P.J.

Jenna was a con artist/jewel thief. She and Buzz had plenty in common. Vanessa was an accomplished, sophisicated woman. It was bad enough when they stuck her with the ex-gigolo.

A) Olivia certainly wasn't Vanessa and B ) by the time that happened, Buzz had at least matured somewhat.

Justin could be sexy. But as written, there was nothing Vanessa would've been attracted to in Buzz.

STOP. IMMEDIATELY, if not sooner. in trying to fantasy cast---Ian Buchanan. Can you see how pretty Ian and Maeve would be together?

They really should've bitten the bullet and brought in someone new for Vanessa. At the time, Fletch was really the only available male on the show. Billy wouldn't have been threatened by Ross, even though I would've loved a true Ross/Vanessa/Billy triangle. I can't even think of anyone GL could've brought back to be an also-ran. Justin might've made sense, if they hadn't recasted so badly.

Well, on GL, just being a Spaulding entitled you to head the business. Phillip runs it with about a semester's worth of college. A-M had a slightly harder road, Alex had picked Vanessa as president before she left in '92. Jenna (with Roger's help) takes Spaulding away from Vanessa and A-M (mostly thanks to A-M losing an important copy of a contract) in '93. When Spaulding's returned, A-M must get the presidency. As Vanessa was running Lewis Oil.

ON OCCASION? Oh, honey....granted it was more after Reva's resurrection, but she never met a chunk of scenery she wouldn't chew. I swear, sometimes it was like Jay was ghostwriting Fletch's attempts at romance. 'Cause I can't recall any other character getting a crack at so many leading ladies. Although honestly, as much as I hate Fletch/Van, her snapping on him is one of my favorite Van moments EVER. I may be wrong, but I thought Mo's crush on Fletch started before Holly's return. Something about them working together on a radio show?

No. Although for a time he did think that Eleni was pregnant with his child. (Marina turned out to be Frank's.) And he never has a child on the show.

ah...Burke Moses! He was doing Broadway too, iirc. Or went on to do Broadway.

Even with Ed in her life, Chrissie had an unstable childhood at best. There's the back and forth between Ed/Holly/Roger, Ed's alcoholism, Roger raping Holly, Holly going to jail for shooting him, Rita resented her during her marriage to Ed, etc. then however they explained Ed losing contact with her after Holly moved to Europe. I thought SS excelled at both sides of Blake, the one that wanted to be "normal" (ie, not Roger's daughter) and the ruthless schemer who was gonna get what she felt she was due. I do agree--LK had a more open vulnerability, if coming off slightly more ditzy (as opposed to outright schemer).

ST:TOS Episode 1 The Man Trap He's the first Enterprise crew member killed ever, IIRC. I just adore Henry, and Henry and Vanessa's relationship. Arguably, one of the best father/daughter duos ever. LOL...while Fletcher annoys me to no end from '92 on (he and Vanessa had a brief, BRIEF fling, and he is the most annoying, clingy and sanctimonious lovah ever...) there was a time that he wasn't so bad. I think they often just didn't know what to do with the character (and much like ATWT's Tom Hughes) whenever Jay Hammer got material, he chewed scenery like he was Kim Zimmer.

YEP. As Contessa mentioned, Sonni/Solita from '87 to late '89. I knew once you mentioned TNG there was something I was forgetting.

I don't think there's anyway to truly evaluate Ryder's tenure, it was so brief. I'm not sure anyone left with that overblown cast full of duds could've done much with it. wait---did anyone tell you Michelle Forbes was also on GL?

LOL...you're gonna get sucked down a rabbit hole yet.

I'm blanking on who they even tried her with---Ed Fry and the dude who played Sean Baxter? (I nearly did a spit take when I read that line about how the audience liked Larry--uh, maybe?) I liked MES, but she wasn't what I'd call a chemistry magnet. She had more chem over on GL playing a cop.

I thought I read that the reason that Marland backtracked was due to Rex Smith's likeability, that they listened to the feedback from fans and changed the story. Unfortunately (just as in Suspicion) it ruins careful plotting and cheated the audience. Frankly, Rex Smith would've made a convincing sociopath, simply because his acting was that shallow.

Ed....or Peter Simon? I haven't seen enough of 70's Ed to really judge if they softened Ed so much in the '80's that he's just adverse to putting himself in the line of fire, so to speak. Thanks for the refresher. I know why they got rid of Dennehy, she was awful. God, I remember some horrible scene where she's actually talking to a coconut. She's a good actress, but this wasn't the role for her.

I thought I saw a glimmer of Rosanna Cabot in Monday's episode. I'd take a Carly/Ro vibe any day. Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough interaction to judge. Pam is a blink-and-you've-missed-it character. Geez...some of this dialogue. Stilted, wooden, and just plain boring at times. That was a nice moment between Andre and Dani though. Even if I think it's a little early to wander into the "Dani's a closet alcoholic" story.

