P.J.

Yeah, as annoying as Lily was, I wouldn't go as far as saying she was "poverty touring" the Snyders. She was a spoiled, bratty but lonely child. She gravitated to them because of their family life, her attraction to Holden, and no doubt (at least at first) because it irritated her mother. And she did offer to help them financially. All of their rich friends did, at one time or another. Emma would time and time again refuse. I still recall, SMH, how Jarrod and Cal vied for Emma's affection by buying her new appliances. Which were returned, or eventually disappeared, and the older versions returned. Lily was an annoying twit, and if she were being written now, her breakdowns would've been treated a little more seriously.

I believe she was Ariana Chase when she appeared on the show. I don't recall that much about Melinda, other than she was a trouble maker and died after falling off a boat into a lake and getting hit in the head by said boat. She just died and was rarely ever mentioned again.

I don't recall her appearing after Holden and Lily's 1999 wedding, where the Snyders all tricked Molly and stuffed her in the closet. I don't recall her ever having a scene with Agim Kaba. I do remember Graham Winton coming back a time or two, but I thought they explained Julie's absence by saying she had cancer.

I remember talk about them---but who is this supposed to be?

I just can't see Ava/Nik working with TC in the role. I never saw TC as an engaging leading man. I have seen even the most wooden actors up their game with her (*coughMarkColliercough*)....but I can't see his Nik becoming emotionally connected to Ava. I do wonder where Ava's story would've gone if the Nik story hadn't fallen through. Would she have still drugged Morgan because she was over-involved in Kiki's life? Or would she have come back all about Nik? If there's no drugging, there's no fire, there's no Griffin (oh, if only....) and possibly no Ryan.

I think the only preference of Maura's that comes through is her hair. Ava's style has gone through a couple of phases. At least they've switched it up from the all-black/black and white after Kiki died to include colors again. They've thankfully veered away from the animal print obsession they had. But mostly I think it's about budget constraints. A basic black fitted skirt is easy to dress up or dress down with a few different belts or different blouses and the occasional jacket.

And in the end, what's the difference between setting scenes at a baby shower, at a restaurant or at the hospital? The fact that people would have to specifically interact with each other? Give me ten females throwing barbs, pissy looks, and trying to keep the cake from being destroyed over a bomb anyday.

Because they don't expect Jason to take orders from a woman, especially one with zero mob cred. Her filling in while he's on the run is one thing. But with Jason in the picture, they expect divided loyalties from inside the organization. Like with the driver who sold out to the Novaks. In football, there's a saying---if you have two starting quarterbacks, you really have no starting quarterback. Everyone needs to know who's in charge and who they answer to.

Honestly, I don't think I even realized Meg Ryan had "sneered" about her soap time until I started reading message boards, which was around the time Ryan was fading into the background of Hollywood. And I agree about her work. I've liked some of her movies, but not many, and she's basically used the same "quirky" energy she had on the show.

Because the fans feel a personal connection to soap actors. However rightly or wrongly, you feel you "know" them. Intellectually, you may know that they're on Infotainment shows to promote their latest movie/book/show, but you want to make the "hey, yeah, I knew you when..." moment. We don't even know the names of the executives who make the decisions or denigrate us.

They must have, Nikki was briefly recast with that Molly look-alike. I'm glad Jordana has fond memories of ATWT and specifically mentioned BH. The anniversary of his death is right around the corner.

I had never really thought about Phillp and Lily's similarities. I wonder if Marland wrote both their parentage reveals?

Fixated...or just simply the actress he wrote for the longest? Every show in the '80's had that teen ingenue---the one no boy could resist, who's parentage was a fucked up tangle, and seemed to eat the show. YR's Cricket, GL's Beth, DAYS Hope/Jennifer, and before Lily, on ATWT it was Betsy. And as Titan said, you can draw a straight line from GH's Laura, to GL's Morgan, to ATWT's Lily. Although Marland certainly didn't create the sweet ingenue trope, he certainly fine-tuned it. Not to say the focus wasn't suffocating, and certainly would've benefitted from a lot of come to Jesus moments (I don't think Iva ever even criticized her daughter), Marland certainly was writing for his audience. Philip could and did cross the line between right and wrong regularly. Maybe because he was a man, it was more acceptable to the audience.

That is always what I've heard as well. It's not hard to believe that as meticulous as Marland was, he was already forming Carly in his head to be the foil to Rosanna.

The Kim Delaney nod is ridiculous. She's barely been on, and has all the presence of a cardboard cutout of Demi Moore.

One, I hadn't realized Costner was still alive, or had written a previous book. Hopefully Locher can get some good stories from him. But FCOL, couldn't he get the name of his ATWT character straight? It's Eduardo Grimaldi. Attention to detail counts.

Happy anniversary ATWT.

I wish I had seen the moment Kim and Lisa met. I think in general, Kim balanced Lisa's flightiness. And they had been friends long before Kim married Bob, otherwise, lord knows they probably wouldn't have been friends. Lisa and Barbara's friendship was just as unlikely, given that Barbara had dated and dumped Tom. It was pretty solid, other than when Barb lied about bedding Tom.

ATWT... Kim and Lisa Lisa and Barbara Penny and Ellen (although this was before my time) GL Maureen and Vanessa Bridget and Kat Y&R Nikki and Katherine

I must be the only person on the planet who is unimpressed by Lipton's acting. (the occasional singing he does it cute in a Shaun Cassidy/TeenBeat kind of way..) Every time he smiles, I cringe....and then I want to slap some connection to the material into him.

Well, the short explanation is neither JJ or Daniel could've been Craig's secret son. I agree---it's assinine that Daniel never even had a personality beyond years of sleeping on people's shoulders in scenes. Parker, Faith, Hope and Daniel would've been an excellent teen quad, each one connected to core Oakdale families and miraculously unrelated to each other. (well, aside from marriages, and it took me a minute to think through whether or not Hope and Daniel were....lol) And miraculously born on screen within a year of each other.

My sister got married 7/8 that year, and between helping with the wedding and work, I had zero time to be online. When I found out BH had died, I was floored. Agree with everyone that JF was good, but hardly irreplaceable. I guess McCouch was seen as a hot commodity at the time, but it's not like they couldn't have taken the time to find a good recast. I only remember Onsach and Ferrin as adult Jens...it's not like this isn't the show that had about 13 Toms through the years. ATWT didn't do a good job developing younger generations for probably the last 20 years of the show. The last really good teens were Andy/Lien/Paul. And after Nikki/Dani, teens were treated like mini-adults, facing murder charges and getting baby rabies.

Hal and Jennifer died the same year, 2006. Ben's last scenes dealt with Jennifer's death and funeral. Not that that makes it any less cruel.

This may be the first time I've read of anyone praising Van Hansis' acting. Straight or gay, I doubt Lily's child would have been interesting (a problem that plagued many soap children of iconic characters---all of Reva's children were dull as dishwater)...and no doubt the vanilla writing played a part, but to me, Hansis lacked depth. (and I thought a lot of Luke stories were about his victimhood. He was kidnapped by those weird twins to impregnate the girl with the Grimaldi heir, or whatever; Noah's father was going to kill him; Lucinda's closeted husband; Damian trying to send him to a "therapy camp" ) Granted, he ultimately wasn't raped like AMC's Bianca, but I suspect it was more because soaps don't deal with male rape, period, and giving Luke a child to raise would have been even more offensive to some viewers than him being gay.

I don't think it would've mattered who played Tonio---I think Marland purposely kept the character one-dimensional to facilitate story. He's really like a short-term character (like Philip Lombard, say) who just kept weaseling his way around town.