Cat

OC ^^^ Oh, Gretchen and Alexis are awful but... I do think Alexis is the most attractive out of all the women, the rest of whom look like aging Barbies/Rachel Zoes.

New Jersey OK, so I am only 6 episodes into Season 3 but I am not getting the Kathy and Michelle love on the board. Yes, Teresa is a bragger but there is something warm beneath her shell and I have to say, I think Michelle is the one trying to play "poor little me" in order to keep Joey Gorga (gargoyle by name...) tied to her and her family and friends (including that witches coven she calls her sisters). I also find herspoiled and completely unsympathetic to Teresa and her family who have been bankrupted, forced to sell every tacky, leopard print ridiculousness from their home and start over from scratch. Also, trying to launch her "music career" on us -- she just happened to be singing Amazing Grace in the house and the cameras were there? Yeah, right. Hated it when Danielle Staub did it, hate the way LuAnn is trying to force her singing on us, too. Joey -- god. I always have a thing for Latin men, especially Italians but there is not much going on upstairs, is there? I can only imagine that he must be good in bed because that, and his money, must be the reason Michelle married him. He's such a divo, too. This Teresa/Joey/Michelle "triangle" is weird, not least because Joey ended up marrying somebody who has a lot of similar personality traits to his sister. He also dotes on Gia, who looks exactly like Teresa when she was a kid. As for Kathy, she is a hypocrite, playing both sides and bitching about Teresa all the time. She is almost as bad as Kim G (who I think should become a permanent cast member -- she'd be the Ramona of the group) and it comes off as petty jealousy. I do like her when she is shown with her immediate family, though. Her kids seem very solid and I think Rich is adorable as her loyal, gregarious husband. I will always love Caroline, she has been my fave in past seasons, but I'm not sure how this radio thing is going to pan out. I miss Dina sometimes. AND I sort of miss that crazy bitch mother from hell Dannielle, even though it was obvious there was nothing left for her to do on the show -- except manage her kids' careers. Poor children. I'm wondering if Albert doesn't like Lauren's bf Vito?

The Bernard Herrmann/Vertigo bit was the best part of the whole video. The repellant birthing stuff kind of worked when set to that amazing music. I can't even remember what the actual Gaga song sounds like. Like Y&RWorldTurner, I never got the love for Bad Romance. Telephone (as a song) was actually the catchiest for me, helped by the fact that Beyonce sang on it. And it's funny how hard Lady Gaga tries to be sexy and sexual, I get a very cold, unsexual vibe from her. Nothing sensuous or hot or even animal. She's just some kid playing dress up.

I sort of love that fans were vocal in their dislike of what is a staple and over-used plot device on US soaps. Of course, attacking the actress and her children because of reaction to a SL over which she has zero control is absolutely crazy. That's not the kind of "vocal" I am talking about. Can you guys access BBC i-player over in the States? On Radio 4's Today programme this morning, in the last 15 minutes of the show they had a discussion about this SL and Samantha Janus leaving the show. Theatre broad and ex-EE guest star Sheila Hancock weighed in on it and gave a nice defence of acting on soaps in general. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x799l/Today_07_01_2011/

Actually -- deep breath -- Ireland's economy WAS doing well and its government were fiscally prudent. The issue is with Ireland's banks that put money in property. The government bailed them out rather than let them collapse. Basically, the Euro zone NEED to be seen to be doing something about supporting the euro currency. The entire euro project is under tremendous pressure to fail. They needed Ireland more than Ireland needed them and so that's why they insisted that Ireland take the bailout package. In terms of meeting their borrowing obligations, the Irish were/are not at the brink of default the way Greece was 6-8 months ago.

OMG, thanks, you guys! You truly are the best. I was sad about this last night but then I check into SON this morning and find this amazing news! It's already made my day.

