soapfan770

I do feel bad for the rest of the cast as the whole show’s legacy has been tarnished and can be hard to watch. That said, anyone else vividly remember this opening credits for the show? I remember as a kid seeing this and thinking “What in the world…” I think ended up being Cosby’s last season at #1.

LOL 😂 Honestly though that’s about the one thing JG can do well is at least dredge up some feel good Y&R nostalgia for an episode or two before falling back into his usual schlock.

It’s really amazing to me how far Karla Mosley and Lawrence Saint Victor have come from their GL days. I remember loathing LSV’s acting (along with the online jokes about the prestigious acting school) and initially remembering finding the whole Remy and Christina quickie marriage thing coming from out of nowhere when it occurred. I remember many here at SON being appalled and groaning at both of them. I personally found the quickie marriage comical and entertaining but was also puzzled by it, but hey to see Remy stop being sanctimonious and finally set himself free from Ava was worth it. Both prevailed and they ended up being a bright spot in GL’s final year and of course LSV and KM both became major fan favorites on B&B (despite Thudley misusing them over the years).

Late to the party but I had just seen the news about Tunie joining the cast I’m completely stoked! Same with seeing Karla Mosley being added to the show! ❤️ I also like adding the word “Beyond” to the title. I was fine with just “The Gates” but “Beyond The Gates” just gives a nice old time soapy throwback to the daytime soap titles of the 60’s and 70’s. Like Beyond the Gates sounds like a daytime show name while The Gates is sounds more primetime (and of course was once used for a primetime show several years back). So to follow up on that abbreviation post I made like 2 days ago here, I like BTG 😃

Weird to realize the show went off the air exactly 15 years ago yet it still feels like it was on yesterday or still should still be on the air. @DRW50 Of the two actresses that surprised me the most in the late 90’s it was both Blanchard and Moniz. Dinah’s descent was pretty riveting and Moniz played that little girl lost routine so well during her final year it practically erased all that McTavish 95-96 era crude out of my mind. Blanchard’s turnaround was really remarkable especially for what started off as a dismal supporting role. By the summer of 1999 I was fully invested and interested in Drew’s storylines especially about building a family and adopting Max at a time the show was becoming utterly garbage time between San Cristobel and Santos Mob and new characters galore, to the point where came the episode where Jesse and Drew were the most senior characters on 😵

So true. Her run as Mindy was okay, miles ahead of her dreadful predecessor Ann Hamilton, but definitely nowhere close to Krista and Kimberly. I did find it odd that BC and VI had a Nick and Mindy reunion on Y&R in January 2007 when Leanna randomly returned to interview David Chow about Carmen’s murder for a couple of episodes. Given the state of both GL and Y&R at that time heck I would’ve preferred both on GL just for the 70th anniversary as opposed to the Carmen/Ines doppelgänger crap. Maggie started out rough with that ridiculous trashy triangle with her sleeping with Dylan while he was on the outs with Jessica or something. She had a spark with Connor but Thudley just never used Connor to his full potential. Once Maggie married James and adopted Mary it was on. The famous fire-poker catfight between Maggie and Sheila and then Maggie becoming both emotionally and mentally unmoored herself in late ‘97 and early ‘98 was actually well received and acclaimed at the time, but these days is largely forgotten and ignored. SOD even made reference to Maggie’s fate here: https://www.soapoperadigest.com/photos/four-bb-characters-that-didnt-catch-on/

I would love to see Maggie again just to see her face off with Sheila again! I wonder if Crampton was even asked or if she just knows to just stay away lol.

I mentioned recently that really Budig should just been cast as a returning Jessica Forrester instead of playing Taylor, so this Electra thing is an odd twist. The Vine had came back already in May and Thudley did NOTHING with her so why is she back again?

Still this is really strange casting news. I would’ve wished for an Olivia recast. Hell, let Sony get over themselves and just bring back VR!!!

Griffith would find some way to botch and drop it. We already had the stories of Theo and Allie that went absolutely nowhere and the characters forgotten.

I liked Haggarty early on as he brought on some international flair but he starts wearing on my nerves in his later appearances when he is just manipulating and using Jessica. That said Cariou and Lansbury had some amazing chemistry together each time he appeared. I’d say Michael is my 3rd favorite recurring character after Dennis and Harry.

