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I don't what to think of Christopher Cass. To me, Perry Stephens always seemed like he was haunted by something and so did Jack. In terms of the character, I felt it had a lot to do with the problems regarding his paternity. I think Cass is probably the stronger actor, but he doesn't have the history. Trying to create a friendship between Trucker and Jack was interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. I will say Robert Tyler impressed me when baby Benjamin died. I don't know if I had seen Trucker handle anything that really had any meat to it before. I remember reading an interview about Stephens firing and the producer at the time stated he was weak and then said she paired up Jack and Dumas' Alex Masters to use up their guarantees and not to hinder other stories. I thought that was a bit crass. Peluso really does display range in these episodes. I was pretty sure Christine Tudor returned in May. She has a very early 1990s look with her return. I remember seeing women with that look in the magazines at the hair salon when my mom got her hair cut. Based on what I've seen, I prefer Tudor to Savage, but I think Savage would have made an interesting addition to the canvas in another role. Either as an ex-wife to Dane or possibly a friend of Jack's biological mother who pursued Jack. The Dane / Paul scene was very nice in the May 1990 clip. When Paul was talking to Ava about his job hunt, I thought Paul and Dane were similar characters. It was nice to see a scene that also commented on that. A lot of the big story in 1990 doesn't interest me (the plane crash, the Rick murder, the mob stuff with Paul) but there are definitely elements that I think are very interesting and seem to lead somewhere in 1991. Norma is a bit detached from the main story. Wally / Denny were twins. I think one dies at one point and Norma thinks the other came back from the dead. It's a shame that Norma couldn't have been tied in better to the main plot. I could take or leave her material, and I appreciate Ilene Kristen's work. I see how well they integrated Monty into the canvas and I wish the same could have been done for Norma. I think letting her stay at the boarding house would have helped especially since she was living off of tips at the Bistro. I think Ava and Carly would have had a field day with Norma. Funny, I was thrilled by the lack of Rocky and Rio in these episodes. Rena Sofer works better for me in the family drama though I did appreciate Rio and Rocky's conflict when Abril disappeared. From these episodes, I don't get a sense of who Rio is. I wish there was more depth to him because Rick Telles seems competent. I was sorry to see that Matthew Labine had died. His name has been standing out in the credits lately. I hope he and his mother have reunited.

I jumped a bit all over the place this weekend with "Loving" so forgive the scattered nature of this post. Watched the scenes of Chip Albers' Curtis coming home from Germany. I always forget that Ann was recurring at the time. It was kind of bizarre seeing her and Curtis together, though I did enjoy his passing shot about Jack at the Alden family dinner. Curtis' return was a lot better handled than I expected with the scenes with Gwyn, Trisha, and even Ava. I have a much better appreciation for Albers, but I still feel his Curtis was a light weight. I don't necessarily blame Chip Albers for that, but rather the writers. I wonder how Albers would have done if they had written him more like Rick. In particular, I would have been interested in seeing someone with more history (Curtis) involved in the Jack / Stacey / Lily story in 1987-1988. I didn't realize that Dave and Tally Hindman, the children of Officer Hindman, were around as long as they were. Saw both characters at Trisha's bridal shower / bachelorette party where Curtis and Dave appeared in drag to be among the women. I believe I also saw another actor, Eric Griffin, credited in one of the later 1990 episodes that have been posted. I watched the April 1990 episode that is available on youtube. I really liked the Dane / Ava story as they had history during Dane's first go around. I believe he spotted her the money to give to her sister Sherri so she could buy baby Johnny off her. I cannot tell if Dane is tricking Ava into thinking he is dying or if she has just jumped to conclusions. Either way, I thought the scenario was fun even if Ava faking a phone call to a mechanic was overdone even by 1990. The April / May 1991 episodes are surprisingly strong. I thought the B-story involving Stacey and Jack moving into the mansion complete with Ava poking around the Forbes house (which I never realized was Stacey's childhood home) was pretty humorous. When Trisha and Trucker arrived, I thought it was logical to have them rent the house. I really hope more of that story pops up with Jack and Stacey. I thought the scenes with Carly at the Paradise Bar were really remarkable. It was nice to get more insight into Carly and Paul's past. I actually have a lot of trouble deciding who I want Paul with. This story also allowed Lisa Peluso to play Ava's vulnerable side, which Peluso does so well. The Ava-Carly dynamic is so rich it really is a shame that no one thought to bring Coleen Quinn back on a permanent basis. I think I would much rather have seen Paul and Carly, separated, back in Corinth and not seen Tess and Buck. While watching the November 1991 episode, I'm not only struck by how quickly things change in Corinth. Trisha, who wanted Tommy because she was infertile, is remarkably pregnant again. I thought the Checkers scenes with Michael/Ruthie (is that the girl's name) and Paul / Ava were sweet. I wonder what happened to Ava's boutique. I'm not overwhelmed by the Hunters in Corinth though I could see why bringing Ceara in would make sense given Matt's story. Matt Ford was really interesting. Was that Jason Wiles as the drug dealer, Reggie? I always like seeing what happens to people who worked mainly under Claire Labine. Munisteri's period definitely has a Labine-esque feel without the noteworthy dialogue that usually accompanies a Labine show. Maybe this episode just was a rarity. It reminded me a bit of Paul Avila Mayer and Stephanie Braxton's work on "Search for Tomorrow," but I think their dialogue for certain characters was spot on while others was clunky. There were some really lengthy therapy scenes with Stacey and Jack in there somewhere when Perry Stephens was still in the role. I thought those were pretty rich scenes that gave Stacey and Jack some more depth than I expected. I didn't remember, or possibly know, that Jack had implied that Stacey was overtly sexual with Rick. For one, it's hard to imagine Lauren Marie Taylor as overtly sexual, but its also a rather fascinating layer to the Jack / Rick conflict and the tension in Jack / Stacey's marriage. I really cannot see any show today even attempting anything like that with any sort of depth. The credits are always funny. Wesley Addy is listed one minute in April, but Joe Breen and Augusta Dabney aren't. There were a couple of other mistakes I picked up. It was also interesting to see that Tom King departed the writing staff in mid-April leaving Millee Taggert to fly solo until she was booted; I believe for Mary Ryan Munisteri.

