soapfan770

Brenda Epperson I've always thought Ashley must be a difficult character to write for her because she was so many things. When she wasn't weak and crazy she's cold and bitchy and Epperson captured some of Davidson's coolness from time to time as Y&R's secondary heroine(second to Nikki of course). Yet Ashley always maintained a collected, quiet maturity and warmth at the same time, more so with Epperson. That was one of the problems with Shattuck was she was too--with regards to Victoria Newman--brash and sassy to be Ashley.

Since getting the ATWT DVDs which I sadly admit I've only watched two eps so far I've been digging and reading through old stuff I have saved and collected over the years, some very familiar to me. Oddly though I don't recall ever seeing the Duncan/Jessica article before yet I did have a sense of déjà vu at the same time. I'm surprised Hollen wasn't given more to do but then again Hollen always did get the short end of the stick didn't she? What did you think about the whole Hans story overall Carl? I mostly remember for the Lily kidnapping stuff and then Hans sawing off Lily's wedding ring from her finger.

Catching up on all the ATWT discussion--ever since switching shifts at work I haven't had much to time to post but I'm glad to be reading all of this BTW who blew up Andy's car there in 1993 and what happened to him afterward? I don't really remember that at all.

Gotta love this: I've heard the biggest complaint about Eve Howard's return was the way Eve was remembered/written for as a lot was apparently swept under the rug and Eve was reformed for the most part. Then again being gone for a decade does have its advantages. Aside from very unsuccessfully trying to kill Nikki on her wedding, I believe most of Eve's schemes were carried out against Victor and Julia. Then again I do recall reading Eve had an affair to remember with Rick Daros while they were in the mental hospital together but how involved was Eve in the main Rick Daros story? I've always thought Alison Bancroft was more terrifying than Eve anyways.

Going back to that 1994 promo I loved the first go around of Holden/Lily/Damien and was happy when Lily stayed with Damien but anyone know why the show remained persistent at trying to pair up Holden and Lily again when Damian and Lily were a better match? Too much nostalgia?

Cal last appeared in 2001 or so when he visited with Rose.

We've discussed some of Bell's weaker stories mainly in the 90s a lot already, what were some of Bell's weaker stories of the 70s/80s? Obviously Cricket being caught between four different men certainly didn't bode well for some(hello Terry Lester!) while I don't think the Laurence family worked out too much.

Anyone seen that Mattel has produced Dynasty Barbies for the 30th anniversary of the show?

PS did you guys know Paul Rauch once tried to nab Michelle Stafford as a recast Annie there in 1998? No lie, I'll be posting the story later...

Haven't had time to post in the classic soap threads much lately however I'm posting here the highlights of the 2nd half of 1997 that was published in 1/7/98 Soap News, some of it very interesting to read:

JT/Mac there 2005/2006 were boring and dreadful that I was happy to see Kinsey leave. The same problems happened for the second go around there 2009/2010, but once Ford and Luckinbill started to heat up together and JT&Mac were suddenly more interesting than Billy and Victoria and Cane and Lily they both got the axe. Go figure. The biggest problem was waiting six years before trying to bring Billy and Mac together again with no interaction beforehand, not even at Katherine's funeral which was weird. I think Bashioum burnt all of her bridges there in 2005. I recall at one point she tested for Marina on GL but Kit Paquin got the role thus Bashioum got rehired at Y&R. It didn't work out for either actresses obviously. I think on paper the whole story about Katherine switching the babies sounded good but the execution was absolutely terrible. Long before Cane appeared we Amber and that psychic that was always on Montel Williams running amok along with some shocking scenery chewing by Walton the with infamous "SHE GAVE IT AWAY!!!" moment.

I did take issue the whole the "Sharon is an irrational whore nailing the not so single Diego so its okay that Nick shacks up with Grace" mentality at the time. However in retrospect I think it was pretty tame considering anything since 2008. I was just very disappointed we got more contrived infidelity and that Sharon was made out to be the bad one following the death of the baby.

Besides the Africa story we had Amanda/Mac/Ralph stalker tale, Nick/Sharon/Diego/Grace, Paul/Isabella etc. It was pretty boring actually, and it lead some changes with the writing line-up ie bringing in Jack Smith. I agree, and I've always felt that Moore's exit was pretty much the final nail in the coffin for many after seeing these characters being mishandled or discarded.

Alex was alright she was certainly a woman of power in her own right, a pretty high-priced lawyer in the vain of Leslie. The problems of course were the cliche's, like Olivia being on the defense against Alex while we ended up with Neil/Alex/Malcolm. We had Neil and Alex barely stand each other and then have an affair. Malcolm's disappearance and presumed death was...um well its been said Y&R lost a million viewers when Shemar left, but really its easy to see how the Africa story could see how it could drive away a million viewers.

Thomas was still in the role of Callie when she died right? I remember being shocked reading the news of her death in SOD. The Callie stuff was okay, although I thought the whole stuff with Trey and his goon was a bit ridiculous. Callie was a woman from Malcolm's past which I thought was a nice touch as I don't think the Malcolm/Olivia pairing always felt right. I'm pretty sure Callie was gone by the time Dru came back from Paris there in 2000, and after Dru left again towards the end of the year is when the Neil/Alex/Malcolm triangle developed. Olivia's insecurity over Callie led her to hit the sheets with Neil right? All I ever remember about the summer of 2000 is Olivia laying on her deathbed all summer long.

