DeeVee

AND... she's pregnant! (Why not? There have been way crazier soap miracle pregnancies). Roger has a double reason to hide her because he has always felt Ed robbed him of his relationship with Chrissie.

She was legally married to him and lived with him for years in that house. She absolutely had a claim on it, at least half of it. And Ed openly living with Holly and committing adultery? She could have probably won the house in a divorce case. The problem for her was that Ed and Claire never allowed her to adopt Michelle. Ed could have used that as leverage. All that because she briefly lusted after Fletch in her heart. When you think about it, an Ed/Mo breakup at this point should have been way jucier and more dramatic than it ended up being.

Now that I've figured out to use the translate subtitles feature on YT, I've been watching Springfield Story and had a few thoughts: 1. I started with some 1983 episodes. Most that I've watched so far seem to be from the brief period where Pat Falken Smith wrote the show after Marland's exit. I kind of like what she was doing. The break-up of Kelly and Morgan's marriage was well done, actually exploring the inappropriateness of their relationship in the beginning. Same with the subtle but obvious cracks starting in Alan and Hope's marriage, which was handled in a very ham-handed way once Kobe and Long took over. 2. I don't recall ever seeing the episodes where Wayne Tippit briefly replaced Chris Bernau as Alan. I remember him quite well from Search for Tomorrow. Even though he wasn't that much older than Bernau, he came across as a lot older and the scenes with Hope were a little on the icky side. 3. I was impressed by scenes where Hope was really letting Alan have it about something or other, then I realized it seemed that way because she was screaming at him in German, LOL. 4. They erroneously credited Jennifer Cook as Kristen Vigard. Ouch. 5. I am SO confused by the story about Maureen's ex-boyfriend who showed up just as Ed proposed to her. (Matt? Is that his name?) The translations are hard to follow (I was joking with my roommate that it might be easier to follow them in German) but he comes across as a complete jerk. A cute one, but a jerk. Not sure if he wants her to go with him to support him while he does his residency, or that he is offended by the idea of her supporting him while he does his residency. Glad he didn't last long. 6. Hope set Ed up with TRISH? What? Wasn't she still dating Mike? It seemed that way when Alan was pursuing Trish later that year. Continuity issue because of the writer change, I guess? 7. I switched over to a different playlist when I noticed there was one for 1981. I thought, GREAT! Maybe they have the episodes with Alan and Rita's affair! Darn it, no. 8. As difficult as it is to follow some of the dialogue, I really appreciate this because it's plugging in a bunch of holes. So I'll keep trying to detangle the translations.

Andy came back to SF in 1980 or 1981, I think? He was introduced just before Trish Lewis, who followed him to SF because she was his estranged wife. Andy had the appearance of a golden boy, charming, handsome, affable. He got close to Alan by proposing writing a biography about him. In reality he was a creep in every possible way. He abused Trish, did the same to Katie, who he dated for a while, and was blackmailing half of SF, it seems, including Alan. I think he broke into Sarah's office to get dirt on people. When Alan and Hope separated, he ingratiated himself with her, possibly hoping he could marry her after she got a divorce settlement from Alan. He was eventually caught and sent to prison. His reign of villainy was fairly short. I think they were hoping to make him into a Roger-like villain, but he never really clicked.

Not going to disagree on any of this, but 1988 was a year with some major upheavals. Bernau's exit, a long writers strike, then after Long & Co. returned they had to find a way to insert Roger into the story. So I give them a little bit of a break for 88. (There is no excuse for the mess that was 87, though). I was just thinking while watching Reva and Josh investigating Sonni in Venezuela that Sonni and Roger had BOTH survived a fall off a cliff. Too bad Forbes left, it's like they were made for each other. 😂

Thanks for the link! I had fun looking around at other images and article clippings from GL back in the day! Didn't someone say they wanted to see a picture of Jordan Clarke when he was playing Tim Ryan on GL? We'll, here's a picture of him with Lenore Kasdorf (Rita) and Janet Grey (Eve):

No, it was a guy named Brad, who I think was married to her sister Annie? And after all that drama, when Brad and Dee had a chance to be together, it was a total bust and they broke up almost immediately. Not the Dobsons' best work. I'm pretty sure Ian had already died when Dee married John. The lack of care when it came to naming characters on GL has always been a pet peeve of mine. That was definitely a big one. A while ago we were making fun of all the young girls the same age with names that start with "M." Someone mentioned earlier Claire's brother. When Michelle was born, they were going to name her Samantha after Claire's brother Sam. Claire changed her mind and put "Bertha Bauer Ramsey" on the birth certificate. Then Fletcher started calling her B. B. (or Bibi, or Bebe, don't ask me). Then suddenly Claire was telling everyone to call the baby Michelle. CLEARLY, someone remembered at the last minute that Justin and Jackie's daughter was named Samantha, and that it would be awkward if they brought her into the story later (as they did eventually). Then someone thought it would be a good idea to have a tribute to Bert/Charita. Then they realized "Bert" or even "B.B." were not names for a modern soap character, so they quickly slapped Michelle on her. (I guess as a tribute to her Uncle Mike?) Then there were multiple Williams, Billys, Bills, Wills . . . Somebody really needed to gift the show a baby name book.

