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I agree @Forever8 about Peluso. Her Ava goes through several character shifts and Peluso just seems to maintain a consistent throughline even when it doesn't seem logically possible. I think the Ava / Leo / Shana trianle was fun when it wasn't being absurd with some of the fantasy sequences. Peluso and LeClerc had nice chemistry, but I didn't care for Jeremy and Ava as a couple. I wish they had allowed the sequence where Ava learned that the Aldens had cheated the Sowolskys and Cabot turned over significant portion of AE to Kate and Ava. I felt like that had the potential to be the best Ava story, but instead they went with the Gilbert tale which seemed an early taste of the campy style plots that would overrun soaps in the next decade. I spent a little time last summer thinking about what could have been with "Loving" had it survived. I think the murders secured James Harmon Brown and Barbara Essensten their lengthy stay at the show (nearly 2 years which hadn't happened since Tom King and Millee Taggert in 1988-1991). Without the ratings bump from the murders, I figure they probably would have been out by late 1995 or early 1996. Personally, I would have liked to see if Millee Taggart and Mary Ryan Munisteri could have worked together. I also wouldn't have hated to see someone like Richard and Carolyn Culliton have taken over the show. Though I've read the monkey's paw, so if the show had lived, we would have been subjected to Megan McTavish's "Loving," which would have been nothing short of brutal.

I'm particular to Dennis Parlato, but I haven't seen all that much of James Horan's work consistently. To be fair, I have a hard time distinguishing some of the writing from how I feel about the character. Those 1990-1991 episodes that have showed up have shown Clay as a bit cowardly and weak. I feel like Clay just sort of lets Trucker take the blame for the plane crash rather than actively playing a role in the set up, but maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Clay only becoming interested in Abril's baby because of the will was interesting. I would like to have seen a longer tale with James Horan's Clay married to Colleen Quinn's Carly while raising baby Tommy. I think the tension between the couple and Trucker and Trisha and the couple and Abril would have been very interesting. Larkin Malloy's Clay was written by Walsh who briefly played Clay as this lovelorn romantic lead which didn't suit the character. By the time Clay becomes menancing again, I just couldn't rectify this with the overly sappy Clay who was helping Dinahlee to pretend to be Trucker for Hannah's sake several months earlier. If Malloy had stayed, maybe my mind would have changed. Parlato plays Clay for the bulk of the gaslighting story and just embraces the darkness that Clay has within him beautifully. Then, Taggert and Guza humanize him a bit by making it clear he does care for Dinahlee despite all the terrible things he did. I think the potential of Clay and Curtis as rivals both romantic (for Dinahlee and maybe Tess) and business rivals (Curtis rejoined AE in July 1993 when Michael Lord took over) had potential. I wish the Clay - Cooper relationship had been developed more as I felt that was a dynamic that had serious potential to develop story. I also think Parlato did a good job selling the Clay / Steffi story which could have just felt creepy. Had the show not been cancelled in 1995 and hobbled along a few more years, I wonder what they would have done when Parlato left in 1995. I think it might have been good to rest Clay for a little bit and to bring back Anne Alden back into the story. Similarly, with Wesley Addy passing in January 1996, I wonder what the show would have done with the Alden family all together.

Interesting thoughts. I think the issue for me remains the combination of writing and casting or rather rewriting due to casting. To start with your Blair Waldorf reference, I believe Eden was originally suppose to be the spoiled little rich girl in that mold, but they tamed her much more quickly when they decided she was going to be with Cruz. I do think Cruz / Eden's early relationship has some very fascinating elements and scenes. There is also no denying the chemistry between Walker and Martinez. It's just a shame that this was a typical NBC soap that felt the need to sacrifice everyone at their altar. I think its easier to see the difference in the characters of Gina and Santana in 1991 when you have removed Eden from the equation. Santana is a woman who lives in the past. In 1984, it motivated her to seek revenge and I think her disappoint, loss, and desire to recreate the hope she had in her youth when she was young and in love with Channing, Jr. and planning a life motivated her. It helped that Santana had a career. She was more independent. By 1991, Gina seems very clingy in her relationship with Craig Hunt. There was definitely a return to a more neurotic, desperate version of the character. I could see this version of Robin Mattson's Gina being involved with a Hank Judson type. Santana seems more calculated in what I've seen, while Gina seems a bit more impulsive. With that said, in other time periods, the characters functions definitely overlapped or became interchangable. I don't think Jade was underdeveloped, but rather poorly cast. Melissa Reeves is talented, but she couldn't nail the aspiring actress who had weaponized sex to achieve her goals. So they softened the character to play along with the actress rather than recasting. Julie Ronnie is very stiff and cold as Laken. Maybe this was a deliberate choice, but I can't think of a single scene where Ronnie stood out. The guys on the otherhand were equally underwritten but the actors had some more charisma. On paper, Ted was a thinly written character; Todd McKee was charming so Ted was charming. Similarly, Rupert Ravens had nice friendship chemistry with McKee which kept Danny more relateable for me at least. The biggest problems in the younger set for me are 1) the central couple (Laken and Ted) have few character traits, no goals or aspirations, and basically no story outside their romance and 2) the decision to isolate their story from the rest of the canvas. Jade wanted to be an actress. Danny wanted to do stunts. I don't remember what Ted or Laken hoped to do. I also don't remember anyone being deeply effected by the Channing murder. Jade's brother was in jail for killing Ted's brother, who was involved with Danny's sister. Even if it didn't bother the kids, it should have made the parents more upset. With that said, I would be curious what would have happened had they introduced Gabriella Andrade. The one time she was mentioned, it was suggested she was a teenager (she's always on the phone). I'm curious how that would have changed some of the character dynamics.

