P.J.

Don't get me started on TIIC's obsession with Hunt Block, how they destroyed the character of Craig tailoring it to his limited schtick, and just in general shat upon the entire show with their version of Y&R's Eric Braeden. Given the situation---I was okay with Babs ending up with Henry. She got a happy ending. I'm not really sure who they could have brought back from her past as an alternative, and let's face it---it was a surprise TIIC even bothered writing anything for her. These are the idiots that spent the last nine months obsessed with giving Luke an adult love interest instead of focusing on their core vets. At least IMO.

it was Mike, Henry, Jennifer and Nikki (the recast that looked like Molly and was only on a couple of months) who played strip poker if I recall correctly. Henry didn't start off giving off a gay vibe. He only gay-ed up to become Katie's sidekick.

I seem to remember Nicole was dark-haired at least. Poor Henry---I think at some time or another, all of Oakdale's women got to threaten him with bodily harm. Not with a knife, gun, just all the force their tiny little bodies could generate, being probably a foot shorter than him.

it was a nice episode, but the fact that they just had to complicate the timeline and make Kara's Earth Earth3 really annoyed me. I like crossovers better when they truly impact the story somehow, and other than giving Kara a confidence booster, this didn't. It seems like any new guy paying attention to Kara would have done.

why did no one ever tell me Governor Gatling used to be a Hughes? WOW.

I've never heard CZ having problems with Hugo Napier. But you never know how much everything else influences their personal favs. Considering how little time they had together, and what a different person Babs was with Gunnar, I could get where maybe she and Henry were right for each other at the end of ATWT.

Gunnar St. Clair was on ATWT. Gunther was the creepy waiter on Friends. I think a lot of Gunnar was time and place. I liked him. But I think he was in a clunker story for a lot of his time on ATWT. He ends up rescuing Barbara from James, but then I swear, he's dead like six months later. And I would split it this way---Gunnar was Barbara's greatest hero, while Hal was her greatest love. As for the Dobsons--they are probably the clearest case of pre-and post GH success and how it changed daytime. While I'm sure GL under them wasn't "flawless"---but it was traditional soap with a progressive tendencies. After GH's success with Luke/Laura/Ice Princess crap, every show throws in more adventure/sci-fi "twists" that deemphasize true interwoven drama.

well, I was a preteen and remember thinking her "visions" or previous life thing was boring.

wow...that Tom looks older than Bob in those pics. And look---Franny's like FIVE, while Tom's practically middle-aged. Reading the obits, I had no idea James Douglas was on Peyton Place.

I can't say for sure. There were really few truly graphic depictions of violence on ATWT. Emily's rape by Diego might have rated one. Other than Angel/Henry, something during the Teague story, or perhaps something in the Brock Lombard story, I'm not sure what would have even rated one. When did they start the daily ratings? The early '00's?

Maybe at some point, I will like it more than I currently do---but right now, I can't wrap my head around that. It has the weakest cast, lacks direction and just feels tired. It literally comes across as the prim, Amish cousin of Flash/Arrow/LoT. I can't believe this and Blindspot are by the same people.

I just see a lot of missed opportunities. I think it was a huge mistake to kill off Kara's Aunt (whose name escapes me right this second) so soon. I'll agree this last episode (w/the red kryptonite) was by far the best episode of the season, but it kind of just highlights the show's weaknesses. The characters are earnest but lack depth. I think Lord is supposed to have shades of gray (and I definitely think they're setting up a relationship with the sister), but the actor lacks presence to carry it off (he really reminds me of Ray Palmer, and the pretty but b.l.a.n.d. Brandon Routh). Maybe because I already watch Arrow/Flash/LoT, I'm expecting too much of a first season show. It just feels a little hollow to me.

That's so long ago, I can't pin it down to a specific year without looking at the bible. It was a crime to only have Mary Kay Adams for that six months to a year. Killing her off was a mistake. I don't know if that's all she wanted, or what, but it was a shame. Especially when it's like they traded Neal in for Sam, who wasn't nearly as good or interesting. I never found it dark…compared to what Black/Stern did and now Griffith on Days….ATWT didn't come close at that time. That was horrible. I didnt care for that episode. That was so bad….LOL Yeah, I thought the Ross stuff thing was goofier than hell, but I couldn't really come up with other specific examples. The crap that passes for drama nowadays---it's all plot point driven. Yes, Marland got dark and depressing, but for the most part, everyone's actions had a grounded, reasonable (to them at least) motivation and consequences that carried through and generated the next arc in the story. Margo didn't just get raped and shook it off in twelve weeks---we saw her marriage affected, and she underwent HIV tests every six months for like two years afterward. Don't get me started on the crap that is GH, with that supposedly realistic bipolar story. It's rare that I'd notice how badly directed something is, but between Morgan's dock scenes and Sonny's church heroics, I'm convinced GH's stable of directors just don't GAS anymore.

I remember GL having a lot of drama from '90-'94. What GL probably did a little better at the time is showcase it's lighter moments. Something like Ross' election nightmare episode or Hamp's bachelor party with all the guys stood out. ATWT wasn't without humor, but it was most often in banter between characters (like Kirk and Lucinda) and not the broader silliness other shows used. ATWT was really dark for a period, but it was so organically written, you were totally sucked in.

LOL....I understand that the soaps that debuted in the '70's pushed boundaries. But it's not like they reinvented the wheel. Y&R, after all, IS the show that gave us The Hoff. I credit Y&R more with an upswing in production values that made the show more visibly attractive. But can you imagine what social media would say about Bell now? That he was ripping off his own stuff (inventing Lisa and Y&R's scheming Jill), relied on rape way too much, and cast a bunch of models instead of actors.

