P.J.

On 8/6/2023 at 8:56 PM, NothinButAttitude said:

 

This is so GREAT. Babs was an honest to goodness bitch. And it doesn't even feature Lucinda or Emily. 

14 hours ago, soapfan770 said:

Well said. I remember I couldn’t stand Molly for a couple years there until she was paired up with Jake, although I did like Molly with Andy. Although I also liked Andy and Nikki but that happened as Jordana Brewster’s time was winding down.When it came to diversity the biggest. disappointment came with hiring Monti Sharp with lots of hype but then turning Lew into a giant creep. Yikes. But Peter Parros was always good as Ben always underrated.

Idk, stuff like bombing a boat on Nancy’s 80th birthday, Tom & Emily affair, Kirk and Sam literally disappearing, and drunk Lisa upset over John & Carly on Thanksgiving all just left a bad taste in my mouth. I might need to rewatch 1998 again myself. 

TBH, '98 is hard for me to watch, after Feb. Jan-Feb wrap up the Teague case (Carly and Jack gtetting trapped in the tool shed, and finally admitting their interest in each other) but March they break up, she marries Hal and they bring on StJuliaI.  I don't particularly like Kirk/Sam, Eddie/Georgia/Tom/Emily/Margo, and I think the pest known as Katie also shows up in the summer/fall.

I go back and forth on Molly. She's unapologetically slutty, but IMO, gets an unearned redemption after the chaos she caused accusing Holden of beating her up. Meanwhile, Carly is treated as the town tramp for marrying (!) and having sex with her husbands (!) (or at least 2 out of the 3).

The one really good thing is that Hal gets revitalized via the involvement with Carly. As much as I had liked Hal/Babs back in the day, it was a crutch for the writers.

I think the perception was as uneven as the writing. You've got good returns (Holden/Carly/Andy) and bad retcons (James and Lucinda's supposed love child David). Newbies Molly and Jack seem to struggle to find footing until Carly's return (I know, I'm biased) and Molly then takes the quickest sane-BSC--sane U-turn I can recall. 

I do think the Ben Harris/Teague story doesn't get enough credit. Teague himself is one dimensional, but all the beats between characters we care about are played. It weaves in most of the town in one way or another. 

On 7/17/2023 at 5:52 PM, antmunoz said:

Martha, that storyline was the same giant stinking turd that Jack/Katie and Lily/Keith were.  But props for trying to write yourself a storyline. 

Ugh. This is exactly why writers should never listen to actors pitching story ideas. It sucked, and it went against established character history. Holden and Carly never got along. And it really figures MB would paint Lily as the victim and Carly as dumb enough to "misinterpret" something between Jack and Lily. I knew there was a reason I hated her.

(Jack and Carly have resumed their relationship. Jack wants to go public, Carly isn't so sure..)

Jack: "We are the worst kept secret in town. Might as well be upfront with people."

Thanks for the synopsis. I obviously know Bob and Lisa were married, but it's odd for me to read stuff from the era before Kim and John.  I actually didn't know Chuckie was illegitimate.

On 7/10/2023 at 7:36 AM, Liberty City said:

Maybe not faint, but I would lose my words around Maura West.

Yep. I probably would faint if it was Maura and Michael .......

On 7/1/2023 at 11:40 AM, kalbir said:

 

 

 

 

   This right here. CBS ruled.

The only recollection I have is the trivia that David McCallum was once on ATWT, and seeing some publicity photo of Craig on the boat. I don't really have a clue what any of this story is about. But it's nice to see some of this still exists. 

Just watched a documentary on Valerie Perrine. I didn't really know much about her career outside of Superman. She's had health issues the last ten years or so. It's sad.

But, why did no one tell me she was dating Jay Sebring, and was supposed to be with him the night of the Tate-LoBianco murders? DAMN. Someone called in that night, and she ended up having to go into work.

15 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I do wonder if she had more of that fire as Rose Perrini on AW. 

The moments when we got to see the coldness in Emma (usually with Iva) were compelling. I wish we'd gotten more exploration of this side of her.

