P.J.

Because we couldn't have nice things. LOL. Although Maeve had resting bitch face before it was a thing, and there are times you knew Vanessa wanted to let loose, but couldn't. I would've settled for any child of Reva's calling out her out and really sticking with that, instead of worshipping at her feet. But yeah, it would've been sweet for some kid of Josh's to actively work against her and Reva not being able to do squat about it. I was shocked when I realized he had first left just a year after Kim's arrival. OMG---I am watching an old Hart to Hart--and who pops up? A dark haired and murderous Rebecca Hollen.

You're probably right---I'm just a little too jaded now. Both Judi and Krista were special, and it's one of the few times I can recall a show launching two ingenues who both successfully caught on with the audience.

LOL...how lazy am I? That wasn't that long ago. Lenore made that sultriness look so easy. And without any of the cringey dialogue they'd probably have stuck the character with later.

LOL...right? Reva's Guiding Light. Well, Billy had just been on trial for killing David Preston. I guess even TPTB thought there was a limit to how much violence Billy could do. But working at Lewis does seem a little extra forgiving. The only reason I watched what's available of '86 is to figure out the Dinah thing. It's just painful to watch. There's even a fill in for Henry, at points, which really blunts the story. snort As long as it wasn't Bill, I honestly wouldn't have cared. It would've been perfectly in keeping with Reva if she had boinked Josh's son while she was "on a break" from whoever she was with at the time. And then had to lie to Josh about it. I forget---have we discussed possible Rita recasts? I think that would've been almost impossible.

I thought you knew! During MKA time on ATWT, she's involved with Joe Breen's character, Scott Eldredge. Joe Breen also plays Will Jeffries on GL, who was involved with Michelle Forbes' Sonni/Solita. Who natch, was on TNG and DS9. (this is the circle of soap life.) Thanks! I rechecked the recaps, but they just mention Alan faking a medical report. I'm going to assume he did. Beth's kidnapping was mixed up in Alan's return and the Von Halkein gold story. Phillip won't believe she's dead and puts his recovery at risk continuing to look for her. TPTB pulled the old no body found trick. The recaps mention something about Jackson being in league with Alan. Jackson was so poorly thought out, he was just one of those characters who they threw into random plots. I think he had feels for Beth, but he never seemed on the up and up about anything.

I forget--did they actually have Alan in '86 plant that necklace (to confirm Beth had died) or was that rewritten?

Judi's Beth is like a saccharine version of ATWT's Lily Snyder or Y&R's Cricket. There's a moment I wound up running into over and over during my rewatch of Josh's accident, during Beth and Lujack's beach story, where Judi is literally running around like a hyperactive chipmunk....and I wonder what I ever saw in Beth. Soap viewers understand that characters have to change, grow and evolve, but what they did to Beth was pretty much without foundation. Other than them blaming it on the loss of her marriage to Phillip---off screen.

Yep. I don't recall how long they said Beth had been in town before we met her. (Later, there's also a confusing backstory of Ross and Beth's aunt Calla having run around Springfield while they dated in high school, which is complete BS, suggesting that both Calla and Lillian were native Springfielders.) It was long enough that she had a few prior hospital stays due to "clumsiness" (ie, Bradley's abuse). It's writer laziness. Like when they act like Mindy graduated with Rick, Phillip and Beth from Springfield High. She didn't.

No. We met Beth right before graduation, but she was shy and introverted. She was artistic, not an athlete. Although it's also a little unrealistic she wouldn't have known the fundamentals of tennis. Phillip was more than once described as "near pro level" at tennis, and gave lessons at the club when he was a teen. I believe it's also mentioned that Alan and Phillip won father/son tournaments at the club when Phillip was young. You'd think he would've introduced Beth to the fundamentals at some point during their marriage. There's probably some psychology to a rape/abuse survivor being sexually aggressive, if she becomes attracted to a man and considers him being taken for granted in another relationship (which is the kindest way I can put her reaction to Vanessa.) But mostly I think Brown and Esenstein (who I think are the ones who brought her back), simply plugged Beth into plots and reinvented her personality. Subsequent writers continued down this path, and Beth was usually 180 degrees from how she was introduced.

But Beth knew **** wasn't going to screw her. At least that's what he kept saying. It's always a bad sign when writing teams are bad at family interactions.

Or ATWT's face-less Snyder neighbors, the Cobbs. Janie Cobb was forever babysitting Snyder children.

Because **** is about as threatening as a yappy terrier.

