Tisy-Lish

Thank you for the clarification. Where are you getting this information? By watching episodes, or by reading scripts?

Wasn't the house Claire and Doug Cassen lived in actually Judge Lowell's house? I believe it was the Lowell family house and eventually began to be referred to as the Stewart house.

Dear God in Heaven! Please don't make Vernon Leslie's father. That would be over-kill and completely unnecessary. Worst of all, that would mean nearly all the adult men on BTG are losers. Bill and Ted are cheaters, Andre is a womanizer, Martin keeps secrets from his husband, Tomas will soon be screwing two sisters, Joey is a mobster, Elon is a bad cop, and Doug is a willing cuckold. If Vernon is Leslie's father, that leaves only Jacob as a decent male human being on this show. And that is not a good look!! I love BTG, but please let us have at least a few good and sincere men. Pretty please...

We are in agreement here, except for your inclusion of super-couples. Super-couples on soaps existed long before Monty went to GH. NBC had at least three super-couples in the 1970s -- Alice/Steve, Doug/Julie, and Mac/Rachel. And possibly a couple of more -- Steve/Carolee and Bill/Laura. Also, ABC had Tara/Phil and Cliff/Nina before Monty invaded GH. But aside from that, I agree with you.

There would have been no James Reillly on Days, if not for Monty's work at GH.

Susan Sullivan seems to enjoy discussing her daytime experience in this interview. And she seems rather knowledgeable about the genre. This is at the peak of her primetime success, yet she actually says she prefers the format of the daytime drama. Imagine that!! And a couple of her interactions with Gloria Monty seem a bit bristly (on Monty's part). Susan is joyfully discussing her experience in daytime pre-1975, and Monty retorts by defending her "new" vision for soap opera. Susan doesn't even seem to notice, and goes on talking about how great soap operas "used to be." LOL. I bet Monty was boiling!!

We are in agreement. And regarding MVJ run out on a rail, Hell no!! MVJ is brilliant, strong, and dedicated. She is the closest thing we have to Agnes Nixon or Bill Bell in 2025. At least she loves the genre and uses her talents to support and sustain it. Who else is dong that these days?? In a year or two, I'll be ready for the premiere of MVJ's second soap opera. We should continue to critique BTG. Is it perfect? Of course not. And some of the issues seem so easily correctable. But since the premiere, I have missed only two episodes. So obviously, I am hooked.

It's been my experience that long-term soap opera fans complain the most about the soaps they love the most. It's like "I love this show so much, but I think it could be even better". But we can't type that disclosure on every post. So it's just kind of understood for most of us.

I believe there is (or was) audio of this scene (or at least part of the scene) on YouTube. I listened to it a couple of times, but the sounds quality is not the best. So it just sounded like two people screaming at one another. Sadly, it was difficult for the listener to make-out the words. When online fans reminisce about Lemay's greatest scenes, this scene is never mentioned. Perhaps because it was so early in Lemay's tenure, and so few of today's fans actually remember it. I remember my mother telling me, it was a whopper!! Is the script for this episode available anywhere online?? That would be an interesting read.

Are you looking for an excuse for Nicole??? Licensed therapists are not random people. They have the same legal patient confidentiality expectations as attorneys have with their clients. So they are legally bound to stay silent regarding their client interactions. Nicole committed an unethical and an illegal act by allowing her son to believe she was his new therapist. There is no way around this fact. The show will likely ignore it. But a judge would not ignore it, and any state mental health licensing board would also not ignore it. No matter what excuse or rationalization Nicole might use -- she would most definitely lose her license to practice as a mental health professional. No excuse would get her out of this.

Agreed. That is probably the issue.

With respect, you are rationalizing. And rationalizing would never work in a court of law, or the state board of mental health in any state (or DC).

Well, if it is "off the books", that makes it even more illegal because Nicole is purposefully trying to hide her unethical and illegal activity. And Martin's statement today -- calling Nicole his therapist -- clearly indicates he believes she is his therapist. When Nicole realized Martin could benefit from therapy, she should have immediately referred him to a professional in whom she has confidence. That is simply how situations like this are handled in the mental health profession. No ifs, ands, or buts... I truly don't believe the writers at BTG are this stupid. Writing mental health therapy situations is very very common on soap operas. Rather than stupid, I think they just don't care.

Did anyone else notice Martin mentioned that his new therapist is his mother?? His MOTHER?? Jeeze Louise! That is both unethical and illegal activity on Nicole's part. A mental health professional is not permitted to treat a relative, friend, colleague, neighbor, or anyone with whom the professional would have a dual-relationship. That is the law in EVERY state. Nicole would lose her license for this. Lazy writing -- or maybe they just don't care.