@Forever8 Thanks for tagging me. I find 1992 to be a very mediocre year. I don't negate the importance of the college crew, but the original 1992 stories are so poorly done. It doesn't help that you have so much turnover. I watched what I could of these episodes, but they don't really appeal to me. I'm not the biggest Trisha/Trucker fan. I think both actors are very good, but I don't think they needed to dominate the story the way they did. I didn't really care for the pairing of Stacey / Trucker, but I was even more disappointed that they spent a year building it up only to not go there. This reaffirms that Staige was basically the precursor to Stephanie. I had forgotten the family financial issues, which would also plague Steffi leading to Staige and Ally rooming at 35 Maple Street. Eden Atwood was out by early November when they sent her character back home to whatever state she came from. I really don't like Larkin Malloy as Clay. I believe he is gone by the end of October. I think Clay and Dinahlee had potential to be interesting if they had left Dinahlee as this girl who was rough around the edges. Addie Walsh really did a number on the character. She gets a bit of her grit back under Millee Taggert, but Nixon treats Dinahlee as a central heroine archtype, which produces some good story, but doesn't showcase the best of Jessica Collins' skills. I've been watching some of the June 1993 episodes that were posted a few months back. Those were much more enjoyable. Taggert and Guza really revitalized the show in short order after a very dull year.

I think the Joe / Augusta fling was suppose to be part of a bigger story. Something that stood out to me watching the 1984 episodes last year was a scene between John and Marissa Perkins. It was very well written, but, unfortunately, the acting did not match the writing. In the Perkins dining room, Marissa is going on and on about Joe and her concerns that Kelly Capwell was going to ruin him. During this rant, John Perkins tried to convince Marissa to go to bed with him, but Marissa rebuffed her husband's advances. John Perkins went to talk about his needs and how Marissa wasn't fulfilling them. I definitely read the scenes as Marissa's near Oedipal relationship with Joe was driving her husband away from her and that this set up several story threads: (1) John eventually cheating on Marissa and (2) Marissa's role as a spoiler in the Joe and Kelly romance. The decision to kill of Joe Perkins wasn't in the original plans so there had to be a much larger story in place for Kelly and Joe that would have kept them front and center. I would speculate that the original long term plan had John Perkins having an affair with Augusta Lockridge. John and Augusta's affair would have given Marissa enough ammunition to finally kick John to the curb and file for divorce. A now alone Marissa would have been more dependent on Joe for both help around the house, but also for love and affection. I can see Marissa convincing Joe to stay for dinner, and accidentally standing up Kelly. Kelly and Joe's relationship would have started to crumble under the pressure of Marissa's neediness. After Kelly's prodding, Joe would have gone to see Augusta to convince her to end the affair with his father (John would have been more committed than Augusta) only for John to learn that Joe had also slept with Augusta. In the meantime, Lionel would make jokes about Augusta having bed both the father and the son and make crude jokes about only Augusta knowing who was the better lover in a way only the Dobsons would. The final clincher though would be when Kelly and (Marissa) would have learned that Joe and Augusta had slept together. Kelly would be upset that Joe had slept with Augusta when he supposedly loved her and they would end their relationship (temporarily). I imagine Peter wouldn't have gone off the deep end and that Peter and Kelly's relationship would simply have collapsed when she learned that Peter had also been sleeping with Augusta. Again, Kelly would have shared a man to Augusta. Of course, Kelly and Augusta would have a scene where Augusta would get the upper hand over her much younger rival (and the daughter of her former rival). This would have also allowed Kelly to reunite with non-serial killer Peter until she and Joe were again thrown together. I think the more compelling scene would have been the confrontation between Augusta and Marissa where Augusta would question whether or not Marissa was more upset that Augusta bedded Marissa's husband or whether Augusta was jealous because she (Augusta) had done the one thing Marissa could never do: sleep with Joe? To top it all off, once the whole Joe/John conflict settled, Jade would have managed to find her way into Warren Lockridge's bed in order to keep the Perkins and the Lockridges interacting and playing off all the complicated family dynamics that had been built up over the course of the storyline. This also would have played nicely with the Brick and Amy story. There are several other reasons I think this is a possibility. One, Augusta ended up having an affair in year two with the mattress guy, a very working class man from what I recall. It would stand to reason that might have originally intended to be with John. Also, I don't recall Kelly ever learning about Augusta and Joe's affair when it originally happened. Maybe she did, but I feel like that reveal was kept in the writers' back pocket so they could drop that bomb at the appropriate time. Ultimately, most of the Perkins were miscast. There is no way I could see Robert Alan Browne convincing Louise Sorel to go bed. Also, Valorie Armstrong was a calm, quiet presence, but the writing suggested a much more emotionally manipulative mother who's interest in her son's love life bordered on obsessive. Similarly, Jade, who initially was a vixen, was miscast with Melissa Brennan (Reeves) who was too sweet to play a seductive social climber that Jade was originally positioned to be. I think the Dobsons just cut their losses and went in a different direction. This just remains speculation though.

I believe they are mid-November 1989. Jason Craig’s murder was a sweeps story. I have episodes later in the month where they are doing the sickle cell test. The car accident probably was a Friday episode. This is a BET rerun. I believe newspapers.com had some summaries for the BET reruns. If someone has those it would be easier to establish a timeline. By early December, Rob Donnelly has been accused of murder and sells the Whitmore estate to Ruth Marshall to afford the legal costs.

