P.J.

Vanessa Prentiss, Lance and Lucas' mother. The first storyline I remember is Morgan/Kelly/Nola, Guiding Light. Nola was so damn mean. When Kelly finally read her for filth, that scene I swear went on for fifteen minutes as Nola tried to wriggle out of everything.

It's strange, other than Anita/Vernon/Nicole/Dani, none of these people seem truly connected. Revelation after revelation doesn't bond characters, those smaller moments do. One of the cornerstones of this show should've been the friendship (or loss thereof) of Naomi and Hayley. Instead, if you hadn't heard Naomi complain about it those first few weeks, you'd never have known they were friends. I don't know how but

Martin's secret is only two years ago?

well, that's a unique moment in history. surely unforgettable.

Well, yes. But that's in the '00's. And if memory serves, before the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake debacle. I meant in 1983/84 when the first love scenes for Billy/Van and Josh/Reva aired, Jeva's were more risque by the standards of the day, which dictated that women had to have some clothes showing, even married characters. But by the early '90's, the standards had loosened, because I recall a hubbub over Nick and Mindy's love scenes. Billy is, isn't he? Even when Josh was a bad boy, he was as serious as a heart attack. Ugh...the actresses who ruined their looks getting surgeries. And now the young actresses who get it---SMH. I know there's pressure, but damn.

Uhm, am I ignorant, but I thought the actors just submitted the scenes they were in, not the entire episode. The scene she must be talking about shooting next is the "Proud Mary" sing with John Bolger. So...a little bit of irony there. She does seem happy.

Well, something put that smile on Vanessa's face. Not to mention, any woman would probably find herself fighting Josh the next morning for mirror time.

No, it seems to be Dorothy. Mr Grasso is played by Eugene Troobnick? (the same actor who played Stavros, Frank's great uncle) His name is either Ted or Tate.

It literally drove me nuts, not remembering who she was when I was watching the episodes. Then I finally connected her to Wings. lol.

Rebecca Schull played Mrs. Grasso on Guiding Light in August, 1986. (8/18 is the episode I found her in the credits.) The Grassos had bought the house of Dinah's adoptive parents, the Carters, who had been killed. She helped Vanessa find the name of the lawyer the Carters used to adopt Dinah.

LOL...funny story about your mom---I'm sure I would've loved her! And not just because I'm a Billy/Van fan! I think sometimes people hang on to names. And with all the writer turmoil in the mid'80's, it's really hard to pick out one to blame. (I had no clue before I started following the thread how bad that situation was.) There's even a part of me that understands preferring Jeffrey over Josh. Mostly because Josh/Reva had been riding that rollercoaster for nearly 20 years by then (when you subtract their time off the show). But I just couldn't stand Bradley Cole.

Well, Reva and Josh get more explicit love scenes (and honestly, at this time on GL I'm sure it was risque..) and honestly, except for a flashback of what led to Dylan's conception, Billy only slept with two women on the show, Vanessa and Nadine. So even though it's a rather limited field, let's just say Billy seems like he'd be fun in bed. Whereas Josh would be playing "mother may I?"

Well, you know how much it pains me to agree with Kim. lol But while in an ideal setting, Oprah would've listened to her producer about her guest's concerns, would that have really changed Oprah's mind set, or did walking off drive the point home and signal Kim was serious? It would be interesting to see if any of those segments are up at utube and see if it really changed. Or if Oprah just threw out a softball to Kim and then went right back to the AMC ladies.

DAMN.....the onion story is about Jordan/Maeve! I don't recall where or when I first heard that story, but I'd always assumed it was Michael/Lisa. I don't think Kim's take on Billy/Reva is surprising. At least in the respect that it was more a physical thing than a love match. When HB confronts Reva about Alan paying her to bust up Billy and Van, she even admits that she married Billy for the Lewis name and money. And I've always thought that what stuck in Billy's craw over the years (and why he took so much crap from her in their "friendship") was that he knew Reva never loved him, and that he kept trying to prove to her she should have. But Billy better than Josh in bed? Yeah, I buy that. Fans enjoyed Jeffrey/Reva? GTFOH. Honestly, I don't blame Kim for her reaction to Oprah. It was unprofessional of Oprah to show her bias, and frankly, nothing was more annoying than those damn bait shows and NOT hearing from the person you were interested in hearing. If Oprah had wanted to do a AMC lovefest, she should've just had AMC actors. And I'd love to hear Strasser reaction to being somewhat ignored.

Vanessa started looking for her daughter in July, in part because Grace would always send her a note that included a phrase like "everything was fine at home and away", and hadn't that year. Dinah is looking for her "sister", and I think they are both at Camp Cayoga, but she didn't realize it was her because the only way she could identify her was by a birthmark on the back of her neck. Ross isn't aware he has a daughter until October or so, when Vanessa's forced to tell him as he's going off to San Rios to help rescue Simon and Jessie (who's been shot) who I think went to rescue Alex (I don't have a clue why she's there, but she got sick). I will say, for being such a secret....no one around town seems overly surprised Vanessa has an illegitimate child. Ross is angry for about half an episode. Henry seems angrier with Grace. And Billy seems angrier about the lie. Not that I can recall. I'm sure part of it is the HW changes, although Dinah's initial reaction with Gatti is really, really cold. Turco is the outlier, but I think that's a course correction by that regime, who might've been more interested in trying to make Ross/Vanessa work. Moniz and Tognoni are more in line.

