juniorz1

I know the McCleary brothers weren't very popular with the majority of the audience because they kind of ate the show, but I always liked all 3, probably because they came on during the period that I was watching and I was never older than 7 years old.  Of the 3, Cagney was my least favorite and was the least colorful, but I appreciate the type of character that he represented.  He was the good guy, noble, the hero without being showy about it.  Just a solid guy and a perfect match for Suzy.  He and Eoff have a nice chemistry too.

Cynthia Gibb!!  That's the one I remember!  It took me a while to warm up to Eoff because of her.  Now, going back and watching, I really like Eoff in the part.

1 minute ago, DRW50 said:

 

Elizabeth Swackhamer?

 

That channel has some decent material, although I keep hoping some of the stuff like Sunny's rape storyline will pop up somewhere. 

I would like to better understand the Sunny/Hogan relationship as well.  I LOVED them together and hated that the show brought on Patti and put him with her.  I always thought Hogan belonged with Sunny..   But when I go back and watch clips, I only see them have one date and then he has the affair with Liza.  I know they were working together before Patti came back and I remember they had such chemistry- it seemed like the show was going to put them together and then....poof! Patti shows up and they throw Sunny with Bella- I didn't like either of those relationships.  

I'm going to look for a clip with Swackhammer as Suzy and see if that's who I am remembering.  But seeing Eoff- she IS who I associate with Suzy, so maybe I'm mixed up.

Just watching that 1 clip Carl got me started watching the Cagney/Suzy/Warren/Wendy storyline on youtube.  Man that's some damn good stuff they have goin on there!  I don't know what was happening on the rest of the show but that storyline has me hooked!  Pretty search when Search fell apart is when that storyline ended and we got NuSuzy and NuLiza.  I can completely see again why NuSuzy was so jarring.  I absolutely LOVE the actress playing Suzy.  The one that followed was just terrible.

And I'm actually rather liking Louise Shaffer as Stephanie.

Looks like I'm remembering wrong again- Teri Eoff played Suzi until the end of the series it seems and is the re-cast I must be remembering.  Anybody know the name of the actress who played Suzi just prior to her?

I don't even remember the Louise Shaffer version of Stephanie.   For whatever reason, the Wilkins women are completely blocked out of my mind.  I mean I know who they are and all but don't recall them from my own viewing.

I knew Wendy and Warren were having an affair, as I watched this storyline as a 3 year old child.  Even commented on it according to stories I've heard.  However, I have no recollection of Search at that time at all.  Looks like it was a good soapy story.   And most certainly before the Suzy recast came on board- I hope someday we'll get the scenes of Suzy confronting Wendy after she finds out about the affair.   Did Michael Corbett just play variations of the same character on every soap he was cast on?  Sure seems that way.  Warren is practically identical to his character on Ryan's Hope.

The thing for me about Search is that there are characters that I know that I watched (because they were in the cast during the period I was watching) that I have no recollection of.  Wendy and Stephanie both fall into that category.  I believe Peluso left shortly after this story wrapped but Cheatham stayed til nearly the end, didn't she?

So nice to see RealLiza in this episode as well.  For me it was SO DAMN jarring having re-cast Liza and recast Suzy those last years.  I so strongly assoicated these two actresses with those characters and it didn't help that each of their replacements were severely miscast.

On 7/23/2017 at 3:25 PM, Nothin'ButAttitude said:

 

Yup. I think it is. 

 

I am trying to figure out who the second pairing (after Jess/Duncan) is in the promo. Is that Connor or Ellie? 

I'm pretty sure that's Larry & Susan

Thank you for posting these 1984 eps!  So happy to see Kathleen Layman's MJ.  She was one of my favorite heroines at the time.  And good to know I didn't imagine the flirtation she had with Rick Porter's Larry.   Chemistry in spades.  Maybe some posters will better understand why I could never accept Sally Spencer in the part

On 6/24/2017 at 10:51 PM, DRW50 said:

 

Yes. It was also that tacky story where Sly raped Jessica and Lark Voorhies and left them in a burning Bikini Bar (was it ever rebuilt?), when they brought in Russell Todd for a story where Taylor was being stalked (the whole thing was quickly dropped), etc. Probably the best thing about the year was bringing in Grant.

I always preferred Connor to Grant (I have a soft spot for Scott Thompson Baker).   I say that because Grant pretty much took Connor's role on the show.  STB never met a woman he didn't have chemistry with!  He was the first person outside of Ridge that I actually liked Brooke with....and he was absolute FIRE with Kimberlin Brown's Sheila.

On 6/24/2017 at 10:51 PM, DRW50 said:

 

Yes. It was also that tacky story where Sly raped Jessica and Lark Voorhies and left them in a burning Bikini Bar (was it ever rebuilt?).

 Oh Sly.  I loved Sly.....whoever had the idea to have SLY rape anyone was an idiot....I preferred him poking a hole in his condom and trying to impregnate Jessica.  Didn't that story start out with Jasmine (Lark Voorhies) actually helping Sly win Jessica because she wanted Dylan?  The fire came into play when she double crossed Sly (post-rape).

Dylan was another character I actually quite liked.  Why they only tested him with Darla and never went there made no sense to me.  They had chemistry in spades.

I LOVED Felicia/Sergei as well!

Of all the cancelled soaps over the years, I don't remember there ever being an uproar like there was when AW went off the air.

Why was there no new Potomac on Sunday?  I was dying to see the events leading to Karen's meltdown....

