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I saw the Robin Kennemer promo as well. I thought it was more stylized than I expected for the 1970s. Most of the promos I've seen have just been clips of episodes. This was more shots of various characters. In addition, there was a slightly longer version of the Jennifer through the glass promo starting off with Kathy talking to someone about loving Scott even though Jennifer was pregnant with his child. Like maybe 8-10 more seconds

There was also nice movement in the Matt / Ellen story. Matt had saved elitist Boardman's life which put him in the spotlight. Monica asked Matt to assist her in a surgery using the new chair lift he had fought for. The surgery sequence reminded me of Monica's return to the operating room in June, 1992, after the Langton trial was over. It wasn't a necessary beat, but powerful. The surgery goes well with Matt performing most of it, but at the end, there is a issue. A valve is bleeding and needs to be sutured. Monica asks if another doctor needs to step in, but Matt comes through with flying colors and precise sewing skills. I think it is a nice thing to help let the audience know that your doctor can be differently abled and still be a competent surgeon. Additionally, Ellen drops the wig and starts wearing her natural dreads. When Matt comments on the change in hair, Ellen said Matt has taught her that she needs to stop conforming to what people expect to be a doctor and simply be who she is. I thought it was a pretty powerful comment on the racism in the medical profession that I could never see flying today in the more conservative daytime landscape (unless you had a white character explaining it).

I picked up in November 1997 where I left off a while ago starting with November 10. I finished off the month making it to Thanksgiving, 1997. This would be the start of the second month of Lynn Marie Latham's run. I do think the show is getting a bit stronger in most areas, but I don't think there is a strong enough big story to keep an audience tuning in day in and day out. Port Charles is a quieter show in that sense, which seems odd to say about Latham's work. My favorite material involves the Devlin family. In the Loving / The City thread, we've discussed Harding Lemay's comment about The City not being compelling in it's early sequences because it was all set among one generation of characters. This comment would also apply to early Port Charles. I think it helps that they have started to explore multigenerational dynamics more. The Bennett / Nicole / Chris / Eve story has developed nicely in terms of story and characterization with some interesting structural decisions made in the process. The Ellen / Matt / Grace triangle is benefitting from the recognition of the non-traditional family dynamcis with Ellen's role of supervisor of the interns preventing Ellen to committing to a relationship with Matt. Joe and Karen's romance is more interesting because of the needling from all of their assorted family members about what their relationship status is. The Devlin family scenes are some of my favorites. Bennett and Nicole's marriage is toxic. Bennett is a philandeerer and Nicole seems to be having her own mid life crisis by throwing herself into an affair with Dr. Chris Ramsay, who Nicole describes in one scene as a mirror image of Bennett in his youth. Chris and Bennett as the same type makes not only the Nicole / Chris and Nicole / Bennett dynamic intersting, it sets in motion what should be a more solid foundation for Chris and Julie in the future. Nicole isn't really going to bed with Chris; she is trying to relive the love she experienced with Bennett. Barabara Stock does well with the little she gets, but I wish they'd dig deeper. After learning the Julie knew about Eve and Bennett's affair, Nicole berates her daughter only days after Julie has been rescued from Greg Cooper's clutches. Julie's role as Nicole's confidante and Nicole's need for Julie to parent her sets up an interesting role reversal that explains why Julie is such a neurotic mess. Bennett also uses Julie as mediator in his attempts to reconcile with Nicole. All of this culminates in a rather purposely bizarre sequence where Julie dreams of performing surgery with Greg Cooper on her mother while Greg morphs into Bennett during the course of the dream and Nicole into Eve. The sequence ends with Julie stabbing Eve in the stomach on the operating table. I have to wonder at what point Latham was considering going the serial killer route. There are other interesting structural choices made in these episodes. On the way to the Scanlons house to see Julie, Bennett and Nicole both offer up their own versions of how Bennett and Eve's affair began each including competing filmed versions of the stories that play out one after the other. It's an interesting gimmick I have rarely scene in daytime, but it allows the audience to draw their own conclusion. Once the Devlins arrive at the Scanlons, they are surprised by the arrival of Eve and Chris (pre-affair with Nicole) when Eve arrives to get some notes she left in the Scanlon basement from when she shared the space with Julie. Eve walks right between Nicole and Bennett, which is played lowkey but is a delicious visual representation of the role Eve plays in their marriage. Pinson is charismatic and has a nice comedic flair, but occassionally will fall flat in some of the more dramatic material. At one point, Bennett attempts to persuade Eve to tell Nicole that neither Bennett nor Eve loved each other and that was little more than a one-night stand. This lie devastates Eve as there was a time she expected