GL95

Frank was shot by accident during academy training to cause two days of friction with Eleni over becoming a cop. I guess AM’s character does lend itself to peril both good and bad sides of him-he’s arrogant, impulsive, and prone to go full Spaulding when cornered but has something of a white knight complex as well where he’ll put himself in harm’s way. I was amused watching the scenes where the Spauldings are awaiting word on the Lucy/AM yacht and Phillip is openly annoyed with Alan for praising AM for bravery with going to the lighthouse solo while Phillip sees him as being a reckless idiot who does it for attention. (It’s too bad both the writing was terrible when GA first returned and RH left, as there was potentially interesting stuff to mine with Phillip/AM as adults.)

I just watched the episode where AM gets shot in the shoulder saving Harley (while cleaning up his mess), and I believe that's three times he was shot in the span of six years. It got me to thinking, has anyone been in as much peril in such a short period of time as AM from 1990-1996? (Basically Rick Hearst's tenure.) Kidnapped and tortured on his honeymoon in 1990 Accidentally shot by Blake in 1991 After escaping the hospital from said shooting, held captive by Gary trying to save Blake Shot by Pierre in 1992 Held in the boiler room when trying to save Eleni in 1993 Almost killed in the explosion when he's lured in by the ex-prisoner trying to seek revenge on Alan in 1994 Held at gunpoint by Brent/gun goes off in fight over gun in 1995 Held in lighthouse/shot by Brent/Marion in 1995 Is basically dead from drowning on his honeymoon but for Zachary in 1996 Roger and maybe Alan are the only contenders I can think of.

The AM SORAS is the gift that keeps on giving as far as confusing things, but even though Sherry Springfield is a year younger than Rick Hearst, since she’s playing up in age and he was playing down, they styled Blake for awhile like she’s 40 to play up the AM/Blake age difference. But Maureen Garrett wasn’t being styled older anymore, though i do think she had enough gravitas to pull it off especially because Blake was so frequently petulant back then which made it more convincing.

It does honestly feel like more of a props mistake than anything else. I feel like if they were trying to push Amanda as being 28 the other characters would be pointing out the Roger/Amanda age gap a lot more and treating the situation like Roger's MO is duping young, rich women coming off the Dinah marriage (not to mention Jenna was supposed to be around 25 I believe when she married Roger).

What’s funny is they freeze framed on it awhile-I didn’t need to pause. Granted my TV is much larger than what pretty much anyone had in 1997 haha I am sure the prop guy could never imagine back then that someone noticed while streaming the episode in 2026.

The AM SORAS making him 18 in 1987 makes the Amanda being born in 1969 even crazier. That Ross as her lost love backstory from a decade or so before is suddenly creepy.

YouTube pushed the episodes on me where Amanda finds out she’s Brandon’s daughter and if you really want to get a migraine on timelines, they do a close up on the birth certificate and say she was born in 1969 (making her 28 in 1997 at the time of the reveal/Toby Poser’s actual age.) I can’t even begin to figure out how she fits in with Phillip/AM age wise with that haha

I don’t think Holly was in the right especially as a mother throughout that phase, but I do think It’s much more complex than Holly being angry at Blake for “stealing” Ross. Like if Blake had helped Ross with his campaign and they just organically connected and came clean about it, I don’t think there would be near the same level of anger. (Also Ross made things much worse by having the most public appearance with Holly occur after he’s already with Blake-he knew perfectly well that while Holly knew they weren’t together that she was hoping it would lead there.) I do think as @P.J. said, Holly having a backbone during Blake’s lashing out sessions ultimately led to them having a solid relationship and not being in a Vanessa/Dinah loop. It also played a part in Blake maturing-while she continued to make mistakes by being impulsive/covering up, she at least felt bad about it and her first instinct for everything wasn’t to manipulate. When Holly got mad at her when she found out Blake called immigration on Eleni, Blake’s complete lack of realization of why that was a bad thing to do was almost comical (to Blake she wanted AM at the time, so how could Holly not understand?) She at least grew past that stage, and I think some of it was allowing some of Holly’s messaging in rather than let Roger help her manipulate people.

I feel like Holly’s anger towards Blake was justified-not as a cheating scenario but that the intent was always to humiliate Holly on Blake’s end. Blake was encouraging Holly to throw herself at Ross, etc. When Ross/Blake were caught in bed, Blake made a point of lashing out. I feel like that’s why Holly was able to forgive when she realized Blake/Ross were in love was that it wasn’t really about “losing” Ross, or at least not mostly about that.

I recently watched the episode where Blake tells Holly that she called immigration on Eleni, and Holly immediately knows this will blow up in Blake’s face in addition to being a terrible thing to do, but Blake just instantly accuses Holly of not supporting her. It’s an interesting dynamic because Blake will claim Holly has never been a reliable mother to her but also hates it Holly acts like a parent.

It’s funny but I watched ATWT before GL and kept watching ATWT through 2004ish as well, and my memory of basically anything non-Carly/Jack is nonexistent outside of very hazy memories whereas I remember a lot more about the general GL plots. I think because I felt more attached to the characters.

