P.J.

Today is Jordan Clarke's birthday! I always thought the East Coast soaps were better at casting for ability rather than "traditional" beauty. (*coughB&Bcough*) But attractiveness was only part of my various crushes or what I connected to---it's Ross' eyes and how he'd take care of people, Billy's sense of humor how he was always unapologetically himself, Alan-Michael's perpetual chip on his his shoulder, okay, Phillip and his tortured soul and his speedos. I mean, thank God some casting director talked GL out of casting some blue-eyed yuppy type as Roger.

Exactly. Unless you're writing a book. then I expect a little fact checking. well, there are shorts in '83 that don't leave a lot to the imagination---but yeah.

After the Andy Norris story, she's basically a day player. Sometimes they address her absence, sometimes not. She's not at Hillary's funeral, for instance.

Denise must be mistaken. Ironically, she's in a 1977 episode where she's talking to a returning Peggy Thorpe. Maybe they went on contract at the same time, but Katie precedes Ross. For some reason I remember some snippet of Elvera saying she and Jerry started the same day. Which I also find hard to believe.

OMG...Denise Pence auditioned for Jackie? aborbs!

The optics on the Kelly/Morgan romance were probably always a little skeevy, but 40 years later, calling them problematic is a major understatement. I don't think that romance would've been nearly as memorable if not for the addition of Nola as the bad girl keeping them apart. (Good Lord, the endless crooning of "You Needed Me" alone ....) But as a teen? Sorry, I was hooked by it. Or actually, not sorry. Melissa Hayden is a wonderful actress who should've been the lynchpin of the next generation. Bridget/David/Kat should have been the next "Four Musketeers", but Bridget never got that "grand romance", for reasons I suspect begin and end with not being "soap opera pretty" enough. The same might have happened with Beth Ehlers, (oy, Ian Ziering and Paige Turco were greener than grass) except for her chemistry with CTE. The revolving door of Harts aside, other than David there was not a strong younger male actor to pair her with either. I can appreciate Morgan Englund, but he certainly wasn't either Carl T Evans or Rick Hearst. I vote AM/Eleni were the better couple, and had supercouple potential. I actually didn't like Mindy/Nick. I just don't like VI at all, either as Lujack or Nick.

Honestly, Ross is so reprehensible in that episode...it's a minor miracle he wasn't just written as Mike's antithesis and then written off. Re the GL critique---Marlena's right, there's a unique alchemy about GL (and I'd say from mid-'89 to mid '93) of that time. It is as near perfect as a soap can get. A lot of shows would've stumbled badly losing heavy hitters like Reva, Josh and Phillip within six months. Later losing Bev McKinsey alone seemed to hobble the show.

Aww...we were just talking about her in the GL thread. God Bless her---Lisa wasn't always my cup of tea, but there's no denying the impact she had on soaps.

Yes, Leonard Stab was injured in a hangliding accident. I didn't mind his Hart---Roger was someone who deserved children who gave him hell. The Guiding Light Sentinel: Weekly Alumni Feature...Leonard Stabb

I think the scabs also leaned in to Alan-Michael/Harley, but that might've been just out of desperation, as Dinah/Cam are so, so bad. At least the set up to Alan's downfall had been in motion for months before the strike. I can't imagine what the scabs might've come up with on their own.

No, you were right, rumor had it that Fulton had a grandmother clause. Ed Zwick co-created thirtysomething.

I don't know when Eileen got that special billing, but I see it as acknowledgement of how impactful her presence was for the show. She's ATWT's equivalent of Lucci, Zimmer, Hall or Slezak. Everyone knew who Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn was. lol...well, by this time she had won two emmys. And it's not like she wasn't alphabetically most likely to be last anyway. Unless they hired someone named Zwick or Zzzuzz.

What's strange to me is that for a large portion of time you've got a consistency in the scriptwriters. And it's still in the era of a continuity person. There's always been some revisions of history---but when a new character comes on, why can't they just look at what hasn't been established and go from there? Calla could've been the woman Ross dated after Vanessa dumped him to marry her first husband, or at least in the period that Vanessa was off in Maine hiding her pregnancy. It's minor, I know. At least some of them. Funny though, and I know that there's huge gaps in the Dinah reveal---but other than Ross and Billy, the only person in town that I saw being shocked about finding out Ross and Vanessa had a child---Maureen.

