Khan

At this point, Natalia could march in the Port Charles Pride parade, wearing an Indigo Girls t-shirt, and reciting entire chapters of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" through a megaphone. I just. Don't. Care.

For her to talk candidly about her time at GL would be admitting that she had no real objective in joining other than to give everyone at AMC and ABCD the finger. And you are right about how she dragged Michael Conforti. Save that [!@#$%^&*] for the message boards, lol!

I'm not surprised either. "Bus" has all the hallmarks of first-season MSW: a veritable feast of guest stars (Michael Constantine, Rue McClanahan, Larry Linville, David Wayne, Linda Blair, Terence Knox, Albert Salmi, Don Stroud), an ominous-feeling locale (a roadside diner during a violent thunderstorm at night) and one of the most ingenious solutions you'll come across in the show's entire history. Kristin Shepard might have shot J.R., but Jessica Fletcher was the lady who killed DALLAS (with an able assist from none other than Steve Urkel, lol).

Tom Lisanti's work has inspired me to write my own book: "Where the Ratings Ain't: A Comprehensive Oral History of CBS' Groundbreaking Soap Opera 'Where the Heart Is'...As Told by the Few Who Still Remember It."

In that document, McTavish says she signed her final contract with AMC knowing she would retire afterward. As usual, though, I'm not sure whether I believe her. IMO, I think she wrote what she wrote, largely because she knew her reputation was toast and that no show - and certainly, no ABC show - was ever going to hire her again. Having nothing to lose always empowers you...even if very few care what you have to say or believe you. I'd say just before her new meds started to kick in.

Well, Catherine Hickland and Jess Walton go without saying. But I also liked Debrah Farentino and Nicholas Walker. (He was terrible as a Max Holden recast on OLTL, but very good on CAPITOL). And Bill Beyers had a nice, sweet quality, too. He might not have been much of an actor; nevertheless, I found him to be quite likeable. That's a good question. To be honest, I'm not so sure that things would've been better had the Karpfs stayed, if their work on the miniseries "Captains and the Kings" is any indication. (Of course, Taylor Caldwell's novel was nothing to write home about either, lol). It's like what happened with Sally Sussman and GENERATIONS: some fantastic ideas, compromised by lackluster, day-to-day writing. (I do know, though, that the reason why the Karpfs left so soon was because Conboy was impossible to work with and kept [!@#$%^&*] with their material. Or so someone very close to them has told me).

IIRC, much of the soap press was too busy praising Beaty's performance and McTavish's audacity in telling such a story to see what was really going on. Personally, though, I thought the Brent/Marian storyline was transphobic - before the word even existed, I guess - and not at all the kind of story that should have been on GL (or anywhere else on daytime, for that matter). As awful as stories like the Dreaming Death or Infinity had been for a lot of GL fans, even those tales couldn't have been as offensive as having a psychotic rapist going around Springfield dressed as Jill Farren Phelps and murdering people just to keep terrorizing his victim.

My thoughts, exactly, lol. You signed on to play a homophobic momager, Eva. What did you EXPECT would happen? That America would shove Sally Field aside and make YOU its' newest sweetheart?

I'm a fan of Cypher's, so I would have LOVED to have seen what he would've done with the role. Not that I thought Ed Nelson was terrible, lol.

I still believe Megan McTavish only took the GL gig, because she was pissed about getting fired from AMC, and wanted to prove to everyone that she didn't need Felicia Minei Behr or Agnes Nixon to make her [!@#$%^&*] look good. All in all, she was like Pat Falken Smith, but without her talent, lol.

I agree. Slesar's writing shouldn't be held responsible for CAPITOL's falling ratings. If anything, his work came closest to the kind of drama that the Karpfs had set out to do in the beginning. IMO, John Conboy was the problem. Aside from the older actors and a few of the younger ones, the cast was dreadful; and it seemed like Conboy thought all he had to do was turn down the lights and build a few, lush-looking sets and he'd have a show.

I've wondered that myself. Was that storyline TOO much like what viewers were seeing at that time on ABC, CBS or NBC? Or maybe AL's audience felt it was too secular, for lack of a better word.

Ironically, I always thought Erica should've had a son and not the two daughters.

Here, here, lol!

I had no idea Jon Cypher was supposed to portray Sen. Mark Denning. I wonder why they replaced him. Did he leave to take another gig, or did it just not work out?

To me, it actually reads more like a book proposal - a sample amount of pages for her agent to shop around to interested publishers. That's why so much of the work feels unfinished. (We still don't know exactly what Robin Mattson did to piss her off; or exactly what she said or did that caused her to get fired from AMC for the third time (she imagines it's something that occurred at one of her last meetings with the network, but was it?); or even exactly how you, too, can get yourself fired from a job you no longer want, lol). Either the publishers that McTavish and/or her agent had submitted her proposal to passed, because they didn't think a behind-the-scenes look at daytime soap operas would appeal to anyone outside of fans; or, they passed, because they generally had the same reactions to the material that we did.

That was my understanding as well. (I haven't read the oral history). The short-term arcs were part of Gottlieb's overall plan to "reinvent the (soap) wheel," as it were. Fortunately, I think they were enough of a bust that she had to kill the concept and allow her writers to tell more traditional storylines. Overall, I'm not as fond of the Gottlieb/Malone era as most fans tend to be. I think it was well-written and well-produced, but it just wasn't OLTL. But I do admire how the two were able to integrate music into the overall storytelling, especially because this was happening at the same time that DAYS, who'd always been tops in that department, was no longer using music as effectively as they had had in the past.

No, more like too kind, lol.

I guess it's because they were afraid of viewers accusing them of still trying to replace Kim Delaney/Jenny, although, after twenty-some-odd years, I think even diehard Greg/Jenny fans would've understood that it was way past time for Greg to move on.

He did work briefly at AMC, as Senior Producer, but I can't recall whether he was still there when Megan McTavish returned in late 1997. And I don't know about anyone else, but I, for one, did not need to read the intimate details of Frank Beaty's heartbreaking nervous breakdown.

I can just imagine the blurb: "Megan's new book is a rip-roarin' read! It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you go Amish!" Which is about how long it took for P&G and Michael Laibson to realize they'd been sold a bill of goods.

And she would be right.

HELL NO, lol!!

After reading Megan McTavish's memoir, I think someone needs to upload Irna Phillips' unfinished memoir as a sort of palate cleanser, lol?

"Off the Rack" is a perfect description for that show, lol.