P.J.

Honestly, if either GL or ATWT were still on, I'd never watch OLTL. There is really an underlying vibe of hostility that I don't really get or like. I don't know if that's just the difference between CBS(P&G) vs. ABC or if it's specific to OLTL. I used to wish we'd get more bitchiness/catfights/swearing---now I'm glad we didn't drop "bitch" or "piss" every episode.

I also think TIIC knew Ferrin wanted to try out L.A. and Jen would be off the canvas for a while at some point. I really can't explain what they were thinking---it was one of the ickier moments---not that I ever wanted to see Block in any kind of love scene. I really resented the slap-dash way they'd write McClain out. It was as if they a) had no idea how long her contract was for and thought giving her the same old craptastic storyline would keep her coming back. She should have had some "Cabot" clause written into her contract paying her a bonus every time she said his name.

I do think Sheffer wanted that "cool edgy" rep, and it just backfired completely. It was the same with Julia raping Jack, and the end of the Spa Story which also had Hal being tortured by James and backhanded implications that both Carly and Em were tortured as well. You can't imply those kind of things to a daytime audience, and turn around and not deal with it in a meaningful way. Hal dealt with it off-screen, Carly had one nightmare and Em tumbled out of a trunk before helping Babs stab James. It just proved Sheffer didn't understand the audience's connection to the characters or how to use one story to organically move into another. Yep, somehow Sierra put together what Craig had done and imprisoned him in that monestary. I didn't think it was a bad premise, just not carried through. Of course, just as Craig was on the verge of making some kind of acknowledgement of his actions, he was freed (by a crusading Lily I think) and blasted Sierra for her duplicity. The turning point for Craig was when it was revealed he'd been the one behind Lucy's kidnapping. A lot of his supporters really had a hard time swallowing that one. Honestly, I admired Sheffer for not backing away from that. Even if I disagreed with his vision of Craig---it was behavior in keeping with how they wrote him at the time. To me, it was no different from the way he'd backstabbed Carly and Rosanna while proclaiming that he "loved" them. On a side note---watching OLTL wind down, I see the wisdom behind ATWT's last days. Not that it was brilliant, but the way OLTL is throwing "fan favorites" out like beads at Mardi Gras just turns me off. As a new viewer they mean nothing to me. And you think Sheffer is a misogynist? OLTL right now is fascinated with threats of rape and gun violence against women. It's more than disturbing.

They didn't really "do" anything with Paul and Lucy---she had a crush on him (they got stuck in that snowstorm with Carly---Carly and Paul were once again "secret" partners at BRO and Lucy finagled a ride to "check out colleges") after he saved her from being raped. Craig went ballistic because he was a controlling jerkwad, and they kind of suggested Paul was going to use Lucy to stick it to Craig. But I don't remember the story really going anywhere. Craig had a lot to do with Allan's death. One of the lackeys he used to kidnap Lucy was blackmailing him, (I think he took Lily hostage or something) and Allan went to pay the ransom. Somehow Allan got shot, but he had overheard that said lackey had been on Craig's payroll. Allan made it to the hospital where the doctors said it was critical that he remain calm. Craig saw Allan's blood pressure spike when he saw him (and tried to tell them Craig was involved) once, so he deliberately let Allan see him again, causing him to relapse and die. If that wasn't bad enough, he then ruined the man's name, framing him after his death. It was despicable. It was around this time Craig also shot and killed one of the kidnappers on a rooftop, after the man threatened to tell what he knew. It was definitely murder and no one (except for probably Dusty) ever put the pieces together, and Craig made himself into a "hero". 2004 was rough....there was a noticable uptick in the pacing of stories, and a noticable drop off in logic and common sense. Don't get me started on Jack's "death" and how he wound up across the Mississippi River in Missouri with the covienently named "Julia". And I hated the Keys to the Kingdom and the Rick Decker stories. In spite of my childhood crush on John James.

Y'know, I know people hate that blue opening, but I think it represented the show rather well. It's classy. I've been stuck watching OLTL, and while there's nothing "wrong" with that opening, it's dark and depressing looking. Don't get me started on the cheese-tastic mid-show bumpers which look as bad as they're "acted."

No, Cabot was alive. James, of course, saved him before the cabin blew up. James kidnapped Rosanna to some Hong Kong whorehouse where Craig found her. Somehow they escaped and Rosanna arranged to hide Cabot through a "blind" adoption of sorts. However, I don't think they ever told anyone (including his father Jordan) what they'd done---to protect Cabot from James---other than Paul.

^^^you need to see the scene where she chews out Kirk after she finds out he abandoned Lenore and the kids. But yeah...Iva usually just sighed and put on her sad puppy dogs eyes when she got screwed over or was upset.

Zenk was also credited as Zenk Crouch during her first marriage. Mary Lynn Blanks was one of the Annies. Don't forget Kim Johnston Ulrich. Yeah, Columbino/Conn and Peck finally made it legal this year, around the 4th of July. (the less said on the merits of being a "-Peck" the better) Not only were Block/McClain an item, the last I heard, McClain and Lindstrom were. I finally got around to watching some of the ATWT set. The biggest surprise? Von Furstenberg sounds incredibly like Fulton to me. I wonder if Fulton regrets not working with "son" Dees?

Love Kirk. But the only pairing of his I cared about was with Iva. Sam#1 was okay....Sam #2---nah-uh. And I think that's the one Wiggin left his wife for.

^^^^ I must be the only uncoordinated person on the board to trip going up stairs. Although the most I ever did was bruise a knee or stub a toe. LOL.

Any Katie-before-she-was-God's-gift-to-sex scene is a-ok with me.

It's gotta be 1999. Jack and Julia married in Sept. 2000. She went BSC in 2001. Margo spends Xmas Eve in jail. Hal lets Tom and the boys visit her in her cell. Sigh...Hal and rooms bigger than postage stamps. Oh, how I miss it!

Rebecca Hollen played the wife of one of Duncan's friends who'd been killed suspiciously. It linked into a story where Andy and Courtney were caught in a car bombing (I think it was in England) and led to their breakup as well as Duncan investigating Kingsley-Malta and Damian.

I don't think there's any way Buzz and Nola would have worked---Deas was a flaming scenery-chewer by then. Connor and Evan were Lucinda's step-grandchildren. Royce, Neal and Sam (Lucinda's half-brother and sisters) would have been their step-uncle and aunts. I've forgotten (or maybe it was never quite explained) if Royce, Neal and Sam were full siblings or if Sam was from a subsequent relationship of Gloria (Lucinda's mother).

Kirk's kids were Stephen and Linda Ann. (Stephen was played by a very young James VanderBeek, btw) I don't know why Marland didn't put Kirk and Iva back together either. I know that he was always willing to "move past" couples and "grow" characters (at least if their names didn't rhyme with Molden and Philly), but I thought Lisa and Tom had a rare chemistry. I kind of wonder if they hadn't been more conventionally attractive if the affair with Ellie wouldn't have been a bump in the road for them. And ditto on the horrendous Jason Benedict. For like a month, there was another actor in the role, and he was a badass jerk lawyer. Then they recast him with the most underwhelming actor ever to enter soaps, and married them off. UGH.

Damn I loved Kirk and Iva.

Alright, I officially give in: I F'IN LOVE this show. This is what Dirty Sexy Money tried to be. I hope ABC doesn't break my heart again. I hope Daniel survives. I love him. Something about Jack is just too square for this show.

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.