Flynn left twice. In the story, he left town in February. Several weeks later, Carly moved to NYC. She and Flynn reconnected abd became engaged. Shortly after, Carly abd Flynn had a fight about Paul and he was hit by a car and died. Carly and Paul left for New York with Michael in May 1992. Carly returned in July for a single episode to announce she and Paul married. When Ava was in a coma in spring of 1994, Carly came to visit.

Giff was sacrificed by Addie Walsh. She didn't get the character at all. When Walsh arrives in January 1992, Giff and Gwyn break up over something pretty minor in the scheme of things. Giff then proceeded to be put in a short arc with Ally where she faked a pregnancy, which was beyond stupid. Giff then remains support for Trisha before he suddenly goes psycho. I do appreciate what Walsh did with Casey when she returned in 1994 with cocaine and mental health issues. I felt that was a good way of taking advantage of very poor storyline from her first run (which I suspect might have been a Haidee Granger issue). Richard Cox was dumped in favor of Jean LeClerc, but truthfully, the show had the same issue with LeClerc that they did with Cox. Giff at least had ties to Casey. Jeremy just floundered. The class element was definitely there with Jacqueline Babbin and Millee Taggart/Tom King. The use of Kate's as an actual boarding house helped. Mary Ryan Munisteri shifted the dynamic a bit making it a college town and playing up the line between those attached to the university and townies. The bowling alley and Checkers both really made that dynamic clear in comparison to things like the Alden mansion and the Tides. Haidee Granger didn't seem to get that and just took away a lot of the sets that added character. Carly's story was very narrow, which didn't help. By the time of these episodes, she doesn't have a job, her relationship with Flynn was superficial, and she had no life outside the Rescott clan. At least under Taggart and King, there was the marriage to Clay, her friendship with Abril, and the obvious complications in the Abril-Clay-Tommy situation. When Clay and Abril leave, Carly's world is so small. The show tried to build a Shana-Carly friendship under Mary Ryan Munisteri, but Shana had absolutely no life so it didn't help. Given where the canvas was at the time of Munisteri, I think I would have tied Carly to the university somehow. Maybe had her take her alimony and take classes at Alden University to play against all the younger characters. I don't know. I do like Michael. He was a fun pain in the beginning. The heart problems story was underwritten though and once Walsh took over all the personality was drained from Michael. I was really interested when it was being suggested that Michael was more street smart than book smart and that he would probably take after Ava. I liked the potential of that. There was potential for Paul and Carly to be a couple, but Walsh didn't play it. I don't think Paul ever learned that Ava had kept Carly's secret. Carly agreed to remain mum about the fact Ava had purposely hid knowledge about Michael and had known about Michael's existence and remained mum for a significant length of time. Pair that with Ava keeping mum about Paul's sterility and you had the potential to drive Paul and Ava apart and draw Paul back to Carly. I feel like Mary Ryan Munisteri left projections for Paul, Ava, and Carly and Walsh just used all the plot points without any of the rich characterization that was there for Ava and Paul and lesser so Carly and Flynn. And if the show needed to get Paul off the show quick, they should have had him leave town to start a new life with Flynn.

@j swift Hank Judson was Gina's boyfriend prior to Gina's marriage to Stockman. He was the boyfriend who had raped her sister Summer. Your points regarding Gina and Santana are interesting. The characterizations of both seem to fluctuate depending on who was playing which role and how the characters were functioning at that point in the story. Initially, Ava Lazar's Santana was suppose to be a very complex character who was driven by the pain in her past (her lover's death and losing her child) to achieve her goals no matter what scruples she had to abandon along the way. She was a strong woman who didn't need a man, but knew that men liked to take care of women and played on that. She was smart and wasn't against using sex as a weapon. As an interior designer, Santana had her own source of income and was not dependent on anyone. Gina, on the other hand, seemed the opposite. She was completely reliant on a man. While Santana was meticulous and calculated, Gina often acted on impulse and out of desperation. Even when she was thinking things out, like trying to convince Mason to get her pregnant, it was predicated on a series of lies she had already built. Those were two very different character types. Along the way, things definitely got lost. When Robin Matson assumed the role and Anne Howard Bailey became headwriter, the character of Gina became more low rent. There was a sleaziness to her that wasn't anywhere in Linda Gibboney's performance. I cannot see Keith and Gina being a popular couple with Linda Gibboney in the role. Gina became more calculated and more manipulative while Santana fell into addiction. I like Gina Gallego as an actress, but I'm not that big a fan of the writing for her as Gina. It just comes off as very one-note and plot driven. If Linda Gibboney had stayed, I think they should have shifted her into the Lockridge orbit to keep her in the loop. The show didn't seem to know what to do with Warren, and, while an affair between Warren and Gina might not have had much traction, playing on the connection between Gina and Warren regarding Summer and possibly poisitioning Warren as a potential love interest for Hayley might have given Gina some more breathing room. I think Gibboney would have been fine with Michael Durrell's Alex Nikolas. The show wasn't really that good at keeping any character, but the older ones seemed to turn over so often. It would have been good to keep someone like Alex Nikolas around. Regarding Santana / C.C., I like the pairing, but I think the criticism is valid. I think there is a level of disconnect in the writing and the production of the story. A lot of the scripting makes it sound like this is supposed to be an unhealthy relationship. Rosa flat out accuses Santana of being so obsessed with her love for the late Channing Jr. that she is trying to recreate that relationship with C.C. Kelly thinks that the whole thing is insanity, which it is. I really just like the potential of Santana finally coming into the money and power she wanted from day one. Do I think there were other ways to achieve that? Absolutely. I just think the Dobsons seemed to have bigger intentions for the story that never got to reach fruition, but I could be wrong. To me, the ideal plot would have been to have Santana to encourage C.C. to go for custody of Gina's baby with her intention of using C.C. to eliminate Gina. I would have Santana and C.C. marry and be given custody of the baby with Gina having visitation. Santana would then convince Gina that they should conspire together to convince the Capwells that C.C. has lost his mind because no one would believe they would work together. Of course, in the long run, Santana would be planning on setting up Gina to take the fall for everything after having C.C. institutionalized in the same facility where she had been locked up. I also would have had Santana take over ownership of the Oasis. In the end, I would have liked to see Santana with Brick Wallace (either Richard Eden or a recast).