Bennett to leave Nicole for her. Eve confronts Bennett over whether he ever truly loved her, and Bennett backtracks. It's increasingly clear that Bennett is someone who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Albert underplays a lot of Bennett's swarminess which is fairly effective, but I'm not convinced it's as nuanced as I would like. Anyway, when Eve does goes to Nicole, Eve reveals what Eve now beleives to be the truth; Eve's love for Benentt was one-sided. He only loved Nikki, but Eve. All of this culiminates in Nicole's proclamation that she will be staying in Port Charles and later informs Bennett and Julie of her plans to divorce Bennett. Julie's reaction to this is pretty prominent, and, if I remember correctly, it plays a role in how she will react to her relationship with Frank down the line. Frank and Julie are very comfortable in their relationship after Julie's kidnapping. Bennett offers Frank the reward money, which he initialyl refuses before telling Bennett to donate the money to the Dominque Baldwin Pediatrics AIDS Wing at General Hospital. Julie and Frank mostly appear in their own stories, which is fine. I like how Frank Scanlon maintains two different jobs. I don't think soaps always do this well. Frank's work as an EMT and a substitute teacher put him in the center of several stories and effectively crosses over nicely at the end of the month in a much larger story that doesn't focus on Frank. Slowly, throughout the month, Frank's next story starts with the arrival of Lark Madison, a student in his class who has an injured arm. Frank has taken Lark to GH in order to have her treated. Karen is the attending who sees Lark, who claims she is just clumsy. Later, Karen is unable to confirm Lark's address, while Lark also skips school to work at Mario's restaurant, which seems to be the new, more upscale, dining location. When Frank stops by Mario's to confront Lark, the teenager has alcohol on her breathe. It's an interesting beat in a mystery that is slowly spiraling out. Speaking of Mario's, Joe and Karen treat Mario, Jr., the owner, for heartburn that he assumes is a heart attack and Mario thanks them with a dinner at his restaurant. It's a comedy of errors as Karen and Joe both get ready for their non-date with Mary, Frank, Julie, and Rhonda all clucking over the date that isn't a date. This is also involves a well directed sequence where Joe and Karen pick up each other lines and the camera matches body movements with Karen going to sit down in her scenes with Rhonda while Joe stands up in his sequence with Frank and Julie. After the non-date, Joe asks Karen out for real. Joe and Karen as played by Dietz and Hammon have a nice rapport. It's not a love for the ages, but it's clear that we are in an era of shows like Chicago Hope and ER where we are firmly in a world where medical romances are popular. There's also a lot of gratuitious shirtless scenes with Karen trying on the dresses for Julie and Julie stripping down for work with Matt walking in on both women shirtless. Later, you have Eve down to her underwear to get Chris out of bed. Chris also walks around in a towel at one poitn. It's all very obvious at times and slightly cheapens the drama. There are some nice beats hit in the Karen / Joe material. Karen talks about how this will be the first time she has been out with anyone since she's been married and how nervous that makes her. When Joe and Karen do go out, it is Joe who wants to slow it down because he doesn't want to be Karen's rebound after Jagger. Joe wants to be there for the long haul. Karen also talks about how hard it is for her constantly wrap her mind around the idea from Joe going from being just her buddy to something more. When Danielle dies at the end of the month, it is Joe and Karen in the operating room. Karen speaks to Joe about how hard she is taking Danielle's death because she was just getting use to patients dying when she didn't know them and how she knew Danielle. I think this story is in a good place, but it was going to need a catalyst for drama that wasn't there. Danielle's death was well done for a character who has had little to no story for much of the last two months that I have seen. In her final days, a run in with Serena at the hospital leads to Danielle have a change of heart and decides she is going to confess to Scott the truth: she is Dominique's half-sister, but she is not Serena's mother. Danielle has planned to flee Port Charles because she has nothing left and to escape Rex's control. In addition, Rex told Danielle that Scott was a danger to Serena, which is why she went along with the scheme. While awaiting the FBI agent at the firehouse, Danielle gets a call from Rex, posing as Jake, saying that he has the FBI agent on his payroll and then alludes to Danielle's impending death. Danielle flees before telling the FBI agent what her role was but leaves a message on Scott's machine before disappearing. Danielle's accident occurs offscreen. Instead, the episode ends with a woman being brought into the ER after a car accident and everyone learning it is Danielle. The next episode only deals with Danielle's surgery and everyone waiting to find out the results. There are a lot of nice character beats. Matt wants to know what caused the accident for Jake's sake seemingly alluding to the nature of his own accident that left him paralyzed. Scott tells Jake he knows what he's going through alluding to Dominique. After we are told Danielle has died in surgery, Kevin goes as far as to speak about Grace's death (without naming her). There's a lot of assumption of GH lore in these scenes and I am starting to see why