Well, I've hit a wall. Or, rather, I am approaching the end of the consecutive episodes that have been posted on line. 7/1/1992 seems to be the last one. I am saving it for viewing tomorrow. Apart from that, I am sort of devastated, you guys! I want to know who is Jenna's father -- is it Carl? I want to see Lorna finally get accepted into Felicia and Lucas's family. I want to see Marley fall for Byron (of course, that'll never happen). I want to see Vicky and Ryan reunited, Justine show up (c'mon, Spencer keeps mentioning his "dead wife" so you know she's alive somewhere). Most of all, I want to see Jake & Paulina continue on their journey, although I don't know if I want to see them break up and Jake move onto Vicky. That, for me, sort of negates all the evolution of character and amazing build-up of 1991-1992. Oh, well, hopefully other AW clips on YT are still available for me to put the pieces together.

There is actually a *great* scene between Jake & JB's Marley from the final week of December 1991 where they talk about the rape. It is during Marley's wedding shower and is a very satisfying scene in the sense that it was long overdue. That is when I really started appreciating Buchanan's version of Marley.

And thusly soaps lost their relevance -- and their target audience. What on earth where the TV execs thinking?

Get out of my head! So much WORD to your post, I watched February 1992 not so long ago and I had the same exact reactions as you. Lorna! Especially Jensen Buchanan's Marley, which I find more balanced, nuanced and three dimensional than the one-note Vicky who reminds me just a little of Laura Wright's Carly on GH (though of course I can't stomach LW's version of Carly, whereas JB's Vicky does have redeeming features, including her relationship with Donna and, despite everything, her undying love for Ryan). And that Valentine Ball was THE AWESOME. Since watching AW regularly, I really miss these little things, like the fancy balls with crowds of extras, outrageous evening gowns, fights, revelations and (usually) a dance between a couple who have feelings for each other but haven't quite come out and admitted them yet. I also miss the use of (then) current musical hits which really showed that the soaps had more money to burn back then. And the fight between Paulina dn Vicky was choreographed so well. I loved that they showed up in the same dress, and Vicky told Paulina she looked like trash in hers, and Paulina eyed Vicky's smaller decollatage and said "Well, at least I fill it out properly." I'm not sure I like Dennis all that much. The actor comes across as a bit of a himbo and SO not Iris's son who was supposed to have been raised in Europe. I do think Marley needs somebody different from Jamie who was incredibly straight-laced -- though I do like the fact that Jamie is somebody who tries to live by his own high standards. He's a decent guy, if very judgmental. I miss Olivia already, and I'm sad that they never pursued a story between her and her physiotherapist. They were sparky together. They should have put her with Jamie -- if only to piss off Sam and Amanda in the heart of the Cory household. Carmen Duncan. What can I say? I never saw Beverlee McKinsey, and I'm sure I would be impressed by her command of the role. I love the divas! However, CD's Iris balances the bitch with the warm and vulnerable so beautifully that she has become one of my favorites. I've already bored everybody here with my overwelming love for Jake & Paulina under Donna Swajewski's tenure. Needless to say, I love the romance and yearning and how the show took its time to really establish the relationship. Evans and Eplin melt the screen with just a look. I am absolutely convinced by the show's implication that J&P are the loves of each other's lives. I'm sad to learn that fiesty Paulina was watered down in later news as her earthy warmth and newly found backbone are what I love about the character. I also like her big-sister relationship with Hannah. When did soaps decide that strong-willed, well-rounded women and three-dimensional characterization was no longer the way to go? When they decided that romance and sensuality was expendable? I rarely recognize myself as a thirty-something woman in the female soap characters of today, who seem to crave victimization in some weird way... and yet these early 90s AW women, with their big hair, huge earrings and shoulder pads, in the days before spray tans and thinification and breast implants, listening to Mariah Carey, Boyz 2 Men (dear lord!) etc., it's spooky how much more relatable they are to me. Perhaps I am behind the times!

