P.J.

Or when you have your biggest signature couple's wedding in a field surrounded mostly by people the audience has never met. LOL...Reva had more bridesmaids at her non-wedding to Kyle than she did to all her marriages to Josh combined.

I was probably glad that Ellen was making those returns, but the Van/Mo one felt very lazily written and directed. "Let's put two women in a blindingly lit room and then make Dinah a victim of her stupidity so Van has yet another reason to feel like a bad mother." UGH.

The show would've called them friends, but with a few notable exceptions, I don't think GL did friendships well.

From the '80's? They go from enemies to almost friend-adjacent In-Laws. They are never overtly friendly (as Reva marrying/dating through the Lewis/Sampsons makes Vanessa distrust her) but they also never go out of their way to hurt each other either. There are significant moments when they put their cards out on the table with each other. Vanessa warns Reva that Billy is out to get her (when Josh is paralyzed) before she walks out on Billy. Reva tries to get Van to see she's addicted to painkillers after Bill was born. They tussle over Alan briefly, which isn't as much against each other as trying to get Alan to mean what he says to either of them. It's Vanessa who realizes that Reva is more than "being Reva" when her PPD strikes. They're more friend-ish if they're both involved with Billy and Josh. If they're not in the Lewis' sphere, they aren't seen interacting as much. Even when Maeve returns in '06(ish) they barely interact. Reva has an ITL where Maeve has a brief cameo, which is cute. But otherwise, I don't think they have a lot to do with each other until the final month when Billy and Van are including Reva in their wedding. Josh and Vanessa are much more friends than Vanessa and Reva are.

Blake and Ross' first wedding? I swear it was on the steps of City Hall. It was in the vein of Frank and Eleni's 5th Street wedding, where it's sort of "outdoors". Blake and Harley ended up in the Country Club pool in '90, when they're enemies (Blake's having an affair with Alan-Michael, and Harley almost uses a tape of them together to get a huge divorce settlement). The fountain thing with Jon and Reva was a deliberate revisiting of Reva's "big moment". (BTW, after The Slut of Springfield moment, Rick sort of dunks Mindy into the same fountain and scrubs off her makeup because he's sick of her attitude.)

I know people apparently loved Mary Stuart as Meta, but I wish they'd brought Barbara back when Holly returned in '89. It would've naturally filled that gap they tried filling with Sarah and Lainie Bauer. No, I'm sure Adam's return was just a clumsy attempt at doing a vet return. Why bother inserting him in a second day's worth of scenes when they'd have to pay him? Just need him to walk Blake down the aisle. RME.

Last week, we had to explain All in the Family to a girl in my office. *ouch*

It might've been interesting to bring back Barbara Berjer, and hook HB and Barbara up. Barb wouldn't have put up with Reva's nonsense, and HB/Barb couldn't have been worse than HB/Alex. Kyle's mother could've simply been some old affair of HB's, and dead.

*sigh* the younger generation, to not know Clark Gable pains me. Anyway, Ross does look handsome in a tux. I'd guess they're supposed to be Harlow/Beery from Dinner at Eight. Whenever they put Maeve in a longer wig, it reminds me of early '80's Vanessa.

I remember the raves in the magazines. If that's the case, it's almost too bad they didn't bring her on as Stacey Chamberlain. Although she aced the role of Michelle. It's too bad all of her time is stuck in Santos hell.

@alwaysAMC if he wasn't standing next to Scarlett, would anyone compare him to Rhett or Clark Gable? Or would be be some generic "dressed as a southern guy" dude? lol.. Meanwhile, can anyone tell/remind me who Ross was supposed to be? I don't really think Blake's costume really screams "Jean Harlow" either, btw.

I had seen SSH as JoAnna Manning on Y&R and hated the character. I wouldn't have wanted her as Alex.

It seems more like happenstance than some truly bringing a specific minor character. They needed some kind of justification for Kyle's belief he was HB's son, and it just happened that they'd given HB some ex-madam as a talk-to character when he was introduced. I'd still like to know if it was a story Long retooled when Robert Newman decided to leave. It makes a lot more sense for Josh to be the product of an affair, given the friction in HB and Josh's relationship at the time.