I loved "Secrets"! The plot worked really well given the format the show was using at the time. If I remember correctly, the first month or so there was some mystery over who the three were. One of the really nicely done character moments had Lucy Coe investigating Paige Smith because she had aged so beautifully and she wanted to know her beauty secrets. I thought that was a very Lucy thing to do. Once they revealed they were Angels with unfinished business, then they weaved in the mystery of the fifth chair. I also think Amy's true connection to Ian and Eve a secret for a long time. When they eventually revealed Eve was sitting in the fifth chair, I was hooked. The only downside of this plot was it was really the first arc where they gave up on Allison and Jamal, who I thought were wonderful. Rafe was just so vanilla and boring. The writing didn't help, but the Brian Gaskill didn't bring much to the table. I thought Gaskill had a very modern look, for the time, but I didn't see where they were going with Rafe and Allison. Also, revealing Jamal was the father of Valerie's baby was one of those unforgivable rewrites. The big gripe I had was that they didn't write all of the ladies out when the story ended. Joy Bisco and Vanessa Branch should have left with Tamara Davies. The follow up arc, Superstition?, was boring. Going back to 2000, I think you make valid points about the show. Christina was a character that had ties to so many parts of the canvas, and I think removing her from the canvas took away from a lot of the overlap. There wasn't really a big overarching story or villain in the rest of the year. I thought the stuff with Kevin and Charlie McMillan/Livvie was very well done and fascinating, but it relied heavily on the introduction of a newcomer. Kevin's hearing with the discipline board over his handling Livvie's case is a very well done episode. As mentioned above, I really liked Allison and Jamal, but so much of their story featured them with others (Amanda, Frank, Courtney) in more supporting roles. I haven't seen the story about the nurses' strike or the Claire Wright story. Both of those are stories from that period I would love to see.

Lorna always had interesting story potential (a romantic dalliance with Doug Donovan, a potential rivalry with Stacey, possibly aligning herself longterm with Dane and the Beechams against her own family) but none of that really went anywhere. I would say that Ava basically squashed Lorna in the long run, but I don't think that was Marland's original intent. I think the show would have been more successful if they had played a frienemies relationship between Lorna and Ava, unlikely allies who would occasionally stab each other in the back. When Nixon took over from Marland, the character of Lorna changed. Nixon, and possibly Ralph Ellis, shifted the landscape and Lorna's romance with Linc Beecham went from a possible threat to the Aldens and AE to a more traditional conflict involving a secret wife, a faked pregnancy, and a wrongful murder accusation. None of this seemed to effect the Alden clan the way it should have. Lorna went from a damaged young woman with money who lashed out to a damsel in distress. Even if Parker O'Hara didn't take over, the character would not have been successful with that direction. I can see now why Nixon made the decision to make Lorna a more traditional heroine, but it limited the story potential. Lorna needed to be further entrenched into the affairs of the Alden family, not further withdrawn. Her romance with Zack Conway sounds lame and the crazy ex-sister-in-law didn't provide much long term conflict. I think there may have been some potential with Kelly Conway, Zack's daughter, as she was a troubled young woman who had many issues like Lorna had. It would have made more sense if it had happened down the line. Especially if they had gone the route of playing Linc and Lorna for a few years, then having Lorna become bored and sleep with Nick Diantos, the guy after her cousin Trisha. Then, they could have had Lorna go on trial for murdering Nick and introduced Zack and Kelly then. Lotty and Curtis left for Germany in November 1987, I think. Ned joined them several weeks later. I'm pretty sure when Curtis returned from Germany he said Lotty had died.

