P.J.

OH HONEY....not only did I have to put up with Hunt Block's "acting" on GL, he spent 5 BLEEPITY BLEEP YEARS coming between my Jack and Carly on ATWT. One of the most overhyped actors in daytime. PERIOD.

Beth in '89-'91 is nearly a completely different and sane character. She's grounded and the voice of reason.

It is a lot weird, just in terms of time. Phillip and Beth (Grant and Judi) were together less than a year before she took up with Lujack. They broke up when Mindy turned up pregnant, and never really got back together. Beth and Lujack were together longer, before he died in Nov '85. John Bolger and Judi were briefly a couple before she left in '86. It's really the teenage zeitgeist that they captured that made them enduring. There was something about the way they were each other's first true love and how they bonded because of the traumatic events in their lives (he found out he wasn't a Spaulding, she was raped by Bradley). It's kind of the same thing with Josh/Reva. They initially were only involved for a year before Robert Newman left the first time. But they ended up being played by the same actors throughout the run. (I can't even recall anyone ever being a short recast for either of them, which is kind of amazeballs.)

Just as an aside---if you think soap fans are crazy, you ain't never met comic book fans. I learned this while watching Arrow. There were "purists" who thought Oliver and Laurel belonged together because that was comic book canon, even though Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy had zero chemistry. The other problem is that there are different series of "realities", where other pairing hook up/play out. GL had supercouples, Quint/Nola, Josh/Reva, Phillip/Beth. But if you mean if they "went adventuring" like Luke/Laura, Anna/Robert, etc....then I guess the answer would be no. Of those, only Quint and Nola ever really went on an adventure. Guiding Light didn't really do those type of stories. (Harley and Mallet did so some crime solving in the early '90's). But Guiding Light didn't have a cop as a central player until Rusty in the mid-80's. They really didn't have "action adventure" type characters. As much as I love Billy and Vanessa, and think they get short-changed in the discussion of GL's best couples (thanks to being sandwiched and overshadowed a bit by signature couples like Quint/Nola, Josh/Reva and Phillip/Beth) I don't think they would qualify as a supercouple. Which probably does work in their favor, because it never seems to me like they're being forced together. (as opposed to say **** and Vanessa, where man0whore is suddenly supposedly reading poetry to somehow "prove" how well he and Van are matched. RME but, que sera, sera.)

It's funny, you know I've been rewatching GL, and I've forgotten so much, it's not funny. It's like being spoiler free....but not quite. lol

Well, by that time, Manning would've been in the league nearly ten years. You've would've had to been living under a rock to not have heard of him.

Okay, because I had to know, and I happened to stumble down the 2008 rabbit hole (which may make me a bit of a masochist)...Feb 28, Beth renames baby Bernadette. She was up at 2 am (when there's not much on but old movies, infomercials and classic sports clips.) She wants to name her baby after someone who's a leader, able to be her own person, a winner and able to stand in the pocket unafraid. Peyton Spaulding. God...Beth did love Alan. BLECH.

I'll bite---what does Blake have to do with it?

Ooops...yep. How could I forget that? He dies when Billy takes the Towers. D'oh. lol

I'm not really sure she married Rick in the '00s. I know he claimed paternity to keep Alan away from Peyton. I know (or at least think) Rick and Beth married in late '89 after Phillip faked his death to avoid going to prison in the Neil Everest case. Had Jordan's absence in '93 been treated like a maternity leave (with a certain end date, I mean) he and Van probably wouldn't have divorced. (Or had what's his name been better received in the role...darn it, Dynasty dude. I'm too lazy to look up his name. Geoffrey whoever) But I don't think it was really in Van's nature to cheat on someone if she was in a relationship. It may be splitting hairs, since she had no problem sleeping with Billy when he was married to Nadine. And she's (imo anyway) really in love with Billy when she's sleeping with Fletcher. (She does kiss Billy when she's nearly engaged to Fletch, but well...girls' prerogative and all that...lol) Did Ross and Van have a fair shot at reuniting in '87? In hindsight? Probably not. Even though she and Billy had been at odds for most of '86, they were still in love and trying to make it work. The issues over Dinah seemed more than slightly forced. I think GL pushed Ross and Van together too fast (from what's up, it seems like they started to fan those flames up around March and Ross is asking her to marry him in August) And Alan's making goo-goo eyes at her by at least June. That's not a lot of time to reestablish a connection, even with a newfound child to anchor them. Van and Ross never had a real shot after that. There's a little possessiveness on Van's part when she returns in '89, but she quickly gets sucked into Billy's situation with Dylan, and Ross is chasing Holly. GL gets caught up in May/September romances---Ed/Eve, Ross/Blake and Van/**** in the '90s.