The 1991 episode is from November, 1991. I think this was online before in a partial form. I really liked Giff and Gwyn as a couple. I think Cox and Tudor Newman had nice chemistry. This episode also includes the reference to all of Giff's marriages and children, which is something that often got ignored. I believe later Casey mentioned Giff's multiple marriages, but I don't think his siblings were ever mentioned again. Ryan Munisteri set up Revel's arrival in her final episodes in December 1991 or January 1992. Revel was a musician and suppose to show up shortly into the new year. I assume this was delayed because Mary Ryan Munisteri left. Early Dinahlee is so much fun when she was scrappy and more complex. Dinahlee was sleeping in her car before she crashed in the art studio at Alden University. Her affair with Trucker was very interesting, but I can see why Trucker and Trisha fans would rebel. Neither character came off well during that storyline, but they were more human than in most other sequences I've seen. Mary Ryan Munisteri seemed to be okay with showing different sides to characters. I believe at one point, Ava actually told Kate that she hoped that Carly never found Michael. Matt's overdose was also rather hard to sit through in that Eric Woodall just played ever angle of it (the physical pain and the realization of what he did). I know Munisteri has a rather bleak history as headwriters, but I would have liked to see version continue. The 1992 episode is January or early February 1992. Addie Walsh has been there for about a month or less. Michael having heart issues was never really played to its full potential. Walsh almost immediately dumps the Carly / Ava / Paul / Flynn quad. It goes from A-story to C-story in a very short time. 1992 is a bizarre year transitioning from Fran Sears and the college reset to Haidee Granger's super generic melodrama which included the ghost storyline, Giff's descent into madness, and the "All My Children" Carter Jones crossover. I'm glad more episodes are showing up. I would love to see more of the missing gaps of 1991 in particular.

Marcantel was brought back in either late May or early June 1995. Gwyn and Clay went to visit Curtis at Dunellyn where Curtis tried to convince them to bring him home because he was better. Clay didn't believe him and left him there. Later, Gwyn had him signed out which brought him back to Corinth proper in mid-June 1995. This was setting the stage for the serial killer story.

Timeline wise, Millee Taggert and Robert Guza took over from Addie Walsh in January 1993. Under Walsh, Dinahlee was floundering. She gone from calculated vixen running her own business into an insecure department store model. Taggert and Guza pulled Dinahlee back into Clay's orbit, but played up the toxic element of their relationship. When Taggert and Guza wrote the show, Clay was truly no good for Dinahlee. As part of that growing story, they reintroduced Curtis Alden to the canvas most likely with the hopes of positioning Curtis as the dramatic lead of the Alden family as Noelle Beck had elected not to renew her contract and was leaving the show. Patrick Johnson wasn't right for the part. Not that he was a bad actor, but he simply didn't seem like the Alden scion. I bought that Johnson's Curtis had been a soldier, but not the torment that he was suppose to embody. Not only was Curtis' tortured over his experience in Kuwait, but he was still mourning his late wife Lotty. I suspect they recasted for that reason. Michael Lord is definitely green, but I actually prefer him to Johnson. Eventually, he mellows out and seems to gel (at least for me). I do think Johnson was more charismatic, but Lord to seem to have more potential to carry dramatic material. There is a change in the course of the story for Curtis around July 1993. They start to downplay all the Kuwait stuff, which was a bit over the top and focused on grounding the story more in the corporate aspect (Tess took a job as Clay's secretary at AE building the potential for a Tess / Clay / Dinahlee / Curits situation). Ultimately, I think the show wanted Tess with Clay, but Guza and Taggert were let go in September 1993 when Agnes Nixon returned. Michael Lord departs Corinth in September aroudn the time of the transition. Taggert and Guza seemed to be setting up a situation where Dinahlee was going to become pregnant by Curtis just as he left town, but this seemed to be scrapped by Nixon as she did with several stories. When Chris Marcantel returns in November 1993, Nixon is writing and Jozie Emmerich has taken over as EP from Haidee Granger in October. Nixon seemed to blend her early characterization for Curtis but by adding some elements of Mike Donovan with the PTSD storyline. Marcantel's Curtis was no longer the romantic lead that Johnson and Lord were played as. Now, Curtis was a spoiler to the relationship between Dinahlee and Trucker with Nixon completely downplaying most of the connection between Dinahlee and Clay. Nixon basically keeps Curtis as a spoiler for the entire time she is there and doesn't go much beyond that limited viewpoint until her final weeks where she suggested a possible romance between Curtis and Stacey. Even that, I would imagine would have been undone by the inevitable return of Jack Forbes. When Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy takeover in August 1994, they quickly write Curtis into a corner by having him tamper with Buck's plane which resulted in the death of Janie Sinclaire and Dinahlee's miscarriage. Marcantel's contract wasn't renewed in late 1994 when it came up. Curtis ends up in an institution being tormented by Gilbert Hunter and then later is released to shoot Gwyn. By the time Curtis was written out, Jessica Collins had already left and Robert Tyler would follow in February 1995. Since Curtis was seen through such a limited lens, his character was expendable. So in that two year period, you have 3 Curtises, 2 executive producers, and 3 writing regimes among several other critical recasts in that general story orbit.

