P.J.

Oh, I agree there's no reason to write in every real life passing. There was no reason to kill Roger off. But it would've been awkward for Henry to just disappear from Vanessa's life and be continually off on "a trip". I can't believe they considered recasting Bert. Then again....

And I don't get that thinking. All fans really want for a good funeral is to remember the character (and performer, if they've died IRL). Where writers fail is being too lazy to do the homework and have a character remembered honestly, instead of making BS up to fit the current writer's version of a character the viewers have known longer.

Thanks. I hadn't realized it took them so long to script Bert's death.

I'm sure that all the regimes came up with their own "game plan" and that contributed to it. It's just a stat that boggles my mind. At that point, your 33 yr old (tv) show's "vet" had six years in. Those four performers would've had less time onscreen combined than ATWT performers Wagner, Hastings or Fulton had by themselves. When was Charita's last appearance?

As much as Reva annoyed me no end, it's ironic that she kind of flounders outside of Josh/the Lewises.

True. I don't think he became really established as Ed until after he returned in 1987(?) And this is an insane happening. It's more than the equivalent of Bell dumping the Fosters/Brooks and rebooting Y&R circa 1980.

I hate to put it that way, but yeah. And I'm not sure I'd consider Woods, Carolyn Clark or Peter Simon major losses (even if he's much better than the recast Van Vleet).

It's odd--I would consider Zimmer and Aleksander major losses and true fan favorites, yet I on rewatch, I barely notice their absence. I consider mid'89-mid'93 almost perfectly balanced in terms of character and story. If you tallied figures, maybe '86 and '91 are similar in terms of new characters, but '91 doesn't feel forced at all.

Charita Bauer, Lisa Brown, Michael Tylo, Greg Beecroft, Harley Kozak, Michael Woods, Marsha Clark, Carolyn Clark, Denise Pence, Peter Simon, Rebecca Hollen.

1988 was the writer's strike, which contributed to why the Sonni/Solita story is such a convoluted quagmire. I can't really evaluate though...I haven't ventured further than the first few weeks in January. Maeve leaves and I'm outta there. I do know it's the year Phillip goes full on [!@#$%^&*] and impregnates Rick's wife. Which I will never understand.

Agreed, the HW merry-go-round is disastrous. But even casting seems to have gone to the dogs. There's not one keeper (arguably) between Mary Kay Adams and Carl T Evans.

That's probably pretty close. Springfield 1986 is teeming with unlikeable people (Sally, Jackson Freemont, Calla) and imposters (faux Phillip, Ed (VanVleet, God bless Ellen Parker for not just running for the hills) Alex in her Heidi-hair era, whoever the hell Simon is). And drips like Maeve and Jessie. It's just ugh. And Johnny and Chelsea must be on the way soon. *double ugh* He was awful. I've never seen anyone laughably overacting trying to be bad ass. I think he tried channeling Zas and missed, horribly.

The only welcome new face in 1986 is Ellen Parker. Is there a lower point prior to Peapack?

It's literally four minutes of forlorn Reva trapsing around in her HUGE dress to the swelling music of Barbra in the background. Does Reva deserve her moment? Sure. (..rme as much as I've come to detest Reva and now think she's getting her karma for how she careens like a wrecking ball through everyone else's life..it's a tragic moment) But four minutes? Oy vey. Mindy's husband is dead, and she's not gonna get that treatment.

LOL...Reva walking over hill and dale in a daze...rme.

It's amazing how big those sets were. There were two main places where half the cast (it seemed) gathered---the hospital and Alan's office.

Long did enough whitewashing. There was always a new sob story to explain her selfish, idiotic behavior. And the Lewis men worshipped Reva practically as soon as the ink was dry on her divorce from HB. Billy may have been a little more realistic in his vision, but he always seemed to forget how badly she treated him. I didn't think the addiction story was a bad idea for Vanessa. She was a wealthy, spoiled woman with low self-esteem who looked to men for validation and rarely found it. Long just didn't care to probe that in any depth, and the story lasted three months. (And yeah, if someone from 1986 could've jumped back and told Maeve that Vanessa had given up a child, after she cracked after nearly lost Little Billy, it might've helped with the motivation) References to it did occasionally pop up, but not in any depth. And the viewers who only knew cool, calm and collected Vanessa probably didn't understand what they were talking about. Although not a lot of 86 is up, I think Vanessa was more of an office manager, not a secretary. Not that Ross needed an office manager either, as he was just re-establishing his practice. And she's back at Spaulding running the foundation by May-June when Alan comes back to town.

June '83 is when she comes apart at the seams.. I wish I could find the episode where she almost stabs Ross.

Yeah, Vanessa's addiction is mostly an answer to a trivia question. Maeve did the best she could with what was there. I believe she got a supporting actress nomination for it.

Now...Bert and Henry, sure. God love HB, but at that time, he was a PITA, neglectful and manipulative father. Bert wouldn't have fit in with the Lewises at all. The whitewash job on Reva was fast and furious. Billy never should've been made to kiss her ass. He always should've been able to call her on her sh#t.

HB and Bert? Oy vey... The only reason to have Vanessa hooked on pills was to rid Reva of that child. Vanessa's addiction disappears almost as quickly as it started. Billy was volatile enough that between learning Reva had schemed with Alan and Josh being paralyzed, he would've had plenty of motivation to hate on Reva that summer, at least imo.

So, Doug Marland wrote Roger's death in Santo Domingo? Am I misremembering---I thought I once read an interview with Doug Marland where he was given the choice between ATWT and GL, and he chose GL because it was in better shape.

Were they that worried about ATWT's looking terribly stodgy in the wake of Y&R/GH's youth movement?

A) I'm sure they would have. But b ) I don't tend to change my mind about actors once I've seen them. Again, in fairness to her, it's got to be a hard assignment to step into a role at a heavy point in story with a co-star who's also new to his role (Peter Simon). I should be grateful...if they had liked AS more, they might've replaced Maeve.

I guess I didn't realize he had written on The Doctors. I know he some pushback for his plotting (some of which do go on too long), but I loved his ATWT and his ability to juggle story for 35-40 characters almost effortlessly. His GL to me doesn't seem to be as intricately plotted as ATWT. Whether that's about his level of control or the brevity of time, I couldn't guess.