P.J.

Ed....or Peter Simon? I haven't seen enough of 70's Ed to really judge if they softened Ed so much in the '80's that he's just adverse to putting himself in the line of fire, so to speak. Thanks for the refresher. I know why they got rid of Dennehy, she was awful. God, I remember some horrible scene where she's actually talking to a coconut. She's a good actress, but this wasn't the role for her.

I thought I saw a glimmer of Rosanna Cabot in Monday's episode. I'd take a Carly/Ro vibe any day. Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough interaction to judge. Pam is a blink-and-you've-missed-it character. Geez...some of this dialogue. Stilted, wooden, and just plain boring at times. That was a nice moment between Andre and Dani though. Even if I think it's a little early to wander into the "Dani's a closet alcoholic" story.

The only thing about Roger's return that I wonder about is why there wasn't more focus on the Ed/Roger history. I know there's some. Maybe it's just that it seems far down the list on Roger's conflicts with everyone else around town.

Yes, Phillip is Grant Aleksander. Blake is in that rare club of women who slept through families. See also Reva (Billy, Josh and their father HB, not to mention Billy's half-brother Kyle), and Harley (Alan-Michael, Phillip, and much later Alan's son Gus). I forgot---Blake also made her way through the Marler family---Ross, his half-brother Ben and Phillip.

I do it too--focus more on the bad than the good at times. With Marland, it's his overreliance on therapy to redeem/explain characters or move plot, with Long, it's her focus on Reva. There's no denying that Zimmer took the writing and ran with it, but it often felt like Reva never really earned the devotion that characters gave her. Just write a scene where Reva cries about her emotional childhood trauma, and "all is forgiven". RME. Interestingly, i can't really criticize the Curlee/Demorest/Reilly era. Other than it didn't last nearly long enough. They weren't to blame for killing Maureen, that came from above. It felt like they were good guardians of the established characters they inherited (it would've been so easy to get Holly and Roger wrong after so long off the canvas, and credit must be given to them and Long). And they took a situation that would've tanked a lot of writers (the departures of multiple fan favorites who are literally linchpins of the show Phillip/Beth/Josh/Rick) and made it work. The German episodes date it as 12/8/89, but you can search for "PokerAlex!" and find the clip. It's actually the first poker game Roger throws, which ends up costing Henry his Spaulding shares in '90. When Elizabeth Dennehy debuted in the role, I don't believe they had a plan for the character of Blake. She ran around town, making off-screen phone calls and manuevering Phillip, her target. I don't think they made the character Holly and Roger's daughter until after the writer's strike ended. Then the explanation was that she hadn't seen the people she knew for years (like Ed and Rick).

Because when she first came back to town, she used her middle name Blake. She didn't want people to know she was Roger's daughter.

lol...yes, she did. Melina Kanakaredes, she did Providence and then one of the CSI shows. GL is very interconnected (aka, incestuous) because they hung on to a lot of characters for long periods of time. Blake and A-M's marriage only lasted a few months. That was after she'd married his (adopted) brother Phillip and slept with their father Alan. Ross, who she's married to now, is Phillip's biological uncle. Phillip and Dinah are cousins. Ross' brother Justin is Phillip's bio-dad. Yes, I believe it was posted a while back. I love the "Poker Alex" clip.

It was a little over a year ago. While I grew up on Guiding Light (ATWT and the CBS soaps), I really considered myself more of an ATWT fan. By the end of GL I was barely watching, and I really kind of distanced myself after it was cancelled. Anyway--FF to '21-'22, and Michael Tylo, Lisa Brown and Jerry verDorn died within months of each other. They were three key characters in Springfield when I really got hooked on the show as a teen. Arguably, one of the most iconic scenes in GL's history is the catfight between Nola (Brown) and Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) at Nola's engagement ball. Someone was posting clips on Twitter, and I ended up falling down the youtube rabbit hole. Watching the ball lead to watching Quint and Nola's wedding, which led to Billy and Vanessa's romance. I had forgotten how catty Vanessa had been, and found myself laughing as she rained cynicism over love and the "happy couple" at every opportunity. The more I saw, the more I looked for clips, the more I watched things I had never seen, or hadn't seen in years. I flit around. My favorite eras are '80-'82 (the Marland years, with Nola and early Ross/Vanessa who are old lovers manipulating each other in a twisted way), '83-'85 (Pam Long's first run, with Vanessa and Billy falling in love, the Four Musketeers (Phillip/Beth/Rick/Mindy) and OGAlexandra (the incomparable Bev McKinsey). Then '89-'93, when favorites Roger, Holly, Billy and Vanessa all return to town within months of each other and Long and Curlee/Demorest/Reilly write character driven, compelling drama that doesn't treat viewers like total idiots. I can also appreciate what I've seen of the Dobson era ('75-'80). There are plenty of characters I remember, but there's not a lot of that available to watch.

Billy and Nadine weren't living together through most of Nadine's "pregnancy". Billy had walked out on her after he found out she had given Vanessa's name to the Inquisitor when Vanessa pressed attempted rape charges against Jack Kiley. When she told Billy she was pregnant, she also told him she didn't want him moving back in right away, until she was sure he was committed to their marriage, not just coming back because of the baby. Billy doesn't move back in until after Maureen's death in January, which is just a few weeks before Peter was born. Nadine was dumb, but she knew how to play on Billy's guilt over his failures as a father. Yes, the plot dumbs Billy down dangerously, but Vanessa smelled a rat right away. She backs off though because she can't prove anything, and she's reluctant to blow up Billy's life without it.