Now that I think about it---she went from being Maeve Kincaid's mother on AW to Lisa Brown's mother on ATWT..

Someone posted a clip between Emma and Iva, which must have been right after she came home in 85, where she's asking Iva why she came home. And I think there was a point after Iva started therapy where she finally asked why she had been sent to her aunt and uncle's in Kansas, where Josh ended up raping her. That could've been explored more, but somehow the Snyder boys always got the focus. Iva was just expected to deal with her **it on her own.

59 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

It's all a blur to me but for some reason I thought he was briefly involved with Lucinda around the time she and John were splitting up for good. I know she also had some encounters with the pilot who helped her find Sierra in '89.

Now that you mention it I do think his corporate life was a bigger factor in their split.

I'd forgotten until now that Warren Frost went on to play a strong support part on Twin Peaks. I wonder if that's one of the reasons he left ATWT. 

The whole mother/daughter tension over a man was something they tried with Emma and Iva regarding John, but something about it always felt wrong to me.

I remember the pilot. He was a crusty SOB. LOL

Yeah, the Emma/Iva drama over John was a bridge too far.  Emma had no problem ripping into her kids over bad behavior, but while that romance was ill-advised, it was years after Emma had been involved with him.

@DramatistDreamer that was the other problem with Liz becoming a regular. She was a full-on shrew with zero redeeming qualities. There was no reason for Iva to want that in her life. LOL She already had a narcissistic teen daughter who she had to bow and scrape to.

@DRW50  I don't really recall. I can't recall Lucinda and Cal ever having a thing. John broke Emma's heart when he showed up married to Lucinda. 

My guess is that Emma couldn't see herself fitting into Cal's world. She didn't want to leave the farm, she wouldn't have been comfortable splitting her time between Waco and Oakdale, and Cal didn't want to be Gentleman Farmer living in a virtual hotel with only one bathroom. (lol)

It has to be Doug Marland's ATWT. *Cries for the days when hospitals had consistent specialists, more than one nurse, millionaires had actual staff, corporate heads had trusty (or in some cases, not so trusty) assistants, out of town family kept in touch and occasionally visited, etc, etc, etc.*

36 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

I believe you're right.

I definitely don't think they would have needed to move to Oakdale, but Iva going back and forth the way so many ATWT characters did under Marland and up to 94 or 95 could have made sense. And provided some drama for Ellie and Kirk too. 

(didn't they also try to pair her father with Emma briefly - one of many Emma pairings that just felt very plot dictated)

You don't remember the Great Appliance War between Jarrod and Cal? They fought over who could buy her a stove. Then someone bought her a new refrigerator. I think she stopped them from buying her a dishwasher. Emma didn't put up with such nonsense. LOL. 

4 hours ago, DRW50 said:

That's a good point, although a part of me thinks if we were going to have them introduced, I wish they'd served more of a value. Maybe have Iva turn to them again during the Aaron storyline.

Do I have some vague recollection of Liz sleeping with....Tonio?  Ah...sometimes incidental characters just need to stay incidental. No need for everyone under the sun to move to tiny Oakdale. 

Considering how huge Marland's canvas was at the time, I don't think there was any room for Iva's bio family. But, Marland would've always kept them in his back pocket, to use if/when he needed someone.

That's the only other character I could come up with as well. I don't see Rick Ryan having the impact. He was a minor character they'd have had to unearth from the '70's (aside from a brief visit in the 80's to explain away Sabrina having survived), with no real ties to the canvas other than Barbara (who hadn't mentioned him) and Kim.

Scott was briefly involved with Lucinda, was Lisa's son, Tom's brother, and had a past with Carly (and Rosanna). Plus, while his past was defined, it wasn't as (for lack of a better word) restrictive. It might've made a lot more sense for Barbara to be attracted to someone didn't know as well, as opposed to Craig, who'd she'd co-existed with in Oakdale for at least 10 years without noticing. (and let's be real, Barb cut through Oakdale's male population like a hot knife through butter in the '80's).