the show felt in the long run they wanted to cut ties from that. I still think its fairly well done. Rib Hillis, while a beautiful man, isn't the strongest dramatic actor. With that said, Pinson's scenes had me cringing more than Hillis, but Pinson's presence is more laid back overall than Hillis'. The Scott / Lucy / Kevin stuff involving Rex has been slightly more enjoyable than I remember it. Lucy and Kevin go to the Cayman Islands in a sequence that seems like a more subdued version of the Eve / Kevin stuff I saw in the summer of 1999. Andrew Lee was the director of an episode that had a very nice overhead shot of the Cayman Islands hotel room from the view of the ceiling fan. These kind of shots are not done often in daytime anymore so it stood out. Honestly, the production values in terms of how scenes are put together and some of the filming techniques are surprising. There was another sequence (a surgery) that was filmed using the hand held cameras which were shaky. It worked for the intensity of the situation, but it was carried over into some other scenes and it was less effective. I believe one of the medical shows had used a similar format. The bulk of the plot in the story is Scott and Rex each trying to gaslight the other. Scott manages to lure Rex's PI to his side and then claims he has Rex's chef on the payroll. Rex claims he has the FBI agent in his pocket. It's a lot of back and forth and often things are purposely ambigious, which I don't mind but I could see as bothering others. I've seen better Riche produced gaslighting tales. In an exposition dump to Danielle, we get more details about Rex's stint in a mental institution which Rex claim was instigated by his brother Avery Stanton (Domique and Danielle's father) and insinuated that he was very aware that he was surrounded by psychopaths. It leaves the source of Rex's mental health issues up in the air as well as giving motivation to why Rex is so determined to get the money. Lucy's sidequest to find information about Serena Ltd, which was a shell company I believe that Rex funneled money into to make it look like Scott was stealing the inheritance, has her doing her schtick with a Cayman Islands banker which is fine. Then, she comes up with the idea to kill off Scott so that they don't need Scott there. It plays out better than I can explain it. It's not my favorite stuff, but its solid plot movement in the story. Towards the end of the month, Lucy thinks the only way to get to Rex is to fake a break up with both Kevin and Scott in order to allign herself with Rex with Rex believing this will be the only way Lucy can get access to Serena. This arc makes sense to me and is messy as you have Lucy and Kevin still trying to have a baby and talking about their wedding at some point. The other noteworthy thing to mention is the brief custody hearing where Justus Ward defends Scotty and the Baldwins (Gail and Lee) securing temporary guardianship of Serena for Gail and Lee. Interesting enough, Dominic Hoffman appears as Byron Rollins, Rex's attorney. I believe this is the same character who defended Tiffany Donnelly in her suit against the Jones for Lucas back in 1993. I think Latham is making strides, but I feel like I don't remember there being much of an energy shift in the January 1998 episodes I watched within the last few years.

Having watched Palumbo's 1990 General Hospital in recent years has helped frame Rituals in a different context because there is a lot of repetition (as there is with so many headwriters given the output expectations of the genre). I still don't think the first six months is the most compelling narrative in the history of soap opera, but I think it would be interesting to see more of how the show developed over those initial months and all the stops and starts. I think there are some story twists that seem decent. For example, Patrick Chapin's death and the ensuing battle for heirs seems mildly intriguing. I believe the show was setting up Tom Gallagher as Sarah's son by Patrick Chapin early on before they went and revealed that Carter Robertson was Patrick's son. I think once they decided to kill off Eddie, and Patrick was already dead, the change in Tom's paternity wouldn't have had as much bite, though it probably was intended to play into the revelation that Mike was the father of Diandra's baby. I'm much more interested in Raymond Goldstone's work (March until about June, 1985) when Jorn Winter seems to take a deeper role in the creative end and we end up with young rich bitch in training Julia Field falling for African American cop, Lucky Washington, Sarah Gallagher on trial for murdering her abusive husband Eddie to protect her daughter, Noel, C.J. Field's arrival in Wingfield to takeover Chapin Industries, the kidnapping of Mark Field by the white supremacist group the American Crusaders, and the introduction of Christina's former madam sister Lisa Thompson. I also would be curious to see Stacey Anderson and Steve Burkow finishing off the show to see how to two relatively soap novices did at writing an off network show as they seemed to do a lot of social issue plots (or continued them) and plots that were just different for soap opera. I'd really be curious to see how they mingled the political drama involving C.J.'s campaign for governor with the ongoing business machinations involving the Chalon formula while also telling the romantic stories between Dakota / Mike while Lacey starts having an affair with Larry Burns, the father of her former foster daughter. While it's understandable why there is more available of Palumbo's I can't help but wish there was more later in the run material.

