P.J.

I totally get the "your Michelle" thing. It really took me until the rewatch to appreciate Kimberly Simms' Mindy. "My Mindy" is always Krista Tesearu.

The writing has to take it's share of the blame re: Budig's Michelle. I'm not sure even Lenz would've been the Michelle I'd envisioned, but she comes closest to it. But Michelle never really escaping the mob influence before being shipped out of town was disappointing to me. Of course, I was beyond caring by the time St Alban leaves, but still.

I've only seen her on GL and GH...but I never found Budig very likeable in those roles. I can't imagine her having chemistry with PAS either. I didn't think PAS was exciting in the role, but lord knows plenty of Mannys must have.

I guess I just blanked on them being father/son, and I probably skipped all the Marcus related parts in your summaries. Beth ever being involved at Spaulding just proved whoever was writing at the time never had a clue about who she was. At the end in '09, she's gearing up to be a corporate lawyer (or something) and it's just borderline ridiculous.

Wait---Griffin was Marcus' father? So Gilly had a brother she never met? This was when I actively started disliking Beth. Chamberlain's second run is pretty much a string of patheticness. And I'm sure those two business wannabes thinking they could drive Vanessa out of Spaulding made sense to them---but child, please.

Can Greg Vaughn act? Because I think Nicole deserves a Hot Guy Winter. That was a nice shout out to Kristoff St John, mentioning Neil. I gave up Y&R a long time ago, but Neil was always a favorite.

OH....I would've been falling down laughing to witness that!

It is the thing I think I miss most since the shows were canceled, discussing it with other fans.

I would've thought for the first big holiday, they would've had most of the Duprees in the same room. And not stuffed the dining room with random extras. I get that money-wise, the extras cost less, but geez.

Just a tad behind, but while I'm annoyed the Duprees were spread all over and eating at the country club, Vernon's toast at Thanksgiving felt like old school soap. Bob Hughes would've given it a stamp of approval.

Right? They also could've recast and done the old plastic surgery gave him a new face route. If they didn't want to recast immediately, they could've put him in a coma for six months. Soaps declared pretty early on that no one was unrecastable. Certainly not some raw kid two years into a role.

No, you could've undone Lujack's death. He died in their arms. Roger at least fell off that friggin' cliff and his body wasn't recovered. And what BS (about Long being "young" in her writing career). She wrote Alan disappearing into the jungle and presumed dead. She wrote Hillary dying via a bomb. She knew the difference. All she would've had to do was have Lujack's not recovered after the bomb on Infinity went off. As for who Zimmer praises for Reva---well, c'mon. She praises anyone who wrote Reva as sex on a stick.

The ever present Braxton-Hicks contractions. Otherwise, it's new words for me. ATWT's Lucinda was always throwing out a new word (my favorite was 'pulchritude' meaning physical beauty) My other favorite was from GL ('recondite' meaning hidden) from Henry and Vanessa doing a crossword.

True. Although Jennifer's (Barbara's daughter) death seemed mostly designed to let Craig back into Johnny's life. I suppose some of it is due to the revolving door of IIC. Maybe it's a little more realistic not to have gatherings where every newcomer in town gets invited to...but considering they'd throw a party at the drop of a hat, it just seems odd. I can't recall the Lewises ever sitting down to a meal at home, around a beautifully set table. Thanksgiving '89, they are slumming it down at Company, eating off the equivalent of lunch tables and folding chairs.

You get the feeling Irna really didn't like Chucks. Lol

A) who is Chuckie? The only Chuckie I knew was Lisa's son on ATWT B) it's not just me? It's not that people didn't gather and celebrate, it's that you never have that big moment of everyone gathered at a table . You never knew who'd host it that year.

LOL.....no, I don't think so. But I always thought it was strange they seemed to cut it right before dinner, when it would take hours to bake it in the oven. Especially in that tiny oven of Emma's, that had to be in use for hours to produce all that food!

I loved Switch! Speaking of...you've got Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner. Eddie didn't really have a hit after Green Acres, and RJ's BIG hit was Hart to Hart, after middling attempts like It Takes a Thief and Switch.

Now that's something I would love to see. While I love GL, I think because they lacked true matriarchs for so long, the holidays usually felt a little lacking. There's not a lot of traditions going on. The one tradition of GL's that I can recall is the years when the cast and crew sang over the closing credits of the last episode before Christmas.

So, as long as this is Thanksgiving weekend, what Thanksgiving did you like the most? For me, it's Thanksgiving '89. There's tension at the Lewis/Shayne feast, it being Dylan's first with the family still not knowing Billy's his dad, Ed and Mo recommit to their marriage and Billy and Vanessa end up in bed.

I can't think of a better recast that was dumped for a worse reason. It was probably a miracle I liked him, given that he was quickly stuck with Rose.

Ugh...Gaskill as Dylan was just terrible. I'm not even sure what the point of Dylan being in town was. He doesn't interact much with his family. I can't even bear to watch Scott as Billy. The circumstances were out of his control, but it left such a huge gap in Springfield. Billy was written off in six months. I had seriously even forgotten there was a recast.

GL John Bolger as Phillip Spaulding. Bolger wasn't a bad actor, but he never won over a majority of the viewers. He's stuck in some "Phil now wants to write" story with horrible black and white vignettes among other less inspired drama. It left such a sour taste, TPTB never tried recasting Phillip again--it was Grant Aleksander or nothing. Michael Dietz as Alan-Michael Barbara Crampton as Mindy ATWT Christina Chambers as Molly. Just completely wrong for the part. It was so bad, she was quickly written off in spite of being in the middle of a hot story, Jack's disappearance/amnesia, and wasn't heard from for nearly five years.

Ugh...they just had to pull Reva into it. RME.

I don't think I could've ever really seen Ross/Blake as anything other than Ross' mid-life crisis with Sherry in the role. Her Blake had done so many rotten things, I never truly would've believed she loved Ross. As good as Sherry was, I would've always been waiting Blake to return to her selfish ways. Glynis? Nope, I don't think she ever would've been accepted. She didn't have HBS' warmth or chemistry with her costars. And she looked ridiculous trying to be a cop. Her lack of stature (which wasn't her fault) worked against her. While Dolan isn't the warmest presence, she had a lot of chemistry with her costars. Hal, Margo, & Jack is still one of my favorite friendships on soaps. I do think in BC's first run, she's really just there to sell the romance with Phillip. I don't think a lot of people would've expected her to be brought back in the role. And Simms does get a boost by being part of the Musketeers and then being on her own. Her romance with Nick is arguably more successful than any of Rick or Beth's. Later, I feel Rick and Beth suffer with their unhealthy reliance on each other and Phillip.