P.J.

Hate might be a reach, but Marland may have found Morgan a bit frustrating to write for. She's like sixteen, and wasn't written like a font of wisdom (that I remember anyway) unlike the tendency with teens in later years. She also had to be gullible to Nola's machinations. And maybe, if the rumors are true and Kristen V was coming to work underprepared, it carried over to his writing. It's hard for me to judge now, I'm not really interested in the Morgan part of the story. It's Nola that I gravitate to.

Poor Van---I love her, but in her early days, she was Wile E Coyote, and everyone else was the Roadrunner. When morally bankrupt Mark Evans dumps you, OY VEY. I don't mind GL doesn't have a lot of villainesses, and tried to keep their characters from going over some imaginary line they couldn't come back from.

No, GL didn't have that bitch, that woman who schemed and didn't care who got hurt. Of Marland's creations, it was Nola but only up to her meeting Quint. Vanessa stirs up trouble, she's snooty and mean-spirited, but her manipulations are more impulsive than thought out schemes. (aside from blackmailing Alan over the affair with Rita.) I'd say Nola did a lot more damage around town than Van, but that's just me. Reva could've been that, but of course, Long dug into her sob story past and made her just "accidently" destructive. Alex was that bitch, but she wasn't cruel (at least arguably until the Mindy stuff, really), India was a schemer, but never had enough power; Calla was cold and grasping, but never really did damage. Early Blake was on that road, until she wasn't. Nadine---she played with lives, a little like early Nola. But she was too much of a ditz to truly be considered that bitch. I hate her, but she's not really cunning enough to make the list. Annie, Carmen, Dinah (Moniz and Tognoni, obviously), Olivia (until they gutted her to be Natalia's love interest)....and maybe Beth in some of her more off-her beam times(?) are who I'd name. Other than Lucille and Diane, GL's members of the Bitch Hall of Fame. Claire, when she turned psycho.

Vanessa and Ross are definitely sleeping together before Jennifer's retrial in Jan '81. According to recaps, Ross tried getting into Evie's bed around the time of Rita's party. Vanessa interrupted them and told him that Evie was too boring for him. Vanessa and Ed don't start dating until after her suicide attempt in March '81. It just seems odd to me Vanessa wouldn't have crossed with either Holly or Rita. Although unless all those episodes become available, we won't know for certain. Speaking of, I'd love to find Van and Nola's first meeting.

I can't get over Nola talking to Kevin Bacon. :) And about Rita's infamous party, no less! Then there's Ross, mustache-twirling as he maneuvers Amanda into his web....

I think in '07ish, when Scott was back in the role, the story was that Craig had embezzled money from her and hadn't been paying her medical bills. I don't remember if Paul had briefly also been in a coma, but there was something about him having "heard" her trying to contact him, which is why he went to Switzerland and brought her home. But yes, somewhere along the way, she lost her wealth and Cabot Motors.

There's something about Maureen's eyes that are right. I think it's her jawline that's off. Jaime Lyn is just all wrong.

I'm pretty sure it was Johnny. Jen then named her son John Dustin.

I don't think the show did much exciting for sweeps.

Lola was an ex-hooker. I can't be sure, but Mark Evans may have been an ex-client of hers. She had two friends who actually worked on Nola's wedding dress. Mary Pat Gleason, who played Jane, (sort of a Jane-of-all trades, including being a nanny and nurse/companion) also wrote for the show during this period.

If they're going with the "All About Eve" comparisons, could someone at least get the movie plot correct? Bette Davis did not lose her man and her role to Eve. Margo actually didn't want the part Eve schemed to get, and Bill was never interested in Eve. And could someone remind Kat that she gave up the job Eva ended up with? She acts like Ted fired her and installed Eva.

Well, I've also seen (in some sketchy bios) that Vanessa was supposedly 25yrs older than ****, which is beyond ridiculous. While Van's age was probably tweaked downward with the Dinah reveal, **** is supposed to be older than Dinah. It's all meant to be a crack on Vanessa's age, but at least with Beth's comment I kinda get where that came from. Beth and Mindy are the same age, and Van was a mother figure to Mindy. Ugh...I so hate ****.

LOL...yeah, the fact Van hadn't tanked the company in the six weeks (or so) that he's gone seemed to impress him. He doesn't really pursue her though. Unless he's talking about it in scenes I normally skip through. He's too busy manipulating everyone like chess pieces---Ross/Trish and Reva as well as waiting for Billy/Van to implode. Unless complimenting her business acumen is his idea of foreplay--which admittedly just might be the case.

Sweet baby Jesus---the Ashley for Sainthood campaign is out of control. You know it's bad when her mother is the only one who acknowledges that Derek had reason to think she was back with him out of pity. Shanice vs Dana was pretty good.

Well, McLean Stevenson is the King of this thread, with so many failed sitcoms after MASH that it's some kind of record. I LOVED How The West Was Won, with Arness and Bruce Boxleitner and Fionnula Flannigan. It had started off as a mini-series (or a two part tv movie with Eva Marie Saint as James' sister-in-law) and then followed him as he took the family west to escape the Civil Warl My favorite for this was the short lived Bob, with Bob Newhart as an animator. In the short time between the end of Newhart and this, his brand of comedy had just went off the cliff and it failed to click with audiences.

well, you know me--most things Carly-related stick in the brain. And actually, Ro and Craig (Scott Bryce) scheming against Paul and Meg was very intriguing to me. But I'm sure that was Scotty being back.

Lola was one of those characters that just hung around. I think she'd made friends with Amanda when they were in jail together. There's a moment at Quint and Nola's reception where she must've told Billy he had a call, and she's hanging in the doorway like she doesn't trust him being in the Reardon kitchen. He tells her to save him a dance and she kind of rolls her eyes at the BS charm and leaves. LOL. She's mostly known for wearing hot pants.

