What was the thing she had for this guy?  I can't believe she never tried to lure him away from GL. Also insteresting that the talks about how Buzz became just a "dad" for the last 15 years, which is when I found him most tolerable.

Good interview because a least the host lets him talk.  Though really Sonia Satra???

4 hours ago, Noel said:

I downloaded Halloween Ends and converted it to HEVC, but I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. I'm kinda skimming it over and these were the only screenshots I could take, lol!

As a big Halloween fan (the original) I can say..its sucks.  FF the whole thing and go to the last 20 minutes which is how they should have ended the 2018 reboot and left it at that.

Why anyone in Haddonfield would celebrate Halloween, and not just lock their doors and wait for Nov. 1st....

On 10/15/2022 at 2:24 PM, j swift said:

  Hide contents

Your prediction will definitely come true (although he doesn't try to be funny)

 

Yea..he really does play Rick the Pr*ck in this one...(a name the Blossies called him when he knocked Blake up..until he didn't.) But he doesn't even get the chance to get killed by the real Michael Myers.  He does a good job..

15 hours ago, Tonksadora said:

in Season 6 of Venicetheseries where he & Jerry verDorn played a pair of totally eccentric handymen who were hilarious!

Good for him, it seems he is finding steady work, God please don't let him try any "comedy" in this or I am going to be screaming for Michael Myers to off him!!!

On 10/10/2022 at 5:33 PM, Spoon said:

Instances where an actor could be holding back a character's potential.  

GL

Rick Bauer.  There was more potential for the character but he was slways regulated to sidekick or a familiar face.  So many times I think another actor could knock it out of the park.  Examples being the back history with Annie, the marriage to Abby and the heart transplant plot.  As a legacy character of the once core family he should've been way more front burner.

 

Also Harley.  When Ehlers left they certainly should've recast, SORAS at least one of her sons and appropriately recast Daisy.  Whether you liked Harley or not, she was a big tent pole of the show.  If written out, Harley needed to be gradually phased out and not dismissed with throwaway lines about being in Greece.

While I like MOL in his younger days I have to say that I think most of his affection for his later work was out of sentimentality. I re watch some of his time and he just seems to always hit the wrong note...kind of being condescending and a bit self righteous (he has a scene with MarjAlex where he is rude and one with Jessie where he just comes off as an ass) and some where he tries to break out of the goofball mode but he comes off as too...too..(there is a scene with he and Abby after the stupid twin reveal and he is almost brow beating her and comes off stalkerish...) or he just totally leans into the goofballl mode and thinks he is more funny then he actually is. Maybe it was the writing (one scene was McTavish) or the production and directiong (one scene was early Rauchie and he always wanted over the top emotions and that is not what Rick was...)

I think Harley was played out by the time that Ehlers left and she needed a break...maybe for a year or two and then come back as a recast...)

16 hours ago, DramatistDreamer said:

Was Maggie still on the canvas when Cal Randolph and Marie Kovacs were murdered? I often wonder about the evolution of that story? Did it begin with one possible conclusion and end another way?

No, Maggie and Frank left earlier. Maggie got a bit dull at the end with catching the typical soap female baby fever. Marie and Cal were murdered off first as they were expendable...(Lisa had buddied Cal and Fulton wanted something to happen between them...and wanted to wear black after he was dead but they said no...there was no romance between them and she said, "Well, you don't know what happened in the broom closet!" )

I agree that Diana would never make over Lilly, Karen would befriend to achieve a goal and Ariel would have hilarious comments about Lily....she started functioning as a bitchy greek chorus in Oakdale at the end.

17 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying, @Paul Raven! 

 

 

 

 

Sam is a one character that I am always shocked that GL didn't bring back in later years as she was fully connected with a lot of people on the canvas. It would've been interesting to see how she would've been when Phillip returned in the late 90s or even the last year of GL. I always felt they didn't explore Phillip's relationships with his siblings post this era. 

 

And Lil Billy being heartbroken over Billy not showing up to the wedding broke my heart. Bryan Buffinton was such a good actor and it never made sense to me why they let him slip from their I clutches. 

I never understood why they built the final years of the show around the Coopers as the core family (no matter that it didnt resemble the Coopers of the Long years...) when you had JVD as the strong patriarch with connections to everyone in town. Instead of that cutesey pie simpering "Marina" why they did not bring a recast Sam back...she was friends with Harley, Phillip's sister, etc.

7 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

Clips 3/1984-5/1984  Featuring Diana, Ariel, Betsy. Steve, Frank, Maggie, Whit, Margo, Tom, Craig, Marcy, Karen, Charmaine and Lyla.

I LOVED "Aunt" Charmaine...and she just disappeared when Lisa returned. Would have loved to see her and Fulton's Lisa team up. Karen and Ariel were fun too, and I wished Diana and Maggie stuck around for Marland.

