Tisy-Lish

Absolutely -- Phil and Tara, Steve and Alice, Bill and Laura, Doug and Julie, Mac and Rachel. Those are the romances that brought the "college audience" to daytime in the 1970s. And that type of romance is exactly what's missing on daytime today -- even BTG doesn't have any big romantic couples struggling to be together. I do LOVE BTG and I watch every day. But why no long-suffering love story??

Agreed. Why did it all occur off-screen? And why are we still wondering about this "secret," three months later??? It should have been revealed within a month of it's beginning. It's not important enough to drag out this long. Jeeze-Louise!!

There has been long standing discussion that Jason Frame was originally slated to be the return of Willis Frame, but Chris Robinson refused to play a recast character, so TPTB created Jason Frame out of thin air. By the way, is this documented any where?? I would have enjoyed seeing Willis return, and played by Chris Robinson would have been successful. But Jason quickly became a far darker and more menacing character than Willis had ever been. So I guess there was some wisdom in creating an additional Frame brother.

Agreed. Jason was a very good bad-guy for AW because he had roots in the show's history, and he was believable and threatening, but never did anything over-the-top. I remember his murder-mystery was compelling, but I would have preferred Jason continue on the show as a long-term believable villain, similar to John Dixon on ATWT or Roger Thorpe on GL. Jason Frame was a much better fit for AW than either Reggie-boy Love or Carl Hutchins. Rest in Peace -- Chris Robinson.

Is Chance completely off the show now? Or is he just the "cop when they need one", and nothing more?

I believe Michael and Lauren also received an invitation. Am I correct?

Lemay had submitted his storyline projections just before the strike occurred. So I'm assuming TPTB used some of the material in his projections during the strike. Or at least used them to prepare for his full-time return as the strike was winding down, so the show would be in decent shape when he officially became head writer.

I remember Neil Wade, and I remember when he died. But I don't remember what caused his death. I do have a vague memory that he had been ill before his death.

I agree 100% with both you and Mitch64. Soaps have been going further and further off-course since 1981. TPTB just don't have a fundamental understanding of what makes soap fans so loyal. I'd love to be on a writing team with both of you. Maybe we could put together a real soap opera, and show people what its all about...

I agree. She has become ridiculous, and simply not a believable character. She needs to tone it down, or get to jail as quickly as possible. I completely agree. A bit of an Upstairs, Downstairs vibe is really all BTG is missing.

They can't afford to use the hospital set -- that's what I'm guessing. Poor Cole will probably die on Victoria's couch, and never be in the hospital. Jeeze-Louise!!

They are mentioning Aristotle Dumas in nearly every scene now. Good Lord. The poor actors must roll their eyes every time they get a new script.

Plus we are never going to have a Shonda Rhimes, a Dick Wolf, or a Chuck Lorre of daytime -- a single brilliant person who could come in and change the genre -- because Shonda, Dick, or Chuck would only be able to work on one soap opera at a time, not three or four at the same time as they do in primetime. As long as TPTB insist on the 60-minute format, we will never have another super influential individual like Phillips, Nixon, or Bell. They simply would never have time to do more than one soap opera at a time and that would stifle their influence overall. Thanks. So maybe this is happening to some degree in other entertainment genres. I don't keep up with the particular franchises you mentioned, so I was unaware. I appreciate your perspective.

That'a an interesting comparison, and might be a parallel. But i also know too little about sports to really comment on it's accuracy. It might have something to do with a "closed" system, and the consuming nature of producing or writing a daytime drama and coaching. Both in football and daytime, those factors make it hard for new talent to break into the system. And even a very talented coach or daytime writer or executive producer can only do one team (or one show) at a time, limiting that person's impact on the entire system.

Agreed. Is there any other entertainment genre (past or present) where anything similar has occurred time after time? Primetime dramas? Comedy? Westerns? Horror? Sci-Fi? Variety shows? Radio? Why is daytime drama plagued by this idiocy, while other entertainment genres seem to have avoided it??

Yes, it was. A couple of years ago, someone posted the scene from 1981 or '82 in which "Bay City, Illinois" was mentioned for the first time. And I also remember watching the show on NBC in real-time back then, seeing that scene, and asking myself, WTF??!! Bay City is now in Illinois??

