P.J.

True enough. But it just feels too ordinary for Reva to temporarily be blind. ykwim?

Not one shred of that sounds familiar. Sudden blindness is one of those soap tropes that was overused to the nth degree. I've just sped through '08, where Bill starts out the year blind, and ends it with amnesia.

Wait---not that I care---but Reva was blind? *sigh*

You would think that, wouldn't you? I'd almost think they needed the money to get Robert Newman back, but they also had to know Larkin wasn't going to stick around and play second banana either. I don't get what the writers thought they were doing with Calla. Long liked using actors from Texas, but other than Alex/Bev McKinsey, the characters she wrote for them seemed blah.

Like a lot of soaps, once relatives left, they kinda dropped off the face of the earth and out of conversations. I don't know why writers do that. If they just don't want to confuse viewers, or don't think it matters, or want the liberty kind of revise history to make their stories work. After Josh left in '84, he's barely mentioned. Even when Billy's railing against Kyle and refusing to accept him, it'd be the most natural thing in the world to say "Kyle's NOT by brother, JOSH is!" and I don't think he ever really says that. The only writer I can recall who didn't do that is Doug Marland on ATWT.

The good thing about those ATWT openings is that they rotated the characters. The flaw in the Hold on to Love opening is that it was so stagnant, and rarely if ever changed. That ATWT version had at least three different versions, and sometimes you got the opening, sometimes you got the clean up spot, and sometimes you got the short dot-dot-dot spots. Ugh..the hands opening was about 2007 and was the actors putting their hands in a circle (I was waiting for them to yell "go team!") as a poem was recited. It looks like fifth grade media students came up with it. See---no one wants you to forget Vanessa's a Chamberlain. It was so embedded in the character, it never quite sounded right to leave out her maiden name. And if she wasn't reminding people she was a Chamberlain and not to be trifled with, other characters would throw it out there. Once (and I think it's during the Slut of Springfield debacle) Alex says something like "poor Vanessa--she's still a Chamberlain at heart after all". Although I can't recall her ever being credited as Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis. And thank God we never had to contemplate "Vanessa Reade". I swear half the time that marriage fell through was that someone shivered at the thought at having ten characters a day say "Vanessa Reade". I'd have to check on if they used C. Blake Thorpe a lot. I Anyone would've been better than Calla.

I said it before---Guiding Light is probably the soap that most clung to family names. I mean, the only reason to even think about naming that child Bert B(whatever) is that you've been writing all night, you start shooting in two minutes, and someone inserted it as a joke and the wrong rewrite got sent out to the actors. As much as I criticize Infinity, the fallout from the shooting is what sweeps is all about. The moment when Rick and Phillip know Mindy could spend that money--OMG. Billy's ready to lock himself away, Sally tears Reva a new piehole, Ed's performing life-saving surgery and Lujack bein' all Lujack. I actually like that cop--I think his name is Saunders? He was a rarity, a cop who wasn't dumb. Listening to that Locher room with Krista and Mark Lewis, I think Kurt would've lasted longer, had Mark not had an out in his contract to do a play. As Mark explained, a new EP came on, didn't want him to do the play and kinda warned him that he might not have a job to come back to. Mark did it anyway (he had friends backing the play) and sure enough, they killed Kurt off. In the long run, I don't think they had a lot of story to do with Kurt and Mindy, who hadn't gone through much before getting that extravaganza. But it did seem to be short sighted to kill him off that soon. Ross wasn't driving story in '85, that's for sure. He had defended Lujack in the Andy Ferris murder, and he rides herd on Phillip as India tries sinking her claws into him. He did send Trish off to Europe, and he defends Billy and Mindy. But yeah--sometimes they just "forgot" about Ross until someone needed a lawyer. While there was always a fight around Spaulding, it was hitting a dry spell in terms of people connected to it to interact with.

I have had a semi-obsession with end credits. Back in the early '90's, I would copy ATWT's cast list. That was fascinating (at the time) because they were listed by length of time on the show. And in the '00's I would keep track of the scriptwriters/directors. Now I catch GL's and realize how many names stayed with P&G for years in different capacities. And I obsess over Maeve's credits, whether it's Vanessa Chamberlain or Lewis. I just caught an episode during the Infinity story where she's back to Chamberlain. I swear, someone in the production office (or whoever handled updating the credits) loved the sound of the name Chamberlain and were determined not to let it die.

I'm not sure they ever had a clear vision on Hart. Other than being the only real instrument that could make Roger pay for his actions.

