P.J.

@slick jones aww---KATIE!! She still looks fab! (is the first pic from Guiding Light? I'm curious who the child is.) And Nicky North!! IIRC, Nicky's the one who wanted to change his name and be like his big brother (played by Tim Mathison.) Thanks!!!!!!

Prime Billy is '89-'93. Shows were a little different then, when most got their turn to shine in stories. Jordan was never nominated for Lead, but I'd stack up his work against anyone's. And I loved Billy way more than Josh. Billy could be infuriating, but there's something about rule breakers that speaks to me. :) Josh is your "good guy" for most of his run, but he usually colored within the lines. Give me a dangerous scribbler any day.

Well, I knew they weren't clip ons, that's for sure. :)

I'm surprised Karla Mosely didn't tip over. Or at least list to one side.

If they can bedazzle some day old bagels and make Dani Dupree wear them, they can figure out how to shoot some outdoor scenes and freshen up some sets for summer. It's not rocket science.

Just point of order---Reva went off the bridge in 1990, not '91. TIIC couldn't even get that right. I love Billy, and thought I remembered him knowing Selena. Boo---hiss! A) Billy deserves better than hankerin' after some ex-ho, and B ) what kind of lunkhead would be more interested in Buzz than Billy? I remember there being some uproar over Rick throwing Michelle into a psych ward. I see the logic in it.

I know we discussed her some time ago. Her character's name was Gina I think, and the actress said somewhere that Pam Long kept writing scenes for her after the Galahads bit the dust.

@DeeVee you're welcome! I know I tend to gush about Jordan, but he is great with kids. There's something really sweet about seeing such a big, tough guy with a little baby. (and yeah, Nadine just makes you want to strangle her, which is the point, I guess.)

I do believe at one point Beth said her father had died when she was a baby in the Vietnam War. But I don't recall ever hearing his name. And I agree---it's awful strange that both Lillian and Beth kept using the name Raines. I can give Lisby Larsen some benefit of the doubt, Calla was just a cold-hearted social climber, afaic. Maybe Long would have shaded her more sympathetically. God knows she worked wonders reversing course with Reva. I can't say the same for Rebecca Staab, who's seemed the same pretty and shallow performer in anything I've ever seen in her. (Much like the infamous Shawn Christian, iykwim) The story isn't good, and you can tell TPTB scuttled it pretty quickly, since they made her the villain in the search for Dinah thing and dumped her after barely a year. I also can't believe Ross was ever serious about the woman, even though you could argue she's initially a lot like Vanessa when she sashayed into town. (minus the fur coats...and dropping thereof...) Van, of course, is still married at the time, and I can't really even claim Ross had a lot discrimination in women. He liked playing the field. I can't recall him dating anyone between Trish and Calla, so...unless it was that ditzy ex Galahad was between them.

Because we couldn't have nice things. LOL. Although Maeve had resting bitch face before it was a thing, and there are times you knew Vanessa wanted to let loose, but couldn't. I would've settled for any child of Reva's calling out her out and really sticking with that, instead of worshipping at her feet. But yeah, it would've been sweet for some kid of Josh's to actively work against her and Reva not being able to do squat about it. I was shocked when I realized he had first left just a year after Kim's arrival. OMG---I am watching an old Hart to Hart--and who pops up? A dark haired and murderous Rebecca Hollen.

You're probably right---I'm just a little too jaded now. Both Judi and Krista were special, and it's one of the few times I can recall a show launching two ingenues who both successfully caught on with the audience.

LOL...how lazy am I? That wasn't that long ago. Lenore made that sultriness look so easy. And without any of the cringey dialogue they'd probably have stuck the character with later.

LOL...right? Reva's Guiding Light. Well, Billy had just been on trial for killing David Preston. I guess even TPTB thought there was a limit to how much violence Billy could do. But working at Lewis does seem a little extra forgiving. The only reason I watched what's available of '86 is to figure out the Dinah thing. It's just painful to watch. There's even a fill in for Henry, at points, which really blunts the story. snort As long as it wasn't Bill, I honestly wouldn't have cared. It would've been perfectly in keeping with Reva if she had boinked Josh's son while she was "on a break" from whoever she was with at the time. And then had to lie to Josh about it. I forget---have we discussed possible Rita recasts? I think that would've been almost impossible.