@Khan I think "Search for Tomorrow" is an apt comparison. Joanna Lee spoke about how the half-hours needed to compete with the hour shows by providing the same type of stories, but I think you are right. Those type of adventure plots are hard to achieve because of the necessary resources and story space. I think that the show was trying to figure out what to do with Kevin and Eve as a couple. At some point, Eve is tormented with the idea that the son she had by DV Bordisso was alive. I imagine the original endgame was to have that become the reality. From the weekly summaries from earlier in 1999, Eve was suffering from endiometriosis and there were questions about whether or not she would be able to become pregnant. Psychiatrist Kevin and his spy father Victor involved in a plot involving both their careers on paper sounds smart, but it's not super interesting. I imagine when you are telling a story about a serial killer being released from a mental hospital, a couple gaslighting a young sexual assault survivor that her boyfriend is a sex addict, and a love triangle involving a father and son where the father assaulted the female leg of the triangle by coercing her into sex during a stint with amnesia, you see the psychic spy stuff as lighter fare. With all that darkness, the show doesn't feel heavy 24/7 because there is a lot of emotional beats around family, friends, and romantic interests. I think you can effectively do some of the psychological adventure stories on the half-hours effectively. I think you could pare down the Ryan Chamberlain saga on GH from 1992-1993 into something smaller in scale. Rusty Sentell gaslighting his daughter-in-law Liza in order to end her marriage to his son Travis is effective in plotting, but not motivation (Rusty was looking to secure a grandchild to access the General's fortune). Vargas kidnapping Jo was also effective on the same series. I really enjoyed Amy Morris, the crazy babysitter, kidnapping Ryan Fenelli and Maeve Ryan thinking Ryan was the baby she aborted and Maeve was her former boyfriend's controlling mother. I think your larger point about these grand adventures is completely accurate, but I also think that the 1980s style big adventure stories could only be effectively done by a handful of writers, while most writers and their teams can make domestic stories semi-effective mostly until the early 2000s. The Livvie story a year later seems a more effective use of Eve and Kevin.

I did end up watching Kimberlin Brown's arrival. Rachel's introduction was intended as a Friday cliffhanger for Friday, July 23, 1999, but a preemption left it as the Monday, July 26, 1999, cliffhanger with her more in-depth scenes on Tuesday. Rachel is brash and a bit abrassive having been lured by Chris Ramsey to take over Julie Devlin's case from Kevin Collins. During Rachel's consultation with her, Julie is evasive leading Rachel to bluntly ask what it was like to walk in on her brother Buddy after he had blown his brains out. Maybe Rachel wasn't that crass, but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. I had forgotten that little detail of the Devlin family history (Rachel finding Buddy). In the aftermath, Rachel tells Chris she'll take the case and Julie makes it clear that she doesn't trust Rachel (comparing her to the sharks she saw at the aquarium when she was younger). The Devlin family history was very twisted and I could imagine the Bennett / Buddy / Allison (Buddy's fiancee) situation playing out as a sorta darker take on the Alan / AJ / Nikki Langton story. Maybe its a superficial comparison, but it seems that the Devlins seemed to have the foundation to be "Port Charles'" answer to the Quartermaines. I think Chris and Nicole Devlin also had had an affair so the whole Julie - Chris dynamic was twisted as well. No wonder Julie was a mess. In the other main story of interest (to me at least) in these episodes was Frank's renovation of a bar (maybe the Recovery Room? Whatever it is it sounds like Mary owns it), which leads to a celebration and lots of accolades being made about Frank in front of Karen and Joe. Joe, who apparently has held on telling their mother about Frank's deception leading to Karen and Joe's breakup, finally lets the cat out of the bag and informs Mary of what her eldest son has done. Initially, Mary rejects Joe's claims, but as the conversation goes on, Mary starts to turn. Pat Crowley does a decent job in this sequence with her loyalty shifting from one son to another with an unnerved Courtney fluttering in the background (afraid Frank will be a turncoat and reveal her role in the breakup). The resulting spiral of confrontations with Frank is fascinating with Frank desperately trying to regain control of the situation before turning on Mary saying she has always sided with Joe (even though moments earlier she cannot believe what Joe said) and then leans into the Scanlons' own twisted family history reminding Joe how many beating Frank took from Pops Scanlon to protect Joe. It's all a well done mirror to the dsyfunctional family history on display in Julie's story. I think there were also some bits of the psychic spy crap with Victor, previously presumed dead, now alive and helping Eve in a mock up of Jasmine Island or something. It's all not very compelling to me, but, at times, I get what they are trying to do (a psychological adventure story with a more modern twist), but like a lot of the GH stories from the early 1990s, it's not my cup of tea.

