P.J.

Boy, I thought Flash was too do-goody and earnest when it premiered. Kara is so eager to do good it almost makes my teeth ache. Curious that they sort of skipped over the "superhero training school" aspect of the show almost immediately. And this "let's just show Superman as a shadow/distant photo/IM buddy" is annoying. Even so, it's hard to not like the cast. It also has a reassuring, wholesome vibe that seems like a breath of fresh air nowadays. It's like a new millennium Greatest American Hero.

At least Shawn Christian's version had a little bit of personality. Yes, SC was more pretty to look at than an actor who could emote.., but at least he had some fire in him at the time. Mark Collier portrayed Mike as an idiot---the male equivalent of Lily. My hatred of him will never, ever die.

Um...I'm less surprised that Marland recast her. In '89, Lily was practically the focal point of the entire Snyder clan's lives, not to mention Lucinda. It wasn't a joke to say that the entire town practically shut down to celebrate Lily's birthday. I'm just surprised it was only a three month gap. As for Goutman recasting her---I was fine with it. By that time, I was beyond tired of Byrne in the role. I don't think they needed to recast though. The way they continually wrote her as a weak and selfish twit grated on my last nerve. Admittedly, the way they trashed Carly to make Lily the "victim" of the affair with Holden made me puke, so I had no love left for Lily's character....but the stupidity of the Rose/twin saga wore out whatever respect I had for her years before anyway.

Episodes up at youtube have Rattray's debut in the 1989 Christmas shows. Kind of shocked they recast her so soon.

I didn't even really realize Colenback was Dan for such a long period of time. I was very young in the '70's, so I don't have memories of Dan per se, but any time I think of Dan, it's John Reilly's face flashing in my mind.

Oddly, I thought Chambers had chemistry with Jon Hensley. But she was an awful choice for Molly. It didn't help that she was thrown into a story that really should have hinged on the Carly/Molly relationship and history, and she just didn't have that connection with Maura that Lesli had. But she only made a handful of appearances, and if Molly hadn't been the impetus of Jack being presumed dead, they clearly wouldn't have bothered to recast.

Molly kind of floundered after Jake was killed in 2003. There was backlash over her screwing Mike (and I actually kinda/sorta liked them), then he slept with Carly, and they stumbled on to Mike/Katie which was clearly popular. The show was going to kick her down to recurring, and they actually let her out of her contract so she could take the role on GH. That was spring 2005, and Chambers stepped into the role right before Jack went off the bridge and was presumed dead. By '09, when LK came back to ATWT, her B&B work was down to a handful of episodes throughout the year. I do think she appeared on the B&B Xmas episode that year, but I think that was the only one that was concurrent.

Hey---Carjack are AWESOME. Even the remembrance of Jack being free of that pre-psychobitch Jules gives me the warm fuzzies. But yeah---Eddie and his daddy drama was suckitude x infinity.

It was Emma's family farm. She occasionally said she had memories from her childhood there. I know she mentioned it had been known as the "...." farm, but I can't remember what her maiden name was. I think Emma's ancestry was Danish, but then they kind of implied it was Swedish in scenes she had with Vienna.

Could they have mentioned the old Hughes farm? Sure. I don't really see why that would have been some kind of tribute---by the '80's, even if you were a legacy viewer, you might not have known about it. I'd watched ATWT forever, and had no clue until I read the history that Chris had moved off the family farm. I think at the time he invented them, Marland tapped into a topical subject, the loss of the small American farmer, and that's what Emma represented. It'd been in her family for generations, and it was a legacy she tried to preserve. Curse Brad all you want, but not my Jack!! He was the best thing to happen to that family.

I know the Snyder farm was considered "the country", but it's not like it was Far Far Away. It necessitated a car ride. And if Oakdale hadn't supposedly been big enough for three consulting firms or multiple million-dollar corporate headquarters, y'all wouldn't have been surprised buses don't go there or run 24/7. I loved the Snyders. I don't know why they get such a bad rap. They're no different than any other soap family, passing love interests back and forth. While I wish we could have gotten a little updating through the years (good God, that water heater never moved), I thought it was comforting.

According to my book, Dan's illness in '65 was encephalitis. Dan died of a brain tumor years later. Paul also died of a brain tumor.

Rita Lloyd played Edwina (and Lucille Wexler). She was diabolical on both shows. I remember distinctly being scared of her GL character.

I think Liz Hubbard and Kathy Hays also did episodes of L&O. And Lesli Kay.

I think the Iva/John hook up was mostly about creating jeopardy for Iva during the Andy/Julie/Aaron saga. But gossip also had Lisa Brown and Larry Bryggman dating during this time. Who's talking about a Lisa Ann? I thought for a sec it was Julie's daughter, but that was Jenny. For some reason I think Lisa Ann's a doll? But I haven't watched the eppy. Marland might have beat GL to the mob, but he wrote them to tell his story. He didn't rewrite story to keep a good actor on a show. Sigh---I remember how hot Greg Beecroft was as Brock. Aye caramba.

Trent Dawson's going to be on an episode of Castle.

Gretchen Walther isn't listed in the ATWT history book I have, sorry.

Ugh...Emily. I will never forget laughing as KMH ran around after the rape, scrubbing her face or whatever. Which is a really terrible thing to say, but it's what I did.

Well, I think daytime in general pushed older characters into the "advice giver" box. It wouldn't have mattered how many kids he had on-screen. When was the affair? I find it a little hard to believe that story wasn't "fleshed out" enough. Marland was still writing it, wasn't he? I guess on some level maybe the thought was you couldn't have Bob and Susan running around town banging under Kim's nose, but I'm not sure you could have ever believably had Bob and Susan fall in love either.

I doubt SOC updates, or would consider a youtube episode as satisfactory proof. Those dumbasses insisted Jack's real first name is now Jacob because Brad wanted his son "named after" Jack and Katie named the baby Jacob. *eyeroll*

Pretty sure it was 2000, 'cause I remember some kind of story about Maura being confused for a while at the new studio after she came back from her maternity leave (which makes it the first half of '00.)

In Babs' defense, she'd gotten some kind of promise from Margo (what it was exactly, I don't remember, but I think it was that Babs would get to tell him or be there with him when Margo told him...something like that) and instead Margo just told him on her own, leaving Barbara hung out to dry.

Well, I should have known Marland would. With ALL of Emily's myriad of men and self-esteem issues, Dan's name should have been more brought up than it was. And considering Emily's default explanation for YEARS of vindictive and self-destructive behavior was Susan's bad parenting, I think Em should have been more prone to throwing out Dan's name.

That's the name! She was on a Quantum Leap back eppy set around the Civil War and ended up being Sam Beckett's grandma or something. Ditto re: Dan. I kinda get where it was hard to bring him up decades after he died, but when it came to Bob and Susan's affair, he should have been brought up. Hey, but it's not everyone who gets not one, but two grandchildren named after them.

I can't get over how garish that set looks. Not that I forgot, but Liz Hubbard is smokin' in that scene. It's interesting to see her as Lucinda without the constant head-tossing and other signature tics going on. Karen was a fun character, even though I don't remember much specifics about her stories. But the actress (and I forget her name) frequently turns up in bit parts and always remember her face.