Their chemistry really leaps off the screen, teplin. I know I sound silly talking about it, but after being starved of any pairing with even an iota of chemistry on soaps currently, I can't believe how much Tom Eplin and Judi Evans have together (although the rumor mill suggests that they hated each other. Not if the fact Eplin keeps slipping her tongue is any indication! Sorry to be crude, but it's obvious he was doing that to tease Evans). I had forgotten that this kind of chemistry is what soaps used to actively cultivate. I don't plan on checking out Jake & Vicky the Redux. Perhaps if Anne Heche had still been playing Vicky, I could imagine the chemistry between her and Tom Eplin... but after seeing J&P, what a pity TIIC caved into backstage agendas.

LOL, can anybody say Misery? I guess it was bound to happen, given that Felicia is a romance novelist/runs Brava/presents Breakfast with Felicia which apparently has "an audience of millions." Felicia = Oprah! I have been watching THE best episode of AW that I have ever seen -- 5/25/1992. Lorna goes to see her sick grandmother to confirm her parentage. I just have no words to describe how much Alicia Coppola impresses me. Whether she's covering her grandmother with kisses or sparring with Carl, this character was Fierce with a capital F. And then we have Jake & Paulina... finally. I am in love with this couple. This episode invested so much in their confrontation and eventual admiting that they loved each other. I honestly believe that the day the soaps decided to pare down/eradicate proper love scenes was the day the death knell sounded on Daytime's fate. Those scenes are not just swooningly swoonsome, sensual, romantic and tender, they established this couple's identity as a twosome. That love scene will always be referred to as that moment when they knew they couldn't live without each other, etc.

That is great to hear about PMV. I'm sorry he had such a tough time after he left the show, but I'm glad he's married with a family and, hopefully, doing something he truly loves. As a person, I certainly never heard/read a bad word said against him by his co-stars.

Wow. Glad I missed that! At least Carl Hutchins had a sense of humor. And poor Donna. I just adore Anna Stuart and her version of Donna as this ultra-feminine society diva. She could have played her as a complete Alexis-style bitch but there is something kind and innocent about her, too. She can be spoiled but never evil and vicious. I should check out Philece Sampler's Donna.

I don't know any of the history of the Love family. What happened? I assumed Donna's daddy didn't want her with the stable boy and sent him away then did something with one of the twins (Vicky) that Donna gave birth to. But that is supposition. OK, so I've skipped ahead a teeny bit -- I'm in April 1992. Though I would actively counsel Carl to watch all of autumn 1991 if he can as I found it good. It was just January and February I had a problem with as there was a lot of Vicky and Grant and, like I said, Mark Pinter's Grant skeeves me the f*ck out. Also I am not 100% enamoured of the Harrisons and they have tended to dominate the odd week here and there. However, there was a ball (on Feb 14th, I think -- a date burned on every soap writer's brain back in the day) and Paulina and Vicky have THE most awesome catfight. Sigh. So much soapy fun. Swajewski is playing the Jake-Paulina SL so damn well. The marriage, the romantic sparring, the fall-out. Every beat is played and she is taking her sweet time because she knows the audience (well, me) is hooked to this burgeoning love story. I have embedded the 4/14/1992 episode here, but I just want you guys to watch the first 1 minute 47 of the episode. Because it oozes longing and gives me goosebumps. At one point he brushes his nose against her ear and it's like, DAMN. Soaps just do not invest in details like that anymore. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An74nmHFS4I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An74nmHFS4I Oh, and they're shooting another music video, with Jenna (in TLC knee-pads) dancing in a barn. It has to be seen to be believed.

It's not you. He's a ham who learnt his craft at the Charlton Heston School of TV Acting. I mean, I love his voice but, I lot like Kyle Brown, he sounds like he listens to himself speaking. Does that make any sense? It's all slightly self-important and theatrical. Though not theatrical in the same way Linda Dano, Stephen Schnetzer or Victoria Wyndham are. I love their delivery.

