sheilaforever

#1809 – here is it: the one event that probably kept me watching this soap as young teen: the end of Jay Garvin. In retrospect I would have expected much more build up because it happened all so fast. James is suddenly on Sheila’s trail. The motivations remain sketchy; the writers claim that James is digging deep because Sheila is Brooke’s assistant. Dear James: Stephanie and Brooke both have some skeletons in their closets, too. But maybe this turned him on? ALL of James’ lovers on this show were rather complex (read: devious, crazy or off-the-rails) women at one point or another if I think about it… LOL Anyway: the first of many balcony falls in B&B history (is anyone counting???) was just great TV with Sheila being cornered and well Jay taking a deep fall. To my utmost surprise the rest of the episode had some super boring stuff: Eric and Stephanie have lunch and discuss basically nothing. Jessica speaks with Ridge about his skimpy swimwear and is then introduced to Brooke. Talk about nail-biter material. NOT There are some things that are definitely working really well in Summer 1994: the acting of Ian Buchanan and Kimberlin Brown. The wonderful conversations between Sheila and Mike – and basically every scene featuring Sheila. I have only seen Ivana’s first episode in which she bantered with Dylan – and it was GOOD. The Spectras are losing steam and my best guess is that Sally and Macy will soon make up after suffering a nasty fall-out due to Anthony. The story was a lot better than I remembered it. Now it is time to move on quickly, though, ‘cause Sally and Macy have to be at good terms – they have such a sincere relationship, IMO. @ Divinemotion: 1996 is good in a way that it features a broad variety of stories and characters. And most storylines work really well. I re-watched it in 2021. IMO, it is losing considersable steam in the fall with Brooke/Ridge/Grant because the writing is not doing any character favors, but apart from that there is lots to like - and actually most stories are cut too short (for my taste) instead of being dragged out...

James' undercover mission also ended those Connor/James scenes in an office which aired for months (at least in my memory...) and made them look like the original desperate housewives.

Isn't this when James poses as "Brewster Mackenzay"? I loved it back then - and Ahmed is indeed fabulous. He is one of those classic Bell show sidekicks which add a lot of layer to storylines...

It's still mindblowing. In all fairnes, he wanted to keep her around and Rena walked out.

Thanks for compiling those lists! Crazy to see an actor on soaps in 2022 still racking in 200+ episodes. B&B sure works differently than most other shows. And Kimberlin Brown's numbers are some of her highest yearly totals... Crazy as well. While not showing the most balanced cast overview, I think that it worked really well for the show last year. Lawrence St. Victor at 93 episodes is also a lot. He's gonna be hurt by Rena Sofer's departure for sure. I see him on recurring as soon as his next contract cycle expires which sure is a waste of talent. Still awesome that he got another year with some frontburner storylines after being sidelined as resident Reverend for 5+ years.

I haven't followed Y&R in a while, but recently read various reports about Sharon Case was being sidelined. Now I spot her at #2 with 13 episodes!?

@slick jonesand all trivia lovers: Did we know that Eddie Cibrian (nowadays best known for being LeAnn Rimes' husband, I guess) got his start on B&B before being hired for Y&R as Matt Clarke (after unsuccessfully auditoning for Nick Newman)!? Haven't seen his dayplayer episode yet, but he is credited in #1813 as "Dave"

This is something we should always remember: it was the high point of BH90210 and Melrose Place craze back then and - I think - the similar style of B&B was part of an attempt to cash in on it. B&B had great household ratings on CBS but rather lackluster rating in the demographics…

