Khan

Just one of the many, many characters on DAYS whom JER reduced to their most basic functions. Susan Flannery's Laura reads like such a complex woman; yet, in JER's hands, JLB's Laura is little more than "Crazy Doctor Lady."

That's because Gene Palumbo botched the whole thing with some bad writing. "Marlena returns from the dead" should have been a slam-dunk. Instead, it was so underwhelming. OLTL was in serious trouble by the fall of '91. The show had OD'ed on '80's excess and needed just the right EP/HW team to push it into the '90's.

This is what I have been saying for the longest time. I wouldn't necessarily re-pair Robert and Anna, but I agree, @Vee, that the ONLY reason why he and Diane are together is due to their ages and nothing more.

I think what also makes her casting (and even Christopher Stone's casting as Bill) harder to accept is that, at the same time JLB and CS are on the show, so, too, are John Clarke and Suzanne Rogers, still playing Mickey and Maggie after all those years. I really believe that Ed Mallory needed to be there for the duration of that story. Even if you can't picture his Bill being married to JLB's Laura, his presence nevertheless would have provided further continuity.

Such a terrible loss for his loved ones. My heart continues to go out to them, and to everyone whose lives have been touched in one way or another by mental illness.

Now is the time to introduce Calvin, Eric's long-lost, black son, by his first love, a black girl named Justine.

Yeah, but I don't think AIW was nearly as fun, lol.

I think people fooled themselves with the notion that anything that was streamed could be streamed forever; it can't. Streamers, I'm sorry to say, have become a business like any other, concerned only with the bottom line. That's why, more and more, I'm seeing people on social media urging others to buy and hold onto "physical media" (i.e., DVD's and Blu-rays) whenever they can. Between all the cancellations and removals, and the merging of platforms and talk of merging, it seems as if our love affair with all things streaming has begun to fade, with many suggesting that the streaming industry is becoming not much different from cable. Of course, returning to cable and OTA TV is out of the question; we're too far gone for that. But what happens if or when streaming becomes passe? What happens to how we receive our entertainment?

I think he loved the actors, though, more than he loved the storylines; and when I say "the actors," I'm referring to the core group: Michele Lee, Kevin Dobson, Ted Shackelford, Joan Van Ark, William Devane, Donna Mills, etc. As for DALLAS, I think we all know why he wasn't as enamored with that show as he was with KNOTS: he wanted it to be "Giant" or "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," with Pam as the central character, but it became all about J.R. instead. Blame David Paulsen. As good as he was for DALLAS and, to a lesser extent, for DYNASTY, he was all wrong for KNOTS.

I want to believe that Susan Flannery's Laura would have behaved exactly as Jaime Lyn Bauer's Laura did in those scenes. Given everything that I have read about her years in Salem, however, I just can't. Even if I were to accept that JLB's Laura behaved as she did because she had spent the last two decades in a sanitarium, or that she was then under the enormous influence of her "friend" Vivian and Ivan, a part of me still looks at those scenes and says, "Nah, Laura wouldn't act like that." And for me, therein lies the problem. Because as good as JLB was as Laura, at the same time, you have to pretend that she is playing a new character, one that has almost no connection whatsoever to the past. To put it another way: yes, she is Laura Horton, but she is Laura Horton "in name only." The Laura Horton that Flannery played ceased to exist a long time ago. (That's not on JLB, by the way. That's on JER.)

Anyone would have made a better full-time replacement as Jack Abbott than Peter Bergman.

That's why the storyline with Val's twins was wrapped up so quickly in the next season. David Jacobs wanted it over and done with, even though Michael Filerman rightly knew that keeping it going for a while would help the show's ratings. I'm no psychoanalyst, but I think Jacobs viewed himself deep down as a sellout. He wanted to produce artful shows that would win tons of awards and lavish praise from the press. Instead, he became successful producing stuff that, to his mind, was the equivalent of dime store novels. I don't think he ever totally appreciated just how much his shows meant to a generation of viewers. To me, that's the great tragedy of his life.

When you think of KL, you think of two moments in particular: when Ciji Dunne's lifeless body washes up on the shore; and when Val comes face-to-face with her twins for the first time since their birth. Two seminal moments in the show's history that prove why KL was, in many ways, the best of the '80's primetime soaps.

I know SaBa fans didn't care for him as a Ted Capwell recast, but I thought he did a better job playing that role than he did playing Joey Martin. And he looks okay today, but he's gotta lose the 'stache and goatee.