I think they were trying to go for a more balanced tone, but I think it doesn't work. The material at the church was pretty weak. I did like that Alex gave the speech and thought that was well written. JJ (I assume that was JJ) sitting with Isabelle was a nice touch. The events surrounding the funeral were rather underplayed given the fact that Cabot's death was suppose to be a big deal. I think Cabot's demise was rather plot-driven; a way to clean up the messy story involving Alden Enterprises and the faulty airline parts storyline. Most of the fallout seems functional rather than poignant. I did think Shana turning to Dane in her darkest hour and then scolding herself was well played. Shana's entire speech about Dane bringing Cabot into her life was a very nice character moment. It would have been interesting if Dane brought up the fact that if Dane hadn't brought her to Corinth she never would have reunited with Jim to begin with, but then they would have to deal with Jim and Jimmy's death, I guess. Ava bought Johnny from Sherri Watley, her sister with the boatload of kids including another one named Ava. Sherri popped up in 1994 under Nixon when Ava was in a coma during another fantasy sequence (Ava played cards in Heaven with Uncle Harry who gave Ava some prophecies, which was basically a neat way to give spoilers within the context of the series.) Had the show made it into the early 2000s, a rivalry between Johnny and JJ would have been a must. As you see in the other episodes, there was some animosity between Cabot and Trisha over the Aldens pinning the manufacturing problems that led to the plane crash (the one that killed Jim and Jimmy Vochek) on Trucker. Having Cabot's funeral while Trisha and baby Benjamin (I think that was his name) fought for their lives was probably overkill, but it was sweeps and the show was low rated. I don't know why they didn't bring back Ann at least. She was name dropped a couple of times and I think they brought Callan White back in 1990 for a wedding (maybe Trucker and Trisha's? or Jack and Stacey's?). It would have been especially nice to have played her in the Cabot story given Dane's return and Shana's animosity for Cabot. I was more fascinated by Carly though I thought her friendship with Abril was a nice touch especially given that Carly and Clay were getting closer together. I think Abril's storyline was interesting (Abril giving Trucker and Trisha a child who was actually Trisha's half-brother and now the added element of Abril's friend Carly going after the father of Abril's child). There were clearly some interesting elements to play: the tension between Carly/Abril over Clay's eventual play for the child, Carly raising a child when she gave her own away, Clay trying to take his child away from his own daughter). I just find Marisol Massey to be too low key for all this. I don't find the character as compelling as her situation was. Similarly, I don't understand where they were going with Robert Leeshock's Monty character. He seems like a decent guy, but Carly hates him and he eventually ends up dead. I love Ilene Kristen but all the Norma / Denny / Wally stuff seems so extra and unnecessary. Maybe if they were tied to the other working class characters, the Slavinskis and the Rescotts, they would have worked better for me. Especially if Norma ended up as a boarder at Kate's and Ava had to deal with her. Colleen Quinn was the real star in this. She and Lisa Peluso were dynamite together. Peluso is fun as a vixen, but I like when she gets to play her character's insecurities. The stuff with Ava and Kate was remarkably layered. I thought Kate's running commentary was hilarious and tragic at the same time. It was nice to have Kate call Ava out, though, when she said she (Ava) was trying to be the woman her mother wanted her to be rather than the woman she wanted to be herself. On that note, I thought the Wizard of Oz fantasy was very well done, and this isn't the type of material I really go for. Abril first appeared in April 1989. She took care of Alex Masters when he had been shot in some fictional island nation. She departed in July/August 1991 when she got custody of her son, Tommy, and moved to New York. Rio arrived in March 1990. Colby was Colby Cantrell. She was Rita Mae Bristow's niece. She appeared in 1984. Colby worked as a buyer for Burnell's department store and was Curtis' big romance post-Lily. Prior to returning to Corinth, Curtis had been slumming it in Europe where he knew Sasha. Sasha was Sasha Hale who arrived after Colby and worked as a model for Burnell's. Sasha had known Curtis in Europe and had starred in a pornographic film that Curtis had financed. I believe this was the breaking point for Colby and Curtis, and I believe Colby developed some feelings for Keith Lane, the chemist at Amourelle. Sasha also had ties to Jonathan Maitlane and/or Edy Lester Donovan. She somehow was tied to the byzantine San Francisco serial murders and I believe Jonathan tried to kill her at some point. I'm blanking on Juliet. I assume she was later on, 1987-1989 era, and I think she may have been tied to the spy story involving Mark Pinter's Dan Hollister. April was the teenage prostitute who loved Luke Perry's Ned Bates, who worked with Steve Sowolosky at the garage. Ned's sister Lotty was Lorna Forbes' cellmate, and later married Curtis (I believe when Burke Moses was playing the role) and dealt with her scummy common law husband Eban Japes (Matthew Cowles). April had an alcoholic aunt who longed for Jim Vochek and Jackie Courtney briefly played April's madame. April's stalker was actually Steve Fletcher's Alan Howard. Trachta played the wealthy masochist who tormented Dolly Jones, another prostitute. When Jonathan Maitlane (John O'Hurley's bad twin) took over his brother's life, Keith (the good brother) ended up locked up in a brothel with Dolly, who saved him. Dolly reformed and fell for Keith. They were tested by Hunter Belden, who knew where Dolly's daughter was. Hunter claimed the daughter was in the hands of child pornographers and used his knowledge of the little girl to get Dolly to sleep with him. Completely understandable why you'd confuse the stories: similar tropes and both sound like awful plots. The woman that Cranston was paired with was Lesley Vogel's Edy Lester, who had been married to John O'Hurley's Jonathan Maitlane. Edy had been a nurse in San Francisco for wealthy older women who Maitlane would kill to get his hands on some of their money.

And for the same reason, I liked the Faith / Frank pairing. At the heart of the matter, Frank was an arrogant, selfish individual who was often reckless with other people’s emotions and was often absolved because he was a sainted Ryan. Despite all the protests, I felt Faith was duped and that’s why I sympathized with her even if her hatred was misdirected. She had been open and honest about her concerns about Frank still being in love with Jill, but decided to believe that Frank was telling the truth about his love for her. As a politician, Frank was supposed to be charismatic and persuasive so I could buy Faith believing in him. Hugh Kelly did a good job with those aspects of Frank’s character. He also played a lot of the material with an emotional detachment that made me loathe Frank even further. He was just a wonderful scumbag. You hit on some interesting points about Jill and Frank. They didn’t work on a certain level. Frank waffled between respecting Jill as an independent and strong woman and wanting her to fill the mother role. I think the disconnect related back to Maeve, who was a strong woman but ultimately condoned a lot of his bull because he was her first born. Jill was less willing to coddle him. While I don’t think it would have been fulfilling for the characters, I would have liked to have seen Jill with Barry, which they sort of hinted at during the strike. If for no other reason than to see Frank and Delia squirm. Faith is one of the show’s more problematic characters. The initial concept was very cold and standoffish, but than they hired Catherine Hicks who was so saccharine. I never warmed to Hicks’ portrayal. I thought Hicks played Faith like a Ryan, slightly sanctimonious but mostly angsty. At Mulgrew instilled some inner turmoil in her conflicts with Dee and Jack. Faith came off as so passive. I also agree they would never have played Faith / Frank with Hicks in the role. Hicks basically played a different character. After Barrett’s few weeks, Hicks played Faith fresh from the mental hospital with none of that history in her performances. I never got the haunted sense that I got from Catlin or Morris Gowdy (in her later performances). KMG was very vanilla until the alcoholism story. In the end, icy and disconnected Faith worked better for me, and I think it provided the canvas with a very different type of character. With that said, it was such a departure from what Faith had been for so many years I can see why it would put people off. I agree that the show often skirted Faith’s accountability. She shouldn’t have been involved with someone so intensely on the heels of her recovery. It would have been nice if someone like Roger had played that card. Actually, I think someone may have said this, but Faith dismissed it. For me, it was the trainwreck quality that I adored. There was no way this was going to work no matter how deeply Faith wanted it to, no matter how much Frank protested he loved her, or how much Jill tried to stay out it. Eventually, it was going to explode, and I just really enjoyed the momentum to the climax. I got a lot of enjoyment out of seeing Faith's world crumble even if I didn't feel she deserved it. I think Faith as an archetype, someone in love with someone she could never have, was identifiable and relatable, but I could see how her reaction afterwards put people off. At times, I felt Faith attacked the status quo by calling out some of the hypocrisy, while being blissfully unaware of her own. I also felt she suffered because she was alone, and I don't think that was something that she was as comfortable with as Jill was.