9 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

 

Did Whit have issues the Hughes? From what I've read or little I've seen, they've always had him fixated on his hatred for Steve or Margo. 

 

Furthermore, that is one episode of ATWT I am still itching to see--the murder of Whit. I've watched the trial, but I am surprised no one has posted earlier episodes from that era. 

He had issues with Bob and his son ran against Tom for D.A. and also was the prosecutor for Dee during John's "murder" trial (as dumb as it was to have a murder trial with no corpse...this was really good and the Dobson's best work on the show.) But you have to understand Chris and Nancy were obscured so Wagner left, and then the put poor DM on recurring to just disappear so Bob and Tom were the only Hughes in town.

The day Whit was murdered was the day Fulton came back to the show to discover his body, or as Fulton said, "I came back to trip over ole' dead Whit!"  It would be interesting to see again. The show was really good and fun then, the real Lisa returned to prance around town in big hats and furs dramatically looking for the murderer of her husband and trying to help and but her nose into her step kids lives,  annoying Whit bit the dust, Kim and Bob were moving towards each other and the return of Nancy and Chris coming..all more lighthearted, fun and admittedly campy and free wheeling then Marland would do (not a critique on DM.)

2 hours ago, NothinButAttitude said:

Would that rich, new guy would've possibly been Whit McColl? 

Recast...yes. I see a tough guy who made his own way...kind of rough around the edges..disdainful of the Hughes, likes Johnny D...Lisa and he love each other but bicker...they tried to do all of those things with Whit but it failed due to the actor and writers just using him when James was busy.

1 minute ago, Vee said:

I remember the Watros eps of AW. I thought she was fine.

Had GL been brought back as a mini or something, my angle a decade ago was always to promo it up and do a few episodes' arc where they close out Annie by having Watros return (the plastic surgery face change would be discarded) and get gunned down by Reva when she goes for the grandkids or whatever.

Ha..TPTB go pumping the same well, they would have her commit suicide and pin a murder charge on Reva!

I would much rather have Annie come back, she has been getting help and she is sane but still bitchy, or better yet, Annie comes back with "Solita" and they Thelma and Louise Jeva..."SISTERS!" I know Kimmer would just LOVE to share the screen with both Watros and Forbes at the same time (imagine the passive agressive bitching to the press that would unfold!)

Speaking of Watros...since she was open to doing a couple days on a soap, I wish they had brought her on at the end of the awful FauxAnnie story to reveal that she was actually a fake, a fangurl who took up Annie's life or better yet, Annie sent to screw with the idiots of Springfield.

6 hours ago, Paul Raven said:

Having Bob move towards Kim would have made sense at that point. It played onto history and tightened the canvas with Bob/Kim becoming 'parents' to Frannie, Andy, Tom, Betsy - the next generation.

Nancy may not have found that coupling suitable in her eyes. I'm sure it would perturb Lisa and John would have been livid. So a lot of possibilities then. Ellen/David would have an opinion etc

So quite a bit of story could come from this pairing. Bob and or Kim could back off due to general Oakdalian concern/disapproval. Only a few years later the decision was made to put them together anyway.

We would have avoided the awful Bob/Miranda and Kim/Nick marriages.

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.

11 hours ago, bboy875 said:

She left for maternity leave in 1986. We never got the whole story behind her last departure. SOD said she clashed with tptb over creative control and P&G said her departure was a mutual decision. SOW said she was fired over ratings. To me she didn't lose steam, the show clicked on all cylinders so her departure worried me. Thankfully Curlee's team took the show to another level 

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. 

18 hours ago, Joseph said:

 

 

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. 

18 hours ago, Joseph said:

 

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.

5 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Thanks for finding all the photos @Paul Raven 

Marland really did spend months and months building up Floyd's music career. Or Allen Potter did. I wonder if that was ever meant to be long-term or if they just used that as a reason to brings musical guests in and there was never any interest in the  character himself.

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.

13 hours ago, Joseph said:

I've been Long meaning to ask but didn't remember until now

Who's that Girl Tanya in the Beginning? The one Phillip looks like he's gonna rape then treats like garbage, she looks so very familiar

 

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. 

2 hours ago, Joseph said:

 

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. 

On 7/3/2022 at 1:05 PM, ghfan89 said:

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!

6 hours ago, DRW50 said:

Something else that bugs me about this period with Vanessa is that any time she (and this happens with Josh too, but not quite as frequently) starts complaining about other people, or even venting about work problems, the Good and Moral residents of Springfield shut her down like she started threatening to set an orphanage on fire. While the show had its share of problems through the '80s and early '90s, I do like that during that time the business characters were allowed to just casually talk - and yes, sometimes bitch - without being put through such a bizarre purification ritual. 

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.

8 hours ago, Soapsuds said:

 

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