P.J.

Even if they recast around the time of Chris' '86 return? They could've cast someone really allowed to go at Reva, instead of throwing Vanessa in the role of also-ran. Rita could've come back with Alan's child...oh boy, imagine Rita fighting for a piece of Spaulding against Alex. Granted the writing around '86 is mostly crap, and the casting iffy. I don't know if the audience would've accept anyone else in the role. But I think there would've always been a place on the canvas for Rita.

And of course, once I thought of Jess Walton, I thought of Deborah Adair, who I actually liked better in the role of Jill.

LOL...well, we could've avoided Matt all together...iykwim. Question I've been dying to ask---could they have recast Rita...and with whom? The best I could come up with is Jess Walton, before she started Y&R and fell into some bad habits.

LOL...as much as I loved MZ, yeah, seeing him play every woman like a fiddle got old. And I agree---Annie was the best thing that happened to Josh/Reva. They had long past the time of life where stupidity and lies were the biggest hurdles to their love. I think you can reboot a character, as long as you make it make sense. Dinah's initial run in town was fairly short and unremarkable. So bringing her back as a scheming wild child could be explained by both her childhood and remind us that her parents had been hell on wheels at that point in their lives. OGAmanda had some bite to her. It's not like she couldn't have mixed it up around town. It seemed like the only point to her being a "madam" was to give Matt a sordid yet somehow sympathetic past. They could've easily made Amanda one of Matt's clients, and have her want to reignite their affair. That would've made more sense with her established intimacy issues.

EEhhhh..ok... something less than deliberately plotting Vanessa's murder---but something where they couldn't have chickened out and had Matt really fall in love with her. I supposed Amanda (like any other true Spaulding) could've been looking to take over the company and oust all the "old guard", Alan, Alex and Vanessa. And teamed up with Matt somehow to accomplish it. I know people love Kathleen Cullen---but she was always just so fragile. While I didn't like Poser, that's mostly because her Amanda rarely even acted human. The personality transplant and the de-aging (she was an adult when Chrissie was a child) didn't endear her to me either. It would've made much more sense for Amanda and Vanessa to go at each other due to their history, than the Amanda/Blake rivalry. I do kind of laugh at the idea that giving Vanessa a blue collar lover was edgy. She was chasing Tony back in the '80's. I not sure Fletch was even white collar. Vanessa hadn't been a snob for years.

I would've had Matt be a grifter, and Bill the only one who was on to him. Everyone assumes he's just resentful, but slowly, he convinces Ross which irritates Blake and strains their marriage. Amanda returns to town, and she and Matt decide to bilk Vanessa out of her Spaulding stock. When Vanessa realizes Bill and Ross are right, Matt "disappears" Vanessa to finish the swindle. Amanda suddenly gets nervous when Matt starts threatening her and she realizes both she and Vanessa are in danger. Amanda confesses to Ross, Ross rides in and saves the day, and he and Vanessa fall back in love. Matt's carted off to jail, never to be heard from again. The whole idea of Vanessa taking up with an ex-ho was ridiculous. And the idea of Vanessa putting up with his constant litany of complaints about her child-rearing and wanting a career was insulting. What was she supposed to do? Live off his wandering handy-man earnings? Even his mid-level manager position (thanks to her ex-inlaws) isn't paying the annual dues to Vanessa's country club.

Or Matt and Blake could've screwed, thus killing two birds with one stone. Not that I hated Bloss, but by the time she "just couldn't help" but screw Ben, they should've been over. It is interesting--the younger woman can repeatedly cheat on an older man and still be the love of his life, but the younger man can't cheat on an older woman and test that relationship at all. I make no bones about having zero use for Matt, period, but I am surprised they didn't throw Vanessa under the bus to keep Kurt McKinney. I find him bland, but he was a better actor than Frankie D. I've said this before, but I don't know that if Jerry ver Dorn had stayed, if Maeve would've come back. But if Ross and Vanessa were there at the end---and had two years to build to it, I'd a been okay with it. Maeve lit up like a Christmas tree with Jerry.

Yes. I thought 1/8/88 was her last day (Vanessa talks to Reva at the airport), because of course...all things begin and end with Reva. (rme) But on the 1/11 episode, Dinah, Ross, Henry, HB, Alex, Phillip and Ross all show up in turn to send her off. Alan shows up too, but they don't speak. He watches her leave, realizing her eyes are all on Ross. I also realized this starts Henry scheming his way back into real power at Spaulding. Alex and Phillip are plotting to oust Alan, and want Henry's support. Henry gets Vanessa's proxy, making the Chamberlain block (whatever percentage it is) united. Right? Sleeping with Josh alone....yeeee....