I think several factors probably played into the early demise of the Andrade and the Perkins clans. For the Perkins, casting failed to deliver actors to bring to life those characters. John, Marissa, and Jade had the potential to be dynamic characters, but the actors failed to hone in on the really interesting aspects of those characters. With Jade, the Dobsons seemed to play to Melissa Brennan's strengths and softened the character who initially was suppose to be a young social climbing vixen. Valorie Armstrong failed to recognize the potential of Marissa as the overbearing middle class helicopter mother who meddled in her son's relationship. Robert Alan Browne may have had the boisterous rough neck down, but the lack of raw sexuality defanged a lot of the elements of the Marissa - John - Joe dynamic. Kerry Sherman seems to be the one stand out who seems to work in her role. It's a shame that the show didn't try to recenter the family's story around Amy. Once the Dobsons grew bored with the Joe-Kelly dynamic the family was pretty much doomed. With both families, the Dobsons have alluded to the fact that NBC wanted to the show to be youthful so I think the elimination of the first generation of those families was related to that matter. With the Andrades, it seemed mostly a lack of interest in the family as a whole. In 1984, they were introduced without even having a central set, correct? Santana had her apartment, but I don't think we saw the Andrade home. That says something about where the value is. Besides Santana, the characters were underdeveloped in the story. I don't know if I've ever seen any significant scene with Ruben in it. The initial arc where Rosa learns that Santana had Channing's child played out too quickly and the conflict between the Andrades and the Capwells over Brandon were never really capitalized on to what I can see. Cordova is very strong and is given some meaty scenes in the Dobsons 1991 return. There is a great set of scenes where Santana has been decorating C.C.'s bedroom. Rosa is displeased by the budding romantic liasion between Santana and C.C. and states quite deftly that Santana's place is downstairs. This leads to Santana throwing Ruben's abandonment of Rosa in her face, which is just powerful. Santana herself is such a missed opportunity. The decision to dump Ava Lazar is mind boggling. She is green in those early episodes, but she is charismatic and develops quickly into a force to be recogned with. In what I've seen of Margaret Michaels, she doesn't have the spark that Santana needed. Gina Gallego seems to fall into some bad writing, but I think she was a strong enough actress. I actually like Wanda DeJesus. There is definitely an edge to her Santana, and she plays the embittered element of Santana well. I just wish that the Dobsons had managed to marry off Santana and C.C. in order for Santana to get custody of Channing Capwell III. That would have been great. I know there were two other Andrade girls referenced in the early weeks. One, Gabriella seemed rather youn as she was always on the phone. I wonder if they would have brought her into the teen group eventually. The other, Olivia, was a doctor. I wonder if Renee Jones' Toni Carlin was originally suppose to be Olivia Andrade and they ended up tweaking the role. Toni seemed like a significant recurring player for a hot minute before she seemed to disappear.

I believe it was August 1958. David was introduced so that his villainous sister Enid had someone to share her schemes against Liz with.

I believe Sunburst was an alternate fuel project. That storyline went on for nearly a year I believe, but I don't think it was every truly resolved. I know Travis stood to make a great deal of money off the development of the alternate fuel and that Rusty was after the money. I think the story started under Don Chastain, and, from the sounds of it, got him fired. Ellis and Hunt continued it, but I think it was scrapped by David Cherrill. I think it was Tourneur Instruments, which was an avaition company. The Kendall family had also been involved in manufacturing of aircraft I believe. Lloyd's father Harrison (I believe that was his name) had committed suicide because of faulty airplane parts.

Wendy Riche spoke about dealing with the network when she wanted to tell an AIDS story before the Labine had decided on Stone and Robin. She had gone to the network about having A.J. Quartermaine contract the disease from a situation that would leave people asking who slept with who. Of course, it's also rumored that Marland intended for Hank Eliot, not his lover Charles, to die of the disease. In both scenarios, there is definitely a concern about perpetuating a stereotype that gay men are promiscuous. Here's the transcript from the Riche interview on WeLoveSoaps: I'm watching a bit of 1995. There is a scene that I watched, before seeing this more recently, where A.J. shows up at the gatehouse and crashes a girls' night with Brenda and Lois. I believe the purpose of the scene is for Ned to walk in and be upset that A.J. is meddling, but there are moments where I feel like A.J. enjoyed just dishing the dirt with the ladies and that the show was testing the waters at pre- "Will and Grace" dynamic between A.J. and the ladies. It's entirely possible I completely misread the scene as well.

