P.J.

It might have ultimately been his call, but it was one of Pissy's first suggestions when she came in after CCulliton left/got fired. Who kills off a legacy child with so much potential? When Billy Ross is just sitting there, begging to have a bullet put between his very cute, but basically soulless eyes? Other than actually being happy whenever someone used Bryant's memory to knife a shiv into Craig's gut, it was a meaningless gesture. I still remember how happy I was when Craig found out Bryant was his and not Tonio's. I will never forgive that hack for it either.

I think they used Craig's position in the show, if not his "history". On the surface, the split between Craig and Bryant could have fueled years of story, if written correctly. That the casting was piss-poor (for both roles, Todd Rotundi was awful too) just compounded the problems, and then someone unleashed Pissy on the situation, and Bryant was killed off. I watched the sneak preview of Animal Kingdom. It's not exactly my cup of tea, but I thought Weary (who thankfully got rid of the dorky haircut he had on ATWT) was good in it.

I don't think ATWT would have ventured into a Rick/Jen affair/ons. That was GL territory. IA that TIIC didn't really use any of Craig's history. But given who they had in town, I understood why bringing Craig back made sense. I do wonder who might have been cast in the role if they hadn't had to push back his arrival for Maura's pregnancy in the fall of '99.

Like I said, I don't really have enough memory to really have an opinion on Rick, but from what I've read in the bible, it seems to me Rick was more of an irritant to Bob than a fully fleshed out character. About Craig---it wasn't his return to the darkside that gave me fits. (Honestly, there were a couple of years where Craig really did nothing but hold the hand of every woman he knew. That was a waste of SB's talent, IMO) It was Sheffer's relentless refusal to give Craig any hint of motivation and Block's overbearing "style" of acting that literally couldn't ring out anything close to a human emotion. It's no accident the man couldn't even buy a nomination the year his son died. Soapsuds---it was Meg's miscarriage that Pissy wanted to hang on Craig, and SB made Craig sympathetic anyway. Paul and Meg were so obnoxious in their tortured romance (with both of them lying to Craig and Rosanna) that a lot of people (other than the loyal RH fans...) took Craig and Rosanna's side (Rosanna had just come out of her first coma, and Paul really used her feelings for him that just made him look like an unfeeling ass). It was one of the few times that Pissy spelled out some understandable motivation, although unintentionally, it was for the "villains" of the story, not the star-crossed lovers.

Yep. Rick Ryan. The last time he was brought back ('85-86ish) they laid Kim's non-miscarriage at his feet. I really don't remember him, (even from the '80's stint) but it would have been fascinating to see Barbara interact with him. Re: Mike & Rosanna---(or even Rosanna and Hutch)....y'know, at the time it was happening, I didn't think they were that bad. It's when you look back and think about it that I realize how unoriginal and blah they were. Sure, it's revisionist, and I think it was Maura West really igniting that triangle that showed me how bland SC and YP were, but that's how it goes. Y'know who would have made a good Rick? Terry Lester.

I think the only Tom that Hal would lose to (theorectically) is Gregg Marx. Deas (in his less hammy days) might be a draw. But it's definitely Hal over Scott Holmes' version of Tom. Personally, I liked Hal/Babs way more than Hal/Margo, and I never really got a sexual vibe from Hal/Margo, period. She used him. And if HBS hadn't ended up preggers, I doubt they'd have done the deed, period.

If SuperBreath, HeatVision, Cratering Asphalt and Flying cost 1.5 million per episode, the producers are being ripped off. The Flash has better special effects, IMO.