I don't know if she was obsessed with GWTW, or simply tapping into the explosion of romance-related obsession with the antebellum period at the time. GWTW was undoubtedly the easiest connection to make for the average viewer (classics like Jezebel, The Heiress or Raintree County weren't as well known) and miniseries like The Blue and The Gray or North and South weren't made yet. She "borrowed" Cat on a Hot Tin Roof heavily for the Lewises as well. I think it works for Nola's engagement party, and I flove Billy and Vanessa's first meeting. They loved tapping into it for Billy and Van--the last time they made love before Billy leaves, they have come home from this party (which seems to be about drawing out whoever is threatening Josh) where Vanessa wears this version of Scarlett's red feather dress. There's not enough around that episode for me to understand if it's some comment on Vanessa's scandalous past coming back to haunt her (it's not long after she's admitted she had Ross' child) or if she's just purposefully making some kind of Lewis statement about how they're not hiding from whoever's chasing Josh. Anyway, she and Billy talk about how they were like Rhett and Scarlett when they met. And they continued tapping into that vibe for Vanessa---she and **** go to a costume party as Scarlett and Rhett (where **** looks like a kid playing dress up...) around '95(?). (Blake is Jean Harlow and Roger and Dinah are Caesar and Cleopatra.) Obviously, Maeve looks stunning. I've seen that Alan/Reva episode. It is shocking, and unnecessarily distasteful (obviously to end the Alan/Reva relationship). It must be Long writing, but it's clear that she doesn't understand Alan's character. Alan never would've resorted to rape. Yes, he would've humiliated her somehow, but rape? And certainly not with a house full of people downstairs.

It surprises me that GL brought her back. She had a throwaway role when HB's introduced in '83, and just kind of disappears after The Fishing Picture mystery is solved. Then she pops up as Kyle's mother in '85. I've seen some of her other tv work (Perry Mason, and maybe The Twlight Zone) and she was certainly a looker. She must've been something on DOOL in the 60's(?).

Sally is kind of a thankless role. I think more of Barry's performance now than I did at the time. Billy mentions her from time to time (her death seemed to be the impetus for Billy's drinking binge that gets Vanessa to go to Venezuela in '88) or sometimes makes the distinction between Josh's mother and his. But for the most part, he means Martha when he talks about his mother.

Agreed. I love Rachel Miner, and Bethany Joy Lenz is the perfect adult Michelle.

Well, why should Billy's parentage affect HIM, when it was obviously just a stumbling block to Kyle and Reva's game of lust? *sigh* While the buildup played out over at least six months (we knew Billy was Sally's child by at least June, if not before), and there wasn't any direct fall out (Billy has a melt down and forgives both HB and Sally within weeks), I see it affecting both Mindy and Billy's marriages. Billy starts playing Big Daddy when Mindy and Kurt fight, and he bends over backwards accepting Ms. Sally as his mother, and she starts squabbling with Vanessa. Both situations strain Billy and Van's marriage. They never played it out more because they killed Ms. Sally off in '87. Of course, that was about Reva too, as she found out that Alex knew Marah wasn't Kyle's child and had a heart attack. (Billy was off the canvas at this point, as was Kyle.)

Josh Lewis--he was on trial for Will Jefferies' attempted murder (in '88-'89) and then Alan in the late '00s. (he was covering for Cassie). Craig Montgomery--I think he went to jail for Steve's attempted murder, and then for Barbara's in '00.

*sigh* they made HB such a fool over Reva. He didn't "court" her as much as he bought her. Thanks @DRW50 new uploads have been a bit sparse lately.

Rick/Blake don't bother me either. They hadn't been "siblings" since Holly left in the early '80's. It bothers me more that it's yet another case of Rick and Phillip trading women.

Pretty much. Other than her brief romance with Jim, and Lizzie's leukemia, Beth was, to me, unlikeable. It's no wonder they never recast Mindy, Mindy wouldn't have recognized her best friend.

Well, being Reva's sister, Cassie was not thinking with her head. And I've forgotten nearly all of Eddie/Beth, but as I remember, she got off on knowing he was "complicated", (ie, evil), didn't care and he ended up locking her in a tower, from which Phillip had to rescue her from. GL in the '00s was full of problematic men.

Billy's children: Mindy, Dylan (with Reva), Bill *adopted Peter Vanessa's children: Dinah, Bill and Maureen *adopted Peter Bill has three sisters, one brother (Peter goes from being his adopted brother to his nephew, given that Dylan and Bridget married off screen) Dylan has two sisters (Mindy, Marah) and four brothers (Bill, Shayne, Jon and Colin) Mindy has two brothers (Bill and Dylan) Dinah has three brothers (Bill, Jason and Kevin) and two sisters (Maureen and Clarissa)