The thing that got Blake so mad at Holly that she went after Ross initially was something Eleni overheard Holly say (that Blake called immigration on Eleni)and not that Holly went out of her way to tell Eleni. When confronted to repeat it Holly didn’t lie, but it Holly had actually kept the secret even though she disapproved. She also kept the secret that Blake faked the AM pregnancy that led to their marriage and even convinced Ross to keep the secret even though Ross at that point was fairly fatherly towards AM (mainly through Phillip). I believe Blake held onto the grudge that Holly kept Roger from her growing up. It’s sort of funny because Holly at least tried to support Blake more than a whole lot of the parents on the show but got a lot of hate and anger for it. (I actually think because Blake knew Holly ultimately wouldn’t bail that Blake knew she could be more hostile.)

It’s nice to find the non-Lucy/Sonia Satra haters! When I watched early Lucy I get it some-and Sonia Satra was a complete novice who was trying to play down her age when she first joined. I think by the time AM/Lucy have their second round that SS is much better and she and RH have great chemistry and seem to have a lot of fun together even through all the high drama. A lot say Lucy was just a Harley stand-in, but I’ve said before she’s to me written to be a blend of what attracted AM to all his past loves-Harley’s spunk/Blake’s business acumen/Eleni’s guilessness. Also being Buzz’s kid who was raised by him she’s the “good” love interest of AM’s who has a higher tolerance for amoral behavior especially things in the past. At the beginning I remember rooting for Holly/Fletcher but moreso because I was rooting for Holly to break her toxic tie to Roger. On rewatch Fletcher annoys me-I feel like my brings viewing likely makes him worse than a few times per week. Holly/Fletcher domestic bliss bored me quickly and remember Niursery Rhyme Stalker being one of the moments that made me start to turn on the show. (I always loved the Holly/Blake dynamic so that story really bothered me.). What’s funny is in my memory the Nursery Rhyme Stalker and Matthew Bomer’s wackadoodle run as Ben Reade happened much closer together than they did. There’s just something about Maureen Garrett I found memorable/intriguing. My early soap was Y&R and the attractive but more real appeal of a lot of GL actors drew me more towards GL. It’s funny-I watched B&B, Y&R and ATWT from a crazy young age because my mom did. GL was my first and only show I came to on my own.

Ultimately I don’t see AM/Gilly being more than a short-term thing as she showed with Sid she’ll leave someone if they do something that goes against her principles. But there were a lot of possibilities to do something with their chemistry that woukdve been far better than AM/Tangie or having AM chase Eleni a second time. Admittedly I will always have a soft spot for AM/Lucy as I started watching right before the rape and AM realizing his feelings drew in my 15 year old self and AM was my TV boyfriend quickly. Then I got drawn in and wanted to grow up to be as poised as Holly/Maureen. Rick/Maureen were my standout memorable actors I remembered (I stopped watching 2004 when I joined the Peace Corps.) If he’d stuck around I actually feel llike Gilly had a good chemistry with Nick and I like the thought of them as rival reporters who become a couple but compete for scoops. Nick has a solid role if you take the idea someone had (sorry forgot who!) and have Fletcher killed by Marion/Brent. Leaves that newspaper reporter hole. I don’t think they’re an endgame couple but think giving AM/Blake a kid would have had a lot of possibilities. I’ve said it before I think, but I feel like having Blake show she’s grown by actually telling Ross the truth about her slip up with AM and Ross forgives her because he really did give her reason to believe it was over and ultimately appreciates she came clean. Then Blake finds out she’s pregnant with AM’s baby but they eventually all work out a custody agreement that works. It keeps Blake/AM/Roger tied together without Blake/AM being a couple. (Though I like the AM/Blake chemistry with Liz/Rick. It’s lighter than SS/Rick but there’s a fun affection always there that I enjoy and I wish they didn’t stop them being confidantes/friends.)

Phillip is interesting in this scenario too-suddenly AM (and Amanda) is in the same family unit as Rick which is in opposition to Alan/Alex. If Bloss are together and AM/Blake working at Thorpe, it also puts Ross aligned with the Bauers especially given his friendship with Ed. AM/Amanda being in this separate family unit by choice would drive Phillip insane. I also am not opposed to AM/Blake as a power couple with AM being family to Roger by marriage, but in some ways Roger just choosing AM for his own merits would be the ultimate thing to throw in Alan's face for both Roger and AM. (The passing of the torch scenario with Roger to AM/Blake story then has even more intrigue to where even TIIC at the time give Zas the sendoff he deserved since it could become something of an umbrella story if done right and more than Holly takes care of Roger as the plot).

They make AM/Amanda seem like virtual strangers in the 1995 return-part of it is keeping the different plots on islands. When she goes to the Bauer cabin to seduce Ross it’s literally the night Brent takes AM and her main concern is Alan is mad because she helped AM ditch the police tail. Shes far more concerned with Ross than with AM during the whole lighthouse kidnapping, though they largely keep Alex being more concerned with her rivalry with Amanda than with AM/Lucy too. Is it Amanda being seen as a threat with Alan or something else that makes Alex hate her so much immediately to the point of obsession? It was never very clear to me.

