Khan

I wouldn't say that! For years, ATWT had the Wade Bookstore as one of its' mainstays; and from what I understand, a lot of great drama went down there, too. And I'm not necessarily worried about Julie owning and running it either, because Lisa ran the Wade Bookstore, and Lisa and Julie were very similar women (no doubt, due to Bill Bell's influence). But ATWT usually portrayed Lisa as being more glamorous and worldly than how DAYS is portraying Julie these days. Lisa wouldn't be hosting no damn book clubs, and certainly not any BEREAVEMENT book clubs.

And now the show is at a point where simply returning even to some semblance of its' past won't work, because too much of it is hard, if not impossible, to bring back. I've a feeling that Y&R is on the verge of becoming DAYS circa JER.

Several things have happened at Y&R that I thought wouldn't, so you never know, lol.

Be afraid, Y&R fans. Be very afraid.

When Alice was Julie's age, she was helping Bo break out of prison! Julie is way too vital to be doing something like a moderating a [!@#$%^&*] book club. They might as well wheel her out to Shady Pines.

Wow. Looking at her today, I almost feel guilty for calling her "Dollar Tree Vanity." (I said, "almost," lol).

To TPTB, that was part of the problem: they wanted (and still want) to distance Y&R from the Bill Bell legacy as much as possible. Because, even though Mr. Bell kept his show at the top of the ratings through different trends, and at a time when many, long-running shows had faded or were beginning to fade, CBS or Sony reasoned his vision and style were just too old-fashioned for the demographic they were now chasing after (not to mention, too expensive to maintain).

The thing is, the story to end all stories for Erica - the one event that could have set off a chain of other events and spun her life in an entirely new direction - was staring them all in their faces, and either they didn't recognize it, or were prevented from telling it. That's right: I'm talking about Erica Kane finding a lump in her breast. Anyways. I see Kreizman stays getting points for creating or co-creating Dr. Reid Oliver, a.k.a. The Gay John Dixon, but creating one fascinating character who was both a total shitheel and the most mature romance young Luke Grimaldi Snyder ever experienced does not mean he's capable of HW'ing an entire show. Believe me, I suffered through enough of his GL and AMC to know what I'm talking about, lol.

At the risk of sounding like I'm criticizing you - which I'm not! - I would see that as sort of a cop-out: "We can't come up with any more suitable male partners for Alexis, so let's just have her turn lesbo!" I mean, I felt the same way about GL's Olivia. Crystal Chappell might've had decent chemistry with Jessica Leccia (Natalia), but to me, "Otalia" just smacked of an EP and HW who couldn't come up with anything else for those two characters.

I think bringing back Meta (and Trudy) in almost any capacity would've been fine. So much of GL's rich history was gone by the mid-'80's; and I say that as someone who enjoyed the show back then (Johnny Bauer's cancer battle notwithstanding, lol). LOL!!

I could be mistaken, but I think it was he (and Donna Swajeski) who also hit upon the oh-so-brilliant idea of giving Erica Kane an evil lookalike (or someone who had plastic surgery to make herself look like Erica, I can't be bothered to remember which anymore). Now, y'all KNOW that Erica Kane is my spirit diva, but even I know that giving La Lucci a dual role is rushing in where angels fear to tread.

Imagine, for instance, if Dr. Jackson had been the one to set Rick straight about his dependency on prescription drugs to get himself through medical school. Kicking the habit out of respect for Bert's legacy is nice, but a little TOO sappy, even for heart-on-its'-sleeve GL. And no doubt, Steve would've had a few, choice words for Claire, too, over how she was making a mockery of their profession by blackmailing his grandson.

My needle drop to anyone who thinks David Kreizman should be given another HW'ing gig:

To me, the biggest loss would have to have been Stefan Schnabel/Stephen Jackson. IMO, there wasn't much for either Adam or Barbara to do once Roger, Holly and Christina/Blake all were off the canvas, but the Bauers were still around, even if Leslie had long since died. Plus, little Freddie would be SORASed into Rick in a couple years; if nothing else, Stephen, like Bert, would've provided a good talk-to for their grandson.

See, that's why I think you never should give a character on a soap a terminal disease (such as ALS) unless you are confident that that character wouldn't have much of a life on your show if they were healthy. Number one, watching and waiting for someone to die does not make for compelling viewing; number two, once they die, there's little incentive for new(-ish) viewers to keep watching; and number three, you ruin any potential, new storylines for that character before they have the chance to take off, which is exactly what GH did to Gregory/Tracy. I'll be honest: I've loved NLG since SaBa, and nothing - not even her damn X account - will change that. But I'm at a point where I'm stumped over what to do with her or Alexis. Maybe it's because Alexis, IMO, has been damaged by years of horrendous story decisions, including being saddled with too many kids (and all daughters at that), a drinking problem and a romance with deVry's very fey Julian; or maybe it's because there are times when NLG's day-to-day performances betray an actress who herself has been betrayed by said bad decisions and is now disinterested in the subpar material, exhausted from the grind of having to make it all palatable with no help from above, or both. I don't know - but I know this: it doesn't matter who you pair Alexis with anymore, because, short of a frigging miracle, no one is gonna work.

I'm not sure whether he was doing that, given how much he wrote for the older characters on his other shows (GH, LOVING, ATWT, even THE DOCTORS). Say what you will about him, but I do think Marland valued having a multi-generational cast to write for, with characters whom the audience had a deep appreciation for. I think bringing back Gentry as Ed in '82 would've been fine, although Ed probably wouldn't have married Ellen Dolan's Maureen if he had returned.

Same here, lol!

IA! If Willow really did stab Drew, then Drew is well on his way to becoming the Peter Campbell of Port Charles. (IYKYK)

To me, the whole story just feels like a rehash of Cameron's return from the dead.

I've said this before, I think, but if I had had my druthers, Marcy Walker would've joined GL as Emily Mason Norris, Ken's daughter, Holly's niece and Blake's cousin; and although I would've been tempted to put her in a triangle with Phillip and Rick, I think she would've ended up marrying the latter and becoming, in essence, the newest Bauer family matriarch.

IMO, it was Candace Earley (Donna) who made him appealing on AMC. I'm with @Reverend Ruthledge : nothing against Mart Hulswit or even Peter Simon, but based on what I know about Ed, as well as having watched Robert Gentry on other shows throughout the years, I think Gentry was the most appropriate actor for that role. Even during his all-too-brief return in the Rauch era, I thought he did a better job embodying Ed, despite not being featured much or given much to do.

The girl IS begging for a Mary Duvall exit, lol.

He'll be fine after he pushes an elderly woman down some stairs in her wheelchair and feeds a blind man some dog food after telling him it's beef stew.

Anytime I hear Faison is back in any form, that's my cue to "exit, stage left."

You're probably right, lol! And, in a way, that's part of my issue with how Drew's evolution has been handled. I'm not entirely clear on how he (and we) have gotten to this point. Was it one event, or a conflagration of events, or what? Alls I knows is, something's wrong when Yosemite Sam has more depth to him than Drew Cain does, lol. There are only four Oscars I acknowledge: Oscar Madison, Oscar Mayer, Oscar, the Academy Award; and Oscar the Grouch. All other Oscars do not exist in my world.