There's something about the attachment you feel when you hear the theme music. I know some people love the Leaves opening (which is called something like Ritonelle...it's mainly strings) that ran during the Dobson era. The disco opening just feels foreign to me--like they tried to replicate nighttime drama openings (to my mind, Hawaii 5-0) and didn't understand that Mike holding a gun on someone or Nola screaming wasn't representative of what the show was about. The first ATWT character one has a white background that's harsh looking. They changed the backing colors a couple of times, but they used that damn shot of Carly for like three years. Later, like '05-06 maybe, there was a silly one that made it look like the characters were emerging from fields of something, that made my eyes roll right out of my head. It never got as bad as GL's "hands" opening, which is better forgotten. The BTG one convinces me there are different people in the roles, but I still have to think---"who is that now?"

Jeanne and Christian are on for maybe 45 seconds. Chris kisses Van's hand. I'm only surprised Reva didn't push her way into the scene and dry hump him. 'Cause...well, she's Reva. Oh, GOD, it's party after party and in one Vanessa's got these gaudy epaulets on her shoulders, which just wasn't Vanessa. Luckily, they kind of ditched the wardrobe and there weren't a lot of repeats on some of these outfits. The other Locher room I watched was with the costume designers, and at one point they said that sometimes they realized when characters had gone too far astray in their wardrobe, and they'd have to return to a look the audience was more familiar with for them. One specifically mentioned Vanessa, and he said he got thanked for making Vanessa Vanessa again, which I could only interpret as happening during the Matt era, when Vanessa was gushing about the joys of discovering chili dogs. RME. I do think the fashion takes a nose-dive around the time MKA is there, but part of the issue was probably also that she was a little taller and not the typical size 0/2/4.

Not that they didn't introduce "good girl" ingenues over the years they had Jessie, Dinah#2 (who was definitely more refined than Dinah #1, Jennifer Gatti, who walked like a linebacker), Samantha, Kat, Julie and Lucy. But none of them really seemed to have staying power. GL had plenty of doctors over the years. But after Hillary died and Katie left, any nurse was short term (like Charlotte Wheaton) or just a day player. Margaret Sedwick is just that a doctor. I can't think of another contract nurse until Annie shows up in the mid-90's. This is the "My Guiding Light" theme (the first version, and IMO the best, which debuted in '83) They used it (although they later had a synthesized, faster version in the later '80's) until '91 when the Lighthouse opening debuted, which is also known as "Hold on to Love". The disco theme was just before this, and I'm not sure it even has an official name. I'm not exactly sure when ATWT included the characters in the opening. The 80's had the globe, the '90s started out with the "Seasons" opening which had nature pics embedded in the letters. On quick perusal, it seems like ATWT didn't include the characters until 2000/01 with the video globe. They really clung to the spinning globe concept. Over the years, I've been a fan of ATWT, B&B, GL and Y&R. I've watched Capitol, OLTL (after ATWT's cancellation) and GH, with no real attachment. I'm currently trying to watch BTG with mixed results. I favor ATWT and GL's openings, but remember Y&R's original sketches openings as iconic. I've always thought B&B's appropriate for context of the show, even if it never quite delivered what it seems to promise. BTG's is nice, but kind of lacks distinction, if that makes sense.

I don't think it was Jessie, unless they took a year to cast it. Kristi showed up the fall of '84, Jessie (Rebecca Staab) doesn't show up until October of '85, right before Kurt and Mindy's wedding. Funny they highlight Mary Kay Adams---I've been watching '85, and thinking they just don't know how to dress her. Everything seems frumpy or odd-fitting.

Tina Sloan held on for a lot of years (imo) just on the fact she was Beth's mom. (Beth was off canvas for two stretches, like 2-3 years and maybe five years the second time) Beth seemed to fill the traditional ingenue heroine space that had been Hope Bauer's. It's hard to even think of another pure heroine that grabbed the audience--maybe Morgan Richards between Hope and Beth---until Michelle grew up a decade later. She also seemed to be the only regular nurse the show had for most of the last 20 plus years of the show. Beth does return, eventually. The "My Guiding Light" theme lives rent free in my head. It's a lot easier to hum than ATWT's of the same era (which is da-da-dee-dum...da da daaa--ah" and a spinning globe).

nuHart is Frank Grillo. Not sure why Hilliard left. Grillo and Wendy Moniz later married, but they're divorced now. I get sentimental about the openings from both ATWT and GL. I admit to being excited when I finally found the episode with Billy kissing Vanessa (who's in a blue-edged robe) that they used in the opening credits in 1985. I could argue with myself all day about which opening is better---"My Guiding Light" or the Lighthouse opening. lol Oh...they DO. Lillian is Beth's mother. Phillip married Beth, but I think they were divorced when he returned. Lillian's known Phillip/Rick/Mindy (Beth's besties) forever. Oh, and Lillian and Alex are besties.