I loved the Faith / Frank romance. I didn't find it plot driven at all. Ken George Jones? Yes. I believed that was something born out of a desire to give Jill and Frank drama. I felt when they paired Faith and Frank, both were in a place in their lives that they would be open to something else. Frank was reacting to Jill's infidelity and Faith to the loss of Tom and her attempts to recover from alcohol dependence. Did I think it was some grand love? No, but it was a delightful trainwreck. I liked that everyone told Faith that Frank still loved Jill, and that Frank denied it to high heaven. Frank was a selfish b#stard who had no problem with loving multiple women at once. The scenes in the episode posted really make me reevaluate Faith's position on Jill. I think I better understand the nature of her animosity after Frank declared he still loved Jill. Jill really didn't suffer for what she did to Frank. She got to get with Ken right before her wedding, she dealt with some angst watching Frank with Faith, but, in the end, Jill won in Faith's eyes. Do I think that's necessarily fair? Probably not, but I can see the genesis of Faith's view. I think Faith should have been more angry with Frank, but it was naturally for her to blame someone else. Do I think Jill is at fault? Not for what Frank did to Faith. In the larger context, I do see some of the trouble with some of Faith's retelling of Coleridge family history. While Faith Catlin's version was frigid and neurotic, the recasts after had been level headed and had most friendly relationships with Jill. The sudden "Jill was the usurper" position that Faith presented wasn't really accurate, but also was one of Jill's biggest fears early on. It was almost inhuman of Faith to go that route, and probably out of character given how things had progressed. On some level, I feel that the Coleridges were always fundamentally flawed individuals who struggled with connecting with one another and each other so I was willing to dismiss some of Faith's tirades as hyperbole rather than accepting them as fact written in stone. I also really enjoyed some of the layers that were added to the story, which was clearly a B-story using A-characters. I liked Little John telling Frank he wanted Frank to marry Jill, not Faith, and his Delia-esque antics (running away from the Bar, growing bored and calling home, and then later running to Jill when he thought she was leaving New York). The Jill-Johnno relationship is a very rich relationship that was really well nurtures. I also like Bob getting mad at Frank about what he had done to Faith because he cared for her. This wasn't Rae or Delia who Frank was wronging. This was Faith, an insider. I also thought Faith trying to be a Ryan by bringing Annie to town and by agreeing to go through Catholicism classes with Father Shane were nice touches that could have easily been skipped but gave the story a level of depth. The biggest problem I had was that Frank, who completely led Faith on and then pulled the rug out from under her, didn't really suffer. I know the strike happened and then Hugh Kelly exited, but I never felt like Frank ever really got what he had coming to him for all the stunts he pulled. Maeve almost went there and blamed him for his behavior in one of her verbal altercations with Faith, but then both Maeve and Faith pulled back and absolved Frank. F#cking Frank.

Stephanie underwent a rather radical personality shift in the course of the first thirteen episodes. The pilot began with Stephanie as a fish out of water; a West Coast girl in a world of cunning East Coast wolves. Pitted against Madchen Amick's Carrie, Stephanie, nor Hemingway, stood much of a chance. I suspect the powers that be realized this early on which is why they introduced Kylie Travis as Rachel Dennis. Rachel and Carrie's relationship was complicated; they had been friends, Rachel wanted Carrie's JKJ Jr.-esque brother Peter, but they were able to unite against a common enemy, Stephanie. When Stephanie did try to step up her game, she failed. Her scheme to undermine Carrie producing Mark's play blew up in Stephanie's face. In the episodes that CBS didn't air, Stephanie finally played dirty and managed to thwart Rachel's advances at Communique by producing the Fashion Sucks! edition. This version of Stephanie seemed much more capable of playing down and dirty with the likes of Carrie and Rachel. In Stephanie's final scene, she delivers a rather insightful speech about becoming to hard and jaded and chooses Mark and her marriage over her career and manipulation. If Hemingway had stayed, I suspect her role would have been minimized as the show was heading from the internal struggles of Communique to the battle between two media companies. If they had continued, I imagine Stephanie would have remained loyal to Allen, while Carrie would have sided with Brock to anger her (former) stepfather, and Rachel would have played whoever she had to to get ahead. Essentially, Stephanie was replaced by Noelle Beck's Jordan Tate, an editor with a romantic interest in Mark Merrill. If the show had continued, I imagine Jordan would have taken a position at Communique and this would have pitted her against Rachel and Carrie. I don't think Hemingway was hurt by Central Park West. CBS had a rough year. Besides Hemingway, both Patricia Wettig and Mary Tyler Moore intended to leave their roles in new dramas, but both series were cancelled before their characters could be written out.

Curtis did suffer PTSD afterwards. This is what we saw in the May 1994 episodes at Burnell's department store. Curtis wasn't committed to the mental hospital until much later after he pretended Trisha was still alive in order to split Dinahlee and Trucker and fixed Buck's plane which crashed and killed Janie Sinclaire (Buck's long lost daughter). There wasn't really a Burnell family. It was a rewrite. The Aldens owned Burnell's department store, but Haidee Granger created Leo Burnell as the mysterious owner. Agnes Nixon wrote "Loving" with a very large cast. I think Leo and Shana were written out to trim down the canvas even though Cabot returned from the dead several weeks later. Shana's reaction to that would have been interesting. Also, Ava took control of Alden Enterprises shortly after Cabot's return so they could have played the Ava - Shana rivalry a bit more there as well.

Leo Burnell was introduced under Haidee Granger in the summer of 1992. Addie Walsh had Ava working for a mysterious boss at Burnell's, which had (historically) been owned by the Alden clan. My personal speculation was the plan was to bring back Curtis Alden as the boss as Curtis had been Ava's ex-husband, which would have produced a lot of natural tension. Instead, the show went with Leo Burnell. Leo and Ava were involved for the second half of 1992, and, I believe, it was revealed that Leo was involved in some international drug dealing. The drug dealers were involved in the death of Ceara Hunter, Jeremy's wife. In early 1993, Shana Vochek, feeling lonely after the death of her husband and son several years earlier, decided she was going to have a baby via artificial insemination. Shana went looking for a donor and chose Leo. Before she was inseminated, Shana began communicating with Leo and there was a connection there, which infuriated Ava. Ava claimed she was pregnant by Leo so Leo stayed with her even though Shana was really pregnant with the child. The baby was born in August and was named after Trisha who had died several months earlier. At the time of birth, it was determined (I believe by the newly arrived Angie Hubbard) that Patti may have developmental delays. This is what is being discussed in the scenes in the clip above. Shana and Leo eventually married in June 1994 in Rome. It was in Rome that the duo ran into Jeff Hartman, who was hiding Trisha Alden from the rest of the world. Leo and Shana left shortly after the wedding. Shana and Leo were mentioned as being unable to attend Cabot and Isabelle's funeral in the final year. Thom Christopher played Dante Partou, the presumed dead husband of Tess Wilder. Offscreen, Tess had been involved with Curtis Alden and Buck Huston, if not romantically, at least platonically. When Tess escaped the Middle East (I believe Kuwait specifically), it was with Curtis on Buck's plane. This is why Dante was targeting the Aldens and held Curtis hostage. There was push back because Dante was the only Middle Eastern character in daytime television and he was a villain. He was quickly written out in March 1994, but not before Dante paired up with Egypt Masters, who returned in January 1994. He did pop up to haunt Curtis later on.