When Amanda and AM are giving the exposition of the retcon of AM hating Phillip, Amanda says something about having not seen Phillip since he was a little boy and AM saying he’s not that sweet little boy anymore. It’s one of those migraine inducing timeline comments. (Some of it seems like deaging Phillip a bit too?) Catching up on the early 90s, AM pointing to Phillip faking his own death as a reason to resent him actually works okay if they had just given AM a line that said he was young and he was so happy Phillip was alive he didn’t care (and was Phillip’s best man!) but now he sees it as the start of learning he couldn’t trust his family.

YouTube suggested this clip of Rick/Mindy/Phillip and a bunch of people I find recognize from 1987 playing around a TV studio. It is perhaps the most 80s thing ever.

I’ve never seen young Josh before outside of pictures. Fun-thanks for sharing!

For anyone who cares, a YouTube video claiming to be the wedding tells me that in fact the bomb exploded at the engagement party not wedding.

I feel like 1992 would be perfect right as Alex is trying to anoint Nick and ruin her plans. Plus Vanessa is president then and there’s bad blood there, right? (I don’t actually know why just that Van mentored Blake on dealing with Amanda.)

Haha thanks for the explanation. Not to get you going again but I’ve seen the Bloss wedding with the fear Alan was sending “another bomb” to one of Blake’s weddings. He also tried to blow someone up? I had always assumed it was a white collar crime of some sort.

Who on the show hasn’t gone to jail for shooting Roger haha

So I don’t think I’ve seen it anywhere-what’s the full story of Alan going to jail? They never really give it all out in the exposition when he comes back outside of AM being involved somehow. It was a bit strange that Alan’s incarceration didn’t seem to affect his standing though at the time I didn’t realize the nonsensical nature of the Spaulding board haha Also how much interaction does adult AM actually have with Alan pre-jail onscreen? I hadn’t realized with my first introduction to Alan being RR’s taking over that it was seemingly pretty limited and most everything they talk about backstory wise it retconned from faux SORAS childhood. (There needs to be a term for these retconned childhoods of SORAS kids because it really makes your head explode when they drop those stories and you think about the timeline. )

I'm in late August 1992 and Bev is at her tail end. I'm trying to decide if I want to skip forward a month or so to get past this period where a lot of the table is being set but knowing mostly what's coming it's a bit of a slog to view. I'm a bit curious how this Eleni/Frank/AM story was received at the time but I find how they decided to frame it both fairly unpleasant to watch while also boring at the same time somehow. I feel like the more interesting choice would've been to go ahead and have AM choose Eleni over Spaulding like he was going to pre-Nick reveal to give some actual stakes to the Musette reappearance/reveal where maybe there was a chance for the marriage but for this initial deceit. I feel like the desire to keep Frank/Eleni "good" versus AM being clearly "bad" as far as toeing the adultery/affair line wins out over interesting story. (In fairness I think knowing what happens later makes this story annoying to watch because Frank takes about 30 seconds of supposed neglect before he starts trusting Julie over Eleni, but I do't understand having this story not really be a triangle for a pretty long period. They are also spending a lot of time on Fletcher/Vanessa/Billy (the show is still trying to convince us Vanessa actually wants to be with Fletcher over Billy-this is just before Nadine's "pregnancy") and Julie/Dylan Innocent Young Love that is not exactly thrilling viewing. I just had to watch Vanessa grovel to Fletcher about how she really wants to be with him and definitely knows she doesn't want to marry Billy again (haha). Also had another Zas appreciation moment: They had that bad Roger backup player in for an episode that had plotting with both Jenna and AM and wow those expository scheming scenes are boring when an actor can't convey well that they're not saying what they really mean. What's great about Zas is the audience knows when he's conning someone but he's so charming that you don't think anyone who believes him is a moron. (here's usually also JUST enough truth/insight into the other character mixed in with Roger that you can see how he's so convincing, but you can have the same lines with a different actor and it just falls flat. Before I discovered the vault I had decided to start my revisit/gap filling in fall 1993 and went through 1997 before going back to July 1990, so I know there's some stuff coming up I want to watch where the ground is being set: The Lillian/Ed affair/fallout(I'm post blackout kiss with Ed just letting this build for an amazingly long period), Crazy Eve, finally figuring out Gilly's bad history with Roger (not asking-I'm still watching), Bridget in the attic, etc. I'm interested in Buzz's original arrival and was actually fairly surprised how close together Buzz/Lucy showed up because there was already surprisingly little tension with Buzz by the time I picked up in fall 1993. Nadine is objectively terrible throughout my 1990-1992 viewing, but how Frank and Harley throw her briefer period of leaving in her face constantly versus how it seems like water under the bridge pretty fast for Buzz making them think he was dead for most of their lives is something else.