Carl, I always get worried that I'm going to unwittingly unleash a whole bunch of spoilers which will spoil your enjoyment of the show! Or bitch too much and turn you off it. And I don't want to do that. I'm just noting my impressions as they come because this show is new to me and I am watching episodes for the very first time. Loved Carmen Duncan and Dack Rambo. Dack wasn't the greatest thespian alive but he was HOT and and exuded the same kind of warmth that PMV had as Ryan. You could believe that, even though one was a high-society politician and the other a cop, they came from the same family. The way DR's Grant would eye Iris while she was flirting with him was also kind of hot. LOL, yeah, Judi is an EPIC cryer. And I mean full-on, make-up running, snot coming out of her nose, heaving sobbing. She also doesn't look soap-pretty when she cries and that is a relief. I'm sick of the Hunter Tylos and Laura Wrights who do the dry-eyed boo-hoo. LOL, you view Matt the way I view Jake. With a touch of lust!

Duh! Alicia, of course. And ITA. She just shines as Lorna. She is so fierce. And she looks like a Native American! I'm still wondering why they are wasting her on that teenybopper Matt when it is so obvious how Woman she is next to his Boy. It's crazy how much chemistry she has been able to spark with the chemistry-free piece of wood masquerading as Jamie. LOL, actually Jamie and his portrayer are totally growing on me now that I also love her scenes of confrontation with Felicia. I think I know where this is heading here (!) but thus far they absolutely despise one another. I'm not sure what to expect from Robin Christopher as Lorna (if I ever get that far). I have always *heard* rather than *seen for myself* Ms. Christopher's apparent brilliance. Right now I can't get past how much I love AC in the role. You guys -- I've actually seen an episode where Frankie & Cass were not so annoying! It's the 2/12/1992 one which is entirely film noir. Cass plays a private dectective called Cass A. Nova (LOL sheilaforever). It is a great episode. However, they soon returned to Kooky Frankie and her granola life with John and Baby Gregory and Cass pining for her badly-dressed ass. Alice Barrett constantly sounds bunged-up, like she has a permanent cold. Or snorts coke (which I doubt -- though I hear Eplin and Wheeler were into it in the AW bathrooms back in the day). Frankie just went off on Donna because Donna offered to pay for all of Baby Gregory's private schooling. Frankie thinks Baby Gregory is a free-spirit who will chafe at the restrictions of an expensive private school. I'm like "Baby Gregory is one year old. He can't even speak." But obviously Mother Earth Frankie knows better! If AW were still around today and John took Frankie's advice, poor Gregory would probably be at community college desperately looking for a job in today's economy. Nice work, FF! On the other hand, they are trying to make Frankie look less crunchy and more Cass's soulmate by having her dress up from time to time and mentioning how much she loves caviar omelettes. OK then. Jake's backstory is fascinating. We are back in Lassiter for a few episodes. And Paulina and Jake just need to break down and kiss again.

I was going to say... what would AW talk about?! I thought AW in the late 80s *was* about the Loves, Hudsons and McKinnons! LOL. I am in January 1992 now! Woohoo! Today is prob the final day I can check these out so perhaps I should start weaning myself off these. A few random observations: Grant (as played by Mark Pinter) comes across as so sinister and manipulative. There was a point where he confronted Paulina about her past and he was borderline emotionally abusive. I am not likeing him at all, don't understand how Spencer could ever have idiolized this cold, nasty individual, don't understand why Paulina moons over him or why Vicky is so loyal and possessive of him. Sam and Amanda have a love montage every. Single. DAY. All they do is shag. Not that I'm complaining as I miss these love scenes from our soaps today! And AW seems to have specialized in building up its romantic pairings, drawing out the romantic tension and choreographing superlative love scenes. HOWEVA! The Samanda stuff seems forced. Like I said, they seem to be at it all the time. As a couple, I find them a bit meh. Amanda comes across as a bit of a smug bimbo whenever she confronts Olivia. I'm curious about Amanda's affair with some guy when she first married Grant. Where they a hot couple? Why did it end? Why did Amanda start sniffing around Sam again? It is a blessed relief to have Carl off the show for a little while. He certainly hammed his ass off in the Hallowe'en scenes. Constance Ford is just... awesomeness. And so is Carmen Duncan as Iris. And so is Sofia Coppola as Lorna. She's so clever and defensive and she swings that long curtain of black hair about like a witch. I really like her character -- and her name! Even wearing dresses and business suits and big jewelery, Paulina comes across as a girl from the wrong side of the tracks playing dress-up. That's a good thing because that is exactly what she is. Her hair has been looking fab lately.