She played Tex in 1990.

Faison was involved in the Universal Studios plot. When Agnes Nixon took over in the fall of 1993, SOD said Millee Taggert was sick, which was why she was abandoning the writing post. I assumed that Guza left at some point, but I don't know when. I guess it's possible that Guza was still there. I don't think the AMC crossovers helped the show. Jean Leclerc had chemistry with different actresses, but I don't think Jeremy fit well in Corinth. I think it took a while to figure out what to do with Angie. Frankie seemed better integrated into the younger set, but he seemed mainly in a secondary role. I think lily white "Loving" needed more diversity, but I cannot help but wonder if Morgan and Ballard would have fared better had the show created characters for them rather then trying to make Angie and Frankie work in Corinth.

Thanks. That all sounds vaguely familiar now.

Ron Raines is the bald guy in the blue shirt. I didn't recognize him until I saw Robert Newman label everyone. I believe Bruce is Bruce S. Barry, a longtime director. A quick google search would suggest Locke is Locke Wallace, the show's stage manager. I was never a huge Santos fan or Michelle / Danny fan, but I did love the warehouse bombing and how Danny started to become a bit of a pariah in Springfield after his image as the mayor was tarnished. The show had a chemistry test with Danny and Blake, when Dinah returned and Roger had died, and I liked the potential in that pairing, but the show pursued Danny and Marina instead.

Sorry. I did write it as if Louie died in the fire. He lives, but, given what was going on (BB had died), it left a bad taste in some viewers that this was one of the last moments Louie was seen on the show. Louie died later in his sleep. I'm interested in the episodes from a research perspective. Addie Walsh was there in February at the latest. The news of her hiring was announced in January, and a December 1991 episode is credited to Mary Ryan Munisteri. When Walsh was hired, Munisteri had only been there 3 months, but it seems Walsh was using her team (Labine definitely and possibly Tolan). So Taggert was barely gone a year before they brought her back, which is interesting to me. The February 1992 material was alright. I'm not a big Trisha / Trucker fan. I think Noelle Beck does well with the material, but there is nothing that makes the material stand out to me. Malloy and the writing hint at some of Clay's shortcomings, but Nixon does it better in the full episode from 1993 (October 1993) when Ava questions Alex about the pictures of the Alden family. The dynamic between Clay and Alex is different; the Aldens preferred Alex the imposter over their true son, father, and husband. That tension could have been played for years. I thought Gwyn's speech about the divided Alden clan was interesting, but also highlighted the structural issues with LOVING. Over the years, the show had wittled itself down to just the Aldens, and, at this point, the Aldens aren't working for me. It's hard to get interested in the Carly/Michael/Paul stuff because I know its about to end. I don't blame LOVING for that; I blame watching DAYS in recent years with its delay between the announcement of a purge and the characters and stories leaving. I did like Ava stating she wanted Michael and Sandy to grow up together. That was a very real and honest moment. The first 1993 episode (the partial from September) was stronger than I expected. I think the cast does well with the material. Jessica Collins plays the stuff with Randolph Mantooth really well, and I think an Alex/Dinahlee friendship would have upset the establishment (mainly Ava) enough to cause tension. I thought they integrated Frankie well into the younger set without a dominant story, but I would like to see them do more with him as he acts mainly as a spoiler for his mother's romances except for the brief period Elise Neal appears as Janie. The second 1993 (the full one from 1993) is a mix for me. Some strong material with Alex and Ava dealing with Alex's lies. It was nice to Sandy, who was off the show for several years before Alex returned. Peluso also did a good job playing those scenes. It would have been easy to go over the top, but Ava seemed more hurt, and more dangerous, by playing it straight. The Coop/Casey scenes were strong. The Ally/Steffi scenes were very emotional and well developed. I felt genuinely sorry for both young women, which is rarely the case in modern soap. The Buck/Gwyn stuff is of little interest to me. Buck isn't the type of man I picture with Gwyn with other than for a roll in the hay. Also, the pregnancy element was a bit much for me. Nixon tries her best, but it doesn't work for me. I imagine it didn't work for her either as I'm pretty sure Gwyn and Buck were done shortly after this. The show was definitely losing something with Weatherly and Stewart's departures. With that said, I would haven't have killed off Casey. I would have had Casey fake his death as part of the sting (with Ally knowing the truth) and then bringing in a recast Coop for the funeral to comfort Ally. Then, when the truth comes out, I would have sent Casey to rehab to detox and brought back Casey just as Coop and Ally were getting close and Steffi realized she was pregnant from a one-night stand with Coop. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think Gwyn blamed Stacey for Rick going off the deep end. I think the kids went to Florida to live with the Donovans. Ava and Dinahlee were friends. They had a couple of capers together. One involved a dead body in the trunk of a car. I think Elizabeth Mitchell's final scenes as Dinahlee were with Ava, telling her she was pregnant (again) with Trucker's baby. Curtis pursued Stacey for a hot minute in the summer of 1983 or thought about it, but that was prior to Jack and Stacey. Given the Jack/Curtis/ Lily history, a Stacey/Curtis pairing would have been a good place to start when they brought Jack back from the dead. I think that Curtis might have claimed he had cared for her in the past during his confession of feelings, but I think that was just the writers writing something right that happened to have a historical basis despite a lack of actual knowledge if it was true or not.