She must've been. I think the bomb was meant for her, but went off while Courtney and Andy were near her car.

Well, originally it was written as deliberate. Or if not deliberate, at least reckless and self-serving on Craig's part. Yes, after she went to Switzerland in a coma, got better and returned to town, this time scheming with Craig to separate Paul and Meg. She then goes comatose again after failing to get Paul back. Then she shows up on a cooperative in some remote bumpkin-ville. She said she didn't bother telling her sister she emerged from the coma because she didn't want to be a part of her former life anymore, or some such BS. It's right around the time Carly became a drunk, and then Ro falls into bed with Craig (who is now Carly's fiancé.)

Was she on ATWT before or after Marland died? It was all apart of the Kinglsey-Malta story, right? Her husband was Duncan's partner in something. But I think it was before Damian came to town, and she blamed the Grimaldis? Not that that went anywhere really either. But it was nice seeing her again. Trish really belonged in Springfield.

And at the time in '83 when Trish steps into Spaulding, Alan and Vanessa are on the outs. Vanessa had wormed her way into a Vice Presidency at Spaulding after Amanda is booted out. (This is when she, Ross and Josh form LTA) But Van then turned around and tried to force Quentin out of town and Henry's life by making it look like he had informed Alan about Vanessa's double dealing in the Jocelyn Electronics deal (when she and Henry had blackmailed Alan, over the affair with Rita, into buying a company and got a kickback.) She left a memo outlining the deal on Alan's desk, and he then fired her. (Quint threatened to expose her actions to Henry, and tell him that she knew he was her brother. Vanessa backed off, telling Henry that she'd left the altered memo naming only her in an effort to protect him. But back to Trish---I don't know why it didn't launch more story for Trish either. She and Ross were starting to get somewhere, and it went NOWHERE. That's technically a lie---we all know the reason---The REVA vortex. The Lewises suddenly revolved all around REVA. Since Trish wasn't male, she wasn't going to be blinded by Reve's "charms".

Oh, it was. And it seemed to be a handy excuse to write Cady McClain off when she wanted to go and do other things.

a couple of add-ins: Rosanna got baby fever after Carly had Sage. Craig resisted, but eventually pretended to cave and agreed to look into adoption. He actually sabotaged the first attempt (I think it had something to do with him "accidently" exposing his own past actions in kidnapping baby Dani, but my memory's fuzzy). When Ro left him over it, he arranged to buy a baby, and passed it off as a quick, legal adoption. What he didn't know was that James had set him up. (Why...again, the why never quite made sense, it was probably mostly to get an in with Rosanna and set up his grandchild to the Cabot millions.) When Rosanna found out the adoption was illegal and was forced to give back the baby, she left Craig. He again tried to lure her back by faking a heart attack. They took him to Memorial, and Ro dutifully went there to check on him. He made her promise to stick around, and as they wheeled him away, she fittingly said, "the last words between us were a lie," and prepared to leave town. She leaves Carly a blank check (to use to fulfill her dreams) and disappeared for about a year. When she returned, Carly had just agreed to design for Paul at BRO. Paul wanted to throw his mother out of BRO, not knowing she was going blind. Carly agrees, but then Ro sweeps in and tells Carly it would be a betrayal, and Carly in a sisterly moment, agrees to back out. Ro changes her mind though because she can use Carly to get closer to Jordan. Jordan has started falling for Jennifer, and Ro gravitates toward Paul, who she had befriended when he'd been accused of Rose's murder. The four eventually agree to cooperate to keep Cabot safe from James. James found out it was a lie and kidnapped Ro and Cabot. James put them in a cabin set to explode, and told Paul he could only save one. Paul got Ro out, and when he went back for Cabot, the cabin exploded. Everyone believed Cabot had died. Ro blames Paul and refuses to speak with him. (This is all around the time Jack went off the bridge and was also believed dead.) While Carly ends up searching for Jack, Paul comes over to help Ro (who's watching Parker and Sage) and they rebond and agree to marry. It's Paul and Ro's wedding that sparks something in Jack's memory. (but I'm getting off track.) James is again angry that Paul and Ro have defied him and then there's some wacky stuff with Babs giving Em drugs to terrify Ro with reminders of Cabot, and James then forces Ro to "admit" that she drugged Emily, in exchange for Cabot, who he reveals is alive. Ro and Paul break up, Ro leaves town. When Cady McClain returns, we find out that James has Ro prisoner in Hong Kong. Craig finds her and they leave with Cabot. But realizing that James will never stop using Cabot, they hide him with unknown people in an unknown country. (how they arranged it escapes me) Since they don't t know where he is, they expect that James won't be able to find him either. THE CABOT SAGA ENDS. Then there's the Billy/Rory/Baby Johnny story, where Craig knocked up Jennifer, switched his live son with Gwen's dead baby, adopted it with Rosanna. Rosanna found out and while driving away from Craig to tell Jenn, had a car accident and went into a coma. Paul then allowed Jen to continue to believe her son had died, knowing that Craig had switched babies and Carly and Jack were raising his nephew.

Because randomly meeting in a field or abandoned playground seemed stupider? Some of those Peapack sets...RME. Alexandra Spaulding eating random Quick Mart hotdogs....the world shudders.

There is so little up with Alan/Trish, it's hard to tell what exactly drew them to one another. Early Van was a lot like Alan, in that she had that roving eye. I guess the difference was that Alan always reverted back to type, while Vanessa fundamentally shifted after Billy. The only time she had a couple of brief affairs, she ended up nearly getting raped.