Ah...everyone has their holy grail. I can't decide what mine is---Ross/Vanessa and the coat drop, Vanessa's failed fake suicide attempt, Billy's car blowing up & return, or the argument between Billy and Josh in the car after Josh learned Dylan was Reva and Billy's kid all in English. (there was a preemption, and about half of it's up.) Oh, and the week of Josh's accident, in English. Oh...and this snarky exchange between Vanessa and Billy---they're at the country club at the buffet line. Vanessa is with Ed and Mo (which makes me suspect that it is after Vanessa's been left at the altar so it has to be the fall of '90). Billy snipes that Vanessa's date is ungentlemanly for letting her get her own plate of food. Vanessa--"Turkey!" Billy "--what?" Vanessa points at the buffet "isn't that cute, the way the turkey's wrapped around that cranberry? (looks at his plate,) "oh, I see you prefer the ham." (which is her way of calling him the sonofabitch with Nadine) It's in someone's clip medley, and it's hilarious. Who am I kidding, I want it all. And the Andy Norris story and the complete Carrie story in English. LOL. FWIW, I haven't come across that dinner party. And a lot of '90-'91 is up.

I wish youtube had some uniform way of categorizing videos. Or searching for them. (I mean, God bless shippers and clippers who saved stuff from the 80's, but there is nothing more frustrating than watching chopped up episodes, but I digress..) MK's last day in '88 was just put up. I had seen it in German, but I hadn't found it in English. ('88 seems to be very spotty indeed.) Today, I'm randomly clicking on videos when I found someone who has clips of shows with actresses wearing furs. Including the soaps. Including GL. Okay. Hey, everyone loves something, and in the '80's everyone of wealth wore furs. I'm randomly scrolling through the GL clips, hoping to find Vanessa's infamous coat drop with Ross. Didn't find it. What I did find? A five minute clip of Vanessa's good bye to Ross...posted two years ago. SMH. All because she's in a fabulous fur coat (well, 'Nessa always was, back in the day...) and hat. This is why I'm half convinced everything exists somewhere. We just can't find it.

Well, part of it was the times. If he's responsible for Quint & Nola's engagement party and wedding, and a bunch of costumed events in '84, he was better at events. I did watch a KZ interview where she mentioned when she started Reva was all in whites/creams until the lighting improved (or changed) and it was too stark onscreen.

I didn't even catch that! I was more amazed with the wardrobe guy's interview. I'm not sure how long he'd been there by that time, but I generally find GL's wardrobe atrocious for it's young leading ladies. Amanda and Hope look like matrons at 30-ish(?). Nola's is unique, but then again, so was she. And Vanessa's hat collection certainly lent to her dramatic persona.

If we can trust the closed captioning, the lady calls the nurse Mrs Matson. I did find a character by that name played by Fran Bennett from 65-66 on GL. I have no idea who the patient is.

That's a great find! It's odd, I never think of Nikki Goulet having had worked on soaps before GL. It includes snippets of GL from late July/August 81. MK is pregnant, and at the end is a snippet where Mike finds Joe Bradley picking up blackmail money. (I think Mike talked Vanessa into helping catch the blackmailer, aka Andy Norris)

Thank you!

I went all the way back to Evie/Rita, who I kinda/sorta remember liking. And even with Mo/Nola or Mo/Chelsea, it's hard to come up with something significant. Certainly not the way Josh/Billy or even Phillip/A-M had. I don't think female relationships became less important, it's just that they weren't sisters. Mindy/Beth, Bridget/Kat, Harley/Jenna, Vanessa/Mo, Reva/Abby, and mother/daughter combos Beth/Lillian, Holly/Blake, Vanessa/Dinah. BTW, JimMuneco has some new episodes up. A Jan 88 episode that's MK's last appearance until she returns in '89 (her and Ross: "you can't stay away from me for long"....which is just so damn cute I want to cry...) and a Dec 84 episode where Vanessa and Billy are gushing over little Bill. I think there was Rick and Meredith's wedding and something with Rose from '88 as well, but I didn't care enough to check them out. Meredith's wedding dress looks hideous.