First and foremost: Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Vault this year and special thanks to @ChickenNuggetz92 for building this treasure trove. I have reached #1800 (end of May 1994…) and wanted to share my comments: the show is still interesting to watch, but not that different from one of the better 2021 or 2022 periods. The actors and some episodes are wonderful, yet this edge of your seat feeling from 1993 is missing. Some stuff is indeed repetitive and the focus on Ridge and Brooke’s love live is showing wear and tear. (In all honesty, I felt the same about 1988 and 1989 episodes with Ridge & Caroline!) Plus, some stories or directions for characters come out of nowhere. E.g. I don’t buy Stephanie & Eric in whatever kind of relationship status they are now. She harps about being sooo lonely in her house, yet she is still with Jack!? Eric issues all kinds of accusations at Sheila, yet at this period it is him who is showing his wife the cold shoulder and spending all his time with Stephanie. This leads to some far-reaching events like James’ fascination with Sheila and her zest to take more extreme measures. The build up to what is to come is good (I always pictured Dr. Garvin to die muuuuuuuuuch sooner and the Houdini dungeon wayyyyyy later), but the initial switch of positions for all these character was rather sudden. Seeing the first episodes of Dylan (what a 80s DYNASTY style hairdo!) and Jessica (sheesh, what a green “actress” and out of this world characterisation!!!) made me realise that I was watching B&B fulltime by then. I must have started right around Taylor’s plane crash because a lot of these scenes and episodes look very familiar to me all of a sudden. As a new viewer (of young age no less) who had previously only watched occasionally, I was absolutely spellbound by these episode. Now my verdict is way less favourable. The entrances of Dylan and Jessica in particular are already super boring and I’m dreading their romance.

Awesome promo. Probably much grimmer than what will happening on screen. Still great!

2003 was indeed a pay cut - because they cut her episode guaranatees drastically which Heather Tom saw as a sign that she was supposed to be sidelined - and she would not take that.

I could be totally wrong on this one but I recall it that Heather Tom had a nasty contract dispute and simply walked out on the show. That's why they had trouble to find an immediate replacement... Sarah Aldrich bombed and Eric Braeden was not happy with her, so producers asked Heather Tom to return which she did. That's how it was reported in the gossip columns of SOD and Soap Opera Update. When Heather Tom was back on screen, they suddenly made it all sound like it was planned all along as a sabbatical.

I think part of the problem was that B&B scored pretty old in the domographics while DAYS skyrockted in the ratings. Therefore we got teen love stories instead of Eric&Stephanie&Jack. I get your point, though: Stephanie needed a proper motivation to meddle and this was lacking in 1994.

During my first viewing many moons ago as a teen, I was quite surprised that Stephanie and Eric were so anti-Dylan - I simply did no get the antagonism. It's not like he is a 60+ sugar-daddy, wearing ripped leather jeans and riding a bike plus having a criminal record the size of Italy - actually, I always thought that Dylan was very un-edgy. That made it all the more ridiculous. I was still somewhat invested in that storyline. Cue to 2022, I expect to simply HATE Stephanie and Eric and be ANNOYED by Dylan and Jessica because they are super boring. Did they have anything which qualified as a set of friends or storlyine? WIth Michael's and Jasmine's arrival it got much better, but the first 10 (?) are probably dreadful.

Good that I'm not the only one. I also think that besides the living we only ever had Sally's bedroom (her early days with Clarke and later ca. 2001 with Massimo (I think) and another bedroom in which Macy stayed when things looked bad with Thorne (so quite often LOL). I also cannot remember that C.J. ever had a room which us viewers saw...

This is the first episode of 1997: #2452 which aired Janaury 2, 1997. Pardon me for interupting with a VERY important question 😉 Episode #1778 feautures a HUGE kitchen set for Sally's condo which I think was never seen before and afterwards. I think meals were usually eaten in Sally's living room. Or can anybody remember any other occurence of Sally's kitchen?

I'm not up to date but saw the ending on Instagram. What a fabulous piece of twisted soap opera goodness. Awesome - nice that they included Pam and Charlie

Just my two cents: England is still very much a class system. It's not so much your skin color but your status and upbringing which might get you ahead or confront you with hardships to break up barriers. In case of Meghan Markle: did I get it right that she wanted to be hugged by Kate who did not respond as the prime source of her feeling racism within the royal family? um okay, I get that as the new girl entering in an intimidating family she wanted to fit right in and searched for an alliance with the other daughter-in-law. But could be it as simple as that you sometimes do not get along as human beings. And a wannabe star actress trying to headline her own version of the Princess Diary is not necessarily the most unbiased source. For me it still looks more like very standard personal issues. Which should have stayed personal, IMO. It's Harry and Meghan version of how they felt but there so many parts that sound a little "strange". For instance: they are accusing the royals of playing a game with the British press. Yet, for this Netflix project "the Sussexes" heavily rely on one interview to tell their version of the truth. An interview with the late Diana which was REVEALED to have been fake by the BBC!??? Okay...

