GL95

Watching Gilly/Amelia Marshall sing in an episode, and Monti Sharp sang the other day. I've seen Rick Hearst and Morgan Englund also sing on the show-is it part of being in NYC that everyone is musical on this show? I know there's at least one or two I'm missing with musical talent. It's fun that they give everyone their moment to sing.

I would be okay with an early SORAS of Marina at that point since Frank/Eleni were hanging out on the canvas without much to do anyhow. Though I’m sure there would be all kinds of possibilities like a sudden niece/nephew like Bridget was who really worked out.

It's funny that I can't remember if I cut out of GL before Jeffrey appeared or if I just memory-holed him completely.

There's so many of my favorite actors from over the years on GH right now-Maura West/Rick Hearst/Cynthia Watros among others-I don't really know that I want to actually dive into a new modern soap but it's tempting. Aww, I loved Katie/Henry too. I'd forgotten all about him for some reason but as soon as I saw this I had happy flashbacks.

It's funny-I always loved Carly/Maura West (even when Carly was making terrible decisions I almost always sympathized with her) and I remember it being one of the first times I started diverging with my mom who hated Carly. My mom pretty much only liked "good" characters on shows.

More into 1993: HB is for some unknown reason trying to play matchmaker to bring Nick/Mindy back together. I really don't understand this at all. It's not entirely Nick's fault per se (and I find him insufferable at this point most of the time) but I don't see how her family is so excited for her to get back together with someone who fairly easily believed some truly terrible things about her. Not to mention, even though Alex is off the radar, you'd think her being completely free of the Spauldings would make the Lewis clan in general happy. They just handed over the Journal Lewis Oil investment to Mindy just to get her in Nick's orbit. (This is after HB "lost" his binoculars and sent Nick/Mindy off to find them.") Blake is in her period of practically begging Ross to marry her. One thing looking backwards on Blake/Ross is how they really set up Blake's entire self-worth on Ross's opinion of her. She tells Ross she is sure this marriage will work because he's someone too good to leave her, which is interesting because knowing where it goes she's both right and wrong. I think the writing didn't do Blake any favors by having the final death knell with AM be him leading her on/using her given that their marriage falling apart was 100% based on her lying and not him being quick to leave. The focus being on the very end left Blake with no lesson other than picking the wrong men, which really the lying should have been her lesson which she never learns. (Ross is a bit of a sucker for manipulative women so I guess she chose well on finding someone who she can both consider herself unworthy of yet somehow almost always forgive her lies eventually.). Ed just went to visit Eve in the mental hospital roughly two weeks after drugging Mindy/Nick and injuring Mindy among other things, and she is surprised somehow that she won't get to immediately practice medicine. Ed says she can still do non-patient work which seems exceptionally generous to be employed at all after what she did, but she seems upset by this. Roger started a news story about Eve that just sent Ed into a rage. Nick finally decided to give his approval to Holly for the money and expertise the Journal absolutely does not have. The scheming immediately begins with Holly coming up with the idea to do a feature on Jenna that is glowing to basically trap Jenna into creating an image for herself that will conflict with Roger. Strangely, Holly has to literally spell out the theory behind the puff piece to AM who doesn't get it even though Fletcher/Nick get it right away as AM suddenly doesn't leap to deviousness though he's super into it of course once Holly explains. That being said, I could watch Holly/AM scheme all day. (It's funny but in a lot of ways I feel like he fits in better with the Thorpe family messed up dynamics than the Spaulding ones and pretty much like him playing off any of Roger/Blake/Holly better than any Spaulding once Bev left. As a side note, it's funny to me this show never really gave Hart any male friend after Dylan because I feel like there's a bevy of male characters who can relate to his issues with Roger/his new family as a whole. He and Nick basically had the same plot going on at the same time for awhile and I feel like AM has similar baggage.)

If Dinah perceived Billy to soften Vanessa into writing her a check (or write one herself), she would’ve been sucking up IMO. Her long game was definitely to stick it to Van but she would’ve worked any angle to pay off that debt.

