Jdee43

For Willow to be a viable character, she needs to be recast. The current actor is more of a hair model than anything else. It's hard to imagine her emoting in a real, relatable way or going over to the dark side. I wonder who thought it would be entertaining to give Gregory Harrison's character ALS? It's a shame, as he does have chemistry with Tracy and Alexis; as a different character, or if they had made different choices with him, he would have been interesting. The show is better, but I do wish the new writers would quickly move on and drop all the crap of the previous regimes! A 1991 Gloria Monty-esque hard reboot would have been so nice!

What month are you in exactly?

I like Maura West, but I really wish they would have given her a real character to play from the get go, not some caricature that should have been gone over a decade ago. Unfortunately, the writers haven't been able to craft new, real characters for this show going on 15 years now (Dante the last one?).

I always thought it too bad that soapnet started with reruns from the middle of 1987. It would have been more fun to see them start from early 1983. The show was stronger in 83, and we would have seen the beginnings of a number of major characters who dominated in the late 80s and 90s.

I'm up to episode 109 (12/28/84) in my rewatch. It's amazing what a non-entity Cruz has been in the 1984 episodes. He wasn't even in any of the Christmas episodes. With Ava and Dane off the show, he's lucky he had chemistry with Eden, otherwise there doesn't seem to be much for him to do. He hasn't had much of a story in 1984. I guess they were planning for an action story with him and Dane, involving Russian spies and submarines, but with Dane fired, that storyline seems to have been dropped. Cruz doesn't have much interaction with the recast Joe.

I think with Lucy/Felicia circa 1995/1996, the actors probably saw playing their scenes that way as just being funny, some subtle humor that they got away with. Today, that could actually be a very interesting story, to see Lucy and Felicia develop feelings for each other and try to pursue them. That would definitely stir things up among all the vets!

They should have retired Robert and Holly back in May 2023, for the 60th anniversary. To think that Robert would have any qualms about being with Holly, and especially having that qualm be Diane, is so ridiculous and such character assassination. It's sad that the show has never really invested in Scorpio since his return in 2006, never giving him his own storyline or exploring his character or what he did during his lost years. He was basically the star of the show from 1984-1992.

Watching the Lucy and Felicia scenes of the mid 90s, has anyone ever noticed their lesbian undertone, that Lucy was always subtly flirting with and having her hands on Felicia? It was never in the dialogue, but all in the energy; more in how the actors would play their scenes together. I always felt like the actors were just having fun with it, adding a subtle level to their interactions for whoever saw and noticed.

I had to laugh; whenever Sonny does something stupid or is acting weird, it's always his meds; he's not taking them or someone is screwing with them. We've seen this many times through the years. How about for once going with the reason Sonny acts like this is just because he's a bastard? The on-going attempt to explain away or gloss over his ugly, evil aspects and make Sonny ultimately lovable and a good guy is ridiculous. A cuddly mobster and his hit man has never and will never work on a daily soap opera.

Didn't it turn out that it was Scott who killed Rick? How is it that Laura still has anything to do with Scott after that? Or that Scott never paid for his crime? It was such a stupid twist, for a C-level story that the show didn't seem that much invested in, that I guess it's not surprising that everyone acts like that never happened.

I would rather have seen Scotty in those scenes with Heather, not Laura; he has a more intimate history with her. And I think they should concentrate more on making Lois more of a normal person than Heather. It's like Lois has been in suspended animation for 30 years. Maybe ground Lois in reality a little more, have her show real emotion, maybe even have her express regret and disappointment at how her life turned out or something.

So much truth on this thread! It's disappointing that the show has been so clunky. Characters are doing new things, but a lot of it is out of left field. It feels like the only reason characters are doing these things is simply because that is what the new head writers prefer. I wish they'd make these sudden changes feel more organic. Also the long-term female character that I think they should be working on doing a better job for is Lois, not Heather.

Anything on GH from the last 12 years. But the 2015 twist in Luke's final story was particularly bad, that he was suffering from split personality disorder. It would have been much better to reveal that the real Luke had died back in 2002 and that Bill Eckert had been impersonating him all this time.

Jason could get his memories back and still be pretty much the same character he is now. It would just open up a little more drama, conflict, and pay homage to the history of the show, where he can refer to his first five years on it. But he can still choose to be whatever he is now.