This preview from the Brazilian airing (under the name "Rituais da Vida) shows a brief glimpse from either the same episode or an episode after: This clip features Jeff (Tim Maier) being arrested. A generic promo probably announcing the show with clips from the first episodes: And another promo from one of the episodes we've already seen a clip of earlier this fall:

@robbwolff It is an easy mistake. I think Maeir's Jeff Robertson was Noel's chief romantic interest early on. She wanted Brady, got him in the sack in the first week or so, and then schemed to break up Dakota and Brady while dating her cousin's stepson, Jeff. I wonder if it was ever established how long Christina and Carter had been married. I find it odd how the show was completely cool with Jeff and Noel being a couple when there seems to be an implication they were raised as family. Christina was only Sarah's niece, but it wasn't like they weren't involved in each other's lives. Noel never seems to get a romantic interest that I think she deserves.She and Jeff were together on and off, but she mostly wanted Brady I think. Brady might give her a bit of the time of day towards the end when Dakota is being weaved into the Mike / Lacey story. There was a relationship between Noel and her psychiatrist, but even that seems to just be in a stalling pattern (but there may have been a switch from Ray Goldstone to Stacey Anderson and Steve Burkow as headwriters). I would like to see what would have happened if they tried her and Clay Travis or even someone older maybe like a professor at Haddon Hall.

@DRW50 Thanks! I love that these snippets keep popping up. I'm pretty sure this is from October, 1984. In the Eddie Gallagher scene, he is on the phone with Carter Robinson discussing the murd/er of Sammy Loakes, who Eddie dumped into the lake at the Willows. I also believe, but we need to look at it again, but @robbwolff I think that is Marc Poppel's Brady (not TIm Maier's Jeff) softly letting Noel down so that he can go to the Cannon Ball with Dakota (Claire Yarlett, who was out in late November). Unless Maier pops up at the end and I missed it. Karen Kelly is impressive in that sequence, and I have often found a lot of her (brief) performances in the role online very flat. She is very effective in this material as genuinely hurt by Brady's decision to not to pursue a romantic relationshipafter she emotionally manipulated him into sex shortly after his mother's death. That scene between Eddie and Noel is a little more insidious when we realize Noel later murdered Eddie because of his abusive relationship with her. I really liked this initial Gallagher's bar set that was later replaced with something more upscale. In story, I think the revamp was used to bring in "the college crowd," but as the story continued, I feel like the class conflict was deemphasized in some ways. My favorite bar in college was the local dive bar, but maybe I'm the odd man out on that one. There is a certain seediness in this original set that I really like. This version of Gallaghers' is probably derived from the original premise where Jenny Barnes (Stephanie Braxton) ran a truck stop. This gives off that vibe. The later set feels more generic to me, but it is a lovely set. @MissPalmer would also enjoy this.

I do think part of the issue with Bordisso is the timing of his arrival. He is introduced late February, 1999, and Latham is out the door in very early May, 1999. There was a little over two months of set up before Hamner, who was already on the team, took over. I think Latham may have left due to illness, or maybe that was just an excuse to politely fire her. Anyway, I get the general idea of DV being Scott's father, but it just seems to be lacking the oomph. Having watched a bit of Scotty's early 1990s episodes, the relationship between Scotty and Lee was so layered and complicated. This complication didn't really add anything to that so I guess I am just wondering where they expected this to go in the long run. Bordisso is out early December. Hannan Carrouthers comes in late December, but may not be credited until January. I know she is credited for bringing on Erin Gray as Nicole Devlin who appears in December. Hamner is out in late January. There is no writer in February and Harris arrives in early March. It feels like Bordisso was part of a housecleaning between TPTB. Van Drusen also immediately returned to "The Young and the Restless" as Keith Dennison so it might have been the actor's decision to cut and run. I don't think van Drusen was under contract. The show definitely lacked clear villains early on. I think that's why I like the messier Frank and Courtney and the slightly unhinged Julie. Julie's reaction to Lee surviving the embolism is diabolically campy, yet slightly enjoyable. Rachel was only a few weeks from arriving in the place I stopped (July 9th, she's there two weeks later). I like what I've seen of Rachel, but she definitely feels like a smaller scale (yet more effective) villain that what was originally intended. I think her involvement with Julie and later the larger feud with Kevin over Grace was smart. I'm curious if Kimberlin Brown would have stayed another year or more had Harris and Bloom stayed as headwriters. Or if she left, would they have recasted given how integral she was becoming to the canvas by that point. It's a shame Scott leaves after Christina's kidnapping because I think the Baldwin unit was so well developed removing him undermined a lot of that. During the DV era, I believe they also, for a hot minute, tried to make Victor Greg Cooper's father, which I think would make sense if anyone in the audience thought Greg Cooper had a lifespan outside of a sweeps month. In another one of my "Port Charles" jaunts this weekend, I was looking for the sequence from 2000 where Claire Wright dies. In that search, I found some very solid scenes with Alan Quartermaine coming to see Karen about her pill problem during the Nurses' Strike. The history between Karen and Alan was very integrated given Alan's connection to Rhonda, the bond Karen once shared with Jason, and Alan's own history of addiction. It's a shame more wasn't done with Monica's ties to the Baldwin clan through Gail, but I thought it was all very good. A lot of the bigger story on "Port Charles" may be tough, but so much of the domestic conflicts are fairly well done.

