P.J.

Well...there is that.

And Carrie (2) tried to kill Ross with a pair of scissors. Or at least wanted to. And I sure don't think there's any way he could've gotten the audience to forgive her killing Jackie, (even if Carrie Mowry was a bad recast).

Agreed. As much as I love Marland, I could see Potter's point---another year of wandering through Carrie's alters would've been pointless. (Shades of the Sonni/Solita story, which is just a mess, though that's due in part to the writers strike.) I just wish they'd have been able to settle it amicably and keep working together.

Yeah, '86 is just broken. If anyone ever asks again, Infinity is no longer the worst story. Cain/Camp Cauyoga is. And, much to my surprise, they added insult to injury and replayed the tribute to Bert at Christmas time.

It was enlightening to me to how unstable the writing regimes are at GL after the Dobsons leave in '80. Marland had two years. Long does 2 three year stints. Curlee/Demorest (with Reilly and Broderick) last about three and actually dovetail with Long's last tenure. Starting with '94, I don't think anyone lasts more than a year until Kriezman in '05. That's appalling.

I'm not sure why bad writing seems to ripple through the entire look of the show. You'd think that direction or wardrobe would be immune somehow. But you're right---1986 is not good. But, on the upside, I found the episode of Vanessa in her red/Scarlett/feather dress. Someone must have missed the memo that only Reva's allowed to wear red.

Yeah---I just skipped right over the Cain stuff. The length the show went to make all the Lewis men stupid over Reva really is grating.

I'm a little surprised--Calla's all over '86, she doesn't get unceremoniously dumped on the train out of Springfield until the very end of December. Calla/Jessie/Simon are ALL exiting by December. Hello Rusty and Meredith, and Grant Aleksander sneaks back in sometime after Beth "died" and Dinah finds out she's Ross and Vanessa's child. Susan Pratt was born to play a bitch. Claire's more likable earlier in her run, she begins in '83. Forget Reva---she'd have been a good actress to go up against Zimmer. She shows up as Julia Lindsay's mother on ATWT in '99, and she almost made me feel bad for Julia. And I hated that twit. Re Maeve: yeah, she knew what she was getting into when she married Kyle, but Kyle is so overbearing that I get why she thought they'd never truly "co-parent" a child.

yeah, I hadn't really thought about that when Mike/Lillian crossed my mind. But, Michelle having to deal with her family dynamic instead the endless Santos hoo-ha might've been refreshing. Well....that Karma is a bitch...lol

LOL...I think everyone forgot about Mike/Lillian.

I mean, they could've found a way to work Mike back on to the canvas--imagine them throwing Lillian and bone and have her and Mike have some whirlwind romance off-screen and come home married, making Mike Beth's stepfather. But yeah, you'd have thought with two of her child having a mental health crisis, it would've been natural for Barbara to return. God knows Blake could've used her. in '96, Berjer was 76. Not that that excuses any disrespect from JFP.

I'm not sure when he exactly arrived, but he's Vanessa's doctor when she gives birth to Maureen, so he's there in Feb '98.

I'm not sure what point Mike would've served with only Ed's kids in town. Although God knows, Michelle's husband always needed an attorney. Don't get me wrong, I think Mike returning would've made more sense than Meta, but GL obviously wasn't going to bring back Hope and Alan-Michael. Mike could've been the resident lawyer, since Ross was always bouncing around between lawyer/mayor/candlestick maker. When did AW kill off Barbara Berjer's character again? I wish that'd happened, rather than Meta.

Re: Kim leaving or sticking it out to the bitter end...Part of me think Kim didn't want the blowback that Martha Byrne got when she left ATWT in '07. Re Jake---regardless of what her motives were, I'm not even sure P&G wasn't glad. It gave them the out to get an older actor into that role and allowed them to lean into all the publicity generated from Luke's coming out.

If Kim didn't like the "diva" label....maybe she shouldn't have acted like one.

DAM is the better actor, but Edmund certainly outlived his usefulness a number of years previous. I certainly didn't need that last return to explain Shayne's morose return.