The scenes are improved, but the overall direction of the show has not. Dex is a character that should have been dropped day one of any new regime, with everyone pretending that he and his story never existed. Jason's story should be that he got his memories back and he's stayed away because he's really conflicted by what he's done. The actor doesn't have to act any different than he has been; there can just be a little more nuance now, some anger, and some regret to his scenes. Sonny has become such a joke. The idea that he's this scary mob boss is laughable. To see him as the new Steve Hardy is so wrong. They should strip him of all that and try to revert him to what he was when he first came on, a charming, manipulative con man and rat. Keep it light; it doesn't have to be too deep with him. Fixes like this seem obvious. It probably comes down to actors' egos, and producers' agendas why it doesn't happen. Given that, it's going to be an uphill battle for anyone trying to fix this show.

The show is still boring; the focus is still on all the wrong characters; characters are still doing inexplicably stupid things, all for plot purposes. I was hoping at least for there being some common sense to the writing, but so far, nope. Obviously, change will not be coming overnight..

I just saw the 1984 Christmas show. It was pretty much a regular episode, continuing the same boring storylines, and wasn't very interesting. The most special thing was the Lockridge family celebrating Christmas in jail. Also special was that one of the cons was an elderly Rudy Vallee, in his last credited appearance as an actor. He was totally wasted, exchanging a few lines with Dame Judith Anderson about how he used to watch her from afar and admired her back in the 1940s. It's amazing how many old time Hollywood actors, as well as old primetime TV stars, they got for small, meaningless cameo appearances in 1984: Philip Abbott, Alejandro Rey, Virginia Mayo, Ray Walston, Zelda Rubinstein, John Ireland, Charlie Brill. Was someone in the casting office a fan and just having some fun with the audience?

I think you can say soaps are back or are viable again if they ever return to NBC broadcast TV. I hope this project somehow leads to that.

What does that mean for Days of our Lives? Could CBS use this new show to play hardball with Bold and Beautiful? Could Bold and Beautiful try to go elsewhere, to another network perhaps?

Definitely felt some character bits in today's show, more so than the usual inundation of plot points.

Watching episodes from the 80s, they are always playing creeky waterfront sound effects for scenes at Kelly's. When did they stop doing that, circa 1988 or something?

Seriously, if the producers wanted to bring Larry Haines or Forrest Compton or someone like that to the show long term, they should have had them be a recast Mitchell Dru. Then they instantly would have had Ada, Rachel, and Aunt Liz to talk to. Since Dru was a lawyer, they could also have had him hang around Cass. Such a recast could have fulfilled the older, wiser male character role that the show needed, especially in the 80s and then especially after Mac died. Also having him around would have paid tribute to Irna Phillips, who loved the character.

Going back to a pre 1975 character you would have liked brought back, how about Mitchell Dru? They could have revealed that he was really a lothario, and that he was also Cass Winthrop's true biological father 😂 And of course, being the only old guy in town, they'd finally have to pair him with Ada 😅

An annoying part of this show is the chronic character assassination of Matt Powers. Especially annoying are those things that happen out of the blue, with no build up, that you know the real Matt wouldn't do. Another one happens on the episode labeled Dec. 18, 1968, where Matt snaps at Mike after Mike tells him he's doing poorly in medical school. I guess I could take Matt's reaction. What I couldn't take was him allowing newbie Nancy Bennett to dress him down for it. The real Matt would have walked out on Nancy at the start of any such conversation or fired her after having it. Such poor writing, at the expense of Matt, to prop up a new character and try to set up a Nancy / Mike love story. Maybe it was a Rick Edelstein writing day and not Rita Larkin.

I've been watching The Doctors from 1968. After I watch each episode, I read the synopsis on the AW home page for the AW episode that aired that day after The Doctors. AW was such a different show in 1968. If there was a theme, I guess it was maybe couples fighting to be together? There was Missy and Bill, trying to overcome her shady past and his mother Liz. There was Lahoma and Sam, trying to overcome her insecurities and his lingering feelings for Lee, John's daughter. Sam and Lee were never one to have that one conversation to clear the air; instead there was tension whenever they saw each other. I guess the most interesting character is Rachel. By late 1968, she's married to Russ. She doesn't want to carry his child. She doesn't want to find their own home; instead she's fine living with his parents. She's flirting with Steve. She's ignoring her mother Ada, seeing Ada as beneath her. AW had such a strong female cast in 1968: Judith Bancroft (Lenore), Audra Lindley (Liz), Carol Roux (Missy), Barbara Rodell (Lee), Ann Wedgeworth (Lahoma), Beverly Penberthy (Pat), Jacqueline Courtney (Alice), Constance Ford (Ada), Robin Strasser (Rachel), Virginia Dwyer (Mary). Wow!