I knew it was contractual. I just didn't know the formal term. The "Eileen Fulton billing" is much snappier, imo. lol.

And they took the cue from Dallas. HB and Billy (at the beginning) use "Miss Vanessa" a fair amount. Reva usually calls her that when she's irritated with her, or trying to paint her as a snob. I don't recall anyone ever calling Reva "Miss Reva" though....go figure. lol Watching 1988, it seems Kim started getting the "Eileen Fulton" credit. As in being credited last as in (separated by a space from the preceeding cast member or dayplayer) and the "and ... Reva Shayne....Kim Zimmer". The other thing about '88....Meredith seemed like she was toadying up to Phillip from early on. She seems to be the only one who understood Phillip's takeover and thought it was hunky-dory.

She's credited as Florence on the Oct 10th episode! And Ybarra is spelled with a Y. (which you probably knew.

I've caught mentions here and there too--when Alan's pushing the idea of marriage, he says something to Vanessa about having grown up in Springfield--I just roll my eyes. I don't know why the writers do little tweaks that don't make a difference. Alan and Vanessa have a long, established history. What difference does it make if they grew up in Springfield? The stupid idea that Calla and Ross were high school sweethearts---blah. I caught one mention of them using the LIghthouse as a hangout---like WHAT? I'm not sure about by the time '97 rolls by, but from the beginning, all the Lewises mostly called HB, HB. Not that they wouldn't slide into "daddy" if they wanted something (or were caught acting like children), or Mindy would call him "Granddaddy HB". At first I think it was a way to illustrate that there was a distance between him and the children after Martha died. (They also usually refer to Martha as "Miss Martha", and "momma" if they were longing for her. ) Then it turned into a way of distinguishing between the three Harlan Billy Lewises. HB, Billy and Bill (or Little Billy when he was young.) Not to mention, there were already at least two women regularly calling their fathers "daddy", Vanessa and Mindy. Later Blake joins that group.

Frank was a dependable, solid presence in town. If you needed a guy to date someone who turned out to be a psycho...there was Frank. Or be the "nice" guy who'd take the freshly single broken-hearted girl on a date...there was Frank. Or even if Vanessa needed to flirt with some side of beef to make Billy jealous....there was Frank (and it's funny as hell.)

Alan didn't grow up in Springfield. Neither did Vanessa or Ross, at least when they all were introduced. They were all from Chicago. Even if their histories got muddied later on.

I also found her in the October 3 1988 episode. She plays Mrs Curley (or Curlee after Nancy Curlee?), a neighbor of Anita Ybarra (Ibarra?) Will's mother who's living in Boston. Josh goes there thinking Mrs Ybarra had just rented a room to Will while he was in Boston at medical school. He finds a picture of a younger Will there, and Mrs Curley tells him that's Anita's son who died.

Right? As soon as Reva even thought about jumping ship, the next man was already drooling over her. Didn't say he wasn't lucky...and sometimes it's better being lucky than a chem magnet. No need to be fired if the actress playing your significant other decided to leave.

Well, Suzanne is pretty much a throw away character. the surprise was more about the fact that she was working for Ross, and that Roger had place her there. I will say, watching some of the latter half of '88, Mindy is maturing with Krista in the role. And maybe it's just the era, but I'm surprised how much I'm hearing Billy's name and little updates on him. We've all experienced the family member who left town, rarely to be mentioned again *coughTrishLewiscough* Ugh...Frank is like a chemistry free zone.

oy, don't just single out 87....there are times it's just not good from '84 to late '88, or whenever she went back to her blonde color.

Well, everyone in a soap town is overly friendly and knowledgable about everyone's past.

I don't see them trying to say Lillian had been working at Cedars while Adam was in town. I think it's just the general chit-chat kind of scene. There would be a historical link to explain Lillian's presence, Ross had dated her sister Calla and had taken Dinah in before Ross and Vanessa knew she was their daughter.