Worse is that Bradley tried again when Ashley Jones took over the role. After the disastrous first recast of Bridget with an actress I don't remember her name right now Bridget was off the show for a few months but they brought her back and had her lovesick with Ridge which lead to that whole Ridge/Bridget/Amber/Thomas debacle at Big Bear. Actually, I completely forgot Thomas was paired up with Amber there in 2004. They had to age Thomas from 16 to 18 for the story. This was around the time Eric was suppose to get a Lolita story with Hector's daughter but thankfully never occurred. Another story that perhaps thankfully never happened was originally Taylor was suppose to get Thomas' wife Gaby deported only for her to end up presumed dead in a plane crash on the way back to Mexico. The plan was to have her come back deranged and disfigured and get revenge on Taylor by kidnapping Thomas.

I actually wish that the show would've done novel tie-ins I definitely love to read either Ruthless or Katherine's auto-biography she did back in '08.

Surprisingly enough for myself one of my favorite AW stories I've talked about her before actually made a SOW cover back in 1993: I don't believe there are any YT clips of the story I'm afraid, and its a shame both SoapNet and Hulu never made it that far. Patti D'Arbanville

Its was alleged that Khalil posted on her MySpace(my god this was five years ago!!) shortly after the "please pray for Davetta" stuff that she was terribly afraid that one dark late night while walking out to her car a hooded Sherwood would sneak up on her one night while and attack her with a baseball bat. Bobby had been off-screen for several months before it was announced that he was dead. Brittney lasted til the end of '05 almost. Its funny that last year Victor compared Bobby to Deacon and David Chow, yet he was nothing like them. The Veronica tale at the time for myself wasn't boring. The whole thing added spark to Josh and Nikki who were dull, and it was funny to see Sarah as the ridiculous yet sinister maid. Not to mention the great climax just in time for a perfect 25th anniversary story for the show and the payoff was brilliant in the end.

At the start of 2004 Y&R was very strong with its future looking bright; the moment Shaughnessy left and Smith took over as EP with Scott returning as Supervising Producer was when they fumbled, egos and their own agendas and all. Of course under Smith we had Brittney dominating 2003-2005 as Smith wanted her to be the new Nikki. Shame on Sony for firing both Sherwood and Leon. Leon's was absolutely inexcusable and ended up being shades of Holly Hallstrom. I've never understood Sherwood's departure or Khalil's strange comments and their rivalry. "Please pray for Davetta!" or threats of being hit by a baseball bat didn't sit well with me at all and apparently it didn't with Rowell as well.

Since starting her family Lauralee has been focused on her children primarily, but for the longest time I remember reading she was also looking to break into acting work outside of daytime and did some prime-time spots here and there. She turned the opportunity to return twice in 2008, first for the 35th Anniversary/Restless Style lauch/Danny singing and then for Katherine's funeral. She once said she would only return if the show had a lot more challenging material or did something different for Christine, although I don't think the Ronan stuff is exactly what she had in mind. Although the Isabella story had a good, chilling climax, after all Christine went through 2001-2003 with the "was it rape?" followed by silly disguise and bad accent and then ending up in the arms of a deceptive Danny I don't blame her for looking down on the writing for Christine. Regarding Heather Tom's exit in 2003 why didn't the show do more to save her given how easily she got picked up by another soap? How did Heinle get cast?

Thank you so much for sharing those 1992 SOD synopeses Carl. All the memories came flooding back as I'm reading them to catch up. What did you guys think think of the Victor/Ashley marriage and how it unraveled? I remember Victoria being a wicked thing towards Ash. My god I don't quite remember Jack going out to enjoy a fancy dinner while Victor was still lying on his office floor nearly stone cold. I have to believe that Lauren was over time perhaps one of the most difficult characters to write for. Lauren had been written for years as the town bitch, an antagonist to characters like Traci, Gina, Christine etc. which in long term meant Lauren couldn't simply be some damsel in distress like Nikki or Ashley. Lauren had to have a backbone and edge to remain viable. It's been said Sheila was actually Lauren's punishment for all the years Lauren caused chaos herself on others. So after the story was over, Lauren simply carried on as she had before--having an affair with Brad and restarting her rivalry with Traci. Then again, Lauren's second marriage to Scott was loveless and pretty much out of convenience. Its funny though Traci was also pretty much done as a character by 1992 as well and Bell wrote her off.

Here ya go

So its pretty obvious that Tyler is obsessed with Daniel isn't it? I actually really like the character of Nolan, I was worried that he was going to end up dead himself in this episode.

H&A was really the only foreign soap I watched from the moment I discovered how to watch it online in the early 00s and I really enjoyed but I quit watching after Rebecca Carwright and her character Hayley left the show. Its funny back then I remember a lot of people talking about H&A but nowadays I don't hear a thing about it anymore so I was wondering how it is still doing in Australia these days.