Having just dumped Michael Wood's Alec Wallace, you would've thought they'd seek to layer their gray characters a little more. Instead, HB's Craig seems like a carbon copy rather than an upgrade. Which maybe isn't suprising, since they originally wanted to bring a new guy in the fall of '99, and it got pushed back due to Maura's pregnancy.

21 minutes ago, Khan said:

I tried to come up with an instance where I saw Hunt Block play any role with anything other than smarminess, and...I couldn't.

Me either. I hated Ben Warren. 

Having loved Scott Bryce, I'm not sure I could've accepted anyone else in the role. I understand that at the time they needed a [!@#$%^&*]-stirrer to shake Oakdale up. And it's hard to come up with a character who'd have as many ties on the canvas (although they rarely, if ever truly used Craig's). Maybe a better solution would have been to import a shady AW character to screw with everyone's lives. Although honestly, I was hella annoyed by Tom Eplin smothering the canvas at the time too. 

While I agree the writing for Craig was atrocious, I think the bigger problem was casting Hunt Block in the role. Block was a one-trick pony, really incapable of conveying anything other than an all-consuming self-interest. Block was given plenty of material to use as emmy bait, and only netted one nomination at a period in time when ATWT was awash in them. He was good at portraying a smug belief in his innate superiority, but not the ability to care about anyone else. And it's not like Craig wasn't given those moments, Block either couldn't, or didn't chose to play them. 

Meanwhile, Scott Bryce was able to give Craig a conscience in spite of even more atrocious writing.

25 minutes ago, DeliaIrisFan said:

That's very interesting.  On the one hand, you'd think Marland would have jumped at the chance to return to GL and salvage characters he had created that were foundering/discarded, and reinforce his vision for a show that had gone in various different directions since he had left.  On the other, GL had changed so much in those few years, and the time since he left had been longer than the time he was there.  Maybe he knew a "fresh" start would be for the best (I don't think he bothered to namedrop—let alone revisit—the Willows or anything else from that brief stint in 1979 in his second run?).

Marland left GL because EP Allen Potter fired Jane Elliot who was playing Carrie Todd in 1982. After that he created Loving and A New Day in Eden. My guess would be that ATWT offered him more control. Besides, Pam Long had shifted the focus of GL substantially. I'm not sure he could've dealt with the whale known as Reva Shayne Lewis Lewis Lewis. (And I would find it surprising if GL was prepared to kick Long to the curb, I thought she was doing well at the time)

Marland retooled ATWT and hired a substantial number of actors he'd had at GL. Lisa Brown, Ben Hendrickson, John Wesley Shipp for starters.

I don't know anything about the legalities of why the Dobsons didn't start right away. But I'm not really sure some kind of ghost collaboration was practical. I assume they would've been working on their long term story projections, and that might've been more important to everyone involved.

Haven't I read that Marland was given the choice about which P&G show he wanted to write for, and he picked GL?  That he thought it was the more (for lack of a better word) modern, and thus easier to jump into? 

Cricket/Nina Y&R  I don't even really recall the why, but Cricket definitely smoothed Nina's rougher edges.

Barbara/Lisa ATWT---they held each other in check, even if they neither was more upstanding. 

Katie Peretti, ATWT. She was a direction-less teen also ran for about two years, until she got thrown into an All About Eve-esque plot and decided to try and bed Holden. (and she's about the only woman he ever passed on...but I digress.) And she probably would've ended up on the same scrap heap as the rest of Lily's rivals, except for the fact she clicked with Paul Leyden. The rest is infamy. 

19 hours ago, Khan said:

ATWT's John Dixon once faked his death, I think, in order to frame James Stenbeck for murder.  Like much from that time period, the story was convoluted, and the performances were overwrought.  Nevertheless, it created quite the impression on me, lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLIS9KLhaHc

Douglas Marland and Henry Slesar were good at letting the resolution of one story feed into the beginning of another.  Stories didn't just end with characters dropping from sight.

Now that you mention John, David Stewart was presumed dead when Henderson Forsythe went off to do Broadway. Although I'm not sure the audience knew he was alive the entire time.