I thought Lee was Rusty's nephew. I know @slick jones recently added a description to E.N. Sentell, who I thought was Lee's father or brother. I'm a little rusty on some of Sunny's stories, but wasn't she originally brought on as a love interest for Tom Bergman in the late 1970s or was it always Sunny and Lee? Cissie and her brother Beau Mitchell came in late 1979/early 1980. Lee was dealing with some impotency issues and Cissie was able to awaken a part of him or something along those lines. Once she was pregnant, Cissie found an ally (briefly) in Spence Langley, who had pretended to be Stephanie's long lost son, Brian Emerson. Of course, Cissie later gave the baby up to Liza and Travis. Now that I think about it, I wonder if Millee Taggert was involved in writing this. The Cissie / Liza / Travis story is very similar to the Abril / Trisha / Trucker storyline including someone pretending to be the father (Monty / Spence). At the very least, Taggert would have been on the show at the time. Anyway, Cissie left in June 1982, or thereabouts. I think Patsy Pease left the show of her own accord, but it was during the big casting purge after the show transitioned to NBC. She took Roger Lee and left town. In those episodes on YouTube, Lee leaves town in November / December and I believe joins them. . In the Hong Kong episode posted recently, Dane Taylor is actually mentioned as coming to town soon. I thought he didn't appear until 1982, but I guess he did appear earlier in 1981. I thought they should have brought Lee and Roger Lee back in 1984 when they wrote out Travis. I think they could have said that Lee and Cissie had split. Then, you could have done a Liza / Lee / Sunny triangle which I think would have made more sense than the Liza / Hogan / Sunny story. With that said, I still thought the Hogan centered story had some good moments, along with some tougher ones. Jenny's backstory is definitely being mined in several directions. I'm curious what the intentions of Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt were with the Danielle piece of the story. Would Jenny's daughter still been revealed in the same manner? Ringo was trying to be kill Jenny because Jenny had known about Ringo and Warren's involvement in the gun running. Before Jenny had suffered amnesia, she had been involved with someone else in the ring and eventually he was killed. I believe Jenny witnessed her boyfriend's murder and, as a result, Ringo wanted to off her. There is a very homoerotic subtext to Warren and Ringo's relationship. I kept wondering when Warren was going to start cheating on Suzy with Ringo. There is a joke in one of the David Cherrill episodes that definitely played up that suggestion. If daytime was more daring, I would have played the Jenny / Warren backstory as Warren participating in excess in Los Angeles (drugs, alcohol, and sex) and make it clear he had been paying Jenny to sleep with him and Ringo. Obviously, Jenny's backstory couldn't have been given to Patti and a Patti / Stu pairing would have been tawdry, but I wonder if Linda Gibboney would have worked as Patti. The only problem is that age bracket was so underdeveloped at that point and time. I'm not even sure what stories could have been played there. Dane Taylor was a waste. I don't think he fit well into the show. I felt like Hunt and Ellis were laying the groundwork for some sort of deeper connection between Dane / Liza before they left. I just don't think Dane as a superspy or a music producer had a whole lot of mileage.

Marcus has a mixed record like most do. She was the final headwriter for "Love is a Many Splendored Thing." Her plans for the show were included in an article afterward that was fairly progressive. I know two of the stories would later be attempted on "Days of our Lives." Marcus was bringing back Mia Elliott who was looking to reunite with her husband and child that had been lost in Vietnam during the war. She planned on using this with Chris Kositchek. She had also planned on a lesbian relationship with Betsy (I believe) and a nurse character. Later, Julie would be the object of affection of Sharon Duvall. I can't remember anything significant from Marcus' 1970s "Search for Tomorrow" run. Her run on "Love of Life" was decent. There were some misfires, but I like what I've read about it. I wish the show had continued. Years ago, I found brief episode summaries online for L.A.T.E.R. it really wasn't anything remarkable (the summaries, not the storylines specifically). They were on an old computer. I'm sure if someone looked they wouldn't have much trouble pulling the information from online.

January 1994 was better than December 1993 in my opinion so I'm glad those are popping up. Without watching it, I believe January 3 is Pat Barry's final episode as Isabelle. Isabelle announces she plans to leave Corinth and is signing over her shares to Clay. There is a brief attempt on Isabelle's part to get Stacey to understand her choice, but Stacey is still tiffed. It's a very quick exit. We don't see Isabelle again until August 1994 when Augusta Dabney returns in the final days of Nixon or the first days of Addie Walsh and Laurie McCarthy. There are hints in the spring of 1994 that Isabelle might be returning as Shana and Leo plan their wedding, but that goes nowhere. @EricMontreal22 I don't disagree that the Tracey Q sequence is better, but I think it represents one of the fundamental issues with the show. It was suppose to be about the younger characters, but the show is defined by two distinct periods characterized by the show's older female lead. That should be telling of the younger cast. And only a few of those younger characters first appeared on "The City." They were introduced on "Loving" and those contracts were carried over into the revamp. Brown and Essensten's "Loving" was always more than just the serial killer story, but the problem was they only really developed that story rather than really setting up strong story foundations for the characters once they arrived in Corinth. Also, a lot of those final stories were linked directly to stories that B&E told on "Loving." Lorraine's involvement in Jacob and Angie's romance. Was Lorraine really suppose to be their surrogate? Lorraine, only a year or so sober after many years of drinking, was going to carry Jacob and Angie's child? Buck and Tess were already a thing when B&E arrived but I don't see anything significant that they did with them.

I haven't watched the 1982-1983 episodes that were posted. There is a bit more there than what I have already seen. This covers the tail end of Ralph Ellis and Eugenie Hunt's year and the first half of David Cherrill's six month run. @victoria foxtonI like how Rusty Sentell goes about messing with Liza. Rusty is interesting to me. Clearly, he is intended to be a Stefano Dimera type and sweeps into Henderson and is placed in a bunch of different stories. His connection to Warren (don't want to spoil for those currently watching) solidifies his role as a supervillain. In what I saw, the connection between Jenny and Rusty never went anywhere. I imagine that Ellis and Hunt planned to have Rusty be part of the time she forgot, but I don't think that ever played out. I think the potential of pitting Martin against Rusty was intriguing, and Rusty is basically replaced by Lloyd Kendall in that way which I think was a smart move. I think Rusty's motivation for hating Liza is a bit convoluted. As I probably said when I watched these episodes a while back, I think Hunt and Ellis still wrote a show that I reocgnize as a P&G style show. Lots of conversation despite the infusion of lengthy action sequences. A very stark tone. A slower pace. Cherrill seems to be the transition to a much more NBC style serial. More humor, more plot, and a faster pace. By the tailend of those episodes, Freddy Barthlowmeow is on his final month as EP to be replaced by Joanna Lee at the end of March 1983. Cyndy Gibbs is fun as Suzy. I felt there was a really nice moment in December 1982 where she is practicing her ballet to Sheena Easton's Modern Girl that just really set the tone for what the character should be. Unfortunately, in most of what I've seen (and there are gaps), Suzy becomes less of a character with agency and more of a character who things happen to under subsequent writers.

