P.J.

Looks like, and judging her post-Sheffer work, I'd say she was HW in name only. I don't think Goutman "didn't care", but in implementing his "vision" (or trying to reinvent the wheel) he forgot the first commandment of writing---tell the story. AMS---it's not Pissy's fault Sheffer was a sh!tass writer. Given her track record, she's just as sh!tty as him---if not more so. Maybe it's more fair to say it's her fault she's a weak, sh!tty writer who when combined with Sheffer, made some kind of unholy trifecta of suck instead of even a cursory attempt at storytelling.

I didn't think Barbara was backburnered before Marland arrived...maybe in a rut because she'd been through every Perils of Pauline story variation other than literally being tied to the railroad tracks. But I'm sure she was grateful to have Babs' segue into a bitch. I'm sure it's boring playing a perpetual doormat. Yes, Culliton was coHW for Sheffer's first year. Replacing her with Pissypants was arguably one of the worst behind-the-scenes moves ever. All the accolades went to Sheffer's head, character motivation slowly eroded away, and he ended up simply cannibalizing his own stories for the next four years.

Because I think long-time viewers LOVE to get these nods to history, the same way movie or comic book fans love the easter eggs. Soaps sometimes have an infuriating amnesia syndrome that drives fans crazy. How many times has one mother of a missing/kidnapped/sick child heard "I can't imagine how you feel" from someone who we know underwent the exact same situation? Maybe it didn't need to be a long "conversation" about something, but just some kind of an acknowledgement of history. Kim and John might have discussed Andy and Hope, or Barbara might have said she'd talked to Hal's sister for the first time in forever. Specifically re: Kim/Susan, I'll have to rewatch the Divas on a Bus eppy, but I don't remember them bringing up Dan. I don't remember them bring him up during the Bob/Susan fling. And long time viewers always felt it simmering just under the surface whenever they got bitchy with each other. You don't know how much I would have paid for Kim just once to have shaken her head at Emily's latest debacle and chime in with something along the lines of "this would break Dan's heart to see Emily....(fill in blank)" and then have Susan explode on her. I agree there wouldn't be a reason to bring up Tom's parade of ex-wives, or the Stewart quads, for example.

Craig and Dusty hadn't been the "same" characters for the last ten years of the run. (And you can add Paul to that list. Once Howarth took over in '03, he became a schizophrenic crybaby.) It still pisses me off that they tried to sell a "return to his roots" crap when Block waded in like Godzilla and ate the damn show. I forget when it started, but bit by bit the sets shrank. Originally, the Carjack house had a nice entryway, stairs and a large living room with a nook towards the back for a set of table and chairs. One day, the landing on the stairs went away. Then the entryway lost a foot of space. Then the turn at the top of the stairs left. Then the stairs got shortened. Anyway, I swear to God, by the end, there were no stairs, just a door that supposedly led to the stairs. It was sad. Nope....hated it.

Oh, the way Wheeler tried to sell those cheap assed sets as "reality". Oy vey...and the six weeks she spent shooting Peapack through weeds and sold that as "artistic vision". No, you're not imagining the lighting issues. I guess the budget no longer covered even the barest essentials, and I remember someone saying that as the makeup lights burnt out, they weren't replaced either. Some of those scenes---good grief, there were times Maura looked more like Baby Jane than herself. I think sometimes we forget how extraordinary it was to have so much of ATWT's vets intact and involved at the end. Less than ten years into Y&R's run, they'd ditched 99% of their original families/cast. GL clung to the Bauers, but I couldn't tell you another family they started out with either. Even Holly's Norris connection didn't enter until the late '60's/early 70's. While we're on the subject, I'd rather have seen Mart Hulswit return as Ed than sour ol' Peter Simon. HA!

Yeah, the freeze picture kind of nails it for me.....you've got Bob, Kim, Margo and Susan (?) vs Olivia. *drops mike* truce. It was what it was.