When the Dobsons moved to ATWT they did another marital rape storyline with John and Dee Stewart. So at that time, yes, I think they were modeling him at least somewhat on Roger. That story was a major disappointment to me, because they made it a "he said, she said" story, with Dee eventually admitting she was "mistaken." Which makes me think that MZ and MG did really have an influence on how their story played out on GL, as it's possible the Dobsons would have taken that road with that one, too.

This is exactly what they did with Bernau's exit. They pretended there was a chance he would come back. With Zaslow there was also talk about temporary medical leave, blah, blah, blah, but from things MADD said, it's clear to me they knew he wasn't going to recover, and we also know they did not want to write his illness into the show. The reason they didn't get away with it with Zaslow is Zaslow was outspoken about his illness and treatment by TPTB. As far as I know, Bernau never spoke about it, probably because he wanted to keep his illness private.

That's another thing I noticed during this period. They were trying to do some screwball-style comedy. Some of it actually worked with Harley and Alan Michael. Harley told him she needed to use protection. While she was in the bathroom he was all excited taking off his clothes and drapping himself on the bed. Then she comes out fully dressed and walks out the door. (I'll admit I chuckled. Beth and Carl had nice chemistry). But they also tried with Phillip and Blake, which for me went over like a lead balloon.

It seems like they were repeating some older stories. Before, Johnny was fascinated by Chistine while ignoring down to earth Roxy. Now they have Johnny fascinated by Blake while ignoring down to earth Chelsea. And Meredith is like a repeat of Claire. SO similar in personality, she's also a doctor, has some strong parental issues, and ends up having a baby by the wrong man. Alexandra Neil, who played Rose, was another Texas alumni. Maybe they just wanted to throw some work her way. (Throw away is a good way to describe her relationship with Rusty and her storyline). Sure, I'll cut them some slack because that year had so many upheavals: the strike, Bernau's exit, the writers having to fix what the scabs did (ESPECIALLY the Sonni/Will thing), then having to find a way to bring back Roger. It was a pretty big mess.

I just watched these scenes the other day. She also strongly hinted that she and Jackson were involved in some kind of dirty business in Monte Carlo. That's why he couldn't get rid of her. I'm guessing they were setting up something here that never came to fruition. I think this was still during the strike, so it was forgotten or changed.

Thank you for sharing! My God. The woman is still so beautiful. 😭

I just happened to watch this episode while eating lunch today: The flashbacks start about 25 minutes in. What an exposition dump. I noticed there are a lot of them at this point on the show, probably because this is soon after the writers strike ended. Also interesting: it starts with a promo that prominently features Daniel Pilon, which is unusual for a temp replacement. Seems like they may have been accelerating Alan's storylines in preparation for reintroducing Roger. The discussion with Blake wanting to be VP of all departments is a Roger callback, because that was the position he had at Spaulding.

Oh wow. Thank you both! 😊 That could explain why some soaps were doing serial killer stories. I never understood that. It always seemed very unsoap-like. Well, yes and no. The audience is trying to figure storylines out. Characters in a story are living it. I would argue a lot of people IRL wouldn't figure it out so fast because of a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. In the old West when some women dressed and lived as men, quite a few were not discovered until they died. And we would look at a picture now and say how could they not tell? But the idea of a woman dressed as a man was so foreign to them that that was enough to convince people they were men. Nowadays it would probably be a lot less likely that people wouldn't question it. But even 30 years ago--especially in a podunk town like SF, where people freaked out about Jackson's earring for three solid years--if someone presented themselves as a woman, they would probably believe it. If you don't expect a man to dress as a woman, you're more likely to accept it when he says he's a woman. Then there is suspension of disbelief, where we wouldn't accept something IRL but will tolerate it in a story. Because it's a story and it's absorbing and compelling. Which, IIRC, is what happened when the story initially aired. It was not without controversy, but was also praised.

When they reveal Blake and Alan are in cahoots, they show flashbacks of Blake coming on to him at a bar and later the two of them in bed. (And, honestly, I could have lived without that because I remember little Christina when she lived next door to Alan. 😂)

That storyline was masterful, not just in the way it was groundbreaking as far as an important social issue, but the way it impacted most of the storylines going on at the time. Roger blackmailing Alan threatened his blossoming relationship with Hope and would have given Mike a way to avenge himself for the ruthless way Alan broke him apart from Elizabeth. It was a huge impact on Ed and Rita's marriage. First, because Ed was angry that Rita kept quiet about her own rape, which could have helped get Roger convicted. Then, when Holly shot Roger and everyone thought he was dead (Alan, of course, was forced into helping him fake his death), Ed guilted Rita into quiting her job so she could take care of Christina. This caused such a strong rift between them that Rita was unable to experience sexual gratification with Ed. She had an affair with a doctor, who also happened to be dating her sister Eve. Rita ended up pregnant, not knowing who the father is. Ross, who thought he would make his career defending Roger, started questioning his ambition. Roger ended up causing the death of Rita's baby. Eventually Rita and Ed reconciled, but broke apart again...because they disagreed about Mike investigating Alan's part in Roger's crimes. Which led to...Alan and Rita having an affair. Seriously, the amount of story that was generated by this one event was stunning (and I'm probably forgetting a few things--oh, yeah, Hillary was Roger's lover the whole time he was married to Holly and she evolved a great deal after she was forced to testify at the trial). Even after Roger was killed, those freakin' affidavits were still in the possession of Diane Ballard, which touched off the Diane murder story, which THEN pulled in the Carrie multiple personalities storyline. The whole thing was finally wrapped up when Alan's complicity was revealed and he briefly went to prison--I think more than a year after Roger "died." Really impressive soap writing. I am never not in awe of it when I think about it.