On 6/23/2017 at 7:05 PM, Angel M. said:

Hello. I want to know if Travis from Y&R counts as a character that didn't get a proper send off. He pretty much went from sending flowers to Victoria one day and when she told him "Leave me alone" he walked away. The next day, Sally took over and Victoria was talking about wanting to be an independent woman or some crap to Victor and Nikki. I think it was mentioned that he left town but his send off to me wasn't proper he just walked away.

I LOVED the Travis character and wish they'd bring him back.  He came the closest to filling the "Brad Carlton" void of any character introduced since.

That storyline was the Dobsons.  People complain about their second tenure and I really don't get it.  They managed to keep me invested in the show for the first 8 months after Marcy left, which was no easy feat.  They also created a new heroine that I fell in love with- Angela!

9 minutes ago, Nothin'ButAttitude said:

 

It would've made sense seeing how popular Nina Arvesen allegedly was with Y&R audiences as Cassandra. Why didn't the show do a better job at using her to draw in more viewers and force Pam Long's hand when it came to her? 

 

She was that cliche gorgeous woman with blond heroine that the show was known for having. 

Pam Long didn't see her as a heroine- she saw her as a sexed up vamp.  Ironically, the only interesting thing about Long's tenure was the Angela/Ted relationship she created.  But, only seeing her as a vamp and not a heroine, there was no follow-through, Ted ended up with Lily, Angela ended up alone, and Nina Arvesen was one of 2 or 3 cast members who didn't appear on the last episode.  I believe her last appearance was on the 3rd or 4th to last ep.  It was a total missed opportunity.  The Dobsons liked writing for her and saw the potential.  That changing of the guard in the writers' room never should have happened.

I LOVED Angela and that was the storyline where I fell in love with her.   They really should have continued trying her as the new female lead because it was working.  Unfortunately, Pam Long severely backburnered her in favor of BJ Walker.  It didn't work, like all of Long's tenure.

Yes, AW tried to get her back......sort of.   She was asked the first time Jensen left, but her Hollywood career was picking up steam and she declined.  She was asked again to sub in for Jensen as a temp recast in September 1998, at the height of her stardom.  That time, she actually wanted to do it- it was only going to be a 2 week gig and she was all for it.   Things were looking good but either her agents/management wouldn't let her or there ended up being a scheduling conflict.  Pretty sure it was the former and instead we got Cynthia Watros.

44 minutes ago, MichaelGL said:

I've often wondered how Nancy Curlee and Donna Swajeski might have been as a team. 

I think that would be a dream combination. Throw in Linda Gottlieb as EP and we've got a soap to watch.

She was a co-head at both soaps.  At GL, under Ellen Weston and then with David Kreitzman at AMC.   When she was on AW, she started by working under Lemay and then had a very close working relationship with associate writer Peggy Sloane.  But she was the sole head writer there and TBH, not only did she get free reign, but she got to cherry pick AW's history and bring on both old and new characters of her own creation.  As I said, she was given leeway to re-invent the entire canvas and the results were solid and often well above average.

It makes me wonder how she'd have been had she created her own soap.

I liked the Ladykiller video.

I do feel like the "not so good" stuff was mostly minor and even dropped stories.  Even the Red Swan basically got dropped, didn't it?   I did feel bad that Rachel sort of languished in the background for a while after the Red Swan storyline, but it was a confusing time and who knew where they were going to take Rachel without Mac?   I liked that she went there with Evan/Vicky, I LOVED that she started an Amanda/Vicky rivalry (that rivalry was brilliant and had SUCH potential), Cali Timmins' Paulina was such a different, interesting character for AW, she brought back and completely revitalized Jake- she did so much GOOD, solid work with the characters.  AW in the 80s was a constant revolving door.  What people fail to give Swajeski credit for is stabilizing the canvas and providing AW with the cast of characters that would carry the show through all the way to its finale.  The Swajeski era did that.

Just now, Soaplovers said:

 

Lorna still had her edge during the Felicia alcoholism story.  She got watered down due to recast more then the writing.

I meant the rape.  I don't know what writer/producer thought it was a good idea to rape that character but they were nuts!

She wrote Lorna's best stuff IMO.  Fierce Lorna.  Carl's henchwoman, the affair with Matt, rivalry with Felicia- that was the Lorna I loved.  Peggy Sloane wrote a more watered down version.

She also penned the Jamie/Vicky/Jake/Marley mess, though they should have had Steven be Jake's baby.   IMO, her writing is what brought Anne Heche to life.  She brought back Kathleen, Carl Hutchins, and she must have been responsible for Cecile's 1988 return at Halloween, since Harding LeMay didn't come back until November.  She started the Snowflake Ball, she did the special black & white Valentine's Day film noir piece, she was responsible for a lot of innovation on AW and she brought back key characters that fueled the show's future (Carl Hutchins being her longest felt achievement).

1 minute ago, marceline said:

 

Which makes the crappy send-off he got even worse. IMO, they brought him back as a stunt.

Not sure we can judge when someone is in that condition.  Maybe he was no longer well enough to work?  Maybe he wanted to spend the rest of his days with his family?  We don't know.  Didn't he die shortly thereafter?

7 hours ago, applcin said:

Zaslow was never really given a send-off on OLTL either. I mean, it was great that they took him back at the point when he was in a wheelchair and using the computer voice. David was living with Cassie and then he just wasn't there. 

  Wasn't JFP the one who brought him over to OLTL?  Pretty sure it was.  Say what you will about Jill, but that was a classy move.