The partial episode is from September 1993, Alex just got back to town in September. This is one of his first episodes back. I think they played with a Dinahlee / Alex flirtation briefly, which was probably dropped by Nixon. The second episode is definitely October 1993. Buck and Gwyn don't marry, and Gwyn loses the baby in the next couple of episodes. Clay comforted her during the miscarriage. I would really like to see that set of scenes. I really liked Casey's loft. I had forgotten that they toyed with Steffi and Frankie, which is funny given the turn of events on AMC with Frankie and Heinle's character. The younger set was strong and seemed to get consistently strong writing, but the storyline itself seems to be shifting in motivations. I have to wonder how that came across to the audience. The initial Hannah/Cooper pairing was a bust, but Casey/Ally seemed to work from day one. Ally scheming to get Cooper was the story until the pregnancy, and it was only after they introduced Steffi that they seem to shift Cooper's motives. I think Ally and Cooper married around the time the baby was born for insurance purposes. After seeing the 1993 episodes, I think Cooper might have used the insurance situation to trap Ally, but I could be wrong. From other clips, Steffi and Casey had good chemistry and shared destructive backgrounds. As a quad, all the actors had good chemistry with one another, which is a rarity now. Buck and Stacey were involved, but they had also brought back Christopher Marcantel to play as a romantic spoiler to the Buck/Stacey romance. That is why Curtis was initially a suspect and sent to Dunellyn. In reality, it was Gwyn who sent her own son to the mental hospital where she killed him because he didn't want to be trapped there anymore. There was also a bit of a history of rivalry between Gwyn/Stacey because of Rick. In a fall 1993 episode, Gwyn watches J.J. and Heather during one of Buck and Stacey's dates. When Buck arrives, Stacey cuts the romantic tension between Buck and Gwyn by reminding Heather to call Gwyn "Grandma" in order to emphasis her age. There are some small scenes from 1995 I would like to see, like Curtis and Stacey reconnecting and Stacey and Ava burying the hatchet because all of their friends (Trisha, Shana, and Dinahlee) had left Corinth. Overall, I don't have much passion to see much of 1995. Cooper and Ally had Tyler. In November 1992, Cooper and Hannah were together. Hannah went to NYC to audition and stayed with her music teacher. Coop and Ally followed, Coop thought Hannah slept with the teacher, and Ally and Coop slept together. Then, Ally learned she was pregnant and gave birth during the summer. Casey died in May 1995. These episodes are fall 1993. Casey and Ally married at some point in 1994. Casey struggled supporting the family and that's when he turned to drugs (again?). Cooper left in March/April 1995 to head the Europe offices of Alden Enterprises.

I'm pretty sure Horan's Clay left for California before Dinahlee appeared, but I may be wrong. When Clay returned from California in January 1992, it was Larkin Malloy, and he was almost immediately paired with Dinahlee. The Dinahlee / Trucker affair was over and Trisha was heavily pregnant, as you can see in the February 1992 clip. In the spring, Dinahlee and Clay were involved with Hannah, Dinahlee's kid sister. I think Dinahlee had told Hannah she was engaged or something along those lines to cover up her indiscretions. Clay played along, I believe, but the truth eventually came out. Then, Clay learned their was a provision in Cabot's will about remarrying Gwyn to inherit money or the company. They ended up missing the deadline as well as learning Tim Sullivan was his real father. At that point, Clay sulked and disappeared. I'm almost positive he was gone either shortly after or shortly before they wrote out Jack disappearing during his honeymoon because the long story was clearly Clay had kidnapped Jack to get a hold of the company. This was all June/July 1992 when Walsh exited and Granger decided to go solo until the fall when Taggert and Guza arrived. In the fall, Clay returned during Dinahlee's downfall. She received a letter saying she had slept with someone who tested positive for and STD. Then, she ended up naked at the opening of 35 Maple Drive, where I believe you see Ally picking up those papers in the 1993 episode. In October, Dennis Parlato temps for Larkin Malloy. When Malloy is set to return in November, Malloy is fired and Parlato assumes the role permanently. Storywise, Clay then targeted Stacey to get the company, they brought on Jeremy to be Stacey's savior, and Clay and Stacey divorced in January 1993. In February, Curtis returns and meets Dinahlee, but both of them use alias and share a passion for 1950s nostalgia. By June/July 1993, Dinahlee and Curtis are married. They wrote out the second Curtis 1993 edition in August when he torched PINS! the bowling alley accidentally leaving Louie Slavinski to die. These were either Bernie Barrows last episodes or the last episodes for the temp replacement. That was Matt Ford, the young man dating Ally. Matt was written out around this time when they shipped the character off to college out of state. I had forgotten that Paul, Carly and Flynn were still around. From what I recall, Flynn was Paul's physical therapist as well as the fourth member of the quad with Carly, Paul, and Ava. Flynn, Carly, Michael, and Paul are all written out within the next couple months. Before leaving, Carly and Paul marry, but I think the wedding takes place offscreen.

So Katy and Bill are still around. This episode worked a bit better for me. While I didn't like the musical cue, I thought the opening with the Carousel Building was an effective shot and more than we would get today in a world where the camera doesn't seem to move much. Edward Mallory was a bit over the top in some of those scenes and the actress playing Katy appears very mature for the young ingénue role. The Katy/Bill scenes do seem to clear up the very messy first episode we see. The show was definitely leading the audience into a mystery regarding whether it was Grace or Stan who was poisoning Dana. I guess the back and forth in that episode was intended to be suspenseful.

The Marlers definitely had untapped potential, but the Marler children were still young and Holly and Blake were both off contract for a good part of the final years. If they could have gotten to a point with the Marler kids as teens in stories and they used Holly and Blake in more functional roles, I'd agree. Prior to Phillip's death, I felt the Spauldings were in fairly good shape up until the early days of Wheeler and Kriezman. The loss of Phillip really hurt the Spaulding family. Neither Gus nor Alan-Michael seemed to be able to fill the hole that Phillip left, IMO. Jenna had caught Holly in the act doing one of her Nursery Rhyme Stalker crimes. At some point, Jeffrey shows up. Jenna pleads with Holly; she (Jenna) says she doesn't care what Holly has done, but she needs Holly to stay with her. Jeffrey throws Holly out and then kidnaps Jenna. I don't recall Holly telling anyone about Jeffrey and Jenna. It seemed in bad taste to have Holly allow Jenna to go off with Jeffrey when she saw how scared Jenna was of the man.

