P.J.

Oh, those ascots. I do think the adventure aspect of Quint/Nola sold him for me.

lol...meanwhile, I'm remembering Ross in his cheesy mustache circa 1983.

Oh, I don't doubt that. It's just that I love the second half of '89 so much. This feels like a completely different show. When Nadine sounds like the smartest person in the room...you know the world has turned inside out.

The first half of '89 must have some kind of hangover from the '88 strike. It's a mess. And not in a good way.

Oh, back in the day it was John Wesley Shipp, Michael Tylo and Grant Aleksander. Now it's Jordan, Jerry and Rick Hearst.

Honestly, I can rarely recall a beard making that much difference in looks. Beardless Josh? Nope. Bearded Josh---muy bueno. (although honestly, RN's just not my type.)

Well, IIRC, they must not have given Anna much background on Vanessa, cause she said she didn't know how to play her until she saw the clothes. If I had seen and liked her in something else, it would probably wouldn't bother me.

I. am. shook. I guess I had just assumed that with Claire gone forever, at some point, Mo adopted her.

I don't think it's anything specific about Anna I dislike. It's just that Maeve had established these layers in Vanessa, where Anna played it a little looser than Maeve would have, if that makes any sense. Sophia Landon Geier was never a temp Vanessa. She did sub in for Anna Stuart I recall someone saying. Sonia Stuart subbed in for Maeve in the '90's, and just has no presence whatsoever.

Wait----WHAT? MO NEVER ADOPTED MICHELLE?

His name is MacGregor, played by Ken LaRon.

Oy, the German episodes really do not give two hoots about using the proper credits. Actors would be credited long after they were gone, and they rarely updated when actors took over roles. I would love to see the Alan/Rita affair too. Ed/TRISH? That must've been a blink and miss moment. I'd watch more of the fall of '81 if I didn't find Anna Stuart as Vanessa so jarring.

As far as I know, Samantha wasn't named for any family member on either the Scott or Marler side.

GL was very tuned in to honoring family by naming children after them. It does drive me a little batty at times too. It even ticks me off that it's Jenna who gets to name a child after Henry, not Vanessa. (Although I'm certainly not advocating anyone be named Henrietta...lol)

I would've seen Ben Reade as a legacy character. I'm not sure when Block started, was Ben Reade even off the canvas? Fletch is on until '98 when Maureen Reardon is born, because he takes off after Holly donates a kidney to her (?).

I can imagine! Part of it's because some of them are on canvas for so long. Ross cuts a wide swath in spite of only being married twice. LOL.

I'm surprised that wasn't one of the episodes SoapClassics would've been interested in. Gosh, Rita Lloyd scared me when I was a kid.

Or who had been lovers, which was mostly (usually) accurate.

Henry never interacted with Roger onscreen before 1989. Roger died in April, and that (I believe) was when Henry first comes to town. Vanessa debuted in June. We actually see both of them introduced to Roger in '89, although they later retcon that Henry had known Roger when he first started at Spaulding. Vanessa does know who Roger was by reputation, as that's one of the first tidbits of info that she gets when she returns in July '89. I'm not sure there's an explanation of why Henry forgives Alan so readily, other than their friendship and Henry's longstanding relationship with the Spauldings. Henry forgives both Alan and Alex for their boneheaded moves that hurt him more than once. I mean, Alex didn't step in when Roger swindled Henry out of his Spaulding stock in '90.

Wasn't that Ian somebody, played by Peter Simon? Or did Ian die on her in bed later?

And it was odd that they chose to name Hunt Block's character Ben, when Ben Reade was such a recent character. It happens to all of us. 😮

maybe it's just not working. I'd hate to think they took it down. It's accuracy was sometimes bad, but it was still useful

They had broached the subject of marital rape with John/Kim around 1976. That was how Andy was conceived, but I'm not sure how much they really discussed it as rape.

I would love to see more of the Dobson era, but I think it would take a minor miracle. Don't forget ATWT's devious John Dixon. He seems closely modeled on Roger. I guess I'm very impressed that Long/Curlee captured Roger's essence seemingly so easily. He'd been gone for nearly a decade. There were only a tiny handful of characters still on canvas that he'd interacted with (and if you take out the recently returned Holly and Chrissie/Blake, that number is TWO.) Yet Roger rolls into town and Spaulding starts humming with purpose and plot again. Not that Spaulding had been neglected as an entity and source of story, but it had kind of been isolated to the Spauldings backstabbing each other. Back in the early '80's, it'd been a hub of interaction, ala Cedars.

Even though it has plot holes big enough to drive a semi through, the reveal that Dylan is her and Billy's son is good too. Even though I hate the way they act as if Billy had never "gotten over" Reva. They really did a good job of integrating Roger back on the canvas. He really did step into OGAlan's shoes circa 1980. Back when Alan was truly a force to be reckoned with.