Khan

By the time the announcement was made, however, you'd already be working at Y&R or DAYS. And yes, I'd kill Donna tomorrow, too. IDC that she was named after some longtime staffer who died of cancer. That's not my problem.

She's out with the heartbreak of psoriasis. (Yes, I'm kidding).

Why not? Tamara Tunie would play the hell out of that story AND maybe land BTG their first major Emmy nomination in the process.

Obviously, we'll never know exactly what Geary meant, but I think what Gloria Monty hated was the fact that most soaps at that time seem confined to "talking heads" regurgitating the same exposition over coffee inside various living rooms and kitchens. Monty wanted soaps to be more active, arguing that housewives and other viewers would be forced to put down their laundry or whatever and actually pay attention.

LOL!! In the past, I've speculated that Empire Valley was supposed to be a story about phony real estate developers bilking people, before it got changed into what made it on air. I would LOVE for someone to interview Peter Dunne - not just about Empire Valley, but about his time on KL (and DALLAS) in general. I feel like he would have a ton of great writing advice to share.

I'm-a have to ask the President of the United States and all his supporters to keep that man and his wife's names out of their mouths. Forever.

I'm absolutely devastated by this news...but I also have mixed feelings about it, too. On the one hand, there's no denying the impact Luke and Laura have had - not just on GH, but on the industry as well. But, on the other hand, it's because of Luke and Laura, and the other shows' obsessive need to copycat that success, that the industry eventually collapsed under the weight of its' own '80's excesses; de-emphasizing and tossing out much of what made soaps so special to so many people - believable storylines, multigenerational casts, etc. - in order to capture a different kind of audience that was ever younger and ultimately proved to be so damn fickle. Moreover, to say that TG and the majority of GH fans (along with Claire Labine and Wendy Riche) never exactly saw eye-to-eye on who and what Luke Spencer was would be an understatement, because the sociopath that was Luke in his final years in Port Charles...? That's not the Luke we fell in love with back in '79. Not by a longshot. And it's TG and his need to not feel bored or that he wasted his career and talents on a lowly soap opera that were responsible for turning Luke into a creature that hardly anyone recognized anymore and whom I, for one, was not sorry to see gone. Regardless, though, my heart does go out to TG's former colleagues and loved ones. RIP.

That's my question as well. Where COULD they have gone with it? Would everyone suddenly up and move to Empire Valley? Would there have been an EV spinoff, lol? I'm just struggling to figure out what, if anything, would have been the point.

My God. To turn on my desktop and read that Rob Reiner (and his wife) and Tony Geary have both passed away. It's just so much to take in on a Monday morning that I'm struggling to find the right words. I pray for peace for all their loved ones, and for all of us who have enjoyed their work over the years.

Wait, does that mean Dick Loudon was a DAYS fan, lol?

True dat, lol.

I've been saying the same thing for the better part of two decades, lol.

And when that crashed and burned, she hooked up with do-it-yourself author Dick Loudon, moved to a quirky little town in Vermont and became an innkeeper and part-time real estate agent (who always wore sweaters).

Another damn WCTH spinoff??

I get casting Deidre Hall since she was the closest NBCD had to a superstar by that point, but CZP and (RIP) Charleson were stretches for me. Were Susan Lucci and Melody Thomas Scott unavailable or something, lol?

Not that there wouldn't have been opportunities! For instance, they could've hired George Takei (there's your ST person) as one of Chao-Li's relatives, who was also after the Nazi treasure. Or they could've hired Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker (a.k.a. C3PO and R2D2) as another team out for the gold (and comic relief for the storyline). Heck, they could've even hired none other "Blofeld" himself, Donald Pleasance, as a sworn enemy of Gustav and his father's, who will stop at nothing, including romancing poor Emma, to keep Riebmann from reclaiming the treasure.

I agree. Especially because it happened so damn quickly, with absolutely no breathing room for him, for Cathy, for all of us. David Jacobs insisted that was the plan all along, but I doubt it. I think they had every intention of keeping Joshua around for years to come, but Michael Filerman and his ego ruined everything. I'd still love for someone who was there to explain to us what the original intention was for Empire Valley; was it ALWAYS meant to be revealed as an underground spy network? Because, even if that wasn't how it started, it still feels as if they were leading up to something big. Otherwise, why invest so much time in another real estate development scheme? We'd already been there and done that with Lotus Point.

Honestly, with Paul Freeman ("Raiders") and Sarah Douglas in the cast, I'm surprised FC didn't attempt to snag a "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" veteran as well.

I don't know about Mack, but I would've bought it. The poor girl had to be on something if she believed the Joshua she met and fell in love with was still there. But seriously. I guess all the signs pointing toward Joshua's downfall were there from the beginning: the absent mother, the abusive father, the basic naivete about the world beyond his father's church. Nevertheless, I feel like Joshua (and the audience) didn't have enough time to enjoy the upswing his life in Knots Landing had taken before it all collapsed into [!@#$%^&*]. It's like, one minute, he's the new go-fer at Pacific World Cable; the next minute, he's taken over Rev. Kathrun's show and getting fantastic ratings; and then, the minute after that, he's beating the hell out of Cathy and blaming half the cast for taking away his show. And it's all happening within, like, a year, lol. I realize Mike Filerman hated Alec Baldwin and wanted him gone like yesterday, but damn!

I miss him.

I like the way you think - mostly because, in this case, I thought the same thing myself, lol.

I wouldn't put it past this show to say Drew shot himself, lol.

I agree. DYNASTY might've taken everything to the next level with the Moldavian Massacre, but I think FC wasn't too shabby either that season, refashioning itself as a cross between "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and a James Bond movie, with a Special Guest Appearance from Ursa, lol.

As I see it, Willow Tait Quartermaine is the most dangerous kind of woman: the kind who has nothing left to lose. So, why NOT allow her to decide she's no longer willing to "play nice" and figure out a way to avoid prison and still get even with Drew and everyone else she believes has betrayed her? That's the kind of "heel turn" that many soap fans live for. So, of course, that means Frank Valentini ain't gonna do it, lol.

It's remarkable how the four major primetime soaps all tanked at around the same time...but not at all surprising. DALLAS was trying too hard to outdo DYNASTY, and DYNASTY was trying too hard to outdo itself. FC had lost its' way already when they were forced to wrap up the Gustav Riebmann arc sooner than planned, and even KL managed to piss away the momentum they had built over the previous two seasons with the Empire Valley crap. It's as if the four shows made some strange pact to do whatever they could to sabotage themselves and drive the audience away.