It's hard to determine when Vanessa started acting strange. Gatti debuted sometime between May 9th and June 19th, just on a quick survey of the credits. Vanessa goes to Grace's in July.

Right? I guess Jessie being their daughter is just too easy. I suppose if I paid more attention to the Ross/Calla relationship, it would seem like there was some jeopardy there, but I can't stand that woman.

Jennifer Gatti didn't start until '86 and Bolger had been in the role since '84. I do find it strange that they recreated anything for Beth's memorial when Bolger was gone about six weeks later. I suppose some kind of involvement was heading Vanessa and Ross' way since the Infinity trial, but I'm not sure why it's Dinah and not Jessie. Or if there was a switch midstream. Jessie had a little crush on Phillip at Kurt and Mindy's wedding.

Sally doesn't cater to Reva, true, but this year she's meddling in Billy and Mindy's marriages. She's on Vanessa for going back to work, and she encourages Billy to stay meddling in Mindy's. I don't know what she's doing in regards to Kyle, but I suspect she's offering up "advice" to her other son too. Billy does seem lost---he needs someone to fight (as he later does Roger during '90- 93), and he seems to let Kyle take the lead in all the business matters. He's only fighting Vanessa, which seems almost cruel in light of the fact she's spent the last two years as a devoted wife, forgiving everything, and believed in him during the Infinity story when almost no one else did. I understand his frustration at times, but it seems out of character for him to not realize something is wrong with Vanessa. And like you said, Reva is much the same way. Schlepping around Cedars and taking pics at summer camp isn't riveting television. I've always found that hilarious. Marj had been a working actress since the '60's (hello, Hogan's Heroes and one of my favorite Star Trek episodes) not to mention having successful runs on two other soaps, a guest starring gig on Facts of Life, etc etc...but Kim was worried. Hmmmn..'K.

Spauldingfield has been uploading. The first half of this episode(about the 26 minute mark) then this: this has been up for a while, but it's classic Billy and Vanessa, and Ross' bewilderment is hilarious. Yeah, I know stuff had to be going on with Jordan, but Billy's function in 1986 seems to be being Kyle's "yes" man. RME. I don't tend to like Miss Sally who just loves to spout her opinion, but it's a little sad that Patricia Barry was just kind of dumped.

Damn it, 1986, I watch you against my better judgment, and then you throw me a bone, getting my Billy/Vanessa heart fluttering. (I can also see they're trying to rebuild Ross/Vanessa...there's a sweet way Ross can't take his eyes off her, and ends up ignoring Calla. *giggle*) It's obvious that Nancy Curlee really gets Billy and Vanessa. She seems to write their best material.

One gets the impression Malloy wanted to be top banana, and wasn't interested Kyle being less than that. I guess he could also see the writing on the wall---without Billy in town (since I assume he also knew Jordan was leaving) Kyle didn't have an ally really. Given how much time and story they'd already invested in Kyle, the show was probably scrambling for story. Not to mention, they were going to have to cover KZ's pregnancy. LOL...well, Reva had slept her way through Billy's family. Why would Josh hesitate to sleep with one measly sister?

Exactly, there would've been a completely different power dynamic between any EP and an actress in her first role, and an EP and a three-time Emmy winning actress who is arguably the "face" of the show. It does kind of poke holes in Zimmer's reputation as "truth teller" and standing up to power, if she disregarded his history because he wasn't messing with her paycheck. It would be interesting to hear what Beverlee had to say about him, given that she was on AW when Maeve was.

Honestly, I don't think the book company really thought any soap fan would care about details or particulars. It's not exactly a history of Winston Churchill. They probably rushed it to publication, thinking KZ's fans would forget about her.

I think there was an intent to recast Kyle. There's something about an accident and plastic surgery. I don't know if Long's return put a kibosh on that, or if they just decided to bring Sonni on instead. It was a strategy, back in the day, to submit two totally different "sides" of the character. With her being some character in Phillip's book, it's almost like being twins. Later, the strategy became to show "connected" episodes that gave the judges the idea of the story. I have no idea what they do now. Both Billy and Sarah insisted they saw Reva. I don't remember if they saw it separately, or if Billy saw it and showed it to Sarah first, but Billy was definitely in the thick of it. I believe he went to WSPR to get a copy of the show, and then used a lab tech there to try and enhance the still to determine if it was Reva. He brings it to Josh, and then offers to go to Italy himself and look for her. Billy's judgement was questionable, because he's still drinking at this time. Right? I guess I wouldn't have wanted a completely, earnestly idealistic Beth either, but I just don't like BC in her return. I had not really put what Elvera said together with this before. It does make you go 'hmmn'? and wonder how much was known about the situation then. I agree that they seem like complete opposites. I don't really get the feeling they were especially close, they've never done a Locher room interview together that I know of, and the ones I've seen with Maeve, I don't think she's really said much about Kim. Maeve seems to have been closer to Rebecca Hollen (Trish) and Ellen Parker (Mo) and Maureen Garrett, as she, Ellen and Maureen shared a dressing room. The one comment I do recall (and I can't remember if I read it or it's a Locher interview) was that the years where Vanessa was basically just Reva's foil were a little more difficult for her. Which is completely understandable.