Leonard Staub’s accident I’m guessing changed things as well-I would think the plan was to have Hart find out he’s Peter’s father which triggers the custody battle. I’d think the custody battle was planned as the groundwork is so clearly set but the dynamics of it shifted due to casting. If you think about it the Dinah plot line would’ve worked even better with Billy. There would’ve been a different dynamic with Billy/Dinah of course but Dinah turning to Roger takes on a lot more drama with Billy involved. Plus Dinah would’ve been trying to suck up to Billy once she realized he had money and Ross didn’t, though don’t see her successfully manipulating Billy. But Billy would’ve still done everything he could to get her away from Roger.

I picked up ATWT in 1993-it’s funny because the promos right now on my GL watch are about Lily/Damian which is about when I first started watching. (It’s a pretty specific memory because I lived overseas 1990-June 1993 and started ATWT that summer.)

Thanks! I’m enjoying the walk down memory lane of your late 90s recaps but definitely excited to get your takes on these earlier periods-there’s lots of good stuff. I think I’ll check out what I can of 1989 and maybe 1984. I might do a rewatch again of what I like of 94 and skip to 95 some-I watch sometimes as background noise for a rote work task which actual rewatches are great for. I’m tempted to skip around the better pockets of GL or more memorable stories for the rest of the 90s/2000s. I’m somewhat contemplating picking out a period of ATWT which was consistently my favorite soap when I was young-though 80s Y&R was my real intro to soaps. I remember getting excited every summer for the Danny Romalatti concert haha For whatever reason outside of Carly/Jack on ATWT I barely remember anything where a lot of GL stuck with me more for whatever reason. I think the characters just resonated emotionally with me more.

Rachel Miner is so good during this period. She’s so torn up between losing her mother and instinctively covering for Ed for something she doesn’t fully understand. It’s eating her alive but she knows it will blow things up for her dad if she ever says anything about Lilian.

I’ve actually seen 1994-I revisited GL on a lark because I was curious to rewatch Brent/Marion & Lucy/AM as it was the primary story along with Reva’s return when I first started watching and was on a nostalgia kick. I decided to go back to 1994 to fill in gaps initially then went all the way back to June 1990 after discovering these boards. So I’m getting close to caught up which makes me a bit sad. I am definitely not rewatching the back half of 1994 again which I think Is my least favorite period of what I’ve watched, though 1996 certainly is in close competition post Brent/Marion conclusion especially once Rick Hearst leaves making the Spaulding drama be Philip and the Recasts. (I basically went 1994-early 1997 and decided going further back to fill in gaps seemed a lot more enjoyable than a rewatch of the late 90s.)

