P.J.

Jenna's father wasn't cheated. Brandon had paid for the patent. Alan Michael even found the agreement. AM lost it because he was chasing after Eleni who was chasing after Frank who was looking for Alex in Bangladesh or somewhere. That's what caused Spaulding to lose the case. Jenna got Spaulding, lock stock and barrel, and kicked the Chamberlains and Spauldings out. (Jenna met Roger during the infamous blackout, and they eventually became lovers. Roger financed the lawsuit, and knew there was an agreement, but paid off Brandon's old secretary to disappear so he could get his hands on Spaulding.) Vanessa goes back to Lewis, and helps Billy poach clients left and right. A-M gets Jenna to exchange the Springfield Journal for the Spaulding mansion, Nick goes back to print journalism in the hopes of exposing Roger. Vanessa authorizes a line of credit for them from Lewis funds, on the condition that Fletch is the Editor in Chief.

@alwaysAMC Jenna came to town and stole some of Alex's jewelry. Then Roger used Jenna to get a hold of Spaulding. (way too long a story) while Alex was out of town. And part of the reason I loathe **** is his self-righteous [!@#$%^&*] nature. ANYONE who knew Vanessa knew her work was important, and that she had a tendency to "bury herself in work" when she was upset. Aside from whether or not Jenna was "Vanessa's best friend", the fact that &&&& wants to ream her for how she reacts to someone's death, when we know how hard she took Maureen's death and Henry's, he can go STFU. From the way you described it, Vanessa wasn't expecting Vicky. Yet **** assumes the worst. UGH.

Please, BTG, just fire Tomas. Dude went on and on and on about how Kat had been his "person" to go to with his problems (what, his broken dick? 'cause I don't recall him ever having a problem...) and whine about how she wouldn't let him be there for her. Ten minutes later, he's complaining to Jacob (who I can't recall him ever meeting...but whatev) about how "too independent" Kat is and hard to get to know. I think all Kat's problem has ever been is that she senses his potential dumb assed-ness and knows she's gonna regret ever getting his number. And whoever wrote the dialogue between Dana and Marcel---needs to go back to Skinemax. Or Hallmark. Because it was painfully painfully awkward and the opposite of banter-ish.

I have the impression that Jerry and Liz stayed close. They continued to host a charity event together for years, IIRC. And I may be mistaken, but I think they lived somewhat close to each other.

Well, I swear they aged Coop to be older than Lizzie. I generally dislike SOARSing, but I lobster hate out of whack aging of characters. There are too many examples to list, GL just seemed to randomly bring back "legacy" children to fit whatever story they needed a character for. Beth seemed to take a correspondence course in "Schtupping your Daughter's Ex and Future Lovers" from the Brooke Logan School of Yucky Family Dynamics.

Well, both Calhoun and Stuart had long, long ties to P&G. I wasn't overly attached to Meta, but I remember Search for Tomorrow. If not actual stories, just it's presence on CBS.

lol...Grandma Moses... :)

Did Danny Cosgrove have any scenes with Bethany Joie Lenz, or was it all Nancy St Alban? I can't help but think they would've been fire. Instead, there's ol' dishrag Nancy, about as exciting as a piece of chewed gum on a sidewalk. I think JFP fell into a rut of bad casting decisions/departures that forces her hand in some respects. She refuses to let Kimberly Simms ink a one year deal that would've kept the Nick/Mindy story going (not my cup of tea, but whatev), Bev leaves, Jordan has his situation. There's the miscast Mindys, Geoffrey Scott isn't well received as Billy (if he ever even really would've stayed), Tangie, losing Beth Ehlers and Mark Derwin. Yes, it's her job to navigate those waters, and all shows lost performers every year, but GL really did feel snake bit for a while there. Re; '84 and '85, yeah, Reva isn't the problem (even if you found her annoying), it's the heavy plot point stories and influx of new, bland characters. Of course, a literal flotilla of them were attached to Reva via Kyle, but it didn't feel like Reva swallowed the show---yet.

YEP. Complete with random bloody noses that looked disgusting. SMH.

Y'know, yes. Or at least I tried. GL was an unholy mess by then. Wasn't 2004 also the year of the horrible Maryanne Carruthers story? That blasphemy lives in infamy. But the Sebastian plot was just sick. I never bought that he was really Roger's son.

It was June '84, when GL either won the time slot, or beat GH's demos or something. They were not the overall number one (or whatever the rumors are. Sadly this also applies to ATWT which tries to claim 30 million viewers watched Steve and Betsy's wedding, and there's an entire thread debunking that, which breaks my heart) That two weeks in June also is the fallout of Reva's marrying HB, and Josh's resulting accident. Which is inexplicably NOT up in English to watch. Not trying to bask in Beth and Lujack's glow, because I remember watching that all LIVE and it all was can't miss TV. GL was the definition of FIRE. And they played that damn song for WEEKS.

God, how I hated critical darling Santa Barbara. Never watched a moment of it, but it sucked up attention like a Kardashian.

