P.J.

The problem with Josh/Harley is the speed with which it developed. Reva dies in July, and Josh is asking Harley to marry him NYE. Now, obviously, that was done to up the stakes before RN left, but honestly, the romance did more to develop Harley's character than anything. And it was better than the other direction it looked like they were heading---Vanessa and Josh really start relying on each other through Reva's PPD and death. And in soapland....

No, she plays a cop. I think she's Rusty's partner, but she also interacts with (maybe dates?) Ross.

I'm pretty sure I know the character you're talking about. She was the girlfriend of a Galahad, and after that blew up, she went to work for Ross and developed a little crush on him. It was an odd plot point, if I remember correctly.

LOL...no Spaulding wanna-be is going to rename Hope's son, even if Hell froze over. Alan-Michael may sound clunky to people at first...but it grows on you. If you want to pity a kid (other than little Freddy...), consider the case of Little Billy Lewis, who put a stop to that himself around age 9.

Guiding Light had this fixation on reusing names. Alan-Michael Harlan Billy (giving us HB, Billy, Bill and Bill's son presumably HB IV) Marah--combining Josh and Reva's mothers (Martha and Sarah) Hope Santos (Michelle and Danny's daughter) Michelle (for whatever reason being named after Mike) Henry Cooper Bradshaw (and Henry Lewis, who Marina had named for uncle Coop) Phillip and Harley's son is Alan-something and they called him Zach Cassie named her son Roger Joshua (which why she'd name him after the father Hart hated, I don't know) Vanessa named her daughter Maureen Peter (Thorpe Lewis) Reardon---Peter was Hart's given first name Shayne (Good Lord, in case we EVER forgot Reva was a Shayne) Rick (named Frederick for Papa Bauer) William (Edward) Bauer aka Ed Lizzie was Elizabeth Lillian, IIRC Anthony James Chamberlain (AJ or the infamous J)...and I'm probably forgetting more than a few others. I mean, I get some of them, but it's like the writers just didn't want to step outside the box. I do disagree with Marland on renaming Kelly Louise Stacey. It signaled the end of Nola's obsession with Kelly. It was always kind of creepy that she picked that name.

If it's what I'm thinking of, it's Bridget/Kat/David/Hart/Dylan at the boarding house, Mindy throwing a sledding party where Eve ends up cutting up pictures of Mindy&Nick, and AlanMichael and Blake winding up at the Bauer cabin and screwing, and getting caught by Eleni, which enables her to blackmail him into a divorce. To say it's a nothing-burger is kind of generous.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG.....my Holy Grail got posted!!!! Billy returning after Eli put the bomb in his car!! **twirls**

I believe the rumor was that that horrible May the cigarette girl character was supposed to be Stacey working undercover for the FBI or something. But the character tanked so badly they simply fired her.

Well, I didn't want to be crass. Otherwise all that would've shown up in my post is [!@#$%^&*] [!@#$%^&*] [!@#$%^&*]. And I couldn't come up with what I wanted to say...but what I should've said was "St Alban wouldn't understand chemistry if she sat on a chemistry book soaked in gasoline and lit on fire."

Sigh......so brilliant to set fire to 5th street for like the third time in 5 years. RME. Firing Hunt Block? Applause, applause. Ben Warren was a pale imitation of Roger, and Hunt Block couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag. I said what I said. I heartily dislike the 50th primetime special, but not because it didn't mention Nola's fantasies. I didn't like them then, and I skip them on rewatch. I love Lisa Brown, but those sequences go on FAR too long.

Don't blame Danny Cosgrove. St Alban wouldn't have known chemistry if she sat on a book. Ed and Lillian kissed during the blackout. They didn't have sex until September. I think it's the same episodes where Vanessa gets into a car accident on her way to marry Fletcher.

If I understand the credits correctly, yes, he is the scriptwriter on that episode.

I just meant that publicly Curlee couldn't just say "hey, my EP is bored by housefrau Mo, and we're going to try and reset the character of Ed the same way we did Ross, by giving him a hot young thing." Unless I'm forgetting something, they didn't even really try to fill Mo's shoes until they brought Meta on. They tried giving Michelle a mentor in Holly, and they might have tried making Van and Billy that "stable" couple (had not Jordan been fired)....but after that, they sure weren't leaning into "Vanessa the matriarch" giving her that himbo Matt. And re: 1992---because it can't be said enough---I HATE the Ross' election nightmare episode. I get that a lot of work went into it---but I still HATE it.