Yes, I was watching occasionally while Val Dufour played Walter. And I've had mixed feelings about Walter dying. One one hand, Walter had been an important and fairly long-running character, and I believe for the most part he was liked by the viewers. Walter was a versatile character also, in that he was mostly a good-guy, but was easily tempted to explore his negative side. And that allowed him to get into trouble, and be redeemed several times. In fact it was this negative side that allowed Walter to murder Wayne Addison -- something that required the character to pay for his sins one way or the other. On the other hand, Walter had a tendency to be a bit boring. And that got even worse when he was paired with Susan Sullivan who was very dynamic, and of course much younger. Seeing Dufour "married" to Sullivan was distracting, and imagining intimate scenes between the two was down right off-putting. Because of the storyline situation at the time, I'm not sure Dufour and Sullivan had any intimate (or even romantic) scenes, and that was probably just as well. I do think Walter's death freed up Lenore for further and more interesting romantic situations. And I don't think that would have happened had Walter remained alive, because the audience saw Lenore and Walter as end-game. Death was really the only acceptable way to break them up. And when all is said and done, I don't think Walter's death harmed AW in any noticeable way. Although I imagine it was shocking to long-term fans at the time. The deaths of Steve Frame, Mary Matthews, and the firing of Jacquie Courtney harmed the show, in my opinion. But Walter's death simply did not have the same outcome.

Not sure if there is a way to verify, but I feel certain it was Sullivan. That scene was written by Lemay, and Sullivan was already in the role when Lemay arrived.

She was likely talking about the scenes just before Walter Curtain's deadly car accident. Lenore and Walter had a huge fight at their house, and Lenore became so angry she was throwing things and knocking over small furniture.

It is interesting (and probably meaningful) to note that, with the exception of one -- all the characters invited to return for AW's 25th anniversary episodes had either been active characters during Lemay's first era of head-writing, OR created by Lemay during the same period. The only exception was Sandy Cory (Christopher Rich) who was invited to return for the 25th but declined. (Sandy first appeared on AW in late-1980 or 81.) So, let that sink in. What does that say about the permanent influence of Harding Lemay on AW's long-term legacy? And what does it say about earlier and especially later head-writers?? The entire merry-go-round of head-writers between 1979 and 1989, and the dozens and dozens of new characters who came and went during that decade were almost completely ignored when the 25th anniversary episodes were pulled together. I do certainly realize that nearly the entire 1989 "current" cast had been introduced by later writers (all post-1983, I believe). But the focus of my point is on characters and actors invited to return for the 25th. Except for Sandy, Lemay had written for or created all of them. We can discuss specifics, if anyone wants to. But I believe the list of invited returnees is fairly well known among long-term AW fans.

A bio-mother adoption controversy is not an interesting plot for older teenagers. Because there can really be no believable threat or real controversy with kids of this age who would and will obviously choose to remain with their adoptive dads. It would be a far more compelling storyline if the kids were 10 years younger, or even adults (maybe 10 years older). Plus this plot for Smitty and Martin comes too close on the heals of Martin's "secret" reveal, which isn't really even over yet. I love BTG, but this show certainly has run through a lot of different storylines in just over 100 episodes.

I can't answer your question directly. But they did not include Clarice and Larry in the 25th anniversary episodes. Although Clarice and Larry both returned a few months later for Mac Cory's funeral.

Interesting thought. But I don't think Swajeski was wise enough to think that far ahead. My opinion is -- Clarice and Larry were just overlooked for the 25th. Then a few months later, someone suggested their return for Mac's funeral. And Swajeski said okay. By the way, one more invited actor for the 25th who declined -- Maeve Kinkead as Angie Perrini. I'm confident Angie would have been thrown into Willis and Gwen's mess, had Kinkead agreed to return. It is worth noting that at the time, Kinkead was under contract with P&G's Guiding Light, so I've always been a bit surprised she was not "encouraged" by P&G to participate in AW's 25th episodes. But without Willis, I suppose Angie would have had little to do.

Yes. I've always thought the six most glaring omissions from the returning character list were Missy Matthews, Willis Frame, Lenore Delany, Sandy Cory, Clarice and Larry Ewing. But at least TPTB tried to get Willis, Lenore, and Sandy to return.

I agree. And having Iris tell Robert, he had been her favorite former husband was ridiculous. Robert was likely Iris's least favorite husband, considering how their marriage ended. Her favorites were probably Alex and Brian. Having Robert and Iris being cordial at the celebration was okay with me. But they were a little too chummy, in my opinion. I'm sure the original plan was for Robert to have most of his scenes with Lenore, not Iris. But Susan Sullivan chose not to return and play the role, so Lenore was removed from the plan. And without Lenore, who is Robert going to have scenes with? Iris was an obvious choice. It would have been great for Robert to have had a nice scene with Pat in which they both reminisced about Lenore. But that didn't happen.

Well, when you need to twist a character into a pretzel in order to make her fit a plot, that really does not make sense. And actually, that 25th anniversary plot really would not have worked for Willis either. Because Willis left Bay City after Janice was dead. And he did not, at the time, blame Rachel for Janice's death. In fact, Willis and Rachel were on good terms when he moved to Australia. Still, the silly 25th anniversary plot would have made a Helluva' lot more sense for Willis (who was always a bit volatile), than it did for Gwen (typically calm and good natured). And as has been stated -- the entire Gwen debacle in 1989 was caused by Leon Russom's refusal to return as Willis.

Yes, spin-off/cross-overs can be handled strangely. Back in the late 1960s, on a episode of Green Acres -- Oliver and Lisa were watching the opening to Petticoat Junction on TV. But Green Acres had been a spin-off of Petticoat Junction, and the two shows definitely existed in the same universe. Having Oliver and Lisa watching PJ on television was a bazaar decision for sure!!