Just finished May 1993 with the reset happening after most of the big secrets came out. It was interesting watching the decision to put Peter with Billy/Van knowing what happens. That custody battle was pretty inevitable I feel like-Bridget was basically Peter's mom when Nadine was pretending to be and formed such a tight bond. She was really making a long-term decision based on short-term factors which is completely understandable for a teenager who has a shaky support system. I think Van was fully committed to raising Peter, but I think when she agreed to marry Billy and help raise Peter that she thought Bridget was going to decide to keep him. It was interesting watching Van struggle with agreeing to raising a baby at her age knowing she's going to decide to have another kid years down the line. I really love Bridget with Michelle. It's a shame that they largely dropped that connection post Michelle SORAS. They should've had a sister-like relationship. It's funny but I feel like the Maureen death decision was a huge blow but at least shook up character connections to pick up the pieces, but in a weird way they just decided to completely obliterate all connections around Ed who weren't his kids once Eve died. There might be stray scenes, but I feel like post-Eve there's very little Ed with Bridget/AM/Blake outside of Ed being stuck in the middle of the two fathers twins story. Holly made her pitch to join the Journal to get a fresh start to Fletcher (too bad about where THAT goes), AM and Nick. I like how it seems random but Holly actually is the perfect partner for them in understanding both business and journalism-so often these business pairings don't even make any sense at all. AM seemed mostly on board but then was fully on board once Holly overheard Blake saying AM/Blake slept together at the cabin so he could keep Holly from telling Ross. AM suggests that at this point Blake should strongly consider telling Ross herself, but of course she says she can't do this and we shall see this exact same scenario over and over for years. Nick is mad that AM agreed to Holly's investment and AM is cryptic about the reasons, though it's funny because all he really needed to tell Nick is that Nick had told him he had no interest in the business side of things. Nick and Holly fly to Tulsa for some computer negotiation (where Mindy is at Cross Creek and Holly calls him on his sudden interest in computer negotiations) and the whole thing shows Holly's competence and connections but Nick just keeps throwing her absences at WSPR post Blake/Ross in her face. For a supposedly brilliant reporter who really connects with people as a strength per the lore, it's always comical to me how Nick pretty consistently lacks empathy. That being said, I would much rather have seen a Nick/Holly dalliance than the Fletcher/Holly relationship haha This plot line also sets in motion Spaulding getting the WSPR half as Holly convinces Jenna to buy it so she can keep closer tabs on Roger over at WSPR like she can at Spaulding. I actually sort of love how Spaulding by 1995 has a major piece of all of Springfield's media as it's weirdly topical in today's world of all things.

Similar to the wedding convo, are there are any particularly memorable proposals? I feel like even the prominent more overtly romantic couples mostly have pretty quiet proposals/engagements. I legitimately can’t come up with any (outside of doomed proposals like Ross finding out about the Blake/AM tryst from the random taxi driver).

What’s funny is I liked Julie okay when she was still friends with Bridget and I first watched Lucy when they’d already worked out a lot of the writing/acting kinks and she was friends with Bridget. Seems to be a common denominator haha (I definitely don’t blame Julie for not wanting to be Bridget’s friend anymore.) Funny thing about Julie is there was one day they had a stand-in and it was Mira Sorvino. Sam had that quirky nerdy side that I liked and lots of connections between Harley/Dylan/AM/Ross. It’s too bad they didn’t follow through with the law school plot and make her the second lawyer in town.

It took longer than I'd like to get to the Buzz reveal, but the payoff has been great. I also am liking this different dynamic with Harley/Mallet as the constant bickering gets a bit old for me. (I think those are the sorts of things where binging can make things grate a bit.) Like you said, BE is definitely bringing it. I don't necessarily know if I think it's better per se, but I actually am enjoying March-May or so of 1993 more than the back half of 1992. Everything was so bleak for awhile there in 1992-not just Mo's death but all the AM/Eleni stuff got super bleak too. Also Holly's breakdown was a hard watch. as well as Mallet's recovery period from the explosion. Bridget pregnant in the attic while in "Appalachia" wasn't particularly fun either. It was a bit unrelentingly dark for awhile there in 1992-weirdly Mo's death/aftermath seemed to be the culmination of that tone. I like after the dramatic payouts played out from 1992 that the first half of 1993 is a better mix of drama/fun/camp IMO. Buzz basically just went into the ladies room at the airport and changed then tried to blend in but Mallet figured him out-it didn't go on particularly long. They did have him give a long, dramatic speech while handcuffed to a canopy bed post (nothing dirty haha) still in the dress and some makeup. Spoiler: You're both not missing all that much with Julie but she gets her own Crazy Julie run. (She's Mallet's sister to fill in who she is-I don't get all the Lucy hate when Julie is right there taking up screen time in back to back snoozefest relationships with inexplicable amounts of screen time.)

