Me too. I still don't get how this show tossed lively veteran characters like Kim, Bob, Lisa, Nancy, Emma, and Lucinda to the background. I would've had a field day with them. More than I would've younger characters. It boggles my mind how they phased John out too. They should've brought back MJ and Andy and recast Duke. He would've had all his kids (Margo, MJ, Duke, Andy, Dusty) on the canvas providing him tons of drama. Plus, I would've loved to have seen John interact with an older Parker and for them to form a bond as John once believed his was his son.
I would've loved for MJ to pop up on the canvas and been an ambitious, smug, hot mess like his daddy was. MJ would've been the perfect rival for Casey too. That would've been interesting too seeing as MJ is Casey's uncle. Ugh! They tension between those two along with Margo and John being tossed in the middle would've been EPIC.
Instead we got Parker and Liberty and Luke's fake cousin Jade which hardly seemed fair. TPTB didn't want to bother writing would could be complex storylines where they'd actually have to care about the history of the show. I guess creating brand new characters was easier for them. Too bad it was a total bore.
I couldn't stand Liberty. The character was awful period! Looking back Parker and Jade(especially her) were written terribly . The actress who played Jade had potential but her stories were downright awful. Goutman didnt care to bring back fan favorite family members back. So we were never going to see MJ or recast Duke again.