DeeVee

NO! I just loved her. 😢 RIP. It's been a while since I've seen it. From what I recall, it was very uneven. They didn't seem to know quite what to do with those characters. As wonderful as they both were, I think they worked better as supporting characters causing problems for the main characters.

LOL, it was the 80s. I gotta say, GL did refrain from the crazier big hair styles of the 80s for the most part. So that's something. But they were not kind to Roussel. Her hair kept getting fluffier over time, until she was divorcing Alan. Then she finally cut her hair. And the way they dressed her...also Cullen as Amanda. They should have sued the costume people. Even for the 80s, their clothes were hideous. Anyway, I was watching that episode during my lunch hour and had a few thoughts: What a LONG cold opening. Almost every bit of it was full of exposition dumps. The conversation between Trish and Mike about Josh was VERY interesting. When those of us who watched the Marland years when they aired said the off-screen Lewises were talked about long before they hit SF, we weren't kidding. Lots of talk by Trish about how HB was disappointed in Josh. This is January 1982, and I'm pretty sure HB and Billy were first mentioned way before that, in 1981. They don't hit town until 1983. Then we get to see what a worm Josh was back then, pressuring Nola's friend Gracie to make dinner for him (and presumably have sex with him) while also asking Ben about Morgan's portrait, because he was chasing the married Morgan. All that stuff about Carrie in jail and Ross investigating her before the murder trial...snore. Marland may have loved that storyline, but it never did much for me, and in the end it made little sense. It also did not make good use of Jackie and Justin, and emphasized how weak Mowery was as Jackie. Hope visiting Alan in jail. The start of Alan's redemption tour. The character was pretty much put in mothballs for a year. It wasn't until after Marland left that someone finally said, "Why are we wasting this character?" I would have SO preferred Alan and Hope breaking up over the lies he told her for three solid years about Roger. She should have torn him a new one. It would have been a good time to bring back Rita, even if it was a recast. This "Romeo and Juliet" thing, and Alan being contrite is so freaking silly. Not to metion, boring. That's why they had to come up with some mysterious guy trying to kill Alan, so SOMETHING was happening to them. Marland's last year on GL was definitely the weakest, with the awful Mark Evans story still coming down the pike.

The OLTL time travel story was actually pretty good. (The other two--no). The reason it was good was because it dealt with the Buchanan and Lord family origins. (Also, it was a Western and I love Westerns. But that's just me). I always say the reason Dark Shadows was so good was because no matter now wild it got, it was always about character. They TRIED to make the clone story about character, about Josh and Reva's relationship. That just made it come off as extremely creepy. At least they were smart enough to pull the plug. And cry me a river about how hard KZ had to work. She must have had a GREAT agent because other soap actors who played dual roles did not get paid extra. (Or they did and they lied about it.)

They took so much trouble setting up her character they must have had some specific plans. Possibly they already knew MG and MZ were planning to leave, and that would have caused a need for another female character to get involved with Ed. I've said many times before that I strongly believe the Alan/Hope story was going on a much different, much darker trajectory than Marland wrote for them. The Alan/Rita affair was something that had been set-up and hinted at for a very long time. Possibly, after much humiliation at Rita's hands, the Dobsons planned to make Ed vulnerable to a very ill-advised affair. Such as one with a girl much too young for him. We'll never know, but it's interesting to contemplate.

She got lost in the shuffle when Marland took over from the Dobsons. The Dobsons clearly had a major storyline planned for her. She was an ambitious athlete with the goal to make the Olympics. Then she had an accident that threatened her athletic career. Floyd befriended and helped her while she was doing physical therapy. There were hints dropped that she was developing a crush on Ed, who was her doctor. Then Marland basically drops ALL of that (and, frankly, I don't mind dropping the Ed part of it, that's kind of icky, she was WAY too young for him). She ends up working for Mike in the law office. I think she was on for at least two years, and that's how they burned off her contract. Eventually, she ends up married to art gallery owner Carter Bowden and moves to Chicago. She briefly came back during the Carrie storyline. Jackie goes to stay with her when she is separated from Justin. She's pregnant at that time, though that kid and any others she might have had are never mentioned by Justin and Ross (how not surprising, LOL).

IMO, GL was limping along those last 15 years for a lot reasons. Poor writing. Questionable casting decisions. Too much dependence on certain somebodies who shall remain nameless. Trying too hard to catch younger viewers. An audience that had moved on from soaps after the OJ trial. But all soaps at the time were having similar problems. The landscape had changed, and most were having a terrible time adapting to the new one. GL was no different. Their fall seems more spectacular probably because of the failed Peapack experiment. As awful as that was, at least it was an attempt to find a new model to keep soaps alive.