I hit May 1993 and you can definitely tell it was sweeps. Everything came together. Buzz gets caught by Mallet at the airport as he tries to disguise himself as a woman and gets interrogated in a hotel room while still in the dress. (Marion foreshadowing lol?) Frank/Eleni get married and she immediately goes into labor afterwards, and while Eleni is giving birth Harley learns Buzz is her father. AM watches the wedding sadly from the Journal terrace-Blake drops by sad Ross won't propose with some wine. AM briefly commiserates and sends her back to Ross saying he won't be the guy she goes to for revenge. (In my binge AM had a similar scene with Harley where she kisses him when she's still crushed about Josh and he says he won't be used to get over someone else.) Nadine's web of lies all come crashing down at once-Baby Peter is revealed to be Bridget's kid and that she knew who Buzz was all along. While everything is hitting the fan with the lies but before Bridget is fully revealed as Peter's mom, she takes off with Peter and has David watch him as she tries to explore her options. It quickly gets reported as a kidnapping and Billy makes a plea on TV with Roger giving him airtime while Hart watches while neither know Peter is Hart's. Bridget eventually returns with Peter and Vanessa susses out that Bridget is Peter's mom and Van bonds with Bridget as she shares about her past with Dinah. Bridget clearly wants to keep Peter and move in with Ed, but Ed is in a bad place and inadvertently dissuades Bridget without knowing about Peter. Eve has her full freakout. First she drugged Mindy at the fashion show and Mindy gets in a serious accident with Little Bill in the car. Then as Mindy recovers, Eve comes and knocks her out. Nick arrives and she drugs him too. Nick manages to call Ed who arrives as Eve flees as it all sinks in what she's done, and she plans to jump off the lighthouse. Ed eventually talks her down and takes her to a mental hospital after we learn just how bad things got in Cambre. Nick sympathizes with Eve but Mindy is not quite there yet haha. Somehow Nick/Mindy look to be on the verge of reconciling and it's really pretty amazing that Mindy would forgive Nick for all the terrible things he believed about her that Eve told him. Crazy Eve was kind of fun so it's a bit of a bummer how deep her trauma is to bring it on-I admittedly would not have minded a little longer psychological torture of the various Mindy recasts (both Ann Hamilton and Barbara Crampton play Mindy as this is happening). Finally there is a whole lot of Hart/Julie/Dylan with Bridget getting her heart broken by Hart again who is fixated on Julie. It is remarkable how everyone is in love with someone bland in this story and Bridget is on the outside. (Bridget has a really great scene with Kat where she breaks down about hiding the pregnancy because she was ashamed when Kat is mad she didn't trust her and they make up. I want David/Bridget/Kat on my screen any day over Hart/Julie/Dylan.)

I’ve heard that story about Frank D-it’s funny to me how no other Cooper looks particularly Greek besides Eleni so not sure the point of the whole backstory around Frank. I know Frank D actually is Greek but it’s funny how AM/Rick looks like he’s the one who could slide into Eleni’s family and not Frank. (RH is half-Italian.)

The Matessa wedding story was about everything going wrong that possibly could which is why it’s so haphazard. I don’t remember all the details other than Little Bill accidentally ruining her dress (it also got run over by a car?) so she wore that purple getup of Nola’s.

It happens super suddenly in 1995-you can see it with the boarding house. As has been discussed here, Bridget/Lucy were close and Marion targets David because he's protective of Lucy (and wants the room). Then I am pretty sure Lucy never talks to David again after leaving the hospital to visit him and almost never interacts with Bridget again. They also acknowledge the Bridget/AM "cousin" connection through marriage and it just gets dropped. Then the boarding house is basically just where the Reardons plus David live for the most part. They also just really made the various workplaces pretty insular for the most part. At one point in 1992 you had all of Van/Mo/AM/Blake/Alex all working at Spaulding. By 1995 you'd think it was just AM/Lucy and whichever of Brent or Marion works there at the time. The Journal and WSPR also got whittled down to almost nothing but had some interesting combinations of characters passing through over the years. It was fun having AM/Holly briefly working together for instance. (Since Roger/Holly were actually together when Lucy's rape went public is I'm guessing why they avoided Holly trying to talk to Lucy when she had made a point of reaching out to Vanessa in the past, but again you just didn't have those types of interactions by then.)