Most of what we know about Alex and Alan's mother was revealed during the Barbados story: Her name was Penelope Winthrop. Brandon was already involved with Sharina (Victoria's mother). But of course, he couldn't marry her, at least not if he remained in the U.S. So he married Penelope instead, who was a socialite and rich. Sharina's brother was incensed that she and her child were living in SF as Brandon's secret family. In Barbados they were a respectable family and did not experience the kind of prejudice that they encountered in the U.S. But Brandon and Sharina persuaded him to live with his sister and niece so he could pretend he was Sharina's husband and Victoria's father. While pregnant with Alan, Penelope discovered Brandon's affair with Sharina. She threatened them with a gun but killed Sharina's brother instead. She immediately went into labor. While giving birth to Alan, she died. The cottage Tony and Anabelle bought after they got married was the cottage Brandon bought for Sharina. It's where her brother was killed. Anabelle had some psychic abilities and knew someone had died in the cottage. That's how they started investigating what happened and ended up in Barbados, where it was revealed Brandon had faked his death and was living there with Sharina. After all was revealed, Brandon and Sharina died together while looking out on the ocean side by side. There was some stuff about a letter that would have given Victoria part of Spaulding, but she decided she didn't want it. The crazed real estage agent Susan Piper was trying to get the letter back. She almost killed Anabelle and she ended up killing Hillary, and if you expect me to explain why she did it, sorry, I have no idea because this story never made any sense to me. 😂

Check your PMs.

I have a blog devoted mostly to classic films. A few times a year I participate in blogathons (bloggers write and post about a designated film or TV topic over a 3-4 day period). I once participated in one where Collins was the topic. The lady who ran the blogathon has a blog devoted mostly to 1980s television shows. She's particularly a fan of Dynasty. Turns out, Joan had been following her blog for quite some time before the blogathon about her. I thought that was so sweet that she followed a fan blog and seemed flattered to be the topic of one of our blogging events. (In case you're wondering, the film I wrote about was Land of the Pharoahs, one of my fave Sword and Sandal epics).

Mike also did not need an exceptional actor to play the role the way Alan/Roger/Alex did. Let's face it, Don Stewart was not the greatest actor. (He even had trouble remembering his lines). But like you said, he had a formality, a warmth, and was very credible as a crusading attorney. He could be very gentle in scenes with his family and love interests, but do the big trial scenes, too. Raines could have handled the role just fine. There was a big hole left in the show when he exited, not just because it was another Bauer gone, but because it left Ross as the only attorney on the canvas for most of the rest of the life of the show. They had a bunch of cops but only one attorney as a main character. Weird they never addressed that. At the very least, they could have had Alan Michael annoy his father by following in his grandfather's footsteps, instead of the same old fighting over the Spaulding company crap.

I could see him emoting in courtroom scenes. Possibly a recast Mike Bauer?

I strongly suspect that if Bev had still been with the show, it's far less likely he would have been cast, for precisely this reason.

Alex had a daddy complex, but it was a very different one from the one Iris had. I'm just going to say it: Iris was in love with Mac. Freud would have had a field day analyzing Iris. Alex, OTOH, was in an abuser/victim relationship with her father. (So was Alan). I don't mean physical or sexual abuse. He mentally and emotionally abused his children. The fact that she named her child after her abuser shows that she still desperately wanted her father to love her. IIRC, they also touched on that during the Barbados story. Even after he betrays her yet again, she shares positive memories of her relationship with her father with Victoria. Their relationship was mirrored in her relationship with Alan. One minute they loved each other, the next they stabbed each other in the back. I always wished they had built on this even more, but in the end, the replacements for Alan and Alex weren't really up to playing the nuances. But her backstory was really well constructed, IMO, and, yes, she was very, very different from Iris.

I was thinking of him while we were discussing failed soap hunks! GH tried so hard to make him happen, putting him in a romance with saintly Rose. It totally belly-flopped. I guess they thought, "The audience accepted Laura falling for her rapist, they'll accept a professional hitman as hero, too, because he's HOT!" Forgetting that Geary was no one's definition of "hot." While I am in NO WAY justifying the "redeemed rapist" plot, Luke was a well-defined character. He was a reluctant member of the mob who knew they would kill him whether or not he carried out the hit. I believe he was never intended to be a permanent character. It was the audience who made him happen, not the other way around.