MG and MCE also haven’t shared an ounce of chemistry in the last 5 years so I don’t understand why all of the sudden Connor is trying to push his parents back together. Billy and Chelsea also have had a largely off screen relationship to begin with so at this point does anyone care except for maybe one person in the control room? Crazy Sharon’s story is a mess and it’s also depressing. Unlike the Ashley DID story there isn’t much entertainment value in seeing Cameron taunt Sharon. I mean Ashby and Case are doing their best with the material to at least keep me somewhat interested but still when people asked for a story for Sharon I don’t think THIS is what anyone had in mind. Obviously Ric Hearst is busy at the moment and no clue what Cibrian is up to these days but I at least think if anything Sharon being haunted by anyone for her 30th anniversary it should’ve been Matt.

@TaoboiGriffith got canned over at Days for telling a very offensive rape story in early 2016. I think his first year back had some purpose and momentum even if it was setting the show back to pick up where he left off in 2013. But COVID hit and it seemed to throw him completely off track, plus the Kansas retcon was a disaster he quickly moved on from it once the story ended. Overall I think Griffith was a lightning in the bottle/one trick pony. He was involved (but not solo) with one successful era of a defunct OLTL over 30 years ago. Everything else since including from his brief time at BEACH, his work on ATWT, Y&R and Days stints just had imploded one by one.

I got my soap abbreviation terminology from how SOD styled them is i.e. ATWT, DAYS, Y&R etc. while using the whole name for single name soaps like Loving and Passions, while BEACH was used to distinguish itself from SB (Santa Barbara). As for older soaps I remember SOD used SFT, EDGE, and RH. SOD never liked to use the word “the” hence in the recaps it was always “Bold and Beautiful” and “Young and Restless”. I don’t remember at all how they handled The City, except using CITY to refer to the show. So I concur GATES would be most appropriate following the SOD tradition I recall it was either SPW or SOU that used stuff like “World Turns”, “One Life” “Restless” etc.

You might be right as that may have been the case because I do remember how hyped up attention the Star Trek themed Halloween episode was given in that same era in the press. It was definitely sometime in early ‘98 when I was staying at my grandparents for a week when I heard my grandma say “If I don’t catch that new Diagnosis Murder tonight I’m gonna croak!” 🤣 And there I saw her later on sitting glued to the show while grandpa already was half-asleep in his recliner. I myself only occasionally ever watched it, especially if nothing else was on. My only interest I had in the show really was just watching Van Dyke and Rowell together, otherwise it was just run of mill whodunits that could be mildly amusing. Something for a very lazy Sunday afternoon but unlike MSW it was definitely not appointment TV worthy. I agree better scripts so could have helped the show out. In addition to dumping Baio the show really needed to have recast Sloan’s son with an actual actor. Barry Van Dyke’s apple (along with his son Shane’s apple) fell very, very, very far from the tree that gave us Dick and Jerry.

Well said as always my friend! I’m a little mixed on Nate and Audra as I wasn’t entirely sure if I wanted their dynamic to completely change but you know what, if it causes Devon heartburn then it’s well worth it lol. I like Nate and Audra, but have felt she did the pot stirring vixen better while using Kyle as her errand boy/play thing while also sleeping with REAL men. But if they can be a formidable power team I wouldn’t mind that at all. Or Nate goes back to medicine after Audra sets him up his own practice and cheers her business acumen from the sidelines would be fine. I’m glad Chance had finally been given something interesting to do long overdue. The relationship with Summer is a good start but him going back to being a cop would be perfect. I like the idea of a murder mystery haha. I’d say let Billy die lol but I don’t want another Abbott death on the show so I propose Phyllis dies for real this time after pissing everyone off in her position of what Billy has for her at Chancellor.