I'm not sure, but I feel like I read somewhere it was a bit of a chain reaction. It seems like the angel being there for Lucy was the original plan, but then RH left which was a big reason SS left so they just had AM/Lucy heavily backburnered before leaving together. RH had talked on his Locher Room interview about things not being the same (and seems to have really great fondness for the show) and the not liking what the new producers had in store. I'm guessing being one of many bickering Spauldings in a story that circled around Phillip probably wasn't all that appealing either. What's funny is Rick seems to like working with Justin Deas-I got the impression he actually liked the Cooper scenes better than the Spaulding scenes by the end. He clearly loved working with Zas and Bev too. Yeah, AM/Lucy 1 was odd in general because they had her pretty clearly there for him but they got rid of any dramatic stakes with all the Coopers more or less forgiving him early so it was just them going on romcom style dates with no real direction. I don't know if it was actually this well planned, but I did like how it turned out because they did establish her as someone he actually respected at work (all things Spaulding require suspension of disbelief haha) and that she wasn't just some girl mooning over him willing to take whatever scraps anymore. I feel like Tangie was there to not have him go straight to Lucy from Eleni and to make sure there was friction with Alan. This is actually where I kept expecting Blake to come in since she was doing random detective work around Tangie's "mystery man"-I kept wanting Blake to discover AM was there and take shifts caring for him while lying to Ross (since Blake was also afraid of Alan then as well so it would've dovetailed pretty nicely). Holly probably then would've figured it out but also kept the secret while warning Blake it was a bad idea as per usual haha. While it was actually a sign of growth for Blake (before regressing, sigh) at the time, part of me would've liked Blake to go show up at the yacht rather than go to the boarding house when she briefly left Ross over Dinah. They moved to the bland Eleni recast being his confidant, but I always enjoyed Liz Kiefer and Rick Hearst's chemistry. There was a lived in affection and familiarity which was interesting given that they never were a couple onscreen.

It’s funny because I’d actually argue in his last year they finally utilized his talents fully. He had his own Alan/Spaulding drama the whole time he and Lucy were truly together plus he had a bunch of Brent confrontations. It was far more to do than roaming the beach then mooning over Tangie. His Locher Room interview made it pretty clear it was a McTavish related decision. (If there’s a co-star he was trying to get away from I sensed it was Ron Raines more than Sonia Satra, though granted SS was part of the interview.) That being said I wish they’d moved the wedding up and had AM freak out and skip the honeymoon because he was paranoid about Phillip to have more RH/GA overlap. One of their only scenes is Phillip asking AM for a job but clearly with underhanded motives but AM politely saying he’ll consider it, and it’s clear neither are saying what they mean and also know the other is being insincere, which is the kind of thing Michael Dietz couldn’t pull off but is needed to keep Spaulding plots interesting.

I get the impression if Rick had stayed that the A. Spaulding story with Phillip was supposed to be roughly the same and they had AM acting pretty shady with Phillip-he regresses every time he feels threatened. While I would have loved to see RH/GA going toe to toe as adult brothers for longer, hard to argue that RH made the wrong choice getting out at that point. I imagine that if AM stayed on the scene the show would've just been cycles of Phillip/AM being close, there being a competitive rift, then them coming together again when one of them does something questionable to someone else that only a Spaulding would understand/be able to help with. Admittedly I actually liked AM/Lucy and felt their actual coming together was done well for the most part though it was basically just one trauma to another. Though I will forever contend the show made a mistake just completely severing AM/Blake from each other's orbits. I feel like they should have had a Roger/Holly sort of connection that is always there in the background-even if they keep remembering that ultimately they're bad for each other.

I want to say Eleni/Nadine were catering the event but Nola was "helping" by making the dish that made everyone sick, but I could definitely be mixing up them catering with a different wedding. Nadine was pretty preoccupied with the visions of her impending death at this point-I do remember there were candlesticks there which triggered a vision.

I don’t know if they did in their younger days, but there was a brief overlap in 1995 because I remember them both being at the Matessa wedding.