P.J.

I think the budget impacted a lot of that. Sheffer started out trying to intergrate characters and play family where it mattered. The Kim/Susan stuff was the only reason to watch the dreadful Chris/Alison romance. But then he'd just drop it---Carly and Gwen building a relationship could have delivered drama for years. Instead Gwen got involved in a lot of poorly developed teen drama and Carly hardly ever saw her. Unless Gwen could show up and tell her how disappointed she was in her.

I dunno....I wouldn't say they were all clunkers. I think Culliton really helped Sheffer execute the stories he wanted to tell better. Where Sheffer failed miserably is carrying through the fallout and then growing the characters. Sheffer and Pissanante were some kind of hellish duo who didn't seem capable of coming up with the "next story". It's bad enough when characters are in ruts...but with S & P, they were in the exact same story, usually with the same bleepin' characters. Thus you had endless rounds of Dusty/Meg/Paul/Em and Jack/Carly/Craig.

^^^ snort!! ROTFLMAO.

Apparently, Helen wasn't around the studio enough when Peck and Columbino were screwing around.

If I had to pinpoint a moment the honeymoon was "over"---looking back, I think it's Jack's rape. Culliton helped him cover some of his weak spots (most of his teens stunk), and it seems like Passanante was nothing but a lackey who wrote what she was told to write. It was the end of '02 that stories seemed to be noticably recycling themselves (Katie's Island Adventure 1&2, Avanya, 1&2,) but it was Jack's rape in March that signalled that the "black comedy" Sheffer seemed to favor could really cross that uncomfortable line that soaps (and especially ATWT) usually didn't. It was one thing to have Barbara "blown up" and descend into madness. It was quite another to have a psycho rape your hero and your biggest !@#$%^&*] anti-hero buffoon walk in and taunt and sneer at him afterwards. The explosion was in June '01 (I think Holden and Luke had been kidnapped to Malta around this time), Craig's trial was in August, Bryant died at the end of September (I think), Molly and Jake married/Dante tried to kidnap Luke in October, James returned and started conspiring with Barbara, and then the kidnap plot started rolling in December.

WAIT....didn't the first episode also take place at Victoria's Fourth of July party? I know we're supposed to buy into Emily/Jack, but I like Daniel more.

^^^Zenk-Crouch? That just sounds wrong.

Yeah, I think the quads were mostly about the novelty. I do ususally read the older articles you post, but I usually don't have a real good connection to the '70's stuff. The Spain trip still gets a write up every once in a while in the mags, and CZ testifies to the unusual Spain cold snap, having to get a special dispensation from the Spanish government not to kill the bull, etc. Didn't know CZ was there with her fiancee (and subsequent first husband) who must have been either connected to the show or some kind of musical composer. I knew she'd been married before Mark Pinter, but I never knew to whom.

Thanks for posting that Carl. I know I'd heard stuff about the troubles the Spain shoot had, but it's neat hearing a first person account from the time.

LOL...that jacket looks bigger than she does!

It's funny Em getting a best daughter mention. It must have been in that sweet spot between Em donating the egg and trying to shag Larry.

Well, Heather Rattray clearly played a darker, more bitter Lily.

Revenge does better when DVR is counted. http://t.co/ZZt2WLfc

I was so hoping Frank was an undercover mole for Emily...I dig the hot vibe Max Martini gives off either way though.

Yeah, it's so over the top to have a nine year old put in an asylum, I hope there's more to the story.

That's where I think Stowe is so good---there's always these little teases Victoria regrets what happened. But then she's so cold-blooded blackmailing and manipulating those around her, you understand where Emily/Amanda is coming from. In some ways, it's like Victoria meeting her personal, more vicious, Mini-Me. That little girl who plays Amanda looks so much like EVC it's almost impossible to believe they don't recognize her.

I hope they answer the most obvious, glaring question---if Victoria is such a control freak, why hasn't she kept tabs on Amanda's whereabouts all this time? The other obvious question is---is Charlotte actually Amanda's half-sister, and if so, does Amanda know? 'Cause it seems really really cold-blooded of Amanda to use that clip of Victoria's session if there's not something more there.

^^^My mom actually said that out of the blue one day, but that's the only place I've ever heard it.

I like this show. I'm not sure how long the premise can hold out (to me, it smacks of Murder One) but I think the two lead women are evenly matched. I can't wait to find out if Emily knows that Victoria tried to save her father, or if it's why she seems to be holding her the most responsible.

I don't think Greg Beecroft wanted to be tied down with a long term contract. Brock started out as such a scumbucket, it would have been hard to really redeem him and let him stay in Oakdale. I respect that Marland stayed with his vision and didn't keep the mob in Oakdale simply because Beecroft is a great actor. Oh, and I have that card game. And the one for GL.

The winner has to be "I'm just trying to protect Lily"---EVERYONE and their flippin' mother used to say that whenever they lied to her. And she was always being lied to. Hell, most of Lucinda's purpose was lying to Lily and then protecting her from it.

*snort*

Errr....just from that snippet, I'd point out that Derek is conning her, so the over-the-top-ness is a part of that. Not that Marland was ever known for "gritty" dialogue.

Who is playing Betsy? LaRyan? Craig must make his appearance soon, given Cricket and Margo are already in town.

I gotta say, these write-ups read like bad fan fiction. Re Dee and Ian's death---I have a dim memory of this, but Jackie Schultz's Dee was fragile and downtrodden. I couldn't tell you what made her that way---if there was a radical shift when Schultz was cast or the writing. Given the "Perils of Pauline" stories they wrote for Barbara, my guess that's the way they wrote their heroines. Rereading Dee's history, it seems she took up with Ian after being rejected by Beau Spencer, and probably still a virgin before Ian bedded her. I remember it playing a little better on-screen...but what do I know, I was like 12. But, you gotta remember, it was 1980, and it was ATWT, and characters didn't really have one-night stands (or affairs with men probably 15 years older) the way soaps do/did without consequence. Good girls waited for marriage. Bad girls got "reputations"/V.D./pregnant. Look at Barbara's story---she had premaritial sex with James and gave Paul up for adoption.