Exactly. It's literally a handful of episodes. The scenes I remember are with Maura West, as Lucy snottily asks if Carly's Craig's mistress. She then goes on about how parents don't understand the damage they do to their kids, which leads to Carly going to Julia I and apologizing for throwing the (cheap looking) Christmas stocking Julia bought for her and Jack's unborn child. If Seyfried got paid for the use of her photo, she got a good deal.

And FYI, the reason Peter was adopted in the first place is that Nadine (who was married to Billy between Billy and Vanessa's marriages) intended to pass off Bridget's baby as her and Billy's child. (Naturally, this was done to save her marriage, because she knew Billy really loved Vanessa...but that's nearly three years of plot in a nutshell. LOL)

I will say, while there is a fuzzy quality to her other playlists/years, it's not quite as bad as that. I'm not quite sure exactly what the reason stated was for Josh moving in with Vanessa. But Josh hadn't been back in town long before Billy went to jail. And after Billy went to jail, Vanessa and Bridget fought for custody of Peter (who Billy and Vanessa had adopted). Roger, naturally didn't want his grandson raised as a Lewis, and so he backed Bridget in the case. He also threatened Vanessa, and no doubt Josh stepped in to protect Vanessa. There's also the fact that he had two young children, so for a while they sort of group raised all their various children . Vanessa's father Henry is also living there with them. Peter is Roger's first grandchild. At this point in time, GL's characters don't really have grandchildren. The only ones that do are Reva and Billy. Their son Dylan fathered a child by Harley, but that child isn't really on canvas at this time. Vanessa won't even get a grandchild on screen before the show ends. I understand re: time. I've honestly only been rewatching GL for a little over a year. I'm sure there'll be enough exposition to fill in the blanks, but it's not exactly the same as watching Roger reclaim being Public Enemy Number One. LOL.

Vanessa is Josh's ex-sister-in-law. (That also makes her Mindy's ex-stepmother) Vanessa was married (twice) to Josh's brother Billy. Billy shot Roger when he learned Roger was his adopted son Peter's grandfather. He's currently in jail. Yes, Vanessa is older than Matt. If you find yourself hooked, you might eventually want to go back to 1989, which is when Roger returns from the dead. (And you'd get the entire history of Roger and Billy's feud, but I digress.) If you've found the playlists I'm thinking of, no, I haven't found better quality. Man, it's been a tough year for soap star deaths already.

I do find it curious that she either had nothing to say about Pam Long, or hadn't gotten around to dishing that dirt yet. Yeah, the Meg story reeked of GL trying to do a social issue story, and not having the guts to commit to it.

I haven't rewatched it since it aired, but I recall the Brent story being well-received. Sure, it was a rip-off of Psycho, but daytime had never shied away from ripping off the movies. Thinking about it, I wouldn't doubt it was trying to tap into the uptick in horror/slasher movies in the '90's. It is ironic for someone to diss how crappy the actors writing could be, when she was a dayplayer actress turned writer. I mean, for a writer, she sure played the part of an ex-hooker slinging beers well. I mean, how can you not write something better for Holly than a dull romance with the duller than dirt Fletcher? I mean, c'mon. Every other vet in that age range got a younger lover to goose their story. The only one it didn't really work for was Ed, and that was part of the fallout from Maureen's death no doubt. I do want to add that even though I loathed Nadine, and don't think much of Jean Carol's acting, McTavish did her dirty. What's an actor supposed to say? "I'm happy over here playing 4th banana with nothing really to do?"

Is that Marie Masters at 2:17? I wish someone could work some digital magic and clean up those images. I don't have a clue about who most of these people are.

Yeah....I need a shower after reading that. If that ever got published, I think I'd hope ever actor mentioned sued. Funny how she's never to blame for what makes it on air. Maybe that's why she can't talk about GL much...

I don't think I ever heard that rumor.

lol....Clayton Norcross might have given him a run for his money, had he not been replaced.

lol...mostly that Reva and Cassie are brainless idiots having a stupid argument. Over JoshUA .

I understand wanting fresh faces, but it seems like most of the cast has their first acting gig. Yes, other soaps started with inexperienced actors (looking back at B&B is painful, and Ronn Moss never improved) but they also balanced it with vets or established character actors in key roles. Anyone else wishing Anita had a bestie to talk to? Her family is exhausting.

Now I get what you mean. But honestly, it kind of reinforces the idea that those two morons are arguing into a huge void.

I, personally, would never consider either Roger or Alan a romantic leading man. Some could argue Alan was briefly with Hope/Rita (or was at least working on turning that corner) and becoming more anti-hero-ish around that time with that and the Jennifer/Amanda story. While I've never really seen pre-77 Roger (his relationship with Peggy), what I've seen never strays far from villain territory. Yes, he loves Chrissie/Blake and Hart, but it's always more about what he needs than affection. This isn't to say that CB's Alan and Roger aren't complex and layered characters. I would never call them one-dimensional. (Contrast them with a cardboard villain like ATWT's Tonio Reyes ...ugh) They love, but it gets smothered by their need to control and manipulate people. Alan loses some of his complexity when Long takes over. Although in fairness, part of that is probably due to CB's health. He seems to be gone for chunks of time in '83. Particularly in the fall. There's a plot point of him leaving Vanessa in charge of Spaulding for a time to teach her a lesson, and then he's gone again and returns just in time for the reveal in the Eli Simms/Fishing picture story.

Totally agree. Although I love the '01-'02 return, with him egging Barbara into madness and engineering Carly, Emily and Rose's kidnappings. Who's the bigger villain? Roger. He raped two women, he was about to kidnap Chrissie, and he was blackmailing Alan. Alan was morally corrupt, but you always felt he had some kind of ability to care about someone other than himself. Not so with Roger.

I just flat out consider Zas, Bryggman, Bernau and Herrera better actors.