OMG, is that SNL? Is that John Candy as Jack Harrington and John Belushi as Rocco? Rick MOranis as Clay Collins and the dad from American Pie as Dr. Eliot Sabian? That is an amazing piece of satire. It is uncanny how just like a 70s soap it was. Whoever wrote it must have been a major AW fan because the whole thing is done with love and attention.

I admit, I skipped over a lot of July and August because the Taylor stuf draaaaagged. I jumped right into early September and really do not regret it. SLs seemed to renew and pick up steam. Awesome, awesome episode, including a great scene between Jake and Marley. This character Jake... one minute I hate him, the next I feel sorry for him. It's been a while since I have gotten so invested in a show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeDwxXeY19o

I love Carmen Duncan, even in that random work-out gear. Her voice, her entire demeanour is exquisite! So, is this the last day we can watch AW episodes in full? I am so sad. And SO addicted. I love the variety on this show and how the friendships and rivalries are as important as the romances. Sure, I could stand to see a little less of John and Frankie. But that is a small complaint on a canvas as rich and full as 1991 Another World. Currently in December 91. Jake just did THE most abominable thing. And Vicky threw Marley a baby shower. How funny that I like Jensen Buchanan in scenes with herself as Vicky/Marley or with Anna Stuart and groups of other women. But when she's with Mark Pinter or Paul Michael Valley, it just does not chime as well for me.

LOL! Although the roomates thing is probably just that - roomies (CLB seems to prefer small, shifty-eyed younger dudes!). I think what threw me off is RPG's preference for eyeliner during his Dean Frame days. I think I know what it is about Frankie that bothers me -- or perhaps the writing for Frankie. Or perhaps even the actress, Alice Barett. I think it's because she is not nearly as funny as she seems to think she is. Most of her stuff is played for kooky laughs but I don't think I have laughed once at any of her shtick. It's all a little heavy-handed. It is a real contrast with Cass and Felicia's urbane wit, Iris's fabulously bitchy asides and Donna's feather-light delusions/self-deprecation.

Must be my mistake, sheilaforever. I guess I still have that Jossip rumor involving RPG and Rick Hearst stuck in my sub-conscious! CarlD, AW must have known what a gem they had in Heche and the critical and fan acclaim for her, hence the big send-off. I continue to marvel at this woman's talent (even in crap movies, she's stands out). What I find most impressive is how she, a victim of atrocious sexual and physical abuse by her father, managed to portray a woman like Vicky who luxuriates and glows with desire for Ryan. Her performance was so visceral and complete, and she really conveyed those emotional, romantic, swept-away moments. Come to think about it, portraying repressed Marley, especially after the rape, must have hit close to home. I guess taking on another person's skin must have been her therapy. Whatever it was, she really impresses me.

LOL, OMG Paulina and notVicky facing off in a bridal shop. notVicky: See, I really thought Grant had taste... but you know, with some guys, they see trash and it turns them on. Paulina: You'd better go home, Vicky. You're obviously frustrated because you can't find a wedding dress that'll work miracles and make you look virginal. notVicky: Now listen here, you little slut. I don't know why Jake married you or why Grant puts up with you. All I know is that you can't stand me because I stand for everything you're never gonna have. Deck her, Paulina!