I was reflecting on how much I love Josh and Billy as brothers, and was amazed to realize I couldn't even think of a pair of sisters from the last two decades of the show that I liked. I must be forgetting someone, right? (I didn't like Reva/Cassie) Harley and Lucy were sisters, but didn't really interact much. The last sisters I remember are Mo and Chelsea, and saying I liked Chelsea is a bit of a stretch. It seems like the show had plenty of bro/sis combos (Alan/Alex, Frank/Harley, Rick/Michelle, Bill/Dinah, Gilly/David) featured over the years.

I know at some point in watching the '81 episodes, I was amazed to realize that Amanda, Jennifer, Vanessa, Trish, Diane and Carrie were running/working at Spaulding. (Alan and Henry had both given their daughters their voting proxies and intended to start their own consulting firm or something). Alex's disdain for Henry and Vanessa circa 1984-85 never made sense. I guess it was supposed to prove how very ruthless she was in business. Stock situations rarely add up (on any show) anyway. It's just one of those irritating loose ends that I probably didn't even notice at the time. *sigh* So much more could've been done with Trish. But to be fair, her reluctance with Ross was also rooted in his feud with Alan and involvement with Alex. The Lewises' schtick diminishes markedly when Josh leaves (at least IMO). Or maybe it's Kyle's arrival, as Reva begins to break the Lewis habit. I do kind of chuckle---Billy's wardrobe also gets an upgrade when he marries Vanessa. I can imagine her burning those damn string ties.

just out of curiosity, what did Bill Bauer do for a living? And is Bert some kind of nurse? In the late 70's she's always at the hospital.

I know we did. But having watched more of '84 now, I'm not sure Long knew what to do with anyone other than Reva. The Spaulding business angle practically disappears once Alan leaves, and while Alex spins some business plots, they're thin and boil down to her obsession with Lujack. On one level, it was consistent for Vanessa to throw herself into a new project (or romance). But at some point, Vanessa should've gotten as mad as hell at Alexandra (for blackmailing Henry into selling some/all of his Spaulding stock) and plotted revenge. Long is so under-interested in Vanessa, I'm surprised she wrote her back in as quickly as she did in '89, and then threw her back into the Spaulding realm. ATWT used Montega off and on throughout Marland's tenure, although not nearly to the extent of GL's San Cristobel. I'm blanking on any other soap really doing more than an extended summer story, but even those got tedious at some point.

Vanessa and Reva should've been GL's version of Kim/Susan---two women who could always press the other's buttons and cut the other down to size when warranted. I don't mind that Vanessa grew up, but she should've been allowed to be more bitchy than she was. If Chris B had still been there, that would've been one thing, but the others? Nope. I don't get Larkin Malloy either. He just doesn't fit on GL somehow.

Shows always made a mistake taking extended usttories out of town. You end up isolating the characters and throwing a bunch of newbies at the audience that no one cares about. As a Billy/Vanessa fan--I wouldn't have minded a triangle with Ross (Calla could've just dropped off the face of the earth. Pfft--she wasn't fit to wipe Vanessa's high heels). Vanessa should've had men chasing her (and I don't count Fletch). Instead we got decades of men beating their brains against brick walls to declare Reva the be-all end-all. I don't think there was ever any serious investment in trying to reunite Vanessa and Ross at the time. I think it was all about servicing the Dinah story. If I understood Maeve correctly during her recent Locher room interview, there was a point where it became too hard for her to work with Jordan, and she asked not to. I just watched the July 87 Bauer BBQ, and Vanessa and Ross are cute as bugs. I don't know why the show gave up. Soon after that, Vanessa gets thrown into the Alan/Reva attraction, which made zero sense. And when Vanessa returns in '89, they act like Vanessa/Alan never happened.

Oh, the side effects of having to write more and more outrageous stories for Reva. While LaZimmer might not have ever been the worst thing about those stories, the baggage that came with them choked the show. Not only Cole, but I wasn't a fan of DAM or CC either. When I think of the time and energy to bring on the San Cristobel crew on, and drag half of Springfield down there at one time or another...I just want to spit. Maeve and Jerry are all kinds of sparkly! It's weird to think that Ross doesn't have another child on-screen (other than Dinah) for like a decade. That's got to be some kind of record. I think the twins were born in '96? It's while Annie's around.

Sometimes I'm more amazed at the small things the actors remember. I swear to God, every Kim Zimmer interview manages to throw out that she was brought on to bust up Billy and Vanessa. Or they remember who they auditioned with or who they were up against. Robert Newman and Scott Bryce auditioned for Josh, and Scott was cast as Craig Montgomery from that, according to Robert.

Speaking of Leslie, is it true she was briefly married to Holly's father, making her and Rick stepsiblings? Talk about bizarre.