They "punished" her for coming up with a terrible story idea by making her one of the writers. If I hadn't worked in the entertainment industry (not soaps) I would be skeptical of this story. But, yeah, sounds about right. 😂

I must have said this before, but I have to say it again: VANESSA SLEPT WITH FLETCHER? That guy was the town tramp. There's hardly a woman in town he didn't sleep with or pursue. Maybe the upside of Hope being written out of the show is they most certainly would have paired her with Fletcher at some point. Don't get me wrong, I like Hammer, he's O.K. But almost EVERY woman? No. Don't believe it. It's almost like any time there was an unattached woman, they would say, "Let's put her with Fletcher." Like he was the extra man at a dinner party. 😂

I don't know if I agree with that. They portrayed Jim as almost fanatical about his work. I could see him going off to study some amoeba or something on Antarctica for a year and not even know he had a kid. And Maureen taking her in out of love for her brother and longing for more kids. Besides, if Bridget had been Jim's child, maybe there would never have been you-know-who. I'll give them a pass on Maureen because the fact that it was difficult for her to have kids was a long-term, ongoing conflict between her and Ed. (But the fact that Ed kept saying he didn't want kids meant...Ed never had more kids. Guaranteeing the shrinking of the Bauer pool).

General Hospital did it, at least once that I can think of--Jeff Webber had children off screen who became major characters. Someone mentioned on the Y&R board the other day that they once introduced a character who was a child of a legacy character off the canvas for a long time. The number of characters from core families GL had off-screen not getting married and/or not having children is kind of mind-boggling. Mike, Hope, Justin, Trish, Mindy, Alan-Michael, Jim Reardon (why have Bridget be Sean's kid and not Jim's?). Amanda (until she came back de-aged), then she was gone again and nothing until Roger's death was announced. Was she ever mentioned after that? Another is Nick, but the fact that he didn't have children was explained by his partner being HIV+. The only one I can think of who had a kid off-screen was Tony Reardon, and no one ever thought to bring his kid Tommy on the show. And his birth was basically used as an excuse to write Bea out of the show.

Unfortunately, this happened all too often on GL. Characters who had been off the canvas for any period of time were treated as if their lives had barely progressed. Which is SO dumb, because the past is always a great place to build a story in the present. So, yes, beyond the romantic possibilities in the present story, there was also a missed opportunity to round out Blake's character by bringing her past relationship with Dietrich into the story. I always say that one of the reasons Reva and Josh took off so fast is the way they brought in their past to inform the present. Long was good at that. Maybe she had a plan to bring in Dietrich but subsequent writers were not interested in doing it.

When I was younger I was not really a fan, but over the years I've come to appreciate him much more. He brought something real to Ed that was missing in other actors. Like you said, a warmth. That is really interesting, because Gil Gerard is just the sort of actor I thought they should have pursued to play Alan. Someone with a prime time rep, but who wouldn't think soaps were beneath him. I could see him as Ed. Too bad it didn't work out. This is also a bummer. GL really needed writers/a producer invested in bringing the Bauers more into the forefront.

They're bringing HIM back? Well, that's one more reason not to start watching Y&R again. He's known Nick and Sharon since high school. He raped Sharon and I think some other characters, too. He later FAKED raping Sharon. Of course, Sharon ended up pregnant and Nick thought Matt had to be the father. She lost the baby and it was proved he wasn't, causing a big marital rift between them. And now Howarth is going to play him? Ick.

That sounds amazing.Maybe I would have warmed up to RR if MG had been his leading lady. Speaking of sourpuss Simon, how about some thoughts about a recast for Ed? They face planted when they replaced Simon with RVV. You would have thought getting Robert Gentry back would have been a huge success, but that also failed. I'm kind of blanking out. I have to give it some thought. I LOVED her when she was on Love of Life. She seemed to disappear after the show was cancelled. Would have been a cool comback for her. I could see her causing lots of havoc.

I could never understand why it didn't occur to anyone to put Alan and Holly together. They were both Roger's victims, they both went to jail for things connected to Roger, while Roger got off scott free. Sure, Holly would resent him for not coming forward about Roger being alive. But, hey, that's good conflict. Like not bringing Dietrich into the story, this was another missed opportunity.

For a guy who never showed up in SF, he sure sounds interesting!