I wanted to share my two cents on the 1994 episodes graciously uploaded to the Vault. I have reached # 1772 which originally aired in April 1994 on CBS. It seems I was not yet a regular viewer beck then because most of the episodes feel fresh to me. I have read extensive recaps over the years, therefore it is fascinating no less to actually see some of these developments as they unfolded on the screen. As many of you mentioned, it’s not all holding up that well. In my last episode: Ridge was expressing his happiness over Stephanie getting closer to Eric. This felt super shady considering that Stephanie is NOT solo but in a relationship with Ridge’s father-in-law. Jack is also such a void by now and reduced to Taylor’s sounding board; as a matter of fact, I think it was never mentioned what Jack’s new job was after he left the accounting job at Spectra. And Taylor? Spring 1994 is absurd for this character. I always pictured her and James making love as a cringeworthy scene arising out of life and death moment. That’s what was told on screen, but the fake “snow make-up” which made Taylor and James look like the cast of some 70s vampire movie did not transport a life and death crisis onto the screen. And boy, the last couple of weeks Taylor has had the same conversation over and over: she wants to clear her conscience while Jack and James advise her against it (which is questionable for both characters) and Stephanie and Brooke immediately know that James and Taylor slept with each other. They not just realize that a secret is kept, they know exactly what this secret is!? But back to Taylor: the genius solution of a renowned psychologist invited as speaker to a world wide conference is to write her husband a LETTER in which she confesses. Boy – this sure made a lot of sense. NOT Macy and Anthony make a decent storyline. The scenes with little CJ who is banking on him to become his new daddy were sweet. As @Videnbas pointed out, Thorne’s absence in Paris in all of this is just preposterous, though. While watchable, 1994 truly feels like a Spelling primetime soap. We get twists and turns – but not all of them make sense.

In my memory it was a rather tacky looking set (supposed to be a remodeled Indigo Jazz club, once owned by Neil???) in which Judith Chapman was prancing around as Gloria, sometimes funny but quite often not so much. I think it was during that time that Tad Shackleford was feautured quite promimently as her "loverman" Jeff.

The first B&B episode is #1724 which is already in the Vault. The other is there, too. BoldRestless provided the airdates for the Y&R episodes it seems. EDIT: just watched the climax of one of the Y&R episodes: Cole walking out on his "father" Victor. Powerful stuff - Y&R used to be soooo good.

We should not forget that the mid 90s were in Melrose Place craze. DAYS also excelled in the extreme stuff. I think this was the influence of the times for Brad Bell to got for HUGE shockers and some more OOC plots.

The man on the right seems to be Ian Buchanan‘s partner/husband. There are quite a lot of pics of them together on Instagram. The woman far left - no idea, but in the overall picture: she probably JoanNa Johnson‘s partner/girlfriend

Woohoo -thanks for sharing! BTW, I hope that someone of you guys is still tech-savvy enough to save this vid from YouTube and put in the Vault.

In that case I get why you could relate to her. For me Dylan and Jessica were the standard teen pairing on soaps which equals to fast forward material... 😉 One of the few exception were the original Amber years and the Glo by Jabot kids on Y&R. I can't think of any other teen set I ever liked. And with Jessica I have ZERO hopes that I will find her more interesting than in the first run. It's amazing that Dylan Neal made a serious career after this role: he was super handsome and had charisma but he could not elevate the material back then and for me Dylan and Jessica were just okay as a couple. And the many scenes with Stephanie and Eric were so cringe-worthy - and it got even more ridiculous when John Forrester was never shown and Maggie (who showed up 11 months later) was well Maggie.