P.J.

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

@slick jones thanks! Cool that the soap child we fans once referred to as our Little Lima Bean could've been on a Sprout show! LOL!

Well, Reva was dead. And no, no one ever blamed Reva for anything. It was years before Reva and Phillip were back on the show together, and I doubt it was even brought up. Guiding Light didn't really have characters hold grudges. At least if it didn't involve Roger. And even that was muted. I believe the academy went to a weighted system, where each vote was worth points. The rumor was, that while Maura received more first place votes, because Jeanne got more consistent second place votes, she earned more points and thus won that year. They always tried busting up "block" voting, and it seemed to make the situation worse.

Thanks @DRW50 I did love Kirk and Iva so. "You're uptight and humorless." It's too bad they didn't list the scriptwriter, 'cause someone understood the assignment.

Well, "Reva Red" started before her PPD. I'm not even sure when it became a "thing", but the audience knew when Reva wore red, fireworks if some kind were gonna blow. During her PPD, yes, when she wore red, it meant her symptoms were flaring. She threw a party for Justin to meet Dylan, and wore this expensive dress with some kind of cape--all in red.

Jackie died in 1982. From when Justin left in '83 to when they recast in '90, they barely brought his name up. Part of that time Phillip's off canvas (or recast with John Bolger), but through Philip's many, MANY marriages, there's never any talk about "hey, sent an invite to my day Justin btw". Maybe GL is just worse at it than most shows I watched, but yeah....once someone left, they've just fallen off the face of the earth. One of the rare exceptions was Reva's sister Roxie, who would occasionally get a shout out. Not (probably) that she was that hugely popular, but to use as an excuse for Reva either being out of town or whatever. Not just random peeps with no family left in town, but peeps with family--Trish Lewis, Justin, Lucy Cooper, Alan-Michael, Mindy, Dylan, Marah, the list goes on. Long story (way) short---Reva's post partum depression came back while she and Josh were on vacation. Dylan went down while she was hospitalized, and Reva arranged for Sam to come down as a surprise for him. (this was a small sign her PPD was back, initially, Reva was obsessing over the idea that Dylan and Sam should get married. She helped them runaway to get married, but Billy, Josh and Ross stopped them) Reva, Dylan and Sam went shopping in Florida, and Reva became convinced a car was following them. She was driving to lose them, and told Dylan to get out. When it was clear to Sam that Reva wouldn't stop, she threw herself out of the moving car before Reva went off the bridge. Sam was paralyzed for about six months. Sam and Dylan were a nice couple, but they weren't the second coming of Beth/Lujack or even Harley/Alan-Michael. Neither actor was very dynamic, alone or separately. Jordan's was a welcome surprise. I think the academy changed the rules shortly thereafter. Which supposedly cost Maura West the ' emmy, the year Jeanne Cooper won.

I can't either. The only character "Billy" I recall was Billy Ross, who wasn't there long. I think Gwen called her baby Billy (aka Rory and ultimately Johnny), but while Casey was later played by Billy Magnussen, at that time, it was Zach Roerig. It couldn't have been as confusing as the glut of Scotts ATWT had at one time---Scott Defrietas, Scott Bryce and Scott Eldredge.

LOL...besides the end, when he just smirks when Van lays down her terms, I think my favorite part is him stalking out of HB's, muttering "I've got a DATE." sigh* the angst of it all. The girl in the pink is Samantha Marler (Philip's full biological sister.) She came to town in early '89, and stayed with Ross. (Her relationship with Dylan drove him nuts.) Her dad is Justin Marler, Ross' older brother, just recently returned to town and being played by Christopher Pennock. His protege, the dark haired younger man, is Daniel St. John. In case it wasn't clear, the children with Beth and Phillip at the end were Michelle Bauer and Ben Reade (before they were slightly aged and recast.)

On ATWT, there was Ellie Snyder and Ellen Stewart. Oh, and a weird one---when Royce and Emily were dating, he had a butler whose name was Graham, and Emily always called Ellen "Gram", which sounded the same when KMH talked.

I think there were a couple of luaus. One has the guys in grass skirts. The one I'm thinking of includes Fletch so it has to be '84 or later. I think 4th in '84 also has Reva and HB setting up the house for Josh, and they make a point of saying they're paying the movers double overtime for working the holiday. I seem to recall Peter Simon either saying he disliked the BBQs because they made him wear the chefs hat, or a rumor to that effect. I could see Roger stuffing away Adam in a home, if not exactly abusing him. BTW, was Roger Adam's only child? Crazy I never really thought about that before. That was also probably a strategic mistake by Irna. (I've never thought about who created Roger either.. I'm assuming since he appeared early '70s. What is it about this show and lone children?)

SAD. ATWT I think acknowledged the holiday until the end. In '90, they sing "This Land is My Land" and "God Bless America". It is up in the vault. I see I lost it on utube. G-D it. Oh, and I sigh over Ross in a tank top. But you don't have to. lol.

It's a little weird that there was no acknowledgement of the holiday---at all? I see in '99, the Fourth was on a Sunday, so that might've played into it. It's hard to gauge if/when shows started acknowledging the holidays outside of Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Bauer BBQ wasn't officially "the Bauer BBQ" I don't think until '89, I think. When Alan-Michael arrived in '87, he parachutes in to the 4th of July celebration, but it's being held at Johnny Bauer's airplane hanger for some stupid reason. In '83, the Fourth was right after Quint and Nola's wedding, and I think they acknowledged the day while they were on their honeymoon in Ireland. But I'm not sure they celebrated it in Springfield. I think Maeve and Fletcher may have married the 4th in '88. My favorite it '90---Ed and Mo fight about her potato salad, Ross proposes to Holly, Billy and Vanessa officially reconcile, and the cast sings at the end. They had a BBQ in '92, even though it was literally on the heels of the Blackout. Ed frets about his kiss with Lillian, while Fletch ponders his feels for Van.