I can see why people liked Kyle and Sam. The early stages of their romance is very well done. Rutherford grew so much as an actress in such a short period of time. I think the writers did a good job fleshing out Kyle. I think the show also did a good job giving Sam significant reason to be attracted to both men: Kyle is strong, charismatic, and loves her because she of her passion for life while Jordan is suave, rich, and has lived a life of loneliness that Sam can relate to. George Shannon does a good job to avoid coming off as too creepy. I truly believe that Jordan's interest in her is not just sexual, but maybe I'm a fool. It was nice to see Robert Wilson (ex-Channing, Jr, SB and ex-Chase, SFT) and Pat Tallman (who previous appeared as one of Jason's lingerie models during the Leather and Lace storyline) as Brad and Christy Russell. It's a shame that the show recasts Christy and goes in a completely different direction with those characters. There's also a lot of nice overlap in terms of story. The introduction of Hale hotel has taken a lot of random story threads and given them a place to bump into each other. I didn't care for George Deloy as the put upon professor, but I do like him in this brief clips where he defends and empathizes with Dr. Daniel Reubens (who I think has just begun to appear, these clips are from January 1990). The Jessica-Sam rivalry gives both women are strong sparring partner. The insinuations about Jessica being one of Jordan's abandoned flames was interesting. The Hale Hotel uniforms must have kept the cost of costumes down. I think my favorite bit is Kyle and Sam reuniting to "Here and Now." I've only shipped a few couples in my soap viewing, but I could see why the (few) viewers watching loved Kyle and Sam. It's funny to hear people talking about Sally Sussman Morina's work on Y&R because this material is so strong, but the earlier stuff has a lot of trademarks of the complaints I'm hearing now. Did SSM return to Y&R after GENERATIONS was cancelled? When she was trying to write a Chicago version of Y&R, it didn't work. This faster paced, more comical, more romantic storytelling is definitely more in line with what NBC was looking for during that time period.

1. Regarding Michelle, I don't think Wheeler would have hired anyone with any background in soap opera. I didn't hate Nancy St. Alban the way some did, but, if you were to have the Bauers as a major dramatic force, another actress would have been needed. If I had to choose someone, I would have wanted someone like Robyn Griggs (ex-Maggie, AW). 3. Typical of the Wheeler era, needing characters to make a story have dramatic impact, but not casting someone. Again, I liked Driscoll, but I wonder what it would have been like if they had cast him as Jonathan rather than allowing Pelphrey to sign on for only two years. 4. I just didn't see the dramatic potential in Olivia / Frank. Your point is noted, but I can't see Olivia being satisfied with Frank. To a lesser extent, Olivia had that with Bill, a genuinely good guy who put her first, . Frank was more blue-collar than her typical guy, but Olivia was drawn to power. I think I would have less problems with Olivia and Natalia if Olivia had fallen for some powerful businesswoman who was looking to take on Olivia in the boardroom and the bedroom. 5. I think Manny had run its course, but I would have liked to see them work together as a divorced couple to raise their children. I thought the potential of an affair between Blake and Danny was fascinating and would have reinvigorated someone like Blake. I really liked Tony and Michelle as an obstacle for Danny and Michelle, but I would have liked to see the writers try other things with both characters before reuniting them as a couple. 6. Keeping Reva and Josh front and center without Marah, Shayne, Jonathan, and Sandy was foolish. Instead, the show decided it needed to be the Jonathan show. 7. I'm aware of DAYS' budget, but I think the shows used their money differently in terms of contractual guarantees and recurring cast members. Brown was on DAYS during a period where very few recurring players were used and contractual guarantees were low (Matt Ashford, anyone?) The show couldn't afford to keep Jerry ver Dorn under contract, but they really had the money for Sarah Brown? Also, when Brown agreed to do DAYS, only four soaps were left (well AMC and OLTL were cancelled but hadn't aired their final episodes yet). 8. I liked Edmund and Cassie because of what he had done to Cassie. I think these two damaged people trying to overcome what Edmund had done to Cassie specifically was fascinating. I think juxtaposing Cassie / Edmund and Jonathan / Tammy would have enhanced both stories because of Edmund's role in Jonathan's abandonment and the death of Cassie and Richard's child. I felt the Lara angle was an attempt to reestablish Edmund as the heavy in the story, but it lacked impacted because no one knew Lara.

I think this is the episode. The first one is a bizarre episode. To me, it was similar to the "Never Too Young" one from the same time period where Joy is nearly raped and spends the entire episode playing cards. I imagine this was a big 'reveal' episode in that, before this, the audience wasn't sure what was going on with Dana Manning. The problem is there are still too many questions (mainly who are any of these characters) for a show that featured three characters for an entire half-hour. The Eric / Jan / Stan stuff in the second episode reminds me not only of the PB story with Duke Spaulding and Rosita Martinez, but of the episode of "A Time for Us" where Steve Reynolds seeks his father's advice regarding Jane Driscoll's pregnancy. Eric's cavalier playboy attitude is the complete opposite of sensitive, responsible Steve who just wants to do the right thing even though he doesn't know what that is. I did notice all the Katy references. In the first episode, she and Bill are at the door (unseen). So it sounds like Katy and Bill are still around, still have story, but seem to be working together to solve the Dana Manning mystery rather than dealing with romantic complications of their own. The Jan / Eric stuff plays out until the show's last episode. In the final weeks, Eric leaves for the Army and Jan learns she is pregnant. In the finale, Jan decides she is going to raise the baby.