Was converting a 1986 episode of Guiding Light and did a double-take halfway through: Fiona Hutchison was playing a nurse named Molly Patterson. I was shocked as I assumed that her first soap role was on OLTL, but there she was and it seems to be her first appearance. It's not listed on IMDb or anywhere else online. I just uploaded it to the vault so everyone can check it out there. i know Fiona was on through the fall---she ends up having a scene with Vanessa and Henry around the time Vanessa is looking for Dinah. Re: Mel and her family---at times I think they simply dusted off the Grant family dynamic and threw it onscreen. Successful, driven older daughter, troublemaking son, doctor father and strong willed (if less social climbing) mother. I think they tried to weave Mel into the town (wasn't she friends with Harley and Blake?). But no, I don't really remember them working the parents into Springfield either. I don't remember if they came on as a family, or if the show just kind of slapped a family on Mel after they decided Rick needed a wife. Even the faux Bauers seemed more thought out than that. When Long introduced Billy and Mindy, we already had reason to care about him, he was Trish and Josh's brother and niece. Or at least it helped. Mel was already pretty bland--giving her a bland family didn't help. Gosh---I can't believe Remy was a character for that long. He must've been on the Frankie D plan.

I didn't like Mel and her family. Although I'm not sure it's anyone's fault, the show didn't do anything consistently with them. But Mel was a stick in the mud, and Remy was annoying.

To which Vanessa would retort: "At least I was having sex. Not simply pretending to. Jealousy is so last season, Nola dear." LOL.

It's up in the vault. 2-16-93, around the 27:30 mark.

Well, not totally. We can assume the Lewises had an evangelical background. They didn't talk about it much, but it did surface once or twice (i.e. when Billy named Peter, which was a Biblical reference--I SO wish I could find that scene). It was FAR less of a surprise to me when Josh became a pastor than when he once mentioned in passing that he protested the Vietnam War. THAT came out of left field--like, literally. 😂 Well, Josh protesting while at Berkeley I could understand. But it probably messes up the timeline somewhere. Lol. Especially since I believe they said he was 18 in 1977 during the Maryanne Carruthers misfire. Billy, I could see being one of those old time revival tent preachers. Maybe it's the fact Josh never seemed to feel strongly about much other than Reva. Lol. Purely speculation....but being targeted reeks of some personality /fan group clash.

Nope, me neither. It just seemed completely out of left field.

"Memory holed" is pretty accurate. I think the Oil Rig disaster is his turning point, but it's not like he did this great redemptive thing--he just kind of decides he doesn't have to be an ass. I'm not even sure writers after Curlee really realized Josh had been a sleaze. Ross and Vanessa would occasionally reference their earlier selves---from what I recall, Josh didn't. Then again, he was too busy putting up with (or reminding her of) Reva's BS.

Was Long writing SB at some point? Wasn't Krista T also some kind of loon on that show? RN was a psycho? Lord--save me. It must've been like Frankie D kicking a puppy---Earth666 stuff. Sigh--Carolyn Ann Clark--about the most reluctant 'ho I've seen on a soap. There should be honorary emmys for those actors who have withstood the scenery chewing of La Zimmer and lived to tell the tale. Honestly, I don't think Marland created a great, sustainable villain. There are short term ones like Doug Cummings and Henry Lange.

I guess what I was trying to say was that Robert Newman (while not Chris Bernau, Michael Zaslow, and IMO Jordan Clarke) was better than Marland gave him credit for. Marland treated him like Peter Boynton, ATWT's Tonio Reyes, a cardboard villain, shallow and smarmy.

You do (or at least I do) what Marland thought about Josh's turnaround/Robert Newman after Josh and Reva got huge. I don't think DM was very inspired by him either.

I don't know at what point Marland would've thought Kelly/Nola were endgame. As he said in an interview, he created Kelly/Morgan because that's what his neice wanted to see (and no doubt, to play off Scotty/Laura). Maybe he thought that would just be a summer romance, and Kelly/Nola would get involved? Then when Kelly/Morgan took off, he revamped? I don't think Marland would've ever considered Josh a guy to sweep Morgan off her feet. His Josh was a sleeze. I guess Quint could've either been a red herring where Henry's son was concerned. Or maybe a little more of a match for Vanessa as originally conceived. Instead of the purse holder he morphed into.

It's kind of hard to believe that Nadine and Maureen didn't know each other. I would've said they were about the same age in the early '90's. Then again, the soap convention would've been to make them friends, and I would've hated to see Maureen have to befriend that harridan. I'm not sure Quint was meant to be as quirky as they made him, but he had to have been slated to be Henry's son. No argument from me about Reva---but I know that's not the prevailing opinion.

It was hard for them to even work Annabelle in as a teacher. The Four Musketeers attended college for about a semester (aside from Rick's "accelerated" doctor course) and I think the next teens that went to college for any amount of time were AM/Harley/Dinah/Cam. Alex forced Henry and Quint to sell their holdings in Spaulding, claiming that the SEC was going to investigate Vanessa's kickbacks from the Jocelyn Electronics deal. But Quint was never interested in the running of Spaulding--Henry had offered to mentor him (which upset Vanessa on multiple levels) but he chose to continue his archelogy work. He was briefly a professor--Nola had a jealous snit and her "help" in the classroom was a series of calamities. I really don't think Kobe was interested in Nola and Quint. I don't think she was really interested in any of the Reardons, to be honest. She killed Jim's girlfriend, the haunting of Tony and Annabelle's cottage is lame, and Maureen was the eternal big ol' wet blanket.