Khan

When they had over-the-hill Nick banging some chick (forget which one) on the floor of some nightclub, I officially was done with him. That kind of [!@#$%^&*] is something his son, Noah, should have been doing, not him.

According to Wisner Washam's We Love Soaps interview, he wouldn't agree to stay with AMC when the network expanded it to an hour unless they agreed to double the number of sets and characters. About the only story that Bridget Dobson has told that I believe to be 100% accurate is why her parents initially were reluctant to let her write for GH. Dobson says the Hursleys wouldn't let her do it, because they thought she was a "party girl" and that her sister, Deborah, was more responsible than she. That's probably true. Of course, when they finally gave her the chance and she (Bridget) proved she had inherited Frank and Doris' storytelling abilities, they probably were beside themselves. Hence, their (alleged) reluctance to watch any of her and her husband's work.

You have to take what Bridget Dobson tells others with a tremendous grain of salt. I love her and think she is a brilliant writer and person, but I'm also well aware that the lady has issues. More than likely, P&G saw how the Dobsons had modernized GL and felt they could do the same for ATWT, regardless of where each soap placed in the ratings.

"...but I like to focus on love..." Nah, bro, you like to focus on self-love. There's a difference.

I know that L.A. itself played a crucial role in the storyline where little Mike Bauer, upset about all the attention being given toward his newborn baby brother, "Billy," ran away from home. IIRC, they searched for Mike in several, well-known parts of the city before finding him in (I think?) Griffith Park.

I think even Eric Braeden (whom God continues to bless everyday!) and Melody Thomas Scott likely have resigned themselves to the fact that Victor and Nikki are "for keeps," no matter how many more times the show might split them up between now and whenever one or both appear on Y&R for the last time. Not to mention, sad, pathetic and kinda creepy, in a "Lifetime Original Movie" sort of way. If the writers are intent on keeping Nick and Sharon forever young and star-crossed, then - here's a thought - why not recast them both with younger actors?

That's why I stopped watching any primetime or other specials that are "devoted" to the soaps. There's always this attitude that these events are doing soaps an enormous favor by giving them tributes and whatnot, and that soaps should be grateful whatever crumbs of recognition that they get from the "mainstream" or "legitimate" industries.

If it isn't GH's Steve Burton refusing to play an arc where his brain-damaged character (Jason Morgan) finally retrieves his lost memories, it's that eternal frat boy, Joshua Morrow, refusing to be reunited with the only on-screen romantic partner his dull ass has ever made sense with. What is it with these soap actors and their overinflated senses of self, anyway? Do these guys actually believe they're working in an industry that is still thriving and relevant, or that they matter at all to anyone who isn't involved in daytime? Have they become so comfortable financially that they have forgotten the days when they were lucky to land even a part-time gig parking cars or busing tables at some fancy, over-priced restaurant? At this moment, there are grown ass men who are literally handling cow [!@#$%^&*] for a living, who would trade places and gladly with bastards like Morrow and Burton. STFU, Josh, about what you never want for your character again. Just show up on time, say your [!@#$%^&*] lines and GO. HOME.

Unfortunately, @carolineg, that's all I know. You know, when you think about it, the NBC soaps are the ones that always generated the most spinoff talks in the media. You never heard about ABC being as desperate to spinoff AMC or GH (although, they would eventually, with PC) or CBS being desperate to spin off Y&R or B&B. But NBC? As soon as DAYS or AW or even THE DOCTORS was doing even slightly well in the ratings, it was "Let's see who we can spin off from this show!". It's crazy.

I agree. Oh, please, he probably complained about having too many lines on "Out of This World," too. I agree. Me neither!

I remember that there even was talk of spinning off Calliope (or Calliope & Eugene) onto their own "comic soap," which would have been disastrous, IMO. If anything, I would have spun them onto a primetime sitcom, which would have been a real first for daytime, lol.

Another actor might have played Mac Cory either as an old, greedy letch or a domineering tyrant.

My guess is that P&G had decided that GL's locale needed to be returned to the midwest in order to appeal more to viewers who lived in middle America. After all, the only reason why the show's locale had been changed to Selby Flats, CA, in the first place was because production itself had been relocated to CA for a period of time in the '40's. Otherwise, GL's locale might have remained Five Points forever. I can see the sign now: "Welcome to Selby Flats - Ugly Name, Beautiful Town!".

Or...that the audiences still are out there and still want their stories and entertainment; and that maybe the way to make daytime TV relevant again is to promote the soaps again and not just drop them for yet another hour of "Today" or "Good Morning America."

Not gonna happen.

I'm not sure about the last one (pairing Jason with Liz) but I'm down for the other two. They could say that Jason had his memories restored by a surgeon who operated on him after that cave-in and found scar tissue on his brain that had been affecting his memory and personality; and that Jason has been living away from Port Charles under an assumed name, due to the guilt and shame he has felt over his association with Sonny and alienation from his family. Then, down the road, Jason decides to go back to school and become a paramedic (with his education largely funded by Sonny, of course, lol).

You halfway expect that to be like the joke wall on "Laugh-In." (Monaco: "Is that another one of those chicken jokes?") You and I know very well that it was all she could do not to stab Frank Grillo in the head repeatedly when they worked together on GL.

Walter Addison, as we would find out, was actually a deacon at his church, who had never been with a prostitute before, but who used the encounter with Nikki as a means of staging his own death, on account of his business associate framing him for embezzlement, lol.

Whenever I think of Barry Cutler, I think of when he played a "burnout" who was at some "wild party" at Willona's apartment on "Good Times."

Think about it: you try and go about your day - mowing the lawn, playing with the kids, whatever - but fans and tourists keep stopping by, wanting to take selfies in front of "Abby Ewing's house." If ever a community needed to be gated....

Which is appropriate, since the last time either character was even a little bit interesting was before The WB shut down.

It must suck to live in that cul-de-sac, lol.

Depending on what you read or who you talk to, the rest of the FM cast either welcomed Jaleel/Urkel, as his addition lifted the show's ratings; or they resented him, because he took the focus away from the others (and from Jaimee Foxworth/Judy in particular) and allowed the show's producers to take what had been a fairly grounded family show and turn it into a very broad and silly one. JW himself has talked in the past about how Reginald VelJohnson and Jo Marie Payton took him to task for agreeing to play "Myrtle Urkel," saying that it reinforced stereotypes about putting black men in women's clothes as a way of emasculating them and making them less threatening to white audiences. If what he said is true, then the people to take up the issue with were the producers, not a 12-13 year old kid.

Recently, I watched an episode of "Dark Side of Comedy" on VICE that featured the BTS issues at "Family Matters." Specifically, it covered the troubles that Jaimee Foxworth (a.k.a. "Judy Winslow") and her mother encountered with TPTB as Jaimee's role on the show was reduced and then erased altogether. It broke my heart to hear their story. The thing is, those producers were used to ignoring or dropping characters from shows. (See: Chuck Cunningham). But they didn't understand that FM wasn't just another show, especially not to African-Americans. I don't think they understood why viewers and even cast members like Jo Marie Payton (OG Harriette Winslow) would be upset about a little black girl who is simply forgotten by her own family members with no explanation whatsoever. At the very least, they could have explained on-air that Judy went to live with extended relatives out-of-town so she could attend a private school or something.

Take this with a grain of salt, but one story that I have heard is that Agnes Nixon (or whoever was HW at the time) deliberately stopped referring to "Selby Flats" in the scripts for a period of time, or making any other references as to the show's locale. Then, when the writers began mentioning the name of the town again, it just became "Springfield," as if GL always had been set there, with no explanation. I agree, @SoapDope.