I kind of understand why Curlee had to sell it publicly as "we need story for Ed", but geez. If they really would've had balls, they'd have canned Peter Simon. They could've then written a story of Mo getting her groove back after having to "publicly" grieve this marriage after learning she'd been cheated on for the third time.

It's a combination of things. Vanessa and Henry had been so close, that just the fact he was keeping something secret from her threatened her. She felt herself being cut out of Henry's life--his interest in Bea and her family, the friendship he was developing with Quint even before he knew Quint was his son, and then Henry's doting on his new found son and praising him to the heavens, while (understandably) seeing Vanessa's plethora of shortcomings (Quint's self-made and independent while Vanessa's spoiled and can't even manage her money). But yeah, getting "replaced" by someone as "common" as Nola--wasn't ever going to sit well with Vanessa.

I believe Van also drops her coat for Mark. It seemed to be her early go-to move. I couldn't ever really see Van and Nola as frenemies either. They just irritated each other too much. Yeah, I agree, Van and Reva aren't really friends. They get along, but they rarely naturally confided in each other. I could seen Van as that strong town matriarch, had Maeve stayed. She wouldn't have taken Dinah's [!@#$%^&*], she'd have divorced Matt's trifling ass, and stepped in at Spaulding while Alan was too busy screwing Phillip's sloppy seconds.

The other real irony about the engagement ball---other than the Reardons, it's really filled with Henry and Vanessa's business acquaintances. Vanessa has two friends there--Trish and Helena--and unless I missed her, the only true friend friend Nola had, Gracie, isn't there. Nola has a semi-repaired reputation at this point, but it's not like people didn't remember the dirt she'd done. The ONLY person that Vanessa doesn't know there is Billy. (Irony number 2) Re: Josh/Nola --not that I've seen. It does answer a question though. There was a point where Josh is interested in who fathered Nola's child. I presume that had something to do with him trying to make Floyd a "star". I do find myself really irritated by Tony now.

Well, that makes sense. I do know at one point, Mark almost poisons Amanda. I thought it was more along the lines of Jennifer being the easier patsy, since Amanda would've had both Alan and Ross looking out for her interests. teehee-- 1) I love Vanessa's hair here (even if in this particular eppy it's oddly molded to her hat.) And from '89-'92, when it's very Princess Di-ish. Sometime in '93 it gets too short (sigh, that damn pixie...) 2) Vanessa also becomes Maureen's best friend, which you would not guess from this era. Although honestly, getting Nola, Tony and Bea out of town improved her estimation of the Reardons 1000 fold. 3) ugh...that trash disco opening. And this is the arguably better version of that. The first one features Josh staring lustfully at some girl's ankle. (which I've never figured out...) And I literally hate that pic of Vanessa/Tony that they stuck with. The flashing cop light always reminds me of Hawaii 5-0 (the original series).

Ugh...ATWT's Stern and Black era.

@DRW50 whoopee! look what I found! One of my favorite Vanessa eppys. Now, please God, let them have the next eppy. This is around mid-May, around when Mindy and Billy show up.

LOL...I am delighted !! You know I love me some bitchy Vanessa!! I hadn't seen this in English. And as much as I love seeing the German episodes, there is NOTHING like Maeve's voice dripping in sarcasm. Vanessa and Trish were friends---but it feels like we're missing some key explanation why. All I've ever really gathered from what's up is that they were sorority sisters. (It seems like that was a popular way to bring anyone rich to Springfield--"oh, they know Vanessa" for a while.) Their relationship seems less one-sided once Billy comes to town. Spaulding really got gutted after Diane's murder, that's for sure. It's not that I dislike Jennifer---but geez, is she dull. I never figured out why Mark married her. Wouldn't marrying Amanda made more sense to his revenge plot? well, the mid-late 90's were a challenge, both for GL and ATWT. My interest waned after '00, and while San Cristobal/Santoses didn't exactly break me, I think Maryanne Carruthers did. Those last 4-5 years were just sad.

LOL...there's a Christmas episode where everyone is at the same church---the WASP Chamberlains, Catholic Reardons, probably Lutheran Bauers---and it's just funny. Like, people, please---couldn't they have gathered at the hospital chapel?

That's one of those things that you didn't realize would change so fundamentally. As much as I complain, I watched GL through the '90's. Admittedly, being able to skip through (or over) episodes is really nice, but even if I couldn't, it wouldn't be as horrible as trying to watch soaps now live.

I have some fuzzy memory of it, I don't know how, I should've been in school, lol. Rita Lloyd scared the crap out of me.

Both had a good acting rep, although I never watched either of them in significant roles. Born did have a reputation for being problematic though.