P.J.

Me too! Gunnar was so dashing! At least to my tween self!

Most of y'all make me feel so old. CBS soaps were always on when I was a kid. So I have vague memories of Love of Life, Search for Tomorrow, Young and the Restless (pre-Victor, I swear I remember Philip Chancellor Sr and Katherine and the crash that killed him), ATWT (Bob and John constantly battling for the Chief of Staff position and Kim/Dan/Susan though the only Dan I remember is John Reilly.) and Guiding Light (Rita and her sister Evie, Martin Hulswit's Ed and Mike). But the stories that I really got me hooked were Morgan/Kelly/Nola on Guiding Light and Steve/Betsy/Craig on ATWT. I think it was the combination of adolescence/good actors in the right roles/writing.

The ones that stick with me are Ben Hendrickson and Trent Dawson. No one's mentioned Lauralee Bell yet? From summer nepo hire to the show's resident Mary Sue in no time flat.

John quietly disappeared out of town around the time Dusty reappeared. I think they did overlap slightly, but that was probably the main reason there wasn't a ton of interaction between McCouch and Bryggman. Except of course, at the end. This Carly/Jack fan still blesses his black heart for ordering that DNA test that proved Jack wasn't the father of Janet's baby.

Not that I think McCouch looks like a Snyder, but if they had wanted to go that way, he could have been Brad. I never understood McCouch's take on mobbed-up diction, which was hideous.

I understood why Wilson was brough on as Meg, given there were more connections with the current characters for Meg than Ellie. It was always canon that Holden and Meg were the closer brother/sister pair, and Meg's previous relationship with Dusty. I don't think Craig had been recast at the time of her hiring. There was also the initial subplot of Lucinda needing a nurse. But no....she certainly wasn't the troublemaking Meg of yore. She didn't even seem like a reformed troublemaker.

ATWT James' first return Holden Carly Eileen Fulton's in '84 (I think) Hal (93?) Guiding Light Roger Phillip (96) Reva (as much as I might hate to admit it)

Winston was played by Joel Fabini,(?) and only for a handful of episodes before he convienently died.

Carly married Winston Lowe off-screen during Maura's year off the show (mid-96 to Sept 97). It wasn't revealed until Maura returned from her maternity leave in '99, to explain why she walked out on her 1st wedding to Jack. It would have invalidated Carly's marriages to Hal, Brad and John. Carly didn't think it was legal, but Winston died and she wanted to inherit any estate, so she never legally questioned it. So, it should be Carly Lowe Munson (invalid) Dixon (invalid) Snyder (invalid) Snyder Snyder Snyder. Lily Mason Snyder Grimaldi Santana Snyder Grimaldi Jack Snyder---Julia Lindsay, Carly, Carly, Julia Larabee (invalid), Katie (annulled), Janet, Carly.

True, they're probably not her bitchiest moments, but she's clearly not suffering fools or hypocrites either. She's clearly insinuating that Shannon's a golddigging slut, but without the name calling. And I know HBS was well-regarded as Margo, but I got tired of her self-righteous speechmaking. She's giving me Janet Ciccone vibes in some of that, and that ain't good.

My guess would be just resistance to change. I'm not sure Barbara was as beloved as Betsy, but viewers had watched her be a tortured heroine for years. She and Gunnar were very popular. I don't want to say ATWT viewers were stodgy, but I think once characters were "slotted", they expected them to progress in certain ways. A shady character could stay shady (ala John), but "good" characters were fundamentally good, and the goal a "bad" character should have is to be "better". Barbara snapping and becoming a bitchy "slut" (c'mon, Tonio?) was a dramatic shift. This is the same show that just a few years later tried the same shift with Heather Rattray's Lily, which didn't stick. It's hard to say, as I didn't have a lot of outside perspective at the time. I kinda remember the James/Barbara/Gunnar triangle, but it's hard to remember Barbara's personality. Did people really think of Barbara and Margo as "friends"? After Margo had slept with James? Oy vey. And I hate to admit it, but in those scenes, Barbara makes Carly look like an amateur. Babs is stone COLD in dealing with Margo and Shannon. And *snort* at her dismissing Tonio.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.*