Khan

She made me long for the return of Kit Paquin. (I'm joking, but not by much).

Since not everyone has watched it yet:

To me, it's as if Frank Valentini wants to emulate at least some of Bill Bell's Y&R, except he and his writers haven't realized that there was more to Bell than just slow-moving storylines. Bell (and Kay Alden) wrote as carefully as they did, because what mattered more was exploring every facet to the characters than the plots themselves. As a result, even today, you're never really bored watching a random episode from Y&R's golden eras, because there is just so much going on inside each character's mind that can be fascinating. And I, too, thought Patrick Mulcahey was onto something with that potential Drew/Nina/Willow storyline. I definitely would've had Drew sleeping with Nina AND with Willow; then, after it's all out in the open, Drew and Nina become a new, unlikely couple; while Willow, who'd basically throw away her marriage to be with Drew, becomes the ultimate woman scorned, launching a campaign to ruin the two people she believes have betrayed her the most.

Another tough one, lol! Actually, Alan and Roger had more in common than either ever would have admitted. Both were products of dysfunctional families; both had a thing for women who were either young and/or impressionable, or were conflicted over their carnal desires (hi, Rita!); and both felt a strong need to "prove themselves" to everyone, but especially to their fathers, who had looming presences in their respective lives. Of course, AFAIK, Alan never raped anyone, so I guess he wins, lol?

Which makes his constant battling with John Dixon especially problematic - because, again, you've got villain vs. villain, and who am I supposed to be rooting for again, lol?

It seems like, when Anthony Herrera first joins the WT cast, way the hell back in 1980, the Dobsons (or whoever was writing at that point) make SOME effort, however half-hearted, to paint James Stenbeck as multi-layered and complicated. James is never entirely trustworthy, yet he appears very sincere in his efforts to reconnect with Barbara and Paul. Once James hooks up with Margaret Colin's Margo, however, and starts using his wife's business, Fashions, Ltd., as a front for his drug-smuggling operations, any pretense of James being misunderstood flies out the old window, lol; so that, after a certain point, if he isn't busy driving Barbara crazy so he can have custody of their son, or attempting once more to kill Gunnar St. Clair and get his hands on the blasted Stenbeck fortune, he's mixing it up with glorified gun molls like Ariel Aldrin and Karen Haines, or engaging in weird, "Spy vs. Spy"-esque antics with fellow ne'er-do-well John Dixon - who, IMO, is being written with less nuance than in the past and really doesn't become an actual character again 'til Marland - that I'm sure left ATWT's longtime fans wondering just WTF was going on. That's why I loved the material that Douglas Marland wrote for him and felt it all was a proper end to that character. To put it simple, Marland got it: there's nothing romantic or mysterious or tragic about James Stenbeck. He's just a thug with a better resume.

ICAM!!

Herrera, in particular, had the very Herculean task of making a two-dimensional villain with no redeeming qualities appealing to the audience. It wasn't an easy task, but by God, he did it (for the most part, I could've done without all the returns after 1989).

Good point! For years, I've contended that a major reason why Y&R remains #1, especially among African-Americans, is because of the appeal of Victor Newman as a self-made, take-charge billionaire who says and does exactly what he wants and who doesn't give a [!@#$%^&*] what you think about it. (Which might also explain why a certain individual with a REALLY bad comb-over keeps getting elected into office, lol).

ICYMI, sports fans: "Peg Barlow" was the woman (played by a male actor/playwright) who ran the modeling agency that employed Jen Rappaport in NYC. As longtime AMC fans will recall, Jenny Gardner's agent, Olga Svenson, was played by Peg MURRAY. Also, "Barlow" was the last name of a character (Mickey, I believe?) that appeared on AMC during Lorraine Broderick's first HW'ing regime (either with Wisner Washam; or later, with Victor Miller) as part of a storyline involving Tad Martin, his adopted brother, Joey; some dude named Barton Crane; and a disk that Crane was after and was hidden away inside Joey's toy chest. And I'd just as soon forget Paul Michael Valley being one of many, wonderful actors wasted on AMC and OLTL during this time period, lol.

ICAM!! As it was, once the storyline concluded, it was largely forgotten (by the characters, if not by the audience), which shouldn't be the consequence of any storyline, IMO. Oh, I was SO disappointed by how that turned out. Not only was the magic between Susan Lucci and Nicolas Surovy gone, but again, what was the point? You knew Mike/Surovy was not sticking around - I think the soap mags made that clear - so why bother resurrecting Mike and teasing him and Erica again? So she and Jack could have ANOTHER reason to split up AGAIN? And the twist that Mike had faked his death because he was really a secret agent or some mess...meh, I just washed my hands of the whole thing and walked away, lol.

I'd leave off Victor (because, I've never considered him a villain, per se) and place John Dixon/Larry Bryggman just before Chris Bernau's Alan.

I still remember when Lorraine Broderick re-used some early Jenny Gardner material for Jen Rappaport, having the latter run off to NYC (for reasons I can't remember now) and becoming a model (and yes, I say it was Broderick, because the parallel between Jens Rappaport and Gardner was so obvious, lol). That was when Charles Busch was on the show for awhile as Peg Barlow (another, obvious AMC connection?); and I remember thinking, "Geez, you have a chance to make real history here, OLTL, and you're wasting it on Jessica [!@#$%^&*] Morris."

And then, at some point, they shift to Hogan/Patti and Bela/Sunny, which I'm sure drove fans REALLY insane, lol.

?

I know many fans enjoyed that storyline, but I just didn't see the point of it. I mean, we KNOW Erica was not going to STAY disfigured, nor was it going to trigger some period of introspection where she learned to rely on something other than her looks; so, again, what was the point?

I'm seriously considering notifying the team at A&E's "Hoarders" to go down to the Prospect Studios and do an intervention on Frank Valentini, because that man is clearly in the throes of a hoarding disorder (except, instead of hoarding objects, he's hoarding actors).

But not before she guns down Drew!!

"Veronica Sandbridge" was already taken.

LOL!!

IIRC, they even attempted a triangle (of sorts) among Viki, Clint and Tom Dennison, but it was clear that wasn't going anywhere either. Lee Patterson and Erika Slezak still had chemistry, but Viki never would've hooked up with Joe's twin brother, lol.

I agree! I would say that someone from Joe Riley's side of the family would've needed to be there in order to provide some conflict to the (hypothetical) Joey coming out storyline, except, given what I know about Eileen and Julie, I can't see them being homophobic either.

The baby switch to end all baby switches!

I would hope so! Another reason why I've always been lukewarm to the idea of Joey (or Kevin) coming out: I couldn't see how that would've caused tension in Clint and Viki's marriage. Clint might've been a "good ol' boy" from Texas; however, he and Viki always struck me as compassionate people who would've accepted their son if he had come out as gay or bisexual. (Asa's a whole other story, lol). As it is, I thought it was OOC for Clint to be as bigoted he was (or appeared to be) during the whole Billy Douglas storyline - just one more reason why, on the whole, I don't hold Linda Gottlieb and Michael Malone's regime in the same, high regard as others.

Along with 20 other characters.