I thought you knew! During MKA time on ATWT, she's involved with Joe Breen's character, Scott Eldredge. Joe Breen also plays Will Jeffries on GL, who was involved with Michelle Forbes' Sonni/Solita. Who natch, was on TNG and DS9. (this is the circle of soap life.) Thanks! I rechecked the recaps, but they just mention Alan faking a medical report. I'm going to assume he did. Beth's kidnapping was mixed up in Alan's return and the Von Halkein gold story. Phillip won't believe she's dead and puts his recovery at risk continuing to look for her. TPTB pulled the old no body found trick. The recaps mention something about Jackson being in league with Alan. Jackson was so poorly thought out, he was just one of those characters who they threw into random plots. I think he had feels for Beth, but he never seemed on the up and up about anything.

I forget--did they actually have Alan in '86 plant that necklace (to confirm Beth had died) or was that rewritten?

Judi's Beth is like a saccharine version of ATWT's Lily Snyder or Y&R's Cricket. There's a moment I wound up running into over and over during my rewatch of Josh's accident, during Beth and Lujack's beach story, where Judi is literally running around like a hyperactive chipmunk....and I wonder what I ever saw in Beth. Soap viewers understand that characters have to change, grow and evolve, but what they did to Beth was pretty much without foundation. Other than them blaming it on the loss of her marriage to Phillip---off screen.

Yep. I don't recall how long they said Beth had been in town before we met her. (Later, there's also a confusing backstory of Ross and Beth's aunt Calla having run around Springfield while they dated in high school, which is complete BS, suggesting that both Calla and Lillian were native Springfielders.) It was long enough that she had a few prior hospital stays due to "clumsiness" (ie, Bradley's abuse). It's writer laziness. Like when they act like Mindy graduated with Rick, Phillip and Beth from Springfield High. She didn't.

No. We met Beth right before graduation, but she was shy and introverted. She was artistic, not an athlete. Although it's also a little unrealistic she wouldn't have known the fundamentals of tennis. Phillip was more than once described as "near pro level" at tennis, and gave lessons at the club when he was a teen. I believe it's also mentioned that Alan and Phillip won father/son tournaments at the club when Phillip was young. You'd think he would've introduced Beth to the fundamentals at some point during their marriage. There's probably some psychology to a rape/abuse survivor being sexually aggressive, if she becomes attracted to a man and considers him being taken for granted in another relationship (which is the kindest way I can put her reaction to Vanessa.) But mostly I think Brown and Esenstein (who I think are the ones who brought her back), simply plugged Beth into plots and reinvented her personality. Subsequent writers continued down this path, and Beth was usually 180 degrees from how she was introduced.

But Beth knew **** wasn't going to screw her. At least that's what he kept saying. It's always a bad sign when writing teams are bad at family interactions.

Or ATWT's face-less Snyder neighbors, the Cobbs. Janie Cobb was forever babysitting Snyder children.

Because **** is about as threatening as a yappy terrier.

Was converting a 1986 episode of Guiding Light and did a double-take halfway through: Fiona Hutchison was playing a nurse named Molly Patterson. I was shocked as I assumed that her first soap role was on OLTL, but there she was and it seems to be her first appearance. It's not listed on IMDb or anywhere else online. I just uploaded it to the vault so everyone can check it out there. i know Fiona was on through the fall---she ends up having a scene with Vanessa and Henry around the time Vanessa is looking for Dinah. Re: Mel and her family---at times I think they simply dusted off the Grant family dynamic and threw it onscreen. Successful, driven older daughter, troublemaking son, doctor father and strong willed (if less social climbing) mother. I think they tried to weave Mel into the town (wasn't she friends with Harley and Blake?). But no, I don't really remember them working the parents into Springfield either. I don't remember if they came on as a family, or if the show just kind of slapped a family on Mel after they decided Rick needed a wife. Even the faux Bauers seemed more thought out than that. When Long introduced Billy and Mindy, we already had reason to care about him, he was Trish and Josh's brother and niece. Or at least it helped. Mel was already pretty bland--giving her a bland family didn't help. Gosh---I can't believe Remy was a character for that long. He must've been on the Frankie D plan.

I didn't like Mel and her family. Although I'm not sure it's anyone's fault, the show didn't do anything consistently with them. But Mel was a stick in the mud, and Remy was annoying.

To which Vanessa would retort: "At least I was having sex. Not simply pretending to. Jealousy is so last season, Nola dear." LOL.

It's up in the vault. 2-16-93, around the 27:30 mark.