Agreed neither shows ever produced MSW caliber episodes, but they could still provide fun little easy to solve mysteries. I know my grandparents and at least my dad lol definitely watched it for Andy (not to mention the cantankerous nature of the character was closer to how Griffith was in real life apparently lol). Similarly later on both my grandmothers were obsessed with watching Diagnosis Murder too and I’m assuming that was because of Van Dyke plus the show got better after dropping Scott Baio 🤣

Thanks! Looks like it’s time on ABC wasn’t as strong as I thought I remembered. I’m surprised that Matlock didn’t move to CBS along with In the Heat of the Night but it probably would’ve failed there too after a season or two as well. It probably could’ve been paired well with Diagnosis Murder obviously but I’m certain it wouldn’t be the demographics CBS was wanting. For the record here is Matlock’s ratings by season: 86-87: #15 87-88: #14 88-89: #12 89-90: #20 90-91: #17 91-92: #39 (tied with Primetime Live 92-93: #28 (tied with ABC Sunday Night Movie) 93-94: #35 94-95: #61

Sooo I was just looking at Y&R’s ratings after it was mentioned B&B is about to overtake it following the Luna story last week. Sure enough Y&R tied it’s low, a point away from being tied with B&B. The astounding part is the show is down 219K viewers closing from last year…..thanks a lot Josh!

With the upcoming Matlock reboot, let’s look at the tank and sabotage job of the original series: Tank Job: After 5 seasons as a Top 20 hit on Tuesday nights at 8ET/7/CT, NBC decided to move Matlock to Friday nights in the 8PM slot. The show plunged out of the top 20, top 30, and ended up at #39 for the season. It was also the last season it was on NBC before switching to ABC. Tank Job #2 and Sabotage: After 2 seasons in on Thursday nights at 8PM were the show had some success and had at least broken into the Top 30, ABC decided to air Matlock into the 9PM slot for the 1994-95 season following My So Called Life after the initial show McKenna bombed. The show absolutely met a grisly fate in the ratings, and moving it back to 8PM after My So Called Life ended was the final nail. Basically it foreshadowed the fate of MSW the following season.

@Taoboi I literally had to laugh out loud when I saw that Billy’s only go talk to these days is his daughter Katie

I feel Lance had something legit with Lorraine but unfortunately that ended. He also had something with Dina later on but that of course ended because Lamas and the actress called off their real life engagement so the show basically recycled the Lorraine plot again with Dina. Fair point, and Melissa self sabotaging even her semi-good relationships with Eric (when he was a Lance clone) and Dan Fixx continued her self-destructive streak. I think Lance and Melissa could’ve worked ideally had the characters evolved a good bit but Melissa going Batsh!t crazy time and again destroyed that Chance. Lol poor Cole indeed. But he was wise enough to move from the valley. I do think Cole would’ve been a better match for Pilar in the later seasons but that’s just theory.

Sherry was so amazing on ER in those early years and Susan was a favorite character of mine for sure. The only downside of course was Sherry leaving both NYPD Blue and ER so soon and that lead to a bit of reputation of “quitter” if I recall. Not as bad as David Caruso’s career between NYPD Blue and CSI Miami though. Stringfield’s decisions were for personal reasons (for better or for worse). She had prioritized what she wanted to do and not what others wanted her to do. That had consequences for both the TV show and her. It was devastating when Susan left the 1st time. I remember being upset. It was “The Show to Watch” at the time. When she came back I just don’t think the writers knew what to do with her. Five years had passed, the lightning in a bottle was gone and the other characters had moved on or new characters had been added, not mention ER had become the Abby hour by that point. They just never figured out what to do with her and Stringfield left again four seasons later. I’ve read Sherry had secondary reasons for leaving for a pilot in 2006 she was guaranteed over at CBS or something but the pilot wasn’t picked up last minute and after that her acting career became way scaled back again to the point she hasn’t been onscreen for several years now.

The truth of the matter is NOTHING is happening on Y&R at the moment to behind with, so there’s really not much to discuss. And compared to Ashley’s DID caper earlier this year, Sharon seeing a dead and bloody Cameron is being presented as so mundane and low energy it’s hard to even care. I hate to see Sharon Case being wasted for this mess, yet I feel like SC isn’t bothering to bring her A-game to make it interesting (or maybe Case’s best days are long ago now)

Neither do I, and the actress who was the recast Reed was AWFUL just as her storyline was. It’s as if Cowen and Lipman learned nothing with the Georgie story. @DRW50 A reason why I fell out with QAF because of their work during the last season because Brian & Justin rehashing everything again before ending on a whimper while the Babylon bombing quickly turned into the equivalent of Melrose Place getting bombed. Apologies I just realized my iPad autocorrected a young Paul Rudd’s Kirby into Rory for some strange reason back in my post. Don’t ask me why.