Thanks. In that context, Tess moving to the City makes sense. I just get so bogged down by her clunky backstory with Dante, Curtis, Buck, and Kuwait. Nixon made the best of the situation and fleshed out a more complicated backstory for Tess to rationalize her decision to enter into a violent marriage. In what I've seen, a lot of that complexity doesn't come across in later material once Nixon leaves. In defense of Brown and Essensten, I do think they helped to rectify one of the problems I had with "Loving." "Loving" had a tendency to be too light at times. There was definitely a maturity to the material I watched in those summer 1995 episodes. It just was just so jarring in context of the amplified snark over some rather gritty matters. The possible culture clash between the suburbanite Corinthians and the urban New Yorkers would have given the show something more to play in those early episodes that didn't come across. I think it would have been for the best to write out Steffi earlier like you suggested. "The City" might have worked if they had done it a year and a half earlier in mid-1994 when Michael Weatherly, Amelia Heinle, Paul Anthony Stewart, and Laura Sisk Wright were still all present and had around a year left to their contracts. That younger group worked. I don't hate what I've seen of Corey Page's Richard in the later material from "The City" though I found the character incredibly crass and obnoxious on "Loving." Amy Van Horne seemed like a solid junior vixen, but a lot of the other younger actors were still developing their characters. Jill Farren Phelps was hired to revamp "Another World" around the same time and was doing a lot of primetime influenced things. There was the introduction of a new hospital set, police station, and Italian restaurant which were suppose to be the hub of stories. Then, you had a bunch of older contract players written out, the brutal of a young mother, and a stronger emphasis on younger characters. I do think that "The City" went farther, but I think both were looking to accomplish similar goals. For the most part, I was referring to the first year or so of the show. I've seen a lot less of that then "Loving." I will agree that the end is an improvement and is closer to reaching those goals. In watching some later episodes recently, I still feel the show slips into the problems I talked about though. I think the episodes with the fake Quartermaines are fun, and the confrontation between Carla and Tracey is well played. In my recent reviewing of these episodes, I find something still seems off. The relationship between Carla and Tracey is intriguing, but it's still harsh and brittle in the context there is nothing to contrast it in those episodes. Everyone working to cover up for Tracey does build into that family element, but everything is based on a con job. I think playing up the fact that they have to lie to Dillon about his grandparents leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I do think there was an attempt to make the more salacious elements less tasteless, while still crossing the line. Didn't Gino die in bed with a prostitute who he thought was Tracey? That seems to be an attempt to integrate something flashy into a bigger story where that event is not the sole climax of the story. I also watched the last few episodes recently. Who were people rooting for at the end in terms of the quad with Carla, Danny, Tony, and Ally? Carla is fun, but I still find Danny sleazy. Tony has mellowed, but I don't necessarily find him some big catch. I also don't get a strong connection between Laura Sisk and George Palermo which is what the show sees as the "it" couple. I thought the final story with the arrival of baby Cassandra was sort of sloppy. I imagine the plans may have accelerated to accommodate the conclusion, but the psychic stuff with Lorraine seemed less intriguing to me than watching Lorraine and Nick's relationship a few months earlier after Nick had been released from the hospital. It's nice to think that, if given more time, Essensten and Brown would have gotten it together, but they were given two years with the same producer, which hadn't happened on "Loving" since Doug Marland and Joseph Stuart.

Thanks. I've never seen much of Jones' work but her characters always intrigue me. Originally, Amy was a schemer who had her eyes on the Cushing money, but also seemed to have feelings for Austin. Rod Arrants' Austin was driven to alcoholism by the endless pressure to join the family business when all he wanted to do was be an artist. I remember being really impressed when I saw Arrants in the episode available at Paley Center. During Megan and Desmond's engagement party, Megan tracks down Austin to his room where he is blitzed and going on and on about how miserable his existence was. I would love to have seen the material with Austin went to work at the factory and befriended Lester Saxton, a recovering alcohol, who tried to get Austin back on his feet while the Cushings pushed to have Austin institutionalized to deal with his issues. I don't think Amy was as complex on "For Richer, For Poorer," but I think there was potential to revisit some of that with Amy's modeling career and her previous relationship with Lee Ferguson. It's a shame that most of this will never show up. In particular, the "Lovers and Friends" sequences fascinate me, and I would be curious to see the second half of "For Richer, For Poorer."

