Khan

I agree. It didn't work for me either, @DRW50. First of all, the circumstances that brought Anne and "Benita Appleman," as I call him, together reeked. Anne is broke and homeless? I don't think so, lol. Second, I think Stuart Pankin was too boorish-acting as Benny. Why would Anne - even an Anne who was penniless - want anything at all to do with someone like him? Someone needed to tell Pankin to pull back a bit.

I agree. At the very least, the show should have tried finding a new love interest for Frank and mother figure for Julie after an appropriate period of mourning had passed (and no, Halle Berry was not it, lol). Unfortunately, I don't think anyone at the show was committed anymore to writing for Larry Riley or for Kent Masters-King. If Riley hadn't have died of AIDS, he probably would've been written out anyway. I like your suggestion of casting Amanda with Ana-Alicia instead of with Penny Peyser, @SoapDope. Even if the writing had not changed, at least Ana-Alicia would have been more interesting to watch - and she would have been more Ted Shackelford/Gary's type, too.

I've never thought about that, @DRW50, but that is an excellent point! I wish Doug Sheehan had returned in the final season when Gary was searching for Val in Florida. Ben and Gary could have crossed paths; Ben could have learned that Val was in trouble; and he and Gary could have teamed up to rescue her, burying the hatchet in the process. I also wish John Pleshette had returned when Mack was arrested for Mary Robeson's murder and needed an attorney. It might sound strange, but I think he and Michelle Phillips could have made an interesting pair, too.

It's really great to see Linden Ashby again.

He didn't sleep with Amanda. The plan WAS for Gary and Pat to hook up, but TPTB put the old kibosh on it. (Gee, I wonder why, lol?). They also planned for Gary and Anne to have an affair, but Michelle Phillips put an end to THAT, saying that Anne couldn't just go from man to man like that. (Um, Michelle, did you know the character you were portraying, lol?)

They're going to wipe "Tidal Energy" and Jean Hackney from the masters?

Back to the 1970 summaries: Henry/Sharon and Howie/Jane are almost interchangeable to me. Meg is [!@#$%^&*] nuts. Audrey couldn't go through with the wedding because she was suffering from vertigo? Where were she and Tom planning to marry? On top of the Sears Tower in Chicago? I repeat: Meg is [!@#$%^&*] nuts.

Exactly. JFP's biggest success as a producer was at GL. Yet, even there, for about half of her regime, she coasted on what her predecessor, Robert Calhoun, had set up for her. Once those pieces were gone, it all turned to crap rather quickly.

I wonder if Josh Griffith is going for a "Cape Fear" type of storyline where Cameron, fresh out of prison, pretends to be someone else so he can get close to and seduce Faith.

Maybe, but to tell you the truth, @Franko, I didn't think Jill had much of a "life" on the show beyond her relationship with Gary. If she hadn't have gone insane and tried to kill Val, she probably would have just left town like Paula Vertosick.

Frankly, @Darn, I've seen three actors portray A.J. Quartermaine over the years, and I don't think any of them were "right." I've already said why I thought Billy Warlock was wrong for the part. Sean Kanan nailed the "rich and spoiled" part of A.J.'s personality, but I didn't find him to be particularly empathetic. (He could be an [!@#$%^&*], but at least be an [!@#$%^&*] who doesn't make me want to punch out my TV screen everyday, lol). And Gerald Hopkins, who proceeded Kanan, was...okay. He looked like someone whose parents would look like Leslie Charleson and Stuart Damon. But I also remember him as being so, so green, lol. I say bring back Nikki Langton and see what could happen there!