I hadn't cringed so much since the episode where Reva (trying to seduce Josh for the billionth time) made some "smooth" crack about him "laying pipe" as he pondered some plumbing problem at her house. It's not that I didn't like Rick or Frank (I could have done without the useless Matt, but that's me). The fact FD stuck around like a cockroach for nearly 20 years without a real story alone has to be admired on some level. What I minded was the fact that someone on the writing staff thought it was funny, and EP Wheeler didn't care that the venerable 70+ soap had disintegrated to the point that they were making hotdog and wiener jokes in the midst of their "groundbreaking" lesbian story. I forget---did James ever stand in that last appearance? I'm not sure were he was living, but he died in Argentina.

Or a Blaxploitation film from the '70's. Sheffer's campy efforts drove me nuts. I thought he ruined the Carly/Em/Rose kidnapping story with the blue woo-woo drinks and aging crap. It was like he mentally took a vacation in the middle of stories, and instead of just focusing on something else for a while, he literally threw a dart on some weird dartboard filled with inane ideas, and wherever they landed, he just went with it. I do think Babs/Henry tip-toed along the ick-factor when they made Henry James' bio-son. There's one cameo I wish could have happened for the end----Anthony Herrera popping up somewhere to let us know James was still alive.

Yeah, but...Babs had already been through the ringer with James. I loved that Marland gave her a backbone. Margo wasn't an innocent victim, and she'd earned Barbara's enmity. I sure as hell enjoyed Babs a lot more than HBS' self-righteous version of Margo. I understand why some saw Henry as latently gay---I just saw it as comedic. And I used to love Trent's delivery and use of language. I think they're 1 and 1A. Laiman could have become as bad as Stern and Black, given the opportunity. Thank God they torpedoed her in six months.

I love you---but you're insane. "Disappointed" is about three levels of Hell higher than the crap Wheeler churned out as her "tribute" to GL. She didn't just get people for the finale---she had people back for months (like Krista Tesearu) and still wasted episodes with Frank, Matt and Rick wandering around a damn "mini-mart" seeing how many "wiener" jokes they could stuff into an hour while ogling newly lesbian Olivia. I wouldn't have called ATWT's last weeks "superb"----but it was damn well better than putting lipstick on a skunk and pretending that the stuff on screen was more interesting that what was alluded to off-screen. 'Cause that's where 99.99% of Billy and Vanessa's reunion happened, in spite of being the "centerpiece" of the finale.

That's what Soapsuds said back a page. It's the first I've heard about it. My guess would be it was a) horribly written (as a lot of their romance was in that weird 1700's costume crap) or b ) just such a brief time in Babs' history for CZ. I know peeps didn't buy the romance with Henry, but I see why it appealed to CZ. After everything that had been thrown at her, and as a "mature" woman to get a romance at the end instead of warehoused. Now, I know there was tension between CZ and Ben Hendrickson through much of the Hal/Barb story---which breaks my heart, because I loved them so much at the time. (Finding out GL's Aleksander and Ehlers didn't get along either completely changed my perception of Philip/Harley too.) Another reason to cling to my Carjack love---'cause Mikey and Mojo adore each other.

RE: Babs/Gunnar...maybe CZ was talking about story more than Napier. As I recall, defined FUBAR..

Harvey Snyder's death was sacrosanct. VETO. I would have loved more appearances, but I'm not sure what that entails, especially on a cash-strapped show. I'm not even sure who could have returned who would have made an impact. GL ran some people through, but they didn't amount to much. But I am still surprised at the lack of initiative that Goutman showed---apparently he didn't ask anyone back. Larry came back because Liz asked him, and Julianne contacted them. What really, really surprises me is that Scott DeFrietas didn't make a return at some point. Between Chris' illness, Julianne's return and Nancy's death...and the fact his wife still worked there...you'd think someone might have at least thought to ask him. If there was one really crummy fact at the top of the heap of crummy facts---it's that Kim had one biological grandchild, and she was never really part of the show. After (what?) 40 years on the show and having a huge hand in raising Betsy and Frannie (and putting in a lot of hours struggling with all of Barbara's crap), she didn't have much of an impact on Oakdale's gene pool. I guess as a nod to history, I would have been okay with Byrne returning to the role. But honestly, I wish they hadn't bothered to recast it in the first place. Nothing against Beck---she was a breath of fresh air. But Holden and Lily went on about 10 years too long.