@DRW50 The Lee stuff is fairly well done and feels intricate to the story and not necessarily just filler. Lee's role as Julie's legal guardian given hercompetency is significant and Julie and Chris' challenge of Lee's role is what leads to the dramatic moment where it looks like Lee is having a heart attack. Chris actually accompanies Lee back to Port Charles saying that he helped save his life, which is undermined in a very low key way by revealing Lee's problem was an embolism and not a heart attack as the meds Chris administered for the heart attack had no impact. It's a sequence which spirals in several ways. It brings the Baldwin clan together, who feels tighter and more developed than I felt in a lot of earlier sequences with Karen's monologue on her dream grandparents and Gail's confession that Lee still hopes that one day Lee and Scott will work together again. Most beautiful though are the moments alone between Scott and Lee where Lee has resigned to his fate (Monica has, off screen, confirmed that there is a low likelihood Lee will survive) and Scott has to be the one to uplift his father and convince him to fight. There are clearly other threads building. With Lee incapacitated, he won't be able to fight Chris and Julie when they want to install Darren Leopold as Julie's new guardian. This also will enhance the animosity between Chris / Julie and Scott / Lucy as Scott and Lucy are fostering baby Christina. While this health crisis certainly drives the plot, it is also a moment to explore the dynamics of the Baldwin clan. This episode might be worth a peak. It features Lee / Scott's conversation about DV / Lucy framed in the experience Scott had with Laura / Luke. It also includes Gail / Lucy discussing the incident with Lucy / DV and Gail, as a psychiatrist, framing it as something damaging that was done to Lucy. It's very nice to see Lee and Gail in support of Lucy. Lee also goes to confront Chris and Julie after Chris' news broadcast where he alludes to Lee keeping Julie locked up to manage her estate. It ends with Lee's health crisis and Gail calling Scotty to come to the hospital. This episode features the more emotional Baldwin family moments. Gail pleading with Lee is heartbreaking. Marie Wilson has been in the role of Karen under 2 weeks and does a decent job selling the connection to the Baldwin clan. This features the Lee / Scott scenes starts at 15:22 with the rest of the family scattering leaving to some very wonderful work from Shriner and Hansen. In an era for the genre where this kind of character work was fading, this is a standout sequence. @Vee The psychic spy stuff is definitely ingrained in the fabric of the GH universe from the Ice Princess through Casey the Alien and beyond. Riche's early adventure sequences were more grounded (even the Paloma / San Sebasitan stuff which I believe may have been cooked up by consultant Anne Howard Bailey seemed more down to earth) and I know she's about six months from turning over PC to Julie Hannan Carrouthers. I get what they are trying to do but it is such a tonally clash with the rest of the show, as you stated. There's also some stuff I skimmed over about Victor's electronic role playing game and some of the spy gear stuff that I think is suppose to evoke a level of modern day suspense paired with pop culture camp with references to "Austin Powers" and the inclusion of Peter Zorin. None of it really works for me, but I know there is some later stuff involving Eve where she has been convinced her child is alive that I will eventually have to get to that seems like it might be a better balance of the absurd and the emotional. The Noel Clinton stuff occurs on the cusp of Lynn Latham departing and Scott Hamner assuming the reigns. I want to say it is set up in episodes still attributed to Latham, but he appears under Hamner. This is all the first week of May, which I believe also focuses on Lucy (as an amnesiac believing she is Eve White) and DV sleeping together. I want to say all of the Noel Clinton sequences are in a single episode. I haven't seen enough of DV to make a firm opinion. Most of the stuff I've seen isn't great, but Riche typically allowed villains to have more layers than I've seen yet with DV. It's just very intriguing that so much story space is spent establishing the rewrite of Scotty's paternity in the very real timeline. The one thing I don't think completely works is that Lee and Scott's bond is so strong and it was long established that Scott was Lloyd Bentley's son. Changing this doesn't change the relationship between Scott and Lee. I think they could have gone one of two routes to make this dynamic more interesting. Either establishing that Meg and DV had a child that DV raised that was a half-sibling to Scott (I'd go with a sister to pair with Kevin and shift Eve back to the younger set) or establish that DV's late wife and Lee had been involved with DV having raised Lee's biological child. DV as Scott's father is the more traditional route, but I think they could have extracted more by going a slightly different path. I almost wonder if Rachel Locke as Lee's daughter and DV's surrogate would have worked.