RB and LD would have been too young to play Alan, but who knows? I'd put nothing past JFP. The thing is, Chris Bernau made such an indelible impression as Alan that it's literally impossible to picture anyone else playing that role. Daniel Pilon couldn't replace Bernau. Ron Raines DEFINITELY couldn't replace Bernau. I'm not sure anyone could've replaced Bernau. Another casting mystery: before she left GL, Joan Collins told the press that they had recast Roger Thorpe - "and you'll never guess who's playing him," or words to that effect. Of course, because she left soon after, whatever plans they had for bringing back Roger fell through, but I've always wondered: who was this mysterious actor she was so clearly enthused about? I doubt Dame Joan ever followed daytime, much less GL, so it had to have been either someone she'd worked with in the past, or someone who was well-known outside of daytime. My hunch? Gordon Thomson (ex-Adam, DYNASTY). He had played her son on one show; and now, he was set to play her ex-husband on another. Again, just my hunch, nothing more. Knowing Ellen Wheeler and her plucky, can-do spirit, I'm surprised she didn't have cast members literally pitch in and build sets in Peapack! "Come on, everybody, it'll be just like doing summer stock!" I know I'm coming across as someone who hates EW. I don't. I think she's a fantastic actor who deserved the two Emmys she won. But she was not EP material. I suspect, too, that P&G knew that, but hired her anyway, because they knew she could be the one to finish off GL (which she did).

I think that was the week when Val learned her babies were alive, but don't quote me on that. Ironically, David Jacobs HATED that storyline; yet, it might have been his show's most successful.

"Mama's Family" even referenced "Deceptions" in one of their episodes. Of course, they changed the name (from "Deceptions" to "My Sister, Myself") and the sisters' occupations ("one's an axe murderer, the other's a nun!"), but they still mention Stefanie Powers' name, so you know what they were really talking about, lol.

Sex?

"And if watching Suzanne Somers and Anthony Hopkins give into their lust for each other as he chokes her is your thing - well, just come and knock on OUR door, Clarice, 'cuz this miniseries has been waiting for you!"

Of course, the ratings spiked during the clone storyline. Even if you thought the premise was ludicrous - which I did - you still tuned in, if only to laugh at the utter insanity of it all. (Rapid growth serum? GMAFB!) However, the storyline set a bad precedent for GL. No matter how...over-the-top GL could be in past years, you always could count on it being, for the most part, a realistic show. The clone storyline changed all that. Now, nothing was off-limits, not even pure sci-fi. (The same thing happened to DAYS once Marlena became possessed by the devil).

I agree, @dc11786. In Labine's hands, such a storyline would have amazing to watch, as she would have written to the complexities of the situation without making it seem forced or one-sided. That would have been amazing, too, as would the Tony/Tiffany and Damian/Anna pairings you've suggested above.

I'm just saying: I would love to see that relationship die; and the uglier its' death, the better. It makes no sense, either on paper or onscreen; it involves two actors who share no chemistry AT ALL; and the longer they stay in it, the stupider they look, too. IT HAS. TO END. I would be happy with a good, old-fashioned courtroom shootout; one that ends with Diane taking a bullet in the heart, like Sharon Lawrence's character did on "NYPD Blue." Then, if neither a Robert/Anna redo or Robert/Holly redo is possible, I would let Scorpio be the happy bachelor for awhile until he meets up again with Jackie Templeton (played once more by Kim Delaney).

I wouldn't either. If I were coming aboard GH as EP or HW, I'd kill that relationship dead and then dance on its' ruins like the female praying mantis after the male has serviced her, lol.

I've wondered about that myself. Another EP, recognizing the importance of a character like Alan Spaulding to GL, would have held out for a "name" actor. (I, myself, might have approached Larry Hagman. Hey, all he could do was say "no," right, lol?). Even Paul Rauch knew he had to "go big or go home" when it came to bringing back Alexandra again, so he landed Dame Joan Collins (a startling move that, unfortunately, did not work out as most had hoped). So, why would JFP settle for someone like Ron Raines - who was, IMO, never suited to playing Alan - unless Raines was a second choice and the actor she likely wanted - Jed Allan? Nicolas Coster? - turned her down?

If anything, Robert and Anna should be sharing the job of Police Commissioner, or Robert should be Chief of Police, with Anna as his superior.