And that revolving door has led to the cancellation of so many daytime dramas since the early-1980s. Very sad.

Yes, the locale officially switched to Illinois in the early-1980s. But I was watching daily during the entire Lemay era, and I'm fairly confident Bay City was never referenced as being in Michigan in any of Lemay's scripts. Agreed, Lemay did care about AW's past -- and used the past as subtext for many characters. But it is unfortunate he chose never to mention (or perhaps was unaware of) the Michigan connection. So by not mentioning it, this may be when that connection was lost for TPTB.

Out of curiosity, were you watching in the late 1960s and early 1970s? Michigan was mentioned, on-air, more than once back then. I kept extensive scrapbooks of all my favorite soaps at the time (yes, I had no life, LOL), and I made notes of trivia like this, characters' addresses and telephone numbers, birthdates of babies, etc. Yes I was watching AW during that time, but I was very young. So might have missed the references you mentioned. The late 1960s and early 1970s would have been during the Nixon and Cenedella head-writing eras. Assuming you are correct, I'm quite surprised (and disappointed) Harding Lemay did not continue the Michigan references. Especially since he was raised in a far northern region of a northern state, very very near the Canadian border. And I know he loved writing (either directly or indirectly) about his upbringing in that region. Perhaps no one in the studio ever told Lemay about the Michigan connection. Who knows?? But I'm sure Lemay would have had a field-day playing all those Michigan references, which would have made his AW even more believable and relevant than it already was. Such a missed opportunity!!

But Irna did not put Bay City in Illinois. She left it vague. Bay City wasn't mentioned as being in Illinois until the early-1980s, when Julia Shearer mentioned she was traveling to Bay City, Illinois. Now, I do agree Irna likely wanted most of them to be somewhat close to Chicago and Cincinnati, but Michigan is adjacent to both Illinois and Ohio. And Cincinnati is about 5-hours from both Chicago and Bay City, Michigan. And Bay City is also about 5 hours from Chicago. Not trying to argue, but we all have our wishes. I just would have preferred Bay City be in Michigan for the reasons I mentioned in an earlier post. It didn't happen, so I can't cry about it. LOL.

Even though I can firm a map of Michigan (that included Bay City) was used on the show, I still never heard Michigan referred to in any of the dialogue -- ever. So the map doesn't really make it canon, in my opinion. That map was probably supplied by the prop-guy, and he might not have even told TPTB that he was going to use an identifiable state map. On the other hand, there were hints that it was in Michigan, with references to cold winters, etc. And on Somerset, a nearby city was Lansing. But I don't recall Lansing ever being mentioned on AW, but perhaps it was. I do wish TPTB would have made AW's canonical location in Michigan. First, because many fans already believed it was in Michigan, and because eventually putting all the remaining P&G soap opera cities in Illinois was silly and pointless. Variety is the spice of live, my dears.

Yet another reason some of the characters need servants. Since some of the sets do not include front doors, servants could answer the off-screen door and escort guests into the living room(s).

I remember them showing a map of Michigan during one of Rachel's adventures, and you are probably correct here. But the map may have been used in 1978, when Sven kidnapped Rachel and characters were searching for her. They had no idea Sven had hidden her right there on the Cory estate. So that's just another possible sighting of the infamous map.

Wow, this was some amazing acting and amazing writing. And who came up with the idea that Anita would have memorized the letter? That person deserves an Emmy! I love it when soap operas do very serious storylines. So much in the last 40 years on soaps has been done for laughs or as camp. Its good to see BTG is not afraid to hit the serious notes. We all knew Anita had a secret, but I never expected this kind of tragedy was behind it.

81 and 82 were rather bad, with the infamous invasion of the Kirkland family. But sometime in late 82 or early 83, Claire Labine was rehired as head-writer and immediately put the focus back on the Ryan's. This time Labine's tenure was short, but she did great work. The entire show was compelling again -- especially the Charlotte Greer storyline (one of the best plots of the entire series). But Labine was fired, yet again, and Ryan's Bar was bombed, resulting in most of the action being transferred to Greenberg's Deli, and a focus on younger characters with little connection to the Ryan family. So that is what you are probably seeing from 84.