P.J.

From GL, Roger chasing Rita through the hall of mirrors. It is creepy and suffocating watching Rita (who is heavily pregnant) trying to get away and squeezing through the constricted paths. "Enough is Enough" just adds to the atmosphere.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks these little asides from Carlton are just a little off coming from Ted's business partner/BFF.

Apropos of nothing...I was wading through some posts, and found out that Lee Lawson had once played Audrey Peters' stepdaughter on Love of Life. The soap world was small...lol.

Did they do it any other times? I can't think of any.

Frank certainly was a himbo. It's a shame, but I don't think Ehlers ever won an Emmy.

Those two episodes, with Harley confronting Buzz and Nadine, along with the Peter secret busting wide open (Billy dumps Nadine and Bridget ends up kidnapping Peter,) are excellent.

If the Alan recast had been interesting, that's a different animal. I later cringe through Alan/Olivia/Phillip.

Or Roger. Given that Blake had slept through the Spauldings, and Holly and Blake already slept with Ross, I wouldn't have wanted to see that. Aside from the fact RR was just too bombastic and unsubtle. By the time Alan and Holly would've been free, he was dating women his son's age.

Dp

LOL...this is hilarious. And illuminating. I never really heard a description of Holly's father. It's hard imaging Barbara married to "a rat".

I grew used to the strange timing of conversations--one that was drawn out through the episode, when across town action moved at warp speed. But the travel inconsistencies annoyed the hell out of me. In later years, characters would travel across country (or even to Europe) in the space of a commerical break, then return home in time for supper. Before about the mid-90's its a tad more realistic. Not always, but not nearly as noticable.

Just from the angle, it looks like Krista's staring at it thinking WTF? lol

So, whatever the original idea was, Long undoubtably retooled it, and the scabs twisted it into a double helix. Ugh...that headpiece.

Sonni came on in late '87, because she and Josh married just before Sally (or after) died. Vanessa is still in town, and attends the wedding. Reva is with Alan in Hawaii (on a "business" trip), pissing off V, and for some reason, Reva is calling HB's, I think Van picks up, and Reva finds out they remarried. Josh and Sonni end up in Hawaii on their honeymoon, Van telegrams her acceptance of Alan's proposal which Reva intercepts and then goes to Hawaii. Of course, Josh and Sonni end up at the same resort that Alan, Reva and Vanessa are at. Awkward hilarity ensues. I'm not sure when Will arrives. It's before March of '88, when he tries to kill Josh and Reva ends up comatose. The strike was '88, Long comes back in August of '87. She pours Reva into the red dress, kills Vanessa and Ross' romance, and ...cures Johnny's cancer? '88 wasn't a good year for the show, the Sonni/Will plot was the only real mover. Other than Phillip taking over Spaulding.

I always feel as though I'm picking on NSA, but she is one of the most underwhelming recasts ever. Granted, there are far more offensive ones, but her characterization of Michelle stripped the character of her vital, fiery essence. Michelle barely had a pulse with NAS, and every attempt felt forced. But Manny still had their fans even then. That is not picking. That is GOSPEL. And yet they kept her. Honestly, I'm not sure what the plan with Sonni/Solita was. I'm not sure anyone knew. GL was not the kind of soap that would've kept a "bad" character (one who schemed to kill her husband). I'm not sure Long has ever said what the story was (both girls are alive or one living/one dead). I think the scabs at some point doubled back because Michelle and Joe Breen were really good actors and the scabs weren't very creative.

I know it's not exactly a fair comparison, as Long didn't have to create an entire world along with the characters in that world. And most of Long's actors weren't completely new to the mechanics of a soap. I can't recall anyone saying Marland and Long would've made a good team. If there's any team I'd have wanted to see, it would be Marland/Curlee. I kind of wonder if Curlee doesn't deserve credit for the repercussions playing out through town, while Long was more focused on Reva's antics. Marland was great at the big picture, but could get stuck in emotional ruts.

Right?

Even when you hated it, they were punches to the gut that heightened the stakes. Soaps today just don't have that emotional wallop anymore. When you compare BtG (written by a HW with decades of experience) to Long's first two years of GL, it's no contest. I don't know if soaps are just playing it safer now with more jaded audiences, or what. But it's not the same. I did not mind Danny/Cassie, what there was of it. I'm not sure who was playing Michelle at the time, but it's never a bad thing for the audience to feel that triangles are equally sided.

There's no denying Long had talent, unlike someone like Bradley Bell, nepo baby who's been recycling his father's storylines since he began. I certainly agree--her GL had a sense of action and humor.

Right? Sometimes she is just drowning in her clothes. She's in her fifties, and they dressed her like she was 70. Granted, not everyone could be hanging out like Kim, but geez. By the late nineties, they went very more casual. Vanessa flippin' Chamberlain is in a sweater set. Let that sink in--Sweater set.

LOL...confession--the only James Dean movie I watched was Giant. I initially didn't even like it, but on rewatch, Liz Taylor is really good in it. re: Bev, I didn't have access to soap articles until later in the '80s, so it was all news to me. I liked Marj. I've been thinking on it---Marj had a better wardrobe than Bev. So often, they dressed Bev like the Queen Mother, all one solid color so they could pick her out of a crowd.

One, Pam Long never met a movie she couldn't rip off, whether that was GWTW, Grand Hotel, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or (I assume) something like The Manchurian Candidate (or wTfever Infinity was ripped off from). Not that this is unique, everyone did. (I was binging The Love Boat and was amazed to realize they ripped off an entire movie, at one point, including the final shot, with only tweeks that updated it from the '30's) Two, she didn't exactly invent Billy, he'd been mentioned for years. She just fleshed him out and gave him to Vanessa. Which, obviously worked. Three, I can't believe they spoiled Bev McKinsey's being Alan's sister nearly two months before she popped up in Springfield. And four, shout out to the forgotten continuity people. Although if Long really wanted X and Y to speak, she simply had to invent a reason for them to do so. It's called motivation. Kobe simply solved that problem by firing most of the actors who'd been on prior to Long's arrival.

That's correct. We never see the footage. It wasn't like after Beth "died" where we saw a body double. It's everyone's reaction to the video that we see. What's in the vault from Jan'91 doesn't cover it. The only episode in English that I've found is below, and only about the first fifteen minutes is GL. I know I've seen when Billy and Sarah actually first see the report, and Billy becomes obsessed by it, taking it to some video expert that tries to blow up the image, etc. Here, Billy has blown up an engagement party of sorts with the news. I think when Josh came back in '93, he just says he searched and searched and never found anything that led to Reva, so he gave up.

I don't think they really had any plan for Justin, outside of being Sam's belligerent father and Daniel's mentor. Which is a shame, Justin could've been a very welcome return if handled right. But it never felt like GL invested in the role, which is unusual for the time. Maybe not getting Tom back made them rethink the entire idea? Casting Pennock feels like an unserious choice.

sigh ...the contortions they did to give Reva story shakes head