The only thing about Roger's return that I wonder about is why there wasn't more focus on the Ed/Roger history. I know there's some. Maybe it's just that it seems far down the list on Roger's conflicts with everyone else around town.

Yes, Phillip is Grant Aleksander. Blake is in that rare club of women who slept through families. See also Reva (Billy, Josh and their father HB, not to mention Billy's half-brother Kyle), and Harley (Alan-Michael, Phillip, and much later Alan's son Gus). I forgot---Blake also made her way through the Marler family---Ross, his half-brother Ben and Phillip.

I do it too--focus more on the bad than the good at times. With Marland, it's his overreliance on therapy to redeem/explain characters or move plot, with Long, it's her focus on Reva. There's no denying that Zimmer took the writing and ran with it, but it often felt like Reva never really earned the devotion that characters gave her. Just write a scene where Reva cries about her emotional childhood trauma, and "all is forgiven". RME. Interestingly, i can't really criticize the Curlee/Demorest/Reilly era. Other than it didn't last nearly long enough. They weren't to blame for killing Maureen, that came from above. It felt like they were good guardians of the established characters they inherited (it would've been so easy to get Holly and Roger wrong after so long off the canvas, and credit must be given to them and Long). And they took a situation that would've tanked a lot of writers (the departures of multiple fan favorites who are literally linchpins of the show Phillip/Beth/Josh/Rick) and made it work. The German episodes date it as 12/8/89, but you can search for "PokerAlex!" and find the clip. It's actually the first poker game Roger throws, which ends up costing Henry his Spaulding shares in '90. When Elizabeth Dennehy debuted in the role, I don't believe they had a plan for the character of Blake. She ran around town, making off-screen phone calls and manuevering Phillip, her target. I don't think they made the character Holly and Roger's daughter until after the writer's strike ended. Then the explanation was that she hadn't seen the people she knew for years (like Ed and Rick).

Because when she first came back to town, she used her middle name Blake. She didn't want people to know she was Roger's daughter.

lol...yes, she did. Melina Kanakaredes, she did Providence and then one of the CSI shows. GL is very interconnected (aka, incestuous) because they hung on to a lot of characters for long periods of time. Blake and A-M's marriage only lasted a few months. That was after she'd married his (adopted) brother Phillip and slept with their father Alan. Ross, who she's married to now, is Phillip's biological uncle. Phillip and Dinah are cousins. Ross' brother Justin is Phillip's bio-dad. Yes, I believe it was posted a while back. I love the "Poker Alex" clip.

It was a little over a year ago. While I grew up on Guiding Light (ATWT and the CBS soaps), I really considered myself more of an ATWT fan. By the end of GL I was barely watching, and I really kind of distanced myself after it was cancelled. Anyway--FF to '21-'22, and Michael Tylo, Lisa Brown and Jerry verDorn died within months of each other. They were three key characters in Springfield when I really got hooked on the show as a teen. Arguably, one of the most iconic scenes in GL's history is the catfight between Nola (Brown) and Vanessa (Maeve Kinkead) at Nola's engagement ball. Someone was posting clips on Twitter, and I ended up falling down the youtube rabbit hole. Watching the ball lead to watching Quint and Nola's wedding, which led to Billy and Vanessa's romance. I had forgotten how catty Vanessa had been, and found myself laughing as she rained cynicism over love and the "happy couple" at every opportunity. The more I saw, the more I looked for clips, the more I watched things I had never seen, or hadn't seen in years. I flit around. My favorite eras are '80-'82 (the Marland years, with Nola and early Ross/Vanessa who are old lovers manipulating each other in a twisted way), '83-'85 (Pam Long's first run, with Vanessa and Billy falling in love, the Four Musketeers (Phillip/Beth/Rick/Mindy) and OGAlexandra (the incomparable Bev McKinsey). Then '89-'93, when favorites Roger, Holly, Billy and Vanessa all return to town within months of each other and Long and Curlee/Demorest/Reilly write character driven, compelling drama that doesn't treat viewers like total idiots. I can also appreciate what I've seen of the Dobson era ('75-'80). There are plenty of characters I remember, but there's not a lot of that available to watch.

Billy and Nadine weren't living together through most of Nadine's "pregnancy". Billy had walked out on her after he found out she had given Vanessa's name to the Inquisitor when Vanessa pressed attempted rape charges against Jack Kiley. When she told Billy she was pregnant, she also told him she didn't want him moving back in right away, until she was sure he was committed to their marriage, not just coming back because of the baby. Billy doesn't move back in until after Maureen's death in January, which is just a few weeks before Peter was born. Nadine was dumb, but she knew how to play on Billy's guilt over his failures as a father. Yes, the plot dumbs Billy down dangerously, but Vanessa smelled a rat right away. She backs off though because she can't prove anything, and she's reluctant to blow up Billy's life without it.