@alwaysAMC I don't think Billy ever mentioned Hamp again either (when Jordan returned) which is sad. But I guess I'd rather have not have him just randomly killed off-screen either. Yep, and I definitely remember all the crap over Rock Hudson/Linda Evans/Dynasty around the same time. I certainly wouldn't have wanted either Kim or Maeve to deal with anything even remotely approaching that. P&G certainly wasn't any more evolved just a few years later when they dumped Joe Breen from ATWT when his status was revealed.

Now, y'know I pretty much ignore anything **** related. And most of what Jenna says period. Her taste in men was awful. LOL. I don't think Guiding Light acknowledged Zas's death. They treated him shamefully. But, I also can't recall them acknowledging any other former performer's death. They acknowledged Chris Bernau's, and while he hadn't been on the show for about a year, his character was still on screen. I also thought they kept his condition quiet and didn't discourage speculation that he might return in the press. They did on screen acknowledgements of both William Roerick and Larry Gates, but I don't think they did for Vince Williams, who played Hamp Speakes, and died in '97.

I don't recall Alan liking Mindy. But I do think he clearly feared the effect Beth had on Phillip. Mindy was someone marginally more socially acceptable for his son than a poor nurse's daughter, who he probably thought he could control. By the time Chelsea rolled into Phillip's life, Alan could at least appreciate that she tried to get him to reconcile with his father (which I presume, I don't revisit a lot of Chelsea related story). The Reardons may have had humbler roots, but he knows them (after all Tom was connected to Brandon, et al through the Fishing Picture mystery), and they are connected (in a roundabout way) through Ed's marriage to Maureen and Henry's being Nola's father in law. I don't recall Alan's reaction to Phillip and Harley's marriage either, but by the end, he hated all the Coopers. It would've been interesting if they had brought Zach back at the end, because he kind of forgot he had a Cooper grandchild. (Which I'm just now realizing meant that Zach's half-sister was dating his half-brother at the end of the series.)_

YEP! I cried when Van asked her to give Henry a kiss, and she replied she already had. I never bought into the Van/Jen "friendship", but if there was anything that could soften Van, it was that Henry loved Jenna.

Well, Alex despised Harley because she was a schemer who married Alan Michael so they could access his trust fund. She lightened up on Harley when she realized she really did love AM. Of course by then, he was having an affair with Blake, but I digress.

It's fairly soon after, and I think you would've mentioned it if you'd seen it. :) Oh, got it. But it's still awful that she basically ignores him at Christmas. It's no wonder Alan-Michael always feels like the red-headed stepchild, when Alan and Alex always worshipped the ground Phillip walked on, or to whatever their latest obsession was (with Alan, it's his women, with Alex it was Nick.) And Rick Hearst always sold it beautifully.

ALEX KICKED A-M out on CHRISTMAS? Sigh---I love Bev's Alex, but there are times you just want to shake the woman.

Alex was fond of Beth from the moment they met, at the masquerade party that (re)introduced Alex to Springfield. Phillip and Beth announced their first engagement that night, and if for no other reason than Alex knew Alan disliked the girl, (or felt some kind of kinship due to the fact she'd been denied her happiness due to Brandon) Alex supported Phillip and Beth. Phillip and Beth broke up soon after (because Mindy was pregnant), and she started dating Lujack, and helped Alex and Lujack connect as mother and son. Alex and Beth grew closer, and remained close after Lujack's death until Beth's presumed death. Re: Jenna---I heartily disliked the woman, but remember crying when she died. And there's a moment later that is just ....*chef's kiss*. (I don't want to spoil it.)

Specifically, in 1990, most of January and September are missing in the vault. As I recall, they were not up on youtube either.

I remember the broad strokes of history, but that era is not one I really care to revisit. I actually liked Lucy, but for me, GL is floundering at this point with unrecognizable recasts like Poser and Raines, poor casting decisions like Marcy Walker and later Hunt Block, and some poor plotting (one only needs look at the disillusionment of Nola's return to feel alienation from GL's glory years.) What I mainly remember of the Brent saga (ironically) is that they killed Cutter, who I liked. I don't know if I had actually seen Psycho at that point (TCM had just started up) to connect to the obvious references to it, but I'm not overly fond of slasher stories.

I don't remember a lot of AM/Lucy, but there was a point early on when she said she was going to marry him, and of course, she ended up marrying him. That was cute.

Y&R's relationships could be somewhat static--Jill was always in ways the irritant outsider who never gets along with people, whether that's Kay, Ashley or Jack. And in that way Guiding Light let the character's relationships evolve. Ross and Vanessa went from being toxic to truly friends who stood by each other. Ed and Alan never really got along, they just generally stayed out of each other's orbit in the later years. But having that built-in, long standing rival gives the writers a framework to keep incorporating history. ATWT's Kim and Susan were long standing rivals who didn't need to be bitchy to each other all the time. But when 30 years later, Kim can complain about "those Stewart women" continually sleeping with Hughes men, long term viewers know what she's talking about.

I guess I should've clarified, yes, there was always a weekly GL promo. But you were lucky to catch it once or twice a week, as opposed to Y&R, which would air multiple times a day.