"The City" wasn't unique in the sense that NBC was basically trying the same experiment with similar results with "Another World." The writing wasn't there, which was the problem with "Loving." From what I've seen of "The City," the characters are thinly conceived at best and harsh and unlikeable at worst. Like "Loving," the show had some good cast members, but the storytelling and the characterization were inconsistent. I think Harmon Brown and Essensten did attempt some interesting issues (homeless youth, incest, marital rape, transgender characters, racial tension), but the stories were underdeveloped and then quickly dropped. The biggest issue I find with "The City" is tone. The show would deal with such compelling, dramatic ideas but in the most salacious way possible. Azure C.'s revelation being splashed on the page of the newspapers. Jocelyn Brown surviving incest at the hands of her father and living a dual life as a lawyer and prostitute. I didn't enjoy those early episodes of "The City" that appeared on YouTube last spring. They had little energy and the one story that I felt had a bit of energy (Steffi / Tony) was never going to last given Heinle started on the show with two months left on her contract. I definitely felt the primetime influences. I think the first Friday cliffhanger was Kayla firing a shot in Angie's clinic which seemed like a rejected story idea from "New York Undercover." Currently, I'm making my way through "General Hospital" episodes in 1995. I can't help but wonder if the Soleito family was influenced at all by the Cerullos. The large Italian family living in the City. I don't think the found family was the issue. If the characters were more developed, it would have worked. The truth is almost everything from "The City" was based in the work of Brown and Essensten on "Loving" with little of anything from before their period which made sense given what the intention of the network was. I also think most of the pre-B & E characters who were brought to "The City" were bizarre choices. Catherine Hickland's Tess is such a harsh character as written by B & E. The character's backstory was incredibly clunky (the whole Dante Partou mess). And while I get the idea of the cowboy in the City, Buck just seems like a character with limited story potential. What story did Tess and Buck have on the City? Just the cancer stoyline right? Also, it's very weird that the show did nothing with Frankie beyond that brief exploration of his roots with Monti Sharp's film student character. I have to wonder if they didn't dump Frankie to keep Angie appearing as a younger mature lead given that she was now mother to a college student and exploring fertility issues. "Days of our Lives" has this trouble all the time with their super couples having kids decades apart and thanks to SORAS there being a ridiculous age gap. Final random comment, but it's interesting that Noelle Beck ended up appearing on "Central Park West" while "The City" was airing given that they were both attempting similar things at different times of the day.

Jacqueline Babbin came in 1990 as a personal favor to Agnes Nixon. There are some rather blunt interviews in this thread from her. She pretty much says the show was stuck in the 1980s and that she was determined to give the show some more definition. I think part of the process was to basically eradicate the Alden family. In her year as EP, she saw the exits of Rick, Curtis, Clay (maybe), Isabelle, and Cabot. She also got rid of Perry Stephens and was overseeing the show when they wrote out Alex and Egypt. Stephens may have had demons that haven't been spoken about, but my understanding (possibly just an assumption) was that Babbin didn't consider Stephens a dynamic presence. Babbin stayed the year she agreed to. She was also pretty critical of the writing. She stated that she struggled with Tom King and Millee Taggert because they assumed she was going to fire them. In a subsequent interview, she made it clear she still wasn't happy where the writing was at. King did end up leaving the show in April or May 1991. I don't know the circumstances. Taggert worked briefly with Babbin's successor Fran Sears for a few weeks before Mary Ryan Munisteri took over. To be fair, Babbin and Taggert left the show in a decent place for Sears and Ryan Munisteri. It's really unfortunate that the potential of 1991 (Carly and Paul reuniting with Michael, Matt and Ally's romance, Celeste Holms' Isabelle Alden, the sexual powerplay going on between Gwyn Alden and Giff Bowman, Dinahlee refusal to be run out of Corinth) was squandered in the following year. The second stage of the college revamp (the introduction of Greek system and the arrivals of Staige, Kent, and Cooper) was not as interesting as the first stage (Giff's arrival to Alden University, Ceara's brief stint in the administration offices, Dinahlee and Trucker's affair in the art room).

Why Jack never came back is probably tied to why Jack was written out, which I don't know. Christopher Cass was a competent actor, but he was replacing one of the original actors who didn't leave by choice. Jack had very little story under Cass. The biggest stories he was involved in were inheriting the family fortune and the plot to convince Stacey that Jack was sleeping with Dinahlee. Walsh kept Jack and Stacey in different stories before their quick vow renewal and Jack's disappearance during the honeymoon. Walsh seemed determined to pair Stacey and Trucker and I think removing Jack was a way of allowing that to play out even if Stacey / Trucker was only meant as an obstacle to both original couples. I think Noelle Beck's departure, the arrival of Jean LeClerc as Jeremy, and the show's constant identity crisis each played a part in Jack's failure to return. After Trucker fell from the belfry during the final showdown with Giff, Trucker suffered a temporary case of amnesia and thought he was in love with Stacey. This plot point was quickly dropped and Trucker and Trisha remarried in an extensively lavish wedding in November 1992. Beck's contract should have ended with the episodes in December, but she agreed to stay on for a bit to resolve the story. I imagine with Beck leaving and the expensive casting of Jean LeClerc, the Trucker / Stacey story was abandoned for the Stacey / Jeremy pairing and some final moments of happiness between Trisha and Trucker. Once Trisha was gone, the show had to figure out what the central focus would be now that the world could no longer revolve around Trisha. The Jeremy / Stacey pairing was a dud. LeClerc / Taylor had passable chemistry, but it was nothing to write home about. Also, the story between Stacey and Jeremy didn't write itself. Both trying to get over losing their spouses wasn't enough to drive significant story at least in the way it was presented. The sexual harassment storyline where Hannah lead people to believe she and Jeremy were sleeping together when she was his student lead to some drama, but there was nothing to build on so Taggert and Guza decided to pair Stacey with Buck and Jeremy with Ava. A Buck / Stacey / Curtis triangle should have ended in a Curtis / Stacey pairing with Jack returning not only interrupting the Curtis / Stacey marriage, but also J.J.'s affection for Buck. It would have elicited more drama if Jack had returned during the Cradle Foundation storyline rather than Cabot. Truthfully, Jack probably didn't come back because they couldn't generate story for the character and/or they couldn't secure Perry Stephens to return.