I just hated Katie. But the way the just glossed over that history, and Kim couldn't say anything, when she'd been ultra protective of Chris----- typical prop Katie bullshit. Not a fan of Nuke/Ruke or Luke in general. I completely resented the way Reid took over the weeks leading up to the finale. And don't get me started on the fuckery that went on shoehorning Juicy Janet into the show. All so JPISS could delve into her Italian roots. RME. No way in he'll would Carly have EVER pushed some woman at Jack, and no way in he'll would Jack have been fine screwing his way into a relationship. They should have stuck to the original story---which was obviously Juicy trying to bed Brad.

Maybe like Tom/Margo...but not half as boring. I've been trying to figure out a way to express this without sounding provincial...in a clutch-the-pearls-old-lady way...but I appreciated the right vs wrong, "moral" heart, rooted-in-values, middle-American-ness of Oakdale (and Springfield). Yes, people made mistakes, and yes, families shared way too many lovers....but in the end, right was right, wrong was wrong, and by all that was Holy, either Kim or Emma or Nancy was going to slap some sense into somebody who'd gone too far. As for what I'd have changed about the last year---it's not so much one plot thing as it is an attitude. I would have wrapped up stories and sent off characters gradually instead of dragging [!@#$%^&*] out. For example, instead of forcing Luke/Reid down our throats---I probably would have sent Luke off to pursue his future. I would have gladly done the same thing with Katie instead of lamely hooking her and Chris up (which given their history made zero sense.) But, if I was forced to pick one plot point to expunge from history---it would have been Jack [!@#$%^&*] Janet to create a baby to save Liberty. (in March, FCOL, when she was already pregnant from [!@#$%^&*] Dusty on NYE and yet too stupid to realize it, or ask when her freaking due date was....RME.) Talk about one last "screw you" to Carjackers.

I miss Janet and Katie my way. I miss bitching about them. I miss rooting against them. It's not the same as other shows I watch now. Probably because I no longer watch nighttime "soaps" I really don't have someone to hiss at. (Laurel on Arrow is the closest thing I have.) And I should clarify--I meant all our vets. Heck, I even find myself missing EF, and I really had no use for her for the last 16 years of the run. I was watching some tribute vids and caught some early Lisa and Bob that blew me away And naturally, i miss my Carjack.

Everything. Even the things I complained about.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot lately too. Especially since it seems like celebs from my childhood have been dropping fast and furious lately.

I miss it so much too. I've been watching tribute vids on youtube and it makes me sad. With all the crap on all the tv channels we have nowadays, you'd think they could either rerun the show or revive it in some manner. The other thing is yesterday was Don Hastings' 83rd birthday. I was surprised to find out he's slightly younger than both Eileen Fulton and Kathy Hays, who were both born in '33. (Don was born in '34, if my sources are correct.)

Happy anniversary ATWT.

They do, and I'd expect them not to bother airing something opposite the final four game, but it seems late in the season to take an entire month off. Of course, Arrow will probably announce something similar---I think they just aired 5x17, which means they've got maybe 6 episodes left.

Wow...a month? Didn't they get a full season order?

Damn, Mamma Daxamite ain't playin'.

Probably. I think FMB did some kind of set purge. God only knows how old that set was. And bite your tongue. It may not have been "pretty", but it felt like a Midwestern farmhouse kitchen.

I think they moved in early '00. IIRC, they moved during Maura's maternity leave, and she had a little trouble finding her way around the new studio at first. Those credits are from spring of '99. Lorraine Broderick is HW (her stuff last aired in August of that year with the Parker paternity reveal). Carly is credited as Carly Dixon, and she divorced him and married Brad in May. (She first makes love with Jack in late July of '99. Giggle at my Carjack-centric memory quietly...please. :D) I can't recall a "defilement" of a special ATWT set. They did give Emma a new refrigerator once. At some point, they quietly traded it back.