By the time Hurst arrived, it didn't really matter. The show had already transitioned to the Peapack model. When Grant Alexander returned and Coop died, I tried to watch the show, and the show was horribly produced. Not only did it look bad, but I remember they were playing some overly upbeat melody as Buzz snotted all of over Coop's dead body. And Coop and Beth's affair? WTF? When Hurst was promoted, the show at least had some sense of plotting. I don't remember Kriezman including much plot into his stories. I agree that the Coopers were my least favorite family, but they were the only whole family around for most of the final decade without needing to build them up. I think Kriezman tried early on to make the Bauers work with continuing the Michelle amnesia angle, having Beth and Rick fall into an affair, and attempting to bring back Ed Bauer for the Sebastian/Santa Domingo plot. Wheeler needed to support him more by hiring an actor to play, recasting Michelle with a stronger dramatic actress, and finding someone age appropriate for Paul Anthony Stewart. I came in on the tail end of Jenna and Buzz when Holly was terrorizing the mothers of Springfield and Jeffrey had returned. People blamed Lillian for Mo's death, but Holly was downright liable for Jenna's. Driscoll was a nice actor, but I never cared for Coop. I thought the romance with Lizzie was a waste of time. Frank was fine until they decided that Olivia should share Frank and Buzz. To go from men like Bill and Josh Lewis and Alan and Phillip Spaulding to Frank and Buzz Cooper. Yikes! GusH was as bad as Manny, if not worse. What they put Robert Newman and Kim Zimmer through those last couple of years was criminal. Reva and Jeffrey, Josh the priest, Josh and Cassie. So many bad ideas, one after another, after another. But someone needed to be an ongoing nemesis in the Jonathan and Tammy saga. Who better than Tammy's own mother? GL couldn't afford Sarah Brown unless she agreed to be paid in Bible scriptures. I think plopping Nola down without either build up would have been equally disastrous. I think there would need to have been build up of the Bauers first or bringing in Bridget via either Dylan or Peter would have been necessary. Otherwise, Stacey's main ties would be to Nancy St. Alban's Michelle (if she was even still around) or Company. I liked Edmund when he was given darker material to play. I actually liked Edmund and Cassie as a couple, but I think they would have eventually run their course and I would have then dumped Edmund. I thought make him the heavy in the Shayne / Marina / Mallet / Dinah Lee story was more convenient than well thought out.

I believe WoST ran an episode from the same time period. In circulation, there are five concurrent episodes. This episode and the WoST one, which was different, are from this set. In the other episode, Jan Elliott is talking to her boyfriend about the War and Grace Allison (or whoever the maid character is) has a lengthy monologue about wanting to be Mrs. Stan Manning once his wife is dead. "Morning Star" was a Ted Corday show so sharing cues with "Days" is not surprising. Regarding radio, I just noticed Betty Lou Gerson, a Chicago radio actress, was in the cast. Around this time, the show dumped the original headwriters and installed James Lipton, but NBC axed both this and "Paradise Bay" fairly quickly into the new writers runs. These episodes should be from the final weeks of the original writers. I wonder if Lipton considered this a dry run for "The Best of Everything." With that said, I know Lipton isn't well liked, for various legitimate and status quo reasons, but I'd still be curous to see some of the later run. Or maybe this is Lipton's work. I think, but never have completely confirmed, that the show dumped Elizabeth Perry's Katy Elliott around this time. Keith Andes quit "Paradise Bay" in March, 1966, and last aired in April because of the proposed changes (more 'melodrama' and less 'social relevance.') I've read Nina Roman's character, Liz, took center stage. It'll be curious to see if the poster uploads more "Morning Star" and if there is any additional reference to Katy.

I have been slowly making my way through "Generations" episodes that I've gotten. I don't think Barbara Rhoades is as 'dramatic' as she is in that commercial, but there are issues with Jessica in those early episodes that go beyond Rhoades interpretation. As most know, Jessica' father, Hugh, died in the opening episode leading to an inheritance plot that goes nowhere until about August 1989. This is a recurring issue in the early episodes of "Generations"; something will be introduced, but only be discussed for episodes on end (Ruth talks about buying the Whitmore house in episode 2 or 3, but she doesn't purchase it until November and there is little conflict in between.) Anyway, Jessica, fresh from rehab, arrives in Chicago to deal with the funeral and to learn her son, Hugh Gardner II, has inherited the family fortune. Again, this plot point is discussed every now and again, but no real effort is made to find him for several weeks. Rhoades' Jessica fits in well in a very well intention story structure. As a houseguest of Trevor and Laura McCallum, Jessica is in contact with Laura (her childhood friend), JD (Laura's down on his luck rock star brother), and Trevor (Laura's successful husband). Each relationship is well developed and its clear the early plan was an affair between Jessica and Trevor, which would force Laura to divorce Trevor and see how Laura handle the circumstances that her mother was dealt with when Peter Whitmore ran off on her. The problem is nothing really pops. Jessica and Laura revisiting their childhood friendship is a nice layer, but its hard to see Rhoades' Jessica pursuing Massett's Trevor while on the wagon. Maybe the plan was for Jessica to fall off again and, for Trevor, while attempting to play savior, to fall into a passionate affair with Jessica. If that was the case, none of that played out. Instead, the show plays Jessica's alcoholism as a secret (it could ruin her career!) and allow Trevor in on only to have Jessica have a surprise hook up with fellow addict Rob Donnelly. I believe I'm missing the episode where Rob and Jessica first meet, but it comes out of almost nowhere. Rhoades spends a lot of her time with Gerard Prendergast's JD Whitmore, Laura's rock star brother. JD is trying to reunite his band, Men of Essence, but needs the money to finance their new album. Enter Jessica- the 'heiress' who JD grew up pining for. JD and Jessica have some sweet moments: JD provides Jessica with a picture of her EP to through darts at, but there is little build. JD is given little to do outside of his relationship with Jessica, which doesn't progress very far. JD and Jessica split when Trevor realizes JD wants Jessica to finance his new album even though JD admits to Laura he has very real feelings for Jessica. Most of the time, though, Jessica is waiting to learn whether or not she will return to her role on "Tomorrow is Another Day." So Rhoades is only occasionally given significant beats to play, but when she does, she does well. One smaller moment that stood out was Jessica and Laura chatting about the graduation party thrown for the younger set at the fancy upscale Le Charmare (sp?). Jessica notes the interaction between Laura and Ruth Marshall and Jessica states that Ruth has avoided the typical pitfalls of the nouveau riche by patterning herself off of Laura, which by itself is an interesting comparison. I think Rhoades worked better when Jessica was in a world that intended to be more drawing room drama than crazy aunts jumping out of airplanes.