Seriously? The guy's name was Dietrich Lindsey? I guess his mother was Swiss-German and his father was Scottish/Northern English? Of course, it's not impossible someone would have that name, but like the Harlan Billy thing, it just doesn't FLOW. Ficitional characters should have names that flow. They needed a consultant to help them name characters. (They do exist. The show Friends used consultants to name Ross and Rachel's baby Emma, because they wanted to pick a trending name that wasn't overused at the time). Almost 40 years later, I'm still trying to figure out how they dug up the name "Sonni" for a girl born in Venezuela. My family lived in Spain for years, my dad's family was from Puerto Rico, my sister married a Venezuelan man, I lived in Miami for over 25 years, I have traveled all over Latin America, and I have never, EVER heard of a Latina girl named Sonni. Again, it's not impossible. Girls named Sonni in Venezuela may exist. And sure, I'll give them props for being more creative than falling back on the name Maria, but they went too far in the other direction, IMO. I think what really bothers me more than anything is it didn't add anything to her character. The name conjures up a cute blond tomboy type from the 1960s. The name Sol or Solita would have not only been more appropriate for the character's heritage, it would have fit the character more. It's possible they would have never written Alan back in if they;d had Deitrich on the canvas, or it would have been another Kyle Sampson situation, where they would have dumped Deitrich in favor of bringing Alan back. But if Deitrich was a successful character he could have saved us from many bad, bad storylines.

Some of her money may have come from that. I mean, she bought a TV station. But when she was young and totally infatuated with Roger, she used her money to get him out of whatever current jam he was in. Yes, I also wondered why Mr. Lindsey never showed up. Especially the years Alan was off the canvas. They could have used a rich, suave millionaire on the show. He could have been a rival for Roger when it came to Alex as well as Holly.

I would say it began when his marriage to Peggy crumbled. Plus, he hated Ed for taking his place as Christina's father. He also became very ambitious when he married Holly. It wasn't mentioned much, but Holly had a lot of money, from an inheritance, I believe. So besides hating that Holly still loved Ed, who was Christina's father to the rest of the world, he also wanted to be successful so he could have as much or more money than Holly. He was jealous of Alan's success while wanting to be like him at the same time. That's why he relished blackmailing him. So it was a tsunami of things: losing Peggy and Billy, forced to watch Ed in his place as Christina's father, watching his two ex-lovers Rita and Holly mooning over Ed, feeling inadequate as a breadwinner. A lot of people might experience similar things in their lives and not become a total sociopath, but Roger was always an iffy guy. This stuff all together pushed him over the edge.

The way I see it, her "friendship" with Roger was a way for her to spite Holly. And Ed, too. I think by late in her marriage Mo was sick of being so goody-goody and always putting up with Ed's crap, even before he slept with Lillian. Which to me just emphasizes again what a stupid idea it was to kill her off. Mo finally free of Ed and shaking the suburban housewife persona could have had some interesting possibilities.

I think Bert tried to be accepting of Roger when he married Peggy because she thought she was going to straighten him out. When their marriage fell apart, he was like, well, I may as well be an @sshole again. Peggy to him was the love of his life. Of course, they rewrote history later on and tried to make Holly the love of his life, when that was never true.

Found a Roger and Peggy wedding picture! And there is the lovely large bouquet covering Fran Myers' pregnant tummy!

I can't remember if they ever mentioned if Nola finished high school. If she did, I would assume she was a year or two older than her. I can't see a girl Morgan's age (when she first came on the show) becoming that friendly with someone much older than that. Honestly? I had a hard time imagining Nola and Quint as a couple when he first arrived on the scene, and somehow it worked. So who knows? Maybe that would have worked, too.

Well, this is embarrassing. I completely forgot that was during the wedding. And I watched that only a few months ago. My mind must have blocked it out. 😂 This is why I tend to have more sympathy for Vigard than the soap mags had back then. Soaps made very young girls play these kinds of scenes when they weren't ready to deal with them yet. Genie Francis talked about that very candidly in interviews.

Another factoid about Vigard is she was in the musical Annie on Broadway. She was a working actress/singer from a very young age. I saw her interviewed about the Annie experience in a documentary about the young girls who were in the show. Mostly it was about how difficult it was for children that young to work on a Broadway show. At least some problems she had later on probably stemmed from that. I think we talked before about how the soap magazines were really hard on her; saying she was a terrible actress, etc. But there's no denying she and JWS were very popular. Honestly, most teen actors thrust into major storylines at this time were usually pretty green. We make fun of older actors playing teens, but IMO it's preferable because they can handle the challenges better. That's probably why people like JWS and Lisa Brown were more successful in the long run. Case in point about green teen actors. Genie eventually grew into a decent actress, but all three of these young ladies were thrust into the spotlight with little experience and many times it showed. Hmm, I would not have ever called Morgan "torrid," LOL. But they had to sell magazines, I suppose.