LOL..Billy and Van would always have a slight edge for me, but otherwise I feel the same. It's funny---I just realized Van was never fought over in a triangle. (I do not count Billy's pissin' match with Fletch...Fletch was always the also ran in that contest. LOL)

It really is kind of amazing to see the difference in the writing from the pre "supercouple" era to the supercouple era. I mean, GL's Ben&Eve and Jackie&Justin were starcrossed and popular and all that---but they got married and divorced and had other relationships. You can always keep that door open just a crack to facilitate something down the road.

Part of the problem was shows grew adverse to ending couples seen as "fan favorites". I liked Blake and Ross, at least at first. And I can understand why Ross needed a stable relationship after nearly 15 years of lovin' on the town's womenfolk. But at about affair number #3, they should've been over. Even Josh and Reva took breaks from each other (at least when either RN or KZ left.) And no matter my feelings about ****, the show might've been better served when Maeve wanted to leave by letting her divorce **** and keeping a (arguably) popular leading man. I don't recall them having an abundance of them at this time.

How Ross, Van and Josh ended up the straight-laced, moral pillars of Springfield is a little strange. LOL. Ross and Van should've been that couple of old lovers that had a hot affair and turned the town on its ear.

Grant had ooodles of chemistry with Sherry. Then again, I think everyone did. Even Frankie D.

I think you mean she married Rick. Beth never married Alan-Michael. As much as I believe they ruined the character of Beth, they didn't do Rick any favors either. His obsessive need (I won't even say love) to have her in his life is kinda twisted.

I really do think it had something to do with Peyton Manning. I'm not sure why that jumps out at me, but I was a huge Peyton fan at the time.

It's too bad TIIC didn't have the courage to write a sexy nearing 50ish couple enjoying sex back then. They'd do it now. Ross and Van could've put **** and Blake to shame. I will never believe that Van stayed with that idiot for any other reason than her child. Sorry, not sorry, ****fans.

There's a lot about Beth that is cringey during the '00's. I guess not killing Beth off when Phillip returned was seen as "respect" by TIIC at the time, but given what happened, they might as well have, IMO.

LOL...I loved Kelly and Morgan so much at the time! And I hated Nola's fantasies! (well, I'm still not thrilled by them, even though I love classic movies so much more now...) I remember bits and pieces of shows (since I watched the entire CBS lineup at the time), but that was the first BIG moment that I really got swept up in the story. And then like a week later, Nola at her drab little wedding, bravely just says no thanks to marrying a man she doesn't love. The world before spoilers and the internet was awesomer than we give it credit for. It's also great that now I can see stuff I didn't get to (like Rita in the Hall of Mirrors), but that shock and awe moment of getting surprised is gone.

Lisa Brown does not get enough love for her sheer talent. IMO, she's in that rarefied group of the top actresses on par with Bev McKinsey. Yes. I adored Tom O'Rourke. What EP makes the decision to cut off their nose to spite their face like that? Phillip's origins had been a driving story for years at that point. That has to be in some kind of Hall of Shame decision making moment. I know James became somewhat of a cartoon, but his first return from the dead was TERRIFIC. Anthony Herrera had a malevolence to him that jumped off the screen. And Colleen Zenk's fear is palpable in that scene.

Right? I think Beth even miscarried a child of Alan's. YUCK.

from GL ---Nola getting dragged by Kelly when he found out she had lied and trapped him. LAWD...that dragging was literally the first fifteen minutes of the show. ---Nola and Vanessa's catfight before the engagement party. ---Reva's Slut of Springfield moment ---Phillip finding out he wasn't Alan's son ---the Blackout of '92 ---Maureen dragging Lillian after finding out about the affair with Ed from ATWT ---the Doug Cummings stalker story ---"Hello, Barbara.." ---Paul shooting James ---the end of the Spa Story, when Jack finds Carly

Beth is unrecognizable as a character to me in her late '90's return. I know people love Beth Chamberlain, but I can't stand the Beth who's mentally unstable and so desperate she ends up screwing Alan. And really anything in pants. The least she could've done is screw Matt and free Vanessa from that drip.

This is that weird period where India was trying to start something with Ross...I guess...so I guess there could've been friction between her and Van over that. Then again, maybe India just saw **** as Beth's ideally dull mate.