I watched a Locher room with Krista and Mark Lewis. The interviews are definitely better when he shuts up and the guests take over. Krista gives a good interview. Mark Lewis was kinda boring, but very complimentary about his time on GL. Locher really overblew the Kurt/Mindy story though. RME. You'd have thought they were Josh/Reva from the buildup he gave it.

GL's Amelia Marshall.

I watched that cow Reva tell Trish she was dumping HB in utter disbelief. When even Trish is staring at you like you are an ungrateful bitch, all because of a guy you met six months (or so) ago, you are a 'ho. How Reva and Zimmer survived this clunker remains a mystery to me. Were she and Kyle really that well received? Or did the writers realize they'd gone too far and write Reva's suicide attempt to softly reboot the character? Nowadays, David definitely would've been crushing on Kyle and jealousy over being rejected by him after Kyle found the Lewises would've driven him to try and kill him. Rick/Mindy FTW. I think Michael and Krista really were sparkly. I understand what they were trying to do with Kurt, but BLECH.

Yes. Something about Charlotte and Alicia being sisters and a childhood with an abusive drunk father. I couldn't watch the explanation, which seems to be an orchestrated "gotcha" moment by Fletch sort of "haunting" Alicia at the tv station. (I hadn't quite realized WSPR was around before Holly.) I think the radio thing was to make Fletch relevant. Long learned that globe-trotting peeps like Quint and Helena needed something to do in Springfield. Can't count on murder trials to keep the newspaper a-hoppin'. I swear the actress playing Alicia also had a role on ATWT---maybe she was Olivia Wycroft. I keep meaning to look that up. As much as I've criticized Simon, at least you can see there's something going on within him. VanVleet just feels like an aging playboy trying desperately to play a serious person. Yes, Leslie Dennison's Carolyn Crawford was a parapalegic on ATWT. LD's a lovely person, but a boring actress, imo. I was surprised to realize they really did show Billy having nightmares due to his brainwashing. It's mostly the same thing over and over, but I had only heard Vanessa telling Ross after Billy had been arrested before.

Thanks! I know the Infinity story takes the heat for the lackluster of 1985, but the Charlotte Wheaton story isn't any better. Other than proving Barbara Garrick has a talent for playing mean spirited kooks. Watching Richard VanVleet is like watching paint dry.

Rebecca Hollen's last airdate seems to fall between July 4th, 1985 and July 15th. Reva tells Trish she's in love with Kyle and leaving HB on July 4th. The Lewises (minus Trish) go to Cross Creek to celebrate Billy's birthday (this year, other years it's in March) to "accept" Kyle as a Lewis the week of the 15th.

I guess in terms of Phillip's woman du jour coming in third behind Beth and Spaulding, that's true. But she sure wasn't either MKA or even Liz Dennehy. Was Bolger still in the role at the beginning of Phillip/Chelsea?

Making her Chrissie was inspired, but if they hadn't gotten Roger and Holly back, would it have meant as much? Lord, save us from another Shayne. No offense to KdP, but she's just not my cup of tea. Maybe she just upped her game for OLTL, but she's uninspired on GL. Well, you can't have a "bad" Reardon. They could've said Chelsea was the oldest child of the oldest Reardon.

Or was the character of Blake going to be a new Spaulding? Chelsea.....grrrrrrr.

Honestly, rewatching the mid-80's, I wonder if Pam Long GAF about anyone other than Reva. Even Alexandra, who isn't getting any great story that I can see, she revolves around her precious Brandon. Reva is supposed to be plucky, "tell it like it is" brave for living with no regrets, while she pisses and moans, biting the Lewis hand that clothes and feeds her so she can lust after a virtual stranger because they've both "hungered" to be a Lewis and feel like they've been excluded from the precious Lewis circle of trust. Lord love a duck. Long didn't know how to write for strong women. She's not interested in Annabelle, Nola, Katie (although she hadn't had a story since '81) or Trish, Mo and Claire have babyitis, Roxy's an ex-whore, Mindy's spoiled but occasionally tries to grow up and Beth cries all day everyday. Yes, Vanessa isn't the mover and shaker she was upon entering Springfield. But at least she was allowed to grow as a character. Unlike Reva, she's not hamstrung in some eternal sexpot role that she can't escape from. As much as I dislike some aspects of the Dylan storyline, it's arguably Long's best umbrella story. Yes, it could've been written without Vanessa, but it's undoubtably richer for her being in it.