P.J.

We were just talking about how (arguably) Jane Elliot broke the mold and may not have "fit" the GL brand. We had other actresses that "broke the mold" of what a GL actress had been, but "fit"---Lenore Kasdorf, Lisa Brown, Cindy Pickett---and were unique without gobbling the show. And then there was Kim....lol. If there's one perception of GL I could change, it's that it was "the Reva show". Or that it was only the Reva show.

It's bizarre how they didn't age any of Harley's children. Susan ends up nearly ten years younger than Lizzie, and the barely acknowledged Zach ends up younger than James, apparently. I'm not sure anything would've made the story better, but putting Holly's focus on Maureen would've made a hell of a lot more sense. And Holly stealing Maureen out from under ****'s nose while he was bangin' Beth would've been the cherry on my sundae. Then Vanessa could've divorced his ass with a clear conscience.

So, the only child in town Holly didn't kidnap was Maureen? Oh, and dumbass Hart survived days after Dinah shot and then shook him? RME. Apparently, he wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere.

And for the time, it's quite a departure in the type of stories GL was telling. (I don't know if any show had truly dealt with split personalities.) I do think it benefitted Ross more than it damaged him, it gave him a rootability he maybe hadn't had before.* (*I don't want my pro-Ross bias to color a perception of how popular he was at the time. I adore Ross, and the fact Marland created a frontburner story for him, lends itself to believing he was a fan fave.)

I don't think any show at the time would've passed on getting Jane Elliot. (I don't think any show at any time would have. She's great.) It's Marland's deep dive into Carrie's psyche that turned Potter off the story (I guess)

Mark Pinter does have a somewhat smarmy vibe about him, which probably should've worked for the role of a cold-hearted grifter who jumped from woman to woman. It's hard to know what Marland's original intent was. With Marland's departure and the revolving door of writers that fall, I think they tried rebooting Mark and Amanda as a love match, which just didn't work. And the character is gone in a little over a year. Not to pick on Peter Simon---but I just don't think he fits as Ed.

Well, no one bats a thousand, and Rea had a lot more hits than misses. Variety, at the time of her death, credited her as casting director at GL from '70-'96, and ATWT simultaneously from '79-'83. That's a lot of talent found. Are you asking if there ever was a Ross/Van/Billy triangle? The answer is no. Billy kind of questions what Van's feelings about Ross are after he finds out about Dinah, but he leaves town and he and Van divorce before Ross and Vanessa start back up in '87. When Van comes back in '89, she chases Ross while Billy flirts with her, but she gets pulled back into Billy's life via the Dylan revelation. And Ross doesn't really show a lot of interest in Van, as he's (mostly) got his sights on Holly. At least from what I've seen of what's available. Nadine does assert that Ross has lost interest in sleeping with her since Vanessa returned, but (and it's hard to gauge) Ross never seemed overly committed to pursuing Nadine. It seems like they were kind of just thrown together because Ross didn't have a woman at the time. After that, it's pretty clear that Van and Billy are always each other's "someone". And that Ross is serious about Holly and later Blake. I think it would've been easy to write a Billy/Van/Ross triangle, with both men having an equal footing in Vanessa's life.

I don't think it would've mattered, honestly. JFP wanted her. She wasn't going to be overridden by a casting director, even legendary Betty Rea. I believe Betty was GL's casting director from '75 to '95. I know it was a long stretch, and she briefly did ATWT as well. There are some misfires. Carrie Mowrey as Jackie Marler stands out as a wash out.

I agree, at least in part. Kimberly Simms shifted the character of Mindy. Krista's Mindy, while not strictly a tomboy, always acted like a girl that Billy had raised. She was physical, never afraid to get in a fight, and often referenced a more outdoorsy upbringing, like having hunted and riding horseback. Kimberly's Mindy was more concerned about fashion. She didn't dance, didn't ride and was all girly. Hamilton didn't really seem to quite fit either mold, although she only had months.

OMG...you found the actor's name! Vanessa's PI is anonymous no more!! Great Job!! @slick jones

There's also some Ross/Vanessa, IIRC. If wishes were fishes....there's just a point that Buzz was way beyond played out. Yeah, not blaming Fletch for some dumb writers decision.

Well....it's a treat for me. :)

And then come back as an annoying ghost. sigh I know. But one can dream.

LOL...see, who can hate Annie all that much? If ONLY Vanessa had stuck to her word. BTW...you are in for a treat.

LOL...I can't argue with Fletch getting knifed.

Maybe Ed could've become a more reliable patriarch. I'm not sure the audience would've forgiven him enough to be okay with him remarrying, even under the best of writers.

It's probably unfair to assess Bill based on not seeing him, but his biography reads differently. He had affairs on Bert (to my understanding), he allowed his family to believe he had died, he lived an entirely other life and fathered Hillary. And then even after he told family number one he was alive, he checked out on them again.

I certainly wouldn't have minded Mindy going in a completely different direction. But I can't think of what that might've been. I hear what you're saying, but I think it would've played better if Bridget had been the one to put it together, and just blast Ed and Lillian. Bridget was so close to Mo, and she'd held Ed in such high regard, I could see her just be devasted. Nola, bless her, hadn't had scenes with any Mo in at least 10 years. While I never really saw Bill Bauer, now I think that Ed really followed in Bill's footsteps. Bill (at the very least) seems like an emotionally distant man. I really don't think very many people knew about the affair. Vanessa and Eve. Probably Holly. I'm not even sure the Spaulding takeover happens if Bev stays. I can't believe they'd write Alex losing everything.

Honestly, the entire Eve arc sucks. I don't think Kimberly Simms could've made it work either. There's no chem between Irizarry and Edson, the story itself falls flat, making it hard (or next to impossible) to like or even empathize with Eve. They simply should've shipped her off after she tried to kill Mindy, and let Nick/Mindy deal with their issues (or not, I was not fond of them) and moved on.

It think it was supposed to be about Ed needing to feel needed. Lillian needed him. Maureen was off working (GASP!) and not there to bolster his ego morning, noon and night. But Ed just comes off as a monumental jerk, who really would simply banish Lillian to Timbuktu if he'd had his way, and grow morose keeping his secret. On rewatch, I think Hamilton was easing into the role when they switched her out with Crampton. Crampton is completely wrong for the role, and sort of made Mindy screen poison.

Right? ICAM. And I know the arguments, but I'm still not sure that I would've killed Hart off. He was Roger Thorpe's son, FCOL. There always should've been a place for him in Springfield.

We do...and we're not telling! LOL.

Well, it's also redundant writing (the poor stupid man with a manipulative deceptive woman), but there's also the fact that Ross was always drawn to women with a wild side. Sure, he wants to want the simple, naive types like Evie Stapleton and fragile, broken Amanda (early '80's version) or even Trish Lewis....but he keeps going back to bed with the Vanessa's, Calla's and Blake's of the world. (God knows what he got going to bed with Carrie...eeeek)

God, watching the '80's is like night and day. Reva never really regained her fabulous wardrobe after the affair with Kyle. As soon as Josh returned, her entire wardrobe took a dump. OMG---that outfit she wore to Ross' wedding is HILARIOUS. She looks like she stepped out of a Paris showroom into this simple little wedding wearing this headpiece from a Audrey Hepburn movie. Wardrobe really started drifting away from hats in the eighties, but Maeve always looked so elegant in them.

Oh, I believe that. Even if Sherry had stayed another year, I think Blake and Ross would've quickly turned toxic and not made it to the alter. In @alwaysAMC recaps, I find myself disgusted by Blake in her affair with Ben. That really should've been the absolute end of them.