I've always felt sorry for Billy Warlock. I think he's a good actor - much better, in fact, than some people will give him credit for. DAYS, however, never knew what to do with him once he'd aged out of the "teen love" stuff with Melissa Reeves. And as for GH - well, I thought it was clear from the beginning that somebody at the show or at the network didn't want him there, at least not as A.J. I'm glad to know I wasn't wrong in my suspicions, lol. However, I can see the GH situation from both points of view. On the one hand, BW was right: he was, in his opinion, and in mine, completely wrong for A.J. Quartermaine. For one thing, he was too short. (I'm sorry, but he just was). For another, A.J. was always written as the chip-on-his-shoulder type; the rich, pampered kid who grew up under the weighty shadows of a turbulent backstory, a dysfunctional family and a persistent belief that his father's bastard son by his one-time mistress was the true "golden boy" of the clan and not him. IMO, BW is too quirky-looking to portray that kind of character. (It's interesting how often BW compares himself to Michael J. Fox, because that's sort of who he reminds me of. Him, and Kin Shriner). GH and ABCD would have been much better off bringing BW on the show as a Ned recast (I've never been a Wally Kurth fan) or as a new character instead. On the OTHER hand, just because Barbara Bloom forced BW on Wendy Riche and Bob Guza, that was no excuse for them basically to [!@#$%^&*] on A.J. in the writing, turning someone who was as dark and complicated as his physician father into Port Charles' answer to Charlie Brown. While BW was still on GH, it really got to the point where it was almost laughable the way Sonny, Jason and others would treat A.J. as their personal punching bag. It's like you wanted Thelma Evans from "Good Times" to possess A.J. for just a few moments and say, "Does it look like I have 'Everlast' written across my face!?" Often, I'll wonder if BW would've had an easier time on soaps had he stuck with the East Coast shows. There, you had shows that knew what to do with an actor who didn't possess conventional, good looks. (BW is attractive, in a boyish sort of way, but he's no Drake Hogestyn, lol). On the West Coast shows, unless you're a Kin Shriner or a Nancy Lee Grahn, they really don't know what to do with someone who isn't a total hunk or babe (and I say that as someone who is a huge fan of Kin Shriner's and Nancy Lee Grahn's, lol).

Probably - and they would've set it to "Can't Smile Without You," by Barry Manilow.

I agree, @DRW50. CUT TO: "I, Taylor Anne Swift, take you, Matthew Timothy Healy, to be my partner through life."

I wouldn't be surprised if that was in their plan; however, I think it's common knowledge that the Lechowicks would often change direction because their stories didn't work as they had originally planned.

For all of their strengths as writer/producers, the Lechowicks were often too concerned about being funny and unpredictable to worry about subtlety. Once they found the note for each character, they played the hell out of that note until they stopped being characters, and started being caricatures. It wasn't the Lechowicks who killed off Linda. It was John Romano.

I read somewhere that record companies wanted Tina to be more like the Pointer Sisters, who were a pretty big act around the time of Tina's comeback, but who had faded from the charts by the end of the '80's. I love the Pointer Sisters, too, but even I know their hits don't have the shelf life that Tina's songs from the "Private Dancer" album have.

What happened to Sharon Case's nose? And why does Linden Ashby look like a roadie?

I agree. In the past, Abby had done malicious things, but her motivations were always clear and reasonable. But planting drugs on Harold so he would stay away from Olivia? Threatening Ted Melcher with proof that he was responsible for the Murakame murders? That was too much. It got to a point where you, as a viewer, had to ask, just how much money and power does one person NEED anyway? Once Val had freed herself and the twins from Danny, and she and Gary had finally reunited, the two should have married right away and left town to start over somewhere else. When the Lechowicks came up with the "brain virus" as one more obstacle to Val and Gary remarrying, it was clear that the Ewings had run their course.

I agree. One of my all-time favorite soap sets was AMC's original Cortlandt manor drawing room, which fitted the gothic undertones of the original Cliff/Nina/Palmer/Daisy/Myra storyline so well. JFP didn't mangle just the Newman ranch. She also took an axe to the original and much-beloved Chancellor living room - again, as @Darn said, for no good reason other than she could. Fortunately, she didn't stay any longer at Y&R, or else God knows what the Abbott living room would look like today.

I'd much rather see Sharon reunited with her long-lost father.

Now you've got me thinking Sonny was "nervous, but excited" to see how the renovation of his home had turned out.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: DAYS. Needs. New. Blood. It's fantastic to see that veterans like John/Marlena and Patch/Kayla are still front-and-center, but not if that means watching them play out the same, tired adventure tales like it's still 1985. DAYS needs NEW characters, NEW families, NEW situations (that aren't bad sci-fi or bad camp) for those characters to get into. It's time.

I agree. FC's producers probably thought KA would bring her DAYS fans to their show with her. But soap fans aren't monoliths. We aren't going to watch a new show just because our favorite actor from another show has joined the cast; and even if we do, we aren't going to stick around if you don't give that actor an actual character to portray. Pilar Ortega wasn't a character; she was just a substitute for Melissa.

You have to remember, though, that TV writers and producers often have little time outside of their hectic production schedules to watch their own shows, let alone others'. But I do think anyone taking on the assignment of running a revival or reboot should sit down and familiarize themselves as much as they can with the original series before doing anything else.