Khan

It's been my experience that Josh/Reva fans were savvier whenever it came to issues such as airtime. They understood that it wasn't "The Josh and Reva Show" and that RN and KZ weren't going to be together always, or in every scene of every episode. IDK how other, longtime GL fans felt, but I thought it was so strange and disheartening to see TPTB at GL kowtow to rabid, entitled fan bases after basically remaining above the fray for most of the '80s and '90s. Like a fellow GL fan and FB friend once told me, GL (and ATWT) were the soaps for "thinking people." Their fans tended to be more educated and well-read than fans of other soaps. And even if you had a favorite character or couple, you didn't watch the shows just for them. You watched them for the writing and acting more than for anything else.

Say what you want about Paul Rauch, but for once, he was right.

I'm actually of two minds on Bryton/Devon. On the one hand, it's obvious that no one post-Bill Bell has made any real investment in Y&R's African-American characters, so the statement (however inadvertent) that Devon isn't a real character is not entirely off the mark, because no one who's of color and on Y&R is playing a real character anymore and hasn't for many, many years. On the other hand, I think the argument could be made that one of the OTHER things that holds Bryton back on this show is Bryton himself. Even if you had a HW or EP who halfway cared about POC on Y&R, what could they really do with an actor who doesn't possess Kristoff's acting abilities or Shemar's sex appeal and charisma? (And don't tell me Bryton has sex appeal and charisma, because we both know you're lying, lol!) To me, it's telling how they've basically stuck Devon with Abby, a character who might as well be retconned out of existence, for all the impact she has made on Y&R.

In a way, I don't count VI, because he had been on GL before (in a different role). VI's run as Nick started off well, IMO, because you had a HW'ing team who knew what and how to write for him. Once that team was gone, however...? Unfortunately, Marj Dusay came at a time when the character of Alexandra was falling through the proverbial cracks and a lot of the nuances that Beverlee McKinsey had brought to the role through even the most trying times was gone. If they had written Marj's Alex more like Myrna Clegg on CAPITOL - or, heck, more like Monica Warner on "The Facts of Life", lol! - I think her time there would have been more successful. As I've stated many times in the past, I actually like Justin Deas and thought he was a great addition to the show. Did the writers go overboard writing for his character? Did the directors not do enough to rein in his excesses as an actor? Maybe. Believe it or not, though, JD became one of the very few reasons I stayed as a viewer with GL for as long as I did. Otherwise, I would've been gone by 1996 at the latest. And as for the other two: Mark Derwin is, by no means, a great actor, but he had the advantage of being there at a time when the show had a HW like Nancy Curlee. So, I guess he was smart to leave when he did, before the wheels fell off the wagon, lol. On the other hand, poor Marcy Walker, lol. GL (and JFP) brought her on with nothing to her character except that ridiculous name! Worse, they hoped that she and Robert Newman would spark right away, and when they didn't, it was clear they didn't know what else to do with her. And because Matt/Vanessa were soooooooooo successful, JFP felt compelled to do it all over again with Ben/Viki on OLTL, even though it made no damn sense for Erika Slezak's Viki to hook up with someone like Mark Derwin's Ben after being with men like Lee Patterson/Joe Riley, Bernie Grant/Steve Burke and Clint Ritchie/Clint Buchanan.

JFP hiring Marcy Walker to play Tangie on GL was like DAYS hiring Genie Francis to play Diana Colville. In both cases, you have a producer/show hiring a "name" without giving them a character to play. (GH hiring Denise Alexander away from DAYS to play Lesley might also qualify, except, in that case, GH eventually figured out what to do with her). I'm not kidding, though, when I say watching MW try mightily to make Tangie work was one of the most frustrating things I've ever witnessed in all my years of soaps watching. When they threw Tangie at Ron Raines' Alan, I was pretty much done with her.

Neither can I, lol. And the thing is, if Y&R's writers were smart, other characters on the show, including his own family, would recognize that and call him out on that.

Yep. I think he said he was concerned that little kids watching AMC with their parents would get "Tyrone" confused with "Gordon."

Honestly, the music totally ruins the scene for me.

Lord, what a mess. Thanks, @janea4old, for that recap. You deserve combat pay for doing that, lol.

Unless the show opens with a bunch of black folks sitting around with kinky afros eating fried chicken and watermelon while they "play the dozens" with each other, I don't think I'll be terribly disappointed in the first episode to the point of never tuning in again.

Yeah, it's that time again:

Are we sure that's not the Gorton's fisherman? I'm joking.

Good point!

So, you, too, had a thing for Gilbert Blythe, eh, lol?

Actually, @Mona Kane Croft, I think AW did the best that it could under the circumstances, but I really think the fix was in for them at NBC, no matter who was in charge at the show.

Martha, honey, just accept that your husband is a scuzzball and move on.

Y&R doesn't seem to be doing too bad either, lol.

If you think about it, you could compare all of today's remaining U.S. soaps with crappy restaurant chains. GH? Red Lobster. (Endless cast members!) Y&R? Olive Garden. (Trying to do 'classy' on a budget.) B&B? California Pizza Kitchen.* (Trying to be ‘hip’ but looking instead like a poseur.) DAYS? T.G.I.Friday's. (Because, there’s no rhyme or reason to any of it.) (*But will accept Cheesecake Factory as a substitute!)

Exactly! See what I mean? The RL analogies totally work, lol!

Anything was better than Josh Taylor's Roman and Marlena.

And Frank Valentini's tastes are as wrong as...well...as wrong as serving year-round Endless Shrimp at Red Lobster. (I apologize, but the RL analogies just fit!) That definitely goes without saying! If CBSD hadn't picked up THE GATES*, then I would have campaigned hard for Michele Val Jean to come back to GH as PM's co-head writer. (*Which will totally save this genre, God willing!)

I'd love to know the full, original cast list for ATWT. It seems like they had a very small cast in the beginning.

Cool! I'm gonna check this out when I get the chance! Thanks for the heads-up, @DramatistDreamer!

I think that was intentional. Pam was pregnant in that episode, just as Maggie claimed she was pregnant. ("I've got life in me, Big Daddy!") It's funny how David Jacobs is clearly playing homage to Tennessee Williams' play, and look who they have essentially playing Big Mama? The original "Maggie the Cat," lol.