Like when Cricket was at the Legal Aid and befriended that old lady and whoever Parley Baer played. And then they'd occasionally reappear for short periods. It might've been a nice little side story for one of the older actors.

They're not mutually exclusive. Both actions were punishing Alan and righting the wrong her father had done in taking Lujack from her. But she was scheming from the beginning. There's a scene after Alan is gone where she's playing Henry, Vanessa and Quint, moaning about who should run Spaulding now--and they back Ross. And since they (at the time) had the controlling interest, of course she follows their advice. Alex realized she couldn't just walk in after 20 years (or so) of not being involved in the business and expect shareholders to back her. And she pushes them out by September, solidifying her power. A story like elder abuse would only work if the perpetrator was short term. The audience never would've accepted someone close to Henry abusing him. It might've worked while Vanessa was out of town, for instance. Or if Henry had gotten hurt, and discovered it was going on at the nursing home/rehab center he was recovering.

Oh, I'm sure Alex was meant to be a business force and Alan's equal. Her first moves are all about kicking Alan out of Spaulding. She simply hid her agenda. The same way she surveilled the party getting the lay of the land on Springfield dynamics before revealing herself.

Later. We didn't even hear about Alexandra until Alan tells Vanessa that his sister's coming home and he asks her to plan the party to reintroduce her to Springfield. Around mid-January/early Feb '84.

Jack was a manipulative business man with commitment issues, who sought his father's approval by proposing to naive little Patty Williams. And much like Alan, Jack had an adversarial relationship with his sister Ashley, eventually blackmailing her out of the presidency of Jabot. (although I'm not sure if that was Lester or Peter Bergman, tbh.) No, the Abbotts weren't cannibalistic like the Spauldings, but there are times you wonder if John's parenting was all that great. All his kids were messed up. If she formally terminated her parental rights, the SOD recaps don't mention it, from what I can see. In '86, when Claire is fighting them for custody, she tries blackmailing Rick into siding with her. He witnesses her threatening baby Michelle, and everyone thinks she's having a breakdown. All the recap says is that Claire gives Michelle to the Bauers. (There's more crazy from Claire during the year, she's trying to manipulate Kyle into an affair, and she ends up getting thrown off a bridge by Reva's stalker, resulting in a coma and brain damage. She marries and leaves town with the doctor who treats her at the end of the year. The recap makes no mention of her making other legal arrangements for Michelle.) Ed and Mo break up in early '89, after Fletch is rescued from the island after crashing in the plane with Alex. Unless more from '86 surfaces, it'll be a mystery if Mo was even in a position to formally adopt Michelle.

duplicate.

OMG---this is me this morning, reading that! I thought there's NO WAY. And to find out, eh...it's not as far off as I thought. It would've been fabulous having Terry on the show (it was fabulous having him on ATWT.) But his Buzz would've been drastically different from Justin Deas' version. Lester and Frankie D would've at least looked like they came from the same gene pool. And maybe more easily believable as a ladies' man. But I don't think Lester would've stayed that long. He seemed to be a dude who would've spoken his mind about stories or BTS goings on and said "adios" when he'd had enough. And I can't really imagine Lester opposite either Jean Carol or Frankie D. I can imagine him as Alan, but mostly because Jack Abbott was a younger version of Alan. Re: Maureen, (and I feel this was brought up before), but were Claire's parental rights to Michelle terminated?

Now there's a story that should've been a lot less focused on Reva trying to reclaim her sex-goddess title and more on her self-esteem issues. Say baby Shayne died, and she flips out thinking it's karmic payback for her inner evilness. She still could've gone off a bridge eventually.

It's like TIIC knew Maureen's death wasn't going to go over well, and other than Bridget and Michelle, no one was really shown grieving. (Some would argue Ed did, but so much of his attack of conscience came off as poor poor me that it was almost off-putting.) They initially made such a big point of saying that Maureen impacted everyone in town....and yet they never really showed anyone's actions being negatively affected. I'm sure viewers inferred that Alan-Michael was more intent on keeping his marriage to Eleni going, or that Vanessa was less willing to keep Billy at arm's length....but you never really saw them struggle. There's one point, where Vanessa says to Bill (after he and Mindy were in a car accident, thanks to Eve) something along the lines of being sorry she's been a grouch to him since Mo died...and I'm like you were? It's just so ironic that after a car accident, Van's apologizing to her son and who's the nurse working that night? Lillian. Now that would've been a moment for Van to go off the rails, like the OGnastytantrum throwing woman she'd been and just eviscerate Lillian. Even if it were just a scene between the two women, for Van to let Lillian know what a nasty, skanky thing Lil did to Maureen. I think it would've given Lillian the reckoning she deserved. Instead of an afterthought scene, two years late with Nola.

Maybe it's the period I grew up in, but it seemed like death was pretty common on soaps, pre the '80s. Maybe it's just that I kept hearing that Irna would kill you off if you crossed her.

Other than Lujack, I can't recall another child of a major character who died and stayed dead (in my lifetime. And miscarriages aside.) Everyone in town knew that kid. I hate when TIIC just kind of spit in the fans' eye. I remember ATWT's Bryant died just about a year before Ben. P&G were obviously going through a stupid phase. At least ATWT could blame Jean Passanante, who pitched it the minute she joined the staff.