Same to you @DRW50 regarding the holidays. Julie Pinson has charisma and grows as an actress over time, but the show rarely uses her effectively. I just watched the first 7 episode of July, 1999. Eve and Kevin are off to Rome to locate a missing Victor Collins. The writing is trying too hard to make Kevin and Eve this off beat romantic comedy duo who get caught up in hijinks. Michael J. Anderson has been introduced as Peter Zorin who seems tied to the spy stuff (he claims to work for the American embassy in Rome but this appears to be a cover). None of it really gels, but I get what they are trying to do. It just doesn't work. By the time Eve and Kevin discuss the mile high club, I am ready to fast forward. The rest of July, 1999, that I've watched was fun. There was a guest appearance from 98 Degrees, who were performing on "General Hospital." Frank and Karen took Neil, Serena and nuLark to the sound check. It was a nice little diversion from he other stuff going on. There was a lot of turnover cast wise. On July 1, Michael Dietz makes his last appearance as Joe reading Neil's essay on the future (he's still undergoing chemo) and on July 2, David Gail is around to punch out Frank after learning that Frank set I'm up as a sex addict. Marie Wilson also first appeared on June 30, but I didn't watch that episode. I know Scott Hamner took over the first week of May, so he probably is settling in now. Two climates happen in the same episode, or an episode or two apart, with Karen learning that Frank has been spying on her from an apartment across from hers and that this is how he set up Joe for the sex phone calls and the hooker Janell. It's like they are resetting the characters, which I don't necessarily blame them. I don't hate the sex addict stuff (but I haven't seen the build), but it definitely feels like something Bill Levinson would have tried on Riche's GH. I think Gail is meant to be a "tougher" Joe, which I think Gail does effectively present even if Dietz is the stronger dramatic actor. Wilson is suitable, but fits in better in some of the family stuff later. Courtney and Frank are thick as thieves and Frank briefly hints that he is going on to turn on Courtney since he's already going down. This dynamic is fun. I think centering them in the story going forward with a new Joe and Karen would be a smart move. There is some interesting psychological stuff going on with Karen and her fear of trusting men. It's never directly stated, but Karen lacking trust makes sense. She was molested by Ray Conway and Jagger has cheated on her at the tailend of their marriage. Throw in her stripper past and I could see how this all would leave Karen very unsettled. There is a lot of interesting things to explore here, but I'm not sure they will be. The other big climax is the reveal that Lucy and DV slept together when Lucy had amnesia when DV sent Scott a video of Lucy and DV making out. This is a pretty decent set of scenes for Lucy and Scott despite the hideousness of the act itself. I was pleasantly surprised to see the show go there, even in 1999, and have Gail say it was a violation as well Scott saying Lee he's afraid he is repeating what happened with Scott and Laura. Scott's source of anger isn't the act itself, but the ensuing lie, while Lucy maintains she didn't want to hurt Scott. By the end, Scott is furious with DV as he should be. In the other major story, Julie and Chris have announced their plans to marry and Julie wants Lee removed as her guardian, hoping to install Chris' shady lawyer Darren Leopold instead. There is a lot of fun little beats with Julie calling Lucy looking for Lee but hearing Christina crying in the background. Chris goes on the news and blames Lee for some of Julie's issues as she hasn't even been tried for the 5th murder she was accused of comitting. There is a genuine sense of dread about the possibility of having Julie released from Ferncliff.This leads to a standoff between Lee, Chris and Julie leading to Lee having an attack that is later revealed to be a pulmonary embolism. It doesn't look good for Lee and there are a lot of family scenes. There is a "final goodbye" between Scott and Lee that is very poignant with Scott refusing to say its a goodbye. The Baldwin family is such a tight unit in this sequence with a very nice delivery of a monologue from Marie Wilson's Karen about how she imagined what her grandparents would be like growing up and how Lee and Gail are better than she could have imagined. Playing this with all of the DV material in the background, not mentioned, gives this a little more oomph. I know Scott Hamner gets raked over the coals for the psychic spy stuff, and rightfully so, but this material isn't bad. It's not Karen Harris' "Port Charles" but more appealing than a lot of Latham's material that I've seen. A lot of the domestic stories are well done and I find the overall presence of characters like Gail and Lee charming. There's something very appealing about this.