Nuh-uh. Maybe it felt better because a) all of the sudden GL got more publicity about it's cancellation than it had in the previous 20 years combined, or b ) it had fallen so far that the gruel EW served up looked better than the [!@#$%^&*] on a shingle she'd delivered in Peapack, But I will never forgive the WTFery of Billy and Vanessa's wedding (after most of their reunion being served up off-screen, BTW, and I know that's a fact because they'd sucker me in with spoilers and then be on for a grand total of two FREAKIN minutes while some huge non-event in Otalia's relationship played out for a majority of the eppy) being usurped by Buzz and Lillian and two non-credited Y&R homage-inspired "guests". They freakin' killed Alan and dumped his ashes three feet off a beach. I may hate, loathe and DESPISE the way Luke's dead lover ate up more than half of the last month of the show, and that Katie got more sympathy than the dead matriarch of the show---at her own funeral. Or that that bitch Janet befouled Carjack's honeymoon suite with the afterbirth of her bastard son. Still doesn't make GL's ending better.

I'm torn between admiring the unusual level of honesty, and dismay at how out of touch it feels. She's crowing about a temporary bump from Holden's return like it was Moses parting the Red Sea. I mean, I forget who's writing it at the time, but not to far in the distant future this much praised "revitialization" goes through three sets of writers in less than a year. I honestly don't think I've ever heard an rationalization like she gave for firing ART---well, the pair wasn't working, so instead of ending it, we doubled down. Doubling down with a himbo hair model who'd been on the show probably about two years, and whose popular TV brother on the show is flying the coop. I will not even get into the fuckery that is GL at the time. "The Twin Dilemma" set a new low bar in storytelling. Although it did teach me a new word---superfecundation, which is the term for twins having two different fathers.

didn't remember either of those. I do remember Janney as one of Alex's maids on GL. One was Ginger, and I forget the other one's name. But they were funny as hell.

I really don't remember anything much of Batten other than that horrendous accent and the controversy over the recast. I wasn't AR-T's biggest fan either, and I kind of understand that FMB didn't find Connor "warm". That was kind of the point----Connor wouldn't be warm, being raised by Edwina, living with this resentment that Lucinda had "stolen" the company from her father and caused his suicide (or early death, I'm fuzzy on deets). It was the fact that this IIC didn't get how Connor fit as a character in the fabric of Oakdale, and replaced her with a hammy, corn-pone actress that pissed me off. It's ridiculous to think that the entire direction of an established character could or should be changed on a whim, because IIC 'X' needs all women to be "warm" and motherly and that somehow that mean she also had to lose every functioning brain cell.

No one. ATWT didn't need any more characters, and certainly not one played by such a marginal actress.

HELL NO, that walking atrocity wouldn't have worked as Ellie or Meg. Susan Batten didn't do five SECONDS worth of research to figure out who her character was. She played a reserved, intelligent business woman like a bad hillbilly knock off of Elly Mae Clampett. (And seriously, I'm not knocking Donna Douglas, TBH, or actors with southern accents) But to be that CLUELESS, regardless of your friendship with management, tells me she didn't GAS about anything other than a paycheck. I'll admit ATWT wasn't perfect, but at least they tried to cast roles appropriately. This was the equivalent of recasting Lucinda with some trashy, washed up hair model. AR-T wasn't Meryl Streep. But she deserved better than what she got, and the recast ruined the character of Connor.

I thought there was a place with a list of addresses used on the show, but I can't find it now. If you really want it---on Wikipedia, along with the biography of the character, it usually lists an address. Kim, Bob and Nancy's address was 10 Yardley Place, Oakdale (60324) and Carly and Jack's place was 123 Elm Street, Milltown (60325). Fairwinds (Paul and Emily's residence) is 100 Stone Ridge Road. Tom/Margo 724 Pinewood Lane. Emma's farm is RR#2, Box 600, Luther's Corners(61324) while Holden & Lily's is One Mile High Road (61324). I remember something being at 1 River Road, but whether that was Holden and Lily's little cabin or Lily and Derek's cottage that blew up, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how accurate they are (I know the Carjack one is correct) or how far they go back. I tried looking up Hal's address (as he was still living in the house he'd lived in with Babs during their marriage) and they didn't have one listed. Katie's bio only gives a generic "Oakdale IL" address.