Maybe I'm not giving Y&R enough credit, but all of television was changing at the time. It's not like Oakdale was full of Puritans who simply yakked over coffee. Most of what I've read credits Eileen Fulton's Lisa for ATWT's meteoric rise in ratings---and she was a selfish, social climbing bitch. It wasn't by accident that Agnes Nixon created Erica Kane.

The irony of Y&R being touted as fast-paced and fresh nearly had me exploding in laughter. It's very much a criticism of the moment, ain't it? Give them a little skin and everything seems a lot more exciting. I'm not denying that shows in the '70's (especially newer ones, I assume) were taking baby steps towards being "topical" faster than ATWT. But it's GL in '78-'79 that takes on marital rape first, isn't it? And I think it was clear that John raped Kim at the time, even if those words weren't used (although this review might be slightly before that happens). What the freak was Y&R doing at the time? Other than showing people in bed, and Jennifer's ovarian cancer,, you had Jill and her daddy issues and Lori and Leslie boinking brothers.

Well, to be fair, it seems like Agnes Nixon took her fair share of swipes at ATWT in the press before this article appeared. What strikes me is that in 1976 (two years before ATWT falls from the number one spot) they're already losing the publicity war. The one thing that always drove me crazy (and this is from the mid-80's on) is that ABC excelled at promoting themselves, while CBS seemed to always be about three steps behind, like deigning to promote their shows was somehow beneath them (or, just simply an unjustifiable expense). I am a little baffled by the author's explanation of the Kim/Jen/Bob resolution. I guess I need to brush up on my history, 'cause I thought Jen died without knowing about it. I thought that was kind of behind Kim's angst during her pacemaker storyline, when Jen came back to comfort her.

I think HBS would have been fine in the right-to-die story, but the rape/HIV story wasn't her type of material at all (she was not at her best at that type of heavy dramatic material on OLTL - she just got shrill). I also thought Ellen and Scott Holmes had more chemistry than he did with HBS. To me it was the writing that destroyed them - once they took away the everyday couple aspect of Tom and Margo in 1995 or 1996 and she just barked and he yelled all the time, they were never any good. Yeah, in part, I don't think the writers knew what to do with them. But I also think TIIC realized Holmes' limitations, and wrote more for Dolan. '95 starts the focus more on Margo, starting with the PTSD and leading into the Alec Wallace/Eddie Silva and the non-reaction of Adam to his bio-dad Hal. Why TIIC didn't just break them up and move them on to other people, I don't know.

I was glad HBS left. By the end of her time, Margo was a shrill hypocrite and everyone kissed her ass almost as much as they kissed Lily's. And I think dramatically, Dolan was a step up from HBS. I think HBS would have played both the right-to-die and rape/HIV stories differently, and softened their impact somewhat. At least in the beginning, I believe Scott Holmes' Tom was less of a "whipped" husband with ED, and they "fit" better than Holmes and HBS. I don't know how "reflective" CZ was, but I remember she got testy at some of the talk that was going on on social media.

Supergirl doesn't seem to have a purpose, other than to become Supergirl. While that journey is probably the foundation of every superhero story, there doesn't seem to be any inherent urgency in the show. With Arrow, it was about finding out about the Undertaking and avenging his father, with Flash, it was finding his mother's killer in their first seasons. OTOH, Kara's bopping around fighting aliens of the week and quaking in her boots everytime Cat Grant purses her lips. And that Lord guy is clearly a lightweight villain. Compared to Malcolm Merlyn, WellsReverseFlash or Slade, he might as well be a puppy-kicker. And maybe I'm just really old school, but I don't like the "humans don't trust Superman" vibe and there's something kind of off-putting in the way Kara talks about her adoptive parents.

I wish the writers would have been brave enough to simply end Holden and Lily when Martha Byrne left.

It was a mistake to let Brown go---but I kind of see where she was written into a corner, even by Marland before he died. Iva was the eternal loser, someone who was practically always forced to do the "right thing" and sacrificed any self-interest she had to promote family peace. It's hard looking back and realizing she never fought for anything for herself. It seems her entire family walked all over her, and she had to smile and put everyone else's happiness ahead of hers. Lily--criminy, that selfish brat eternally played her and Lucinda against each other; Ellie walked off with her man; Holden took the child she'd spent years raising; and Meg married her rapist and got Iva's blessing. It would have been fun to give Iva a "Barbara" moment, where she says "I don't GAF and I'm not going to take it anymore!" and unleashes her fury on all of Oakdale.

I had to look it up---it seems Jason was brought on to prosecute Paul for James' death. The bible only listed Jonathan Hogan in the role ('89-'94), which I guess means the first guy wasn't on for very many appearances. (which I still find curious; lots of bit players are listed, both actors who played Ray Tenney are included, and that certainly wasn't a big or significant role) Kirk was a dick---but he certainly wasn't boring. Hogan recurred for years, but it's not like he had a significant story of his own---all I remember is him being Tom's pipeline to the Crime Commission. It had to be that once they decided to fire Brown, Iva needed a "happy ending", and a reasonable excuse to allow her to take MJ with her. Don't get me started on the Ciccones. I'm convinced Julie Pinson had photos of someone doin' something.

Personally, my bet is that the first Jason had been written too harsh for anyone to believe Iva would have any interest in him. I forget exactly what case he was involved in, but I remember him being a huge dick. I doubt Jason would have been retooled if they hadn't decided to give Iva a somewhat happy ending and ship her off. But JasonTheSecond was such a dull wuss, I felt sorry for Iva being stuck with that boring, homely loser.