They showed Dinah and Mallet meeting up in Europe (she either had car trouble or was trying to pull a con by pretending she was having car trouble) and then crashing a church wedding because Dinah "always" loved the part where they said "I do", which was stupid. (But it made clear that Dinah and Mallet had reunited, which...well, whatever. Not a fan.) Not nearly as stupid as the episode they devoted to Jeffrey chasing Edmund (which no one gave a flyin' fig about) through something. But still. RME. At least we didn't get an unnecessary update on Cassie. I'm probably the last one to know, but in case anyone else doesn't, in the main discussion forum, the topic "Look at 1975" has synopses from all the shows from '75 to '78. It also has some from as early as '72 or '73.

I know it's years after the fact, but adding my thanks to @FrenchFan for posting these recaps. They give me a better glimpse into Jordan Clarke's time as Dr Tim Ryan, which will probably never surface. As well as the intro of Alan and Elizabeth and Justin and Jackie.

It's all I can do to believe Bev messed up her lines. Of course she wasn't perfect, but didn't she have a photographic memory? I'd have an easier time believing she's irritated with Kimmy and trying to prove a point. But truly, they don't have a lot of scenes together. Sort of like Kim with Zas---they just don't. They weren't on the show that long together, so I don't necessarily trust her impressions of him either.

1. At the beginning, now I find Reva totally unsympathetic, not because she was "larger than life", but because she's a lying, user skank. But I guess that's my perspective...lol. 2. I don't know at what point she and Robert were "screen partners for two straight years", but it wouldn't have been until at least 1987. Robert left in November '84, practically a year to the day of Reva's debut. And he was sparingly used that last month or two after Josh regained the ability to walk. You can tell that they shot his goodbye scenes out of order, because Maeve was just returning from maternity leave. Vanessa returns with longer hair (that is perfectly accented with the fur she's wearing, lol), gives birth while HB is in having his heart surgery, but a week or so before, when Billy goes to Switzerland to try and persuade her to come home, she's got shorter hair. 3. There is a story about one of those courtroom scenes. Zas mooned the cast from off-stage during one of the trials. 4. sweet story about Vince. 5. She's got her dates mixed up about Charita. I know memories are fuzzy, or maybe the editing's bad, but Reva was the reason Josh had the accident, so obviously Charita hadn't left the show the year before. She's right they didn't work together much though. 6. the only actress (the one falling in love with her costars) that even remotely sounds like is Beth Ehlers. But I don't think Ehlers was divorced twice. Oh, and of course, she's got the deets wrong about Beverlee's departure. Why even include that story, when it took place two years after she left in '90? And I don't believe Bev messed up her lines because of Kimmy's blue, blue eyes. GMAB.

LOL...true, true. It's just odd to me--even though I watched Simon on and off for nearly 30 years, he's not as comforting a presence to me as Mart is on rewatch (what little there is.)

I remember Mart too from childhood---but not really any storylines. From reading the recaps, he seems to be a bit of a mess, always hung up on the previous woman in his life.

You would, wouldn't you? I mean, even Mo is livid at Alan's actions! So different from Roger's return, where Mo thinks everyone should join hands and sing kumbayah and Ed keeps a healthy distance between him and Roger. It is wonderful to see Chris Bernau back in action, effortlessly sliding into Springfield like no time has passed.

Peter Simon returns with, dare I say, such emotion. It's some asinine plot about Alan going after Rick after Phillip was shot, and wants to make sure Rick doesn't get his medical license. It doesn't quite make sense to me, but Ed throws out Rita and Hope's names, anyway.

I could see where Kyle was intriguing for a hot minute, given that he was a millionaire with a secret grudge against the Lewises. But the entire premise for his grudge is stupid, and Reva's insta attraction to him doesn't fly. I do think Reva needed to be separated from the Lewises, but she always comes off as a little lost without them, imo. I'm surprised they tied Kyle to them so rapidly. They could've drawn that story out for the entire two years Larkin was there.