GAWD. Sheffer giving lip service to history was almost as bad as him ignoring it all together. Carly, Mike and Ro---with Carly and Ro either fighting over the past with Mike while also being driven by some kind of jealous snit about Craig and Carly pushing her ex-lover on her cousin Molly *nails scraping on chalkboard* All pretty much so Sheffer could write his wet dream of Carly screwing someone other than Jack.....UGH.

Yeah---Brad's return was light on his previous antics, no doubt because they wanted everyone to forget that he was supposed to have been Jack's older brother, and not just the irresponsible freeloader Peck portrayed. There were a couple of snarky remarks when he first appeared (along the lines of that he wasn't surprised that Carly and Jack had imploded), and some veiled reminders when Carly told Brad she was sick. But certainly nothing that suggested Brad's role in the paternity reveal or how he'd blackmailed Carly into the damned marriage in the first place or gleefully spent Carly's money like it was water. Nope---he was simply Carly's victim. That neither Carly or Jack ever got to call him on his [!@#$%^&*] pissed me off no end. *eyeroll* Nope---he and Jack fought over Katie. *puke* As much as I normally would have liked Ro and Brad to acknowledge their "history" (as brief as it was), the thought of McClain and Peck trying to act as former lovers would have made me want to poke my eyes out. Between McClain's fluttery, stammering coyness and Peck's surfer-dude smugness, God knows how bad it could have been. The Ro/Mike scenes when she first came back with Collier were bad enough.

*sigh* the reviled Kasnoff/TeAmoJones year-plus. SMH. I honestly can't remember a thing Ryder did, or who he was involved with. I know KS worked after ATWT, but he obviously didn't make an impression on m The sad thing is---that had WILL and Gwen's stories been more balanced, I probably would have been okay with them (minus, of course the rabid Willen fan base, but that's another thing entirely.) I LOVED snarky, angry Will. Gwen should have stayed as completely messed up as she started out as, instead of going from rebel to saint in about three days. I forget who wrote her, Sheffer or Pissy, but they obviously had quite a hard on for her. If only Maddie and Casey had gotten half the attention Gwen did. I was even excited that Carly was getting a sister. Then they ruined it with the most asinine backstory in the history of soaps, and kept them in nearly completely separate story bubbles. *eyeroll* *hisses*CLEO*hisses*

I would have gladly traded off Tom for either of his sisters or a really well recast Chris, but I don't really give a fig that neither Penny or Don's kids made an appearance in later years. Penny hadn't really been a presence since the early '70's, and Don since about 1980. (And his son Ryder did make an appearance in the mid-90's, which I really could have done without anyway.) I mean, I consider myself a life-long viewer, and have zero memory of either of them outside of their brief drive-by appearances. I mean, until I just read his bio, I had no idea that Don was older than Bob. Bob always projected as the oldest, responsible child to me. I don't even think it's entirely fair to blame "the decline" of the Hughes family on the HW's from Marland on down. Irna kind of "divorced" Penny after Prinz left, and it seems that Don was recast multiple times and gone for stretches of time under her tenure. I think at some point, John really replaced Don as Bob's foil, (and the flashes of memory I do have from the '70's are about Bob and John's Chief of Staff battles) and Don's presence was kind of redundant. Will and Gwen's daughter was Hallie. Eliza was Meg and Paul's daughter. I don't know about everyone else, but I got tired of Gwen's story---which was always about Gwen being wise and perfect, while Will was stuck playing second banana. I think Jen Landon was a good actress, but at that point, all of the teen story revolved around her, and eventually it was off-putting. The focus was rarely on Gwen's relationships outside of Will or the teen scene. I mean, in spite of the fact she was Carly's sister, they barely interacted after the whole baby Billy/Rory/Johnny debacle.

I also especially loved Nobody Loves Me Like You Do. It kind of sucked that by the time Carjack came around, couples really didn't have songs anymore.