I dipped into the first week of June, 1998. The show has more energy than the opening months, but I cannot say I love everything going on. The big umbrella story, the General Homicide murders, gives the show energy which it didn't have in the previous year and there are a lot of nice ripple effects. Lucy's character in General Homicide dies at the Nurses' Ball so there is tension and concern about Lucy hosting. Eve is suspected of killing Devlin, after having been revealed to be Devlin's former lover, which has led to tension in the Scanlon household resulting in Eve being booted and taking shelter with Chris Ramsey. Bennett is dead. Grace is dead. And Greg Cooper is sending notes. The dramatic tension is there, but I am not always super into serial killer storylines. One of the nice little threads of the story is complications being caused in the Kevin / Lucy / Scott / Eve quad. I don't really have a horse in the race (I like Scott and Lucy, but they never seem to work together as much as they do apart). I don't hate Kevin and Lucy, but there is only so many patronizing speeches Kevin can deliver. With that said, there are some very well done conversations. Eve and Scott don't work completely for me either. I like all the characters separately, but I don't really care who ends up with who. Lucy's latest stunt has been to uncover Eve's past as an escort through information from Tammy Hansen (a GH crossover). The revelation causes more issues internally for Eve, and between Lucy and Kevin, than it does between Eve and Scott. Concurrently on "General Hospital," Katherine Bell has recently been murdered by Stefan Cassadine which leads to Kevin and Lucy preparing to go to the wake. It is an interesting moment because Kevin does manage to tie the Katherine / Scotty romance back to the present day Scotty / Eve romance stating in both cases the women weren't perfect, but they did care for Scott. Kevin alludes that Lucy likes to keep Scott by himself in case things don't work out for her. Its an interesting hypothesis, and plays into Kevin's suggested fears that Lucy doesn't want to marry him. There's a lot of historical references. Scott blows off the Eve/hooker reveal stating that he was once involved with another former prostitute at GH (Bobbie) without naming her. Kevin talks with Eve and connects with her on the accusations because of his own past, I believe alluding to the Felicia stalking on "GH." Eve goes off on how Dominique was a saint. I think the history lessons are great, but it often leaves me feeling like this isn't a story playing out in the world of "Port Charles," but rather in "General Hospital." I find Eve, overall, more interesting in her other material. Shacking up platonically with Chris Ramsey. Going at it with Julie, who she goes as far as saying has an Electra complex and also states she pities Bennett for having a daughter like Julie. There is a very interesting nugget mentioned by Eve that she had a sister Shelly, who was badly burned at work, which resulted in Eve dropping out of school to take jobs to support the family leading to her turning tricks. The sister's burns supposedly have been treated and she lives in Austin with their mother. I wonder if Latham would have brought the sister in at some point. In a B/C story, Ellen Morgan and Matt Harmon are reconnecting and the big conflict is Ellen is considering resuming her role as the head of the interns (Dr. May was doing this briefly and wants to return to pediatrics). Matt is quick to say he expects to snag the Quartermaine Fellowship soon and will no longer be under her supervision if they can just keep things quiet for a few weeks. Matt and Ellen have nice chemistry and this is a decent conflict, but there wasn't much play for it. Courtney Kanelos has recently arrived in town and there are a lot of allusions to how much trouble she was in the past. I don't get the sense of the personal history between Courtney and Frank at this point other than Frank didn't like what Courtney did to his brother. There is some decent tension, but overall it's not really going anywhere yet. I didn't realize they were playing Neil and Serena's friendship this early as Serena goes to visit Neil at the hospital. The show seems better than the Cullitons, but I'm not really drawn into anything yet. I'll probably just jump around again between episodes of "Another Life" and possibly binge 1997-2000 once I finish "Another Life."

Kathy had appeared sporadically during the 1983-1984 period with Suzi’s trust, her renewed romance with Tom Bergman, and Sunny’s rape. I think Kathy was mentioned in 1985 during the Warren murder material but wasn’t seen. It wouldn’t have been hard to weave Kathy back in for a stint

I believe Jennifer was pregnant with Scott's child during the time of the accident. They had scuffled over how Scott was still in love with Kathy. When she went through the glass, she not only became disfigured, she also lost the baby. I believe Scott ended up marrying Jennifer out of guilt, or stayed married to her longer than he had intended. I would have brought Morgan Fairchild and Jennifer back in March, 1985, when Suzi was losing her mind after killing Warren Carter. Fairchild may have been busy filming "North and South" or still under contract to ABC for "Paper Dolls." Suzi would meet Jennifer in the psych ward and befriended the mysterious woman who wants to mother Suzi. You could have Jennifer return to Henderson and leave it unclear whether or not she has improved. She could reconnect with Stephanie, hide out from Jo, and start to connect with Jonah which could put her at odds with Wendy, who doesn't completely remember her mother's old friend. You could deal with the ramifications of the fate of the men in Jennifer's lives. John's death after marrying her best friend Stephanie and Scott in prison for vehicular manslaughter after his alcoholism became a problem again. I think I would have also done a thread with Jennifer becoming involved with Lloyd in order to set up some sorta long-term conflict for her to return. Maybe having her briefly marry Lloyd in a triangle with Stephanie and Jennifer wins in order to stick it to Stephanie only to slip again, maybe attacking Jo, leading to Jennifer's return to a psych ward. Later, I would reveal that Jennifer was pregnant and Stephanie and Lloyd would raise the child instead of going Lloyd / Liza / Hogan.