I don't remember ever reading that before, so thanks for bring it over. I don't remember what DM's last episode was, but my best guess is it would have aired in June or possibly later. IIRC, soaps then used to be about three months ahead, tape-wise. Yeah, the first couple of times MB did the song were fine. It was the next fifty that wore out the welcome. *sigh* Couple theme songs. Those were the days. **suudddd----eeennnlllyyyyyy, life has new meannn-innng to mmmeeeeee***

wow...that is sad. I had no idea one of the Toms had won a Tony and been in Mame with Angela Lansbury! Gosh, ex-ATWTers have been dropping like flies the last few months....

Yeah, Kavovit left in the early '90's, and they didn't recast until like '96, with that horrid model/actor dude. I wonder if it would have been that long if Marland hadn't died. I truly believe Hoylrod would have made Paul's fall a lot more nuanced and interesting. There's a scene like in his first week where he totally goes off on Jack and Carly in Babs' hospital room (he came back after she'd been burned in the boathouse explosion), that really made me sit up and say "whoa". Howarth, for all his rage-induced screaming, always comes off as a little boy throwing a tantrum to me. The one thing I get is that Howarth fit better with the leading ladies they ultimately chose for Paul. Hoylrod made Byrne look like a cradle robber, and god knows what he would have looked like with either Hensley or Marie Wilson. Ironically, Hoylrod might have fit better with anyone playing Lucy, which they kind of toyed with a little bit before Peyton List left. Now, talk about Craig's head exploding---Paul screwing Lucy might have done it. Smith was pretty much blah in the role, but part of that is the horrid Carolyn Crawford "mystery", which IIRC, got screwed over by the writer's strike. It did make Frannie look stupid, because wasn't she marrying Darryl a few short months after Carolyn died? Smith was never going to set the acting world on fire, and you really have to wonder WTF they were thinking casting him.

Some time after Hoylrod's firing, Goutman or Sheffer gave an interview implying SH couldn't play the "dark Paul" they wanted to write. What a joke. Inability to convincingly play emotion never stopped them from writing it for Hunt Block for five friggin' years. LONG, LONG years. Hoylrod fit in so well with all his tv family---ugh, it still pisses me off TIIC chose to chase the ABC fanbase and hire Howarth. If Rose had stayed the six-month character she was originally written as---I could have dealt with MB's little vanity project. (I mean, one of ATWT's top ten funniest moments is Holden incredulously asking "that's your REAL voice?" when he finally figured out he wasn't sleeping with his wife of umpteen years) But three years of bad red wig and horrid accent? *rolleyes* Who went from smarmy little showgirl grifter to Oakdale's newly anointed Saint? NO thanks. And, IMO, it permanently damaged the character of Lily. I mean, I get that you can only be kidnapped so many times. But it's like the writers forgot who Lily was. Because Rose was so over-the-top loud and colorful, Lily became this meek little, dirt-brown wearing frump. Lily didn't wear colors again (I swear) until Noelle Beck took over the role.

I will forever resent the time and energy wasted on Martha Byrne's alternate personality, the fact they fired Scott Hoylrod to bring in Howarth, and how TIIC trashed yet another character we knew in Dusty, simply to throw out their chests and scream about how they were "honoring history" with their revamped, retooled strangers with familiar names.

Jake was like 16 at the time---I can understand KZ being leery of her son being thrust into such a controversial storyline. It wasn't what he'd signed up for. But yeah, I think a truly teenage Luke struggling to deal with what being gay means, and not as focused on rushing into a romance with the only other gay guy in town would have played out better. I'm pretty sure Scott's return lined up with Maura's maternity leave. At the beginning of 2007, Carly left with Simon in January, returned in April, and then had to deal with Parker's hostility on her return. That fall was about Kit and Sam, and Parker shoots Sam in Feb of 2008. So, I see where there wasn't a lot of opportunity for Craig and Carly scenes. But it kind of sucks. I don't think Goutman had directed at ATWT. It's hard to judge by his imdb profile, but it looks like he directed GL sometime in the early '90's before going to AW.